Spring Masters 2015

May 12th, 2015

Bernard Goldberg Fine Arts, New York City, took a large booth located at the front of the show. Displayed on the wall are a set of five terra-cotta reliefs by Carl Milles (1875-1955), The Muses, circa 1935, each 15½" x 10", priced at $125,000. In the center is a 1934 terra-cotta maquette of Bellerophon and Pegasus by Paul Manship (1885-1966) for the Carnegie Corporation Medal, 8¾" diameter, priced at $48,000. In front are two sets of five cast-iron urns by Anna Petrus (1886-1949), each 8½", which were used as pillar components at the Swedish Pavilion at the International Exposition of Modern Design in Paris in 1925. The stackable urns were priced at $150,000 for a set of five

Goldberg, who is Artvest partner Jeff Rabin’s father-in-law, sold the Manship male and female figures seen on the display shelves. These 1934 studies for the Prometheus fountain at Rockefeller Center in New York City were cast after the artist’s death.

A display of hardstone vases dating from 3300 B.C. to 600 B.C. could be seen at Phoenix Ancient Art, New York City and Geneva, Switzerland; prices ranged from $25,000 to $150,000. The Hellenistic Greek marble head of Aphrodite, late 2nd-1st century B.C., was priced at $1 million.

Clinton Howell Antiques, New York City, asked $15,000 for a set (partially shown) of 18 late 18th-century Chinese paintings on rice paper, each 9¼" x 9¼". Below the paintings is one of a pair of English Regency pollard oak and parcel-ebonized side cabinets on a plinth base with later marble top, 38" x 60¼" x 15¼", priced at $125,000 the pair. The pair of 35" high porphyry-veneered Italian obelisks with white marble moldings and four lapis lazuli medallions, early 20th century, was $22,500.

Interior designer Jamie Drake used “a variety of pieces that span time and culture in a single room” to achieve this look for his design booth at Spring Masters. On the wall at left is a circa 1585 portrait of a lady by Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614), 45¼" x 34¼", $450,000 from Robert Simon Fine Art, New York City; at center is a modern reproduction of a Serge Mouille 1950s design of a three-arm branch floor lamp, $7850 from Lost City Arts, New York City; and on the wall at right is a 1983 acrylic painting by John Opper (1908-1994), 54" x 66", $65,000 from David Findlay Jr. Gallery, New York City. The circa 1765 carved gilt armchair (left) was $55,000 from Clinton Howell Antiques, New York City, and the contemporary “fainting couch,” based on a 1960s design by Hans Hartl, was $7500 from Lost City Arts.

New York City

The tulips lining Park Avenue were in full bloom, timed perfectly to greet attendees on their way to the second edition of Spring Masters, held May 8-12 at the 7th Regiment Armory in New York City.

Petals of deep orange tinged with yellow carpeted the avenue’s dividers, and once inside the show, those colors could be seen in Joseph Stella’s (1877-1946) oil painting Luna Park Abstraction, 1913-14, at the booth of Bernard Goldberg Fine Arts, New York City; in Fausto Salvi’s Magic Woods, 2009, a group of painted ceramic sculptures covered with aluminum leaf, from Lost City Arts, New York City; in a Tiffany Studios Oriental Poppy table lamp, 1899-1918, displayed at the booth of Macklowe Gallery, New York City; in Romare Bearden’s (1911-1988) The Piano Lesson, 1984, a gouache, watercolor, and collage on paper, offered by Jerald Melberg Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina; and even in the Angel’s Envy Kentucky bourbon served during the opening night preview on May 7.

One of the biggest compliments to a show is when dealers who aren’t exhibiting come by and check out the goods. Several dealers from different genres, as well as museum curators, appeared on opening night, strolling the hexagonally designed booths, taking stock, and talking shop with their colleagues. Compliments abounded for the design and for the show’s atmosphere and offerings.

Sixty dealers from the United States, Europe, and the United Kingdom exhibited works of art and design from antiquity to 2015. The wall colors of the booths, many in vibrant reds, yellows, and blues, were chosen by each exhibitor.

Opening night was an invitation-only event, unlike many other shows that open with a charity benefit. “The focus is on other things at that type of event,” explained one dealer, “not on the objects or the art. This had a much different feel.”

Exhibitors invited their clients, as did the show’s producer, Artvest Partners. Founded by the Art and Antique Dealers League of America as the Spring Show New York City, the show was taken over and restructured in 2014 by partners Michael Plummer and Jeff B. Rabin.

“The show was very good for us,” said Ken Sims of Bernard Goldberg Fine Arts, who sold Paul Manship’s Studies for Male and Female Figures for the Prometheus fountain in New York City’s Rockefeller Center, modeled in 1934 and cast after the artist’s death. “Quality people were there, even though at times it was a little slow,” Sims said in a phone interview a week after the show, adding, “We have a few things on hold. People are waiting to see how the American art auctions go this week.” The American art auctions at Bonhams, Christie’s, and Sotheby’s took place from May 19 through 21.

“People are in New York, and the timing is good,” said Bill Drucker of Drucker Antiques, Mt. Kisco, New York. He sold a six-piece Art Deco Georg Jensen tea set, a set of prints done in 1979 commemorating Jensen’s 75th year of silversmithing, and small objects including Wiener Werkstätte.

The show “is moving in the right direction,” said Richard Rossello of Avery Galleries, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. “The dealer mix has improved, and the layout has been modified in significant ways. It’s been fine-tuned,” Rossello stated.

“It’s refreshing on so many levels,” declared Martine Haspeslagh of Didier, Ltd., London. She and her husband, Didier, specialize in postwar jewelry designed by leading painters, sculptors, architects, and designers. Their booth was very busy on opening night and again at the beginning of the week, when the show’s last two days coincided with the opening of other art and design events in New York City, including Collective Design, Art Miami, and Frieze.

For those dealers who didn’t have any sales, however, the cost of exhibiting at Spring Masters—upward of $30,000, not including travel costs—outweighed the benefits. Furthermore, Mother’s Day fell on the Sunday of the show, so traffic was light. The Friday night “Arts’ Night Out,” a reception for young collectors that went past 9 p.m. on a day when the show opened at 11 a.m., was a washout for dealers, who said the event was purely social. “No one was looking at the art,” a couple of dealers said.

Some sales made at the show included an Edward Hopper watercolor at the booth of Debra Force Fine Art, New York City; a large bronze sculpture by Gino Miles offered by Long-Sharp Gallery, Indianapolis, Indiana, which sold on opening night “to an important private sculpture collector from France,” said gallery owner Rhonda Long-Sharp; and most of the items in Urban Archaeology’s double-size booth, including Samuel Yellin railings, a pair of Gothic post lights, aluminum plaques from the Barbizon Hotel, and a pair of up lights from 1 Wall Street. “Two people are fighting over the pair of Pierre-Louis Rouillard cast-iron urns” ($125,000 the pair), which were filled with cherry blossoms at the entrance to the show, and “the cherubs are on hold, and we’re negotiating now,” said Urban Archaeology owner Gil Shapiro during the show’s final hours on Tuesday.

“We do this show for the zip code,” stated Jim Elkind, owner of Lost City Arts, New York City, reiterating what another dealer remarked about his clients being within a ten-block radius of the armory’s Park Avenue and 67th Street location. Elkind sold a painting by Duilio Barnabé (Italian, 1914-1961), a Lucite figural sculpture from the 1960s, and two period Japanese bronzes—all to other dealers.

The five-day show’s theme, “Juxtapositions: Collecting Across Centuries,” was highlighted by the curated living room designed by Jamie Drake and Drake Design Associates, New York City.

ProjectArt, a New York City-based organization that helps give children access to art in public libraries, had a booth showcasing some of the young artists’ works. Bookmarks of the art were available in exchange for a donation that provides paintbrushes to the program.

For more information, call (212) 370-2501; website (www.springmastersny.com).

James Elkind, the owner of Lost City Arts, New York City, which specializes in postwar 20th-century art and design, poses between the trees of Fausto Salvi’s Magic Woods, 2009. The sculptures are of painted ceramic covered by aluminum leaf. The trees, each 6'6" tall, and the 76 stumps, from flat to 2" high, were priced at $120,000.

Exhibitor Thomas Colville (right) of Guilford, Connecticut, talks shop with active New York City art dealer Michael Altman.

Arlie Sulka of Lillian Nassau LLC, New York City, painted her booth bright yellow. “A good backdrop for the Tiffany lamps,” she said. She sold glass and a lamp to a new client. This 80½" x 46¼" forged steel garden gate by metal sculptor Albert Paley (b. 1944), commissioned in 1990, was priced at $87,500. “It goes so well with Tiffany,” Sulka said, adding that it “could be used as a room divider.”

Long-Sharp Gallery, Indianapolis, Indiana, sold this 8'2" high bronze sculpture by Gino Miles (b. 1952) during the first minutes of the opening preview. “We can’t keep his work in,” said owner Rhonda Long-Sharp. Serenity, 2015, was priced at $125,000.

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