James and I visited press preview for "The Art Show" of the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) today. Some general notes first. Given our usual focus on underknown art, one might might expect a show billed primarily as showing "museum quality work" might not be our thing, but I had a great time. I wonder if "the market" seems to be working better for work that's not by MFA students and recent grads, as I saw some phenomenal pieces by established (and yes, dead) artists including a lot of amazing work from circa 1950 New York -- Pollock, Avery, etc. Overall I enjoyed the work I saw more than quite a few shows of 20th century art I've seen lately at museums in NYC. Most surprising artist to see in several places? Belgian artist Marcel Broodthaers. There were quite a few Albers and Rothko paintings in various booths. I also have to say that it is so nice to not be looked at as if one has two heads when asking to be sent a JPEG. Even two years ago I would get that at plenty of art fair booths.
CRG Gallery had one of the best booths, with a show of Jim Hodges spiderweb chain sculptures plus an ink on paper work called Wanted Poster 1 from 1991-1992.
David Tunick had this amazing screen by Helen Frankenthaler. I've never seen anything like it. Apparently she made twelve of these.
Gateway, 1982-1988
Three-panel bronze screen cast at Tallix Foundry, Beacon, N.Y., printed and published at Tyler Graphics Ltd., Bedford Village, N.Y.
Screen front: Lost-wax bronze wax casting with applied patinas and 28-color intaglio print with etching, relief, and aquatint, the borders hand-stenciled on three sheets of TGL handmade paper.
Screen back: Three sandblasted bronze panels hand painted by the artist with a mixture of chemicals, pigments, and dyes.
Dimensions: 81 × 99 × 4œ inches
More quick highlights:
- A collage/sculpture titled Pebble by Kurt Schwitters at Knoedler & Company
- 2 paintings from the late 1970s by Leon Golub of Henry Kissinger and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing at Rhona Hoffman
- A wall of Albers and Judd at Brooke Alexander
- The multiple-panel (ink, gesso gridwork) work by Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled (7 Days of Bloodwork), 1991, positioned next to two Agnes Martin grid ink works from the 1960s at Andrea Rosen. Their booth also had some lovely Richard Tuttle works.
- I was wondering if this work by Joseph Raphael, listed with a provenance from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, is one that Tyler Green has written about. I don't know the story on how it came to be for sale.
- Adler & Conkright had an amazing maquette for a poster by Rodchenko
- L&M Arts had prices on some wall labels. I never saw a price tag of $3,200,000 written out before. It was for a Tom Wesselman Great American Nude.
- Hans P. Kraus, Jr. had some beautiful photos of Kiev by the British photographer Roger Fenton, famous for his Crimean War photos. My favorite was Post House, Kiev, circa October 1852, salt print from a waxed paper negative, 35.3 × 27.0 cm.
I have a few more images of works in a flickr set.
[Jim Hodges photo by me, Helen Frankenthaler images supplied by David Tunick, Inc.]
