Editor’s Note: In the coming weeks we are planning to relaunch the Artelligence section of the newsletter as AMM Daily (AMMdly)—a stand-alone-but-enhanced daily paid newsletter. More information to follow in September.
A Portrait of the Artist—Ellsworth Kelly—at the Beach: Alexandra Peers descibes the Guild Hall show of Ellsworth Kelly’s Hamptons-inspired work from two stints there in the 1960s. Several Instagram commenters have remarked upon the power of Kelly’s driftwood pieces. Peers concurs, “The show is refreshingly not bereft, as some smaller institutions’ exhibitions can be, of the artist’s more emblematic paintings. […] But what’s curious, even stunning, is how little this elegant presentation needed them.” Here Peers describes the exhibition:
- the fruits of the artist’s time on the East End form an intimate three-room show at Guild Hall. It is somewhat bifurcated by topic and medium. Works on paper, collages, studies for paintings, and the small driftwood objects inhabit a gallery to the left. They are flanked by the photographs and a film featuring former MoMA curator and Yale University School of Art professor Robert Storr, a friend and fan of the artist’s, speaking about his work. To the right, across the lobby, a handful of Kelly’s bright wall-eater paintings hang, grouped together in something of a blockbuster gallery. …
Nearly 50 Years Ago, Australia Bought a Lot of Art to Raise It’s Global Stature: We’re accustomed today to pointing toward the Gulf States and Asian countries where new wealth has sought masterpieces of Contemporary art to elevate the region’s standing. But a new show at Australia’s National Gallery commemorates that country’s own buying spree which culminated with spending $1.3m in 1973 on Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles (1952). American Masters 1940-1960 draws from the National Gallery of Australia’s collection:
- “Opening with Willem de Kooning’s Women V 1952-53, the exhibition takes you through abstraction, minimalism, conceptual art, soft sculpture, light installations and video works. Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans will be familiar, as will his two-metre tall shooting Elvis. Seventy artists feature including Mark Rothko, Robert Mapplethorpe, Yoko Ono, Eva Hesse, Chuck Close and James Turrell, to name a few.” …
India’s Distributed Network of Stolen Art Sleuths: Quartz looks into the backstory behind Vijay Kumar’s India Pride Project and his new book on Subhash Kapoor case called The Idol Thief:
- “we […] realised that a lot of Indian art was coming up for sale and being acquired by museums for ridiculous prices. And they had no provenance information and nobody was taking action.” So, he began tapping his online community to try and identify Indian artifacts on display around the world that could potentially have been stolen. “Thanks to software and IT call centres, we had Indian guys almost all over the world, so we requested them to go to museums, auction houses, sales. (We said) whenever you find an Indian object, you take one (photo) with you, one without you, and send us that photo,” Kumar said. This network eventually built one of the largest photographic archives of distributed Indian art overseas. The archive, and Kumar’s penchant for matching photos, would play a significant role in the shocking downfall of an Indian-American art dealer who made millions selling stolen idols. …
Sebastian Smee Goes on a Berthe Morisot Tear: The occasion of new retrospective of the Impressionist artist’s work that is on view in Quebec City now but will travel to the Barnes, Dallas and winds up at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris allows the Washington Post’s art critic to offer a long essay on Berthe Morisot’s life and art. Here he talks about her relationship with Edouard Manet which led to her marrying his brother, Eugène:
- “Was it a curse for Morisot or a blessing to be on intimate terms with the greatest, most audacious artist of his generation? Brilliant women often get mixed up with brilliant men. It can cost them. On the other hand, Morisot got to see up close what Manet’s audacity had cost him: For more than a decade, as he strove for public acclaim, he was a punching bag for critics and the public alike. By the time he and Morisot met, he was demoralized. As much as an inspiring influence, then, he was a useful cautionary tale. Morisot needed to find her own way. She did, and in the end you could argue that Manet’s work of the 1870s was as much influenced by Morisot’s as hers was by his.” …
The Frick’s Disputed François Gérard Portrait Has Some Unanswered Questions: A regular reader has been paying close attention to the case involving the Frick’s purchase of a portrait of Camillo Borghese that got an Italian export license now coming under reconsideration:
- Artnet writes: “Italy claims the export license application only described the painting as a male portrait and that the identity of the sitter is what makes the work so significant to the country. (The subject’s name is written clearly on the back of the picture.)”
- And the Art Newspaper reports: “[Italian Culture Ministry official] Marini Clarelli says that the gallery’s export application did not identify the portrait subject as Camillo Borghese but simply described the work as a “male portrait”. But [Christopher] Marinello [CEO of Art Recovery International, a firm that specialises in mediating restitution claims] says that Borghese is identified clearly as the subject on the back of the painting. “All you have to do is turn it around and you have the name of the sitter,” he says.
- The New York Times notes: “Robilant + Voena said in a statement that its application for the export license “complied fully with all the procedures set out by Italian law in providing the information that such law requires.””
Our contributor observes, “Curious to find out if as part of the export application process the painting (and its reverse side) would have been physically inspected by government officials who oversaw the export application and/or if photos of the back of the painting were submitted as part of the application process clearly show the inscription identifying the sitter; this has a direct bearing on the observation: “All you have to do is turn it around and you have the name of the sitter.”
