Art, Antiques, and Collections

Art, Antiques, and Collections
▪ 2003

Introduction
      In 2002 major exhibitions such as Documenta 11 reflected the diverse nature of contemporary art: artists from a variety of cultures received widespread recognition for work ranging from installation to video to painting. More traditional art remained in demand, as major auction houses set record prices for artists such as Peter Paul Rubens and Alberto Giacometti.

Art
      Organized by Nigerian-born curator and critic Okwui Enwezor (see Biographies (Enwezor, Okwui )) and his curatorial team, Documenta 11, held in Kassel, Ger., was met with much acclaim. The exhibition featured several established artists, such as Joan Jonas, Louise Bourgeois, Dieter Roth, Adrian Piper, Leon Golub, and Alfredo Jaar, many of whom contributed new works made specifically for Documenta. Given the political predilections of Enwezor, much of the work by both established and emerging artists was politically oriented in some way. Significant among these was Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn's Bataille Monument, a multipart installation set up not in the confines of a gallery or any readily legible art context, but rather in a working-class neighbourhood in Kassel. The installation consisted of spray-painted Mercedes-Benz taxis, various plywood constructions (e.g., a TV studio and a snack bar), and a large treelike sculpture, all made by local residents under Hirschhorn's guidance. Also notable was British artist Yinka Shonibare's Gallantry and Criminal Conversation, an elaborate tableau of headless, mannequinlike figures in 18th-century dress meant to evoke white Europeans taking the colonialist “grand tour” of “exotic” lands. There was also photography, including examples by Bernd and Hilla Becher and Jeff Wall, but film and video dominated, with new works by Steve McQueen, Rénee Green, Fiona Tan, Issac Julien, and Pierre Huyghe, among many others.

      While painting was not a strong presence at Documenta, it asserted itself elsewhere. (See Art Exhibitions (Art, Antiques, and Collections ).) A painter of some controversy was British artist Glenn Brown, who essentially remade the works of renowned artists—including Rembrandt, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, and Willem de Kooning—but repainted the images flatly and eliminated any trace of texture or brushwork. Although this strategy of appropriation can be traced back at least to the 1980s, Brown was a vexing figure for many observers, who considered his “interventions” subversions of traditional notions of artistic integrity. A painter with a wholly different sensibility was American Brian Calvin, who populated his canvases with androgynous long-haired figures who confined their activities mostly to smoking, strolling, or staring vacantly. These pictures functioned as a kind of social record of Calvin's youthful milieu and could perhaps be considered the “slacker” equivalent to Alex Katz's large-scale figural groupings. Figurative painting continued to be notable in part because of American John Currin, who, along with British artist Lucien Freud, remained one of the most significant contemporary painters of the human form. Currin's subject matter could be something as banal as suburban housewives having coffee or as seemingly straightforward as a portrait, but his work was complicated by various art-historical references (from traditional iconography to the work of Gustave Courbet and Andrea Mantegna), an anxious line, and, especially, a distorted, almost grotesque treatment of the female figure.

      Many artists were still mining the possibilities of work that self-consciously bridged the gap between painting and other media. American James Hyde combined aspects of sculpture, painting, and décor in diverse synthetic forms. His “Pillows” resembled giant inflated abstractions: the constructions of nylon webbing arranged in colourful tangles on the wall seemed like painterly gestures that have been released from an abstract painting. British artist Jim Lambie became known for his use of vinyl tape to cover gallery floors in geometric patterns, often extending the edges of these pieces beyond the exhibition spaces—a kind of metaphor for an extended definition of the painting as a medium.

      In Cosmic Thing (first installed at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia), Mexico City-based Damián Ortega took an actual Volkswagen Beetle and carefully disassembled each piece—frame, doors, engine, wheels, even interior upholstery—and suspended the parts from the gallery's ceiling by aircraft cables. The car appeared to have been blown apart but not destroyed, reconfigured into a schematic, three-dimensional rendering of a whole. Ortega's piece was a commentary on the pervasive economic and social presence of the VW in Mexico—it was the car millions of Mexicans drove, and the VW manufacturing plant in Puebla, outside Mexico City, was one of the largest employers in the country.

      Like Ortega, Swiss artist Christoph Büchel made use of everyday materials, but to very different ends. Büchel was an artist for whom there seemed to be little distinction between construction and deconstruction. In late 2001, for the inaugural show at Maccarone, Inc., a New York City gallery, Büchel was told he could do whatever he wanted to the then-unrenovated two-story gallery space. He created a new set of spaces by hacking through floors and walls and hauling in bundles of newspaper, street detritus, desks, television sets, a shopping cart, and a tremendous quantity of cigarette butts. To experience this contemporary Merzbau, viewers had to traverse through holes in the walls and floors, crawl through cramped spaces, scale ladders, and crawl through windows.

      Known as a provocateur, Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan remained true to that designation with Frank and Jamie, two life-size wax figures of police officers from the New York City Housing Authority presented standing on their heads. These upside-down figures were controversial, and many interpreted Cattelan's image of neutralized power as a deliberate and inappropriate parody of the New York City Police Department. For the artist, however, it was a commentary on a moment of crisis in authority and a continuation of his ongoing critical examination of revered figures in contemporary culture.

      More informed by personal experience was American artist Sanford Biggers's La Racine de mémoire. In this piece old Super-8 home movies of the artist's family at birthday parties and other gatherings were projected inside a small barnlike shed. Installed outdoors in a tree at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Conn., the shed had one side decorated with glass bottles, evoking both Southern vernacular traditions as well as the African custom of creating altars in trees or caves in memory of the dead.

      In the past the Whitney Biennial had been criticized for focusing on art that was produced, exhibited, and critically favoured in New York City rather than presenting a broad survey of the contemporary American scene. Curator and organizer Lawrence Rinder and his colleagues aimed for something more inclusive in 2002, and so they traveled extensively and chose a group of 113 diverse artists and collaborative teams whose work represented a variety of media: installation, photography, painting, sculpture, film and video projections, Internet-art projects, architecture, sound and performance art, and works that, as Rinder noted, “fall outside of any conventional aesthetic definition.” The latter category might have included Rosie Lee Tompkins's expressive vernacular quilts or even Robert Lazzarini's wildly distorted, almost rubberlike pay phone. Installed in nearby Central Park were Brian Tolle's series of unexpected “splashes”—Tolles used an invisible system of underwater air valves in the park's many ponds to simulate the splashes made by skipping a rock across the water's surface—and Keith Edmier's monument honouring his two grandfathers' service in World War II. (See Special Report (Redefining Art ).)

      Works based solely on sound rather than visual components were among the most interesting contributions to the Whitney and elsewhere. At the biennial, visitors could experience sound pieces ranging from Minimalist compositions to narratives and stories and instrumental works by wearing one of many pairs of headphones in a specially designed “surround sound” installation room. Among these were the “audio collages” of Gregor Asch (DJ Olive the Audio Janitor), which combined the sounds of the city with samples of existing music; Miranda July's sound track of conversation and sound effects, which played in the museum's elevator; and Stephen Vitiello's audio piece based on recordings made from his 91st-floor studio in the World Trade Center in 1999.

Meghan Dailey

Art Exhibitions
      Numerous important exhibitions featuring women artists took place in 2002. One of the most anticipated shows was a retrospective of Eve Hesse at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. During her brief career, Hesse created a significant group of sculptures that were among the most important works of postminimalism. She used unconventional materials such as latex, fibreglass, and resin to make her evocative, often corporeally suggestive work. The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, held an exhibition of the work of Abstract Expressionist painter Joan Mitchell, showing 59 of her works from the early 1950s onward. This show offered an opportunity to reassess Mitchell's powerful abstractions and her success as a woman artist in the male-dominated New York school. Two exhibitions focused on Judy Chicago, a key figure in the feminist art movement. The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., examined examples of Chicago's early projects, including the establishment (with artist Miriam Schapiro) of the art and performance space Womanhouse in Los Angeles in 1972. Her signature work, the iconic and monumental Dinner Party (1979), was presented at the Brooklyn (N.Y.) Museum of Art (it was to be given its own gallery there in 2004).

      In addition to these contemporary women, Artemisia Gentileschi, a compelling 17th-century Italian painter, also received recognition in 2002. Gentileschi's artistic achievements had often been obscured by the lurid details of her life; however, despite her tribulations—or, as had been suggested by feminist scholars, perhaps because of them—she developed an artistic style that rivaled that of her renowned father, Orazio. In an exhibition of both artists' work, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, explored the relationship between father and daughter in depth, presenting their individual achievements and mutual influences.

      Nineteenth-century art was the subject of several exhibitions. Landscape paintings, including those by the Hudson River school, were gathered in “American Sublime,” organized by the Tate Britain, London. These quintessentially American paintings focus on the majesty of nature and the transcendental philosophies that were so pervasive in the young republic in the 19th century. The Tate Britain turned a critical eye toward 19th-century British art in “The Victorian Nude,” which offered a different perspective of the supposedly staid Victorians by revealing a taste for frolicking nymphs, nubile youths, and goddesses cloaked in nothing but the guise of Classicism.

      Early 20th-century art attracted large audiences at several major exhibitions, notably the blockbuster Matisse/Picasso exhibition at the Tate Modern, London, which considered the work of these two modern masters and their sustained artistic dialogue with one another. Like Picasso and Matisse, Surrealism consistently fascinated museum audiences. The Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibited “Surrealism: Desire Unbound” (organized by the Tate Modern), which focused on eroticism and sexuality—dominant Surrealist themes—and included early paintings by Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dalí's ubiquitous dreamscapes, and Hans Bellmer's disturbing photographic tableaux of dolls and mannequins from the 1930s. In Paris, the birthplace of Surrealism, the Centre Pompidou presented “The Surrealist Revolution,” an exhibition that included hundreds of objects and presented an essential overview of the movement.

      At the turn of the 21st century, the art world began to engage in a retrospective consideration of important artists from the mid-20th century. Barnett Newman created expansive, richly coloured, large-scale paintings that defined the “heroic” art of the New York school in the 1950s. The Philadelphia Museum of Art displayed nearly 100 of his works, including examples of his famous “zip” paintings. From the same era as Newman, Larry Rivers broke away from the New York school's seriousness to create lighter, more representational, and often parodic work. His deadpan neo-Pop pastiche of Emanuel Leutze's Washington Crossing the Delaware and over 50 other works were shown in a retrospective at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., that opened just a few months before Rivers died in August. (See Obituaries (Rivers, Larry ).) The Tate Modern presented a major retrospective of Pop artist Andy Warhol. The show featured such iconic works as Warhol's series depicting Campbell's soup cans and Marilyn Monroe; it went on to draw a record number of visitors when it traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, its only American venue.

      Later 20th-century figures also received recognition. “Gerhard Richter: Forty Years of Painting,” organized by the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, chronicled the work of this influential German artist. (See Biographies (Richter, Gerhard ).) The exhibition featured 180 paintings, including the photo-based works Richter began in the 1960s, abstractions, landscapes, his remarkable “October 18, 1977” series, and intimate portraits. The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, presented a selection of sculptures by Chinese artist Chen Zhen, the first exhibition of his work since his death in 2000. The exhibition featured his last work, Zen Garden (2000). A model for a public garden, this piece contained sculpted representations of organs pierced by medical instruments, representing themes present in much of Chen's work: the collision of Chinese and Western art, medicine, and metaphoric representations of the human body.

      Major exhibitions demonstrated the tremendous range of contemporary artistic practices. In New York City the Studio Museum in Harlem presented “Black Romantic,” an eclectic show of figurative painting and sculpture by artists whose work was widely collected in the African American community. The exhibition, curated by rising star Thelma Golden, served as a reminder that there were many vital, diverse “art worlds” that coexisted but did not always intersect. Two major international exhibitions—Documenta 11 in Kassel, Ger. (see Art (Art, Antiques, and Collections )), and the São Paulo Bienal in Brazil—revealed the increasingly global nature of the art world. Documenta was actually the fifth and final program of “Platforms,” a year-long series of lectures, symposia, films, and art in different international cities (Vienna, New Delhi, the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, Lagos, and finally Kassel). The São Paulo Bienal featured 150 artists and took “Metropolitan Iconographies” as its overarching theme. To this end, many of the works centred on representations of the city, including Alexander Brodsky's sculpted miniature city built inside large, rusty trash receptacles, Fabrice Gygi's observation tower with a mechanized elevator, and Frank Thiel's and Michael Wesely's large-scale photographs of Berlin.

      Other exhibitions focused on major trends in contemporary art, often featuring more photography-based work, such as film and video, than painting. At the Whitney Biennial in New York City (see Art ), pieces ranging from sound-based installations and digital works to live performances to paintings were on display. Still, amid declarations of the death of painting, the exhibition “Cher peintre,” at the Centre Pompidou, proved the power of figurative painting in the contemporary scene. The show featured a group of very savvy contemporary painters who practiced figuration with a conceptual twist—Brian Calvin, John Currin, Kurt Kauper, and Elizabeth Peyton among them. These artists cheerfully owed a debt to precursors Martin Kippenberger (the show took its title from one of his works), Alex Katz, Sigmar Polke, and Bernard Buffett, all of whom were included in this zeitgeist-defining show.

Meghan Dailey

Photography
      The most prominent photography exhibitions and awards in 2002 reflected the diversity of the medium as it continued to expand its scope, influence, and technology.

      The Dallas (Texas) Museum of Art organized the first retrospective exhibition of contemporary German photographer Thomas Struth. The exhibition consisted of 80 photographs spanning the 1970s through the present, including early black-and-white images of monumental architectural icons in international cities, depictions of cultural and spiritual meccas from the “museum” series, and large-format colour photographs of the jungles of Asia and South America.

      Renowned German photographer Andreas Gursky, whose work was often compared to that of Struth, followed his highly acclaimed retrospective debut in 2001 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, with a traveling tour that was exhibited at the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. The show presented 45 images, with an emphasis on works completed in the 1990s, when Gursky began to photograph the iconography of the contemporary global market, using saturated colour, unsurpassed detail, and grand scale (his photographs were as large as [4.9 m] 16 ft wide). Also, late in 2001, Gursky's Paris, Montparnasse (1993) sold for $600,000 at Christie's, a world record for a contemporary photograph bought at auction.

      Contemporary artist Lorna Simpson's film installation 31 chronicled the life of a woman over a period of 31 days, presented on 31 video monitors. After it premiered at Documenta 11 (an exhibition of international art held in Kassel, Ger.; see Art Exhibitions (Art, Antiques, and Collections )), 31 was presented with three earlier film pieces by Simpson (Call Waiting, Recollection, and Duet), as well as an exhibition of her recent photographic works in two concurrent shows at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City. In her art Simpson used traditional narrative devices to examine the politics of gender and race from an African American woman's perspective. Chrissie Iles, Whitney curator of film and video, explained: “The work of Lorna Simpson engages one of the defining principles of cinema: the relationship between image and language.”

      “Twilight,” the most recent in a series of exhibitions by Gregory Crewdson, was shown at the Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York City; the Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles; and the White Cube Gallery, London. Crewdson's elaborately staged photographs employed cinematic effects and digital enhancements, presenting a surreal tale about ordinary suburban life made extraordinary.

      The first survey show of the work of British photographer Adam Fuss premiered at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The exhibition was organized by Kunsthalle Bielefeld (Ger.) and was scheduled to travel across Europe after the Boston show. Fuss's cameraless photograms used traditional photographic methods and depended on the most basic elements of photography—objects as they react to light—to express the evanescent nature of the passing of time.

      Irving Penn had two simultaneous museum shows in New York City. “Dancer: 1999 Nudes” was an exhibition of Penn's recent nudes shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art (in conjunction with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas). “Earthly Bodies,” a look at Penn's nudes from 1949 to 1950, premiered at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Both shows were celebrations of Penn's brilliant ability to capture soft light bouncing off the voluptuous female form. Penn's contemporary Richard Avedon also received recognition when “Richard Avedon: Portraits” was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The show presented approximately 180 portraits of many celebrated artistic, intellectual, and political figures.

      Photographers from past eras were also featured in major exhibitions. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, exhibited the work of the 19th-century French photographer Gustave Le Gray, the largest exhibition of his work ever shown in the United States. The show was selected from a survey of Le Gray's photographs at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. “Alfred Stieglitz: Known and Unknown” was exhibited at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. The show presented more than 100 prints spanning this early 20th-century artist's career, with an emphasis on many lesser-known works, some of which had never before been exhibited or published. The show was accompanied by a scholarly catalog of the Alfred Stieglitz Collection that reproduced all 1,642 photographs held by the gallery.

      At its annual Infinity awards ceremony, the International Center of Photography presented the Cornell Capa Award to the organizers of “Here Is New York,” an acclaimed project featuring thousands of images, taken by both professional and amateur photographers, of the World Trade Center tragedy. The ICP Infinity award for art was given to Iranian artist Shirin Neshat, who had gained recognition for her photography, film, and video installations exploring the complex philosophical ideas behind contemporary Islam. Neshat also had a solo exhibition at the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Turin, Italy. Tyler Hicks received the ICP Infinity award for photojournalism. Hicks had won numerous awards from the National Press Photographers Association. As a New York Times contract photographer, he covered the war in Kosovo, the spread of the Ebola virus in Uganda, the Ethiopian-Eritrean war, the conflict in Sierra Leone, and the war in Afghanistan.

      Other major awards presented in 2002 included the Getty Images Lifetime Achievement Award, which was presented posthumously to Michael Hoffman, the former executive director and publisher of the Aperture Foundation. During Hoffman's tenure he was directly involved in the creation and production of over 450 books and more than 100 issues of Aperture magazine. At the 59th Annual Pictures of the Year International Awards and Exhibition, Brian Plonka was named Newspaper Photographer of the Year, and James Nachtwey was acknowledged as Magazine Photographer of the Year. The 2002 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography was awarded to the New York Times for its outstanding coverage of the terrorist attacks in New York City and their aftermath. The Pulitzer Prize for feature photography also went to the New York Times for its photographs chronicling the people of war-torn Afghanistan.

      On Feb. 28, 2002, nearly 100 of the world's top photojournalists, including Sebastião Salgado and Nachtwey, were given 24 hours to capture the people and places of modern-day Africa. Their photographs were assembled in the acclaimed book A Day in the Life of Africa, the proceeds from which went to AIDS-education funding in Africa.

      Among the technological advances and product news in photography was the debut of Adobe's Photoshop 7, which featured the “Healing Brush,” a new tool for photo retouching. Other remarkable advances in digital media included Kodak's digital back, an attachment that translated film images created with medium-format cameras into high-resolution digital images, and Contax's N digital SLR (single-lens reflex) camera, the first digital camera with a full-frame 35mm image sensor. The new N digital had the same basic operational characteristics as the film SLR camera, using the same lenses and accessories. The N digital could write in several formats, including JPEG, RGB-TIFF, and RAW, and it was equipped with a computer interface for reliable high-speed image transfer. Equally impressive were the advances in Epson printing technology, namely the Stylus Pro 7600 and Stylus Pro 9600, which allowed for the production of large-format grayscale prints with an archival life up to 200 years.

      Notable members of the photographic community who died during the year included Canadian portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh (Karsh, Yousuf ), Mexican photographer Manuel Álvarez Bravo (Alvarez Bravo, Manuel ), celebrity photographer Herb Ritts (Ritts, Herbert, Jr. ), landscape photographer Galen Rowell (Rowell, Galen ), sports photographer John Zimmerman (Zimmerman, John Gerald ) (see Obituaries), and Magnum photographer Inge Morath.

Marla Caplan

Art Auctions and Sales
      The art and auction market of 2002 continued to surprise both Sotheby's and Christie's with its resilience amid a declining economy. Buyers did not stray from intense competition over works of art and over single-owner collections of extraordinary quality and provenance. An inordinate number of artist records were set on the auction block in 2002. Christie's and Sotheby's realized dramatically strong results for their evening sales of contemporary, Impressionist, and modern art, completely outperforming any of their auction competitors in these important markets.

      As the first important fine art sales of the year, the Old Master paintings sales in New York did not disappoint at either auction house. Sotheby's sales of Old Master paintings achieved a formidable total of $33,032,000, highlighted by the $3,140,750 paid for Sir Anthony Van Dyck's Bust of the Apostle Peter, which set a record for the artist at auction. Another record was set when François Gérard's Portrait of Catherine Worlée, Princesse de Talleyrand-Périgord sold for $1,875,750. Christie's Old Master paintings sale totaled $9,287,575, yielding two auction records for major artists: Pier Francesco Mola's An Artist and a Youth fetched $3,086,000, while A Landscape with the Conversion of Saint Paul on the Road to Damascus, by Herri met de Bles (Il Civetta), was purchased for $732,000.

      At the January Old Master drawings sales in New York, Christie's sales totaled $6,439,365. Rousing major interest from bidders and collectors was the sale of the previously undiscovered Head of a Young Man Looking Up by Parmigianino, which sold for $765,000. The sales at Sotheby's totaled $2,979,740 and were highlighted by Giorgio Vasari's St. Jerome and the Lion, which soared past its high estimate of $70,000, ultimately selling for $236,750.

      At Sotheby's London in July, the Old Master paintings sale attained historic proportions when it totaled $111,183,035, the highest total ever in this category. The sale set world auction records for five artists, the unqualified highlight of which was Peter Paul Rubens's masterpiece Massacre of the Innocents, which sold for $76,730,703.

      The most prominent of the year's art sales were the May Impressionist and modern art sales; these were often seen as an indicator of the overall health of the marketplace. At Sotheby's New York the series totaled $149,083,878. The undisputed star was Paul Cézanne's Pichet et assiette de poires from the Sandblom Collection, which sold for $16.8 million. The most intense fervour, however, was realized in the saleroom when Alberto Giacometti's Grand tête de Diego, from the collection of Samuel and Luella Maslon, flew past its high estimate of $7,000,000 to a staggering price of $13,759,500.

      The May evening sale at Christie's reached an impressive total of $97,647,000. Constantin Brancusi's Danaïde sold for $18,159,500, setting a world record at auction for the artist as well as for any piece of sculpture offered through public auction. The top painting of the evening was René Magritte's L'Empire des lumières, which sold for $12,659,500, nearly doubling the previously established record for the artist.

      These series were equally strong in London, with Christie's June Impressionist and modern art evening sale totaling $59,910,233. The highest lot of the evening was Pablo Picasso's Nu au collier, which reached $23,919,018. Selling for $3,225,323, and setting a world record for the artist at auction, was Emil Nolde's Blumengarten. The June sales at Sotheby's in London of the same category attained results of $71,196,472. The highest price paid for a painting was for Claude Monet's Nymphéas (Water Lilies), which brought $20,194,203.

      The May postwar and contemporary art sale at Christie's in New York had a two-day total of $55,149,025. The top lot of the sale was Jean-Michel's Basquiat's Profit I, which sold for $5,509,500. Donald Judd's stainless steel and Plexiglas sculpture Untitled brought in $4,629,500. Sotheby's spring contemporary art sale in New York garnered a result of $57,233,199. Top prices were achieved for masterworks by Gerhard Richter (see Biographies (Richter, Gerhard )), with 180 Farben and Kerze each fetching $3,969,500. Among the successful sales of Andy Warhol's work was Five Deaths, from the artist's Death and Disaster series of 1963, which brought $3,749,500.

      A lucrative contemporary art evening sale at Sotheby's in London on June 26 brought $21,507,106, the highest total in London since 1990, with four works selling for more than £1,000,000 (about $1,500,000). The top lot was Gerhard Richter's Wolkenstudie, Grün-Blau (Study for Clouds, Green-Blue), which earned $3,029,815. Christie's London contemporary art evening sale in June earned $13,335,180, with Basquiat's Untitled (Saint) reaching $2,100,100.

      The Sotheby's American paintings sale in New York reached $32,732,448. Norman Rockwell's iconic image Rosie the Riveter established a new record for the artist at auction when it sold for $4,959,500. Christie's New York American paintings sale in April brought $12,551,515. The star of the sale was the painting by Georgia O'Keeffe entitled Ram's Head, Blue Morning Glory, which sold for $3,419,500.

      The November sales of Impressionist and modern art underlined the health of the market at both auction houses. The evening sale at Sotheby's New York totaled $81,453,500 and culminated with the spectacular sale of Monet's Nymphéas, another treatment of the water lilies theme, which fetched $18,709,500. The Impressionist and modern sales were similarly strong at Christie's New York, where a total of $87,643,055 was reached. As in the spring series, the top lot of this sale was a Picasso, a bronze sculpture entitled La Geunon et son petit, which sold for $6,719,500.

      At Sotheby's New York in November, the evening sale of contemporary art achieved its highest total since 1989, reaching $78,287,775 and setting individual records for six artists. The top lot of the evening, from a private American collection, was Willem de Kooning's Orestes, which surpassed its $10,000,000 estimate to sell for $13,209,500. At the postwar and contemporary art evening sale at Christie's New York on November 13, individual artist records were set in a sale that fetched a total of $66,921,785. The star of the sale was 0 Through 9 by Jasper Johns, which sparked an aggressive bidding war and ultimately sold for $9,909,500.

      The jewelry market also maintained the equilibrium of years past at both houses. Christie's New York achieved a total of $12,858,163 in its April magnificent jewels sale. The highlight of the sale was a magnificent pair of Art Deco cushion-cut diamond ear pendants that went for $2,041,000. In a separate sale in April, Christie's also sold the Winter Egg by Peter Carl Fabergé for a staggering $9,579,500. At Sotheby's New York, the April magnificent jewels sales were highlighted by a collection of jewels from the estate of Janice H. Levin, which fetched a total of $8,150,033. A rare pair of pear-shaped diamond pendants by Van Cleef & Arpels sold for $1,659,500.

Amy Todd Middleton

Antiques and Collectibles
      The antiques and collectibles market was influenced by several different factors in 2002. Uncertainties in the stock market led some people to spend more money on antiques and collectibles than on traditional investment opportunities. The slowed economy stopped others from buying simply because they had less money to spend. In the early part of the year, antique shows, malls, flea markets, and small shops reported poor sales, but by the fall large flea markets and shows were seeing stronger attendance and better sales. Rare and top-quality items in particular sold for strong prices, while more common items sold about 20% lower than they had the previous year.

      Different pressures affected Internet sales. Because many sellers used the Internet, the supply of some collectibles increased beyond demand and caused prices to soften. Some items once considered rare, such as World's Fair souvenirs and old books and bottles, were offered for sale on the Internet at sites such as eBay in large numbers. Traditional auction houses did not do well conducting major auctions on-line, even when they sold collectibles rather than fine art. As a result, some auction houses abandoned the Internet, merged, or went out of business. Foreign buyers helped raise Internet prices on some items, however, such as vintage sportswear, Nippon ceramics, and perfume bottles.

      New television shows about collecting, such as The Incurable Collector and Flea Market Finds with the Kovels, appeared on cable and public television, and the media reported on antiques, collecting, and prices for items from the 20th century. This created a new group of younger collectors looking for items dating from the 1950s to the '70s.

      Some collectibles rose in price during the year, notably items from the American West, ranging from Molesworth furniture to cowgirl clothing; sewing paraphernalia, including needle cases and sewing boxes; late 20th-century Italian art glass; American-made sets of stemware; and horror and science-fiction movie posters. While there were fewer record prices than in previous years, more than 20 different auction houses in more than 15 different cities set records, several for 20th-century pieces. Among the record-setting prices were $310,500 for a 178.2-cm-tall (1 cm = 0.39 in) Honduras mahogany chiffonier—inlaid with mother-of-pearl, wood, and metal in a tree-of-life design—designed about 1908 by Charles and Henry Greene; $273,500 for a 1904 oak chest of drawers, with landscapes painted on its panel doors, made at the Byrdcliffe Arts and Crafts Colony near Woodstock, N.Y.; $36,750 for a reproduction of a Goddard-Townsend nine-shell block-front Chippendale secretary, made by Wallace Nutting about 1930; and $106,400 for a 3-m (10-ft)-tall Horner mahogany grandfather clock with carved figures and a nine-tube Westminster chime.

      A few glass and pottery pieces also sold for record prices. An aqua opalescent Carnival glass master ice cream bowl in the Peacock and Urn pattern with butterscotch and pink iridescence auctioned for $22,000. Tiffany glass, particularly lamps, sold well all year, but the only record was for a 1913 Favrile aquamarine goldfish vase with a solid bottom depicting a marine scene, which brought $532,000. Two pottery records were set: a 30.5-cm-square Grueby tile decorated with a seven-colour Viking ship sold for $73,700, and a 1902 English Moorcroft Hesperian jardiniere and stand decorated with carp, seaweed, plants, and shells sold for $48,230.

      Sports collectibles records included $7,820 for a Fennimore canvasback drake decoy; $82,599 for a bat used by Babe Ruth from the 1920s, complete with 11 home-run notches; and $99,445 for the red crushed-velvet boxing trunks worn by Muhammad Ali in 1971 when he lost a world championship.

      Two dolls were record breakers: a 1916 Albert Marque French bisque doll with a socket head and red mohair wig auctioned for $215,000, and a Schmitt & Fils French bisque bébé with brown glass eyes and blonde hair brought $48,000. Although no other toys set records in 2002, several auctions sold metal toys for extremely high prices.

      Other records set during the year included a 1930s Roy Rogers parade saddle with gold and silver trim decorated with rubies, which sold for $412,500; a Nutting photograph entitled Old Mother Hubbard (19.3 × 24.4 cm), which brought $8,910; a German poster advertising Orville Wright's 1909 flying exhibition in Berlin, which went for $19,550; and two custom guitars made by Doug Irwin and used by the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia. One of the guitars, called “Wolf,” sold for $789,500, and the other, called “Tiger,” brought a record $957,500.

Ralph and Terry Kovel

▪ 2002

Introduction

Painting and Sculpture
      At the 49th Venice Biennale, directed for the second time (his first was in 1999) by Harald Szeemann, the international art world gathered to experience what was considered the most significant show of the new and important. Painting and sculpture were not as well represented as other mediums, particularly video and film, which were high in quantity but not always quality. Painting and sculpture were not entirely absent, however. One of the iconic works in Venice was the Australian-born British artist Ron Mueck's 4.8-m (16-ft)-high fibreglass sculpture of a crouching boy, which greeted visitors as they entered one of the Biennale's main exhibition spaces. The piece was a gesture toward a kind of monumental figuration, and it was as immediately imposing as one of Richard Serra's steel-torqued ellipses shown nearby. Subtler were the works by Robert Gober, who used bronze to interpret the light and porous quality of Styrofoam. Gober also presented one of his vaguely anatomic forms cast in wax and set into a wicker basket.

      One alternative to the massive scale and unmet goals of the Biennale was Site Santa Fe. “Beau Monde: Toward a Redeemed Cosmopolitanism,” curated by Las Vegas, Nev.-based critic Dave Hickey, was the fourth installment of this biannual exhibition. “Beau Monde” featured many established names—notably Ed Ruscha, Jo Baer, Ellsworth Kelly, and Bridget Riley—among emerging and trendier artists. One of these was Japan's Takashi Murakami, who received attention for his two solo exhibitions and his installation in New York City's Grand Central Station. Murakami's signature “superflat” mode of painting featured smiley-faced flowers set against silver backgrounds; he also made sculptures inspired by Japanese comics and animation. An important venue featuring emerging talent was New York City's Studio Museum in Harlem, which mounted “Freestyle,” a show of young black artists curated by Thelma Golden. Some standouts included Eric Wesley's full-scale sculpture of a donkey kicking through a gallery wall and Kori Newkirk's paintings made from plastic beads, artificial hair, and hair pomade, which was applied directly to the museum wall to create one work.

      Several artists explored the familiar dialectic of sculpture-as-architecture, and vice versa. Gregor Schneider's Dead House ur (created for the German pavilion at the Venice Biennale) was an extension of a project that had occupied him for several years. This reconstruction of his family home, a standard tenement construction in Rheydt, Ger., was an elaborately conceived interior within an interior, mapped with some stairs that could be climbed and others that could not, doors that allowed passage and others that opened only to walls, and drawers that might (or might not) have opened. The pathos of the domestic also fascinated British artist Rachel Whiteread, who made monumental casts of two architectural spaces: a basement staircase and the entire interior space of a small apartment, both of which were created from spaces in her new home, a former London synagogue. Whiteread, whose Holocaust Memorial in Vienna was completed at the end of 2000 to great critical success, followed up with a smaller public commission. Known for making casts of ordinary objects—bathtubs, mattresses, and wardrobes, as well as the negative spaces underneath such furnishings—using plaster or synthetic resin, Whiteread most recently cast a replica of a plinth in clear resin. The piece, entitled Monument, was installed in June atop an actual stone plinth in Trafalgar Square, London; it was scheduled to remain there until sometime in 2002. Such an interest in architecture also informed the work of Brooklyn, N.Y.-based artist Ricci Albenda, who used building materials such as drywall and metal sheeting to construct “spaces within spaces,” including a large cube suspended nearly a metre from the floor that almost entirely filled the space of a gallery, giving onlookers only a narrow area of space in which to move between the piece and the wall.

      Tate Britain's Turner Prize, worth £20,000 (about $29,000) in 2001, triggered even more controversy than usual when it was awarded to Martin Creed in December for “The Lights Going On and Off,” which consisted of an empty gallery with a pair of ceiling lights that flashed on and off.

      Combining performance with sculptural and installation elements in a collaborative practice that defied easy definition, the Austrian collective known as Gelatin sparked critical interest. For a large-scale installation called Total Osmosis, they transformed an outdoor area into a swampy, toxic backyard. Abandoned toys and other refuse filled a pungent muddy area that was traversable only via narrow wooden planks. Another project involved stuffed animals, semipornographic photo collages, and a series of “lectures,” during which, in a disorienting mix of fact and fiction, the artists described their previous projects while executing a wall drawing to illustrate the given topic, ranging from “Hawaii” to “Autopsy.”

      Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan constructed a larger-than-scale replica of the Hollywood sign and installed it in Sicily in the hills above Palermo, near a garbage dump. Cattelan, known as a provocateur in the art world, deliberately chose this particular location, an action that raised the curiosity—and the hackles—of the local population. In another provocative move, Wim Delvoye pushed the boundaries of good taste with his machine-sculpture entitled Cloaca. His contraption, essentially a defecation machine, employed mechanisms that were controlled by computer to duplicate the human digestive process. Cloaca traveled in Europe and was scheduled to arrive in New York City in 2002.

      There was plenty of painting by both established figures and relative newcomers. James Rosenquist, best known for his mural-sized Pop art works that depicted the motifs of consumerism and mass production, exhibited a new group of works that were studies in dynamism—large canvases filled with shiny geometric shapes that appeared to change and morph when viewed. The works also reflected Rosenquist's movement forward as an artist; he had succeeded in creating a formidable body of work late in his career. New paintings by Cy Twombly, another artist who had emerged in the 1960s, continued his very recognizable style of calligraphic drips executed in springlike colours. Like a small-scale warm-up for his upcoming 2002 major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, Gerhard Richter showed a group of new, mostly abstract paintings, many of which were executed by means of his “squeegee” method; the squeegee was dragged across a freshly painted canvas, and the layers of pigment were smeared into an entirely different composition that was both random and controlled. American sculptor-artist Jeff Koons (see Biographies (Koons, Jeff )) unveiled some new works, the completed paintings from his Celebration series. Also back on the scene in a big way was artist Frank Stella (see Biographies (Stella, Frank )), who completed work on his monumental metal sculpture, The Prince of Homburg, for the plaza outside the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

      Abstraction, newly interpreted, was seen in many galleries. Charline von Heyl's large-scale abstractions were distinguished from similar works by virtue of her tangible confidence as a painter as well as of the works' compositional strength and unusual colour choices. Another artist who made sophisticated, formally oriented work was Jacqueline Humphries, who exhibited a group of new paintings that worked within the boundaries of the medium—paint and canvas—while incorporating extrapainterly considerations, including the kind of light emitted from computer screens. The intersection of art and technology (or the limits of such an exchange) was on the minds of many artists, and the traditional methods of art making—painting, photography, and sculpture—continued to be expanded or even replaced by new methods. Though Jeremy Blake's “moving paintings,” as he called them, were actually animated digital video disks that mobilized the language of painting and made many historical art references, his colour-saturated works emphatically pointed toward the future.

Meghan Dailey

Art Exhibitions
      Several important architecture shows were among the critical and popular successes of 2001. Preeminent modernist Ludwig Mies van der Rohe had two distinct phases in his long career: his early years in his native Berlin and those after his 1938 arrival in the U.S. Together, “Mies in Berlin” (at the Museum of Modern Art [MoMA] in New York City and Altes Museum, Berlin) and “Mies in America” (at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, and then the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal) explored the rationality of Mies's International Style of architecture as well as his more expressionistic bent in the years before he coined the dictum “Less is more.” In the 1920s Vienna-born architect R.M. Schindler made his home in Los Angeles and captured its casual elegance in domestic dwellings that were perfectly integrated into the landscape. The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, mounted the largest show to date covering Schindler's career. Another architect synonymous with Los Angeles was Frank Gehry, whose projects were marked by his signature use of unusual materials and strong, undulating forms. A major exhibition spanning his 40-year career was held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City, and also traveled to the museum's outpost in Bilbao, Spain, which Gehry himself designed.

      Three cultural institutions in Chicago (where the ethnic Polish population numbered second only to Warsaw) hosted the ambitious “In Between: Art from Poland, 1945–2000.” The Museum of Contemporary Art, the Renaissance Society, and the Chicago Cultural Center presented surveys of the work of nearly 40 avant-garde and contemporary artists in addition to projects commissioned especially for the occasion.

      The 500th anniversary of the European discovery of Brazil sparked several important exhibitions in the U.S. that celebrated the dynamic range of Brazil's art and culture. With about 350 objects, “Brazil: Body & Soul,” which opened at the Guggenheim Museum, New York City, on October 19, was the largest of these. The centrepiece of the show was a large gilded 18th-century altar that filled the museum's rotunda. At El Museo del Barrio in New York City, “O Fio da Trama/The Thread Unraveled” focused on recent Brazilian art that used fabric and weaving as metaphors for social and personal narratives. Several Brazilian-born contemporary artists had solo exhibitions, including Beatriz Milhazes at the Birmingham (Ala.) Museum of Art, and the influential work of Hélio Oiticica was featured at the Wexner Center, Columbus, Ohio. Organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, Calif. (and also shown at the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco), “Ultrabaroque: Aspects of Post-Latin American Art” featured 16 artists whose work reconsidered the use of the “baroque” as a metaphor for contemporary experience. Twenty-five contemporary artists considered the contentious dynamics between colonizer and colonized in Brazil in “Virgin Territory” at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.

      At other Washington museums the focus was on American artists. Jacob Lawrence was the subject of a retrospective at the Phillips Collection that was also scheduled to travel extensively. More than 200 works from Lawrence's long career were shown, among them works from his seminal “Migration” series, which tells the story of the northern exodus of African Americans and what was experienced during and after that epic journey. At the Hirshhorn Museum 39 of Clyfford Still's large colour field paintings were presented, with many related works shown together for the first time. From high abstraction to 19th-century American Realism, Thomas Eakins's masterful figurative works (portraits, photographs, sculpture, and drawing) were presented in several venues in his native Philadelphia, including the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where Eakins taught in the 1870s and '80s.

      Interestingly, an exhibition of one of the most influential American artists of the past 30 years did not have a venue in the U.S. Conceptual art maverick Dan Graham's important retrospective opened at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Pôrto, Port., and continued on to museums in Paris; Helsinki, Fin.; and Otterlo, Neth. The influence of Graham's practice, particularly his use of seriality in photography, was clearly visible in the work of German photographer Andreas Gursky—the subject of an exhibition at the MoMA. Gursky had garnered international attention for his images of contemporary scenes: global exchange markets, hotel interiors, airports, drab apartment-block facades, crowded sports or music events, often on a monumental scale—with some as large as 4.8 m (16 ft) wide.

      The styles that constituted what was known as early Modernism were as diverse and varied as the artists who created them, as several important international exhibitions revealed. Henri Rousseau was a self-taught painter whose “naive” style drew the admiration of artists Pablo Picasso and Paul Gauguin, poet Guillaume Appolinaire, and others. The Kunsthalle in Tübingen, Ger., showed a number of important and lesser-known paintings by Rousseau as well as a selection of works that demonstrated his influence over others, among them Fernand Léger, Franz Marc, and Wassily Kandinsky. Though often overshadowed by his contemporary Georges Seurat, Paul Signac was nonetheless an important figure for early Modernism. The Grand Palais, Paris, was the first venue for a large-scale retrospective (the first of the artist's work in 40 years) that included Signac's well-known Pointillist paintings as well as works dating to the end of his life in 1935. Decorative, sumptuous, and often fraught with psychological tension, Gustav Klimt's Art Nouveau embodies the spirit of fin de siècle Vienna. The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, presented the first major retrospective of Klimt's work at a North American venue, including 35 paintings and nearly 90 drawings. The Jewish Museum, New York City, showed an unprecedented selection of early works by Marc Chagall culled from Russian collections, including some never before exhibited in the West. Chagall's influence on early 20th-century art was often considered minor, an assumption that this show meant to call into question.

      In Paris the Centre Georges Pompidou organized a retrospective of Raymond Hains, a founding member of the Nouveaux Réalistes. The group emerged in France in the late 1950s and reacted against the refinement of Abstract Expressionism by using found objects to make their work. The Nouveaux Réalistes were included in another exhibition at the Pompidou, the blockbuster “Les Années Pop”—which presented a distinctively European perspective on Pop art, so often labeled a quintessential American style—a showcase of the broad and varied range and meaning of Pop and the breadth of work created beyond American shores. A movement that emerged in Italy in the years after the triumph of Pop, Arte Povera emphasized the tactile, physical qualities of the work of art and the use of “poor” or common materials—concrete, twigs, discarded newspapers, or rags. London's Tate Gallery presented 140 works in “Zero to Infinity: Arte Povera 1962–1972.” Elsewhere in London, at the National Gallery, “Vermeer and the Delft School,” co-organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, featured paintings by Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch, both of whom helped establish Delft as one of the most significant 17th-century artistic centres, as well as some 50 works by other artists of the period. An enormous selection of Romantic poet and artist William Blake's many paintings, watercolours, and illustrated books was presented at the Tate Britain, and a smaller version of the exhibition traveled to New York's Metropolitan Museum, where visitors could partake of Blake's imaginative world, in which poetry, dream life, and the imaginary become reality.

Meghan Dailey

Photography
      As scenes of carnage and destruction were repeatedly aired and published following the September 11 terrorist acts in the U.S., people around the world compulsively gaped in horror and disbelief at the images that had been captured on film and magnetic media. From snapshots grabbed with cheap single-use cameras to images made with the most expensive professional video equipment, photography once again demonstrated its shattering power as eyewitness. Hundreds of these photographs gained a life-affirming purpose in late September with the opening of “Here Is New York.” At this busy SoHo storefront show, professional and amateur pictures of the World Trade Center attacks and their aftermath could be bought for $25 each, with the proceeds going to aid the children of the victims.

      During 2001 Walker Evans received superstar treatment with two major exhibitions. “Walker Evans & Company,” a loan exhibition put together by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, displayed some 60 photographs by Evans himself plus nearly 200 images from other photographers, painters, sculptors, and graphic artists strongly influenced by his penetrating vision and powerful personality. Complementing the MoMA exhibition was “The American Tradition & Walker Evans,” which featured more than 100 images from the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The show explored how American photographers such as Carlton Watkins, Lewis Hine, Paul Strand, and Dorothea Lange were shaped by Evans's seminal insights into the American character and the power of a straight documentary esthetic to illuminate it.

      The busy Getty Museum dipped into its collection of work by the German documentary portraitist August Sander to mount an important retrospective, “August Sander: German Portraits, 1918–1933.” During those hectic years of the Weimar Republic and Adolf Hitler's rise to power, Sander worked on an ambitious visual document, “Man in the Twentieth Century.” His goal was to make “simple, natural portraits that portray the subject in an environment corresponding to their own individuality” while “simultaneously revealing the social and cultural dimensions of a highly stratified society.” To accomplish this, he photographed an “arc” of subjects ranging from artists, intellectuals, business executives, teachers, skilled workmen, and common labourers to the unemployed and the handicapped. When the Nazis came to power, their opposition to his broad, humanistic view of German life forced him to discontinue the project, but, fortunately, both Sander and a representative fraction of his thousands of pre-World War II photographs survived the war.

      During the year ink-jet printing technology achieved stunning new levels of photographic reality and exhibition-quality reproduction. Ink-jet printing involved the spraying of minuscule dots of ink onto paper or other absorbent material to form graphic images, which could be derived from digitally recorded photographs or conventional photographs that had been digitized. In particular, recently developed ink products from Iris Graphics and printing equipment from Epson were used to create giant photographic prints with hyperrealistic detail and flamboyant colour. According to reviewer Vicki Goldberg in the New York Times, “Color photography has not picked up every hair and pore like this.” Among highly praised examples were 40 prints exhibited by Stephen Wilkes. This collection, of which the largest print measured about 21/2 × 1 m (8 × 3 ft), included a splendid “Horse in Meadow, Belle Fourche, S.D.”

      The questions “What is a photograph?” and “What are its dimensions as visual reality when the subject is itself a representation?” were explored by conceptual artist Hiroshi Sugimoto with eerie twice-life-size black-and-white “portraits” of waxwork figures. His photographs of the wax effigies of 20th-century celebrities including Yasir Arafat, Salvador Dalí, and Diana, princess of Wales, were briefly displayed at New York City's Sonnabend Gallery. Scheduled for a longer engagement at New York's Guggenheim Museum SoHo was a collection that also included historical figures such as Napoleon, Voltaire, and Henry VIII and his six wives. Sugimoto used only conventional photographic and printing techniques to achieve effects that some found confusing or unsettling. As he commented, “People think these are photos of a painting, or an actor posed in a historical costume.”

      Spring sales at major photographic auction houses such as Sotheby's, Swann, and Phillips were affected by the continuing economic slowdown in the U.S. Significant numbers of lots up for auction went unsold, and some individual images that had been expected to command top prices failed to do so. Prints of “Chairs, The Medici Fountain, Paris,” by André Kertész, which had been expected to fetch $100,000–$150,000, and of Diane Arbus's classic “Identical Twins, Roselle, N.J.,” which had been estimated to bring $120,000–$180,000, were both withdrawn after they failed to meet their reserve prices. Not all was bleak, however. A signed photogravure of Alfred Stieglitz's “Gossip, Katwyck,” about the size of a credit card, exceeded its high estimate and sold for $29,900 at Swann in February.

      A definite chill settled in as the year wore on toward the critical autumn photo auctions, and it was not for lack of attractive, valuable photographs. Well before the terrorist attacks, there was concern in the art world because of conditions closely linked to what seemed to be a failing economy and loss of consumer confidence. After the traumatic events of September 11, many art dealers and collectors became pessimistic. Nevertheless, as the year ended, other collectors such as Donald Rubell remained enthusiastic. “I'm like one of those overeaters who can't stop,” he commented. “There's not a time when I don't feel like buying art.”

      The 2001 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography went to Alan Diaz of the Associated Press for his photograph of U.S. federal agents removing six-year-old Elián González from his relatives' Miami, Fla., home. Matt Rainey of the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger took the Pulitzer for feature photography for his sensitive photographs documenting the care and recovery of two students critically burned in a dormitory fire at Seton Hall University, South Orange, N.J. At the 58th Annual Pictures of the Year competition, sponsored by the National Press Photographers Association and the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Scott Strazzante of the Herald News/Copley Chicago Newspapers and CITY 2000 (Chicago in the Year 2000) photo project won the award for Newspaper Photographer of the Year, while Jon Lowenstein of CITY 2000 was named Magazine Photographer of the Year. The 22nd W. Eugene Smith Award, worth $30,000, went to Maya Goded of Mexico for her study “The Neighborhood of Solitude: Prostitutes of Mexico City.” Zana Briski, who had established photography workshops for prostitutes' children in Sonagachi, India, received the Howard Chapnick Grant for the Advancement of Photojournalism.

      Notable people in the photographic field who died during the year included American photojournalist Will Counts (Counts, Ira Wilmer, Jr. ), Cuban photographer Alberto Korda (Korda, Alberto ), German-born American photographer Jacques Lowe (Lowe, Jacques ), French photojournalist and editor Roger-Jean Thérond (Therond, Roger Jean ), and Malian photographer Seydou Keïta (Keita, Seydou ). (See Obituaries.) Another loss was Jack Manning, veteran freelance photographer for the New York Times who was particularly well-known for his candid portraits of Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Arthur Goldsmith

Art Auctions and Sales
      The art market continued to thrive in 2001 despite consumer reticence in some markets, and Christie's and Sotheby's continued to sustain challenges for domination from competitors. The two auction houses once again battled for the privilege of offering some of the most coveted art collections in the world, and both managed to secure strong art- and antique-related sales. In December Sotheby's co-owner and CEO A. Alfred Taubman was convicted in a New York court of having conspired with London-based Christie's chairman Sir Anthony Tennant to fix sellers' fees and conduct other illegal business practices between 1993 and 1999. The two auction houses already had settled a related civil suit, but the scandal had little or no effect on sale prices.

      Sotheby's Old Master paintings sale held in New York City once again attained impressive results—$32,320,475—and included Hare in the Forest, a work by Hans Hoffman that was purchased by the J. Paul Getty Museum for $2,645,750. Sotheby's then offered a selection of Old Master and Modern drawings and prints from the Franz Koenigs collection, which brought $4,895,900; the highlight of that sale was Hans Bol's Cycle of the Twelve Months, which hammered at $1.8 million.

      In January Christie's New York offered an extraordinary collection that totaled $26,276,500. At Christie's London in July, rare drawing—a masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci, Horse and Rider—sold for a resounding £8,143,750 (about $11,533,000), a record for a Leonardo.

      The most notable sales in the art world, the spring series of Impressionist and Modern Art and Contemporary Art, registered record sales at both auction houses. In May at Sotheby's New York, the totals for these sales outdid all of the competition and reached a staggering $222.3 million, led by the works in the collection of Stanley J. Seeger. Top lots from the Seeger collection were Francis Bacon's triptych Study of the Human Body, which sold for the world-record price of $8,585,750, and Joan Miró's Nocturne, which brought $5,615,750, a record for works on paper by the artist. Also offered in the Impressionist series was Claude Monet's Le Parlement, a piece that fetched $14,580,750, and Self Portrait with Horn, a haunting painting by Max Beckmann, which made a record $22,555,750. An innovative porcelain sculptural work by Jeff Koons (see Biographies (Koons, Jeff )), Michael Jackson and Bubbles, reached a record $5,615,750.

      Christie's New York May sale of Impressionist and Modern Art also achieved exciting results, especially when Nymphéas,a work by Monet, sold for $9,906,000. In the same evening, Christie's New York also offered three important Picassos from the estate of Patricia A. Withofs; they brought $16,628,000. The unquestionable standout of the trio, Figure, a surrealistic depiction of Marie Thérèse Walter, fetched $7,156,000.

      In its Masters of the Post-War sale, Christie's sold more than 10 works for more than $1 million each. The focal point of the sale was Andy Warhol's Large Flowers, which set a record as the second highest price for the artist at auction—$8,476,000.

      Sales remained robust across the Atlantic as well. At Sotheby's London in June, the Impressionist and Modern Art sales totaled some $47 million, with Monet's Haystacks, Last Rays of the Sun contributing to the total $14,286,620, an auction record for a work from his iconic series. Another Monet, Au parc, which had been forcibly sold in Nazi Germany in 1935, sold for $5,282,950. The painting was offered under an agreement between the current owners and the original heirs.

      Christie's Impressionist and Modern June sales in London were equally strong and totaled a decade-high total of $47,241,190. Maurice de Vlaminck's Peniche sur la Seine went for $6,698,256. That evening Juan Gris's Le Gueridon achieved $6,231,306, a world auction record for the artist.

      Also in fine form were the sales of Contemporary and 20th-century art in London. Sotheby's London sale brought the highest total in 10 years—$16,728,841. Attention centred on a colour chart painted by Gerard Richter, which made $2,582,360, a world record for colour charts.

      Christie's American Paintings sale in New York in May reached $31,607,175, the second highest total for this category in the auction house's history. Accenting the sale was Georgia O'Keeffe's Calla Lillies with Red Anemone, which sold for $6,166,000. Maurice Brazil Prendergast's painting The Stony Beach brought $3,526,000. In May Sotheby's American paintings, drawings, and sculpture sale in New York commanded $20,511,125. The apex of the sale was John Singer Sargent's Rosina-Capri, which fetched $5,395,750.

      Latin American art enjoyed another successful year. In May at Sotheby's New York the sale totaled $7,189,075 and was once again led by an exceptional Frida Kahlo, Portrait of Christina, My Sister, which topped the auction at $1,655,750. The May sale at Christie's New York of Latin American paintings achieved $5,753,057, including a $556,000 tag for Rufino Tamayo's Madre Feliz.

      Both Christie's and Sotheby's celebrated continued success in the jewelry market. In April, Property of a Lady, Christie's New York sale of magnificent jewels, totaled $6,956,477; the real dazzler in the sale was a diamond ring by Bulgari, which realized $3,636,000. Shortly thereafter, Christie's New York offered important jewels from the house of Harry Winston, which brought $1,145,566. Christie's Geneva boasted the highest sales of the spring series, approximately $22 million. The April sale of jewelry at Sotheby's New York brought $11,154,665; an emerald-cut diamond ring fetched $709,750. At Sotheby's spring jewelry sale in Geneva, which totaled $17,018,001, a heart-shaped diamond pendant went for $1,588,230.

      In April the front-runner of Sotheby's New York sale of photographs was the single-owner collection from the archives of the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, which totaled a record $4 million. The top lot of this landmark sale was Walker Evans's Penny Picture Display, Savannah, which brought $181,750 and established a world auction record for the artist. Christie's New York also offered some rare Brassaï photographs in a sale totaling $2,539,175.

      In the realm of manuscripts, a new world auction record for a literary manuscript was set when the original 36.6-m (120-ft) scroll of Jack Kerouac's On the Road fetched a staggering $2,430,000 at Christie's New York in May. In January in New York, Sotheby's offered the scientific library of Joseph A. Freilich, which realized an impressive $10,675,080; an intense battle for a first edition of Aristotle's Opera ended with a winning bid of $583,250. In a private Christie's sale in June, a fragment of an unfinished work by Mozart sold for a record £355,750 (about $510,600).

      At Sotheby's in June the three-day sale of fine art, fashion drawings, and furnishings from the collection of Gianni Versace achieved $10,177,340.

Amy Todd Middleton

Antiques and Collectibles
      Like the economy, the collectibles market in 2001 showed signs of softening. Collectibles that were offered on the Internet sold for about 30% less than they had a year earlier, and fewer items sold at major auctions. Both serious and novice collectors learned more about the value or popularity of items as a result of various reports on trends as well as the plethora of television shows devoted to antiques and collectibles. (See Sidebar (Antiquing for the Ages: The Search for Hidden Treasures ).)

      Among the standout items that sold at auction were a Philadelphia Chippendale card table, which commanded $1,320,000 at a regional auction house in Northfield, Mass., and brought the second highest auction price ever for a card table; a plain beaker-shaped 17th-century silver wine cup (c. 1660) by Hull and Sanderson of Boston, which sold for $775,750 at an international auction house in New York City; and a Southern California American Indian olla (basket), which brought $145,875 in San Francisco.

      Costume jewelry, Danish silver jewelry, and theme pieces, including Christmas tree pins or flag pendants, sold as well as in 2000. Bakelite jewelry, perhaps because of the many reproductions, dropped almost 20% in price for all but the greatest rarities. Average California and Czech pottery pieces went for under $200, but prices began rising, especially in the West.

      The most newsworthy sale of the year was the auction in Waterville, Maine, of the Buddy “L” Corp.'s toy archives. The Buddy “L” Express truck brought $33,000; the Insurance Patrol truck with box fetched $40,700; and the 1930s International truck-mounted steam shovel with box went for $35,200. Though all toys continued to sell well, robots, cars, and mechanical banks were especially popular.

      Rare 19th-century bottles also commanded record-setting prices, including $46,200 for a Corn for the World purple quart flask, $11,200 for a Double Eagle half-pint amethyst flask, and $55,000 for a Masonic-Eagle flask; an aquamarine and milk glass Mason fruit jar sold for $21,280.

      Though Arts and Crafts decorative objects sold well, the only record was $195,500 for a Gustav Stickley music cabinet designed by Harvey Ellis. Other furniture records included $36,400 for a carved walnut hat rack (c. 1868) by Mitchell & Rammelsberg of Cincinnati, Ohio, and $138,000 for an 18th-century American sack-back Windsor armchair. Collectors favouring expensive formal 18th-century furniture began substituting moderately priced good reproductions made in the 1930s. Large old dining-room sets were in demand, and prices for them had doubled in the past few years. Tramp art and unrestored rustic and country furniture continued to sell well.

      Late 19th- and 20th-century art pottery remained a best-seller at shows, at auctions, and on the Internet. A 23-cm (1 cm = 0.39 in) Grueby tile decorated with geese sold for a record $11,500, and a Marblehead Pottery vase decorated with Ipswich marsh scenes brought $108,640. As prices rose for Roseville—the most popular of American potteries—Grueby, Rookwood, and Weller, collectors turned to Hull, Shawnee, and other less-famous wares. Late 19th-century majolica remained popular and expensive. Mochaware, an early 1800s ware, set records when a 23-cm jug with twig designs and blue and rust bands sold for $14,950; that record was surpassed a few weeks later when a 14.6-cm mug decorated with lime green and rust-coloured bands brought $19,250.

      Swann Auction Galleries in New York City sold a ski poster titled “Yosemite Winter Sports,” for a record $6,325. A major poster auction in Ohio set a number of records—$4,312 for Eric Von Stroheim's poster for the 1925 film Greed; $3,910 for a lobby card advertising the 1920 movie Terror Island, starring Harry Houdini; and $2,185 for a 1920 Tom Mix six-sheet Days of Daring movie poster. The Academy Award statuette won by Bette Davis for Jezebel (1938) went for $578,000.

      Some sports memorabilia also set records: an astounding $577,610 was paid via an Internet auction for “Shoeless” Joe Jackson's baseball bat, Black Betsy, and $275,000 was paid in a private sale for a Mickey Mantle mint 1952 Topps card. The press book for the 1920 sports movie Play Ball with Babe Ruth sold for $2,415.

      Other interesting record sales for the year included an 1880 Edison Spectacle phonograph, $49,500; a 1946 Phantom camera, $220,000; a Remington claw & ball gun cane (c. 1859), $16,240; an 1880 occupational shaving mug decorated with a lunch wagon, $42,550; a 1950 George Lawrence fishing creel of split willow with leather trim, $9,020; and a cobalt blue glass whale-oil lamp, $26,795.

Ralph and Terry Kovel

▪ 2001

Introduction

Painting and Sculpture
      There were two important opportunities in 2000 to view contemporary work in New York City. An exhibit focused on broader American production, and another show concentrated specifically on activities of artists in New York. The latter, “Greater New York: New Art in New York Now,” was organized at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and intended to showcase the best of art in all mediums created in the city that was still considered the most important place for artists to live and produce work. Among the participants who made painting their focus were Inka Essenhigh, Ellen Gallagher, and Brad Kahlhamer. Jeff Gauntt's architecturally inspired work and James Siena's small abstractions were also shown. Cecily Brown and Giles Lyon both made large-scale gestural abstract paintings. Lyon's works were intended to suggest visually the profusion of influences and stimuli that bombarded the spectator in everyday life. The everyday was rendered in sculptural terms by Rob de Mar, whose sculptures depicted small segments of landscapes mounted to walls or often situated atop slender poles, which forced the viewer literally to take a different perspective on the environment and his work. DeMar cut wood into the shapes of mountains, trees, and fragments of roadways and covered these forms with velvety flocking material, rendering the materials of the environment with abbreviated accuracy. E.V. Day's sculptures involved an element of the destructive in their execution. Her materials included, most memorably, blow-up sex dolls, which were inflated to the point that they exploded. The remaining pink vinyl fragments were suspended from floor and ceiling by taut stainless-steel wires.

      Day was one of several artists whose work could be seen at both P.S.1 and the Whitney Biennial. The Biennial aimed to present the broader aspect of artistic practices in the United States. A curatorial team of experts put together by Maxwell Anderson, director of the Whitney Museum of American Art, selected 27 artists who it believed best represented the existing state of American art. The exhibition had a substantial video, film, and, for the first time, Internet component, but painting and sculpture were also represented by such significant artists as John Currin, Robert Gober, Joseph Marioni, Josiah McElheny, Sarah Sze, Richard Tuttle, and Lisa Yuskavage.

      Several painters focused on the human figure. Kurt Kauper's series (also part of the Whitney Biennial), Diva Fictions, comprised full-length portraits of imaginary opera stars. The series, highly realistic in style yet representing individuals who had never actually existed outside the frame of these works, derived its power from the symbolic, between high artificiality and intense realism. Neo Rauch relied on such sources as 1950s and '60s advertising, propaganda, or popular magazine imagery that he encountered while growing up in East Germany. Rauch situated his figures in uneasy juxtapositions, and his vignettes—which played on nostalgia and the disruption of the seemingly routine—were uneasy and ambiguous.

      Polly Apfelbaum exhibited new work in Los Angeles for the first time in several years. Her pieces—made from hand-cut pieces of bright-coloured dyed-velvet fabric arranged in circular patterns on the gallery floor and around the perimeter of the exhibition space—blurred the boundaries between painting and sculpture. Another artist whose work questioned standard definitions of mediums was Jeremy Blake, who referred to his craft as painting, although technically he did not apply paint to canvas. His digital video disc “paintings” of projected computerized light allowed the varied aspects of the medium, flatness as well as depth, to emerge and be seen simultaneously.

      Tom Friedman transformed everyday materials—sugar cubes, hair, fuzz, and Play-Doh—into art objects. Among his works were his self-portrait carved into an aspirin, a pair of identically wrinkled pieces of paper, and a sculpture constructed from 30,000 toothpicks. These labour-intensive and humorous pieces made allusions to process-oriented art and conceptual practices. Lucky DeBellevue also used “humble” and often unexpected materials for his sculptural works. Bright-coloured pipe cleaners were densely woven into pyramids and organic moundlike shapes, and plastic compact-disc storage racks stuffed with foam tubes were wrought into objects with a deliberately low-key sensibility. A more traditional rendition of sculpture, at least in terms of function if not form, was the much-anticipated Holocaust Memorial by British sculptress Rachel Whiteread. The memorial was unveiled at its Vienna site in late October, although Whiteread had completed her design in 1996. The large reinforced concrete sculpture was characteristic of Whiteread's other projects in that it represented the interior of a room essentially turned inside out. In this case it was the space of a library; the spines of the books were facing inward so that the volumes became part of the sculpture itself. The structure was intended to represent a library symbolically and to suggest the “immaterial heritage of Judaism.”

      In London one of the most exciting art-world events was the opening of the new Tate Modern in London. The enormous space renovated by the museum—a redesigned and adapted power station on the South Bank of the River Thames—provided a spectacular location for three monumental works by American sculptor Louise Bourgeois. Three 9-m (30-ft) steel towers entitled I Do, I Undo, I Redo (1999–2000) were installed in the Tate's 152-m (500-ft)-long by 30-m (100-ft)-high Turbine Hall. Adjacent to the towers was one of Bourgeois's enormous 10.7-m (35-ft)-high spider sculptures. Visitors were invited to climb the spiral staircases on the towers, each of which supported a platform with chairs surrounded by a series of large swivel mirrors that were intended to provoke heightened contemplation and conversation about the viewers and their surrounding space.

      The impact of technological discoveries on creativity and artistic practices was the object of “Paradise Now: Picturing the Genetic Revolution” at New York's alternative exhibition space Exit Art. Curated by Marvin Heiferman and Carole Kismaric, this exhibition was a chronicle of 39 artists' reactions to social, personal, and ethical implications of cloning and of the biotechnical alteration of foods and animal and human bodies. It spoke to the controversy surrounding the amount of control humans have over their genetic makeup in the wake of the completion of the Human Genome Project. (See LIFE SCIENCES: Special Report (Human Genome Project:Road Map for Science and Medicine ).) Some “works” included tanks containing donor sperm and eggs, a vast computer printout of the human genome sequence hanging from the ceiling and ending in a large stack on the floor, and plastic containers holding frogs that were being bred. More traditional mediums were represented, such as Alexis Rockman's painting depicting a genetically modified barnyard in which an enormous drooling pig containing human organs was flanked by a basket of pillow-sized tomatoes and the neatly squared-off body of a cow. The show elicited equal parts of optimism and paranoia.

      For a dose of pure romance, there was Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone's New York solo debut. “Love Invents Us” featured his “target” paintings, which achieved Op-art visual effects, and a group of stylistically unrelated black-and-white photographs. The centrepiece was a room-sized video installation, It's Late and the Wind Carries a Faint Sound . . . (1999–2000), a montage of different repeated filmic images of people engaged in repetitive motions such as swimming and dancing, accompanied by a haunting sound track sung by the artist, who repeated the refrain, “Everyday sunshine.”

Meghan Dailey

Art Exhibitions
      Some of the most significant exhibitions of 2000 focused on single artists. One of the most important of these monographic retrospectives recognized American painter Alice Neel. The show was organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and debuted at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City. It was the first comprehensive exhibition of Neel's output and featured 75 works, including cityscapes and still lifes among her famous portraits. In the 1930s, early in her career, Neel was an artist with the Works Progress Administration, and she worked as a figurative painter for decades before attaining recognition for her portraits, which depicted those closest to her with an unflinching, canny, and insightful eye.

      Sol LeWitt was featured at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in another much-anticipated solo exhibition. The focus was on LeWitt's signature wall drawings—works executed directly on the wall in pencil, crayon, ink washes, and, recently, acrylic paint. Many of these, as well as LeWitt's works on paper and “structures” (his preferred term for sculptural works) dating from the past 40 years, were shown in this traveling exhibition.

      Wayne Thiebaud, another artist who came of age in the 1950s, was featured in Texas at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, which held the most comprehensive overview of the California artist's career to date. Over 100 works were shown, including Thiebaud's signature Pop art-inspired still lifes of sliced cakes and pies as well as his later San Francisco cityscapes.

      “Amazons in the Drawing Room: The Art of Romaine Brooks” at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., was the result of a steady reassessment of Brooks, an American expatriate known as much for her unconventional life as her art. This survey focused on her portraiture and more general artistic interests, which were tied to ideas about personal identity, class, and sexuality. Another independent woman who had exerted a profound impact on her cultural milieu was Yoko Ono, whose work was featured in New York at the Japan Society, Ono's first major American venue. Included were her early Fluxus works, installations, films, photographs, and unique musical output, which was captured on a compact disc produced especially for the occasion.

      Video artist Nam June Paik was the subject of a retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City. This spectacular show included a laser waterfall in the museum's rotunda and many of his installations, which reflected on the ways in which electronic media, particularly television, impacted aesthetics and perceptions of art in the world at large.

      There was no shortage of historical surveys in 2000, one of which looked back at the turn of the last century. “1900: Art at the Crossroads” appeared at London's Royal Academy of Arts. The exhibition was inspired by the 1900 “Exposition Universelle” in Paris, where many of the approximately 250 paintings and sculptures were first exhibited. To indicate the vast range of styles being practiced at the time, 1900 was arranged by genre—Portraits, Bathers and Nudes, and Interiors and Still-Lifes, among other categories—and offered a chance to (re)consider them both at the turn of the last century and at the dawning of the new millennium. Another nod to the 1900 Paris exposition was the Victoria and Albert Museum's “Art Nouveau 1890–1914,” which gathered an impressive number of objects rendered in the sensuous fin de siècle design mode—jewelry, furniture, and glassware among them—produced mostly between 1890 and World War I. The show was also on view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., where additional objects were added. The lure of the exotic was explored in “Noble Dreams, Wicked Pleasures: Orientalism in America, 1870–1930,” a traveling exhibition that unraveled the fascination with so-called Oriental art and cultures and featured nearly 100 works at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Mass. Paintings by John Singer Sargent and Frederic Edwin Church were included, as well as examples of popular culture, the decorative arts, and photographs.

      “Taoism and the Arts of China” at the Art Institute of Chicago was a consideration of the undeniable overlap between the philosophical-religious force of Taoism and the visual arts; the exhibit included calligraphy, books, and textiles. The Portland (Ore.) Art Museum presented “Stroganoff: The Palace and Collections of a Russian Noble Family” in cooperation with the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. For the show, masterworks were reassembled from the collections of one of imperial Russia's most influential families (more than 230 objects, many of which never had been seen outside Russia), and the exhibit included a selection of Russian icons from the Stroganoff School and 18th-century French paintings by Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, Antoine Watteau, and Jean-Baptiste Greuze.

      “The Triumph of French Painting,” which debuted at the Philbrook Museum in Tulsa, Okla., focused on the 19th century and its notable painters—Eugène Delacroix, Claude Monet, and Henri Matisse among them. A different aspect of Europe was revealed in “The Splendor of 18th-Century Rome” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. On display were an unprecedented 380 works by more than 160 artists, including paintings, sculpture, works on paper, decorative objects, architectural renderings, and models inspired by Rome and its treasured antiquities and Renaissance and Baroque monuments.

      Several exhibitions were devoted to works from the collections of Giuseppe Panza di Biumo. The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain; the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice; and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, all exhibited Panza works. Many site-specific sculptures by artists of the 1960s and '70s were housed at the Villa Panza in Varese, Italy, which opened to the public in 2000. The Panza holdings included some of the most important works of Abstract Expressionism, Pop art, minimalism, and postminimalism by artists such as Carl Andre, Franz Kline, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Robert Irwin, and Richard Serra. These exhibitions were intended to celebrate the prescient vision and generosity of the Panzas.

      An eclectic group of exhibitions were shown in European museums, including “Samuel Beckett/Bruce Nauman” at the Kunsthalle Wein (Vienna), which explored the conceptual connections between playwright and writer Beckett and Nauman's activities as a contemporary artist via their respectively radical considerations of space and relentless questioning of perception and the human condition. Since the early 1970s, artist Adrian Piper had been addressing similar notions of selfhood but focusing on racial and gender stereotyping in her personal, often performance-driven work. Piper's uncompromising text-based photographs, videos, and drawings were the subject of a show at the Fine Arts Gallery, University of Maryland at Baltimore. Also, “MEDI(t)Ations,” a presentation of nearly all of Piper's audio and video works, was shown at the MOCA. The MOCA was the site of the first major retrospective devoted to influential California artist Paul McCarthy. McCarthy had produced some of the most provocative and challenging performance and installation work of the past two decades, much of it in European collections; this venue provided a significant opportunity to see his output in the U.S.

      Ed Ruscha, perhaps the quintessential West Coast artist, was given a retrospective at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. Ruscha's witty post-Pop gestures in the form of books of photographs (such as the iconic Twentysix Gasoline Stations of 1963) and paintings incorporating logos and words anticipated the issues of originality and seriality that would become the preoccupation of Conceptual artists in the 1960s, '70s, and beyond.

Meghan Dailey

Photography
      Despite a roller-coaster stock market and rising interest rates, photography auctions continued to reflect what might seem, in U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan's words, “irrational exuberance.” In late 1999 at Sotheby's New York, Charles Sheeler's Criss-Crossed Conveyors, Ford Plant commanded a whopping $607,500, establishing a world auction record for one of his photographs. Alfred Stieglitz's From the Back Window, 291, New York, 1915 did the same for him with a price of $420,500. Gustave Le Gray's Grand Vague—Sète topped both figures when it sold for $840,370 at Sotheby's London. In 2000, top sales at Christie's included $314,000 for Cello Study, 1926 by André Kertész and The Terminal, New York, 1892 by Stieglitz, setting a world auction record for this work at $215,000.

      The Internet's explosive growth continued to expand the alternative ways available to buy, sell, view, research, and enjoy photographs. Among an abundance of eye-boggling World Wide Web sites was Corbis—The Place for Pictures on the Internet (www.corbis.com). The site provided a way to dip into the enormous photographic collection acquired by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates from thousands of sources, including the famous Bettmann Archive. Newly featured among a wide array of Corbis's products and services was “The Living Lens: 75 of the Most Intriguing Photographs of the 20th Century,” chosen from Bettmann. Described as “museum-quality” photographs, they were available for purchase on-line in a limited edition of 250 prints of each photograph at unusually affordable prices.

      George Eastman House in Rochester, N.Y., showed “Migrations: Humanity in Transition,” a visually and emotionally powerful exhibition of black-and-white images by Brazilian-born Sebastião Salgado. Taken in some 40 countries during the 1990s, Salgado's latest “photographic investigation,” as he called his projects, explored the growing, wretched plight of migrant workers and refugees worldwide. His compassionate but unsparing vision and elegantly graphic images continued to establish him as a modern master of documentary photography.

      Photojournalist James Nachtwey continued to win acclaim for his coverage of contemporary warfare. His exhibition “James Nachtwey: Testimony” at the International Center of Photography in New York City, however, was not about war itself but about its catastrophic impact on civilians. The photographs were taken during the 1990s as Nachtwey witnessed atrocities and their aftermath in Romania, Somalia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), and Chechnya, Russia. Large-format colour and black-and-white prints pictured a hell on Earth in harrowing, sometimes gruesome images in which the distinction between living and dead became blurred. The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles opened “The Man in the Street: Eugène Atget in Paris.” The exhibit explored Atget's richly inclusive vision as he documented his beloved city with a tripod-mounted view camera and glass-plate negatives from about 1897 to 1927.

      New York City's Museum of Modern Art presented “Making Choices,” the second installment of “MoMA2000,” a blockbuster millennial celebration of modern art in all media. Focusing on the years 1920 to 1960, it included a series of 24 exhibits exploring the “contentions and vital complexities of modern art's middle years.” Four shows were exclusively devoted to photographers—“Walker Evans & Company,” “Man Ray, Photographer,” “The Observer: Cartier-Bresson After the War,” and “Ideal Motif: Stieglitz, Weston, Adams, and Callahan”—while a number of other exhibitions in the series also included photographs. The art of the artless snapshot provided the theme for a delightful exhibition, “Other Pictures: Vernacular Photographs from the Thomas Walther Collection,” at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The 90 or so black-and-white images were made by anonymous amateurs from about 1910 to 1960 and gathered by well-known collector Walther from images found in family albums, dusty shoe boxes, and flea markets. Cocurator Mia Fineman called them the “crème-de-la-snapshot. . . . Each one is a little lure for the imagination, an enticement, a revelation.” Also at the Met, a retrospective “Walker Evans” exhibition surveyed, for the first time in its full scope and mostly in vintage prints, this photographer's influential body of work from the late 1920s to 1974. It traced the course of the “certain severity, rigor, or simplicity, directness, clarity” that Evans so successfully achieved in his photographs, from his early New York City street scenes, through his Depression-era images for the U.S. Farm Security Administration and his book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941), to his later work for Fortune magazine.

      Organized by the Aperture Foundation and opening at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, “Mary Ellen Mark: Photographs” was this highly acclaimed photographer's first major exhibition to focus exclusively on her American work. Included were some 140 black-and-white photographs, many never before exhibited. Mark's compassionate but astringently unsentimental vision gave a panorama of sad, funny, and disturbing views of contemporary American lifestyles from documentary projects such as “Streetwise,” “Beauty Pageants,” “Rural Poverty,” “Texas Rodeos,” and “Spring Break.”

      “Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America” at the New-York Historical Society aroused shocked attention with tormenting postcard images from a dark side of American social history when, between 1882 and 1968, an estimated 4,742 blacks were killed by lynch mobs. Collected over a period of 15 years by James E. Allen and John Littlefield, the pictures showed the corpses of sometimes mutilated victims hanging from a tree branch or makeshift gallows, often in front of a large crowd of onlookers that includes children. The postcards had been sold as popular mementos of these “hideous spectacles” that, according to Allen, left “even the dead victims without sanctuary.” Appearing at the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills, Calif., was Cindy Sherman's (see Biographies (Sherman, Cindy )) most recent collection of staged self-portraiture. Her elaborately costumed and histrionically posed depictions of Hollywood women offered provocative commentary on film, glamour, artificiality, and social clichés.

      The 2000 Pulitzer Prize for spot news photography went to the photo staff of the Denver (Colo.) Rocky Mountain News for its coverage of the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School. Carol Guzy, Michael Williamson, and Lucian Perkins of the Washington (D.C.) Post won the Pulitzer for feature photography with their photographs of fleeing Kosovar refugees. At the 57th Annual Pictures of the Year contest, sponsored by the National Press Photographers Association and the University of Missouri School of Journalism, John Stanmeyer of SABA Press Photos/Time magazine received the Magazine Photographer of the Year award, while Rob Finch of the Beacon-News/Copley Chicago Newspapers was named Newspaper Photographer of the Year. The International Center of Photography Infinity Awards included presentations to Nachtwey for photojournalism for the third time and Helmut Newton for SUMO (2000), a massive book of his controversial, often voyeuristic images of famous personalities and models. The 2000 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography went to Brenda Ann Kenncally and the two W. Eugene Smith Fellowship Grants to Nigel Dickenson and Francesco Zizola. The Howard Chapnick Grant for the Advancement of Photojournalism was awarded to David J. Spear.

Arthur Goldsmith

Art Auctions and Sales
      Defying all expectations, the art market in 2000 sustained substantial growth over 1999. Major auction houses Christie's and Sotheby's, however, came under scrutiny for commission fixing, and they agreed in September to pay $512 million to settle a civil suit against them. Bolstered by a bull stock market and increased consumer wealth, the auction houses continued to see record prices for high-quality works of art, through both traditional auction venues and transactions conducted via the Internet. In January 2000 Sotheby's launched Sothebys.com, an e-commerce art and antiques World Wide Web site that achieved $31,000,000 in sales in its first six months, a total punctuated by the $8,140,000 sale of a rare first printing of the Declaration of Independence, by far the most expensive item ever auctioned on-line. Although Christie's opted not to conduct auctions on Christies.com, the auction house greatly expanded its on-line capabilities by hosting live Webcasts of its important auctions.

      In the sale of Old Master paintings held in New York City, Christie's achieved $39,290,500, its highest total in 10 years. The high seller was Canaletto's The Grand Canal Venice, Looking East from Campo di San Vio, which went for $6,602,500. Records were also established for artists Giovanni Battista, Carracci, and Carlo Maratta. In May Christie's New York offered the single-owner Karl Lagerfeld Collection, which fetched $7,217,121. Christie's London in July offered one of the most important drawings ever to appear at auction; Study for the Risen Christ by Michelangelo Buonarroti realized $12,378,500.

      Reaching a sale total of $47,482,575, the Old Master auction at Sotheby's included Peter Paul Rubens's Portrait of a Man as the God Mars, which fetched $8,252,500 and set a record for the artist. The Rebuke of Adam and Eve by Domenichino also set a record at $3,302,500.

      The sales of Impressionist and Modern art and Contemporary art at both auction houses were resoundingly successful. At Sotheby's New York in May, the totals for these sales were the second highest in 10 years, with Impressionist art earning a staggering $140,354,000, earmarked by the sale of Claude Monet's Le Portail (Soleil), which fetched $24,205,750. An Henri Matisse sculpture entitled La Serpentine–Femme à la stele–l'araignee sold for a record $14,030,750, the highest price paid for a sculpture at auction.

      Christie's New York set a world auction record in May with the sale of Gustave Caillebotte's L'Homme au balcon, which commanded $14.3 million in a sale that earned $104.5 million. Monet's Nympheas reached $20.9 million, the highest bid of the evening.

      Sotheby's London Impressionist sale in June totaled $80,327,040 and was underscored by Edgar Degas's Petit danseuse de quatorze ans, which sold for $11,547,740 and established a European record at auction for a sculpture. In June Christie's London sold Paul Cézanne's Still Life with Fruit for $18.2 million.

      In its sale of 20th-century art, Christie's New York set 15 auction records in a sale totaling $14.5 million. The apex of the auction was Sigmar Polke's atypical dot painting Zwei Frauen, which realized $1,650,000. In its sale of 20th-century art, Christie's offered Pablo Picasso's Nature morte aux tulipes, which achieved $28.6 million. Also in May, Sotheby's New York held a robust sale of Contemporary art. The highlight was a 1956 painting by Mark Rothko, Yellow over Purple, which sold for $14,305,750, an unprecedented price for this artist at auction.

      The June sale at Sotheby's London gave way to eight new auction records for Contemporary artists, including one for Gerald Richter, whose Martha set a record for an abstract painting when it realized £443,500 (about $643,075). The Christie's June sale in London earned $8.9 million.

      In New York Sotheby's American paintings, drawings, and sculpture sale in May totaled $38,497,075. The sale was highlighted by 10 lots that realized winning bids of more than $1,000,000, notably Ralph Albert Blakelock's Indian Encampment Along the Snake River, which fetched $3,525,750 and set an artist record. Christie's American paintings sale earned $33,164,800, the highest total for this category in the auction house's history. Highlighting the sale was Frederic Edwin Church's Mount Newport on Mount Desert Island for $4,186,000.

      At Sotheby's New York sales of Latin American art on May 31 and June 1, a record was achieved for a rare self-portrait by Frida Kahlo, which sold for $5,065,750 and established the highest auction price ever paid for a work by a woman artist. The June sale at Christie's New York of Latin American paintings realized $8,984,757 and gave rise to seven auction records, including the $468,000 brought for Fernando Botero's sculpture Reclining Venus.

      Both Christie's and Sotheby's boasted strong results in the worldwide jewelry market. In May Christie's New York sale of magnificent jewels totaled $19.3 million. The top lot was a 27.49-carat ring, which went for $1,381,000. Christie's Hong Kong had the best sale results of the spring series with Magnificent Jewellery I: The Far Eastern Collector and Magnificent Jewellery II: Tradition and Innovation Jewels Without Reserve, which together realized $36.3 million. Sotheby's New York offered the private collection of Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd H. Smith, which commanded $19,986,472. The spring jewelry sale in Geneva totaled $32,229,427, owing in large part to the sale of the magnificent jewels of Marie Vergottis, whose sapphire and diamond necklace sold for $1,035,450.

      Sales in antiquities brought Sotheby's the highest total for a various-owner sale in the auction house's history; the June sale realized $9.5 million. The bronze head of an athlete—a rare Roman copy of a lost original by Greek sculptor Lysippos—stole the show and sold for $4.5 million, a record price for a classical antiquity at auction.

      At Sotheby's New York in June was the sale of the items from the shipwrecked SS Central America. The cache aboard this treasure ship, recovered after 132 years, consisted primarily of gold bars and coins. The sale brought $5,567,815; an 18,779.9-g (663.6-oz) gold bar made by Kellogg and Humbert, Assayers, San Francisco, fetched $265,000.

      Christie's achieved impressive sales results for books and manuscripts and in New York set a world record for a printed book with the $8,802,500 sale of John James Audubon's The Birds of America: From Original Drawings by John James Audubon. Christie's London sold the private library of William Foyle for $18.9 million, the highest European price ever realized for such a collection. Sotheby's London attained great success with the sale of the 16th-century Book of Hours, illustrated by Renaissance illuminator Simon Bening, for £2,610,500 (about $3,785,000).

Amy Todd Middleton

Antiques and Collectibles
      The Internet continued to influence the prices paid for antiques and collectibles, but major shops, shopping malls, and regular auctions remained the most important barometers of sales in 2000. Regional auction houses were enjoying astounding results for important examples of folk art, toys, Arts and Crafts furniture and accessories, and art pottery. The sales of ordinary 1950s and '60s furniture were slow, however. Although ignored 25 years earlier, Arts and Crafts and art pottery were in demand at every price point, from $10 table runners to $900,000 tables. High-style pieces made after 1950 were popular even though many of these items were still being made. There was less buyer interest in clocks and 18th-century porcelains than in the past, but a record price was paid at auction for a watch—$11,002,500, for a 1933 18-carat gold Patek Philippe pocket watch with 24 complications— special features such as a calendar, dual power source, or central alarm.

      The biggest surprise of the year was the sums paid for folk art, notably the $195,500 fetched at auction in Bedford, N.Y., for a 33-cm (13-in)-long early-19th-century paint-decorated box. Other impressive folk art sales included a miniature Pennsylvania painted blanket chest dated 1777, $220,000; a hooked rug with stars and stripes, $46,000; and an 1857 American carved game board painted with flags, $46,000. A 1917 sleeping Canada goose decoy by Elmer Crowell made $684,500.

      Lamps, especially those with glass shades, continued to sell well. Three Pairpoint puffy table lamps set records: a Lilac lamp, $145,600; an Orange Tree lamp, $60,480; and a Begonia lamp, $67,200. A Tiffany Poppy table lamp went for $123,200, a Handel Peacock table lamp brought $56,000, and a Tiffany Daffodil lamp sold for a record $67,200.

      Toys remained popular, especially tin banks, trucks, and cars; mechanical toys sold for high but not record prices. Records were established for British lead soldiers. A Boy Scout display set of 44 pieces auctioned for $2,912, and a soldier set of British army infantry officers made in the 1940s went for $5,264. A prototype Hot Wheels hot pink Volkswagen Beach Bomb with rear-loaded surfboards sold for $72,000, and a full-size (c. 1891) Ohio Diamond Frame safety bicycle auctioned for $164,820. A signed 1937 first edition of Dr. Seuss's And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, his first children's book, sold for $8,625.

      Sports memorabilia sales slowed. A Babe Ruth-signed baseball fetched $76,020, and a baseball autographed by Pope John Paul II in 1987 was auctioned for $33,979. The famous Honus Wagner baseball card that sold for $640,500 in 1996 commanded $1,265,000 in 2000.

      Unusual collectibles set records, including a 1954 Superman tin lunch box with a thermos, which brought $11,500, and a 1905 Vermont license plate with a white number 9 on a blue plate made $14,850. The sale of a Titanic lunch menu dated April 14, 1912, commanded $74,750. Collectors were also buying old computers; a component of ENIAC, the first general-purpose digital computer (constructed in 1946), sold for $79,500.

      Prices continued to soar for American art pottery. The Cowan Pottery jazz bowl designed in the 1930s by Victor Schreckengost for Eleanor Roosevelt sold for $121,000. A Newcomb College high-glaze vase—15 cm (6 in) high and made c. 1907 by Leona Nicholson—set a record at $82,500. A 46-cm (18-in)-high Teco vase with green and charcoal glaze brought $66,000 at auction.

      An English George III lady's secretary bookcase by Thomas Weeks (c. 1800) auctioned in New York for a record $167,500, and a cabinet made in 1679 set an American furniture record when it went for $2,422,500. Records for 18th-century furniture were also set: $2,862,500 for a Cornelius Stevenson Chippendale mahogany card table, $1,432,500 for a John Cadwalader Chippendale mahogany side chair, and $910,000 for a pair of Chippendale carved mahogany game tables. Although record prices were paid for Arts and Crafts furniture toward the end of 1999, none of the high prices paid in 2000 were records. Eames furniture rarities set records: the DTW-3 three-dowel-leg dining table, $10,350; a wall unit ESU-421-C, $70,700; and a set of six DKR-1 dining chairs, $10,063. The one-of-a-kind prototype DCW armchair went for $107,000.

Ralph and Terry Kovel

▪ 2000

Introduction

Painting and Sculpture
      The 48th Venice Biennale, held in June 1999, was a natural midyear vantage point from which to survey what had happened in artistic practices. For 21 weeks scores of international artists and their works were praised, damned, scrutinized, and sometimes even honoured. Bruce Nauman and Louise Bourgeois were the recipients of the Golden Lion, the top award. The three winners of the International Prize cut across conceptual approaches and national identities. China's Cai Guoqiang presented a large-scale narrative piece, Venice Rent Collecting Courtyard (1999), which consisted of numerous life-size clay figures; American videographer Doug Aitken's Electric Earth (1999) chronicled a black man's surrealistic stimuli-laden journey through the Los Angeles streets; and Iran's Shirin Neshat's Turbulent (1998) captivated viewers much as her earlier film Rapture had. Both of Neshat's films—consisting of black-and-white images on two facing screens, one side showing women, the other, men—ruminated on the entrenched gender divide that governs Iranian life. In the American pavilion Ann Hamilton's installation Myein (1999) was a commentary on the intensities and weaknesses of human sensory perception. A layer of reddish-coloured dust, emitted from holes in the walls, gradually accumulated on the floor and dusted large Braille dots on the walls. Another large project was Thomas Hirschhorn's Welt Flugplatz (“World Airport,” 1999), which examined the phenomenon of globalization. Constructed mostly from cardboard, wood, aluminum foil, and plastic, the piece included 1.5-m (5-ft)-long airplanes emblazoned with the logos of national airlines from the Balkans, Africa, Great Britain, and France, among others. Other elements included walls collaged with media clippings of current events juxtaposed with found photographs and an airport lounge where viewers/passengers could read about Hirschhorn's work.

      Great Britain offered its own international gathering of talent with the Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art, organized by curator Anthony Bond. The main section, entitled “Trace,” featured 50 artists, including Miroslaw Blaka (Poland), Pierre Huyghe (France), Alastair MacLennan (Ireland), Bashir Makhoul (U.K./Lebanon), Adrian Piper (U.S.), and Jane and Louise Wilson (U.K.). Works in all media, including painting, video, and sculpture, were on view in “Trace” and its companion curatorial enterprise, “Tracey,” which offered various site-specific artists' projects in locations around Liverpool and other cities.

      Elsewhere, artists continued to blur the line between installation-based practices and the medium of sculpture by combining sculptural elements with a range of techniques and materials. Tony Feher and Diana Cooper turned to everyday materials as a source. Feher cleverly reinterpreted a Minimalist aesthetic by attaching commercial detritus—like plastic beverage bottles—to the wall, placing roughly cut blocks of polystyrene in stacks, and piling coins and marbles together on the floor. Cooper's work shifted between two and three dimensions. Some pieces remained primarily grounded in the medium of drawing (she used ballpoint pen on paper or unstretched canvas stapled to the wall to compose proliferating patterns of lines and shapes), whereas other works consisted of networks of strips of paper, pipe cleaners, small plastic tubes, and brightly coloured pom-poms attached to floors and walls. Los Angeles–based artist Liz Larner also made use of existing architectural elements, utilizing corners and columns as “bases” for her abstract sculptures. Larner exploited the malleability of plastic to create distorted cubes or an aggregating web of bright green tubing. Paul McCarthy and Jason Rhoades cocreated the visceral installation Propposition (1999). Upon entering the gallery space, visitors' senses were confronted by the aroma of Wonder Bread and doughnuts. As they made their way past plastic barrels full of fermenting items and skirted past a rapidly spinning mechanical bull, they were rewarded with the sight of a red Ferrari dismantled down to panels, seats, and parts. The suggested thrills of motion, sweets, and speed were driven to a literal climax via the hard-core pornographic video projected onto the walls.

      German artist Andreas Slominski constructed sculpture-as-traps—for birds, mice, and other small animals. As viewers carefully inched closer to these slightly menacing yet appealing and aestheticized objects, they were lured by their unknown promise, as any animal prey would be. This examination of the nature of reality and artifice also figured in Roxy Paine's work. Paine investigated the relationship between the natural and the artificial with handmade hyperreal beds of grass, flowers, and mushrooms. Drawing out this commentary on the “nature” of originality further was Paine's SCUMAK (1998), a mechanism that dispensed melted plastic onto a conveyor belt. The white plastic hardened into irregular mounds that rolled off Paine's assembly line and, during the course of the exhibition, formed an ever-growing pile on the floor. Also notable was Mike Kelley's ambitious new sculpture, the unruly title of which—Framed and Frame (Miniature Reproduction “Chinatown Wishing Well” built by Mike Kelley after “Miniature Reproduction ‘Seven Star Cavern' built by Prof. H.K. Lu), (1999)—suggested something of the sprawling nature of this large-scale piece. Kelley's reconstruction of the Chinatown Wishing Well, Hollywood's memorial to Chinese-American film actress Anna May Wong, complete with smiling Buddha figures and bright paper lanterns, was situated near a patio-like brick structure enclosed on two sides by chain-link fencing and barbed wire and by red-painted Chinese gates on the other. The result was an ambiguous admixture of kitsch, history, fear, and personal narrative.

      “Ellsworth Kelly: The Early Drawings, 1948–1955” was organized by Harvard University Art Museums and the Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Switz., and featured many previously unexhibited works. Also shown was “Line, Form, Color,” a group of collages and drawings originally intended for an artist's book; the unfinished 1951 project was completed by Kelly (see Biographies (Kelly, Ellsworth )) especially for this exhibition.

      Even when video or installation may have been the dominant idiom, painting was not entirely absent. An engaging and successful fusion of public sculpture with painting (as well as photography) was “Billboard,” an exhibition mounted by the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art as part of the much-anticipated May 1998 opening of its exhibitions spaces. Twenty-five different billboards featured reproductions of works by such artists as John Baldessari, Sue Coe, the Guerrilla Girls, and Gary Simmons (five pieces were commissioned especially for this project) and could be seen in locations around the region near the museum.

      Several gallery shows of important established painters indicated that the medium was thriving. Philip Taaffe presented new works, and Ross Bleckner showed recent abstractions. Robert Ryman's most recent white paintings were small, but there were over 30 of them on view in one impressive exhibition. Nor did all young artists forsake painting for flashier mediums, but rather many sought to invigorate the grand manner with their own particular sensibility. Lisa Ruyter used snapshots as a starting point for her paintings of suburban exteriors, and many others relied on the vocabulary of graphic art for inspiration, appropriating the flatness, iconography, saturated colours, and elements of design and the motifs and typography of advertising. Culling imagery from consumer culture, Michael Bevilacqua's bold, psychedelically hued paintings perfectly embodied this urge to look outside the realm of art to that of music, products, and fashion, among other things, while still relentlessly referencing the work of other painters and styles. Karen Davie's large works depicted bending, curving stripes that reinterpreted Op art works by retaining something of their disorienting illusionism while treating Op's geometry with a looser hand that mimicked the natural plasticity of the pigment itself.

Meghan Dailey

Art Exhibitions
      Although many in 1999 were fixated on the fast-approaching new millennium, international museums kept an eye on the past and presented several important historical shows. The National Gallery in London held the debut of “Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch.” Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, among the most influential painters and draftsmen of his time, depicted France's elite in exceptionally refined and luxurious surroundings. Another important traveling exhibition, featuring still lifes and genre paintings by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, opened at the Grand Palais, Paris. Chardin's paintings, still admired for their immediacy and harmony, were described by Denis Diderot in 1760 as representing “nature itself.” In New York City the Whitney Museum of American Art presented “The American Century: Art & Culture 1900–2000.” Parts I and II, covering the years 1900–1950 and 1950–2000, were mounted in the spring and fall, respectively, included works in all media, and gave the museum a chance to display its extensive permanent collection. Although some examples may have been more historically or technically significant than others, collectively they laid bare aspects of a national sensibility—for better or worse. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art featured approximately 60 works by American artist Lee Krasner. Although she was perhaps better known as Jackson Pollock's better half, Krasner was an abstract painter in her own right and a significant figure in the 1940s and '50s.

      The year marked the 400th anniversaries of the births of two of the 17th century's greatest masters, Diego Rodríguez de Silva Velázquez and Anthony van Dyck. “Velázquez and Seville” at the Cartuja Monastery in the city of Velázquez's birth was one of several exhibitions honouring Spain's cultural hero. Meanwhile, teams of archaeologists searched Madrid's underground tunnels and crypts for the missing remains of the painter. Eighty works by the celebrated portraitist van Dyck were shown at the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, Belg., the artist's birthplace, and also traveled to the Royal Academy of Arts, London—the city where van Dyck was court painter to Charles I.

      At the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin, “Amazons of the Avant-Garde” featured six Russian women artists: Aleksandra Ekster, Nataliya Goncharova, Lyubov Popova, Olga Rozanova, Varvara Stepanova, and Nadezhda Udaltsova. Their talent was a substantial force in the early avant-garde, and this exhibition, which focused on painting, gave some extraordinary works of art their due recognition. The show was then to travel to London and Venice. “Matisse and Picasso: A Gentle Rivalry” embodied a similarly focused curatorial approach. The Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, assembled paintings, drawings, and sculpture that revealed the complex nature of a 25-year-long dialogue between extraordinary modern masters Henri Mattise and Pablo Picasso.

      The New Orleans Museum of Art mounted the well-received “Degas and New Orleans.” Edgar Degas, the only artist of the Impressionist circle to have traveled to the U.S., visited his mother's Creole relatives from October 1872 through March 1873, completing penetrating portraits of family members and the remarkable A Cotton Office in New Orleans (1873). This exhibition also traveled to the Ordrupgård Collection, Copenhagen. The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, also in Copenhagen, displayed the work of Surrealist René Magritte, aiming to consider Magritte's influence on subsequent generations of artists, specifically his relevance for Pop and Conceptual art.

      The Jeu de Paume, Paris, presented France's first exhibition of Gutai, the Japanese avant-garde artist group. Active from 1954 to 1972, Gutai artists engaged in body-oriented performative “actions,” and these, as well as the results of some of these actions—e.g., paintings created by smashing jars of pigment on canvas—were recorded in films and photographs. An ocean away—literally and figuratively—was “Land of the Winged Horseman: Polish Art, 1572–1764,” the first major U.S. exhibition of Polish art from that period. More than 150 examples of religious and secular objects, metalwork, and textiles were amassed for this show, which debuted at Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, Md., and was scheduled to travel to three additional U.S. venues before opening in Poland.

      Two institutions held major exhibitions of ancient Egyptian art and artifacts. The Metropolitan Museum of Art debuted “Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids,” the first fall blockbuster to open in New York City. Viewers lined up to see hundreds of examples of sculptures, paintings, and relief carvings from the Old Kingdom (c. 2650–2150 bc). Continuing the wave of “Egyptomania,” the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, offered “Pharaohs of the Sun: Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Tutankhamen,” displaying nearly 300 Amarna period (1353–36 bc) artifacts, many of them loaned by Cairo museums for the first time. Chinese artifacts from the Neolithic Period (4500–1700 bc) through the T'ang dynasty (618–907) were assembled for “The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People's Republic of China.” The 200 objects presented at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., were culled from 25 Chinese collections. The recovery of these objects in recent decades seemed to suggest new evidence about when and where cultural development occurred in ancient China. Another consideration of Chinese relics was “Gilded Dragons: Buried Treasures from China's Golden Ages,” which opened in October at the British Museum, London, and was reputed to have contained the “greatest number of [Chinese] national treasures . . . to be on display in one place.” The Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, Santa Ana, Calif., exhibited (as would five future venues) spectacular ancient artifacts from Mesopotamia. “Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur” featured an array of gold and bejeweled Sumerian objects (dated c. 2600–2500 bc).

      The visibility of Irish artists was increased in several enlivening group exhibitions. The Berkeley Art Museum at the University of California mounted examples of figurative work by 20th-century Irish artists, many of whom were previously unknown to U.S. audiences. The exhibition traveled to New York University's Grey Art Gallery, coinciding with P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center's “0044,” a show of new and recent work by contemporary Irish artists. The McMullen Museum, Boston (and other future venues), held “Irish Art Now: From the Poetic to the Political,” which concentrated on Irish artists of the 1990s, including Willie Doherty and Kathy Prendergast, among others.

      Several artists who began their careers in the 1980s were afforded solo retrospectives. The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam showed 55 paintings by American artist David Salle, whose work juxtaposes figurative or decorative motifs with imagery from both high and low culture. This show was also to travel to venues in Italy and Spain. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City, featured the work of Francesco Clemente. Inspired by the three countries in which he made his home—Italy, the U.S. (New York), and India—Clemente turned to the personal—mostly his friends and family and often the spiritual—for inspiration and subject matter. Visual artist, AIDS activist, and prolific writer David Wojnarowicz was the subject of a much-anticipated show of 75 works at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York City. It was a welcome opportunity to experience the efficacy of a body of work that reflected the highly charged artistic and political atmosphere of 1980s New York.

      “Tiboricity: Design and Undesign by Tibor Kalman: 1979–1999,” at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, featured 200 examples of printed matter and objects by maverick Kalman (see Obituaries (Kalman, Tibor )), who with his firm, M&Co., revolutionized design concepts for museum exhibitions, urban spaces, typography, and a range of consumer products. His untimely death was a loss felt by the international design, art, and publishing communities and beyond.

Meghan Dailey

Photography
      The ways that photographs were bought, sold, auctioned, and merchandised as art increased dramatically during 1999 with the Internet's explosive growth. Whereas the world's first on-line photography auction had taken place only a year previously, by the end of 1999 such auctions had become commonplace. Swann Galleries in New York City was experimenting with the idea, and Sotheby's New York teamed up with Amazon.com to hold Internet photo auctions. Artnet.com offered photo aficionados a convenient one-stop World Wide Web site where they could bid electronically at auctions, explore member “galleries,” and browse through its virtual “bookstore.” Anyone wanting to sell photographs or photographica could also arrange to use eBay, the vast electronic auction house.

      One of the most outstanding photographic auctions of the year took place in traditional fashion, however, when Sotheby's in London sold a famous private collection of André Jammes and his wife, Marie-Therese. (A preview exhibition was shown at Sotheby's New York.) Valued at an estimated $3 million–$6 million, the collection included rare and historically important examples of 19th-century photography, especially French, as well as modern masterpieces from the 1920s and '30s.

      “Fame After Photography” was a rollicking show organized by Carole Kismaric and Marvin Heiferman at New York's Museum of Modern Art. It provided an irreverent look at the symbiotic but changing relationship between photography and celebrities from Queen Victoria's day to the paparazzi of the present. On exhibit were not only photographs but newspapers, magazine covers, newsreels, movie trailers, excerpts from television programs, and commercials. The entertaining but dizzying survey left the New York Times reviewer Michael Kimmelman wondering, “Now that everyone is famous for 15 minutes, is anyone really famous any longer?”

      The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., launched an ambitious new project: a multiyear presentation of the world's largest and most complete collection of photographs by Alfred Stieglitz. More than half of the 1,600-print collection had never been published. The gallery opened the project with a new edition of the award-winning but out-of-print Alfred Stieglitz: Photographs and Writings, and by presenting Alfred Stieglitz: New Perspectives, a series of seven productions on the gallery's Web site. The entire collection was scheduled to be published in a 600-page catalog in 2002 in conjunction with an exhibition.

      Shown during the year at several museums was “Stray Dog,” a powerful retrospective exhibition of Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama's work. Influenced by William Kline's book of photographs New York and the spirit of Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road, Moriyama was among the photographers, cinematographers, and graphic artists who strongly influenced the post–World War II Japanese cultural scene. Nearly 200 of his characteristically gritty, high-contrast images were included.

      As the 20th century neared its end, photographic reviews of its events, heroes, villains, and lifestyles abounded. Among them was “Picturing the Century: 100 Years of Photography from the National Archives,” at the National Archives' Washington, D.C., headquarters. From this vast collection (more than eight million still and nine million aerial pictures in Washington plus millions more from 30 regional archives), curator Bruce Bustard selected 190 photographs, many of them virtually unknown. They ranged from the historically momentous, such as the Wright Brothers' first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C., to the charmingly trivial 1917 image of “nature sliders” coasting down a snowy slope on the waxed seat of their pants.

      Daguerreotypes created news during the year. The late David Feigenbaum left a superb collection of 240 daguerreotypes, mostly made by the famous Boston team of Southworth & Hawes in the 1840s and '50s. Sotheby's New York auctioned the collection for a total of $3.3 million. A whole-plate image, “Two Women,” set a new world auction price record for a 19th-century photograph at $387,500.

      Photographs from Robert Ripley's “Believe It or Not!” archives, exhibited first at the Kansas City Museum, might claim the title as the silliest but most amusing photo show of 1999. It included images of a man blowing up a balloon with his ear, the world's largest shortcake (weighing 2 tons and feeding 12,000 people), and Perry L. Biddle celebrating his 90th birthday on a flagpole by holding himself horizontally outstretched like a flag.

      Getty Images announced plans to purchase Eastman Kodak's the Image Bank. The latter included still imagery from United Press International, Reuters Group PLC, the Chicago Historical Collection, and George Eastman House. The acquisition would double the size of Getty's holdings, it was said, and create one of the world's largest privately owned collections of photos and film archives.

      The Witkin Gallery, a landmark of the New York photographic gallery scene, closed its doors in 1999. When it first opened 30 years earlier, it was the only commercial photography gallery in the city. (Others had tried and failed.) Founder Lee Witkin and his successor, Evelyne Daitz, established the gallery's widely held reputation for encouraging new talent and fostering a pure, unpretentious esthetic. Its final exhibition was, fittingly enough, “Clothes Off.”

      Harry Callahan, influential photographer and photographic teacher, died in March. (See Obituaries (Callahan, Harry Morey ).) Influenced by Ansel Adams and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, he developed a highly personal style that combined straight photography with technical experimentation. He attempted, he said, to find a visual way of “revealing the subject in a new way to intensify it.”

      The 1999 Pulitzer Prize for spot news photography went to John McConnico of the Associated Press for his photograph of Prudence Bushnell, the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, after she laid a wreath at the site of the embassy bombing in Nairobi. Susan Walsh of the Associated Press won the Pulitzer for feature photography with her photograph of Pres. Bill Clinton with Hillary Rodham Clinton next to him as he addressed U.S House of Representatives Democrats outside the White House during his impeachment proceedings. At the 56th Annual Pictures of the Year contest, sponsored by the National Press Photographers Association and the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Newspaper Photographer of the Year went to Bill Greene of the Boston Globe, and Chien-chi Chang was named Magazine Photographer of the Year. Chang, a Taiwanese-born New Yorker and associate member of Magnum Photos, also won the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for “Divided Lives,” his ongoing documentary on the plight of illegal immigrants in New York's Chinatown and their family members left behind in China. Tom Stoddart of IPG Flash Matrix won the Canon Photo Essayist Award for his U.S. News & World Report coverage of famine in The Sudan. Recipients of the two 1999 W. Eugene Smith Fellowship Grants were Alaskan freelance photographer Bill Hess Bill and Spanish photographer Fernando Moleres. The Howard Chapnick Grant for the Advancement of Photojournalism Leadership was awarded to teacher/photographer Peter Mecca.

Arthur Goldsmith

Art Auctions and Sales
      In 1999 the auction market enjoyed strong consumer confidence, benefiting from a formidable stock market, particularly in North America. Sotheby's and Christie's also made significant investments for the future. Christie's moved its Manhattan operation into a renovated location in Rockefeller Center, dramatically increasing its gallery and office space. Sotheby's, also in Manhattan, completed the first phase of a six-floor addition, enjoying the benefits of museum-quality gallery space. Sotheby's announced two major on-line initiatives—the formation of sothebys.com, a new Internet auction business for art, antiques, jewelry, and collectibles, and a joint on-line auction site, sothebys.amazon.com, which it formed in a 10-year alliance with Amazon.com. Christie's originally planned to launch an on-line operation in early 2000 but backed off in November.

      One of the year's highlights came in May with the Sotheby's New York sale of Impressionist and Modern art, which brought a staggering $208 million; 22 paintings sold for more than $1 million each. Contributing enormously to the success of this event was the single-owner sale of 50 paintings from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, including Paul Cézanne's Rideau, cruchon et compotier for $60.5 million and Georges Seurat's Paysage, l'Île de la Grande Jatte for $35.2 million. That same month Christie's New York offered Vincent van Gogh's La Roubine du roi, which brought $19,802,500 in a sale that earned $65,919,500.

      Sales of Contemporary art also hit a high note in 1999. In its May sale Christie's New York offered 62 works in an auction that totaled an impressive $62,670,500. Two Flags of 1973, by painter Jasper Johns, was the pinnacle of the evening, selling for $7,152,500. Also in May, Sotheby's New York held a strong show of Contemporary art, including works from the Kraetz collection, the sale of which totaled $25.2 million. The unquestionable star of the event was Andy Warhol's 1966 image of Marlon, which made $2.6 million. In the various-owner sale, The Painter's Mother by Lucian Freud achieved $3.3 million.

      Sotheby's American paintings, drawings, and sculpture sale in New York in May, which included an excellent private collection of western paintings, totaled $29.2 million. Achieving the second highest price was Frederic Edwin Church's To the Memory of Cole (1848), which commanded $4.7 million. Also from the Whitney collection was Winslow Homer's Woodchopper in the Adirondacks, which brought $992,500. Christie's American paintings sale in May was distinguished by Frederic Remington's A Renaissance, which earned $5,172,000 in a sale totaling $18,547,800.

      Sales of Latin American art were also strong. At Sotheby's New York June sale, records were set for the works of 12 artists, including Maria Martins's Brouillard noir (Black Fog), which fetched $233,500. The June sale of Latin American art at Christie's New York set records for 18 artists, including Wilfredo Lam's Fruta bomba, which made $937,500.

      The jewelry divisions at both houses recorded robust sales. Christie's May sale in New York of magnificent jewels totaled $14,616,535, with a 17-carat diamond ring by Chaumet earning $816,500. Sotheby's April sale in New York totaled $12.8 million, with 8 of the top 10 lots selling above their presale estimates. The top lot was an exceptional pair of diamond ear clips, which went for $1.5 million.

      The decorative arts sector continued to build on its tremendous strength. In January Sotheby's important Americana sales in New York achieved an outstanding total of $20.9 million and thereby affirmed new levels of vigour in the market. The sale's centrepiece was the Nathaniel Appleton secretary bookcase, which realized $8.3 million, the second highest price ever paid for American furniture at auction. At Christie's New York Americana sales, a painting by Edward Hicks entitled Peaceable Kingdom (1837) soared to a record $4,732,500.

      Sotheby's held a variety of single-owner sales that bridged the diversity of the collecting world. In April the sale of furniture and decorations from the Whitney homes totaled a strong $13.2 million. The works offered included a watercolour by Sir Alfred J. Munnings, Violet Munnings' Horse “Chips” at Chantilly, which fetched $739,500.

      The three-day March sale of the collection of Giuseppe Rossi by Sotheby's was the largest of its kind to have taken place in London in the 20th century and raised a total of £21.1 million (£1=about $1.66). The top of the more than 1,300 lots was a highly important gilt-bronze mounted mahogany centre table stamped “Youf,” late Restauration, c. 1834, selling for £606,500.

      Also at Sotheby's was the sale of Château de Groussay, the largest house sale held in France in the 20th century; the total of F 167.7 million (F1=about $0.16) far exceeded the presale high estimate of F 100 million. This landmark sale, a collaboration between Sotheby's and French auctioneers Poulain-Le Fur, offered the contents of what was originally home to Charles de Beistegui. The top lot was a pair of mid-18th-century gilt-bronze mounted Meissen porcelain potpourri vases and covers, which sold for F 4,360,000 million. In New York in March, Sotheby's offered the contents from the Paris apartment of noted interior designer Alberto Pinto; the sale totaled $6.3 million.

      At Sotheby's New York in September, nearly 2,500 lots from the Barry Halper collection of baseball memorabilia were offered in a series of 16 live auction sessions, a sale that totaled $21,812,577. The collection, unrivaled in scope and depth, included Lou Gehrig's last baseball glove, which skyrocketed to $387,500.

      Christie's New York sale in April of property from the Alexander collection realized an impressive $27.5 million, a record for a private collection of French furniture and decorative arts. The star lot, a set of four Louis XVI ormolu twin-branch wall lights delivered to Versailles for Marie-Antoinette, brought a record for a pair of wall lights—$1,817,500.

      “Unforgettable: Fashion of the Oscar's,” held by Christie's New York in March, offered 56 dresses worn to the Academy Awards. The sale benefited the American Foundation for AIDS Research and totaled $786,120. The highlight was the sale of Elizabeth Taylor's 1969 Oscar presentation gown for $167,500, then the third highest price paid for a dress at auction.

      In June Christie's offered works from Ven House in Somerset, Eng. Featuring more than 1,200 lots, the sale brought over £4.7 million. Among the top lots was François Boucher's painting Venus Discovering the Body of Adonis, which earned £309,500.

      In New York in November Sotheby's sale of Impressionist and Modern art brought $242,688,925, and Christie's series of 20th-century art realized $220,784,460. The October Christie's New York single-owner sale of personal property from the estate of Marilyn Monroe totalled $5,360,500. The “happy birthday dress” Monroe wore when she sang to Pres. John F. Kennedy brought $1,267,500, a world auction record for a woman's dress.

Amy Todd

Antiques and Collectibles
      During 1999 the prices paid for antiques and collectibles were influenced by sales at Internet auctions, shopping malls, specialty stores, and collector-club World Wide Web sites. Inexpensive items like hand-painted plates sold for higher prices on-line than elsewhere. Although expensive items also sold well on-line, they were often previewed in person before an on-line auction. Owing to the popularity of television shows featuring experts who appraised antiques of uncertain value, there was a new appreciation and awareness of the value of family heirlooms. Celebrities also helped boost prices; Michael Jackson paid $1.5 million for the 1939 Best Picture Oscar for Gone with the Wind.

      Record prices for posters were an important indicator of collector interest. The 1999 release of the motion picture The Phantom Menace pushed up prices for 1978–79 Star Wars memorabilia, including the Birthday poster at $2,185 and the Star Wars Symphonic Suite concert poster at $3,738. A 1933 King Kong poster commanded $244,500.

      Lamps with glass shades continued to rise in price. A Tiffany Magnolia floor lamp sold for a record $1,762,500, and a Pairpoint puffy Orange Tree lamp fetched $34,100. A Handel lamp with a reverse-painted underwater scene sold for $82,500. Although clock prices were mostly stable, a few set records. An ormolu mantel clock featuring a figure of George Washington (c.1800), by Jean-Baptiste Dubuc of Paris, brought $156,500, and an American tall-case Chippendale clock by Duncan Beard sold for $452,000.

      Rare toys continued to sell well. A Lehmann tinplate toy, Boxers, fetched $27,500. Schoenhut's Humpty Dumpty Circus (c.1928) brought $17,250, and the 1912 Teddy Roosevelt set auctioned for $135,000. A Buddy L Red Baby Truck (c.1935) sold for $22,000, and the boxed Matchbox No. 27D convertible Mercedes-Benz brought $6,683. A 1916 French bisque doll by Albert Marque sold for a record $135,000, and the 1959 Ponytail Barbie No. 1 in its original box brought $13,500. The Ty number one Beanie Baby red bear signed by company president Ty Warner sold for $12,000 at an on-line auction.

      St. Louis Cardinal Mark McGwire's 1998 70th home-run baseball commanded $3,005,000, more than 23 times the price paid for Babe Ruth's first home-run ball hit in 1923. Other high-priced collectibles included a Hubley doorstop, the Bugler, for $8,250, a hammered copper Jarvie vase for $28,600, and a dog-head cane that unscrewed to become a Remington gun for $6,875.

      Although average pieces of art pottery were best-sellers at shows and Internet auctions, prices for them remained static. Record prices were set, however, for a yellow-and-green Grueby pottery floor vase by Wilhelmina Post, $66,000; a Roseville Futura vase, $3,850; a Cowan Boy with Fawn figurine, $4,840; a Rhead vase from California, $15,400; and a pair of Volkmar pastoral vases for $5,500. Clarice Cliff's deco designs set more records: $9,775 for a May Avenue pattern sugar sifter and $11,040 for a Latona Red Roses coffee set.

      Glass, too, was popular. A turquoise Croesus pattern cut-to-clear decanter sold for $30,000, and a blue Sandwich glass inkstand brought $52,000. Pressed glass returned to favour after 30 years. A Horn of Plenty honey dish with cover and tray was $24,000; a Sandwich Vine pattern goblet with gilt highlights, $10,500; and a Three Face goblet, $5,100. A rare Casin's Grape Brandy bitters bottle sold for a record $44,000.

      Prices for American furniture were strong, with over 20 record prices set, 4 for over a million dollars. A plum-pudding mahogany dome-top secretary desk and bookcase with silver hardware (c. 1745) signed by Christopher Townsend sold for $8,252,500, the second highest price ever paid for a piece of American furniture. A Bartlett family block-and-shell carved chest of drawers made in Newport, R.I. (c. 1775), sold for $1,212,000, and a tilt-top Philadelphia piecrust tea table brought $1,540,000. Later, another Philadelphia piecrust tilt-top tea table was auctioned for $1,485,000. A 17th-century Southern armchair brought $288,500; a Charleston, S.C., Pembroke table, $226,500; a Philadelphia Queen Anne baroque side chair, $336,000; and a Massachusetts Federal sideboard, $255,000. An Aesthetic Movement Pottier and Stymus side cabinet set a record at $104,500. Records were set for a dozen Arts and Crafts pieces by Gustav Stickley, including a trapezoidal china cabinet, $187,000; two-door bookcase No. 703, $52,250; Morris chair Model 2342, $46,750; child's wardrobe No. 920, $25,300; library table No. 456, $12,100; and wine cooler No. 553, $9,350.

Ralph and Terry Kovel

▪ 1999

Introduction

Overview
      The cautionary attitude that had prevailed among collectors and businesses since 1990, when a five-year boom in the art market ended abruptly, was reversed in 1998. Buyers were paying extraordinary prices for superior works of art when they were available. No major private collections were offered for sale, a factor that encouraged new business strategies among auction houses, including mergers and a revamping of the way they did business; Christie's, for example, reorganized its auction categories for 19th- and 20th-century artworks.

      In an effort to become more global, several auction houses merged. Sotheby's formed a partnership with Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, Chicago (now Sotheby's Midwest); French retail magnate and art collector François Pinault bought a controlling interest in Christie's and privatized the firm; and Bonhams of London and William Doyle Galleries in New York City united in order to hold joint sales in those cities.

      Blockbuster exhibitions showcasing the works of Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and Jean Renoir deserved much of the credit for healthy attendance at shows. A survey conducted in 1997 by the National Endowment for the Arts found that during a 12-month period half of the United States' adult population—an increase of some 9% since 1992—had participated in at least one of seven arts activities, including musical performances, theatre productions, and museum exhibitions, which were the most popular.

      A new international appreciation for Australian Aboriginal art resulted in high prices at an auction; some of the works brought as much as $A200,000 (U.S. $120,000) in June. The first North Asian Biennial was mounted in Taiwan at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. The exhibit included works by artists from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China and represented a reexamination of tradition and national identity.

      An increase in prices for Latin-American art created a brisk market for forgeries, especially paintings by such Cuban masters as Mario Carreño, René Portocarrero, Victor Manuel, Mariano Rodríguez, and Estebán Chartrand. Copies of the paintings of Colombian artist Fernando Botero were also reportedly being turned out en masse in Asia by craftsmen working from photographs. As a result of a rash of forgeries, the works of Argentine artist Antonio Berni were being scrutinized by a newly established authentication committee. In another felonious act a rare book by Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was stolen in Kiev by a brazen thief at the Vernadsky Central Scientific Library of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. With a copy of the 1543 On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres discreetly tucked away, the culprit walked out of the library on the pretense of smoking a cigarette. British author William Boyd, with the help of his publisher, rock star David Bowie, perpetrated a literary hoax with the publication of a memoir of Nat Tate, who reportedly had been prone to depression and burned most of his paintings before jumping to his death from the Staten Island ferry. It was later revealed, however, following a New York City reception at which many in the art world claimed to have known him (but not very well), that Nat Tate: An American Artist was a work of fiction.

REBECCA KNAPP ADAMS

Painting and Sculpture
      During 1998 artistic practices and critical attention seemed to be divided between painting on one hand and photography, video, and installation work on the other. In New York City numerous galleries opened, and already-established names relocated from Soho to Chelsea to take advantage of the many large industrial spaces that could often easily accommodate large-scale installation work, such as that of Brazilian artist Tunga, who showed one of his characteristically complex pieces, "True Rouge," at Luhring Augustine Gallery. Installation art also became popular at international venues. German artist Thomas Hirschhorn filled the Kunstmuseum Bern with an array of glitter-covered objects, and Jason Rhoades—whose artfully cluttered and seemingly dangerous installations (comprising such objects as tables, chairs, electrical cords, and computers)—had a show at the Kunsthalle Nürnburg.

      British artist Rachel Whiteread created a unique outdoor project for New York City's non-profit Public Art Fund. She cast a water tower from clear resin that was set atop a building in Soho, where rooftops were rather ubiquitously dotted with those structures. Some artists went beyond the mere casting or recasting of objects, creating pieces that commented on spatial relations or the environment inhabited by the viewer. Canadian Scott Lyall exhibited "Washington Square," a work composed of stacked plywood, fur, and polystyrene that was at once installation, sculpture, and monument while also resembling Modernist furniture. British artist Cornelia Parker made her New York solo debut with an installation of "Mass," a conceptual sculptural work made from the charred, strung-together remains of a church that had been struck by lightning. The use of destroyed objects was also seen elsewhere, particularly in the recurring motif of the smashed or burned automobile. Sylvie Fleury showed smashed and enamel-coated cars, and Sarah Lucas's two burned autos (their interiors were also covered with cigarettes) were on view at Barbara Gladstone gallery in New York City. Los Angeles-based artist Charles Ray's life-size fibreglass version of a totaled Pontiac was included in the major traveling exhibition of his work.

      The art world showed interest and quickly applied labels to two new approaches to painting; British artist Martin Maloney's Expressionistic figurative style was dubbed "new neurotic realism," and the so-called new colour field painting of Monique Prieto, Kevin Apell, and Ingrid Calame appeared in many galleries and in several art magazine spreads.

      Painting was conspicuously absent from the works of those nominated for the 1998 Hugo Prize. Pippiloti Rist of Switzerland produced pop-culture infused videos; Huang Yong Ping of China created ambitious installations; William Kentridge of South Africa was an actor, director, and theatre designer as well as an animated filmmaker; Bul Lee of South Korea did work that was largely performance based; and Lorna Simpson of the U.S. made photo- and text-based installations. The recipient of the prize, Scottish artist Douglas Gordon, specialized in video projections and conceptual text pieces.

MEGHAN DAILEY

Art Exhibitions
      During 1998 long-awaited blockbuster shows were mounted of two important American painters from the 1950s: Abstract Expressionists Jackson Pollock (1912-56) and Mark Rothko (1903-70). In November the first retrospective devoted to the work of Pollock since 1967 was presented at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City. This show of 106 paintings, 49 works on paper, and 3 sculptures reconsidered the work and legacy of one of the most explosive and influential figures in modern art. On view were some of his best-known paintings, including "One: Number 31, 1950," the rarely exhibited "Mural" (1943), and "Autumn Rhythm: Number 30, 1950." The exhibit was one of the most highly anticipated New York City events of the fall season. When Pollock first emerged on the scene in 1947, however, he had been largely denounced by the public and dubbed "Jack the Dripper" because of his technique of pouring, splattering, and dripping paint on canvas. The Tate Gallery in London planned to serve as host of the show in the spring of 1999. From May to August the work of Rothko was featured at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Many of the 115 works shown were from the museum's own extensive collection and traced Rothko's development from early figuration to his distinctive, purely abstract paintings of ethereal floating bands of colour. The show was scheduled to travel to the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City in September before moving to the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris at the end of the year.

      The National Gallery of Art also mounted a major retrospective honouring the centenary of the birth of sculptor Alexander Calder (1898-1976), an innovator whose huge metal sculptures adorned corporate plazas in the U.S. during the 1960s and whose smaller sculptures (also called mobiles) featured thin wires that allowed movement in the pieces. In March more than 250 of his signature kinetic works fashioned from brightly coloured shapes, as well as supplemental works on paper and some paintings, went on view in both the interior and exterior spaces of the museum; included were some early pieces that had not been previously exhibited. In September the show went to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

      Although the works of African-American artist Norman Lewis (1909-79) were closely associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement, his contributions had often been overlooked. In April, however, the Studio Museum in Harlem in New York City opened an exhibition focusing on Lewis's "Black" paintings—displaying 65 works in all. The show was scheduled to travel nationally after its New York debut.

      There were several significant museum exhibitions of the work of women artists in 1998. Two different shows of the work of British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-79) were mounted at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in March and the Art Institute of Chicago in September. Cameron, one of the most renowned portrait photographers of the Victorian era, turned to photography at the age of 48 after her daughter presented her with a camera as a gift. About 85 of Cameron's Pre-Raphaelite-inspired images were on view at the MFA, including portraits of her family and friends and such famous literary and intellectual figures of the day as Robert Browning, Charles Darwin, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Most of the nearly 2,000 existing prints by Cameron were portraits of women. The Art Institute's exhibition concentrated specifically on these images, aiming to reveal the identity of her female subjects as well as to provide new insights into Cameron herself. The Chicago exhibition was scheduled to travel in 1999 to the MOMA and San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art.

      In October the Art Institute of Chicago opened a show dedicated to the work of 19th-century American expatriate artist Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), a painter and printmaker. The exhibit, which showcased nearly 100 works, including paintings, prints, and pastels, was the first major consideration of Cassatt's work in nearly 30 years. She was a close associate of such French artists as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and, particularly, Edgar Degas and the only American included in the Impressionist exhibitions in Paris. The curatorial objective, however, was to position Cassatt as a modern painter in her own right. The MFA and the National Gallery of Art in Washington planned to exhibit the work in 1999.

      The first full-scale consideration of the work of San Francisco Bay Area artist Joan Brown opened in September at two venues in California: the Berkeley Art Museum and the Oakland Museum of California. The show included 126 works by Brown, known for her uniquely personal figurative style. Recognition of her talent came in the late 1950s, a particularly rich period of artistic activity in San Francisco that also saw the rise of the West Coast school of Abstraction and the Beat culture. Brown's significance for feminist art of the '70s and her importance as a major California artist were highlighted.

      Several shows of Asian art opened during the year. In New York City the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum staged "China: 5,000 Years." Organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture of China, this ambitious exhibition was the first attempt to bring together traditional artifacts and modern works from that nation. Hundreds of objects were shown, ranging from religious artifacts and examples from archaeological discoveries to the politically charged Socialist Realist paintings of the 1950s. Included were works in jade, porcelain, stone, and bronze, as well as landscape paintings, tapestries, calligraphy, and lacquerware. Works in these traditional media occupied the museum's uptown space, whereas the modern section was on display in the Guggenheim's larger downtown galleries. The focus there was on key developments in Chinese art from 1850 onward, particularly in woodcuts and painting. Although a section had been planned that would have considered work dating from 1965 to the present, the museum cited inadequate space and stated that the contemporary part of the exhibition would occur at a future date. The last-minute decision to eliminate this section set off a debate about the Chinese government's influence over the museum. Another exhibition of contemporary Chinese art, "Inside Out," was a welcome addition to the New York fall season. Critically successful and ambitious, the two-venue (P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and the Asia Society) show included 80 works by more than 60 artists from Hong Kong, mainland China, and Taiwan in a range of media, including paintings in inks and oils, video, and installations.

      The Kurtzman family collection of Japanese Hirado porcelains was seen at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in the spring. It was the first exhibition to showcase a range of pieces (85 were on display), including many from the "golden age" of Hirado (1751-1843). The entire Kurtzman collection of more than 240 porcelains was a promised gift to the museum and would enhance its celebrated holdings of Japanese art.

      Another object-oriented show debuted at the Yale University Art Gallery in late 1997. "Baule: African Art/Western Eyes" was an exhibition of artifacts and objects made by the Baule artists of Côte d'Ivoire and was the first exhibition to concentrate on the significance of Baule art. The exhibit showcased over 125 examples taken from private collections worldwide and included sculptures, masks, and other objects rendered in gold, wood, ivory, and bronze. This important show was scheduled to travel to Chicago, New York City, and Washington, D.C., through 1999.

      The Tate Gallery's exhibition of French painter Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) was one of the most popular of the year. After its London debut, the show traveled to the MOMA for the summer. The large crowds drawn to the show at both venues were testimony to the popular appeal of Bonnard's Impressionist legacy, evident in his bold use of colour, loose brushwork, and choice of subject matter: landscapes, gardens, still lifes, and warm interiors. Though Bonnard was known primarily as a colourist, the inclusion of his famous paintings of his wife, Marthe, in her bath provided an opportunity to consider his status as an important figurative artist in the context of his entire oeuvre. These important later nudes were considered the culmination of his career. The MOMA show was the first survey of Bonnard's work in New York in three decades.

      Several exhibitions were devoted to 17th-century Dutch art. In September the Dulwich Picture Gallery, the United Kingdom's oldest purpose-built public art gallery, showed the work of painter Pieter de Hooch (1629-81). In December the show traveled to the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Conn.—the oldest free public art museum in the U.S. This first major exhibition of de Hooch featured 40 works drawn from museums and private collections. A contemporary of Jan Vermeer in Delft, Neth., although his stay there was brief, de Hooch remained best known for similarly intimate genre scenes depicting interiors and light-infused landscapes.

      "Masters of Light: Dutch Painters in Utrecht During the Golden Age" featured 79 masterpieces that included landscapes, still lifes, and religious subjects by such 17th-century artists as Gerrit van Honthorst (1590-1656), Hendrik Terbrugghen (1588-1629), and Joachim Wtewael (1566-1638), who were influenced by the styles of Italian Mannerism and particularly by Caravaggio. "Masters of Light" ìopened in late 1997 at the Legion of Honor museum in San Francisco and traveled to the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, Md., in January 1998 before moving in May to the National Gallery in London.

      In Germany the Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf offered a retrospective of more than 90 works by Angelica Kauffmann (1741-1807), an artist and personality in 18th-century Rome. Kauffmann was an accomplished historical painter and portraitist, her style embodying a fusion of the Neoclassical and the Rococo. Despite her significance as a historical and cultural figure—she was considered the most cultured woman of her time—Kauffmann had never been the subject of a large-scale exhibition.

      On the occasion of French artist Eugène Delacroix's bicentennial birthday in April, the Grand Palais in Paris mounted an exhibition of the artist's late work. More than 70 paintings and works on paper were featured and were drawn from international collections, including works from his Moroccan journey and several paintings focusing on the subject of Christ on the Sea of Galilee, a theme that became something of a metaphor for the artist; these later works revealed a spiritual intensity not always evident in Delacroix's large public commissions. In September the show traveled to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, its only U.S. venue.

      "Monet in the 20th Century," organized by the MFA, brought together some 80 works by the French Impressionist for a comprehensive exhibition of his most important later works, including examples from the London series and the "Water Lily" paintings from 1903-08 and other works completed in the artist's gardens at Giverny. Co-organized by the Royal Academy of Arts, London, the show was to travel there in January 1999 after its September-December run in Boston.

      The Guggenheim Museum captured New York's attention during the summer with its blockbuster "The Art of the Motorcycle." Enthusiasts and ordinary museum patrons flocked to see over 100 motorcycles (from 1868 to the present) parked in Frank Lloyd Wright's rotunda, which was transformed by blue neon, industrial steel, and rubber and wooden ramps designed by architect Frank Gehry. Among the technically innovative examples on view were an eight-valve Harley-Davidson from 1911 and an Aprilia Motò 6.5 designed by Phillipe Starck. The exhibit opened on November 7 at the Field Museum in Chicago and was to travel to the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain, in 1999.

      Work by several important contemporary artists was showcased at a variety of international venues. London's Hayward Gallery offered the first U.K. show of recent and new work by Indian-born sculptor Anish Kapoor. Known for his large-scale sculptures in stone, steel, and pigment, Kapoor often utilized the very spaces of the gallery to make works; the Hayward was no exception. The artist carved his "voids" directly into its walls and floors, creating negative spaces that were intended to invoke the spiritual and the sublime. The photographs of Japanese artist Yasumasa Morimura (see BIOGRAPHIES (Morimura, Yasumasa )) were shown from April to June at Tokyo's Museum of Contemporary Art. The exhibition highlighted photographs from the "Art History" series, for which Morimura made unnerving realistic self-portraits of various figures from iconic Western paintings (e.g., the "Mona Lisa" and Édouard Manet's "Fifer"). The show would travel only within Japan. "An Unrestricted View of the Mediterranean," a group show organized by Parkett editor Bice Curiger at the Kunsthaus Zürich, featured 200 works by young Swiss artists, some well known (Pilpilotti Rist and Thomas Hirschhorn) and others more local (Fabrice Gygi). "Unrestricted" would travel later in the year to Frankfurt, Ger.

      Stockholm was chosen as the Cultural Capital of Europe in 1998, an honour that had been bestowed upon one city each year since 1985. Among many cultural events offered in the Swedish capital was the opening of the newly renovated Moderna Museet in February. This new space was the venue for a subject new to Swedish museums—Joan Miró (1893-1983). The exhibition, subtitled "Creator of New Worlds," focused mainly on the Catalan artist's production from the '20s and his introduction to Pablo Picasso and the Surrealists in Paris. Among the 150 works on view from this period up until about 1950 were several well-known canvases, including "Landscape (The Hare)" (1927) and "The Tilled Field" (1923-24). The show would move in the fall to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art near Copenhagen, Den.

      The artist Marina Abramovic was the subject of an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia. This survey examined her earlier sound and performance pieces as well as more recent installation work and object-oriented pieces. In October in Canberra the National Gallery of Australia presented "Re-take," a show of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander photography highlighting the fascinating images taken by people who for so long had had the camera aimed at them.

      The critically acclaimed "Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object" opened in February at the Geffen Contemporary at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, its only U.S. venue. Focusing on the dialogue between visual art and performance, "Out of Actions" featured works dating from 1949 to 1979 by artists and collaborative efforts from 20 countries, including the Viennese Actionists, Japan's Gutai Group, and Fluxus; individual artists shown included Lygia Clark, Otto Mühl, John Cage, Jim Dine, Adrian Piper, and Carolee Schneemann. Works in a variety of media were on view, including paintings by Robert Rauschenberg and Yves Klein, re-creations of famous installations such as Claes Oldenberg's "The Store" (1961-62) and Allan Kaprow's "Yard" (1961), and photographs, videos, and films documenting various performances or actions. The exhibition would continue its international tour in 1999 to Vienna; Barcelona, Spain; and Tokyo.

MEGHAN DAILEY

PHOTOGRAPHY
      Photography's continuing enterprise of rediscovering its past and reinventing itself in the present produced a stimulating variety of exhibitions in 1998, and photographic galleries and auctions achieved record sales as they surfed the peak of a booming economy.

      Two exhibitions in New York City explored the complex relationship between art and photography in the vision of two masters of both. At the Museum of Modern Art, "Aleksandr Rodchenko" for the first time provided an integrated view of this diverse artist's Constructivist work in painting, sculpture, and collage as well as his experimental, documentary, and propagandistic photography. "Edgar Degas, Photographer" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art delved into a lesser-known but brilliant aspect of this painter's creative vision. Degas made most of the exhibited photographs in 1895 during a brief but intense engagement with photography. The 40 rare images included portraits and figure studies recorded by the light of oil lamps and reflectors in Degas's studio.

      Walker Evans, although best known for his Depression-era photographs of the rural American South, also produced less-familiar but powerful work recording New York City. The Getty Museum in Los Angeles selected some 100 of the urban images for its "Walker Evans: New York" exhibition. The show gave a richly diverse portrait of the city from 1927 to 1963, including some early large-camera work but mostly emphasizing Evans's later, dynamic street photographs taken with a small camera. In "A Practical Dreamer: The Photographs of Man Ray," the Getty exhibited more than 100 of the artist's works from its collection, including experimental photographs associated with the Dada and Surrealist movements and his cameraless photograms, which he called rayographs.

      New York's Serge Sorokko Gallery exhibited examples of photographer-designer Marco Glaviano's giant Cubist-style images, which merged traditional photographic techniques with advanced digital imaging. Starting with a 35-mm camera and Ektachrome film, Glaviano generated as many 70 layers on his computer to create the finished image, which was outputted onto four 76 ° 112-cm (30 × 44-in) panels—obviously not for a cozy cabin.

      Some of the first photographs to record an important American historical event were exhibited in "Silver and Gold: Cased Images of the California Gold Rush" at the Oakland Museum of California. Included were some 150 daguerreotypes and ambrotypes made from 1848 to 1860, the earliest less than 10 years after Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre went public with his photography process. Although limited by technical necessity mostly to posed portraits and groups, they brought solace to lonely miners and the families that they had left behind and prefigured a revolution in visual reportage.

      Photographic auction houses achieved record sales—more than $10 million for New York City's four major participants alone during their annual spring auctions. Prices paid for works by several photographers also broke auction records, including $226,500 for Edward Weston's "Circus Tent" at Sotheby's and $211,500 for Imogen Cunningham's "Magnolia Blossom" at Swann's.

      A potential rival to established methods for merchandising art photographs emerged with Photography Auction's first on-line art-photography auction, held in May. Collectors could view works by Weston, Ray, Roman Vishniac, Alfred Stieglitz, and others over the Internet or by appointment at a gallery in New York City. Electronic bidding took place during an on-line "virtual auction," ringing up more than $100,000 in sales—enough to encourage a repeat of the event and give conventional auction houses something to ponder.

      Notable photographers who died during the year included Ilse Bing (Bing, Ilse ), who recorded Paris during the 1930s in a distinctive, abstract style that made her known as "queen of the Leica" among the avant-garde, and Otto L. Bettmann (Bettmann, Otto L. ), who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s with two trunks filled with photographs and founded what became the multimillion-image Bettmann Archive of pictorial material. (See OBITUARIES.)

      The 1998 Pulitzer Prize for spot news photography was awarded to Martha Rial of the Pittsburgh (Pa.) Post-Gazette for her photographs of survivors of the Hutu and Tutsi massacres in east-central Africa. Clarence Williams of the Los Angeles Times won the Pulitzer for feature photography with his photo-essay on the plight of young children and their drug- and alcohol-addicted parents. At the 55th Annual Pictures of the Year competition, sponsored by the National Press Photographers Association and the University of Missouri School of Journalism, freelancer Eugene Richards was named Magazine Photographer of the Year and also received the Canon Photo Essayist Award. The contest's Newspaper Photographer of the Year award went to Nancy Andrews of the Washington (D.C.) Post, and Jacques Lowe received the Kodak Crystal Eagle Award for Impact in Photojournalism. At the 41st annual World Press Photo Contest, the World Press Photo of the Year award went to Algerian photographer Hocine of Agence France-Presse for his image of an Algerian woman grieving over her massacred children. The W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography was given to photojournalist Ernesto Bazan for "El periodo especial in Cuba," documenting the human condition in contemporary Cuba, and Lori Grinker received a fellowship grant for "After War: Veterans from a World of Conflict." The 1998 Howard Chapnick Grant for Leadership in Photojournalism was given to Shahidul Alam for his project of furthering photojournalism in South Asia. Winner of the 1998 Ernst Haas Award, presented at the Maine Photographic Workshops Golden Light Awards, was Dean Tokuno for his series of photographs of his dying father.

ARTHUR GOLDSMITH

Art Auctions and Sales
      Building on renewed confidence in the art market, the 1998 auction market showed increased strength, and high prices were realized for works of exceptional quality. Both Sotheby's and Christie's auctions, driven by strength in the American and European sectors, experienced growth in the top and middle markets of the business. Despite turmoil in the worldwide stock markets, there were many new buyers; however, support from the Asian sector declined dramatically. Much of the growth could be attributed to strong sales of American, Old Master, Contemporary, Impressionist, and Modern paintings, drawings, and sculptures. In an interesting development French businessman François Pinault purchased Christie's and took the firm into the private sector.

      In January Sotheby's posted phenomenal results of $53.3 million from the New York City sale of Old Master paintings, an auction record for this category. Twelve paintings sold for more than $1 million, and 12 individual artists' records were established. Among the highlights were Rembrandt's "Portrait of a Bearded Man in a Red Coat," selling for $9.1 million, and Rubens's "Head of John the Baptist Presented to Salome," which fetched $5.5 million. At the Old Master drawings sale in January, a record was set for Michelangelo's "Christ and the Woman of Samaria," which went to an anonymous buyer for $7.5 million. Christie's enjoyed similar success in New York at its January Old Master paintings sale, which totaled $21.7 million and set auction records for six of the represented artists. The high point of the sale was Francisco de Zurbarán's "Saint Dorothea," which brought $2,092,500. In January Christie's New York sale of Old Master drawings realized $3.8 million, a record for that category.

      American paintings, building on the momentum of 1997, enjoyed a healthy season at both auction houses. Christie's sale brought $42.4 million, the second highest total ever achieved for this category. Many of the top sellers came from the private collection of Thomas Mellon Evans, including Childe Hassam's "Flags, Afternoon on the Avenue," which commanded $7,922,500, a record for the artist. At Sotheby's New York the American paintings sale earned $42.3 million, the highest sale total for that category. Of particular note was Georgia O'Keeffe's "Calla Lily with Red Roses," which fetched $2.6 million, a record for one of her floral works. The Sotheby's auction was distinguished by the John F. Eulich Collection of Western art, which brought $25 million, a record for any single-owner collection of American works.

      Contemporary art continued to be a strong contender across the board. Sotheby's May sale in New York totaled $42.3 million, the highest price for Contemporary works since 1990. The star was Andy Warhol's "Orange Marilyn," which went for a record $17.3 million. Lucian Freud's "Large Interior W11" realized a record $5.8 million. Christie's New York sale in June earned $16.2 million, with the Barbara Herbig single-owner collection from Germany reaching nearly $12 million.

      The resoundingly successful November sales of Contemporary art exemplified the health of that market—the sale at Sotheby's totaled $32.9 million. A standout from the Reader's Digest corporate collection was Richard Diebenkorn's "Horizon—Ocean View," which fetched $3.9 million. November sales at Christie's totaled $9,297,350, and the star was Jean-Michel Basquiat's "Self-Portrait," which sold for $3,302,500, a record for the artist.

      The strongest sales were found in Impressionist and Modern works of art, which brought extraordinary prices for exceptional works that were fresh to the market and carried a solid provenance. At Sotheby's May sale in New York, sales totaled $108 million, and the majority of purchases were made by private buyers. Claude Monet's "Le Grand Canal" was the top seller, fetching $12.1 million. Sotheby's June sale in London totaled $76.6 million, and Monet's "Bassin aux nymphéas et sentier au bord de l'eau" brought $33 million, the highest price for any work sold in Europe since 1990. At Christie's New York Impressionist highlights included another Monet, "Waterloo Bridge, brouillard," which went for $5,282,500, and an important work by Vincent van Gogh, "Bâteaux de pêches sur la plage à Saintes-Maries de la Mer, Mediterranée," which sold for $5,062,500. The most distinguished collection of 1998 was from the Reader's Digest Collection and was offered at Sotheby's in November. The sale of $86.6 million was the third largest single-owner paintings sale, behind the John C. Dorrance Collection and the Victor and Sally Ganz Collection. The centrepiece of the Reader's Digest sale was a work of Amedeo Modigliani's mistress and later wife, "Portrait de Jeanne Hébuterne," which set a record for the artist at $15.1 million. Another Modigliani, also of Jeanne Hébuterne, went for $9.9 million. Paul Cézanne's "L'Estaque vu a travers les pins" sold for $11 million, and Monet's "Le Bassin aux nympheas" fetched $9.9 million. In another single-owner sale, Picasso's "Femme nue," from the collection of Morton G. Neumann, brought $11 million. In November at Christie's New York, van Gogh's "Portrait de l'artiste sans barbe" commanded $71 million.

      The jewelry divisions also experienced robust sales. In April Christie's New York sold a brooch from the collection of Eva Perón for $992,500 at a sale that totaled $34.1 million. In Geneva Christie's hammered a blue heart-shaped 11.25-carat diamond for $1,423,600. The April sale at Sotheby's New York brought $17.1 million; a pair of diamond-pendant ear clips went for $1 million. The single-owner collection of jewels from the estate of Betsey Cushing Whitney was offered at Sotheby's in October and earned $11.8 million.

      Decorative works of art continued to garner great prices for quality pieces. In January at Sotheby's the series of Americana sales totaled a record $25.8 million. An 18th-century Chippendale high chest and companion dressing table from the estate of Stanley Paul Sax sold for $1.2 million, the second highest price ever paid for American furniture. In its Americana series Christie's offered the Hollingsworth family suite of Chippendale furniture, which sold for $2,972,500, the highest price ever paid for Philadelphia furniture.

      At the February nine-day sale of the collection of the duke and duchess of Windsor, 31,000 sale catalogues were sold; 44,000 objects were offered in 2,987 lots; and sales totaled $23.4 million. A painting by Sir Alfred Munnings, "H.R.H. the Prince of Wales on 'Forest Witch,' " fetched $2.3 million, the highest amount at the sale. The desk on which King Edward signed the instrument of abdication from the throne in 1936 sold for $415,000.

AMY TODD

Antiquarian Books
      A strong market for fine antiquarian books marked the 1997-98 season. The rapid rise of commerce on the Internet resulted in the publication of on-line book catalogs and a number of sales. In New York City, Sotheby's held its first on-line auction, selling a variety of books and manuscripts, notably from the Donald Stralem collection.

      Important, rare, and beautiful books in a wide range of subjects fetched huge prices in a very competitive international arena. Science, medical, travel, and colour-plate books all performed especially well, as did atlases and exceptional illuminated manuscripts.

      The library of the duke and duchess of Windsor, which included over 600 lots of books, manuscripts, and related items, sold at Sotheby's New York for the astonishing price of $2.3 million. Winston Churchill's World Crisis, inscribed to the prince of Wales, fetched $145,500, and John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage, inscribed to both the duke and the duchess, made over $39,000.

      In single-owner sales Christie's began its season with the Giannalisa Feltrinelli Library of Italian Books. The large library (over 1,800 lots) was dispersed over the year in sales at five venues. The highlight of the sales was a copy of Francesco Colonna's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499, Venice)—with provenance dating back to the 17th century—which sold for $220,000. An early humanist illuminated manuscript of Virgil's Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid brought just over $1 million.

      Sotheby's New York sold for just over $2 million the Highly Important Americana from the Stanley Paul Sax Collection, which included 50 lots of books. Major works rising to record levels included George Catlin's North American Indian Portfolio ($107,000) and Yellowstone National Park ($140,000).

      The collection of fine books in exquisite bindings and illuminated manuscripts owned by Jaime Ortiz-Patiño was offered by Sotheby's New York, and the top performer, at $3.3 million, was the superlative "Hours of St.-Lô," one of the finest recent examples of an illuminated manuscript to come on the market. Guillaume Apollinaire's Le Bestiaire, a presentation copy to artists Robert and Sonia Delaunay, sold for $220,000. Apollinaire's rare Case D'Armons, one of 25 copies, sold for $120,000. The magnificent Duchesse de Berry copy of Pierre Joseph Redouté's Les Roses (1817-24, Paris) brought $400,000.

      In July Christie's London hammered down "the most expensive [printed] book ever sold" at the sale of English incunabula from the Wentworth Library. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, printed in 1476-77 by William Caxton, brought £4.6 million ($7.6 million); the sale—which included seven other major early English printed books, including Caxton's Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye—yielded almost $10 million.

KIMBALL HIGGS

Philately
      Responding to a strong economy, the U.S. postage stamp market continued its modest but steady growth during 1998. In the face of an increasing number of new stamps, the worldwide new issue market remained highly competitive, which led many countries to increase their promotional efforts. The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) earmarked $100 million to promote its three-year "Celebrate the Century" program, in which customers' opinions were solicited to commemorate 15 of the most important events of the decades from the 1950s to 2000. The first four sheets appeared in 1998. France issued its first round stamp, a highly popular issue to publicize the World Cup of association football (soccer) championships. Great Britain offered chances to win an automobile with the purchase of a stamp booklet.

      The United States experimented with reduced production quantities and limited regional distribution of new commemorative stamps, which led to criticism that some historic events were deemed less important cartoon characters, which got national distribution. Under instructions from the U.S. Congress, the USPS issued the first American semipostal stamp with a surcharge to benefit breast cancer research.

      The death of Diana, princess of Wales, on Aug. 31, 1997, resulted in new issues from more than 70 countries. Nevis led with a souvenir sheet within a month of her death. The delay in the issue of stamps from Great Britain was due to the concerns about the emotional impact the issuance would have on Diana's sons. In July New Zealand postal authorities announced that they would not go forward with a planned memorial issue, citing overcommercialization and delay in receiving approval from Diana's Memorial Trust.

      In January Krause Publications produced the first edition of its newly acquired Minkus U.S. stamp catalog. The catalog directly challenged Scott Publishing Co., the leading U.S. catalog publisher, by including Scott's numbers in a concordance with the Krause numbers. Scott responded with a lawsuit for infringement of copyright and misappropriation of property. By midsummer the highly charged legal battle had given way to private negotiations, with the prospect of settling the dispute in time for the next edition of the Krause-Minkus Catalog.

      U.S. Postmaster General Marvin T. Runyon left office in May. The agency's chief operating officer and a career postal official, William J. Henderson, replaced him. Despite a projected profit of $1 billion, the USPS requested and received a postal rate increase of one cent for a 32-cent stamp effective in 1999.

      Self-adhesive stamps continued to grow in popularity. The USPS announced that in 1997 sales of self-adhesives amounted to 81% of U.S. stamp sales. Late in 1997 Belgium issued its first self-adhesive stamp. The British Royal Mail announced additional self-adhesive stamp trials.

      A venerable philatelic institution changed hands in April when Stanley Gibbons of London, the oldest and largest stamp dealer in the world, was acquired by a company that sold flowers by mail and was based on the island of Jersey.

      New Zealand Post announced in May that it had purchased the only known example of the 4-penny pictorial from its 1903 series, with the centre, an image of Lake Taupo, inverted. The purchase price of $66,500 was a record in Australasia for a single 20th-century stamp. In October the Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries of New York sold the Robert Zoellner collection of U.S. stamps, the most complete collection of U.S. stamps ever to be offered for sale. One of two known copies of the one-cent blue Benjamin Franklin of 1868 with a Z grill was sold for $935,000, the highest price ever paid for a U.S. stamp. The entire collection brought more than $8 million. During the year the International Federation of Philately sponsored World Stamp Exhibitions in Tel Aviv, Israel; Granada, Spain; Luxembourg; Johannesburg, S.Af.; and Milan.

ROBERT E. LAMB

Numismatics
      In September 1998 the U.S. Federal Reserve released new 20-dollar notes that included an off-centre portrait of Andrew Jackson, colour-shifting ink, a watermark, and other anticounterfeiting devices. Like the 50-dollar bills that made their debut in 1997, the new 20s carried an enlarged numeral on the back side to help the sight-impaired. During 1998 government printers were expected to make about 2.2 billion 20-dollar notes, the denomination most often dispensed by automated teller machines. Meanwhile, a U.S. Treasury official told Congress in March that although the government was testing several substitutes for paper, including plastic, there were no current plans to issue plastic notes. Some experts believed that plastic notes would help curtail counterfeiting achieved with personal computers and inkjet printers, a method that accounted for at least one-third of the relatively small number of fake U.S. notes passed into circulation in 1998.

      Amid much debate, U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin announced in July that a circulating dollar coin would depict Sacajawea, Lewis and Clark's Indian guide. Some people said the gold-coloured coin—which was expected to debut in 2000—should portray the Statue of Liberty as a more easily recognized symbol. Rubin, however, accepted the recommendation of an advisory committee, which decided that the dollar should "bear a design of Liberty represented by a Native American woman, inspired by Sacajawea." Meanwhile, several governors reviewed state designs that would appear on the reverse side of circulating U.S. quarters. Under a 10-year program beginning in 1999, five states would be honoured each year in the order that they joined the union. Canadian citizens submitted more than 30,000 drawings for that country's circulating commemorative coin program of 1999 and 2000. Officials planned to issue 12 special quarter designs each year.

      In 1998 the rare-coin market enjoyed perhaps its best showing of the decade. In May an 1845 U.S. proof set in its original case sold at auction for $756,250, and an 1838 10-dollar gold piece, also proof, brought $550,000. Both were part of the John J. Pittman collection. In another auction a series 1928 10,000-dollar Federal Reserve note fetched $126,500, a record price for small-size U.S. paper money. In December an 1890 $1,000 U.S. Treasury note sold at auction for $792,000, believed to be a record for a bank note. Sales of gold bullion coins surged in 1998 as investors appeared to take advantage of a gold price that was below $300 per ounce for much of the year. During the first eight months of 1998, the U.S. Mint sold 942,000 oz of gold bullion coins, more than during all of 1997. The U.S. platinum bullion program, launched in September 1997, generated sales of 153,700 oz of metal in the program's first 11 months, surpassing the first-year goal of 100,000 oz. The U.K. introduced a one-ounce silver Britannia bullion piece, complementing its gold coin.

      Some European nations made their first euro coins or bank notes, the currency of the European economic and monetary union (EMU). Eleven countries were scheduled to adopt the euro on Jan. 1, 1999, and euro-denominated coins and notes were scheduled to replace national currencies in those countries in 2002. Euro coins would have a common design on one side and a motif selected by the nation of issue on the other; euro notes would be uniform throughout EMU countries. In January the U.K. placed a new portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on its coinage, the fourth portrait of the queen to have appeared on circulating coins during her 45-year reign. The British Royal Mint released its first circulating two-pound coin in June. It had a copper-nickel centre, a nickel-brass outer ring, and a latent-image security device on the reverse. In January the central bank of Russia distributed new currency, with one new ruble worth 1,000 old rubles. Israel marked its 50th year of statehood with various commemorative issues, and Canada and Australia each produced special coins featuring more than one colour.

ROGER BOYE

Antiques and Collectibles
      Technology was rapidly changing the antiques and collectibles market in 1998. Items that sold well in shops, at shows, and at auctions were finding a niche on the Internet, with auctions there accounting for about 10% of all antiques and collectibles sales. Small items sold quickly, and some dealers reported that they could sell more on the Internet than at a show.

      Though major auctions in New York and California attracted media attention, many records were set elsewhere at smaller sales and through mail-order auctions. In specialized sales many pieces sold for record prices; at a magic poster auction, a 1910 three-sheet lithograph poster by Strobridge & Co. of Cincinnati, Ohio, "Thurston, the Great," a magician levitating a woman, fetched $13,800, and at a toy train auction, four record prices were set, including $7,700 for a set of four Lionel-scale freight cars and $5,170 for an American Flyer Empire Express set. At a mechanical bank auction, the Old Woman in the Shoe bank, which commanded $426,000, set a record for any toy or bank. Other banks at that auction selling for over $100,000 included Darkey and Watermelon ($354,500), Freedman's ($321,500), Preacher in the Pulpit ($233,500), Zig Zag ($189,500), Roller Skating ($156,500), and Mikado ($123,500). At a videophone marble sale, a "Miller Swirl" Golden Rebel marble (c. 1927), with opaque yellow base and aventurine black and opaque red swirls, brought $2,993. At another sale the tall Architettura bureau designed in 1952 by Peiro Fornasetti fetched a record $140,000. At a special sale a head vase depicting Marilyn Monroe sold for $1,100.

      Prices for bakelite jewelry remained high. The multicolour Art Deco style Philadelphia bracelet brought a record $17,600; a googly-eyed clown pin with ivory head, collar, and hat went for $7,700; and a pin with cigarette holder and match-shaped charms sold for $10,450. Other costume jewelry also sold at high prices. A Trifari Pearl Belly gilt metal clip shaped like a frog fetched $6,600, and a Boucher animated pelican pin with pull-chain movable mouth brought $5,500. California ceramics of the 1950s remained popular. A 51-cm (20-in) Kay Finch "Life-Size Lamb" made $5,170, and a 43-cm (17-in) Violet, a pink elephant with flowered ears, brought $4,400. Other records included a red-painted tin gooseneck toleware coffeepot (c. 1880) for $33,000 and a Cheyenne lattice cradle for $59,700.

      Traditional favourites also sold well. The Pink Lotus Lamp with a bronze and mosaic base set a record for both Tiffany and for a 20th-century object when it commanded $2,807,500 in late 1997. In January a Tiffany Laburnum table lamp made $129,000; a 30-cm (12-in) cire perdue glass vase named "Roses" by René Lalique brought $409,500; and a 1.8-m (6-ft)-high cigar store figure of Corporal Joe (c. 1865) went for $46,750. Unusual collectibles that set records included a 1943 one-sheet movie poster of Casablanca, which sold for $21,850, and a 1793 book, reportedly the first written entirely about golf, for $80,500. A founder's stock certificate for Standard Oil Co. signed by John D. Rockefeller made $61,000.

      Titanic memorabilia also made waves in the market. The enormous popularity of the movie made anything connected with the sunken ship a pricey collectible. Bits of chair caning from the original shipboard chairs fetched $3,000 or more, and small mounted pieces of wood recovered from the ship in 1912 were sold for $750. Costumes and dinnerware made as props for the film also sold for higher-than-expected prices.

      Popular collectibles under $100 included toys and memorabilia from fast-food restaurants and kitchen accessories from the 1960s and '70s, especially salt and pepper shakers, condiment jars, and string holders. Firecracker labels, oilcans, face-powder boxes, pale-green jadeite glass, cigarette packs, and labels—especially tobacco ones—were selling well. Collectibles selling for more than $100 included radios, toasters, coffeepots, and early examples of old typewriters and telephones. Other sought-after items were Hot Wheels toy cars, Beanie Babies, farm equipment, garden statues and tools, Griswold pots, and Chintz china.

RALPH AND TERRY KOVEL

▪ 1998

Introduction

Overview
      Dubious art transactions, alleged price-fixing, subpoenas, tell-all books, and news about celebrities' lives and deaths—all provided tabloid fodder and embarrassing imbroglios for the art world in 1997. Bad publicity did not seem to affect the market, however, and a strong U.S. economy was reflected in healthy sales from the leading auction houses. Financial results from the first half of the year put Christie's in the lead with $908 million in sales, ahead of arch-rival Sotheby's, which posted sales of $857.9 million.

      In February Sotheby's launched an in-house investigation following allegations that the firm's Old Masters specialist in Milan, Roeland Kollewijn, had smuggled a painting by Giuseppe Nogari out of Italy. Later that month Kollewijn resigned. The release of Peter Watson's book Sotheby's: Inside Story cast a spotlight on this and other questionable, if not fraudulent, activities at the auction house. Once the word spread, the FBI, news organizations, and other investigators began circling the formerly sacrosanct realm of highbrow art, antiques dealers, collectors, and auction houses. During May some of New York City's leading art dealers and auction houses were subpoenaed as part of a U.S. federal investigation into possible price-fixing. Nevertheless, the art market enjoyed its strongest sales in more than six years. During Christie's Contemporary, Impressionist, and Modern sales in May, the auction house brought in $265 million, up dramatically from 1996 May sales of $119 million.

      In October an exhibition 10 years in the planning, "A Grand Design: The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum," finally made the trip from London to Baltimore, Md., for its debut. The monumental show was scheduled to be mounted at five North American venues through 1999, when it would return to London.

      The Cold War seemed likely to reemerge during an East-West squabble over "Jewels of the Romanovs," an exhibition of imperial Russian jewels that was to leave the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., for a May opening at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas. Before the national treasures could be shipped, however, Russians blockaded the museum and demanded that the jewels be returned to Moscow for the city's 850th anniversary celebration. The crisis was defused, however, and the jewels were transported to Texas. The issue of Russia returning artworks and historical documents taken from European countries during World War II was addressed in May when the Russian Duma (parliament) voted to retain the treasures for Russia.

      In Spain the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao opened as planned in October, in a new Frank Gehry-designed building. Portugal's first public museum devoted to late-20th-century international art opened in May, thanks to the largesse of Portuguese financier José Berardo, who reportedly spent upward of $100 million on artwork during the 1990s.

      In March, Willem de Kooning, the Abstract Expressionist master, died after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. (See . (de Kooning, Willem ))

REBECCA KNAPP

PAINTING AND SCULPTURE
      In 1997 contemporary art was distinguished by a plurality of styles and by a blurring of the boundaries of traditional artistic media so that the realms of painting and sculpture were expanded and transgressed, displaced and transformed. Foremost among those challenging traditional definitions were young artists, who satisfied an insatiable fascination with the new and were featured internationally in an increasing number of museum and commercial exhibitions.

      Geographically, artists continued to gravitate to such established international art centres as New York City and London, but an increasing number of new artists were found in Los Angeles and Germany. In Los Angeles such leaders in the field as Mike Kelley, Chris Burden, Charles Ray, and Lari Pittman trained a new generation of artists, and in Germany painter Gerhard Richter and conceptional photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher trained a new generation of conceptual artists. The contemporary scene in Great Britain was distinguished by the meteoric rise of the so-called young British artists. Among them, Jake and Dinos Chapman established a beachhead in September at the Gagosian Gallery in New York City with their highly controversial sculptures of mutative mannequins.

      Another significant worldwide development was the move by young artists to include photography as one medium among many in their repertoires. For some, photography substituted for painting, notably in the strangely futuristic self-portraits of Mariko Mori of Japan, a staged photographic tableau by Sharon Lockhart of the U.S., and photographs by Thomas Demand of Germany of his cardboard reconstructions of images from the media; the photographs revealed a montage of performance art, sculpture, and the formal preoccupations of traditional painting.

      Sculpture moved away from the pedestal, and architectural metaphors captured centre stage. Joep van Lieshout of The Netherlands and Stephen Craig of Northern Ireland made their presence felt internationally at such German exhibitions as the Münster Sculpture Project and Documenta in Kassel. Craig's architectural rooms and pavilions were both sculptures in themselves and spaces in which to exhibit other work, while van Lieshout's Pop art-inspired trailers and caravans provided people with living and working environments and thereby redefined the role of the sculptor in society. This blurring of the boundaries of performance art, architecture, and sculpture also was seen in the community-activated sculpture of Rirkrit Tiravanija of Thailand and the U.S., the photos and objects of Gabriel Orozco of Mexico, and the sculptures of Charles Long of the U.S., which doubled as pop music listening stations.

      Sculpture also was pushed beyond its traditional definition with the arrivals of film and video as significant sculptural modes. A continuing series of Cremaster films by Matthew Barney of the U.S. combined the artist's unique mythological constructions with Busby Berkeley-like dance numbers, operatic narratives, and sculptural installations. Other noteworthy works included video installations by Diana Thater of the U.S. in which a trained chimpanzee performs on a film set, the projection at the Venice Biennale of a couple breaking off their relationship by Sam Taylor-Wood of Great Britain, and a dissonant slow-motion projection of artist Pipilotti Rist of Switzerland happily smashing car windows in Zürich while humming a melody. Often considered the founder of video art, Korean-born Nam June Paik continued his long and productive career, winning a Gold Lion award at the Venice Biennale. (See BIOGRAPHIES. (Paik, Nam June ))

      Also significant during the year was a return to narrative in contemporary art. Kara Walker's disturbing yet beautiful paper silhouette installations of antebellum psychodramas made her one of the most sought-after new artists of the year. Using an 18th-century technique, Walker assembled convoluted visual stories that provided profound and subversive indictments of race relations in the U.S. She also was selected for a MacArthur fellowship in 1997. Narrative characterized the work of such mid-career artists as Robert Gober of the U.S., whose site-specific installation at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles combined ideas of baptism, nostalgia, and the theatricality of the Roman Catholic tradition. Figurative painting was reinvigorated by the large-scale allegorical works of Kerry James Marshall of the U.S., which reflected on the African-American experience during the urban-renewal programs in Chicago in the 1960s.

      While traditional media were challenged, painting continued to stave off its reported death as artists like Sigmar Polke of Germany, Luc Tuymans of Belgium, and Sue Williams, Elizabeth Peyton, and John Currin of the U.S. made strong showings in worldwide exhibitions. Two towering art figures died during the year, Abstract Expressionist Willem de Kooning (de Kooning, Willem ) and Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein (Lichtenstein, Roy ). (See OBITUARIES.)

DOUGLAS FOGLE
      This article updates painting, history of (painting, Western).

Art Exhibitions
      Diversity of theme and work characterized the flavour of art exhibitions in 1997. Shows ranged from knockout blockbusters that included paintings, drawings, and sculptures to those featuring the art of non-Western cultures. Others concentrated on a single artist or a lone painting, and major biographical retrospectives showcased artists in their artistic or cultural niche. Anniversaries, cultural and social phenomena, pop culture, and art itself—all served as themes.

      Undoubtedly, the most controversial show of the year was mounted in September at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. "Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection" included 110 graphic works by 46 British neoconceptual artists and opened to a storm of protest and criticism from members of the Royal Academy, art critics, and the public at large. Critics voiced outrage and disgust and asserted that the collection was not art but simply second-rate work meant to shock. The show was also criticized for its apparent official "seal of approval" for the collecting taste of Charles Saatchi, who was the most influential private collector and owned the largest collection of contemporary British art. Others argued, however, that the exhibition was stimulating and challenging, provoking questions and thought about the nature of art and its interaction with the real world. It was the first big radical show of contemporary art at the academy in 16 years. Such young artists as Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, and Jake and Dinos Chapman focused on themes that many found repulsive, grisly, and disgusting, including the horror of genetic mutations, disconnected genitalia, and allusions to death and decay. Hirst's piece depicted thousands of flies feeding off the rotting head of a cow. The Chapman brothers' sculpture consisted of representations of dismembered limbs hanging from a tree. Marc Quinn's "Self" was a sculpture of himself made of nine pints of his own frozen blood. Most controversial of all was a portrait by Marcus Harvey of Myra Hindley, a killer of children. The latter, fashioned from palm prints of children, attracted such criticism and outrage that on the opening day it was seriously damaged by vandals, who hurled eggs and ink at the image. As a result, it was temporarily removed for restoration.

      Other Royal Academy shows were much less controversial. Shown in the spring was "Braque: The Late Works," the first exhibition in Britain to focus on the last 20 years of the artist's life. Georges Braque was credited with, Pablo Picasso, as a creator of Cubism. Many were surprised by evidence of Braque's long and fruitful artistic life, which endured into the middle of the 20th century, and by the variety and extent of his output. His late works were rich in texture and form and concentrated on the spatial relationships between everyday objects. His use of contrasting textures, such as paint and sand, added variety to surfaces. The exhibition focused on the several major series that he produced during this period—birds, interiors, and studios, notably the ateliers he painted between 1949 and 1956. The show also included some late landscapes, a genre that was rare for the artist and again illustrated his ability to work on both large and small scales and to create variety and interest with a limited palette and low-key subject matter. The show later traveled to the Menil Foundation in Houston, Texas.

      In July through September, landscapes were featured in "Hiroshige: Images of Mist, Rain, Moon and Snow" at the Royal Academy. The show celebrated the bicentenary of the birth of Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), a master of the coloured woodcut and one of the Japanese artists whose work had a seminal influence on Western artists and architects of the late 19th century. His landscapes were full of atmosphere and varying lights and included subjects ranging from birds and flowers to moonlit landscapes and wild coastlines.

      A number of significant exhibitions were drawn from single collections or explored the collecting activity or philosophy of individuals. The extensive sculpture collection of Raymond D. Nasher of Dallas, Texas, one of the world's finest private collections of 19th- and 20th-century sculpture, was put on view in February and occupied the entire Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. "A Century of Sculpture: The Nasher Collection," comprised about 105 sculptures and showcased works by Constantin Brancusi of Romania, Raymond Duchamp-Villon of France, Alberto Giacometti of Switzerland, Picasso of Spain, and David Smith of the U.S., among others. The show included works that represented major art movements such as Cubism, Constructivism, Surrealism, and minimalism.

      A slightly different version of the Nasher show was seen at the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts. The collection, started in the 1960s, boasted more than 300 works, many of them very large in scale. The exhibit contrasted the traditions of abstract and figurative art. The earliest work on view was Auguste Rodin's "Age of Bronze" (c. 1876), and Brancusi's "The Kiss" (1907-08) was shown alongside sculptures by Rodin that covered the same subject. There were also seminal works by Picasso, notably "Head" (Fernande, 1909), reportedly the first Cubist sculpture.

      The James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection, probably the largest and finest private collection of Indian, Himalayan, and Southeast Asian art in the United States, was shown at the Art Institute of Chicago from August to October and included about 205 works that had never before been publicly exhibited together. Featured were mainly figurative sculptures, including representations of Hindu and Buddhist deities. Also on view were paintings, jewelry, weapons, and ritual objects. The installation encompassed various themes and included works representing the cultures of Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and India.

      Asian sculpture was highlighted at the Grand Palais in Paris with the exhibit "Sculpture of Angkor and Ancient Cambodia: Millennium of Glory." The show of Khmer sculpture surveyed works dating between the 6th and 16th century. The magnificent large-scale objects of stone and bronze were drawn primarily from the collection of the Musée Guimet in Paris and included 66 rarely seen works lent by the National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh. The exhibit later traveled to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and became the first show ever in the U.S. devoted to ancient Khmer art. After leaving the U.S., the exhibit traveled to the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Osaka.

      A blockbuster exhibition mounted at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, "The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, AD 843-1261" covered the art of the Byzantine empire's second Golden Age. The show, which boasted more than 350 works from 117 collections in 24 countries, served as a sequel to the 1977 "Age of Spirituality" exhibit, which dealt with late antiquity and early Byzantium. "The Glory of Byzantium"—four years in the planning—was a triumph of organization. Some 107 couriers and foreign dignitaries accompanied national treasures provided by institutions that never before had lent abroad, including the Orthodox monasteries of Iveron on Mt. Athos in Greece and St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai in Egypt. The treasure trove included icons, religious manuscripts, mosaics, carved and inlaid precious objects, textiles, monumental reliefs, and frescoes borrowed from collections throughout the world. Particularly notable were icons lent by the Monastery of St. John the Evangelist on Patmos, Greece, and ivories from the Louvre in Paris and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, Eng. The Hermitage in St. Petersburg provided a remarkable diptych, and the Danish government approved the loan of a small enamel Dagmar Cross.

      Another blockbuster was devoted to 19th-century English art. The National Gallery of Art mounted "The Victorians: British Painting in the Reign of Queen Victoria, 1837-1901" in an effort to dispel prejudices against Victorian paintings, which were often characterized as repressive and hypocritical. The movement itself was often perceived by "modern" artists as one against which they had to rebel. The 70 paintings, representing 34 artists, included a wide range of works and were not simply defined by the period of Queen Victoria's reign. The centrepiece of the show was devoted to the Pre-Raphaelite period and its immediate aftermath and included such well-known works as Sir John Everett Millais's "Ophelia" and William Holman Hunt's "The Scapegoat." Works by George Frederic Watts, Edward Burne-Jones, and Ford Madox Brown demonstrated the vast impact of this group of artists. The show also depicted many other strands of artistic activity and included works by James Whistler, James Tissot, Edwin Landseer, and J.M.W. Turner.

      To mark its 20th anniversary, the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Conn., mounted a show with a British theme. "The Human Form Divine" consisted of paintings, watercolours, prints, and books illustrated by William Blake. A complementary show, "The Visionary Company," displayed works by artists closely associated with Blake, such as John Flaxman, Henry Fuseli, and Samuel Palmer.

      The tercentenary of the birth (Nov. 10, 1697) of William Hogarth, the so-called father of British art, was commemorated in the spring with "Hogarth the Painter," which opened at the Tate Gallery in London and included some notable borrowed items. Included were "Garrick and His Muse," which was lent by the Royal Collection, as well as important works from the Tate's own collection and some new discoveries. Other exhibits included a special showing of "The Rake's Progress" (The Orgy); at Sir John Soane's Museum in London, patrons were able to examine the series of paintings alongside the engravings, the first time that the two had been together since they left Hogarth's atelier. Companion Hogarth shows were held in London at the National Portrait Gallery, the British Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum and in Manchester at the Whitworth Art Gallery.

      A major exhibition at the Musée d'Art Moderne in Brussels was devoted to the work of Paul Delvaux (1897-1994) and presented a wide-ranging selection of paintings, watercolours, drawings, sketchbooks, and documents. The show commemorated the centenary of his birth and was the first retrospective of his work in that city. The exhibit highlighted both his affinity with the Surrealists, with whom he was usually associated, and the differences he had with that group. Included were early works showing the progression of his strongly independent style. Some early work clearly bordered on Impressionism, and it was only after 1925 that figures began to play an important part. By the late 1930s he had begun placing figures in frequently idealized and disconnected landscapes, as was typified in the "Spitzner Museum" of 1943, in which a self-portrait appears. The contrast between everyday realism and dreamlike unreality rife with symbolism and impact was characteristic of Delvaux's work.

      The art connection between France and Belgium in the 19th century was illustrated by a number of exhibitions. The most notable, "Paris-Bruxelles/Brussel-Parijs—An Artistic Dialogue Between France and Belgium, 1848-1914," opened at the Grand Palais in Paris and was later shown at the Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent, Belg. The show examined various artistic themes ranging from realism to Art Nouveau and demonstrated that French and Belgian painters were strongly influenced by such themes as Impressionism and pointillism as well as the landscapes of the Barbizon painters. The show highlighted decorative arts and included a powerful display of Art Nouveau objects.

      An important exhibition devoted to the works of Sir Anthony Van Dyck was mounted at the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa, Italy, and concentrated on the work he did while living in that city. His sumptuous and elegant Genoese portraits, together with those by his predecessors and disciples, including other Flemish artists in Genoa at that time, formed a rich centrepiece.

      At the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the major summer exhibition was devoted to portraits by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and included 65 works, many of them commissioned, from the 1860s to the end of the artist's life. The show later moved to Chicago and Fort Worth, Texas.

      Early in the year a series of exhibitions in New York City concentrated on work by Venetian painter Giambattista Tiepolo to commemorate the 300th anniversary of his birth. The Metropolitan Museum of Art displayed 80 of his paintings and oil sketches and 33 etchings and drawings, while the Pierpont Morgan Library showcased his works along with those of his followers and sons Domenico and Lorenzo. Both shows concentrated on placing the artists in context and categorizing their works as characteristic examples of Venetian graphic arts of the 18th century.

      The first retrospective devoted to the work of Jasper Johns since 1977 was mounted by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City at the end of 1996. The work of this influential American artist was marked by complexity and personal vision and various shifts in focus. During the '50s he used realistic images, but he turned to abstraction in the '60s before reverting to images in the '70s. The show, which included 225 paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures, traveled to the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Ger., and to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo. A comprehensive retrospective of the work of Ellsworth Kelly was mounted from October 1996 to January 1997 at the Guggenheim Museum and then in Los Angeles at the Museum of Contemporary Art before traveling in the summer to the Tate Gallery and the Haus der Kunst in Munich, Ger., in the fall. Gallerygoers could detect in Kelly's earliest work a tendency toward abstraction, beginning with his 1949 self-portrait. The show contained a wide selection of abstract paintings and sculptures dating from the 1950s as well as some drawings, photographs, and humorous tiny collages. Many of the paintings juxtaposed different painted panels, creating abstract and geometric forms. Although Kelly's work was less varied than that of Johns, it was full of joy and style.

      Another thematic exhibition, "Grand Tour: The Lure of Italy in the 18th Century," was seen at the end of 1996 at the Tate Gallery and later in Rome at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni. The charming and wide-ranging exhibition demonstrated the crosscurrents between Italian and English art and culture. The diffuse subject was organized around topics such as "travellers and the journey" and "the Antique." Included were maps and guidebooks as well as drawings, portraits, and landscapes, particularly of Rome.

      Finally, "It's Only Rock and Roll," an exhibition at the Phoenix (Ariz.) Art Museum, surveyed American art dating from the 1950s to the present and featured works that bore influences of the music. Artists featured included Peter Blake, Andy Warhol, and Robert Rauschenberg.

SANDRA MILLIKIN

Photography
      A diversity of notable exhibitions enriched the photographic gallery scene in 1997, including retrospectives, small but choice one-person shows, and spectacular group collections. The now-famous photographs that launched Cindy Sherman's career as the postmodern superstar of self-portraiture were displayed in "Cindy Sherman: The Complete Untitled Film Stills" at New York City's Museum of Modern Art. The series of 69 black-and-white photographs made from 1977 to 1980 showed Sherman imaginatively posed in female roles that were inspired by the clichés of motion picture publicity stills. With a unique mix of camp and authenticity, she evoked what one reviewer called "the fictional cultures of femininity."

      Mathew Brady's reputation for documenting the American Civil War had sometimes obscured his outstanding achievements as a portraitist of celebrated and powerful personalities of his time. "Mathew Brady's Portraits: Images as History, Photography as Art" at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., gave a comprehensive view, the first in more than 100 years, of this important aspect of Brady's career. Included were more than 130 daguerreotypes, albumen silver prints, lithographs, oil paintings based on his photographs, and memorabilia.

      By macabre chance, the "Il Paparazzo/I Paparazzi" exhibition at the Robert Miller Gallery in New York coincided with the fatal crash of the photographer-pursued Mercedes that killed Diana, princess of Wales, in August. The exhibition, planned long in advance of that tragic event, depicted the rise of aggressive photographic celebrity chasers in the 1950s and the infusion of their style and methods into the advertising and fashion media of the '90s. "Marc Riboud: Forty Years of Photography in China" at New York's International Center of Photography used vignettes of daily life to portray the events that transformed China from the early Maoist era to the present. "A Witness to History: Yevgeny Khaldei, Soviet Photojournalist" at New York's Jewish Museum was the first major exhibition of that photographer's work in the U.S. It included his brilliantly staged set piece of a Soviet soldier raising the red flag over Berlin's Reichstag in May 1945 and harrowing images of World War II's impact on civilians. Khaldei died in October. (See OBITUARIES (Khaldey, Yevgeny ).)

      Sixty vintage photographs from Paul Strand's early period, including his starkly abstract "White Fence," were shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Paul Strand, Circa 1916" exhibition in New York. The J. Paul Getty Museum at its recently opened complex in Los Angeles exhibited "The Silver Canvas: The Art of Daguerreotype," a stunning selection from the museum's extensive archives of that early form of photography, whose silvery charm and brilliant detail remained unsurpassed. The Philadelphia Museum of Art's "Robert Capa: Photographs" was a major retrospective including about 130 prints, many not before seen, that revealed Capa's skill as a portraitist as well as a war photographer. In Washington, D.C., the Corcoran Gallery of Art's "Half Past Autumn: The Art of Gordon Parks" acknowledged the 84-year-old African-American photographer, documentarian, and modern Renaissance man with a 220-photograph retrospective. Henri Cartier-Bresson, among the greatest masters of 20th-century photography, was internationally honoured in celebration of his 90th birthday.

      An extravagant commercial application of photographs was Italian tire manufacturer Pirelli's multimillion-dollar 1997 calendar. Richard Avedon photographed models from 12 countries twice—dressed in designer costumes, they were photographed in colour; nude, in black-and-white. Launched with an exhibit at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, and with a mere 12,000 copies allocated to the U.S., the calendar was not likely to be found in the usual body-and-fender repair shop.

      If one had chosen the right images, fine-arts photography would have performed very well as an investment during the past decade, according to The Photograph Collector. In 1987 Robert Mapplethorpe's "X portfolio" sold for $3,500; 10 years later it could easily have brought $50,000 if a set were found. Some Sherman images selling for $1,500 in 1987 brought more than $25,000 each in 1997. Meanwhile, the price for a vintage print by André Kertész reached a new high; "Mondrian's Pipe and Glasses, Paris," sold for $376,000 at Christie's spring auction.

      The 1997 Pulitzer Prize for spot news photography went to Annie Wells of the Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, Calif., for a dramatic close-up of a firefighter rescuing a young flood victim. Alexander Zemlianichenko of the Associated Press received the Pulitzer for feature photography for his view of an exuberant Russian Pres. Boris Yeltsin dancing the shimmy during a rock concert. At the 54th Annual Pictures of the Year competition sponsored by the National Press Photographers Association and the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Yunghi Kim of Contact Press Images was named Magazine Photographer of the Year and Carol Guzy of the Washington (D.C.) Post took the title of Newspaper Photographer of the Year. At the 40th Annual World Press Photo Contest, the World Press Photo of the Year award was received by photojournalist Francesco Zizola of Agenzia Contrasto for his photograph of children maimed and traumatized during Angola's civil war.

      The primary W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography was awarded to Alain Keler for his documentation of the fate of minorities in the former Eastern European communist bloc. Secondary awards went to Gary Calton for his photographs of England's workingmen's clubs and Nadia Benchallal for her photographs of the world of Muslim women. Susan Grayson received the Howard Chapnick Grant for Leadership in Photojournalism for her book project on the history of New York press photographers. Lori Drinker won the Ernst Haas Award for her photographic essay "After War: Veterans from a World of Conflict."

ARTHUR GOLDSMITH
      This article updates photography (photography, history of).

Art Auctions and Sales
      In 1997 the auction market celebrated its strongest year since 1991. The improvement was attributed to strength in the financial markets, particularly those in the United States, which gave consumers a perception of having significant disposable income. Although there were many new buyers in the market, seasoned customers remained active as well. Purchasers continued to pay high prices for quality property that came fresh to the market, particularly works from single-owner collections of distinguished provenance, which, in many cases, performed well beyond expectations. Although record prices were paid for jewelry, objects in the decorative arts, American paintings, and Old Master paintings, the driving force seemed to be Impressionist and Modern art, with single-owner sales of collections of John and Frances L. Loeb, Serge Sabarsky, Evelyn Sharp, and Victor and Sally Ganz making headlines.

      The Impressionist and Modern paintings, drawings, and sculpture sale held at Christie's in May earned a total of $119,862,500, with 10 works selling for $3,000,000 or more. "Jeune femme se baignant" by Pierre-Auguste Renoir sold for $12,432,500. This various-owner sale was preceded by the Loeb collection, which achieved $92,794,500, one of the highest totals in auction history for a single-owner collection. Paul Cézanne's "Madame Cézanne au fauteuil jaune" was purchased for $23,102,500, the second highest price paid for his work at auction. The same was true for Édouard Manet, whose "Portrait de Manet par lui-même, en buste" achieved $18,702,500.

      Sotheby's May sale of Impressionist and Modern paintings, drawings, and sculpture enjoyed similar success, attaining $81,305,000 in sales. A record was established for the artist Gustav Klimt, whose "Litzlebergerkeller am Attersee" realized $14,742,500. This work was from the Sabarsky single-owner collection, which totaled $19,394,500. A record price for an Edgar Degas pastel was also set at this auction; his "Danseuses" sold for $11,002,500.

      The November 1997 sales of Impressionist and Modern art confirmed the vitality in this market and brought the year's sales to an exciting conclusion. The Ganz sale established the record for a single-owner collection sold at auction; it brought $206,516,525. Pablo Picasso's "Le Reve," a portrait of his lover Marie-Thérèse Walter, sold for $48,402,500, the second highest auction price for the artist. Another Picasso, "Les Femmes d'Alger," one of his renditions of the "Women of Algiers" series by Eugène Delacroix, fetched $31,902,500. The top two works at Sotheby's single-owner sale of works from the Sharp collection were also by Picasso, the highest of which, "Nus," brought $6,052,500. The total collection realized $41,213,200. A various-owner sale the following evening commanded a solid $92,717,500 and was highlighted by Renoir's "Baigneuse," which sold for $20,902,500.

      Old Master paintings enjoyed one of their strongest years in history. In January Sotheby's in New York offered works from the collection of Saul Steinberg, totaling $10,910.000. One of the highlights was "Plague in an Ancient City" by Michael Sweerts, which set an auction record for the artist, selling for $3,852,500. Paintings from the collection of the British Rail Pension Fund fetched $9,564,625 at auction, with a pair of the works, "Two Views of Venice" by Canaletto, selling together for $4,512,500 and setting an auction record for the artist. Christie's January auction offered El Greco's "Christ on the Cross," which at $3,605,000 set a world record for the artist and for an Old Master picture at auction.

      Jewelry continued to rank as the second highest achiever at both auction houses. In May Sotheby's realized a world-record price per carat for a yellow diamond after selling the superb fancy-vivid yellow diamond ring for $3,302,500 in a sale that totaled $25,643,522. Christie's magnificent jewelry sale in October amounted to $28,377,188; the star in that lot was a square-cut diamond that brought $1,927,188. In late October Sotheby's held a sale totaling $36,955,918, of which $10,733,625 came from a private collection of extraordinary jewels.

      Another burgeoning market was American paintings, which attracted new buyers and maintained the loyalties of established purchasers. Both Sotheby's and Christie's established records for the top-selling artists in their June sales. Sotheby's sold Andrew Wyeth's "Christina Olson" for $1,707,500, and Christie's hammered "Home Sweet Home" by Winslow Homer for $2,642,075. Sotheby's also set auction records in this same June sale for Norman Rockwell's "Year After Year Only Fine Beer," which realized $354,500, and Thomas Hart Benton's "Politics, Farming and Law in Missouri," which fetched $299,500.

      Many of the middle markets were also quite robust, including the furniture and decorative arts categories. There were many world records set in Americana throughout 1997. In January Christie's offered a Chippendale chest-on-chest, which realized $1,212,500 and set a world record for this type of furniture. A Philadelphia high chest of drawers fetched $811,000, setting another world record, and Sotheby's established a record for a Newport highboy, which commanded $910,000. In the October sales of important Americana, Sotheby's achieved a record price for a Massachusetts highboy, which brought $690,000, and a world record price ($233,500) for a Southern open armchair. Christie's set a record with a New York chair that brought $387,500.

      The estate of U.S. Ambassador Pamela Harriman, which was offered by Sotheby's, commanded $8,700,568. Other distinguished collections that were auctioned included those of Marlene Dietrich and Leonard Bernstein and the Feiertag collection of fine movie posters, which set a record at $1,337,562. Sotheby's also sold "Sue," the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex ever found, to Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History for $8,362,500. The wine cellar of Andrew Lloyd Webber went for $2,308,000. Christie's offered Muhammad Ali memorabilia from the collection of Ron Paloger and sold for $3,258,750 dresses of Diana, princess of Wales, to benefit charities. In October Christie's held its first "Arts of France" sale, which totaled $16,544,435; the top lot was a Louis XIV ormolu-mounted mantel clock that sold for $992,500.

      Both auction houses were preparing for the millennium by building new facilities in New York City, a sign of their growing confidence in the auction market. Christie's announced plans to move its entire organization from various New York locations into one consolidated space at Rockefeller Center, and Sotheby's planned to unify its operations by adding six new floors to its current space at 72nd St. and York Ave.

AMY TODD

ANTIQUARIAN BOOKS
      The 1996-97 market for rare books and manuscripts strengthened. Although prices for Americana manuscripts were low, material new to the market performed above estimated values, and colour-plate books of all kinds, including atlases, sold very well.

      Sotheby's New York sold the Victor and Irene Murr Jacobs collection, which included books and letters by Mark Twain, signed presidential books and portraits, and works of literature, notably Shakespeare's first edition of plays printed in 1623; the latter fetched $225,000. At the California Book Auction Galleries, approximately 270 books from Twain's library were sold as a single lot for over $200,000.

      Christie's New York sold the "Einstein-Besso" manuscript, an important scientific document from Albert Einstein's early work on relativity, for $350,000, but family correspondence and a parcel of Einstein's love letters brought mixed results. When Sotheby's New York offered the correspondence between cousins Franklin D. Roosevelt and Margaret Suckley, the collection failed to reach its $500,000-$700,000 estimate and was sold privately.

      Sotheby's London sold 34 extraordinary illuminated manuscripts from the Beck collection for well over £10 million. Christie's New York botanical-book sale brought $6.5 million in sales, with a complete coloured copy of Caspar Barlaeus's Rerum in Octennium in Brasilia (1647) selling for over $330,000. Sotheby's New York offered the library of George M. Pfaumer and fetched a staggering $110,000 for William Birch's early hand-coloured views of Philadelphia.

      At Sotheby's London a three-volume set of Robert Estienne's Dictionarium (1543) commanded more than $350,000, and Sotheby's New York reached a hammer price of $470,000 for Arthur Conan Doyle's autograph manuscript Sign of Four. Publications by John James Audubon soared in value; the folio Quadrupeds sold for $189,000 (Sotheby's New York), and Christie's New York sold the second edition of the folio Birds of America for $130,000 and an incomplete first edition for $1.5 million. Christie's New York also sold a fine copy of the Kelmscott Chaucer printed on vellum for over $550,000.

      Following the exhibition "Let There Be Light: William Tyndale and the Making of the English Bible" at the British Library and other locations, the Württembergische Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart, Ger., announced that it owned a previously unknown third copy of the 1526 Worms New Testament.

KIMBALL HIGGS

Philately
      Two highly successful stamp exhibitions were held in 1997. In February a huge crowd waited hours in line for admittance to the HONG KONG '97 international exhibition, and in May 170,000 visitors attended PACIFIC '97, an international show held in San Francisco to mark the 150th anniversary of the first U.S. postage stamps. The International Federation of Philately also sponsored exhibitions in Oslo, Moscow, and New Delhi.

      In an effort to broaden the public appeal of postage stamps, a number of unusual offerings were made. To publicize PACIFIC '97 the U.S. issued two triangle stamps, the first of that shape in its history. The decision by the U.S. to produce a stamp depicting cartoon character Bugs Bunny, also an official "stamp ambassador," elicited criticism from many traditional collectors but was an immediate hit with the public. New Zealand showcased its most unusual mailboxes in a booklet of six. On the 100th anniversary of the publication of the horror tale bearing his name, Dracula was honoured with images on stamps in Great Britain, Ireland, the U.S., and, of course, Romania. Australia implemented a major change of policy by depicting persons deemed to be living legends. In January Donald Bradman, a famous cricket batsman, became the first Australian so honoured.

      Only one new state joined the ranks of stamp-issuing nations in 1997. Mayotte, a French dependency in the Comoros archipelago, resumed issuing stamps on January 1, after having used French stamps since 1975. In Hong Kong, which reverted to Chinese control on July 1, new stamps with pictures of the waterfront were issued to replace the Queen Elizabeth definitives, which were withdrawn from sale on Jan. 25, 1997, but were valid for postage until the handover.

      Scott Publishing Co. of Sidney, Ohio, the world's leading producer of stamp catalogs and albums, introduced several changes to its product line. In its 1998 worldwide catalog, the British Commonwealth countries were included—the first time in 65 years that they had not been listed in a separate volume. Scott also began positioning itself for electronic publishing by taking steps in January to prohibit licensees from using its catalog numbers in certain electronic media. The expected CD-ROM version of the Scott Catalog did not appear during the year, however, owing to production difficulties.

      Krause Publications of Iola, Wis., pursued an aggressive program of philatelic acquisitions and restructuring after purchasing Stamp Collector and Stamp Wholesaler in 1996. In January 1997 the company announced that Stamp Wholesaler, the world's largest dealer publication, would appear monthly after 60 years as a biweekly. In August Krause announced the purchase of the Minkus line of catalogs and albums.

      There was also more experimentation with stamp production. Self-adhesives grew in popularity at a surprising pace in the U.S. The United States Postal Service (USPS) reported that some 60% of the stamps sold in 1996 were self-adhesives, and it estimated that the number would near 80% for 1997. In March the USPS issued two linerless self-adhesive 32-cent coils. Addressing the need for greater printing security, the USPS added a scrambled image of the letters "USAF" across the design of the U.S. Air Force commemorative issued in September. The image could be seen by collectors with the help of a special plastic lens sold through the Philatelic Fulfillment Service Center. Perhaps the most novel philatelic innovation of the year was a sheet of Dutch greeting stamps that featured a hidden message of friendship that could be viewed when a protective coating was scraped away.

      Stamp prices showed a steady, though modest, rise during the year. In June, Ivy & Mader of New York City fetched $322,000 for an American Bank Note Co. proof book crammed with rare and valuable proof sheets, including the first two U.S. issues. A unique 1851 unused Baden colour error commanded more than $600,000. A registered 1908 cover with three U.S. 4-cent Grant stamps with perforations from the Joseph Agris private collection was sold by Charles Shreve in September for $220,000, a record for a 20th-century cover.

ROBERT E. LAMB

Numismatics
      In April 1997 the "king of American coins"—an 1804 U.S. silver dollar—commanded $1,815,000, a record price for a single coin at public auction. The dollar, one of 15 known, was part of a complete collection of U.S. coins that had been assembled by the late Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr., of Baltimore, Md. Eliasberg's 1885 trade dollar sold for $907,500, a record for the series. In all, his collection had brought nearly $44 million at auction since 1982. Numismatic News reported that despite record-setting bids for the most valuable old coins, the overall rare-coin market had edged up just over 4% in the 12-month period that ended September 9.

      Interest in coin collecting was expected to rebound in 1999, when the U.S. government was scheduled to launch a 10-year program to circulate 50 commemorative quarters, one for each state. The coins would feature state designs on the reverse side, with George Washington's bust remaining on the front.

      The U.S. Mint introduced four commemorative coin programs in 1997 amid ongoing complaints that the market for such items was saturated. One of the more popular new coins was a silver dollar honouring Jackie Robinson, who in 1947 became the first African-American to play major league baseball. Many collectors cheered a new law that limited the number of commemorative coin programs to two per year beginning in 1999 and placed caps on mintages. The U.S. Mint was expected to produce about 14 billion coins for circulation in 1997, down from 19.5 billion in 1996 and the record 19.8 billion in 1995. On December 1 U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton signed legislation authorizing production of a gold-coloured dollar coin that eventually would replace the Susan B. Anthony dollar.

      In October the U.S. Federal Reserve System began issuing redesigned 50-dollar Federal Reserve notes. Like the 100-dollar notes that made their debut in 1996, they featured several new anticounterfeiting devices, including a watermark and colour-shifting ink. The bills also sported an enlarged numeral 50 on the back to help sight-impaired people, the first U.S. currency to feature such a design element. Several nations, including Australia, Brunei, and Thailand, circulated plastic notes in 1997, and Russia unveiled a 500,000-ruble bill with a variety of anticounterfeiting devices. Finland put a hologram on its 20-markka note, and Turkey, suffering from high inflation, issued a five million-lira bill to keep up with rising prices.

      U.S. Mint workers made the country's first-ever platinum coins, which complemented the American Eagle series of gold and silver pieces sold primarily to precious-metal investors. The new Eagles competed with platinum bullion coins issued by Australia and Canada, among other nations, and came in four sizes ranging from 1 oz ($100 face value) to 0.10 oz ($10 face value). The Austrian Philharmonic was the world's best-selling gold bullion coin in 1995 and 1996, capturing about 40% of the world market both years. Meanwhile, Mexico withdrew ringed bimetallic coins with a .925 fine silver centre that were first issued in 1993. They were believed to be the only circulating silver coins still in use in the world.

      Canada changed the composition of its one-cent coin from copper to copper-plated zinc and also sold to collectors a one-dollar coin commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Loon dollar in circulation. The British Royal Mint introduced a five-pound coin commemorating the 50th wedding anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip on November 20. The return of Hong Kong to China generated several numismatic issues, including a seven-coin set struck by the British Royal Mint and a $1,000 gold commemorative by the Royal Canadian Mint.

ROGER BOYE
      This article updates coin.

Collectibles
      The Pamela Harriman estate auction was the celebrity event of 1997. (See OBITUARIES (Harriman, Pamela Beryl Digby Churchill Hayward ).) Everything was sold, ranging from a worn velvet pillow with ostrich crest ($2,415) to a John Singer Sargent painting, "Staircase in Capri" ($1.4 million). A six-piece suite of Louis XV beechwood furniture fetched $101,500, while a canceled check signed by Winston Churchill brought $9,200.

      Dresses worn by Diana, princess of Wales, were sold for charity in June. The highest price, a record $222,500, was paid for the dress she wore while dancing at the White House with John Travolta. Her death on August 31 sent collectors hunting for memorabilia such as commemorative wedding plates ($25-$100), Royal Doulton figurines ($800), and tin biscuit boxes picturing her wedding ($15-$25).

      Toy sales also remained strong. At a late 1996 auction of 1950s toy robots, Machine Man went for a record $42,550, Radicon Robot for $21,850, and Musical Drummer Robot R57 for $17,250. An astounding $88,000 was paid in June 1997 for a 24-cm (9-in) Tipp & Co. (c. 1930) Mickey and Minnie Mouse toy motorcycle.

      Items related to advertising continued to bring top prices. At a sale of Hires Root Beer memorabilia in Colorado, a record $106,700 was paid for a Mettlach urn dispenser, $15,125 for a straw holder, and $22,000 for a die-cut sign of the Hires boy. At another sale a 1910 tin Coca-Cola sign picturing Hilda Clark brought $82,250.

      The only record prices for formal antiques were for Gustav Stickley furniture; a two-door bookcase went for $34,650 and a lady's desk no. 724 for $29,900. An Early American glass Amelung tumbler made about 1788 fetched a record $83,900. A Tiffany Favrile glass and bronze lotus lamp on a mosaic lily-pad base auctioned at $1.1 million, while a Tiffany window made for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and picturing parakeets and goldfish commanded $1,047,500.

      Prices continued to climb for unusual pieces of pottery and porcelain. A four-tile Grueby frieze of palm trees auctioned for $24,150, and a Marblehead Pottery tile frieze of a lake scene earned $21,850. Rookwood's 1929 vellum glaze plaque showing Venice and ships sold for $49,500, while a Weller vase over 1.8 m (6 ft) high commanded a monumental $112,500. A 122-cm (48-in)-high Mettlach vase with a knight and maiden, signed C. Spindler, brought $46,000.

      Very important French silver pieces sold well; in late 1996 $10,287,500 was the price paid for a 1733 Louis XV tureen with vegetables, fish, birds, and reeds, while a pair of wine coolers by Claude Ballin II brought $3,962,500. In April 1997 a record $13,500 was paid for an enameled silver porringer and spoon made by Potter Studios of Cleveland, Ohio, in the early 20th century.

      An important sale of American Indian pieces brought six new record prices. Sold were an 18th-century Nootka face mask, $525,000; a wooden spoon carved with a human figure on the handle, $101,500; a Chilkat Tlingit ceremonial coat, $497,500; a Northwest Coast carved wooden pipe with abalone shells, $134,500; a Northwest Coast "bent corner" bowl, $79,500; and a Saltillo (Mex.) serape, $57,500.

      Rare sports memorabilia commanded higher prices. A Babe Ruth 1914 rookie card brought $27,114, while a Christy Mathewson signed baseball sold for $21,916. An 1820 brass bait casting reel by George Snyder of Paris, Ky., set a new auction record at $31,350.

RALPH AND TERRY KOVEL

▪ 1997

Introduction
      The art market in 1996 continued to rebound from the 1990 crash as auction sales remained buoyant. The major auction houses Christie's and Sotheby's had the most success for good paintings in the middle market range ($300,000-$2 million), but the sky-high prices seen in the late 1980s showed no sign of reappearing. Asian art, which experienced a boom, was showcased in March at the second International Asian Art Fair in New York City. The major exhibition "Splendors of Imperial China" made a limited tour of the U.S., while Taiwanese protesters argued that many of their treasures were too fragile to tour. The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg announced the discovery and exhibition of still more artworks that had been removed from Germany during World War II. The important cache of prints and drawings included one of Vincent van Gogh's most famous images, "Boats at Saintes-Maries." The issue of repatriating the artworks was left unresolved.

      In London scandal tainted the work of British painter Ben Nicholson. No buyers could be found for any of his paintings at the spring modern art sales in London after word leaked out that a ring of forgers had doctored records pertaining to his work. The media circus surrounding the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis estate sale aroused the general public's interest in art, antiques, and collectibles. Such "Camelot" mementos as faux pearls and rocking chairs brought prices usually associated with Old Master paintings.

      The international auction market received a proposal for French auction reform (to take effect in 1998) that would end the monopoly French auction houses had held on French sales for more than 400 years. The reform would allow foreign auction houses such as Christie's and Sotheby's to hold sales on French soil. As a result, important property from French estates would not necessarily be auctioned abroad and would therefore be more likely to remain in French hands.

      Two major British museums, London's Tate Gallery and the National Gallery, orchestrated a grand art exchange in order to enhance their respective collections; 52 works of 19th-century art would leave the Tate for the National Gallery, which would send the Tate 14 of its 20th-century paintings, including Claude Monet's monumental "Water Lilies" (after 1916).

      The end of the art year coincided with the closing of an exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, New York City, of the Codex Leicester, a notebook of brilliant scientific musings by Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci. (REBECCA KNAPP)

ART EXHIBITIONS
      Several art exhibitions were mounted at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga., as part of the Olympic Arts Festival, which took the unifying spirit of the Olympic movement as its theme. Organizers were faced with the formidable task of harmonizing cultural events with athletic competition.

      The "blockbuster" show of the Games was "Rings: Five Passions in World Art," which was on view during the summer at Atlanta's High Museum and was named for the five Olympic rings. The exhibit was the centrepiece of the Olympic Arts Festival, and it marked the 100th anniversary of the modern Olympic Games. Designed to attract a broad audience, it featured over 125 works of art and represented 7,500 years of civilization. Included were Greek antiquities, African sculptures, paintings by Monet, Pablo Picasso, and European Old Masters as well as works by Auguste Rodin, Edvard Munch, Thomas Eakins, and Tony Cragg.

      "Mysteries of Ancient China," which represented artifacts dating from 4500 BC to AD 220, was seen at the British Museum in the autumn and was expected to attract more than 150,000 visitors during its four-month stay in London. The exhibit, on loan from China, was the first showing of the remarkable discoveries made during excavations of Chinese tombs since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. The show was scheduled to travel extensively after it closed in London in January 1997.

      "Mysteries" featured some of the most spectacular finds of the past 20 years. The discoveries provided new evidence of a previously unknown civilization that dated from about 3000 BC. Aside from the fascination of their archaeological significance, the objects themselves were breathtaking in their diversity and artistic merit, showing great sophistication and virtuosity of technique. Media included bronze, jade, lacquerwork, and silk. One magnificent exhibit was a jade burial suit belonging to Prince Liu Sheng, king of Zhongshan from 154 until 113 BC. It comprised 2,498 separate plaques knotted together with 1,100 g of gold wire and was one of the most extraordinary archaeological finds of the 20th century.

      "Imperial Tombs of China" comprised about 250 funerary objects made for seven dynasties of Chinese royalty between 475 BC and AD 1912. The standouts at the show were life-size terra-cotta warriors from the tomb "army" of the First Emperor. It was the largest exhibition of its kind ever seen in the U.S. and attracted considerable interest. The show, seen first in the summer of 1996 at the Oregon Art Museum in Portland, would later travel to the Museum of Natural History in Denver, Colo., and the Orlando (Fla.) Museum of Art.

      Other shows devoted to Asian art included "New Art In China, Post-1989," which focused on 84 works created by 30 young Chinese artists since the Tiananmen Square student massacre in 1989. The exhibit opened in 1996 at the Fort Wayne (Ind.) Museum of Art before moving to Kansas City, Mo. It would travel to Chicago and San Jose, Calif., in 1997.

      A major international exhibition, "Contemporary Art in Asia," included 65 works by 28 Indian, Indonesian, Philippine, Thai, and Korean artists. It was organized by the Asia Society Galleries, opened in late 1996 at three venues in New York City, and would be mounted in Canada, India, Singapore, South Korea, and Japan.

      The Greek Ministry of Culture organized "The Macedonians: The Northern Greeks and the Era of Alexander the Great." It was a companion show to "Alexander the Great," which was organized by the Fondazione Memmo in Rome. The two shows presented over 500 objects, including sculptures, mosaics, manuscripts, paintings, and precious objects. The exhibit opened in Rome and later traveled to the Florida International Museum in St. Petersburg, where it would stay until the spring of 1997.

      Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs mounted "Japan's Golden Age: Momoyama," an exhibition devoted to the years in the Azuchi-Momoyama period, between 1574 and 1600. On view in the autumn of 1996, only at the Dallas (Texas) Museum of Art, it included paintings, armour, textiles, and ceramics. Of some 160 objects showcased, more than one-third were registered with the Japanese government as cultural properties and national treasures.

      The blockbuster "Splendors of Imperial China: Treasures from the National Palace Museum, Taipei" contained about 450 objects from one of the world's greatest collections of Chinese art and was the most comprehensive such show ever mounted in the U.S. Featured were 120 paintings and works of calligraphy as well as jades, bronzes, ceramics, and decorative pieces. The exhibit was organized by the museum in Taipei and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. After its New York stay in the spring, the show traveled to the Art Institute of Chicago, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

      "The American Discovery of Ancient Egypt," which opened in late 1995 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and later traveled to St. Louis, Mo., and Indianapolis, Ind., showcased more than 200 artifacts found by U.S. archaeologists in Egypt.

      A number of notable exhibitions either were devoted to women in art or concentrated on works by female artists. "Women in Ancient Egypt" belonged to the former and was on view at the Cincinnati (Ohio) Art Museum in late 1996 and scheduled to travel to the Brooklyn (N.Y.) Museum in early 1997. The show "Mistress of the House, Mistress of Heaven: Women in Ancient Egypt" featured more than 200 objects that illustrated the roles of women in ancient Egypt, ranging from working women to royalty and goddesses.

      An exhibition of plaster models and stone sculptures of ancient Egypt was mounted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in late 1996 and celebrated the opening of a new gallery devoted to the Amarna period in Egypt. The featured works in "Queen Nefertiti and the Royal Women" were portrait sculptures from the workshop of master sculptor Thutmose.

      Greek women were the subject of "Pandora's Box: Women in Classical Greece," organized by the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, Md., and seen there in late 1995 and early 1996 before moving to Dallas and Basel, Switz. The show comprised around 140 works portraying women in Greece in the 5th century BC. Notable were a kore, or standing female figure, from the Acropolis in Athens and diverse items of marble, pottery, bronze, and terra-cotta.

      One of the most famous examples of feminist art, "The Dinner Party" by artist Judy Chicago, was a vast sculptural installation that made its California debut in the spring at the UCLA Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

      The controversial British sculptor Rachel Whitehead—perhaps best known for "House," a concrete cast of a condemned East London home that was destroyed after its showing—had the first full-scale survey of her work in autumn at the Tate Gallery in Liverpool. The show included sculptures cast in a variety of media, including resin, plaster, and rubber. British sculptor Damien Hirst, winner of the 1995 Turner Prize, had a new show at the Gagosian Gallery in New York City. (See BIOGRAPHIES (Hirst, Damien ).)

      At the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, works by another controversial artist, Edward Kienholz, were on view. The retrospective included 90 of his works, which served as powerful and sometimes harsh indictments of American society. Especially notable were such assemblages as the antimilitarist piece "The Portable War Memorial" (1968), the sexually provocative "Back Seat Dodge '38" (1961), and the disconcerting "Sollie 17" (1980), featuring the bleak existence of an old man living in a fleabag hotel.

      In London an exhibition of some 170 works by Paul Cézanne arrived at the Tate Gallery after having attracted about 6,000 visitors a day in Paris. The National Gallery mounted the summer blockbuster "Degas: Beyond Impressionism." It was much smaller than the Cézanne exhibit at the Tate and displayed the artist's technical expertise with pastels and the manner in which he used wax sculptures as models for drawings and paintings. The show of nearly 100 paintings, drawings, pastels, and sculptures covered the last 30 years of the artist's career, ranging from the last Impressionist exhibition of 1886 to his death in 1917. The blockbuster's only showing in the U.S. was at the Art Institute of Chicago in the autumn.

      The National Gallery's companion exhibition, "Degas as a Collector," comprised works that belonged to the artist during his lifetime. Shortly after his death, Degas's collection of about 500 paintings and drawings and more than 5,000 prints was sold at auction. It included works by such contemporaries as Paul Gauguin, Cézanne, Édouard Manet, and van Gogh as well as works by such influential artists of the previous generation as Eugène Delacroix and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Included were "Woman with a Mango" by Gauguin, lent by the Baltimore Museum of Art, and 11 works that the National Gallery had purchased.

      After the Cézanne show moved on to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the big autumn exhibition at the Tate was "Grand Tour: The Lure of Italy in the 18th-Century" and included paintings, drawings, and sculptures. The show illustrated the magnetic attraction of 18th-century British travelers to the Italian cities of Venice, Florence, Rome, and Naples.

      A show dedicated to the work of Peter Paul Rubens was staged at the National Gallery in London in the autumn and was the first such show to focus on his abilities as a landscape painter. Featured as the exhibit's centrepiece was the panoramic "Landscape with Het Steen."

      The retrospective "Alberto Giacometti 1901-1966," devoted to the work of the Swiss sculptor, was mounted at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh in the summer after having opened at the Kunsthalle in Vienna in February. It was the first important exhibition of his work to be seen in Britain since the 1965 retrospective at the Tate the year before his death. The show comprised 80 sculptures, 30 paintings, and a selection of drawings that included his well-known series of elongated standing male figures. The comprehensive survey of his works moved in the autumn to the Royal Academy in London.

      On April 16 the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow unveiled 259 priceless items that constituted "Gold of Troy," an exhibit that was on view for the first time since 1941. The objects were secured in 19 bulletproof cases and included pins, pendants, earrings, bracelets, chokers, and beads. The items, dating to the Bronze Age, were unearthed in 1873 in Turkey by Heinrich Schliemann and had formerly been part of the Berlin Museum's collection. During World War II the collection had been housed in bunkers near the Berlin Zoo, but in 1945 Soviet occupation forces removed it to the U.S.S.R. under cloudy circumstances. In 1993 the Pushkin Museum acknowledged its possession of the Schliemann collection—some 8,000 objets d'art and 60,000 documents. Both Germany and Turkey promptly filed claims for it.

      "Corot 1796-1875" was a huge French-organized bicentenary retrospective that marked the 200th anniversary of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot's birth. It was shown in Paris at the Grand Palais in the spring, at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa in the summer, and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in the autumn. The exhibition represented a wide range of work from early oil landscape studies that he painted in Rome when he was in his late 20s and early 30s to large landscapes for exhibition at the Salon. It demonstrated the degree to which Corot linked the past and the future, from the classical tradition of 17th-century French painting to the freedom of Impressionism, with elements of Realism, Symbolism, and Romanticism. Figure studies for portraits revealed his interest in costume and character. The huge show was the first full-scale European retrospective of Corot's work in 60 years and the first U.S. retrospective in 35 years devoted to his work.

      A summer exhibition at the National Gallery in Washington, "In the Light of Italy: Corot and Early Open-Air Painting," focused on artists working in Rome and southern Italy at the end of the 18th century and the early part of the 19th century. On view were about 130 paintings, including a selection of 20 of the best Italian sketches and small landscapes by Corot. The show would also travel to the Brooklyn Museum and the St. Louis Art Museum.

      A major Picasso exhibition was organized by the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City with the Musée Picasso in Paris. A large show, "Picasso and Portraiture: Representation and Transformation," was seen in New York in the summer, while a smaller representation of works traveled to the Grand Palais in the autumn. The show concentrated on the artist's work as a portraitist, showing in detail via drawings and paintings the artist's relations with those important in his life: family, friends, and lovers. Included were about 100 paintings and 50 works on paper. Masterpieces and lesser-known works were juxtaposed, which created a visual biography of the artist's life as his style changed along with his relationships. The final drawing was the searching crayon self-portrait of 1972, created a few months before his death.

      Venice was the first venue for a major retrospective devoted to the artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and organized to commemorate the 300th anniversary of his birth. The show included paintings, drawings, and prints and was on view in the latter half of 1996 at the Ca' Rezzonico. It would later travel to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In Venice some frescoes not normally shown to the public were unveiled as part of a walking tour linked to the show.

      The largest Winslow Homer show in over 30 years was seen in late 1995 at the National Gallery in Washington, before moving in 1996 to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Included was a selection of about 75 paintings and 95 watercolours representing the artist's career. A separate section of the show demonstrated the working methods he employed.

      "By the Light of the Crescent Moon: The Near East in Nineteenth-Century Danish Art and Literature" was devoted to perceptions and depictions of Middle Eastern themes by 19th-century Danish artists and included drawings and travel journals by Hans Christian Andersen. The show was staged at the David Collection in Copenhagen in the summer.

      A summer exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, was devoted to the work of English landscape painter Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851). It included about 60 paintings and watercolours lent by private and public collections in Europe and the U.S. The Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide showed the "William Paley Collection of Post-Impressionism and Early Modernism," a display of works that illustrated the transition from late Impressionism to Modernism, with works by Cézanne, Pierre Bonnard, Manet, and Picasso. The exhibit was on loan from the MOMA.

      (SANDRA MILLIKIN)

PHOTOGRAPHY
      In 1996 the long-predicted age of the electronic image established itself on a much broader base than ever before. Increasing numbers of archives, museums, libraries, picture agencies, publishers, and galleries digitized their visual images for storage and access. Linked to these sources by an explosively growing Internet, millions could bring incredible riches of photography to their computer screens—e.g., classic Civil War scenes from the U.S. Library of Congress, historically organized selections from Life magazine's archives, spectacular views of space from NASA, and a growing number of smaller, specialized collections from such sources as galleries and auction houses.

      Major exhibitions included large retrospectives by two of the U.S.'s most distinguished living photographers: Roy DeCarava (see BIOGRAPHIES (DeCarava, Roy )), 77, and Harry Callahan, 83. New York City's Museum of Modern Art displayed nearly 200 black-and-white prints encompassing DeCarava's notable career from the 1940s to the present, during which he recorded Harlem street life, civil rights protests, and famous jazz musicians. His ability to recognize and capture peak, densely packed fragments of time produced a memorable, moving visual record. The National Gallery in Washington, D.C., honoured Callahan with a comprehensive overview of his long, influential career. Best known as a formalist and an advocate of straight photography and much admired for the elegance and clarity of his style, Callahan also experimented with high-contrast printing, colour, multiple exposures, montages, and collages.

      Other retrospectives were "Julia Margaret Cameron: The Creative Process" at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, Calif., and Nan Goldin's "I'll Be Your Mirror" at the Whitney Museum of Art, New York City. The Cameron show included 38 prints by this impassioned Victorian Englishwoman, who took up photography as an amateur in midlife and, with her tightly cropped portraits of famous contemporaries and sentimental Pre-Raphaelite compositions, became one of the medium's first stylists. In striking contrast to Victorian sensibilities, the Whitney show was a retrospective of work by photographer-diarist Nan Goldin, whose book The Ballad of Sexual Dependency and slide show had provoked considerable attention 10 years earlier. Her gritty, unsparing images documented urban life on the margin with portraits of friends, lovers, prostitutes, drug addicts, dying victims of AIDS, and herself as a battered woman. Also at the Whitney, a historical group exhibition, "Perpetual Mirage: Photographic Narratives of the Desert West," explored the camera's crucial role during more than 150 years in shaping varied perceptions of the Great American Desert, especially through photographic books. The images ranged from the grandiloquent to the starkly minimal, and the photographers from 19th-century Timothy O'Sullivan and Carleton Watkins to contemporary Robert Adams and Richard Misrach.

      For photojournalists and documentary photographers, 1996 was a year of decreasing markets and shrinking space for their work. The eighth International Festival of Photojournalism in Perpignan, Fr., founded by Jean-François Leroy as an alternative to the long-established Arles festival of photography, provided a forum for discussion among photographers, picture agents, and editors on the topic and an opportunity to display serious photo reportage neglected by mainstream media. "In Times of War and Peace" at the International Center of Photography Midtown, New York City, was an overwhelming retrospective of photojournalism by twins David and Peter Turnley.

      Paul Outerbridge, Jr., emerged as an auction superstar. During his lifetime he had achieved considerable fame for the precise, cubist geometry of the colour still lifes that he created in both commercial and personal work. Although his reputation waned after his death in 1958, it had recently revived, and at a 1996 Christie's photographic auction, Outerbridge prints dramatically soared in value. A 1922 "Saltine Box," originally estimated at $60,000 to $80,000, sold for $200,500, more than double his previous auction record, while the total for 36 Outerbridge prints came to about $1 million.

      The 1996 Pulitzer Prize for spot news photography was awarded to freelancer Charles Porter IV for his picture of a rescue worker holding a fatally injured baby after the Oklahoma City, Okla., bombing. The Pulitzer for feature photography went to freelancer Stephanie Welsh for a picture story on a female circumcision rite in Kenya. At the 53rd Annual Pictures of the Year Competition, sponsored by the National Press Photographers Association and the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism, freelancer Eugene Richards took the title of Magazine Photographer of the Year and Torsten Kjellstrand of the Jasper (Ind.) Herald was named Newspaper Photographer of the Year. At the 39th Annual World Press Photo Contest, the World Press Photo of the Year award went to Lucian Perkins of the Washington (D.C.) Post. The primary W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography was awarded to South African photographer Gideon Mendel for continuing documentation of the spread of AIDS in Africa. A secondary award went to Dutch photographer Ad van Dendeven for photo reportage on the rising power of Eastern Jews in Israel. The first Howard Chapnick Grant for Leadership in Photojournalism was given to freelance picture editor Colin Jacobson for research into sources for photojournalism outside publications.

      (ARTHUR GOLDSMITH)

ART AUCTIONS AND SALES
      In 1996 bullish activity and exceedingly high asking prices for works of art concealed the complexities of a market shrouded in crises and transition. The impact of dwindling supplies became apparent as the price of high-quality items soared, leaving behind a trail of unsold works too expensive for most buyers.

      As a result, several trends emerged, notably a massive transfer of interest. Collectors who had favoured Impressionists shifted to later schools or to Old Masters. In July Dutch master Willem van de Velde the Younger's painting of two boats at anchor brought $2.1 million, exceeding Sotheby's estimate by about 250%. Attention was also lavished on so-called minor masters. In Baden-Baden, Ger., two still lifes painted in the 1760s by Catharina Treu, who was virtually unknown outside her native Germany, commanded £516,000.

      The success of new auction venues raised speculation that activity at major auction houses might erode. The offerings at both the first Asia Arts Fair in New York City in May and the annual art fair in Maastricht, Neth., were reportedly, for the most part, better than those at the major auction houses.

      Asian arts also gained in popularity. At Christie's sale of the Junkunc collection, a small bronze T'ang dynasty rhinoceros brought $178,500. Sotheby's best lot, though not the top sale, was a T'ang figure of a "masked foreigner," which commanded $112,500, more than three times the presale estimate.

      The aggressive activity that characterized the year was most evident at Sotheby's April sale of the estate of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The four-day televised event, which experts predicted would gross $5 million, brought $34.5 million as buyers paid $343,500 for John Wooten's oil "Lord Bateman's Arabian," $167,500 for Martin Drölling's "Portrait of Barthelemy Charles Comte de Dreux Nancré," and $118,000 for Charles-François Daubigny's plenair landscape "Les Bords de l'Oise."

      The contemporary art market, driven by U.S. buyers, fueled sales at the major auction houses. Christie's New York held its most successful sale since 1993, setting the ceiling for the market with "Mailbox," Willem de Kooning's 1948 canvas, which made $3.7 million. "Something of the Past," Jackson Pollock's 1946 colourful nondrip canvas, went for $2.4 million. Sotheby's also held its highest-grossing contemporary sale in six years. Jean Dubuffet's oil, sand, and putty work "Hommes et arbres somnambuliques," c. 1946, fetched $1.3 million. Andy Warhol's portrait icon "Mao," painted in 1972 and estimated to sell for $154,000-$231,000, became the object of a bidding war before it was claimed for $1 million. Americans unable to acquire name U.S. artists for less than $700,000 looked to underappreciated artists who usually were collected only by Europeans. Paintings by Lucian Freud, Lucio Fontana, and Yves Klein led this mid-priced market.

      Impressionist and modern art sales reached their highest level since 1990, thanks in large part to the return of Asian buyers. Christie's scored the season's coup when it sold van Gogh's "Interieur d'un restaurant" for $10.3 million, though Paul Gauguin's "Nature morte a l'esperance" failed to sell at $5 million. In May Sotheby's sold Monet's "Les Meules, Giverny, effect du matin" for $7.2 million and Cezanne's "Gran arbres au Jas De Bouffan" for $7.9 million. Other encouragement came from the strength of works in the $300,000-$800,000 range. Picasso's 1912 newspaper collage "Bouteille et guitare sur une table" fetched $574,500.

      Sales of U.S. paintings were buoyant. U.S. Impressionists remained the liveliest segment of the market, with works by Childe Hassam and Mary Cassatt fetching prices from $800,000 to $4 million. "In the Box" by Cassatt set an auction record for an oil painting by the artist, commanding $4 million. John LaFarge's "Paradise Valley" sold for a record $2.2 million. John Singer Sargent's "Capri Girl" made $4.8 million, and Maxfield Parrish's "Daybreak" sold for $4.3 million. At regional auction houses, works by Southern painters continued to rise in value, with Alexander Drysdale and Alice R.H. Smith leading the way.

      While Old Masters did not elicit much excitement, "The Fall of Man" by Hendrick Goltzius made $1.5 million, and Canaletto's "A View of the Rialto Bridge" sold for $2 million. Among 19th-century art, Jean-François Millet's "La Cardeuse" fetched $3.1 million, and James Tissot's "Preparing for the Gala" brought $1.8 million.

      Latin-American art sales were lacklustre owing to the dearth of important work and a buyer's market. Frida Kahlo's "Los cuatro habitantes de México," 1937, was a hard sell at $882,500. Rufino Tamayo's "Pájaros" went for $288,500, but the best Tamayo on the market, "Danza de la alegriá," failed to sell.

      Sales of British paintings pointed to signs of a recovery tempered with continuing selectivity. Christie's single-owner collection of the Marquess of Bute marked the summer's high; the sale totaled £10.7 million. At Sotheby's, William Hogarth's "The Jones Family Conversation Piece" was spared the hammer in a private treaty sale to the National Museums and Galleries of Wales for the greatly reduced sum of £425,000.

      Fine prints saw an active upturn, but prices did not rise across the board, and bargains were still to be found. Cassatt's "Woman Bathing" was the season's star, making $321,500. Among Modernists, Marc Chagall's "Four Tales from the Arabian Nights" brought $376,500. Contemporary prints struggled on, with Jasper John's "Flags1" peaking at $57,000.

      Swan's in New York reported its strongest photography sale in its history. Two early-20th-century travel albums earned $23,000, more than four times the estimate. Sotheby's played to the high end of the market with a whole-plate daguerreotype portrait of a Boston surgeon, which made $96,000. Christie's sale of André Kertesz's "Fork" brought $90,500.

      For the first six months of the year, Sotheby's reported earnings of $786 million, and Christie's reported $739 million. (REGINA GALGANO KOLBE)

ANTIQUARIAN BOOKS
      Interest in books and manuscripts remained strong in 1996, with private collectors constituting the majority of the buyers and thereby ensuring continuous recirculation of rare and valuable goods. At Christie's, German Florilegium of the 17th Century, a manuscript depicting 398 flowers, was sold for its high estimate of $229,000. Leonhard Baldner's Rechts natürliche Beschreibung und Abmahlung der Wasservögel, Fischen, Vierfissign Thier, Inseckten und Gerwin . . . (1666-67), depicting the natural history of the Strasbourg region, commanded $137,200. Biblia Pauperum, a rediscovered block book forgotten since 1897, sold for £240,000, while a previously unrecorded fragment of an aria by Mozart brought $120,200. A Louisiana Purchase Proclamation from the library of Mrs. Charles W. Englehard sold for $772,000 in a postauction private sale.

      At Sotheby's the 12-volume Le Grande Atlas of 1667 by Willem and Jan Blaeu of the Netherlands commanded $255,000. The Pierre Joseph Redouté "triplets"—Lilacées, 1802-16; Roses, 1817-24; and Choix des plus belle fleurs, 1827-33—fetched $585,000. The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis estate sale contained 3,000 volumes. The most expensive book, John F. Kennedy's copy of a U.S. Government Printing Office printing of Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States, featuring Kennedy's handwritten notations to his own speech, sold for $134,500. Kennedy's copy of the 1961 Encyclopædia Britannica World Atlas with presentation leaf from publisher William Benton, estimated at $400-$600, brought $40,250. Albert Einstein's 1912 autograph manuscript on his theory of relativity, estimated at $4 million to $6 million, sold privately for substantially more than the low estimate.

      California Book Auctions sold the 1901 first issue of Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit for $42,000. At Pacific Book Auction Galleries, George Catlin's American Indian Portfolio, Hunting Scenes and Amusements of the Rocky Mountains and Prairies fetched $88,000. Felix Paul Wierzbicki's California as It Is, and as It May Be; or A Guide to the Gold Region (1849), the first book in English printed in California, commanded $60,500—more than double its presale estimate.

      At F. Drölling in Hamburg, Ger., the highest price was reached for the collection of views by Luca Carlevaris, Le fabriche, et vedute di Venezia (1703), which went for $23,300. Among atlases, Neuer Weltatlas (Nürnberg, 1712) sold for $22,000.

      (REGINA GALGANO KOLBE)

PHILATELY
      During 1996 stamp collectors and enthusiasts were offered several chances to view outstanding displays of philatelic items. Collectors attending the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga., were treated to a free exhibit, OLYMPHILEX '96, which showcased more than 17,000 pages of Olympic and sports stamps offered since 1896. The event, also known as the World Olympic and Sports Stamp Exhibition, was held July 19-August 3. Britain's Queen Elizabeth II gave permission for selections of the Royal Philatelic Collection—which was started by King George V and remained the personal property of the monarchy—to be shown in public other than at major international philatelic exhibitions. In addition to the customary display at the first meeting of the Royal Philatelic Society, London, over 100 pages of the 1837 Treasury Essays were seen at the autumn STAMPEX in London. A major portion of the Mauritius issues in the Royal Collection from the major 1847 "Post Office" rarities were on view at London's National Postal Museum.

      Active buying by senior collectors ensured a healthy market for rare stamps and postal history items. A Hawaii 1852 13-cent blue on cover sold for $286,000, while a Portugal 1853 100-reis lilac, mint pair commanded $235,580. A France 1869 five-franc gray-violet "Laureated," mint block of 30 fetched $118,500, and British stamps, overprinted with a swastika and the date "1940" but not issued by German occupation forces in Jersey, Channel Islands, made £19,900 for a set of 15 different values. The high point of the year came in November with the sale of the Treskilling Yellow. The tiny Swedish stamp, originally issued in the 1850s, sold at auction in Zürich for Sw F 2.9 million ($2.3 million). It was the most ever paid for a stamp and was $1 million more than its previous sale price, in 1990.

      The Marshall Islands offered a set of stamps to mark the 50th anniversary of U.S. atomic weapons testing on Bikini atoll. The U.S. Postal Service introduced a number of souvenir stamps to commemorate the Centennial Olympic Games. Also issued in the U.S. were commemorative stamps honouring the Smithsonian Institution's 150th anniversary, Utah's 100-year statehood, and Hollywood legend James Dean. Some 32-cent memorial stamps featuring Pres. Richard Nixon were found inverted; the first one auctioned went for $16,675.

      Philatelic history was made in June when the 127-year-old Royal Philatelic Society elected Jane Moubray its first woman president. (KENNETH F. CHAPMAN)

NUMISMATICS
      On March 25, 1996, the U.S. Federal Reserve System began issuing series 1996 100-dollar notes that featured the most sweeping design changes in U.S. paper money since 1929. Among other distinctions, each new note included a watermark, colour-shifting ink, and an enlarged, off-centre portrait, elements expected to make greenbacks more difficult to counterfeit. Although U.S. Treasury officials made reassurances that older 100-dollar notes would not be demonetized, fears of a recall were widespread in Russia, where some traders charged extra to handle them. Federal Reserve notes were the world's best-known currency, with up to $140 billion circulating inside the U.S. and about $250 billion abroad.

      The Swiss National Bank unveiled a 20-franc note, the second denomination in a series of high-tech designs. The ultramodern note carried more than 20 security features and had an embossed square at one end to aid the blind.

      The coin-auction market set records in 1996 as some of the world's greatest rarities were sold. In May a Kansas City, Mo., dealer paid $1,485,000 for a 1913 Liberty nickel—one of five known—the highest price ever realized for a U.S. coin at public auction. The sale also included a unique 1873 Carson City, Nev., silver dime without arrows at the date, which brought $550,000, a record for a U.S. dime, and a 1796 "no pole" half cent for $506,000, a record for a U.S. copper coin.

      In other sales at auction, a 1943 Lincoln cent made in Denver, Colo., on a bronze planchet brought $82,500 in May, a record for a U.S. Lincoln cent, and an ancient Roman coin—a gold aureus of Saturninus—brought £264,000 in a July London sale, possibly a record for a coin of ancient Rome. Meanwhile, the city of Omaha, Neb., sold part of its Byron Reed collection for $6.1 million in October. The proceeds would be used to renovate the museum that housed the remainder of the collection. At year's end a 1907 U.S. Saint-Gaudens 20-dollar piece—with Roman numerals and ultrahigh relief—sold for $825,000, a record auction price for a gold coin.

      The U.S. economy generated heavy demand for hard money, and 1996 coin production was expected to exceed the record 19.8 billion pieces made in 1995. Experts predicted that the Bureau of Engraving and Printing would create about 10 billion Federal Reserve notes during the year, a total that included the first two-dollar bills printed since the late 1970s. Among other items, the U.S. Mint sold to collectors 16 coin types commemorating the 1996 Atlanta Centennial Olympic Games and gold and silver pieces honouring the 150th anniversary of the Smithsonian Institution. The U.S. Congress approved legislation that would replace the Washington quarter with 50 circulating commemorative coins, one for each state. The treasury secretary had to conduct a feasibility study and approve the program before coins could be made.

      In February Canada began replacing its two-dollar note with a bimetallic coin made with a core of aluminum and bronze and an outer ring of nickel. The Royal Canadian Mint received reports that the core had fallen out of several coins, but mint officials reported that the separated coins they examined had been mutilated. Canada expected to save Can$250 million in production costs over 20 years because coins would last much longer in circulation than bills. The U.K. issued a five-pound coin commemorating the 70th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II on April 21. Australia circulated a 100-dollar note made of plastic, completing a series of five plastic notes that were more durable and harder to counterfeit than paper money. (ROGER BOYE)

      This article updates coin.

COLLECTIBLES
      The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis sale was the antiques and collectibles media event of the year. Costume jewelry worn by Onassis sold for 80-90 times the presale estimates. A faux diamond and coloured-stone necklace and earrings estimated at $1,000-$1,500 brought $90,500. Her signature faux pearls sold for $211,500, while her sterling silver Tiffany tape measure fetched $48,875. The golf clubs and bag belonging to her first husband, Pres. John F. Kennedy, brought $772,500. Other presidential memorabilia sold at high, but not unexpected, prices. The desk used when the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty was signed realized $1.4 million. The president's two oak rocking chairs brought $442,500 and $453,500. (See Art Auctions and Sales (Art, Antiques, and Collections ).) These prices fell in the same range as presidential items sold at other auctions during the year. Pres. George Washington's upholstered walnut chair from Mt. Vernon sold for $341,000, and his cut velvet jacket and vest coat brought $577,500.

      Trade cards (advertising cards) from the 19th and early 20th centuries continued to rise in price, many selling for over $50 each. Designer-made furniture from the 1960s and '70s sold well in the U.S. and Europe, and American "fantasy" silver continued to sell at higher-than-expected prices.

      Although there was major collector interest in high-style Victorian, Western, Art Deco, and 1950s-style furniture, most record prices were realized for 18th-century and Arts and Crafts pieces. A record $3.6 million was paid for a Queen Anne block and shell-carved mahogany kneehole desk (c. 1780). A mahogany bonnet-topped secretary bookcase by Edward Jackson of Boston (c. 1740) brought $1.4 million. A slant-front desk made by John Shearer of Virginia (c. 1816) sold for a record $110,000, and a Newport, R.I., mahogany dressing table with carved shell (c. 1750) and attributed to John Goddard brought $310,500. Records were set for 20th-century furniture, including $9,350 for a Roycroft bookshelf, $12,100 for a flat-armed Morris chair by Gustav Stickley, and $8,625 for an L. & J.G. Stickley paddle-arm Morris chair. Other important furniture sales included $140,000 for a red-orange painted Shaker blanket box (c. 1848) and $96,800 for a David Wood Federal shelf clock made in Newburyport, Mass.

      Art pottery sales remained strong. An unusual collection of Van Briggle pottery made before 1920 brought high prices for damaged as well as perfect pieces. A blue "Birds in Flight" vase sold for $4,070, while a brown "Two Bears" vase realized $4,675. A North Dakota School of Mines vase with a decoration of tepees in a landscape brought $3,080. A Rockwood iris vase by Carl Schmidt fetched $41,800, and a 69-cm (27-in) Weller glossy Hudson vase sold for $21,850. A rare 12-cm (5-in) Losanti vase brought $12,100. Mettlach steins sold well at auction; No. 2494 brought $3,630, No. 2074 realized $3,080, and No. 2824 commanded $7,150. Several pieces of Nippon set records, notably a 47-cm (18 1/2-in) green and gold urn and a cobalt and gold tankard decorated with roses at $7,700 and $2,420, respectively.

      Lamps with glass shades continued to climb in value. A Handel Poppy lamp brought $55,000. Three Pairpoint "puffies" sold well: a begonia lamp for $35,200, a lilac tree lamp for $55,000, and a rose bonnet lamp for $44,000. Prices for rare 19th-century bottles remained high; a record $40,250 was paid for a sapphire blue Taylor-Cornstalk portrait flask by Baltimore Glass Works. One of the high-priced metal pieces was a Dirk Van Erp red warty vase, which went for $9,350, while a Roycroft hammered copper cylindrical vase brought $2,310.

      The baseball card market remained stagnant, but old or rare cards and memorabilia still sold. A postal worker won the famous Honus Wagner card and auctioned it for a record $640,500. A U.S.-made Willie Dunn's Stars and Stripes gutty golf ball sold for $28,600. Toys and dolls continued their 30-year escalation in price. Mickey Mouse, Popeye, celebrity-related, and space toys and dolls all sold well. A tin lithographed Mickey Mouse mechanical bank set a record at $36,850. A 1930s Shirley Temple doll in a Texas Ranger costume, made by Ideal Toy, fetched $5,880, and a plastic Madame Alexander 1957 Infant of Prague doll sold for $56,100. The Calamity iron mechanical bank showing three football players brought $44,000. (RALPH AND TERRY KOVEL)

      This article updates coin; painting, history of (painting, Western); photography (photography, history of); sculpture, history of (Western sculpture).

▪ 1996

Introduction

Overview
      In 1995 the world of fine art and antiques was highlighted by the exhibition of 74 paintings, including many major "lost" Impressionist works, at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. Degas's "Place de la Concorde" was perhaps the most notable of the paintings from German collections believed lost or destroyed during World War II and hidden in Russia for the past 50 years. The fate of these paintings—the subject of ongoing litigation—brought to international attention the issue of ownership of works that were stolen during the war. (See Sidebar (COLLECTIBLES: Plundering Art ).)

      The major international auction houses posted annual earnings that pointed to a healthy art market, though one not as robust as that of the frenetic 1980s. At the annual spring Impressionist, modern, and contemporary sales in New York City, collectors posted record bids for several works. Two paintings from Christie's May sale of the Ralph and Georgia Colin collection established record prices at auction for two artists; Modigliani's "Nu assis au collier" went for $12.4 million, and Miró's "La Poetesse" sold for $4.7 million. Latin-American paintings from the IBM collection set records at Sotheby's in May. A rare Blue Period portrait by Picasso, from the collection of Donald and Jean Stralem, "Angel Fernandez de Soto," brought $29.2 million (the highest price for a painting at auction since 1990).

      London's big June auctions matched the cautious optimism seen earlier in New York, with strong contemporary sales. Francis Bacon's "Study for a Portrait of John Edwards" fetched £ 1.2 million—the first contemporary work to command such a high price in London since 1990.

      International art fairs and shows continued to flourish. The Whitney Biennial and Venice Biennale garnered particular attention. The Whitney show—widely expected to return to traditional displays after a 1993 exhibit was lambasted as too radical—mixed the radical and the traditional; while one installation relied heavily on doughnuts, other, more standard works were also in evidence.

      Two major events in Germany were the wrapping of the Reichstag in silver fabric by artist Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude (see BIOGRAPHIES (Christo and Jeanne-Claude )), and, in October, Sotheby's 15-day auction of 25,000 objects from the collection of the Margrave of Baden.

      In June the collectibles market showed particular vigour. At Christie's in New York City, the white polyester suit worn by John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever commanded a record $145,500, making it the most expensive film costume ever sold.

      (REBECCA KNAPP)

ART EXHIBITIONS
      By 1995 the digital chip and CD-ROM—technologies not usually associated with art exhibitions—were promising to usurp the role of audio headsets in prerecorded tours and to provide innovative features that could change the way museums and works of art were perceived.

      Since 1993 a number of art museums and galleries had offered handheld "wands" that allowed visitors to listen to commentaries about various displays or to access interactive computer stations to receive additional information at random and in greater or less detail, as desired. These and other developing technologies inevitably ignited a debate whether the technology was being used as an educational tool or seen as an end in itself. Though some feared that the technology could distract from the objects on view, to others the new horizons opened by technology promised exciting developments.

      In New York City the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum mounted a retrospective of German artist Georg Baselitz that demonstrated some new possibilities. Many of the show's 100 paintings were labeled with codes that matched recordings by various commentators, including observations by the artist. Visitors could rent a "soundtrack," a telephone-like wand, and selectively listen to these comments by entering the appropriate code. A diverse group of museum patrons with different tastes, backgrounds, or interests could gain differing, and perhaps more appropriate, appreciations of Baselitz' figurative paintings and inverted canvases.

      Permanent museum and gallery collections were making use of new technology as well. The National Gallery in London offered for rental a portable CD-ROM player with recorded comments on works in the permanent collection. The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., opened a Micro Gallery, which featured computer terminals with touch screens. Visitors could access information about the museum's collection (organized by subject, period, artist, or geography) and make use of sound, pictures, and text. After the Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University, Atlanta, Ga., developed a "virtual museum" on the Internet, larger numbers of patrons were able to "visit" by using home-based computer technology.

      Art created on computers was a popular subject of discussion. Though such art appeared mostly in private galleries rather than in public museums, the tide was shifting as new opportunities offered by digital technology intrigued artists, curators, and visitors. The Institute of Contemporary Arts in London held a series of shows and talks devoted to computer art entitled "Access All Areas: Visions of the Future."

      In September at the Serpentine Gallery in London, an exhibition entitled "The Maybe" offered fuel for the perennial debate "What is art?" Enormous publicity brought more than 20,000 people in one week to the show, which featured possessions of famous personalities from the past and a Sleeping Beauty-like display. Artist Cornelia Parker and actress Tilda Swinton collaborated on the exhibit, which showcased Swinton lying in repose in a glass box for eight hours per day. This display attracted far more attention than such inanimate objects as a 50-year-old cigar that had belonged to Winston Churchill, a quill pen that had been used by Charles Dickens, or ice skates that had been owned by the late Duchess of Windsor. The show demonstrated how performance art—though lacking in paint, canvas, design, colour, or line—could stimulate emotional response as thoroughly as conventional visual art. But many asked nonetheless if it was art.

      Conventional shows proliferated, especially those devoted to the Impressionists and dealing with familiar themes. Paul Cézanne was the subject of a comprehensive exhibition, the first large show of his work in 60 years, on view at the Grand Palais in Paris and then at the Tate Gallery in London. In 1996 the exhibit would travel to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The London show included nearly 100 of about 800 known paintings by Cézanne as well as about 60 watercolours and drawings borrowed from public and private collections worldwide. Two of the three paintings from his "Bathers" series were on loan from the National Gallery in London and the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the third canvas, belonging to the Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pa., was not part of the exhibition. Although smaller shows mounted in the 1970s and '80s explored specific aspects of Cézanne's work, this was the largest show to allow a full study of his influence, genius, and evolution as an artist.

      "Impressionism in Britain," an exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery in London and later mounted in Dublin, included more than 200 works by 100 artists and covered works painted in Britain by visiting French artists and Impressionist paintings created by British artists. Such French artists as Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, and Camille and Lucien Pissarro were represented. Works by English painters influenced by Impressionism formed a less coherent stylistic group. The works of Wilson Steer and Laura Knight were featured, along with a section devoted to American painter James McNeill Whistler and his followers.

      An exhibition entitled "Landscapes of France: Impressionism and Its Rivals" was mounted at the Hayward Gallery in London and later traveled to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The show illustrated styles ranging from the academic mode of the 1860s to the more abstract and colourful Pont-Aven school of the 1880s. Many of the works, which were on loan from French regional museums, showed the wide divergence between officially sanctioned art and that of the more avant garde. The Impressionists were represented by such artists as Sisley, Berthe Morisot, Monet, and eventually Cézanne.

      A major Monet exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago was the most comprehensive retrospective ever held of the artist's work and drew record crowds to the museum during its stay (July 22-November 26). The assemblage included 161 masterpieces drawn from private and public collections around the globe.

      One of the lesser-known Impressionists, Gustave Caillebotte, was the subject of a retrospective at the Grand Palais, Paris, that was later shown at the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition included a number of works from U.S. museums, including the 1877 "Paris Street: Rainy Day," owned by the Art Institute.

      An exhibition devoted to the work of Pierre-Auguste Renoir was seen in a number of Australian cities. The exhibit, which began in the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, in mid-1994, traveled to the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne before closing in early 1995 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. The works, which included 51 paintings and one sculpture, were part of European and American collections and covered most of the major aspects of the artist's career. An Australian show comprising more than 150 works by Henri Matisse was on view at the Australian National Gallery, Canberra, and the National Gallery of Victoria. The exhibition, which was on loan, included items drawn from collections throughout the world. It was the first antipodean show devoted to Matisse.

      Whistler, who spent most of his life in England, was the subject of a comprehensive exhibition at the Tate late in 1994. The show, which encompassed the entire range of Whistler's life and work—drawings in several different mediums, paintings, and examples of decorative schemes—was also mounted at the Orsay Museum in Paris and at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Whistler's famous portraits were well represented and familiar, but some of his later paintings, including some splendid examples of fireworks, were less well-known. One of these, "Nocturne in Black and Gold: The falling rocket," came under such harsh criticism by John Ruskin when it was first exhibited (1877) in London that Whistler filed and won a celebrated lawsuit for libel.

      "Whistler and Japan," an exhibition at the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., focused on Whistler's works in the museum's own collections and the Japanese influence on his work during the 1860s and '70s. The Freer Gallery works—never loaned—were therefore not among the paintings represented in the large Whistler show.

      A number of interesting shows concentrated on manuscript illumination. Italian book illustration was the focus of an exhibition in London at the Royal Academy of Arts and later on view in New York City at the Pierpont Morgan Library. The show, entitled "The Painted Page: Italian Renaissance Book Illustration 1450-1550," included 137 superb examples covering such diverse themes as classical and humanist texts, liturgical and biblical manuscripts, and patrons of the Italian Renaissance. The show, which was organized by subject rather than chronologically, encompassed a very wide range of beautiful objects and covered a subject less well-known than other examples of Italian Renaissance painting.

      Some 100 items, including painted panels and manuscript illuminations, were included in the exhibition "Painting and Illumination in Early Renaissance Florence" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Illuminated manuscripts were also displayed in a series of exhibitions at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, Calif. One show running in late winter and early spring featured animal mythology and included illustrations of fables and games.

      "The Art of Devotion" at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam comprised 44 works—paintings, prints, books, sculpture, and objects in gold and silver—some of which were borrowed from foreign collections. Most were made in monasteries to be used by monks for private devotion and were therefore relatively small. Most of the images and objects, which dated from 1300 to 1500, were portable, and a series of miniature prints could easily be carried within the pages of a book. Objects from the show were displayed in darkened rooms and illuminated in isolated cases that were lit in such a way that the contents seemed to float in space.

      An exhibition devoted to the 15th-century Flemish artist Hans Memling was enormously popular when it was shown in late 1994 in Bruges, Belgium. The show consisted of 88 paintings (nearly half were attributed to Memling) and a subsidiary exhibition comprising textiles, manuscripts, and goldwork from this period. Aside from Memling's works, there were copies of lost works and works by his predecessors, followers, and contemporaries. The Louvre, Paris, also held a show celebrating Memling's quincentenary, with an exhibition drawn from French museums and pieces loaned from Italian and Dutch collections.

      An exhibition focusing on 16th-century French drawings from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris was shown there and later at both the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard University and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The show featured glasswork, silver work, and examples of decorative architectural projects. Though the emphasis of the show was on the school of Fontainebleau, there were many works by little-known artists, including some exquisite miniatures. Architectural drawings also were well represented.

      An exhibition, "The Italian Metamorphosis, 1943-1968," at the Guggenheim Museum was devoted to Italian art after World War II. More than 1,000 items drawn from this seminal era of Italian art and covering an important period in Italian history included objects related to photography, crafts, fashion, and film. Parallels were drawn between the works of such filmmakers as Luchino Visconti, Roberto Rossellini, and Vittorio De Sica and images created in the other arts, including the designs of both Fiat, the Italian automobile manufacturer, and architect Gio Ponti.

      The exhibition also noted, through the work of such artists as Alberto Burri and Lucio Fontana, the important influence of the Futurism movement, which emphasized the power of the machine and the restlessness of modern life in general. The show highlighted the inventive and sometimes experimental use in both painting and sculpture of such everyday material as industrial-waste products and wire mesh.

      The paintings and sculptures of the period, somewhat unusually, were probably less well-known, particularly outside Italy, than the designs and fashions. A notable aspect of the exhibition, which was also seen in Milan and Wolfsburg, Germany, was the way in which the duality of Italian modern art was expressed in its modern form, frequently relying on images from past artistic history, events, myths, or recollections.

      The main summer exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London was devoted to the history of the Wedgwood factory and the English stoneware produced by Josiah Wedgwood and his colleagues. The show, "The Genius of Wedgwood," commemorated the 200th anniversary of his death and included important items on loan from the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, notably dinner pieces from the Frog Service, which was made for Catherine the Great. It was only the second time (the other was in 1909) that the Frog Service had been shown in England since it was commissioned in 1773. The wares in the exhibition were limited to those produced by Wedgwood's factory before his death in 1795.

      The bicentenary of Wedgwood's death also was marked by an exhibition at the City Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent, England. "Josiah Wedgwood: The Man and his Mark" featured 195 pieces of Wedgwood drawn from public and private collections as well as works by Wedgwood's competitors and contemporaries. In Melbourne, the National Gallery of Victoria displayed "Three Centuries of Wedgwood."

      The marking of 100 years of trade between Japan and Brazil was recognized in an exhibition at the Fuji Art Museum in Tokyo. The show consisted of a collection of paintings on loan from the Museum of Art in São Paolo, Brazil, and included works by El Greco, Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin, and Vincent van Gogh.

      In Ljubljana, Slovenia, a large show, which opened in three separate venues in May, gathered the important examples of Gothic art from 1250 to 1450. Paintings, sculptures, and manuscripts were shown in the National Art Gallery, the minor arts were housed in the National Museum, and conservation techniques and materials and architecture appeared at the Cekinov Grad. The show covered cultural links with Italy and northern Europe, social history, and patronage.

      At the Hermitage, "Hidden Treasures Revealed" showed 74 works, including ones by Picasso and Edgar Degas, that had been removed from Germany at the end of World War II and since hidden in the museum. (See Sidebar (COLLECTIBLES: Plundering Art ).)

      (SANDRA MILLIKIN)

PHOTOGRAPHY
      The purchase in 1995 of the huge Bettmann Archive by software billionaire Bill Gates underscored a potentially revolutionary trend taking place in museums, archives, and libraries: the conversion of visual images to digitized form for electronic storage, access, and distribution. Gates's privately owned company, Corbis Corp., also had acquired electronic rights to 500,000 images, including work from individual photographers and art from the National Gallery of London, the Philadelphia Museum, and the Barnes Foundation. The Bettmann Archive—established in the 1930s by Otto L. Bettmann, who fled to New York from Hitler's Germany with $5 in cash and two steamer trunks of images on 35-mm film—now housed some 16 million images that, taken together, constituted an unmatched visual chronicle of the 20th century. The acquisition of this collection placed Gates at the forefront of photographic image digitization for use by new electronic imaging and communications technologies.

      An exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, Calif., "Vision in Motion: The Photographs of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy," celebrated the centennial of the birth of this protean photographer, painter, filmmaker, and designer, who had powerfully influenced modern art in Europe and the United States between World Wars I and II. Some 50 vintage photograms (camera images and photographic collages made in Germany between 1923 and 1930) displayed his dynamic structures disciplined by elegant formalism.

      "An American Century of Photography from Dry Point to Digital" traveled to several venues and surveyed a familiar field but gave an unusually fresh and lively historical look at American photography from the mid 1880s to the early 1990s. More than 300 works, including many rare, less well-known, or virtually forgotten images, were selected from the notable Hallmark Photographic Collection of some 2,600 prints taken by 400 photographers.

      Another traveling exhibition, "The Garden of Earthly Delights: Photographs by Edward Weston and Robert Mapplethorpe," provoked controversy with its pairings for comparison of 82 prints by these two photographers. Though each artist was a rebel and a sensualist, some questioned whether they shared a common vision, as the exhibition seemed to suggest. Some critics, however, found a striking commonality of perception and style in the paired portraits, nudes, and erotic shapes of plant life. Others found the attempt superficial and unconvincing, arguing that the photographic genres for which each man was famous—landscapes for Weston and homoerotic images for Mapplethorpe—were too unalike for paired comparison.

      "Dirty Windows," an exhibition by Merry Alpern, tested the limits of artistic expression, with photographs that some felt bordered on the merely sensational or pornographic. By photographing across an air shaft through the grimy window of a Manhattan sex-club bathroom, Alpern framed anonymous yet startling fragments showing sexual encounters and drug transactions taking place there. Though her project was selected to receive a grant by a peer-review panel of the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Council on the Arts, which reviews such recommendations, rejected it. Collectors, galleries, and leading museums were quick to acquire her pictures, however, which also appeared in book form.

      News of a rare daguerreotype unveiled by Sotheby's created a stir among collectors and aficionados of such works. Made in 1846 and tentatively attributed to early American photographer John Plumbe, Jr., the half-plate daguerreotype depicts the U.S. Capitol building with the Bullfinch-designed dome that replaced the original destroyed by fire during the War of 1812. Rumoured to have been purchased in the 1960s for about $5, it was estimated by Sotheby's to be worth between $100,000 and $150,000.

      The 1995 Pulitzer Prize for spot news photography was awarded to Carol Guzy of the Washington (D.C.) Post for her series of photographs illustrating the Haitian crisis. For their coverage of Rwanda, the Pulitzer for feature photography went to four Associated Press photographers: Jacqueline Artz, Javier Bauluz, Jean-Marc Bouju, and Karsten Thielker. At the 52nd Annual Pictures of the Year Competition sponsored by the National Press Photographers Association and the University of Missouri School of Journalism, James Nachtwey (see BIOGRAPHIES (Nachtwey, James )) of Time magazine/Magnum Photos was named Magazine Photographer of the Year, while Michael Williamson of the Washington Post took the title of Newspaper Photographer of the Year. At the 38th Annual World Press Photo contest, the World Press Photo of the Year award was given to Nachtwey. The primary W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography went to Russian photographer Vladimir Syomin for his ongoing documentation of life in areas of Russia left untouched by industrial development. A secondary grant went to Fabio Ponzio of Rome so he could continue photographing life in Eastern Europe for his project "The Other Europe."

      Alfred Eisenstaedt, one of Life magazine's first four photographers and probably the most famous photojournalist of the 20th century, died at age 96. (See OBITUARIES (Eisenstaedt, Alfred ).) "Eisie," as he was known to friends and associates, left a memorable montage of evocative photographs that chronicled his early years in Weimar Germany and Hitler's Third Reich, World War II, and postwar life in the U.S.

      (ARTHUR GOLDSMITH)

ART AUCTIONS AND SALES
      The recovery from a five-year market slump finally arrived in 1995. In 1990 art prices, in response to a worldwide recession and an overheated, speculative market, had dropped precipitously and remained at low levels.

      Although spotty evidence of a comeback could be seen in some collecting areas as early as mid-1994, sales were relatively lacklustre for most of that year. Even so, many market observers predicted an imminent recovery based on improving economic conditions and a growing demand for high-quality works of art.

      During the spring and summer of 1995, a series of unusually successful public sales pointed, at last, to a substantial recovery. A cooperating economy drew collectors back into the market at a time when an abundance of fresh, high-priced pictures was emerging.

      The Impressionist and modern art market consistently strengthened, fueled by some of the most exciting and important offerings in years. In May, Sotheby's and Christie's, major international auction houses, each offered important single-owner sales. The extraordinarily fine collection of Donald and Jean Stralem at Sotheby's and the estate of Ralph and Georgia Colin at Christie's tempted collectors with rare opportunities that they enthusiastically embraced.

      The Stralems' major Picasso portrait "Angel Fernandez de Soto," from his Blue Period, brought a startling $29.2 million, well above the expected $10 million-$20 million, placing it among the 10 most expensive paintings ever sold at auction. At the same sale, Matisse's "La Pose hindoue" provoked intense bidding and resulted in a $14.9 million sale, a new record for the painter. From the Colin estate, Modigliani's superb seated nude, "Nu assis au collier," reached $12.4 million, a record price for the artist.

      At another spring sale at Christie's, a portrait by van Gogh, "Jeune Homme à la casquette," commanded $13.2 million, well above the $7 million-$9 million estimate. It was the first portrait by van Gogh auctioned since Christie's sold "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" for $82.5 million in 1990. When the Neoclassical Picasso "Mère et enfant" of Pamela Harriman, the U.S. ambassador to France, brought $11.9 million (a sum considerably higher than an unpublished estimate of $7 million-$10 million), some viewed the sale as a gauge of market strength.

      Monet's "La Cathédrale de Rouen: effet d'après-midi," unseen publicly since 1924 and, by all accounts, a stunning example of his work, went to a collector for $12.1 million at a Christie's London sale in June.

      Art of the 19th century, which had been spared the worst ravages of the market slump in 1990, continued a steady upward spiral that, according to some, had begun as early as 1992. Romantic pictures that were executed with technical perfection continued to find enthusiastic buyers willing to pay good prices.

      Sotheby's May sale of 19th-century paintings fetched a respectable $18.7 million, but its specialty sale, La Belle Epoque, was not as successful. Price records were set for a large number of artists, however, and the top works sold well. James Tissot's "Le Printemps" brought $1.1 million, and a portrait by Jules Bastien-Lepage of Sarah Bernhardt went to an American buyer for $706,500.

      Christie's sold a late work by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, "The Finding of Moses." Although somewhat atypical of the artist's best work, it found a buyer for $2.8 million. Tissot's appealing portrait of his mistress, Kathleen Newton, created considerable interest and sold for $2.5 million.

      Beginning in late 1994 and continuing into 1995, both dealers and buyers cheerfully noted the sudden influx of high-quality American paintings. Buyers, who had been anticipating the moment that the market would change, responded with high bids. "A sudden match of supply and demand," quipped one New York dealer. Realists applauded the number of exceptional works while recognizing that the cache of such stellar art would continue to dwindle.

      Sotheby's also sold a number of works that had been part of the IBM collection. Frank Weston Benson's "The Sisters," a charming portrait of the artist's two daughters playing beside a lake, commanded a stunning $4.2 million. An unusually fine George Bellows, "Easter Snow (Easter Sunday)," brought $2.8 million, and "Diamond Shoal," the last dated watercolour by Winslow Homer, fetched a record $1.8 million.

      Christie's, whose sales of American pictures increased by 37% in 1995, sold Frederick Frieseke's "Garden in June" for $937,500, much higher than the estimate of $350,000-$450,000.

      Contemporary art, which, along with Impressionism, was hardest hit by the 1990 decline in art sales, showed a less spectacular recovery. Nonetheless, many considered the market strong but complained about the scarcity of available great works; many of the high-priced stars of the 1980s were conspicuously absent.

      Sotheby's realized the highest price for a contemporary work when it sold Bacon's "Study for a Portrait of John Edwards" to a European collector for £1.2 million. It was the first painting to be sold in London for more than £1 million in almost five years. Other notable sales were Yves Klein's "IKB 103," which went for $369,000, considerably higher than the expected $127,000-$159,000, and Lucio Fontana's 1965 "Concetto spaziale attese," which brought $682,000.

      The market for fine prints echoed the one for paintings; top examples brought top dollar, while lesser works saw little increase over previous years. Notable sales included a large Maurice Prendergast monotype, "Figures in the Park," which was energetically bid up at Christie's to $244,500—more than double the presale estimate. The contemporary art of Jasper Johns, Frank Stella, and Andy Warhol also commanded good prices.

      British watercolours and drawings had remained strong relative to other markets during the previous five years. Sales of early British watercolours, generally considered the domain of connoisseurs, suffered from a dearth of quality in an area in which condition was critical. For rare and outstanding examples, buyers paid high prices. Sotheby's sale of Samuel Palmer's "A Cornfield, Shoreham at Twilight" fetched $256,490, double its presale estimate. Pleasant Victorian genre pictures continued to find a broader popular market.

      Early in the year, Old Master sales received a boost when Sotheby's sold the New-York Historical Society's impressive collection, and Christie's offered works from the collections of both Alice Tully and Rudolf Nureyev. Crowded sales rooms reflected an interest rarely seen in Old Master sales, and the bidding matched the excitement. The auspicious beginnings did not carry over to the spring sales, which failed to confirm a trend.

      At the end of a successful season (August 1994-July 1995), Sotheby's reported sales of $1,480,000,000, up 7% over the previous season. Christie's sold $1,410,000,000, an increase of 20%. The first half of 1995 was even more promising, with Sotheby's and Christie's reporting advances of 20% and 23%, respectively.

      Art dealers and others in the trade generally agreed that the nature of the art market was considerably different from that of the high-flying 1980s. The "autograph collectors" and investment speculators had left the market, buyer confidence had returned to a preslump level, and a more sophisticated and selective market had emerged.

      (JOHN HANLON)

ANTIQUARIAN BOOKS
      Steady but not spectacular performance defined the 1995 market for antiquarian books. With books and manuscripts having less accessibility to a broad market, their prices remained relatively stable, with fewer of the wrenching price movements seen in other collecting areas.

      Still, big names inspired big prices in 1995 as new buyers interested in acquiring the works of famous authors entered the market in increasing numbers. Previously active collectors, who had curbed their buying in the early 1990s while recovering from personal financial reversals, were beginning to buy once more. Money seemed readily available for top-quality lots, but a plethora of other material kept prices down for less-than-great items.

      Christie's auction house reported a number of notable sales. Among them was the sale of George Washington's personal copy of the Acts of the First Congress (sessions 1-3), containing copies of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Treaty of Paris, and other legislative acts. It sold for an impressive $310,500. At the same sale, a second Madrid edition of Don Quixote was purchased for $85,000, nearly triple the estimated selling price, and a three-volume first edition of Herman Melville's The Whale (later titled Moby Dick) fetched $74,000. In April Winston Churchill's pre-1945 papers were sold by his family to the British government for £ 12.5 million in spite of protests that the writings already were the property of the government. Part of the purchase price was provided by an American philanthropist. A late 15th-century French translation of Giovanni Boccaccio's important De casibus virorum illustrium was bought for $200,500, just short of the low estimate.

      During the summer the auction giant Sotheby's conducted in London the second in a series of sales from the Otto Schafer collection. The lot, called "the most important collection of books assembled in Europe since the second World War," sold for $4.5 million.

      In another important single-owner sale, Sotheby's offered the 500-volume library of the 5th Earl of Rosebery, prime minister of England from 1894 to 1895. The London sale, estimated at $1.7 million, realized $2.4 million.

      The library of Sir Karl Popper, noted philosopher of science, was sold to the Republic of Austria and the state of Kärnten (Carinthia) in a private sale negotiated by Sotheby's. The collection contained Popper's annotated copies of his own work, letters to him from Albert Einstein, and antiquarian books.

      An early printing of Clement Moore's Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas, which was expected to bring $800 to $1,200, sold at Sotheby's for an astounding $29,900. Some felt that the sale of Moore's original manuscript for $255,500 just six months prior prompted the high price.

      Market observers speculated that continuing economic improvement and successful public sales were fueling a new interest in books and manuscripts as collectibles. Some, fearing a duplication of the market swings that had afflicted certain art markets, considered the prospect a mixed blessing. (JOHN HANLON)

PHILATELY
      Renewed efforts in Great Britain to promote stamp collecting among the general public included an initial donation of £ 60,000 from Royal Mail National to support the British Philatelic Trust's Strategic Plan, including the appointment of a full-time coordinator. Meanwhile, the 1995 market for major collections and single rarities of stamps and postal history continued to gain strength. In September, Royal Mail deepened its commitment by announcing that it was "championing" the international Stamp World exhibition that would be held at Earls Court, London, in the year 2000.

      In July the "Rare Stamps of the World" exhibition was held at Claridge's Hotel, London, and showcased exhibits from the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace, the National Postal Museum, and private collections from Britain, the U.S., and South Africa. Highlighted were the unique Swedish 3-skilling error of colour, a Mauritius 1847 1d "Post Office" on cover (sold late in 1993 for £900,000), and the Cape of Good Hope 1861 "Woodblock" 4d red error of colour.

      In May both Christie's and Sotheby's held auctions in Hong Kong, with respective sales totaling HK$13,151,035 (£ 1,051,914) and HK$5,273,555 (£421,817). Top prices included HK$735,000 (£ 58,790) for a Hong Kong 1882 2 cents rose (S.G. 32b—only six were known to exist) and HK$276,000 (£ 22,076) for a mint example of China's 8 fen Cultural Revolution stamp that was "prepared but not officially issued." This Far Eastern philatelic activity was followed in September by the first, and enormously successful, international stamp exhibition held in Singapore. It was there that the Feldman Group, based in Zürich, Switz., established David Feldman Pte. Ltd. to handle its fast-developing Far East business.

      In New York City, Sotheby's sold the Koenig collection of Mexico for $565,783; the 1921 10 centavos blue and brown inverted centre brought $25,300, three times the estimate. Sotheby's in London sold the famous France 1849 unused 40 centimes orange strip of five with retouched "4" on two stamps (ex-Ferrari) for a record £34,000, more than double the estimate. Collections sold in London by Phillips included the George Hollings Belgium for £ 164,012, double the estimate, and the R.P. Towers Grenada for £104,493.

      In London, Frank Staff's collection of Treasury Essays 1839-40 (the most extensive collection held in private hands) made £ 120,000 at Christie's. Included in that sale was a cover with both the black and red Chalmers essays, which brought £ 16,000. Cavendish Philatelic Auctions (Derby, England) sold Staff's philatelic ephemera and library for £ 172,700. Top price at that sale was a record £ 3,080 for a privately produced Valentine of 1805. Christie's in Zürich sold the Rudi Oppenheimer Bavaria collection for Sw F 1,178,925 (£624,830) and the second part of the Gary Ryan Hungary collection for Sw F 762,600 (£404,178). Outstanding individual items included the Bavarian entire letter franked with an 1862 1Kr yellow and 1Kr rose, which brought Sw F 11,500 (£6,097), and a single Hungary 1867 3Kr red error of colour, which fetched Sw F 63,250 (£33,536).

      The most remarkable "find" of the year was a House of Lords envelope, which was discovered between some worthless modern stationery that lined a dog basket. The envelope, which was addressed by the Duke of Wellington and postmarked Feb. 13, 1840, commanded £11,000 at Sotheby's in London.

      After serving 27 years as keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection, John Marriott retired in September and was knighted by the queen. He was succeeded by Charles Goodwyn, most recent past president of the Royal Philatelic Society, London. (KENNETH F. CHAPMAN)

NUMISMATICS
       Coin collectors searched their pocket change for 1995 Lincoln cents with doubled lettering on the "head side"—the most widely publicized U.S. Mint error in several years. Some dealers paid $150 or more for the coin soon after the mistake was discovered in February, but prices dropped after thousands of the cents turned up in circulation. All of the errors were created by one malformed die in Philadelphia. Overall, the U.S. Mint was expected to produce about 19.5 billion coins in 1995—nearly 25% more than it made just two years earlier and almost even with the production record of 1982—as a growing economy fueled demand.

      At congressional hearings in May and July, coinage experts debated proposed legislation that would force the U.S. government to replace dollar bills with $1 coins. Proponents argued that coins would reduce the cost of making money because they would last 30 years as opposed to $1 bills, which were estimated to wear out in less than 18 months. Others contended that the public would not support a switch. U.S. Mint Director Philip N. Diehl announced in May that the U.S. Treasury opposed a change, in part because he said savings estimates were exaggerated. Meanwhile, Treasury officials prepared for the 1996 debut of restyled $100 notes that would be more difficult to counterfeit. The new bills would include an enlarged, off-centre portrait and some colour-shifting ink, the first extensive U.S. currency redesign since the 1920s.

      Tajikistan became the last of the republics of the former Soviet Union to issue its own money, a ruble note dated 1994, and Georgia replaced monetary coupons with a new national currency, the lari. On January 1 the National Bank of Poland introduced a revalued zloty—worth 10,000 times more than the old zloty—to keep up with inflation. Several countries minted coins commemorating the end of World War II and the 50th anniversary of the UN, while Denmark, Norway, and Sweden marked the 1,000th anniversary of coinage in their respective countries.

      During 1995 the U.S. Mint sold several types of commemorative coins to collectors amid growing complaints about rising prices and the large number of new issues. The most controversial was a silver dollar that raised money for the 1995 Special Olympics World Games. It featured the profile of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister of former president John F. Kennedy and founder of the Special Olympics movement. She became the first living woman and just the fifth living American to have been depicted on a U.S. coin. Even though four others (Alabama Gov. Thomas E. Kilby, U.S. Pres. Calvin Coolidge, Virginia Sen. Carter Glass, and Arkansas Sen. Joseph T. Robinson) had been so honoured, a Mint advisory committee recommended that the Shriver motif be rejected because no living person should appear on a coin.

      In 1994 the worldwide market for gold bullion coins was the lowest in two decades, and sales in the first half of 1995 remained at depressed levels. According to a Coin World survey that tracked 16,576 coin values, U.S. rare-coin prices edged up 2.9% in the 12 months ended August 31. One of about 10 known 1870-S silver dollars, which had been part of the James A. Stack, Sr., collection since 1944, commanded $462,000 in a March auction. Three months later a 1927-D $20 gold piece sold for $390,500 at auction and a 1927-S $20 gold piece brought $181,500; both coins had been owned by the Museum of Connecticut History. A Spanish gold coin minted between 1469 and 1504 in Seville went for $364,550 in January, reportedly a record auction price for a medieval coin. (ROGER BOYE)

      This updates the article coin.

COLLECTIBLES
      In 1995 buyers took new notice of 18th-century American and Victorian furniture, Tiffany lamps, arcade machines, rock-and-roll memorabilia, and art pottery.

      The Eddy Nicholson collection of 18th-century American furniture fetched record prices. The Philadelphia Chippendale piecrust tea table that sold for $1,045,000 in 1986 shattered that record, making $2,422,500. A Queen Anne carved and inlaid walnut dressing table, Portsmouth, N.H., 1735-60, went for $103,700, while a Federal carved mahogany settee attributed to Samuel McIntire, Salem, Mass., 1800-11, fetched $134,500. Some pieces did not match earlier sales prices, but the receipts for the total collection exceeded the original cost.

      Victorian furniture sold well. A six-piece Rococo Revival-style Belter parlour set, c. 1850, was auctioned for $134,750, and a Herter Brothers carved oak console, c. 1881, brought a record $288,500. Pieces by Thomas Molesworth, a 20th-century western-style furniture designer, brought high prices—$85,000 for a credenza, $51,750 for twin beds with cowboy trim, and $25,300 for a set of four open armchairs with carved Indian teepee motif.

      Prices for American art pottery also increased; a Weller Aurelian vase decorated with red and yellow roses, 1899, was auctioned for $36,300, while a Weller Eocean vase with chrysanthemums brought $20,900. Record prices for Rookwood included $4,510 for a set of 1933 bookends showing Union Terminal and $62,700 for a 1911 black iris vase. A four-colour Newcomb vase decorated by Lenore Nicholson brought $29,700, and a rare grand feu 10.5-in green, brown, and mahogany vase made in Los Angeles (c. 1910) $8,250.

      Rare beer stein prices shot up: a Mettlach stein, No. 2106, brought $5,500; a No. 2717 fetched $3,520; and a student character stein by Sarreguemines realized $5,390. Typical auction prices for majolica included $1,265 for a Holdcroft dolphin-footed lily bowl, $990 for a George Jones floral strawberry serving dish, $2,970 for a rope and fern cheese keeper, and $4,180 for a Minton four-tier oyster server.

      Prices continued to climb for art glass, Depression glass, cut glass, and better glassware of the 1930s-1960s by Fenton, Pairpoint, and Fry. A record $23,100 was set for an 18th-century American pitcher with gadrooned design, olive amber glass. Two paperweights set records; an American weight with a parrot on latticinio ground brought $34,500, while a French pear weight on red ground fetched $22,500.

      A Tiffany Favrile Virginia creeper lamp with glass beads (c. 1900) sold for $1,102,500. Sales of lamps with reverse painted shades included a Handel lamp with a domed shade showing ruins along the Nile River ($5,750) and a Pairpoint lamp with a shade depicting a jungle bird ($4,025).

      Interest in the baseball card market dropped, but older memorabilia, game-worn uniforms, and autographs sold for top prices. A 1952 Mickey Mantle Topps rookie card in mint condition sold for $24,150—less than half the 1992 price of $55,000. Prices rose for Mantle memorabilia after his death, however. (See OBITUARIES (Mantle, Mickey ).)

      Interest appeared for 20th-century photographs by name photographers and for early historic daguerreotypes. A sixth plate daguerreotype of the interior of a dry goods store sold for a record $16,000. Vintage textiles and clothing were also popular—a 1940s Adrian evening dress of lavender and peach satin fetched $7,187, while a Rudi Gernreich "Kabuki" wool knit dress brought $4,370.

      Sales were brisk for 20th-century steel toys, including pieces by Buddy L, cars and trucks of all types, and farm toys. Hot Wheels, vehicles made only since 1968, sold for more than their original price as soon as they reached the market. A 1969 Volkswagen Beach Bomb with surfboards reportedly sold for $1,500. A windup motorcycle that was made during the 1930s by Tipp & Co. of Germany and featured Mickey and Minnie Mouse sold for a record $30,800. Record prices also were set for marbles.

      Miscellaneous sales included $22,000 for a Superman Action Comics premium ring dating from 1940, $112,500 (was paid in 1994) for a King Kong poster, $84,000 for the typewriter used to write the James Bond stories, $17,250 for an Uncle Sam grip tester from 1904, and a record $107,000 for a Beverly Machine Co. Standard Grip Testing Machine made about 1897. (RALPH AND TERRY KOVEL)

      See also Libraries (Libraries and Museums ) and Museums (Libraries and Museums ); Motion Pictures (Performing Arts ).

      This updates the articles coin; painting, history of (painting, Western); photography (photography, history of); sculpture, history of (Western sculpture).

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

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