Art World News

Opinion | How to Hold an Anticapitalist Art Auction

Opinion | How to Hold an Anticapitalist Art Auction
image

A 37-year-old artist who calls himself Penny Pinch says he’s an anticapitalist, but not the angry kind. His paintings feature flat-nosed men in buffalo suits. They’re in the bold, cartoonish street style of Keith Haring or the animated series “Adventure Time.” He was a musician and then a pastor before he tried his hand at art. He and his wife, who works for a Christian social service agency, have children ages 5 and 6. Last year he made $40,000 and his wife about $45,000, he told me.

This Friday, Penny Pinch the anticapitalist will be involved in something that might warm the hearts of a lot of capitalists, especially those who are interested in innovation. Sixty-one of his works will go on sale in an unusual auction in which the price starts high and then keeps falling until someone buys.

This type of auction, known as a Dutch auction, is typically used for flowers, fish and other perishable products, because it produces sales quickly. Not for art. Yet this is the second year Penny Pinch has sold works this way. Last year the stunt drew the attention of The Economist magazine. It’s the kind of thing you can imagine catching on if it works — whatever “works” means (raising money, raising consciousness, entertaining the clientele?).

Several aspects of this auction are interesting, including where he got the idea, why he’s going ahead with it, and the pros and cons of the Dutch style from the point of view of economists. I’ll start with the last part because this is an economics newsletter.

Auctions of all kinds are a huge part of our lives. The ads that appear in Google searches are placed through auctions among advertisers (by computers, of course, not someone with a gavel). A survey of the auction field in 2021 looked at auctions in “timber, construction and services procurement, oil and gas leases, online auctions, internet advertising, electricity, financial securities, spectrum, as well as used goods.” The authors, Ali Hortaçsu and Isabelle Perrigne, wrote that “it is quite striking” that six of the people awarded Nobel prizes in economics since 2001 have publications on auctions.

The kind of auction you choose should depend on what you’re selling: “horses for courses,” as Paul Klemperer, an auctions expert at Oxford University, likes to say. That’s what makes Penny Pinch’s auction this week unusual. A descending price auction seems like the wrong horse for this course. It’s over abruptly, which makes sense for everyday items but not so much for artwork, where art-loving bidders customarily ponder their willingness to pay as the price rises.

Penny Pinch told me that he enjoys the excitement of a Dutch auction for art, in which a bidder who comes in high can win a piece before anyone else even notices his or her presence. (The starting prices are being posted on Wednesday, and the auction will begin online on Friday. The price of each of the 61 works will drop by $100 each hour until it’s sold, so not exactly rapid-fire.)“For me the subversion is what’s interesting,” he said. “I really don’t care about the economics.” He produces a lot of paintings — around 250 a year for sale — which keeps prices low. It also means that a person who misses out in one auction will probably be able to score a piece later.

Because Penny Pinch has chosen not to put a reserve price on any piece, the price of one or more could go all the way to zero. That would be unacceptable to your typical professional artist. Many want to impress collectors that the value of their works is steadily rising, so if they sense any weakness in demand they tend to pull their stuff off the market. I asked him how he would feel if a work attracted no bids and somebody carted it off without paying anything. “Part of me secretly hopes it does,” he said.

I also asked him what makes him an anticapitalist. “I’m not trying to burn down the government or anything,” he said. “I like to live as simply as I can and consume as little as I can. With capitalism, one of the things that often frustrates me is that there’s winners, but there’s also losers. I would love in my own life, which is the only thing I have control over, for there not to be losers.”

The idea of a descending-price auction came not from him but from Allan Weinberger, the director and founder of A Very Serious Gallery in Chicago, where Penny Pinch shows his work. (One senses that Weinberger means “very serious” ironically.) In an email, Weinberger wrote that before opening the gallery he spent 10 years working in Google’s ad business. Previously he worked at Viagogo, an online ticket seller, and was a consultant for National Basketball Association teams on ticket pricing. So he knows the space.

“While Dutch auctions can be anxiety-inducing for both buyers and sellers, Penny Pinch and I have played out every scenario and we’re comfortable with any result,” including the possibility that a few works will “undersell,” he wrote.

As for anxiety, it depends on how quickly prices are lowered. If they’re lowered gradually, emotions don’t run higher than in an ascending-price (English) auction, Jan Krämer of the University of Passau in Germany, wrote to me in an email. That’s based on research he and his partners did for a 2014 paper, “Excitement Up! Price Down! Measuring Emotions in Dutch Auctions.”

Mark Tendall, an advanced lecturer who teaches undergraduate economics at Stanford, read about last year’s Dutch auction and got interested enough to buy one of Penny Pinch’s paintings for his office (albeit not by auction). This year he’s giving a webinar on auction theory in conjunction with the event. He said the Dutch auction eliminates the possibility that two or three well-heeled bidders with big egos will get into a bidding war to impress people. “There is something very democratic about this,” he told me. “Even the starting prices aren’t too high.”

In Weinberger’s email to me, he wrote, “For years, Penny Pinch and I have worked together to spitball unusual ideas, most of them are terrible.” This one might not be so bad.


The share of people with disabilities who are employed — 22.9 percent in November — is hovering around its highest level in Bureau of Labor Statistics records going back to 2008. (The average since June 2008 is 18.8 percent. The peak was 23 percent in August.) A continued shortage of labor has made employers more open to hiring disabled people, Bryon Bass, chief executive officer of the Disability Management Employer Coalition, wrote in an email. Long Covid slightly increased the number of working people who are disabled. Also, the Covid pandemic showed that “it absolutely is possible for us to work from home,” said Felicia Nurmsen, managing director for employer services at the National Organization on Disability. The option to work from home attracts some disabled people who otherwise might not seek employment.


“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.”

— Hannah Arendt, “The Origins of Totalitarianism” (1951)

The Top Ten Colossal Stories Readers Loved Most in 2023

The Top Ten Colossal Stories Readers Loved Most in 2023

Image © Laurent Ballesta

As we approach the end of 2023, we’re revisiting some of the top stories we wrote about this year. From enormous kinetic beach creatures to a trove of salvaged historic photographs, our readers’ most-loved projects illustrate a diverse array of mediums, ideas, and groundbreaking discoveries.

 

Image © Theo Jansen

A Wind-Powered Herd of Beach Animals Merge Into a Storm Defense System in Theo Jansen’s Latest ‘Strandbeest’

An 18-meter-long Strandbeest scuttles across the sands of a beach in The Netherlands in a short video by Dutch artist Theo Jansen, who has been releasing his otherworldly creatures into the world each year since 1990.

 

Photo by Diego Lourenço Gurgel, courtesy of Vinicius Peripato

More Than 10,000 Indigenous Earthworks Hidden in the Amazon Reveal Human Connections to the Forest Over Millennia

Researchers Vinicius Peripato and Luiz Aragão of Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research led surveys that identified 24 previously undocumented earthworks in the Amazon basin, with results suggesting that between 10,000 and 24,000 sites remain undiscovered across Amazonia’s 2.59 million square miles.

 

Image courtesy of Terri Cappucci

A Photo Preservationist Saved a Trove of 4,000 Glass Plate Negatives That Nearly Went Into the Trash

In 2019, Terri Cappucci, a photographer and preservationist based in Massachusetts, stumbled upon a veritable treasure trove of 4,000 glass plates spanning the 1860s to the 1930s that had been destined for the trash.

 

Photo by Shiinoki Shunsuke / AMKK. Image © Azuma Makoto

Azuma Makoto’s Temporary Sculptures Freeze Hundreds of Flowers on a Snow-Coated Lake

On a frozen lake in the Notsuke Peninsula, a tendril of land that juts out from Hokkaido’s east coast, acclaimed floral artist Azuma Makoto has constructed the third botanical sculpture in an ongoing series called Frozen Flowers.

 

Image courtesy of Robert van Embricqs

A Wooden Artwork Miraculously Unfurls into a Functional Desk Designed by Robert van Embricqs

The surge in remote work during the last few years prompted Amsterdam-based designer Robert van Embricqs to rethink how conventional desks would impact a home’s atmosphere.

 

Image © Laurent Ballesta

Laurent Ballesta’s Luminous Photographs Reveal the Astounding Diversity of Ocean Life

The earth’s oceans are mindbogglingly expansive, and less than 20 percent has been mapped, explored, or seen by humans. For Laurent Ballesta, the underwater world provides an endless stream of remarkable aquatic personalities.

 

Image © the artist, courtesy of Galleria Continua

In His Largest LEGO Work To Date, Ai Weiwei Recreates One of Claude Monet’s Most Famous Paintings

Ai Weiwei challenges our perceptions of natural beauty and reality, replacing brush strokes with plastic bricks redolent of digital pixels, using a more saturated color palette, and embedding shadows that evoke a hint of unease.

 

Image © Anthimos Ntagkas

Photos of Everyday Activities Reveal the Humor of Perspective and Serendipitous Alignments

One of the joys of street photography is that it reveals just how often unexpected, serendipitous juxtapositions are happening around us. Whether in Tel Aviv, New York, or Athens, Anthimos Ntagkas has a keen eye for these everyday alignments as he captures strange and amusing sights during his travels.

 

“Creación de las aves (Creation of the Birds)” (1957), Museo de Arte Moderno, INBAL/Secretaría de Cultura. Photo by Rodrigo Chapa. © 2023 Remedios Varo, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VEGAP, Madrid, courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

A Major Exhibition Materializes Surrealist Artist Remedios Varo’s Alchemical Visions

More than 60 of Remedios Varo’s paintings, sketches, and sculptures went on view at a U.S. museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, for the first time in 23 years. The enchanting works evidence the artist’s esoteric affinities and are rife with unexpected magic.

 

Image © Mikko Lagerstedt

Mikko Lagerstedt Photographs the Quiet Grandeur of Snowy Nordic Landscapes

Underneath soft light from the moon or the early morning sun, Finnish photographer Mikko Lagerstedt captures the quiet magic and mystery of Nordic landscapes.

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 The Top Ten Colossal Stories Readers Loved Most in 2023 appeared first on Colossal.

Chicksaw Holiday Art Market set for Saturday at the Artesian

Chicksaw Holiday Art Market set for Saturday at the Artesian

Discover the perfect holiday gift at the Chickasaw Holiday Art Market at the Artesian! Join more than twenty Chickasaw artists showcasing their best in paintings, handwoven garments, pottery, ceramics, one-of-a kind knives, beadwork, jewelry and more.

Don’t miss the chance to get a beautiful gift of art at the Chickasaw Holiday Art Market, Saturday, December 16, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Artesian Hotel in Sulphur. See you there!

Artists Include:

MARGARET WHEELER — handwovens

BRENT GREENWOOD — 2D mixed media and paintings

DANIEL WORCESTER — knives, jewelry, books

JOANNA UNDERWOOD BLACKBURN — pottery, handwovens

BEVERLY CALLAHAN — textiles

MARY WILDS — textiles & handwovens

DUSTIN MATER — Paintings, ledger art, sculpture & stickers

NICOLE WILLIS — digital art prints & stickers, painting, beadwork

WAYNE EDGAR — carvings, painting, jewelry

SUSIE EDGAR — jewelry, beadwork

ABBY GAINES — drawing and painting

ANGIELINE COLLEY — beadwork

PAT COX — leatherwork, bags

WAYNE WALKER — beadwork, jewelry

KRISTEN WALKER-MARTINEZ — beadwork, ribbon skirts

STEVEN MARTINEZ — powwow drums

AMY GANTT — pottery

ASHLEY WALLACE — Jewelry, clothing

LISA HUDSON — photography

TYSON HUDSON — painting

COURTNEY SMITH — jewelry

SUE FISH — baskets

and more!

State of the Art Market: Surrealist Women Awakening

State of the Art Market: Surrealist Women Awakening

With most historical art movements, we find that there are scores of women whose influence and work have been overlooked or at the least undervalued for their contributions to the canon. The Surrealist movement is such an example, which has largely been defined by iconic male artists like Dali, Magritte and Miro.

More recently, exhibitions, books and articles have done the work of reviving the woman Surrealist and reviewing the narrative that allowed her erasure. Yet, as art history is reconsidered—even revised—does the art market reflect this new critical valuation? And if so, how long does it take to catch up?

Using auction data, we have set out to answer these questions by analyzing auction prices, but more importantly sell-through rates (lots sold against lots offered, minus withdrawals), which acutely reflect demand in a segment of the market where prices could be considered depressed.  While the data for male and female Surrealists over time cannot offer firm conclusions or predictions, it may present a fuller view of how this more recent and much talked-about category is developing from a market perspective.

(Methodology: Morgan Stanley collaborated with Artnet News using the Artnet Price Database to analyze the fine art market for Surrealist works sold at auction from 2013 through October 20, 2023, as illustrated in the charts herein. All price data is drawn from the Artnet Price Database and includes the buyer’s premium unless otherwise expressly noted. The Database includes only lots with a minimum estimate of 500 USD (for original paintings, sculptures, works on paper, photographs, prints and multiples, and installations with an identified artist). Unlike with other categories in fine art, Surrealism is a more loosely defined genre, with many artists across continents thought to sometimes participate in the movement. Defining Surrealism as spanning from circa 1917 to 1966 and encompassing the work of approximately 200 artists, Artnet created a data set utilizing publicly available information and Artnet’s own historical research. For the avoidance of doubt, Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti have been excluded.)

Previously: From Muse to Artist

Surrealism was codified and brought to life by Andre Breton in his 1924 “Surrealist Manifesto,” which outlined the movement’s commitment to translating the true nature of the unconscious.[1] The manifesto reflects Breton’s fascination with Freudian psychoanalysis and Breton’s belief that it was perhaps a solution to man’s disillusionment with his life. According to the manifesto, the woman’s role was that of the muse, la femme-enfant, who acts as a talisman of the unconscious. Freud’s and thereby Breton’s worldview associated women with pure emotion, not logic.

It’s a classic story. Leonora Carrington, now recognized by many as a vital figure of the 1930s Surrealist movement, was generally thought of as not much more than pioneering artist Max Ernst’s muse in the years they shared together as husband and wife. He moves on, her contribution to art ends, or so the thinking went. But as has since become clear, Carrington, along with fellow Surrealists Remedios Varo, Kati Horna and Bridget Bate Tichenor, fled Europe for Mexico City and found there not just haven from World War II but a new landscape in which they could practice their art outside the male-dominated European Surrealism.  As Carrington herself put it, “I didn’t have time to be anyone’s muse.  I was too busy rebelling against my family and learning to be an artist.”[2] And as Carrington’s cousin described in an article for the Guardian, European women in Mexico found freedom from this circumscribed identity, as they didn’t have to bend to the gendered expectations of the time being both foreign and of some means.[3] At the same time, Mexico was widely considered a hotbed of Surrealist activity, with the iconic Frida Kahlo—the most successful woman Surrealist in terms of auction results—at its center.

Of course, women Surrealists were active in the United States as well, many of whom were similarly sheltered from the ravages of the World Wars in Europe. Artists such as Lee Miller and Kay Sage were influenced by Surrealists during their travels to Paris before bringing the movement stateside. But artists didn’t have to go to Paris to catch the influence. The Surrealist Gertrude Abercrombie, for example, became exposed to the movement through the avant-garde circles she moved in in 1930s Chicago.[4]

Recently: Exhibitions and Market Activity Shine New Light 

In recent years, a proliferation of major exhibitions has put women Surrealists front and center and has found massive popular response. Examples include the 2020 “Women, Surrealism, and Abstraction” at the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art;[5] the 2022 post-pandemic “Meret Oppenheim: My Exhibition” at the MoMA,[6] the 2022 “Surrealism Beyond Borders” at the Met,[7] which later traveled to the Tate Modern; the 2022 “Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity” at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice;[8] and the 2023 “Remedios Varos: Science Fictions” at the Art Institute of Chicago.[9]

Yet, the rediscovery of women Surrealists goes back to the 2010s, with the landmark 2012 show at LACMA “In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States.”[10]  Additionally, in 2015, the Bronx Botanical Garden staged the wildly popular “Frida Kahlo: Art, Garden, Life” exhibit.[11]  It’s also worth noting that MoMA’s redesign, completed in 2019, saw the inclusion of far more women Surrealists in its permanent collection.[12] That same year, crowds flocked to a retrospective on Dorothea Tanning at the Tate Modern.[13]

What effects have these attempts to reframe women Surrealists had on their secondary-market performance?

The market has also been instrumental to this story’s unfolding.  In 2012, Dorothea Tanning’s Le Miroir (1950) sold at Christie’s for £217,250, a record for the artist at the time.[14]  Then, in 2014, Kay Sage’s Le Passage (1956) sold for $7 million at a Sotheby’s auction, more than 23 times her previous auction record.[15]  Sotheby’s seemed to respond to this interest by mounting the selling exhibition “Cherchez la femme: Women and Surrealism” in 2015.[16]

Though markets stutter and peak, based on what we discovered it seems clear that interest in women Surrealists has been steadily increasing over the years. In 2013, the average sale price of a work by a woman Surrealist was $35,098, compared to the male Surrealist average of $72,273. While the average sale price for male artists has its dips and resurgences, with a low average price of $54,505 in 2016 and a high of $97,972 in 2017, women Surrealists see their more modest average steadily climb over time, with a huge jump in 2021, to $167,263, before settling to $84,339 the next year. Thus far in 2023, while the data period does not include sales in the key November New York auctions, average sale price for women Surrealists is up to $95,376, surpassing the male Surrealist average of $59,183.

Source: Artnet Price Database[17]

Source: Artnet Price Database[18]

With $4.26 billion in sales over the past ten years, the total sales volume for male Surrealists greatly outpaces that for women Surrealists, who brought in $252 million. Yet it looks as though women are accelerating, after surpassing their male counterparts in average price at auction in 2014, then more than doubling their figure by 2021. It was also in 2021 that the first woman artist made it to the top 20 Surrealist lots when Frida Kahlo’s Diego y yo (1949) sold for $34.9 million including premium, marking the third-highest price for a Surrealist piece at auction during the period and the most expensive work ever sold by a Latin American artist.[19] Notably, this high also far surpasses her husband Diego Rivera’s record auction price of $14.13 million, realized in a 2022 Christie’s sale for the piece The Rivals (1931).  To be sure, male Surrealists’ total sales value at auction continues to greatly outpace that of women Surrealists, topping out at $561 million in 2022, while for women the high-water mark was $62.05 million, in 2021.

These auction totals should also be contextualized by the number of lots offered. In the past ten years, male Surrealists have had some 80,864 lots put to auction compared to 3,908 Surrealist lots by women artists over the same time period. With increasing interest in women Surrealists, we may see more work by them come into market circulation, whereas we may assume that, certainly on a relative basis, male Surrealist stock has been fairly well plumbed by now.

Take Gertrude Abercrombie. Her auction results are an illustrative example of the meteoric rise of a woman Surrealist over the last ten years. In 2023, among the bevy of her works that sold at auction were two via Hindman Auctions this spring: Owl and Dominoes—sold for $214,200, or 614% over its high estimate—and Four Trees and Three Owls—which sold for $352,800, or 404% over its high estimate. For comparison, two sales in 2013 that were indicative of where her market then sat include Girl and Cats, sold via Bonhams for $11,875, and Owl and Moon, sold at Hindman for $5,000—both at or below their estimates.  The coup de grâce came last year, when a single-owner, single-artist auction of works by the late Chicago painter scored more the $2.8 million at Hindman. Her record is now held by Untitled (Woman with Tethered Horse and Moon), sold by Hindman in December of that year at its Post-war and Contemporary sale for $437,500. Also notable: her success has come largely at auction houses other than the “big two,” with major strides notched at Hindman and Bonhams.

In an especially encouraging sign, sell-through rates for women Surrealists have grown at a very healthy rate during the period. In 2013, their sell-through rate was 60%; thus far in 2023, it is 82%, marking a 35-percentage-point jump over the past ten years. This is in comparison to the male Surrealist increase in sell-through rates, from 67% in 2013 to 76% today—a rise of 13 percentage points.

Source: Artnet Price Database[20]

For context, the sell-through rates for other genres that do not overlap with Surrealists have not risen to the level of women Surrealists. Old Masters and Ultra-Contemporary, for instance, have at their highest had sell-through rates of 66% and 73% (on an aggregated basis), respectively during the period, though they have marginally higher total sales value.  (Artnet defines the “European Old Master” genre as fine artworks created by European artists born between 1250 and 1820. Lots with an identified artist must carry a minimum estimate of $500, and lots with a modifier—such as “school of,” “circle of,” “follower of”—must carry a minimum estimate of $2,000. Artnet defines the “Ultra-Contemporary” category as fine artworks created by artists born in 1975 or later.)

Looking Ahead: Keeping Our Eyes Peeled

The story of the female Surrealists’ market is still developing, with examples in the Fall 2023 New York auction season including Bonhams’ specialized sale “Surrealism: Beyond Reality” on November 15 with works from major women Surrealists including Leonor Fini, Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, Rachel Baes and Jane Graverol as well as notable male Surrealists including Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, Jean Cocteau, Man Ray and Andre Masson. [21]

Further, the influence of the Surrealist movement, and its women artists, appears far from fading. In fact, as women Surrealists gain more critical and market stature, it seems to be increasingly evident that they have shaped a new generation of Ultra-Contemporary artists. Some of the most sought after Ultra-Contemporary artists—many of them women—have strong aesthetic ties to the Surrealist movement, from Emily Mae-Smith to Julie Curtiss.  These two artists alone have sold a total of $22,797,522 from 2013 to 2023 thus far, with noteworthy average price per auction and sell-through rates of $202,396 and 88%, and $221,278 and 91%, respectively.[22]

Not only may such Surrealist-leaning artists be construed as darlings of the market, they are well represented in some of the most notable shows of the season, and many of the headliners are women: Lucy Bull’s “Venus World” at the Long Museum in Shanghai;[23] Emily Mae-Smith’s “Habitats” at the Pond Society in Shanghai;[24] Issy Wood’s “I Like to Watch” at the Ilmin Museum of Art;[25] Julie Curtiss’s “Bitter Apples” at White Cube;[26] and Ewa Juszkiewicz’s “In a Shady Valley, Near a Running Water” at Gagosian Beverly Hills.[27]

The woman Surrealist has awakened from the dream, and this time we, too, are awake, enjoying her work and closely monitoring its value from the start.

Source: Artnet Price Database[28]

Source: Artnet Price Database[29]

Artnet Price Database: From Michelangelo drawings to Warhol paintings, Le Corbusier chairs to Banksy prints, you will find over 14 million color-illustrated art auction records dating back to 1985. Artnet covers more than 1,800 auction houses and 385,000 artists, and every lot is vetted by Artnet’s team of multilingual specialists. Whether you are appraising a collection, researching an artist’s market history, or pricing an artwork for sale, the Price Database will help you determine the value of art.

Disclosures: This material was published in November 2023 and has been prepared for informational purposes only. The information and data in the material has been obtained from sources outside of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (“Morgan Stanley”). Morgan Stanley makes no representations or guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of the information or data from sources outside of Morgan Stanley.

This material is not investment advice, nor does it constitute a recommendation, offer or advice regarding the purchase and/or sale of any artwork. It has been prepared without regard to the individual financial circumstances and objectives of persons who receive it. It is not a recommendation to purchase or sell artwork nor is it to be used to value any artwork. Investors must independently evaluate particular artwork, artwork investments and strategies, and should seek the advice of an appropriate third-party advisor for assistance in that regard as Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, its affiliates, employees and Morgan Stanley Financial Advisors and Private Wealth Advisors (“Morgan Stanley”) do not provide advice on artwork nor provide tax or legal advice. Tax laws are complex and subject to change. Investors should consult their tax advisor for matters involving taxation and tax planning and their attorney for matters involving trusts and estate planning, charitable giving, philanthropic planning and other legal matters. Morgan Stanley does not assist with buying or selling art in any way and merely provides information to investors interested in learning more about the different types of art markets at a high level. Any investor interested in buying or selling art should consult with their own independent art advisor.

This material may contain forward-looking statements and there can be no guarantee that they will come to pass.

Past performance is not a guarantee or indicative of future results.

Because of their narrow focus, sector investments tend to be more volatile than investments that diversify across many sectors and companies. Diversification does not guarantee a profit or protect against loss in a declining financial market.

By providing links to third party websites or online publication(s) or article(s), Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (“Morgan Stanley” or “we”) is not implying an affiliation, sponsorship, endorsement, approval, investigation, verification with the third parties or that any monitoring is being done by Morgan Stanley of any information contained within the articles or websites. Morgan Stanley is not responsible for the information contained on the third party websites or your use of or inability to use such site, nor do we guarantee their accuracy and completeness. The terms, conditions, and privacy policy of any third party website may be different from those applicable to your use of any Morgan Stanley website. The information and data provided by the third party websites or publications are as of the date when they were written and subject to change without notice.

This material may provide the addresses of, or contain hyperlinks to, websites. Except to the extent to which the material refers to website material of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, the firm has not reviewed the linked site. Equally, except to the extent to which the material refers to website material of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, the firm takes no responsibility for, and makes no representations or warranties whatsoever as to, the data and information contained therein. Such address or hyperlink (including addresses or hyperlinks to website material of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management) is provided solely for your convenience and information and the content of the linked site does not in any way form part of this document. Accessing such website or following such link through the material or the website of the firm shall be at your own risk and we shall have no liability arising out of, or in connection with, any such referenced website. Morgan Stanley Wealth Management is a business of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC.

© 2023 Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC. Member SIPC. CRC 6110402 11/2023

[1] https://www.moma.org/collection/terms/surrealism

[2] https://www.moma.org/artists/993#fn:3

[3] https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/jun/18/surrealist-muses-who-roared-mexico

[4] https://www.artic.edu/artists/135/gertrude-abercrombie

[5] https://artmuseum.usu.edu/exhibitions/women-surrealism-abstraction

[6] https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/5368

[7] https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/surrealism-beyond-borders

[8] https://www.guggenheim-venice.it/en/visit/

[9] https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/9935/remedios-varo-science-fictions

[10] https://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/wonderland-surrealist-adventures-women-artists-mexico-and-united-states

[11] https://www.nybg.org/about/past-exhibitions/frida-kahlo-art-garden-life/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA0syqBhBxEiwAeNx9N5A1oqsn_jPCgbrzy2iCWkJaXBpyGQXccyFTtidBzCsxGL0LnhSncBoCQG8QAvD_BwE

[12] https://www.wsj.com/articles/an-expanded-moma-adds-more-women-artists-11570724892

[13] https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/dorothea-tanning

[14] https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5532346

[15] https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2014/impressionist-modern-art-evening-sale-l14002/lot.62.html

[16] https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2015/cherchez-la-femme-n09398.html

[17] 2023 data is as of Nov. 14, 2023

[18] 2023 data is as of Nov. 14, 2023

[19] https://news.artnet.com/market/sothebys-modern-art-sale-frida-kahlo-latin-record-2035742

[20] 2023 data is as of Nov. 14, 2023

[21] https://www.bonhams.com/auction/28454/surrealism-beyond-reality/

[22] Artnet Price Database

[23] http://www.thelongmuseum.org/en/exhibition-369/detail-1834.html

[24] https://www.petzel.com/viewing-room/emily-mae-smith5#tab-3:thumbnails

[25] https://ilmin.org/exhibition/2023_iliketowatch/

[26] https://www.whitecube.com/gallery-exhibitions/julie-curtiss-hong-kong-2023

[27] https://gagosian.com/exhibitions/2023/ewa-juszkiewicz-in-a-shady-valley-near-a-running-water/

[28] 2023 data is as of Nov. 14, 2023

[29] 2023 data is as of Nov. 14, 2023

Follow Artnet News on Facebook:
Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward.

In Luke Stephenson’s Bold Portraits of Show Birds, the Personality Is in the Plumage

In Luke Stephenson’s Bold Portraits of Show Birds, the Personality Is in the Plumage

“Hawfinch #1” (2019). All images © Luke Stephenson, licensed

From charming robins and spritely blackbirds to a canary with a suave, natural bowl cut, Luke Stephenson’s portraits capture the fine feathers and downy details of exquisite show birds (previously). Using a customized, portable box with a perch inside, the artist captures each species’ distinctive personality and plumage in front of a variety of colored backgrounds.

For more than a decade, Stephenson traveled across the U.K. and the Netherlands to make the portraits, and over time, he experimented with ways to make the birds more comfortable and achieve the most compelling compositions. “I keep adapting (the boxes) to work better; the latest version allows me to spin the perch with out putting my hand in the box and bothering the birds,” he tells Colossal.

Stephenson recently compiled a second volume of his popular book An Incomplete Dictionary of Show Birdsincluding all of the images that appeared in the first volume, plus 115 never-before-published portraits. Now based in Stockholm, he is currently working on a project focused on Swedish traditions.

If you’re in California, you can spot a few of Stephenson’s birds in Still Life, a three-person show at Joseph Bellows Gallery in La Jolla, through February 10. Find more on the artist’s website, and follow him on Instagram for updates.

 

“Canary #13 (Gloster Corona, cock)” (2017)

Left: “Budgie #10” (2019). Right: “Japanese Thrush #1 (cock)” (2021)

“Agate Starling (hen) #1” (2019)

Left: Canary #10 (Yorkshire yellow)” (2017). Right: “Blackbird #1 (cock)” (2019)

“Bramble Finch #1 (cock)” (2017)

“European Robin #1” (2018)

Left: “Golden Song Sparrow #1 (cock)” (2018). Right: “Timor Sparrow #1” (2018)

“Linnet #1” (2017)

“Pagoda Starling #1” (2019)

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 In Luke Stephenson’s Bold Portraits of Show Birds, the Personality Is in the Plumage appeared first on Colossal.

Joshua Smith Serves Up Slices of Main Street in Meticulously Detailed Miniature Buildings

Joshua Smith Serves Up Slices of Main Street in Meticulously Detailed Miniature Buildings

Photos by Andrew Beveridge/ASBCreative. All images © Joshua Smith, shared with permission

Wheatpasted posters, spraypainted tags, and signs with missing letters are just a few of the hyperrealistic details on the facades of Joshua Smith’s extraordinary miniatures. “My work focuses on often neglected and abandoned buildings, which more often than not are covered in graffiti, rust, and grime,” the Adelaide, South Australia-based artist tells Colossal. Rendering corner stores, photo booths, and anonymous entryways with precision, he adds layers of lifelike details both inside and out, from stacks of boxes to checkout counters to racks of merchandise.

For his source imagery, Smith draws from visits around the U.S. and abroad, plus images he finds on Google Street View. Thanks to a popular Instagram account, if he can’t get to a particular location in person, sometimes his followers help out by visiting specific sites and snapping photos for reference. “I then break it down into different components, such as walls, windows, the ground, and other details,” he says. “Once the basic shape of the building has been made, I then apply the paint, signage, graffiti, and finally the weathering.” Using a variety of techniques, from 3D modeling to scratch-building with styrene, he creates every element himself.

Smith recently co-curated the group exhibition Miniature Worlds at the Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery in Launceston, Tasmania, which continues through February 4. He will also exhibit as part of a group show next year with Outré Gallery in Melbourne, emphasizing signage and type. Small sculptures and accessories are often available in the artist’s online shop.

 

A figure holds a 1:20 scale miniature sculpture of a facade of a shop with posters and graffiti on it.

A scale model of an aging brick facade.

Detail of a miniature model of a storefront, focused on a rusted awning and old signage with letters faded and missing.

A side-by-side image of two miniature structures. The one on the left shows a photobooth, and the one of the right shows a Maj-jong shop.

A scale model of an aging apartment building with posters and crumbling signs on the front. On the side, a mural of two figures covers the blank end.

Detail of graffiti and stickers on the walls and doors of a miniature model.

A miniature model facade of a run-down bookshop.

A scale model of a vintage luncheonette. A hand holds it for scale.

Details of a scale model of a newsstand, focused on tiny magazines inside the shop.

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 Joshua Smith Serves Up Slices of Main Street in Meticulously Detailed Miniature Buildings appeared first on Colossal.

A trip to Philadelphia’s Trans Art Market

A trip to Philadelphia’s Trans Art Market

A “Trans Art Market” was held in Philadelphia over the weekend. As the name suggests, it was an art display for people who are members of the LGBT community. Promotional material for the event advertised it as an “art market highlighting trans, non-binary, and gender expansive artists and makers in Philly.” It was the second year the event took place.

To most people, an exhibition by artists chosen solely because of their sexual deviance and identity would seem odd. After all, why would one’s sexual urges be the basis for an art show? However, the strangest part of this event was arguably the strict COVID-19 protocols required to be admitted. This year, the Philadelphia Trans Art Market mandated that all guests wear masks, show vaccine cards, or be forced to take a COVID-19 test at the market that the organizers provided.


SHADOW OF DOUBT: HOW 2020 ELECTION CHALLENGES IN ARIZONA AND GEORGIA ENDED

None of this is standard in the city, especially in 2023. No city-mandated restrictions or requirements for masks, vaccines, or COVID-19 tests exist. This was not “trusting the science” or “following the science” in any way. It was “making up science” to alleviate the obsessive compulsion of the unbridled paranoia of the event’s organizers. There is no legitimate rhyme or reason for this other than the unreasonable fears of the event’s organizers and anyone who decided to attend.

To put this in perspective, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where the fictional character Rocky Balboa ran the steps as part of his training and a much larger venue with a significantly higher number of guests daily, requires no proof of vaccination and masks are optional. Furthermore, the so-called safety protocols of the Trans Art Market run counter to the suggestions of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as current data show COVID-19 is no longer considered a significant threat in the city. These are just unnecessary and over-the-top restrictions.

COVID-19 Levels in Philadelphia reported by CDC


CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

The coronavirus pandemic was a generational tragedy, but there was a lot of controversy surrounding many of the implemented safety protocols. Proponents claimed to be “trusting and following” the science, but data later showed that was not entirely true. In many instances, Democrats and others on the Left in power simply made up restrictions not because it was scientifically proven but because it soothed their own anxieties. The fact that a place would still be taking such drastic measures is indicative of the kind of mental health concerns and fanaticism that consume many people on the Left.

Elaborate Personas Spring to Life During Carnival in ‘We the Spirits’ by Jason Gardner

Elaborate Personas Spring to Life During Carnival in ‘We the Spirits’ by Jason Gardner

Pantalla, Xinzo de Limia, Galicia, Spain. All images © Jason Gardner, shared with permission

Between January and March in Christian communities around the world, incredible personas emerge for Carnival in the form of mythological creatures, folkloric emblems, and historical figures. Donning elaborate masks and costumes, people obscure their identities, indulge in abundant fare, and gather together in parades and street parties before Lent. In his forthcoming book, We the Spirits, photographer Jason Gardner explores the remarkable diversity of Carnival and its traditions. “‘Winter and spring; barren and fertile; life and death; beauty and ugliness; light and dark; ritual and reality; chaos and order—the annual Carnival is much more than a party and parade in the streets,” he says.

Gardner traveled to 15 countries to document the festivities, capturing vibrant portraits of local revelers in elaborate, handmade costumes. He says, “In a time of screens, computers and A.I. simulations, there’s a movement back to the analog and gritty experience of Carnival, back to tradition and to feeling something more primal, animal, and pagan.” The annual ritual, which traces its origins to ancient European festivals like the Greek Dionysian or Roman Saturnalia, is rooted in a subversion of hierarchies and social norms, releasing people from typical roles and obligations in a symbolic period of renewal, after which chaos is then restored to order.

We the Spirits will be released by GOST Books this month in the U.K., coinciding with the exhibition Costume and Masquerade: Photographs by Suzanne Jongmans and Jason Gardner at Stadhaus Ulm in Germany. The title will be released in the U.S. in February, and you can pre-order a copy now on GOST’s website. Follow along with Gardner’s work and travels on Instagram.

You might also enjoy Robert de la Torre’s photos of the Entroidos celebrations in Spain.

 

A portrait of a figure wearing an elaborate costume for Carnival. The jacket and mask are both furry, and they wear large bells around their waist.

Arapides, Monastiraki, Greece

A portrait of a figure wearing an elaborate costume for Carnival. They wear sheepskin and denim, hold a cane, and done a large hat with a photograph of a woman on it.

Augustus I, Sopotnia Mała, Poland

A portrait of a figure wearing an elaborate costume for Carnival. They are dressed like a tree with a face.

Hombre árbol (Tree Man), Silió (Cantabria), Spain

A portrait of a figure wearing an elaborate costume for Carnival. They wear numerous patterned fabrics and carry a stick with a goat on the front as if riding the goat.

Geiss (Goat), Weisbach, Germany

A portrait of a figure wearing an elaborate costume for Carnival. They stand underneath a frame of a giant hen.

Kürika (Hen), Markovci, Slovenia

A portrait of a figure wearing an elaborate costume for Carnival. They stand in a forest and wear numerous types of shawls and fringed fabrics with a mask, a turban-like hat and lots of feathers.

Bonita, Sande, Galicia, Spain

A portrait of a figure wearing an elaborate costume for Carnival. The costume consists of a long burlap body and a head that looks like a monster with a big open mouth, peg-like teeth, and horns.

Schnappviech / Wudele, Tramin (South Tyrol), Italy

A portrait of three figures wearing elaborate costumes for Carnival. They crouch down next to a wall and hold yellow sticks, wear yellow masks with oversized teeth, and are covered completely in fabric with draping threads.

Ta Terjasti (The Thread Men), Cerkno, Slovenia

A portrait of a figure wearing an elaborate costume for Carnival. A colorful set of shirt and trousers in blue, yellow, and red complement a horned mask, a belt with bells on it, and a hand-held figure of a dog or small animal.

Botarga Arbancón, Guadalajara (Castile-La Mancha), Spain

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 Elaborate Personas Spring to Life During Carnival in ‘We the Spirits’ by Jason Gardner appeared first on Colossal.