Around and about at the Biennale des Antiquaires in Paris

Editorial Staff Exhibitions

Drama and scandal swirled around the opening of the twenty-eighth edition of the Biennale des Antiquaires. Less than a week before the celebrated fair opened, there was a thwarted terrorist attack near Notre Dame that only heightened anxiety about security, which was already tight, at the glorious glass-domed Grand Palais where the fair takes place, and made Parisians even gloomier about the year’s precipitous drop in tourism due to earlier attacks.

The ADA’s 1st online antiques show

Editorial Staff Magazine

Please go to the web site for the Antique Dealers of America’s first online antiques show (adadealers.com), a three day round the clock event that lets you shop in your pajamas, guarantees authenticity, offers stuff exclusive to its venue, provides for buyer’s remorse, and eliminates the pre-show wheeling dealing that allows dealers to pick off each other’s stuff before you …

Surprises at the Armory Show

Editorial Staff Art

King by Alice Neel (1900-1988), c. 1954. India ink on paper, 13.33 by 11 inches. The Estate of Alice Neel, Courtesy Aurel Scheibler, Berlin. The modern section of the Armory Show on Pier 92 (March 6-9) opened with a significant surprise: an installation curated by Susan Harris, Venus Drawn Out: 20th Century Works by Great Woman Artists. Pier 92 had …

Seen and Heard

Editorial Staff Exhibitions

TRANSITIONS London-based Asian art specialist Ben Janssens, who was injured in a cycling accident last August, has resigned as chairman of the European Fine Art Fair after seven years. He will continue serving on TEFAF’s board of trustees and as chairman of its Antiquairs section. Willem van Roijen succeeds Janssens, replacing acting TEFAF chairman Robert Aronson. Joshua W. Lane (left) …

A major exhibition offers a fresh look at William Glackens

Editorial Staff Art

“Armenian Girl” by Glackens, 1916. Oil on canvas, 32 by 26 inches. The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia and Merion, PA. The Soda Fountain by William James Glackens (American, 1870-1938), 1935. Oil on canvas, 48 by 36 inches. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Joseph E. Temple and Henry D. Gilpin Funds 1955. Installation view at Nova Southeastern University’s Museum of Art, Fort Luaderdale. Photograph by Steven …

Comings and goings

Editorial Staff Magazine

Comings and Goings Joshua W. Lane has been named the Lois F. and Henry S. McNeil Curator of Furniture at Winterthur Museum. Lane, curator of furniture at Historic Deerfield since 2000, assumes the post on April 14. He directed Historic Deerfield’s Summer Fellowship Program between 2005 and 2012.  Lane replaces Wendy Cooper, who retired last year.   Malcolm Rogers, director …

Banning ivory: A nuanced approach needed

Editorial Staff Furniture & Decorative Arts

What began as a well-intentioned effort to halt the wanton slaughter of elephants has resulted in sweeping restrictions on the U.S. trade in elephant ivory.  As part of the Obama administration’s broader strategy to combat wildlife trafficking, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on February 11 announced new regulations prohibiting all imports, even antiques made partly or entirely of the …

Charles Marville, Photographer of Paris

Editorial Staff Exhibitions

In the mid-nineteenth century Baron Haussmann’s famous transformation of Paris into the city of wide boulevards and parks that we now know erased a me­dieval Paris of narrow streets and congested neighborhoods. This older Paris was captured by the photographer Charles Marville just be­fore its demolition. Marville also photographed the new Paris as well as doing cloud studies and other …

Record-breaking folk art at Sotheby’s

Editorial Staff Art

Sotheby’s set a record on Saturday, January 25, with the sale of the Ralph O. Esmerian Collection of Folk Art. The 228 lots reached a total of $12,955,943 eclipsing the previous record set by Sotheby’s in 1994 with the sale of the Bertram K. and Nina Fletcher Little Collection. Saturday’s top lot was the 1923 figure of Santa Claus by …

On the money

Editorial Staff Art

By Laura Beach Yorkshire calendar and almanac Calendar and almanac, probably York or Ripon, Yorkshire, England, c. 1425. Ink, tempera, and gold leaf on parchment, each page 6 by 4 1/8 inches. WHY:  Priced in the six figures by Les Enluminures of Paris, New York, and Chicago, this calendar and almanac of about 1425, with prognostications in Latin, illustrates the English …