The business of art

Reflection of a banner of the Empire State Building. Columbus Circle. 10:00 PM. Photo: JH.

March 27, 2009. Grey, blah, chilly day, yesterday in New York with light, cold rain following after sundown.

My friend and neighbor Charlie Scheips invited me down to the Phillips de Pury Gallery on 450 West 15th Street to see the exhibition of photographs going up for auction next Wednesday, April 1st, in two sessions, morning and afternoon.

I love going to art galleries with Charlie. He’s a curator, art historian, know-it-all (not that he makes that claim). I always learn something when I’m in his company, especially under these circumstances. He lives, eats and breathes his business, which is the business of art.

Cindy Sherman, Lucille Ball, 1975. Estimate: $3,000 - $5,000.

David Lachapelle, Amanda as Liz in Orange, New York, 2007. Estimate: $20,000 - $30,000.

Henri Cartier-Bresson, Henri Matisse, Vence, France, 1944. Estimate: $5,000 - $7,000.

Victor Obsatz, Portrait of Marcel Duchamp, 1953. Estimate: $1,800 - $2,200.

Lucien Clergue, Picasso a la Cigarette, Cannes, 1956. Estimate: $1,000 - $1,500.

A series of Avedon photographs. Estimate: $100,000 - $200,000.

Last night’s opening at Phillips de Pury was fun. There was a big crowd but lots of space in the galleries so that you could see both the works and the people. And last night’s gallery with people looked as if it had just stepped out of a picture hanging on one walls. A young crowd over all, and very interested.

Charlie started pointing out photographs he knew would interest. There was a series of Richard Avedon photographs (one lot) with a picture of our friend Carmen, the now legendary model, smoothly leaping off a curb. You know who I mean by Carmen. Carmen dell’ Orefice, famous all over again for having known and invested with Bernie Madoff. Famous also for looking like a million bucks for longer than most of us have been alive. She doesn’t need Bernie Madoff.

I digress. The Phillips Gallery is a great space. It’s a big exhibition. There’s a photo that was taken of Pablo Casals, the only picture ever taken by this photographer of someone’s back.

Charlie Scheips pointing out the Richard Avedon photograph of Carmen about to cross the street.

The Phillips de Pury Gallery.

Chris Kerr and Charlie Horne.

Meg Meehan and Elizabeth Hamilton.

Charlie Scheips and Kelly Padden.

Mary and Danny Solomon.

Another view of the gallery.

Jean Cocteau.

Alexander Melamid, Snoop Dog, 2008.

At the bar.

Caroline Shea and Vanessa Kramer.

Guy Bourdin, Charles Jourdan, Spring, 1979. Estimate: $8,000 - $12,000.

Burt Glinn, Andy Warhol with Edie Sedgwick and Chuck Wein, New York, 1965. Estimate: $5,000 to $7,000.

Peter Beard, Ele and Kilimanjaro, 1984, Estimate: $20,000 to $30,000.

Shai Kremer, View of a minefeild, abandoned Syrian Base, Golan Heights, 2007. Estimate: $4,000 - $6,000.

Robert Mapplethorpe, Lisa Lyon, 1982. Estimate $10,000 - $15,000.

Allan Grant, Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly, backstage at the 29th Annual Academy Awards, Hollywood, Ca., 1956. Estimate: $5,000 to $7,000.

Philppe Halsmann, Dali's Mustache, 1959. Estimate: $5,000 - $7,000 (3 gelatin silver prints).

Sebastião Salgado, Churchgate Station, Bombay, India 1995. Estimate: $8,000 - $12,000.

About eight o’clock Charlie and I walked up 9th Avenue to 21st Street and the Gagosian Gallery at 522 West 21st Street, to see the Picasso; Mosqueteros show curated by John Richardson, the Picasso virtuoso biographer and friend of the master.

There was a crowd waiting outside to get in. This is a great show. You don’t have to be an art lover for Picasso. He couldn’t have cared less. When you see his pictures something happens. And you don’t have to explain it. They don’t require it.

Mr. Richardson, who is at once an art historian, art critic, and possibly the most erudite and entertaining raconteur anywhere (and I mean anywhere), is astoundingly knowledgeable on the arts, on history and on culture. He has a sharp yet sympathetic eye for irony, pretense, foibles, beauty, charm; and you name it. Plus he has a reporter’s sense of good gossip (the stuff you’d never read in print – even today – but that is currency in the corridors of power).

Picasso and John Richardson, Vauvenargues, 1959.

He first came to town from London in the days of the Capote swans and in short time, was introduced around by Minnie Cushing Astor Fosburgh. His great social success was based, however, not on his connections but on his great charm which transports this amazing brilliance. You learn when you’re in his company and you’re buoyed by it. All of these encomiums are inadequate except to convey a sense of the encyclopedic mind of the man who has the ability to show you how to look at art.

Evidently he’s been working on a consultancy basis with Gagosian. This show of his contains 45 paintings and more than 50 prints. These are “late” Picassos made approximately between 1962 and 1972, many of them still belonging to the family. Others were loaned by MoMA, the Foundation Beyeler in Basel as well as some private collectors. Only about 10% of the pictures are available for acquisition with prices ranging from $2 million to $20 million for the paintings, $6,000 to $40,000 for the prints.

John Richardson and Larry Gagosian.

Gagosian also is a great space for looking at the master’s works, and it is beautifully lighted. The crowd was a bit older and more glam. I saw Nicky Haslam, in from London; and Andre Balazs with Daphne Guinness.

I took a picture of Guinness and Balazs last week at the Valentino dinner. They were seated together and chatting. It occurred to me, knowing nothing about their relationship – although I’d assume they’ve met before – that they looked like they were meant for each other. They look like the perfect beautiful couple together. Both have been married before – he to Katie Ford of Ford Models; she to Spyros Niarchos of those Niarchoses. He was dating Uma Thurman for quite some time and she’s been seen in the company of several high profile worldly ones. But together they look like they’ve stepped out of an Avedon photograph taken in the Place Vendome or Mayfair. Having just stepped out of their Bentley Continental GT. Well, somebody has to.

Andre Balazs and Daphne Guinness looking at a Picasso.

Daphne Guinness and Bob Colacello.

Charlie Scheips and Maureen Mahoney.

Shelley Wanger Mortimer and Nicky Haslam.

Adam Cohen of Gagosian and Charlie Scheips.

Meanwhile back on the gritty rainswept streets of Manhattan last night, in chilly Chelsea, in the heart of the Art World, there was still a crowd waiting to get in the Gagosian Gallery as we left. I could only think how much they had to look forward to inside.

In yesterday’s New York Times John Richardson explained why Gagosian – which is also has an uptown gallery across from the Carlyle on Madison Avenue – chose to put this show in the Chelsea space. “To have it in a contemporary art area in Gagosian’s most contemporary space is to show Picasso as if he were a young artist ... You suddenly see him in a new light.”

It certainly seems that way as soon as you enter the gallery. The show runs through June 6th.

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