The second edition of Independent 20th Century will open at Cipriani South Street on 7 September with 33 international galleries exhibiting art made between 1900 and the early 2000s. “The more you search, the more you find,” Elizabeth Dee, the fair’s founder and CEO, told The Art Newspaper. “There is an endless broadening of understanding of this time period—it just feels vast.”
A large portion of the material on view was overlooked at the time of its making due to social and political prejudices. “With more investigation, the associations between artists become clearer,” Dee says, and keeping track of work created after 1970 has been easier, “but discovering how work by women, Black and queer artists from the 1910s and 20s was preserved by people who valued them is a gift”.
The fair was launched last year, after Dee noticed a shift in how people view the last century’s art and the growing number of museums attempting to correct and reorganise their collections to make room for previously unrecognised artists and their works. While the institutions have a mountainous amount of work ahead of them, the market interest for works by historically marginalized artists has experienced a significant rise.
Wanda Pimentel, Untitled, from the Path to the Superhuman Tie series, 1966 Courtesy Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo/Rio de Janeiro
A striking case in the fair’s attempt to posthumously expand the reach of overlooked artists is Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel’s solo stand for the Brazilian artist Wanda Pimentel (1943-2019), who never had a solo exhibition in the US in her lifetime. The meticulous presentation of Pimentel’s paintings of geometric precision and Pop Art exuberance (“a larger version of this booth could easily be shown at an institution like the Guggenheim”, Dee says) is the result of two years of research and preservation.
Another research-heavy participant is Hauser & Wirth Institute, whose two-person stand shows archives of the Pakistani artist Zahoor ul Akhlaq (1941-1999) and the American artist Mary Dill Henry (1913-2009). The entirely non-commercial presentation of the Swiss blue-chip’s recently established non-profit leg stems from collaborations with Asia Art Archive and Paul V. Galvin Library’s University Archives and Special Collections at Illinois Institute of Technology.
“We were drawn to Independent 20th Century’s focus on reassessing the canon to make it more inclusive and representative,” says Lisa Darms, Hauser & Wirth Institute’s executive director. “With the direct engagement with the public that the fair enables, and the opportunity for people to see selections from archives in person, we’re expecting to have some great conversations with fairgoers about the potential and importance of archives.”
Mary Dill Henry painting a mural Courtesy University Archives and Special Collections, Paul V. Galvin Library, Illinois Institute of Technology
Archives will also be a part of Donald Ellis Gallery’s stand, dedicated to baskets by the Washoe weaver Louisa Keyser, also known as Dat So La Lee (1829-1925). The Annabelle Selldorf-designed presentation will include vitrines with ephemera about the artist’s early market presence in Nevada during the heyday of the Arts and Crafts movement, in addition to displaying five of her rare baskets.
Meanwhile, Salon 94 Design’s stand will be a solo presentation of busts by the Baltimore-based ceramicist Myrtle Williams (born 1938), whose subjects include Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, as well as everyday women. The gallery’s owner, Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, explains: “In 1984, Williams found her hand in the ceramic studio of Montgomery County Community College where, until 2019, she envisioned, threw, coiled, carved, adorned, painted, glazed and fired some 300 ceramic Black female busts.” The design gallery’s participation for the second time speaks to the thinning hierarchies between not only histories but also creative practices.
Myrtle Williams, Flora Batson (Queen of Song), 1991 Photo: Joseph Painter, courtesy the artist and S94 Design. © Myrtle Williams
Neatness has always been a part of the Independent brand, but this sophomore edition particularly stands out with its intimate scale and inclusion of galleries lesser-known to American collectors. “We try to get galleries you don’t see everywhere or those that don’t do fairs; otherwise, the whole affair gets boring,” Dee says, and rotating 20% of the gallery list every year helps diversify the list and avoid filling stands with the usual suspects. “Showing the latest Damien Hirst in green isn’t going to excite our well-informed audience,” says Dee. “If we are going to look at the past, let’s do so maybe by talking about Coenties Slip and how, for example, gentrification changed the face of New York City.” (Coenties Slip is a piece of land in Manhattan’s Financial District that, in the 1950s and 60s, was home to artists like Agnes Martin, Robert Indiana and Ellsworth Kelly. Today, fittingly, it is a short walk from the Independent 20th Century’s Cipriani South Street venue.)
“The questions of ‘why this?’ ‘why now?’ really bring the fair forward,” says Dee, and within a commercial environment, she notes that “an intellectually generous approach” is still fundamental. “I am a big believer that no material should be dummied down,” she says, “and the original source should be brought forward as much as possible.”
No matter what genre you shoot, understanding how light behaves and knowing how to leverage it in your images makes all the difference when it comes to making compelling photos. If you are a landscape photographer and want to improve your work, check out this excellent video tutorial that offers a ton of excellent information on the types of light in the genre and how to use them.
Coming to you from Photo Tom, this great video tutorial discusses light in landscape photography. If you find yourself struggling to learn to read the light in a scene, one of the best things you can do is switch your camera to monochrome mode. By removing the color, you will be far better able to focus on the luminosity in the scene. And don’t worry: as long as you are shooting in raw (which you should always do in landscape work), your camera will save the full color information in the raw file, allowing you to edit it as you normally would. Check out the video above for the full rundown.
And if you really want to dive into landscape photography, check out our latest tutorial, “Photographing the World: Japan With Elia Locardi!”
Anyone who has trawled through a historic photo archive knows the feeling of spotting a large-format photo. Like spotting a beautiful woman in a crowd, it’s hard to drag your eyes away. That depth and clarity, which seems to top reality itself, has only ever been possible with a film plane measured in inches rather than millimeters.
I was obsessed with recreating the large format feel of a 10×8-inch film camera until the reality – scores of dollars spent for each frame and days of waiting to see the results, killed the dream.
Then I saw the June 2021 PetaPixel article on Ukrainian photographer Alexey Shportun, who partly recreated the large format look.
By replacing the plane where film usually sits with a white wall, Alexey then photographed the projected image with a digital camera looking inside the large format camera.
An important sidenote here — the credit for this idea should really go to Zev Hoover who perfected a more advanced version of the same technique years earlier using a Ukrainian-made lens, but whose breakthrough seemed to go largely unnoticed.
Soon after seeing the PetaPixel write-up, I bought a Soviet-era 10×8-inch FKD “pavilion camera” with a 300mm f/4.5 lens to test things out myself. It quickly became clear the technique showcased in that article is fundamentally flawed. The digital camera is looking at the projected image from “around” the main lens of the large format camera, so the image is distorted to the point that it’s dizzying to look at, even after severe tweaking in Photoshop. Additionally, the focus point is limited to one horizontal section of the image.
On the Facebook post beneath that PetaPixel article I wondered publicly: Instead of photographing a white plane with a digital camera poked into the front of a large format camera, why not capture the image projected onto translucent material from the back under a light-proof cloth? I received a couple of answers as to why it wouldn’t work, but none made sense to me.
I started by playing around with different materials to photograph the projected image on. First came the obvious frosted glass – a non-starter due to an intense hotspot and the grittiness of the image. Then I attempted to coat a pane of clear glass with oven-melted wax (a kitchen disaster).
The eureka moment finally arrived when I pulled a sheet of baking paper over the back of the Soviet camera where the film would usually sit. I remember the following moments well. My daughter, then a little over one-year-old, was playing on the floor next to me as I ducked under the black cloth to focus the Soviet camera and then photograph the crinkly paper with my Lumix GH5. When I emerged and looked at the photo I’d made of my barbeque outside on the terrace I was stunned. “YES!” I exclaimed.
My little girl was equally surprised at seeing me, fist in the air, making such a loud noise. “Yass!!” she echoed — arguably her first word in English.
After a little more tweaking I ended up at the ropey but functional point where the technique stands today. I use artist tracing paper stretched across the film plane and held in place with double-sided tape. I photograph the paper from inside a lightproof cloth tunnel with a handheld Lumix GX9 and a 17mm f/1.2 Olympus lens. The cloth is held in place with bulldog clips and my teeth.
One thing worth noting: That super fast lens is essential. Even in a sun-drenched scene it’s hard to get a shutter speed faster than 1/200th so getting a sharp image on an overcast day or in the shade can be a struggle with anything slower than f/2.0.
The first outing for this technique was in the summer of 2021 in Ukraine. I used it on a couple more shoots, including in Armenia, but perhaps the perfect subject for the camera was the 2023 Zheravna festival in Bulgaria, where no technology is allowed inside the venue (they let me in with the giant, antique camera), and entry is only permitted for those wearing traditional or historic clothing.
With that I’ll stop talking, and unroll the photos I made that day. I will answer as many questions about the technique as I can, as I continue to iron out the technique’s many flaws. Enjoy the pictures.
About the author: Amos Chapple is the senior photo correspondent for RFE/RL and is based in Prague. You can find more of his work on his website and Instagram.
The official start to the fall art season is upon us. Kids are back in school, the heat may soon abate, and the Ruinart is ready to be corked. That’s right, it’s Armory Art Week, whence a slew of fairs arrive in Manhattan, and galleries and museums across New York City celebrate the beginning of another action-packed year.
Below, enjoy our essential guide to the upcoming parade of art events.
Photo: Vincent Tullo. Courtesy The Armory Show.
When: VIP preview: Thursday, September 7; Public hours: Friday, September 8 and Saturday, September 9, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sunday, September 10: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Where: Javits Center, Crystal Palace Entrance, 429 11th Avenue
What to Know: Is it a regional fair or an international one? That is the question on many art world observers’ lips these days, and the 2023 instantiation of the Armory Show may help settle the matter. Although the Armory show was bought by growing art-fair conglomerate Frieze earlier this year in a deal announced in July, expectations are that this edition will be unchanged by the acquisition.
It’s the fair’s third outing at the Javits Center, an enviable venue (and perhaps part of Frieze’s interest in buying the Armory Show). The event will host more than 225 galleries representing more than 35 countries and 800 artists.
This year also heralds the third edition of Armory Off-Site. The outdoor program will present three large-scale sculptures at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center during the U.S. Open, and present artworks in partnership with Times Square Arts at the organization’s Midnight Moment program.
Work by Lee Quiñones on view with Ross and Kramer Gallery, New York, at the Independent 20th Century fair at the Battery Maritime Building. Photo courtesy of Ross and Kramer Gallery, New York.
When: VIP preview: Thursday, September 7: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Public hours: Friday, September 8 and Saturday, September 9: 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Sunday, September 10: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Where: Battery Maritime Building at Cipriani South Street, 10 South Street
What to Know: For the sophomore edition of Independent 20th Century, which focuses on the rich artistic movements and artists of the period between 1900 and 2000, more than 30 galleries and non-profit organizations will showcase works at the historic Battery Maritime Building at Cipriani South Street, with 12 exhibitors including Almine Rech, Van Doren Waxter, and the Hauser & Wirth Institute making their debut at the fair.
Female artists are at the forefront this year, with highlights including a solo presentation of French artist Marie Laurencin, presented by Nahmad Contemporary, and Galerie Lelong and Co.’s presentation of an unseen body of work by the late artist Mildred Thompson.
Work by Ole Marius Jorgensen, exhibited at Momentum Gallery.
When: Public hours: Friday, September 8 and Saturday, September 9: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sunday, September 10: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Where: Javits Center
What to Know: The long-awaited debut of Asia’s largest photography fair in the U.S. is finally upon us, promising an exposition of 60 international galleries that will “bring a new energy to the fall season in New York.” A range of video, virtual-reality, and photographic works will be on display under the guidance of art world veteran Helen Toomer, director of the New York edition.
Exhibitors include For Freedoms (New York), ROLF ART (Buenos Aires), Luis de Jesus Los Angeles (Los Angeles), Momentum (Miami), and 193 Gallery (Paris). Special programming will be presented by partners including Fotografiska New York and Gagosian Quarterly.
Yasmine K. Kasem’s work, curated by Rokhsane Hovaida, at Spring/Break Art Show Los Angeles 2022. Photo by Sarah Cascone.
When: First look: Wednesday, September 6: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; opening night: 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Public hours: Thursday, September 7 to Monday, September 11: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Where: Old School, 32 Prince Street
What to Know: This smaller fair, which often makes use of unconventional venues, has been called “scrappy,” “beloved,” and even “undoubtedly the best New York City fair at which to snap up emerging artists at reasonable price points”—and that’s just in Artnet News.
Founded by Andrew Gori and Ambre Kelly in 2009, Spring/Break has engendered a crowd of devout cheerleaders over the intervening years, climbing from a fringe fair to a staple—a beloved (yes, we’ll say it again) diversion from the commerce of Armory Week. This year, Spring/Break hosts more than 120 curatorial projects with work from more than 400 artists at the former headquarters of Ralph Lauren.
A view of Art on Paper in New York City. Courtesy of Art on Paper.
When: VIP preview: Thursday, September 7: 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; opening night: 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.; Public hours: Friday, September 8 and Saturday, September 9, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sunday, September 10: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Where: Pier 36, 299 South Street
What to Know: The ninth edition of Art on Paper, which showcases… art on paper… returns to Manhattan’s Pier 36 during Armory Week with a robust 100-exhibitor lineup under the direction of Nato Thompson. Highlights include a dual presentation of Judy Pfaff and Barbara Zucker at Accola Griefen gallery, and ADLAR Studio will show prints by artists Kenny Scharf, Analia Saban, Shane Guffogg, Matthew Brandt, and the Haas Brothers.
Rupture (2022). Courtesy of Salon Zürcher.” width=”1024″ height=”431″ srcset=”https://www.mecreates.com/story/news/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/MicrosoftTeams-image-20-1024×431.jpg 1024w, https://news.artnet.com/app/news-upload/2023/08/MicrosoftTeams-image-20-300×126.jpg 300w, https://news.artnet.com/app/news-upload/2023/08/MicrosoftTeams-image-20-50×21.jpg 50w, https://news.artnet.com/app/news-upload/2023/08/MicrosoftTeams-image-20.jpg 1031w” sizes=”(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px”>
Colleen Herman, Rupture (2022). Courtesy of Salon Zürcher.
When: Monday, September 4: 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Tuesday, September 5 and Wednesday, September 6: 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Thursday, September 7, Friday, September 8 and Saturday, September 9: 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Sunday, September 10: 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: Zürcher Gallery, 33 Bleecker Street
What to Know: This mini-fair, which has its other edition in Paris, bills itself as an alternative to “superstore-style fairs,” during Armory Week. The 29th edition of Salon Zurcher is titled “The 11 Women of Spirit, Part 8,” and features—you guessed it—work by women artists. Among the 11 Women showing work in Part 8 are Lauren Ball, Elizabeth Bisbing, and Agathe Bouton.
Visitors at Clio Art Fair. Courtesy of Clio.
When: VIP opening: Thursday, September 7: 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.; Public hours: Friday, September 8: 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturday, September 9: 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Sunday, September 10: 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Where: 550 West 29th Street
What to Know: The biannual art fair named after the Greek Muse of history and poetry returns to New York for its 15th edition, continuing its mission to give a platform to artists without exclusive gallery representation.
The alternative model lends itself to a more creative fair-going experience, and in addition to the 70 participating independent artists, this year’s event boasts a series of performances titled “Confess Your Dreams” and a special section titled “Losing Track of the Lost” that explores homelessness and social justice.
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We’ve featured photographer Jvdas Berra several times on this site. His resume is huge, and perhaps we’re all really familiar with the work that he’s done in Vogue over the years. There’s a great reason why he’s rated one of the best fashion photographers of 2023. But we were also curious to hear his thoughts on AI. And believe it or not, they might surprise you.
All images by Jvdas Berra. Used with permission. This interview has edited with grammatical corrections. Check out his Instagram for more.
Jvdas Berra: First of all, thank you very much. I always tried to make windows to surreal worlds but always with some reality, and that reality always comes from my subjects.
For me, AI is not the future, is the present. I think we as photographers need to evolve and learn how to use these tools cause AI is that, a tool. Personally, I have a year of working with AI and mixing it with my photography to improve and evolve my style.
I believe that today is happening exactly the same as when Photoshop came, a lot of people were worried about the future of photography and started to criticize the post-production process made on the software. At some point, I think it will be completely unified and will be something normal for everyone.
Let’s embrace the new technologies. It’s evolve or perish in the process.
Jvdas Berra: For me, post-production is something really important, but for every photo I do the pre-production is 50% as I don’t like to prepare anything due I am a very improvised photographer, the production is the most important for me, and takes the 60% of it and to end the other most important is the post-production with the 40% of my effort.
With post-production, I have the chance to reach infinite possibilities that are not possible in real life. I feel I can create anything like a god.
Jvdas Berra: I believe that mixing infinite human creativity with limitless AI is going to take humanity to the next level of advances, talking about art and science. Let’s don’t forget that AI is an invention that we made as humans, and this is just an add-on.
Since a long time ago, every day since last year, I have been impressed with the insane creations that people are doing with the AI. I feel that we are in the middle of a huge change as species. I’m very excited to see what’s next and what we can reach as creators. Let’s don’t forget this technology is advancing very fast.
Jvdas Berra: I think this is a point of view that is coming from the wrong conception. We are not here to compete with AI, we are here to use it and improve our work and lives with it.
Our emotions need to be conducted to the creation by using the AI, not about to compete against an intelligence that has all the resources and infinite options to resolve any kind of necessity we have.
Is not possible to compete against the machines. For the first time in our history, we have created something that is more capable and Intelligent than us, but we are lucky enough to have this power in our hands, so let’s use it until we come to the realization that we can be the used ones, speaking in the fiction mode, but remember sometimes fiction is more real than reality.
To negate or try to compete with the technology once it’s out to the world is pure resistance, is trying to be in the darkness and to be destined to destruction or oblivion. We need to embrace it, adopt it, and make it our normal life.
I have one year of using this technology, and my photography has improved because of that. The mere existence of one does not means the destruction of the other, is just a matter of balancing both for a common good.
A couple recognized the Washoe weaver Louisa Keyser’s prodigious talent and spun myths to promote it. But her fortitude shines in work that today can be seen in museums and at the Independent 20th Century fair.
The Native American baskets sold in the early 1900s out of Abe Cohn’s Emporium, a men’s clothing store in Carson City, Nev., were exceptional. They were woven by Dat So La Lee, said to be a “princess” from the nearby Washoe people whose royal status permitted her alone to utilize a special weaving style.
The truth was less exciting. Dat So La Lee preferred her English name, Louisa Keyser. She was a Washoe woman, but the tales Cohn and his wife, Amy, spun about her — her esteemed heritage, her meeting with the Civil War general John C. Frémont — were myths.
As for many of her baskets’ distinctive and lovely incurving bulge, known as degikup, it almost certainly was influenced by the baskets of a different people, the Maidu, much as the fine stitching of Keyser’s work was lightly derived from the baskets of yet another Native American people, the Pomo. Nothing lent Keyser special authority to make her baskets her way.
“Interchange and borrowing was common in the production of baskets for the curio trade,” Marvin S. Cohodas, a professor emeritus of art history at the University of British Columbia who wrote an essay about Keyser accompanying the show, said in an email.
The Cohns originally hired Keyser to be their washerwoman, according to Cohodas. The Cohns noticed her skill — she may have begun by twining around Abe’s whiskey flasks — and backed her financially in exchange for her exclusive weaving services (she no longer had to clean for them).
The Cohns fashioned their apocryphal embellishments as the baskets’ extraordinary artistic value became apparent. They also arranged for her to weave outdoors or, during winter, in the Emporium window; at least once, Amy Cohn lectured while Keyser posed near her.
No matter their back story, Keyser’s baskets sold well and today are considered remarkable. They can be found in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
And, after just a small handful sold in the past half-century — one, in 2007, for $1.2 million, a high at the time — they are about to receive a new spotlight: Five will be featured at the Independent 20th Century art fair opening Thursday in Lower Manhattan as part of what the fair calls a “major highlight exhibition” designed by the architect Annabelle Selldorf.
The prices for the five baskets, one of which by Tuesday was on reserve, range from $350,000 to $1.5 million, said Donald Ellis, whose namesake Vancouver gallery commissioned the mini-show.
Keyser, who lived from around 1850 to 1925, is among the most prominent names in Native basket weaving, said Jessica L. Horton, a professor of modern and contemporary art at the University of Delaware. Ellis, in an interview, called her “the Rembrandt or Michelangelo of the field,” adding of Native American art, “It’s considered the best basket-making culture in the world, and she was the best in it.”
Melanie Smokey, a Washoe weaver, said: “Our Washoe tribe, which is a very small tribe, is known across the nation because of her work specifically.”
Keyser’s baskets were arguably made possible not only by her talent and efforts, but by the support of white patrons, a sensational legend and a contemporary “basket craze” that placed a premium on the exoticism and authenticity of Native crafts.
It is notable, in an era vexed by questions of cultural appropriation, that Ellis is not shying from this kink in the story of Keyser and her baskets. Promotional material from the gallery refers to the Cohns’ “elaborate false narratives” and the halo of “pseudomythological significance” they constructed around Keyser.
“While there are some today who imagine the Cohns’ having taken advantage of Keyser, the aim of this presentation is to foreground Keyser’s exceptional artistic output while acknowledging the complicated relationship that enabled it,” Ellis said in an email.
Herman Fillmore, the culture and language resources director of the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, said that cultural borrowing was common in Keyser’s time among Washoe, for example in their adapting modern materials such as canvas to build warmer homes. “It’s not right for the rest of us to tell our basket weavers how to weave their baskets,” he said.
For Horton, the professor, Keyser’s story is important to understanding her baskets, if not in the way the Cohns intended.
“It’s complicated where we put our gratitude,” she said, “but thanks to the fraught relationship that unfolded around the Cohns’ Emporium and her own artistic brilliance and fortitude, we know her name and have an archive through which we can reread the details of her life, and the pretty inspiring story of a Native woman at the turn of the 20th century navigating a global art market under conditions of terrible colonization.”
The five baskets at the fair are from Keyser’s classic, middle period. They include one from 1916 titled “Myriads of Stars Shine Over Our Dead Ancestors,” which, Ellis said, Abe Cohn esteemed as her greatest work (as does Ellis). Another, titled “Brotherhood of Men,” was the one the Ellis Gallery sold in 2007 for $1.2 million. Most of the approximately 150 surviving works by Keyser are at institutions, Ellis said.
Then as now, the degikup evident in four of the show’s baskets is a source of much of the enthusiasm around them. “It’s a high-walled basket,” said Horton, “and in its most perfected form the actual designs integrated into the walls of the basket will flare and then get smaller to add emphasis to the sculptural shape.”
For centuries, baskets have been an important part of the culture and lifestyle of the Washoe, whose word for “lake” was taken for the Sierra Nevada’s most famous landmark. (The name Lake Tahoe, Fillmore pointed out, is something like “lake lake.”)
Like other developments in weaving during the period, degikup arose not out of utilitarian considerations — that is, the best way to design a basket used to carry things — but rather out of the demand for baskets from non-Native consumers who sought them as artworks.
“The fact that these baskets would not receive hard wear meant that more area of the basket could be covered with design,” Cohodas said. “Innovation was thus rampant, with weavers drawing on whatever was available, including new tools, shapes, materials and designs.”
One Pomo weaver adapted Keyser’s degikup, he noted. A Yokuts weaver used Apache designs. The Washoe weaver Sarah Jim Mayo was, like Keyser, widely imitated.
“There was no criticism of these actions as appropriations,” Cohodas added. “Likewise there was no criticism when most Washoe weavers took on the degikup shape, and many weavers also adapted Keyser’s flame design and scatter pattern.”
Heather Law Pezzarossi, a professor of anthropology at Syracuse University, argued that our contemporary arguments over cultural appropriation are misapplied to Keyser’s baskets.
“Authenticity is a completely Western, American fixation we’ve mapped onto this concept of indigeneity to make it part of an American past, not an American future,” she said, noting that it was the Cohns who were most invested in the concept.
“Instead of valuing these baskets because of the ways that those Western art dealers told us to value them a hundred years ago,” Pezzarossi added, “why don’t we look at them afresh and value them a different way?”
Independent 20th Century
Sept. 7-10, Battery Maritime Building at Cipriani, 10 South Street, Lower Manhattan; independenthq.com.
