1941- The Lost Year of Calder

There was a fascinating article in the New York Times today about great sculptor/artist Alexander Calder and the year of his career that is least known to scholars of his work.

A series of photographs taken by his friend Hearbert Matter show Calder in his Roxburry, Connecticut warehouse studio surrounded by mountains of metal and walls of glass. The photgraphs, taken in 1941 showcase many works that have rarely been seen since they went into private collections.

The year 1941 would be the last year Calder would have access to all the aluminum sheet-metal he could wish for-Pearl Harbor and the beginning of WWII would see to that. After that year Calder began working in wood and bronze. Much like his attitude to his own work, he never looked back- giant aluminum and steel monstrositys were well...behind him.

New York Times writer Randy Kennedy speaks about a particular structure called "Tree," that almost dissapeared for good when it failed to sell and Calder took it apart and gave the base to a iron worker friend. Fortunately, for Calder fans, it was rescued. Many years ago, the presdient of the Calder Foundation, Mr. Alexander Rower (Calder's Grandson) found the hanging portion of the sculpture packaged neatly in a shoebox. Reunited at last, the piece glimmers with red shards of car tail-lights and stands tall with its base that looks like a cross between a resting bird and a graceful childs drawing of a dinosaur.

I was shocked to read that during the 1930s and 40s-even as his acclaim was growing, his works were not highly sought after. A ledger in the foundation's files shows that only a few pieces in the 1941 show were sold-one in particular to Solomon R. Guggenheim for just $233.34 (around $3500 in today's money). It's worth noting that The Museum of Modern Art bought its first Calder in 1934 for just $60 after talking Calder down from $100.

If you happen to be in New York this weekend, you can see several pieces from this important period of his career at Pace Gallery's uptown branch.

Fisherman's Daughter by Breton Goes Home

After 90 years, master painter Jules Breton's painting titled "Fisherman's Daughter" has finally gotten home-and a chapter in the history of art theft can finally be closed.

Stolen from the Douai Beaux Art Museum in North France by German troops during the First World War, the story of "Fisherman's Daughter" has long been one of the greatest mysteries in the art world.

In 2011 there was a break in the case which had long been cold. Interpol was alerted that the painting had been imported into New York by an art dealer. But was it the real painting? Or just a masterful fake? Valued at over $150K in todays market, celebrations on its recovery had to be withheld until the experts could establish its pedigree.

Art experts, curators and historians from France and the United States were called in to examine the painting and investigate its long and clandestine history. After a close examination of records and documentation, both in the United States and in France, and visits to museums and key witnesses, the story of the painting emerged.

But where had it been? What had happened to it for nearly a century? Investigators discovered that during the German occupation of the northern part of the country. German troops confiscated artwork from the Douai Beaux Art Museum and sent the artwork to Mons, Belgium, and then to Brussels.

In 1919, the Belgian government organized the return of the French collection to France, but the painting was not part of the cache. It's believed that before the Belgan government could repatriate the pieces that Breton's painting was stolen once again.

There's where the case goes cold. No one knows what happened to the painting, other than the fact that the painting was professionally restored since it was stolen from Douai Beaux Art Museum. The painting was apparently in private hands recently, then turned up being imported to an art dealer in New York last year.

Today, U.S. officials returned the masterpiece to the French people at a ceremony in Washington attended by the French ambassador, ending the nearly century-long art mystery.

Shift to the Left

No gigantic cause for alarm- yet - but Big Ben is leaning to the left!

The 315-foot (96-meter) tower is leaning in the northwest direction at an angle of 0.26 degrees, according to a report from 2009 that was recently obtained by the Sunday Telegraph through a Freedom of Information request.


The clock tower — colloquially known as Big Ben after its massive bell — has been slightly off center since it was erected in the mid-19th century. Like many old buildings, its position has been shifting imperceptibly for years due to environmental factors such as seasonal temperature and moisture level changes.

The level of movement northward has been less than 1 millimeter a year since experts began measuring it in the 1970s, Burland said. In the 1990s, the construction of a London Underground line affected the clock tower's foundations and added a small amount of movement to that natural shift, he said.

According to Parliament's website, foundations for the clock tower were first laid in 1843 and the project was completed in 1859, several years behind schedule.

How Has It Been So Long?

It's like I found a twenty dollar bill underneath my bed, or crammed into a pants pocket. It's been EIGHT months since I posted a new blog posting to this blog. I have no idea if anyone out there reads this, but if you do-I'm sorry to have been gone away so long. I will get back to writing-right away.

I'm off to find something worth commenting on that's not the Occupy Wall Street movement. There's quite enough about that on the web without my 2 cents.

Must Have Been Some Good Drugs

In the "did ya know" category, here's one for coctail banter. Did you know that there are two bullet holes in Andy Warhol's 1972 screenprint of Chairmain Mao?

There are-and it didn’t deter a collector from buying it for $302,500 — 10 times the high presale estimate of $30,000 — at Christie’s in New York last month.

The reason the piece was coveted has to do with the shooter as much as it has to do with the artist and subject matter. During a wild night in the 1970s, Dennis Hopper got spooked by the picture and shot it twice. Warhol loved the results and annotated the holes with circles and the words “warning shot” and “bullet hole,” which made the work an unplanned collaboration.

Must have been some good drugs Dennis.