Thinking about the many novel ways in which the art market is rebuilding and reinventing itself these days, I am reminded of the 1948 RKO comedy “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House,” starring Myrna Loy and Cary Grant. It’s a whimsical, hilarious tale of resilience in the face of never-ending challenges and setbacks.
Before watching the sale online this morning at Christie’s of Impressionist and Modern Art, which included a painting by Boudin we were selling for a New York family, I found myself reminiscing. Not so much about the painting—a gorgeous French port scene dated 1890—but rather of the family itself. For while we had sold many works for them in years past—furniture and decorations, Russian art, maritime memorabilia as well as Impressionist and Contemporary paintings—this was the very last item remaining in the collection.
Settled into a new reality, one in which cocktail receptions, crowds and people waving paddles in a packed saleroom all seem a thing of the past, the art market has shown surprising resilience and ingenuity. As we expected in developments over the summer, big changes were coming.
“As he lay battling for his life, after testing positive for Covid-19 this spring, the board used his condition for their own advantage, and voted while he was incapacitated to permanently close the New York gallery.”
One cannot say that the past few months have lacked drama in the art market, despite the cancellations, closures and shut-downs across its entire landscape. For word has now filtered out that the venerable Marlborough Gallery, which opened in London in 1946 and has enjoyed decades of prominence and power, has now shuttered its rooms on West 57th Street in New York.
“A new chapter opened in the most breathlessly followed art-world scandal of the past year as American federal agents arrested fugitive dealer Inigo Philbrick on the Pacific island of Vanuatu.”
June 18th, 2020: The above flash from Artnet News, on a crime story that has been swirling for months, showcased an alluring but obscure destination. For Vanuatu is a chain of islands in the South Pacific, some 500 miles west of Fiji and far, far removed from the art world. But it is where the infamous American dealer Inigo Philbrick took refuge from his many creditors and claimants, and where he was finally arrested this past weekend. Soon he may be transferred to another, less enchanting island—the dreaded Rikers—to await his fate.
News this week from Sotheby’s of their “cross-category” evening sale in London on July 28th showcasing an early Rembrandt oil painting brought signs of renewed activity in the salerooms. And what better name to put front and center at this moment, like a battle shield against the many grim adversities roiling the art market in 2020, than Rembrandt, the gold standard of Dutch old masters.
“All our projects are totally irrational, totally useless. Nobody needs them. The world can live without them.”
On the website for the artist Christo, who died this past week at age 84, one takes a dazzling tour through videos and photographs of the many projects he dreamed up in his long career. One early, unrealized project of 1964 caught my attention, for it summed up Christo’s fearless, poetic vision.
In recent years the auction houses have become increasingly enthralled with design and decoration as the new hallmarks of art collecting. Thus many sales with theme-driven titles like “The Elegant Eye” and “Style” have ensued, all bolstering the idea that art collecting now is less about art and more about aspiration, about lifestyle.
In any given year flowers blossoming in the garden would be a glorious if unsurprising herald of May. But of course we are not in any given year. Hence so much about life today seems perplexing, fast-evolving and jarringly new.
“You may not need a million dollar painting on the wall, but you have to have a chair to sit on, and it might as well be an antique one.”
Old-timers—like those who remember the author of the above remark, the late Robert Woolley of Sotheby’s—will remember what the art market was like in 1990. It was a tale of two cities.