DE NUESTROS SOCIOS: CARLOS ALBERTO CRUZ
Inside Art
New Showcase for a Neglected Era
By CAROL VOGEL
New York Times Published:
January 17, 2013
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Brooklyn Museum
Jae
Jarrell’s “Urban Wall Suit,” from 1969, recently bought by the Brooklyn Museum.
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2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
A
Moholy-Nagy photogram from 1925 valued at $200,000 to $300,000, part of an
auction of vintage prints at Christie’s.
Noticing that the collection bridged two
generations of works already among the museum’s holdings — by earlier
African-American artists like John Biggers, Sargent Johnson and Lois Mailou
Jones, and by their contemporary successors — the curator, Teresa A. Carbone,
persuaded the museum to acquire it.
“Even at a time when people are more aware of
the established canon of black artists,” Ms. Carbone said, “these artists are
only now gaining the recognition they deserve.”
The collection — 44 works by 26 artists — was
assembled by David Lusenhop, a former Chicago dealer now living in Detroit, and
his colleague Melissa Azzi. About a dozen years ago the two began buying pieces
they felt were prime examples of the Black Arts Movement.
The works include Wadsworth Jarrell’s
“Revolutionary,” from 1971, a 5-by-4-foot acrylic painting of Angela Davis
rendered in Day-Glo colors; and “Urban Wall Suit,” a patchwork woman’s garment
meant to resemble a graffiti-covered brick wall, by Mr. Jarrell’s wife, Jae,
and Jeff Donaldson’s watercolor “Wives of Shango,” both from 1969.
“This material is now incredibly rare,” Ms.
Carbone said.
In March she will start putting some of the
acquisitions in the museum’s American Identities galleries. “So much
of what we do is tied up with respect to our community,” she explained. “It
will be incredibly resonant for people who lived through the civil rights
movement, and surprising for a younger generation unfamiliar with the cultural
history of the 1960s.”
CHASE OVER, TIME TO SELL
The Chilean architect Carlos Alberto Cruz is one of
those compulsive collectors who enjoy the chase of putting together a coherent
group of artworks more than living with them. Starting in 1979 Mr. Cruz bought
Modernist photographs with the help of an adviser, Jill Rose, and put the
purchases in storage. The collection has been exhibited only once, in a show called
“Modernist Masterworks to 1925,” at the International Center of Photography in
New York. But that was 28 years ago.
Now Ignacio Cruz, one of Mr. Cruz’s two sons,
says that he and his siblings have convinced their 74-year-old father that it’s
time to sell. “When he started collecting, these photographs were not very
popular,” the younger Mr. Cruz said in a telephone interview from Chile. “They
are also very fragile.”
Among photography collectors these works are
considered particularly rare, so much so that when Sotheby’s and Christie’s
learned of the Cruzes’ interest in selling the collection, they fought to get
it. Christie’s won, offering the elder Mr. Cruz a guarantee — a sum he’ll get
regardless of the outcome of the sale — that is believed to be around $5
million.
On April 4 Christie’s will hold an auction in
New York it is calling “the deLIGHTed eye: Modernist Masterworks From a Private
Collection.” Consisting of 72 prints executed from 1900 to 1925, the sale is
expected to bring $5.2 million to $7.8 million.
“If you tried to put together a collection
like this it would be impossible,” said Joshua Holdeman, international director
of 20th-century art at Christie’s. “These vintage prints are simply no longer
available. It’s the most important private collection of concentrated Modernist
prints that we know of.”
Among the highlights are Edward Weston’s “Nude,” from 1925, which
is expected to bring $400,000 to $600,000; Edward Steichen’s “Bricks,” from around 1922,
taken looking through the open window of a city apartment at a man reading a
newspaper; Alfred Stieglitz’s
“From the Back Window ‘291;’ ” from 1914, an image he took from his office at
291 Fifth Avenue; and one of Moholy-Nagy’s abstract photograms from 1925. The
last three works are expected to bring $200,000 to $300,000 each.
The collection is just one of Mr. Cruz’s
many. He has also bought old master paintings and Dada objects, along with
English furniture, coins, books and silver.
“For my father,” the younger Mr. Cruz said,
“it’s not about seeing the photographs. He simply loves the idea of collecting
them.”
‘YOU’ ON A BILLBOARD
“February is such a gray month,” said Cecilia
Alemani, curator and director of High
Line Art. “I thought: Why not add a little color to brighten things up?”
Ms. Alemani was explaining why she had asked the California Conceptual
artist Allen Ruppersberg to create the next 25-by-75-foot billboard at West
18th Street and 10th Avenue in Chelsea, in a parking lot next to the High Line.
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On view Feb. 1 through 28, the billboard will
be a variation on one of Mr. Ruppersberg’s signature posters. The posters,
which he started exhibiting in the 1960s, are made from everyday objects and
snippets from magazines, advertisements, postcards and records.
The billboard is adapted from a work that
dates from the 1980s called “You & Me,” inspired by posters Mr. Ruppersberg
saw on the streets of Los Angeles to promote neighborhood events like wrestling
matches, carnivals and religious meetings. On it combinations of the words
“you” and “me,” appropriated from the posters, are arranged in fluorescent
pinks, oranges and yellows.
“There is no narrative, so you can read it
any way you like,” Ms. Alemani said. This is her eighth artist-designed
billboard, an initiative that started in 2011 and has featured works by John
Baldessari, Maurizio Cattelan and Paola Pivi.
“After having several image-based billboards
I was looking for an artist who uses language in a visual way,” Ms. Alemani
said. “It’s do-it-yourself urban poetry.”
NEW PARTNER FOR GALLERY
As David Zwirner’s empire
grows, so does the number of his partners. Christopher D’Amelio is the latest.
Mr. D’Amelio is no stranger to Chelsea; he was a director at the Paula Cooper
Gallery and ran his own space at 525 West 22nd Street, first with Lucien Terras
and then on his own.
“He is in the process of closing his gallery
to join us,” Mr. Zwirner said in a telephone interview. “Chris brings a lot of
experience and knowledge, especially when it comes to Minimalism.” (Mr. Zwirner
represents the estates of two giants of Minimalism, Dan Flavin and Donald
Judd.)
Mr. Zwirner is gearing up for the Feb. 15
opening of his second Chelsea space, at 537 West 20th Street, on the former
site of a three-story garage, a block away from his 19th Street gallery.
Mr. D’Amelio will be Mr. Zwirner’s fifth
partner. The other four are Angela Choon, who runs his London gallery; Kristine
Bell, who is on 20th Street, where Mr. D’Amelio will be; and Bellatrix Hubert
and Hanna Schouwink, who are at 19th Street.
posted by EDITOR | 9:19 PM
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