Paul Cézanne’s Vue sur L’Estaque et le Château d’If has been placed under export bar in the United Kingdom this week in an attempt to keep the work in the nation. “I hope that the temporary export bar I have put in place will result in a UK buyer coming forward and that the painting will soon be back on the walls of one of our great public collections,” says minister of culture Ed Vaizey. (more…)
The LA Times traces the path of 8 Cézanne canvases originally intended for donation to the White House, and the political maneuverings that eventually sent the majority of them to the National Gallery. Through a series of closed door meetings and forceful persuasion, then chief curator John Walker III convinced the donors (who had previously intended to give the works to the White House), to instead donate them to his museum. “I still feel ashamed,” Walker once wrote. “I behaved abominably and frightened a dear friend nearly to death.” (more…)
Vik Muniz, Pictures of Magazine 2 (Installation View), via Galeria Elba BenÃtez
Currently on view at Galeria Elba BenÃtez in Madrid, Pictures of Magazine 2 is a solo show for Brazilian artist Vik Muniz. The works in this exhibition are created using Muniz’s unique collage process, combining magazine images to recreate the works of famous artists, all while incorporating his own artistic bent. He then takes photographs of his finished collages, enlarges them, and prints them to create the finished piece. (more…)
A deceased Metropolitan Museum trustee, Stephen Clark, had donated Cézanne’s “Madame Cézanne in the Conservatory”, which he purchased in 1933. Title was contested by Pierre Konowaloff, who was the sole heir of a collector whose assets were confiscated by the state during the Russian Revolution. Konowaloff argued that there was no legal process in the seizure and that the painting was unduly exported as a result. The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled that legal doctrine precludes U.S. courts from inquiring into the validity of decisions by recognized foreign sovereign governments within their own territory. (more…)
Pablo Picasso, Femme à la Fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse) courtesy Sotheby’s
Christie’s Impressionist and Modern sale will commence this evening; due to the destruction from the hurricane, Sotheby’s rescheduled its Impressionist sale from November 5th to tomorrow, Thursday the 8th. Airport closures and power outages worried many that the international collecting crowd would not be able to attend. In a season that boasts over a possible billion dollars in revenue and a possible record breaking year at auction, postponement was inevitable.
Both houses are flush with important and iconic works by a plethora of leading artists such as Picasso, Monet, Kandinsky, Miro, Brancusi and Cézanne.
Wassily Kandinsky, Studie für Improvisation 8 courtesy Christie’s
(more…)
