Museums and Exhibitions in New York City and Vicinity
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GLENN LONEY'S MUSEUM NOTES
CONTENTS, JANUARY 2014
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| Caricature of Glenn Loney by Sam Norkin. | |
At Christie's Auction House:
At Bonhams Auction House:
MYSTERIES OF THE UNSEEN WORLD
DARK UNIVERSE
Report on the Reconstruction of the Past
Renaissance & Baroque Bronzes from the Hill Collection
MODERN FURIES: The Lessons & Legacy of World War I
ANTONIO CANOVA: The Seven Last Works
CHARLES MARVILLE: Photographer of Paris
PARIS AS A MUSE: Photography, 1840's 1930s
GRIDIRON GREATS: Vintage Football Cards in the Collection of Jefferson R. Burdick
MoMA To Destroy Award Winning Super Modern Former Museum of American Folk Art…
Life After Death:
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT & THE CITY: Density Vs. Dispersal
THE WINTER ANTIQUES SHOW: Diamond Jubilee, Celebrating Sixty Years!
Report for The Month of January 2014
RAMBLES ROUND MUSEUMS, GALLERIES, INSTALLATIONS, & AUCTIONS--
At Christie's Auction House:
Christie's Headliners:
Christie's Year End Record for 2013 Achieves $7.1 Billion Worldwide!
This is the Highest Sales Total for any Auction House in the History of the Art Market.
This is the Direct Result of New Buyers from All Geographies coming into the Market, notably Collectors & Speculators from the Growth Markets of China & India.
The Latter Buyers are greatly assisted by the Internet: They can see what they are bidding on On Line, unlike Telephone Transactions…
Christie's Old Masters Week 2014 Achieves $68 Million in New York!
A Complete Set of Francisco Goya y Lucientes' Los Caprichos--80 Etchings--went for $1,445,000.
The so called Rothschild Prayerbook sold for $13.6 Million.
Jacopo Bassano's Adoration of the Shepherds fetched $8.9 Million, which is a lot of money for some Peasants kneeling outside a Stable, with some sleepy Sheep hard by.
Dancing Dogs didn't do as well as Sleepy Sheep: Giandomenico Tiepolo's I Cani Sapienti brought only $3,647,000. Still, it's probable that Tiepolo couldn't paint them--Front Feet in the air--without some Retakes.
A World Record was set for the Painter when Carracci's Oil on Copper Portrait of Olimpia Luna as Judith & Melchior Zoppio as Holofernes was purchased for $869,000.
Considering that Judith became a Famous Jewish Heroine because she cut off the Head of Holofernes, Zoppio must have been posing before that Unfortunate Event occurred?
Christie's Americana Week 2014 Achieves $10.2 Million in New York!
An Important Chippendale Carved Mahogany Scallop Top Tea Table [circa 1770] was sold for $905,000.
An Important Silver Brandywine Bowl [circa 1690] was sold for $317,000.
But a Rare Set of Four Large Chinese Export Porcelain Nodding Head Figures brought only $173,000.
That's about $43,000 for each Nodding Head, created long, long before Bobble Heads…
Christie's Paris Auction of La Collection Personnelle d'Elsa Schiaparelli,
Le 23 Janvier 2014, Achieves $2,298,359…
Top Lot was a Paire de modèles en marbre représentant des Léopards, which fetched $524,755.
There were also Photo Portraits of Mme. Schiaparelli, one by Horst P. Horst, another by Man Ray.
Not to overlook Couture by Schiaparelli & Fellow Clothing Designers, as well as Artworks by Fellow Artists such as Alberto Giacometti.
At Bonhams Auction House:
Taking Stock of 2013 Sales:
Some World Records were set in 2013, in Bonhams Salerooms in New York, San Francisco, & Los Angeles.
Entertainment Memorabilia: $4 Million+ for the Maltese Falcon Statuette.
Coins & Medals: $2,574,000 for an 1880 Stella Coiled Hair Coin.
Asian Art: $965,000 for a Mixed Metal Snuff Bottle.
Books & Manuscripts: $854,000 for a Letter signed by Zhang Xueliang, the "Young Marshall."
Motoring: $4,647,000 for a 1931 Bentley 4.5 Liter Supercharged Le Mans Racer.
California & Western Painting: $722,500 for The Señora's Garden, a 1918 Canvas by E. Charlton Fortune.
Furniture & Decorative Arts: $617,000 for a Florentine Grand Ducal Jewel Casket.
"Queens of the Western Ocean" January Sale:
"Fritz" Gold specialized in collecting Maritime Portraits of Ships in the Liverpool New York Trade of the Mid 1800s, but his 16 Canvases at Bonhams included other Vessels as well. The Sale realized more than $2 Million.
At The American Museum of Natural History:
MYSTERIES OF THE UNSEEN WORLD
[Closing 30 June 2014]
Do you want to see a Lovely Rose gradually Open, fully Bloom & then dry up & Die?
The astounding Stop Motion Photography demonstrated in Mysteries of the Unseen World will show you that All Too Brief Life Cycle.
But not only will you be able to see such Imperceptible Changes Speeded Up, you will also be able to see Fast Moving Things Slowed Down: Drops of Water taking forever to hit a Puddle.
How about watching an Individual in the act of Swallowing Liquid, then instantly seeing through the Flesh & Muscles to the Skeleton in Action?
The Magical Dance of Unseen Waves: Sound, Light, Radio, X Ray, Ultra Violet--is made Colorfully Visible.
Seeing the Small made Large--as in watching a Dragon Fly close up, inspecting the Structure & Function of its Wings--is also an Astonishment.
But most Astonishing of All is seeing Very Close Up--thanks to Nano Technology--the Scales & Bacteria on an Eyelash or the Fantastic Patterns on an Insect Antenna.
This new Cinematic Experience is being shown both in boring old 2 D & exciting Digital 3 D in the LeFrak IMAX Theatre at the American Museum of Natural History.
Forrest Whitaker is Your Filmic Host, so many of the Visual Revelations are Family Oriented & Related.
DARK UNIVERSE
[Open Ended Run: Until Further Notice]
This is the new Hayden Planetarium Space Show which introduces Unsuspecting Audiences to Dark Matter & Dark Energy.
Despite what Aristotle & the Medieval Church Fathers may have believed, the Earth is not the Center of Everything.
As has been now known for some Decades, the Earth is but an Infinitesimal Speck in an Ever Expanding Universe, composed of an Infinite Number of Galaxies, each of which contains an Infinite Number of Star Systems, emitting Light now Billions of Years Old.
Dark Universe explores such matters as Dark Energy, which is the Unseen Force accelerating Cosmic Expansion.
Dark Matter--also Unseen--is that which holds all these Infinite Galaxies together.
This is not a Good Old Fashioned Planetarium Star Show with the Zeiss Optical Projector rising out of the floor to show Our Solar System & the Stars in Their Courses.
Rather, the Shallow Hemispheric Area above the Circle of Seating in the Hayden Planetarium is a Projection Screen not only for what look like Surging Showers of Galaxies, but also for Images of Space Craft, Satellites, & Modern Observatories, all busily probing the Secrets of the Universe.
These Spatial Infinities make Mockery of Newt Gingrich's Proposal to found a Space Colony on Mars: Why should he want to do that when he cannot even get Elected to a Major Public Office?
Looking at all those Trillions & Trillions of Galaxies--Ever Expanding Points of Light--you might well wonder exactly where Heaven is in all this Turbulent Dark Universe?
Although the Astral Researches that have made possible the Discoveries & Further Unsolved Mysteries of Outer Space do confirm the Big Bang Theory of Universal Creation, they in no way Validate the frequently recited Seven Day Wonder of the Creation of the–World by a Jewish Deity.
At the Czech Center New York:
Report on the Reconstruction of the Past
[Closing 11 March 2014]
Under Warsaw Pact Communism, Prague was even more Kafkaesque than Franz could ever have imagined.
When the Berlin Wall finally fell in November 1989, the newly elected Playwright President, Vaclav Havel--who had even been imprisoned during the Post War Red Regime--suggested Drawing a Line in the Sand about what had Transpired, to Prevent an Endless Cycle of Revenge & Recrimination.
Now, Czech Artists Eva Kotatkova & Barbora Klimova have drawn upon Historical Images, Past Events, & Conceptual References to explore What Went Before.
This is an Archival Exploration, focusing on East European Artistic Practices, but considering the newly established Post Communist Identities.
Transitions have not been Easy for Czechs in General, & Artists in Particular.
Turning their Backs on Communism & integrating into a Democratic/Capitalist System have engendered complex Political, Social, & Economic Changes.
There are also some Buried Skeletons that no one wants to discuss…
This Exhibition is curated by Vit Havranek, Director of transit, in association with the New Museum, which is currently showing Museum as Hub: Report on the Construction of a Spaceship.
At the Frick Collection:
Renaissance & Baroque Bronzes from the Hill Collection
[Closing 15 June 2014]
What was that big Cy Twombly Painted Scribble Untitled doing on a Frick Gallery Wall, when the Main Focus should be on the large bronze of Prince Ferdinando di Cosimo III on Horseback?
In fact, there are Two Cy Twombly Untitleds in this new Frick Show, along with an Eleven Foot Long Canvas by Ed Ruscha, entitled Seventeeth Century.
The Artistic Reason is that this Juxtaposition of Avant Garde Modern Art with Historic Bronzes will give Visitors to the Exhibition some sense of what it must be like to experience these Magnificent Mini Sculptures in the Private Precincts of the Upscale Residence of their Owners, J. Tomlinson & Janine Hill.
In addition to their Curatorial Expertise in collecting such wonderful Bronzes, the Hills also savor such Modern Giants as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, & Francis Bacon.
It might well be argued that Roy, Andy, & Ed are No Match for the Obvious Genius of Riccio, Giambologna, & Piamamontini, but then Taste is experienced not only in the Mouth, but also in the Eye, is it not?
Henry Clay Frick was himself an Avid Collector of Masterpiece Bronzes, so it has become a kind of custom to show Outstanding Pieces from Private Collections downstairs at the Frick, where Small Scale Artworks show to Good Advantage in the two Intimate Galleries.
Among the Powerful Bronzes on display are Pacing Horse, Diana, Venus, Reclining Venus, Sleeping Venus, Sleeping Hermaphrodite, Orion, Mars, Hercules Resting, Hercules & Anteus, Hercules & The Hydra, Hercules Slaying a Centaur, & Rape of a Sabine…
At the Galerie St. Etienne:
MODERN FURIES: The Lessons & Legacy of World War I
[Closing 12 April 2014]
As is customary, Jane Kallir's Curatorial Essay introducing her War Show at Galerie St. Etienne is a Mini Masterpiece.
It not only explores the Causes & Excuses for launching The Great War, but it also briefly indicates how this Horrendous Conflict changed Art & Society in Europe in its Wake.
The Fact that it was succeeded--after the 1918 Armistice, Art Deco, & the Weimar Republic--by World War II suggests that Not Many Lessons Were Learnt.
Considering the New Industrialization of European War Machines, it is almost comical to think of Oskar Kokoschka not only Volunteering for the Austro Hungarian Cavalry, but also buying his Own Horse & a Fancy Dress Uniform.
Soldiers on Horseback were No Match, however, for Machine Guns, Howitzers, & Aerial Bombardments.
OK was twice Seriously Wounded & ultimately Invalided Out of the Imperial Army.
Franz Marc & August Macke were not so Lucky: they did not Return from the Front.
Max Beckmann, George Grosz, & Ernst Ludwig Kirchner all had Emotional Breakdowns.
On the other hand, Otto Dix survived a Full Four Years at the Front. But it gave a New Edge to his Expressionist Art.
Egon Scheile had the Good Fortune to find a Painterly Assignment at the Army Museum.
He'd initially hoped to be an Official "War Painter," as No Photography was allowed by the Austrian War Press HQ.
In the Event, he Sketched Portraits of his Officer Superiors & of Military Installations. But at least he was neither Killed nor Wounded…
To learn how & why Jane Kallir invokes the Ancient Greek Furies--Implacable Goddesses of Revenge--come see the Exhibition--which includes searing works by Käthe Kollwitz, George Grosz, Erich Heckel, Otto Dix, Max Beckmann, Oskar Laske, & Egon Schiele.
Or Check Out the Furies Essay & Show Catalogue On Line: www.gseart.com.
Among the Interesting Ephemera are three Photo Albums of the horrendous Battle of Verdun.
Your Roving Arts Reporter once taught US Troops in Verdun, some Ten Years after World War II, but this Medieval Bastion--with the Relics of Fourteen Saints in its Cathedral--still Bore the Scars of The Great War.
Every once in a while, French Kids--playing on the Old Battlefields--would be injured or killed by Unexploded Ordnance from Hun Guns!
At the Met--The Metropolitan Museum of Art:
ANTONIO CANOVA: The Seven Last Works
[Closing 27 April 2014]
Not to be confused with the Seven Last Words from the Cross, Antonio Canova's Seven Last Works are, nonetheless, entirely Judeo Christian in their Subject Matter.
Although Canova modeled in clay no Christ on the Cross, he did create an Annunciation, a Visitation, & a Presentation of Christ in the Temple.
The other four Plaster Reliefs now on display at the Met Museum portray The Creation of the World--certainly an Ambitious Artistic Undertaking, The Creation of Adam, Cain & Abel, & The Sacrifice of Isaac.
Apparently Canova had some Inside Information about God's Personal Religion!
Canova shows us that God was & is Jewish!
As Canova's G d stretches out His Hand to Enliven Adam, it is very clear that He is wearing a Yarmulke!
Like Jeff Koons in Modern Times, Canova didn't actually do all that Marble Carving that resulted in such Masterworks as that White Stone Vision of Paulina Borghese--Napoleon's Sister--stretched out on her Chaise Longue.
Jeff Koons may make a Sketch of what he wants Italian Artisans to convert into Big Bucks Reality, but Canova made Clay Models.
From these, Plaster Molds were cast, from which Marble Sculptors in Venice could carve them from Istrian Stone.
Unfortunately, Canova died before the Project could be completed…
Six of the surviving Plaster Reliefs come to the Met from the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice.
CHARLES MARVILLE: Photographer of Paris
[Closing 4 May 2014]
Although Photography was in its Infancy when Charles Marville began to make handsome Photo Images of Architecture, City Views, & Picturesque Landscapes, he soon became a Master, traveling through France, Germany & Italy.
But he is now most remembered & even revered for the Historic Photos he took when Baron Georges Eugène Haussmann was destroying Medieval Paris to create a real City of Light, with 20,000 Gas Lamps & the famous Broad Boulevards.
Under the Imperium of Emperor Napoleon III, Haussmann had the Mandate to Construct a magnificent Modern Paris, complete with the Palais Garnier, Street Furniture, Kiosks, & Pissoirs.
Marville's Lenses, Paper Negatives, & Glass Plates captured both the incredibly narrow Medieval Streets & the grand, sweeping New Avenues.
This is the Bicentennial of Marville's Birth, with a Centenary of his Vintage Photos on view at the Met.
Nonetheless, after his Death, his Photos lay forgotten in Municipal & State Archives…
PARIS AS A MUSE: Photography, 1840's 1930s
[Closing 4 May 2014]
Drawn from the Met Museum's own Collections, these Forty Photos echo the same Subjects that fascinated Charles Marville.
With the Pre War Cut Off, there are thus no iPhoto Images are on display…
GRIDIRON GREATS: Vintage Football Cards in the Collection of Jefferson R. Burdick
[Closing 10 February 2014]
Obviously mounted as a Salute to the NY NJ Super Bowl Game XLVIII, this small scale wall show featured 150 Football Cards, as well as a Harvard Varsity Football Sweater from the Costume Institute.
You had to be quick to catch this one…
At MoMA--The Museum of Modern Art:
MoMA To Destroy Award Winning Super Modern Former Museum of American Folk Art…
Considering MoMA's on going interest in Modern Architecture--Archives & Exhibitions of Photos, Models, & Sketches--how can it be that it will now Destroy an amazing & Award Winning innovative Modern Museum which is almost integral to the MoMA Fundament?
This is Tod Willliams & Billie Tsien's American Folk Art Museum on West 53rd Street.
In 2003 alone, this Tombasil Clad Museum won many Prestigious Awards, including that of the American Institute of Architects & the World Architecture Award for Best Building in the World!
The Initial Challenge for Williams & Tsien was designing for a Very Small Footprint & for a Folk Art Collection of only some Five Thousand Items or Objects.
Folk Art has never been Very Big over at Christie's or Sotheby's, so the Super Rich weren't about to Put Their Names on Folk Art's Water Fountains.
As a Result, Folk Art defaulted on a $32 Million Building Debt.
MoMA bought the Now Empty Museum for $31.5 Million in 2011.
There has long been an Empty Lot--stretching through from 53rd to 54th Street--that it has been eager to use for an Additional Expansion, even though MoMA has already been Expanded Three Times beyond its original 1939 Goodwin & Stone Structure.
The Last Expansion--a somewhat unsuccessful Industrialized Make Over by Japan's Yoshio Taniguchi--included an Income Producing Residential Tower & the Forthcoming One will do likewise.
The Difference is, this time, that the Empty Lot was sold by MoMA, so that a 1,050 Foot Residential Tower--designed by Jean Nouvel--can Soar on that Site, in exchange for Three Bottom Floors of Glass Box Façade.
MoMA doesn't get to keep the Condo Rentals…
It was hoped that the Taniguchi Expansion would mean long, long New Gallery Walls, so that MoMA could show much more of the Permanent Collection, usually Hidden Away in the Vaults.
But No. That was Not To Be.
Instead, Modern Artists like Frank Stella were now able to produce Thirty Foot Long Artworks to fill Entire Walls!
But would it be so difficult to Incorporate the Now Defunct but Once Award Winning Structure into the Landmarked MoMA Corpus?
It is Handsome, if Strange, but it's already Built, unlike so many of MoMA's Architectural Models & Sketches.
It won the Municipal Art Society Masterwork Award in 2001. As a Longtime MAS Member & Brendan Gill Awards Nominator, I take a Personal Interest.
Please, Glenn Lowry, do not Tear Down Folk Art!
Surely, Marina Abramowic & Robert Wilson can devise some kind of Art Action to Consolidate it into the MoMA Skeleton?
Life After Death:
As for the Folk Art Collections, some can now be seen in the Small Space allocated in the Mormon Center, just across from Lincoln Center.
Here, you can study some of the Weird Water Colored Drawings of the Recluse Artist, Henry Darger.
America's Folk Artists are now known as Outsider Artists: Un Taught & Un Trained…
Sometimes, even Un Disciplined. Until recently, they were also Un Curated & Un Galleried, but All That has Changed.
Outsider Art is now Eminently Collectible. Every Spring, there is even an Outsider Art Fair!
The still surviving Folk Art Museum also has a Small Venue down at South Street Seaport, on the East River, where once great Clipper Ships docked.
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT & THE CITY: Density Vs. Dispersal
[Closing 1 June 2014]
There It is, right in the middle of the Architecture Gallery at MoMA!
This is the Green Hued Twelve Foot x Twelve Foot Architectural Model for Frank Lloyd Wright's proposed Broadacre City.
Depressed by the Increasing Density of American Cities, Wright designed a sort of vast Suburban Agricultural/Manufacturing/Residential Sprawl that he imagined should be the America of the Future.
This Immense--but Visually Depressing--Model was shown at Rock Center & around the Nation in the 1930s.
America got the Suburban Sprawl all right, but not as Wright had intended…
When I beheld this Big Green Square on entering the Gallery, it was surrounded by Chatting Critics & Architecture Mavens, many of whom were busily making iPhotos.
But why did I think I had seen it before & more than one time only?
Was it at Taliesin West, Wright's Arizona Architecture Establishment?
If so, it's not going back to Scottsdale anytime soon…
No, indeed.
The Entire Frank Lloyd Wright Archive is now the Joint Acquisition of MoMA & Columbia University's Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library.
So this Current Exhibition is an opportunity to show off some of the Wright Design Projects.
Many of them Un Built…
Despite Wright's despising Metropolitan Density, he was also early an Apostle of the High Rise & the Stratospheric Skyscraper.
So there is a kind of Design Tension in this show between Building into the Skies & Spreading Out into the Land.
One of Wright's most interesting early High Rise Designs--here shown both in Plans & a Wooden Model--was for the Mother Building of the San Francisco Call, a long defunct Newspaper, which ended Life as the Call Bulletin.
Un Built, this odd 24 Story Structure had an Epically Narrow Façade, with a vast Side Exposure of Windows.
It offers a Strong Contrast to the Mile High 548 Story Tower he envisioned for Chicago…
Fortunately, Wright's Radical Project for St. Marks in the Bowery was never built: forget about Landmark Status.
At the Park Avenue Armory:
THE WINTER ANTIQUES SHOW: Diamond Jubilee, Celebrating Sixty Years!
Rushing over from Frank Lloyd Wright at MoMA, I arrived at the Park Avenue Armory at 11 am.
Although the Winter Antiques Show was not to open until Noon on that Freezing Day, I had an Official Press Invitation for that Very Date.
As a Longtime Supporter of Historic Preservation & Cultural Programming of this important Manhattan Landmark Building, I planned to sit quietly in one of the Elegantly Decorated Period Corridors to await the opening of the Great Doors of the vast Wade Thompson Drill Hall, currently in use as Exhibition Space for some 80 handsomely designed Dealer Booths.
The Uniformed Attendant at the Entry Desk told me to Leave, with some Snottiness in his Tone: "You can't hang out in here!"
Apparently, he had just dispatched a Homeless Man, looking for warmth.
So, I suppose when you are 85 Years Old--walking with difficulty with a Cane--even if you are a Retired CUNY Grad Center Professor & a Tax Payer, you are Not Welcome at the Park Avenue Armory, even when the Main Doors are Unlocked…
Unless, of course, you arrive at the Right Time, with Entrance Ticket in hand?
Fortunately, only a block away, over on Lexington Avenue, the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer was open to All, even to the Homeless.
This is a Basilica Sized Sanctuary, adorned with remarkable Religious Artworks, not least its great Stained Glass Windows. Well worth a Visit, in All Weathers.
It is a Dominican Foundation--with Monks to match--rather like that other Basilica Sized Sanctuary, St. Ignatius of Loyola, which also features a Series of Excellent Concerts.
When the Appointed Hour had arrived, I returned to the Armory, where I was issued a Plastic Press ID, in return for my Driver's License.
Checking cost $3 per Item, but the Press got off Scott Free. Maybe it was my Cane & Hangdog Look?
Once inside the Drill Hall, I was overwhelmed by the almost Eighty Dealer Booths, most of them carefully designed to look like Handsome--if Over Stuffed--Living Rooms in the Mansions of the Super Wealthy.
Some of these Decorative Treasures turn up in every Armory Show. They may well be the Not Really for Sale Trophy Icons of various Major Dealers.
One Glittering Keepsake was clearly Not for Sale. This was a Diamond & Sapphire Tiara once worn by the Young Queen Victoria, circa 1840.
But there were also Fabulous Gems on view from Tiffany, Graff, & Bulgari…
Every year, an American Museum is given Pride of Place at the Entrance to the Show.
This Jubilee Year, it was the Peabody Essex Museum--of Salem, Massachusetts--with its Loan Exhibition: Fresh Take, Making Connections…
No Witches of Salem were on view, even though the Peabody Essex is America's Oldest Continuously Operating Museum, founded way back in 1799.
The Handsome Catalogue for the Winter Antiques Show runs to some 276 Pages, printed in gleaming, glossy colors & weighing about Ten Pounds.
There are Pages & Pages of Full Color Photos of Illustrious Collectors, Sponsors, & Patrons, many of them Well Wishers for the East Side Settlement House, for whose Benefit this Magnificent Show is Annually Mounted.
Doesn't "Settlement House" sound rather like Jane Addams' Hull House & helping Unfortunates in the Urban Slums? Has the time possibly passed for Settlement Houses?
You certainly wouldn't find any of these Historic Collectibles lying around a Bronx Settlement House…
Actually, the East Side Settlement House is alive & well up in the Bronx, where it serves some 8,000 Community Members, as well as over 1,000 High School Students, many of whom go on to College, not to overlook its 18 Sites in the South Bronx!
Goldman Sachs even supports the East Side Settlement House.
Astounded at the Treasure Troves of Early Americana in many of the Booths, I rapidly began making Digital Photos--potentially to accompany this Report.
Visibly & Vocally Upset, one Lady Dealer said: "You could at least ask to take pictures of my Stock!"
Her Partner added: "People come here & shoot away & then these pictures turn up on the Internet!"
I responded that it was Odd they should be so Annoyed for they were not in the business of Selling Photos of their Antiques, but selling the Antiques themselves.
Having Their Stock out there on the Internet could be a form of Free Advertising, the More Welcome, considering how much they had already had to pay for one of those glowing Full Color/Full Page Ads in the Catalogue.
In any case, all Dealers now have attractive Web Sites on which to display their Wares, without the Tsuris & Cost of setting up a Booth at the Armory.
When the Two Dealers finally saw my somewhat hidden Press Pass, they urged me to take more Photos, volunteering really interesting information about the Artists & Artisans who had made some of their Treasures.
Later, looking at Needle Work Samplers, I was dazzled by the Complexity of a 17th Century Sampler made, I was told, by a Ten Year Old Girl.
Next Spring, I must take a Video Recorder to get some of these Antique Treasures & their Stories on line!
Rather than attempt to describe in Words what I saw, it will be easier to list the Booths that I found most fascinating & even stunning.
Then, if you are interested, you can Google for their Websites!
If you are a Bibliophile--or simply intrigued by Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts--you might well want to get the Full Color Brochure of Les Enluminures.
How about $400,000 for a richly illuminated Book of Hours [Use of Rome], made in Bruges, circa 1450?
If you are on a very tight Book Buying Budget, you may prefer the Printed Book of Hours [Use of Chartres], which is priced at only $30,000.
But the most splendid of all their Books of Hours [Use of Rome] listings closes with POR: Price on Request, which means it is Out of Sight for most of us…
Les Enluminures has offices in Manhattan, as well as in Chicago & Paris. Google them!
Here are some of the Dealers who have charmingly Naïve Americana you might just want for your own Salon or Rumpus Room.
Not to overlook Vintage Art Deco, Antique Armor & Weapons, Colorful Quilts, & what Christie's calls "Important Furniture."
ALLAN KATZ AMERICANA, LOST CITY ARTS, BAUMAN RARE BOOKS, COVE LANDING, PETER FINER, GLASS PAST, HIRSCHL & ADLER, HOSTLER BURROWS, BARBARA ISRAEL, MODERNE GALLERY, OLD HOPE ANTIQUES, KENNETH W. RENDELL, SHRUBSOLE, ETC.
Copyright © Glenn Loney 2014. No re publication or broadcast use without proper credit of authorship. Suggested credit line: "Glenn Loney, Curator's Choice." Reproduction rights please contact: jslaff@nymuseums.com.