An abbreviated above the fold this week. Daddy is sick (I have a cold but in my mind: coughing droplets of blood in handkerchief, consumptive fever, selling hair to wigmaker to feed dear Cosette, etc). Meanwhile I’m seeing salone del mobile Milan content and Venice Biennale content and all that’s coming to mind is that I am deeply, deeply ashamed of my corny millennial generation. And then the artist-with-farm article in the Times? What a bunch of losers. And worse—old losers.
[Blackout. Spotlight David, hair shorn, prone in a large Willy Guhl planter he now appears to live in, down by the river, at the millennial retirement shantytown. Strewn around the stage: a large collection of glass top dining tables, now chipped and shattered, the bases assembled into a makeshift barricade. He’s unwell, dying, but suddenly filled with life.]
[Orchestra swells]
David, rising (full belt):
I dreeeeeaaaammmed a dreeaammm in time gone byyyyy
When hope was . . .
To our newest members, welcome. I’d say it’s not usually like this, but it is.
As always: Landed cost (the final cost you pay) = the hammer price (the highest bid) + the premium (a set percentage added to the hammer price that the auction house takes) + shipping (you’re almost always on the hook for this) + sales tax
Also, don’ be a loser: bid live. It means you get to check in on your phone all the time to see when your lot is coming up. You never get to spend any time on your phone anymore! Spend more time on your phone!
Lastly, Im assuming I will see everyone at friend-of-the-stack Sophie’s solo show at Europa on Thursday (4/18) 6-8 @ 125 Division St. NYC. Soph’s work is actually so Arcades . . .
To the listings!
Silver Leaf Shelf Brackets
I’m having a full Gollum vs. Smeagol inner monologue about how I should actually bid on these and not give you all the link. They are so beautiful.
ED: I have removed the link prior to publication. But if you are genuinely interested we can talk.
You probably know Salvatore Fiume for his ceramics. That work is so “cited” on the moodboards of design-y mass market retailers that he’s probably responsible for a sizable chunk of Greenpoint’s GDP. Friend-of-the-stack Cesco (spiritual friend, because he doesn’t subscribe but we love him anyway) put the paintings on my radar. I was initially not impressed but I’ve come around. Anyway this is more expensive than what normally lives on the Arcades but it’s also worth it.
+ADD TO CART [mic drop]
OK, do click through and check this auction out. It has a number of these Eastern Orthodox icons with oklad, which are repoussé metal covers that shield the icon (except for the faces of the holy figures). This one is second-half 1800s, egg tempera on wood, with a brass oklad. Find your favorite!
We did discuss labor intensive drawings (pejorative) last week. But I’m sticking to my guns here. Not a lot of info on Robert Forbes but he’s a Missouri man through and through. There’s something really satisfying about the soft focus on the kind of bleak, everywhere/nowhere-of-America parking lot and the pin sharp focus on the distortion in the water. Worlds within worlds/hold infinity in the palm of your hand. I’d buy this for myself.
I mean . . . [picks up mic from the floor, drops mic again].
Claude Verlinde, French, (1927-2020) textbook practitioner of Loser Art™️ avant la lettre. This is pencil on paper and it’s a delight. Suceur is “sucker” but what is Eyout? If you know LMK.
Haven’t you been meaning to buy a bronze censer? I think I heard you say that.
The little stepped detail at the bottom shelf really does it for me. And the color! This is one of those pieces whose hammer price is entirely contingent on whom the auction house can round up.
This is admittedly not cheap (and will hammer out high) but it’s really cool. It has an appealing muscularity and, as a person who enjoys both sitting and lying down, I could really see myself enjoying this. Bernini Italy production I believe from the 1970s.
This is sooo interior decorator-y but it’s also so nice. The color! What if we just let ourselves be happy? Has anyone ever told you that? That happiness is a choice?
May the hammer fall ever in your favor!