Picasso at Home

Bert Stern - Color Photos of Marilyn Monroe

Charts of Art Market Performance of Bert Stern Photographs:

Bert Stern - Marilyn Monroe B&W Photography

Bert Stern photography including works from "The last sitting" are available for sale through www.lydeckerfineart.com in New York, NY. (917)940-3353

Marilyn Minter -Green Pink Caviar video

Click on (title) link to view video
Autographed video is for sale at Whitney Museum, NY, NY

Marilyn Minter Paintings

Michael Parekowhai - Artist

Lehman Mounts Art Bargain Auction With Lichtenstein, Bourgeois

(Bloomberg) -- Roy Lichtenstein’s 1982 print of the Statue of Liberty, once wall candy at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., is expected to contribute about $30,000 to the bankrupt company’s coffers when it’s offered for auction in November.

Lehman will begin selling its multimillion-dollar corporate art collection in a series of three sales at Freeman’s Auctioneers in Philadelphia this winter.

Lehman is shedding 650 lots, projected to fetch a total of $1 million. They include modern and contemporary paintings, prints and drawings, along with a smaller group of American and European paintings and prints from Lehman’s New York, Boston and Delaware offices. Sales are scheduled for Nov. 1, Dec. 6 and Feb. 12, 2010.

“We tried to price things consistent with what they will bring in the current market,’’ said Anne Henry, Freeman’s vice president of modern and contemporary works of art. “There’s a lot of really attractive work at affordable levels.’’

Lehman filed the biggest U.S. bankruptcy on Sept. 15, 2008. Proceeds from art sales will benefit creditors. Lehman Chief Executive Officer Bryan Marsal has said the firm owes as much as $250 billion. (In the beginning of July, Lehman began selling on EBay Inc. items originally produced as freebies for clients and employees.)

Items in the November sale range from an abstract 2007 black-and-blue collage by Venezuelan artist Arturo Herrera, estimated to sell for as much as $15,000, to a surreal 1997 Louise Bourgeois print of an undulating bed with lips for as much as $1,500.

The firm’s art collection consists mostly of European and American art from the 1970s onwards. Willie Cole and French sculptor Bernar Venet are among those offered in this first round of selling.

Rocky Time for Art

The auctions come at a rocky time for the art market. Christie’s International recently reported that its worldwide sales plummeted 35 percent in the first six months of 2009 from the year-earlier period.

“At the moment, it doesn’t look like a good time for sellers,’’ said New York private dealer Meredith Palmer. “I don’t anticipate they are going to get good prices for a lot of these things.’’

On the plus side, buyers may find deals.

“People may see this sale as an opportunity,’’ said Palmer, who said the Lehman name wouldn’t have a big impact. “The provenance isn’t a negative thing,’’ she said. “But I don’t think it has much to add.’’

Lehman hired New Hampshire-based art consultant Kelly Wright in January to inspect artworks at several Lehman offices and storage facilities and recommend a selling strategy.

Competition for Sale

Freeman’s, a 200-year-old regional auction house in Philadelphia, holds more than 30 sales a year. It competed for the consignment against other auction houses, according to Lehman spokeswoman Kimberly Macleod.

Lehman owns more than 3,000 artworks, and some of those aren’t being sold, such as art that hung in Lehman’s New York headquarters. The building is now occupied by Barclays Plc, which acquired Lehman along with a one-year option to buy the art. That option expires in September.

Lehman’s best-known art holdings are 900 works owned by money manager Neuberger Berman, a firm Lehman acquired in 2003. The collection focuses on painting and photography and is the legacy of the company’s art-collecting founder, Roy Neuberger.

Artists represented in Neuberger’s collection include Marlene Dumas, Damien Hirst and Takashi Murakami.

The fate of these holdings is undecided. In December, Neuberger management acquired a majority stake in the company in a deal that closed May 4. Management has a one-year option, expiring May 4, 2010, to buy the art.

To contact the reporter on the story: Lindsay Pollock in New York at lindsaypollock@yahoo.com;

What is art?

When considering the work of an established artist – work sold at a major action house such as Christie’s or Sotheby’s, say, Cy Twombly, Ed Ruscha, or graffiti artist Basquiat, for example, armed with any knowledge of Post War and Contemporary art you immediately understand that you’re seeing something of value. And therefore, the painting that you’re gazing upon must be art. And indeed it is art, valuable art. That said; take a moment to look around you. Inspiration for creating great works is right there on the street where you're standing.
With an eye for composition and color in other words the eye of an artist study the façades of old buildings, street signs and sidewalks. Narrow your vision and imagine a frame as though you were looking through the lens of a camera. Snap. Now imagine this image painted on canvas. From the intangible vision comes a tangible picture. Regardless of any existing market value, dear reader, this too is art.
Consider Fountain, a 1917 work by Marcel Duchamp, a piece he called readymades (also known as found art) because he made use of an already existing object—in this case a urinal which he titled Fountain and signed "R. Mutt". He purchased the standard urinal from the J.L. Mott Iron Works, brought it to his studio at 33 West 67th Street, placed in a ninety-degrees position, deviating from its normal position of use, and wrote on it, "R. Mutt 1917".

Whether Mr. Mutt made Fountain or not has no importance. He chose it. He took an article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view, thus creating a new thought for that object. www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_(Duchamp)

Art is visceral. At the very least it should make you think. The history of the world is in paint, metal, and recycled and found objects. Love, war, death, longing documented on canvases, erected in metals, assembled and installed as works of art in museums and galleries all over the world, reminding us of our past, speaking to us of man and the environment, capturing that emotion we feel when watching a sunrise or the moon hovering over a mountain top..

Conversely, if nothing stirs within, no thoughts come to mind, when contemplating an artist’s work can we still call it art? Individual perceptions taken into consideration, that which resonates within us varies from person to person contingent upon personal experiences, education, and emotional capacity. Therefore, whether or not Duchamp’s commissioned work, Fountain, is thought provoking the fact that it provides fodder for discussion about the importance of ordinary objects seen out of context has allowed it to take its place in the world of art.

Great art doesn’t shout. You have to move in close and listen. Though the phrase art is in the eye of the beholder may be true, taking the time to understand an artist’s statement will often open new doors in the mind, allowing you the viewer to move beyond your own borders of comprehension.

The objective of a good art reviewer is not only to self-interpret, but to understand an artist’s inspiration when creating the work. Understanding the artist’s statement can expand our knowledge of the world and its inhabitants and connect us to the message that is relevant to the exhibition.

Now, go out there readers and take a new look at art and the world around you.
July 28, 1:25 PM · Rachael Lorenz - Portland Contemporary Art Examiner

The art of a recession: Gallery owners struggling

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Art gallery owners across the country are finding they have a tough sell these days.
With houses going up for auction, unemployment continuing to rise and the threat of layoffs seemingly ever-present, many gallery owners in art communities such as Scottsdale, Ariz., Santa Fe, N.M., Portland, Ore., and New York City are closing shop, going broke to stay open or drastically changing the way they do business.
"Art is a very discretionary sort of object, and we are in the worst recession arguably in the postwar era," said Jay Bryson, a global economist with Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, N.C. "Obviously somebody who has lost their job in a factory in Indiana probably is not buying art."
ALYSSA PHEOBUS
Even people with plenty of discretionary money aren't spending much on it.

"You're a billionaire and you took a 40 percent hit on your portfolio, now you only have $600 million left," Bryson said. "That's still pretty deep pockets, but 40 percent is 40 percent."
In the gallery district of downtown Scottsdale, at least a half dozen galleries have closed in the past year or are in the midst of closing. Others still are wondering how much longer they can make it.
One recent day, Leslie Levy sat quietly amid the contemporary art she sells in her gallery, which was just as deserted as the streets outside, where the temperature was in the triple digits.

The summers here are always slow because of the heat, but this one is much worse than usual. That's partly why Levy is closing her doors at the end of August after 32 years in business and becoming a private art dealer online.
"I'll tell you what — if I was younger, I'd just keep at it knowing we've not seen times quite as bad as this before," Levy said.
Longtime customer Marylyn Gregory of Bernardsville, N.J., came in the gallery that day to see it one last time and check out what pieces Levy had left of her and her husband's favorite artist. Gregory told Levy she was surprised and upset when she heard the gallery was closing but added, "You're probably doing the right thing."

Gregory didn't end up buying anything that day, saying she needed to check with her husband. Before, she might have been more spontaneous. "Sometimes you'd go to an opening and have a glass of wine, and you're like, OK," she said. "It's certainly the method to get everyone to open their checkbooks."
But like many other art lovers, the Gregorys are more conservative with their money these days.
Levy understands. "People are watching what they spend — cutting back and spending on the necessities of life. That makes sense to people."
ALYSSA PHEOBUS, represented by Becky Smith who knows that all too well. She owned the Bellwether Gallery in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood for a decade, but closed at the end of June after watching her revenue plummet to $80,000 gross in the first quarter of 2009. She had $40,000 net, and $10,000 of it went to rent each month.
The $80,000 figure was down from about $350,000 the same quarter in 2008 and about $600,000 during that period the year before.
"I was really startled," Smith said. "It was the spring of '08 where I saw three shows that should have been blockbusters underperform, and I was in shock.
"Things were booming so intensely a couple years ago and the pendulum has swung so far in the opposite direction, it was impossible to know where I stood," she said. "And I didn't want to be paying for a storefront while I was figuring it out."
In the past two years, at least 24 galleries have closed in Manhattan, mostly in Chelsea, according to New York City-based Artnet magazine, which covers the fine art world. "That's really dramatic," said Artnet editor Walter Robinson.
In Santa Fe, N.M., between 10 and 15 galleries have closed this year, said Christy Walker, managing director of the Santa Fe Gallery Association.
"A lot of people have this idea that running a gallery, the owners make a lot of money, when it's just a lot of effort to make a living off of it," she said. "It's a hard business to be in, and when things are good, things are good, and when times are tough, it's a really tough business to maintain."
Kraig Foote of art one gallery in Scottsdale has done everything he can think of to avoid shutting down.
His house is about to go up for auction because he hasn't made a payment in seven months, he has laid off his two employees and he has resorted to selling his own beloved art collection for a fraction of what it's worth.
"I have given up everything," he said recently in the very empty gallery, which sells work by local high school- and college-age artists.
And still, the threat of closure looms.
"I'm trying to make it to December," Foote said. "I think people will start spending again once they get to the next holiday. They'll say, 'We've saved, let's get something.'"
He paused. "I don't know."
By AMANDA LEE MYERS, Associated Press Writer

Nancy Rutter, Painter

Born New York City 1948
Studies: High School of Music and Art
New York University
Arts Students League, Ford Foundation Grant
Atelier 17, Paris, France
Experience:
National Society of Arts and Letters Young Printmaker Award
Bob Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop, color etching
Lecturer Limerick College of Art, Ireland
Lived and worked in Ireland and France.
Exhibits: Rose Gallery
Gallery One
Richard Sena Gallery
Tom Caldwell gallery, Ireland
Dalkey Gallery, Ireland
Chateau Pontigard, France
Art Students League of New York
NABA Editions
Lever House
Long Island University
Haddad Lascano Gallery
Collections: Goldleaf and Torello,
Walsh Printers,
Southern New England Bank
Self Brand LLC

Guild Hall in Easthampton Announces 63rd Annual 'Clothesline' Art Sale

East Hampton - On Saturday, Aug. 1 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (rain or shine) at Guild Hall will again host its annual Clothesline Art Sale featuring original oil, acrylic, and watercolor paintings as well as prints, collages, photography, and small sculptures. Hundreds of art lovers throughout Long Island descend upon this show with the hope of buying fine art - cheap. Both established and first-time collectors can take home art by emerging and critically acclaimed artists. No need to get hung up on costs, as prices start at only $50 and go no higher than $2,000, with all proceeds split 50/50 between the artist and Guild Hall. Admission is free.

Last year, over 150 artists lined upside waiting to register their works. Some arrived as early as 7 a.m. On average 350 artists participate and their work attracts over 1,000 visitors. Each year 500 to 800 pieces are sold thanks in part to 225 volunteers (and dozens and dozens of donuts and hundreds of peanut and jelly sandwiches). This year's event promises to be stellar with more than 500 works of art for sale.

Artists interested in participating should call 631-324-0806 for registration information. Delivery of artwork is Thursday, July 30 and Friday, July 31. Guild Hall is located at 158 Main Street in East Hampton.

Founded over 75 years ago, Guild Hall is the year-round arts center wholly dedicated to serving the residents, members, families, and artists of the East End and offering them, as well as visitors and tourists, enriching experiences by presenting relevant and meaningful programs in the visual and performing arts, working in collaboration with artists, and providing a meeting place for the community. For more information and to become a member, visit www.guildhall.org

The Savvy Art Buyer In Uncertain Times

Some of us are passionate collectors of art but not always for love. Some collect art passionately for profit and status.

Southampton - Is it genetic wiring or some law of attraction that makes us want to take home whatever object catches our eye? Anything and everything, from anywhere in the world, is fair game as “Collectible." It's personal and dictated only by desire. For some, it's stamps. For others, it's antique doorstops. Some of us are passionate collectors of art but not always for love. Some collect art passionately for profit and status; art as a “brand" so to speak.

According to renowned dealer and collector Eugene V. Thaw, there is no real art market as much as there is hype and spin. “The prospective art buyer should be clear whether they are starting a collection for love of art, or for profit and status. There are just trophies and what they can be hyped up to." Which is how a Rothko owned by David Rockefeller, originally appraised for $10 million about nine months before it sold at Sotheby's, went for $72.8 million at the time of sale. There was a tremendous amount of promotion for months prior to the auction causing the sale dollars to be spun into the heavens."

Well, those were the days. Buying art at a time when a reassessment of the “essentials" is foremost on the minds of many may seem anything but essential. That is, except for those of you who are avid art collectors. For you, if there is a will, there is a way.

Art market prices have certainly not enjoyed immunity from the recent financial upheaval. The Mei Moses website on the 2008 art index report states, “The 2008 decrease in the return of the all art index of almost 4.5 percent is the first time our all art index has declined after five years of positive annual growth averaging almost 20 percent."

Furthermore, their recent findings for the first quarter of this year indicate that their “all art index" declined by 35 percent. According to the Financial Times Limited, the “decline accelerated as people who lost money in the financial crisis put up works for sale, often at a loss." Even corporations and museums are downsizing their collections. The data from the Mei Moses Index indicates contemporary and postwar art prices suffered the most, though the Old Masters were only marginally affected.

Clearly it's a buyers market and a great time to buy original artwork if you are the average collector or someone interested in starting a collection. One side benefit of a slower market is that if you are a novice collector, the gallery dealers and experts will have more time to talk to you.

Is art a good investment these days? Vicky Nash Shaw, ISA AM, an accredited personal property appraiser (www.TheAuthenticAppraisal.com) reports, “Like the stock market, unless you have a crystal ball, it is difficult to tell. There are periods in recent history where art prices certainly outperformed the stock market, as measured by comparing the Mei Moses Index to the S&P; Index. Many art experts believe that art will outperform the stock index over the long run..."

Still it's always been risky to trade in fine art for profit. You can't always get instant liquidity by dumping a painting on the market as you would with a stock, without taking a loss. The wiser perspective might be to buy art for love first, but also regard it as an investment for profit over time.

Rick Friedman, developer of ArtHamptons and the Hamptons Home and Garden Show, is himself, an avid collector of mid 20th century art, has this to say about investing in art. “When you buy blue chip art, you will never over-pay, although you may be buying a little early...."

He goes on to say, “As it stands, dealers are eager to move their wares and are willing to negotiate. The current prices haven't been this low in four or five years. However this window of opportunity may only be temporary. Because a lot of high quality art was sold on the market at a loss earlier this year, there may be some “bounce back" at some point in the near future."

Given these circumstances, you have a great opportunity this coming weekend to dip your toe back into the art market.

Art fairs in particular are the most efficient way (though sometimes exhausting) way to see a lot of art all in one place.
by Cindy Lee Bergersen - Hamptons.com

Top Billionaire Art Collectors

Suffering from one of its worst years in recent memory, the art world got a boost in June when French billionaire François Pinault opened his new modern art museum, the Punta della Dogana, in Venice's former customs house at the entrance of the Grand Canal. In what some called the "Dogana effect," the opening was also seen as having helped boost attendance at Art Basel, the respected contemporary art fair in Switzerland later that month. While sales for the toned-down fair are hard to come by, a record crowd of 61,000, including billionaires Mitchell Rales, Eli Broad and Roman Abramovich showed up at the event.

Wealthy patrons and collectors have been the lifeblood of the art world for centuries, from Italy's Medici family to American industrialists Henry Clay Frick and Andrew Mellon. That is still true today even as art valuations drop. Indeed, in a downturn like this one, billionaires are some of the only people who can still afford to buy expensive art or help prop up museums.

Broad, for instance, spent $30 million in December bailing out the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art to prevent the museum from having to sell off artwork and leave its current headquarters. Several months earlier, Estée Lauder Chairman Leonard Lauder gifted $131 million to New York City's Whitney Museum, of which he is chairman emeritus, in part to help it keep its Upper East Side location.
Art is a passion for these billionaires, but it is also a valuable asset. So how did their personal collections hold up in the past year, and who among the rarefied rich owns the most valuable works?

Forbes recently scoured the art world to find out, spending weeks consulting with collectors, art appraisers, insurers, auction houses and gallery owners around the globe. We decided not to include members of the art trade, like dealer Larry Gagosian, or corporate collections, such as Bill Gates', which belongs to Microsoft. Also not considered were ones belonging to royal kingdoms.

Since the art world trades on closely held information, most experts who spoke with us requested anonymity in discussing private art collections. While some disagreed on exact figures, almost all agreed on the top billionaire collectors. The final list includes 14 individuals who hold private collections worth $700 million or more. The estimates are purposefully conservative and should be considered "at least" numbers.

Topping the ranks is Philip Niarchos, son of the late shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos and father of Stavros III, who was linked in the past to American heiress Paris Hilton. He is said to have the most valuable collection, worth at least $2 billion. Philip's father began collecting art in 1949 and over his lifetime acquired many well-known masterpieces including Vincent van Gogh's "Self-Portrait with a Bandaged Ear" and Pablo Picasso's self-portrait "Yo, Picasso." Since his father left him the collection, Philip has quietly added such contemporary works as Jean-Michel Basquiat's "Self-Portrait" and Andy Warhol's "Shot Red Marilyn."

During our quest to pin down these extraordinary collections, we discovered a new fortune belonging to Esther Grether, a little-known Swiss cosmetics heiress whose 7.5% stake in Swatch and art collection of more than 600 pieces, including ones by Paul Cezanne, Salvador Dali and Francis Bacon, make her not only a billionaire but also the only woman in our list of top art collectors. She keeps the works in a printing factory that she converted, and where she also lives.

Valuing art is an obvious challenge, and even more so today with the art market affected by the same liquidity crisis as any other product or service. "The confusion [in valuations] has to do with the lower number of sales," said Dr. Beverly Schreiber Jacoby, a fine art adviser and former head of Old Master Drawings at Christies in New York. "Theoretically, there are fewer points of reference since last fall." With fewer buyers in the market and a healthy supply of new art, the contemporary art market took a precipitous fall in the last year, with some pieces depreciating in value by up to 90%.

Entertainment mogul David Geffen, for instance, made the list although the value of his collection was a matter of heated debate. Some argued his collection, comprised of seminal works by Jasper Johns, Willem De Kooning and Jackson Pollock, could be worth up to $2 billion. One person said the entire collection is worth only $400 million, due to the plunge in contemporary art prices. We pin the value at a $1 billion.

Regardless, most agreed that Geffen proved to have impeccable timing in selling some of his collection three years ago. In a period of months in 2006, he apparently sold four paintings for $420 million including Jasper Johns' "False Start" to Citadel's Kenneth Griffin for $80 million and de Kooning's "Police Gazette" and "Woman III" to SAC Capital's Steve Cohen for $63.5 million and $137 million, respectively.

Cohen also makes the cut with a collection valued at $750 million, even though he likely couldn't sell his de Koonings for anything close to what he paid for them. Still, he has earned a reputation as a prolific, adventurous collector. He is the buyer, for instance, of British artist Damien Hirst's piece, "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living"--a 13-foot tiger shark in a glass tank of formaldehyde. The creature reportedly rotted and was replaced. It also was the inspiration for a book, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark, by economist Don Thompson, who used it as a symbol of greed in the contemporary art world.

Cohen's passion for art may even surpass his love of business: SAC Capital bought a stake in Sotheby's auction house earlier this year, even as the auction house reported losses of $34.5 million for the first quarter of 2009.
Keren Blankfeld, Cristina von Zeppelin and Susan Adams 07.24.09

2009 National Design Award Winners

WASHINGTON, D.C.—“Design is intriguing to the public,” says Jennifer Northrop, director of communications and marketing at the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, “because design isn’t art.”
That’s an unexpected statement for an arts professional to make. But Northrop has the reasoning to back it up: “Design is the most accessible form of visual culture — we touch it. We use it everyday. It’s based on solving a particular problem.”

And the museum has plans to make the art of design (or just plain “design,” as the case may be) even more available. On July 24, in conjunction with a White House luncheon thrown by the first lady and an awards ceremony to honor the winners of this year’s National Design Awards (announced in April), the New York–based Cooper-Hewitt will host a number of public programs aimed at educating the public about the field. A series of panel discussions sprinkled throughout Washington, D.C., the events are part 10-year anniversary celebration for the awards, part obvious measure to encourage the general public’s growing interest in design.

Chanel Mobile Art in NY

Chanel Mobile Art, the project Karl Lagerfeld created to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Coco Chanel’s iconic 2.55 quilted leather handbag, is now in the midst of a whistle-stop tour. It has already landed in Hong Kong and Tokyo, and after it touches down in New York, from October 20 to November 9, it will round out the tour in Moscow, London and Paris. A few weeks before the installation of the Zaha Hadid–designed portable pavilion was to begin on Central Park’s Rumsey Playfield, Sarah Douglas sat down in Chanel’s New York offices with Fabrice Bousteau, the editor in chief of Beaux Arts magazine and the curator charged with choosing artists for the project; the company’s head of fashion, Bruno Pavlovsky, who worked with Lagerfeld to organize it; and Chanel president John Galantic.

Sarah Douglas: Fabrice, how did you go about selecting the artists?

Bousteau: I looked for artists who would take advantage of the full freedom they are given to play with the characteristics of Chanel. I wanted them to ask themselves, “What is Chanel? Is it Coco Chanel? What are the brand’s main values?” After all, a fashion company has a particular idea of life. I asked each artist to visit the studio of Chanel, to visit the place where the handbags are made, to meet the people who make the handbags and to visit the apartment of Coco Chanel.

Lisa Kiss, Photographer

Lisa Kiss lives and works on the east end of Long Island.
Her work is focused on using nature to express the universal conditions of mankind.
www.lisakiss.net

Lisa Kiss received her BFA in Painting from Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. Then travelled to Italy and studied with Tony Vevers in Cortona through the Unviversity of Georgia. On her return from Europe, she moved to Oregon and exhibited Monoprints there as well as in Cortona Italy. Later she studied with Lenore Davis at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina where she began designing textiles.She moved to NY City, started her own business of hand painted scarves and fabrics called 'Lisa L.' in which she sold her fabrics nationally and internationally for over 16 years. Until the fateful day of 9/11 when Lisa L.'s studio and offices were destroyed in the disaster, as it was directly across the street from the World Trade Center Towers. All of her equipment and samples were lost.

Her home was also unable to be lived in, so she moved with her family to the East End of Long Island the very next day. Not long after settling in did she begin a whole new body of work in photography, producing some of the best work of her life in this new location. The beauty of the landscapes surrounding her along with the impact of such a devastating event preceding her exodus from Manhattan must have been the impetus and inspiration for all the work that followed. Now, in any of her travels, Lisa is taking thousands of digital images wherever she goes, to create a new type of documentation of place. Interestingly enough, the images are taking on a patterning effect. The use of digital photography has opened up many possibilities in portraying this aspect in her work. After seeing the recent show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY on the Islamic influence on the Venetian painters, LIsa stated, "I became more keenly aware of how ingrained pattern is in all our lives, through history to the present. Right down to objects in nature through the magnifying glass, one will find the perfection of patterning even there." So it is through found objects in her surroundings that she weaves and quilts and paints with her photographs. There are a few different bodies of work evolving at the same time, all with similar intent. Playing with the sense of place as real or fantasy. In some of the works Lisa will take an image of a wrapped tree to create a human figure placed inside a somewhat foreboding place. In other works she may create a landscape that appears to be natural in it's repetition and flow, yet still one cannot place the reality of it, because it is not quite real, but more 'dream like'.

In a series called, "Mapping Places" Lisa is working with a play on the traditional idea of the "frame" around a "central image". The interest is more in the details and patterning that occur in the frame rather than at the center where we are usually drawn to look. The work on a whole is rich with color and complexity. There is a mission here of not only working in one linear stream with just one idea to pursue. With a wonderful eye for composition, scale and color, as well as a mastery of her medium, Lisa brings a complexity of thought to the work. There is much to look forward to in following this artist in her growth. Lisa Kiss has shown this new work solely on the East End of Long Island in the past two years; at Guild Hall and Ashawagh Hall in East Hampton and Crazy Monkey Gallery, Southampton Cultural Center and DeCordova Gallery, along with other alternative gallery spaces in the Hamptons.

Why dont more Americans buy art? A Midwest perspective

Recently one of my clients balked at purchasing a painting buy a famous living American artist whose work is in many museums for $30K, yet spent over $1M for box seats at the new Yankee Stadium.

This is the beginning of commentary about How to Buy Art, What questions to ask, How NOT to buy art and Why dont more people in the USA buy art... Excerpts from : http://theurbanophile.blogspot.com/2009/04/why-dont-people-buy-art.html
"On the Cusp, the premier contemporary art blog in Indianapolis, conducted an art survey to collect some facts about the local arts community and market. They recently covered the announcement of the results. The big topic of debate was around people buying art.

Two questions sparked the most discussion. The amount of money people had spent buying art and the top figure most would consider for an art purchase hit a ceiling of about $500. Scott pointed out that there are many who easily spend $300 for a few hours of entertainment at a Colts game, but where is the mindset that an investment in original artwork lasts a lifetime? Well, for one thing, the vast majority of US cities do not have a culture of art buying. Tyler Green brought this up during a lecture once when someone asked him why New York and Los Angeles are arts hubs. One reason is that people there buy art. In New York, collecting art is something one does as you acquire the means to do so, since art & artists are everywhere in NY. That's not true in most other places.

Americans Fear that since they don't know enough about art, they fear that are could be a sucker, overpaying for something, and will look like an idiot one day because of it. Fear that they are being ripped off or taking advantage of by people much more knowledgeable than themselves. Fear that they can never get any resale value out of the work. Think about walking into a gallery like walking into a car dealership times twenty and you get the picture. Lots of angst.

The average person is not an art expert, doesn't know what art "should" cost, has no confidence in their own taste, and therefore is very uncertain. The fact that buying art is positioned as an act of monumental significance, and that you are being entrusted with some object that needs to be preserved for the ages, only heightens the angst. Note the quote above, "lasts a lifetime". Who wants to sign up for that kind of responsibility?
The cultural of art buying will take care of itself if you can get the pump primed. One way to do that is to create a mental analogy, reinforced through the marketing of art, to a type of purchase people can already envision themselves making (see below).

The other points are:
How do you establish transparency in the market?
Perhaps a local registry of prices paid, maintained by an independent party with solid documentation, and a ban on non-arms length or related party transactions would help. Put this on the web openly for anyone to consult.
This could potentially also handle the secondary market to show the value over time (most art is likely to depreciate in my opinion - which is ok, if we know about it in advance). It might also help with tracking provenance.
How do you establish a viable secondary market that doesn't totally destroy value?
Perhaps some type of a "certified pre-owned" program, run through the same registry would help. Lots of thinking needs to be done here.
Art needs to be repositioned as a temporary purchase.
People shouldn't feel like they are buying a Patek Philippe when they buy a piece of art ("You never actually own it, you just take care of it for the next generation"). Instead, let's make art buying more like any other consumer purchase where the item in question has a limited life span in your possession.
I suggested fashion, but Jeffrey Cufaude had an even better idea in looking at it like home furnishings or decor. People are willing to pay a lot for a sofa. They know it will be there for a while, but they will eventually replace it. Similarly, it should be psychologically Ok to get rid of art you bought, even by throwing it out if necessary.
That might seem anathema, but if your goal is to sell art, then people shouldn't be made to feel like they are participating in some momentous civilizational event and that they are saddled with something they might change their mind about later for the rest of their lives.
Could this program be embraced? Who knows. The art world establishment in major markets seems to view transparency with horror.
They like inefficiency. But do we need to pattern local art purchases in most cities after the same business practices used for high end art? I'm not so sure. Perhaps we could use a more clean disconnect between the two. Thoughts?"- Aaron M. Renn is The Urbanophile, a leading independent urban affairs thinker and strategist based in the Midwest.

Signs of Hope for Contemporary Art Market

Gerhard Richter, "Abstract Painting, Courbet" (1986)
LONDON— Art investors seem to think the worst of the financial crisis has passed for the contemporary art market, although the recessionary storm is not quite played out.

The London-based research firm ArtTactic recently released its semiannual U.S. & European Art Market Confidence Survey, which showed negative sentiment lifting and hope for a recovery strengthening. The Confidence Index more than doubled, to 28 from 11 six months ago, although it remains well below the 50 level that would indicate confidence.

The highest hopes were at the low end of the market, with positive sentiment for works valued below $50,000 at 55 percent, up from 47, and negative views shrinking to 22 percent from 35. The outlook for higher-priced art was less clear: In the $1 million-plus category, positive sentiment grew to 28 percent from 19, but negative sentiment also grew, to 55 percent from 36. Meanwhile, more than 60 percent of those surveyed expect the market to begin to recover within two years, more than twice the level six months earlier.The survey listed the top five artists, in terms of investor confidence, as Gerhard Richter, Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman, Robert Gober, and Andreas Gursky.

VIP Art Preview at ArtHamptons for 85Broads

Ann Lydecker, Founder of Metropolitan Art Advisors, lead a group of "next generation" art collectors at Art Hamptons on Sunday July 12, 2009 in Bridgehampton from the VIP/Patrons Lounge. The collectors met with Bruce Morris from Louise Blouin Media/Artinfo.com, the editor of Art Collector Magazine, the producers of ArtHamptons, Helen who manages Jackson Pollock/Lee Krasner home, Beth the VIP lounge designer.


They were then guided over to Hall D where they met with Barry Singer, Kathryn Markel, Throckmorton Fine Art and were able to meet the 81 yr old photographer, Elliott Erwitt.

Art Hamptons 2009

BRIDGEHAMPTON, N.Y.—It’s been a hell of a year or so for the art market, but Rick Friedman, founder and executive director of ArtHamptons, now in its second year, is bullish: “There is no better time to invest in art,” he writes in his introduction to the catalogue of this year’s edition, which opens to the public today and runs through Sunday. “From buying the masters to discovering fresh and upcoming stars, you can acquire items that should not only accrue in value, but also bring everyday beauty into your home. And you may consider these art purchases as another element in your investment portfolio.” Friedman clearly understands the instincts of ArtHamptons patrons, and last night’s opening gala and collector’s preview provided a fascinating insight into what they find appealing. It also offered an opportunity to gauge the mood of the dealers who attempt to satisfy them.

Decoration, it seems, is much in demand. New York’s DC Moore has a group of paintings by 85-year-old Jane Wilson, who is one the fair’s 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award honorees (along with photographers Elliott Erwitt and Lillian Bassman). Wilson makes easy-on-the-eye landscapes that look to Rothko’s abstraction and Turner’s brushiness, though her color palettes are less trying than those artists'. Her Blue Dawn (2009) is available for $45,000. Gallery president Bridget Moore was in a positive mood when she spoke to ARTINFO. “It’s been a very active summer,” she said, “and very good for classic works.”

Elsewhere the Cooley Gallery has a little section of its booth turned over to palette-knifed skyscapes by Judy Friday, who is apparently something of a celebrity in Old Lyme, Connecticut, where both she and the gallery are based. Her remarkably consistent paintings are priced between $650 for a picture six inches square and $3,800 for Gray and Peach Sky, which measures two feet across. Gallery director Joseph Newman described himself as “certainly optimistic,” adding, somewhat surprisingly, that “the first quarter of 2009 was the best quarter we’ve ever had.”

Trompe l’oeil is also much in evidence at the fair. Connecticut gallery Eckert Fine Art has Eric Forstmann’s oil-on-shaped-panel Made Off with the Bail Out Package (2008–09), a depiction of an unwrapped pigeonhole with a crumpled dollar and two pennies inside, which the artist explained is a Madoff-inspired joke, priced at $13,500. Discovery Galleries from Bethesda, Maryland, has walls full of J. Scott Nicol book-spine paintings and prints. Only one painting (at $7,200) remained unsold last night, but the prints were still available for anywhere from $600 to $1,600.


Gallery Henoch has long specialized in this kind of work and at ArtHamptons offers a full range: landscapes by Max Ferguson, figures by Eric Zener and Daniel Greene, still lifes by Olga Antonova and Janet Rickus, and interiors by SungHee Jang. On the other hand, the Eisenhauer Gallery (an Art Hamptons debutant from Martha’s Vineyard) is more focused: Featured artist Michel Brosseau specializes, appropriately enough, in boat sails and other nautical paraphernalia. Prices range from $6,000 to $21,000, with Overlooking New Harbor, for example, priced at $7,000. Gallery director Elizabeth Eisenhauer has come to the fair with an open mind. Asked about her expectations for the weekend, she described herself as simply “curious.”

Art magazine dishes on NYC's biggest collectors

Aerial view of the Estate of Mitchell Rales

Despite the recession and the collapse of the art market, New York this year has retained—and even added to—its status as the art capital of the world.

More of the world's 200 most active art collectors make their primary residence in New York than in any other city, according to ARTnews magazine.

In its annual list of the top collectors, 37 listed New York as their primary residence, up from 34 last year. More than half, 106, live in the United States.

The list, which is compiled from interviews with collectors, dealers, auctioneers, and museum directors in 22 countries, had 17 new names on it this year. The New York-based newcomers include Alliance Bernstein Chairman Peter Kraus and his wife Jill, and Investor Hubert Neumann.

Out of the Top 10 collectors, five are from the New York metropolitan area. They are Debra and Leon Black; Steven Cohen; Marie-Josee and Henry Kravis; Jo Carole and Ronald Lauder; and Mitchell Rales.

Even though the contemporary art market has taken a hit with the global recession, that segment of the art world continues to be the most popular. Out of the group, 81% collect contemporary art, 34% collect modern art, 9% collect Impressionist art, and 9% collect Old Masters.

The list will appear on newsstands in ARTnews' July 17 summer issue.