Apollo February 2016 Sample

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F EBRUA RY 2016 £6.95

Th Are there too many art fairs?

• A short history of toppling statues

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. FEBRUARY 2016 . EGYPTIAN COFFINS . VIK MUNIZ . THE PORTLAND COLLECTION . STATUE-TOPPLING

THE INTERNATIONAL ART MAGA ZINE

A new home for the Portland Collection • Vik Muniz: art and illusion

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o 6 39 FEBRUARY 2 016 V O L U M E C L X XX III N –

15 Editor’s Letter Title deeds 16 Agenda February highlights 18 Forum Are there too many art fairs?

21 Diary Tobias Capwell on a pioneering scholar of arms and armour 22 Letter Fleur Macdonald in Tunisia 24 Architecture Gavin Stamp on London’s blue plaque scheme 27 Q&A Amir Gorzalczany on the discovery of a Roman mosaic recently unveiled in the Israeli town of Lod 30 Inquiry Owen Hatherley gives a potted history of smashing statues

Features 38 Kasmin’s Ark Susan Moore talks to veteran British art dealer Kasmin about his collection of antiquities

p. 62

46 Master of Illusions Vik Muniz tells Thessaly La Force about his mixed-media, and often socially minded work 54 Keeping it in the Family Christopher Turner talks to William Parente about the new gallery for the Portland Collection at Welbeck Abbey, Nottinghamshire 62 A Matter of Life and Death Garry Shaw examines Egyptian funereal objects in the context of two new exhibitions

Cover Coffin of Nakhtefmut (detail), Egyptian, 22nd Dynasty, Third Intermediate Period, 945–735 BC, cartonnage, 177.5 × 44 × 33cm.

Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge See feature on pp. 62–68

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Market 70 Art Market Susan Moore previews London auctions and reviews Old Master sales in the capital

22 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9HP www.apollo-magazine.com editorial@apollomag.com +44 (0)20 7961 0150 — Chairman Andrew Neil — Editor Thomas Marks

76 Collectors’ Focus Emma Crichton-Miller on the market for ancient armour

Deputy Editor Fatema Ahmed

78 Around the Galleries

By Imelda Barnard

Assistant Editor Imelda Barnard Web Editor Maggie Gray Associate Editor Susan Moore

Reviews 84 ‘Masters of the Everyday: Dutch Artists in the Age of Vermeer’ by Katy Barrett

p. 92

86 ‘Artistic Furniture of the Gilded Age: Worsham-Rockefeller Dressing Room’ by Eve Kahn 88 ‘Recto Verso’ by Alice Spawls 89 ‘Carolee Schneemann: Kinetic Painting’ by Richard Martin

Head of Partnerships Emily Glazebrook Senior Client Sales Executive Sophie Ryan

91 Off the Shelf

Advertisement booking enquiries advertising@apollomag.com +44 (0)20 7961 0105/0128 — Circulation & Marketing Director Lucy Childs

92 Annemarie Jordan Gschwend and K.J.P. Lowe (eds.), The Global City: On the Streets of Renaissance Lisbon, by David Gelber

Marketing Executive Lucy Rogers-Coltman Production Seral Emirali production@apollomag.com +44 (0)20 7961 0114

94 Anselm Kiefer (translated by Tess Lewis), Notebooks, Volume 1: 1998–1999, by John-Paul Stonard

Subscriptions +44 (0)17 9559 2884 Museum & Retail copies +44 (0)20 7961 0004

95 Donald Malcolm Reid, Contesting Antiquity in Egypt: Archaeologies, Museums, and the Struggle for Identities from World War I to Nasser, by Raphael Cormack

Any facts stated or opinions expressed anywhere in the magazine are the responsibility of the individual writers and contributors. Apollo Magazine, the Publisher and the Editor are not responsible for any injury or losses relative to such materials sustained by anyone. Any material omitted intentionally is also the sole responsibility of the individual contributors.

98 From the Archives Robert O’Byrne on the Holbein controversy that inspired Henry James’s final novel

p. 76

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Sub-Editor Rosanna Negrotti — Art Director Will Martin — Editorial Advisory Panel Sir John Boardman, Barbara Dawson, David Ekserdjian, Philippa Glanville, Ian Gow, Michael Hall, Paul Moorhouse, Tessa Murdoch, Joachim Pissarro, Dame Jessica Rawson CBE, Charles Saumarez Smith CBE, Diana Scarisbrick, Robin Simon, Kathleen Soriano The members of the advisory panel are available to advise the editor, but are not responsible for the content of the magazine.

— Group Commercial Director Melissa McAdden — Advertising Director Nigel McKinley

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EDITOR’S LETTER

Title deeds D

Portrait: Alma Haser

amnatio memoriae is all the rage.

Few readers will have missed the hullabaloo surrounding the campaign to topple a statue of Cecil Rhodes from the High Street façade of Oriel College, Oxford.

A group of students, led by a Rhodes scholar, have demanded the removal of the figure on the grounds that Rhodes’ unquestionably racist ideas and activities invalidate continued commemoration (see feature, pp. 30–33).

At the time of writing, the college has just launched a six-month ‘listening exercise’ that will help it to decide the fate of the statue.

But in a sense, following weeks of circular debate, both the campaigners and their critics have already succeeded. The latter have rightly made the case that the statue should be retained, partly for architectural reasons but more forcefully because of how the memorials of the past become the admonitory touchstones of the present; and the former have now drawn so much attention to a long unnoticed statue as to have reconfigured its context without needing to depose it.

In Amsterdam, meanwhile, the Rijksmuseum has announced that it has changed the titles of some 200 works in its collection, substituting neutral descriptive words in place of terms that are now considered racial slurs or deemed otherwise derogatory. A canvas

by Simon Maris, for instance, which was formerly catalogued as The Little Negress, will now be known as Young Woman with a Fan. This programme has drawn criticism from those who claim that the museum is engaged in erasing history. But in this context, such an argument is fallacious, since in the majority of cases the abandoned titles have no innate relation to the artworks in question. They are not ‘original’ titles asserted by their makers, nor instructions for how to look at the works.

Instead, they are descriptive labels, often appended centuries after a work was created, which were once deemed helpful and may now seem comic or offensive – and as such, they can in fact obstruct how we look at and interpret artistic skill and meaning.

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scholars, since historical changes to a picture title, or semantic shifts that may have occurred during translation, can easily lead to confusion about the work under discussion. It can also be a decisive marker of how a painting has been received, and the contexts in which it has been interpreted in any period (which is why the Rijksmuseum rightly continues to list historical titles in its online catalogue).

That titles are somehow intrinsic to all artworks is an idea that is mistaken but frequently espoused. Welcome clarification of this fact comes with Ruth Bernard Yeazell’s new book, Picture Titles: How and Why Western Paintings Acquired Their Names (Princeton University Press). This is an important study, which sets out the grounds by which middlemen, from dealers and notaries to printmakers, were until the late 18th century responsible for almost any written description of a painting that we would now dub its ‘title’. For early sales cataloguers or the compilers of the livret at Salon exhibitions, ‘the language of classification rather than of naming’ was paramount.

Yeazell writes instructively about how, as artists increasingly began to name their own paintings from the late 18th century onwards, descriptions given to historical works solidified into their ‘titles’ and the perceived relevance of the language attached to paintings grew significantly. It is here that the tradition emerges of viewers reading, in Yeazell’s terms, ‘by’ or ‘against’ the title: looking at artworks in a reductive way, whereby the thing itself only seems to confirm or deny how it has been labelled.

‘This is not an X’ became one of the most common critical formulations of the 19th century.

Besides, as Yeazell demonstrates, those painters who have assertively paid attention to the titles of their works – such as Turner and Whistler – have often done so as a way of setting out their programme for painting itself rather than summarising what they have depicted in a particular canvas. Such titles are part of the intellectual content of the work, and should never be tampered with. But changing a title that is little more than a quirk of history? It’s hardly the same as pulling down a statue. o Thomas Marks, Editor 15

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February highlights

Broodthaers experimented in film and poetry before turning to visual art aged 40. This retrospective brings together 200 works by a figure celebrated for his humorous, conceptual approach, examining his overlooked role in 20th-century art.

Hieronymus Bosch Noordbrabants Museum Den Bosch, Holland 13 February–8 May www.hnbm.nl This major exhibition, which marks the 500th anniversary of Bosch’s death, is the Dutch artist’s largest-ever retrospective. St John on Patmos (1485) is among the 20 panel paintings on show.

Maniera: Pontormo, Bronzino and Medici Florence Städel Museum, Frankfurt 24 February–5 June www.staedelmuseum.de This exhibition takes 1512 as its starting point – the year the Medici returned to Florence – and focuses on the evolution of the mannerist style (dubbed maniera by Vasari). More than 50 paintings are among the 120 works on display, with key loans from the Uffizi, Louvre, and the Prado.

Everything Is Dada Yale University Art Gallery, Connecticut 12 February–3 July artgallery.yale.edu This year marks the centenary of the iconoclastic movement, which emerged in Zurich in 1916. Drawing on Yale’s holdings, the show includes work by Duchamp, Grosz, and Arp, and is accompanied by a series of Dadaist performances.

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Private collection, New York; © 2015 Estate of Marcel Broodthaers; Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; SABAM, Brussels / Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest / Yale University Art Gallery; Gift of Jean Arp in memory of Sophie Taeuber-Arp / Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent

Marcel Broodthaers Museum of Modern Art, New York 14 February–15 May www.moma.org

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© Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York) / © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett/Philipp Allard / Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania / Photo: Linda Nylind; courtesy the artist; Hauser & Wirth and Luhring Augustine

Theo van Doesburg BOZAR, Brussels 26 February–29 May www.bozar.be Van Doesburg was the driving force behind De Stijl, founding the journal of the same name in 1917. This show features 140 works by the Dutch artist and his contemporaries (among them Mondrian and Picabia), and includes paintings, furniture and stained-glass windows.

Botticelli and Treasures from the Hamilton Collection Courtauld Gallery, London 18 February–15 May courtauld.ac.uk/gallery Botticelli drawings illustrating Dante’s Divine Comedy were sold by the Duke of Hamilton to a Berlin museum in 1882, against the wishes of Queen Victoria. This loan exhibition sees them returned to the UK, along with a rare Bible also once owned by Hamilton.

Pipilotti Rist Kunsthaus Zürich 26 February–8 May www.kunsthaus.ch More than 1,000 square metres of museum space is given over to a retrospective of the Swiss artist, who will also be presenting new work. Rist (b. 1962) is known for her audacious video installations, and this show includes her breakthrough early films from the 1980s.

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Delacroix and the Rise Of Modern Art National Gallery of Art, London 17 February–22 May www.nationalgallery.org.uk This show explores the influence of the great Romantic painter on the generations of artists who succeeded him. His powerful, expressive paintings are displayed alongside work by both his contemporaries and also modern masters such as Matisse and Kandinsky.

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Q & A

‘ This mosaic is the best of the Roman tradition’ Amir Gorzalczany A second Roman floor was found at the site of the Lod mosaic in 2009. Archaeologist Amir Gorzalczany, of the Israel Antiquities Authority, tells Imelda Barnard what this recently unveiled discovery reveals about the villa that housed them 1,700 years ago

1. View of the Roman mosaic floor discovered in 2009 on an archaeological site in Lod, southeast of Tel Aviv

How important is this new find, and how difficult was it to locate?

It is very important because it completes our knowledge of the Roman villa. When we discovered the Lod mosaic in 1996, we couldn’t complete its excavation because of budget restrictions; it was also unclear what would happen to it. We began a new excavation in 2009, after a visitors’ centre got the go-ahead, which is when this new mosaic was discovered (Fig. 1). Again, we didn’t finish the excavation, because the majority of the new mosaic was located underneath a main road. Only in 2014, after the road was diverted, could we finally uncover the whole mosaic. As a result we now know that the villa had at least four wings; the Lod mosaic served as the livingroom floor and this new mosaic, which forms the southern part of the complex, was a ‘peristyle’ – a courtyard pavement surrounded by columns and corridors.

Did its discovery change the plans for the construction of the visitor centre on the site?

Of course – we realised that the villa was much larger than previously thought. Our knowledge before was very partial but we now have a sense of the whole villa and its surroundings. We also have a better understanding of the layout and distribution of the buildings in Lod. There would be no point in displaying just one part of the villa so the new museum will show both mosaics. Following its travels [the Lod mosaic has been on display at various museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Waddesdon Manor], it is on its way back to the site in Lod, southeast of Tel Aviv. We want visitors to experience the whole villa on the one site.

Photo: Griffin Aerial Photography; courtesy the Israel Antiquities Authority

What does the new mosaic depict?

It’s a very rich, late Roman work, composed of rectangular concentric frames. Inside are nine medallions, octagonal in shape: five of these depict animals fighting or hunting; two depict fish, showing species from the Mediterranean Sea; and two others reveal birds – doves and partridges beside objects, including an amphora and a basket of flowers (Fig. 2). Based on the ceramic shards found during the excavation, and on numismatic – as well as artistic – grounds, we have dated it to the 3rd century. This mosaic is the best of the Roman tradition.

How difficult is it to conserve mosaics?

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Can you explain why this site is so archaeologically rich, and how difficult is it to excavate such sites?

In the Roman period, Lod was the capital of the district. We have found many mosaics all over the area so we know that this village was a wealthy neighbourhood. Like many others cities in Israel – Jaffa, Ramla, Acre, Jerusalem – Lod is an invaluable source of historical and archaeological knowledge.

These cities have been inhabited without interruption for hundreds of years, and so they present almost insurmountable problems when you try to excavate, especially in the old quarters where archaeological remains tend to accumulate. There are problems of infrastructure, safety and logistics.

People live and work in these areas, and an excavation will always be a nuisance. Not to mention the numerous religious, political and social conflicts. Therefore, archaeological research in ancient cities is a very difficult, albeit gratifying task. Archaeology is also about working with people to

convince them that antiquities are an asset that must be explored and protected.

What about the wider work of the Israel Antiquities Authority? What is its function in Israel?

The IAA is in charge of all matters relating to antiquities in Israel; we manage excavations in the country, on both land and sea. We are in charge of national collections including, for example, the Dead Sea Scrolls. We are heavily involved in research and produce a range of publications relating to our findings. We try to educate people to be proud of the past, to be connected to the land, to history, to traditions. In Israel there are more than 30,000 archaeological sites that are declared and legally protected. When somebody, be it a municipality, electric company or contractor, performs any task involving excavations in an archaeologically declared area, the IAA closely supervises the works in order to avoid damages to antiquities. This was the case in 1996: the Lod mosaic was discovered during necessary infrastructure works. What was a routine, even boring task, led to this fantastic discovery.

Being an archaeologist is not a job for me – it is what I am. It is part of me. We are very proud of our work.

Could the international archaeological community do more to protect the cultural heritage under threat in the Middle East?

It’s a big issue. I’m sure that much more could be done – I expect governments to do a lot more. Don’t forget though that most of the antiquities aren’t being destroyed but are being looted and sold on the black market – and they are on the black market because somebody is buying them. Nobody has the time to think about archaeology or history when people are dying but our shared heritage is being lost. Of course we must protect people’s lives, but we must also save our cultural heritage. o For further information on the Israel Antiquities Authority and its projects, go to www.antiquities.org.il.

‘ Being an archaeologist is not a job for me – it is what I am’

2. Details of the Roman mosaic discovered in 2009 which has been dated to the 3rd century

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All photos: Assaf Peretz; courtesy the Israel Antiquities Authority

must stabilise the site to avoid stones falling; the conservation team worked alongside excavators as soon as this new part of the mosaic was exposed. A frame had to be constructed around every panel, and then the mosaic was separated very carefully from the ground: it splits into different panels, which allows it to be handled and transported more easily. Before this, the mosaic underwent a thorough cleaning, stone by stone – staff spent weeks working on their knees using toothbrushes and surgery scalpels. One of the main difficulties lies in the fact that the mosaic is composed of materials from the Roman period. As with all archaeological excavations, prior to dismounting, the mosaic was documented with high-resolution pictures and drawings. This was crucial because it will be dismantled and assembled again many times in order to be exhibited. But removing the mosaic taught us a lot about the people who originally laid it. We even revealed the footprints of the original artisans in the plaster; these will be put on display in the visitors’ centre.

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The Merrin Gallery 724 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10019 • 212 757 2884 info@merringallery.com • www.merringallery.com

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BUST OF SERAPIS Roman, ca. 2nd century AD Alabaster Height: 8-1/2 inches (21.6 cm) Provenance: Ex collection Mr. and Mrs. Howard K. Smith Literature: Anonymous Sale, Sotheby’s, London, 14 February 1955, lot 84; Collect - Kunst & Antiek Journal, March 2014, Cover (caption: page 7)

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