Artfixdaily Blog Network

The marine art of Frank Vining Smith (1879-1967) has become part of America's collective consciousness. When we envision a wind-propelled sailing ship plying the high seas, often the image in our mind's eye is inspired by, if not actually painted by, Smith. Prints of his ship paintings adorn seafood restaurant walls, original oils grace art museums and corporate office suites, and his best works now inspire collectors to bid upwards of $25,000 at auctions. The life and work of this beloved artist of America's great age of sail has finally been rightfully recognized with the ...

Bank of America (BofA), the recipient of $45 billion in taxpayer-funded government bailouts, has been loaning works from its corporate collection to dozens of art museums worldwide since 2007. Charlotte, North Carolina's Mint Museum of Art will be exhibiting 60 of the bank's major American contemporary artworks in a $60 million new building beginning October 1. The scope and value of the BofA's collection has not been disclosed. A few of the highlights scheduled for the Mint are Frank Stella's "Damascus Gate," Ed ...

American paintings, works on paper, and sculpture take center stage in Manhattan from May 17 to 26 in a series of major auctions and special events at leading art galleries. The dizzying array of art-centric festivities involves cocktail receptions, special exhibitions, three auctions, two dozen gallery open houses, and a pair of important fundraisers.  Thousands of works of art will be available for sale. View our Itinerary below to help plan logistics. Plus, a Slideshow offers a sneak peek of what's ahead. Even though these sales are focused on 18th- to mid-20th century art, ...

The three most-read press releases on ARTFIXdaily, published in the ArtWire section between September 1 and December 31, 2009, highlighted museum exhibitions: 1. Art and Illusions, Masterpieces of Trompe-l'loeil from Antiquity to the Present. On view through January 24, 2010, this major exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, Italy, explores the art of optical illusion with 140 artworks. From Roman antiquity to Old Masters to present-day painters, artists whose work masterfully "fools the eye" seems to perenially delight viewers. 2. Paintings by Jay Connaway on view at ...

Tucked away for decades in the private collections of the artist's descendants, many of the best large-scale oil paintings by Clark Voorhees (1871-1933) are now re-emerging in an exhibition at New York City's Hawthorne Fine Art. The Light Lies Softly: the Impressionist Art of Clark Greenwood Voorhees, on view from December 15, 2009 through February 27, 2010, will showcase about thirty-two of the artist's finest landscapes depicting New England, Bermuda, and Newport, Rhode Island. There are 23 works for sale, with prices ranging from $6,500 up to $110,000. Jennifer C. ...

Written by sporting art dealer Stephen O'Brien Jr. and ARTFIXdaily publisher Julie Carlson Wildfeuer, The Art of Aiden Lassell Ripley documents the artist's progression and growth, from his initial rise as an Impressionist to Realist depictions of his outdoor passions that continue to shape sporting art today. Over three years in the making, this is the most comprehensive book to date on the Massachusetts artist, chronicling paintings from his early life and work, illustrations and murals, landscapes and cityscapes, scenes of the South and his well-known ...

The exhilarating rise of Georgia O'Keeffe's fame, fashioned by her tumultuous love life and a quest for indepedence, is colorfully presented in a new biopic of the American painter on Lifetime Television this Saturday. Perhaps one of the most successful and recognized women artists of all time, O'Keeffe is aptly portrayed by actress Joan Allen, an executive producer of the film. The Canadian Press reports: ..."Georgia O'Keeffe" provides a telling glimpse through the framework of her love affair, collaboration and emotional tug-of-war with photographer Alfred ...

This fall marks the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's historic journey from Holland to New York. In commemoration of this early settler's voyage, a number of spectacular New York exhibitions are celebrating Dutch art. From Sept. 10 to Nov. 29, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is showing one of the most popular and well-known works by Dutch master Johannes Vermeer (1632—1675): "The Milkmaid." This special loan from the Rijksmuseum marks the first time that the painting has traveled to the United States since it was exhibited at the 1939 World's Fair. Five other ...

Private collections are yielding some rare and coveted dolls to the auction market this year. An art doll from an Italian private collection provoked a heated paddle battle at Theriault's July 12 sale while the Richard Wright Collection at Skinner's will offer up many more supreme examples of doll-making this October. On the eve of France's Bastille Day, Theriault's hammered down the gorgeously-outfitted French art doll for a world record price of $263,000. The previous record was $215,000 for a similar model sold in 2003. Made in Paris by artist Albert Marque circa 1914, the ...

Inflation may be lurking around the corner...so what are stock market-skittish Americans considering as investments? Oil, gold, and great art---assets which some experts consider positioned to perform well in the next market upswing. For aesthetically-inclined investors, The Collectors Fund is a novel approach to both enjoying art in the home and diversifying a financial portfolio. With a minimum $120,000 investment, members buy-in to the two-year-old art fund. It's a long-term play with a bit of instant gratification. Members bid (using votes derived from the level of their ...

Within the wide selection of Frank Benson bird etchings and Ogden Pleissner sporting scenes in Copley Fine Art Auctions' two-day Annual Sporting Sale, July 15-16, was a softly-rendered, warmly-lit portrait by Boston School artist Edmund Tarbell (1862-1938). Tarbell's "An Opal: Study of Yellow and White Light" pictured a confident Victorian lady. At the Plymouth, Massachusetts, sale Copley hammered down this alluring image for a strong $120,750 (estimate: $100,000-$200,000), part of the auction house's $4.15 million total take, a 30% increase over last year's sales ...

Rugged and wild, the coast of Maine has inspired generations of painters to capture its primeval forests and rocky shores in all artistic mediums. Two idyllic rental cottages in Maine offer vacationers dramatic scenery once enjoyed and painted by renowned American artists John Marin and the family dynasty of N.C., Andrew, and James Wyeth. With a documentary on Marin and a feature film on the Wyeths currently in production, these artist hideouts will soon be in the limelight. Cape Split is as remote and quiet today as during the 1930s when painter and printmaker John Marin (1870-1953) ...

The Wall Street Journal published a new study by Birinyi Associates on Tuesday comparing U.S. stocks with other assets over the long haul. The results touted selected collectibles as the biggest winners. Here's how eight asset types ranked in the study: 1. Sports memorabilia, ie., a rare Honus Wagner baseball card has appreciated 9,900% since 1985. (Honus Wagner, known as "The Flying Dutchman" for his great speed and Germanic heritage, played mostly for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1897 to 1917.) 2. Popular postage, ie., the "Inverted Jenny" U.S. postage stamp is up ...

Sailing to auction this fall is a 7-inch-long whale’s tooth decorated by private James Bute of the Royal Marines while aboard the ship from which Charles Darwin surveyed the Galapagos Islands in 1835. Darwin made significant scientific observations from the H.M.S Beagle which formed the basis of his seminal work, “The Origin of Species.” The hand-engraved ivory depicts the three-masted sloop H.M.S. Beagle slicing through rough waters against a mountain backdrop. With a high estimate of 50,000 pounds, the carved tooth will be auctioned by Bonhams in London on Sept. 16. ...

Forbes revealed its list of "Top Billionaire Art Collectors" on Friday. Even with the world's wealthist folks losing 23% on average of their net worth last year, these collections made the cut with values ranging from $700 million to $2 billion for an array of fine art. View the slide show of each collectors' art interests from Microsoft chairman Paul Allen's French Impressionists to the estimated $2 billion collection of modern masters amassed by Philip Niarchos, son of the late shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos, who tops the ranks. The list is limited to private ...

The perfect antidote for the recession blues, PBS' hit series "Antiques Roadshow" plans to keep reeling in viewers with exciting discoveries. From attics, and now government safes, valuable (and worthless) art, antiques, and collectibles continue to emerge from the long parade of hopeful Americans who line up in auditoriums across the country for a televised appraisal. On Friday, the show taped its experts perusing jewelry in Colorado's Unclaimed Property Division. Show host Mark L. Walberg and appraiser Peter Shemonsky headed to Denver to inspect bling held in the ...

Before Hollywood claimed the role of movie-making capital, Santa Barbara, California, ninety miles north of Los Angeles, was the epicenter of the burgeoning film industry. Surrounded by picturesque mountains, a sparkling ocean, and lovely streets lined with various revival-style architecture, this small city provided the ideal backdrop for nearly 1,200 silent films made by Flying A Studios before the production company moved to Los Angeles. Around this time, known as the Jazz Age period between 1918 and 1930, leading artists, architects, landscape designers, and craftsmen flocked to ...

Twitter, Facebook, iPhone apps, blogs, and wikis are fast making their way into how the art world operates. Today, information is expected online instantly. With the art market in a sorry slump, innovative new technology is playing a role in attracting the attention of clients and visitors during a time when consumer spending is down. (Most Americans saw their net worth decline more than 11% in the July-September quarter last year, according to the Federal Reserve.) Volatile economic times have given rise to a fierce competitiveness among museums, auction houses, auction websites, and ...

What's hot with museum-goers this summer? Images evoking the sins of pride, envy, anger, greed, sloth, gluttony, and lust. A fresh look at human frailty is on view at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, through August 30th, in the powerful series of Jamie Wyeth paintings titled "The Seven Deadly Sins." Free of the iconography associated with historical Christian art, Wyeth gives the subject of sin a new twist. Seagulls, a species the artist has long observed from his Maine studio, act out the sins in dramatic tableaux. Wyeth explained in the exhibition catalog that ...

UPDATE (Oct. 8, 2009) - Jurors convicted Anthony Marshall, Brooke Astor's son, of 14 criminal counts, including fraud and grand larceny. He was found not guilty on charges of larceny, relating to the sale of his mother's Childe Hassam painting, and falsifying business records. The 85-year-old Marshall faces up to 25 years in prison. His sentencing is set for Dec. 8.  Read more on ABC News. **** A quintessential American painting, a coastal Maine summer house, one $920,000 yacht, and $60 million earmarked for charity: all enviable assets. And the source of controversy in the ...

The Father's Day weekend auction at Downington, Pennsylvania-based Pook & Pook Inc. gave the Americana market a needed shot in the arm. Several contested lots surpassed their modest pre-sale estimates, including a pair of Boston Chippendale mahogany dining chairs that stepped up to $163,800 from a $1,500-2,500 estimate. This June 19 and 20 sale of the Estate of Helene and El Roy Master of Robesonia, Penn., consisting of about 733 lots that totalled $2,373,257.25, included a bold and beautiful Philadelphia Queen Anne transitional carved mahogany scroll top high chest, ca. 1755, that ...

Chris Jordan was a lawyer, but don't hold that against him. He reinvented himself as an artist with a social conscious. Seattle-based Jordan creates large-scale photographic works that jolt viewers into thinking about burning issues such as global consumerism and excess. On view at Santa Barbara's Museum of Natural History (through Sept. 11, 2009) is the travelling exhibition "Running the Numbers," his powerful series of work that Jordan describes on his website as a look at "contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics." Statistics can be ...

After a foggy morning dawned on Mother's Day, Santa Barbara's Jesusita fire is now 70 percent contained. From May 5 to 9, the fire burned a total of 8,733 acres including 77 homes. About 4,000 firefighters and personnel have been on the scene, assisted by flame-snuffing helicopters and DC-10s flying day and night over ArtfixDaily's office in this usually tranquil seaside city. In a previous post, I mentioned that Chubb Insurance Group reportedly sent private firefighters and engines to protect its customers' properties here with a "fire-resistant gel." This is a new ...

The Chubb Insurance Group, a leading insurer of homeowners and personal art collections worldwide, announced in a press release on May 8 that the company has sent a new kind of aid to its customers in fire-ravaged Santa Barbara, Calif. The insurer contracted Wildfire Defense Systems, Inc., to help protect customers’ homes by deploying private fire engines and crews to flame-threatened areas. The Jesusita Fire has been raging since May 5 in the foothill and canyon neighborhoods of Santa Barbara. “We have sprayed a number of the homes with fire-blocking gel and have taken other ...