Tis the season to visit Doug Flamm, rare book specialist at Gagosian Gallery

Gagosian Gallery and Bookshop, New York, Madison Avenue

WHATEVER YOUR AESTHETIC  INTERESTS OR THOSE OF THE LUCKY PEOPLE YOU ARE GIFTING, DOUG FLAMM, WHO MODESTLY HOLDS COURT AT THE GAGOSIAN SHOP, AT 976 MADISON AVENUE, BETWEEN 76th AND 77th STREET, HAS BOTH AN EXPERT’S KNOWLEDGE OF RARE BOOKS AND ART BOOKS AND AN INTUITIVE SENSE OF EXACTLY WHICH VOLUME WILL FASCINATE AND DELIGHT THE RECIPIENT FOR MANY YEARS TO COME.

THE LRFA BLOG ALWAYS LOOKS FORWARD TO THE HOLIDAY SEASON FOR THE EXCUSE TO VISIT GAGOSIAN BOOKSHOP AND TO VISIT WITH DOUG, PICKING DIFFERENT GIFTS AND, ON OCCASION, PURCHASING AN IRRESISTIBLE ONE TO TAKE HOME.

WE ARE  DELIGHTED TO CELEBRATE OUR HOLIDAY TRADITION AND SHARE DOUG FLAMM’S LATEST PICKS FOR YOU AND YOURS. THE FIRST TWO RECOMMENDATIONS REVISIT THE SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES, AN HOMAGE TO THE NEW YORK ART WORLD BY UGO MULAS IN THE SIXTIES AND TO THE NEW YORK AVANT-GARDE  IN THE SEVENTIES BY GIANFRANCO GORGONI.

This exhibition of photographs by the Italian Ugo Mulas (1928-1973) was redolent with a double nostalgia. The first was the subject – the New York art world in the 1960s and the artists who made it the culture capital of the known universe. During three visits to New York, Mulas and his camera got inside the studios, dinner parties, and happenings of the likes of Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Barnett Newman, and Andy Warhol, among others. He charted the movement from one generation to the next, from the Abstract Expressionist legacy of “go big or go home,” in a portrait of Newman in front of a vast empty white canvas, to the casual disorder of manufacture in Warhol’s “factory,” with Jackie Os scattered on the floor. The appearance of such figures as choreographer Trisha Brown notwithstanding, Mulas’s New York is a boys’ club, no matter which way they might swing sexually. But looking at these photographs, you almost wanted to have been there.

http://photographmag.com/reviews/ugo-mulas-new-york-the-new-art-scene-at-matthew-marks-gallery/

New York: The New Art Scene is Ugo Mulas’s homage to Manhattan’s art world of the mid-1960s. The book includes photographs of the Pop Art scene as well as of studio visits with Lee Bontecou, John Chamberlain, Jim Dine, Marcel Duchamp, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Barnett Newman, Kenneth Noland, Claes Oldenburg, Larry Poons, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, George Segal, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, and Tom Wesselmann.

UGL MULAS New York: The New York Art Scene

UGO MULAS

New York:
The New Art Scene

Text by Alan Solomon

Illustrated with approx. 500 photogravure plates by Ugo Mulas

New York: Holt Rinehart Winston, 1967.

RICHARD SERRA

SUSTAINING AN IMPORTANT CAREER FOR NEARLY 5 DECADES, RICHARD SERRA RECENTLY COMMANDED THREE UBER GAGOSIAN GALLERY SPACES IN NEW YORK.HIS WORK WAS FIRST ATTRACTING ATTENTION IN THE SEVENTIES AND SHAPED THE DISCOURSE OF ART IN THE 20th CENTURY.

One of the most famous sculptors of his generation, Richard Serra is also one of the most important artists of the 20th century. Combining the action of Abstract Expressionism with the raw, procedural grind of Process Art, his sculptures recast Minimalism on a monumental scale. Recognizable for their patina—Serra’s favorite material is rolled Cor-Ten steel with an evenly rusted surface—as much as for their size, sculptures like Torqued Ellipses (1996-1997) at the  Dia: Beacon count among the previous century’s most iconic artworks.

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-how-richard-serra-changed-the-course-of-public-art

THE MINIMALIST SCULPTOR, RICHARD SERRA, WITH CURRENT SHOWS IN THE FALL OF 2019 AT THREE BRANCHES OF THE GAGOSIAN GALLERY, KEEPS THE DYNAMIC OF THE SUBLIME IN SPLENDID TENSION.

The New Yorker, The Art World, October 7, 2019 ISSUE

RICHARD SERRA WILL JOLT YOU AWAKE

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/10/07/richard-serra-will-jolt-you-awake

September 20, 2019 at 1:21pm

GIANFRANCO GORGONI (1941-2019)

The Italian photographer Gianfranco Gorgoni, who was the premiere documenter of major Land art works—including Robert Smithson’s  SpiralJetty, 1970, and Christo and Jeanne-Claude,  Running Fence, 1976—has died at age seventy-seven. Born in Rome, Gorgoni moved to the US in 1968 to produce a photographic essay and stayed after a chance encounter with Robert Rauschenberg.In the 1970s, Gorgoni captured the portraits of artists including Ellsworth Kelly, Claes Oldenburg, Agnes Martin, Andy Warhol, Alfred Leslie,  and others, many of which were included in his book The New Avant-Garde: Issues for the Art of the Seventies (1972) and Beyond the Canvas: Artists of the Seventies and Eighties (1985).Leo Castelli staged four solo shows dedicated to the artist between 1972 and 1996, and his oeuvre was the subject of a solo exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1978. His work was also included in the Forty-Fifth Venice Biennale (1993) and can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum. The Nevada Museum of Art opened  “Gianfranco Gorgoni Land Art Photographs,” an exhibition of his landscape images, in October.

https://www.artforum.com/news/gianfranco-gorgoni-1941-2019-80797

The New Avant-Garde: Issues for the Art of the Seventies

AT GAGOSIAN BOOKSHOP, “NEW AVANT-GARDE, ISSUES FOR THE ART OF THE SEVENTIES”, RESPONDS TO YOUR CURIOSITY ABOUT THIS WILDLY CREATIVE PERIOD OF AMERICAN ART.

THE NEW AVANT-GARDE, ISSUES FOR THE ART OF THE SEVENTIES

Text by Gregorie Muller New York: Praeger, 1972.

New York: The New Art Scene

Documenting the art world of  the 1970s, Gianfranco Gorgoni’s exceptional photographs portray the raw energy that was present during this transformative time in American sculpture. Most notable are the images of Richard Serra throwing molten lead in Leo Castelli’s warehouse.

FOLLOW THE NEXT LRFA BLOG FOR MORE OF DOUG’S RECOMMENDATIONS!

SEASON’S GREETINGS!

Snow is in the air– time to head to Gagosian to chat with the gallery’s rare book specialist, Doug Flamm

Doug Flamm
Rare Book Specialist
Gagosian Gallery

ONE OF MY FAVORITE PASTIMES AS THE HOLIDAYS APPROACH IS THE EXCUSE TO VISIT WITH DOUG FLAMM, RARE BOOK SPECIALIST AT GAGOSIAN GALLERY, TO SEE WHAT TREASURES HE HAS AND BENEFIT FROM HIS EXPERT ADVICE AND INTUITION ABOUT THE PERFECT GIFTS FOR CLIENTS AND FRIENDS.

Bill Katz and Adam Weinberg

HERE’S THE FIRST TEASER- SOMEONE UNFAMILIAR TO THE LRFA BLOG- WILLIAM KATZ, BUT NO LONGER, THANKS TO DOUG.

Katz’s name may be unknown to the general public, but for decades he has served as designer, architect and aesthetic consigliere to many of the world’s creative heavyweights—particularly A-list artists such as Anselm Kiefer, Cy Twombly and Jasper Johns. Although these aren’t generally the kind of people who seek out second opinions about how things should look, they all rely on Katz as their secret weapon. When Kiefer saw a run-down 17th-century hôtel particulier for sale in Paris’s Marais neighborhood, he flew Katz in from New York to help decide whether the space could be transformed into his new home and studio. Recently completed and already legendary in art-world circles, the compound now takes up 60,000 square feet of central Paris real estate, including three underground floors that stretch almost an entire city block.

William Katz

Like his designs, Katz’s career path evinces a deceptive simplicity: You don’t immediately see the effort and ambition behind it. While an undergrad at Johns Hopkins University in the Sixties, Katz was staggered by a Baltimore production of Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story. He found Albee’s address and convinced him to guest-lecture at Hopkins. Afterward, “Edward said, ‘If you’re ever in New York, come visit,’” he recalls. Katz managed to squeeze it into his schedule a week later.

After graduating, Katz moved to Manhattan, where he quickly zeroed in on some of the city’s most interesting people—Robert Indiana, Marisol, Andy Warhol—and made himself indispensable. “I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do,” he recalls. “So I would work in the studio, stretch canvases, run errands.”

Phillips de Pury
London Headquarters 2008
raw space

In 2008, Katz was commissioned to design the much-buzzed-about new European headquarters of auction house Phillips de Pury & Company, in an old mail-sorting depot on Howick Place in London.

https://www.wmagazine.com/story/bill-katz

Robert Indiana
LOVE

BILL KATZ WORKED AS ROBERT INDIANA’S STUDIO ASSISTANT AND WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN THE CONCEPTION OF INDIANA’S ICONIC LOVE SCULPTURE.

Bill Katz, interior designer and architect, and Indiana’s assistant at the time: I was helping in the studio while Bob was painting his “LOVE Show” for the Stable Gallery. Mostly doing very menial things. But at one point when he was thinking about making LOVE in two panels inside a box, I suggested it might be better in three dimensions outside the box. He said, “Why don’t you make something to see what it might look like?” I made a version in papier-mâché. It gave Bob the idea to have a sculpture carved out of solid aluminum, which was in the exhibition in 1966.

Stamped Indelibly Edited and Published by William Katz

AT GAGOSIAN GALLERY BOOKSTORE AT 976 MADISON ACROSS FROM THE CARLYLE HOTEL, THIS WONDERFUL PORTFOLIO, STAMPED INDELIBLY, EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM KATZ, OFFERS A POP ART RARITY AND DOCUMENTS BILL KATZ’S OWN WIT AND STYLE IS ON DISPLAY.

Robert Creeley
Stamped Indelibly
Edited and published by William Katz

William Katz

Stamped Indelibly

Edited by William Katz

Collection of 15 rubber stamp prints by Robert Creeley, Tom Wesselmann, Red Grooms & Kenneth Koch, Marisol, Robert Indiana, Josef Levi, Gerard Malanga, Allen Jones, Andy Warhol, Peter Saul, Claes Oldenburg, Allen Ginsberg and John Willenbecher.

11 1/2 x 9 7/8 inches (29.2 x 25.1 cm)

Edition of 225

$14,000

The playful and intriguing Stamped Indelibly is a limited-edition bound portfolio of rubber stamp prints by Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselmann, and other leading 1960s Pop artists. The fifteen prints are tipped-in to a linen bound book and signed by each artist with the exception of Red Grooms, while the Warhol print features the artist’s iconic rubber stamp signature. This Pop art rarity was edited and published by William Katz in 1967 in an edition of 225 and originally sold through Multiples, Inc.

Andy Warhol
Stamped Indelibly
Edited and published by William Katz

Pop Art treasures with Doug Flamm, rare book specialist at Gagosian

Andy Warhol
The Gold Book

IN THE NOVEMBER 2017 ISSUE OF GAGOSIAN MAGAZINE, ANNA HAYWARD DISCUSSED ANDY WARHOL’S GOLD BOOK AND TOUCHES ON THE ARTIST’S EARLY YEARS. “FROM HIS STUDENT DAYS UNTL HIS DEATH, IN 1987, ANDY WARHOL WAS OBSESSED WITH BOOKS. THEIR IMAGE-BEARING CAPACITY, THEIR REPRODUCIBILITY, AND THEIR IMMEDIATE, TACTILE RELATIONSHIPS WITH THEIR READERS WERE ALL EXPLOITED IN THE CHARACTERISTICALLY STYLISH, COMIC, DECORATIVE, IRREVERENT ARTIST’S BOOKS THAT HE DESIGNED AND MADE.”

Warhol_Pages from GG_MagNov2017 Lo-res (1) 2

Andy Warhol
The Gold Book

DOUGLAS FLAMM, GAGOSIAN’S RARE BOOK SPECIALIST, HAS RECENTLY ACQUIRED A SIGNED AND NUMBERED COPY OF A GOLD BOOK. FROM 1957, A HIGHLY SOUGHT-AFTER EDITION OF 100, THE BOOK CONTAINS TWENTY  OFFSET LITHOGRAPHS, FOURTEEN OF THEM PRINTED ON GOLD PAPER, SIX, OF WHICH FOUR IN THIS COPY ARE HAND COLORED IN WATERCOLOR, PRINTED ON WHITE; THIS PARTICULAR EXAMPLE HAS AN ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATION AFFIXED TO ITS COVER. AT LEAST A HANDFUL OF THE COPIES WERE GIFTS, AS WAS WARHOL’S CUSTOM – HE SENT ONE COPY TO RUSSELL LYNES, AN EDITOR AT Harper’s MAGAZINE AND A WELL-KNOWN PHOTOGRAPHER AND WRITER, AS A CHRISTMAS GIFT THAT YEAR.

WHO WILL BE THIS YEAR’S LUCKY RECIPIENT?

ASK FOR DOUG FLAMM AT GAGOSIAN BOOKSTORE, 976 MADISON AVENUE, ACROSS FROM THE CARLYLE HOTEL, TO HAVE A LOOK IN PERSON.

 

Andy Warhol
The Gold Book

ANDY WARHOL

A Gold Book.

New York, Self Published [1957]

Illustrated with 14 plates printed on gold paper including cover illustration and 6 on white paper, of which 4 with hand-coloring. With original colored interleaving tissues. [40] pp., 37 x 29 cm, bound in original gold paper boards with pastedown illustration.

First Edition. Limited to 100 copies signed by Warhol. Each copy with slight variations of coloring on the white paper prints interleaved with colored tissue.

This book encapsulates early Warhol, a world notably distinct from the canny multimedia and sharply Pop aesthetics that make up his primary legacy. The images – some from photographs, others drawn freehand – show Warholian iconography: shoes, flowers, a self-portrait. The hand painting of each copy varies. This copy has four hand colored plates. A Gold Book is both a nod to pure visual indulgence and a handheld fantasy of the artist’s life.

Andy Warhol
The Gold Book

ANOTHER GREAT POP ARTIST, WHOSE WORK IS COMMANDING INCREASING ATTENTION AT AUCTION, IS TOM WESSELMAN. WHAT BETTER GIFT THAN AN EXTENSIVE MONOGRAPH ON WASSERMANN CONTAINING SECTIONS ON DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF HIS WORK: Bedroom Paintings, Nude Series, Landscape Series, Seascapes, Smoke Series and Still Life Series.

Tom Wesselmann
Text by Slim Stealingworth

12 × 13 1/2 inches (31 × 34 cm)

Published by Abbeville Press, New York, 1980

$450

———-

WESSELMAN
                            Abbeville Press, New York, 1980

 

IN OUR NEXT POST, DOUG HAS MORE WONDERFUL SUGGESTIONS, AND WHEN THE HOLIDAYS ARE OVER, PERHAPS EVEN SOMETHING FOR ONESELF.

IN THE MEANTIME, THE LRFA BLOG THANKS YOU ALL AND WISHES EACH AND EVERYONE A VERY SPECIAL HOLIDAY SEASON!

 

Printmaking techniques: traditional and innovative with Jeff Bergman, Director of Pace Prints

Kenneth Noland, “Untitled,” 2009, Aquatint and soft-ground etching,
35 1/4 x 35 inches
ON VIEW SUMMER EXHIBITION
Pace Prints
32 East 57 Street

THE SPECTRUM OF PRINTMAKING TECHNIQUES SPANS A WIDE ARCH FROM THE TRADITIONAL TO THE INNOVATIVE. ETCHING, ENGRAVING, LITHOGRAPHY PRINTING PROCESSES HAVE EXPANDED EXPONENTIALLY THANKS TO TECHNOLOGY TO INCLUDE COMPUTER PRINTS, MYLAR LITHOGRAPHY, HELIO-RELIEFS AND MONOPRINTS. RATHER THAN SEEKING TO REPRODUCE ICONIC IMAGES OF ARTISTS’ PAINTINGS, PRINTMAKING IS AN ART FORM IN AND OF ITSELF. THE DIALOGUE BETWEEN MASTER PRINTER AND ARTIST OPENS UP CREATIVE DISCOVERIES THAT ONLY THE PROCESS ITSELF CAN INSPIRE. SILK-SCREEN PRINTING, IN PARTICULAR IN THE 60s AND 70s, BLURRED THE BOUNDARIES EVEN FURTHER WHEN SUCH ARTISTS AS ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG AND ANDY WARHOL EMPLOYED THE SILKSCREEN PROCESS TO CREATE UNIQUE WORKS ON CANVAS.

THE LRFA BLOG IS DELIGHTED TO CONTINUE ITS CONVERSATION WITH THE KNOWLEDGABLE AND ENGAGING JEFF BERGMAN, DIRECTOR AT PACE PRINTS.

http://paceprints.com/

Robert Mangold
Installation View
Pace Prints Chelsea
April – June 2017

JEFF, WELCOME BACK!

PRINTS OFFER AN EMERGING COLLECTOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO ACQUIRE WORKS BY ARTISTS OF KNOWN STATURE AND REPUTATION IN A MORE MODEST PRICE RANGE. DO YOU VIEW THAT AS A MOTIVATION FOR THE NASCENT COLLECTOR TO GRAVITATE TOWARDS PRINT EDITIONS RATHER THAN A UNIQUE WORK BY A LESS ESTABLISHED ARTIST?

Prints offer many things and the option of owning work by a big name artist for a relatively modest price is certainly at the top of collectors’ list.  Works on paper convey a sense of intimacy that many large works (paintings per se) cannot.  Hopefully a print collector can feel comfortable with the notion that the artist chose that specific image, and then proceeded to create 10 or 25 or 50 impressions.  In my mind, that speaks volumes to the artist’s confidence in that image.

 

 

Chuck Close: Self-Portrait, 2015, Print & Process
Pace Prints Chelsea
March – April 2017

WHAT ARTISTS ARE CURRENTLY MAKING THE BEST PRINTS AND IN WHAT WAYS? HAVE PRINTMAKING TECHNIQUES STAYED WITHIN THE TRADITIONAL METHODOLOGY AND HOW HAS MODERN TECHNOLOGY AFFECTED THE ART OF PRINTMAKING?

The artist that pushes print making the furthest in recent years is Chuck Close.  He continues to astound us all with the variety of techniques and the ways in which he uses traditional print making.  Chuck’s print career is a study in what is possible in prints and multiples.  His recent “felt hand stamp” prints (well illustrated and explained in Terrie Sultan’s Chuck Close Prints) is a slow and arduous process with remarkable results.  He continues to make elaborate woodcuts, etchings and works that utilize digital resources.

CHUCK CLOSE
Installation View

Self-Portrait (2015) was created over three years from 24 blocks that were used to render the image in 84 colors. The exhibition will include a selection of these woodblocks and progressive proofs together with the published print.

Throughout his career, Chuck Close has used his own image as a creative vehicle for his exploration of painting techniques and styles. Self-Portrait (2015) represents a significantly different facial perspective from earlier self portraits.

THERE ARE ALSO, OF COURSE, REMARKABLE COLLECTIONS DEDICATED SOLELY TO MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY PRINTS. HOW WOULD YOU CHARACTERIZE PACE COLLECTORS? WHAT MOTIVATES A COLLECTOR TO FOCUS ON PRINTMAKING.

Our collectors range widely.  We hope that whether they are buying large or small, no matter the expense, that they feel as though they have gained a direct connection with the artist and the image.

I believe a great print collector is someone who loves prints for what they are and appreciates the technique, but can also enjoy the image without the minutiae.

Jenny Holzer
“Conclusions,”2016
Set of six aquatint and white ground etchings
ON VIEW SUMMER EXHIBITION
Pace Prints Chelsea

HAS THERE BEEN A SHIFT IN THE PRINT MARKET WITH THE ADVENT OF POPULARITY OF PHOTOGRAPHY THAT IS PRINTED AS A MULTIPLE, ALTHOUGH WITH MUCH MORE LIMITED NUMBERS IN AN EDITION?

The photography market tends to follow the methodology of using small editions.  Print editions have also become smaller in recent years.  Whether there is a direct correlation I am not sure.

PACE HAS A LEGENDARY REPUTATION FOR ITS COLLABORATION WITH ARTISTS. I HAVE HEARD THEM SPEAK OF THE EXPERIENCE IN TRANSFORMATIVE TERMS. THE  MASTER PRINTER OPENS TECHNICAL AND AESTHETIC DOORWAYS AND INSPIRES THEIR WORK AND VISION WITH THE DIVERSITY OF TECHNIQUES AVAILABLE TO THEM.

Robert Mangold
“Double Square Frame”
2015
ON VIEW SUMMER EXHIBITION
Pace Prints
32 East 57 Street

ONE OF THE MOST DETAILED EXAMPLES OF THE INVALUABLE DIALOGUE BETWEEN MASTER PRINTER AND ARTIST DESCRIBING THE PRINTING PROCESS ON HAND-MADE PAPER IS DESCRIBED IN THE PACE PRINTS GLOSSARY. DANIEL HEIDKAMP’S HOLLOW SWALLOW, A RECENT MONOPRINT IS CURRENTLY ON VIEW IN THE GALLERY’S CONCURRENT SUMMER GROUP EXHIBITION SELECTIONS AT THE CHELSEA GALLERY AT 521 WEST 26TH STREET AND AT 32 EAST 57th STREET.

Daniel Heidkamp
Hollow Swallow, 2015
Hand-applied and stenciled paper pulp
43 x 32 1/2 inches
Unique

HANDMADE PAPER

Pace Paper master papermaker Ruth Lingen works with artists to create unique and editioned work in the hand papermaking process. In preparation to creating an image, fibers are macerated in a specialized beater to specific lengths for their specific type of application. Once macerated into paper pulp, the substance can be used to create individual sheets of paper or, when macerated to a finer grade, can retain high levels of pigmentation and be used in more contemporary applications.

The number of applications of working in handmade paper is diverse. Pigmented paper pulp, coined pulp paint in the papermaking world, can be poured into openings in mylar stencils (on top of a wet base sheet substrate), building up one wet layer on top of another. In another technique entitled a “blow out”, images can be masked out directly on the papermaking mould and retain a silhouette directly in paper pulp. Watermarking is an application that can be used within the sheet of paper to create an image that is visible when light is shown through the paper. Once an image is created, the entire sheet with layer upon layer of pigmented pulp slowly goes through a hydraulic press, forcing the water to escape and allowing the fibers to form hydrogen bonds, which hold all layers of fibers together.

Paper pulp can also be used in a three-dimensional format. In a casting, paper pulp is packed directly into a rubber mold, allowed to dry, and will come out as a sculptural form.

JIM DINE
The Heart and The Wall and The Green 2005
Etching, aquatint, and collograph
87 1/2 x 70 inches
Edition of 9

WHAT ARE THE TECHNIQUES THAT ARE THE MOST WIDELY USED AND HOW ARE THEY DEFINED?

We currently have shops that focus on traditional Ukiyo-e woodcut printing, any relief print possibilities, intaglio, hand made and cast paper and occasionally screen printing and digital production.

Artists such as Chuck Close and Jim Dine expored a range of techniques in our shops and created iconic images.  We are incredibly lucky to have had and continue to have the finest print makers in the world working with us at Pace.  The artists immediately recognize that the people printing with them are able and active collaborators.

Dan Walsh
“Elements”, 2016
Monoprint
On exhibit through August 18
Pace Prints Chelsea
521 West 26th Street

A GLOSSARY OF PRINT-MAKING TECHNIQUES:

The principle techniques of printmaking, with illustrated examples, all of which are practiced in the workshops of Pace Prints

http://paceprints.com/techniques

IN OUR NEXT POST, JEFF WILL INFORM US ON THE MOST RECENT ACTIVITIES AT PACE PRINTS AND SHARE HIS ASTUTE PERSPECTIVE ON COLLECTIN IN TODAY’S PRINT MARKET.  THANK YOU FOR FOLLOWING OUR POSTS!

 

Van de Weghe Fine Art, a stellar exhibition history from Magritte to Carl Andre

Van de Weghe Fine Art
1018 Madison Avenue
New York City

CENTRAL PARK IS A SINGULAR DESTINATION IN NEW YORK. WHILE UPTOWN NO LONGER HAS A MONOPOLY ON UPSCALE LIVING, IT DISTINGUISHES ITSELF AS A HEARTLAND FOR EXCELLENT SCHOOLS, CLASSIC RESIDENCES, GREAT DINING AND THE LEGENDARY MUSEUM MILE THAT INCLUDES THE METROPOLITAN, MET BREUER AND THE GUGGENHEIM. IN THE LATE 19th CENTURY, NEW YORK’S ROBBER BARONS BEGAN BUILDING ALONG THAT STRETCH OF FIFTH AVENUE, PRIVATE RESIDENCES THEN, MUSEUMS NOW SUCH AS HENRY CLAY FRICK’S MANSION ON 70th AND FIFTH AVENUE AND THE NEUE GALLERY NEW YORK ON 86th STREET OFF FIFTH. BUILT BY INDUSTRIALIST WILLIAM STARR MILLER’S AND LATER OCCUPIED BY MRS. CORNELIUS VANDERBILT III, THE NEUE GALERIE WAS RESTORED TO ITS ORIGINAL CONDITION BY THE BRILLIANT ARCHITECT ANNABELLE SELLDORF WITH SUBTLE ADDITIONS OF ALL THE MODERN STANDARDS REQUIRED BY TODAY’S MUSEUMS.

Van de Weghe Fine Art

IN 2008, VAN DE WEGHE FINE ART RETURNED TO THE UPPER EAST SIDE TO OPEN A SECOND GALLERY AT 1018 MADISON AVENUE BETWEEN 78TH AND 79TH STREET, ULTIMATELY CONSOLIDATING TO THIS SINGLE NEW YORK VENUE. SINCE ITS INCEPTION IN 1999, THE GALLERY HAS PRESENTED SECONDARY MARKET MODERN, POST-WAR AND CONTEMPORARY EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN MASTERS. THE GALLERY HAS A LOYAL AND HARD-WORKING TEAM THAT  ALLOWS CHRISTOPHE TO TRAVEL WORLDWIDE TO VISIT COLLECTORS AND TO PARTICIPATE IN THE ART FAIRS THAT TAKE PLACE AROUND THE WORLD.

http://www.vdwny.com/

VAN DE WEGHE FINE ART,  1018 MADISON, IS HOUSED IN A LANDMARK ART BUILDING LOCATED BETWEEN 78th and 79th STREET NOTED FOR ITS BLACK AND WHITE TERRAZZO SIDEWALK CREATED BY ALEXANDER CALDER IN 1970.

The sidewalk was completed in 1970 and professionally restored in 2002 at a cost of $100,000 by the building owners from 1014-1018 Madison with the support of the Calder Foundation and NYC Landmarks Commission. Calder stayed at the 1016 townhouse with Klaus and his wife (who were dealers of modern works) frequently during the height of his career, and the mark he left is not only on the sidewalk in front.

Alexander Calder
Terrazzo Sildewalk
1018 Madison Avenue

CHRISTOPHE, WHAT PROMPTED YOUR RETURN TO THE  UPPER EAST SIDE?

I was the first gallery in Chelsea to show secondary market works in an exposed public space, giving the public, dealers and collectors access to my material. Most collectors of secondary market works tend to congregate uptown and stay in hotels or have homes on the Upper East Side. I had always loved the 1018 building and when Per Skarstedt’s space became available, I was excited to be in a space of his again.

RENÉ MAGRITTE
Van de Weghe Fine Art
November 2 – 22, 2006
Installation view

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE EXHIBITIONS AT 1018 MADISON THAT STAND OUT AND WHY? YOUR EXHIBITION HISTORY COVERS SUCH A WIDE SPECTRUM OF ARTISTS AND SIGNIFICANT MODERN MOVEMENTS. WHAT IS THE THINKING BEHIND YOUR CURATORIAL PROGRAM?

My thinking has always been very consistent. If I like a work as a collector and would want it in my home, then I will buy it.

Our 2016 exhibition of works by Rene Magritte has a special resonance for me. I feel close to him as he is a Belgian artist and my favorite surrealist and there is my family connection with the Magritte Room at the Grand Casino in Knokke.

Rene Magritte
Memory
1948

Our exhibit concentrated on the paintings, gouaches and drawings Magritte made in the 1940s and 50s. Magritte had developed a rich vocabulary of images of everyday objects and, unlike many surrealists,  utilized the techniques and materials we associate with academic representation.  While other surrealist painters tend towards a biomorphic abstract style, I am drawn to the simplicity and directness of Magritte’s images that also offer a wealth of meanings, symbols and poetic metaphor. 

DUANE HANSON
Queenie II, 1988
Bronze, polychromed in oil, mixed media with accessories
Lifesize

THE GALLERY HAS PRESENTED SEVERAL EXHIBITIONS OF THE WORK OF DUANE HANSON.

Yes, the gallery has worked with the estate of Duane Hanson for many years. I view him as one of the most important and influential American sculptors of our time. Hanson’s hyper-realists figurative works of the 1960s represent a radical return to figuration following a long period of abstraction in American art. His work was somewhat radical for its time. He studied at Cranbrook at a time when abstract art reigned, yet he embraced the figure and was a spokesman for the socio-political conscience of his time.

The works are cast from life, family, friends and neighbors often dressed in second-hand clothing. Life-size and lifelike, made of cast fiberglass and polyester resin, the figures are so faithful to reality that they often fool the public into believing they are real. In our 2013 Hanson exhibit, we concentrated on sculptures of ordinary people in everyday situations. Traveller, a bronze completed in 1987, presents a tourist who has taken a respite from his journey taking an improvised nap atop his baggage. In Bus Stop Lady, a polyvinyl work from 1983, a middle-aged woman waits for a ride with her shopping bags.  Both these subjects reflect a momentary pause en route to an unknown destination.

DUANE HANSON’S CHINESE STUDENT, 1989
REMEMBERING TIANANMEN SQUARE
JULY 6 – 31, 2014

In 2014, we installed Hanson’s Chinese Student, 1989: Remembering Tiananmen Square, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the protests. In the late 1960s Hanson began to address social and political subjects in his brutally realist manner. In Chinese Student, Hanson marries the political with the personal. An ordinary student turned political activist sits on the ground holding a protest sign, human in his vulnerability yet symbolic of the political violence.

Andre/Judd
Van de Weghe Fine Art
May – June 2014

THE RANGE OF EXHIBITIONS IS SO BROAD WITH THE SINGULAR CRITERIA OF QUALITY AND ART HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE AS THE COHESIVE THREAD. YOU OFTEN EXHIBIT WORKS BY THE MINIMALIST WORKS, A PERIOD I PARTICULARLY APPRECIATE. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE EXHIBITIONS THAT DOCUMENT THIS MOVEMENT?

IN 2014, we juxtaposed the works of Carl Andre with those of Donald Judd. Both artists are key figures in Minimalism, using industrial and simple materials and repetitive forms to explore our sense of time and space. Both Andre and Judd are emphatically non-representational artists, creating seemingly simple works that demand close attention. 

Andre is best known for his floor installations, consisting of tile-like metal forms, and I was very pleased to be able to offer two strikingly different examples of these. 81 Ace Zinc Square, 2007 is a sprawling plane of 81 zinc plates arranged in a square with a mottled metallic surface. It occupied most of the floor in the main gallery while 6 Glarus Copper Integer, 2002 is a small arrangement in brilliant copper. 

Donald Judd

Judd, an art writer and theoretician as well as an artist, created simple, elegant forms from industrial materials: metals, plywood, concrete and Plexi. We were able to present a group of works that represent the series for which he is best known. Untitled, 1995, a “Swiss Box” aluminum enameled in reds and blues showcases Judd’s sense as a colorist while Untitled, 1969-1970, a bull-nosed “Progression” in shining brass, is emblematic of Judd’s elegant simplicity of form and material.

THE ART FAIR HAS DEVELOPED AN INTEGRAL PRESENCE IN THE ART MARKET, OFFERING A LEVEL OF CONCENTRATED SALES AND EXPOSURE TO COLLECTORS WORLDWIDE. MANY COLLECTORS PREFER ATTENDING FAIRS AS THEY PROVIDE A WIDE SPECTRUM OF ART IN A CONCENTRATED VENUE.

Van de Weghe Fine Art
TEFAF NYC SPRING 2017

VAN DE WEGHE FINE ART IS  A STELLAR PARTICIPANT IN THE BEST INTERNATIONAL FAIRS, CAREFULLY CURATING EACH BOOTH WITH WORKS BY ESTABLISHED MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY MASTERS. IN OUR NEXT LRFA BLOG POST, CHRISTOPHE WILL SHARE HIS THINKING ON THIS SIGNIFICANT ASPECT OF THE ART BUSINESS.

YOUR COMMENTS AND READERSHIP ARE VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!

 

 

Setting a high standard: Van de Weghe Fine Art opens in 2000 with a Warhol exhibit

Current Exhibition
HENRIQUE OLIVEIRA
Van de Weghe Fine Art

THE ART EMPIRE CREATED BY LARRY GAGOSIAN IS OFTEN SCRUTINIZED AND ANALYZED AS ARE MOST HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL OPERATIONS IN EVERY INDUSTRY. IN 2016, PHAIDON PUBLISHED “MANAGEMENT OF ART GALLERIES”, A UNIQUE RESEARCH PROJECT ANALYZING THE INNER LIFE OF ART GALLERIES BY MAGNUS RESCH, ART MARKET ANALYST, TECH ENTREPRENEUR AND PhD IN ECONOMICS. ONE OF THE UNDISPUTED CHARACTERISTICS OF GAGOSIAN’S SUCCESS, A NETWORK OF 16 OUTSTANDING GALLERIES AROUND THE GLOBE, IS THE INDEPENDENT, ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT OF ITS DIRECTORS.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0714873268/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=magnusresch-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0714873268&linkId=c7800f188d45652867475947b6ce55b9

CONFIRMED BY CAIT MUNRO IN AN ARTICLE ON ARTNET, AUGUST 5, 2015:

With spaces all over the world, Gagosian relies on a team of trusted directors to manage day-to-day operations and liaise with big-name artists and collectors. Each employee is reportedly assigned to manage an artist, while collectors are assigned to whomever they dealt with upon first contact.

IN 2015, JOURNALIST BRIAN BOUCHER, A CONTRIBUTING EDITOR TO ARTNET news TOOK A LOOK “INSIDE GAGOSIAN GALLERY’S TALENT FACTORY”, TRACKING THE PROFESSIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF “FORMER STAFFERS WHO HAVE GONE ON TO DO GREAT THINGS ON THEIR OWN”.

THE ARTICLE WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN COMPLETE WITHOUT A PROFILE ON CHRISTOPHE VAN DE WEGHE, FOUNDER AND OWNER OF VAN DE WEGHE FINE ART, 1018 MADISON AVENUE, BETWEEN 78th AND 79th STREET IN NEW YORK.

http://www.vdwny.com/

Christophe van de Weghe

Christophe van de Weghe, New York dealer

After spending seven years as a salesman with Gagosian, from 1993 to 2000, Christophe van de Weghe has gone on to run a Madison Avenue gallery. Van de Weghe exhibits at top art fairs like Frieze Masters, Art Basel, TEFAF and FIAC. He deals in modern and contemporary artists from Carl Andre and Francis to Rudolf Stingel and Christopher Wool.

 

Carl Andre
Third Copper Square, 2007
Andre / Calder/ Judd
August 1 – September 2, 2010

When asked what was the best thing he learned from the master dealer, Van de Weghe was unsentimental: “How to buy and sell artwork!”

One thing you probably didn’t know about the Belgian-born dealer is that from 1986 to 1989, he was an accomplished professional tennis player, ranked among the top 500 in his class worldwide by the Association of Tennis Professionals, he told artnet News.

https://news.artnet.com/market/gagosian-gallery-art-world-talent-factory-349742

CHRISTOPHE, WELCOME BACK TO THE LRFA BLOG. TO CONTINUE…

GAGOSIAN IS AN EXTREMELY POWERFUL INTERNATIONAL FORCE IN THE ART WORLD, REPRESENTING ARTISTS’ ESTATES, ESTABLISHED CONTEMPORARY MASTERS AND CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS WITH ACKNOWLEDGED CRITICAL AND COMMERCIAL RECOGNITION.

WHAT PROMPTED YOUR DECISION TO LEAVE AND OPEN YOUR OWN GALLERY?

After seven years, I had accumulated great experience and was doing well financially, but it was in me to have my own business. I had an entrepreneurial spirit from the start, liking the challenge of taking risks.

In 2000, I had heard about a small space on 76^th Street between Park and Madison that housed Per Skarstedt, and I was very interested. After seven years, it was time to do it! I asked Larry if he would have lunch with me and told him I wanted to show him something, that I wanted him to see a space and was thinking about opening my own gallery. “I need your blessing, Larry, everything I know, I’ve learned from you and it is very important that you agree it’s time to fly with my own wings. There was one artist, in particular, that I was very close to that I wanted to exhibit. Larry said it was a very good idea and to do it. My first sale, in partnership with Larry, was a Warhol and it sold quickly. 

 

ANDY WARHOL: Works on paper from the early 60’s
An illustrated catalogue, with an essay by Gerard Malanga, who worked with Warhol during the ‘60s

THE INAUGURAL EXHIBITION AT VAN DE WEGHE FINE ART IN NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2000, WAS ANDY WARHOL: WORKS ON PAPER FROM THE EARLY 60s. EVERY WORK WAS FIRST-TIER, WARHOL’S MOST ICONIC IMAGES:  THE CAMPBELL’S SOUP CANS, DOLLAR BILLS, AD LOGOS AND CELEBRITY PORTRAITS. THE EXHIBIT INCLUDED RARE, HAND-MADE WORKS ON PAPER AS WELL AS UNIQUE SILKSCREENED IMAGES. THE EXHIBIT WAS DOCUMENTED WITH AN ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE WITH AN ESSAY BY GERALD MALANGA WHO HAD WORKED WITH WARHOL DURING THE 60s.

http://www.vdwny.com/publications/andy-warhol

CHRISTOPHE, YOU SET A PRECEDENT WITH THIS EXHIBIT IN LAUNCHING SHOWS WITH HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE AND CURATORIAL IMPORT. HOW DID YOU DECIDE ON THIS SHOW AND WHAT DO YOU RECALL OF THE PUBLIC’S RESPONSE AT THE TIME?

When I opened the exhibit on 76^th Street with Warhol’s Works on Paper From the Sixties I was able to obtain some great loans culled from a number of private collections. The exhibit provided a great opportunity to document Warhol’s talent as a draftsman and his experimental use of techniques that trace his path from the handmade to the ready-made.

One day during the show, I was sitting in my office and two people called, one a prominent Hollywood star and the other a famous singer in a well-known band. I was very proud that these people, whom I didn’t know, would call me to ask about the exhibit and that I had taken the leap to have my name on the door.

I soon outgrew the space and moved to 23^rd Street between 10^th and 11^th Avenue in Chelsea.

LVR ASIDE TO CHRISTOPHE

I remember stopping by 76th Street to see an exhibition and visit with you. You sounded me out about taking a big space in Chelsea. I must have been playing devil’s advocate (“the voice of reason”) and I clearly remember your reply. 

“This is the right time for me to do this. I have no wife and children yet and can take the risk”.

It rang so true. I was impressed by Christophe’s self-awareness and sense of purpose. I was certain the move would be expansive in every sense.  It is so nice when one’s powers of prediction prove  true – and in this case, it was accurate and  then some!

 

VAN DE WEGHE FINE ART
2003
521 West 21st Street

IN OUR NEXT BLOG POST, WE WILL TRAVEL TO CHELSEA AND THE OPENING OF VAN DE WEGHE FINE ART IN A  4000 SQUARE FOOT GALLERY SPACE. THE NEW LOCATION AFFORDED THE GALLERY THE OPPORTUNITY  TO PRESENT  MORE EXTENSIVE EXHIBITIONS AND SIGNIFICANT LARGE-SCALE WORKS.

PLEASE JOIN US!

An introduction to Christophe van de Weghe, international art dealer and New York gallerist

Christophe Van de Weghe

CHRISTOPHE VAN DE WEGHE LAUNCHED VAN DE WEGHE FINE ART IN 1999 WITH A STELLAR EXHIBITION OF ANDY WARHOL WORKS ON PAPER FROM THE EARLY 60s.

Andy Warhol
Works on paper Installation

FROM ITS INCEPTION TO THE PRESENT DAY, VAN DE WEGHE FINE ART SETS THE HIGHEST STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE IN EXHIBITING SECONDARY MARKET WORKS BY MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN MASTERS.

IT IS TRULY A PRIVILEGE AND A PLEASURE TO INTRODUCE CHRISTOPHE, A TRUSTED FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE, TO THE LRFA BLOG. I HAVE ADMIRED HIM SINCE OUR FIRST ENCOUNTERS WHEN HE WORKED AT GAGOSIAN GALLERY AND HIS INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION AND SUCCESS HAVE FAR SURPASSED EVEN MY INITIAL CONVICTION THAT HE WOULD BECOME ONE OF THE GREAT DEALERS AND GENTLEMEN IN THE ART WORLD.

PABLO PICASSO: Works on Paper, Van de Weghe Fine Art November 7 – December 17, 2013, Installation view

THE LRFA BLOG IS DELIGHTED TO SHARE THE GALLERY’S SEVENTEEN-YEAR HISTORY AND CONTRIBUTION TO OUR KNOWLEDGE AND APPRECIATION OF THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF SUCH MODERN MASTERS AS PICASSO AND ALEXANDER CALDER AND CONTEMPORARY LUMINARIES AS BASQUIAT, WARHOL, KELLY AND SERRA.

http://www.vdwny.com

CHRISTOPHE, WELCOME!

YOU ARE ORIGINALLY FROM BELGIUM, A COUNTRY ALTHOUGH SMALL IN SIZE THAT ENJOYS A LONG AND IMPRESSIVE ARTISTIC TRADITION REFLECTING THE INFLUENCES OF BOTH ITS FRENCH AND DUTCH CULTURES.

WHAT WAS THE PATH THAT BROUGHT YOU FROM A CHILDHOOD IN EUROPE TO A LIFE IN NEW YORK?

I used to be a tennis player but I was injured when I was 18 ½ years old and has a serious back issue. I couldn’t play professionally for two years and had to have back surgery. I had been on a tennis scholarship at school and had traveled the whole world.

I didn’t want to go to college at all so I decided to go to California to attend Pepperdine University. The main campus is in Malibu with a 830-acre campus overlooking the Pacific Ocean. I shifted my sports to swimming and shifted my academy focus to art history. I was interested in art dealing and in the art that I viewed in museums.

DID YOUR FAMILY COLLECT ART? WHAT WERE YOUR FIRST POSITION IN THE ART WORLD? WAS IT ALWAYS IN THE GALLERY SECTOR?

My family were not collectors. My parents were divorced but my stepfather was a collector. My first job was my own business. When I returned to Belgium, I opened a small gallery by the sea, in the Belgian town called Knokke, which is located in the province of West Flanders.

Knokke was a seaside resort, a gathering place in the summer for some of Europe’s wealthiest families and attracted film celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Maurice Chevalier and Marlene Dietrich.  The centerpiece of the town is a modern building, the Casino, that housed a wonderful mural, Le domaine enchante, a series of eight canvases that Magritte painted to fulfill a commission from Gustave Nellens, owner of the seaside Casino Communal at Knokke-le-Zoute in Belgium.

 

Rene Magritte Le Domaine Enchante Casino, Knokke

I began showing some American artists such as Ed Ruscha, whom I had met when I was in California and had become friends with the gallery dealer Jim Corcoran. Jim had introduced me to Ed Ruscha and I gave him a show in 1993. I didn’t sell anything at the time – the works were black and white with letters.

Edward Ruscha
The End #1
1993
Tate Modern

It was the early 90s and the art market was dead. The art gallery scene that flourished in the 80s was decimated by a recession and Jim Corcoran, whose gallery was the premier showcase for California artists such as Ed Ruscha, Billy Al Bengston and Kenneth Price, closed. Corcoran joined forces with the collector, Goldman Sachs chair, Robert Mnuchin, in a new gallery venture in New York, C&M Arts.

Larry Gagosian and Masa Takayama
Opening of Kappo Masa

WHEN WE FIRST MET AND BEGAN WORKING TOGETHER, YOU WERE A DIRECTOR AT GAGOSIAN GALLERY IN NEW YORK. HOW LONG WERE YOU WITH THE GALLERY AND WHAT WERE SOME OF THE PROFESSIONAL HIGHLIGHTS THAT STAND OUT FROM THAT PERIOD OF TIME?

At the time, the biggest gallery was Pace. I was interested, from the beginning, in the art market, the auctions and the New York art world. I attended a lot of sales, and would write down all the prices of the things that sold, analyzing what was selling, trying to determine why the art market goes up and the way in which it goes down. I’d always spend May and November in New York during the auction months, and one evening, at Nell’s, a popular bar/restaurant on West 14^TH Street, I met Larry Gagosian.

Having just attended an auction uptown, I said to Larry, “You bought a wonderful David Hockney. I’d love to have a job with you. I think I can sell.” And he said, “Come by tomorrow and drop off your resume.”

I went by the gallery the next day and Larry looked at my resume. He told me I had zero experience, that I was a professional tennis player, but that he’d give me one month. “See what you can do”, he said. During that month, I made every appointment imaginable with potential buyers, went to every opening, and only on the very last day of the trial month, I sold a Basquiat for $50k- it was 1993. I gave Larry the invoice, put it on his desk, and said, “I’ve made a sale”. He said, “OK, I’ll give you a job at $30k a year plus 10% of the gallery profits.

 In three and one-half years, I was the top sales person. Larry had two galleries in New York, one uptown and one downtown and one in LA and had shows with David Salle, Phillip Taaffe, Warhol and Basquiat.

IN OUR NEXT LRFA POST, CHRISTOPHE WILL DISCUSS THE OPENING OF HIS FIRST GALLERY IN NEW YORK AND SOME OF ITS MANY EXCEPTIONAL EXHIBITIONS.

IN THE MEANTIME, BE SURE TO VISIT THE VAN DE WEGHE BOOTH #8 AT  TEFAF, AT THE PARK AVENUE ARMORY ON 57th STREET, THE ILLUSTRIOUS MAASTRICHT FAIR LAUNCH IN NEW YORK AND THE GALLERY.

https://www.tefaf.com/fairs/tefaf-new-york-spring

CURRENTLY, AT VAN DE WEGHE FINE ART, 1018 MADISON AVENUE, BETWEEN 78TH AND 79TH STREET, THE GALLERY HOSTS AN INSTALLATION BY THE BRILLIANT CONTEMPORARY BRAZILIAN ARTIST, HENRIQUE OLIVEIRA, WHOSE WORK CHRISTOPHE FIRST VIEWED IN PARIS. DON’T MISS IT!

Henrique Oliviera
Palais de Tokyo Installation
2013-2016

 

HENRIQUE OLIVEIRA
Drawing for the Present Installation, 2017
Van de Weghe Fine Art

James Turrell, Andy Warhol, Kara Walker: 3 monumental artists in an intimate format

James Turrell
ECLIPSE

ARTISTS’ BOOKS ARE A VIBRANT AND ENGAGING AREA OF COLLECTING. JUST AS DRAWINGS AND WORKS ON PAPER ARE OFTEN THE FOCUS OF COLLECTING FOR ART CONNOISSEURS WHO DELIGHT IN A DEEPER AND MORE INTIMATE UNDERSTANDING OF THE ARTIST’S CREATIVE PROCESS, THE ARTIST’S BOOK OPENS A DOORWAY TO AN ARTIST’S UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE AND AESTHETIC. AN ARTIST’S BOOK IS OFTEN PRODUCED IN LARGER EDITIONS THAT ALLOW ACCESS TO THE WORK BY A LARGER AUDIENCE AND, THUS, IS A POWERFUL COMMUNICATIVE AESTHETIC VEHICLE. THE SIMPLICITY OF ITS FORM AND SMALLER FORMAT PROVIDE THE READER WITH A CONNECTION TO THE ARTIST THAT IS INDIVIDUAL AND PERSONAL WHILE SERVING TO DISSEMINATE THE ARTIST’S THINKING IN A BROADER AND MORE INCLUSIVE FORM.

DOUG FLAMM, OF URSUS BOOKS,  WAS CAPTIVATED BY THIS ART FORM WHEN HE FIRST ENCOUNTERED IT AND IT BECAME THE INITIAL AREA OF SPECIALIZATION IN HIS PROFESSIONAL CAREER AS A BOOK DEALER.  HIS KNOWLEDGE AND ENTHUSIASM RESONATES WITH ME AND IT IS MY PLEASURE TO SHARE IT WITH YOU IN TODAY’S LRFA BLOG.

HERE ARE A FEW MORE OUTSTANDING ARTISTS’ BOOKS DOUG HAS SELECTED FROM THE SHELVES OF URSUS BOOKS, LOCATED ON MADISON AVENUE BETWEEN 62nd AND 63rd STREETS,  IN NEW YORK CITY.

http://www.ursusbooks.com/

 

James Turrell

TURRELL, James. Eclipse. Illustrated with two prints by James Turrell, two prints by Thomas Joshua Cooper, a CD of music by Paul Schuetze, and text by Richard Bright. 4to. Linen and wrappers in a linen folding box with paper label as issued. London: Michael Hue-Williams Fine Art, 1999.
$3500.00

A very handsome publication created in response to the total solar eclipse of August 11th, 1999, for which James Turrell created an etching and an aquatint and Thomas Joshua Cooper made two photogravures. This is a scarce book which seems to never appear on the market, and is here in immaculate condition. One of an edition of 100 copies, with the colophon signed by Turrell, who also signed his aquatint. Joshua Cooper signed both photogravures.

 

James Turrell

James Turrell was born in Los Angeles in 1943. His undergraduate studies at Pomona College focused on psychology and mathematics; only later, in graduate school, did he pursue art, receiving an MFA from the Claremont Graduate School in Claremont, California. Turrell’s work involves explorations in light and space that speak to viewers without words, impacting the eye, body, and mind with the force of a spiritual awakening. “I want to create an atmosphere that can be consciously plumbed with seeing,” says the artist, “like the wordless thought that comes from looking in a fire.”

Informed by his studies in perceptual psychology and optical illusions, Turrell’s work allows us to see ourselves “seeing.” Whether harnessing the light at sunset or transforming the glow of a television set into a fluctuating portal, Turrell’s art places viewers in a realm of pure experience. Situated near the Grand Canyon and Arizona’s Painted Desert is Roden Crater, an extinct volcano the artist has been transforming into a celestial observatory for the past thirty years. Working with cosmological phenomena that have interested man since the dawn of civilization and have prompted responses such as Stonehenge and the Mayan calendar, Turrell’s crater brings the heavens down to earth, linking the actions of people with the movements of planets and distant galaxies. His fascination with the phenomena of light is ultimately connected to a very personal, inward search for mankind’s place in the universe. Influenced by his Quaker faith, which he characterizes as having a “straightforward, strict presentation of the sublime,” Turrell’s art prompts greater self-awareness through a similar discipline of silent contemplation, patience, and meditation. His ethereal installations enlist the common properties of light to communicate feelings of transcendence and the divine. The recipient of several prestigious awards, such as Guggenheim and MacArthur fellowships, Turrell lives in Arizona.

Kara Walker
five poems

WALKER, Kara. Five Poems. By Toni Morrison. Illustrated with 5 silhouettes by Kara Walker. Folio, bound in publisher’s linen-backed decorated boards and matching slipcase. Las Vegas: Rainmaker Editions, 2002.
$1250.00

Kara Walker

A superb contemporary livre de peintre marrying poems by of one of the foremost African-American women writers, the Nobel prize winning Toni Morrison, with illustrations by of one of the leading African-American women artists, Kara Walker, who is best known for her room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes that examine America’s racial and gender tensions. A superb piece of contemporary bookmaking by the San Francisco printer and book-designer Peter Koch.

One of an edition of 399 copies, with the colophon signed by Kara Walker, Toni Morrison and Peter Koch. As new.

Kara Walker

Kara Walker was born in Stockton, California, in 1969. She received a BFA from the Atlanta College of Art in 1991, and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1994. The artist is best known for exploring the raw intersection of race, gender, and sexuality through her iconic, silhouetted figures. Walker unleashes the traditionally proper Victorian medium of the silhouette directly onto the walls of the gallery, creating a theatrical space in which her unruly cut-paper characters fornicate and inflict violence on one another. In works like “Darkytown Rebellion” (2000), the artist uses overhead projectors to throw colored light onto the ceiling, walls, and floor of the exhibition space; the lights cast a shadow of the viewer’s body onto the walls, where it mingles with Walker’s black-paper figures and landscapes.

Kara Walker

With one foot in the historical realism of slavery and the other in the fantastical space of the romance novel, Walker’s nightmarish fictions simultaneously seduce and implicate the audience. Walker’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. A 1997 recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, Walker was the United States representative to the 2002 Bienal de São Paulo. Walker currently lives in New York, where she is on the faculty of the MFA program at Columbia University.

ANDY WARHOL

WARHOL, Andy. Andy Warhol. [Exhibition catalogue]. [17] pp. including title-page and numerous quotations by the Artist, followed by hundreds of full-page black and white photographic illustrations. Large 4to., 268 x 210 mm, bound in original wrappers featuring neon-coloured flowers by Warhol, with original printed cardboard box. Stockholm: Moderna Museet, 1968. $1,500.00

Andy Warhol
Stockholm: Moderna Museet

First Edition of the catalogue for Warhol’s first solo show at a European museum, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, in February-March 1968, curated by Pontus Hultén and Olle Granath. A near fine copy.

Andy Warhol
Flowers

More than twenty years after his death, Andy Warhol remains one of the most influential figures in contemporary art and culture. Warhol’s life and work inspires creative thinkers worldwide thanks to his enduring imagery, his artfully cultivated celebrity, and the ongoing research of dedicated scholars. His impact as an artist is far deeper and greater than his one prescient observation that “everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes.” His omnivorous curiosity resulted in an enormous body of work that spanned every available medium and most importantly contributed to the collapse of boundaries between high and low culture.

The turbulent 1960s ignited an impressive and wildly prolific time in Warhol’s life.  It is this period, extending into the early 1970s, which saw the production of many of Warhol’s most iconic works. Building on the emerging movement of Pop Art, wherein artists used everyday consumer objects as subjects, Warhol started painting readily found, mass-produced objects, drawing on his extensive advertising background.  When asked about the impulse to paint Campbell’s soup cans, Warhol replied, “I wanted to paint nothing. I was looking for something that was the essence of nothing, and that was it”. The humble soup cans would soon take their place among the Marilyn Monroes, Dollar Signs,Disasters, and Coca Cola Bottles as essential, exemplary works of contemporary art.

THE  NEXT  LRFA BLOG WILL FEATURE ARTISTS’ BOOKS BY THE EXTRAORDINARY SCULPTORS, MARTIN PURYEAR AND DONALD JUDD, AND THE INTERNATIONALLY CELEBRATED PHOTOGRAPHER, HIROSHI SUGIMOTO.

TIS THE SEASON TO BE THANKFUL- ALL YEAR LONG, REALLY- FOR THE READERS OF MY BLOG, FOR THE EXPERTS THAT CONTRIBUTE AND INFORM ME IN SO MANY WAYS, FOR ALL THOSE NEAR OR FAR WHO ENRICH MY LIFE.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

 

 

Lauren Wittels expands on the distinguished history of Luhring Augustine Gallery

 

Philip Taaffe, Foraminifera, 2014
Mixed media on canvas
51 x 97 inches

SINCE ITS FOUNDING, LUHRING AUGUSTINE GALLERY HAS SUPPORTED A DIVERSE AND INVENTIVE ROSTER OF ARTISTS  WHO INVESTIGATE THE VISUAL AND INTELLECTUAL LANGUAGE OF CONTEMPORARY ART. THE GALLERY IS ALSO DISTINGUISHED BY ITS STRONG AND SUCCESSFUL PRESENCE IN THE SECONDARY MARKET. ITS FOUNDERS, ROLAND AUGUSTINE AND LAWRENCE LUHRING, SPECIALIZE IN THE RESALE OF SELECT WORKS OF ART OF 20th CENTURY MODERN MASTERS AS PICASSO, JACKSON POLLOCK, ANDY WARHOL, GERHARD RICHTER AND SIGMAR POLKE.  MEMBERS OF THE ART DEALERS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA (ADAA), THE GALLERY SUBSCRIBES TO THE HIGHEST STANDARD OF CONNOISSEURSHIP, SCHOLARSHIP AND ETHICAL PRACTICE. ROLAND AUGUSTINE SERVED AS ADAA’S PRESIDENT FROM 2006 to 2009. http://www.luhringaugustine.com

IN TODAY’S LRFA BLOG WITH SENIOR DIRECTOR, LAUREN WITTELS, WE WILL LOOK AT THE UNIQUE WORKING RELATIONSHIPS THAT THE GALLERY STAFF MAINTAINS WITH ITS ARTISTS AND EXPLORE ITS NOTEWORTHY HISTORY IN THE SECONDARY MARKET.

HI, LAUREN, THANK YOU FOR YOUR EXPERT INPUT. LUHRING AUGUSTINE IS STRUCTURED SLIGHTLY DIFFERENTLY THAN MANY OF THE GALLERIES WITH WHOM I WORK.  IN OTHER GALLERIES, THE RELATIONSHIP I HAVE IS WITH ONE DIRECTOR WHO HANDLES ALL OF MY INQUIRIES ABOUT GALLERY ARTISTS.

We are not the only gallery that is structured this way; however, it is definitely not the norm. Roland and Lawrence have a firm belief that the conventional structure of a sales team combined with distinct artists’ liaisons doesn’t work for them for two reasons. First of all, they don’t feel that a commission-based sales team situation foments the same kind of teamwork, and I have to agree. But secondly, and more importantly, by working with inventory instead of directly with artists, the sales director doesn’t develop personal one-on-one relationships with the artists, and we feel that this kind of intimate relationship is communicated to the client or the curator when you are discussing the work.

Since each director is assigned specific artists, often a client or advisor will work with numerous directors in the gallery. However, when a strong professional relationship arises, one director will manage that relationship and the offers to that client – we just make sure to keep each other informed. There are however a few artists who are very difficult to handle this way, because their available work is in such demand, but we manage to all cooperate with each other very well.

IF I UNDERSTAND CORRECTLY, AT LUHRING AUGUSTINE, EACH OF THE DIRECTORS IS ASSIGNED TO WORK WITH SPECIFIC ARTISTS IN THE GALLERY ROSTER. DOES THE WORKING RELATIONSHIP INCLUDE ARRANGING EXHIBITIONS IN OTHER GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS OR IT IS EXCLUSIVELY FOCUSED ON THE EXHIBITIONS AT LUHRING AUGUSTINE?

We have divided the list of artists amongst the directors and associate directors; if one works with an artist, one manages everything for them, from their list of upcoming exhibitions all the way through private and institutional sales. The gallery has been working like this since about 1992, when a colleague and I split the artist list between ourselves – interestingly enough, the staff at that time was only two full-time employees, a part-time preparator and a part-time bookkeeper. In all this time, through all of the growth and expansion of both the gallery staff and artists’ roster, we have kept this structure intact, and it works very well for us.

Charles Atlas: The Illusion of Democracy
Luhring Augustine Bushwick
February – July 2012

THE GALLERY HAS A VERY STRONG SECONDARY MARKET PRESENCE AND OFFERS AN EFFECTIVE AND DISCRETE ALTERNATIVE TO AUCTIONS AND PRIVATE SALES. DOES THE GALLERY HAVE A FOCUS IN TERMS OF ITS SECONDARY MARKET WORKS?

Roland and Lawrence have placed a great deal of significant works on the secondary market over the past three decades, often by (but not limited to) a handful of important artists: Richter, Polke, Warhol, Kippenberger, many others. I would say their discretion, expertise, and impartiality really define their presence in the secondary market.

I WOULD DESCRIBE THE LUHRING AUGUSTINE ARTIST’S WORK AS INTELLECTUALLY RICH AND CHALLENGING, OFTEN MORE CONCEPTUAL IN NATURE PERHAPS THAN IN SOME OTHER VENUES. DO YOU AGREE AND DO YOU SEE AN UNDERLYING AESTHETIC OR CEREBRAL LINK EVEN IN THE CONTEXT OF A DIVERSITY OF MEDIUMS?

The gallery has a long history of working with a wide swath of artists, some much more conceptual in their ambitions than others. Often there is a level of craft that is extraordinary, but that is not always the primary goal. So I would have to say that what really is the glue between the artists in our stable is the level of seriousness and dedication they each commit to their work.

WHAT ARTISTS DID YOU RESPOND TO WHEN YOU FIRST DISCOVERED AN INTEREST IN ART? WHAT ARE THE GALLERY ARTISTS THAT RESONATE WITH YOU, ON A PERSONAL LEVEL, THE MOST FERVENTLY AND WHY?

Ironically, I had no interest in contemporary art when I got my job at Luhring Augustine in 1989 – my only real brush with it was seeing the David Salle show at the ICA Philadelphia in 1986, and it really made an impression on me. But as I said before, this job was a means to an end for me – getting back to graduate school. My true love was Northern Renaissance painting, and I was completely unprepared for the meteor I was about to be hit with.

Like most people, I was able to start looking at what I would consider to be the most understandable and accessible form of art: representational painting. I had no idea what conceptual art was – when my colleague at Luhring Augustine told me in 1989 that Jeff Koons couldn’t draw, I was dumbfounded. What could that possibly mean, if an artist couldn’t draw? I am not proud of this naivete, but it’s honest. Anyway, my learning curve ramped up super-fast, I can tell you.

IN OUR NEXT POST  WITH LAUREN, THE LRFA BLOG WILL EXPLORE THE GALLERY’S EXHIBITION PROGRAM, BOTH PRESENT AND FUTURE. WE LOOK FORWARD TO A CALENDAR OF SHOWS THAT ARE ALWAYS PROVOCATIVE, BEAUTIFULLY INSTALLED AND DEDICATED TO REPRESENTING THE ARTISTS TO THEIR FULLEST CREATIVE INTENT.

UNTIL THEN!