The Art of it all

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A pendant drop on a cherry blossom bud in Central Park. 2:30 PM. Photo: JH.

Yesterday in New York was overcast with temperatures in the mid-40s. In the early evening, the rains came, taking it down to the high 30s, and cold wet.


The rains came. East End Avenue looking south at 9:45 pm, last night.

Back in the room, looking at the current calendar, this past Tuesday night, the Argentine Consulate in New York hosted the opening of Tropical Icebergs, a retrospective of the works of Argentine artists Cecilia Duhau. Duhau, who is known for her digital paintings and laser cut sculptures, celebrated her American debut in great company. Guests included Ambassador Marcelo Giusto, Consul General of Argentina, Dimitri of Yugoslavia, Francesco Genuardi, Consul General of Italy, Isabel Achaval, Angela Tassoni, Edgar Batista, Marta Fernandez, Alejandra Cicognani, Dianora Salviati, Rene Alvaro Domingo.


Francesco Genuardi, Consul General of Italy in New York, Cecilia Duhau, Isabel Achaval Genuardi, and Ambassador Marcelo Giusto, Consul General of Argentina in New York
L to R.: Kathy Sloane and Maria Estrany-y-Gendre; Angela Tassoni and Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia
Marta Fernandez, Arielle Patrick, Margaret Hathaway, Patti Ruiz-Healy, and Camila Sarmiento
Angela Tassoni, Edgar Batista, and Alejandra Cicognani
Barbara Valfré, Dianora Salviati, and Angela Tassoni
Cecilia Duhau and Victoria Stapley-Brown, Museum Editor of The Art Newspaper

The Art of it all; the Exhilaration of Discovery. This past Saturday (2/2/19) was the final day of the 13th annual Master Drawing New York. For those of us who don’t much follow the world of art sales, this is one of those secrets: it’s big. This year, for example, the dealers reported outstanding sales, great public interest and sold-out Lecture programs.

For one week at the end of January and the beginning of this month, legions of art collectors, institutions, curators and dealers took over Manhattan’s Upper East Side to participate. 30 of the world’s leading international art experts exhibited an outstanding array of drawings, paintings, watercolors, sculpture and oil sketches from the 14th to the 21st centuries.

Originally conceived as an annual walk-through, Master Drawings New York has become a ‘must see’ event, with its range and influence growing each year. Many works offered were newly discovered or had not been seen on the market in decades, if at all.


Ambrose Naumann Fine Art.
Cameron Shay at Graham Shay 1857 / Kapoor Galleries.
W&K — Wienerroither & Kohlbacher.
Stephen Ongpin.
Robert Simon Fine Art.

Museum attendance was especially vigorous. Curators and museum professionals visited from J. Paul Getty Museum the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Morgan Library and Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Participating exhibitors agreed. Thomas Deprez, an exhibitor from Belgium, was “absolutely astonished by the amount of interest and activity from the American museums and institutions.”


Jill Newhouse Gallery.
Graham Shay 1857 & Kapoor Galleries.
Galerie J. Kugel at Brimo Di Castro Kugel.
David Tunick, Inc.
Carlton Hobbs.

One of the big draws was a loan exhibition FIGURE/STUDY: Drawings from the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University from the Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, made possible through a generous contribution from Tomasso Brothers Fine Art. It is currently housed in the Carlton Hobbs mansion at 60 East 93rd Street.

A highlight from this exhibition was the beautiful work by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, British, 1828–1882, Drawing for The Blue Bower, 1865 Pencil; 19 1/4 × 13 inches (48.9 × 33 cm). This drawing has long served both students and seasoned artists as a tool for perfecting representation and experimenting with the human form. With the help of studio models, portrait sitters, and, sometimes, lovers, these representations further the relationship between the artist and the subject’s body or visage. Works from culturally and temporally disparate artists, including Abraham Bloemaert, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Pablo Picasso, show the enduring relevance of the figural study.


L to R.: Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Drawing for The Blue Bower (1865) was a highlight from FIGURE/STUDY: Drawings from the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University;  The completed work, The Blue Bower, 1865; is currently housed in the collection of the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham, England.

Masters Drawings New York began as a casual gallery walk during the Old Masters auctions and The Winter Antiques Show in New York. Since its co-founding in 2006 by Margot Gordon, an Old Masters specialist based in the city, and Crispian Riley-Smith of London, the week has grown into a highly anticipated occasion. Make sure to mark your calendars for next year’s edition.

In the meantime, here are some of the highlights from the 13th annual Master Drawing New York …


Auguste Rodin
Femme Nue Allongée, circa 1900
Benjamin Proust Fine Art Ltd.
Bartholomeus Spranger
Saint Ursula, ca. 1583
Christopher Bishop Fine Art
Alexander Calder
On the Blue Swamp, 1966
Watercolor on paper, 780 x 580 mm.
David Tunick, Inc
Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Cupid dictating a letter to a young woman, Executed c. 1765-70
Pen and ink and grey wash heightened with white gouache on blue paper, (16 x 12 in.)
Didier Aaron, Inc.
Childe Hassam (1859-1935)
The Willow and the Bather
Watercolor, Charcoal and Gouache on Paperboard, 362 x 254 mm (14 1/4 x 10 in.)
Findlay Galleries
Léonard Limosin, Portrait of Henri II, King of France, Circa 1553
Enamel on copper
A highlight of the exhibition, Portraits from the French Renaissance Drawings, Paintings, Enamels and Sculptures
Galerie J. Kugel
James Gillray (1757-1815)
The Garden of Paradise – or Comforts of a Bed of Roses
Pen and brown and black ink and red and black chalks over pencil
Guy Peppiatt
Biagio Pupini, called Biagio delle Lame (1511-1575)
Venus at the forge of Vulcan, asking for arms for Cupid
pen and brown ink, heightened with a white, red and brown wash on prepared paper
293 x 205 mm (11 5/8 x 8 in)
Hazlitt
Portrait of an Actor or Self-Portrait Caricature, c. 1890
Edouard Vuillard, (1868-1940)
Pastel on grey paper
30.5 x 21.9 mm (12 x 8 5/8 in.)
Jill Newhouse
Orfeo
Giorgio de Chirico (1888 – 1978)
Charcoal, brush with black ink and wash, brown chalk.
477 x 327 mm (18 7/8 x 12 7/8 in.). Signed at lower right of drawing: G. de Chirico. titled below drawing: Orfeo.
Mia N. Weiner
The Evening Star, 1871
Simeon Solomon (1840-1905)
Watercolor on paper
12 x 9 3/8 in (30.5 x 24.1 cm.)
Monogrammed & dated ‘SS 1871’
Mireille Mosler, Ltd.
Untitled (from a 1931 Sketchbook)
Arshile Gorky (1902-1948)
Ink on paper
12 1/2 x 9 3/8 inches Part of a special exhibition of early drawings by Arshile Gorky from the private collection of legendary dealer and champion of Surrealism, Julien Levy, during the 1970s.
© 2019 The Arshile Gorky Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Pavel Zoubok Fine Art
Anthony Baus
Ruins of the Mithraic Mysteries, 2018
Pen and sepia ink and wash on toned paper
12″ x 15″ inches
Part of the exhibition Introducing Anthony Baus: After the Antique at Master Drawings New York
Robert Simon Fine Art
White Form (La Forme Blanche)
Vasily (Wassily) Kandinsky (1866-1944)
Gouache on black paper, laid down on board.
322 x 498 mm. (12 5/8 x 19 5/8 in.)
Stephen Ongpin Fine Art
Ugolino and his sons
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1827-1857)
Plaster, 53.5 high
Stuart Lochhead
Self-portrait of the artist
Frantz Charlet (1862-1928)
Pastel on paper mounted on canvas, 880 x 1200 mm
Signed lower left “f. Charlet”
PROVENANCE: By descent into the family of the artist
Thomas Deprez
Laocoön and his Sons After the Antique
Italian, late 17th / early 18th century
Bronze
52 cm high, 39 cm wide, 20 cm deep
Tomasso Brothers Fine Art
A Seated Sibyl Holding Books and a Tablet with a Putto
Michelangelo Anselmi (1491-1554)
Red and black chalk, 211 x 206 mm (8 3/8 x 8 1/8 in.)
W.M. Brady & Co.
Girl Leaning On Her Elbow, 1915
Egon Schiele (1890-1918)
Charcoal on paper, 19.7 x 13.1 inch
Signed and dated lower left
W&K – Wienerroither & Kohlbacher | Fine Art

Photographs by Constanza Mirré (Tropical Icebergs); Jahmel Reynolds (MDNY)

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