Phillips Day Sale surprises; Sotheby’s gains momentum in Hong Kong; Sarah Lucas is a joker:
Gerald Buck
The Los Angeles Times marks the passing of Gerald Buck, real estate developer and builder of a 1000+ item collection of California art:
Art dealers said he began buying pieces in the mid- to late 1980s, and in the beginning had an intense interest in early 20th century works in California. “He was very devoted to history,” said Los Angeles gallery owner Tobey Moss. That led, she said, to his interest in art as it evolved in the state, “after the 1930s when art in California turned the corner from landscapes, seascapes and pink sunsets to much more of a hard edge, abstraction.”
In recent years he bought numerous works by Latino artists who worked in Southern California, including Almaraz and De la Sota. […]
Christina Buck said that plans for the collection were under discussion and would take some time to work out. She said her father “didn’t want to hoard the art,” and that some public showings would probably continue. She said she has been given a list of pieces he was intending to lend to museums for exhibitions over the next two years.
A few days before her father died, she asked him directly what he wanted done with the art. “He said to make sure I shared this collection,” she said, “that it was for people to see and enjoy, and be part of.”
Gerald Buck dies at 73; kept huge art collection mostly under wraps (Los Angeles Times)
Walter de Maria
The Los Angeles Times reports the death of Walter de Maria at
Throughout his career, De Maria cultivated a somewhat reclusive personality as far as the media was concerned. He seldom gave interviews and disliked being photographed. He also avoided participating in museum shows when he could, preferring to create his installations outdoors or at unconventional urban locations.
As a result, his work was not widely exhibited in the U.S. and he never became a household name. But critics championed his work, finding his large-scale installations to be conceptual and intellectually complex, while at the same time accessible to the general public.
Walter de Maria, Celebrated Sculptor, Dies at 77 (Los Angeles Times)
Alex Colville
Canadian painter Alex Colville died at 92 years of age today. He became famous early in his career during the 60s:
In 1966, he showed 12 paintings as Canada’s representative at the Venice Biennale. Colville also designed a new set of coins celebrating Canada’s 100th birthday in 1967.
His work can be found in gallery collections including the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Centre National d’Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou in Paris. The Art Gallery of Hamilton owns the seminal work Horse and Train, often taken as an allegory for death.
According to the New York Times, his work ran against the grain of international art:
But at a time when the art world was tilting toward abstraction and internationalism, Mr. Colville was also something of an outsider, dedicated to figurative painting and to his native Canada, where he was revered by many as “painter laureate.” In 1965, he was commissioned by the government to design commemorative coins for Canada’s centennial. In his final decades, he collected a series of honors; most notably, he was named a Companion of the Order of Canada, a lifetime achievement award.
In 2004 the art historian Martin Kemp called Mr. Colville “the best Canadian artist of his time.” Comparing Mr. Colville to the English Romantic painter John Constable, he wrote, “He is a local painter in the sense that Constable was local, creating art that has to draw nourishment from scenes known intimately in order to find a wider truth.”
His most valuable work at market, Man on a Veranda, sold in 2010 for C$1.27m
Canadian Painter Alex Colville Dies (CBC.ca)
Alex Colville, Leading Canadian Artist, Dies at 92 (NY Times)
Norman Parish
The Washington Post’s obituary for Norman Parish tells the frustrating and surprising story of his taking his career into his own hands. Parish had moved to Washington, DC to work as a computer graphics designer at an environmental firm:
“While people generally seemed to like my paintings, no one would show them,” he told The Washington Post in 1996. “Finally, someone told me I should open my own gallery and exhibit my work. I rejected the idea at first. Then I decided it wasn’t so bad and went into business.”
He opened the Parish Gallery in Georgetown in 1991. It became one of the country’s best-known black-owned art galleries, with a focus on works by African Americans and other artists of what is known as the African diaspora.
Mr. Parish gave himself five years to make the gallery a success. Within that time, he was able to give up his day job in computers to devote himself to the gallery, which he operated with his wife, Gwen.
Parish Gallery’s final show is up until July 31st.
Norman Parish, artist and gallery owner, dies at 75 (Washington Post)
