FOR 12-31

‘SECOND SIGHT’ AT FRANCES LEHMAN LOEB ART CENTER JAN. 14

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POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. — The new exhibition “Second Sight: Originality, Duplicity and the Object,” on view at Vassar’s Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center January 14–April 10, highlights artworks that have bridged the evolution of art, by transmitting motifs, methods, styles, genres, ideas and traditions from one context to another.

“Second Sight” emerged from a larger initiative by the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center to exhibit rarely seen works from its vast permanent collection. “We began pulling out objects that for one reason or another do not fit into canonical histories of art,” explained Joel Smith, a curator at the art center. “As we assembled the best of the pieces, we realized that as a group they bring to life some of the central issues facing art historians today, from the criteria for originality and the appropriation of earlier images by later artists, to the dissemination of ideas and motifs from one cultural setting to another.”

The exhibit brings together variant renditions and copy sketches, satires and homages, authorized facsimiles and suspected forgeries, works of problematic attribution, renderings in alternative media, modern versions of classic themes and postmodern reinventions of modernist icons.

Andy Warhol’s screen print “Jackie II,” 1966, features enlarged side-by-side copies of a press photograph of Jacqueline Kennedy mourning at JFK’s funeral, a nod to the numbing familiarity induced by overexposure in the mass media, and alongside Warhol’s iconic image is an anonymous snapshot of a television screen showing the first lady during the live telecast of the funeral: a mourner’s private memorial, captured before the public moment’s conversion into pop-cultural cliché.

Photographers, working in a medium widely regarded as inherently mechanical, have employed diverse methods to avoid the taint of “art reproduction” and to signal the status of their work as art in itself. In “Second Sight” an Orientalist platinum-print of the Thames River by Ernest Lamb is seen alongside one of its aesthetic forebears, James McNeill Whistler’s lithograph “Early Morning, Battersea, 1878.”

Among the satires in “Second Sight” is a Seventeenth Century Flemish bronze sculpture that lampoons the classical tragic group known as the Laocoon; here, the lead figure, Bacchus, has been set upon not by serpents but by mischievous angelic creatures, putti, who are after his bowl of wine. In James Gillray’s etching “Weird Sisters: Ministers of Darkness, Minions of the Moon,” 1791, Henry Fuseli’s image of the witches in Macbeth — a famous contemporary painting at that time — morphs into a trio of Tory ministers. The moon they worship is a two-faced monarchy, a smiling queen on its sunny side and the king in the shadows.

The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College is open to the public Tuesday–Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm, and Sunday, 1 to 5 pm. For information, 845-437-5632 or fllac.Vassar.edu.

12/31

Slug: ‘Dogs In Art’ Auction At Bonhams & Butterfields

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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. — International fine arts auctioneers Bonhams & Butterfields will offer “Dogs in Art,” a traditional annual auction for pet-lovers and collectors, on Tuesday, January 25. The New Year’s installment will comprise 120 lots, predominately paintings, with one bronze and some medals relating to the Pekingese breed.

Among the highlights is a beautiful example of the work of William Henry Hamilton Trood, ($15/20,000). While only 12 by 16 inches, it shows a black terrier keeping watch over a bundle of sleeping puppies. According to specialists, this is not only an excellent example of the artist’s work, but also illustrates the best in this genre. Perhaps destined to be Best in Show is a large canvas showing a springer spaniel with her puppies, entitled “Maternal Affection” ($30/40,000).

Foxhounds are always popular with collectors and the sale includes an oil sketch on paper of the head of a hound by John Frederick Herring Sr. These beautifully worked sketches by Herring, dating from the early 1850s, are highly sought after as they combine a lightness of touch with a brilliant observation of the animal ($6/9,000).

Another popular artist in these auctions is John Emms and the January sale features two good examples: one work depicts a group of foxhounds around the base of tree in which a fox hides ($12/15,000), and the other is an oil on canvas of a fox terrier bitch suckling her litter ($8/12,000).

Collectors will also be familiar with the work of Arthur Wardle of Rhode Island. This exceptional artist was largely self-taught, but is now regarded as one of the finest animal painters of his generation. The sale’s catalog will include five Wardle works, ranging in value from $1,500 to as much as $20,000, the best of which are two wonderfully crafted paintings of King Charles spaniels and dachshunds.

Continental buyers will be pleased to see several paintings of interest, in particular two pictures by Danish artists. The auction’s Lot 78, by Ejnar Vindfeldt, depicts a spaniel with puppies in a sun-drenched yard ($20/30,000) and a charming composition by Simon Simonsen that depicts a pile of dachshund puppies ($12,000/15,000).

One of the finest paintings in the sale is by William Frank Calderon. “Orphans” shows the artist’s own Irish wolfhound, Patrick, lying in an interior with one paw resting over two terrier puppies. Calderon’s work rarely appears at auction and this exceptional picture is estimated to realize $35,000 to $45,000.

Many breeds are represented in the auction — from the aristocratic borzoi to the mischievous terrier — with wonderful works depicting gun dogs, pointers, setters, spaniels and Pekingese — the auctioneers assure, “There should be something for every dog lover.”

Prices include the buyer’s premium charged. For more information about future auctions, 415-861-7500 or visit www.Bonhams.com.