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Highlights of MASTER DRAWINGS NEW YORK week
Saturday January 23 – Saturday January 30
Tenth Anniversary exhibitions at 29 Upper East Side galleries
by the world’s top dealers in drawings and watercolors
In his Introduction to the Tenth Anniversary MASTER DRAWINGS week brochure,
Colin Bailey, the new Director of The Morgan Library & Museum, notes that during
the Age of Enlightenment, men like Pierre-Jean Mariette (1699-1774) — who currently is being celebrated at The Morgan — and his contemporary Jonathan Richardson (1665-1745) believed drawings were “the mind itself, the quintessence of art.”
NEW YORK Jan 13, 2016 – The Tenth Annual MASTER DRAWINGS NEW YORK week (www.masterdrawingsinnewyork.com) will take place January 23 through January 30 at 29 leading art galleries on the Upper East Side’s “Gold Coast’ in New York.
Timed to coincide with New York’s major January art-buying events, including the Old Master auctions and The Winter Antiques Show, over the past decade MASTER DRAWINGS NEW YORK has given top dealers from the US as well as the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy an opportunity to show their newest acquisitions to the largest assembly of drawings scholars and patrons to gather in New York each year.
Originally conceived as an annual walk-through, MASTER DRAWINGS NEW YORK has grown into a ‘must see’ event, receiving strong support as its range and influence has grown each year. Each exhibition is hosted by an expert specialist and many works on offer are newly discovered or have not been seen on the market in decades, if at all.
Critics applaud the fact that the most respected drawings dealers show important pencil, pen and ink and chalk, pastel and charcoal drawings, as well as oil on paper sketches and watercolours from the 16th through the 21st centuries.
New exhibitors in 2016 include Allan Stone Projects, a New York gallery founded in 1960 that has enjoyed sustained success mixing established artists with emerging and mid-career artists. Its exhibition is titled “Process and Presence: Mastery in Drawing” and includes figurative, landscape, still life and abstract works by prominent artists such as Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning, Wayne Thiebaud, Franz Kline, and Gaston Lachaise. All of the works on view are from the prodigious Allan Stone Collection. Stone (1932-2006), the New York dealer for Wayne Thiebaud for over forty years, was the leading authority on Abstract Expressionism and a passionate collector of Abstract Expressionist, Contemporary, tribal and folk art.
Thiebaud’s Farm Pond (Study) c1967 has an extensive museum exhibition history and is being offered for the first time since it was acquired by the Allan Stone Gallery. Pierre Puvis de Chavannes Torse nu (Nude) from 1887 is another pastel on paper that relates closely the figures in the artist’s 1891 mural, l’Ėté (Cleveland Museum of Art). De Chavannes’s style defies easy categorization as it borrows from Neoclassical, French Realism, and Pointillist techniques.
The 130-year old Kraushaar Galleries, a highly recognized fine art source for important American art of the first half of the 20th century, as well as selected contemporary works, will be a new exhibitor at MASTER DRAWINGS week this year. Katherine Degn says Kraushaar will be featuring works by Marsden Hartley as well as Dorothy Dehner, among several important American artists. Kraushaar Galleries has a long history of exhibiting works on paper. Early shows included prints by European artists, which then expanded to include drawings and watercolors by Seurat, Picasso, Manet and Redon, among others. By the second decade of the 20th century the gallery was becoming increasingly American with watercolor and drawing exhibitions by the contemporaries Maurice Prendergast, John Sloan, William Glackens, Gifford Beal Charles Demuth, William and Marguerite Zorach and Guy Pène du Bois. Its commitment to works on paper continues with recent shows by younger artists such as Catherine Drabkin and Lee Walton while continuing its commitment to historical material. Other recent exhibitions include The Creative Process, 1930 – 1950; and Figuratively Considered – Works on Paper by Selected Artists Who Participated in the 1913 “International Exhibition of Modern Art.”
Degn says, “Dorothy Dehner drawings from the later 1940s and early 1950s are a rarely seen. They explore the personal and experimental yet vital and bold nature of her early years as an artist. Dehner’s visual vocabulary has diverse influences ranging from her experience as a serious dancer to the freedom and personal autonomy of the emerging abstract movement. This was further reinforced by her exposure to the European avant-garde during a 1925 trip to Paris, her study with Jan Matulka, and her friendship with John Graham. These sources combined to produce works that fuse aspects of cubism, surrealist abstraction and gestural elements. This drawing, made during the last years of her marriage to David Smith, documents both the love and the marital struggles in symbolic and at times surreal iconography.”
A third new exhibitor is Découvert Fine Art gallery of Rockport, MA. Steven Law says the galleries exhibition during MASTER DRAWINGS week will be titled “The Feminine Observed, 16th to 20th century, and New Acquisitions.” It begins with the Coronation of the Virgin, a Counter-Reformation study for an altar, probably Antwerp, 1620. Other drawings exploring the feminine within the Biblical narrative include The Virgin, Child, and St. John after a print by Laurent de La Hyre (Paris 1606-1656), a 17th century Genoese rendering of The Meeting of David and Abigail, and a small 16th century Northern School scene from the story of Holofernes. These are followed by Amorous Peasants in a Bower by William De Heer (1638-1681). Drawings of the feminine in mythology include a Study of a Centauresse, Satyre, and Horseman after the architect Charles Normand and attributed to Theodore Gericault (Rouen 1791 – Paris 1824), Pluto Abducting Venus attributed to Nicola Maria Rossi (Naples 1690-1758), and Venus or Galatea after Luca Cambiaso. Drawings by Vuilliard and Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux portray women in interiors. Modern ideas about the feminine are explored through works by Andre Derain (Chatou 1880 – Garches 1954), Leopold Survage (Moscow 1879 – Paris 1968, and an artist of the Secession Style, Franz von Bayros (1866 Zagreb – 1924 Vienna), whose work The Logic of Divorce was printed in a 1913 edition of Lustige Blätter. New acquisitions include works by, attributed to, or after Francesco Cozza, Veronese (and/or his workshop), Pellegrino Tibaldi, Vittorio Maria Bigari, Negretti, and Jan Lievens.
W & K Wienerroither and Kohlbacher of Vienna is joining MASTER DRAWINGS week this year. Specialists in Austrian fine art, the gallery now shows modern artists from Austria as well as international artists. It supports an ambitious publishing and exhibition schedule and has galleries both in Vienna and New York.
Mary-Anne Martin Fine Art returns to Master Drawings week with a special exhibition titled, “Drawings by the Muralists.” This group includes watercolors and sketches by Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, Rufino Tamayo, Leonora Carrington, Jean Charlot, and Elena Climent. A highlight of the show is Orozco’s “Five Heads (Beggars)” a gouache from 1940 that came from the Estate of the American playwright, Elmer Rice, and has been in a private collection for almost 50 years.
At MASTER DRAWINGS NEW YORK the artworks on view cut across the full range of styles, centuries, mediums and genres and provide pricing options that are attractive both to seasoned and new collectors.
Highlights at the 2016 MASTER DRAWINGS NEW YORK include New York dealer Pia Gallo’s exhibition of “American Masters: Pastels and Watercolors” including impressive works by Maurice Prendergast, such as “St. Mark’s Lion, Venice,” Everett Shinn and Frank Benson. “Ellie Benson at age 3,” is Frank Benson’s portrait of his granddaughter and is a sensitive rendering of childhood innocence by the artist’s granddaughter – who was said to be terrified to move after being perched on a wicker stool on and off for three days. Here, Benson has skillfully used the white expanse of the paper to create the impression that sparkling sunlight bathes the young girl. The dark backdrop of trees behind her further enhances the vivid brightness of the composition. The portrait has been in the family since 1927.
Another highlight is by Everett Shinn, who had a great infatuation of the works of Edgar Degas, which made a lasting impression on him. Here a lone ballerina takes her bow at the end of a performance and the entire image has been captured with a sense of immediacy. Like Degas, Shinn perceived the scene from the intimate position of the left wing of the stage, beautifully capturing the spontaneous quivering of the dancer’s tutu. Shinn conveys the dramatic impact of the figure alone on the stage by positioning the ballerina against a diagonal sweep of stage painted in a brilliant green that divides the composition in half. This work was in the collection of the Portland Art Museum.
Pia Gallo has recently relocated her New York gallery to new quarters at 12 East 86 Street where she offers fine old master and modern prints and drawings.
Many of the MASTER DRAWINGS NEW YORK exhibitors show works not previously on view in the United States.
Mireille Mosler Ltd. is showing the Dutch artist Willy Sluiter (1873-1949) who was commissioned in 1923 by KLM, the world’s oldest airline, to design an advertisement. For this bright drawing, How to See Holland, Sluiter choose a familiar image of Holland: a Dutch girl in traditional costume from the popular fishing village of Volendam, holding tulips. The original drawing for this brochure, although clearly executed with tourists in mind, is now for the first time on view in the United States.
Another artwork also on view for the first time in the United States at the Mosler exhibition is an early impression of the artists’ studio by Jan Toorop from 1880. A favorite subject among the artist of the fin de siecle, Toorop created an intimated portrait of his surroundings without adding a self-portrait. A slightly larger oil study of Toorop in his studio, dated 1883, is now in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
Works on paper exhibited at Mireille Mosler Ltd., span more than five centuries, are by a diverse group of artists from The Netherlands, and exemplify several stylistic periods. The earliest drawing exhibited in the gallery’s show, “Made in Holland – Master Drawings from the 17th through the 21st century” is a Study of the Gery Tulip by Jacob Marrel (1614-1681) from 1638. Tulip mania started around 1634, culminating in 1637 when more than 10,000 guilders was offered for one Semper Augustus and single bulbs represented a vast capital investment. Another emphasis is on a group of Dutch artists active around the turn of the nineteenth century when international movements developed different styles. The double portraits in pastel of Fritz Meyer (1847-1917) and his wife Nina by Jan Toorop (1858-1928) from 1909 are a testimony to this prominent Swiss art collector’s patronage of contemporary artists. It is the first time the portraits will be exhibited in America. Wealth accumulated through the tobacco trade allowed Meyer to develop a prominent art collection in the 1880s. Well-known paintings of theirs are now in institutions in the United States and abroad, such as Vincent Van Gogh’s Madame Augustine Roulin with Baby, now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Cypresses in The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The White House at Night in the Hermitage. The collection included paintings by Cézanne, Gauguin and Mondrian’s Boom A from 1913, now in the Tate in London. In 1916, Meyer’s substantial financial support to Theo van Doesburg allowed him to publish De Stijl, the influential journal of the movement’s theories.
Leonard Hutton galleries is presenting “Drawings and Watercolors: To Observe and Imagine.” It showcases a selection of important 20th century European and American works on paper, including an outstanding 1916 Sonia Delaunay gouache featured in the Sonia Delaunay Retrospective exhibitions at Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris and Tate Modern, London. Sonia and Robert Delaunay were in Portugal from 1915-1917 where they formed an association called Corporation Nouvelle to stimulate “artistic action” to publish collaborative albums of poetry and art accompanied by interpretations executed in pochoir, a stencil process for making colored prints or adding color to a printed key illustration, by various artists including Cendrars, Apollinaire, Rossine and a group of Portuguese architects and critics. They intended to circulate exhibitions of the art of simultaneity throughout Europe. Sonia Delaunay executed numerous studies in gouache for the cover of Album No. 1, which unfortunately never appeared because of the difficulty a number of the artists experienced employing the pochoir technique. Also on view is an important 1955 Sam Francis Untitled watercolor, a 1965 Lucio Fontana Concetto Spaziale work on paper, a Louis Marcoussis Couple Assis tempera on paper executed in 1922 and artworks by Gontcharova, Gottlieb, Jenkins, Kandinsky, Klee, Krasner, Kupka, Léger, Magnelli, Miró, Motherwell, Matisse, Nicholson, Picasso, Popova, Suetin, Survage, Tworkov and others.
New York dealer David Tunick just announced an important addition to his MASTER DRAWINGS exhibition: He will be featuring a very important pencil drawing by Giacomo Balla (1871-1958) Celestial Orbit – Study. Giacomo Balla was a founder of the Futurist movement and particularly concerned with light and movement. His personal interest in scientific methods contributed to the practical and ideological bases of Futurism, but his own approach was highly individual. He achieved the representation of light and pulsation, of speed and movement in a way that captured the most transitory of effects in superb abstractions.
Tunick says, “Between 1913 and 1914 Balla formulated the idea of representing speed by using essential lines, unstable and increasingly abstract rhythms…. Straight lines were replaced by curves, ellipses and spirals in an uninterrupted sequence of dynamic solutions; Balla visualized the effects of whirling or centrifugal movement, sometimes seen in expansion, sometimes in ascension.” (P. Pacini, The Dictionary of Art, ed. Jane Turner, vol. 3, London, 1996, pp. 114-15.)
“The title of the drawing, Celestial Orbit, refers to the curved path, usually elliptical, of a celestial body around another celestial body. We cannot be sure whether Balla named the drawing or whether the additional word in the title, “Study”, meant it was preparatory for or was surmised to be related to the only painting of the same title in Balla’s oeuvre (Lista 309, 1913) or possibly to another painting that shares closer similarities with the drawing, Tutto si muove (Lista 304, 1913). All are plausible. What is known is that Balla’s scientific interests extended to astronomy, and there were publications that he and the other Futurists subscribed to such as Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe, a hypothesis focused on kinetic work and movements of a rotary type. (G. Lista, Giacomo Balla, Turin, 1982, p. 67) Whatever its inspiration, the present drawing is from Balla’s most creative period, and it brilliantly defines his Futurist paradigm. A major graphic work by Balla, it has been in the same private collection since it last traded more than 50 years ago. Futurist works on paper of this importance rarely come on the market.”
Lowell Libson Ltd., leading dealers in British art, will be showing a series of masterpieces including important works by Thomas Gainsborough, John Constable, Samuel Palmer and John Robert Cozens. British Art: Recent Acquisitions will feature John Russell’s 1792 pastel portrait of Thomas Wignell, founder of the Chestnut Street Theater in Philadelphia, and John Constable’s “Sunset: a stormy evening” dating to the 1820s.
Martyn Gregory will be exhibiting a selection of about 40 watercolours and drawings by 18th, 19th and early 20th century British artists including artworks from two distinguished English private collections that have not been seen on the market for over 30 years. Among these are works by some of the best exponents of early English watercolour including Thomas Girtin, John Varley, and Francis Nicholson. Also featured are works by Thomas Gainsborough, Thomas Rowlandson, David Cox, James Ward, Sir David Wilkie and others. One highlight is a watercolour by Luke Clennell, a rare and beautiful example of work by an artist whose career was curtailed at a young age. Following its well-received 20th century show earlier this year, Martyn Gregory will be also feature a group of modern British watercolours including a drawing by Edward Bawden whose diverse output embraced, painting, design, illustration and printmaking.
Van Doren Waxter gallery is showcasing “Richard Diebenkorn Early Color Abstractions 1949-1955” including several untitled gouache and graphite works by the artist from the early 1950s. Diebenkorn’s early works from the late 40s through the mid 50s are considered among the finest examples of postwar American abstraction. Illuminating Diebenkorn’s formative period, they suggest a fluidity present in his later process, which was marked by shifts into figuration and representational forms, and prefigure the iconic “Ocean Park” paintings. Characterized by gestural, calligraphic lines and lush fields of color, these works reflect the growing momentum of abstraction pushed forward by many artists of the period. Evoking the terrain in which Diebenkorn lived—luminous swaths of ochre and marine tend to dominate—offering a convincing rejoinder to the New York School, and of work by contemporaries like Pollock and de Kooning. Diebenkorn left Sausalito, California in 1949 to pursue his graduate degree in art at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. In 1952 he moved again to Urbana, Illinois to teach and then, in 1952, returned to California where he settled in Berkeley. Each new surrounding provoked a change in the artist’s palette and in the overall rhythm of his compositions.
Jill Newhouse Gallery is offering a select number of drawings and watercolors including Edouard Vuillard’s c1927 pastel on paper “Portrait of Thierry Block,” and Theodore Gericault’s Man with Horse, “Negre Presentant un Cheval,” from 1823.
Marianne Elrick-Manley Fine Art will stage an exhibition of drawings titled A Trans-Atlantic-Modernist Joaquin Torres-Garcia and His Contemporaries 1897-1949 which includes 45 works on paper by Torres-Garcia as well as Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Julio Gonzalez, Alexander Calder, Pablo Gargallo, Georges Vantongerloo, and, among others, Jacques Lipchitz. A retrospective of the work of Torres-Garcia is on view through Feb 15 at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Marianne Elrick-Manley’s show includes several drawings from Torres-Garcia’s early period in Barcelona such as “Dama” and an artist book of watercolors that he created during his time in Ville Franche France in 1926. The artist’s two year residence in New York in 1920-22 will be illustrated by a group of important and rare drawings including a page from one of his watercolor New York books. Later works from Paris and Uruguay are also featured.
London dealer Stephen Ongpin says, “I have taken part in every edition of MASTER DRAWINGS NEW YORK, and each year seems to be better than the previous one. I mean this not only in terms of the increasing number of private collectors, museum curators, scholars and lovers of drawings who visit my New York exhibitions each year during the week of MASTER DRAWINGS NEW YORK, but also in the number of sales I have made during that period. There is something special about having the opportunity each year to exhibit and discuss a wide variety of drawings with like-minded people who are equally passionate about the special allure of these often intimate insights into an artist’s creative process. Together with London and Paris, New York has long been one of the centers of the drawings market, and an event like MASTER DRAWINGS NEW YORK – despite the cold weather and often record snowfalls that seem to accompany the week! – only adds to that reputation.”
For the January, 2016 event, Stephen Ongpin plans a show of Italian drawings, “Renaissance to Futurism: Italian Drawings c.1500-1920” comprising about thirty drawings by artists working in Italy, ranging in date from the first years of the 16th century to the beginning of the 20th century, and will showcase drawings by a mixture of well-known artists and minor masters. He says, “Many of the drawings come from private collections, and have not been seen on the market for many years.” Among the earliest Italian drawings in the exhibition is a small but moving pen drawing of the Virgin and Child by Ridolfo Ghirlandaio of c.1500 and an important drawing by Perino del Vaga depicting a scene from the life of Julius Caesar, datable to the 1520’s. 17th century Italian drawings include examples by Ludovico Carracci, Cristofano Allori, Guercino, Salvator Rosa and a double-sided sheet by Carlo Maratta as well as two sheets by Stefano Della Bella. 18th century drawings include two fine sheets by Giandomenico Tiepolo and works by Ubaldo and Gaetano Gandolfi, Pietro Antonio Novelli and Marco Ricci. From the 19th century come drawings by Vincenzo Gemito and Carlo Bossoli, and the final work in the exhibition is an abstract gouache by the Futurist artist Giacomo Balla. The exhibition is accompanied by a scholarly catalogue. The London dealer will also show works by Mary Cassatt, Pablo Picasso, and Julio Gonzalez.
Returning dealer Mia Weiner of Old Master Drawings in Connecticut says, “The tenth anniversary of MASTER DRAWINGS NEW YORK is a tremendous achievement. Dealers work hard to bring the best drawings they can muster and present them in an atmosphere conducive to their particular exhibition styles. That each show is unique in material as well as gallery design has been a delight for countless collectors and museum curators/directors.”
Weiner is bringing a group of stunning watercolors from the late 19th century including one of its greatest proponents, Giacinto Gigante, with two differing examples of his prowess; as well as two extraordinarily detailed watercolors by Luigi Bazzani, of Pompei.
Didier Aaron has titled its MASTER DRAWINGS week show “Master Drawings 1600-1875.” Among featured artworks is Francois Hippolyte Lalaisse (1810-1884) pen and ink “Two Male Ėcorché Figures.”
Christopher Bishop is featuring a Giuseppe Bernardino Bison (1762-1844) pen and ink titled “The holy Family.”
Dealer Monroe Warshaw is staging a show titled Drawn to Mythology with a collection that goes beyond the best known Greek and Roman examples, and dates from the 16th to 20th centuries. Warshaw has also chosen to feature artworks by Jost Amman, George Barbier, Domenico Campagnola, Master of the Egmont Albums, John Flaxman, Ubaldo Gandolfi, Jean Jacques Lagrenée, and Nicolas Poussin.
Guy Peppiatt Fine Art of London will be exhibiting twelve Italian views by Edward Lear (1812-1888) at Master Drawings New York in January 2016 with eleven of them dating from his time in Rome in the 1830s and 1840s. Lear arrived in Rome on his first major overseas tour in December 1837 and he remained there for the next ten years apart from two brief visits to England. The earliest of the group is a view looking over Capri from Massa Lubrense near Naples dated August 1838. Nine of the group originate from the collection of the biographer John Scandrett Harford (1787-1866) and remained in his family until 2015. They are on-the-spot sketches dating from 1843 and 1844 some of which were preliminary sketches for Lear’s Illustrated Excursions in Italy published in 1846. Lear’s style evolved considerably while he was in Italy from his early black and white chalk drawings influenced by James Duffield Harding to the confident watercolours for which he is best known. The only later watercolour in the exhibition is a view taken at Varenna on Lake Como dating from 1878 when he lived in San Remo near the Italian border with France. He moved to San Remo in 1871 and remained there for the rest of his life.
Mary-Anne Martin Fine Art will feature “Drawings by the Muralists” a group of watercolors and sketches by Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, Rufino Tamayo, Leonora Carrington, Jean Charlot and Elena Climent. A highlight of this show is Orozco’s “Five Heads (Beggars)” a gouache from 1940 that came from the Estate of the American playwright, Elmer Rice, and has been in a private collection for almost 50 years.
Mark Murray Fine Paintings is showing a selection of fine works on paper in its new location at 159 East 63rd Street. Works on view include a select group of earlier works including an unusual pencil study of a Clothesline by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot and Fano on the Adriatic, an early J.M.W. Turner watercolor after Robert Cozens. A major highlight is a group of works on paper and select oils by American painter Walter Gay, and a strikingly beautiful portrait in colored chalk by Walter Gay’s good friend Paul César Helleu of Winaretta Singer, daughter of Singer sewing machine magnate Isaac Singer and wife of Prince Edmond de Polignac. Other European artists on view include Antoine-Louis Barye, Fritz Gärtner, Henri Joseph Harpignies, Sir Alfred Munnings, Sir Edward Poynter, and David Roberts. Works on paper by American artists Lockwood DeForest, Edwin Lord Weeks, John Whorf, and Reginald Marsh will also be featured in the exhibition.
Laura Pecheur show is titled “European masters from 16th century to 1900, Toulouse Lautrec circle and symbolism” These include European artists working in Paris during the same time as Toulouse Lautrec such as Steinlein with a pastel showing a woman in a theater with an illuminated face. Featured works include Herman Saftleven “The Weerdpoort, Utecht,” and Louis Legrand “Elegant with a fan.”
For its third year exhibiting at MASTER DRAWINGS week Italian dealers Mattia & Maria Novella Romano will show a Selection of Master Drawings, mostly by Italian artists, from the 16th to the 20th century including a newly discovered and previously unpublished Francesco Vanni (1564-1610) Study for “The Madonna of the Rosary and Saints” and a second previously unpublished study by Luigi Vanvitelli for a section of an Umbrella Vault, both from prestigious private collections in Italy. Other highlights are drawings by Carlo Alberto Baratta, Giuseppe Bernardino Bison, Simone Cantarini, Pier Dandini, Francesco Fontebasso, Carlo Maratta, and Pseudo Pacchia. Two French drawings by Jean Lepautre and Paul Delvaux are also being shown.
New York dealer Richard Berman is showing a selection of mostly 16th to 17th century Italian drawings including works by Antonio Campi, Giulio Campi, Andrea Boscoli, Camillo Procaccini, Cherubino Alberti, and Carlo Maratta. New research on the Maratta has connected the drawing as a study for a major commission, circa 1685-1690 by Marchese Niccolò Maria Pallavicini, an important Roman patron. Other research revealed that a Lombard School drawing described as late 15th century is actually a rare early 16th century Umbrian drawing of a grotesque reflecting the influence of Piero Perugino, Pintoricchio and Raphael, who were all influenced by the Roman frescoes of grotesques in Nero’s palace in Rome, the Domus Aurea, discovered in the late 15th century. The first appearance of the word ‘grottesche’ appears in a contact of 1502 for the Piccolomini Library attached to the Duomo of Siena. They were introduced by Raphael, who developed the grotesques into a complete system of ornament in the Loggias that are part of the series of rooms he designed for the Vatican Palace in Rome.
Richard Berman has chosen an interesting venue for his MASTER DRAWINGS week exhibition – the wood paneled viewing room in the Level 1 Vault of the JP Morgan Chase Bank at 35 East 72 Street, an elegant example of Neo-Federal architecture built in 1930 by Cross and Cross Architects, notable for many pre-eminent buildings on New York’s Upper East Side. While viewing hours are limited (no Sundays, and 3pm closing Saturdays) the location enhances the viewing of these rare Italian drawings.
London dealer Crispian Riley-Smith has assembled two drawings exhibitions for MASTER DRAWINGS Week. One is titled ‘Beasts and Birds’ and the second focuses on ‘Italian Figures and Landscapes from 16th and 17th centuries.”
New York Old Masters specialist Margot Gordon collaborated with Riley-Smith to organize the first the New York event a decade ago and both are delighted to see how well it has matured, with top tier dealers offering an incredibly diverse array of artworks from both legendary and less celebrated artists. A number of participating dealers also exhibit each July at a sister event, the annual LONDON ART WEEK, where Old Master auctions and museum exhibitions also vie for the attention of visiting museum officials and art patrons.
Margot Gordon says, “Drawings hold special appeal to art collectors. There are many different forms — from rapid sketches the Italians call “schizzi,” or first thoughts called “primo pensiero,” to studies and finished works in their own right. You are invited to enter the artist’s mind and share his passion on a very personal level. It’s a strong motivator to those who love art. What’s more, with such a wide range of offerings, and appealing prices, drawings are often the most accessible option to collectors seeking access to an artist’s process.”
Crispian Riley-Smith adds that “The backbone to the success of MASTER DRAWINGS NEW YORK is the continued support of our fantastic exhibitors who each year manage to find amazing drawings and make incredible discoveries, as well as curating interesting and stimulating shows. The interest from the public grows in this sector with new clients discovering this exciting field, and we are fortunate to enjoy the continued support of loyal clients.
“MASTER DRAWINGS NEW YORK has become popular with both private and institutional clients because it makes it convenient to see a number of exhibitions from the very top tier of world dealers in a single area of the city, and close by other venues they need to visit. For those interested in learning more about the quality and range of drawings on offer, there’s simply no better way to expose yourself to the very finest examples.”
Margot Gordon admits that, “Some visitors to our shows are surprised to see that not all our drawings date to the early centuries. We have several dealers who specialize in 20th and even 21st century works. In fact, our members display everything from medieval illuminations to preparatory studies by Raphael, to minimalist art and signed Picasso sketches. We particularly love the fact that curators, museum patrons, private collectors and the press all get to see the newest market offerings of each form at one time. It’s a model that works similarly well with our sister event in London.”
Riley-Smith says “With our format, dealers get to put their individual stamp on their own exhibitions and can entertain their private and museum clients as they like.” With such a wide range of options on offer, Gordon and Riley-Smith point out that drawings and watercolours represent a wonderful collecting opportunity, especially to those forming a new collection. Price points range from several thousand dollars to several million. The www.masterdrawingsinnewyork.com web site offers details on participating dealers and their specialties, and suggestions on how to work with a dealer to build a collection.
In previous years, noted experts on the subject have contributed to the brochure, including John Marciari, the head of the Department of Drawings and Prints at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York, artist Eric Fischl, William Griswold, former Director of The Morgan Library & Museum, New York; and Cara Dufour Denison, Curator Emerita Drawings and Prints at The Morgan. Cara Denison says, “Master Drawings New York is an indispensable event for lovers of drawings.”
The Introduction to the 2016 MASTER DRAWINGS NEW YORK brochure has been written by Colin Bailey, (FULL COPY OF HIS INTRODUCTION BELOW) the recently appointed Director of The Morgan Library & Museum. Bailey is the former director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and previously spent 13 years at New York’s Frick Collection. Colin Bailey is a highly regarded specialist in 18th century French art and a recognized authority on the work of Pierre-August Renoir. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy in Art History from the University of Oxford.
Margot Gordon says, “We are thrilled to have Colin Bailey write the Introduction to our Tenth Anniversary MASTER DRAWINGS NEW YORK brochure. His reputation as both a scholar and someone who has staged important and impressive exhibitions, gives him a unique perspective on the appeal of drawings. We truly welcome his insights and know that people attending our exhibitions will learn a great deal reading what he has to say.”
MASTER DRAWINGS NEW YORK dealers …..
Didier Aaron – www.didieraaron.com
Richard A. Berman Fine Art – richardaberman@earthlink.net
Christopher Bishop Fine Art – www.oldmasterdrawingsandprints.com
Découvert Galleries – www.decouvertfineart.com
Marianne Elrick-Manley – Marianne@elrickmanley.com
Pia Gallo – www.piagallo.com
Margot Gordon Fine Arts mgordonfinearts@aol.com
Martyn Gregory – www.martyngregory.com
Leonard Hutton Galleries – www.leonardhuttongalleries.com
Kraushaar Galleries – www.kraushaargalleries.com
Lowell Libson Ltd. – www.lowell-libson.com
James MacKinnon – www.james-mackinnon.com
Mary-Anne Martin Fine Art – www.mamfa.com
Mireille Mosler Ltd – www.mireillemoslerltd.com
Mark Murray Fine Paintings – www.markmurray.com
Jill Newhouse – www.jillnewhouse.com
Nissman, Abromson Ltd – mail@nissman-abromson.com
Stephen Ongpin Fine Art – www.stephenongpinfineart.com
Pandora Old Masters – www.pandoraoldmasters.com
Laura Pecheur – www.laurapecheur.fr
Guy Peppiatt Fine Art Ltd – www.peppiattfineart.co.uk
Crispian Riley-Smith Fine Arts – www.riley-smith.com/crispian
Mattia & Maria Novella Romano – www.antiksimoneromanoefigli.com
Allan Stone Projects – www.allanstoneprojects.com
David Tunick – www.tunickart.com
Monroe Warshaw – www.oldmasterdoodles.com
Van Doren Waxter – www.vandorenwaxter.com
Mia N. Weiner – www.oldmasterdrawings.com
W & K Wienerroither & Kohlbacher – www.austrianfineart.at
If You Go
2016 MASTER DRAWINGS NEW YORK
Open to the public Saturday, January 23 – Saturday January 30 2016
January 23(Saturday) Open weekend: 11 am to 6pm
January 24(Sunday) Open weekend: 2-6pm.
January 25(Monday) Open 11am-6pm
January 26(Tuesday) Open 11am-6pm
January 27(Wednesday) Open 11am-6pm
January 28 (Thursday) Open 11am-6pm
January 29(Friday) Open 11am-6pm
January 30(Saturday) Finish of Master Drawings New York at 6pm.
The 2016 brochure will be available at www.masterdrawingsinnewyork.com in mid-December. Past brochures are already on the web site.
For more information contact Susan Bishopric at susan@susanpr.com
MASTER DRAWINGS IN NEW YORK
Tenth Anniversary Brochure Introduction by
Colin B. Bailey, Director, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York.
“I find there is a sort of contentment in knowing that a given work is from a given time, and by a given hand, and I greatly esteem this sort of knowledge.” For the great connoisseur and collector Pierre-Jean Mariette (1699-1774) – whom we are celebrating at the Morgan Library & Museum – aesthetic pleasure was indistinguishable from connoisseurship, defined with estimable understatement by his English contemporary Jonathan Richardson (1665-1745) as the “knowledge of hands.” These men of the Enlightenment were creating a new discipline – or science – in which simply admiring what was beautiful no longer sufficed. Mariette classified his drawings and prints by artist, school, date, and media – a system fundamental to museums, collectors, and dealers. In so doing, he adopted, and adapted, the taxonomies used in the natural sciences to identify and arrange archetypes. Drawings, Richardson noted, were “the mind itself, the quintessence of art.”
As the recently appointed sixth Director of the Morgan, I wish I could claim responsibility for organizing the Mariette show to coincide with the tenth anniversary of Master Drawings, New York. But of course, the project was planned long in advance, as are the presentations of dealers from the United States and abroad who flock to New York for the last week in January. Mariette, who came from a dynasty of print dealers and publishers, would also have appreciated the bonhomie and cordiality of this international group of collectors and curators who congregate in New York at this time. Just as he became part of the select group of connoisseurs, collectors, and artists who met in Pierre Crozat’s residence on the rue de Richelieu to study the banker’s peerless collection of old master drawings, so do the many participants in Drawings Week engage in close and careful looking and animated discussion in the various galleries and beyond, at events both formal and informal, throughout the week.
Two further comments, if I may. As we have discovered from the recent flowering of publications on Mariette as a collector and scholar of drawings, the presentation and mounting of his collection was of critical importance to him. He was manually dexterous, as well as intellectually pioneering. His fellow connoisseur, the Swedish count, Carl Gustaf Tessin (1695-1770), spoke admiringly of how his friend was able to “bring drawings back to life.” Mariette’s restorations, revisions, and occasional “improvements” were inspired by his desire to present the viewer with the best initial experience of a drawing, the first impression which he termed “le coup d’oeil.” In many ways this prefigures the collaboration between scholars, curators, and conservators of drawings. Mariette was all three, in some ways and his approach remains fundamental to our stewardship and understanding of these works today. Ever more sophisticated technical examination allows us to probe further into the material and creative processes by which an image assumes its final form and power.
Among the guests at the banker Crozat’s table, and among those with whom Mariette would have rubbed shoulders, were artists such as Charles Coypel and Antoine Watteau. It is worth reminding ourselves that, from the Enlightenment on, the study and delectation of drawings of the past have been intimately related to the creation of modern art itself. As Mariette’s fellow connoisseur – and Watteau’s patron- the Comte de Caylus noted in 1732: “Nothing excites the genius of a Painter, or gives him the inner fire so necessary to composition, as the examination of a fine drawing.” Living artists are impassioned, and, in some ways, privileged “consumers” of drawings of the past. At Drawings Week, we extend the warmest invitation to them. I know that I speak for my fellow directors of museums in the city when I say that we encourage them to avail themselves, by whatever means possible, of the graphic collections under our care.
Colin B. Bailey
Director, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York.
Press Release Archive
Tenth Anniversary of MASTER DRAWINGS NEW YORK Jan 23-30
Master Drawings New York 2015 – The Bishopric Agency
Master Drawings New York 2014
Master Drawings New York 2013