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hydecurator · 4 years ago

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Must-See TV: Sotheby’s Sale (Episode 1)

https://www.sothebys.com/en/series/masters-week-1?locale=en

I’ve discovered a new form of engrossing pandemic-era online viewing. This week is my favorite week for January sales. Late in the month, various auction houses and dealers in New York host Masters Week. This year, despite a global pandemic, Sotheby’s outdid itself and watching the first of the sales today was, at times, edge-of-the-seat thrilling.

In a normal year, like the start of last year, I like to go down to New York on the weekend before the sales and preview the lots. The galleries at Sotheby’s and Christie’s are hung just like a museum. The walls are sometimes painted to enhance the paintings and the lighting presents them at their best. The only difference is that the labels include auction price estimates. It’s a form of glorious window shopping for me. I dream of what I could buy for the collection, if.... It is also an educational experience for me. For this is the week when scholars and curators of European paintings, sculptures, and drawings come to town from across the country, if not the world. You never know whom you might bump into in the salerooms. Often you can overhear or join, if you dare, an interesting discussion about the attribution, quality, or associations of a work up for sale. One thing to bear in mind is that not everyone agrees with the attributions of the auction house experts. Last year, I tagged along with my former professor, David Stone, as he dissected the Old Master drawings on offer at Christie’s. He introduced me to a curator from The Morgan with whom I discussed some Hyde drawings. All useful networking.

Christopher Easton (English, Exeter), Anglican Communion Cup, 1582, silver (6 3/8 in.). Chicago, Loyola University Museum of Art, Martin D’Arcy, S.J. Collection. 2013-05. Photography by Michael Troppea.

I tend not to attend the actual sales, which happen during the week. I have never myself bid at auction. When at the Loyola University Museum of Art, I really wanted to acquire a Protestant communion cup to contrast with the museum’s Catholic chalices, I had to commission an agent to bid for me. The auctions were in England and it took us two attempts to secure one. My agent, Wynyard Wilkinson, had to drive to opposite ends of the country to see the pieces and then bid for them. We were ultimately successful at a sale held by a small regional auctioneer, whom many collectors simply overlooked.

Today, there were a number of works I was interested to follow. The first six pieces were sold by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo. The museum has decided to refocus itself towards Modern and Contemporary art. Over the last few years, they have steadily sold off works that fall outside those parameters. Deaccessioning collection pieces is permitted under rather strict guidelines. The rules have been eased a little during the pandemic because of how badly lockdowns have effected museums’ incomes but, in general, a museum should only deaccession works that fall outside their mission or, are duplicates not of exhibition quality, or irreparably damaged. The funds generated should only be used to acquire more art.

The Master of 1518 (Flanders, active 1518), Adoration of the Magi, early 16th century, oil on panel (17 7/8 by 13 1/2 in.). Sotheby’s sale, New York, January 28, 2021, lot. 1. Photo credit: Sotheby’s.com

The Albright-Knox should be quite pleased. Four of the six pieces, among them the one illustrated here, sold for a total of $3,163,100. Some of that is commission for Sotheby’s, but still, the museum got roughly $2.5M to put towards new pieces of Modern and Contemporary art.

Had I been able to go down to the city and stroll the galleries, I may have seen or heard from others why two of Buffalo’s pieces didn’t reach their reserve prices. Were the reserves too high? Did collectors and curators not think either their quality or their attributions were quite right? Perhaps, they just weren’t to anyone’s taste. Selling at auction can be a gamble. You need at least two people, who really want a piece, to bid it up. The museum could wait to see if tastes and the market change, or it might negotiate a private sale after the auction.

At a normal sale, the auctioneer stands at a podium at the front of the saleroom. Major pieces hang on the walls and each piece is brought to the front, in turn, as the bidding takes place. For today’s sale, however, the auctioneer was in a room in New York on his own, watching screens linked to salerooms in New York, London, and Asia. In those rooms, in place of rows of bidders, there were tiers of Sotheby’s staff, standing physically distanced, holding telephone receivers to their ears. They spoke to invisible bidders, and, when instructed, called out a price, raised an arm, or simply shouted “Bidding.”

“What’s so gripping about that?” you ask.

I have learnt to sit towards the back in saleroom to take in the scene. Admittedly, I see only the back of bidders, but, unlike in the movies, you really do have to make a pretty obvious gesture to catch the attention of the auctioneer. You’re not going to accidentally buy a Picasso by absent-mindedly tugging at your ear or scratching an itch. Salerooms are busy, and surprisingly noisy, places. People come and go freely; quite a few chat away about all sorts of things unrelated to the sale. The auctioneer is a combination of master of ceremonies and instigator and coaxer. Unlike a conductor, he has no score. He doesn’t know, for sure, how the sale will go, or from which direction the bids will come. He has to monitor the bidders in front of him, the bank of staff manning telephones to the side, and a screen, suspended from the ceiling, indicating online bids. And what has always captivated me about an auctioneer at work is that whereas a conductor keeps time, the auctioneer makes time. Time in a saleroom is surprisingly fluid and flexible and that was masterfully on display today with this online sale.

Today’s auction was sponsored by Bulgari. Sotheby’s staff in New York wore Bulgari jewelry. In the midst of bidding, the auctioneer drew attention to the glint of a jeweled bracelet on one staffer’s wrist, to glistening earrings, a stunning brooch, or an eye-catching neckless on another’s. He introduced the models to us by name and title. The staff making bids were called out too. Alex in London, by the by, was a year ahead of me at undergraduate. A fun fact I learnt, of no earthly relevance to the lots, is that there are two English Georges in the New York office. Thus the auctioneer made time, created moments in the seeming onward rush of bids for Sotheby’s staff to coax the bidder at the end of the telephone line to keep in the race. In this extra moment there’s still a chance, for that lucky final bid that will clinch it.

Adding to the drama, at least on my computer screen, was a clever engineer’s manipulation of windows. Salerooms came to the fore and were relegated in time with the bidding. New York outbids London. Here’s Asia jumps in. Two sale rooms are stacked, one over the other, as bids are batted back and forth. At times, it got as thrilling as Wimbledon or the New York Open. Tennis for a Tiepolo.

Sandro Botticelli (Italian,1445/5-1510), Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel, n.d., tempera on poplar panel (23 by 15 ½ in.). Sotheby’s sale, New York, January 28, 2021, lot 15. Photo credit: Sotheby’s.com.

The sale of Sandro Botticelli’s Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel, was breathtaking in the sums bandied about, but actually quite sedate in execution. Bidding started at $70M and increased at increments of $2M, topping out at $80M ($92.184,000 with commission). Even though it is extremely rare for such an archetypal example of early Renaissance portraiture to come on the market these days, there obviously aren’t too many collectors or institutions with the wherewithall to bid for one.

Much more exciting was to watch the bidding for one piece that started at $450,000 and reached $1.65M. With commissions, etc., it cost its new owner over $2M. Before the auction, Sotheby’s had posted an sale estimate of $700,000-$1M. The bidding for a small Dutch work, measuring 10 x 7 1/2 inches, began at $30,000 or so, breezed past the upper estimate of $90,000, and finally came to a breathless stop at $390,600, including commission. I’ll tell you what these two works were and why I was interested in them in Episode 2 of your must-read Hyde blog.

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (Dutch,1606 – 1669), Abraham and the Angels, 1646, oil on panel (6 ¼ by 8 ¼ in.). Sotheby’s sale, New York, January 28, 2021, lot 9. Photo credit, Sotheby’s.com.

One mystery I can’t explain is the unexpected withdrawal from the sale of its star lot, no 9, Abraham and the Angels by Rembrandt van Rijn, Sotheby’s had hyped it with a promotional tour around its international salerooms and online (https://www.sothebys.com/rembrandt). But oh-so discreetly, referring only to its lot number, the auctioneer announced at the start of the sale that number 9 had been withdrawn. More to come on that, I hope and expect. So, keep reading your Hyde blog!

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trekspertise · 7 years ago

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Epic Trek Bibliography

Writers - Katie Boyer, Kyle Sullivan

Narration & Editing - Kyle Sullivan

Title Graphics & Logo - Dan King

Special Thanks - This episode was made possible by the support of Joshua Kifer, Paul Laker, Alex Zheng, Troy Bernier, Jay Yan, Alex Blocker, Patteroast, Ryan Kindahl, Martin Bohm, Nathan Lucero, and the other generous supporters of Patreon. Thank you very much, everyone!

A thank you to Memory Alpha, an online Star Trek wiki. Additional thanks to the Daystrom Institute subreddit, a place dedicated to Star Trek discussion, and The Star Trek Encyclopedia 4th Edition, by Michael Okuda & Denise Okuda, 2016.

Odyssey Translation by http://homer.library.northwestern.edu/

Map of Odysseus’s Voyage based on ESRI’s Story Map (http://arcg.is/1ddmSkG).

Additional Reading - How Star Trek Explains The Decline Of Liberalism (http://bit.ly/2xikI43) and The Economic Of Star Trek by Rick Webb (http://bit.ly/1nXycpX).

Support Trekspertise on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/trekspertise

Check out footage from my Antarctica Trip here: http://bit.ly/2vv52Iu

Music

Deep Space by Audionautix [CC 4.0]

Loungin’ by Ormorje

Stars And Stripes Forever by the U.S. Army Band

The Viking Soundtrack by Mario Nascimbene

Pedro Versus The World by Jingle Punks

Shostakovich's 11th symphony, performed by an orchestra at the Moscow Conservatoire, directed by Leopold Stokowski

The Feast from The Argonauts, by Bernard Herrmann

Dreamy Flashback by Kevin MacLeod [CC 4.0]

Spanish Dance by United States Marine Band

Houston Vibes Score by Unicorn Heads

Action Movie Trailer by HollywoodMusic [CC 3.0]

TNG - Who Watches The Watchers - The Vision - Ron Jones

TOS - First Goner / Salty Cat / Dressing Down (The Man Trap) - Alexander Courage

DS9 - Passage Terminated - Dennis McCarthy

VOY - Lifesigns In The Barn - Jeff Chattaway

TOS - It Is Done! (Spectre Of The Gun) - Jerry Fielding

TNG - The Defector: Suicide - Ron Jones

TOS - Starship Again / Nova Phase / What Happened - George Duning

Ethereal Ambiance by Ian Fisher

Calming Rhythmic Electronics by Ian Fisher

Footage

CNN: Cell Phone Danger Higher For Children, CNN, 2011, Accessed 2017 [http://bit.ly/2tKfcpj]

CNN Explains: 3D Printing, CNN, 2013, Accessed 2017 [http://bit.ly/1nxhDCE]

Will Global Warming Lead To Earth’s Demise, CBS News, 2017, Accessed 2017 [http://bit.ly/2v9YIq4]

Cyber Attack Hits Major Business And Gov't Entities Across The West, NBC Nightly News, 2017, Accessed 2017 [http://bit.ly/2uaZKFg]

Uber’s Self-Driving Truck Makes Its First Delivery, Wired, 2016, Accessed 2017 [http://bit.ly/2pQxra3]

How Gene Editing Is Helping Fight Disease, BBC News, 2015, Accessed 2017 [http://bit.ly/2ubdLCP]

Net Neutrality: How The Ruling Impacts You, NBC Nightly News, 2015, Accessed 2017 [http://bit.ly/2tKCnQt]

Test Driving Google’s Self-Driving Car, ABC News, 2015, Accessed 2017 [http://bit.ly/1RiYgJ2]

Charlie Munger, Bill Gates On The Future Of Artificial Intelligence, CNBC, 2016, Accessed 2017 [http://bit.ly/2tefRh2]

Hot Robot At SXSW Says She Wants To Destroy Humans, CNBC, 2016, Accessed 2017 [http://bit.ly/1UKrR3V]

The Squire Of Gothos, TOS, 1967

Batman, 1966

Fight Club.1999

The Lion King, 1994

Monty Python And The Holy Grail, 1975

Hercules, 1997

Star Wars, 1977

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, Part 2, 2011

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, 1966

Troy, 2004

Clash Of The Titans, 2010

Wrath Of The Titans, 2012

Immortals, 2011

Sabrina, 1995

Star Trek: Generations, 1994

Encounter At Farpoint, TNG, 1987

The Outcast, TNG, 1992

Behind The Lines, DS9, 1997

Balance Of Terror, TOS, 1966

Darmok, TNG, 1991

Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, TOS, 1969

CRS-8 | First Stage Landing on Droneship, SpaceX YouTube Channel (http://bit.ly/1qzIBQn)

Ensign Ro, TNG, 1991

Remember Me, TNG, 1990

Scorpion Part II, VOY, 1997

Zero Hour, ENT, 2004

Death Wish, VOY, 1996

The Nth Degree, TNG, 1991

In Purgatory’s Shadow, DS9, 1997

The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring, 2001

Shadow’s And Symbols, DS9, 1998

Broken Bow, ENT, 2001

Star Trek Into Darkness, 2013

The Neutral Zone, TNG, 1988

Cold Front, ENT, 2001

All Good Things, TNG, 1993

Babel One, ENT, 2005

Day Of The Dove, TOS, 1968

Endgame, VOY, 2001

Conspiracy, TNG, 1988

Star Trek: Discovery Trailer, 2017, via Star Trek YouTube Channel (http://bit.ly/2rgkquc)

Parturition, VOY, 1995

Star Trek: The Motion Picture, 1979

Kir’shara, ENT, 2004

Clash Of The Titans, 1981

Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover Animation, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2011, accessed via the JPL YouTube channel (http://bit.ly/1o7xmrg), 2017

Terminator 2, 1991

Her, 2013

Gattaca, 1997

Launch Of Apollo 11, NASA, accessed via NASAKennedy YouTube channel (http://bit.ly/2xwinSg)

Errand Of Mercy, TOS, 1967

Home, ENT, 2004

Face Of The Enemy, TNG, 1993

Homefront, DS9, 1996

Ensigns Of Command, TNG, 1989

Redemption Part 1, TNG, 1991

What You Leave behind, DS9, 1999

Images, Photos, & Art

Jupiter, Juno Spacecraft, 2017, NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt /Seán Doran

Panel 3 from Cancuen, Guatemala, representing king T'ah 'ak' Cha'an, taken & uploaded by Authenticmaya, 2007

The Gleaners, by Jean Francois Millet, 1857

The Course Of Empire, The Consummation Of Empire, Thomas Cole, 1836, uploaded by Brandmeister, 2015

Shepherd And Shepherdess At Home, Eugène Joseph Verboeckhoven, 1881, uploaded by Dorotheum

Storming The Teocalli, by Emanual Leutze, 1848, uploaded by Mattes, 2013

The Course Of Empire, Desolation, Thomas Cole, 1836, uploaded by Brandmeister, 2015

Odysseus And Polyphemus, by Arnold Böcklin, 1896, uploaded by Botaurus, 2012

Flight From Troy, by Federico Baroccio, 1598, uploaded by Wetman, 2004

Battle At Lanka, Ramayana, Udaipur, by Sahib Din, 1649-1653

Ulysse et Télémaque massacrent les prétendants de Pénélope, by Thomas Degeorge, 1812, uploaded by VladoubidoOo, 2014

Braincloud And Scientist Mango Concept Art, by David Revoy, 2012, CC BY 3.0

Ulysses’s Revenge On Penelope’s Suitors, by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, 1814

Ulysses At The Court Of Alcinous, by Francesco Heys, 1814-15

Triumphant Achilles: Achilles dragging the dead body of Hector in front of the gates of Troy, by Franz Matsch, 1892, uploaded by Dr. K, 2008

Virgil Reading the Aeneid to Augustus, Octavia, and Livia, by Jean-Ba[tiste Wicar, 1790-1793, uploaded by Jessicacu, 2008

Freskenzyklus im Casino Massimo in Rom, Dante-Saal, Szene: Das Empyreum und Gestalten aus den acht Himmeln des Paradieses, by Philipp Veit, 1817-1827

Eight Stages Of The Song Of Roland In One Picture

Hannibals Übergang über die Alpen, by Heinrich Leutemann, 1866, uploaded by Clpo13, 2017

The Myth Of Io, by Bartolomeo de Giovanni, 1490

Ulysses And The Sirens, by Herbert James Draper, 1909, uploaded by Fanfwah, 2010

Ulysses And The Sirens, 3rd century CE Roman mosaic, author unknown, uploaded by Dyolf77, 2010

Departure of Ulysses From The Land Of The Phaeacians, by Claude Lorrain, 1646

Marble Statue Head Of Odysseus, 1st Century CE

The Procession Of The Trojan Horse In Troy, by Giovanni Dominico Tiepolo, 18th century CE, uploaded by Sturm, 2005

Odysseus Toetet Die Freier, by Gustav Schwab, 1882

The Cyclops, by Odilon Redon, 1914, uploaded by Anagoria, 2013

Portrait Of Andrea Doria As Neptune, by Bronzino, 1540-1550

Ancient mosaic of the Roman villa of La Olmeda in Pedrosa de la Vega, 4th-5th centuries CE, uploaded by Valdavia, 2011

Raub Der Helena, by Francesco Primaticcio, 1530-1539

The Cyclops Polyphemus, by Annibale Carracci, 1596-1605, uploaded by Jonund, 2015

Odysseus & Nausicaa, by Pieter Lastman, 1619

Blick Auf Das Brennende Troja, by Johann Georg Trautmann, 18th century CE, uploaded by Beyond My Ken, 2010

Ulysses And The Sirens, by J. M. Waterhouse, 1891, uploaded by Artwork, 2012

Ulysses Defying the Cyclops, by Louis-Frederic Schutzenberger, 1894, uploaded by tatesic, 2012

Ulysses and Nausicaa, by Jean Veber, 1888, uploaded by Shuishouyue, 2015

Hermes Ordering Calypso To Release Odysseus, Gerard de Lairesse, 1670, uploaded by Wmpearl, 2012

Odysseus as guest at the nymph Calypso, by Hendrick Van Balen, 1616, uploaded by ArteGod, 2016

The Council Of Gods, by Raphael, between 1517 & 1518, uploaded by Sailko, 2011

Bust of Athena, a copy of an original by Kresilas, 430 BCE, taken by Bibi Saint-Pol, 2007

Ulysses Transformed By Athena Into A Beggar, by Giuseppe Bottani, 1775

Statue Of Poseidon, National Archaeology Museum of Athens, taken by Ricardo André Frantz, 2006, uploaded by Tetraktys, 2007

Apollo And The Muses On Mount Helion, by Claude Lorrain, 1680, uploaded by Hohum, 2017

Sirens By The Sea, by Victor Karlovich

Jupiter And Juno On Mount Ida, by James Barry, 1790-1799, uploaded by Shakko, 2014

Minerva And The Triumph Of Jupiter, by René-Antoine Houasse, 1706, uploaded by Shuishouyue, 2015

Homer And His Guide, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1974, uploaded by Thebrid, 2005

Statue Of Homer, taken and uploaded by Rufus46, 2013

IndoGreeks Trojan Horse Stone Carving, uploaded by World Imaging, 2006

A Reading From Homer, by Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1885

Space Shuttle Enterprise Star Trek Cast, NASA, 1976

NGC 4414, The Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI/NASA), NASA Headquarters - Greatest Images of NASA (NASA-HQ-GRIN), 1999

Gemini 4 Spacewalk Footage, NASA, 1965

The Pinwheel Galaxy, European Space Agency & NASA, 2006

Jupiter Of Smyrna, 250 CE, taken by Marie-Lan Nguyen, uploaded by Jastrow, 2009

Deucalion and Pyrrha, by Pieter Paul Rubens, 1636, Shuishouyue, 2014

Dispute between Minerva And Neptune, by René-Antoine Houasse, 1689-1706, uploaded by Shuishouyue, 2014

The Origin Of The Milky Way, by Tintoretto, 16th Century CE, uploaded by Alonso de Mendoza, 2016

Zojirushi Coffee Maker, by Consumer Reports, 2016, uploaded by The Photographer, 2016

Jupiter Surface Motion Animation, 2000, NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Achilles & Troilus, 2nd Century CE, taken by Marie-Lan Nguyen, 2011, uploaded by Jastrow, 2011

Odysseus Recognized By His Nurse, Louis Jean-Francois Lagrene

Discovery Of The Mississippi, by William Henry Powell, 1853, uploaded by Neutrality, 2006

Washington Crossing The Delaware, by Emanual Leutze, 1851, uploaded by Scewing, 2010

Abraham Lincoln Statue, taken by Dsdugan, 2015

Ulysse Reconnu Par Euryclée, by Gustave Boulanger, 1849, uploaded by VladoubidoOo, 2013

Odysseus Yearns for Ithaca, by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, between 1751 & 1829, Photographed by H. R. Wacker. Scanned by James Steakley

Aeolus Giving The Winds To Odysseus, Isaac Moillon, between 1614 & 1673, taken & uploaded by Ophelia2, 2012

Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus, by J.M.W. Turner, 1829

Port Bathy And Capital Of Ithaca, by Edward Dodwell, 1821, uploaded by Jonathan Groß, 2008

Jupiter and Mercury at Philemon and Baucis, by Peter Paul Rubens, 1620-1625, photographed by Georges Jansoon, uploaded by JoJan, 2017

Otricoli Zeus, by William Henry Goodyear, 1889, uploaded by Davepape, 2006

Ulysses Fleeing The Cave Of Polyphemus, by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, 1812, uploaded by Djkeddie, 2016

Ulysses At The Palace Of Cice, by Wilhelm Schubert von Ehrenberg, 1667

Caught Between A Rock And A Hard Place, Alessandro di Christofano di Lorenzo Allori, 1575, uploaded by Sridhar1000, 2011

Circe And Her Swine, from Character Sketches Of Romance, Fiction And The Drama, 1892, uploaded by Fæ, 2015

18th-century French engraving of Odysseus (Ulysses) on the island of the lotus-eaters, 18th Century, Unknown, uploaded by The Man In Question, 2009

Odysseus’s Men On Lotus Island, by W. Heath Robinson, date unknown, uploaded by Baddu676, 2016

Mercury ordering Calypso to release Odysseus, by Gerard de Lairesse, 1676 and 1682, uploaded by Ophelia2, 2011

Odysseus In The Cave Of Polyphemus, Jakob Jordaens, first half of the 17th Century, uploaded by Wmpearl, 2014

Polyphemus, by Guido Reni, 1639-1640

Odysseus and Nausicaa, by Joachim von Sandrart, 1630, uploaded by Trzęsacz, 2015

Ulysses and Nausicaa, by Michele Desubleo, 1654, uploaded by Shuishouyue, 2015

Odysseus and Nausicaa, by Salvator Rosa, 1655, uploaded by Fæ, 2013

Parthenon From The West, taken and uploaded by Mountain, 2006

Aeneas and Turnus, by Luca Giordano, 17th century, uploaded by Diomede, 2008

Aeneas tells Dido the misfortunes of the Trojan city, by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, 1815, uploaded by Bibi Saint-Pol, 2007

Cicero Denounces Catiline, by Cesari Maccari, 1889, uploaded by Donarreiskoffer, 2006

Dante And The Divine Comedy, by Domenico di Michelino, 1465, uploaded by Jastrow, 2006

The Ancient Greek Temple Of Hera, taken & uploaded by AdiJapan, 2006

Greek hoplite and Persian warrior fighting each other, by Άγνωστος, uploaded by Alonso de Mendoza, 2016

Gravestone of a woman with her slave child-attendant, 100 BCE, taken by Wolfgang Sauber, uploaded by Xenophon, 2008

View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm—The Oxbow, by Thomas Cole, 1836

Saintes Amphitheatre, taken by Myrabella, 2009

Greek Theatre In Taormina, taken by Berthold Werner, 2012

Procession of Twelve Gods and Goddesses, 1st Century BCE

The Vestibule of Hell and the Souls Mustering to Cross the Acheron, by William Blake, 1824-1827, uploaded by Sadads, 2015

Fate, by Alphonse Mucha, 1920, uploaded by Carpediem6655, 2012

Loch Lomond, taken by Abubakr Hussain, Mohammed-Hayat Ashrafi, Maaz Farooq, Farmaan Akhtar, Mohammed Shah, 2005

The Symposium, by Anselm Feuerbach, 1871-74

Choregos and actors, Roman mosaic, taken by Marie-Lan Nguyen, 2011, uploaded by Jastrow, 2011

Bataille de Bouvines Gagnee par Philippe Auguste, by Horace Vernet, before 1863, uploaded by World Imaging, 2009

The Creation Of Adam, by Michaelangelo, 1511, uploaded by Urek Meniashvili, 2013

Iron And Coal, by William Bell Scott, 1855-1860, uploaded by Svencb, 2007

A Philosopher Giving that Lecture on the Orrery, in which a Lamp is put in place of the Sun or The Orrery, by Joseph Wright Of Derby, 1766, uploaded by Ragesoss, 2006

Mulberry Street, NYC, 1900, by Detroit Photography, 1900, uploaded by Ignacio Icke, 2007, colored by unknown

Victor Frankenstein Becoming Disgusted At His Creation, by Theodore Von Holst, 1831, uploaded by Kaldari, 2008

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Rothwell, by Richard Rothwell, 1840, uploaded by Racconish, 2017

From The Earth To The Moon, book cover for story by Jules Verne, uploaded by Stbalbach, 2007

Uomo Vitruviano, by Leonardo Da Vinci, 1490, uploaded by Jökullinn, 2010

The Pic Of Gilgamesh on Neo-Assyrian Clay Tablet, taken and uploaded by BabelStone, 2010

North America from low orbiting satellite Suomi NPP, NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring, 2012

Treaty Of Penn With Indians, by Benjamin West, 1771-71, uploaded by Nonenmac, 2006

Spanish Colonization Of Mexico, by Thomas Townsend

Ulysses And The Sirens, by Léon Belly, 1867, uploaded by Shuishouyue, 2013

Odysseus And Penelope, by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, 1802, uploaded by Jdsteakley, 2011

Odysseus Fighting The Beggar, by Lovis Corinth, 1903, uploaded by Achim Raschka, 2011

#Trekspertise #science fiction #epic poem #the odyssey #star trek

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thefabulousfulcrum · 7 years ago

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The Joys and Terrors of an Outsider Artist

While Susan Te Kahurangi King has never consciously worked in or against a fine art tradition, her work is surely original.

via Hyperallergic

Patrick Price

LONDON – “A certain strangeness,” wrote Walter Pater, “is an element in all true works of art.” The hermetic worlds depicted by many so-called outsider artists can be beautiful in their strangeness, but also suffocating, as if governed by a tyrannical logic. Think of the dizzying perspectives of Martin Ramirez, or the obsessive cartography of Adolf Wölfli. They are like medieval illuminations of private religions.

By contrast, the drawings of Susan Te Kahurangi King (b. 1951) feel closer in spirit to Henry Darger or Bill Traylor, two very different artists in whose work a sense of joy has survived the transition to a realm of private symbolism. At its best, her work is buoyant, varied, and, while often sinister, saturated with pleasure. It rewards extended looking. Its vibrant color gives it a wish-fulfilling aura.

King is severely autistic, and has not spoken since the age of 5. She started to draw very early and has continued for much of her life, stopping around the late 1980s and resuming in 2009. Family members have always encouraged her art. Already well known in her local community in Auckland, New Zealand, only recently has the wider world taken notice of her talent. The illustrator Gary Panter made important efforts to showcase her work in the U.S., and Chris Byrne has put together shows at New York’s Andrew Edlin Gallery (2015) and now London’s Marlborough Contemporary. Both shows have focused mainly on drawings from the 1960s and ’70s.

Her scattered, surging compositions often include figures based on Disney and Warner Brothers characters, while many of the drawings at Marlborough feature the Fanta Man, a character from a soft drink advertisement. (Originally a flat, static icon, she brings him to life, portraying him from many angles.) The way in which the paper surface is treated as a flat expanse to be filled in recalls the look of children’s art. Closer attention reveals a sophisticated ability to manipulate space in original ways. A field of body parts can loom up like a wave, or remind us of a Tiepolo ceiling in which angels are massed at the edges of clouds. The twists and convolutions to which her figures are subjected alter the space around them, denying flatness and creating a dynamic force that energizes the page. Her compositions can be as lush as those of Arshile Gorky, or as subtle as a Jasper Johns. She is always experimenting.

Alex Katz once defined originality as “a combination of being inside your own head and responding to everything outside… it’s the combination of the two that makes something original.” What’s “outside” might be subject matter, one’s medium, artistic precedents, and culture in general. While it’s probably fair to say that King has never consciously worked in or against a fine art tradition, her work is surely original, and looking at it is a refreshing experience. Is she an “outsider artist”? To acknowledge a tradition, even in order to reject it, might be what makes one an “insider.”

And yet we are all, to some extent, insiders if we speak a shared language. And we are also outsiders, not quite at home in the language we inherit. King might be less at home in verbal language than most, and yet her concerns suggest an interest in the world as much as in the possibilities of her medium. For the psychoanalytic writer Marion Milner, art becomes more than therapy when it demonstrates respect for the independent integrity of its symbols, giving us renewed insight into whatever aspect of the world it pictures. The fact that King’s interests and imagery have overlapped with those of her mainstream contemporaries (whose work she had no way of seeing) is fascinating; her works teaches us something about the peculiar appeal of anthropomorphic cartoon animals.

Her treatment of various cartoon ducks is a reminder that all communication originates in the body, in its actions and passions, affects that must be cathected onto objects or surrogates if they are to be tamed and integrated. These figures appear riven by nameless forces, twisted this way and that, gesticulating wildly, dismembered, or literally tied up in knots. There’s implicit wisdom in King’s choice of classic cartoon characters as vehicles for pre-linguistic affect, recognition of something in their structure that speaks to the early experience of omnipotence, of the childish or regressive body. When Peter Saul or Markus Lüpertz were drawn to Donald Duck (at the same time as King) they were likely responding to similar qualities. But King foregrounds those qualities exceptionally well. Her use of Donald feels less like an obsessive preoccupation than a fruitful engagement. Her confident line draws attention to the way the brim of his cap echoes the Moebius-like convolutions of his beak; in one drawing the beak is a floating object, symmetrical and self-contained – a beak without a duck.

Besides other visual artists, the most compelling connection for me is with a contemporaneous poem by John Ashbery, in which Popeye “heaves bolts of loving thunder / At his own astonished becoming” (“Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape,” 1927). What is it about cartoons that might have inspired such startling, masochistic imagery?

Gary Panter believes King’s approach is basically observational, that what she draws is a version of what she actually sees. Maybe she sees these things because her perception is unusually free from the utilitarian demands that filter and focus our ordinary experience. If this evokes Dubuffet’s glamorizing of the raw and unfiltered, I would only add that it’s her use of the limiting schema provided by cartoon imagery that has made that overwhelmingly complex inner activity communicable, or perhaps given it enough structure to be seen. Whether it is a question of autonomous visions which she transfers to the page, or of a creative use of symbols similar to an “ordinary” artistic practice, we can only speculate.

During Tate Modern’s 2013 Global Pop symposium much of the discussion concerned the emergence, during the 20th century, of a worldwide “monoculture,” particularly in the visual field. How has the international dissemination of American iconography from the 20th century onwards threatened local particularities and differences? King’s work, coming from the time and place it does, inevitably looks like a commentary on this phenomenon (no less than, say, the early collages of Scottish Pop artist Eduardo Paolozzi). The insights her work provides could be compared to those of Sergei Eisenstein, who traveled to the United States in 1930, where he met Walt Disney. Eisenstein was immensely enthusiastic about Disney’s creations, which he saw as constituting a modern revival of animism with deep roots in mythical thought. “How much (imaginary!) divine omnipotence there is in all this!” he wrote, “What magic of reconstructing the world according to one’s fantasy and will! … And you see how the drawn magic of a reconstructed world had to arise at the very summit of a society that had completely enslaved nature – namely, America.” Whatever conflicting energies found expression within the popular visual culture of the 20th century, King has embodied them in her turn, and in the process illuminated them for us.

Susan Te Kahurangi King continues at Marlborough Contemporary (6 Albemarle Street, London, UK) through July 1.

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nofomoartworld · 7 years ago

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Hyperallergic: The Joys and Terrors of an Outsider Artist

Susan Te Kahurangi King, Untitled (1966-67), 7 5/8″ x11″. (All images courtesy of Marlborough Contemporary.)

Susan Te Kahurangi King, Untitled, c. 1966-1967 graphite, colored pencil and ink on found paper 10 1/8 x 8 in.

Susan Te Kahurangi King, Untitled (c. 1965-1975), 6 7/8″ x 6 3/8 in.

Susan Te Kahurangi King, Untitled, 1966-67, graphite and coloured pencil on found board, 16 1/4 x 13 in.

Susan Te Kahurangi King, Untitled (2 Sept 1965), 8 1/4″ x 10 3/4″.

Susan Te Kahurangi King continues at Marlborough Contemporary (6 Albemarle Street, London, UK) through July 1.

The post The Joys and Terrors of an Outsider Artist appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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