The Wall Street Journal Profiles the Malevich and Its Provenance

David D’Arcy tells the convoluted story of how Sotheby’s Malevich (right) came to market:

In 1927, with Stalin in the Kremlin tightening rules on art, Malevich left for the West, taking 100 pictures. There was praise and a potential market for his work in Warsaw and Berlin. Then came an official letter summoning him home, citing “visa problems.” He left his art in Berlin, returned to Russia, and stayed there for the rest of his life. Malevich died in 1935, an impoverished and intimidated “bourgeois formalist,” argot for artists unacceptable to Soviet officialdom.

What followed is a convoluted tale of claims, stratagems, payoffs and seizures. D’Arcy points out that Phillips sold in 2000 for $17 million one Malevich that had been caught up in the intrigue: Read the rest of this entry »

The New York Times Is First Out of the Gate

Carol Vogel had this column in Sunday’s Arts and Leisure section.

A $60 million painting by Kazimir Malevich. A $40 million self-portrait by Francis Bacon. It hardly seems the ideal moment to be selling such pricey art. As Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips de Pury brace for their big fall auctions in New York, starting with a sale of 71 Impressionist and Modern paintings, drawings and sculptures at Sotheby’s on Monday night, anxiety is the dominant mood. [ . . . ] Much of the art up for auction this week and next was secured early in the summer, when the world seemed a far different place. Now, with the net worth of so many buyers plummeting, auction houses have been trying to persuade sellers to lower their reserves, that is, the undisclosed minimum price that a bidder must meet for the art to be sold.

“Prices of all assets have fallen — stocks, gold, oil, real estate — and it would be unrealistic to expect works of art to be immune to the market’s pressures,” said Marc Porter, president of Christie’s in America. “We are actively encouraging consignors to set reasonable reserves.”[ . . . ]As for buyers, the message is a little trickier. With them, Mr. Porter said, Christie’s is making the argument that the objects they desire “might not reappear on the market next season at an even lower price.” [ . . . ] “Americans who fled when prices began soaring will jump back into the market but at a different price level,” said Tobias Meyer, Sotheby’s head of contemporary art. Among the standouts in the fall lineup at Sotheby’s are paintings like Edvard Munch’s “Vampire” (1894), priced to bring more than $35 million, and an Yves Klein wall relief estimated at more than $25 million. Christie’s is offering a 1934 portrait of Picasso’s mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter estimated at $18 million to $25 million and a Basquiat painting at $12 million and $16 million. “I still hold the belief that the great works will find buyers,” said Guy Bennett, of Christie’s.

Tapped Out? (The New York Times)

Kimmelman Finds Flaws in Paris Show; Estate Withdraws Sale

Picasso and the new realities of the global economy, is there a connection? Here’s how the New York Times’s Michael Kimmelman brings them together in his review of the “Picasso and the Masters” show in Paris:

“FIAC, the art fair that shared quarters in the Grand Palais these last several days, was populated by shell-shocked dealers murmuring worriedly amongst themselves about the bygone customers whom not so long ago they had blithely turned away or gave five minutes to decide whether to buy a picture. Picasso, in such straitened times, remains at least a reliable brand . . . ”

But how reliable? Kimmelman goes on to make this compelling point: “Picasso’s later career, you might say, was a one-man wrestling match with the limits of his own enormous genius in relation to history, and his failures were, humanly speaking, as compelling as his accomplishments, but that interpretation requires from an exhibition not blind hero worship but, as Delacroix had it, a little humility. The show here lacks this altogether, substituting swagger for judgment, bluster for nuance, and in art, as in politics and finance, we’ve had enough of that approach already.” [emphasis added] Read the rest of this entry »

Giorgio Morandi Scored at Sales in London and New York This Year

Christopher Benfey’s Slate slideshow profiles Morandi and the Metropolitan retrospective: “A mood of hush-hush sanctity surrounds the reputation of the Italian artist Giorgio Morandi, who died in 1964 at the age of 73 after a life of monastic simplicity. Born in 1890 in the medieval university city of Bologna, Italy, Morandi lived nearly his whole life in the modest family apartment he shared with his three unmarried sisters and, until her death in 1950, his mother; his father had died in 1909.”

Morandi Returns to Earth (Slate)

$60 Million Suprematist Canvas Repatriated to the Artist’s Family

“With the sale of Malevich’s 1916 Suprematist Composition,” Jo Vickery, Head of Sotheby’s Russian Art Department, “it feels as though history has come full circle: we have a blazing debut of early Suprematist art at the top of the international art market.  It’s an historical moment of a personal dimension for the artist’s family, and for us all a chance to reconsider Malevich’s unique contribution to art history.  He dreamt of creating a kind of art which would speak to all nations equally and his pioneering abstract paintings cut through old ways of defining art, as well as breaking down political and national boundaries.”

Reuters spoke to Emmanuel Di-Donna, Head of the New York Evening Sale, before giving a capsule history of the battle between the Malevich heirs and the museums that held his works:

“This is an absolute modern masterpiece that dates from the best possible period for Malevich — 1916,” said Emmanuel Di-Donna [ . . . ] . “This is arguably a much better painting than anything offered by Malevich, ever,” he told Reuters.

Sotheby’s said the existing record for Russian art at auction is a painting by Kandinsky which raised $20.9 million in 1990. The Malevich record is $17.1 million set in 2000. Asked if the valuation was aggressive, Di-Donna replied: “There have been some unbelievable prices for iconic works of art, and Malevich is to Russians what Rothko is to Americans.”

Bloomberg has more on the tale behind the heirs:

The idea of restitution of Malevich’s art began in 1993 when German art historian Clemens Toussaint scoured the former Soviet Union for Malevich’s heirs, Toussaint said in a 1999 interview in St. Petersburg. He convinced the heirs to press a claim for Malevich works held by MoMA and the Stedelijk. In June 1999, MoMA paid the heirs an undisclosed cash settlement, and handed over a 1925 painting, also titled “Suprematist Composition,” according to a MoMA press release. MoMA kept the other 15 paintings.

The heirs sold the 1925 “Suprematist Composition” at a Phillips International auction in May 2000 for $17 million. The identity of the Malevich heirs remains a guarded secret, and Toussaint declined to name any.

Sotheby’s Expects Malevich to Smash Russian Record (Reuters)
Malevich Painting May Fetch More Than $60 Million (Bloomberg)

Malevich Press Release

Carol Vogel Gets the Interview with Kathy Fuld

About Her Drawings Collection to Be Sold at Christie’s

The New York Times brings the issue of Kathy Fuld’s art sales forward and does her a favor in the process. Fuld’s husband is under a cloud for his role in the collapse of Lehman Brothers. But his collector wife gets her props. Vogel points out that “Sixteen works by artists including Barnett Newman, Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning and Agnes Martin will go on the block at a total estimate of $15 million to $20 million.”

Speculation in the art business was that the Fulds were the consignors. “’I’ve been selling things for the past few years, but nobody cared until now,’ Mrs. Fuld [left] said reflectively in an interview.”

Coming forward, however, allows Fuld to get her art acumen on the record. Take the example of the Gorky drawing (below, right): “Mrs. Fuld bought it at Christie’s in 1996 for $370,000; the house estimates it will bring $2.2 million to $2.8 million.”

And if you go beyond the art world gossip and look at the art, as Brett Gorvy does, “’You can see the whole of modern art history unfolding,’ he said. ‘It would be impossible to see this in painting.’”

Lindsay Pollock at Bloomberg has some more support for Fuld as a collector:

“She buys at the highest level,” said New York dealer Joan Washburn. “If you have a great drawing, you offer it to her.”

[ . . .] “These kinds of drawings are extremely rare,” said Amy Cappellazzo, co-head of Christie’s Postwar and contemporary art department. “The collector considers drawing as a primary art form.”

The Wall Street Journal adds some details on the Fulds’s real estate holdings:

Mr. Fuld and his wife still have a sizable art collection and a primary residence in Greenwich, Conn., featuring an indoor squash court. They also own a $21 million Park Avenue co-op, a home in Vermont and another one in Sun Valley, Idaho. In addition, Mr. Fuld in 2004 paid $13.75 million for an oceanfront house in Jupiter Island, Fla. He has since rebuilt the home.

[  . . . ] Today’s art market is dominated by newly wealthy buyers from Europe and Asia who prefer to chase trophy paintings. Ms. Fuld has instead taken her place among a small but close-knit group of American drawings collectors who seek out artists’ more subtle renderings and sketches. A MoMA spokeswoman says Ms. Fuld has donated or helped acquire 42 artworks, including 25 drawings, for the museum’s collection.

Inside Art: Modern Drawings Head for Auction (New York Times)

Kathy Fuld, Wife of Lehman CEO, to Sell $20 million Artworks (Bloomberg)

Fallen Tycoon to Auction Prized Works (Wall Street Journal)

November Sales to Feature Cubist Arlequin

The auction houses are making the most today’s masterpiece market. Big names from the most recognizable moments in art history sell well. That’s brought some great Impressionist, Modern and Expressionist art to the auction block. This morning, Sotheby’s announces that it has a 1909 Picasso that hasn’t been exhibited for 40 years to sell. Arlequin is estimated at $30 million and will be in the November 3rd sale at Sotheby’s.

Carol Vogel covers the announcement and reminds us that Yves Saint Laurent’s collection, to be sold by Christie’s in Paris next year, has a Picasso Cubist work from closer to the peak of the movement in 1914.

WWD also has the Picasso that is expected to make $59 million. The sale will be held in Paris:

While Bergé acknowledged Paris is not the best market for such a sale, the city was chose because the works belong to two Frenchmen, who made their fortunes in France. Another motivation is to remind the world the French art market does exist.

Faced with a choice between selling the estimated $300-$400 million collection or donating it to a museum, Bergé chose to sell because:

“I believe in the circulation of works of art,” he said.

Sotheby’s Arlequin Press Release

Inside Art: Two Picassos (New York Times)

Yves Saint Laurent Artworks Could Net $440 Million (WWD)

For those of you keeping score at home, Subodh Gupta was the big winner in the New York sales. Gupta led the pack with four works in the top ten.The remaining spots went to pairs of work by Tyeb Mehta, who had the most valuable lot of the week, M.F. Husain and Rameshwar Broota.

Here is Christie’s Hugo Weihe describing the category and his experience in it.

Sotheby’s Announces Star of November Impressionist-Modern Sale

Sotheby’s successful strategy this Spring in New York was to focus on one or two exciting paintings. In the Spring it was Munch’s Girls on the Bridge which made more than $30 million. That sale sets up this one nicely. Vampire has all the right elements to perform very well on the market. The work is one of four canvases that explore the same theme. Like June’s star Monet, the other three are in museums. And the picture is fresh to the market having been in the same family for 70 years.

The Daily Telegraph quotes Simon Shaw on the painting:

“Vampire caused a sensation when it was unveiled, touching on … turn-of-the-century fears about women’s liberation. Some critics were outraged by its perverse, almost sado-masochistic depiction of passion. It was shocking to Berlin society just as it is shocking today.”

Finally, Sotheby’s Emmanuel DiDonna and Simon Shaw are doing there best to link the Impressionist-into-Expressionist work with current art stars: Bacon, Freud and Hirst. Finally, the painting will make a grand tour of Moscow, London and New York during October before going up for auction on November 3rd.

Edvard Munch’s Vampire to fetch £19m at auction (Daily Telegraph)

Sotheby’s Munch Press Release