FRIEZE Art Fair Experience in London

Frieze Masters Preview today was buzzing, and when I left at 5 pm, they had already exceeded its visitor figures from last year.  Interest has not diminished after Brexit!  Foreign speaking were heard intently into their cell phones, Italians calling fellow Italians saying they 'must' come over to see it... and privatevisitors with partners and art advisers taking down lots of details.  

One completely different piece that caught my eye.  The Collector's Cabinet from Kunstkammer Georg Laue, Munich.  There are four photos attached and there is abookby Alvar Gonzalez-Palacio especially dedicated to this piece.  Below are the details and the price:  

Collector¹s Cabinet
with 48 Wax Reliefs by Caspar Hardy
Cologne, circa 1795
Cherry wood, brass marquetry, wax reliefs, height 225 cm, width 145 cm, depth 62 cm

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Conceived as a collector¹s cabinet to house and display 48 wax reliefs by Caspar Bernhard Hardy (1729-1819), this unique secrétaire was made in ca 1795 by the cabinetmaker Theodor Commer (1773-1819), who trained in the Roentgen workshop in Neuwied. The intertwined letters JWN inlaid on the front refer to the collector who commissioned this extraordinary piece of furniture: Johann Wilhelm Neel (1744-1819), a canon from Cologne, who was, like so many amateurs of his time, a fervent admirer of Hardy. Known for his colourful wax reliefs depicting allegorical figures, Hardy was celebrated as one of the most important sculptors of his time.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe, who knew the artist personally and also collected his work, wrote the following about his reliefs: they deserve to be shown in a museum in Cologne for they clearly demonstrate that we are here in the city of Rubens, in the Lower Rhine, where colour has always dominated and exalted works of art. Clearly, Johann Wilhelm Neel also considered Hardy¹s wax sculptures worthy of a museum or at least a special display such as the secrétaire he commissioned for his own collection of waxes by Hardy.

The price:   EURO 750.000

By Gillian Craig, OTE European Associate based in London.  

PAD Art + Design Fair at London

PAD was buzzing today, its 10th outing in London, with exhibitors saying today’s crowd was even better than its preview on the 3rd, with people queuing to buy the £25 ticket.  It is, and has always been, beautifully presented, attracting an elegant international visitor not always seen at other similar events.  It is the right size to be able to ‘go back’ to see the pieces that caught your eye the first go-round, of which there are many. Some that caught my eye were:

The Shelf – by Joseph Walsh from Ireland, Euros 36,000 + VAT (also his two granite stools) - on Stand A6 – Sarah Myrescough, exhibiting at PAD for the first time.

The Shelf – by Joseph Walsh from Ireland, Euros 36,000 + VAT (also his two granite stools) - on Stand A6 – Sarah Myrescough, exhibiting at PAD for the first time.

The stand of Adrian Sassoon, Stand B17, with a piece in steel by Junko Mori in the foreground

The stand of Adrian Sassoon, Stand B17, with a piece in steel by Junko Mori in the foreground

Eniguum Consul Table (Olive, Ash & glass) by Joseph Walsh (born 1979) - £48,000 + vat – on Stand C6 – Peter Petrou, exhibiting at PAD for the first time

Eniguum Consul Table (Olive, Ash & glass) by Joseph Walsh (born 1979) - £48,000 + vat – on Stand C6 – Peter Petrou, exhibiting at PAD for the first time

Stand C1 – Pinto Paris – a stand you could just move into!

Stand C1 – Pinto Paris – a stand you could just move into!

Stand C1 – Pinto Paris – a stand you could just move into!

Stand C1 – Pinto Paris – a stand you could just move into!

“Dreamcatcher” by Rowan Mersh (3metres x 2 metres) - £72,000 inc VAT on the stand of A24 Gallery Fumi (Sardinia, Italy).  Made from  ‘farmed’ Turritella shells from the Phillippines

“Dreamcatcher” by Rowan Mersh (3metres x 2 metres) - £72,000 inc VAT on the stand of A24 Gallery Fumi (Sardinia, Italy).  Made from  ‘farmed’ Turritella shells from the Phillippines

“Dreamcatcher” by Rowan Mersh (3metres x 2 metres) - £72,000 inc VAT on the stand of A24 Gallery Fumi (Sardinia, Italy).  Made from  ‘farmed’ Turritella shells from the Phillippines

“Dreamcatcher” by Rowan Mersh (3metres x 2 metres) - £72,000 inc VAT on the stand of A24 Gallery Fumi (Sardinia, Italy).  Made from  ‘farmed’ Turritella shells from the Phillippines

“Dreamcatcher” by Rowan Mersh (3metres x 2 metres) - £72,000 inc VAT on the stand of A24 Gallery Fumi (Sardinia, Italy).  Made from  ‘farmed’ Turritella shells from the Phillippines

“Dreamcatcher” by Rowan Mersh (3metres x 2 metres) - £72,000 inc VAT on the stand of A24 Gallery Fumi (Sardinia, Italy).  Made from  ‘farmed’ Turritella shells from the Phillippines

Nature  & Works of Art !– one of the  tree trunks of Berkeley Square around which the Pavilion is built – on Stand C12 Gallerie  Monbrison

Nature  & Works of Art !– one of the  tree trunks of Berkeley Square around which the Pavilion is built – on Stand C12 Gallerie  Monbrison

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A Sale Worth Noting; Hollywood vs. Mosfilm

Ralph Taylor, Senior Director of Bonhams Post-War and Contemporary Department, said in a recent interview; “At Bonhams you can be innovative, and zig when everyone is zagging. It is crucial to create a distinct identity, but one that makes business sense.” The opening of the zigging-season (when everyone is zagging), seems to be the October 6 sale offering a complete set of 257 personal photographs by Soviet filmmaker Andrey Tarkowsky (1932 – 1986), aiming to collect at least £500.000 for Tarkowsky’s family by selling 257 intimate Polaroids that Tarkowsky shot in Italy and Russia prior to making his 1983 movie Nostalgia. The Polaroids are divided into 29 lots with estimates between £20.000 up to £37.000 per lot.

Excuse me, Andrey who? Oh well, for those who have never heard of the filmmaker Andrey Tarkowsky, it may be be reassuring that Bonhams department of Entertainment Memorabilia is the department that sold the piano from the 1947 movie Casablanca (on which Sam played “As time goes by”) for 3 million USD and the costume of the Cowardly Lion from the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz for a similar amount.

Very true so, Russian cinema is not Oz and I and even hesitate to admit to be one of those weakhearted with a soft spot for Tarkowsky movies. What, however, really excites me about this sale is the bravado that Bonhams demonstrates. After succesfully zagging Hollywood, selling wonderful props such as Willy Wonka’s Golden Ticket and Steve McQueen’s 1971 Racing. Overall, it is worth applauding that the London auctioneer is equally challenged by zigging film institutes and film museums around the globe, looking for the highest bidders for this rare set of low-profile memorabilia from the Mosfilm tradition of Moscow.

NOSTALGIA Before and After; A Collection of unique Polaroids by Andrew Tarkovsky; BONHAMS, 6 Oct 2016. London, New Bond Street. https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/23936

By Erik Paol, OTE European Associate, Amsterdam

For Further reading; https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/aug/16/andrei-tarkovsky-polaroid-photographs-auctioned-bonhams-solaris

"The Battle of Brooklyn" Exhibition

"The Battle of Brooklyn" exhibition currently on view at the New-York Historical Society, provides an absolutely fascinating afternoon for any history buff. If General Howe had decided to continue his siege after he defeated Washington that day in August, the Revolutionary War would have ended by nightfall. One man’s hesitation and a new country came into being. Washington saved the remainder of his men when fog rolled in as they escaped with their horses on rafts across the East River to Manhattan. Found out that Brooklyn (Brooklin) was named after a stream that ran through it. Not as exotic as I had hoped.

By Dr. Elin Lake-Ewald, President of O'Toole-Ewald Art Associates Inc. (OTE)

John Trumbull (1756–1843), George Washington (1732–1799), 1780. Metropolitan Museum of Art Bequest of Charles Allen Munn, 1924, 24.109.88

John Trumbull (1756–1843), George Washington (1732–1799), 1780. Metropolitan Museum of Art Bequest of Charles Allen Munn, 1924, 24.109.88

Franz Xaver Habermann (1721–1796), engraved by J. Chéreau, Représentation du feu terrible à nouvelle Yorck, 1776. New-York Historical Society Library

Franz Xaver Habermann (1721–1796), engraved by J. Chéreau, Représentation du feu terrible à nouvelle Yorck, 1776. New-York Historical Society Library

William Joy (1803–1867), Forcing the Hudson River Passage, ca. 1835. Oil on canvas. New-York Historical Society, Gift of the Travelers Insurance Company.

William Joy (1803–1867), Forcing the Hudson River Passage, ca. 1835. Oil on canvas. New-York Historical Society, Gift of the Travelers Insurance Company.

Find out more about "The Battle of Brooklyn" exhibition at the New-York Historical Society Museum & Library.

The Merton Simpson Collection

On October 1st in Falls Church, Virginia, an extraordinary event will take place at Quinn’s Auction Galleries, and bring to a close a controversy that has roiled the African Art market since the death of famed art dealer/artist Merton Simpson at the age of 84 in March of 2013.

Among the myriad ceremonial statues, paintings, tribal objects and decorative items in the collection, the shining star of Merton Simpson’s private collection is a 16th century bronze plaque, acquired by Simpson from a European dealer in the 1950s and authenticated by African art experts John A. Buxton and Kathy Curnow, and that has also undergone forensic examination by Rare Collections, which provides scientific investigation and research services to museums and private collections in the US and abroad. The single figure of a warrior chief holds a ceremonial dance sword and also depicts a European man in profile and two crocodile heads and rosettes.

Exhaustive research has been conducted to confirm the plaque’s lawful status. Growing museum interest in the extraordinary artifact indicates a full house on Saturday, as well as online participation.

Simpson’s personal history is one of triumph and tragedy. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Merton Simpson may have begun his career as an Abstract Expressionist painter, but he became famous for his specialization in African Art, ultimately being honored at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was known and respected for his expertise in the field, but in his declining years his health and ability to run his gallery on 28th Street deteriorated, outsiders took advantage of him, and finally when he died his son Merton Jr. had to send out emails to friends of his father asking for contributions to pay for his funeral and burial.

The estate is currently under the supervision of the office of Public Administration, New York.

The Benin plaque, estimated at $800,000 - $1.2 million, is among other highlights of the upcoming sale. Indicative of many artifacts is a horned plank Bedu mask with checkerboard design from the Ivory Coast/Ghana, depicting a elaborately coiffered female, estimated at $10,000 - $15,000, and a Teke tribe mask with the same estimate.

O’Toole-Ewald Art Associates, Inc. (OTE) served in a non-participatory advisory capacity.

Merton D. Simpson, Painter, Collector, Dealer in African Art, Dies at 84. The New York Times.

Merton D. Simpson, Painter, Collector, Dealer in African Art, Dies at 84. The New York Times.

Vladimir Kagan's Art Show

O'Toole-Ewald Art Associates Inc. (OTE) appraisers visited Vladimir Kagan's Art Show opening at Carpenters Workshop Gallery on 5th Avenue. Photos of last creations of our friend Vladimir Kagan, a giant in 20/21st furniture design. One is a mock-up of a desk that will be cast in bronze, the other a futuristic sweep of curved wood upholstered in white leather.

art appraisal, complex valuation, collateral loan appraisal, archival appraisal, artist estate appraisal, complex appraisal,  damage/ loss appraisal, insurance appraisal, estate valuation, art valuation, painting valuation, fair rental value apprais…
art appraisal, complex art appraisal, art valuation, complex art valuation, archival appraisal, artist estate appraisal, collateral loan appraisal, cost basis appraisal, damage/ loss appraisal, estate valuations, estate appraisal, equitable distribu…

Diane Arbus — In the Beginning — Met/Breuer Exhibition through November 27, 2016

Diane Arbus: In the Beginning, exhibits 100 images made from 1956 - 1962, is full of poor compositions, confusing pictures, and near-miss pictures, which we know because we have already seen the great ones that came later.  This show should be reassuring to all beginners, when they see that even Diane Arbus made bad photographs. 

Though the show nearly doubles the number of Arbus images in print, it makes me wonder whether we have really been missing an important view of this extraordinary artist, not available until now.  These are, after all, photographs she never intended anyone to see.  They were the early ones, the rejects.  And though her standards were extraordinarily high, and someone else might have agreed to show some of them, the fact remains that she did not.

Even after two biographies, we know relatively about Diane Arbus, and have seen very little of her work.  Arbus, an artist highly regarded by her peers, but not familiar outside New York art and publishing circles, died a suicide in 1971, age 48.  In 1972 (or immediately, in museum time) the Museum of Modern Art held a one woman show, using images that Arbus had selected and approved for exhibit during her lifetime.  Everyone considered these images mature works of a genius at the height of her powers.  The unofficial catalogue, Diane Arbus, with “Identical Twins, Roselle New Jersey, 1967” on the cover, has never been out of print (and according to Arthur Lubow, her highly regarded biographer, it has sold half a million copies, making it one of the best-selling art books of all time).  Until recently the 80 images from that book were all we saw; Diane Arbus: Magazine Work, (published in Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar and New York magazine, among others) and Untitled (images made in 1969 and 1970 at a home for retarded women, chosen for publication by her daughter, Doon) added roughly 100 more pictures to the group. That’s all we saw for over 30 years.  Her haunting story, and her scarce and matchless pictures, made Arbus an icon for artists, feminists, and outsiders, and a very high earning figure in the art market.

In 2003, Revelations, an enormous exhibition and accompanying publication by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, opened Arbus’s life to public view, including a reproduction of her darkroom, and a wall of her books with an installation that felt like a shrine.  The book itself is a kind diary/scrapbook, printing letters, diaries, and many pictures we had never seen, most in small sizes, like historical snapshots.  The best part was getting to see the images never seen before, made throughout her career. We saw images made as early as 1956, when she began in earnest to make art photographs, using a 35mm camera.  We saw her earliest efforts with the square format 2-1/4 camera, which she started to use in 1962, and used till the end of her life. There were many more “ordinary” people in those pictures — New York ladies out shopping, couples and families sitting together, young women at home.  In this context, all images betrayed the Arbus signature style. Most were prints that already existed in the archive.  In a very few cases, the estate decided to make new prints, essentially adding to the canon of existing images.  (This very rare practice has also been done with work from the estate of Garry Winogrand.)  It struck me then that the Arbus estate was essentially printing money, for once on the market, these new prints would immediately become as rare and valuable as the work we already knew.

In 2007, the Arbus Estate selected the Met to be the permanent repository of the Diane Arbus Archive, a voluminous collection, including negatives, prints, papers, correspondence, and library.

Now the Met returns to this early work for an exhibition, all made before 1964, and almost all the images made with a 35mm camera. We see familiar subjects — freaks, transvestites, girls dressed nearly alike, eccentrics of all kinds — and the ordinary people, somehow revealed to have more significance than we could ever imagine.  In the few instances when the show includes a square format print — as with Child with a Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C. 1962 — you want to cheer.  It’s a breakthrough! You have found your way!

Around the time Arbus made this picture, she applied for a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation, and emphasized the documentary, historical nature of her work.

“I want to photograph the considerable ceremonies of our present because we tend while living here and now to perceive only what is random and barren and formless about it……I want simply to save them, for what is ceremonious and curious and commonplace will be legendary.”
— [Revelations, p. 41]

In 1972, Doon Arbus spoke about the application with John Szarkowski, Head of the Photography Department at Museum of Modern Art.  He remembered the pictures she submitted to the committee:

…they were very forceful and you really felt somebody who was just enormously ambitious, really ambitious. Not in any cheap way. In the most serious way. Someone who was going to stand for no minor successes…There’s something untouchable about that kind of ambition….I think she wanted every word she said, every picture she took, everything she did, I think she wanted it to be just perfect — for some great revelation to come through. Terrifying.
— [Revelations, p.164-165]

Diane Arbus — The Early Work blurs rather than enhances our perception of this terrifying and ambitious artist, who sought perfection according to her own standards. This show tells us what a curator, or a group of curators, found when they went through all those boxes in the Diane Arbus Archive. Perhaps it is really just an advertisement for all that awaits excavation.  Because surely they’ve got better stuff than this.

Dr. Mary Panzer

O'Toole-Ewald Art Associates Inc. (OTE) Photography Expert

Rochester, NY. August, 2016


Dr. Mary Panzer is O'Toole-Ewald Art Associates Inc. (OTE) Photography Expert.

Over 30 years, Dr. Mary Panzer has studied photography and its history with Lisette Model, Imogen Cunningham, Joanne Leonard, Jerry Thompson and David Levinthal. She is former Curator of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian Institution), co-author of Things as They Are:Photojournalism in Context Since 1955Separate But Equal: The Mississippi Photographs of H.C. Anderson, and Avedon: Murals and Portraits, and author of monographs on Mathew Brady, Philippe Halsman, and Lewis Hine. Her essays have appeared in American PhotoThe Chicago Tribune,PhotographVanity Fair and the Wall Street Journal. She holds a PhD in American Studies from Boston University, an MA in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University, and a BA in English from Yale. She divides her time between Manhattan and Rochester, New York. 

OTE's Proprietary Art Leasing Appraisal Program

http://www.wsj.com/articles/art-collectors-discover-irrevocable-trusts-1459130776#livefyre-comment

It’s 2016 and the art world is finally getting around to figuring out what O’Toole-Ewald Art Associates, Inc. (OTE) began investigating in 1994 – leasing art from an irrevocable trust permits art collectors to live with their art during their lifetime and reap tax savings at the same time.

Over 20 years ago OTE began researching the possibility of an art leasing appraisal program, and by 2009 had developed a fully functioning system that has been successfully utilized by major law firms nationally – to the great benefit of their collector-clients. In a professional journal in 2010, Elin Lake-Ewald PhD, OTE’s President, published an article briefly outlining the general methodology of art leasing appraisals. Backed by years of extensive research, the OTE proprietary appraisal program for leasing art from a trust is effective both in straightforward matters and more sophisticated cases, now being applied to complex legal situations.

OTE’s innovative programs have also produced firsts in fractional discounting of art in estate appraisals and damage/loss/fraud valuations nationwide, as well as a recently active collaborative program with strategic partners throughout Europe.

O’Toole-Ewald Enters into Strategic Partnership with AN Valuations

New York, NY, August 3, 2015 O’Toole-Ewald Art Associates, Inc. (OTE), a New York based industry leader in Fine Art and personal property appraisals, announces a strategic partnership with AN Valuations, a boutique valuation advisory practice focusing on business and intellectual property, headquartered in Leiden, The Netherlands. This new strategic partnership brings OTE’s services directly to AN Valuations’ high net worth European clients, and enables both firms to offer competitive services to clients in the financial sector.

“We’re very excited to enter into this strategic partnership with OTE, allowing both companies to expand their offerings and provide a more balanced service to our worldwide clientele,” said Andrew Pike, managing director at AN Valuations. “When AN Valuations is contacted by high net worth individuals requesting assistance with personal property appraisals, we contact OTE for its expertise in various categories within personal property, such as antiques and Fine Art from Old Masters to Contemporary. Our background and experience lends itself to valuation advisory in the transatlantic corridor, and this partnership with OTE gives us the local presence we desire in the US.”

AN Valuations assists companies with valuations of businesses, financial instruments, derivatives and intellectual property (such as brand assets and patents) for transaction, fiscal, legal and accounting purposes, particularly in cross-border situations. OTE’s knowledge of fine art, furnishings, gems & jewelry, fine wine, coins, stamps, rugs, books, and photography ensures accurate and innovative valuations for clients while adhering to the standards of Uniform Standards of Professional Practice (USPAP), the American Society of Appraisers (ASA), and the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

“We are delighted to be partnering with AN Valuations,” said OTE President Elin Lake-Ewald. “Our partnership with them gives clients worldwide access to comprehensive services that allow them to better manage their tangible and intangible assets. Connoisseurship, especially in regard to fine and decorative art, is a very significant aspect of our business, but we also believe in being innovative in our approach to valuation. We hope that by expanding our services into Europe that we can offer a new level of accuracy and expertise.”

 About O’Toole-Ewald Art Associates, Inc.

Since 1932 OTE has been a leading authority in fine and decorative art valuation, and continues to earn the trust of clients internationally. An experienced team of appraisal specialists value art and antiques for the purposes of damage/loss, insurance, charitable contribution, equitable distribution, collateral loans and estate taxation, and offer clients unique valuation strategies that include art leasing, blockage and fractional discounting of art in estates. OTE is known for its appraisals of major artist’s estates that include Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Jean-Michel Basquiat. For more information, visit www.otoole-ewald.com.  

 About AN Valuations

AN Valuations, founded in 2012, is a valuation advisory boutique located in the Netherlands servicing companies throughout Europe and North America. We specialize in business & intellectual property valuations for transaction, fiscal, legal and accounting purposes, particularly in cross-border situations. Through our bespoke approach and global network, we customize teams to the needs of our clients. For more information, visit www.anvaluations.com.  

 Contact:

O’Toole-Ewald Art Associates

Sarah Mohrman, Marketing Coordinator

Tel: (212) 989-5151

sarah.mohrman@otoole-ewald.com

                                  

AN Valuations

Andrew Pike, Managing Director

Tel: +31 70 221 0058

apike@anvaluations.com

 

 

 

A Guide to Framing Part I: A brief history of framing

Annunciation, Lucca, c. 1500, a free standing altarpiece made of poplar 

Annunciation, Lucca, c. 1500, a free standing altarpiece made of poplar 

During a lecture on the various ways Modernist pictures have been framed New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik commented that a bad frame is “a kind of unjust sentence that the picture is forced to carry around on its shoulders forever.”  But frames have not always been about presentation, beginning with framed picture of mummies in Egyptian tombs in 2nd century BC when frames were used to protect pictures from the desert clime. Then they developed as a way to separate scenes between pictures and finally made their way to become a means of enhancing the picture and presenting it. Framing has become a reflection of the aesthetic and cultural values of the time. Today framing is an important component of how a work of art is perceived.

The modern concept of framing as a means of presentation began between the 12th and 13th centuries in Europe around religious paintings. These frames were inspired by religious architecture, whose ornamentation often reflected the exteriors of cathedrals. By the Renaissance frames had become elaborate pieces of art unto themselves, lavishly carved, gilded or painted and sometimes inlaid with gems, made out of a single piece of wood and built into their surroundings.  A style typical in the 15th and 16th centuries was broad, flat, often gilded frames with details of birds, fruit, military trophies, faces, angels and inscriptions of Latin.

As the craftsmanship improved selection of materials would become integral to a frame’s style. Walnut was popular for the rich, as it was extremely expensive. In the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe when portraiture became popular, selecting a frame was almost as indicative of status as the paintings itself. As the rich began to commission portraits frames became more portable, usually made in pieces with molding that made them easier and cheaper to produce. In 17th century France tortoiseshell and brass frames were among the most sought after. Stylistically frames were often heavy and featured a great deal of intricate gilding and carving.

Aesthetic shifts in taste were clearly reflected in the frames of each era. Where the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe frames were extravagant, the earliest American frames made only a couple of hundred years later, and exemplified by the Empire Style, were utilitarian. Eighteenth century the Rococo and Baroque styles were popular, followed by 19th century Edwardian and the Victorian more simplified style.

Modernism represented a divergence from traditional framing and many prolific artists even chose to make their own. In today’s contemporary art driven market many paintings often go unframed. The current preference seems to be for the art to stand alone or even to be framed in a conceptual sense.

In an article in the Guardian on framing, Phil Daoust describes the room devoted to Mark Rothko's abstract Seagram Murals at the Tate: “nothing but a murmur reaches them. The lighting is muted. The rectangles of red, maroon and black lie against grey walls, rather than the gallery's usual white… Rothko's pictures have no frames in the conventional sense. But what is this whole setting if not a frame?” The canvases were intended to be hung in the Four Seasons restaurant in New York, but Rothko decided they didn't belong with the rich grunting at the trough. Rothko was even quoted as saying: “I accepted this assignment with strictly malicious intentions. I hope to ruin the appetite of every son of a bitch who ever eats in that room.”** The paintings were a gift to the Tate in 1969, a gift from Mark Rothko, and displayed in the exact sequence envisioned by the artist. Which begs the question what does framing really mean in the art world today?

 (The final series of Seagram Murals was dispersed and now hangs in three locations: London's Tate Modern, Japan’s Kawamura Memorial Museum and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.)

Here are some examples of frames from different periods and styles:

The New Whitney, A Lot to Love

New York City is full of excitement over the opening of the Whitney Museum of American Art in its new Chelsea space. Designed by the famed Renzo Piano, the new building is significantly larger than its previous home on the Upper East Side. While this is not the first time the Whitney has moved, a lot has changed. When the previous incarnation was built in 1966 by Marcel Breuer the collection contained only around 2,000 artworks, now there are more than 19,000. With 50,000 sq ft of indoor exhibition space and 13,000 sq ft of outdoor space/terraces and a Danny Meyer restaurant, the Whitney has seriously upgraded. And no wonder, with a project budget of $720 million.  

The Whitney Museum 1937 to the Present

 

During a sneak preview, OTE appraiser Alanna Butera, was definitely impressed. The excitement of the crowd during the preview spoke to the overall enthusiasm about the Whitney’s reopening. The new space couldn’t be more different than its former building on Madison Ave., something our appraiser noticed immediately. Alanna noted that part its charm is the light in the space, many windows and outdoor areas, and if you are there in the evening you will probably be lucky enough to witness a beautiful sunset. 

Overall it seems as if the new building is well received. Paul Goldberger, architectural critic, and contributing editor for Vanity Fair wrote that, “the galleries offer the best balance I’ve ever seen between the primary mission of allowing you to focus on the art and the secondary purpose of engaging with the city.”
  
This is exactly what Renzo Piano intended. To Piano (via the Whitney’s website), the brilliance of the new Whitney is that “here all at once, you have the water, the park, the powerful industrial structures and the exciting mix of people, brought together and focused by this new building and the experience of art.” So I guess we’ll call it a success.

The inaugural exhibition "America Is Hard to See," a title recycled from a 1951 Robert Frost poem, has incurred a bit more dissent. Although our appraiser enjoyed the new show (which will officially open May 1st) it has not been as popular with all critics. A review in the LA Times by Christopher Knight, stuck out in particular. The title “At new Whitney Museum site, a show is shrouded in parochialism” pretty much tells you exactly what Knight thinks.  As reported by Knight, the new show, which features more than 400 artists and almost 650 artworks from 1900 to the present, has a long way to go from being curatorially Manhattan-centric. 
 
However, the buzz surrounding the exhibition is mostly good. A review in the New York Times by Holland Cotter (Review: New Whitney Museum’s First Show, ‘America Is Hard to See'was much more positive. It appears that thanks to the new space the Whitney is able to pull off an exhibition of a more ambitious scale and scope. Something OTE's preview hopping appraiser agrees with. Despite some Manhattan favoritism, she thought the overall show spoke to consistent American art themes and styles throughout the period.             

One thing no one can deny, this is an exciting new chapter for the Whitney Museum of American Art.