The other night, I attended a reception and dinner for an exhibition
of work by an artist who is no longer living. We produced the
accompanying book—a handsome, substantial effort.
The exhibition is impressive. Many museum members and out-of-town
visitors extolled the work, the selection of the paintings, and the
installation. Smiles and congratulations came from all around.
The new MFAH retrospective, “Alice Neel: Painted Truths,” was namechecked in the most recent T, the New York Times style magazine:
The artist’s sensitivity to nuances of style and gesture informs the portraits in “Alice Neel: Painted Truths.”
Since her portrait work was largely uncommissioned and did not require that she flatter the sitter, “you get a sense of how people really looked,” says Barry Walker, who, with Jeremy Lewison, curated the show.
Recently in New York City, a record 483 galleries and artist projects
participated in 11 concurrent art fairs—the Armory show being the
biggest. Dealers at this fair reported increased sales from last year
and were confident the art market had rebounded.
However, the talk of the week was the “Independent,” a brand new
art fair co-founded by New York gallerist Elizabeth Dee and the
London-based Darren Flook held at the former Dia Center for the
Arts building in Chelsea.
Billed as “... part consortium, part collective”, it gathered about 40
international galleries, nonprofit spaces and publications together
under one roof. Each exhibitor had an unbound area to show its
works, rather than the standard walk-in cubicle trade-show style
architecture of most art fairs.
Friesen Gallery’s Speak for the Trees book is featured in the March/April 2010 issue of Art Ltd.
Economic downturns are unpredictable and disruptive, but museums still need to develop ambitious exhibits if they are to remain relevant. Mining and reworking the permanent collection will work for a year or two, but ultimately each institution is judged by its ability to present fresh art and ideas to its community.
Continue reading: “Book Fair Idea: Rethinking Publications During Hard Economic Times”
Some museums put the PR department in charge of developing content for the Web. Our staff thinks this may be one reason many museum Web sites don’t inspire them to visit.
Continue reading: “A Simple Way to Make Museum Websites More Attractive to an Important Audience”
Marquand Books designs and produces fine illustrated books for art museums, galleries, trade publishers, artists, collectors, and architects.
