21st Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition announces calls for entry

Sep 28, 2023 By Admin in Photography

BOONE — Following last year’s 20th anniversary celebration for the Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition, the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts is calling for entries to this year’s upcoming 21st Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition exhibition.

Inspired by the Banff Centre’s Mountain Photo Competition, the AMPC is updating its submission process to a single-image and series submission format. The single-image submission application will be the most familiar to previous AMPC artists. Instead of submitting images to themed categories, artists can submit 1-5 standalone photos aligned with the theme of “Roots, Ground, Water, Seeds” for $10. Building on last year’s exhibition featuring photographic series, AMPC is offering a series submission option where artists can share 6-12 images from a singular body of work for $15. Selected artists from this category will show six images from their submitted series, highlighting the AMPC’s vision to support the expansion of Appalachian narratives. The deadline for submissions is Nov. 18.

These Technologies That Can Help Collectors, Galleries And Artists Supercharge The Traditional Art Market

Sep 28, 2023 By Admin in Art World News

“Art tech” refers to solutions that assist art market stakeholders—whether they’re collectors, creators, or gallerists—in elevating their businesses. The inception of art tech predates the dot-com boom, with SaaS solutions targeting this market. Yet, nearly three decades on, the art market predominantly operates on PDFs, word processors, email lists, and spreadsheets.

According to the 2023 Art Basel and UBS market report, global art sales increased by 3% year-on-year in the previous year. The report indicated that 2022 sales approached almost $68 billion, with the US capturing 45% of the global market share. However, the Artnet Mid-Year Review from July 2023 expects a downturn in these figures for 2023, noting a significant deceleration in line with the global economy. Artnet’s findings revealed a 25% decline in secondary sales at major auction houses compared to 2022. Despite this, gallerists like David Zwirner remain hopeful.

A saying common during crypto bear markets goes, “the bear is for builders.” This sentiment resonates with the art market as well. With advancements in blockchain technology and AI, developers across various sectors are fervently creating solutions for an industry long overdue for modern tooling. By “supercharging” the art world with tools crafted by teams of tech and art experts, the market might witness enhancement.

Artificial Intelligence and User-Friendly Tooling by simplify.art

The simplify.art sales interface

simplify.art

simplify.art, a platform powered by Yurica—an AI engineered to “understand and process text about art”—was introduced to me by its co-founder, Victoria Dejaco. Yurica, a meta-algorithm, drives various facets of the simplify.art platform. Its algorithms handle tasks like processing and extracting information from online documents and those uploaded by artists. It also offers LLMs for text processing, provides custom recommendations for collectors and artists, and implements an AI-based pricing model. Furthermore, the diligent AI task force at simplify.art, spearheaded by researcher Sonja Steiner, meticulously refines Yurica to ensure its algorithms exhibit reduced biases concerning gender, social, and racial representation.

Dejaco founded simplify.art drawing from her experiences as a gallerist, art historian, and a studio and collection manager. Recognizing the inadequacies of current solutions, she envisioned a new platform tailored to address the specific issues she encountered firsthand. Together with co-founder Glenn Vanbavinckhove, a former Director of Data Science at both KPMG and Deloitte, they scrutinized other art tech offerings. Their vision expanded, aiming for a tech stack that seamlessly integrates the best solutions. Dejaco stressed the importance of a software “that remains simple to handle, integrating essential features into a cohesive ecosystem.”

The duo, alongside an all-female team of technologists and marketers, is committed to refining the platform, focusing on user-centric automation. Vanbavinckhove emphasized the importance of tailored and relevant solutions, championing the use of automation, machine learning, and AI throughout simplify.art.

Blockchain-based Artwork Authentication by Verisart

In 2015, the Verisart team began experimenting with the blockchain for physical art. Their Certificates of Authenticity, built atop the Bitcoin
BTC
blockchain, were launched in 2019. The product has four different certificate statuses, incremental in levels of verification. The highest one, Certificate of Authenticity+ provides detailed item information and includes holographic certificates and QR stickers for physical items.

As the company evolved, and in response to the explosion of the NFT
NFT
market in 2021, Verisart has subsequently expanded their product offerings. Today, they provide NFT minting tools, a Shopify integration for streamlined storefront creation, and more.

A Generative Art Engine by Art Blocks

LOVE by Martin Grasser for ATP Tour using the Art Blocks Engine infrastructure

Martin Grasser

Generative art stands out as the most dominant genre in the NFT world. Art Blocks, established in 2019, has led the industry in this space since 2021. This platform and company are devoted to launching and selling algorithmic art. Two of the most lucrative generative art NFT releases, Ringers by Dmitri Cherniak (January 2021) and Fidenza by Tyler Hobbs (June 2021), were introduced via Art Blocks. As per the NFT marketplace OpenSea, Ringers and Fidenza have generated trading volumes of 31,301 ETH
ETH
and 62,872 ETH, respectively.

To diversify their offerings, Art Blocks rolled out a generative art engine in 2022. This engine empowers creators and brands to debut their own NFT generative collections using Art Blocks’ smart contracts and rendering capabilities. The Art Blocks Engine offers two products: the primary Engine, which also manages on-chain storage of assets, and Engine Flex, which grants clients the flexibility to manage asset storage through decentralized solutions, such as IPFS.

Invisible Web3 Experiences by Mojito

Mojito, a consumer engagement platform, has garnered attention in the traditional art world, partly due to the crypto expertise of its founders, Matthew Iles and Amanda Cassatt, both Consensys alumni and marketing experts. Mojito extends a suite of white-label web3 services, including crypto wallets, mints, drops, marketplaces, and token-gated reward systems.

Mojito is versatile, catering to a diverse range of brands and companies of all sizes. While they can assist prominent names seeking a strong metaverse presence, their expertise doesn’t stop there. Renowned auction houses such as Sotheby’s (that was in turn a backer in Mojito’s $20 million USD raise) and esteemed galleries like Pace—both Mojito clients—already benefit from their services. Moreover, small creative agencies looking to lead in web3 consulting can harness Mojito’s comprehensive tools to amplify their offerings. This is in line with how global brands, like Adidas, are charting their course in the metaverse, underscoring a broader industry shift.

Iles highlighted in an email conversation that “Traditional art galleries are largely offline, lacking in e-commerce proficiency and customer data.” Beyond creating new markets for digital art, Iles believes NFTs offer traditional galleries enhanced online engagement capabilities and richer customer data.

It’s worth noting that the tools and platforms mentioned above aren’t solely designed for big institutions or high-profile galleries; they cater to a broad spectrum of users. To suggest that the art market’s primary participants are only major galleries and auction houses is an oversimplification. Numerous talented artists opt for independence, while others struggle to secure representation. Moreover, many smaller galleries can’t afford the cost of showcasing at art fairs or prominent online platforms.

Affordable service rates, a wide range of technologies and customizable packages help small businesses grow sustainably. The tools highlighted above offer diverse avenues for all art world participants to carve out their online identities—whether they’re selling NFTs, sculptures, paintings, or even poems.

Platforms crafted by multidisciplinary teams, bridging the divide between technologists and art enthusiasts, will be pivotal for the art world’s future. They hold the key to broader inclusivity, fostering a more vibrant and healthy market.

Kara Walker’s Singular Multiples

Sep 28, 2023 By Admin in Printmaking

Kara Walker’s art draws its power from her unconventional fusion of vintage Antebellum aesthetics with emotionally and politically charged imagery. In her

Explore Sarah Sherman Samuel’s New Home Collection for Lulu and Georgia

Sep 28, 2023 By Admin in Design

If you’ve dreamed of having your home designed by Sarah Sherman Samuel, now’s your chance! The prolific interior designer has introduced a new collection that’s perfect for autumn with Lulu and Georgia. The Sarah Sherman Samuel Collection is full of warm, modern style, and includes furniture, rugs, and decor, as well as her first lighting and bedding.

“Like everything I design, there are so many personal pieces in this new line. I designed cabinet doors with my dad, drew inspiration from my Finnish background, and find inspiration in so many different places,” said the designer. “It’s so exciting to see my products come to life. Plus, I’ve wanted to design lighting and bedding for so long and it’s finally here!”

Each piece of the collection is meticulously crafted, with nature often acting as the starting point for the designs. “As a whole, nature is always and forever the driving force of inspiration for my work,” she shared. “From color palette to shapes and motifs, nothing inspires me more than the natural world.”

There’s lots of excitement around the bedding components of the Sarah Sherman Samuel Collection, and we can definitely understand why. “I wanted to create a collection with a good amount of variety in shapes and styles that are unique but also ultra cozy with subtle details to make them stand out. There are large quilted bed covers, scalloped edge pillow cases, ruffled edge shams, and even a skirted bedspread,” she detailed.

“I wanted to use natural fibers that feel luxe, but still relaxed so we went with hemp,” she said of the material selection. “I love hemp because it’s super soft and gets softer with age, but is also incredibly durable. It’s also very breathable and more absorbent than most fabrics, so it is thermoregulating, keeping you warm in cooler temperatures and cool when it’s hot out.”

styled bedroom with a light-skinned blonde woman sitting in a white armchair for a portrait

Sarah Sherman Samuel

To learn more about the Sarah Sherman Samuels Collection for Lulu and Georgia, visit luluandgeorgia.com.

This post contains affiliate links, so if you make a purchase from an affiliate link, we earn a commission. Thanks for supporting Design Milk!

Kelly Beall is Director of Branded Content at Design Milk. The Pittsburgh-based writer and designer has had a deep love of art and design for as long as she can remember, from Fashion Plates to MoMA and far beyond. When not searching out the visual arts, she’s likely sharing her favorite finds with others. Kelly can also be found tracking down new music, teaching herself to play the ukulele, or on the couch with her three pets – Bebe, Rainey, and Remy. Find her @designcrush on social.

Ramshackle Dwellings by Simon Laveuve Reach Skyward in an Imagined Post-Apocalyptic Future

Sep 28, 2023 By Admin in Art World News

Detail of “Le Rocher / IDF2068” (2023), mixed media, 67 x 20 x 20 centimeters. All images © Simon Laveuve, shared with permission

Paris-based artist Simon Laveuve imagines a world filled with anarchic architecture in his ongoing series of detailed, miniature shelters (previously). At 1/35 scale, his recent works continue to explore the possibilities of dwelling in remote or inhospitable places, incorporating tiny tire swings, rope ladders, furniture, and art. The ramshackle, towering structures contain wooden doors, scrawled messages, and a variety of utilitarian objects, suggesting the industrious work of unseen hands. While devoid of figures, an abandoned coffee cup or a door left ajar suggests the inhabitants are not too far away.

In his piece titled “Le Rocher,” which translates to “The Rock,” the artist explores notions of time. “The rock is a survivor. Cataclysm, tsunami, storm. He was there,” he says in a statement. “He saw everything, heard everything. When land and sea give birth to a new world, the rock, against wind and tide, will be there. It’s at the end that everything begins (again).”

Explore Laveuve’s sculptures in more detail on his website, and follow Instagram for updates.

A miniature dwelling sculpture featuring numerous details like a ship mast, ladders, and steps.

“Le Rocher / IDF2068”

Two images of of a miniature dwelling sculpture featuring a wooden shack on a giant vine.

Left: “Voir Loin / Hors-série” (2023), mixed media, 47 x 15 x 15 centimeters. Right: Detail of “Voir Loin / Hors-série”

A miniature dwelling sculpture featuring numerous details like a rope swing and wooden windows.

“La Guérite / IDF2068”

Detail of miniature dwelling sculpture featuring numerous details like miniature painters and wooden details.

Detail of “La Guérite / IDF2068”

Two images of of a miniature dwelling sculpture featuring numerous details like a ladder and tire swing.

Details of “La Guérite / IDF2068” (2023), mixed media, 55 x 12 x 12 centimeters

Detail of “Le Rocher / IDF2068”

A miniature dwelling sculpture featuring numerous details like ladders, signs, and paintings.

Detail of “Le Rocher / IDF2068”

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Ramshackle Dwellings by Simon Laveuve Reach Skyward in an Imagined Post-Apocalyptic Future appeared first on Colossal.

House of Marley’s Stir It Up Lux Turntable Cues Up Sustainability

Sep 28, 2023 By Admin in Design

Eco-minded audio maker House of Marley has been trying to hit the right note between delivering accomplished audio performance alongside sustainably sourced designs since 2010, and its hard not to credit the brand for their efforts to increasingly integrate more and more mindfully sourced materials when cheaper and less environmentally-friendly options are par for the course. Well over a decade later the brand’s catalog of speakers, headphones, and turntables have become increasingly more reflective of their sustainable ethos, something visibly apparent with their new flagship Stir It Up Lux turntable, a Bluetooth-enabled vinyl spinner designed to appeal to a multitude of senses.

House of Marley has kept the Stir It Up Lux design fairly straightforward, with subtle branding and organically modern presence delivered by its simple rounded bamboo plinth. The plinth is a degree warmer in real life than the photos above show, exhibiting a consistent flat grain that keeps the design on this side of contemporary rather than crunchy-green.

Compared to the more affordably appointed Stir It Up model which sits upon a large black base and has a noticeably thinner bamboo plinth, the Lux edition’s denser and heavier slab of bamboo is better equipped to absorb vibrations. The turntable also feels a lot more premium, with aluminum components, belt-driven glass platter and aforementioned plentiful plinth combining for a satisfying heft.

Detail of Stir It Up Lux's knurled dial controls with glowing blue light and 45, 33, and Off settings printed across its diameter. Dial is set to 33. Small headphone port is to the left side, with turntable platter partially visible.

The Stir it Up Lux knurled dial located in the lower left of the plinth allows for switching between 33 1/3 and 45 RMP speeds, with a headphone port. The turntable also features auto stop/start, and anti-skate adjustment.

Conversely, the design projects an airier presence thanks to its floating plinth seated upon four vibration absorbing feet. The absence of plastic in look, feel, and construction – at least externally – imparts confidence the Stir It Up Lux should age well.

The Lux is equipped with an Audio-Technica 95E elliptical stylus with adjustable counterweight and aluminum headshell adorned with a subtle Jamaican-themed detail. The 95E rates as an entry level cartridge, but a model historically appreciated for balanced performance and certainly good enough for the casual vinyl lover who wants plug-and-play satisfaction. Those already planning an upgrades path will appreciate the replaceable design, allowing the stylus to be swapped out with one of numerous replacement styluses available that rate as mid-tier.

The Lux moniker is deserved in its choice of materials, but the turntable is squarely an enthusiast-friendly audio component, with a built-in, switchable pre-amp. It can operate as a BYO-speaker affair, with playback possible using wireless Bluetooth audio speaker(s), non-powered speakers connected to an amplifier, or powered speakers. House of Marley also prepackages the Lux turntable with a pair of Get Together Duo Speakers for a discounted, out-the-box-ready experience.

The pairing method is straightforward with a simple press and hold button setting to connect via Bluetooth 5.3. We did run into a small hiccup pairing the turntable with a non-House of Marley Bluetooth speaker (a connectivity issue we later discovered attributed to the speaker rather than the turntable). When used with a provided Get Together 2, the process was quick and without issue, making the argument for keeping brand components consistent.

View of the back of the Stir It Up Lux turntable revealing RCA port and USB-C connections, alongside AC power plug port.

Alongside RCA out connections, there’s a lone USB-C out port located alongside the rear of the turntable. The port is not for connecting devices for playback, but instead intended to charge House of Marley Speakers or any USB-C powered audio device.

Included is double-sided cork slipmat, with one side featuring a Bob Marley-adorned zoetrope pattern that animates the reggae legend in multitude in mesmerizing fashion. For those with more sedate sensibilities, don’t fret, the flip side of the slipmat is plain dark cork.

Cedella Marley, daughter of Bob Marley, opines vinyl’s purity in the appreciation and experience of music, “There’s no skipping tracks, so you’re listening to the album exactly as the artist intended you to.” And House of Marley’s Stir It Up Lux turntable keeps things appreciably simple tastefully embellished with an eco-conscious aesthetic that distinguishes itself from the multitude of turntables available today.

The Stir It Up Lux Bluetooth Turntable is available directly from the House of Marley website, Amazon, and select retailers for $400, with the optional Get Together 2 available for $250.

This post contains affiliate links, so if you make a purchase from an affiliate link, we earn a commission. Thanks for supporting Design Milk!

Gregory Han is a Senior Editor at Design Milk. A Los Angeles native with a profound love and curiosity for design, hiking, tide pools, and road trips, a selection of his adventures and musings can be found at gregoryhan.com.

What to see, do and hear: “Lost Girl,” Art Week, Sarah Peacock, Flamenco, more

Sep 28, 2023 By Admin in Native

DANCE

As part of choreographer Nadya Zeitlin’s residency at Core Dance, artists in her company, Bautanzt Here, will share a work in progress as part of the Core Dance Salon: The Art of Conversation series. The company will present a short exerpt of Zeitlin’s latest work The Othering, testing the interactive component of the dance. ArtsATL‘s Robin Wharton recently talked with Zeitlin about her professional and personal journey. Attendees will have the opportunity to share feedback with the artists. Donation-based drinks and light snacks will be available. Saturday at 6 p.m. Free. Registration required.

The Atlanta Flamenco Festival will offer a special performance Friday at the Red Light Café. A group of artists will celebrate the music of Jerez de la Frontera, as performed by singer Pepele Méndez. Many of Atlanta’s flamenco artists will be performing along with guest artist Valeria Montes, known as “La Chispa” or “The Spark” for her singing and her complex, rhythmic zapateado. The award-winning dancer, who studied in both the United States and Spain, is now executive and artistic director of Casa Flamenca in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 8 p.m. Tickets $25 in advance. $30 at the door.

MUSIC

Acclaimed singer/songwriter Sarah Peacock comes home for a show at Eddie’s Attic Friday at 9 p.m. The Lawrenceville native grew up performing in church and was forbidden to listen to any secular music. She moved to Nashville in 2001 to attend Belmont University to study commercial music. Peacock has released eight albums during her career, and her latest, Burn the Witch, is an ambitious project that draws parallels between current events and the 1692 Salem Witch Trials. Tickets are $20.

Rick Beato will perform at the Variety Playhouse this week.

A native of Fairport, New York, Rick Beato was a music teacher, guitarist and producer who helmed a project by the band Parmalee that resulted in a No. 1 song. But Beato’s rise to fame comes from his YouTube channel that has more than 3.5 million subscribers — where he talks about music and interviews stars including Sting, Brian May and Pat Metheny. Beato now lives in Atlanta and recently talked about his journey with ArtsATL. He does a live version of his YouTube show September 28 at the Variety Playhouse that will include a reunion of his old band, Billionaire. Tickets are $35.

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra returns to Piedmont Park Saturday evening for another of its popular semiannual concerts in the idyllic setting of Oak Hill. The program will begin at 6:30 p.m. with a chamber music ensemble from the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra. The main orchestra will perform at 7:30 p.m. under the baton of William R. Langley, spotlighting selections from the upcoming 2023-24 season, along with movie themes by John Williams. Attendees are encouraged to bring blankets, picnics and lounge chairs; food trucks will also be on-site.

ART+DESIGN

This is the last weekend to see the shows at Whitespace Gallery, among them Correspondences, an exhibition of works by Wansoo Kim, Sharona Eliassaf, Neha Vedpathak, Rubens Ghenov and Emily Weiner. Originating from locations around the world, these five artists work professionally throughout the United States, in media ranging from painting and ceramics to paper and sculptural installation. The exhibition revolves around the unique symbolism of each individual artist and the relationships created between their wide-ranging artworks converging in a shared space. It closes on Saturday.

The High Museum is among those participating in Atlanta Art Week.

The second annual Atlanta Art Week kicks off on Monday and runs through October 8. More than 40 of the city’s arts organizations, among them museums, galleries and nonprofits, will be participating. There will be openings, panel discussions, artist talks, lectures, museum tours, parties and more throughout the city. See ArtsATL’s preview by Gillian Anne Renault. Most events are free.

The two-person exhibit Within Your Reach at the Swan Coach House Gallery features work by Larson Shindelman and McKinna Anderson and is curated by Maria L. Kelly. Drawing from content posted on X (formerly Twitter) and Tinder, the artists in this exhibition explore the interplay between self-presentation online and the desire to be seen and heard by others. On Saturday at 3 p.m., the artists will engage in a discussion about the show. On October 5, the gallery is offering a curated tour of the exhibit at 5 p.m. as part of Atlanta Art Week. Through October 19.

THEATER

Revisit your past self from childhood with Lost Girl, on stage this weekend only at Theatre Emory. Written by and now for the first time directed by Kimberly Belflower, the play follows the adult life of Wendy Darling many years after Peter Pan. Read ArtsATL critic Luke Evans’ preview from this week and find out the real-life heartbreak that inspired Belflower to write her award-winning production.

Passing Strange opens at Theatrical Outfit this Friday, book and music written by Stew. The musical depicts a narrator, known only as Youth, who has fled the United States to find rock ‘n’ roll fame in Europe. Read ArtsATL critic and editor-at-large Kelundra Smith’s preview from this week to hear director Thomas W. Jones II talk about mothers, sons and the power of music to heal our innermost wounds.

Travis Sharp and Haddon Kime’s original scripted musical, Wicket, is remastered and coming back to the Dad’s Garage stage after a successful nationwide tour. Through song and dance, the performance rewrites a classic Star Wars tale from an Ewok’s perspective, with all the laughs you would expect from Dad’s. The show runs Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at 8 p.m. Through October 21. Tickets start at $39.

FILM+TV

Out on Film continues through October 1. The full lineup of this award-winning LGBTQ film festival includes 44 features and 15 shorts programs for a total of 151 films representing 27 countries. Screenings take place at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema and various other local spots, so check show details. Passes start at $50 for a five-film package.

Celebrity Memorabilia Becomes the Star of Auction Season

Sep 28, 2023 By Admin in Art World News

As the art market wobbles, estate sales are filling holes in the auction calendar.

Within the living room where she entertained heads of state and celebrities, the broadcast journalist Barbara Walters exhibited two pictures in gilded frames. One was a commissioned portrait of herself in a luxurious gown. The other was a painting of a stoic Egyptian woman in a black head scarf — created in 1891 by one of the most beloved painters in American history, John Singer Sargent.

After the iconic interviewer died last year, her family decided to keep her portrait and sell the Sargent as part of an $8 million trove of artworks, jewelry and dresses featured in a charity auction at Bonhams on Nov. 6 with an online sale running from Oct. 29 through Nov. 7. And though the Sargent painting is the marquee lot of the collection, with a high estimate of $1.8 million — another female portrait from his trip to Egypt hangs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art — auctioneers expect fans of Walters to compete in bidding wars for less prestigious items like cutlery and serving plates.

John Singer Sargent’s “Egyptian Woman (Coin Necklace),” from 1891, hung in Barbara Walters’s home and will be sold at Bonhams in October. via Bonhams

From the sale of Elton John’s artwork and pianos, coming to Christie’s early next year, to photographs of Madonna going on the company’s auction block next month, celebrity memorabilia and estate sales are headlining the coming auction season as major consignors wait to see if the weakening art market will rebound. The prognosis looks grim, according to experts, when accounting for the lackluster performance of spring auctions and the more recent string of disappointments at the September art fairs.

“It’s a market based on confidence,” said Bruno Vinciguerra, chief executive of Bonhams. “And we have a lot of uncertainty because of global tensions and interest rates.”

Natasha Degen, chairwoman of art market studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology, said that celebrity sales have proliferated in recent years because of their “unparalleled ability to attract attention, and, thus, to boost prices.”

“If auction houses are having a hard time acquiring the kind of blue-chip works that break records, celebrity estate sales can reliably earn press attention and pique public interest,” Degen explained.

via Bonhams

So far this fall nothing has materialized that compares with the gangbusters twin estate sales of Paul G. Allen’s art collection in 2022, where Christie’s topped $1.5 billion and where five paintings were purchased for more than $100 million, including works by Georges Seurat, Paul Cézanne and Gustav Klimt.

The best to surface comes to Sotheby’s on Nov. 8 and 9. The auction house announced its fall season with a Picasso painting estimated in excess of $120 million, coming from the estate of the philanthropist and art patron Emily Fisher Landau. If that price is achieved for the work, “Femme à la Montre,” it would be the second-highest price fetched by a Picasso at auction, falling nearly $60 million short of another of his paintings that sold in 2015.

Spending sprees in the fall might have left buyers and sellers with a collective hangover. When the spring auction season rolled through in May, there was a noticeable absence of modern masterpieces by artists like Warhol, Picasso and Lichtenstein. Three paintings by Jasper Johns offered at Christie’s that month failed to reach their low estimate, signaling perhaps that estimates were still too high, or that demand was misjudged.

Charles F. Stewart, the chief executive of Sotheby’s, told The New York Times in an interview at the time that the market was experiencing scarcity issues. “Collectors who can hold onto them longer will,” he said. “And when they do come, it will be a relatively small group of people who can afford them.”

With the ultrawealthy benched, the real electricity of this year’s auctions may belongs to the estate sales, in which prices hover within the thousands and low millions of dollars, bringing more bidders into play. And when the consignments are coming from celebrities, the battle for memorabilia gets heated.

Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for Sotheby’s

A recent auction of the heirlooms of rock vocalist Freddie Mercury at Sotheby’s nearly quadrupled its initial high estimate of $14.2 million to achieve $50.4 million. According to the company, there were more than 41,800 bids placed on 1406 lots. It was the most bidders they’ve had in almost two decades, since the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis estate sale in 2004.

The star of the show? A silver mustache comb no bigger than a pinkie. The collectible was originally priced with a high estimate of about $760 but soared to nearly $194,000 with buyer’s fees — selling better than some paintings from the musician’s collection. And there were other tchotchkes that vaulted over their estimates, including a neon telephone for $51,000, a group of 29 cat ornaments for $39,000 and a common book of poetry for $89,000.

“It’s about finding stories that people love,” said Gabriel Heaton, a specialist who worked on the sale. “One thing people love about Freddie was his refusal to take himself entirely seriously. And the mustache comb speaks to that, as did our wonderful mustache over the entrance to our auction.”

via Sotheby’s

Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for Sotheby’s

The sale was a reminder of how celebrity bestows importance on the mundane. Last November when Stair Galleries held an estate sale in Hudson, N.Y., for the writer, Joan Didion, even a group of shells and beach pebbles sold for $7,000. Those sales clearly made an impression; the small auctioneer has since offered other estates, including those of the actors Paul Newman and his wife, Joanne Woodward, and the collection of the fashion editor André Leon Talley. (A Christie’s sale of Talley’s belongings brought in $1.4 million.)

Earlier this week, the auction house offered Wilt Chamberlain’s golden Los Angeles Lakers’ jersey, which sold for $4.9 million with fee. And the art collection of the French actor Gérard Depardieu also sold at the auction house Ader for $4.2 million.

Despite the relatively low total estimate of $8 million on the Barbara Walters collection, the major auction houses were competing through the summer for the deal. (Christie’s lost the Walters collection to Bonhams, a smaller company that has developed a specialty in estate sales.)

“When it comes to making the most of a celebrated collection, we are good,” Vinciguerra, chief executive of Bonhams, said. “Our salesroom will look like a history book with pictures of Barbara everywhere.”

The company is hoping to replicate the success it had selling the library of the Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Bonhams had estimated the collection at $60,000, but the books ended up selling for $2.4 million.

“We are talking about objects that were not necessarily unique, but she was someone respected and loved in this country,” Vinciguerra explained.

Degen, the art market expert, pointed out that “even when these auctions don’t net as much as regularly scheduled fine art sales, they help bring attention to the auction house and burnish its brand.”

Bonhams is hoping Walters fans compete for her upholstered armchairs in a zebra pattern and a commemorative vase honoring the thousandth episode of her morning talk show, “The View.”

Some of the jewelry for sale is deeply personal. That includes Walters’s engagement ring from the television producer Merv Adelson, whom she married and divorced twice between 1981 and 1992. The ring and its emerald-cut diamond of 13.84 carats has a high estimate of $900,000.

“Our home was always filled with interesting and beautiful reminders of her incredible, diverse life,” Jacqueline Danforth, Walters’s daughter, said in a statement. “I know she would find comfort that these pieces she cherished so much will be enjoyed and cared for.”

Images from Ukraine and the photographer who found herself amidst war

Sep 28, 2023 By Admin in Photography

WHITEWATER — The images would appear to be abstract splashes of paint.

In reality, they are close-ups of the remnants of buildings ravaged by war in Ukraine.

And through Oct. 20th, the colorful photographs created by Iva Sidash are filling the spaces of a small gallery in the heart of this city’s college campus.

Sidash, 29, a native of Lviv, Ukraine, had no intention of becoming a war photographer. Her focus since 2019 had been on street photography, documentary work and more recently images for a Ukrainian news organization.

Ukranian photographer Iva Sadish speaks Tuesday at the opening reception for “The Wall: Witness to the War in Ukraine,” an exhibit that runs through Oct. 20 at Roberta’s Art Gallery at UW-Whitewater. Sadish, 29, had been a street, documentary and news photographer but in February 2022 began photographing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

But in February 2022, when Vladimir Putin’s Russian army invaded her country, Sidash (who initially thought she might volunteer as a driver or aide worker) began using her Fujifilm digital camera to help tell the world about her country’s plight.

Her work has been part of international exhibits in France, Spain, Singapore, Germany and in her home country’s capitol of Kyiv. But “The Wall: Witness to the War in Ukraine,” which opened Monday at Roberta’s Art Gallery at UW-Whitewater, is Sidash’s first solo exhibit. The display of her 19 photographs and a television screen scrolling through dozens of more broader images of the war’s victims became even more pronounced on Tuesday when Sidash appeared in person at a reception to further explain her work and add more context to her work.

“For me, each and every detail matters,” Sidash said, during a question and answer period before a crowd of more than 60 people. “I just felt a great need to do something more.”

Sidash was a finalist of the International Fujifilm Moment Street Photo awards in 2021 and her work has been recognized by the International Center for Photography in New York, where she is spending the next eight months in a fellowship designed to better hone her photography skills.

Her exhibit in Whitewater and her week-long visit to southern Wisconsin came about after Craig Schriener, who spent 16 years as a photojournalist for the Wisconsin State Journal and is now a photographer at UW-Whitewater, began following Sidash’s work on Facebook prior to the war.

Schreiner has spent more than 30 years documenting life in the Midwest and in 2013 wrote and took the photos for a book documenting a small family farm near Pine Bluff west of Madison. But when the war in Ukraine began, Schreiner’s keen eye was drawn first to a selfie Sidash had taken with her cell phone in which she was sheltering in a cellar with her cat, Tommy. A day later, she posted another photo, this one of two soldiers carrying a disabled person across train tracks at a train station where Ukrainian refugees had gathered to escape the war’s danger.

Other images would follow. They would include funerals, hollowed out buildings, destroyed cars and tanks rumbling down a road littered with debris. Others would show the innocence of children and the elderly, destroyed barns in the countryside and of cemeteries filled with Ukrainian flags, flowers and photos of those who have perished in the war.

“I think she’s a high-level combination of photojournalist and an artist,” Schreiner said. “I wasn’t expecting that Iva would be here but she wanted to come because this was important for her. I think when you are trying to understand or trying to begin to understand something hard, like war or cancer or racism, it really helps to have direct contact with someone who has experienced that. I think that is going to be a great value, this experience, for a lot of people.”

Sidash arrived in Wisconsin on Sept. 22 and is staying with Schreiner and his wife, Lisa, at their home in Middleton. Besides the opening reception, Sidash was the focus of a talk on Monday at UW-Whitewater by Abigail Lewis, a University of Notre Dame historian who researches art and visual culture during times of war. Sidash was also scheduled to speak Thursday afternoon at UW-Madison’s Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia and spent Wednesday giving presentations to art and social studies students at Janesville Craig and Parker high schools.

The principal donor for Sidash’s exhibit and travel expenses to Wisconsin is Susan Van Galder, whose husband’s family founded a Janesville bus company in 1947. Susan is a retired art teacher and a UW-Whitewater graduate and her son is an art teacher at Parker High School.

“I was so impressed with her knowledge of photography, and not just her working the camera, but what she sees with her camera,” Van Galder said Tuesday as she surveyed the colorful images in the gallery. “These almost look like paintings but they’re actually parts of beat up, bombed out walls. It’s spectacular the way she gets perspective with the color juxtaposition. Through art and photography you can create a story of your history and that’s what she’s doing.”

Sadish is a graduate of Lviv Polytechnic National University and thought she would have a career in project management. But photography became her calling. Her work has been published in the Financial Times of London; Fisheye Magazine in France and Der Spiegel in Germany. Her photographs are among those that also help illustrate a book of Ukrainian poetry that tells the story of the war’s devastating affect on the country.

And now the international audience of Sidash’s work can include students at UW-Whitewater, some who helped develop the exhibit. They were the ones who downloaded, edited and mounted Sidash’s photos onto rectangular pieces of foam core for display in the 1,000-square-foot gallery that was founded in 2008. The poster to promote the exhibit was designed by a student and students worked with gallery staff to set up the exhibit.

On Tuesday, it was Angela Malo, a student director of the gallery, who interviewed Sidash during the reception and led a question and answer period with the audience where Sidash explained how in spring 2022 she began focusing on walls of residential buildings in North Saltivka, an area located in the northeastern region of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine. The project would then expand to the regions of Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv and Donetsk.

“Everybody who touched those photos cared about them,” Schreiner said. “When you have an experience like that it’s something you remember for a long time.”

Sidash’s first image of a wall came from a driveway of a high rise building heavily damaged by Russian shelling. Moments later she went inside to explore what remained of apartments. There was no one around and she felt conflicted about being inside homes where beds remained unmade, dishes were left on tables and there were family photographs of people she didn’t know. She wondered about their well-being and continues to struggle with her own emotions as she tries to document a conflict that has upended the lives of so many in her country.

But she knows creating and sharing her work is a way to tell a story that others may not otherwise realize, despite a world in which images can be shared internationally seconds after they have been produced.

“I hope my pictures are powerful but it’s not necessarily only about my pictures but the power of photography,” said Sidash, who wears a silver necklace with a pendant in the shape of Ukraine. “It’s the best of what I can do in this life. I want to be useful and do something for my country. I couldn’t stay aside. Photography is this tool that helps me do something.”

Photos: Iva Sadish and her images from Ukraine

Barry Adams covers regional news for the Wisconsin State Journal. Send him ideas for On Wisconsin at 608-252-6148 or by email at badams@madison.com.

“It’s been an interesting journey, getting to know him. Really, I think he was just a sweet young man.”

Ann Reinke Strong, a niece to George Fenn

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A Libyan photographer captures life after the floods

Sep 28, 2023 By Admin in Photography

What does life look like in northeast Libya after catastrophic flooding killed thousands of people?

Find out for yourself with this weekly view from a photographer on the ground in Derna, a city that lost entire families and neighbourhoods when two dams burst after a storm tore through the northeast mid-September.

While official estimates of the dead sit at more than 4,200, other numbers are much higher, and thousands remain missing.

Check back to see weekly photos, and to listen to photographer Mohamed Nabil explain why they matter to him, as – long after other cameras have moved on – The New Humanitarian looks to keep the spotlight on northeast Libya.

Week of 24 September 2023

Photographer Mohamed Nabil explores the aftermath of the floods in his home city of Derna, capturing rescue workers, ambulances, protests, and messages of unity that have emerged in the wake of the disaster.

Edited by Ciara Lee and Annie Slemrod.

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