Displaying items by tag: folk art

Christie’s Americana Week auctions, which included the sales of Important American Silver on January 23, Important American Furniture, Folk Art and Prints on January 24, and Chinese Export Art on January 27, fetched a total of $10,189,025.

The Chinese Export Art sale realized $3,034,750 and the top lot was a rare set of four large Chinese export porcelain nodding head figures from the Qianlong Period, which sold for $173,000. The Important American Silver sale netted $1,737,875 and the top lot, a silver Brandywine bowl by Cornelius Vander Burch from the late 17th century, brought $317,000. The Important American Furniture, Folk Art & Decorative Arts sale was the biggest hit of the week and realized $5,416,400. The top lot was an 18th century Chippendale carved Mahogany scallop-top tea table from Philadelphia, which garnered $905,000. Andrew Holter, head of American Furniture and Decorative Arts at Christie’s, said, “Today’s solid results underscore collectors’ continued appetite for works of exceptional provenance and quality.”

On January 25, Sotheby’s held the auction ‘Visual Grace: Important American Folk Art from the collection of Ralph O. Esmerian’ in New York. The sale, which included over 208 lots ranging from watercolors, portraits, pottery, furniture and weathervanes to carvings, needlework, sculpture and scrimshaw, fetched $12,955,943, significantly exceeding its pre-sale estimate of $9.5 million. The sale set a new record total for any auction of American folk art. 

The top lot of the auction was a carved figure of Santa Claus by wood carver Samuel Robb, which sold for $875,000, far surpassing its pre-sale estimate of $250,000. Other important sales included Ruth Whittier Shute and Samuel Addison Shute’s portrait of Jeremiah H. Emerson, which brought $665,000; a rare carved pine pheasant hen weathervane from the late 19th century, which sold for $449,000; and ‘The Carver Limner,’ a painting depicting three members of Freeport’s Carver family, which fetched $521,000.

Esmerian, the former chairman emeritus of New York’s American Folk Art Museum, is currently serving a six-year sentence for fraud. The sale at Sotheby’s was ordered by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court and generated $10.5 million for Esmerian’s creditors including Sotheby’s and Christie’s.

New York’s American Folk Art Museum has launched a public, digital archive of 117 issues of magazines published by the institution between 1971 and 2008. ‘The Clarion,’ which was later renamed ‘Folk Art’ was published three times a year and served as a leading forum for original research and new scholarship in the realm of American folk art. The archive, which is organized chronologically, includes original articles, photographs, illustrations, advertisements and calendars.

The digitization and archive creation was made possible thanks to a grant from Museum Trustee Karin Fielding and her husband, Dr. Jonathan Fielding as well as donations from the Friends of Heritage Preservation and the American Folk Art Society.

The archive can be found on the American Folk Art Museum’s website.

On January 25, 2014 Sotheby’s will hold the auction Visual Grace: Important American Folk Art from the Collection of Ralph O. Esmerian in New York. The sale includes over 200 works including watercolors, portraits, pottery, painted furniture, weathervanes, carvings, needlework, sculpture and scrimshaw. Together, the collection marks the most important assemblage of American folk art to ever appear at auction. The sale carries a pre-sale estimate of $6.4 million to $9.5 million.

Nancy Druckman, Head of Sotheby’s Folk Art Department, said, “Ralph Esmerian is known for his profound connoisseurship, discernment and passion for the best in American folk art. Each of the examples in the collection is distinguished by the highest quality in design, pattern, color, texture and form. A pervasive respect and understanding of the inspiration and expertise of the various makers is present in each of the pieces, as they represent both the traditions and inventiveness of American art.”

Highlights from the sale include a drawing of a man with a plough by outsider artist Bill Traylor, an important Federal paint decorated slant front desk attributed to Johannes Braun and a rare fireboard with a view of Boston Harbor from 1825-35.  

The Ralph Esmerian collection will be on view in Sotheby’s York Avenue galleries during Americana Week in New York beginning January 18, 2014.  

On Sunday, August 18, 2013, the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, VT will unveil its new Pizzagalli Center for Art and Education. To commemorate the event, the Shelburne Museum will offer free admission and host a celebration throughout the institution’s campus. Festivities will kick off at 11AM with a ribbon cutting ceremony.

The Pizzagalli Center, which was designed by the Boston-based architecture firm, Ann Beha Architects, boasts 18,000-square-feet and will allow the Shelburne Museum to expand their exhibition offerings as well as implement new programming. The Center is part of the $14 million capital campaign “The Campaign for Shelburne Museum,” which includes an endowment to maintain the center.

Founded by pioneering American folk art collector Electra Havemeyer Webb in 1947, the Shelburne Museum holds one of the most remarkable and diverse collections of art and Americana. The museum’s 150,000 holdings include Impressionist paintings, folk art, quilts, textiles, decorative arts, furniture, American paintings, and various artifacts dating from the 17^th to 20^th century, which are exhibited in 39 different buildings. Webb collected various 18^th and 19^th century structures including houses, barns, a lighthouse, a jail, and a steamboat to house her collection; 25 of the buildings are historic.

Traditionally a seasonal museum, the Shelburne will stay open year-round after the Center’s inauguration for the first time in the institution’s 66-year history.

Historic Deerfield’s President Philip Zea will lead a trip September 6-9, 2013 to view premier collections of antiques and decorative arts in Chicago and Milwaukee.

The trip includes special tours of five outstanding private collections and three remarkable area museums. Private collections include two top American decorative arts collections, an American folk art collection, Crab Tree Farm, and the MacLean Map and Book Collection. Special museum tours include the Art Institute of Chicago, Driehaus Museum, the Milwaukee Art Museum and a presentation and private viewing at the Chipstone Foundation’s Fox Point Georgian mansion of the foundation’s founders Stanley and Polly Stone. You can register by calling 413-775-7176. A few slots are available. See www.historic-deerfield.org/trip for details.

WLTX in Columbia, South Carolina reported that antique dealer Michael Whittemore’s van and trailer went missing during an overnight stay in Orangeburg. Whittemore was on his way from Florida to one of the largest industry events of the year, the New Hampshire Antiques Show, when the apparent highjack occurred. The show, which is organized by the New Hampshire Antiques Dealers Association, is scheduled to take place from August 8^th through the 10^th in Manchester.

Whittemore’s white Ford van and 16-foot covered trailer were stocked with early American furniture, folk art, paintings, vintage garden items, weathervanes and other one-of-a-kind objects. Whittemore told WLTX, “It is scary that it has come to this point. That someone has taken all of this I have worked so hard for away from me and it is almost impossible to replace or recoup what I have lost.”

The Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Department in South Carolina is currently investigating the incident.

The Newport Antiques Show, which is organized by the Newport Historical Society, will kick off July 25, 2013 with a gala preview. The show will open to the public on Friday, July 26 and run through Sunday, July 28. Established in 2007, the highly anticipated show presents an impressive selection of Americana, paintings, furniture, folk art, jewelry, and decorative arts.

Exhibitors at this year’s show include William Vareika Fine Arts Ltd., Oriental Rugs Ltd., Roberto Freitas American Antiques & Decorative Arts, The Cooley Gallery, Diana H. Bittel Antiques and Arader Galleries. The 2013 loan exhibit, Windows on the Past: Four Centuries of Historic New England, highlights the artifacts and 36 historic sites that make up the largest, oldest and most comprehensive regional heritage organization in the country.

The Newport Antiques Show, which is held at St. George’s School in Middletown, RI, benefits the Newport Historical Society and the Boys & Girls Club of Newport County.

Colby College in Waterville, Maine will unveil its 26,000-square foot Alfond-Lunder Family Pavilion on Saturday, July 13, 2013 at an opening event for friends of the institution followed by an open house on Sunday. One of the inaugural exhibitions, The Lunder Collection: A Gift of Art to Colby College, will present over 280 works gifted to the Colby College Museum of Art by major supporters, Peter and Paula Lunder. Mr. Lunder is a life overseer of the institution while Mrs. Lunder is a life trustee of the board.

The other exhibitions that will be on view include a selection of Chinese art from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Lunder-Colville Collection; a presentation of American folk art weathervanes; paintings from the Alex Katz Foundation; a survey of abstract works by John Marin; and an exhibition exploring the design of the new pavilion, which adds 10,000 square feet of gallery space to the museum.

The Lunder Collection: A Gift of Art to Colby College, which includes works by John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe, Alexander Calder and Romare Bearden will be the highlight of the museum’s opening festivities.

A well-known folk art object, a whirligig is a wind-powered creation that spins and and swirls. Vollis Simpson (1919-2013), a North Carolina-based folk artist, was celebrated for his whirligigs, which he made from recycled heating and air conditioning systems and reflective materials. The unconventional artist, whose work was featured in museums, backyards, and the 1996 Olympics, passed away on Friday, May 31, 2013 at the age of 94.

Simpson’s hulking masterpieces, which he built near his machine shop in Lucama, NC, stand as high as 50 feet and weigh as much as 3 tons. Many of his whirligigs were on public display in town until a restoration effort was started. The process is about halfway complete and the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park is slated to open in November 2013 in Wilson, NC, about 10 miles from the artist’s home.

Known for their whimsical quality, Simpson’s whirligigs tell stories of a community and bygone eras. He built his first whirligig while he was overseas during World War II. Upon returning to the United States, Simpson farmed and worked as a mover before opening the machine shop that would become his whirligig studio. In the 1980s, Simpson kicked his whirligig making into high gear and spent 10 years building his captivating, large-scale creations.

Simpson’s works are part of the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, MD and the American Folk Art Museum in New York City.