September 8th, 2010 02:09
Over six hundred people descended on the Penland School of Crafts last weekend for the Twenty-fifth Annual Benefit Auction. Nestled in a bucolic setting at the Blue Ridge foothills, North Carolina, United States, Penland has been training artists in all media for many decades. The event truly must be witnessed to be fully appreciated, but I will do my best to transport you there with this report.
Metalsmithing and jewelry making have been taught at Penland since early in its history. The diversity of the two-week summer sessions and the eight-week Concentrations is amazing. Just this year, students have been exposed to a variety of metals techniques from classic blacksmithing to mark making in enamel. This year’s instructors included Helen Carnac, Myra Mimlitsch-Gray, Michael Bondi, Marc Maiorana, Douglas Harling, Natalya Pinchuk, Marjorie Simon, and Deb Stoner. The spring Concentration in metals will be taught by Lola Brooks.
So what does this have to do with my report? Simply that many of these instructors and their students were present and had produced works to be auctioned to benefit the many programs that Penland supports. Friday’s activities included mini-classes and discussions of donated works. A late afternoon cocktail party coincided with the start of the silent auction, and gave attendees a chance to meet each other and ogle each other’s jewelry. Clothing may be anything goes, but everyone sports their favorite ornamentation for all to appreciate.
From students wearing their own designs to patrons wearing very expensive and unique works, the ‘jewelry eye’ has plenty of places to settle. Friday’s guests wore exemplary work from Pat Flynn, Bob Ebendorf, Sondra Sherman, Marcia Macdonald, Kiwon Wang and Mary Ann Scherr. Auctioned jewelry included works by Elizabeth Turrell, Julia Harrison, Jen Townsend, Angela Bubash, Linda Darty, Marlene True, Julia Woodman and others.
Saturday began with coffee at the Barns, the studios of the resident artists. Both jewelry residents presented new bodies of work which did not disappoint. Amy Tavern showed her new steel and enamel pieces, while Jeong Ju Lee presented oversized flowing silver brooches with dalmation agate, crazy lace jasper, black garnets, copper and bronze. Even the resident in woodworking, Sarah Martin, showed brooches of exquisitely carved rare woods with silver embellishments.
A quick scan of the attendees revealed more Marcia Macdonald, Myung Urso, Angela Bubash, and Mary Lee Hu pieces. Auction offerings included a pair of Rob Jackson nail head earrings with colored sapphires, an elaborate felt and mixed media brooch by Natalya Pinchuk, a small silver and felt pin by Sayumi Yokouchi, and an elegantly dainty brooch of gold, diamonds, and steel by Lola Brooks. There were also works by David Butler, Pat Flynn, and a collaborative brooch by Lisa Clague, a ceramicist and Deb Karash, a jeweler. One of the last pieces of jewelry to be created by Marcia MacDonald before her untimely passing was a love letter to Penland using natural materials and including ‘a shiny little window of hope’. However, to my eye, the Belle of the Ball Award went to Douglas Harling’s Licorice Bee necklace, a twenty-two karat gold granulation, black coral, pearl, ruby and diamond abstraction that seemed to defy gravity. It all but floated and the craftsmanship truly was astounding.
Penland has embarked on a five-year, $1,000,000 campaign to renovate the metals and ceramics programs. The auction’s ‘fund a need’ focus was to buy equipment for the jewelry and ceramics studios, and the crowd responded with $35,000 in a matter of minutes. More information about this campaign will follow. The weekend raised almost a half-million dollars for Penland’s programs and left the attendees sated and exhausted. The jewelry dazzled on all levels. Should you find yourself in the area on 12 and 13 August 2011, and need a little pick-me-up, by all means attend. You will be inundated with art, fine craft, great fellowship, good food, and feasts for the senses. You will help a fine school continue its missions. And, oh, don’t forget to wear your best bauble!
June 10th, 2010 09:06
On the 26 May 2010, Sotheby’s Paris held a 20th Century Decorative Arts & Design auction. One of the items was a gold bracelet from 1968 by Pol Bury, being sold for the benefit of the Amis de Musee in Israel. Signed and dated, the bracelet appears to have been part of a limited edition. The auction estimate was 10,000 to 15,000 Euros, and it sold for 24,750 Euros (including the buyer’s premium). What seems like a high price for jewelry is in part explained by the fact that Bury is a well-known sculptor from Belgium, who was a member of the COBRA movement. This is artist-made jewelry, and therefore subject to the logic of the art market, rather than the contemporary jewelry market.
March 23rd, 2010 09:03
Here at AJF we have a recurring daydream of finding contemporary jewelry masterpieces in antique shops and garage sales. Not only are we slimmer and better dressed in this fantasy, but the people selling the jewelry have no idea what it is. Swooping in and making a canny purchase, we celebrate our good fortune, pour a strong gin and tonic, and sit back while the price spirals upwards.
Well, it turns out that this might not be the smartest way to fund our retirement after all. In his book The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art and Auction Houses, Don Thompson writes that even if you get lucky and manage to buy cheap the one work and artist that will make staggering gains in value, you still don’t usually outperform the stock market. One of his examples is Victor and Sally Ganz, who purchased a Picasso for $7,000 in 1941, and then sold it in 1997 for $48.4 million. While that appears to be a staggering increase in price, Thompson suggests that: ‘To put that gain in perspective, had the Ganzes invested the $7,000 in a portfolio of small-company stocks in 1941, the stock would have been worth $46 million in 1997. If we include insurance costs of about $4.9 million over the period they had the Picasso, the stock investment would have produced a greater profit.’ And then of course there is the risk of buying the artist and artwork that doesn’t survive the fortunes of the future in good shape, leaving you with a work that is actually worth less than what you paid for it.
All of which makes us think that is is lucky that jewellery looks pretty and you can wear it. (Maybe it’s not such a bad thing being a subset of the useful arts after all.) Still, part of a healthy contemporary jewelry scene is a flourishing secondary market, in which the best contemporary jewelry gets bought and sold at auction. Wright Auctions are selling some nice pieces by Art Smith, Sam Kramer, Harry Bertoia and Margaret de Patta in their Modern Design auction on tonight (23rd March 2010) in Chicago. (To view the auction catalogue, click here.) Indeed, the auction house has played up the jewelry component, noting that ‘This bi-annual auction of mid-century modern will showcase a collection of modernist jewelry including pieces by Sam Kramer and a collection of works by Art Smith. From a single original owner and never before been on the market, the works by Smith attest to his mastery of metal working. Works by Harry Bertoia and a selection of designs for Memphis by Ettore Sottsass, Peter Shire and Michele de Lucci will also be featured alongside other noteworthy Italian, French and American designs.’