Art Buying Time? Doing it Online is Easier Than You Think

WALL STREET JOURNAL
By Sameer Reddy

NEW YORK - Building an art collection often requires cultivating relationships with a global network of dealers, but now, a steadily growing genre of online ventures is seeking to streamline the process for both beginners and established collectors, facilitating keyboard-click access to fine art. [High End] With high-profile investors and advisers—Art.sy aims to become a Pandora for fine art;  The art-marketing site Paddle8, provides guest-curated "virtual exhibitions" accompanied by dossiers on participating artists, detailing their work and influences; [Middle Market] Artspace offers a more populist approach to collecting. [Low End] If your bank balance is feeling the holiday pinch, the art site 20x200  might prove a better fit. The art "e-tailer" Artsicle attempts to alleviate the risk factor in buying works from your laptop. Would-be collectors can lease works, often from MFA graduates still cultivating reputations. Prices range from $25 to $65 a month. [link]

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Hanukkah Lamps Selected by Maurice Sendak Opens at The Jewish Museum

THE BROADWAY WORLD

Final illustration for In Grandpa’s House (1985) by Philip Sendak, 1982

NEW YORK - The Jewish Museum will present An Artist Remembers: Hanukkah Lamps Selected by Maurice Sendak from December 2, 2011 through January 29, 2012. This exhibition features thirty-three Hanukkah lamps of varied eras and styles, chosen by renowned author and illustrator Maurice Sendak from The Jewish Museum's extensive collection. This highly personal selection of lamps, many never before exhibited, echoes the quality of line and depth of emotion that define Sendak's work. Hanukkah begins at sundown on Tuesday, December 20 and continues until sundown on Wednesday, December 28, 2011. [link]

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Growing Market for Christian Art, But Still Small

THE HUFFINGTON POST
By Daniel Grant

[There is] a growing number of artists who have found success selling to the Christian market, a large realm of the population that does not see itself as art collectors but is willing to spend limited amounts of money on prints and posters that reflect its beliefs and values. A pioneer in this market is the California painter Thomas Kinkade. Most of the Christian art market, however, is focused on the specific images rather than the name or style of the artist. Inspirational artwork has a greater likelihood of selling, but that work is less illustrative of biblical stories and more metaphoric of "God's love for mankind, the beauty of the world God created," said Daniel Gerhartz, a painter in Kewaskum, Wis. [link]

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Kehinde Wiley's Painting that Begat a Whole Show

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Carol Vogel

“Alios Itzhak” (2011) by Kehinde Wiley, oil and enamel on canvas,
was recently acquired by the Jewish Museum.

NEW YORK - Kehinde Wiley, 34, is an artist preoccupied with global culture. He is also a history painter whose multicultural images of primarily good-looking men recall the work of old masters like Rubens and Jacques-Louis David. The lush and intricately painted backgrounds make them more interesting still. In “Alios Itzhak,” a 2011 canvas that is part of the artist’s series “World Stage: Israel” (March 09 - July 29, 2012) for instance, Mr. Wiley depicts a handsome Ethiopian-Israeli man in a T-shirt and blue jeans, one hand on his hip, staring with attitude straight at the viewer. Behind him is a delicate paper cutout, inspired by a traditional 19th-century Judaica piece in the Jewish Museum in New York’s permanent collection. The members of its curatorial team were so enamored of his work that when they saw “Alios Itzhak,” they decided it was something the museum had to acquire. [link]

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