Posts filed under 'Art & Music'
David Smith was foremost among the welder-sculptors who came to prominence in the U.S. after World War II. Following the example set by Julio González and Pablo Picasso, who created welded-steel sculptures as early as 1928, the Americans constructed their work directly out of iron and steel sheets and wires rather than employing the traditional method of casting. In the 1930s and 1940s, influenced by Surrealism and Constructivism , Smith created hybrid figural sculptures and dramatic mise-en-scènes. During the 1950s he began to work in stylistic series ranging from the complicated abstract drawings-in-space of the Agricolas to the anthropomorphic and totemic sculptures incorporating machine parts such as the Sentinels and Tank Totems. In the later part of the decade and into the 1960s his work became more volumetric and monolithic.
Smith completed 28 works in his last series of monumental abstract structures, the Cubis, before his death in May 1965. These celebrated sculptures were composed from a repertoire of geometric cubes and cylinders of varying proportions. All of the Cubis are made of stainless steel, which Smith burnished to a highly reflective surface. He told critic Thomas Hess, “I made them and I polished them in such a way that on a dull day they take on a dull blue, or the color of the sky in the late afternoon sun, the glow, golden like the rays, the colors of nature.”
Some of the Cubis are vaguely figural, while others, such as Cubi XXVII, suggest architecture. This example is one of three Cubis usually referred to as “Gates”, which rise like giant rudimentary doorways framing a central void. By counterbalancing a cylinder that appears to rest precariously on edge with two small tilted blocks that look equally unstable, Smith emphasized the potential energy captured through the welding technique. The artist activated the surface of the structure through the curling traces left by the polishing process, creating, in his words, “a structure that can face the sun and hold its own against the blaze and the power.”
Price: $23.8 million, Nov. 9, 2005 , Sotheby’s New York
April 13th, 2006
Moorcroft Pottery, one of the most highly respected names in British pottery, is unique, totally individual and utterfly fascinating for collectors. This prestigious line of pottery vases, established by William Moorcroft in 1897, is produced in Stoke-On-Trent, England. Most pieces are still turned on the lathe to perfect the shape and provide a blemish-free surface for decorating. The designs are applied by “tube-lining” and then colors are hand applied. The brilliant colors and glaze are produced by a second firing process which has become the hallmark of Moorcroft Pottery.
Supported by the world-famous
Moorcroft Design Studio and the consummate skills of a dedicated workforce of artists, craftsmen and women, Moorcroft Pottery and Enamels share unprecedented popularity and esteem. Traditionally Moorcroft use very rich colours, but their palette has also expanded in recent years to reflect and complement modern trends in interior designs and styles.
Every piece of Moorcroft has marks on the base which will tell a story. They identify the designer, the year the piece was made, the year of the design and who the painter and tube-liner were. Additionally, every piece carries an impressed
‘Moorcroft’ stamp on the base which no other pottery in the world can use.
Uniquely, Moorcroft is both cast and decorated before the pots are fired for the first time. A second firing comes after the pot has been dipped in a special glaze. The result is a design made up of deep, rich colours which some say have the qualities of precious stones.
April 4th, 2006
To reposition
Reuge like a mark of luxury, leader on the market of the top-of-the-range gift, carrying moreover emotional messages: such is the ambition of the only manufacture with the world able to perpetuate the delicate manufacture of the great movements with music and the movements with songbirds. Does the
Musical box Francastel Crystal Out of glass, it let appear all the magic and the complexity of the mechanical musical movement? Magic, bus, starting from steel and of brass, the craftsmen of Reuge made a success of the exploit to reproduce splendid melodies. The movement with music profited from a nickelled completion which makes echo with that, polished, of the posts. To point out the spirit of the Francastel line. Extreme refinement a base out of enamelled black wooden develops the luminosity of the movement, while placing it on a pedestal.
Reuge and cellebrities
In 1997, a Reuge music box playing Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” was widely noted when it appeared in the hit film
“Seven Years in Tibet” with Brad Pitt. In the film, the young Dalai Lama grows up with the sound of a music box.
In 1999, Donald Trump gave Céline Dion a Reuge music box worth $2,000 playing her rendition of “My Heart Will Go On” in
“Titanic”.
At the beginning of 2002,
Pope John-Paul II received a music box as a gift from an anonymous giver. It is a 15 tune curved box with interchangeable cylinders.
March 29th, 2006
Founded in 1895 in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, the de Young Museum has been an integral part of the cultural fabric of the city and a cherished destination for millions of residents and visitors to the region for over 100 years. On 15 October 2005, the de Young museum re-opened in a new facility designed by the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron and Fong & Chan Architects in San Francisco. The new de Young provides San Francisco with a landmark art museum to showcase the museum’s significant collections of American art from the 17th through the 20th centuries, modern and contemporary art, art from Central and South America, the Pacific and Africa, as well as an important and diverse collection of textiles.
The new unconventional building draped in dramatic copper skin will house new commissioned works as well as its significant collections of 17th to 20th century American paintings, including art from around the globe. The first rotating special exhibition will be Egyptian Art from Queen Hatshepsut’s reign (1473-1458 BC), showing the significance of a woman ruling in a patriarchal society.
Within the landscape design, historical elements from the original building of 1895 have been incorporated, such as the sphinx sculptures, the Pool of Enchantment and the original palm trees. With the collections in its sister museum, the Legion of Honor, San Francisco has one of the largest art museums in the US.
The colection of museum:
American Painting
A
merican Sculpture & Decorative Art
African Art
Oceanic Art
The Jolika Collection of New Guinea Art
Textiles
Art of the Americas
The Dorothy and George Saxe Collection of Contemporary Craft
The views from the top of the deYoung Museum tower are incredible. You can see downtown skyscrapers; the Marin headlands, and sometimes the Pacific Ocean. You can see down to the museum’s architecture and copper roofing. The controversial architecture is exciting the architecture community and all of San Francisco. This Herzog & de Meuron designed museum is a touchstone for any fan of 21st century design. The museum’s president was attracted to the design team after seeing a uniquely designed signal box and depot at a train station.
Design cues for the museum were taken from the surrounding Golden Gate Park. The intention was was to have the building be light, strange, and blend with the park’s setting. The copper skin of the building will age and patina into a green tone over the next 15 years. The twisting tower is the building’s unique trademark to align it with the pattern of San Francisco’s streets.
The art galleries flow together and match with the art collections styles. The size, style, and lighting of galleries differs based on the art itself. The light variance is most pronounced in areas that allow views out of the museum to the park’s beautiful surrounding gardens. The museum’s primary intention is to connect the museum viewer with the outside world. The de Young Art museum allows people, art, San Francisco, and nature to be joined as one.
March 27th, 2006
Sir Colin and Lady Anderson were among the first British collectors of art nouveau . The first pieces were bought in 1960, the last in 1971. During this decade the Andersons acquired according to style rather than value, forming a collection that includes not only pieces by leading exponents of art nouveau such as the American Louis Comfort Tiffany and the Frenchmen Emile Galle and Rene Lalique, but also inexpensive commercially produced items by unknown designers.
The Anderson Collection most fully represents the French exponents of art nouveau associated with the Ecole de Nancy and makers who, both in France and Britain, worked across a range of disciplines such as glassware and furniture, metalware and jewellery.
The term art nouveau is used to describe a group of national styles that flourished in Europe and America between 1890 and 1905.
The metalwork in the collection is largely by British or German makers, many of whom retailed their work at Liberty & Co. The collection includes some items that had been inherited by Sir Colin and Lady Anderson.
Liberty & Co’s policy of not crediting individual designers sometimes makes it difficult to identify the work of specific makers. However, there are two examples of Archibald Knox’s Tudric ware in the Collection. Tudric ware was introduced by Liberty & Co as a more affordable alternative to the highly successful Cymric range of jewellery and silverware.
On the basis of style, this inkstand has been attributed to Werttembergische Metallwarenfabrik (W.M.F), exponents of the German Art Nouveau Jugendstil (Youth style) designs. Designers at the W.M.F. adapted into commercially desirable commodities archetypal Art Nouveau motifs such as female figures with flowing hair and trailing foliage and flowers. This inkstand features a maiden seated at the ‘pool’ of her inkwell.
March 16th, 2006
The lion first appeared in Rene Boivin’s expanding iconography in 1956 as an oxidized silver, gold and diamond pendant. Over the years, the lion design evolved, not only in its style and varying gem material, but also expanded to include other species of cats. The tiger brooch offered here captures this progression, with its piercing emerald eyes and striped coat, richly-set with colorless, yellow and brown diamonds, as well as its distinct camaieu setting and fully articulated body.
The camaieu setting was considered to be a novel approach by the firm, one that deviated from the more realistic interpretations of the design by such jewelry houses as Cartier, adding life and vibrancy to the brooch. The masterful detail and execution and refined movement of the tiger’s crouching pose, exudes qualities of strength and agility as well as serenity, all prized characteristics of this exotic animal.
Designed as a crouching tiger, with a pave-set colored diamond and diamond articulated body, accented by marquise-cut emerald eyes, mounted in 18k gold, with French assay marks and maker’s mark (indistinct)
Price and details on www.chriesties.com
March 16th, 2006
Insured for $6 million, the fabled Brasher Doubloon — the United States’ first gold coin — returns to Baltimore for the first time in a quarter century for a public display, March 17 & 18, 2006.
The unique, first gold coin made for the United States over 200 years ago, the legendary multi-million dollar Brasher Doubloon, will be publicly exhibited in Baltimore for the first time since Johns Hopkins University sold it a quarter-century ago.
The fabled gold coin was purchased at an auction in early 2005 by Steven L. Contursi, President of Rare Coin Wholesalers of Dana Point, California. Since then Contursi has set up educational exhibits of the historic rare coin in New York City, San Francisco, Kansas City, St. Louis, Las Vegas, Orlando and Houston. Now it’s coming “home” to Baltimore for the first time since 1981.
The unique Brasher Doubloon was kept in a Baltimore vault for most of the 20th century when it was owned by the family of Baltimore & Ohio railroad magnate, T. Harrison Garrett, and later bequeathed to Johns Hopkins University.
The school sold the Brasher Doubloon at a 1981 public auction for the then-astounding price of $625,000.
March 16th, 2006
Sculpture non figurative made in 1923 by Constantin Brancusi exposed in Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rez-de-Chaussee is in the second place as most expensive art sold in 2005. This recently discovered sculpture, carved from a gray-blue slab of marble, is a keystone in the history of 20th century sculpture. The truly striking element, however, is not its historical position in Brancusi’s Bird series, but the sensitivity and delicacy of its execution. The subject of the bird is so closely captured within the carved marble that even the stone’s white veins link the two parts of the body into a unified whole. The different angles of the footing are carefully tuned to the difference between the front and backside of the bird’s body; particularly in the upper third of the sculpture the polish of the surface shows traces of the hand of the artist.
Sold for $27,456,000 in May 2005, New York.
March 13th, 2006
A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes , by Dusty Horner
This piece takes the shape of the Pumpkin Coach from the famous “Bibbity Bobbity Boo” scene where Cinderellas Fairy Godmother turns Cinderella into a beautiful Princess. Her Rags turn into a Ball Gown, a Pumpkin transforms into a Coach to whisk her off to the Princes Ball, and several Mice are turned into the coachmen. Cinderella, is surrounded by her friendly birds, and you can still see the magic effects twirling around her.
You can have it for $1,700.00. visiting
March 12th, 2006
This beautiful three paneled purse was commissioned to honor the memory of the world’s greatest choreographer, George Balanchine. He was born in Russia one hundred years ago this year and spent his youth and initial dancing career in St. Petersburg. He traveled to New York after his success in Russia and established the New York City Ballet. His unique style of dancing has since captivated and transformed the ballet world.
This is a limited edition of twenty sculptures, numbered one through twenty. Additionally each one is marked with a unique serial number. These are hand hallmarked by the designing artist. Each purse has a gold mesh strap included. The inside is lined in gold sand washed silk. These sculptures stand about six and one half inches tall. They serve equally well as a ballet evening purse or as an objet d art in your home.
Price: $3,500.00
March 11th, 2006
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