Archives for March 2009

There’s no debate over the state of the contemporary art market — it’s pretty dead. But the once high-flying Chinese contemporary art market, well, that may or may not be equally depressed.

On March 10, The New York Times said it was, citing recent auction results and quoting Zoe Butt, the director of Long March Space: “The era of Chinese contemporary art commanding such high prices is over.” Long March recently closed two of its three galleries in Beijing.

On Mar. 11, Pace Wildenstein chairman Arne Glimcher fought back, publishing a piece in The Daily Beast asserting that “I’ve heard people saying ‘the China thing’ is over but that’s not true.” He provided no backup, though, and failed to disclose his self-interest. (A commenter called him out, telling readers about Pace’s new gallery in Beijing and its representation of two prominent Chinese artists.)

A few months back, when I interviewed Belgian Baron Guy Ullens — who has collected these works works for more than 20 years — for the April Town & Country, he said the days of everything-sells were over.

Yet, next Thursday, Acquavella Galleries — always highly attuned to what sells —
will open the first U.S. solo show, 20 works in all, of Zeng Fanzhi (right, Self-Portrait, 2008). Zeng holds the auction record for Chinese contemporary paintings, $9.7 million. 

Ullens, who recently announced that he was selling part of his huge collection at a May auction (according to Bloomberg), provided some very interesting context about the coming years, though: “Before 1998 or 2000, the Chinese were not producing a lot. The good stuff of the old times is limited….[But] There are 50,000 to 70,000 going to art school in China right now. You can see the wave coming.”

Ullens, who with his wife cofounded the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, was looking forward to seeing the work of that wave, which will eventually make its way here. That could be energizing to contemporary art.

But consider this: So far, only about 40 contemporary Chinese artists have gained art-historical recognition, according to Yishu: The Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art.  Is there an appetite for so many more? Will the weeding take place there, or here?  

Photo: Acquavella Galleries 

A grand jury has spoken: art dealer Larry Salander has been indicted on 100 counts, “including grand larceny, falsifying business records, scheming to defraud, forgery and perjury,” according to The New York Times website. Salander has been arrested; more details will be coming out during the day. The total stolen was calculated at $88 million.

Everyone who ever visited his posh gallery on East 71st Street in New York wondered how Salander did it; we’re about to learn more details. In the context of Wall Street scandals, this must look small — but the art world doesn’t need this now.

Here’s the Times story.

 

I know AJ’s readers want to believe that the Obama Administration will do wonders for the arts and humanities communities. I know you don’t like to hear otherwise. But I have to tell you honestly what my reporting turns up: so far, not so good.

Yes, the $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts in the stimulus bill was great news. But while we wait for appointments to head the NEA and the National Endowment for
the Humanities, the appointment of Kareem Dale (below) as mini-czar — which is now likely to be temporary — and two lesser appointments suggest politics-as-usual.  

Last night, The Daily Beast published my report on this. As I hinted when I first wrote here about Dale (stay tuned, I said), his appointment is not likely to last very long. It’s sad that his name was discovered by, or leaked to, The New York Times in the first place. 

The most disappointing element of the story, however, is the appointment of Hollywood fundraiser Jeremy Bernard as the NEH’s White House and Congressional liaison; it’s an important job. Bernard claims a bachelor’s degree from Hunter College on his website, but Hunter says he did not graduate. When queried, the NEH said the degree is not in his documentation for the appointment. But the whole thing, not just the resume inflation, makes him a bit of an odd fit for the scholarly NEH.

I am pretty sure, by the way, that the White House has recognized this whole situation as a personnel snafu that has to be fixed. And it will — the question now is how and when. 

Here’s a link to my Beast article.

And P.S.  I did not write the headline or deck.   

The Indianapolis Museum of Art is having a good March: there’s been a steady stream of announcements — on a laudable new searchable database of deaccessions, the acquisition of Gauguin’s “Volpini Suite” of zincographs, and this week on the news that the museum had met its goal of acquiring 125 gifts for its 125th anniversary in 2008.

But on my recent visit there — too short — I had a chance to see first-hand, and was charmed by, a less splashy effort by the museum. Last year, the IMA was among the first of the museums to receive art from the “Fifty Works for 50 States” program started by legendary collectors Herb and Dorothy Vogel. They are, of course, the one-time mail clerk and librarian who donated 1,000 works to the National Gallery of Art and then had so much more to give that they set up a program to spread the rest throughout the land — with 50 works going to one museum in each of the 50 states. 

I visited the Vogels last fall on an assignment for The Art Newspaper: They are exactly as billed. Soft-spoken, humble, the very opposite of many flamboyant contemporary art collectors, they really do have a rent-stabilized apartment on New York’s Upper East Side that is filled to the ceilings with art works and art books. I sat at their kitchen table (as they do, below) and could find no place to hang my coat, bag or umbrella.

This was the situation after they had made their gifts!

Imagine what it was like before the trucks came to carry artworks away.    

Last December, the Indianapolis Museum became the the first to display all of its nifty 50 at once. And they look fine in a gallery of their own. Mostly works on paper, this collection includes pieces by Robert Mangold (below, Looped Line Torn Zone), Lynda Benglis, James Bishop, Elizabeth Murray, Edda Renouf and Richard Tuttle. They were made between the late 1960s and 2000.  

The IMA show runs through April 12. After that the works will be displayed throughout the collection. I’m not familiar enough with the IMA’s collection to make a judgment about how these works fit in and fill in, but Max Anderson, the director, certainly seemed pleased with these acquisitions.  

As for the Vogels, because of their health and age, they’ve slowed down — though they told me they are still collecting. And they love it when artist-friends drop by. In December, they made their first visit to Art Basel Miami Beach, where the documentary about them, “Herb & Dorothy,” was being shown. And as the IMA shows, what a great legacy they’ve created.   

Here’s a link to my article from The Art Newspaper, and here’s a link to the documentary website. There, you can find out where to see the award-winning show.

Photo Credits: (top) courtesy Fine Line Media; (bottom) courtesy Indianapolis Museum of Art.  

A few weeks back, I mentioned an article in the Wall Street Journal describing an effort by the National Committee for Responsible Philanthropy to get foundations to devote a much larger proportion of their grants to minorities, poverty alleviation and other social causes. If the Committee succeeded, the arts would obviously be disadvantaged.

Today the Journal continues its coverage with an article about reaction to the report. Some foundations are fighting back. One — the California Wellness Foundation — even cancelled its membership with the Committee, the author, Mike Spector reports. And Paul Brest, president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, called the recommendation “breathtakingly arrogant.”

Kudos to the Journal for its continuing coverage. You can read the whole article here. The comments are good, too.