Roy Lichtenstein

© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein
Hopeless
Roy Lichtenstein
1963
Oil on canvas

Soho-art.com

Soho-art.com makes reproductions of fine art.
More on this subject coming soon.

Tom Christopher

Tom Christopher
Just Go Dip Your Brush in Sunshine. Here’s New York (in 5 Panels)
Acrylic on canvas
5 x 20 Feet
www.tomchristopher-art.com

Creative Thriftshop Gallery in Brooklyn

CTS is quality art on the move. Championing provocative content driven work by local and international mid-career, underrepresented, and emerging artists in all media. Our goal is to build an infrastructure that knows no boundaries, one that carries the torch of modernism acting as a vehicle for dreamers, a cultural meeting place for great minds, an international community of interconnectivity and expandability.

Co-directors Lynn and Diego del Sol opened thier Williamsburg, Brooklyn space in May of 2004. Presenting to the public an ongoing series of works by artists in the salon and lounge areas of the space while actively organizing over twenty nomadic exhibitions and events a year. Our mission is to encourage and create opportunities that foster the growth of our artists, enabling them through support and collaboration, to broaden their reach by not only participating in museum and gallery exhibitions but also art fairs, charitable benefits, residencies, lectures, and biennales around the world.


CTS exhibitions and artist have been touted in many local and international publications, including The New York Times, La Republica, Miami Herald, The Chicago Tribune, Art Nexus, Art Review, Art in America, Art Forum, Flash Art, NYarts Magazine, Lmagazine, Flavor Pill, Miami Art Guide, Artnet, Art Info and TimeOut New York.

Ellsworth Kelly

For over six decades, Ellsworth Kelly has produced variations on one theme. The clean edges of his monumental, geometric works blur the much-contested line between painting and sculpture and proved integral to the midcentury transition from the grandiosity of Abstract Expressionism to the myriad reactionary movements it launched. Largely comprising pairs of stacked, wall-mounted panels, one of each rotated to a varying degree, the recent works of “Diagonal” correspond with this tradition. Despite their simplicity, the layered paintings create a sense of illusionism unexpected from such a practice, and as they overwhelm the viewer, their stark, imposing presence creates an almost installation-like work in itself.

Kelly’s early drawings on view contrast with his paintings, revealing a side of the artist that is logical and compatible with his better-known work yet not necessarily expected given the hard-edge painting that established his reputation. The early pieces, many of which incorporate paint and ink, also consist primarily of monochromatic geometric forms but diverge from the more famous works in their implicit tactility. As well, their small scale allows for reinterpretation of Kelly’s standard practice. This shift in size and blurring of medium-specific boundaries are especially evident in images such as Green Form, 1959, executed in thinly applied oil on newsprint. The contrast between Kelly’s austere form and the kitschy advertisement on which it appears emphasizes the methodology underlying the artist’s lengthy practice, one that has sustained continued reinterpretation while maintaining contextual relevance.

An accompanying exhibition,“Ellsworth Kelly: Drawings 1954–1962,” is on view at Matthew Marks, 526 West Twenty-second Street, until April 11.
www.artforum.com

Keith Coventry

Keith Coventry (born in Burnley in 1958) studied Fine Art at Brighton Polytechnic followed by an MFA at Chelsea School of Art. In 1982 he was selected for Northern Young Contemporaries at the Whitworth Art Gallery. During the late 80s and 90s his paintings made direct stylistic references to early 20th century abstract painting whilst commenting on contemporary social issues and life. His work has been shown in Century City, Tate Modern (2001); and Sensation, Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY (2000) & Emily Tsingou Gallery, London (2002). His work is included in many collections including the MOMA, New York, University of Warwick, the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, the Arts Council, the British Council and the Saatchi Collection.

This work was purchased with support from The Wellcome Trust.

Limited Edition Prints of his work are available at Haunch of Venison Gallery in NYC/London.

Christie's Morphs Into a Dealer

In a move that upends traditional power relationships at a tremendously nervous time in the art world, Christie's auction house is going into the gallery business. Last year, Christie's International (The Group), the parent company of the London-based auctioneer, bought cutting-edge London gallery Haunch of Venison. Friday, backed by the seemingly bottomless pockets of Christie's billionaire owner, Francois Pinault, it opened a huge satellite gallery in New York with an impressive array of Abstract Expressionist masterworks on loan from top museums and collectors. As far as a host of art dealers and advisers are concerned, here comes trouble.

With Haunch of Venison, "auction galleries are crossing over a line that's always been faintly there in the sand," says Todd Levin of New York's Levin Art Group, which advises contemporary-art collectors such as financier Adam Sender. Traditionally, auction houses have been arm's-length brokers of art; transparency ruled. Art dealers have always been understood to have a financial stake in what they are selling. With Haunch, Christie's auction house now has a vested interest in some of its merchandise. "There's a little bit of distrust about auction galleries getting involved in artist's careers," says Priyanka Mathew, director of New York's Aicon Gallery, which deals in the currently fast-rising field of Indian and Pakistani art. With Haunch, she says, the attitude is "watch and wait."

Christie's sold a blockbuster $3.5 billion in art and antiques in the six months ended July 31, a 10% increase from the year-earlier period, but its annual pace of growth is slowing -- and art dealers tend to have an edge over auction galleries in a down market. So is buying Haunch partly a recession hedge for Christie's? "In a volatile economic climate, private sales can be considered attractive," says Robert Fitzpatrick, Haunch's international managing director. Collectors are attracted by the "discretion," he says, as they don't want to be seen parting with pieces they are known to own. Buyers, too, like to spend more time with potential purchases in a soft market, "coming back to look" at the art, he says.

Of course, Christie's, like its chief rivals Sotheby's and Phillips de Pury, has done some business privately for years. With Haunch, the auctioneer has made a "strategic decision," says Mr. Fitzpatrick, to turn over virtually all of those private sales in contemporary and modern art -- and even some Impressionist art -- to the gallery. Christie's private sales totaled more than $250 million last year.

And Haunch's business may turn out to be even more lucrative than that, since one of its clients, Roman Abramovich, is one of the world's biggest art buyers right now. The billionaire, who had one of the earliest VIP tours of the gallery in New York, reportedly paid a record $83.6 million for a Francis Bacon work at auction earlier this year.

Haunch, which also has sizable outposts in Berlin and Zurich, enters the New York fray when the decades-old rivalry between dealers and auctioneers has turned nasty. Dealer Andrea Rosen, at a panel at the Museum of Modern Art earlier this year, called auction houses "sharks . . . and opportunists," going after some artists like "the fish that's easiest to get," even as Phillips Chairman Simon de Pury and Christie's Deputy Chairman Amy Cappellazzo sat beside her. Haunch was tossed out of the prestigious Frieze art fair when the gallery was acquired by Christie's, and it isn't eligible for the powerhouse Art Basel and Art Basel Miami fairs. The issue, says Charlie Finch, art critic for online magazine Artnet.com, is that while the auctioneer says it will remain completely uninvolved in gallery business, "Dealers worry Haunch of Venison is just a fig leaf for Christie's." In a worst-case scenario for dealers, Haunch of Venison could raid artists, or build its own stars, cutting out dealer middlemen entirely -- or even bid against dealers at Christie's auctions with insider information.

Christie's stresses that Haunch of Venison's gallery business of representing artists and their estates is managed independently from the auction house. Haunch is a wholly owned subsidiary not of the auctioneer but of its parent company, Christie's International (The Group). (Ed Dolman, Christie's chief executive officer, oversees both.) Mr. Fitzpatrick says that while Haunch dealers have been and will be seen bidding at Christie's sales, they won't have inside information and will place bids only for clients, not for inventory.

The ties between the two entities, geographically and historically at least, are close. Haunch is in the same New York building as the auctioneer, in a 20,000-square-foot airy duplex at 1230 Avenue of the Americas. Haunch co-founder Graham Southern used to head Christie's contemporary art department in London. In 2002 he partnered with Harry Blain, a financier and friend of Damien Hirst's, to launch the gallery. Haunch of Venison, named after an address in London, kept a low profile until October 2004. Then, Mr. Blain placed bids on behalf of Mr. Pinault, the owner of Christie's, at Mr. Hirst's famous Pharmacy auction of objects from his restaurant of that name. Mr. Pinault paid $2.2 million, twice the high estimate, for "The Fragile Truth," a drug-filled medicine cabinet.

Haunch represents, in some cities, such well-known artists as Bill Viola, Richard Long and Keith Tyson. Its director of exhibitions, Michael Rooks, adds that a handful of dealers and their artists have been pleased to hear that some works by artists the gallery doesn't represent will be prominently featured in its New York show of contemporary sculpture, scheduled to open in November. There are "delicacies" to the situation, he notes, but even rival dealers realize "we offer a different kind of platform" for their artists.

Certainly, Haunch gives Christie's some business advantages: It offers spacious, striking venues to showcase work year-round, not just prior to the big spring and fall auctions. It allows the company to make careers, spotting art stars and showing their work internationally before they hit the auction block. Insiders expect the art world to change as a result. Haunch, notes Mr. Levin, "has money to throw at artists like nobody's business."

Ms. Peers writes on art and culture for The Wall Street Journal.
Write to Alexandra Peers at alexandra.peers@wsj.com

$88 Million Art Investment Scam Revealed in NYC

Reuters reported a few days ago that a sophisticated $88 million art investment scam was revealed in New York on March 26. Art dealer Lawrence Salander, 59 (at right), was arrested at his New York home on March 26, when he and his gallery were charged with 100 counts, including grand larceny and securities fraud. Salander pleaded not guilty in New York's Supreme Court and his bail was set at $1 million. He faces up to 25 years in prison on the most serious charge.

Former tennis champion John McEnroe was duped along with Bank of America, investment firms, art owners and collectors. So far, authorities have identified 26 victims of Salander's scheme, including McEnroe, who lost $2 million after investing a half share in two paintings, Arshile Gorky's Pirate I and II. The share in the paintings was sold at the same time to another collector, and McEnroe never recouped the money, authorities said.

Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau said the scheme, which lasted from 1994 - 2007, included luring investors who paid cash in exchange for shares of ownership of works of art. "He sold artwork not owned by him and kept the money and lured investment money in fraudulent investment opportunities," Morgenthau said. Salander used the money to fund "an extravagant lifestyle" of lavish parties and private jets, he said.

The investigation of Salander, the former owner of Salander-O'Reilly Galleries (shuttered in 2007), continues. Other estates he looked after included paintings of the late father of actor Robert De Niro.

Most of the artworks, which are yet to be valued, are being held in the custody of a bankruptcy court in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Many of the investors have filed civil claims against Salander and his gallery, which filed for bankruptcy and closed in 2007.

Posted Mar 29th 2009 10:02AM by Lisa Palladino

Russian Contemporary Artist

IndianSpace

Steve Wheeler and Burgoyne Diller

Indian Space Painters

Visitors to the Long Island home of Henry Luce III in the 1990s would have seen prominently displayed in the living room a magnificent oil painting from the 1940s by Steve Wheeler. The arts patron and scion of the Time Inc. publishing empire could easily have afforded a multi-million-dollar canvas by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning or Mark Rothko, but instead he opted for the virtually unknown Wheeler to occupy this choice wall space. Even today, many—if not most—scholars of American art have never heard of Wheeler, who is the leading figure in a group of artists known as the Indian Space Painters.

Who were these forgotten artists? The exotic, intriguing name they gave themselves would suggest they were Indians working out in the wide-open spaces of the West, but ironically, they were city slickers—New Yorkers, mostly by adoption. The first generation of Indian Space Painters, Wheeler, Peter Busa and Robert Barrell, met as students at the Art Students League in the late 1930s and then studied with the legendary European Modernist Hans Hofmann, who had abandoned his famous Munich school after the rise of Hitler and re-established himself in New York, on 8th Street in Greenwich Village. Hofmann combined Picasso’s fractured Cubist space with Matisse’s abstract use of color. Another influence on Wheeler, Busa and Barrell was Surrealism, a style that dominated the 1930s and investigated the unseen realities of the mind, the unconscious psychological forces and primitive urges that drive all humans. In 1936, the Museum of Modern Art mounted a landmark exhibition on Dada and Surrealism, which had an untold impact on the then-small New York art world. The show triggered an interest in tribal cultures, which the artists perceived as being closer to nature, and thus to basic human instincts and elemental truths, than advanced civilization.

The Indian Space Painters were especially attracted to American Indian culture. They were regular visitors to the ethnographic dioramas and exhibits at the Museum of National History, the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of the American Indian (then called the Heye Foundation). In particular they were drawn to the objects of the Northwest Coast Indians, admiring the way the Indian artists reduced nature to flat, linear symbols and created images in which it was nearly impossible to distinguish positive from negative space. To them, these 18th- and 19th-century artifacts anticipated 20th-century modernism. More importantly, the Space Painters perceived these abstract images as embodying elemental truths.

Wheeler is generally recognized as the group’s leader and was among the first of them to embrace Indian aesthetics, as can be seen in works such as “The Clarinet Player,” 1945–50, and “Laughing Boy Rolling,” 1946. These brightly colored paintings, reflecting Hofmann’s palette of intense primary and secondary hues, are filled with Indian abstractions of masks, animals, eyes and such elemental forces as the sun, moon, sky and water. These works contain traces of the abstract patterning of Pablo Picasso—the dominant figure in 1930s art world and the one that every artist tried to match and better—and Joan Miró. Another influence was the nonobjective work of the American Abstract Artists, especially Burgoyne Diller, Charles Shaw and George L.K. Morris, members of a group formed in 1936 for the purpose of carrying the banner of Modernism and abstract art against the onslaught of representational Social Realism and American Scene Painting, which the social concerns of the Depression seemed to favor. While not members of the American Abstract Artists, Wheeler and his companions were similarly dedicated to the cause of abstraction. It is revealing, however, that Wheeler’s Indian-inspired, tightly interlocking forms and very busy, complicated compositions are more two-dimensional and airless than anything produced by their artistic predecessors. We could never mistake a Wheeler for a Picasso, Diller or Stuart Davis, to mention another great American 1930s abstract painter.


While attracted to the same sources, Wheeler’s colleagues developed distinct styles. Barrell’s paintings are compositionally similar to Wheeler’s in their interlocking forms, but their palette is different. Busa’s paintings, such as “The Thing in the Present,” 1946, are more painterly and less hard-edged, and reflect his close relationship with the Parisian Surrealist Roberto Matta, who settled in New York at the outbreak of war. Busa met weekly with Matta, Pollock, William Baziotes and Robert Motherwell to make Surrealist automatic drawings, and the wild, wiry, curving lines and patterning in his paintings reflect the rapid, unconscious movement of the arm and hand that within two years would lead Pollock to create his first drip paintings. By 1943, Howard Daum, who was responsible for coining the term “Indian Space Painters,” joined the group, and like Wheeler, he worked with a mosaic of emblematic shapes—although, as can be seen in his “Untitled (#264),” circa 1946, his early work was influenced by and had a playfulness reminiscent of Paul Klee and a Miró-like black line.

In the spring of 1946, one year before Pollock’s landmark exhibition at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century gallery, the group held its first and only exhibition, “Semeiology or 8 and a Totem Pole,” at Gallery Neuf on East 79th Street. By then they had been joined by Gertrude Barrer and Ruth Lewin, the former wielding a darker palette than her colleagues, the latter a consummate printmaker whose style had a jagged, abrupt, piercing quality often found in wood- and linoleum cuts. Before the year was out, the Space Painters also included Helen DeMott, whose 1946 painting “The Beach” was illustrated in the group’s magazine, Iconograph, first published in conjunction with the show and dedicated to demonstrating how Native American art could serve as a foundation for contemporary American art.

It is telling that Wheeler refused to participate in the Gallery Neuf show. He disliked being pigeonholed as an artist whose paintings were based on Indian art, for he felt that his work was much richer and drew upon a broad range of sources. Wheeler’s pictures are about the metaphysical properties of contemporary life. His titles, such as “Peg Taking a Drag” and “Woman Eating a Hot Dog,” reflect his focus on mundane activities, which he then puts into a cosmic, timeless context.

Will Barnet, today a noted representational artist and illustrator, joined the group in the late 1940s and likewise aspired to depict the play of the eternal, universal forces in contemporary life. He saw a parallel between what he called the “the dynamism of Indian society” and the fast-paced tempo of the modern world, and he found the abstract vocabulary of Native American art perfect “for interpreting their emotions” that connected them to the mystical world of the raw American landscape and served as an example for today’s artists.

Like the Abstract Expressionists, the Indian Space Painters were preoccupied with creating a distinctly American art, one that shed the chains of European culture to express indigenous experiences. But Abstract Expressionism, which emerged in 1947 with Pollock’s first exhibition of drip paintings and de Kooning’s first one-man show, struck the death knell for the Space Painters, who despite briefly gaining the attention of the great Modernist art critic Clement Greenberg, fell into oblivion by the 1950s. They disappeared almost as soon as they emerged.

It was not until the early 1990s that the Indian Space Painters were rediscovered. Barbara Hollister, a New York painter who also worked as a consultant to artists’ estates, was told to go look at the estate of Daum, whose works had not been exhibited since the 1960s. “I hadn’t seen this work before, and I found it quite interesting,” Hollister says. Research, especially a 1983 Arts Magazine article on the Space Painters by Ann Gibson, soon led her to Wheeler. She recognized the group as “the missing link” to Abstract Expressionism, realizing they played a significant role in creating the artistic environment of abstraction and flat, all-over imagery that help spawn Ab Ex. She was especially intrigued by the artists’ “involvement with their immediate world and the daily life that was their subject matter.” Also, she noted how Wheeler, who was still alive at the time, “talked about how he was interested in the concept of totality—how all of the objects from the smallest to the largest were part of an epic vision. A ‘minute graph of the universe’ was Wheeler’s term.”

To promote these artists Hollister contacted Sandra Kraskin, the director of the Sidney Mishkin Gallery at Baruch College in New York. As fate would have it, Kraskin was one of the few people in New York who had heard of the Indian Space Painters, for she had studied painting with Busa at the University of Minnesota in the 1970s. She even proposed writing her Ph.D. dissertation on the group, but the faculty rejected her topic, deeming it minor and insignificant. In 1991 Hollister and Kraskin organized for the Mishkin Gallery “The Indian Space Painters, Native American Sources for American Abstract Art,” the first exhibition of the group since 1946.

In her search to find representation for the artists, Hollister approached New York art dealer Gary Snyder. Snyder decided to represent Daum and Wheeler, who died just after the exhibition closed. Eventually, he handled most of the Space Painters. It was a perfect match as Snyder was a passionate and eloquent advocate for the group. He put them into a rich historical context, for he showed them with Native American art and such Abstract Expressionists as Adolph Gottlieb, who similarly incorporated tribal pictographs and ideographs into his work.

One person who saw the shows at Gary Snyder Fine Art was Gail Stavitsky, chief curator at the Montclair Art Museum in New Jersey, an institution that, in addition to having outstanding holdings in American modernism, also had an outstanding collection of Native American art. “I became interested because this work was of such high quality, and it bridges our two primary collections. It’s an important forgotten chapter in American art.” She was also attracted to the group’s quest to create a distinctly American art: “One thing that struck me was something Will Barnet said—the need to go beyond Cubism and find an authentic native American voice.” In addition to acquiring works by Wheeler, Barrell and Daum, Stavitsky mounted in 1997 the first museum exhibition devoted to Wheeler. At this point, due to the Montclair show, Henry Luce, who often bought against the popular tide, acquired his Wheeler painting. Despite Snyder’s valiant efforts though, the group never took off with collectors.

Today, with prices for quality modern art reaching well into the seven and eight figures, the Indian Space Painters have yet to crack the six-figure threshold. Their watercolors and gouaches can be purchased for under $10,000, making them ideal for young collectors.

Today, David Findlay Jr. Fine Art in New York handles most of the estates of the Space Painters, although their works from the 1940s are becoming scarce. Gallery director Louis Newman says, “The issue for me is their significance individually and collectively to the story of American art, and it’s a story that is not told often enough. They were the conduit leading into Abstract Expressionism. They were very interested in flattening out the picture plane and in all-over painting. But they didn’t abandon the figure, as did the Abstract Expressionists, so they were overshadowed. I see my job as bringing attention to these artists who have made what I feel are important contributions to our culture.”

Art & Antiques Contributing Editor Joseph Jacobs is executive director of the Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation in New York.2.2007

The Hidden Strength Of Japanese Art

Flowering Wisteria, artist unknown, Hasegawa school, Edo period (1615–1868)
Pair of six-panel folding screens, low to mid-six figures $. Western artists like Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Monet and Louis Comfort Tiffany all drew inspiration from Japanese paintings of nature. "Flowering Wisteria" is by an artist who may have been part of a workshop that produced screens for the interiors of wealthy merchants' homes, restaurants or temples.

As the tanking economy batters art prices, collectors should think about exploring categories that let the air out of their bubbles long before the stock market blew up. Consider Japanese art.

From the end of World War II until the early 1990s, Western and Asian collectors drove demand for screens, hanging scrolls, prints and ceramics made between the fifth and the 19th centuries.

Then came Japan's 1990 economic nosedive.

The sudden exit of Japanese speculators pummeled art prices worldwide. In the realm of Japanese art, both Western and Japanese buyers pulled back. As the crash receded into the past, prices stabilized and then rose steadily without the froth of speculative pressures.

In contrast to the $8 million hedge fund billionaire Steven Cohen paid for British contemporary artist Damien Hirst's formaldehyde-soaked shark, the finest Japanese art infrequently costs more than $1 million. This is a field devoid of glamour and hype. Rather, collectors are attracted to the sheer beauty and exquisite execution of Japanese artists.

The root of Japanese aesthetics is nature, embraced by Shintoism, and later Buddhism, which arrived in Japan in the sixth century. Early Japanese artists created finely balanced depictions of the Buddha and of Japan's lush hills, trees, flowers and landscapes. Example: "Mount Fuji and Musashino Grasses," a 1640 pair of six-panel screens that shows a traditional approach to broad expanses of nature. The price for this piece: $195,000.

Later, Western artists including Van Gogh, Monet and Louis Comfort Tiffany were inspired by pieces like "Flowering Wisteria," a six-panel screen that shows flowers in riotous bloom. The price for this piece is in the low to mid-six figures.

A departure from traditional subjects emerged in the Ukiyo-e, or "floating world," genre, which began in the late 17th century and continued into the 20th. The term initially described inexpensive woodblock prints for a new merchant class who wanted art but couldn't afford original painting. This new class was breaking free of traditional restrictions and hence, "floating."

Japanese artists are also famous for their lacquer work, an art form that began in China. One stunning example is a gold lacquer box in a style known as "uramasari," which means hidden decoration, or inner victory. While the box cover is decorated with a relatively simple conch shell, the decoration inside is wildly intricate, with leaves, flowers, rocks, blossoms and richly sculpted rocks. The price: $25,000.

Starting March 14, Japanese art will be available for sale and view in New York, during Asia Week. Bonhams is holding two auctions that feature Japanese works and Christie's is including Japanese pieces in its Asian art sales.

A group of dealers, the Japanese Art Dealers Association, is collaborating on a three-day exhibition of some 100 works, all of which are for sale. The show will be at the Fletcher-Sinclair mansion at 2 E. 79th St. March 15 through 17. Dealer Leighton Longhi says enthusiasm is running high for the upcoming show. In the last week, Longhi reports, two museums approached him to buy pieces.

The most expensive work in the exhibition, "Tale of Heike" by Kano Jinnojo, a 1600 screen showing a medieval battle scene, priced at around $1 million, has already generated interest from three potentially serious buyers. Because the Japanese art market adjusted prices to reflect value following the 1990 crash, explains Longhi, current prices have not been affected by the economic crisis.

The price on "Tale of Heike," had he sold it a year ago? The same as today, says Longhi.
from Susan Adams of Forbes.com