The Avenue Show 2012
Lita Solis-Cohen | September 21st, 2012
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Murano glass fish by Romana Dona, late 1970's/early 1980's, $9500 each from Mark Helliar Vintage Murano Glass, Rolling Hills Estates, California.
J. Lohmann Gallery, New York City, offered contemporary and mid-20th-century ceramics from Scandinavia and Germany. Steen Ipsen made the 17" tall white sculpture at front center, Tied Up, in 2012 ($9800) and the 7" tall red one at front right ($9200). Sandra Davolio made the white porcelain vessel at left center ($4500). The ribbon-like works are by Merete Rasmussen, who was born in Denmark and works in London; the large blue one on the wall was $9500, and the smaller dark one (back center) was $7500. Displayed on a shelf attached to the wall (far left) are two brown earthenware vessels by Ann van Hoey of Belgium ($3300 the pair).
Michael Pashby Antiques, New York City, asked $18,000 for the Elizabethan chest with Classical arches, 1590-1600. The early panels, circa 1540, were $12,000 and $8000, and the small Flemish portraits at left cost $11,000 the pair. |
New York City
The Avenue Show 2012
by Lita Solis-Cohen
"This is the only Avenue Show this year, but next year we will have two, in April and October. The dealers are asking for it," said show director Barbara Goodwin. From September 21 through 24, 2012, Goodwin filled the Park Avenue Armory in New York City with 60 dealers in art, jewelry, furniture, and decorative arts from the 18th through the 21st centuries.
"I aim for an elegant yet accessible atmosphere, a show that offers quality that is still affordable," she said. "The Avenue Show plays to designers and collectors; you have to have that mix."
Dealers came from England, Ireland, Canada, and all parts of the U.S., anxious to sell to a Manhattan audience. The design committee was active. Eleven well-known designers picked out treasures they could use, posting images of them in the entryway.
The opening night of AVENUE Antiques, Art & Design at the Armory was co-hosted by designers Jamie Drake and Ellie Cullman, and a thousand people who read Avenuemagazine or are among the dealers' top customers came to the Thursday evening preview. It was free, by invitation only. The New York School of Interior Design presented a benefit cocktail party in the Veterans Room, honoring Albert Hadley and hosted by Bunny Williams, and brought their guests through the show.
Two paintings sold early in the show. Waterhouse & Dodd, celebrating 25 years in business with galleries in London and New York City, sold Milton Avery's Pines, signed and dated 1953. A Modernist work from Avery's mature period, painted shortly after his first retrospective in 1952 at the Baltimore Museum of Art, it is a poetic painting in blue-greens and grays.
Center Space Gallery, New York City, sold one of Alex Guofeng Cao's large black and white digital mosaic photomontages, Lichtenstein vs. Lichtenstein, a portrait of a full-lipped girl saying "I Love You Too" in the style of Roy Lichtenstein. Cao's signature mosaic grid is made of small dots.
Jackie Smelkinson and Marsha Moylan of The Spare Room, Baltimore, Maryland, said they had their best show in 34 years in business. "There was a steady gate and enthusiastic buyers. We sold jewelry, ceramics, and small objects to new and old customers every day," said Smelkinson.
Greenwich, Connecticut, art dealer Bruno François of FraMont said the biggest asset of the Avenue Show is the new people he meets. "They are not the same people who come to every show. The traffic was good. I sold paintings and a Braque lithograph, and I have sculpture in play. It was not as good as last year but OK."
Barbara Goodwin had no trouble filling the show. Dealers from afar outnumbered those with galleries in New York City. Nicolaus Boston came from Ireland, Milord Antiques from Montreal, and Stephen Kalms from The London Silver Vaults. Goodwin could have filled the armory with jewelry dealers but kept the number down to under a dozen.
"Avenue Shows draw fantastic high-worth, local people—an impressive group," said Hollis Reh, a Southampton, New York, dealer in estate jewelry. "We sold across the board—earrings, bracelets, rings—at all price points. The business has been flat for so long; this show had more energy than I've seen in years."
Exhibitors had good things to say about show manager Barbara Goodwin. "She gets the people here; beyond that it's up to the dealers," Reh volunteered.
Goodwin organized a long list of special events and sent e-mail blasts to remind her audience. There were lectures by designers, curators, and art advisers. There were breakfast panels and afternoon talks on choosing art and picking accessories. Mario Buatta spoke about decorating with antiques for today. Ellie Cullman, Todd Alexander Romano, and Alexa Hampton chose eight of their favorite things from the show, including jewelry, and talked about them in a roundtable discussion moderated by author Susanna Salk.
It worked. The show had high energy from the crowded opening night to closing time. Goodwin said that "it was an in-the-know audience," about the same size as in 2011.
Dealers seemed happy that there will be two AVENUE Antiques, Art & Design at the Armory shows in 2013, April 17-21 and October 9-13, and particularly happy that the fall show will be later in the season. Several complained that the September dates were too early for people to get serious about furniture and furnishings. As usual, though, a few dealers did well, and many did OK, but not every dealer had a decent show.
For more information, call (646) 442-1627; Web site (www.avenueshows.com).
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Macklowe Gallery, New York City, asked $75,000 for the Majorelle dining room table and six chairs. The Tiffany Nasturtium chandelier cost $195,000.
Mary Deeming of Bromley, Kent, England offered Japanese woodblock prints and textiles. Obis ranged from $530 and $680 to $3000 for commissioned pieces woven by hand. "It takes a year to weave one," explained Deeming.
Dallas W. Boesendahl, New York City, asked (from left) $2800, $3600, and $2800 for these Daum glass vases from the 1940's.
The jewelry stands at AVENUE Antiques, Art & Design at the Armory are like candy shops. The Florida firm of Richters of Palm Beach, which specializes in contemporary estate jewelry from the 1950's, '60's, and '70's, claims to have the largest collection of vintage David Webb items. Bracelets of gold and coral ranged from $35,000 to $200,000, said Stefan Richter. Some were new reissues of earlier designs.
William Cook of Hungerford, Berkshire, England asked $12,500 for the George III long-case clock, $8500 for the George II dumbwaiter, and $25,500 for the Queen Anne chest-on-stand.
Milord Antiques, Montreal, Canada, offered a pair of Marilyn chairs designed in 1973 by the Japanese architect Arata Isozaki. Marked by Tendo Mokko Co. Ltd. and made in Japan, they were made for a bank in New York in the 1980's and priced at $9500 the pair. On the LaVerne Etruscan coffee table ($16,500) are three Scandinavian glass vases by Holmegaard (from left) in orange ($850), burgundy ($650), and green ($850). The painting of men in a sardine can by the Greek artist Yannis Gaitis (1923-1984), known for his paintings depicting the uniformity and sterility of mass living, was $25,000.
Dmitriy & Co., New York City, asked $13,500 for the 112" long 18th-century Italian sawbuck dining table of bleached pine; on it is an 18th-century staircase model, a birch bowl for $2300, and handblown glass bottles for $325, $325, and $450. The painting by Monique Chicot, a contemporary French artist, was $14,500. The 19th-century French wine table with an elliptical top was $10,500. On the cupboard are Vietnamese war shields of inlaid wood, priced at $11,700 each.Originally published in the January 2013 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2012 Maine Antique Digest
