Record-Breaking Auctions, Gallery Closures, and Exciting Art Events
The art and antiques market has always generated surprising revelations. Some factual, some pure speculation! Fact – on 15th May, Sotheby’s, New York, sold ‘Distractions de Dagobert,’ a painting by Leonora Carrington (1917-2011), for £19.3 million – a record for any British-born female artist. Having sold at auction in 1995 for £277,000, this accentuates the art market’s ever-increasing demand for important works by female artists. Speculation – ever since Bristol-based Banksy embarked on his street art in the early 1990s, his identity has remained a well-kept secret. In the past, several names have been suggested, including founder member of the band Massive Attack, Robert Del Naja, and TV presenter Neil Buchanan. In 2008, ‘The Mail on Sunday’ named him as Robin Gunningham (b. 1974), a claim the newspaper staunchly still holds today. However, Banksy is being sued by two art collectors because of the artist’s ‘refusal’ to authenticate Monkey Queen, a print which they acquired in 2020 for around £30,000. If the case goes to court, Banksy might have to reveal his full identity.
When it comes to recent surprises, it must be the announcement by the Marlborough Gallery on 4th April that it would, from June, be “winding down operations at the galleries in New York, London, Madrid, and Barcelona.” Founded in 1946, the gallery became a ‘blue chip’ art institution, fostering artists such as Henry Moore, Lucian Freud, and Francis Bacon. The gallery’s artworks are thought to number around 15,000, with a combined value of approximately £200 million. The worry is: will the sudden disposal of such a large inventory have a negative effect on the art market? Perhaps not, as the collection will be progressively disposed of over several years.
During the next few weeks, we are spoilt for choice when it comes to events encompassing art and antiques. Let us start with London Art Week (LAW), which, taking place between 28th June and 5th July, is best described as an in-gallery art fair with special presentations and talks both digital and live. For full details and an illustrated map pinpointing every venue by the talented artist Adam Dant (b. 1967), go to www.londonartweek.co.uk. Here is a small medley.
In 1917, the British government’s War Propaganda Bureau organised what must be the largest and most ambitious print project of the early twentieth century. Eighteen artists were commissioned to create a series of lithographs, each limited to 200 signed copies and 100 unsigned. Titled Britain’s Efforts and Ideals in the Great War, the resulting 66 prints were shown for the first time at the Fine Art Society, New Bond Street, in July 1917. Unsold prints were then transferred to the Imperial War Museum, where they have remained for over a century. To coincide with London Art Week, Abbott and Holder, 30 Museum Street, WC1A 1LH, in collaboration with the Museum, are displaying, until 6th July, these iconic prints. Among them are Making Soldiers, a set of six images by Eric Kennington (1888-1960) priced at £7,200, The Freedom of the Seas (£450) by Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956), and Christopher Nevinson’s (1889-1946) Making Aircraft (six images priced from £3,750 to £15,000), which The Times (11th July, 1917) described as “as vivid as anything he [Nevinson] has ever done.”
Stephen Ongpin Fine Art, 82 Park Street, W1K 6NH, can always be relied on to display something exceptional and, from 24th June to 26th July, he proffers two exhibitions across three floors of his Mayfair gallery. The first, five years in the making, offers nearly thirty drawings by the Italian Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (1591-1666), better known as Guercino. With works dating from the 1610s to the 1660s, there are studies for his paintings together with landscapes and head studies. And, of course, the exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated, scholarly catalogue. The second offering is Italian Drawings from Private Collections. Further Old Masters can be discovered at Trinity Fine Art, 15 Old Bond Street, W1S 4AX, who present Jupiter and Juno, an engaging painting by Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617), while Lullo Pampoulides, 58 Jermyn Street, SW1Y 6LX invites you to discover The Outsider’s Genius, featuring the long-forgotten French baroque painter Louis Cretey (c.1635-after 1702).
Sculpture lovers should make their way to Stuart Lochhead, 35 Bury Street, SW1Y 6AU, who mounts Beyond Face Value: Likenesses as Metaphors in European Sculpture, the highlight of which is a monumental marble bust by Vincenzo Pacetti (1746-1820). A short walk away, Sladmore, 57 Jermyn Street, SW1Y 6LX, presents Equine – From Wild, to Tame, to Icon, which features examples by Antoine-Louis Barye (1795-1875), Rembrandt Bugatti (1884-1916), and Nic Fiddian-Green (b. 1963).
Moving on from London Art Week, there is, of course, much to venerate. For thirty years, Simon C. Dickinson, 58 Jermyn Street, SW1Y 6LX, has been a leading dealership in exceptional works from Old Masters to Impressionist and Modern art. Opening on 17th June and running through to 18th July, the gallery mounts an impressive display of Renaissance sculptures. With prices ranging from around £160,000 to nearly £2 million, highlights include Portrait of a Youth by Luca della Robbia (1400-1482), Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s (1598-1680) Matilda of Canossa, and Massimiliano Soldani-Benzi’s (1656-1740) intimately moving work Pietà.
Following its successful inaugural launch last year, The Treasure House Fair, Royal Hospital, Chelsea, SW3 4SR, takes place from 27th June through to 2nd July. An impressive line-up of 70 internationally renowned galleries – up 30% on last year – will feature over 20 collecting categories in the fields of fine art, furniture, antiquities, and jewellery. Art lovers will have much to deliberate over via prominent dealers, including Osborne Samuel, Crane Kalman Gallery, and Philip Mould, who will hang works by, among others, Simon Bussy (1870-1954), Mark Gertler (1891-1939), Duncan Grant (1885-1978), Nina Hamnett (1890-1956), Augustus John (1878-1961), and Cedric Morris (1889-1982).
Coincidentally, all six of the artists above exhibited with the New English Art Club (NEAC), whose annual exhibition takes place between 13th-22nd June at the Mall Galleries, The Mall, SW1. Like last year, I have the assignment to select one work from around 400 to receive the Anthony J. Lester Art Critic Award.
When a 29-year-old artist called Euan Uglow presented his first solo show in June 1961 at the Beaux Arts Gallery in London’s Bruton Street, The Times wrote: “The cool, blond tonality of Mr. Uglow’s paintings, his concern for space and volume, and above all the judgment which makes of each portrait, still-life, or nude a sum of precise calculations, carry a very real distinction of their own.” He went on to be hailed as one of the most significant figurative painters of 20th-century British art. Uglow died on 31st August 2000 at his South London studio after a battle against cancer aged 68, and Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert and Franki Rossi Art are presenting a loan exhibition marking their joint representation of the artist’s Estate. Taking place at 38 Bury Street, St. James’s, SW1Y 6BB until 19th July, there are 25 of Uglow’s most notable nudes, still lifes, and landscapes, including works such as Yellow Dress, which have never been seen in public before. Accompanied by a catalogue featuring essays by Catherine Lampert and Andrew Lambirth, this is one of those unmissable events.
Elizabeth Meek, MBE, who was President of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors, and Gravers (RMS) between 2004-2013, described working as a miniaturist as the most demanding of all painting genres and names some of the qualities required as: “Concentration, stillness of mind and body, and a dogged perseverance for perfection – the textbook miniature needs to be devoid of errors.” I recommend a visit to the Bankside Gallery, Thames Riverside, 48 Hopton Street, SE1 9JH between 26th June and 6th July to view the RMS Annual Exhibition. With a maximum frame size of 15.24 x 11.43 cm (6 x 4.5 inches), the 400 plus works incorporate an extremely broad subject range, including landscapes, still lifes, marine, wildlife, and, of course, portraits. With His Majesty King Charles III as its Patron, the exhibition is one of the world’s foremost displays of contemporary miniature art, plus prices start at a few hundred pounds. There are demonstrations, and admission is free.
Let us end our eclectic art roundup with something more avant-garde! With live music, hosted by fetish cabaret star Marnie Scarlet and drag legends Liquorish Black and Anna Phylactic, the opening soirée on 25th July (18.00-21.00, www.fluxexhibition.com for free tickets) of the Flux Exhibition, 206 Marylebone Road, NW1 6JQ, can best be described as zany. After the opening, this art extravaganza, which highlights the work of 80 contemporary, innovative artists, can be viewed until 28th July.
