Human beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and chic is harder to define yet. Nevertheless, TEFAF attracts the players, collectors, movers, shakers and lookie-loos of the European and American fine and dec arts world. Held in Maastricht, very close to Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg—and but a few hours by train from Paris and London—it’s a heady style mix. Parisian flair, London cheek, German loden, and lots of high boots made for walking. Never boring. You be the judge.

Following are iPhone snaps from the afternoon of the vernissage, just before the champagne cocks started to pop in earnest. Taken by the fair’s main entrance, with its horizontal black and white columns, they center on action near and around the stand belonging to the London-based gallery Dickinson and its front-and-center late-period Gaugin, Deux Femmes, a 1902 oil on canvas priced at $26 million.

The Asian Art Dealers of New York (AADNY) launches Asia Week New York this Saturday.

Twenty-nine exhibitions will open concurrently in Manhattan.

It’s a first. It’s unprecedented. It’s a must.

An open house is scheduled for this Saturday, 12-7pm, and Sunday, 12-6pm.

Below is What’s Going Down—and Where.

The Collection of Violette de Talleyrand, Duchesse de Sagan, comprising the former collection of Gaston Palewski, Goes on Sale at Sotheby’s Paris on March 18

Violette de Talleyrand, Duchess of Sagan, was married to the famous collector Gaston Palewski (1901-1984) who was Chief of State under General de Gaulle.

Palewski’s taste for the arts is well represented in the eclectic collection from his apartment on rue Bonaparte in Paris.

The collection includes a portrait of a woman attirubted to Lorenzo Pasinelli (15,000-20,000 EUR) and a very interesting portrait of David holding Goliath’s head from the school of Simon Vouet (30,000-40,000 EUR). There is also a beautiful painting by the English artist Walter Richard Sickert, showing the Palazzo Montecuccoli-Polignac in Venice (40,000-60,000 EUR), and a very impressive group of paintings by Georges Michel (from 1,200-1,800 to 15,000-20,000 EUR), the early 19^th-century French landscape painter.

The furniture in the collection shows the very classical tastes of the collector, the most important piece being a rare French giltwood armchair from the Regency period (80,000-120,000 EUR).

TEFAF’s origins lie in The Pictura Fine Art Fair, a successful though sleepy biennial gathering of 28 dealers specializing in Old Masters and medieval sculptures that started in 1975. By 1988, it had gone annual, merged with another fair (what began as “Antiqua”), changed its name, moved to its current venue, and attracted 97 dealers—a number that would almost double by the end of the 1990s and which set a record this year at 263 (and from 17 countries, with two new additions: Hello China and Uruguay).

Besides its usual encyclopedic range of art encompassing 6,000 years of human creativity and totaling over $1 billion in value, this year saw the presentation of a TEFAF-commissioned art market report from Dr. Clare McAndrew, an independent economist specializing in the art market who studies quantifiable results from auction houses (public domain) as well as from dealers (a far murkier affair, but well worth the effort and estimation as this figure accounts for over half the market). Her report, entitled a catchy “The International Art Market 2007-2009, Trends in the Art Trade during Global Recession,” stated and underscored well-evident truths, such as:

“Although the contraction in prices over 2008-2009 represented the sharpest fall in the market since 1991, the level of sales is still markedly above any years preceding 2006. Sales totals for fine and decorative art are estimated to total €21.3 billion in 2009, or down from an all-time high of €48 billion in 2007, but still well above 2003’s €18.6 billion.”

Basing her figures solely on directly verifiable auction results, McAndrew proceeded to parse the market and explore the relativity of its various sectors. For example:

“Contemporary art auction sales grew from €92 million in 2002 to €915 million in 2008, or just under a tenfold increase.” McAndrew estimates this market dropped by nearly 60% to €378 million by the end of 2009 “in terms of aggregate sales values (at auction).” As bad as this might sound, McAndrew then reassures by pointing out that contemporary art prices have as an aggregate retreated only to 2005 levels.

“Modern paintings is one of the largest auction sectors, reaching €3.1 billion in 2008, over three times the size of the Contemporary market.” She estimates this market fell by 19% in 2008 (down from a €3.8 high in 2007), and another 37% in 2005, although the Modern market remains above 2005 levels.

“Auction sales in the Impressionist sector grew in value by 80% from 2002, where total sales amounted to €364 million, to its peak in 2007 with sales of €655 million. From there, the market fell by 21% in 2008 to €519 million and a further 39% in 2009 to €319 million.

“The Old Masters sector grew by 40% 2002 to 2008, with a peak in 2007 of €1.9 billion in auction sales.” McAndrew notes a 12% contraction in 2009 to €1.6 billion, adding: “The Old Master sector of the market has been regarded as a more conservative category of art with more long-term collectors, and while it has been to some extent out of fashion in recent years, it is now receiving renewed interest as a potentially less volatile sector in which to collect and invest.”

Bearing these sector observations in mind, it’s unsurprising that the dozens of dealers showing Old Masters were busy with red dots and inquiries. Among the highlights were Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John by Sandro Botticelli at London-based Dickinson (priced at approximately $15 million and for half of the 20^th century part of the collections of various Rockefellers); a trio of oil sketches by Sir Peter Paul Rubens: Two Captive Soldiers at New York’s Richard L. Feigen & Co., and Alexander and Roxana and The Annunciation at Zurich’s Koetser Gallery Ltd.; The indoors wedding Dance by Pieter Brueghel the Younger at Paris’ De Jonckheere gallery, and David and Bathsheba by Lucas Cranach the Elder and St. Mark by Frans Hals at Bernheimer-Colnaghi (London-based Colnaghi, founded in 1760, is the world’s oldest commercial art gallery, and celebrates its 250^th birthday this year.

Paintings from top:

• Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John, Alessandro Felipepi di Mariano di Vanni, called Sandro Botticelli (Florence, 1444/5 – 1510)
• David and Bathsheba, Lucas Cranach d. Ä. ( Kronach 1472 - Weimar 1553)
• Samuel Crew (? – 1660), Sir Peter Lely (1618 – 1680)
• Alexander and Roxana, Sir Peter Paul Rubens(Siegen 1577 - Antwerp 1640)
• The Card Players, Gerard ter Borch (Zwolle 1617 – Deventer 1681)

PREVIEW PARTY
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

SILENT AUCTION PREVIEW
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
9:00 AM : Silent auction begins

RECEPTION & LIVE AUCTION
Saturday, March 13th, 2010
2:00 PM : Reception begins
3:00 PM : Live auction begins

HOSTED BY THE SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO (SAIC),

“DESIGN REVOLUTION ROAD SHOW” BRINGS 40 PRODUCTS

DESIGNED TO CHANGE THE WORLD TO CHICAGO’S MILLENNIUM PARK APRIL 5–6

Chicago, IL—San Francisco-based design nonprofit Project H Design is bringing the Design Revolution Road Show, an exhibition of 40 items that utilize design as a tool for problem-solving and social action, to the Chase Promenade South of Chicago’s Millennium Park, 201 East Randolph Street, April 5–6. Hosted by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), the exhibition features items showcased in SAIC alumna Emily Pilloton’s (MFA 2005) critically acclaimed book “Design Revolution: 100 Products that Empower People.”The exhibition is free and open to the public 10 a.m.–4 p.m. both days.

One of the New York Times‘ Tmagazine’s (2009) up-and-coming “household names,” Pilloton is touring the country to spread the word about design for the greater good. This SAIC stop will feature a lecture and conversation with Pilloton on Monday April 5 at 6 p.m. in the SAIC Ballroom, 112 S. Michigan Ave. The presentation is free and open to the public.

The Design Revolution Road Show’s mobile exhibition is housed in a 1972 Airstream trailer, which is pulled by a biodiesel-powered truck. Each product is a smart design solution to one of the following eight issues (as identified in Pilloton’s book) that impact life: Water, Well-Being, Energy, Education, Play, Food, Mobility, or Enterprise. Products will be on view for visitors to experience, use, and touch.

The displayed products range from “Spiderboots”—footwear specifically designed to enable landmine detection teams to traverse dangerous areas—to the “Mobee,”a toy designed specifically for children with cerebral palsy. Other items on display include the “Lifestraw,” a portable handheld water filter that prevents common diseases, even when used to filter stagnant water; “Adaptive Eyecare,” inexpensive liquid filled eyeglasses that individuals can adjust to their own prescription without assistance from a doctor; the “Solio,” a solar-powered charger for handheld devices; and much more. Each product is an example of how design can enable and improve life, rather than simply take up space as a commodity or accessory.

“As some creative professionals and designers have begun to rethink their traditional consumer-based practices, prioritizing design as a tool for problem solving and social action remains an urgent priority,” says Project H founder Emily Pillotonand project manager Matthew Miller, who are traveling the nation with the tour in hope of enabling and empowering the next generation of creative problem solvers to apply their skills to the world’s most pressing problems and improve life on a global scale. “We believe design can change the world, and we’re taking the show on the road.”

“We are very proud to bring alumna Emily Pilloton back to Chicago with this fascinating and inspiring exhibition, and the opportunity to hear her speak about her projects firsthand is not to be missed,” says Wellington Reiter, FAIA, President of School of the Art Institute of Chicago. “Her work with Project H, which focuses on design and how it can make a difference in the world, has our attention.”

In all, The Design Revolution Road Show will visit over 30 design universities and high schools nationwide. By bringing the Design Revolution Road Show to students, Project H hopes to make a stronger connection between education and design, both as provocative and socially relevant subject matter and as a way to learn and teach problem solving through design thinking and creativity.

The Design Revolution Road Show is a Project H Design initiative and has been made possible through the support of the Adobe Foundation, Sappi Paper’s Ideas That Matter Grant Program and C2 LLC (Creative Capital).

For more information about Design Revolution Road Show visit www.designrevolutionroadshow.com.

For more information about the School of the Art Institute of Chicago visit www.saic.edu.

CHRISTIE’S TO SELL THE COLLECTION OF MICHAEL CRICHTON

BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF JURASSIC PARK, CREATOR OF THE TELEVISION SERIES ER, AND ACCLAIMED WRITER ON AMERICAN ARTIST JASPER JOHNS

CHRISTIE’S HOLDS FIRST PUBLIC EXHIBIT OF WORKS FROM THE COLLECTION OF ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS ICONS OF 20TH CENTURY ART, JASPER JOHNS’FLAG TO GO ON PUBLIC VIEW IN LOS ANGELES FOR THE FIRST TIME IN NEARLY 20 YEARS

HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE WORKS BY JOHNS, KOONS, HOCKNEY, LICHTENSTEIN, GURSKY, OLDENBURG, PICASSO, RAUSCHENBERG, RUSCHA, TANSEY, THIEBAUD AND WARHOL

New York/Los Angeles — Christie’s is honored to announce the sale of works from the Collection of the late Michael Crichton at its highly anticipated Post-War & Contemporary Art Evening Sale on May 11 in New York.  Best-selling author and screenwriter, film director and producer, Crichton is renowned for his terrifying and sometimes controversial scientific thrillers such as The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, Timeline, The Lost World, Rising Sun, and State of Fear, and for creating the television series ER. Crichton is also acknowledged as a leading authority on the American artist Jasper Johns.

Christie’s will unveil the major works from the Collection in Los Angeles with a public exhibition of 50 highlights with key works by Andreas Gursky, David Hockney, Jasper Johns, Jeff Koons, Claes Oldenburg, Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Mark Tansey, Wayne Thiebaud, and Andy Warhol.  On public view together for the first time ever, the works will be on exhibition from Friday 5 March to Friday 12 March at Christie’s Los Angeles Galleries.

“It is a unique opportunity for collectors and institutions to have access to these works from such an extraordinary private collection,” said Brett Gorvy, Deputy Chairman of Christie’s Americas.  “Michael was the rarest breed of collector: a Renaissance man in every sense, whose passion for art was fueled by his search for answers to the basic tenets of art. In the same way Michael challenged accepted scientific dogma, he continually challenged his own understanding of an artist or work of art. He became intimate friends with artists and responded as a creative equal to their own searches and challenges. He was able to assemble an amazing range of rare works, acquired over thirty years with passion and quiet dedication. He collected artists in depth to truly know them.  These works were chosen with an intense intellect and instinct, and understood through direct relationships with some of the greatest artists of the 20th century.”

Crichton’s collection of works by Jasper Johns (b.1930) is the most significant and complete to ever come to the market and contains examples that span the artist’s entire career.  The top highlight of the collection is Jasper Johns’ Flag, 1960-66, (pictured left) a painstakingly beautiful rendition of the American flag in encaustic, has never been on the public market. It was acquired by Michael Crichton over thirty years ago directly from the artist’s own collection, and was last seen in public 18 years ago as part of a major Pop Art survey organized originally by the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Jasper Johns’ Flag paintings are credited as the first icons of Pop Art, ending the supremacy of the Abstract Expressionism of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning, and opening the gates to the everyday consumer images of Warhol and Lichtenstein.  The work is painted in encaustic, a difficult, seldom-used technique that dates back to Ancient Egypt in which pigment and collage elements such as newspaper are mixed with hot wax and applied to a surface. The fast-setting medium of encaustic enabled Johns to make each brushstroke distinct, while the forty-eight-star, red, white and blue flag design – contiguous with the perimeters of the canvas – provided a structure for the richly varied surface, which ranges from translucent to opaque.

Jasper Johns’ Study for a Painting (2002), pictured right, is an integral component in his breakthrough “Catenary” series, which he began upon the completion of his 1996 Retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. A very significant departure for Johns, this series was named for the catenary curve generated when Johns draped a string across the canvas of the series’ first painting.  The sensual curve created by this string ultimately became the fundamental muse for this complex and autobiographical body of work. The string, as it is used in Study for a Painting, possesses the commanding ambiguity of this series, while simultaneously existing as a contemporary reference to the very foundations of art history.  Study for a Painting is awash with both vague and palpable allusions, its surface possessing a dimensional tranquility new to Johns’ visual vocabulary, and the emblematic wordplay, found in his earliest and most eminent works. The work was prominently displayed in the 2008 Jasper Johns: Gray exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Collection contains three works by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) with prime examples of paintings from the early and late spectrum of his career.  Femme à la Robe Rose (pictured right), a 1917 portrait of a woman portrayed in delicate pink and tawny hues, marks a stylistic departure from Picasso’s cubist period and a return to the classical principals of painting.  Femme et fillettes is a work from 1961, the year of Picasso’s marriage to Jacqueline, and is a rare, large-scale family portrait that demonstrates Picasso’s predilection for a stronger palette during his more mature period.  This appearance of Femme et fillettes at auction follows recent strong sales results achieved at Christie’s for a number of late Picasso portraits, including Tête de femme (Jacqueline),1963, which recently sold for $12.8 million in London this February, and Mousquetaire à la pipefrom 1968, which sold for $14.6 million in New York spring 2008.

Three of the greatest Pop artists are well represented in the sale across a range of media and subject matter.  Roy Lichtenstein’s (1923-1997), Figures in Landscape, 1977 (pictured left), is an example of his surrealist series from the late 1970’s.  In this ‘Conversation’ painting, Lichtenstein asserts his place in art history by combining his own signature style of benday dots and stripes while referencing modern masters Picasso, de Chirico, Dali and Leger.  Also by Lichtenstein is a classic Pop work on paper, Girl in Water, from 1965.   Girl in Water was executed within the same timeframe as his most emblematic works including, the similarly themed Drowning Girl, which currently hangs in New York’s MoMA.  Girl in Water features one of Lichtenstein’s most celebrated subjects: a woman in distress. His use of women, such as the one featured in Girl in Water, was largely responsible for placing him on the forefront of the 1960’s New York art scene, and ultimately as a central player of the of the American Pop Art movement.

As with Johns and other artists in his collection, Crichton forged a friendship and closely followed the development of Claes Oldenburg’s (b. 1929) creative output.  He purchased Oldenburg’s Three Way Plug Soft Sculpture, executed in 1970, directly from the artist.  In this work Oldenburg elevates the everyday common object to the sublime by incorporating humor and color. Crichton also commissioned Alphabet/Good Humor Edition, 1975 for his collection and served as inspiration for Oldenburg’s iconic Typewriter sculpture. A work from one the most important and iconic series by Andy Warhol (1928-1987), Mao, is also being offered.  Painted in 1973, Mao is a fine example of Warhol’s greatest and most sensational portrait series of the 1970s.

Two magnificent early 1960’s works by Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) are notable highlights of the sale.  Studio Painting (formerly titled Untitled and Calendar), 1960-61 is an extraordinary combine painting made up of two large canvases and mixed media.  Trapeze, a work that dates from 1964, (pictured right) is a complex vertical format painting that incorporates Rauschenberg’s famous silkscreen technique.  Trapeze resonates with references to art history, and echoes notions of beauty and space-age modernity from the mid 1960s, gorgeously capturing the zeitgeist that defined a generation.

Among the contemporary offerings in the collection is a seminal work by Andreas Gursky (b. 1955), Chicago Board of Trade (pictured left), which belongs to the artist’s coveted series of major financial centers.  The color-saturated, large-scale photograph epitomizes the chaotic and frenzied activity that occurs on the trading room floors.

Ed Ruscha’s (b. 1937) Voltage 1964 (pictured right), is an outstanding example from Ruscha’s formative period and is emblematic of the beginning of his love affair with words, a passionate rapport that would ultimately drive him to become one of the most influential artists of our time. Just six years before executing Voltage, Ruscha worked for six months as an apprentice with Saul Marks at the Plantin Press. It was here that he learned to set type, and where he became engrossed with book printing, layout and the tactile qualities of paper. However, the most momentous outcome of his time at Plantin Press was his development of what he has called “a respect for pages.” Voltage is indicative of where this new found respect would ultimately lead him. In this work Ruscha manages to build a tension in the composition that is as acute as it is alluring.  Ruscha’s devotion to the word as a central element in his artistic vision presents a conceptual challenge which makes Voltage both intellectually and visually captivating. This challenge is one of the reasons why this particular painting was on long term loan to the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.

Additional highlights include works by Jeff Koons and Mark Tansey. Of the three works by Jeff Koons (b. 1955) featured in the sale, Vase of Flowers is from his best known series, Banality. The exuberant Rococo-like work is among Koons’s finest mirror pieces and was inspired by the artist’s fascination with old masters and immortality.

Raised by a family of Art Historians, Mark Tansey’s (b. 1949) paintings are very indicative of his deep-seated understanding of art. Push/Pull, 2005 (pictured right), brilliantly illustrates Tansey’s ability to generate intricate allegories about the meaning of art. Upon first glance, this picture depicts a tension ridden image of an adventurous troop crossing a gorge in the frozen tundra. However, if studied closer this work becomes a phenomenally complex image which doubles as the Egyptian desert, and a flattened woman mid step. Tansey utilizes historical paintings in combination with photographs found in newspapers and magazines to inspire his paintings. Executed in the artist’s signature monochromatic palate, Push/Pull demonstrates Tansey’s exceptional capacity for incorporating scores of visual and literary references to create one cohesive narrative.

The Collection also includes works by David Hockney, Agnes Martin, Richard Prince, and Frank Stella, and Wayne Thiebaud among others. 

Auction: Works from the Collection of Michael Crichton - Christie’s Post-War & Contemporary Art Evening Sale - New York, 11 May 2010

Viewing: Christie’s Los Angeles Galleries, 360 North Camden Drive, Beverly Hills

Friday 5 March – Friday 12 March

March 5th 10am - 5pm

March 6th 10am - 5pm

March 7th by appointment only

March 8th 10am - 5pm

March 9th 10am - 3pm

March 10th 10am - 5pm

March 11th 10am - 5pm

March 12th 10 am - 5 pm

The fair runs from March 12-21, and with a record number of 263 exhibitors from 17 countries, and over 30,000 works of art and antiques for sale (including paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, furniture, classical antiquities, illuminated manuscripts, jewellery, textiles, porcelain, glass and silver), excitement and expectations are high.

Energy is further stoked by the addition of TEFAF on Paper, a new section devoted entirely to works on paper, and the impending release of TEFAF’s latest specially prepared reports examining how the international art market has fared during the economic recession.

TEFAF, of course, is the kind of fair at which exhibitors unveil their rarest and biggest wares, be that something recently discovered in an attic in Normandy or Antwerp, an auction house in New Orleans, or in their own vaults. Below is a press release detailing a major late Gaugin, which dovetails well with a concurrent exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam of Gaugin’s zincographs (information on this is also contained below).

Press release

GAUGUIN TAHITIAN MASTERPIECE

ON SALE AT TEFAF MAASTRICHT 12-21 MARCH 2010

Deux Femmesby Paul Gauguin, 1902, oil on canvas, 74 x 64.5 cm

Helvoirt, 4 February 2010 - One of Paul Gauguin’s last major works is to be offered for sale by the leading international art dealer Dickinson for a price in the region of €18 million (US$26 million) at TEFAF Maastricht. Gauguin created this painting during a final burst of creativity following his retreat to a remote Pacific island as far away from civilisation as possible. The 23^rdedition of the world’s most influential art and antiques fairwill take place at the MECC (Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre) in the southern Netherlands from 12-21 March 2010.

The rare late Tahitian Gauguin will be one of the highlights of The European Fine Art Fair reinforcing its reputation for offering the very best works of art for sale. The picture was painted in 1902, a year before Gauguin’s death, while he was living on Hiva Oa in the remote Marquesas Islands 740 miles from Tahiti. Unhappy with what he saw as the increasingly European colonial atmosphere on the main Tahitian islands, he landed at Atuona, the capital of Hiva Oa, in September 1901.

Gauguin praised the Marquesas in a letter to his friend Daniel de Monfried. ‘I assure you from the point of view of painting it’s admirable,’ he told him. ‘Poetry emerges here of its own accord, and it can be evoked simply by allowing oneself to dream while painting. I ask for just two years of good health and not too many money worries, which now have excessive hold over my nervous temperament, in order to reach a certain maturity in my art.’

Unfortunately his wish for good health was not to be granted. His illness was probably partially responsible for the increasingly dream-like nature of his art and his late paintings from the Marquesas, such as Deux Femmes, are more self-referential. They are a composite of motifsdrawn from Western art, Gauguin’s collection of photographs and memories and symbols sourced from his own life and work.

The symbolism of Deux Femmes is obscure, and rests on an arcane vocabulary developed by Gauguin. However the mysterious nature of the painting, accentuated by the lush, intoxicating richness of the colours, brilliantly portrays the exotic primitivism at the root of Gauguin’s fascination with the inhabitants of the Pacific islands. The two female figures relate to the Biblical character of Eve, a key figure in Gauguin’s personal mythology, while the fox sitting outside the house has a long history in his oeuvreas a symbol of perversity. In the last months of 1902 and early 1903 Gauguin’s health declined and on the island of Hiva Oa on 8 May 1902 he died.

Deux Femmesis first recorded in the collection of Marie Paul Voûte (1882-1955), a member of a family of successful Dutch merchants. It is thought to have been the first Tahitian Gauguin to enter a Dutch collection and Voute is known to have also owned two paintings by Van Gogh.

Deux Femmes is being offered for sale through Dickinson by a leading British private collector who bought it at auction four years ago. James Roundell, a director of Dickinson, said: ‘The owner has decided to focus on pictures from later in the 20^thcentury and is rationalizing his collection. Although the owner is still enthusiastic about the picture, the Gauguin does not fit in with the new focus and is the odd one out in the collection.’ Dickinson, based in London and New York, is a leading international dealer in Old Master and Impressionist paintings and Modern and Contemporary Art.

Gauguin exhibition - Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

During TEFAF there will be an exhibition on Gauguin’s zincographs at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. In 1889, during the Paris World’s Fair, Gauguin exhibited a series of prints he had made at the instigation of Theo van Gogh, which was to become known as the Volpini Suite. The exhibition is the first to examine in depth this series of lithographs, which played a crucial role in Gauguin’s development into a modern artist. A total of 60 works of art will be shown.

Dorothy Factor Family to Auction Jewelry, Silver, Fine & Decorative Art for Beverly Hills Charities

Gala March 16^thSouthern Calif. event honors Dorothy & Sidney Factor, son of Max Factor Sr., kicks off series of auctions and new Heritage Auctions Beverly Hills galleries

22Feb.2010  LOS ANGELES–- As selections of Jewelry, Silver and Fine Art from the Dorothy Factor Collection prepare to be auctioned off at Heritage Auctions Beverly Hills, over the course of four events and three months – all for the benefit of various charities near and dear to the Factor family – Heritage will host a March 16 celebration of Mrs. Factor, of the philanthropic heart of her late husband, Sidney Factor, son of make-up magnate Max factor Sr., and of the decades long love story that is the narrative of the love the two shared.

The March 16th event will take place at Heritage Auctions Beverly Hills, 9478 West Olympic Boulevard. The charities that will be the benefactors of the collection include the Norris Cancer Center, the Julia Ann Singer Center and Baron School for Exceptional Children, the Beverly Hills Education Foundation, the Beverly Hills Rotary Charity Fund, and the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles.

“I’m doing this for my husband, for the charities and scholarships he loved, so that his name will continue on outside the family for generations,” said Mrs. Factor.  “I want him to be remembered as a person – he was a very special man – and we’re going to give every bit of the proceeds to charity.”

The selections from the Dorothy Factor Collection will be sold starting with the Heritage Auctions Signature® Fine Silver & Vertu Auction on Wednesday, March 31, and will continue with the Thursday, April 22 Signature® Impressionist, Modern & Contemporary Art Auction, the May 3 Signature® Fine Jewelry Auction, before wrapping up with the May 26 Decorative Arts & Design Auction, all of which will take place at Heritage Auctions headquarters in Dallas, TX, but will be simulcast on Heritage LIVE! at www.HA.com.

While the pieces consigned by Mrs. Factor are indeed spectacular, several of the lots stand out not only for their exceptional beauty, but also for the deep meaning they carry for her. She has dug deep into her collection for pieces that are evocative of Sidney, and the honorable and altruistic way he operated in the world and with his family.

“All of these pieces are the way he said things to me,” Mrs. Factor said. “There are larger pieces and smaller pieces that a range of people will like. My hope is that whoever buys anything of ours will enjoy them the way we enjoyed them.”

“Selections from the Dorothy Factor Collection will be on display as part of the fete for Mrs. Factor on March 16 in Beverly Hills,” said Ed Beardsley, Vice President and Managing Director of the Fine Arts Department at Heritage Auctions, “and all are expected to draw serious bidding at auction from fans of the Factor family, philanthropists and collectors who simply love fine art, jewelry and silver.”

The first among equals from the collection, however, and easily the most spectacular piece to be offered is a 13.75 carat pear-shaped diamond and platinum ring that will be a part of the May 3-5 Jewelry Auction at Heritage. Estimated at $125,000+, the ring is big, beautiful and was a surprise to Dorothy from Sidney. Mrs. Factor still vividly recalls when Sidney presented her with the gift.

“That ring really came as a big shock,” she said. “My honey came into the room with a beautifully wrapped gift. I opened it up, and said, ‘I can’t believe this!’ Sidney looked at me and in a gentle voice, said: ‘It’s special just like you.’”

To match the spectacular ring, on Dorothy’s next birthday, Sidney gave her a gorgeous diamond and platinum bracelet. This, too, is offered as part of the collection, and is estimated at $25,000+

Dorothy and Sidney always loved to collect fine silver, and amassed a superb collection over the years. Sidney, the longtime head of the International Division of Max Factor & Co., traveled the globe extensively and, said Mrs. Factor, he always found an interesting piece or two to bring home. The result was a world class collection by any standard.

A massive 20th Century German Silver Flatware service, incomparably crafted by H. Meyen & Co, which was a gift from the couple to themselves for their 25th Anniversary, will be up for auction as part of the March 31 Fine Silver and Vertu Auction at Heritage (estimated at $40,000+), as will two round and two oval antique silver Benjamin Smith serving dishes from the 1830s (estimated altogether at $12,000+). When presented with a choice between the dishes and a new Mercedes from Sidney for her birthday, Dorothy didn’t hesitate to choose the serving dishes.

“The Mercedes will go down in value when it is driven off the lot,” she told her husband, “but the Benjamin Smith dishes will be an antique treasure that will go up in value as the years go by.”

Two pieces of Victorian silver, said Dorothy, were particularly meaningful to Sidney: An 1827 James Fray Irish Victorian Silver Tray depicting the stage of the life of a racehorse – estimated at $30,000+ - and a matching oversized racehorse-themed Victorian Silver Tankard. 1886-87, designed by Charles Boynton II, estimated at $12,000+. Both are important pieces in their own right as they come from the Dodge Collection, a famous horse family, but they take on even more special meaning when viewed through the lens of Sidney’s lifelong fondness of being an owner of thoroughbred horses.

When his thoroughbreds were no longer able to race Sidney gave the animals to Davis Veterinary, where they were cared for and used for what turned out to be excellent therapy for blind children. To keep that connection to horses and horse racing, one day Sidney bought the tray and the jug on Rodeo Drive.

Sidney’s love of horses was just one facet of the active sporting life he led.

“Before becoming so successful in business, Sidney was a very fine athlete,” said Dorothy. “He tried out from USC for the 1932 Olympics in swimming, competed for the California State Golf Championship and won the California State Tennis Championship while at USC against Ellsworth Vines, Jr. who won three Grand Slam events including Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.”

Of the numerous paintings in the collection, among them four by Edouard-Léon Cortès (French, 1882-1969), to be offered in the April 22 Modern & Contemporary Art Auction, Dorothy pointed to one Cortès painting in particular, Porte St. Martin, that she and Sidney purchased from Sheridan Art Galleries in Chicago. It is estimated at $20,000-$40,000.

Dorothy’s son, Max Factor III, is also doing his part in the name of his father’s charitable works to benefit the family’s chosen charities.

“On behalf of my sister Maxine and my brother Jim,” said Max, “we have been blessed with wise and generous parents whose great love embraced life to the fullest, and who always respected others and tithed to express the importance of each of us to one another.”

In the Modern & Contemporary Art Auction, several pieces from Max Factor III’s collection will be offered, including a bronze by Arman, Accumulation Colombienne, 1979/1980, edition of three, est. $20.000-$30,000, and Tom Wesselmann’s 44” x 80” Nude with Bouquet and Stockings, silkscreen on paper, 80/100, est. $10.000-15.000, the proceeds also benefiting Factor charities.

Finally, among other pieces, the May 23 Decorative Arts & Design Auction will include a spectacular Lalique hexagonal “Bellecour” vase, signed by Rene Lalique, estimated at $15,000, and a set of eight Royal Vienna plates, est. $5,000.

We like books. We like designers and antiques, vintage and decorative arts dealers. We like designers, antiques, vintage and decorative arts dealers who like books. So let’s benefit from not simply picking these professionals’ brains, but by picking their books as well. And while we’re at it, why not ask for their own snaps of their own bookshelves, too?

Potter, designer, entrepreneur, TV impresario and all around PER-SON-ALITY, Jonathan Adler has been breaking new ground since first selling his white clay wares to Barneys back in 1994.

“Breaking” is a word that likely strikes terror in a ceramicist’s heart, but Adler’s stride hasn’t slowed in sixteen years. Quite the contrary. While he opened his first eponymous store in Soho in 1998 and his second in L.A. in 2004, he now has 12 stores and approximately 100 employees.

He also wrote a book, “My Prescription for Anti-Depressive Living,” in 2005 and is currently finishing another; and “did” Barbie’s real-life Malibu Dream House, a commission from Mattel celebrating that timeless little lady’s big 5-0.

Plus he’s on TV! Since 2007, Adler has been the lead judge on Bravo’s Top Design. “Wasn’t it Gore Vidal who said that one should never turn down the opportunity to have sex or to on TV?” he asks (rhetorically).

The boy is now a brand. Below are his books.

Objects: USA by Lee Nordness

Hans Cooper by Tony Birks

Modern Furniture and Decoration by Robert Harling

Celebrity Needlepoint by Joan Scobey and Lee Parr McGrath

Young Designs in Color by Barbara Plumb

Maisons de Vacances from Collection Connaissance des Arts

European Interiors from Macdon – Hachette

Bloomingdales Book of Home Decorating by Barbara D’Arcy

Mundi Décor by Etnias Mundi

David Hicks on Home Decoration by David Hicks

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