OMNP is finding galleries to be clearly outgunning the auction houses for this year’s crop of works for sale at Old Master Drawings Week in New York. Among the highlights below, we see the flair that Delacroix had for equine subjects, in “A Bugler on Horseback, Accompanied by a Hound,” being exhibited by Stephen Ongpin. [...]

BY MEGHAN  MCGAVIN

Idris Khan (British, b. 1978), an artist working primarily in the photographic medium, introduces us to a new dimension of work in the practice of appropriation with his carefully superimposed photographs. While peeling back each gossamer layer of his  works, short stories about the original object, or artist, reveal themselves. Far from a [...]

If anything comes from these recent blockbuster surveys of artists from different eras, it’s that creative greatness can only matched by the size of one’s ego. Long before Picasso was dueling it out with the ghosts of Delacroix and Gericault,  J.M.W Turner was bequeathing his works to museums, under the condition that they be in [...]

Reports from the inaugural “Master Paintings Week” collaboration between London’s Old Master dealers and auction houses have been smashing. For many of the private dealers, business was bountiful. The Antiques Trade Gazette described bustling commerce amidst the distraction of an epic men’s final at Wimbledon, and fortified interest from many of the top [...]

While Sotheby’s major sale of Old Masters is comparably diminutive to Christie’s this  year, in both size and quality, there are a few treasures still to be found.
OMNP’s star of the show has to be Sir Anthony van Dyck’s “Portrait of Endymion Porter” (lot 11, left)
This portrait easily trumps the three that Christie’s is offering [...]

Works discussed included those by titian, chardin, watteau, lorenzo monaco, turner, de la tour, procaccini, pieter brueghel the younger, and bergognone.

Selected lots from Christie’s New York Sale 2135, Old Master Paintings and Sculpture, 28 January 2009

OMNP previews Sotheby’s New York sale of Old Master Paintings, from January 29-30

OMNP details the recent year that was Old Masters news, sales, and exhibitions.
News Highlights
Christie’s and Sotheby’s Old Master auctions are successes in spite of the art market’s recent struggles
England attempts to save its own “Mona Lisa,” Titian’s “Diana and Acteon,” from being sold on the open market, by raising the funds to meet [...]

A sales export license for a landscape view by J.M.W Turner (left)”The Pope’s Villa at Twickenham,” has been temporarily denied a sales export license until June 9th by the UK Culture Ministry.

So where exactly are you parking your millions of dollars during the recession? Apparently, buying an Old Master painting is a good bet- Christie’s first major Old Masters sale since the September financial collapse, sold 80% of its lots last night.
The small rediscovered portrait of “Flora” by Venetian master Giambattista Tiepolo more than tripled [...]

Love is in the air..
“Art and Love in Renaissance Italy,” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, through February 16th  [Metropolitan Museum of Art] [Art Daily]
Further reading:
‘Art and Love in Renaissance Italy’- Eternal Objects of Desire [Roberta Smith, NY Times]
“Eros” at the  Richard Feigen Gallery, NYC through January 9th [ART INFO] [RLFeigen.com]
Love seems to [...]

Following up on the previews of Old Master exhibitions in Europe earlier last month, OMNP follows up with comprehensive coverage of some of the major shows, along with a rundown of those recently announced, both in the US and abroad.

Renaissance Faces: Van Eyck to Titian, now on view until January 18, at the UK National [...]

The more things change, the more they stay the same..Amidst all the fervor regarding the art market’s highs and lows-Old Masters, as they did during the last serious decline of the market in the early 90’s, are poised to emerge as a source of stability. The strong performance of Bonham’s premier OMP auction late last [...]

A gorgeous M+C from the Bellini showcase in Rome.
When it comes to Old Masters paintings, OMNP sometimes finds that living stateside is akin to going to movie theater in the ‘burbs- your’e going to get some of the big releases, but your certainly not going to get all of them. Click MORE to read through [...]

A bevy of exquisite prints are up for sale this Tuesday at Bonham’s, New Bond Street, including pieces in the style of Hieronymous Bosch, a slew of Rembrandt’s, and a first edition Caprichios print by Goya. In the case of the latter, it amazes OMNP that such an essential work in the career of one [...]

Here is a last minute preview of some Old Master items of interest, up for sale at Skinner Auctions in Boston.
Apparent bargains can be found with the Fuseli drawing (lot 405, if one can stomach the dreadful scene of Salome with the head of St. John), a beautiful rendering of a Goltzius print [...]

In the age of the blockbuster exhibition, museums pack the crowds with exhibitions that present popular, headlining-grabbing artists. Two recent Old Masters shows demonstrate how this curatorial approach can sometimes produce stimulating results and at other times, head-scratching ones.
Turner to be compared to Masters [BBC]
“Turner and the Masters” [Tate Britian official website]
On the heels [...]

OMNP strives to show the importance of Old Masters by underscoring their resonance today. In doing so, OMNP will regularly profile a Contemporary artist who has been directly influenced by the work of Old Masters. This week’s artist is Kim Keever, a New York based artist whose photographs draw from the sublime qualities of landscape [...]

J. M. W. Turner

at the Tisch Galleries, 2nd floor
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
on view till September 21, 2008
Click MORE for the review