COMMENTS ON THE ART MARKET
Oklahoma Show
Just another reminder that the show Artist as Narrator: Nineteenth Century Narrative Art in England and France at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art will open on September 8th and run through November 27th, 2005. For those of you who would like to purchase a copy of the catalog please make your purchase early as the Museum usually prints in fairly sort runs. Some of you may remember that the last show they did on the 19th century art was a big success and the catalog was totally sold out ... I now see copies, from time to time, available on the web priced at $50 or more.
I spoke with Christen Conger at the museum’s bookshop and was informed that the exhibition catalog, priced at $40.00, will be available on or about September 2nd. Christen has agreed to offer our readers a 10% discount on the catalog; that is the same discount they give to museum members … but you need to mention that you were referred by Rehs Galleries, Inc. To order a copy, or copies, please contact:
Christen Conger (405) 278-8232 – e-mail: cconger@okcmoa.com
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Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide
A Request for Support
During the past 3 years the gallery has been involved in the evolution of one of the most interesting and, what we feel will be the, most important e-journal of its kind -- Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide (www.19thc-artworldwide.org).
Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide (NCAW) is the world's first scholarly e-journal devoted to the study of nineteenth-century painting, sculpture, graphic arts, photography, architecture, and decorative arts across the globe. Begun in the spring of 2002, and currently free to all users, the journal is fast becoming the most important source for scholarly information on this important period of art.
The editors and directors of the site, who are among the most significant in their field, include: Petra ten-Doesschate Chu, Gabriel P. Weisberg, Martha Lucy, Lucy Oakley, Sura Levine, Colleen Denney, Patricia Mainardi, and Peter Trippi; the chronological scope covers the "long" nineteenth century, stretching from the American and French Revolutions, at one end, to the outbreak of World War I, at the other (c.1790 – c.1914).
According to Sura Levine (Associate Professor of Art History at Hampshire College and the Journal’s Promotions Manager), “…the Journal came about through AHNCA (Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art, an affiliated group of the College Art Association) because there seemed to be fewer and fewer places where scholarship on the 19th century could be published. Petra Chu, Gabe Weisberg and others decided to create an electronic journal after speaking/emailing with librarians around the country who all complained of shelf limitations and declining acquisitions budgets for journals, and who said that given the large number of e-journals in the sciences, it would be a wonderful way to get information out while not taking up shelf space in the process.”
The NCAW web site is a user friendly one … easy to navigate and filled with both scholarly information and wonderful images. Previous articles include: Symphonic Seas, Oceans of Liberty: Paul Signac's La Mer: Les Barques (Concarneau), by Robyn Roslak; Millet's Milkmaid, by Maura Coughlin; Evolution and Degeneration in the Early Work of Odilon Redon, by Barbara Larson; Alexandre Cabanel's Portraits of the American 'Aristocracy' of the Early Gilded Age, by Leanne Zalewski; Paul Gauguin's Genesis of a Picture: A Painter's Manifesto and Self-Analysis, by Dario Gamboni; and Presentation Strategies in the American Gilded Age: One Case Study, by Janet Whitmore.
The journal also provides critical reviews of recently published books, including Patricia Mainardi’s Husbands, Wives, and Lovers: Marriage and Its Discontents in Nineteenth-Century France and Petra ten-Doesschate Chu’s Nineteenth-Century European Art; along with critical reviews of current/upcoming/past exhibits, including: Currents of Change: Art and Life Along the Mississippi River, 1850-1861; The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2004; Jules Breton: La chanson des blés, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Arras, 2002 (and other locations); The Emergence of Jewish Artists in Nineteenth-Century Europe, The Jewish Museum, New York, 2002; and La Belle Époque de la pub, Musée de la Publicité, 2002.
A key goal of the journal is not only the expansion of the nineteenth-century canon, but to illustrate the relationship of artistic achievements of different nations. This phenomenon has been largely overlooked in traditional studies of nineteenth-century art, which have, for the most part, been narrowly framed within national boundaries. This is true despite the overwhelming evidence of artists' travel (facilitated by new technologies like steam and electricity), and despite the fact that the world's fairs and even national exhibitions attracted broad international participation and were attended by equally multinational audiences.
Now, for the reason I have been discussing this – funding! Yes, I know, not another cause that you are being asked to give to. Well, if you are a buyer or collector of 19th century art, this is a cause that you can help support and, over time we believe, will pay you handsome dividends.
We all know that many of the great 19th century artists are in need of historical and scholarly research and we all know that this type of research is time consuming. However, what most of you probably do not know is that when it comes time to have the research published there are very few book publishers today who feel the expense is worth it ... thereby leaving a great deal of valuable and historically important research ‘behind closed doors’. This e-journal has not only provided a cost effective way to disseminate that information, but in the process will make many of the long forgotten artists more of a ‘household name’. I know, so what if these artists become household names … well, this should, in turn, create greater demand for those artist’s works and will increase the value of those works. A few dollars spent now should have a great impact on the future value of many long forgotten artists.
Sura Levine also commented on the Journal’s funding issues: “…part of the funding for the Journal comes from the membership of AHNCA but it does not cover all of the costs of producing it. What I do know is that we are constantly working toward bringing in more money for the Journal in order to make sure that it remains financially viable as a non-profit enterprise. The membership fees pay for our annual directory, the bi-annual newsletter, and for the expenses associated with the ongoing work of the officers and editorial personnel. Of the annual funds, in other words, only a small portion goes to the Journal. … A small number of the members donate additional funds for the Journal each year, as well. We also have been writing to art librarians at academic institutions asking for a symbolic donation in lieu of proposing subscription costs (normally, institutional subscriptions costs are much higher than are individual subscriptions to journals). Our idea for doing this on a voluntary basis was quite simple: we need to make sure that people know that NCAW is the "go to" place for 19th century art historical studies, so we regularly ask librarians to add NCAW to their institutional web pages as well. Thus far, we have a small number of libraries that have begun to make annual donations to the Journal and they are listed on the sponsorship page as are the Fine Art Dealers Association (FADA) , several art history departments (Sewanee, U. Minnesota, Seton Hall), and museums that have made donations.”
It currently costs them between $25,000 and $30,000 a year to produce the Journal ... and one might ask: why so much? Well, along with the hosting and web master fees, there are some you might not think of, including translation fees (for example, Sura commented that, the translation of Sebastien Clerbois' essay on Rosicrucian imagery cost some $500 to translate from the French and as more foreign articles come in, these costs will increase) and let’s not forget copyright fees to organizations such as SABAM (Belgian Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers). Yes, even a non-profit organization has to pay for the use of images on their site and often times these fees are very high since the firms they deal with are ‘for profit’ and do not make distinctions between for profit writing and non-profit publications.
If you have a moment, please visit their site and enjoy the unique scholarly content it offers -- www.19thc-artworldwide.org … as I mentioned earlier, it still offers free access. In the area of 19th century art, there is nothing else like it on the World Wide Web … and should a small ‘charitable wave’ come over you during your visit, I know they will be very appreciative.
Current contact information for the Online Journal is: Fawn Killion, Office Assistant Senior and AHNCA Treasurer (interim), Art Department (Dept. No. 3138), 1000 E. University Ave., University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071-3138, Email: fkillion@uwyo.edu.
Howard L. Rehs
© Rehs Galleries, Inc., New York – August 2005
Gallery Updates: Gallery hours for the month of August are Tuesday through Thursday 10am – 5:30pm; all other times by appointment.
Web Site Updates: New works by Jean B.C. Corot, Alfred de Breanski, Joseph Caraud, Gregory Harris, Sally Swatland, and Allan Banks have been added to our web site this month. Our biography upgrade continues … new bios on Eugene Boudin, Jean F. Chaigneau, Luigi Loir, and Leon Richet have been added to our web site.
We are continuing to upgrade the quality of the images in many of the Virtual Exhibits and have added a small exhibition dedicated to the works of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot:
Jean B.C. Corot - The Lyrical Landscape
Next Month: A ‘taxing’ issue!