George Lindemann Journal by George Lindemann - "Homing In on a Couple’s Basquiat Drawings" @nytimes by CAROL VOGEL
“Jean-Michel himself was fascinated that we always gravitated toward the complex work,” said Ms. Schorr, who argues that the drawings are “the key to all his work.”
While institutions like the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh have shown Basquiats from the Schorrs’ collection, there has never been an exhibition focusing chiefly on the couple’s works on paper by the artist. Now, however, the Schorrs are lending 22 of their Basquiat drawings for a show running from May 1 through June 13 at the Acquavella Galleries. Eleanor Acquavella, one of the gallery’s directors, said she welcomed the opportunity because “there is a complex side to his drawings that few people are familiar with.”
In addition to the 22 drawings, dense with the artist’s signature graffiti scrawls, words and images, the Schorrs will lend two paintings that incorporate drawing and collage with some of the same imagery.
Fred Hoffman, a dealer turned curator who helped organize a traveling Basquiat exhibition that opened at the Brooklyn Museum in 2005, is also assembling the Acquavella show. “About two and a half years ago, I realized how Basquiat’s works on paper had been overlooked and how important they are,” he said. “In contrast to most artists, Basquiat’s drawings were not a solution to a problem. They were complete works unto themselves.”
As is often the case these days with exhibitions at blue chip galleries, nothing at the Acquavella show will be for sale. “It is strictly educational,” Ms. Schorr said. “We still own all our paintings and drawings by the artist.”
HUGUETTE CLARK’S TROVE
Two weeks ago, Christie’s announced that it had won property from the estate of Huguette Clark, the reclusive copper heiress who died in 2011 at the age of 104. While the auction house said it would be selling some 400 items — art, musical instruments, furniture and rare books — in two sales in Manhattan this spring, it provided few specifics. The overall sales estimate for the property is over $50 million.
This week, some details about the art and objects began to emerge, giving a fuller picture of Mrs. Clark’s taste and that of her parents. French furniture and important Impressionist paintings apparently filled her three apartments at 907 Fifth Avenue, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, as well as sprawling mansions in Santa Barbara, Calif., and New Canaan, Conn.
“It’s a time capsule,” said Conor Jordan, Christie’s deputy chairman of Impressionist and Modern art. “In the New York apartments, we found newspapers lining some of the drawers from the 1930s. There were also French periodicals stretching back to the 19th century.”
Mrs. Clark, who chose to live at a Manhattan hospital during the last two decades of her life, rather than in her homes, has been a focus of fascination since her death. Depicted as a poor little rich girl who loved to paint and collect dolls, she is the subject of a best-selling book (a second book is due out in the spring), and her $300 million estate has been the focus of a highly publicized court battle.
Mrs. Clark came from a deeply Francophile family. Although her father, Senator William A. Clark, Democrat of Montana, was said to be a hard-nosed businessman whose life was his work, he had a soft spot for all things French (including his second wife, Anna). Anna and Huguette Clark did as well: Both women bought French paintings that will be among the highlights of Christie’s Impressionist and Modern art auction on May 6. The top attraction is one of Monet’s “Nymphéas,” or Water Lilies, from 1907, which has an estimate of $25 million to $35 million. Huguette Clark bought the painting in 1930 from the Durand-Ruel Galleries, and it has not been seen in public since.
Also coming to auction are three paintings by Renoir, including “Jeunes Filles Jouant au Volant” (“Young Women Playing Badminton”), painted toward the end of the 1880s. Mr. Jordan of Christie’s said Mrs. Clark purchased it in 1958 for $125,000, a high price at the time, when the Minneapolis Institute of Arts deaccessioned it; it is now expected to bring $10 million to $15 million. (The painting had been on loan to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, another beneficiary under the settlement of Mrs. Clark’s estate.)
The Clarks also collected American art. On June 18, Christie’s is to auction a 1913 canvas of a girl fishing in the Italian lakes region, by John Singer Sargent, estimated at $3 million to $5 million. More personal is “Prospect Park,” an 1886 painting by William Merritt Chase that is expected to fetch 700,000 to $1 million.
“It is likely that this was a gift from the artist to Senator Clark when Chase was commissioned by him to paint his portrait in 1915,” said Elizabeth Sterling, head of Christie’s American paintings department. “Chase was known to give token presents to his patrons.”
Highlights from the sales of Mrs. Clark’s art are on view through Tuesday at Christie’s in London and will travel to Hong Kong (April 4 through 9), Tokyo (April 10 through 12) and then back to Rockefeller Center later that month. All of the works will be shown at Christie’s New York headquarters just before the sales in May and June.
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