from The Magazine ANTIQUES, May/June 2013 | At some point during the 1800s, when nobody was looking, an institution passed away that for centuries had been a fixture of the visual arts: the artistic dynasty, the family of painters who, across several generations, maintained a consistent aesthetic profile. One is put in mind of this institution, and of its demise, …
The glitter of Night Hauling: Andrew Wyeth in the 1940s
from The Magazine ANTIQUES, May/June 2012 | How do we account for the strangeness of Andrew Wyeth’s art of the 1940s? How, that is, beyond discerning the surrealist undertones, finding the magic realist affinities, or seeing that Wyeth followed in a Brandywine tradition whose oddity was firmly established by Howard Pyle-lone pirates on desolate shores; magicians and curly-shoed dwarves; Revolutionary …
The comeback: The National Academy reopens with six new exhibitions
from The Magazine ANTIQUES, September/October 2011 | The National Academy reopens with six exhibitions designed to reclaim its pivotal role in American art and architecture. Many who stroll along New York’s Museum Mile surely break their stride at the handsome Beaux Arts facade at 1083 Fifth Avenue, just to the north of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. They slow down …
This Week’s Top Lots: November 30 – December 4
Sotheby’s London/November 30, Romanov Heirlooms Total: £7 million * 25th wedding anniversary four-color gold cigarette case by Fabergé for Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna and Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, 1899 £612,450 (estimate £50,000-70,000) * Jewelled three-color gold cigarette case by Fabergé, 1899-1908 £601,250 (estimate £25,000-35,000) * Two-color gold and enamel box by Fabergé with a note from Emperor Nicholas II, c. …
American paintings at auction
On the horizon are the fall sales of American paintings, drawings, and sculpture at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in New York. Among the highlights to be offered at Christie’s, on December 2, is Andrew Wyeth’s 1960 Above the Narrows, a painting the New York Times art critic Roberta Smith once referred to as “bleak” and “inexplicably barren,” featuring a young boy …