In 2009, art museums and historians observed the 90th anniversary of the last century’s most influential art and design school. The Bauhaus, established in 1919 in Weimar, Germany, was the subject of major exhibitions in New York and Chicago and reappraisals the world over. Read More +
Author Archives: Mary Manion
Art Markets: LeRoy Neiman prints gaining momentum
Sixty years is a long time for success in any field. Since the 1950s, LeRoy Neiman has been a popular oil painter whose successes are measured less through the accolades of critics and academics than by commissions and auction results. Read More +
Art Markets: Is Leibovitz a ‘Picasso’ in our midst?
Annie Leibovitz was a “service brat,” spending her childhood on the go from base to base with her father, an officer in the U. S. Air Force. The camera bug bit her in the Philippines, where her father was stationed during the Vietnam War. Read More +
Art Markets: Warhol buys abstract expressionists a Coke
When he moved to the Big Apple in 1949, Andy Warhol was in tune with the sentiment of the song “New York, New York” and the line, “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.” Read More +
Art Markets: Gallery label prompts investigation of attic find
Recently, as I was examining a collection of framed artwork for a quick verbal appraisal, I was reminded of an important but often overlooked piece of valuable information: a gallery label on the verso or backside. Read More +
Art Markets: Legitimate Kandinsky artwork is cataloged
In Russia, modernism at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century often meant an embrace of all things ancient. In music, Igor Stravinsky shocked Western audiences with the violent rhythms of “The Rite of Spring” (1913), which derived from Russian folk music. Read More +
Modernism in America introduced by The Eight
The famous Armory Show of 1913 exposed American tastemakers to the latest developments in European modernism through exhibiting paintings by Picasso, Braque, Matisse, Kandinsky, Duchamp and others. Read More +
Art Markets: Dali collectors proceed with caution
If you come across a signed work by one of the 20th century’s best known and most influential artists, with a price tag of under $500, you would normally have every reason to suspect a forgery. But if the print bears the signature of Salvador Dali, you might just have a genuine article. Read More +
Botero, ‘smart, quirky and just outside the norm,’ won acclaim for being whimsical
Botero is probably the first answer most critics, collectors or curators will give when asked to name a contemporary Latin American artist. Read More +
Modern art movements relegated the queen’s paintings to the attic
Britain’s long reigning and beloved Queen Victoria had barely been laid to rest before the backlash began. With her randy son Edward VII on the throne and setting an example on both sides of the Atlantic, mores began to loosen, and by the end of World War I the Western world was in full revolt against the Victorian Age. Read More +