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state3

state of art SPRING 2 007 STATEOFMIND

collecting art

EDITOR M IKE VON JOEL

I�G

mvj @state-of-art.org

DEPUTY EDITOR MICHAELA FREEMAN

N ...

INTRODUCTION MIKE VON JOEL

m if@state-of-art. o rg

PUBLISHER STATE MEDIA

editoria !@state-of-art.org PUBLISHING ASSI STANTS JENNIFER PENGILLY EWAN DAVID EASON

Contributors This Issue ROBERT VAS DIAS !AN MCKAY ALAIN ADAM ALASTAIR GRAHAM ROSIE MILLARD CLARE HENRY MAX THURLOW BRIAN McAVERA ROBERT HELLER CHRISTOPHER FINCH

however, that the talk-talk and shaved head

THERE HAVE always been collectors. Children in Old Kingdom Egypt (c.2500 BC)

evangelists have made little impact on the

had collections of ingenious, and sometimes

arts that enjoy some degree of regimen. We

mystifying, toys. At the advent of postal

are not overwhelmed with new theatres, new

marks and stamps in 1837, enthusiasts for

ballet groups or a new breed of conceptual

the new invention avidly formed chrono

opera stars.

logical collections. What schoolboy of the not collect steam

But in the visual arts and the media, these

GEORGINA TURNER ANDREW HURMAN

locomotive numbers and bubblegum cards

young heroes rule is absolute-a world where

(who can forget Mars Attacks?) which in

self doubt exists not. It does exist, in spades,

Cover Image

themselves superseded cigarette cards and

amongst the hot-shots of the post war baby

ANDREA CARS ON ROLAND THOMAS

19 50s vintage did

Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza PHOTO©Aian Davidson

Eagle comics. If I could have a £1 for every

Editors at Large USA CLARE HENRY UK ANDREW HURMAN FRANCE JEREMY HUNT GEORGINA TURNER IRELAND BRIAN MCAVERA CIARAN BEN NETT CANADA ANDREA CARSON AUSTRIA !AN MCKAY

individual who has whined to me over the

them was coming. These high achievers, with

years about a mother who threw their Eagle

salaries to match, are desperate to reverse

PUBLISHED BY

comic collection in the dustbin ('worth a

their exemption from the exclusive club

fortune today!') I could probably afford to

dominated by the young (therefore hip) and

Box 52173 London E2 SXR PO

Tel: 020 7739 4078 TUESDAY- FRIDAY l.l.-4

editorial@state-of-art.org www.state-of-art.org

to which we all have a temporary member

buy a drink in the Groucho Club. But

collectors of contemporary art - this is another country altogether.

The marriage of a work of art to its fmancial

STATE MEDIA

boom, facing a late middle age nobody told

status is inseparable. When did anyone last

hear of an art collection of no value? And it

ship. When considering this philosophical Those far off. simple days. when a decent collection meant having an uninterrupted run of the Eagle comic.

position I am always minded, not of Henri

Poincare rsl, but of television advertising. We

all know that a joke told by a man in the pub might be amusing first time around. Repeated

over again it becomes a drag. Well, I imagine

is this aspect of the 'art collection' that has

amounts of money for art in this new, highly

such a resonance amongst the spoilt, brattish

public arena, would have society, the art trade

executives, late forties, looking at fifty, who

me-me generation usually referred to as

and the media lining up to lick their boots.

have clawed their way to the top by a mixture of guile, ruthlessness and talent. And here

a large corporate office with a couple of

'baby-boomers'<ll_ The trend for art as a

And this was the irresistible factor for those

tangible sign of success and social standing

enjoying wealth without merit in our post

they are, faced with a twenty-something

has reached its zenith in our new millennium,

rock'n'roll era.

agency dude, pitching them his 'idea' for a comedic TV ad for their company. These

and appears quite different in essence to that other great, American driven, art boom, just

The great essayist, William Hazlitt, identified

guys are petrified that they don't 'get it', that

prior to the Great War of 1914.

the syndrome in 1819, but it doubtless

they are somehow outside of the in-crowd

Printed by Trinity-Mirror Group. Watford Plant

STATE OF ART is an independent publi catio n .

existed 2000 years ago just the same: 'Man

'hip' loop that they (oh, so recently) would

Epitomised by Henry Clay Frick and Arabella

is a toad-eating animal,' he noted, 'the

have understood in a second. So they pretend

individual authors and not necessarily of the

Huntington, it is easy to dismiss the 'Duveen

admiration of power in others is as common

to. This is how hundreds of thousands of

clients'l2l as wealthy widget manufacturers

to man as the love of it in himself; the one

pounds are spent on moronic 'amusing'

you won't find anyone today quite so pleased

your TV in the fifth time you see it. (And

Views expressed herein are those of the Editor or the Publishers

ALL MATERIAL © STATE OF ART 2007 State of Art acknowledges support from Angela Flowers plc Momentum Publishing PSI (London)

desperately attempting to acquire 'class' and

breeding by purchasing art. But a quick

review of the American industrialists of this

with themselves as the top end collector of

period soon reveals that the art buying was

contemporary art works.

product ads that make you want to smash

no, you don't remember the product either). Cultural insecurity. This seems to me to have

just another aspect of a general disposition towards philanthropy - itself a part of

It was 'America week' recently on television

some relation to the wonderful world of

wealthy America's fixation with immortality.

- a tribute to differing aspects of American

contemporary art. It would go a little way to

At the turn of the 18th century, involvement with art had a firm foundation in aesthetics;

culture, as enjoyed vicariously by British

explaining why so much money is being

audiences from the safety of their armchairs.

gambled on so much light entertainment in

with substance and quality. At the turn of the

Of course, music played a large part in this

galleries and auction houses across the

and it was a treat to see fondly remembered

Western world.

the 19th century, perhaps, more concerned

�

makes him a tyrant the other a slave.' <•l And

20th century there is no doubt that the

idols as they were back then ... and also

overwhelming regard - and obsession -is

somewhat sobering. Blondie had a whole half

the value of art in a self congratulatory investment exchange.

hour dedicated to a concert given at a venue in darkest Glasgow. Shorn of the engineering skills that made their LP records dominate

During the last 25 years major auctions of

the punky-pop era, Blondie bordered on

paintings, once the province of

the

appalling, at best, and dire the rest of the

professional dealer and gallerist, have

time. Not even the devastatingly photogenic

become black-tie social events where a

Debbie Harry could disguise the amateur

substantial successful bid results in ecstatic

night out qualities of the performance. Yet,

applause. We were supposed to be impressed

it had all seemed so great at the time.

with the ever increasing amounts paid for

Hindsight might well be a party-pooper, but

individual works of art as they unfolded,

it does tend to clear the eye, and there is no

eulogised in newspapers and television

doubt that when a clear eye is cast over

reports. Cliches abounded. In March 1987,

Japanese insurance magnate Yasuo Goto paid

today's idols of Artland, certain truths are

never sold a painting in his lifetime we were

fact that any individual prepared to pay large

3) Claude-Emile Schuffenecker (1851-1934) a

French artist who allegedly forged the work of his contemporaries. including van Gogh and Cezanne. He was a friend of Gauguin.

5) Jules Henri Poincare (1854-1912) one of

where such terms as 'drawing' are whispered

thing was made abundantly clear-the simple

Duveen of Mill bank. was one of the most influential art dealers of all time. selling Renaissance painting primarily to the great American industrialist families in the early 20'" century. Subject to revisionist history of late.

Supporters of contemporary art like to claim that constipated, traditionalist concerns -

might be a Schuffenecker forgeryl3l. But one

2) Joseph Duveen (1869-1939) later Baron

4) Willam Hazlitt Political Essays. 1819.

Gogh's Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers at Christie's London. Vincent

somewhat when it was alleged the work

the those born during the post-World War.ll (aka the '1968 generation').

sure to be revealed.

the equivalent of US $39,921,750 for Van

told (untrue) and the bathos did evaporate

NOTES

1) Increased birth rates particularly applied to

behind rolled up copies of the RA Magazine

-totally fail to confront the modem world of multi-media, multi-cultural, multi dimensional ideas. They might well be right in this respect. It is interesting to note,

France's greatest mathematicians and theoretical physicists. and a philosopher of science. Poincare postulated that the laws believed to govern matter were created solely by the minds that ·understood' them and no theory could be considered 'true'. 'The things themselves are not what science can reach .. but only the relations between things. Outside of these relations there is no knowable reality.·

state ,of. �rt. SJ,».fti·I"LG _2007

4state

STATEO

Renton refers, is in many ways a peculiarly

�RT

British trend at present. In Italy, for example, the current supply of contemporary art has

CAVEAT EMPTOR

OVER THE PAST fifteen or twenty years, we have witnessed a seismic shift in the way that the artist, gallerist, curator, and collector do business. Since the late-1980s, new tiers of collectors have emerged, as new networks of artist-curators and speculative middlemen

have begun bypassing established galleries

public space in the 90s.

auction market but the works were widely admired and ultimately sold for £3,000 and £2,160, including premium'. Indeed, that sale, which established twenty-one new

confirmation that, finally, Scandinavian

shown themselves to be far less coy about

..\]

could be that the ramifications will be felt far wider than has been previously

anticipated as lower-league artists, curators

and gallery spaces become increasingly

• i•

B'l

curator, writer, and director of the MFA programme in Curating at Goldsmiths: 'we

have never lived through such a strong market for contemporary art before, and the

Anyone who has been sitting on works by

the Icelandic-Dane 6lafur Eliasson for

example (and there are a few that have been doing just that) will be pleased to note that the Christie's sale also set a new world auction record of £142,400 for his Gletscher

turnaround between art hitting the street and

Serien, 1999 (a fairly modest framed series

getting shorter and shorter'. With art now

incidentally is just a couple of years younger

it being recycled by the auction houses is

being churned after as little as two years, the role of art as a commodity is changing too.

of forty-two C-prints). Eliasson, who than Damien Hirst, only really came to

prominence in the UK in 2003 with his

markets, and while some European dealers

exhibitions cropping up on their CV -to be

their eye to the rapidly growing Chinese

even though in reality, it is pretty much the

of their contemporary collections as they turn

market (recently the Swiss dealer Pierre

Huber

did

just

that)

the

USA,

commentators have been heralding the beginning of the end to the contemporary art boom there. These days in New York, it is apparently not uncommon to have to fork out

immediacy, and this may have a good deal to do with much wider cultural factors in

little

contemporary art to go round now'. As high caliber blue-chip artists find it ever-harder

Britain. Undoubtedly, too, it has something

to meet the staggering level of demand, so

phenomenon which Goldsmiths itself did so

within the market too; tiers of lesser-known

to do with the Young British Artists

much to foster and promote in the late-80s and early-90s, but it is no longer just a British trend. The generation of Finnish artist

inevitably this has created those other tiers artists and smaller 'alternative' gallery spaces that, claims Renton, 'coast along, caught up in the frenzy that is fuelled by the speculation

photographers now marketed as the Helsinki

that is occurring'. Small alternative spaces

what used to be known as the Goldsmiths

biggest issue in the commercial art world

School have proved only too clearly that

Model-that of a group of independent artists imposing themselves forcefully on the market by means of a collective identity and label - can work elsewhere too.

quickly become viable precisely because the

(often 'artist-run') gallery the interaction between artist and collector allows for a more intimate relationship that ultimately leads to a new tier of collectors too.

In October last year, for example, the

PERSONAL TOUCH

kicked off their inaugural Nordic Art & Design sale with two photographs by the

exemplary Finnish photographer, Marjukka

Artist-curators such as Steven Waiter

for them, an exhausting one that involves

subsequent promotion; and very often this

Sotheby's that announced 'another record

are as conscientious as Waiter and, as he

setting season for Contemporary art' as both

is true. But then again, not all artist-curators himself says, 'artist-curations can and do

of the two major auction houses achieved the

often result in little more than a group of

Contemporary Art category and, in Moscow,

For the collector, artist-curated exhibitions

highest-ever total for European sales in the

artist-friends constantly showing together'.

one Russian businessman showed his

-when done properly-are a valuable litmus

artist's entire New Religion show at the

frrst cut into the heart of a developing scene

Triumph Gallery for £500,000, prior to the

test however, in that they very often offer a

or community, and so there are necessarily

opening.

some subtle distinctions to be made between

MARKET FORCES

curators at Rockwell in Dalston (who are

the ethical outlook of, say, those artist commendably building a sustainable art

With these kinds of prices being paid in both the galleries and at auction, and an ever-more limited supply of art to go round, it's no

community out of next to nothing, it seems)

and artist-curators such as Harry Pye with his MySpace website and a day-job in the

wonder that the new generation of collectors,

bookshop at Tate Britain.

effectiv.ely priced out of the market before they begin, are being rather more hands-on

For Pye, the role of the artist-curator appears

search for an alternative. With de Kooning

to be all about the buzz and far less about the work and, for sure, it is about making your mark and becoming a Name. As he

sketches on paper now going for the same

states in his publicity material, 'over the last

price that a modest Michelangelo was just a

seven years I've probably organised more

few years back, it is no wonder that today's collector is prepared instead to traipse around

any other independent curator in London',

the backstreets of Hackney, of Dalston, of Hoxton and Bethnal Green looking for, as Renton phrases it, the next Darnien Hirst. But 'the next Darnien Hirst' is a mirage, unless you're the next Charles Saatchi, and the younger collector needs to bear ·that in mind too. Unless you are prepared to 'go all Saatchi' on your young-unknowns, offering the apocryphal blank-cheque to fund just

shows and told more artists what to do than and he really believes it - which is maybe why his own recent solo show was aptly entitled Me, Me, Me. Pye graduated from

Winchester School of Art in the mid-1990s and represents, therefore, an excellent

example of that generation who grew up watching Hirst make it big out there in Docklands and Bermondsey. Today, that generation· thrive on the idea of the artist as

now relates to the problem of actually getting hold ofsome art, he claims, and in the smaller

TWILIGHT ZONE Helsinki School came good when Christie's

calls and drinking a few lattes.

market). If the end is coming, it is not here

yet though; in London this February, it was

As Renton sees it, it's not surprising that art very

sometimes to little more than making a few

months of research, forward-planning and

to be judged. It gets processed through the

there's

added kudos of appearing to be a mover or shaker, even if their efforts do amount

has now taken over the contemporary

gallery and auction house circuit in their

because

in it for the artist-curator meanwhile, is the

immediately take issue with this; highlighting

Weather Project.

though,

in backstreet spaces all over the city. What's

the fact that the role of the artist-curator is,

wait a generation before it is decent to move

the market at present is quite obviously its

same exhibition that is being repeatedly hung

record gross of $239 million was recorded

and more prepared to bypass the established

such as Eliasson's 'gets recycled so quickly

digested online by lower-league collectors

contemporary art sale last November, a

installation at Tate Modem entitled The

system very quickly.' What is striking about

kudos of always appearing to have recent

seem on the brink of off-loading large chunks

As Renton puts it: 'you no longer have to it on and it no longer has to be historicised

you'll show me in yours) and in which it's reserve some wall space for their own work

enthusiasm for Damien Hirst by buying the

aggressive in their search for a slice of the

favours are repaid in kind (the unspoken understanding that I'll show you in mine, if

too. What's in it for the artist is the obvious

(leading Art & Auction to claim that hysteria

regularity of contemporary art coming up for

of nepotism now hangs heavy over a new

wave of artist-curated shows in which

factors involved in Europe's many art

piece by Anish Kapoor, and at one Christie's

auction. Younger art-buyers have quickly

according to the somewhat impertinent

generally agreed that the curator will always

or a staggering $2.25 million for a late-90s

involvement has engendered a change in the

the lower end of the market in a way that

There are, in short, a variety of geo-political

nearly $700,000 for a moderate Baldessari,

contemporary art's time has come.

On the one hand, this new level of

According to Andrew Renton, independent

Goldsmiths Model of the early-90s. An air

talent in the late-80s before becoming a

what does that actually mean for the market?

action.

raum apartment gallery, 'you are guaranteed

live-in ZUrich gallery, which nurtured young

by the purchase of contemporary art; but

basis. But there is a downside too, and it

might be viewed as wholly unethical- even

same used to be true of Bob van Orsouw's

the artist was featured on the international

cheap alternative gallery spaces and, in some

international artists. As Viennese dealer,

an excellent cup of coffee in the space'. The

of Christie's retells: 'this was the first time

some artists are now beginning to utilise

tightly-operated networks of peer-contacts, cases, dodgy deals, to impose themselves on

Viktor Bucher, comments of his Projekt

Vainio (pictured below). As Kira Sjoberg

shambolic things become. Desperate to

connect with this market of new collectors,

favour of those live-in exhibition spaces that promote a younger generation of promising,

designers, might have been taken a s

Christie's or Sotheby's on a fairly regular

travels in search of that discovery, the more

city's established network of galleries in

at the margins of the traditional market. Put

resh uffling their collections through

for the lower down the food chain, one

country's stringent export legislation that

with Austrian collectors who eschew the

world auction records for Nordic artists and

simply, there is now a far greater involvement

But here the collector meets with a problem,

galleries continues unabated, ever popular

in order to tap into the frenzy of speculation

in collecting from a clientele less daunted

for some time been far greater than the

while in Vienna, the trend for apartment

COMMENT IAN McKAY

you need to aim lower. .. much lower.

demand (a factor that is, in part, due to that keeps most Italian contemporary art in Italy)

artists, curators and gallery spaces become increasingly aggressive in their search for a slice of the action

about anything the artist wants to make, then

Of course, though the Goldsmiths Model may have been successfully exported and adopted elsewhere, the market to which

' "the next Damien Hirst" is a mirage, unless you're the next Charles Saatchi, and the younger collector needs to bear that in mind tOO. 1

ANDREW RENTON

state of art SPRING2007

states two very different forms of curatorial and entrepreneurial practice, I guess. What I'm

Dreaming was never that kind of situation.

Whether an ethical line is crossed when the curator curates his wife into a show should

be fairly clear-cut of course, particularly if . the apparent intention is to inflate the profile of an amateur or semi-professional by showing them among established names. And yet, the problems with England's Dreaming went much wider than who was showing and how they were connected; it struck at the very core of ethical and moral credibility that the collector should be able to rely upon in both the curator and gallerist.

To put it simply, England's Dreaming was a 'fake curation' in that Goddard has subsequently confessed to not knowing what some artists would be showing until their pictures were delivered for hanging. Indeed, as one of the participants in the show explains, the exhibition was less a 'curation' and more an attempt to court those collectors who, in the USA last year, were being advised

wall space for himself and fellow Hoxtonites

network of fellow artist-curators. If chavs ever started collecting art, it would be -towards the likes ofPye that they'd gravitate.

- Stephen Waiter, Isabel Youn , and Caroline List (all of whom have 'curated'

for Hoxton's Standpoint Gallery)·- Goddard even made that leap into the curatorial/ethical abyss by including space for his wife too,

PICTURE YOURSELF

the amateur or 'semi-professional' painter,

Karen Douglas. Despite being something of

Further down the food chain stili however, self-styled 'artist-curators' such as Andrew Goddard have taken the nepotism of the artist-curation phenomenon to new heights in their _ongoing _search to establish themselves within a network and reach the

illusive collectors and gallerists of repute. I have followed Goddard's work for some twenty years now, and so feel qualified to comment that, of late, he · has appeared to have developed a new strategy; of straddling both scenes in his attempt to maximise his potential- contracted to Rebecca Hossack in Fitzrovia on the one hand, but nurturing his curatorial place on the fringe (out there in Hoxton) on the other. In some ways, .it has been paying off, but in other ways it has not. Last March for example, for his 'artistcuration' of England's Dreaming (an

. exhibition of contemporary -landscape

a curatorial disaster, England's Dreaming

was nonetheless a forceful attempt by Goddard to place himself at the heart of . a community- both here and abroad. ·The fact that all of ihese artists have, at some ·

point, curated themselves into an eXhibition is an obvious problem that I put to Andrew . Renton, figuring that he might have a firm

view given his position as director of the Goldsmiths Curating programme: 'My first instinct is to be very careful about that and to resist it', he replies. 'The answer, as a first instinct, has to be No- though ethical lines are often being crossed.' Where Renton is sympathetic, he tells me, is on those occasipns where there is a level of inter collaborative work going on, according to the Goldsmiths Model again; but England's

While Renton and I are both old enough to have been first generation punk rockers, we ai-e also old enough to remember Black Monday<1> and the fact that markets can go down as well as up, and that it is the entire

Porsches m a y have gone from the underground car parks, but the near worthless art -was left on the walls. In 1987, the only art collectors that came through it with anything to show for their 'investment' were those who had taken the advice of dealers such as David Case, then a t

Marlborough, and simply bought what they

liked - for nobody else wanted it once the · crash came.Perhaps Renton has· this in mind, when he says that 'though none of us could have anticipated the market we see today, Silicon Valley, the Chelsea Art Gallery were then organising symposia for would-be · something, at some point, will have to give'. The shame is that the new breed of artist collectors, at which Bay Area art experts curator, in their desire to bypass established addressed questions concerning investment dealers and spin their way to success, might and collection strategies, and Goddard had just bring it all crashing down around their seen an opportunity for a slice of that ready feet. No one likes a kidder and caveat emptor made action. With the Chelsea Art Gallery is a term that might be heard a little more marketing its 'Silicon Valley Guide to Savvy. frequently now, as a new generation of artists, Art Investment' functions, replete with poorly educated in ethics and hungry for Berkeley and Bonham's advisors to address , fame, adept at manipulation and willing to 'frameworks for determining value and 'tips spin, set up shop on the corner and wait for �o better navigate the secondary markets', the phone to ring. rich pickings were detected. on their collections by the Chelsea Art Gallery, to whom Goddard was also pitching the show. From their-base in Palo· Alto,

painting in the corporate space of a leading London law firm) not satisfied with finding

'celebrity' or 'star', though they have poor historical recall and next to no market-savvy beyond the immediate limits of therr own

achievements are spun to maximise effect; where CV s are doctored and Artnet entries simply aren't true:

market that's affected too. I'm certainly not the only one that remembers the vacant apartments of late-80s Wapping, where_ the

CALIFORNIA DREAMING

Artistjcurato r Andrew G,oddard with View (2005) a pai nting by has wife. Karen Douglas

talking about is the development of a network within, whereby truth is now often traded for the appearance of success, and one's

Goddard, of course, is not alone in his endeavours to build some hype and tap into markets previously denied him. In light of what is becoming a recent trend, it occurs to me now that what has been going ori over the past few years is the rapid proliferation

of a particularly peniicious vanity-publishing network as the 'artist-curation' phenomenon has been seized upon by the lower echelons as a means of reaching those collectors in search of a low-priced 'discovery'. ·Renton ·disagrees however; highlighting his age and the fact that he's old enough to be 'a first

generation punk rocker who still gets off on the DIY ethos of today's art-entrepreneurs' - but then Renton and I are talking about

fan McKay is an author and academic based in Hampshire and editor of European arts website is at: http/;www. kurtenscharter. net

NOTES 1. Black Monday is the nci m e given to Monday. October 19. 1987. when t h e Dow Jones Ind ustrial Average ( D J IA) fe l l d ra matica l ly. and ·on which sim i l a r enormous drops occurred across the world. By the end of October. stock markets i n Hong Kong ·had fallen 45:8%. A�stra l ia 41.8%. the Un ited Kingdom 26.4%. the United States 22.'68%. ·a nd. Canada 22.5%. (source Wikipediaf The su bsequent panic ove r liquidity had a catastrophic effect on the a rt · ma rket.

6state

state

STATEOFMINDDUBAI

UP TO A POINT

that glistters �s gold here Gulf Art Fair full of Eastern Promise comment ROSIE MILLARD THERE HAS TO BE more to life than 24hour shopping, 40-storey hotels and the chance to buy your own sandy island for $25m. And so there was a distinct feeling that bling had at last been replaced by beauty on the opening night of the first ever Gulf Art Fair in Dubai. 'It's just such a treat having some proper art here,' said a woman in a cashmere-frilled jumper, standing beside a Picasso still life, on sale for $5 million. Culture certainly mines a seam of wealth that other tourist attractions fail to reach, and there is a keen sense in Dubai that while indoor skiing mountains are all very well and good, having a real-life Picasso in town gives a certain classy appeal. Neighbouring cities in the Emirates are clearly thinking the same way; this week, Abu Dhabi announced that it was to build a franchise of the Paris Louvre, at a cost of 1 billion Euros. Art fairs certainly bring in the collectors; currently, it's estimated that over 50% of the

world's art trade takes place in temporary fairs, while blue-chip galleries estimate that around 70% of their business operates at the same. Most of the art on show at the 3-day Fair was utterly blue-chip; it seemed as if every other gallery was selling a Picasso, alongside modem masters such as Warhol, Kandinsky, Lichtenstein and a spotted Mini decorated by the enfant terrible of British contemporary art, Damien Hirst. Charles Saatchi had given a New York gallery the job of flogging it for around $2 million. Indeed, Hirst had five pieces on sale in a show which was touted as being an artistic 'gateway between East and West' but was, in reality, little more than a Greatest Hits of visual art. Out of the 40 galleries at the Fair, only one, The Third Line, actually came from Dubai; the rest were hand-picked, fashionable names mostly from London, New York, Germany and India. Local dealers were to be found, but stalking about disconsolately outside the venue.

Algerian artist Kader Attia said he thought it was ludicrous that the Arab contribution to the Fair was so thin on the ground. 'I would have been interested to find some artists from Dubai at the Fair, and I didn't. I wasn't surprised. But I'm sure there are a lot of artists here. Do you know anywhere in the world where there aren't artists? Hopefully next year there will be a bigger presence.'

ALL THAT GLISTERS So let us forget about silly notions such as 'a crossroads of culture', and the like. The Fair's raison d' etre was more succinctly summed up by a dealer from Japan. 'Why are we here? Because there is wealth here.' Pierre Hugo from Orfevre, a gallery in Aix-en-Provence, concurred: 'We have to follow where the market is'. He's brought two solid gold dishes made by Picasso ( 250,000 Euros each) and was optimistic about his chances of selling them. 'They like gold here!'

art SPRING2007

think nothing o"f having on-the-spot portraits done by the Chapman brothers (£3,500 for a 30-minute sitting). The value of bringing such a fanbase into the capital, albeit only for a week, is palpable. Miami Basle (every December) is widely credited with bringing riches, glamour and sophistication to the Florida resort in a quantity not seen since its hey-day in the Thirties. Even the humble Affordable Art Fair, which started in West London a decade ago, is now so successful , its inventor, Will Ramsay, has franchised it across the world. In London. The AAF now turns over £4m in four days. 'It's the ambition of Dubai to rival New York,' says Julia Peyton-Jones, director of the Serpentine Gallery in London and a guest speaker at the Art Fair. 'Now they have brought the city to worldwide

MARKET MAKING Of course, filthy lucre is the simple reason why every city is keen to develop its own Art Fair. S ince fine art is the most luxurious and useless of all useless luxury goods, wealthy people are hopelessly attracted to it. If you develop a bespoke, temporary market purely for the rilthy rich, the local benefits can be startlingly valuable. The British art fair Frieze, which takes place in Regent's Park every November, has over £lOO m worth of art for sale. The fair attracts the sort of clientele who turn up by private jet and

JACK SMITH 2 - 26 l\1AY 2007

attention, they have to build on it. I give it 3 years before it overtakes Manhattan.' Standing beside a Darnien Hirst cabinet filled with pickled fish (£395,000) dealer Graham Steele from White Cube tended to agree. 'The Emirates are trying to create an international name on the cultural scene,' he said. 'It's the new vacation spot, it's the new media hotspot, and now there is an incredible sense of expectation about what will happen culturally.'

NO NUDES IS GOOD NEWS Naturally, there were a few cultural boundaries; no 'overt' nudity, and John Keane's political painting No Arabs, No Terror ($30,000), was displayed unlabelled. 'We thought it would be a bit sensitive,' said Keane's dealer, Sam Chatterton Dickson from Flowers Gallery, 'and I preferred to explain to people verbally.'

THE EMPIRE STRIKES

Flowers 21 Cork. Street London

W L S 3 LZ T: 020 7439 7766 \'l�\"-.tlowerseast.com

Some cultural hurdles were less easy to overcome; the opening night al fresco cocktail party was surrounded by exhausted looking Indian workers climbing about on cranes, hard at it on the giant round-the-clock building projects for which Dubai is famed. And British artist Sarah Strang had taken the very unwise decision to employ three men from the local Gold souk to help with her piece, Marketplace. Clad in a glamorous silk dress for the VIP opening, Strang stood by while the goldsmiths obediently hammered out her designs in gold. 'I'm paying them the going rate,' she grinned. W hat was that, then? A miserly 70p an hour. 'My piece is about reality,' said Strang, herself the fortunate recipient of a commission, airfare, hotel accommodation and expenses from the Fair (in total, a value of probably around £5,000). 'These men are here on an equal basis to me. I think if I was to bring a charitable dimension into the piece, that would be most dangerous.' Not so sure about your thinking there, Sarah...! Rosie Millard is a writer on art and culture and former BBC TV arts correspondent

state

art

STATEO

state7

SPRING 2007

�RT TRY COLLECTING RSELF! Guide books for the blind

with the added bonus that if you tell people

you collect art they may think you're smart

and sophisticated, whereas tell them about

autographs are free and it costs money to buy

pundit (never mind a diminutive bird watcher

or a leggy TV personality) can be ever so convince them that you're interested in

buying something and there's a fair chance

you will learn what it's like to be smarmed

better to be smarmed than to be the one doing

the smarming. So now, when I look around my collection, what do I see?

an album no longer satisfied the strange new

new book about collecting art a dozen times,

body. In the end I could resist the stirrings

rephrase the question. When I look around

introduction before I've put it down again.

I succumbed to active paleontology. Many

definitely not Peggy Guggenheim. And you

written or offensive; but in that no-man's land

when I last swung my geology hammer in

of Chapter One, falls the shadow - an

eons my accumulation of graptolites,

but not once have I managed to read past the It's not that the book is uninteresting, badly between the end of the preface and the start

urges that I felt welling up in my pubescent no longer, the temptation was too great and

earnest and sometime during the intervening

Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza doesn't live

this page but, as the advertising copywriters

still have my prized possession, my trace

have all been lost. Only one relic remains, I

for M&S would phrase it, this isn't just any

look through my keyhole and figure out that

here; it's my mortgage all right. 'Are you

lookin' at me?', as Robert de Niro famously said-well, yes, I suppose I am.

When I look at the prints on my walls, they

are a reflection of myself in some ways.

string of words. These are sept bon mats,

marinated in Gauloises, garlic and Eau de

my collection, whom do I see? Well, it's don't need to be gross Loyd Grossman to

ammonites, belemnites, oddites and soddites

numbered page 18. A single sentence sits on

What you collect is always yourself. OK, I'll

years have past since those carefree days

insurmountable psychological barrier

Obviously they embody my tastes and, in a

Cologne and pullulating with a Parisian profundity found only in the upper reaches

There's something about the

aphoristic ·apothegm won't just make you

of soigne structuralist sophistry. This punchy

thought of a modern French

pause for thought, it will induce catatonia

and everyone carries its own little story of

and narcolepsy and you definitely shouldn't

philosopher that brings out

whom, and these short, anecdotal narratives

the Alfred Munnings in all of

biography. While the prints are not hung in

try to read it and operate heavy machinery at

the same time.

GOTTA NEW THEORY, JEAN

us of a certain age, and

The line is about to come up now so those of

a delicate disposition might want to get the

tests the entente of out

half an inch and you should be out of the

cordiality to the limit.

smelling salts ready or just skip down about ·danger zone:

What you really collect is always yourself. Epigrams don't come much pithier than that

- but perhaps pithy isn't quite the word;

upstanding Englishman of good breeding, or

definitely comprise part of my unwritten

a chronological order, they still remind me

of changes in my tastes and interests over

the past thirty years but, whatever these

changes, I wouldn't dream of selling any of

them.

This,

surely,

the

defining

characteristic that separates collector from dealer and which makes me more of the

despite his reputation. Although, to be fair,

had I looked into that fish tank one day -

pickled shark floating in formalin, I too might

of food. As I look at it now, I think to myself:

Wanda or whatever it was he called his pet

What you collect is always yourself. And yes, that's me trudging along through

the mudstone path of life looking for the next

awareness - seen something of myself in a have thought 'Out, out damned Spot', or

fish. Presumably Imelda Marcos is still

awaiting her particular Baudrillardian flash when she opens the closet one day and sees

a fully shod millipede staring back at her.

Jeremy Clarkson- you may well have also·

free lunch, leaving behind a tiny ripple in

There's something about the thought of a

imagine that sometime in the distant future

my Buck and Greer book for the very last

subsequently scrutinized by a Star Trek

collections - the one that everyone keeps.

this Baudrillard bloke is onto something.

expelled an involuntary snort of derision.

the sands of time. Is it really too fanciful to

Let us pause no more, it's time to put down

modem French philosopher that brings out

some of my footsteps may also be frozen and

age, and tests the entente of out cordiality to

palaeobiologist from another galaxy? Maybe

the Continent that smells ripe is merde de

Then again, when we come to examine my

alongside Moby Dick, Finnegan 's Wake, The Brothers Karamazov, A Short History ofTime

pause - as I have found myself pausing

collecting - the analysis seems less

expanding library in the land of the unread.

the AHred Munnings in ail of us of a certain the limit. But hold on, not everything from

bouef In the interest of science and art, let's

before- and read it once again with a French

accent: What you really collect is always

yourself Maybe he has a point; maybe we can look at

our collections and see ourselves-a simple

other adolescent hobby - autograph penetrating. Like the fossils, most of the

celebrity signatures that I once held, have

simply disappeared down the back of the sofa

all the others go? As I ponder the question,

collections. With this thought in mind, and

at the risk of revealing more about myself

is always yourself.

structionist' s doctrine.

Enough-let's put away childish things and

Like most young boys, when I reached a

certain age, I went through that phase where

swapping marbles and pasting stamps into

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leap forward to adulthood, which is when I

start collecting modem art; mainly prints but

also the odd painting and sculpture. The best

Owning Art:

The Contemporary Art

of these are as interesting and pretty as fossils

Collector's Handbook

creators. I suppose it's the best of both worlds

Cultureshock Media ltd £14.95

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once again I say to myself: What you collect

TAKING THE PLUNGE

KEEPING IT REAL

Andrew Hurman is a critic and writer on contemporary cultural issues based in London.

Jimmy Hill , Bill Oddie, Danny La Rue and

than is sensible, I will use my own collecting history as a tool to try to test the decon

and shelves and shelves more of that ever

dimension probably poke around. I still

considering this insight could help make us

all better people, better collectors with better

At least it will be in very good company

Star Trek palaeobiologists of another

retain my Harold Wilson but where did

counsellor or cheque book. P e rhaps

time and let it join that greatest of all

of history into that black hole where those

self-analysis without need of a couch or

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how I bought it, and when and why and from

trudged along the bottom of the sea one day,

author as the great cultural theorist and

the case - and assuming that you are an

and, in particular, the art that I value. Each

and in a flash of Baudrillardian self

the footprints of an aquatic ammonite that several million years ago, looking for scraps

philosopher, Jean Baudrillard. That being

chose them, all conf"mns them to me as art

distinctive little rippling patterns forever hold

although it sounds. almost right. In either

case, I'm sure all will have recognised the

quasi-Duchampian way, the very fact that I

former than someone like Charles Saatchi, fossil. This small lump of mudstone with the

UNPUTDOWNABLE IT ain't. I must have

picked up Louisa Buck and Judith Greer's

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art but getting the goods by smarming up to

slightly demeaning. Go into a gallery and

c.o

an ex-Prime Minister or bearded football

yourself. Experience tells me that it's a lot

reader ANDREW HURMAN

G) -

your fossil collection and they rank you on

the same level as a trainspotter. OK,

:J >

state

sstate

SVATE$1

COLLECTORS COME in all shapes and sizes. Some art dealers are collectors; think

of Eugene Thaw, Ernest Beyler, Aime Maeght. Artists also collect. Matisse, Monet and Renoir all acquired paintings b y Cezanne. Monet hung his over the bed. Today Howard Hodgkin collects Indian art; Brice Marden Chinese antiquities. But with

PAYING THE PIPER

their large wallets and deep pockets, American tycoons make most noise and most news for they are much less reticent than Europeans in announcing their acquisitions,

A WEALTH OF KNOWLEDGE

talking about their passions.

THAT'S THE WAY YOU DO IT

Big Shots call the tune in the US market

The prevailing notion is that American collecting is a hot social phenomenon; collectors are the new aristocracy. Money buys entry to museum boards and upscale cocktail parties, dinners, receptions and the whole merry-go-round. In theory, a lottery winning dustman (refuse collector in US parlance) can therefore social-climb to the

art

SPRING 2007

Elaine Merians, Simona Chazen and Susan Kasen Summers all collect as the strong half of a husband and wife team. Elaine and Melvin Merians have arguably the best private collection of School of London

figuration. They bought Freud early, and

Kitaj is a favourite, while their recent

passion, Paula Rego, eclipses most of the men. Moreover many of the Merian s ' pictures are accompanied b y related artists'

drawings, which gives the whole display a welcome comprehensive edge. This is the key to this collection. 'A drawing is so intimate. It helps you learn more about an artist. For us that's an integral part of it all. ' They now know all the artists, so have insider knowledge. However: 'We must both agree or we don't buy. If one vetoes a painting,

that's the end of it. That's why there is no

Bacon. We couldn't agree - now they're too expensive ! '

The Summers have certainly the world's best private collection of 1980s Scottish Painting.

Met's board. (Not always a win-win situation

At that period Scottish artists led the British

Trustee 200 1 -2002). And as hedge fund

too. Bob Summers, former Sony CEO, tells

- think of Dennis KozlowskiUl as Whitney

field. The Summers came to that conclusion

REPORT CLARE HENRY

operators move into the art market, haggling,

flipping, doing deals for the fun of it, working

of seeing a group of Scottish pictures that just looked stronger than any other works so they started collecting. Right time, right

the tax deductible system in art as they do in

business; quiet passionate people content to live with their favourite pieces of art for as

Like Lauder, he started young. At 12, he

long as possible, are overlooked. Yet just as

bought his first ceramic, an artichoke plate

in Europe, some collectors do it for money,

for his mother - which he's still got. Now

some for love - the lucky ones with a

aged 86, a selection from his collection is

combination of both.

sale

the

Lacoste

Gallery,

Massachusetts. 'I don't want to sell, but I

Ronald Lauder, Hester Diamond, Donald Marron and banker Crosby Kemper are examples of these lucky few. Kemper 's tastes

run from Bonnard to de Kooning and the

can't leave a mass of objects for my daughter to deal with' , he told me. 'I put high prices on a couple of pieces I really wanted to keep, but they were snapped up at the opening ! '

eccentric Polly Apfelbaum. The USA is a new country. Lest we forget its implications

Hull's interest i s heavily Northern European.

- almost half of the museums have been

He began collecting in Finland in 1 95 1 , on a

founded since 1 97 1 . Unlike Europe, most are

buying trip for his china business. There he

privately funded, established by multi

met the extraordinary potter Toini Muona

millionaires or their foundations. Here, the

and was entranced by the pure form of her

Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in

vessels. On later visits to Stockholm and

Kansas City, founded 1 9 94, is a perfect

Denmark, he bought Gutte Eriksen' s work,

example.

which now sells for record amounts. In the

mid- 1950s, a career change took him from

Syracuse (now Museum of Art, then in 1970 to

Kemper had long been a keen, committed

trustee to director of the

collector when he decided on his mission to

Everson)

'bring the best in contemporary art to

Pennsylvania State University as director of

Kansas' . The Kemper collections range from

their Museum. Since 1970, his many visits

early 20th century art to present and include

to Europe resulted in Twenty Four British

few. There are exceptions, and these are to

Potters in 1 97 6 , and the seminal 1 9 8 1 Danish Ceramic Design. Penn State now has

be celebrated.

the best university ceramics collection in the

BARD COLLEGE PROGRAMME

major paintings by Hockney, Warhol,

O'Keeffe, Klein, de Kooning and Pollock; and sculpture by Bourgeois, Lipchitz, Botero. Gifts from these got the Museum off

USA. After his quarter century of visits to

place. A third of their collection is Scottish. These Scots are great draughtsmen. They also love paint, colour, bold imagery, and irony. They have a gritty, often vivid imagination; the key 1987 Scottish National Gallery show was even called The Vigorous Imagination.

to a flying start. Since then, Crosby Kemper's

Danish studios, Hull is today a hero in

Marieluise Hessel, Miss Germany in 1958,

adventurous international acquisition policy

Copenhagen.

arrived in Mexico with her first husband in

Mapplethorpe, Kitaj, Jacklin, Estes and Hirst, plus sculpture, have put the museum

A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND

discovered Heiner Fredrich's gallery,

reality but transform their narratives into

on the map - and, he says, 'Given us great

While Hull's beautifully installed collection,

Summers have also been very supportive of

public via the auction houses, as did that of

German modern art (strangely neglected and

Hester Diamond in 2004, when she decided

Richter. Today her interest is especially with women artists like Mona Hatoum, Janine Antoni, Trockle, Holzer, Goldin, Pipilotti Rist, Beecroft, Marisa Merz, Sherman . . . plus the $ 1 0 million

to change course and sell a remarkable $60

which opened last November as part of Bard

DREAM TEAM

ignored in the US) began at 14 when he saw Avenue bookstore. In 200 1 , this resulted in

Kandinsky, Mondrian, Brancusi, Leger and Picasso so that she could focus on her

helped fund the Museum, while her second

we don't buy it'. They also share a rare but

new passion for Renaissance painting and

husband eo-founded Bard's adjacent Centre

real conviction that one should never

B aroque sculpture . After a lifetime ' s

for Curatorial Studies. The opening show,

differentiate between fine and applied arts.

helped by vast wealth from the Estee Lauder

involvement with top calibre modern art, on

entitled Wrestle, was impressive.

Unlike the majority of American collectors

cosmetic business. 'Today I remain as excited

her

about Schiele as I was that day. For me, his

Renaissance art, helping found the Medici

Cynthia Hazen Polsky's passion for Indian

researching, buying and recording items for

work is still filled with wonder and mystery. '

A rchive

painting was initially based on colour. 'As an abstract painter I love the incredible,

their holdings which now include 500 works

ravishing, expressive colour in Indian

figurative work or powerful abstraction - and

paintings. Indian painting has a freshness and

very little in between,' says Simona. 'We also

intimacy. It's uplifting! I also love their sense

go for bold shapes and primary colours.

of works by such as Christo, Ruscha, Johns,

joy' .

•

rninimalism and the new folk like Polke and

like his collecting habits, is low-key and exquisite, many collections first become

Ronald Lauder' s passion for Austrian &

a book about Egon Schiele in a Lexington his founding of New York's magnificent

Neue Galerie in an elegant town house on 5th Ave & 86th St. His is a true passion,

Last year, Lauder paid $ 1 35m for Klimt's fabulous Adele - the most money ever for a

painting (until a Pollock sold for $ 1 40m in

million group of fantastic pictures by

retirement,

she

Project.

began

1 96 1 . On a trip home to Munich, she

Ruthless

study de

acquisitioning, she sold what was arguably

the greatest Severini in private hands to buy a Pontormo Madonna and Child.

November 2006).

Hessell MuseumC2l

College. Her third, current husband, the former chairman of

Procter & Gamble,

Artists like Stephen Campbell, Adrian Wiszniewski, Ken Currie, John Bellany, David Mach and Alison Watt all draw on surreal, sometimes wild scenarios. The young painters, providing studio residencies at their Connecticut estate.

Like the Merians, Simona and Jerome

Chazen have one rule, 'If one of us hates it,

who employ a curator, she is her own curator,

by 200 artists. 'We are drawn to strong

It takes guts to make these big moves - and

of dance. Figures are always in motion, never

When we married, we decided to buy

NORTHER N LIGHTS

women seem better at this than men. Yet

static' , she points out. 'Also the works are

contemporary rather than period furniture,

arriving in Manhattan from the UK, I have

small enough so that a 30-year collection can

things with clean lines: Swedish or Bauhaus

William Hull may not have $ 1 35 million,

been shocked at the lack of w o men

fit in a New York apartment' laughs her

but he is a perfect example of someone who

politicians, women directors, women CEOs.

has quietiy pursued his passion for pots over

With all the power and money in male hands,

a lifetime, with no public aim whatsoever.

it is no surprise that women collectors are

style chairs and tables - which we have

husband, Leon Polsky. Polsky's father, film

continued to do. We were always interested

art collector.

afford paintings

producer Joseph Hazen, was also a noted

in art, especially the Cubists, but couldn't so

bought Braque

state 9

state of art SPRING 2 007 reproductions, then original prints. Early

prints by Hockney, Rivers, Rosenquist and

Lichtenstein still hang on our walls. '

In the early 1980s, the Chazens discovered glass, and were hooked. Over half the works in the collection and on show are studio glass. Jerry explains, 'I never had a grand plan for the collection. Fortunately we were exposed to glass by some of the movement's leading

figures like Dale Chihuly. I always found colour seductive, but glass alone has that magical quality of colour brought to life with light'. He now acts as chair of the Museum

of Modern Art and Design's controversial

expansion to a $50 million new building in

Columbus Circle - where he hopes some of their collection will eventually go. Specialising in a certain area, be it glass or a particular artist, is a popular collection route.

Michael Wilsey has made a collection of works by the Californian maverick artist,

Jess, who used collage and paste-ups in his complex works which earned him the title, 'Father of Pop ' . 'I was attracted by its

incredibly thoughtful content and his precision of execution', he explains. Wilsey is loaning several pieces to Jess: To and From

the Printed Page which tours to six US museums across the States starting in March in California.

PICTURE THIS Photography is of course a currently popular choice. Dana and Richard Kirshenbaum

are New Yorkers whose walls sport pictures

SOCIA LLY M I N D E D LEA D ER S OF T H E ARTS CO M M U N ITY Clockwise from Left

by Albers, Alex Katz, Mangold and

Nevelson plus an eclectic collection of black and white photographs by Cindy Sherman, Horst, Man Ray, including the famous Newman of Picasso - plus gifts from Norman Parkinson, who did work for his

Donald Marron Marieluise H essel picture: Don Ha merman R. Crosby Kern per picture: Bruce Mathews

agency. 'He called me the young snapper. '

Pierre H u ber in his Geneva apart m ent Decem ber 2006 picture: 1/mari Kalkkinen

Kirshenbaum is the hip and respected founder of a well known ad agency called

Kirshenbaum Bond Partners ( clients

include Wendy's and Snapple, and a very

funny early Kenneth Cole ad about Imelda

M ar c o s ' shoes) hence his interest in photography. However his collection began in an unusual way. 'My father was a pioneer collector of

Steichen, Weston nudes etc back in the

1 960s, when there was still a big debate about

decided, to avoid any conflict of interest, I would collect pre足 second world war art for myself and post-1 945 work for the

firm.'

photography as art. His friends thought he

At PaineWebber, Marron selected strong examples that he

was mad! But as a family we got into the

believed captured the spirit of the artist. 'I often bought works

habit of giving him a photograph for his

off the easel, from the studio. I run a business so there was no

birthday instead of a tie or cologne. It became a real event - going to the gallery, selecting the image etc. Then we also exchanged photographs, my father gave me one, I gave my sister one, collecting became family

special lighting. The art had to stand on its own. And if it's

good art, it will.' In 2005, UBS gave 70 works to MoMA who

exhibited 40 of them, including pieces by Jasper Johns, Serra,

Oldenburg, Richter, Tony Cragg, Judd, Flavin, Twombly

and Laurie Simmons.

orientated. I also have photography from people now well known, that we employed

To end on a suitably ironic note, I quote art dealer Pierre

Lachapelle.'

driven, hence my desire to re-orientate, and focus on projects

early on, like Matthew Ralston and David

Huber : 'Art today has become intensely money and market

Christie's New York is selling the nucleus of his collection of American

set in other parts of the world' . To this end

ON THE WALL IN WALL STREET In his 20 years at PaineWebber as Chairman and CEO, Wall Street financier D onald M arron not only built its brokerage business, but also its art collection. In 2000, when UBS acquired PaineWebber for $ 1 1 . 8 billion, i t also acquired 700 pieces o f art.

minimali sm, international photo graphy and l andmark

installation work such as Mike Kelley Test Room, Paul McCarthy's Bear and Rabbit on a Rock (estimate: $ 1 - 1 .5m) and On Kawara's The 90s ($ 1 . 8-2million). He says he will continue his collecting, albeit in reference to China and India. Once a collector, always a collector! No wonder Christie's leading global sales are $4.67 billion annually.

Marron's personal involvement is key. 'It's not a corporate collection, it's a personal

Clare Henry is the Financial Times

art critic based in New York.

collection that hangs in a corporation' , he admits. A keen art lover, who had been buying

art

since

his

twenti e s ,

automatically hung pictures in his own office. 'You spend a third of your life at work. Why not enjoy a stimulating atmosphere? On Wall Street we are in the business of predicting the future. I believe very strongly that good contemporary art reflects the energy of today. With PayneWebber, I began introducing contemporary art by stealth ! And I quickly

NOTES 1) Sept 2005. Ex-Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski received 8 to 25 years in prison for his part in stealing h u n d reds of m i llions of d ollars from t h e m a n u facturing giant. Tyco is a classic conglomerate. making everything from fire alarms and valves to health-care products and electronic c o mponents. By pledging $4.5 million of Tyco's m o ney. Kozlowski bought h i mself a seat on the board of t h e W h itney Museum in New York.

2) see SoA Septem ber-October 2006 (www.state-of-art.org)

state of art SPRING 2007

1 0state

STATEO

F4RT

becomes an associate, a contributor to and

he great art patrons still exist albeit mainly in the marble halls of corporate mer1ca . . . â&#x20AC;˘

comment ROBERT HELLER

vicarious recipient of the artist's limelight.

principles o f true collecting exemplified more clearly - as simple to follow in their way as the methods which made Warren

Money is not the all-powerful issue, although

Buffett the Number One investor of all

its importance cannot be gainsaid. Many of

time . Buffett and the Vogels share one

the best American collectors have found their

cardinal ptinciple: concentrate your buying

paintings more than useful when faced (like

the actor Edward G. Robinson) with grisly

on what you thoroughly understand. Second, buy the very best you can afford

threats such as expensive divorces. Dave Geffen, seller of the $ 1 40m Pollock,

- and in quantity. Third, get to know

supposedly wants the money to back a bid

relevant to your chosen field. Fourth, keep

for the Los Angeles Times. But the genius of

your eyes and ears open to the new, the

a collector lies not in paying enormous prices

young, the undiscovered, the intriguing.

(on which both Lauder and Saatchi pride

Fifth, don't buy on price - buy on love and

personally the artists and dealers who are

themselves) but in .acquiring marvellous

value. Sixth, become a true expert, not a

work marvellously cheap - like the Vogels.

mere dilettante.

THE PRESENT AGE may well not be golden

for Art itself: but without question it's a Golden Age for art collecting, maybe the

most Golden of all. No one will ever know for sure, because of the impossibility of valuing the wondrous purchases of the Italian

Renaissance, as those by the Medicis, or of comparing their expenditure with that of the between-wars American plutocrats - let alone their multinational successors of today. As for their role and influence, comparisons of the great collectors are needless. At all times and in all places, the leading collectors set the pace and the taste for the market as a whole and their power shapes the art world far, far beyond their mortal lives. Whether your York, or the Tate in London, or the several

Above: Gustav Klimt Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer 1907 b o ught by R o n a l d La ud er for $ 135 m i l l io n .

you are responding to the knowledge, passion

Left Peter a n d l rene Ludwig

footsteps lead you to the Frick Museum in New German institutions built up by Peter Ludwig, and purchasing policy of the art moguls.

B e l ow Left: R o n a l d L a u d e r

Only dealers can be mentioned in the same

breath, as the recent and wonderful Ambroise

VoUard show proved at the Metropolitan in New York. People too easily forget that dealers collect on a vast scale, far above most private buyers: Vollard bought over 600 Cezannes

money can come from anywhere, by no means just America, and from any source of wealth.

dealer collections are like bridging loans: they

Henry Clay Frick's supreme collection ran

Mexican, which makes an important point

about this Golden Age. The players and their

alone. Sometimes dealer collecting crosses the

Beyeler. But in most cases the difference is that

have broken all or some of these rules, . inevitably if they are buying from the past.

PoUock masterwork. Martinez is a little-known

border and becomes institutionalised, like the

magnificent modem collection of Ernst

It's true that some world-famous collectors

set the new record with $ 140m for a Jackson

the diverse gamut from Van Eyck to Renoir,

purchases united only by a policy (largely enabled by the arch-dealer, Lord Duveen)

Moreover, they are not great princes of the

of only buying indisputable masterpieces.

world economy, not Medicis, but people whose

Like Venice, the collection became a work

distinction, if nowhere else, is elevated solely

of art in itself. Like the Beyeler Collection,

finance the hiatus, short or long, between the

in the art world. That, of course, can be the

too, the Frick stands as a lasting monument

sale of works by one party (notably the artist)

whole point. The big-time upstart collector (the

to its creator. Today's new forces in collecting are the opportunistic super-rich buyers

and its purchase by another party - possibly a

nouveau tres riche) buys, not only social

true collector.

esteem, but also the respect and respectful

The lines are blurred, of course. Some

This, to put it mildly, was no concern of past

collections are transitory, leading to

princes, crowned and uncrowned. Prime among

possibly people will one day talk even of The

through banking and powerful as any potentate

Lauder as admiringly as The Whitney. Who

running private eqnity firms, hedge funds and other money machines. Probably few will

attention of famous artists and big name dealers.

arguments over whether the collector is or

isn't a dealer too: vide, Charles Saatchi.

What is indisputable, however, is that Saatchi, almost single-handed, financed the explosion of what became known as Young

British Art. Unquestionably, he collects, as

does his leading protege, Damien Birst. The latter' s collection, shown recently at the . S erpentine, is a model of the latter-day assemblage: big names mingling with lesser,

seek permanence for their collection. But

the latter was Andrew MeUon, rich as Croesus

Saatchi as respectfully as The Tate, and The

through his post as Secretary of the Treasury.

Even J. Pierpont Morgan, another splendid collector and banker, couldn't trump Mellon's

political ace - though he did his best (or worst).

Today's topmost tycoons play no direct part

in politics at all, nor in art - Bill Gates of Microsoft and Warren Buffett, a megaÂ

knows - but certainly many of the fat cat buys Had money ruled their collecting, Dorothy

and Herbert Vogel could never have reached Square One. Their two salaries as public

servants never much breached $ 1 5,000 apiece. But the couple decided to devote one

salary to buying art, living off the other. Their

will end up, not in the sale rooms, but on institutional walls, gifted by owners to whom fortunes are mere pocket-money.

In cold, hard economic terms that's the major contribution of the collectors. They, not the

public bodies, are the principal source pumping new cash into the art market and

the excellent rubbing shoulders with the

investor, have no known interest in collecting

bargains came by the time-ho.noured route

merely fashionable - but undoubtedly an

fine art. The potentates of the distant past

of early acquisition. They immersed

maintaining its momentum. Dealers live on

expression of a broad knowledge and

were virile patrons, using their powers of

themselves in the American art which

borrowed capital, by and large. But collector money is hard cash, without which the art

knowing investment. Hirst can't compare with Picasso, either as

patronage to surround themselves (none

burgeoned from the early Sixties onwards.

more than the Popes) with ma, onifi.cent works

Finances determined that they couldn't buy

industry would wither away. Nor do the

that served to stress and display their own

maj or works by the minimalist and

museums have to rely on generosity alone to

collector or artist. The Spaniard's collection

greatness. An element of this strategy of

conceptual artists they loved. But their

persuade collectors to part with the odd

of others' work was alone enough to make

grandeur survives in all collectors - but as

collection of drawings, stuffed into closets

masterpiece: the fiscal benefits of public

him the last century's richest, as well as

the bourgeoisie have succeeded the barons,

and under beds in their small apartment, was

donations are also persuasive, especially the

greatest, artist. Very few artists, however, are

serious collecting has come to the fore.

still of the highest quality.

100% tax breaks in the United States. The paradox, however, is that many of these

in the same financial bracket as the

People like the textile tycoons Ivan Morosov

and Serge Schukin, who brought the French

As their collection grew, so did their

donations would have occurred anyway,

billions: like Ronald Lauder, the cosmetics

modem masters to Russia, were very rich,

reputation, and gifts mounted from artists

without costing the Treasury a bean. The

heir and gallery owner, who paid a world

but their art came to matter far more than

who responded to

these determined

serious collector, after all, seeks to buy only

their textiles. For all that, they were no more

connoisseurs. Purchased with peanuts at

museum-quality work. A simple plaque

rock-bottom prices, the collection became

recording a rich gift sanctifies both the art

worth much rme gold. It won a fitting fate:

and the artist as it testifies to that quality -

competing collectors who today battle with

record $ 1 35m for a splendid Klimt - only to be topped by a financial luminary, Stephen

Cohen, with a marvellous Picasso bought for

four higher millions. The vendor, however, neatly punctured his

Picasso's canvas while showing it off, killing

the sale, and leaving it to David Martinez to

distinguished as collectors than Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo, both relatively poor. But the siblings became intimate fans

the National Gallery in Washington took over

and the collector can, at the mortal last, find

of the art heroes - including the 'three aces',

the Vogel collection, worth perhaps $30m,

immortal space under the other haloes.

the modem collector is to act as a claque,Âˇ

recognition. Never were fame and fortune

patron, friend and benefactor. He or she

more honestly earned. And never were the

Cezanne, Picasso and Matisse. The role of

in return for two annuities and lasting Robert Helier is leading authority on international business practice and artworld constructs

state 1 1

state of art SPRING 2007

...and what crazy, mad, left field art would the twenty-somethings buy today, given unlimited funds to spend...

THE NUMBER of people in their twenties

who consider themselves to be art collectors

is very small. While for many owning art is

STATEO

�RT

OUNG AT ART

a dream, storage space, debts and rent all take their toll. Despite this, a number of factors have c ombined to make the twenty something generation key players in the art market.

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT

LICE NSE TO BE COOL The main reason why more young people are buying art, whatever the budget, is the 'cultural capital' that comes with it. Art today

opinion ;;wAX THURLOW

carries an undeniable panache. While being a member of a rock 'n' roll band in former

For even the most square, limited edition

the aim to 'help more people take part in the

generations carried a 'license to be cool', the

prints can be bought online for the price of a

arts' .

art world has cornered a niche market. A

mediocre night at Mamilanji. This avoids

Banksy print, replacing the Clash poster in

believes that many people own art for their

bachelor pad and long working hours. For example, Lucy Mclauchlan's Televisual

Despite sites like Forbes.com offering to

self-esteem: 'It's like wearing an Armani suit ' , she says. In this w ay, art can be

Mundane (edition of200 screenprints, signed

young people who have bought art generally

size/price/medium . . . p e rfecto for the

considered a Veblen<1> good: having a trendy

and numbered by the artist) can be bought at

little contemporary number carries snob

the click of a few buttons for only £5ocz>_ For

appeal. 'It's a lifestyle, and collecting is an

the more conventional, a website like buy

entree into certain social circles and a

original-art.com contains links to a number

works for a major gallery in New York, 'the

prices matching a round in a wine bar. The

particular scene', continues Joy Kim, who

of contemporary galleries - with the lower

'develop your own art world pedigree' , most seem to be connected to the artist in some

way. Gus Robertson, the rock star from

Carnival of Souls, is planning on buying a

Tom Lumley, the friend who designs his CD covers.

art world is a club, and if you can afford to

intemet is not just restricted to buyers and

collect, then it's one way of entering into that

galleries. S aatchi's internet space Your

would, buy art s e e m attracted by the

club' . Even if the piece is not valuable, it's

GalleryC3> allows art students to show an

investment potential. Even though the top

Anga'aefonu Baln-Vete (San Francisco Art lnst) 1. Anselm Kiefer 2. Rubens sketches

still a talking point. The Smudge Gallery in

unlimited amount of work for free_ With over

two percent of the contemporary art market

two and half million hits a day, this could be

has shot up by 72% in the last three years

3. Hieronymus Bosch 4. Leaner Fini 5. Kenneth Anger

Spitalfields told me that their prints have 'no intrinsic value' , and that 'people only buy

the next rival to YouTube_ It seems that young

(Art Market Research) there is general

these works for the kudos it brings them' .

people are as attracted to creating the work

repugnance towards buying art simply as a

Os Gem eos 3. Kandins ky 4.Piet Mondrian

Art has always been dapper, but rather than

has noticed the rapid increase in the number

music you don't like, just to seem more cool',

DoY late (Oxford) 1. Ban ksy (surp rised no-one's mentioned him yet) 2. Goldsworthy 3. Andy Wa rho I

punks, events such as Frieze now seem like

4. Ansel l Adams 5. Picasso

up artist. Art, for better or worse, has dived

Georgina Caruana, a history of art graduate,

art as an investment' _ We know that investing

over the border from poor marginales to

believes some people find art offensive as it

in art is risky, and to make money you must

where it's at. With this swing comes the

is in a conceptual framework. 'To understand

invest time to find good, up-and-cotning

contemporary art, you must really have

artists. 'If you buy an unknown artist, the

(African p h otogra p h er) 3. La lique 4. O ' Keeffe 5. Arthur Rackham (ill ustrator)

Mark Bartlett 1. Winston Smith 2.

Polly Wakefleld (London) 1. Rembrandt 2. Tu rner 3.

Parisian cafe culture or fuuky Shoreditch

Klimt

a fashion show; 'full of Sloanies, it's sexy

and seductive', says Nina Braisby, a make

inevitable commercialisation. All advertising

4. Hackney 5. Andy Warhol

directed at people in their twenties has teams

of extremely talented designers. 'The lifestyle

as they are to buying it. Crystal Fischetti

of art schools all over the country. 'Lots of

these students think they can become the next

Damien Hirst, even if they can't draw ! '

knowledge of postmodernism. _ _ and in turn the entire history of art' . In this way, Louisa

invented by companies through advertising

Mayor, 25, feels that the perception of the

is that modem living necessitates creativity',

art world can be elitist. She recently curated

considers Marcus Smith_ Even Starbucks is

not for the light-hearted: A 'tall-soya-milk caramel-frap' demands choice, but what can be cooler than announcing the up-and coming artist you've just patronised?

ACCESSIBILITY

Lucle-Jayne Melior (a bove) 1. Georgia O' Keeffe 2. M a rk

Art today can be appreciated by everyone,

the privilege of a Giacometti on her side

happy to tell me about one bar to this increased accessibility: her insider/outsider

distinction. An outsider is someone who is

Guinet Novakovlc (QMUL) 1. H a ns Bellumer 2. Egon

Schiele 3. Fra ncis Bacon 4. Sarah Lucas 5. Floria Sigismondi Phoebe Sharp (U- Manchester) 1. Gustav Klimt 2. Escher 3 . Salvador

commercial and -do appeal to the general public. While some are unhappy that a

However, art student Belinda Volans was

not an artist and does not come from an

wealthy but 'ignorant' lawyer should have

Dali

4. Ka n d i ns ky 5. Magritte Joel Holdrinet (Vancouver, BC) 1. Andy Goldsworthy 2. H u ndertwasser

(I wouldn't m i n d owning one of h is b u i d i ngs) 3. Ray Lichstenstein 4. Salvador Da l i 5. Rene Magritte

Mlchael Goldenzwelg 1. Salvador Dali 2. Mikhail

Vrubel (fa mous Russian artist whose work I love) 3. Leonardo da Vinci

Roy DePasquale (Suffolk) 1. Robert Ra uschenberg 2.

Jasper Johns 3. Ray Lichtenstein 4. Re ne Magritte 5. Willem de Keening Mlkhall Klbalchenko (Cambridge) 1. M a rk Rothko 2. Cha rlotte Corn ish

year-old, I don't really have any excuse not to. Sadly, I won't be going out too much for

3. Ka nd insky. Research courtesy of FaceBook.com

'The problem

students to Hirst and Emin. The secret is

with somewhere like the Affordable Art

who painted what, the signature being on the back of the picture. All of the pictures from

2006 can now be seen at online14>. A similar

theme is employed by the MUKA galleryc5>,

three grand, but most of the sellers just

New Zealand, which believes: 'the best way

inadequate to buy the piece. Also, if I did

contemporary art is to get real works of art

buy something, the whole room I put it in

in their hands ' _ To this end, kids can buy art,

to make young people acquainted with

set at a 'uniform low price', in an 'adult free zone : _ The names are again covered, this time

Britain lounging around, is that this problem

a while . _ . I'm saving for a Jamie Hewlett.

The art institutions also seem to be working

2,500 postcard-sized works, from unknown

small version of Mark Wallinger's State

their twenties, at least, believe art should not

buys and cheap Cava?

example, where for £3 5 you can choose from

The good news for people who don't want a

investment prospect as you get older and

acquire more ' . If it goes up in value, all the

art de mode and easily accessible, as a 22-

Cool Guys who wear tight black jeans, stripes

would have to be geared towards the work' .

then it does start to become more of an

premium for it. So what if the footballer can't

Intimidating is off-beat galleries in Hoxton . . .

looked at me with disdain, as if I was too

honestly, I would say that this is a rather naive

notion of collecting. If you have the money,

taste the difference between the Crista! he

overtime to make art more accessible. The

'is that I was more than willing to spend the

because they like the objects themselves and

want to live with art for art's sake, but, quite

be bought as an investment alone. So with

Royal College of Art's 'secret sale' is a prime

self-confessed ignorance towards art tells me,

appreciate well ' _

fully understand why they are paying a hefty

anonymity are plug-in and shuffle around.

Fair', an aspiring investment banker with a

much as it makes me less of an aesthete, it

better, but unlike a mutual fund, people in

National Gallery, where the two steps to

and a condescending look.

chances are that artist will stay unknown', Belinda Volans comments_ Having said this, the views of PhD art student Heather Willeusky are probably commonplace: 'As

table, no one should feel ashamed for

wanting art on their wall, even if they don't

artistic background. For an outsider, trendy art galleries can be intiniidating. Not the

'dealers with their clients best interests at heart have always advised against regarding

Joy Kim believes that: 'People might collect

if we did not know what was going on, which

regardless of colour, creed . . . even income.

Roth ko 3. Claude Man et 4. J M W Turner 5. Dan Flavin

says Gus. As Robert Helier noted in the

April/May 2006 edition of State of An,

affordable pleasure' and notjust a speculative

the concept that collecting art can be 'an

galleries also put on shows that are not purely

makes accessibility the second major factor.

business transaction. 'It's like listening to

does cross my mind whether a work might

really visited a gallery before ' _ Other

However, none of this could have happened

Maybe surprisingly, few people that do, or

a show of the French artist, Joachim Mogarra, at the Mayor Gallery, Cork Street, with the aim of introducing her friends to

investment. Some of her friends had 'never

[

MAKE FRIENDS INFLUE NCE PEOPLE

galleries, and can be searched for by colour/

sophistication. Artist Crystal Fischetti

Mutesa Slthole (a bove) 1. Dali 2. Samuel Rosso

th o s e disapproving lo oks from small

any b achelor pad, screams style and

to make the children buy art they like, not that is famous. For the non-gamblers and non-kids among u s , the Arts Council

is all but solved. Most gastro-pubs have over

(artscouncil.org.uk) offers interest-free loans

priced photocopies strewn around the bar.

to help people buy art that they like, with

Max Thurfow is a writer on art and culture -

NOTES Economist Thornstein Veblen (1857-1929) described conspicuous cons u m ption. This. he said. was designed to show how wealthy a person was_ The hypothesis is that people buy some goods for their status va l u e . The more expensive the goods a re. the more people w i l l des i re them. Veblen goods are someti m es ca l l ed goods of ostentation. 1.

at www. p i ctu resonwa l ls . com

3. Your Gallery (www.saatch i-ga l l ery.co.uk/ stuart)

4. http://dams . rca.a c . u k/res/sites/ RCA_Secret;index. html 5. www. m u ka.co.nz;ga l l e ry/ a rtforyou ngpeople.asp

sta ,J:e -Q:f. att SP.R I N G ,2 .:t::: Jl07. ,---....;: . .. - ..,) _, a;i'V ' I- ' ,,, .... G£ _..,.

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Drea m d ays with a bi l l i�na i re a rt col lector CHELSEA ARTS CLUB LONDON, MARCH 2007 A lot of people are going to remember you well for the Ritz newspaper project - a huge success in its time ...

That might be all well and good - but did this chime with Heini's own vision for his family biography? I imagine he was not a man to cross? Well, as I said in the book, he didn't really have a vision. He did like having someone around

Ritz_ . . Well, [David] Bailey wanted t o stop me making films - he wanted to do a magazine but I made it clear that I would like to make it a newspapeL . . like [Warhol's]

Interview_ He kept on calling me about it,

"0 :::T 0

until one day ·someone else phoned to say:

Maybe, but a true biography is (has to be) surely a warts and all, honest and perhaps harsh, assessment?

�

have you seen the front page of the Daily

Express? It said 'Bailey and Lichfield to start

. . . well he certainly didn't want that! Not in

�

newspaper' - of course, they thought it was

those days. He was thinking initially of a

Patrick Lichfield - the Queen's cousin!

glossy view of the family and of himself in

" "'

A good laugh - but very useful for a newspaper launch and saved a lot of money in PR?

officially parted, he became aware that I was

Well B ailey didn't put any money up -

biographer 's fee . . .

()

:::T

who he could get drunk with and talk about

his life.

0 Ci "'

:A Cl>

() 0 c

particular. A couple of years after we had still on the case and even then he never tried to ban me, or order me to stop. I mean, obviously, he had finished paying me my

"' '<

neither of us did - we started Ritz with

:::T Cl>

;; :::T g

nothing. At that time I didn't need to earn

So you were faced with funding this huge

money and neither did he - so it didn't matter. Bailey was involved, but not on a day-to day level, he certainly didn't have to argue

David Litchfield

with printers or people complaining their name was misspelled. But he was very good at getting Michael Caine to appear on the

in conversation with Mike von Joel I NTRODUCTION

the

coveL . .

I N TH E late 1970s, London appeared to rega in some of

pzazz of those myth ical Swi nging Sixties. As th e Eighties

a pproached, London was a sweaty hotbed of n ightclubs, a l l j u mping

with d isco feve r and using visions of N ew Yo rk's infamous Stu dio 54

Your faithful fans from those gossipy, frothy Ritz days will be surprised to discover this is a major work, involving heavy duty research . . .

needed docum enting a n d , as trad ition dema nded, a flutter of

intellectual pretension at Ritz - mainly my

period was l itera l ly ru l e d by the journal ist N igel Dempster, whose

Daily Mail is often q u oted as singl e-h a n dedly

s aving that n ewspaper from col l a pse. Dem pster was avidly rea d each d ay by a who l e swath e of fas h i o n a b l e society, from the Pa l a ce to the ten e m e nt, in a d d ition to the m i l l ions of envious wa n nabes stra nded out th ere i n the s u b u rbs and geriteel cou nties of Cool Brita n n i a . Of the in depend ent p u bl ishing effo rts , one stood head a n d should ers a bove th e rest, ca ptu ri ng the

zeitgeist of London l ife more acutely

th a n a ny com petitor. lt h a d no pretensions to origi n a l ity - it was a

Interview - but it h a d its own vi be and a gen u i n e panache. lt was ca l l e d Ritz. A bit of fun by two

copycat version of Andy Wa rh o l 's

Davids: B a i l ey a n d Litchfi e l d , that tu rned out to be more th an the s u m of its parts. For B a i l ey, renowned p h otogra pher a n d d a rling of th e Vogue m i l i e u , it was a l a rk requ iring m i n i m u m effo rt. For Litchfi e l d , a l ready an experie nced publish er, p hotogra pher a n d d esign er, i t s o o n became a fu l l time j o b a n d a n entree to the very

Q) Q.

Charlie Chucklebrain product, there was always an underlying -tone of artistic and

D i a ry co l u m n in th e

tl:

Although i t was what Bailey liked to call a

as a b l u eprint. Th is n ew cafe (or more often , Nescafe) society

magazi nes a n d newspapers were created to feed the fantasy. Th is

c 0 :;:; "' "0 c "

0 £

c.. Q)

"' ::;:

own. I was lucky to retain certain friendships

with people like Allen Jones and Francis

Bacon which kept me connected. I'm not saying I was close friends with these people, but I saw them from time to time, particularly B acon, and this kept me in a rather more serious artistic orbit than the paper itself justified. After Ritz folded - we sold it but never received the money - I went to Paris for a time on a project for Tony Elliott [publisher of Time Out]_ Then one day, I saw a newspaper gossip cutting about a guy who

ea-wA·�w"'iwn;..;.· Robert Mapplethorpe"s elegant portrait of Fra ncesca Thyssen. 1981. S h e now h a s h e r o w n respected Contempora ry A r t Project. TBA21. based in Vienna (see Links)

...._ -

research project yourself and also relying on co-operation from the family as a whole?

had been doing a biography on Heini Thyssen - and had been fired_ It mentioned

S ometimes yes, sometimes no. Francesca

some huge fee and I thought that this sounded

was very helpful, Lome'4l was too. And

fantastic . . . so I immediately phoned up

eventually, Heini himself was helpful, in as

Francesca'1l, whom I had known for a long

far as he would always talk to me if I phoned

time, and said: 'would it not be a good idea

up. The only one who offered no assistance

for me to write your father's biography' . And

was Georg'5l (aka Heini Jnr.) - he just said:

she said yes, why not! I had met Heini a

'talk to my father about the past, I ' m not

couple of times, but no more than that, so

interested' . Not in an aggressive way, but

we went to see him and I ended sitting up

simply, he was totally uninterested. Georg

drinking all night and being totally .seduced

was the one who actually ran the business

heart of fas h i o n a b l e Lo ndon society.

by the Villa'2l and the art collection . . . and it

conglomerate and was a cool, no-nonsense

was agreed that I would do it. (see page16)

type of guy.

Litchfi e l d h a d started as a p u b l ishing assistant to Gerald Kings l a n d (of Castaway fa me) before l a u nching Image, a c u l t magazine a bout

And how did it go, your introduction to the high life . . . ?

family member, Stephen Bentinck'6l. He had

photogra p hy a n d photogra ph ers. David Litchfield then spent some

Everything went fine until some months later,

line is that he made funds available for the

ti me m a king documentary fi l m s , nota bly p roj ects with Pa u l M cCartney a n d Steven Berkoff, befo re sh rewdly l eavi ng th e i n d ustry j ust as th e promo music video exploded onto the scene ( ' I wou l d h ave b e e n a mil l i o n a i re in a m i n ute ' , he says nosta l gical ly) . But with th e ben efit of h i n dsight, it was clear that a l l roads l e a d to

Ritz. They

At this point I became involved with another a whole agenda of his own, but the bottom

Francesca had a row with Tital3l and she thought

book to go off in a totally new direction -

- as I was Francesca's friend, and therefore ally

with a more investigative, incisive approach.

- I should not be writing the book after all. So

He had great plans for a publishing and

it all went out of the window. When I got back

movie empire - a familiar story if you

to London, my agent said: 'why don't you just

remember Boulevard magazine. I'd known

carry on?' and Francesca agreed that I could

Steffi for years, so it was a pleasant time with

write 'an interesting book about the family' . I

proper offices and so forth. Eventually, his

also l e a d , eventu a l ly, to the front door of the Swiss Vi l l a Favorita -

thought: well why not? I had lots of material to

th e home of B a ron H e i n i Thyssen-Bornem isza .

hand already.

organisation began to run out of spare funds

and then, at the same time, I g o t an

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state of art

SPRING2007

state 1 3

unexpected call from Tita saying that she would like me to have another go at an

openly admitted to me that he had no real interest in the content of a painting, the artist,

authorised biography . . .

the history or the technical aspect of work. All he cared about was whether it was a good buy or not. He openly admitted this. He told

s o you are truly unique. You- have worked at two authorised biographies and one unauthorised biography on the - same subject!·

• • •

business was the dirtiest he had ever come · across - he didn't particularly like the people · he was dealing with in the art world.

·course the King of Spain had no interest whatsoever in .talking to me about the art collection, the. Thyssens, or anybody else!

At least you were back on salary by then? . For that period, yes. For three or four years. After that, it was down to me. I thirik Heini figured that this was Ills last chance. He'd

had a handful of people . on the job and the same thing had happened each time - he took them right up ·to the edge, getting them drunk everyday, living the" high life. 0 0 ai_ld then he fired them. I was the _last one. He· was in his 70's by then, and we did get along OK. I

guy - an excellent promoter - rather like Charles Saatchi.

How did you record these sessions? It varied. I sometimes made written notes. S o metimes- I taped the conversations. · Sometimes my researcher(7) took notes. We kept a careful record :- for evidence - because . some of the �tuff was quite heavy! He could get grumpy and moody at times - we once sat in silence for over an hour. But he had a

When would you say was his prime collecting period . . . I would say when· he was married to Denise [Shorto] and it does appear now as if she had some sort of agenda in promoting him as a major world art collector. She certainly

great sense of humour. He would happily lie, but he- never refused to talk about anything. � .

I I

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wonderful woman nicknamed Pusch<8l. She is an amazing person who is still alive. When she was with Heini, he would become

someone completely different - I' m sure they had an intimate relationship at some point because they had both shared a lonely, sometimes frightening, wartime childhood. But don ' t forget, he also suffered the personality corruption of immense wealth as

a young man . . . in my experience this is a recipe for disaster unless you have a goal in life. The trouble with Heini was that he had nothing: he was not an artist, or really a businessman, he wasn't an athlete, he didn't drive racing cars. _ _

He did become an 'art collector' of course. He inherited a lot of 'old master' works from his father

insight into any work of art at all. To him, a Gauguin was a Gauguin - it didn't matter whether it was a good one or not. It was Simon de Pury<9J who had the most profound impact on what was initially Heini' s inherited collection of paintings. De Pury showed him · · how he could not only enhance his social · profile but also increase the value of his collection. How he could take third rate

and he said: did I realise that the picture was · now worth twice what he had paid for it? When I appeared _ sceptical, he then went through how other press mentions had different levels of prestige and value. Simon de Pury was his curator and a very skilled

some deep. I thoroughly enjoyed it and so did he. And Heiri.i did become confes·sional.

and he would have quite happily admitted that. I got to know the first love of his life, a

Well, o n c e you become a b i g punter, everyone tells you that you have the most incredible taste and eye. Of course they all want to sell to you. In fact, Heini did have the most incredible eyesight, right into old age. He had almost telescopic vision. But aesthetically, he was a total waste of time. I riever saw him show any appreciation or real

pictures and make them: appear first rate via column inches of press and being seen in the right promotional environments. Heini could see the profit in that - he ·never hid this from anyone: I remember one morning, he had a front page on the New York Herald Tribune

would sit there day after day on his balcony and he'd be staring out to sea and we'd have · . these endless conversations - some silly,

Yes. He definitely had a difficult childhood, he was basically abandoned by his parents. He was a pretty nasty and arrogant child -

encouraged-him to acquire this huge number of 20th century paintings. I think she had a huge influence on him - along with her live-in lover. And Heini admitted that, at this time, he was pushed and pushed to buy more works . . .

The lover was the Italian, Franco Rapetti? Yes , and I understand he knew the art

business very well indeed. He soon took advantage of the situation. ·

But the Baron was no fool surely - after the War, when he inherited the businesses, Heini showed that he was not merely a playboy and that he had some business acumen after all? Up to a point. The people who saved the businesses were the managers on the spot, who had a vested interest in the future of the ' Konzern', his team of accountants, plus the Americans - who were scared the Communists were going to take over. His father had run the businesses from Switzerland throughout the whole War period, using long distance managers and agents, and there is documentary proof that Heini was involved practically in this process. Heinrich was a personal friend of

Goring as they did his personal banking - a fact which probably saved the life of Fritz and his farnily<JOJ at the end.

..•

Most from his father, but not all. This was a peg he found he could hang his hat on. He

The Swiss didn't offer the deal that Spain

idea in retrospect . . . a · bit like hiring the poacher to be your gamekeeper.

•••

material they had. Other times she didn't for the simple reason she ·couldn ' t . I remember once she said that the King of Spain would talk to me about Heini . . . but of

Although the Baron appears an amenable cove - there seems to have been some damage done to him as a child which made him dysfwictional. He seemingly had real problems with relationships? It is common in children of a wealthy family - although not obligatory ...

Not at all. Like many wealthy families, they had never bothered to look at the files themselves. They were remarkaply lazy. They

are so used to paying someone to else to do things for them . . . and this · is really not somethirig someone else should do. · But they did - they actually paid me! Not such a good ·

But it did give him an identity that was 'admired'. He got the level of attention he enjoyed. Iii fact, he was a prisoner in some respects of this

and still continue with my own investigative approach to the whole family legend. They said, fine ! A hagiography was expected for theirs and they in turn would assist me with . my own translation of events. Tita gave me total access to, I would estimate, 75% of any

The Swiss, who had saved the Thyssen bacon during the war, didn't find it funny when the works ended up in Spain?

•••

me on a number of occasions that -the art

It's true! And it has taken 14 years. I sort of think Tita really wanted someone to keep . Heini company. Oddly, it was totally accepted that I woUld do one version for them·

one would assume that any records had been well sanitised before outsiders were allowed any access

Iiow did you uncover such a wealth of detail about the Thyssen's wartime activities, some ofit is pretty damning and

Did anyone ever ask you what you were up to - or wanted to see what you were actually writing? Well, Tita did eventually, and her lawyers. I told them I was happy to do a hagiography

for them, but that my book was mine and I would have no interference. If they wanted to take a legal position once it was published, then that was their prerogative. Heini knew exactly what we were doing . . .

What happened t o the ' authorised' version?

did. They paid him for half the collection.. . . on a lease! It was such a brilliant deal and he claimed it was his idea. The Spanish leased

it to start with ahd then they bought it, but with so many conditions that, in my view, they don't own it at all! There's a Foundation that controls the pictures now but ·I suspect that Georg (Heini Jnr) has the final say in any dispute. I was given a copy of the actual sale document and as far as I know it has not been ·made public in Spain.

It's been a huge project. Aily regrets aside from the legal restrictions imposed on the content? I would have liked to have had a first class editor - because it is so difficult to edit your own work. I had a good editor and I don't

want to belittle his contribution, but there are specialists out _there. The first draft was

actually 890 pages. If I have a regret, then it · was that we had to cut it down .. I would have

1The problem with being rich is that it condemns you to a life of loneliness' ' Hei n i ' Thyssen-Bornemeisza I presented it to them and they were supposed to provide any corrections - but they never did. It never happened.

So what about the Quartet book - 14 years! Well, 14 years in all - I did do a few other things as well - but in my naivety I thought you had to go to each place, speak to each and every source, in person. I didn't do much socialising with Heini, the last three or four · years I was with him, he had wound down ·his social life following a series of strokes and we stayed at home. He simply didn't · want to see anyone any more. He couldn't be bothered. He .didn't think this book was invasive in any way, he laughed at it. I said to him once: the Spanish don't actually own the pictures do they? and he just started giggling. We went for days talking about nonsense really - he was fascinated by Monica Lewinsky, he thought it was the funniest thing in the world. But Heini was impossible to get really close to, he hated being physically touched, for example. I once asked him what he had done in his life: had he steered a yacht, picked up a paintbrush, driven a racing car . . . he simply said: no! never! For all his wealth, he had had few personal experiences . . .

liked to include more detail on how old August Thyssen created the -original fortune [it was from chicken wire]. There is a wealth of stuff out there . . .

After all this time and deep study you must feel a bit like David Litchfield-Thyssen ! .•.

It's fading - but I had begun to feel joined at the hip. Now I'm a bit more relaxed about it. Heini was the last real Thyssen . . . _ NOTES 1) D a ughter of H e i n i and Fio n a C a m pbell Wa iter. Fra ncesca was born in 1958 and is now m a rried to Karl H a bs b u rg-Loth ringe n . 2) Villa Favorita. Luga no. b o ught f.rom Prince Leo p o l d by H e i n rich a n d i n h e rited by H e i n i . A l o ng ti m e base of Thyssen o p e rati o n s . 3 ) Heini m a rried Carmen 'Tita' Cervera o n t h e 16th August 1 9 8 5 . 4 ) Lo rne. born 1 9 6 3 . brother t o Fra n cesca.

5 ) G e o rg Hei nrich, kn own as Heini J n r. B o rn 1950. G e o rg contro ls the e m p i re with an i ro n gri p . 6 ) B a ron Steven Benti nck. s o n o f H e i n i ' s sister G a brielle a n d Ba ron Ad o l p h e Benti n c k v a n S c h o o n h eten

Did he have the arrogance that comes with terrific wealth - like Getty or Onassis, that sense of 'master of the universe' immortality . . . ?

7) Germa n-bern Caroline Sch m itz. n ow M rs David Litchfi e l d .

No, he wasn't like that. It was one of the reasons people liked him. He could be very easy and charming to be with. He had a great sense of humour, you could easily wind him up. He was a man who really enj oyed laughing . . .

Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection at the Vi l l a

He must have enjoyed the joke of dangling his great collection in front of potential beneficiaries then? Oh yes . . .

8) Pusch. n i c k n a m e fo r H a n n e lore S c h m idt 9) From 1979-19 86. S i m o n de P u ry cu rated the

Favorita in Luga no.

10) Fritz Thyssen a n d wife. Amelie (nee zur Hel le) L I N KS www.tba 21 . o rg Thyss e n - B o r n e m isza Art Conte m p o ra ry H i m m e l pfortgasse 13/9 1010 Vi e n n a . Austria Fra n cesca von H a bs b � rg. C h a i r m a n D a n i e l a Zym a n , Ch iefCurator office@tb a 21 . o rg

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Paris ' own garden gnome is the latest design must-have

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and Patrick Blanc's green fingers are in great demand

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watering can GEORGINA TURNER PATRICK BLANC IS the celebrity green man

compared to their more vigorously competitive

of Paris, if not France. He has become our local

counterparts.

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Tarzan, swinging from liana to creeper, promoting his tailor-made vegetative walls.

His fame began with the Cite des Sciences et de

Scientist, designer, media celebrity, artist - Blanc

l'lndustrie in 1988 when he invented and copyrighted his

likes to stress he is first and foremost a scientific

first vegetative wall: a felt polyamide capable of absorbing · and retaining moisture. Plants that climb, cling and grip take

researcher in botany and biodiversity at the

Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique

root in little pockets within this wall and fall elegantly from

(CNRS) since 1982. Of slight, wiry build with

it. Each wall is concocted according to the local climate and

green-tinged hair, green leather shoes and jacket,

conditions and is self-regenerating, requiring only occasional

flowery shirt - and green-varnished finger nails

watering and nutrients.

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that are very, very long and slightly creepy, he comes across as a keen self-promoter, articulate,

The walls proved popular and appeared in arboretums (La Vallee

enthusiastic and charming.

aux-Loups, 1996) garden festivals (Chaumont-sur-Loire, 1 994) and

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aquariums (the 1 8m long by 4m high wall of the new aquarium designed Patrick Blanc's thesis at the CNRS was on the

by Renzo Piano in Genoa, Italy, 2000) hotels (Pershing Hall, Paris, 2001)

biodiversity of tropical undergrowth, on 'how

embassies (the French Embassy, New Delhi, India, 2003) art foundations

these plants who receive so little light manage display a wide variety ofform, type and strategies

(Fondation Carrier, 1998) museums (cosmetic retailer Yves Rocher's 'vegetarium' Museum)... and now that Jacques Chirac's 'Grand Cultural Project' , the newly opened Quai Branly Museuml'J (2006) has one, every

compared to those found in environments of

culture venue will be wanting their very own version.

to survive'. Blanc found such plants and shrubs

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abundant light and rainfall. In other words, they prove to be highly adaptable and varied

To crown all this activity, Patrick Blanc has curated an exhibition at

the Espace Electra, the Electricity Board's showcase (March 2007). It presents the first vegetative ceiling in one of six installations based on his thirty years of research and experience ,

and

alongside

colourful

photographs of rare plants and flowers to be found in the Tropics. Georgina Turner is a writer based in Paris

NOTES 1·) see S oA. Wi nter 2006 (www.state·of·art.org)

LI N KS Patrick Blanc

www. ve rti ea lga rd en patri ckb I an c. corn Folies Vegetales

Patrick Blanc (cu rator) Alexis Tricoire (design) Espace EDF Electra. 6 rue Reca m i er. 7 5007 Arboretum de la Vallee aux Loups.

46·56 rue de Ch atea u briand. 92290 Chatenay Mal abry 1 March · 30 November www. ha uts·d e·sei ne. net/ a rbo retu m/ Maison de l'arbre et des jardins (MAJ)

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www.ha uts·de·seine.netjm ajj M usee du Vegetarium. Yves Rocher.

La Gacilly (Morbi han). B rittany Above: Patrick Blanc Top Left: Fruit capsule of Sterculia coccinea . a s m a l l tree fou n d i n the u n d erwoods of T h a i l a n d . T o p Right Fruit. O n rea c h i n g matu rity. the h a nging a n d h a i ry green fruit of a l i a n a b elonging to the Curcubites releases a bright red p u l p conta i n i n g seeds. F o u n d i n t h e Andasiba region of M a d agasca r. Below Left: View of the insta l lation of the first vegetative cei l i ng. The pla nts grow d ownwards. th e i r roots e m be d d ed a bove them. Below Right : D ifferent kind of p l a nts produced by d ifferent l ight conditi ons i n the Tro p i cs . I n c o n d iti ons of low light. p l a nts tend to be s m a l le r a n d of s l ower growth but of a wider variety of structures a n d species.

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Hand made Da vid Litch field 's epic on th e a rtcolle cting dynasty

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W E LIVE i n the i nfo rmati o n age a n d there is n o avoi d i ng it. No matter what the discipl i n e. knowledge is the key to u n d e rsta n d i n g a n d a p p reciati o n a n d n ever is this m o re a p posite th a n i n the vis u a l a rts - w h e re c o r r e ct i d e ntif icati o n i s n ecess a r i ly re l ated to the m o n eta ry v a l u e of the work i n q u esti o n . There have a l ways been b i ogra p h i c a l reference works a n d 'p rice guides· to a rtworks. if o n ly by way of a u ctioneers· r e s u lts. E m m a n u e l B e n e z i t b ega n p u b l is h i n g h i s Benezit: Dictionnaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et gra veurs in 1911 as a n eight vo l u m e

s et ( it h a s n ow ex p a n d e d t o 14 v o l u m es a n d o n l y a p p e a red as a n Engl i s h l a ngu age vers i o n a s l ate a s 2 0 0 6 ) . Perha ps t h e m ost celeb rated w a s G i o rg i o Va s a r i ' s h i g h l y b i a s e d e n cycl o p e d i a : Le Vite delle pi u eccellenti

p ittori,

scultori,

architettori (tra ns. Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors a n d Architects) rewritten a n d e n l a rged i n

1568. A s t h e 'fi rst Ita l i a n a rt histo r i a n · . h e i n itiated the g e n r e of a n e n cyclo p e d i a of a rtistic b i ogra p h i es. o rigin ati ng i n p r i nt t h e term ' re n a issa n ce· ( rinascita) and i n c l u d i n g a v a l u a b l e t r e a t i s e o n t h e te c h n i c a l m et h o d s e m p l oyed b y t h e a rtists. Fro m 1762 o n wa rds. H o ra c e W a l p o l e p u b l i s h ed h i s Anecdotes of Painting in England. based on George Vertue's m a n uscript n otes - of value from its 'on the spot'· o b s e rvati o n s and l i kewise P i l ki n gto n ' s 17 9 8 General Dictionary of Pa inters. a v i rtu a l l ift f r o m t h e Anecdotes.

F o r a ' d ata b a s e ' of i m a ge s . a s o p p o s e d t o b i ogra p h i c a l n otes. t h e Witt Li b r a ry is without parallel i n the U K . A fine coll ection of repro d u ctions after p a i ntings. d rawings and p r i nts from the 131h century to the p resent d ay. C o nta i n i n g s o m e 1 . 9 m i l l i o n reproducti o n s from works by 7 0 . 0 0 0 a rtists. t h e W itt h a s r e c e n t l y i n corporated the p h otogra p h i c records of the British Council and The Fine Art Soci ety. But no matter how historic o r prestigi ous th e orga n i sati o n . each is h av i n g to come to terms with the CD rom and i ntern et revoluti o n . Going 'on l i n e ' . o r at l east offe r i n g a p o rta b l e m e d i a v e rs i o n of t h e o r i g i n a l . i s s o m eth i ng that th e Grove Dictionary of

Artists in Britain Since 1945 David Buckma n 2 vols (i) 1040pp ( i i ) 848pp HB Art Dictionaries Ltd £165 std ed. Art (34 v o l u m es . 41 . 0 0 0 a rti c l es .

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B u ckma n . Now aged 70. and fo l l owi n g a l ifeti me i n j o u r n a l i s m . latterly i n t h e a rts. B u c km a n bega n t o o rga n is e his m a ny ye a rs of n ote-ta k i n g i n to a cogent d o c u m e nt b a c k i n 1 9 8 9 . A l m ost ten years later i t was l a u nched a s Artists i n Britain Since 1945. David B u c k m a n has s o m eth ing of the Victo rian scholar a bout h i m . Beavering away o n this. literal ly. end less project ( t h e f i rst 1 9 9 8 e d i ti o n was s o o n s u p e r s e d e d b y t h e l a test 2 0 0 6 vers i o n ) t h e l o n e s c r i b e fo cused o n Mod ern British art. ' I w o u l d finish my b r e a d a n d b utte r f re e l a n ce w o rk at 6 p m . eat. a n d t h e n w o r k fo r th ree h o u rs fro m 8 p m - 1 1 p m on t h e d i cti o n a ry. i t t o o k n i n e y e a rs t o c o m p l et e . S h o rt l y b efo r e t h a t a n 'expe rt' at the Arts C o u n c i l to l d m e that

what I h a d been doing was u n n ecessa ry. a s i t w a s a l re a dy covered by exi sti n g b o o k s . · F o r t u n ate ly. B u c k m a n was u n i m pressed by s u ch advice a n d the fi rst issue ra p i d ly sold out to m u ch a ccl a i m fro m the trade. e n a b l ing the a uthor to focus o n m o re d iverse aspects of the a rtwo rld: 'I do

on 20th Century art, especially modern British art: We archival work and valuations.

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contr i b uti o n s from 120 cou ntries a n d 7 2 0 . 0 0 0 i n d exe d e n t r i e s p ro v i d i n g cove rage of p a i nt i n g . a rc h itect u r e . s c u l ptu re. p h otogra p hy. the gra p h i c deco rative a rts) h a d to contend with. O n e c a n o n ly i m ag i n e the l a b o u r i ntensive a d m i n istrati o n i nvolved i n s u c h a n e nte r p r i s e . S o i t c o m es a s s o m e s u rp rise t h a t o n e of t h e m ost a p p l a u ded. valued a n d thu m bed b i ogra p h ical research tools i n th e U K a rt tra d e is t h e work o f o n e m a n. David

frequently acquire libraries and collections and undertake

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Francis Bacon Meditationes Sacrae (1597) 'Of H e resies'

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q u ite freq uently for The Independent. m a ny of their a rt o b ituaries ' . S i m ply m a i nta i n i n g the a c c u ra cy of each entry (over 10.000) is a feat i n itself - t h e post-1945 generati o n h a s a n ever i n creas i ng m o rtal ity - as well as a d d i ng to the fo u nt of n ewco m e rs m a k i ng a n a m e fo r themse lves in the B r iti s h a r e n a . O n e h o p e s t h a t B u c k m a n has a n a p p o i nted s u ccess o r t o carry the baton o n ce h e decides to reti re. However. the strength of a ny d i rectory is its sco p e a n d a ccuracy. I n t h e s p i r i t o f e n q u i ry we g a v e B u c k m a n ' s two to m e d i cti o n a ry a b r i ef tr i a l . N a t u r a l ly. a l l a rch ives e m e rge with l a u rels when sea rch i ng for the big n a m e s in B r iti s h a rt. the Fre u d s . H e rons. Hackneys a n d Ayres; b ut i t is the m o re obscure i n d iv i d u a l s who a re ofte n t h e s u bj e ct of d e s p e rate research. H u b e rt Arth u r F i n n ey ( 1 9 0 5 - 1 9 9 1 ) was a n a n o ny m o u s a rtist b ut b y n o m e a n s obscure. A n ARCA a n d regu l a r exh i b ito r with the N ew Engl i s h Arts C l u b a n d RA S u m m e r S h ow. the best of F i n n ey's p a i nting could h o l d its own with a ny of h i s g e n e rati o n . He h a d b e e n ta ught etch i n g b y Eric G i l l a n d s u bs e q u e ntly s u pervised life d rawi ng at Reading U n iversity u nti l reti rement i n 1 9 7 0 . H u b e rt F i n n ey ' s w o r k a bs o l utely typ if i e s t h e i d i o m o f h i s p e r i o d a n d a p p e a rs to h a ve b e e n o v e r l o o ke d p r i m a r i l y b e c a u s e h e b e ca m e s o m ewhat reclus ive after a period of i l l n ess d u r i ng his ea rly career. N e v e rth e l es s . F i n n ey h a s e n o u g h accreditations t o m a ke h i m v i s i b l e to t h e co m p i l e r of a b i ogra p h i c a l d i ct i o n a ry. B u c k m a n g i v e s h i m a h e a l t h y a n d d eta i l e d p a r a g r a p h w h i l st a s e a rch of Grove O n - lin e provides n o res ponse. And should one r u n away with the idea that Artists in Brita in Since 1945 is a l ittle fud dy d u ddy - in a pleasant. RA sort of way - th e fo l k hero of the m o m e nt B a n ksy. is a c c o r d e d a l e n gthy p a ragra p h to riva l the best of them. As we l l as a rti sts b o r n i n t h e U K. t h e b o o k c o nta i n s m a ny from I re l a n d . conti n e r;ta l E u rope. · A u s t r a l i a . C a n a d a .- New Z e a l a n d , S o uth Africa a n d Ame rica who stu d i e d . w o r ke d fo r p e r i o d s o r s e tt l e d . i n B r ita i n . i t i s a l s o 'stro n g o n P o l i s h p a i nters who settled i n B rita i n before

W i l l Eisner Contract with God Trilogy I l lustrated graphic novels A Contract with God 204pp; Life Force 150pp; Dropsle Avenue 186pp

W.W. Norton Trade pb £10.99 each HIGHLY attractive paperback reissues from Norton of the famous, three-part document of life in a Bronx tenement by Will Eisner. To anyone associated with comics or the current resurgence of interest in the 'graphic novel', Eisner is a hero of the first rank, so much so that in 1988, the Will Elsner Comic Industry Awards were launched, now known universally as the 'Eisners'.

Will Eisner was born in the USA in 1917. His flair for drawing dictated his life and after an early career as a general cartoonist, contributing to numerous comic projects, he achieved recognition outside the comic community with his 1939 creation of The Spirit. Developed for the Tribune Syndicate and H enry Martin, The Spirit was aimed at an adult newspaper audience and featured seven pages of a rumpled and masked urban crime fighter. The Spirit ran from 1940 until 1952, reaching an audience of five million. Essentially about city dwelling people and their urban problems, it reflected the nolr vogue in cinema and literature of the period. Eisner is said to have been influenced by artist JC Leyendecker, but the use of heavy shadow and yawning perspective is very reminiscent of the wood block books 'without words' of Frai)S Masereel. Although later novels were all his own work, Eisner had established a studio for The Spirit and Jules Feiffer, later celebrated in his own right, was his trusted lieutenant on the project. He, and others like Lou Fine and Jack Cole, ran the strip whilst Eisner was drafted into the WWII army between 19421945. Post War, Eisner established a successful, commercial company producing visuals for all manner of purposes, until he started addressing the longer, more d.etailed •graphic novel' form in the early 1970s. In these he drew (quite literally) on his own experience of the immigrant's life in the New York tenements. To an English audience these are at once familiar due to the plethora of American TV sit-coms, dramas, comedy shows and Hollywood movies. But Eisner brings an authentic and humanist voice to his gallery of characters, brilliantly depicted by his outstanding skill as a draughtsman. Will Eisner continued to produce roughly one novel a year into his eighties (he died in 2005 aged 87) his last work being The Plot, about the anti-Semitic hoax, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. But his reputation had been cast in gold by this point. Accolades were heaped upon him from comic superstars such as Robert Crumb and Jules Feiffer; and the storytelling equally praised, by such as Kurt Vonnegut and John Updike. If, as predicted, the future generations will demand information in a visual format, and graphic novels have a bright future, anyone concerned with the genre cannot miss this chance to enjoy a classic work by a master. (Mvl)

to SoA w i l l b e forwa rded to the a uthor fo r considerati o n i n the n ext u pdate.

David B u c k m a n n o d o u bt welc �m e s

T h e re is l ittle d o u bt thatthe p u b l ishers w i l l h ave to c o n q u e r the c o m m e r c i a l p ressu res of p o rta b l e m e d i a s o o n e r rath e r t h a n l ater. T h o s e atte n d i n g

a ny · i nfo rmati o n o n i n d i v i d u a l a rtists w h o m ight h ave s l i p ped t h ro ugh h i s n et. especia l ly o .n a rtists b o r n i n t h e 1920s. A n y short b i ogra p hy e m a i led

a u ctio n s · d o l i ke t� flip o p e n a l a ptop in the car p a rk to check o ut an obscure fi n d . But the p ri nt vers i o n avoids t h e p itfa l l of a n eye stra i n ing 7 pt type fa ce

a n d after the Second Wo rld Wa r·.

and is clear and crisp. The b i n d i n g is of a s u p e r i o r sta n d a rd a n d o n e c a n o n ly b ut agree with prev i o us reviewers w h o c l a i m t h i's to be a n e s s e n ti a l rese a rch to o l fo r a nyo n e i nvolved i n M o d e r n B ritish a rt. T h e extensive l i st of general reference works listed i n the a p p e n d ix o n ly goes to d e m o nstrate w h at a d a u nti ng - a n d co u rageous project B u c k m a n u n d e rtoo k way back i n 1989. (MvJ)

-- . 1

.li[l[:.};•••

state of art SPRING 2007

STATEPAPERS

AS KED TO name one of the great European private art collections of modern times, it is

EDITOR'S CHOICE

� ·a; E Q) c:

most likely that the name Thyssen will

0 c Q) :!l :>.

feature prominently in any reply. The almost mythical Baron Hans Heinrich ( ' Heini')

.r. 10 Q) "' "

Thyssen-Bornernisza<0 was rarely absent from the arts pages of the international press in the closing decades of the 20th century,

::;:

and his great 'collection' the source of much

�

�"

art trade gossip and speculation throughout

0 u "'

Europe. Just how this erratic group of paintings and its playboy owner came to

� m E

garner such status and prestige, is now the subject of an exhausting fourteen-year study by David Litchfield, to be published this

A major new biography of Baron Hans Heinrich

Spring by Quartet Books.

�

Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Thyssen dynasty is

IN THE BEGINNING

published by Quartet. The fourteen-year study by

Litchfield trawls through the complex Thyssen history and the alliances by marriage

David Litchfield promises to cut. through the

that typified wealthy European families immediately after the Great War. The two key

smoke and mirrors that disguised the true source and creation of the 'world's greatest private art

players are quickly revealed: brothers Fritz and Heinrich (Heini's father) who wheel and deal their way through the Weirnar Republic

A portrait of B a ro n H . H . Thyss en-Bornemeisza by Lu c i a n Freud 1 9 8 2 Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. M a d ri d

�

collection'. But who exactly was the man behind the myth and the millions of dollars spent on art?

and the rise of the Third Reich, always guided by the one Thyssen absolute: self interest. Fritz has been the brother thrown to the devils of history: he financed Herman

OV E RVI EW M I KE VO N JOEL

Gorin g ' s new apartment; h o s ted c o n gratulatory dinners for Hitler; gave loans to Rudolph H e s s for a new Nazi HQ in Munich . . . the list goes on. However, Litchfield studiously uncovers the proofs that

.s-e

' ,., <>')�J"o "'

H e i n i with Pa u l G a uguin's 1 8 9 2 o i l on canvas. Mata Mua (In Olden T i m es) fro m the Carmen Thyssen-Bornem isza Coll ection o n l o a n to the M useo Thyssen-Bornemisza

o ; . -'" &

"')I'J$

OJ)r:/ & /,.

o-'>l,�,,

prices. Heinrich's dealers simply could not

0;-.,.., ""et �o.,. �"i.r /. ....fJa .:..;,.bt· <"o O/ 7o-"$ r-04 ?Jo�1 's<r �.?Q. , o4v. � '-'cy;:'". ? -bO/e,�,�o<> r, o_,.,. ' "' " '-? ";- o, " �ct.ly" iY. _ o,�

resist the combination of a wealthy man with no expertise and so his storeroom soon bulged - with suspect attributions and over

h-�� o"' '�o" 0 .,,-v , "t.'to :;, o;.<> /.1;)o"'l s"' ' o -'0'o.fv t,v./ ...)'<>��r C<.1:"''0/'f 0-, � ��A VI}" '"""<)"" V> . D o". <r o. " o' � � '0$, ''l.

restored pictures from dubious sources.

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o "� " .o k ·,o ./'Oo :C/�(,f;1/,;.0/-.,. �f»".,.�"''»'»o.,i}'O' .C-&c,_��" 0"&. -<?.8 0:, "(,e _,,.O!. �.,C 0

s .. 'S"'

During this time young Heini was at school in The Hague, at the Deutsches Real

Or "'<>'>cr. '> <> '>/"' " 0" · ' ? <> /!t. '» (J / .?"0 �,;" ,;, "'" '<> " "d"o, l> o ., ,, (> .o !'! o ,0' ,».'> 0 '-' o :0.. <> .?., o _-_. :l<.o"<!, 1 0' <o -!:<-0 6'.·'oo <>,I.vQ � 9;'•e,o !-9 , .o <t �' ,;-" .,. ..., o "> C./o;o,_,,, \. ""-.: ...., 0�. 0''<>r � 0� �o .10, ·- �� c.?,'-'r'»o'J(1: 0_'7 ')' O;i'�-o 1$"' '. /-Cry� ":!/,;,.c'S:'J1:1 O v"<> o"/ <!> ,<. .,�-..,, .•:-:..._.,�, '{:;..,.• <>_,<:/�0"tl/. /-<> ""' _, �--.;: . -� . ...._ ,, '?J6.q,· "'o/ "s.�. SOt">o,. e ,"" 6 "�: "1S "/-t, /' <-10/.0'"'1 " eo� 15i-1 o �r8'td ::::c:··� :...'!'"'.:. �) �" r o�"G-� "'"o.. e(i/ Vr "J'. ··'-..� .;:..'.>'"':'�;", }_,..,...,\ ..,. ;. , ._ 'Lt r • ;r .:;::;;,,._ ... ... ..... . :,.�� ""'' /11�\�<•...":"... ,.,_ "'-....,

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gymnasium, abandoned by both his parents to the good offices of a beloved governess and the house staff.

lHE STAGE IS SET Back in Germany, the dealer Heinemann,

establishing a modus operandi to be experienced by Heini himself years later, was busy persuading 'Baron' Heinrich<3> to buy

�'� �'-;,'� ' -'��·�-;:>-> :.... ·�;.;-:,·-� � �':-,. ,'Z.

"' .""'

was being treated no differently to the American industrialists who had also built their collections at Joseph Duveen's inflated

�0

early on by Eduard, it is clear that Heinrich

more and more pictures (on which he doubtless enjoyed substantial commissions).

. . �

Again in a move to be duplicated by his son

in due course, Heinrich was manipulated into holding a high profile exhibition of the

Schloss Rohoncz Collection in Munich. Whereupon, this usually secretive man

•

Heinrich also co-operated with the Fascists - be it Hitler or Mussolini - whenever it suited his purpose, using to the full his manufactured 'Hungarian nationality' as a fall back position should events ever take a difficult turn. He had married Margit Bornernisza de Kaszon, the daughter of an Hungarian Baron, in 1 906, and had duly claimed both her father's title and nationality by way of an unorthodox 'adoption' process. It was an advantage his German national brother didn't have - which lead Fritz to the brink of a fmancial disaster in 1 928 when he could not admit to secret funds squirreled away in Switzerland, but much needed in Germany.

'He always denied that his family had any dealings with Nazis whatsoever, had never

unexpectedly announced to the press that he intended to

made armaments, had no involvement at all - apartfrom an errant uncle, Fritz. I did once say to him that he [Heini] had lied so many times that he believed this himself, and he thought this was veryfunny. ' (Litchfield)

the real financial benefits of buying in a falling market. The depressed economies in the USA and Europe saw the dissolution of many established collections and Heinrich was in a perfect position to snatch bargains. It was Eduard ' s trade contact Rudolf

LIKE FATHER LIKE SON

Heinemann, ironically a German Jewish

The study of Heinrich is, in effect, the study

expansion. Heinrich was able to take

of his son, because Heini 1n later life

advantage of the rising persecution of the

dealer, who was the great facilitator of this

manifested many of the traits of his father.

Jews who were increasingly desperate to

Heinrich had little or no experience of art in

liquidate their treasures. In an effort to

general or painting in particular. Following

disguise this opportunism, Heinrich called

his 1927 purchase of the Bank von der Heydt

his holdings the Schloss Rohoncz Collection,

in Berlin, he became closer to Eduard von

indicating it was a Hungarian initiative

der Heydt and it was he who steered Heinrich

originating from the 1906 period.

into collecting with a serious purpose. Eduard ably demonstrated the social cachet

But in fact, when one learns that Bernard

of being regarded as an 'art collector' and

Berenson<2> was introduced into the equation

'loan'

the collection to

Diisseldorf, on a more or less permanent basis. Whilst this got much sycophantic coverage in the general pre s s , it also provoked a more serious inspection of the artworks by the critics - and Heinrich did not like the negative responses that emanated from this quarter! There then followed a series of events, all stemming from this llli.J.tor

affair, that set both the stage and the script

for the next Thyssen generation.

LAKE LUGANO Eduard von der Heydt had become immediately

alarmed

Heinrich ' s

psychological retreat from the idea of art as a good investment. His short temper was famous and as someone who deliberately kept a wily low profile, overt and public criticism had not been taken lightly. Eduard

} �

lliTit:S.'Wf..

state of art S P R I N G 2007 had seriously feared a lucrative client was

about to jump ship but he still had two ace cards to play. He first introduced the Baron

to Maud Feller, who coincidentally worked

in a small gallery in B erlin - she also happened to be a famed beauty and the

premier social butterfly in the haut monde

of that jazz age city. Secondly, he presented

Prince Leopold of Prussia, a leading

aristocrat in serious financial difficulties with

a prestigious house to sell on the banks of

Lake Lugano: the Villa Favorita. By 1932, a

shares . Heini' s two main concerns thus became fighting off his disgruntled family and father's widow, and ditching a by now

useless Hungarian legacy in favour of Swiss

citizenship. By 1948, it was all miraculously

in place. The only concession Heini had to make was the break-up of the picture

collection, which was distributed amongst

the heirs, although he did inherit 363 of the 5 3 2 works himself. Curiously, the new

'B aron' (titles are not acknowledged in

newly divorced Heinrich and Maud were

Switzerland) devoted the rest of his life to

- and she had persuaded him to continue

it was possible, to add them to his embryonic,

stepmother and was duly impressed by her

Collection.

married and had moved into the Swiss Villa

collecting. Young Heini met his new

}

and full control over his sibling's three

vivacity and good taste. One significant

acquiring the other pictures as and whenever

and later infamous, Thyssen-Bomemisza

He declined, and Denise saw to it that no

from the window was absolutely 1 1 0 %

mystery death a some months later.

reveled in his new reputation as sinister 'Don

more business was transacted until Rapetti's

accidental - although the Baron reputedly

Heini' .

SOLD SHORTO Litchfield reports that Heini bought some 800 pictures during his marriage to Denise,

compared to 108 between 1955 and 1 966.

In fact, he had not invested in any 1 9th or 20th century works until 1961 - when his

world record bid for a Nolde watercolour

D i s traught

but

undeterred,

Denise

imported her brother, Roberto Shorto, into

the vacancy left by Rapetti. But Crispo had

made a shrewd m o v e .

For reasons

unknown, Heini had undertaken t o ship Rapetti' s body back to Italy at his own

expen s e . Crispo h a d j umped in and

(DM39,000) and the subsequent ecstatic

handled all the arrangements for the Baron,

weakne s s : ego. It was

advantageous

public fanfare, rekindled the old Thyssen couragement he

needed

the only en and

a new

uncontrollable lust for 'Modem Masters'

what

Heini

t h o u ght

terms

were

very

($ 1 50,000).

S u b s equently, b u s i n e s s with Andrew

Crispo restarted and it was generally acknowledged from then on that he was the

aspect of this happy relocation was Baron

American agent for all the B aron ' s

Heinrich Thyssen-Bomemisza's ability to

acquisitions. David France reports that in

extract his whole collection out of Germany,

one week alone, Heini transferred $ 3

by now firmly in the hands of the Nazi

million to the Crispo Gallery account, with

regime. It is quite clear that Heinrich,

much more to follow.

himself, had more than a modicum of

influence and contacts within the Third Reich

Roberto Shorto was an interesting character.

hierarchy to achieve the removal of such

He had allegedly already duped Heini out of

valuable assets. Safely ensconced in the Villa

$ 1 ,000,000+ on a Coca-Cola concession in

Favorita, Maud and Heinemann set to work

Brazil, when his sister fust had the Baron

to develop the collection and add some

romantically enthralled. More recently, when

serious works of art.

Shorto died of a heart attack whilst swimming, his erstwhile business partner Simon Lee, a London based dealer, was suing

THERE'S A WAR ON ...

him for the return of 'substantial missing

The Thyssen script continued apace. Within

funds' .

three years, an unfaithful Maud was acrimoniously

divorced following

Although by no means all from the Crispo

Mdivani, which only she survived. The

purchases are a veritable list of 'who's who'

nocturnal car crash with her lover, Alexis

Gallery, it has to be said that Heini's list of

B aron subsequently met and married

for modem and contemporary art, ranging

years

Mir6 ;

Gunhilde von Fabrizius in 1937. He was 62 old.

Throughout,

the

from Hopper, Picasso, Uger, Schiele and

cunning

Heinemann remained at the Villa, overseeing

to Rauschenberg, Pollock,

Kooning, and O ' Keefe - aside from the

building works and cataloguing the 'Schloss

continual additions of master works by the

Rohoncz Collection', eventually published

likes ofDegas, Monet, Delacroix and Cezanne.

lasted some three years, although she was to

'I AM NOT EVE N GERMAN'

son in years to come.

In 1979, the B aron decided to repiace the

in German in 1937 . Gunhilde' s marriage

outlive Heinrich and outsmart both father and

curator of the Villa Favorita collection,

Meanwhile Heini, having been called from

Marco Grassi, with a high flyer (and conveniently Swiss born) Simon de PuryC6l .

Holland to Switzerland and traveling on little

more than identity papers, sat World War II

In a manoeuvre reminiscent of Rudolph

out in complete safety. · For anyone with

Heinemann' s all those years ago for his

socialist tendencies, Litchfleld's survey of

father, de Pury decided on a promotional

exhibition tour of selected works. In New

the Thyssen's at war would boil the blood. Whilst

countless

millions

s uffered

York, it opened to ecstatic reviews : 'the

unrelenting misery, Heinrich and his clan

greatest priv,ate art collection now in

lounged around the Cantons ducking and

existence' (Hilton Kramer) but when it

diving and maintaining their power base of

arrived in Los Angeles, an ugly situation

wealth intact. Even Fritz, now a recalcitrant

occurred and negative reactions hit the

Nazi, was treated with kid gloves by his

media. Members of the local Jewish

erstwhile Reich confederates and his 'house

community remembered only too well the

arrest' little more than one soft berth after

link between Thyssen industries and the

another - most certainly on the direct

Nazis, but unlike his father, Heini had the

instructions of Hermann Goring.

The biggest problem posed by the end of the

War for Heinrich was one of identity.

Hungary was in the hands of the communists and the Swiss were distancing themselves

from the avalanche of proofs that they willingly assisted hiding and moving Nazi

benefit of 30 years distancing from the War

H e i n i a n d Tita on th e i r Wedd i ng Day in G l o u cesters h i re ( p h oto co u rtesy: © Al a n Davidson) In David Litchfleld' s opinion, ilie most fertile

developed apace, with Denise and Rapetti

his fourth wifeC4l, Brazilian Denise Shorto,

Rudolph Heinemann fighting a desperate

lasted surprisingly for some 1 7 years.

Litchfleld makes the amusing comment that,

period of Heini's pursuit of art came with

whom he married in J967, a liaison which

firmly in the driving seat and a fading

and a more established personal prestige. He

pulled influential strings to deflate the

situation, once more declaring: I am not even

German !

Only a year later, it was becoming clear that

rearguard action for the Old Master dealers.

the rate at which Heini was spending money

comp ared

the

indefinitely, he was now selling pictures to

typical good fortune, the delicate political

convinced himself he was no longer the Jewish dealer's prime client.· The stage was

records' for modern art to be b argain

Picasso's Woman at the Fountain, $2 million

their business enterprises were judged by the

her lover, Franco Rapetti. By all accounts,

There was a minor blip in the advance of the

Germany as a barrier against the Russian

two, in a curiously public menage a trois with

distinct echoes of his father's wife [Maud

money to South America. He desperately

needed clear evidence he was not a German national to avoid anti-Nazi 'complications' .

Support came from an unlikely quarter. With

balance tipped in the Thyssen's favour, and

Americans to be of use in the re-building of

Although

the

ubiquitous

Rudolph

Heinemann was still omnipresent, Heini had

set for the ambitious Denise and very soon,

Rapetti had some knowledge of art and the

with

Rembrandt

Renaissance, Heini considered even 'world

basement prices.

Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. With

ideological advance. Despite failing health,

the Baron, encouraged his manic spending

Feller] extra-marital comeuppance, Franco

generosity and gullibility in equal measure.

to the seedy New York dealer, Andrew

upper storey window, in New York. Heini

consigned pictures. David France, in his

circulated that he had 'arranged' the death

Heinrich took full advantage of US

It �as his last throw of the dice.

on art of the 20th century, introducing him

Crispo, famous for his huge mark-ups on

THE SON RISES

incisive expose of Crispd5l, cites the time

When Heinrich died in 1 94 7 , the will

cancel a selection already made by Heini on

(whether under Hungarian law or not) cited

Heini as owning five-eighths of the estate

Rapetti fell to his death, head first from an

on major works of art could not continue

fund the next purchase (Litchfield cites

from Crispo; funded by the sale of a Picasso,

Hopper and Poussin). 1980 also marked a peak in Heini's manic spending on painting,

when his invoices totaled $23 million! A year later, Heini sat for his portrait by Lucian

Freud - one of two pictures, both allegedly costing a million dollars each (see cover).

was in London, but the rumours soon

TWO TO TANG LE

having tired of being cuckolded and duped

But true to form, Heini's marriage to Denise

Denise flounced regally into the gallery to

by the greedy Rapetti commissions system.

a previous visit, whilst Rapetti took him aside to demand a 'commission' on all future sales.

journalist, Taki Theodoracopulos, Rapetti

Shorto was on the rocks and he was

In fact, according to Greek socialite and

engrossed in protecting his assets from her

was so incapacitated by drug usage the fall

'Tita' Cervera, a former Miss Spain.

and impressing his new love interest, Carmen

:I u

;

l'1iTit:s.Wr.

state of art SPR I N G 2007

By happy coincidence, the strenuous efforts to shield the family silver from Denise, whom

Litchfield's book. In fact, in the end, only 775 pictures went to Madrid (leaving 700 to

he had married (unusually) without a pre

be argued over by the heirs) and for an agreed

nuptial agreement, resulted in a Bermuda

$350 million fee that, with the ancillary costs

based Trust which put his son Georg (known

for housing them, maintenance etc. , rose to

as Heini Jnr) firmly in the driving seat. This

a sum not unadjacent to $600 million.

left Heini with an annual retainer of fabulous proportions (albeit dependent on profits). It

THE REIG N IN SPAIN

was a complex bit of legal construction that would eventually come back to bite them all,

Whilst the Thyssen-Bomemeisza Collection,

but it extracted Denise from the scene quite

housed at the newly (and expensively)

effectively. Unfortunately, the Baron had no

refurbished Villahermosa Palace in Madrid,

intention of reducing his spending habits.

added to Spain's glory in the year of the

The result - unpaid bills, delayed payments

Barcelona Olympics, Tita was busy fuming

and mounting debts made worse by the slow

at the lack of ready cash available from the

performance of the parent company<7l and thu s , Heini's subs equent reduction of income. The family were also becoming

Spanish sale, the share out being held 'for

tax reasons' in an art fund governed by

Georg. It provoked a series of events that

concerned as to just how much of their actual

culminated in 1997, when the Baron and his

inheritance was being invested in the art

wife began a legal action against Georg in

collection, and Heini's new Spanish wife did

the jurisdiction of Bermuda - an event of

not inspire the heirs with confidence either.

such staggering stupidity and waste that all

As Tita reinforced her grip on her new

public being fed titbits on the tens of

observers were flabbergasted, not least the husband, and saw off any counter influences,

thousands of dollars being wasted daily on

the one barrier she could not breach was the

lawyers. All spent in order to reverse the

company - now governing Heini's income

interpretation of the Bermuda (continuity)

via the Bermuda trust deal - and therefore,

trust agreement that had apparently put Georg

effectively, Georg's control over his father.

in control of his father's cash .flow and

Heini's picture-buying continued, but with

annuities.

H o m e s to the great c o l l ecti o n : ( a b ove) t h e Vi l l a Favo rita o n La ke Luga n o i n S w itz e l a n d , l o n g te r m fa m i ly b a s e fo r t h e Thyssen d y n a sty: ( b e l o w ) the fo r m e r Vi l l a h e r m o s a P a l a ce i n M a d ri d . s p e c i a l ly resto red at great p u b l i c exp e n s e . that n o w h o u s e s r o u g h ly h a lf the c e l e b rated Thyssen-Bornemeisza Collection

some reduction in numbers - not unrelated to the huge prices art was now fetching in

HEADS YOU LOSE, TAILS YOU LOSE

the salerooms - and once again, de Pury's touring of parts of the Collection to high

B y 2002, it was over - some 1 2 1 ,959

profile venues was attracting criticism from

documents later, five years of haggling and

the wrong quarters (viz: influential New York

accumulated legal fees in the region of £ 1 00

critic John Russell's review of a show at the

million. At least three London QCs made

Metropolitan Museum). But as always, the

over £1 million a year each during the two

actual public gaped at the scale and dollar

year court battle. Heini, a frail 8 1-year-old

value of the works and stood in awe of the

and Tita, not yet 60, announced to the world

venue, a sure stamp of validation.

that the ' misunderstanding s' had been resolved and a settlement had been reached.

THE BERMUDA TRIANG LE In 1 986, the Thyssen world stood on its head.

The B aron had a near fatal stroke in a

And, at the last post, little had changed, the Baron's annuity would be calculated slightly differently and Tita could have her involvement with the art collection fund and

Washington hotel, and although he slowly

any unpaid monies due to her husband.

recovered, it was both a warning and a sign

Litchfield provides lavish detail on the fmer

of impending old age. It was also the moment

points of this crazy last roar by the old lion

that Tita slipped the reins of power into her

of Lugano.

hands. lt signaled Simon de Pury's departure from the curatorship at Villa Favorita, and more importantly, Heini's announcement that

In March that year, one month after the newly signed agreements, Heini had two successive

the Villa was too small for the now famous

heart attacks and died, it was his 82nd year. He

Thyssen-Bomemisza Collection to remain in situ much longer.

family mausoleum, alongside his brother, father

David Litchfield is unstinting in his detail

to know that David Litchfleld had the last word

is interred at Landsberg Castle in Germany, the and grandparents. He might have been peeved

of the shifty manoeuvres surrounding the

after all -in this outstanding work ofbiography.

final decision to site the great collection in

Reco=ended

Madrid. Perhaps it was inevitable the minute Tita signed the wedding declaration. What was surprising, was the former beauty queen's sudden transition into an art collector herself - specialising in mawkish bull fighting scenes by 1 9th and 20th Spanish artists, for which she apparently had a genuine affection. D e spite desperate overtures from all the grea"t European nations, including Margaret Thatcher and Prince Charles bleating for Britain, each country was cleverly side-stepped in favour of Spain. Meanwhile, Georg was tightening the purse strings and boxing his father into a corner. Property and assets were being sold to reduce overheads, and in 1 989, he announced that Heini's annual payout would be reduced under the terms of the Bermuda agreement. Heini's great vision was to keep the whole collection intact as a memorial to his good self, but he had no intentiofl of donating it or guaranteeing the upkeep costs - and neither had Georg. By 1 988, Sotheby's had valued the Thyssen-Bomemeisza Collection at 1 . 2 billion dollars. How a socialist government with a fabulous collection already (the Prado) was persuaded to pay a rich German industrialist millions of dollars is one of the most amusing sections of

NOTES 1) H a n s H e i n rich Thyss en- B o r n e m isza de Kaszon was born at Scheve n i n gen. n e a r The Hague, i n 1921. the fou rth and yo u ngest c h i l d of H e i n rich van Thyssen a n d M a rgit B o r n e m isza. a H u ngarian a ristocrat. The family e m p i re. fo u n d ed ·a n s h i p b u i l d ing. coal. steel a n d i ro n . h a d been started by the b a ro n ' s gra n dfather. August. who left h i s fortu ne t o his two sons. Fritz and H e i n ri c h . i n 1926. 2) Berenson was born Bern h a rd Valvrojenski i n Lith u a n i a i n 1 8 6 5 . An a rt critic a n d a utho rity o n Renaissa n ce a rt. h is reputation took a d ive when it was revealed he h a d an i l l i cit contra ct with [Lord] J o e D uveen to provide convenient p"rove n a n ces for his g a l l e ry s a l es to rich America ns. B e re n s o n d ied i n Florence in 1959. ·3) H e i n ric.h became a ' B a ro n ' by the curious process of- m a rrying the d a ughter of a H u ngarian Baron ( M a rgit B o r n e m isza) a n d ' i n heriting' t h e titl e . 4) H e i n i ma rried five times: (i) August 1946, Austrian a ristocrat Prin cess Th eresa A m a l i a Fra ncesca Elisabeth A n n a M a ria of t h e Li p pe-We issenfeld ( b o r n 1925). Their o n ly child was G e o rg H e i n rich ( born 1950) They divorced 14 M ay 1954. (ii) 23 June 1954. Anglo-l n d i a n fas h i o n m odel Nina Dyer (1930-1965): they h a d n o c h i l d ren and divorced o n 4 J u ly 1956. S h e co m m itted s u i cide in 1965.

(iii) 17 Septe m b e r 1956. New Zea l a n d-bern British fas h i o n m odel Fiona Frances E l a i n e Campbei i-Walter ( b o r n 1 9 3 2 ) . Da ughter o f Rea r-Ad m i ra l Keith M c N e i l Waiter a n d his wife. Fra nces H en ri ette C a m p b e l l . Their c h i l d ren were Fra n cesca (born 1958) and Lo rne ( bo rn 1963). They divo rced on 20 J a n u a ry 1965. a n d s h e went o n t o h ave a well-p u b l icised relati o n s h i p with a G reek s h i p ping heir. Alexa n d e r On assis. the o n ly s o n of Aristotle O n assis. (iv) 13 Decem ber 1967. Denise S h o rto ( bo rn 1942). a Brazi l i a n b a n ker's d a ughter. They h a d o n e son. Alexa n d e r ( born 1974). a n d d ivorced in November 29. 19 84. after an acri m o n i o u s fo u r-yea r battle. (v) 16 August 1985. M a ria del Carmen Rosario Cervera Fe r n a n d e z d e la G u erra. p o p u l a rly known as C a r m e n 'Tita' Cervera ( born 1943) who was M iss S p a i n of 1961. H e a d o pted her s o n . B o rja ( b o r n 1980. father u n known ) . In 1965. s h e h a d m a rried Lex Ba rker (19191973) best known for h is portrayal of Tarzan. He h a d previously been m a rried to La n a Tu rner and Arlene D a h l . 5) Bag o f Toys b y David Fra n ce. Wa r n e r B o o ks 1992 6) Born in Base! i n 1951. S i m o n de P u ry stu d ied at The Aca demy of Fine Arts in Tokyo i n t h e 1970s. After B e r n a u ction eers. Kornfeld & Kli pstein. he j o i n ed Sotheby's in Lo n d o n . G e n eva a n d M o nte C a r l o . Between 1 9 7 9 .1986, S i m o n de P u ry c u rated the Thyssen· Bornemisza. In 1986, de P u ry retu rned to Sotheby's first as C h a i r m a n of Sotheby's Switzerla n d a n d th en as C h a i r m a n of Sotheby's

Eu ro p e . In 1997. he eo-fo u n d e d with D a n i e l l a Luxe m b o u rg. de P u ry & Luxe m b o urg Art. a G e n eva-based a rt a dvisory fi rm. In 2001. this firm merged with P h i l l i ps Aucti o n eers to become P h i l l i ps, de P u ry a nd Luxe m b o u rg. I n 2004. S i m o n beca me th e majo rity s h a re h o l d e r of P h i l l i p s de P u ry & C o m p a ny. 7) The Thyssen B o r n e m isza G ro u p : 17.100 people in 226 l o cations i n 27 cou ntries a n d sales o f $ 1 . 6 b i l l i o n ( i n 1983)

.-r.Tit:l.••

state of art SPRING 2007

ADVANCE I N FORMATION : FIN E ART BOOKS & CATALOG U ES

Frederick Kiesler. He claims that i n the period of fascism's elevation of the home as the site of national

pervades Monteith's work. H i s meticulously composed and beautifully produced i mages focus o n individuals.

must sell - and not only make - his a rt. Responding to this reality. Courbet fo und new ways to 'package.' exhibit and publicise his work and hi mself. Chu shows that Cou rbet was one of the fi rst a rtists to recognize and take

resulting essay - the shorter of two Baker essays that comprise the text of this book - is descriptive and reflective and acclaims The Lightning Field as ' the cl osest th ing to a masterpiece to come out of min imalism.' Together

imagination. Ducham p's antinati onal identity became a form of resista nce. just as his a rtistic practice represented a complex response to capita lism's increasing institutional ization a n d ma rketing o f art. Duchamp's exi le.

lan dscapes. oddly sti l led cityscapes and the worn traces of the cou ntry's long and complex h istory. Czech Eden. Mo nteith's first m onograph. is not a literal description o r docum entation. but rather a parable

these writi ngs offer a uniq uely personal and probing assessment of this major

writes Demos. defines a new ethics of independent life in the modern age of nationalism and advanced capita l ism. offering a precursor to our own globalized world of nomadic subjects and dispersed experience. (CK)

i n which the viewer encounters ind ividuals and environm ents that are cohesive yet contradictory. bea utiful

includes a statement by the artist. (CK)

23 Ghosts Ed. Veit Gorner. Caroline Kadi ng. and Javier Panera Cuevas. 132pp 95 col il lus. Hb. Hatje Cantz £20.00

and he co urted new audiences. including women. And for a time Courbet succeeded. achieving a rare freedom for a nineteenth-century French artist. If his strategy eventually backfired and he was forced into exi le. his pioneering vision of the a rtist's career in the modern world nevertheless ma kes him an intrigu ing forerunner to all later medi a-savvy a rtists. (CK) Waiter De Maria: The Lightning Field

Century Media Culture

Kenneth Baker and Lyn ne Cooke. 192 pages. 15 col and 10 b&w i l l us. Hb University of California Press £22.95 (1977). by the American sculptor Waiter De Maria. is recognized internationally as one of the late-twe nti eth century's most profound works of American art. The piece is located in a remote and rugged area of southwestern New Mexico's high desert and is composed of 400 stainless steel poles insta l l ed in a grid measuring one mile (east-west) by one The Lightning Field

rei nterpretation of Courbet i n a generation. Chu tells the fascinating story of how. i n the initial age of mass media and popular high art this important artist ma naged to achieve an unprecedented measu re of a rtistic and financial independence by promotj ng his work and himself

Philip G uston: Works on Paper

Michael Semff and Christoph Schreier. Ex cata logue: Kunstmuse um.Bonn 192 pp 145 col il lus. H b Hatje Cantz £29.99

was one of the most important and influential American artists of the twentieth centu ry. The secret motor that powered the development of Guston's extra ordinarily multifa ceted oeuvre was his drawing. which. unlike his painting.

adva ntage of the publ icity potential of newspapers. using them to create acceptance of his work and to spread a n i mage of himself as a radical outsider. Courbet introduced the indepen dent show by displaying his art in popular venues outside the Salon.

Gustave Courbet and the Nineteenth

perhaps better than any pai nter before him. In The Most Arrogant Man in France. the first comprehensive

but unsettling. (CK)

Besides Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. Philip Guston (1913-1980)

The Most Arrogant Man in France:

The modern a rtist strives to be independent of the public's taste and yet depends on the public for a livi ng. Petra Chu argues that the French Real ist Gustave Courbet (18191877) u nderstood this di lemma

and a certain thoughtful attention to the uncanny with in the everyday. Monteith's photogra phs parallel a venerable tradition staked out by masters like Joel Sternfeld. and embodied in contempora ry work by younger photo-documentarians like Alec Soth. Though at times forebodi ng, an en ergetic optimism and h u m o u r

when he was commissioned by Dia Art Foundation (which owns and maintains the work) to write a study of it. The

Home, Home Again.

Petra Ten-Doesschate Chu. 248pp 49 col and 88 b&w i l l us. Hb Princeton University Press £29.95

a mile of string announced the disl ocated status that many exi led surreal ists wished to forget.

1978. shortly after its completion.

Franz Ackermann:

formed into universal experiences. Texts by Veit Gorner. Caroline Kadi ng. Javier Panera Cuevas. Alex and Danchev. (CK)

the i neffa ble -a mood. a sense of pl ace - he made repeated visits. and from 2001-2003 travelled throughout the cou ntry with his camera. i n hopes of creating a contemporary a l legory that wou l d reflect the ideals he had observed in old postcards a n d i n Czech photography from the 1920s and 30s. Combining restra int brilliant colour

who emerges in Chu's account is a soph isticated artist and entrepreneur who understood that the modern a rtist

context. Bea utifully ill ustrated with fifteen colour photographs and ten black-and-wh ite images. the book a lso

objects. text. and sculptural inserts. At the heart of this monograph are two la rge installations: Home, home again and 23 Gespenster (23 G hosts). Both works make use of local. historical. and political references. which are trans·

freedom of geopolitical homelessness. The portable museum. a s uitcase conta i n ing min iature reproductions of Duchamp's work. for exa mple. represented a complex med itatio n both critical and joyful - on modern art's tendency toward itinera ncy. whereas Duchamp's 1942 insta llation design entangl ing a New York ga llery in

through the popular press. The Courbet

(RT) BRIAN McAVERA (BMcA) SARAH M CAVERA (SMcA) M VON J OEL (MVJ) CHAR LES KANE (CK)

NOTES: ROWLAND THOMAS

work of art. Dia Art Foundation curator Lyn ne Cooke has contributed the introduction. which places The Lightning Field in its art historical

developing his ideas in installations made u p of various media such as drawi ng. painting. photography. fi lm.

taken by the deta ils of ordinary l ife i n this co untry in transition. Captivated by

Demos co n nects Duchamp's condition of exi le to forms of displ acement within photographic practice and modern museum exhibitions. theorized extensively at the time by Waiter Benjamin. Andre Malra ux. and

EDITOR ROWLAN D H 0 MAS

Franz Ackermann (b.1963) is one of the most famous German artists of his generation. Travel is of fundamental importance to his work. While sti ll on site. Ackermann fixes his personal perceptions i n 'mental maps.' These imaginary maps of city and countryside are later turned into la rge-format pai ntings in his studio. He conti nues

works express the anguish of displacement and celebrate the

The Exiles of Marcel Duchamp

T. J. Demos. 320 pp 52 il lus. H b

M I T Press £15.95

Marcel Duchamp was a famous expatriate. a wanderer. living and working in Paris. New York. and Buenos Aires and escaping from them in turn. But exi le. argues T. J . Demos in this i n novative reading. is more tha n a fact in Duchamp's biography. Exile - in the artist's own words. a ' spirit of

a rtistic crisis i n the late 1960s. Despite their central position in his work. his drawings have n ot. u p to now. actually attracted the attention they so richly deserve. With a sel ection of about 100 drawi ngs. most of them from the a rtist' estate. this publication sheds light on the devel opment of his drawn works from the 1940s to 1980. the year of Guston's death. (CK)

expatriation' - infuses Duchamp's entire a rtistic practice. Indeed a profound sense of dislocation -from geogra phica l situation. nati onal identity, and cultural conventions deeply informs the mobile objects and disjunctive spaces of Duchamp's readymades and experimental exhibition installations. Duchamp's readymade constructions. his insta l lations for surreal ist exhibitions in Paris and New York. and

Maria. could theoretica lly ' support a n imaginary sheet of glass.' Art critic Kenneth Baker began his

his portable museum (the suggestively named La Boite-en-Valise). Demos writes. all man ifest. define. and exploit the terms of exil e in multiple ways. Created while the artist was living variously in New York. Buenos Aires. and occupied France. during the global

encou nter with The Lightning Field in

catastrophes of war and fascism. these

kilometer (north-south). The poles average some twenty feet in height and are insta lled so that the tops form a level plane, which. according to De

had no particu lar function from the start. For decades. the immediacy of drawing offered Guston n ot only the chance to insistently experiment with unsolved issues. but also the ability to stop and reflect. to critically reorient his work. Ultim ately. his obsessive preoccupation with drawing also a l lowed him to master his profound

Matthew Monteith: Czech Eden

lva n Klima. 80 pp i l l us. Hb Aperture £22.00

When h e first visited the Czech Republic in the 1990s. the young photographer Matthew Monteith was

Duane Hanson: Sculptures of the American Dream

Berndt Arell and Thomas Buchsteiner. Ex. cat.: Arken M useum. Germany 192 pp il lus. Hb Hatje Cantz £19 .99

Duane Hanson (1925-1996) was a significant American sculptor known for his hyper-realistic figures. Raised on a M i n nesota farm. Hanson was proud of his fam i ly's solid m i d d l e-class values. His first real istic sculptures were produced i n the turbulent years of the 1960s and reflected the social and political climate of the era. By 1970. Hanson had d.eveloped his mature style of portraying American ' types' shoppers. tourists. children. workers. and businessmen. This volume discusses Hansen's a rtistic development his sculptures dating b etween 1976 and 1995. a n d h i s contribution t o American a rt. Along with American ar:tists George Segal. Edward Kienholz. and John De Andrea. Hanson influenced the current interest in hyper-rea l istic figuration. Hansen's scu l ptures have helped lead the way to the development of the late 20th century art movement first identified as Man nequin Art a n d associated with a rtists like Pau l M cCa rthy and John Miller. among others. You may feel as though you have seen them before. i n a movie. at the gym. browsing at a yard sale, meandering through the mall. o r - m o re l i kely - on a trip to Florida. Duane Hansen's life sized fibreglass and polyester resin

state of art SPR I N G 2007

·-Iill[�.··· California. Davis. then living in and around San Fra ncisco. This splendidly illustrated book explores Nauman's relationship to the place where he

the case of a cross-section diagram of the nave of a goth ic cathedral. five

created his ea rliest and m ost strikingly original works during the mid to late 1960s. A Rose Has No Teeth demon strates that Nauman established much of his artistic vocabulary during this period and that he · laid the groundwork for fun-d amental ideas he a ddressed

Places section. which covers France. Ita ly, & England. - as well as The Holy -Roman Empire & The 'Iberian Kingdom. the emphasis is upon ill ustrating works of art in the relevant places. each of which has short notes on elements such . as style o r tech nique. The third

death in 1996. Regardless of when the works were made. though. H a nsen's remarkably life-like sculptures will always be besieged by schoolchildren and jeal ously protected by museum guards, for they exud e a uni quely magnetic force. Viewers and readers who dare to move in close are rewarded with details that could never

througho ut his oeuvre. such as ·the role of the ·a rtist. the fu n ction of a rt. and . the primacy of the idea over its form. Curator Constance M. Lewa llen describes how the l ate 1960s were not

section. that of Artists. deals with forty of them, from Altichiero to Vita le da . Bologna. I n each case we are given a brief career summary followed by notes on the i l l ustrations. In many ways. this· book i's what would have been called, forty years ago o r more. a primer. lt has

be studied so candidly in real life: wrinkles. facial h a ir. imperfections. And yet H a nsen's objective was never blatant voyeurism. b-ut access to those thi ngs we prefer -to overlook. to the drabness of everyday life and the ever present intimatio n of mortal ity.

way to Post-minimalism and Conceptual Art. expanding into performance. film a n-d video. insta llation. text works. and the photogra phic docum ents. This book shows that N a u m·a n was at the forefront of these revoluti onary cha nges and al mo-st single-ha ndedly redefined what it meant to be a n a rtist.

sculptures a re the spitting i mages of real, breathing people; they illustrate modern consumer society with equal pa rts tenderness. humour a n d horror. Th� revised edition_ of the best-selling catalogue raisonne. featuring two new essays, documents all phases of Hansen's oeuvre. from his earl iest carved wooden replica of Thomas · G a i nsborough's The Blue Boy to the last works he produced before his -

only a time of political a nd social change i n the San Francisco Bay Area; this was also a watershed period i n art _ internation ally, when Minimalism gave

European Art of the 14th Century

This is the perfect volume for intrepid trave llers with an i nterest in a rt. lt forms the third in the Getty Art Through series. and the template is simple and clear. The book is divided into three main pa rts, Key Words.

the Centuries

In the 1960s

Constance Lewa llen. Ex. cat.: Berkeley Art Museum 256 pp 75 col and 120 b&w illus. University of California Press -£26 .95 One of the most i n n ovative, provocative. a n d influentia l -of America's contemporary a rtists. Bruce Nauman spent his formative years in Northern California - first as a graduate student at the University of

Places, and Leading Artists. In each section. each entry is given a minimum of a doub le-page spread. So. for exa mple. in Key Words. which covers everyth ing from 'Gothic' to 'Chivalry', o r from 'Artist' t o 'Pieta ' , t h e s i z e o f the l ayout is i n di rect proportion to the im portance of the term. An a l l embracing word · like 'Gothic' is given four pages. with four la rge colour illustrations. The e ntry consists of a general but succinctly written intro duction. notes on each i mage which point out salient characteristics. and in

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been brought up to date, one imagines (or perhaps- one should say that the . designers have learnt from) the works of Time Life publish ers, and from the Italian publishers of pa rt-works on art. As such. key facts a re summa rised in · · the margins. Notes on ill ustrations are keyed to the relevant part of the- image

by a black line: And the whole is complemented by a chronology and an index of a rtists. (BMcA)

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passers-by o r decayed by the passage of time. a nd some even damaged to the point of il legibility - exhibited his desire to subvert the conventional discourse of advertising and political propaga nda. Since the .1960s, Vi llegiE§'s work has been exhibited ·extensively throughout Europe and North America, and forms part of the

Bert Teunissen: Domestic Land�capes. A Portrait of Europeans at Home Els Ba rents·. 128 pp illus. Ho

permanent collection of New York's Museum of Modern Art. a� well as many prestigious museums a nd galleries around the world. This volume is the first Engl ish-l9nguage book on Villegle. and another new addition to the Flammarion Contemporary series, featuring die�cut covers and type design by Parisian design team du jour M/M. I l l ustrati ng his career through a series _of essays -· a. retrospective text, an interview. and over 150 im ages the book spans the artist's output from his early work to his most recent projects. · Marco Breuer: Early Recordings · M a rk Alic-e Durant.

96 pp 50 col illus. Hb

..;.:. ·

··· .... .

intelligence and wit of the mid-century Modern ist ava nt-garde and the anyth ing goes audacity of photo graphy's earliest innovators': (BM eA) .

. _

�

Jacques Villegle

N. Bourriaud. F. Ben & K. M. Cabanas. 216 pp 150 col il lus. Hb Flammarion £25.00

Found objects, ripped posters, radical col lages: as· part of the New Realism movement of the early 1960s. Jacques Villegle's work directly influenced his contemporaries. in particu lar. New York Pop artists .1\ndy Warhol and Ray Lichtenstein. By using everyday objects. · the New Real ists sought new

Early Recordings presents the first comprehensive look at the work pf the respected, conceptually driven artist.

�·s Stt-tPL-Y Wo�I>e�FvL ,-roe�, ' tr You DONI 'f I•t-��LP; ! Lt.. Do l'f MYS E L. F !!.

Over the past decade. the noted Dutch photogra pher Beet Teun issen has documented hu ndreds of old Europe-an homes and the dignified, often elderly people who inhabit them. He seeks· out rudimentary. yet cultured settings aglow with a warm. timeless atmo- . sphere; spaces with a very particu lar quality of natural light. Old World details crowd the fr.ame of each image: ornate wa l l pa per. ancestral portraits. home-�tured hams hung from exposed beams a nd · decorative dishware proudly displayed o n ma ntels. These· homes were built before th·e World Wars, before el ectricity was a sta ndard

palette and a sensitivity to light that recalls, with astonishing sensitivity,

Marc Breuer. Boldly experimental, Breuer uses an extensive and continually evolving range of processes to extract abstract and visually compelling images from photographic paper. Whether it involves placing burning coals on the ph otogra phic paP.er. repeatedly slicing into it or sandjng away. at the emulsion until holes -appear. Breuer's work eviscerates -the usual expectations of the camera-less image. The mini ·ma l istic end resu lts are surprisi ngly exq uisite. and this oversized volume reproduces .th em with attention to every slice. abrasion and color sh ift. The images function as 'recordi ngs' of

Aperture £27.50

feature, a time when sunlight played a . p_ivotal role in the conception of a rchitecture. Te uni_ssen renders these last vestiges_ of old Europe with a

Thames &· Hudson £35.00

o, �-. ···'· '. "'

,.__ �-� ""_-·�h� "

energy remain. The revered photo graphy critic Vince Aletti describes Breuer's work as having 'the

_t he nature of art itself. Villegle's work · with posters that h e found i n the streets - some ripped by a no nymous

Domestic

Sandra Baragli 384pp 400 col. i l lus. J. Paul Getty Museum LA £14.99

A Rose Has No Teeth: Bruce Nauman

separ.ate n otes pointing out character istic elem ents in more d etail. In the

the a rtist's actions. so that only the· trace of impact and Breuer's expended

forms of a rtistic expression and ca lled into question the role of the -a rtist and

Dutch masters like Vermeer and Rembrandt. They are certai n ly some of_ the most remarkable and · inti mate arch itectural portraits of recent years. This, Teunissen's first monogra ph. doveta ils with two traditions: the ose of the camera to record cultural vestiges; and a strai n of portraiture that looks at subjects in their own environs. Made in num erous countries: including the Nethe rlands.. Germany, Belgium. Italy, France, G reat Britain, Spain. and Portuga l, Teunissen's poignant photographs capture and record an arch itecture - and a way of life-that is quickly disappeari ng.

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�I A BOOK OF prints and poetry can be said to be more than the sum of its parts: that is, containing a print or prints, it's a fme-art multiple; containing a text or poetry, it's a literary work; and being an object in itself, it's an example ofbook art In a collaborative work -

I mean that between a living artist and writer

in which there is some form of feedback between the two which is not based on illustration - the intention is taken to be the

MANDORLA Julia Farrer and Anthony Rudolf 9 folded sheets, 9 etchings/16 poems in a chem ise with in a d rop-back box KIA PRESS

...

-�-

�:...

::�=.�··--

ROB ERT VAS DIAS

establishment of a sympathetic relationship

between the writing and the image. One thinks

airiness and transparency and light. Farrer

Delaunay 's

defines her space with grids, straight lines, and

groundbreaking pochoir for Blaise Cendrar's

shading in a way analogous to that of Naum

of . precursors

S onia

poem, La Prose du Transsiberien et de lapetite

Gabo with his curved lines and ellipses. Their

accordion-fold piece; or Mir6's images for

as does the fineness of line and control of the

several of Tristan Tzara's books, or those of

surface. Farrer is known for her imaginative

Yves Bonnefoy, Andre du Bouchet, and Jacques

use of grids and geometric forms; here she

Jehilnne de France, 1 9 1 3, a two-metre long

size contributes to this feeling of spaciousness,

Dupin; or Picasso's for Max Jacob, Pierre

seems to have given freer rein to her

Reverdy, and others; or of the astonishing little

imagination to create a floating world of

collaborative books produced by the Russian

intersecting geometries of shape and shadow,

Futurists.

space and line, that enchant the eye and

Julia Farrer's andAnthony Rudolf's Mandorla

impressively original work.

stimulate the mind. I have rarely seen such also raises the question, as all important book

art does, of the conception of 'book' . Farrer, a

It is not farfetched to suggest that this outcome

noted painter, printmaker and book artist,

was affected by the collaboration with a poet

makes images not only uniquely suited to an

who, in this sequence of sixteen short poems,

intimate medium - a close encounter on the printed page between artist and viewer - but also to the book as sculptural object: her work

Lo, with the poet Judith Thurman(l), is an

intricately woven construction of cut-out grids,

paper folds and inserts, which can be displayed upright; the spirit is architectural, the imagery is abstract. In Mandorla, the images are based on a pattern of geometrical forms which intersect, recede, and advance, a sort of Libeskindian play of angle, plane, surface, light, and shadow. Each of the nine images is an etching with aquatint, some with rectangles or parallelograms

-.--- ·-c--. ......,

is loose, playful, andidiomatic. The ludic spirit informs the poems, which use expressions,

-�� ·---

-� �

'---

Same difference on the margin grey area, between the dog and the wolf in the country of old moons.

cliches, and puns deliberately to subvert the portentous and arcane:

How they are and are not the image, more into and out of each other's field a series, discrete begin here, and roll on like eternity, immaterial anti-matter, natch: ga me, set, lighted match.

embossed on the paper by means of cut-out

the viewer/reader.

sympathies and affiliations. The non-illustrative relationship of text and

artists have adopted of making either abstract

upper left and another in the lower right,

by the playful ending.

complement the text. To imply that the

vision.

themselves a reaction. Though a time interval

only if one cannot accept the solution that many

decorative is somehow not art, as used to be said ofMatisse, implies that much art in artists'

books is not worthy ofthe name. Leaving aside

and-forth process is

of audacious embellishment, the tradition (by

provoke wonder) these images accomplish

collaborations in general. Other poems are less easy to relate directly to the images and operate on a more metaphorical

simultaneously giving the impression of

level of response:

-St"!Jii.A'!IDoScmu

�i!IF i�

now) of using abstract or semi-abstract designs to parallel or complement text was the true

of 'ladders' and 'windows' of many of them

Fai r in November 2006, and is available from Em m a

The Eagle Gallery, 159 Farringdon Road. EC1R 3AL

Hill Fine Art at London

NOTES

which everywhere reveal the d i rect h a n d of the a rtist

occurred between start and finish, this back

convey an architectural solidity while

Mandorla was l a u n ched at the London Artists Book

1) London.

Besides being simply wonderful to look at (they several things at once: the vertical structuring

Robert Vas Dias is a poet whose latest book, Lea ping Ea rth, to be published later this year, is a response in poems to images by Stephen Chambers and Tom Hammick. He is a tutor with The Poetry School, London. Down to

Picasso's decorations for Reverdy's Le Chant

des morts, 1 948, or Mir6's for Tzara's Parler seul, 1 948-50, to cite two prominent examples

often typical of

amount of nerve to go down this route, what

exhilarating not only for the artist but also for

images or decorative embellishments to

poems to which the final images were

stand by themselves, as they do in Farrer and

Rudolf's arts. Undoubtedly it takes a certain

Series) perhaps reveals Rudolf's truer

- but pulls itself up from the strictly referential

have an understated elegance and breadth of

the. two and also able, in the best examples, to

down a mountain' , but the result here is

centrefold of a spread, with one poem in the

preliminary sketches which generated the

establishing a dialectical relationship between

1 1 to George Oppen (his first book, Discrete

image - a parallel word structure of the visual

This collaborative project began with Farrer's

art, a translation of one into the other: image

York School poets, although the allusion in No.

image in an artist's book<2> is a vexing matter

This bare description

The objective was, and is, to create a parallel

Farrer has described as 'driving without brakes

plate; the images are positioned on the

the left and right page.

beneficent and productive influence.

I' m reminded of the work of some of the New

The poem starts as a commentary on its facing

hardly does justice to the finished prints, which

Lissitzky, Malevich, and Rodchenko. In our

time, the work of Ian Tyson has exerted a

exists in terms of text, text in terms of image,

Wind, oh stil l n ight window starlight.

plastic forms superimposed on the etching

producing what Farrer calls a dialogue between

Mandorla are foreshadowed particularly by El

innovation of Delaunay and the Russian

EMH

Arts. 2001.

Artists" Book is the preferred term for those works

from their conception to their realisation. The term livre d"artiste has come to be used in the historical sense to denote those l i m ited edition books conta i n i n g text a n d prints. mainly b y artists o f t h e School o f Paris. published by dealers or ed itors i n the first half of the

Futurists . Farrer's geometric images in

twentieth century.

2 2state

state of art SPRING 2007

EUROSTATEPARIS

More recently, his video work has incorporated

primitive layers of montage, as in the use of pseudo-holographic projections or in the

mixing of virtual and real elements within the same video to engender a sense of the

ridiculous, the absurd or. pure fantasy. Sorin,

as the central character, evolves between fact and fiction in an unstable world whose reality

aae o

is always put into question.

The same techniques are employed in his

The crazy world of Pierrick Sorin report ALAIN ADAM

co=ercial work for retail and department stores, or for large art installations where site

specificity is incorporated into the narrative.

Visual gags abound, but are never far from

the burlesque or even the grotesque. There's a flavour of S wiftian satire spiced with

Of all living creatures, only man is endowed with laughter. (Aristotle) Myfirst idea was a simple one; to reproduce theatre scenes in afantastic way not possible on the stage. It is the use oftrickphotography which enables us to make visible the supernatural, the imaginary, even the impossible (Georges Melies) YEARS OFTRAWLING througb video shows

have made me profoundly weary of the

medium. It seems that most artists are still

involved in the business of film deconstruction and sequence management. They manipulate

;::

�

who instinctively understand the medium's

range and power to enhance a staged event.

Pierrick Sorin is another such performance

and video magician. Sorin uses film and video

to expose the frailty of human nature and the

'the carnivalesque, grotesque form as a

consecration ofinventive freedom. .. a liberating

from the prevailing point of view of the world,

from conventions and established truths, from cliches, from all that is humdrum and

universally accepted' . While Sorin does notrise

to Rabelais' extravagant sense of humour and

torrid physical indulgences, he nonetheless

in ambivalence; being neither purely satirical

Rossini is justly appreciated.

and the absurd, laced with a frequent dosage

Sarin's work takes as reference the magic

work

incorporating video often suffers from an authorial inability to successfully integrate the

simultaneously seen on stage and on the

screens, where the singers find themselves

inhabiting various doll like environments: a forest, the poolside of a palatial home, or a

desert war scene. Characters may also appear as Giants or Lilliputians as in a hilarious sequence where the corruptjournalist (a giant)

is proudly exposing his power over various

minuscule members of society whom he tosses about into vast dishes of food. Other bits of S orin buffoonery o c cur

throughout the opera, both on stage and simultaneously in another world onscreen.

The result is entirely successful and a visual delight. At the same time, S arin's magic

He shows how easy it is to manipulate an

production of Rossini's youthful and rarely

video medium beyond its most obvious means

Multimedia

superimpose the singers who are standing and

moving on stage. The action is thus

performed La Pietra del Paragone (t) Stendhal

Absurd, Sorin moves with ease from pathos to

bathos. Often using himself as the Fool or Mr

greed. The music contains all the ranges of

mystery.

right and left. In real time they are projected

. onto the screens, while other c ameras

question the more serious issue of the impact

of humour is apparent in Sarin's recent staging

multi-faceted platform on which the artist

schools. Why this should be so remains a

wheeled onto the forefront of the physical stage,

of an elaborate video mise en scene for the Paris

tends to be ironic or deliberately gross and

c o mplete

always fully exposed on stage. Little maquettes

of a bewildering array of stage sets are quietly

the Marx Brothers and the Theatre of the

tradition of the comic, from Rabelais to K�aton,

Romanelli's libretto is witty, acerbic at times

of expression. I suspect that much of this has

subjected to a range of 'tricks' , which are

plays with similar notions. This particular brand

treatment is frequently deadpan, falsely

to do with the lack of film education in art

Pietra del Paragone

absurdity of artistic endeavour. Steeped in the

screens and then, maybe, think about how to

overbearing. Rare is the artist who can use the

appendage. Robert Lepage and Laurie Anderson are two artists who spring to mind

Mikhail Bakhtin, in his study ofRabelais, sees

Everyman, he pokes fun at life and subverts

involve the viewer. Humour is seldom used and

process. Video all too often remains an

time thematically, conceptually or aesthetically;

play with scale and the physical layout of the

I�

varying elements used in the whole 'theatrical'

moments of Rabelaisian laughter.

Pierrick Sarin's recent stag i n g of an e l a b o rate v i d e o mise en scene for the Pa ris p ro d u ction of Ross i n i ' s youthful and rarely p e rfo r m e d L a

material drawn from contemporary life. The

simplistic or subtly sophisticated. Humour is a

inscribes himself into his time. It is irnbedded

nor empty buffoonery but a blend ofthe comic

considered this opera to be Rossini's

masterpiece in the ' opera bouffe' style.

and quick to play on human hypocrisy and

colour, tempi, emotions and ingenuity for which

video toyshop, and the constant interplay

between the virtual and the real, brings into of medialisation on our contemporary lives.

audience into a state of suspension of disbelief; even when the manipulation is

obvious. Melies would have adored the

performance.

Ala in Adam is an artist and collector based in Paris

N OTES:

of contemporary ennui or dysfunctionality.

manipulations of Melies'<2> early cinema

1. La Pietra del Paragone. Th eatre d u Ch atelet. Paris: J a n u a ry 2007

scenes of constant repetitive failures in dealing

singers and project them onto six large screens

2. M a r i e-Georges-J e a n M e l ies ( 1 8 61·1938) French magician. f i l m m a ke r

Thus early self-narratives were replete with with everyday life.

tographic compositions. His cameras film the with ethereal background. There they are

...

state2 3

state of art SPRING 2 007

EUROSTATEPA RIS

c..' u Ln

;

y Les Liaisons dangereuses

-"' 1:

_:J v , " -::

comment GEORGINA TURNER Le beau est toujours

leading luxury group. Fran�ois Pinault bizarre. . . le dis qu 'il

contient toujours un peu

bizarrerie naiVe,

(Conforama, Pinault-Printemps-Redoute, Christie 's, FNAC, Gucci) is worth $ 1 4.7

non voulue, inconsciente, et que c' est cette

billion. By what strange coincidence did both

bizarrerie qui le fait etre particulierement beau.

these men buy up auction houses and

Baudelaire, Curiosittis estluitiques 1878

that the art collected here is a kind of rotating

C'est son

immatriculation, sa caracteristique. 111

THE MOST TALKED about art collector in Paris at the moment is a Brazilian-bom

Belgian, Sylvio Perlstein, for whom beauty is a quest, not a question and answer affair.

It is not a definite thing. As such, it requires

establish Foundations? It could be argued renewal of the endlessly new? Where any art will do, as long as it is (a) very expensive and (b) marketable, so that it can become

very, very expensive. This Art is not bizarre

but big and brassy. Thus: 'Fait-on de l'art pour gagner [ 'argent et caresser les gentils bourgeois? ' (Is art made to make money or

decides, he negotiates the price' . His art

Above: John D e And rea Allegory: after Courbet 1 9 8 8 B u sy G o i n g Crazy j M a i s o n R o u ge

After losing over $ 1 00 million with his

Centre l eft Fra nt;:ois Pinault Centre right: B e rn a rd Arn a u l t

like confidence: 'he sees, he chooses, he collecting policy is an intense, private affair.

travel and chance meetings, attractions

to stroke the sweet middle classes? Tristan

acquisition of Phillips, Amault sold his

amongst differing spirits in different

Tzara, Manifeste Dada, 1 9 1 8) .

auction interests and focussed on using his

fateful attractions to bizarre objects. Fruitful

In 1998, Pinault bought Christie's auction

dreams, creativity, quality. Our makes are not

in uncanny provocations, smiles, surprise

house. In November 2006 Christie's New York

rather than rational understanding, aesthetic squeaks or the slick wiles of decorative

circumstances, so that there emerges sudden

art collection to service LVMH: 'we sell

Jean-Conrad Lemaitre ' s small b u t qualitative collection o fvideos b y artists such

museums. Art helps us for the future by

as Jeremy Deller, Gillian Wearing, Tacita Dean and Une vision du monde (A vision

announced world record auction sales of $866

inventing products that will seduce new

of the World).

million. Arnault responded by buying Phillips

generations', says his consultant, Jean-Paul

pleasures. Esquisito (Portuguese): the

a year later, followed by Tajan, France's top

Claverie. Thus, when Takashi Murakami

unnerving effect of the bizarre . The making

auction house. In 2000, Pinault announced his

successfully re-vamped the celebrated

own. Recently, one of the biggest coups in

visible of avant-garde art when it is avant

intention to create a Pinault Foundation on l'ile

Vuitton

France was the auctioning of Dora Maar's

canvas

sales

increased

Artists as art collectors are in a league of their

garde and not simply deja vu. For those who seek 'du poete roti au petit-dejeuner' (roast poet for breakfast) to quote Baudelaire.

collection of works by Picasso. When

BUSY GOING CRAZY

depressed and reclusive and her collection

Perlstein's collection is estimated at 1000+

people until her death. Following which,

Picasso left her for Fran�oise Gilot, a 23-

year-old student, and ended their affair in 1 94 3 , Dora Maar became increasingly

of Picasso's work was seen by very few

artworks of which 400 examples by 200

heirs were discovered and the works

artists - Dadaists, Surrealists, Minimalists,

auctioned off in a four-day bonanza in October 1 9 9 8 . The star lots included a

Nouveau Realistes, Arte Povera - were

shown for the fust time at the Maison Rouge

painted Ponrait of Dora Maar which sold

recently (Busy Going Crazy, to 14th January

for nearly $7 million; and The Weeping

Woman - a study for Guernica ( 1 937). It also

2007). There was much vitality but no

Picasso, Matisse, Pollock, Rauschenberg.

Seguin, just outside Paris. In 2005, he bought

A mysterious 70-or-so-year old, of whom

the Grassi Palace in Venice to exhibit his

such as painted stones, paper cut-outs and

little is known except that he has been

collection after losing patience with the French

carved-up bottle tops.

collecting contemporary art for the last forty

government's prevarications. It opened on the

years. Very rich of course, thanks to diamonds, a trade that 'is banal and has

included a wide range of manifold objects

30th April with Ou allons-nous? (Where are

BRETON BETRAYED

we going?). Shortly afterwards, Amault

nothing to do with beauty' . A modest man,

announced plans to open the Fondation Louis

Universal rage ensued when Andre Breton's

who considers himself to be not even a

Vuitton pour l'art contemporain in Paris' Bois

collection was sold by auctioneers Calmels

'collector' ; but just simply : 'an accumulator

de Boulogne by 2010. And Arnault' s mythical

exponentially. Art is neces sary to the

Cohen at Drouot in April 2005 . This

of bizarre stuff, and not even that' .

HQ on the Champs-Elysees held its first

marketing anci future of the group, says

extraordinary collection was founded on the

Arnault, for : 'You can't make people dream

singular eye belonging to the mentor of

HANDBAGS AT DAWN

exhibition of contemporary art from his collection in January 2006.

Pinault lives with - changes, rearranges -

and Dupont of French contemporary art

and surrounds himself with his art collection.

collectors: Fran�ois Pinault _and Bernard

He has a coterie of art dealers, experts and

Arnault. Intense rivals linked to the fashion,

curators to advise him, including Marc

luxury and mass distribution retail industries,

Blondeau, Philippe Segalot and Jerome de Noirmont. Aside from the profits, his

arena. Bernard Arnault (LVMH, Christian

Dior, Bon Marche) is France's richest person, and the world's 7th (wealth estimated at $21.5 billion). LVMH is in fact the world's

Surrealism. The two-day auction of 433 lots attained world record sales, as was widely

Perlstein contrasts starkly with the Dupond

they pursue their duels in the art market

by cash-flow alone' .

MAISON ROUGE

expected. But at what cost to the Nation? It went ahead despite a determined resistance

Another wealthy French collector is Antoine

(not least by E�a Breton and almost 2700

de Galbert. His Foundation, the Maison Rouge, opened in 2004 near the Bastille in

philosophers, artists, academics, publishers

future that will reflect the cultural tastes of

in Andre Breton's home. Breton supporters

a discreet track of art market trends - and to

amateurs in industrialised countries over the

declared rightly that this was a unique and

know who is buying what, and for how much.

last fifty years. By doing so, he seeks to

irreplaceable national treasure. And all this

counter-balanCe the French state's stronghold

despite

investment in Christie's enables him to keep

· All this helps him act swiftly with a caesar-

ANDRE BRETON : TE BRADER NON Anagram by Didier Daeni nckx

. Paris. It aims to construct a heritage of the

control of culture through its 100% funding

and librarians) to retain the collection intact

President Jacques

Chirac�s

trumpeting t o UNESCO 'La culture ne doit

of nearly all museums. And also to counter

pas plier devant le commerce ' (Culture

balance the monographic Foundations that

should not kneel to commerce).

exhibit the choice of a single collector - to mention an obvious few: Fondation Carrier,

Fondation Guerlain, Fondation Bettencoun Schueller, as well as those of Amault and Pinault. De Galbert's Foundation is unusual in that he is a private collector who shows other art collectors' collections. Just such as

(ANDR E B R ETON : N O TO SELLING Y O U OUT)

supporting signatures: including writers,

Sylvio Perlstein's mentioned above. Or, on

a smaller scale, a selection from Isabelle &

Georgina Turner is a writer based in Paris

NOTES

1) Beauty is a lways biza rre ... I mean it a lways contains a bit of naive biza rreness. unsought for. unconcious. and it is this biza rreness that makes it especially bea utifu l . it is ifs stamp. ifs characteristi" c. La Maison Rouge: www. l a m a isonrouge.org

..- ,

state of art SPRING 2007 DEREK BOSHIER HAS an assured place

thirteen years in Texas, he returned to the

British Pop Art. Ironically, and unjustly,

the limelight. Then, in 1 997, it was back

in art history as one of the pioneers of

UK, where the YEA's had begun to hog

this has meant that he is still best known

to the US once more, this time to LA,

for the work he made in 1 9 6 1 and 1 962

where he has since been teaching, and

while a student at the Royal College ofArt. To put this in perspective, 1 962 - when a number of Boshier's early canvases were

Grabowski Gallery in Sloane Avenue - was the year that Roy Lichtenstein had his first show at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York, and Andy Warhol had his first exhibition featuring Pop imagery at the Dwan Gallery in Los exhibited at the

working as prolifically as ever.

THE RUN NING MAN It might be argued, then, that Boshier has been neglected because the traj ectory of his career has been difficult to follow. There's probably some truth to this, to the extent that he has refused to stand still long

Angeles. Boshier 's embrace of both British

enough for anyone to take a bead on him.

and American mass culture iconography

If Boshier's work is considered as a whole,

was, in fact, exactly contemporaneous with

Lichtenstein 's

earliest

comic

tho u g h , it b e comes apparent that in

strip

essential ways it is remarkably consistent.

paintings, and Warhol's first soup cans. To

The fact that he has been more open than

describe him merely as a pioneer of British

most

Pop Art, then, is to be a shade patronising.

experimenting with different media and

arti sts

his

generation

technical approaches may also have caused What then happened to Derek Boshier?

some ob servers to lose track of that

Why isn't his career as a whole more fully

underlying consistency but, in actuality, he

appreciated? It's not because he became a

has always remained true to the beliefs and

recluse, or abandoned painting (though he

concepts that have given his work

did give it up for a while). Over the

substance since his Pop period.

decades, he has shown frequently in both

TIM M:ARA

Europe and America, and is not lacking for admirers amongst his peers, yet his mature work has failed to receive the critical

PRINTS FROM THE 1 970's

attention it deserves.

In paintings such as Situation in Cuba ( 1 9 6 1 ) and The ldenti-kit Man ( 1 962),

Boshier used the idioms of Pop Art- which

at a tender age he was helping to invent -

to make statements about global politics,

THE LURE OF INDIA

.1 5 JUNE - 21 JULY 2007

www. fl owerseast.com

class roots, Boshier in fact started out to

but in part, at least, this neglect can be

be a social realist of the Kitchen Sink

ascribed to the fact that Boshier is one of

school, admiring painters like Jack Smith

those artists who refuses to repeat himself

and John Bratby, associated in the 1950s

owners, critics, curators and collectors. ·

modern advertising. Proud of his working

A complete answer is difficult to come by,

for the sake of making life easy for gallery

Flowers G rapbks 82 K i ngsia.nd Road London E2 8DP T: 020 7920 7777

and to explore the method and madness of

with Mayfair's Beaux Art Gallery. He was

also very much an active member of the

After those first two years of intense

politically-aware generation that marched

creativity (for which he eventually received

on Aldermaston to protest against Britain's

due recognition) he abruptly departed for

nuclear weapons policy. His idealism was

India, taking up a scholarship. At that

combined with a keen analytical sense of

point, the gallery-going public had barely

how the power of the media - especially

had time to absorb the scope of his initial

in its subservience to big business and

achievement, which in any case, was

government - could be used to shape

condensed into a relatively small number

public taste and opinion. Authors such as

of painti n g s , some of which quickly immersed himself in the local culture and

Vance Packard (The Hidden Persuaders) and Marshall McLuhan (The Medium is the Massage) had an influence upon his

disappeared from view. In India, he customs, and when he returned to London,

work as crucial as that of any visual artist,

instead of fulfilling expectations b y

and in this respect he was very much

picking up where h e had left off, h e began

following in the footsteps of older British

to make very different paintings - non

contemporaries like Richard Hamilton

figurative shaped canvases striped in

and Eduardo Paolozzi.

dazzling colors that might have been borrowed from some spice market in Calcutta, but that were at the same time as � Pe::-c:,c-.:.c ':i0:!£er 11idt GoCJ:r:�>?tl'1t

POP GOES THE EASEL

contemporary as fluorescent posters in a

The level of socio-political comment that

Carnaby Street store window (and Boshier

we find in Boshier's paintings of the early

in fact designed the logo for Palisades, a

sixties, marks him as being engaged with

Carnaby Street boutique.)

popul ar culture in a way that is very

MULTIMEDIA DIRECTIONS

Warhol's race riot silk-screens, and James Rosenquist's F-1 1 1 , certainly carried

Not long after this, he took a hiatus from

political wallop, but did not have the

different from American pop arti sts.

painting. This should not be taken to mean that he stopped making art. Rather, he

turned his attention to photo graphy,

clear of overt analysis. American pop

filmmaking and installation art, even

paintings presented their subj ect matter

costume design for theatrical productions:

baldly, and hit you between the eyes with

and always he was drawing. He applied his

the same visceral power as Times Square

graphics talent to proj ects with rock artists

billbo ards. Boshier ' s pop paintings, by

including The Clash (which had morphed

contrast, synthesised clusters of media

out of the London art school scene) and

derived imagery into visual narratives that

David Bowie. Then, in 1 9 80, he moved to

asked you to think about what you were

America, which in some ways seemed to

looking at. This demand for intellectual

be an improbable step because so much of

participation on the part of the viewer has

his art had been either overtly or obliquely

characterised the bulk of his work ever

critical of American political posturing, its

I� �� )4

Angela Fiut�rers 'fcrose. Chfis Pi

consciously analytical aspect of B oshier's .

work - in fact made a point of steering

since. If that sounds intimidating, it should

rampant commercialism, and its kitsch

be stressed that another constant o f

culture (though he was n o t without

Boshier's art has been humour. I t was there

Texas, of all the unlikely places for an

plentifully in the work of his Texas period,

unreconstructed leftie, he made ambitious

one of which, for example, transforms the

paintings once again, and began to carve

initials of the Ku Klux Klan into a trio of scarlet, cowboy boots. His humo ur goes

affection for the last). Based in Houston, .

out a reputation in New York; but just when it seemed he might hit the j ackpot, his Manhattan gallery went belly-up. After

from the outset and can b e found

hand in hand with the use of imagery culled from p opular culture - to which he

state2 5

state of art SPRI N G 2007

Derek Boshier a n d David Hockney i n Los A n g e l es i n 2 0 0 6 . Photo:Jean Pierre

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I I took the one less . travelled by. And that has made all the difference. ·

•

Robert Frost The Road Not Taken 1916

habitually gives an ironic spin - and this

that yields thought-provoking, recyclable

in turn merges with his j aundiced and

visual material - he sometimes draws

satirical perspective on the follies of mass

directly

media, and his keen eye for the hypocrisies

photographs, often adding elements of

onto

these

pre - e x i sting

of geo-politics.

collage.

In an early drawing, made not long after

His constant sifting through this kind of

the Suez Crisis, pistols and Pepsi-Cola

media-generated imagery often triggers

symbols float in formation above an

more ambitious works on paper. Since the

In recent w o rk ,

1 970s, at least, he has frequently turned

intimations of incomprehensible warfare

his attention to newspapers and newspaper

are apt to explode almost anywhere - like

headlines as subject matter, sometimes

Egyptian pyramid.

roadside b o m b s - t e aring apart the

commenting on the sensationalist tone of

complacent presumptions of iconography

not entirely imaginary British tabloids,

eo-opted from strip clubs and strip malls.

such as The Daily Stale and Th� Screws of

Missiles and helicopter gunships erupt

the World, sometimes basing work on the

amongst celebrations of consumer culture,

actual front pages of American broadsheets

and in one large draw!ng, flashpoints from the Middle East are superimposed on a map

like The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times. Recent very large acrylics

of America, so that California becomes the

on paper - some almost nine-feet tall - play

West B ank and Washington, D . C . i s

fast and l o o s e with magazine c o v ers

designated a s B aghdad.

ranging from Vogue, seen as a purveyor of

fashion pornography, to Pataphysics •

search of Derek Boshier P R O F i lE C H R ISTO P H E R FIN C H

DRAWING T HE LINE

Weekly, which features Pere Ubu and other Alfred Jarry creations. Some drawings

For Boshier, drawing is not a secondary

reflect quirky events in B oshier's life.

activity. He uses it both to produce major

Freeway ( 1 997), for example, portrays an

works and to generate new ideas. An

automobile w h e e l , s e t free from its

obsessive accumulator of imagery clipped

vehicular moorings, rolling merrily under

from magazines, comics, catalogues,

a highway sign blazoned with the name Los Angeles. This sheet was a response to an

advertising brochures - any source, in fact,

"'-

DEREK BOSH I ER 1962 photo: Tony Eva n s

•

state2 7

state of art SPRING 2007

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D ra w i n g fo r D a v i d B ow i e LP cove r - Lodger. 197 9 I n k on p a p e r 2 2 . 8 x 3 0 . 5 cm

'Boshier is a sophisticated artist who helped develop a new climate of figurative art within the Pop Art

extension of imagery and has now reverted to an earlier, more severely abstract, kind of painting which

PO ST

characterised his work as a student the Chevron paintings of the American artist Kenneth No/and have been a key factor in this reversal. ' Bryan Robertson on Derek Boshier i n PRIVATE VIEW John RusseU, Bryan Robertson & Lord Snowdon

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D av i d Bowie LP cove r - Lodger. 1 9 7 9 m ixed media 3 0 . 5 x 3 0 . 5 cm

Nelson 1965

a c t u al freeway incident in which a

simple outlines combined with thousands

B oshier thinks that this idiom probably

to being adapted to the etcher's needle,

woman's car lost a wheel that cheekily

of graphite squiggles that incrementally

derived

proceeded to overtake Boshier's vehicle.

def"me areas of differing density, or simply

admiration for Van Gogh ' s drawings,

which led to prints such as The Idealist: A Future Politician ( 1 9 8 2 ) . B oshier is an

Other Los Angeles drawings display a more

activate the paper to create an overall effect

though h i s o w n appro ach i s always

accomplished printmaker, as is also evident

subjective response to the California

in which every square inch is energised.

personal and idiosyncratic. In the 1 9 80s,

from the powerful linoleum-cut posters he

environment, as for example in the case of

S ometime s , as in the 1 9 9 7 drawing

for instance, he made images built from

Big Hitter by Someone 's Pool in L.A . ,

Fashionability, this technique is combined

sub- c o ns c i o u sly

from

his

dense hatching in India ink against a white

made for some of his exhl"bitions in Paris, Los Angeles, Houston and New Orleans in

which shows a baseball slugger belting a

with wordplay. Given the extent to which

ground. Drawings of that period and style

the eighties and early nineties. These show

ball in a well-appointed back yard. (Close

print media plays a role within B oshier's

included those in his Monument Series

a muscular side of his work, marked by a

inspection of the pool reveals that the yard

work processes, it's hardly surprising that

(one represented a baseball pitcher) and his

strong sense of structure and design that

belongs to David Hockney.)

he often integrates words into his imagery.

Starry Night Series (one of which shows a

is also to be found in another kind of

Occasionally, the technique is used in

soldier and a rock singer against the Milky

drawing - such as those from a series

almost abstract drawings, such as Santa

Way).

featuring

Both these drawings employ a technique that B oshier has used successfully for a

Monica (200 1 ) which consists of nothing

number of years, building imagery from

but sea and sky separated by a horizon line.

flying

b o oks

and

l ap t o p

c o mputers - that employ thick black That particular idiom lent itself very well

outlines and simple fields of colour.

�:

DEREK BOSHIER

WORKS ON PAPER 1 955

2007

4 MAY - 2 JUNE 2007

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state of art SPRING 2007

state2 9

D e r e k B o s hier deserves a full - s c al e retrospective. While we're waiting for that,

a retrospective of his works on paper offers

a rare opportunity to take stock of his achievement as a whole. As noted, he has

suffered from the fact that he became, at such an early age, so closely identified with Pop Art - now perceived by many people

as a finite s eries of pictorial events

confined to the 1960s, whereas in fact it was the beginning of a liberated approach

to appropriating imagery that has been with us ever since.

IN THE MOME NT The art of the 2 1 st century takes such

appropriation for granted. Boshier arrived on the scene when it was very much a

revoluti o n ary idea to raid the v i s u al

armoury developed by manipulators of

media in order to make fine art. There had

been forerunners, of course, but Pop artists

appropriated with an unapologetic blatancy

that was unprecedented. Boshier has been honoured as a pioneer, but the time has

come to recognise that for more than four

decades he has continued to build steadily

on his original achievements, and is today producing works that are as inventive as

ever, and as engaged with contemporary

i s s ue s and imagery. His openness to

unfolding events and the evolving media landscape makes his art as up-to-date as

the front page of this morning's paper

(which he's apt to turn into a painting) yet it is never in danger of seeming ephemeral

because of the way he is able to embed fugitive imagery into the matrix of his

personal vision.

Forty-five years ago, Derek Boshier was an artist to watch. He still is.

Christopher Finch is the author of books on Pop Art, British Art of the 1960s, and the history of watercolor

Above: Getty Centre. LA 2001 Pencil o n p a p e r 104 x 73.7 cm

�P�>� �� s� .

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Right Depressed Cosmetic Salesman 197 8 I n k a n d c o l l a ge o n p a p e r 53 x 4 4 . 5 c m

painting, He has just completed a monograph on Chuck Close, to be published later this year.

'Boshier's paintings are, in part, social statements that can be as

�,

anonymous as an editorial. References are particularised

(Sharpsville, Gagarin, 50 megaton bomb) not big white (or big black) universals. Events are out of the headlines before the paint dries. All the elements in

the paintings are taken from material in a printed format, nothing "from life ". This reflects the method by which we acquire facts in these post-information

::?

explosion days. ' R ichard S m ith on D e rek Boshier in POP ART REDEFINED *

John Russell & Suzi Gablik

T&H i969

* first published in Ark 32 Journal of the Royal College of Art Summer 1962

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state of art S P R I N G 2007

30state

ICESTATETORONTO

New generation collect rs or� t late glob t SEVERAL YEARS ago, I was invited to

recouping investment value than in actively

view a private collection near Diisseldorf.

supporting Canadian art. Our country's best

When I entered the house, I was amazed to fmd art everywhere, even on the ceilings.

known collector is probably the late Ken Thomson, 2nd Baron Thomson of Fleet. As

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Every inch of the space was covered with art

the ninth richest person in the world, his

- painting, sculpture, installation, and

collection of more than 3,000 pieces of

photography. Begun after the war in the

Canadian and European art and objects is

1950s, the collection included work by Piero

astounding. He recently attracted attention

Manzoni and Malcolm Morley as well as

for his recent purchase of Peter Paul

many dark, political works by German and

Rubens' painting, The Massacre of the Innocents, which he purchased for £49.5

continues to buy and sell art privately,

Ontario.

From 1 976 to 1 982, Claudia Beck and

Polish artists whom fame eluded. It also included young European artists whose work the collector had become aware of. More

million and donated to the Art Gallery of

-"'

and to lend w orks to museums.

Andrew Gruft ran a commercial gallery in

recently, I went to a cocktail party at the home

A b ove: Ydessa Hendeles C e ntre l eft: Ken Thomson Centre right: David M i rvish B e l ow: Joe Friday

of a Canadian contemporary art collector. I

In many ways, Lord Thomson was the

Vancouver specialising in photography. Over

was there, along with others in the field, to

archetypal old guard Canadian collector. His

the past 30 years in Vancouver, the couple

view his collection, amassed over the course

collection encompassed both important

has quietly assembled a collection that covers

artists and curators outside our national

of several years. As I walked through the

Canadian and International works, yet he was

the period from the photography's invention

borders' .

to today, including works by Henry Fox

careful!y arranged rooms, I was impressed

a famously private man. From 1 989 - 2004,

not because the works were all well known,

he· operated a non-commercial, public art

or even recognisable, because often, they

gallery in downtown Toronto. Though an

were not. What was impressive was that,

exemplary showcase of important works by

alongside works by major artists spanning

the Group of Seven, he hardly promoted the

Talbot, August Sander, Ansel Adams, Julia Margaret Cameron, Roy Arden, Larry Clark, Stan Douglas, Thomas Ruff and Stephen Waddell. They have remained

the 20th century, there were small items

gallery, which had very few visitors.

focused on photography, and are also writers,

make an effort to build relationships with

picked up on ebay and commissions by young Canadian artists. Both of these collections are personal statements powered by collectors' intent on following a particular thread through 20th and 2 1 st century art history. In both cases,

> :;:;

the collectors responded to the market,

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seeking art that would illustrate the ideas behind their respective collections.

POWER AND G LORY NEW MONEY NEW DIRECnONS

The rise of the 'Supercollector' , focused on discovering new talent, has created a situation where collectors can influence the

That sentiment is echoed by a burgeoning

market, especially for young artists' work.

generation of younger collectors like Ottawa

The trend is growing, particularly in the

based lawyer Joe Friday. As much as Lord

United States, where more high-profile

Thomson represented the old guard, Friday

collectors are founding their own museums

represents the new. His collection is often in

and opening the doors to the public. Visiting

the press, -and he regularly gives talks about

Don and Mera RobeD's collection in Miami

his cutting-edge contemporary collection at

has become one of the highlights of the city's

;;

art fair week in December. With private

BUSINESS AND PLEASURE

collectors now functioning like public

curators and speakers - in short, educators

art fairs and galleries, in Canada and abroad.

for the medium, but rarely outside of the art

He combines Canadian and non-Canadian

world.

work by established contemporaries like Ken

museums, complete with curators on staff

S everal prominent C anadian collectors

and published catalogues, any perception of

are a l s o former - more s u c c e s sful -

Canada's most respected contemporary

detachment has vanished.

gallery owners. Theatre impresario and

collector, Y dessa Hendeles, opened

In Canada, there are more collections similar

collector David Mirvish operated the David Mirvish Gallery from 1 9 6 3 to

Lum, General Idea and Douglas Gordon

Toronto, in 1 9 80, supporting the likes of Jeff

with rising stars Geoffrey Farmer, Simon Starling and Alex Morrison. In a recent article in Canadian Art magazine, curator and gallery owner Jessica Bradley said that

The

Ydessa Gallery, a commercial space in

to the first two examples mentioned above,

1 975, specialising in the Colour Field

than the third. Our art market is still

school. He has commissioned several

Wall, Rodney Graham, Ken Lum, Jana Sterbak and others who have since gone on

collector who understands you don't have to have a mansion and a million dollars. '

Friday is part of 'a very interesting breed of

developing in the shadow of the hectic

l arge murals by Frank Stella for his art

to significant international acclaim. In 1988,

international scene. We tend to be more

b o okshop and h i s Prin c e s s of Wal e s

she opened her art foundation, where she

conservative than the behemoth to the south,

theatre , b oth in Toront o . Though no

curates exhibitions drawn from her world

less focused on creating media stars and

l o n g er

class collection. Like many Canadian

Perhaps.

collectors, she shuns the spotlight. Her

layaway plans, and many galleries are

foundation is Toronto 's best-kept secret,

keeping prices deliberately low to encourage

publicly

active,

M ir v i s h

With private collectors now functioning like public museums, complete with curators on staff and published catalogues, any perception of detachment has vanished.

I s this the future o f Canadian collecting?

p/m Gallery in Toronto offers

open to the public only one day a week. She

younger collectors. It seems to be working

mounts new exhibitions every two years,

there are long waiting lists for young artists

though they are never advertised. Located

like Toronto-based Shary Boyle, whose

in a nondescript factory building, its only

porcelain figurines and delicate paintings

identification is a small plaque by the door.

have struck a chord among collectors, not

Hendeles is known for her support of

unlike Winnipeg wunderkind Marcel Dzama

Canadian art in an international context,

several years ago, before he became an

noting, at a symposium sponsored by the

international sensation. Watch this space.

only possible, but critical for Canadians to

Andrea Carson writes on art, architecture and design. www. viewoncanadianart b/ogspotcom

Canadian Art Foundation in 2004: 'It is not

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