Velazquez and Sargent: Like Peanut Butter and Jelly

John Singer Sargent's "The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit" and Velazquez's "Las Meninas" can arguably be called two of the all-time greatest paintings illustrating themes of childhood and innocence. While they share this honorable title, the inherently linked American (Sargent) and Spanish (Velazquez) paintings have never before been displayed in the same museum (much yet the same collection, side-by-side).




However, that's about to change, as Boston's Museum of Fine Arts has generously agreed to loan "Las Meninas" to Madrid's Museo del Prado. The paintings will temporarily hang next to each other (something Sargent would be honored and delighted to see, as Velazquez's "Las Meninas" acted as the main source of inspiration for "The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit," painted in 1882).

While Malcolm Rogers, the MFA's British-born director, says it is a "big sacrifice" to loan out Sargent's painting (which is one of the museum's most important and treasured paintings), he is also excited about the display and hopes the Prado will reciprocate.

It will also be interesting to see if the MFA's loan opens the gateway to a unique cross-cultural collaboration between the two museums.

Contemporary Art Collectors Stay Close to Home

While contemporary art collectors' tastes are multifarious, and the locales they visit to purchase art vary, there is one aspect of art collecting that many collectors have recently agreed upon: the desire to buy local art. This trend - due in most part to the economic downturn of the past year - is a worldwide occurrence.

In a recent article from the Wall Street Journal, Gary Wasserman, a major collector and Detroit steel company executive says he's stopped buying work from English and Chinese artists (like he previously had). Instead, he has decided to focus on buying "powerfully Midwestern" art.

Italian art collector Pierpaolo Barzan agrees, saying,

"I believe that I can put together a much stronger collection, and make an impact in the art world, by collecting local artists rather than trying to find the next Chinese star"

In addition to supporting local artists and strengthening local economies, the trend of buying locally has allowed art collectors to cut-back on expensive art-buying trips to international destinations.

Likewise, auction houses and galleries are noticing the shift and have made the appropriate changes. As Grett Gorvy, Christie's international co-head of postwar and contemporary art notes,

...the company decided to shift Chinese pieces to sales in Hong Kong. "There's been a reluctance in the U.S. and Europe for these works but the appetite is still strong in Hong Kong and Taiwan..." The New York sales for both houses also include no Indian artists, with the exception of Mr. Kapoor, who was born in Mumbai. Mr. Gorvy says top examples of Indian art were scarce this time around. Instead, both houses [Christie's and Sotheby's] have packed their catalogs with works that traditionally appeal to U.S. buyers, like Alexander Calder, Jasper Johns and Joan Mitchell.

The new direction of art collecting could prove to be extremely positive for artists in smaller U.S. cities (like Atlanta, Austin and Detroit) that have typically been overlooked by the art world. While some collectors are hesitant to stay local, many like that works by primarily regionally-known artists are cheaper (than those of international artists) and collectors may also feel a personal connection to artists who live and work close by.

To read the full article from the Wall Street Journal, click here.

Above images courtesy of the Wall Street Journal

When Collecting is Worth It

While art collectors typically collect because they love art, those who collect with the hopes of gaining wealth may want to re-think their investments. According to recent academic studies, long-run returns tend to be lower for art collectibles than for stocks and bonds.

An article from the NY Times discusses the positive and negative aspects of collecting art. The article states,

If you acquire expertise in a particular area, ideally one shown to hold its value over the years, you can enjoy a pastime that is personally and culturally enriching. It still may not be as financially enriching as other activities, but you stand a good chance of making better deals than many other collectors — or at least you can avoid being played for a chump.

The very feature that makes items worth collecting — scarcity verging on uniqueness — is what makes them problematic as investments. It is hard, almost by definition, to determine the value of a one-of-a-kind, or few-of-a-kind, item.

This shortcoming is amplified by the likelihood that the interests of amateur and professional collectors are often in conflict. In stocks and bonds, by contrast, portfolio managers do better for themselves when they do better for you.

The article dispenses advice on how to be a successful collector and suggests dealing at an auction or hiring an advisor.

On a positive note, the article suggests that in-demand items (rare items and those of high quality) are always in demand, and that being able to look at valuable pieces of art may outweigh some of the monetary cons.

Certain artists tend to be “tried-and-true wealth holders,” Ms. Gyorgy said, including Old Masters, Impressionists and Abstract Expressionists like Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko.
Their work is out of most investors’ price ranges, of course, and there is no assurance that they will outperform conventional, lower-maintenance assets. But there is one advantage that artworks and some other collectibles have over stocks and bonds: You can look at them.

This consumption value, as academics and specialists in collectibles call it, is what makes them desirable and valuable in the first place, and it accrues to their owners for as long as they possess them. That is why collectors are urged to focus on art appreciation, not capital appreciation.

Mad Cow Addiction

While perusing the web today, I came across a rather interesting story concerning art collecting. When I was growing up, a neighbor lady collected cows, and I'm not talking about a few tchotchkes here or there. She had virtually every inch of her house covered in paintings, figurines, tapestries, etc. Well, it seems like Derrill Osborn could give her a run for her money...

From the Associated Press:

When it came to collecting, former Neiman Marcus fashion executive Derrill Osborn had a singular focus: cows.

From paintings featuring bovine roaming wide open spaces to small toy cows to Staffordshire ceramic figures of the animals, Osborn collected them all. And after about half a century of collecting, the 70-year-old has decided to part with his herd in an auction Wednesday evening featuring about 350 items.

"I decided I would just give it up and auction it off," he said.

His collection made for a dramatic interior in his two-bedroom town house. The home's walls lined with green billiard cloth and wood accents painted a red enamel, his paintings hung from floor to ceiling and his cow-related objects were spread throughout.

"It was a little too much, but it was fantastic," said Osborn, dressed finely in a three-piece suit, his eyes sparkling behind round-rimmed glasses.

The auction also will feature a few non-bovine items including a Victorian croquet set and several items of furniture.

But the cows are the stars. Osborn, who grew up on a New Mexico ranch, said the spark for the collection came when he was a young boy and his great-grandfather whittled a cow from wood for him — an item not in the auction. And even though Osborn left that ranch for a 40-year career in fashion that took him around the globe, items featuring cows still caught his eye as he wandered through antiques stores from Milan to London.

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Beautiful art collection in Canada

Now most of us don't have the capacity to acquire a museum-quality art collection, but sometimes it's just nice to appreciate what can be done by a group of people when they are given the right amount of money, great taste, and a love for really amazing art.

From Raphael to Carracci: The Art of Papal Rome at the National Gallery of Canada explores the work of such amazing artists as El Greco, Titian, and Michelangelo. The show was curated by Dr. David Franklin, an expert in the Italian Renaissance.

The exhibition reflects two levels of "collecting art" - (1) The acquiring of the National Gallery of these works and (2) the history of papal commissions and collections during the Renaissance.

The show will be continuing through September 30.

Repost from Apartment Therapy

I often, and I mean often, guiltily peruse the pages of one of my favorite sites, ApartmentTherapy. So it makes me really happy when there is a post that relates to the art world and I don't feel so bad for wasting time. It seems like more and more recently there have been some good art-related entries. Recently there was an entry entitled "Art Resource Roundup: Framers, Galleries & Online Sources" that seemed to perfect to not insert here. Allison Marvin sat down and spoke with the Washington Post about her best advice for art collectors - where to find art, where to frame, local D.C. art resources, etc. Click here for the post.

Lehman brothers collection to go on the block

Lehman Brothers, the global financial firm, will be auctioning off much of their corporate art collection on November 1. 650 lots will go on the block at Freeman's, and is said to be worth $1 million.

A Louis Lozowick lithograph depicting a crew repairing the Brooklyn Bridge os expected to fetch $7,000 to $10,000.

"It's a very contemporary collection," Freeman's marketing director Tom McCabe said this week. So far, Freeman's is the only auction house to have gotten part of the Lehman action, he said.

Freeman's got the consignment because of its reputation in the field of corporate artwork.

"Freeman's was able to offer Lehman Brothers an exceptional place to sell and market the first part of their art collection," Paul Roberts, president of Freeman's Auctioneers, said in the release. "Over the last 10 years, we have made selling corporate collections one of our specialties."

Freeman's is still accepting consignments for the sale, scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Nov. 1. So far, the top item is a 1959 limited-edition Picasso linocut, Femme Accoudee, which has a presale estimate of $50,000 to $80,000, according to a flier for the sale.

- David Iams for the Philadelphia Inquirer

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