Category Archives: Collections

Collections: A Tour Of Dynastic Chinese Art

Sotheby’s (March 28, 2024): Reverence for the past is a foundational thread. More than an homage, our instinct to look into the past is a dynamic creative force that shapes our present.

Behold the Leshantang collection, a testament to the eye of Tsai I-Ming, spanning the sweep of history from earliest dynasties to the modern era, this principle has guided the evolution of artistic expression.

Elton John’s ‘Exuberant Art’ Collection In Atlanta

Christie’s (January 11, 2024) – The Rocket Man singer and his husband, David Furnish, discuss the Peachtree Road residence where the pop legend became a ‘serious collector’ of exuberant art and objects.

In 1991 when Sir Elton John bought a duplex-apartment at Park Place on Peachtree Road in Atlanta’s coveted Buckhead neighbourhood, he couldn’t have imagined the extent to which the city would transform him personally and professionally.

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Art History: Rembrandt’s Prints & Life In Amsterdam

Christie’s (November 26, 2023) – Rembrandt House Museum Specialist Tim Schmelcher and Head of Collections, Epco Runia, discover more about Rembrandt’s life in Amsterdam, in particular his printmaking.

Then a more detailed look at the Sam Josefowitz Collection of Rembrandt prints – the most comprehensive and impressive in private hands – as we examine some of the highlights of these graphic masterpieces.

On 7 December 2023, Christie’s will be offering a selection of these prints across two sales in London: Old Masters Part I and The Sam Josefowitz Collection: Graphic Masterpieces by Rembrandt van Rijn.

Art Collection Tours: ‘Living The Avant-Garde’

Phillips Art Auction House (November 6, 2023) – In this four-part series, Jean-Paul Engelen — Phillips’ President, Americas and Worldwide Co-Head of 20th Century & Contemporary Art — and Miety Heiden — Deputy Chairwoman and Head of Private Sales — explore what makes ‘Living the Avant-Garde: The Triton Collection Foundation’ so unique.

Living the Avant-Garde: The Triton Collection Foundation New York

On View in New York through 14 November

Entwurf zu Komposition IV

Wassily Kandinsky – Entwurf zu Komposition IV

Reviews: The ‘African And Oceanic Art’ Collection Of France’s Hélène Leloup

Sotheby’s (June 12, 2023) – Hélène Leloup is one of the art world’s true pioneers, bringing together a spirit of adventure, a detailed anthropological approach and deep knowledge to become one of the foremost specialists in African and Oceanic art in Paris and New York. 

Now aged 96, Hélène is regarded as France’s most important and passionate dealer of sub-Saharan and Oceanic art, an adventurer and explorer, ground-breaking gallerist and collector, and eminent specialist in Mbembe and Dogon art, ever since her first foray to Dakar in 1952.

Exhibitions: “Outstanding! THE RELIEF FROM RODIN TO PICASSO” At Städel Museum

Städel Museum Frankfurt (May 23, 2023) – Rodin, Matisse, Gauguin, Picasso, Jean Arp, Yves Klein… They all created outstanding art in the truest sense of the word—reliefs. This summer, the Städel Museum is presenting a major exhibition on the relief from 1800 to the 1960s.

OUTSTANDING!

THE RELIEF FROM RODIN TO PICASSO


5/24–9/17/2023

“This summer, our visitors will have the opportunity to encounter an exciting artistic medium—the relief: an art form between painting and sculpture that literally breaks through the confines of the frame and bursts the boundaries of our sense of sight! We are devoting a major exhibition to this sometimes underacknowledged medium.”

Is it painting or sculpture, surface or space? Hardly any artistic medium challenges our sense of sight like the relief. And that is what has always made it so appealing for the most famous artists. From 24 May to 17 September 2023, the exhibition will present prominent works spanning some 160 years by Bertel Thorvaldsen, Jules Dalou, Auguste Rodin, Medardo Rosso, Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Alexander Archipenko, Jean Arp, Kurt Schwitters, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Yves Klein, Louise Nevelson, Lee Bontecou and others.

Arts: Meissen Porcelain – ‘A Fox with a Chicken’

Getty Museum (May 17, 2023) – Imagine a menagerie of over 500 life-sized porcelain animals long gallery in a palace in Dresden. A Fox with a Chicken was a part of this new creation commissioned by Augustus II “The Strong” in the 18th century to share his love for Japanese porcelain with others.

A Fox with a Chicken

Meissen Porcelain Manufactory (German, active 1710 – present), Model by Johann Gottlieb Kirchner (German, 1706 – 1768)

Johann Gottlieb Kirchner produced the model for this life-size porcelain sculpture of a fox-looking a little guiltily around the chicken it is about to devour-as part of an extraordinary commission from Augustus the Strong, elector of Saxony and king of Poland, who envisioned a life-size porcelain menagerie for his Japanese Palace in Dresden. The Meissen Porcelain Manufactory had been operating for only twenty years when Augustus commissioned this series of porcelain animals to be rendered “in their natural sizes and colors.” The production of porcelain models of this size had never been attempted before in Europe.

Artists: Post-Impressionist Paintings Of Paul Gauguin

Sotheby’s (May 16, 2023) – Vice Chairman of Global Fine Arts, Simon Shaw, discusses a few extraordinary works coming to Sotheby’s this May from the Ambroise Vollard Collection, including Paul Gauguin’s Nature morte avec pivoines de chine et mandoline.

An exquisite example of Gauguin’s unbound creative spirit, Nature morte avec pivoines de chine et mandoline is filled with the sort of rich, jewel-like hues and striking tonal and textural contrasts that characterize the artist’s greatest works. The present painting was executed in 1885 at a watershed moment in Gauguin’s career, during which time he began to move away from the Impressionist aesthetic that had previously influenced his painting toward a new and more expressive stylistic idiom.

Expanding upon the bold coloration and defiant brushwork pioneered in works like Nature morte avec pivoines de chine et mandoline, Gauguin soon became a leading figure in the Post-Impressionist movement.

Profiles: Zhang Daqian’s Rare & Exquisite Paintings

Christie’s (May 11, 2023) – From Zhang Daqian’s atmospheric masterpiece ‘Ancient Temple in Misty Mountain’ to Qiu Ying’s ‘Celestial Mountains and Pavilions’, a rare and exquisite painting that belonged to the personal collection of Zhang Daqian, enter the beautiful world of Zhang Daqian as an artist and a collector.

Works by Zhang Daqian at Sotheby’s

Chinese Paintings: The World of Zhang Daqian - YouTube

Chang Dai-chien or Zhang Daqian was one of the best-known and most prodigious Chinese artists of the twentieth century. Originally known as a guohua painter, by the 1960s he was also renowned as a modern impressionist and expressionist painter.

Artworks: Collection Loïc Malle (Sotheby’s)

Collection Loïc Malle (6 April 2022 | Paris) – Sotheby’s presents a collection which reads like an anthology of contemporary art, particularly artworks that deal with the act of experience. The experiences expressed through the collection are as diverse as the artists that it encompasses, which includes Marcel Duchamp, Yves Klein, Robert Smithson and Sol LeWitt.