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The Chrysler Museum of Art … and one that got away

The Chrysler Museum of Art alongside The Hague in Norfolk, Virginia … and one that got away.

“The history of the Chrysler Museum includes stories of 19th century feminist visionaries & a mid-20th century penny drive by schoolchildren to buy a single Renoir that was about the size of a paperback book.

“Clearly, everything moved to a new level when Walter Chrysler, Jr. came to town.”

Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., born in 1909 and the son of the founder of the Chrysler Corporation, met, as a young man, leading avant-garde artists in Paris. Retiring from active business in 1956 (he served as President of New York’s Chrysler Building from 1935 to 1953), he devoted himself to the arts.

Mr. Chrysler’s wife, Jean Outland Chrysler, was born and raised in Norfolk. In part influenced by her, Walter Chrysler agreed in 1971 with the City of Norfolk to gift thousands of his works of art to the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences, to be re-named the Chrysler Museum of Art.

Before he relocated his collection, however, Mr. Chrysler, “who once owned a couple hundred Picassos,” traded works – some good trades, some not so good.

He also was generous with institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Chicago’s Art Institute of Chicago.

Gustave Caillebotte’s “Paris Street; Rainy Day” of 1877 was for years owned by the descendants of Caillebotte.

The painting was acquired by Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. in the 1950s.

It was then acquired by and entered the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1964.

C’est dommage.  🙁

Wrote The New York Times art critic John Russell:

“It would be difficult to spend time in the Chrysler Museum and not come away convinced that the most underrated American art collector of the past 50 years was the late Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.”

 

See:

  1. “Chrysler Museum of Art”
  2. “Fun Facts: Paris Street; Rainy Day,” Katie Rahn, @artinstitutechi, 22 May 2015

 

#art #artmarket #museums #chryslermuseum #collection #portfolio #norfolk #virginia #gustavecaillebotte #caillebotte #picasso #artinstituteofchicago #chicago #paris #impressionism #arthistory #history #newyork #chryslerbuilding #amsterdam #thehague #berlin #hongkong #shanghai #seoul #tokyo #dubai #realestatedevelopment #luxury #architecture #design #philanthropy

 

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Zao Wou-ki’s “29.01.64” (oil on canvas, 1964)

abstraction | a kind of inner imaginary landscape

The grand and bold “29.01.64” (the date of its completion; oil on canvas) sold at Christie’s Hong Kong in May 2017 for $19.7 million, then an auction record for the artist, “to bidders who clearly wanted this picture.”

Zao Wou-ki (1920-2013) moved to Paris from Beijing, where he was born, in 1948, began working with New York dealer Samuel Koontz (who encouraged him to experiment with larger formats) in 1956, and took a larger studio in the Montparnasse neighborhood of Paris in 1961.

Christie’s Paris’ specialist Clara Rivollet highlights the very complex composition:

“There’s actually a structure of very deep, black brushstrokes an then you can see around a kind of dilute-ink-wash-like oil around it and then on top of it he adds a whole network of intricate lines.

“You have very controlled sinuous lines that remind us of Chinese calligraphy. But also this very kind of loose movement in white paint is very inspired by Jackson Pollock’s painting.

“The painting could be a Western painting because it’s abstract. But actually in its essence it remains very Chinese because for Zao Wou-ki abstraction always represents a kind of inner imaginary landscape like the Chinese literati painting would do.”

“29.09.64”, at 230 x 345 cm. (90 1/2 x 135 7/8 in.), is one of the two largest that Zao painted in the 1960s.

It was purchased directly from the artist in 1969 by a French architect who built hospitals, research centers, and administrative buildings throughout France and Algeria in the years of rapid modernization following World War II.

“29.09.64” remained in the family’s collection for 48 years. The original owner’s son consigned the painting to Christie’s.

In an early 2017 exhibition, New York gallery Lévy Gorvy paired the works of Willem de Kooning and Zao Wou-ki. A little boost to the market?

 

See:

  1. “An inner, imaginary landscape: Zao Wou-ki’s ‘29.09.64,” Christie’s
  2. “Contemporaries: Voices from East & West / Asian 20th C. and Contemporary Art,” lot 4, Christie’s HK, 27 May 2017;
  3. “Zao Wou-ki’s 29.09.64 Sets Record in Hong Kong with $19.7m Sale,” Marion Maneker, Art Market Monitor, 29 May 2017.

 

 

#art #artmarket #zaowouki #arthistory #contemporaryart #postwarart #paris #france #newyork #abstraction #abstractexpressionism #jacksonpollock #literatipainting #songdynasty #oiloncanvas #inkonpaper #calligraphy #hongkong #beijing #berlin #vienna #milan #dubai #algeria #africa #realestatedevelopment #architecture #design #luxury #christie’s #LévyGorvy

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Dan Colen

Dan Colen’s “TBT” (chewing gum and gum wrappers on canvas, in artist’s frame, 2008) sold at the Phillips Auction New York Contemporary Art Day sale of 17 May 2013 for $305,000.

Born in Leonia, New Jersey in 1979 and a 2001 BFA graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Dan Colen has long questioned the “editorial decisions artists have to make when creating a scene from scratch on canvas.”

Stepping away from paint as a medium in 2006, Colen started using chewing gum. In 2008 he wrote, “When I first started, the canvases were very sparse … It slowly developed into a more elaborate and involved process. I started adding a lot more gum to each canvas; I would put pieces down, pick them up again, move ’em around, stretch them out, mush ’em together, and mix flavors to create new colors”.

Dan Colen creates his work in a variety of media – painting, sculpture, photography, performance, and installation – from a variety of materials including gum, dirt, grass, tar, feathers, and street trash from the street.

He examines cultural mythologies and archetypes, the boundaries between “high” and “low” art, and the artist’s measure of “control” over the behavior of a given material.

Dan Colen’s recent “Purgatory” (2017) is a work of strong imagination and probing. On view at New York’s Lévy Gorvy Gallery, that now collaborates with Gagosian and Massimo De Carlo to represent Mr. Colen, stylistically it is as if by another artist entirely. Oil on canvas in deep reds and black, the painting draws the viewer frighteningly in along a diagonal through a tunnel of dark clouds back towards a receding glow.

Mr. Colen’s works are in a number of public and private collections including New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Art Gallery,  LACMA, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Oslo’s Astrup Fearnley Museet, Stockholm’s Moderna Museet, the Dakis Joannou Collection in Athens, Miami’s de la Cruz Collection, and Puerto Rico’s Jiménez-Colón Collection.

 

See:

Dan Colen, “TBT,” 2008, Phillips Contemporary Art Day, New York, 17 May 2013, Lot 125

Dan Colen, Gagosian

Dan Colen, Lévy Gorvy

“Lévy Gorvy to Represent Dan Colen in Collaboration with Gagosian, Massimo De Carlo,” Sarah Douglas, ArtNews, 31 May 2017

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private museums | Oslo’s Astrup Fearnley Museet

The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art is a privately owned contemporary art museum in Oslo, Norway. The museum was funded by two philanthropic organizations, the Thomas Fearnley Foundation and the Heddy and Nils Astrup Foundation, that merged in 1995 to form the Thomas Fearnley, Heddy and Nils Astrup Foundation.

Established and opened to the public in 1993, the museum moved into two new buildings in 2012.

The two new buildings, located in the Tjuvholmen skulpturpark along the banks of the Oslofjord in the center of Oslo, are designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano (who also designed New York’s new Whitney Museum of American Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen, Switzerland).

The collecting focus of the museum is Norwegian and international contemporary art. Artists represented include Olafur Eliasson, Francis Bacon, Janine Antoni, Dan Colen, Cao Fei, Olav Christoper Jenssen, Elmgreen & Dragset, Jeff Koons, Fischli & Weiss, Sigmar Polke, Richard Prince, Charles Ray, Gerhard Richter, Torbjørn Rødland, Matthew Ronay, Cindy Sherman, and Christopher Wool.

See:

Astrup Fearnley Museet, www.afmuseet.no/en/hjem;

“Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo, Norge,” GoNorway

 

#art #artmarket #contemporaryart #museums #privatemuseums #collection #collector #dancolen #olavchristopherjenssen #christopherwool #torbjørnrødland #francisbacon #signarpolke #gerhardrichter #astrupfearnley #astrupfearnleymuseet #oslo #norway #renzopiano #architecture #design #engineering #whitneymuseum #whitney #lacma #centrepompidou #fondationbeyeler #newyork #paris #losangeles #riehen #hongkong #luxury #realestate #philanthropy

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R8 Property’s energy positive Powerhouse Telemark

Powerhouse Telemark, an energy positive (producing more energy than it consumes) 6,500-square-meter (70,000-square-foot), 11-story office building, has been commissioned by real estate developer Emil Eriksrød for the Norwegian town of Porsgrunn.

Eriksrød has commissioned the American-Norwegian architecture and design firm Snøhetta to design the building. Powerhouse Telemark is set to be completed in February of 2019.

 “The future is all about thinking big, bold, and long term,” says Snøhetta founding partner Kjetil Trædal Thorson, “and we need someone to pave the way. With its innovative solutions and design, we believe this building will inspire commercial real estate developers worldwide to push the limits of what buildings can accomplish”.

“The world needs a lot of energy-positive buildings,” observes the developer, Emil Eriksrød, CEO of R8 Property. “I hope we will be plagiarized and copied, replicated in all seven continents.”

“This building should do wonders in lowering the bar for daring to do both spectacular and environmentally forward buildings, hopefully in a combination”.


See:

“Snøhetta Designs World’s Northernmost Energy Positive Building in Norway,” Patrick Lynch, ArchDaily, 18 January 2017

“Snøhetta designs ‘potentially world-changing office building’ for small Norwegian town,” Amy Frearson, Dezeen, 19 January 2017

 

#powerhousetelemark #emileriksrød #r8property # snøhetta #porsgrunn #norway #design #architecture #engineering #realestatedevelopment #realestate #commercialrealestate #energy #energypositive #solar #solarenergy #co2 #resilience #luxury #art #artmarket #collections #collectionsmanagement #museums #newyork #berlin #milan #beijing #shanghai #hongkong #seoul #taipei #jakarta #singapore

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Mark Bradford: “Constitution IV” (2013)

Mark Bradford’s “Constitution IV” (mixed media on canvas, 2013) sold, from the collection of Fredric Brandt, plastic surgeon to the stars, for £3,778,500 at the Phillips London Contemporary Art Evening Sale of 14 October 2015. This sale set an auction record, since exceeded, for the artist.

Mark Bradford, born in Los Angeles, California in 1961, continues to live and work in Los Angeles. He has been exclusively represented by Hauser & Wirth since 2015.

Christopher Bedford, director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, considers Mark Bradford to be “the most important living abstract painter”.

The catalogue prepared by Phillips observes that “Mark Bradford’s vast tactile works characterized by their décollaged surfaces, evoke a sense of transience and instability. In compositions such as ‘Constitution IV’ however, these ideas transcend material objects and infiltrate less physical subjects consequently, indicating the fragility of seemingly solid notions.”

The essay continues, “Using printed text through his collage and décollage technique the canvas becomes a surface offering insights into further meanings and depths … Thus, the viewer is drawn into Bradford’s works in order to try and draw meaning from the myriad of letters flickering in and out of focus.”

See:

Phillips, Contemporary Art Evening Sale, London, 14 October 2015, Lot 21

“Phillips Rebounds With $48.8M Contemporary Art Haul in London, Setting Records for Bradford and Nara,” Nate Freeman, ArtNews, 14 October 2015;

“This Painting Will Put Mark Bradford among the Most Expensive Living Artists,” Nate Freeman, Artsy, 22 February 2018

 

#art #artmarket #markbradford #contemporaryart #abstraction #collection #artcollector #hauser&wirth #baltimoremuseumofart #christopherbedford #baltimore #maryland #losangeles #california #venice #luxury #newyork #paris #berlin #london #beijing #shanghai #hongkong #seoul #tokyo #taipei #jakarta #singapore #realestate #commercialrealestate

 

 

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“Suprematist Composition” (Kazimir Malevich, 1916) to be sold in May

Loïc Gouzer, Christie’s Co-Chairman of Post-War and Contemporary Art, has announced that he will be selling the painting “Suprematist Composition” (Kazimir Malevich, oil on canvas, 1916) in May. Estimate: $70 million.

“Suprematist Composition” was last sold at Sotheby’s on 3 November 2008 by the heirs of the artist (after being in the collection of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam for several decades). Art dealer David Nahmad purchased the painting for US $60,002,500.

Mr. Gouzer is confident of the art historic, and current market, value of this work. “‘A work like this one should be the corner stone of every major collection or museum and if the market was indexed to the art historical importance of works, then this should be a billion $ painting (although we as specialists have to sadly take into account the laws of gravity and the estimate will be in the region of $70m).'”

Sixth sense matters. “’I relate it a lot to my spearfishing—you don’t know why, but you know that if you dive now the big fish is going to come. When you’re at the surface, you don’t see anything, but you just have this instinct that it is going to happen. In art, it is the same thing—this instinct sometimes that I know a painting is going to move.’”

Company matters too. “’If you start putting works around another work, they give each other meaning. Each of the works are in dialogue, and they help each other.'”

 

See:

“Loïc Gouzer’s $70m Malevich for May,” Marion Maneker, Art Market Monitor, 10 April 2018

“The Daredevil of the Auction World,” Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 4 July 2016

Sotheby’s “Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale,” Lot No. 6, Kazimir Malevich, “Suprematist Composition,” 3 November 2008, New York

 

#art #artmarket #kazimirmalevich #christie’s #loïcgouzer #russia #suprematism #suprematistcomposition #modernism #abstraction #geneva #switzerland #vienna #austria #brittany #france #sothebys #davidnahmad #luxury #beijing #shanghai #hongkong #taipei #seoul #jakarta #singapore

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A Tesla of Real Estate Development

Perch Harlem is a style-intensive newly-constructed market-rate rental building at 542 West 153rd Street in Manhattan that uses 90% less gas and energy than a traditional building.

“One of the goals we had was to build this at market rate, so that we could prove it could be done,” says Justin Palmer, founder of Synapse Development Group. “We really look to a design company like Tesla for a lot of inspiration, because everyone was a naysayer. The traditional car manufacturers told them, nobody will ever buy it, you don’t have enough range, it can’t be done. Well, we heard it all, too.”

Developed by Synapse Development Group with Taurus Investment Holdings and designed by Brooklyn-based architect Chris Benedict who builds to passive standards at no extra cost, Perch features triple insulation, windows strategically placed and sized to maximize natural solar heat, and high-tech heat exchangers that recycle air to heat and cool its interior.

“Using using innovative construction methodologies, like Passive House, that have direct, tangible benefits for our investors, tenants, and the environment, [the Synapse Development Group] approach is laser focused: reduce energy consumption in our buildings while still maintaining the amenities of 21st century living. Through relentless innovation, we bring the latest technology and design practices to what we build.”

Far from compromising the “direct bottom line,” placing environmental interests alongside the interests of investors and tenants makes sense observes Justin Palmer, founder of Synapse Development Group, and provides the development industry a better paradigm for evaluating and leveraging risk and profit.

Building passive is necessary for a changing climate, both figuratively and literally, he says, and the energy cost-savings are a win-win scenario for developers and tenants. “We’re trying to provide a solution to the high carbon footprint that most cities have from the built environment, as well as solve the ongoing affordability issue through intelligent design,” Palmer says, and through reliable energy-performance metrics, “provide better risk-adjusted returns to our investment partners.”

See:

“Meet the Developer Who Wants To Be the Tesla of Housing” | Aileen Kwun, FastCoDesign, 12 March 2018

Synapse Development Group

#realestate #realestatedevelopment  #luxuryrealestate #builtenvironment #Tesla #passivhaus #passivedesign #architecture #design #innovation #tech #energy #luxury #risk #return #CO2

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luxury

Luxury.

What is luxury? Why do we love works of luxury so much?

The word luxury connotes quality, craft, artistry, and appeal on many levels (including aesthetic pleasure, physical comfort, and social prestige)

Items of luxury appeal on so many levels. Often works of luxury are beautiful, visually very appealing. Such works carry provenance – of material, artistry, craft, the hand of the maker, history. They are manufactured through a highly specialized, skill- and knowledge-intensive production process. They are comfortable – crafted to satisfy our every sense, of sight, touch, smell, taste. Luxury gives us a sense of security, moreover. Works of luxury are durable and can be handed down through the generations.

Thomaï Serdari of the Sotheby’s Institute of Art in New York describes luxury as follows.

“Luxury does not necessarily mean expensive. Pricing luxury products is a very complicated process that takes into account costs similar to those other businesses are assuming. Additionally, it takes into account a highly intensive production process that is usually greatly specialized, rare (in terms of raw materials, specialized labor, proper facilities in specific locations, and intellectual property), and very much dependent on artistic output.”

 

See: “Understanding the Luxury Market: Five Things You Need to Know” | Thomaï Serdari, Luxury Brand Strategist and Lecturer at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in New York, Sothebys.com, 21 April 2014

#luxury #aesthetics #craft #artistry #provenance

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art, real estate, luxury, & global risks

“Humanity has become remarkably adept at understanding how to mitigate conventional risks that can be relatively easily isolated and managed with standard risk-management approaches. But we are much less competent when it comes to dealing with complex risks in the interconnected systems that underpin our world, such as organizations, economies, societies and the environment.

“There are signs of strain in many of these systems: our accelerating pace of change is testing the absorptive capacities of institutions, communities and individuals.

“When risk cascades through a complex system, the danger is not of incremental damage but of “runaway collapse” or an abrupt transition to a new, suboptimal status quo.”

See: “The Global Risks Report 2018, 13th Edition” | World Economic Forum (WEF); Strategic Partners: Marsh & McLennan Companies, Zurich Insurance Company; Academic Advisors: National University of Singapore, Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center, University of Pennsylvania

#art #artmarket #collectionsmanagement #data #analytics #risk #riskanalysis #riskmanagement #riskmitigation #climaterisk #insurance #insurancerisk #realestate #commercialrealestate #culturalrealestate  #culturalheritage #luxury #resilience #CO2