Art that cities would love to own

My earlier post on art that "belongs" to cities as "The Gross Clinic" belongs to Philly spawns the opposite train of thought (and an interesting one at that!): Art that cities would love to own!

Here's what New Orleans would love to own.

Eakins: Not the first time?

As we've discussed before, the potential exodus from Philly of Thomas Eakins' "The Gross Clinic" has fired up Philadelphians to an enviable level, and efforts continue to keep the work of art in the city.

The Sixth Square has been keeping up a daily info blitzkrieg on the issue, and this post has a gem:

We’ve always heard talk of earlier attempts to pry The Gross Clinic from its moorings at Jefferson, but we never knew any detail. Then we ran across an old, yellowed clipping.

On March 25, 1976, Adrian Lee of The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin wrote that Jefferson had rejected a $1 million offer for the painting in 1969. But he had a more dramatic number to report. Lee had gotten wind of a new offer: $30 million building in exchange for the painting. After “two stormy, back to back meetings,” in December 1975 and January 1976, Jefferson held a “secret vote.” Sixty eight voted to keep the painting. Only seven voted to sell it.

Who was this would-be buyer? Both times it was no less than Paul Mellon, trustee of the National Galley of Art in Washington, D.C. — the very same institution today teamed up with Crystal Bridges.

Read the entire post here.

Leads me to wonder if there are paintings (or other visual artworks) that are so rooted into a city's psyche and/or history, that they could become that city's own Eakins in the event that they were to be removed and exported to another city?

Hopper's Nighthawks in Chicago? Leonardo's Mona Lisa in Paris? Picasso's Guernica or Velazquez's Las Meninas in Madrid?

Old timers will recall the many years that Picasso's "Guernica" hung in New York City, as Picasso didn't want it to be in a Spanish museum while Franco was alive. When the Generalisimo died (and yes SNL freaks, he's still dead), eventually the masterpiece made its way to Madrid, but not without some angst from New Yorkers.

And in Scotland, a few years ago there was a mini revolution of sorts, as Scottish villagers fought to have the original Pictish standing stones in their villages returned to their fields. Many of the original stones had been removed in order to protect them from the elements and replaced with replicas, while the originals went on display in museums. The villagers then realized that they were losing tourists who wanted to visit the stones, and many villages sued the museums to have the Pictish stones returned to them.

Which leads me to wonder why there has never been an exhibition of Pictish art and sculpture outside of Scotland, and why the National Geographic has never done a single article on Pictish culture - a people who only ruled northern Britain for two thousand years!

Oh oh... I see a new pet peeve brewing...

Maryland Art Place’s 25th Anniversary

Congrats to MAP on their 25th Anniversary and if you're around Baltimore tonite, swing by Spice betwenn 6-8PM and enjoy complimentary parking and hors d’oeuvres.

Spice is a fantastic new restaurant located at 4 West University Parkway in B'more (where the Polo Grill used to be). For directions, please call: 410.235.8200.

WashPost Newsroom Not Smiling

Washingtonian's Harry Jaffe on the woes of the WaPo.

Read the story here.

The Power of the Web

A while back I wrote this bit, which took sides on the whole elitist issue of the Rocky Balboa sculpture and the Philly Arts Museum.

Today as I am finally looking at some old mail, I discovered that several days ago I was sent two passes, good for two people each (for a total of 4 admissions) to a special screening of Sylvester Stallone's new movie "Rocky Balboa." Unfortunately, this screening is tonight at 7:30 PM at the AMC Palm Promenade in San Diego!

Lou Stovall

Washington Printmakers Gallery in DC will host its 5th annual Invitational Exhibition honoring the achievement of an influential printmaker. The 2007 Invitational honors the work of Lou Stovall, a printmaker of national and international reputation, a master printer, and a longtime resident of Washington, DC.

Stovall has also been the "printmaker behind the print" for many editions of the prints of several well-known artists (such as Joseph Albers, Peter Blume, Alexander Calder, Sam Gilliam, Elizabeth Catlett, Gene Davis, Sam Gilliam, Lois Mailou Jones and my former professor Jacob Lawrence), and a key member of the DC arts community.

You can see his new work during the First Friday opening on Friday, January 5, 5- 8 pm, and then there's an artist reception on Sunday, January 7, 1-4 pm and Lou will deliver a gallery talk on Thursday, January 11, noon-1pm.

I'm sorry.... what?

"A canvas by beloved U.S. painter Norman Rockwell, discovered hidden behind a false wall earlier this year, has sold at auction for a record $15.4 million"

There are some many juicy things about this story that I don't know where to start...

But... for starters...

1. Rockwell himself apparently sold the work in question - the really famous painting titled "Breaking Home Ties" - himself to his friend, an illustrator and cartoonist named Don Trachte, for $900 bucks!



Original Rockwell "Breaking Home Ties"

2. For some reason Trachte then copied this painting and other works of art (including a Hopper) in his collection and then hid the originals behind a false wall in his studio while displaying the replicas as the originals!



Don Trachte's Copy of Rockwell's "Breaking Home Ties"

3. So then Trachte's sons sent their father's Rockwell copy (and what they believed to be the real painting) to the Norman Rockwell Museum. And "despite inconsistencies between the canvas and the Saturday Evening Post cover, it went on display in 2003."

More!!!!

"Trachte died in 2005, never having revealed his secret, but his sons had nagging suspicions about the authenticity of the canvas. This spring, after a renewed search of their father's studio, they discovered the false wall and the original canvases.

In addition to Breaking Home Ties and other Rockwell works, the Sotheby's event also saw the sale of Edward Hopper's Hotel Window for $26.8 million US.

The large-scale canvas, painted in 1955 and displayed at the Whitney Museum of American Art this summer, also set a new record high price for the artist's work."

Check out the fake wall (including a video clip of the whole discovery) and comparisons between the paintings here.