The Deal of the Art

Want to invest in art without all the risk? Partner with an art dealer.
A municipal bond derivatives salesman by trade, William Zachary has a costly hobby, fine art, that could pay for itself. In addition to buying things to put on his wall he also buys art to hang on a dealer's wall. If the dealer sells at a profit, Zachary shares the loot.
Zachary is among a pool of investors who back art dealer Mark Murray. Members of this investor pool also happen to be clients of Murray's gallery.
A typical contract for funding an art dealer gives investors a two-to-three-year time frame. Alas, they can't expect a profit share in proportion to their capital contribution. The dealer must be paid for his expertise and having the piece authenticated, given a clear title, repaired and reframed. Often the dealer is compensated for this work by being paid 50% or more of the net after expenses. Another approach: Passive investors put up all the cash while the dealer pays expenses of restoration, shipping and the like. After both parties are reimbursed, any profit or loss is split equally. Fairbanks' investors usually contribute half of the money; he makes up the rest. When the art is sold, expenses come off the top; investors get 30% of the profit.
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Irish Art

Sitting for Lucian Freud

The Freud method is to leave areas of untouched surface visible until very late on. This is, as he characteristically put it, "because it makes it more difficult, which helps me". "Many painters," he explained further, "may like to feel that they are working on a picture that is already there. But I like to feel that every aspect of it is provisional, changeable, removable." Consequently, my portrait grew outwards from a single point - "organically" as Freud puts it.
First he does a charcoal drawing, but does not necessarily "go by" it. By Christmas, two eyes could be seen, surrounded by a patch of paint mainly representing my forehead. At Easter, the face stretched down to my chin. When the sun of early June arrived, there was just a quartet of white patches in the corners of the rectangle. But that proved deceptive. The jacket, for example, I thought would be an easy bit - after all, it just consists of plain blue cloth.
It did not prove so at all. He painted it one way; he painted it another. He changed the angle and contour of my shoulders, then altered them again, and again. The lapels were put in, taken out, put in once more. "The more paint goes on the jacket," he said thoughtfully after this had gone on for three or four sittings, "the better - to show it's different from the rest of the picture." "Sometimes," he added contentedly, "I spend weeks just painting and repainting the corner of a room."
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Irish Art

Sargent Record at Auction

A painting by John Singer Sargent sold for 12 million pounds setting a new auction record for the artist. Group with Parasols (A Siesta) was bought anonymously at Sotheby New York.
There was speculation that the buyer was Bill Gates, the billionaire founder of the Microsoft computer empire. Mr Gates has built up one of the most extensive private art collections over the past decade, with works by American painters forming the core.

Five bidders competed for the painting by Sargent, who was an American citizen but lived in London for much of his life and became a fashionable portraitist of high society. The anonymous buyer, who had left a commission bid with the auctioneer William Stahl in the New York saleroom, was prepared to double the previous record paid for a Sargent in 1996.

Women Artists Anon Money

Anonymous Was A Woman Foundation has announced 10 artists selected for their 9th awards. The no strings $25,000 grant enables women over 35, at a critical juncture in their lives or careers, to continue to grow, recover from traumatic life events, and pursue their work. The name "Anonymous Was A Woman", refers to a line in the Virginia Wolf book A Room of Ones Own. The nominators and those associated with the program are un-named, and artists are unaware that they are being considered for the award. Winners are often stunned by the news.
Apart from money, the grant validates their work and their self-worth. Each year, an outstanding group of distinguished women including art historians, curators, and writers nominate artists for the award.
For more information email: anonwasawoman@aol.com
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Irish Art

Guggenheim cancels Cezanne

A major Paul Cezanne exhibition scheduled to open on Feb. 10 at the Guggenheim Museum, New York has been called off because the museum could not borrow a number of the more important works of art.
The show, Cezanne: The Dawn of Modern Art, explores the painters impact on artists like Matisse, Picasso and Braque. It is currently on tour in Europe.
Irish Art

The Art of the Delicate

A visitor speaks of the Agnes Martin Gallery at the Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, Northern New Mexico.
"It is one of the most special galleries of art in America. The seven paintings are all five-feet square, and are built from horizontal lines and a pale blue wash. The room is gently lit: Natural light falls in from a conical skylight and the hardwood floor distributes the light throughout the space. A single bulb, about 40 watts worth, lights each canvas.
The paintings surrounded me; their delicateness intimidated me into silence. Even the sound of my pants rustling as I walked from painting to painting seemed intrusive. I quickly realized that the best way to experience Agnes Martin's paintings was to stand still in front of them and to allow myself to not just look at them, but to feel the experience of being in this place.
Ever since that visit, I've thought about how the key to enjoying Martin's paintings is less in looking at them and more in absorbing their presence. "This poem, like the paintings, is not really about nature," Martin once wrote. "It is not what is seen. It is what is known forever in the mind."
For more on Agnes Martin who died recently see post "Agnes Martin Dies"
Irish Art