June 30, 2009 

ART IN THE HAMPTONS, SUMMER 2009
The East End of Long Island has plenty of art attractions for summer visitors this year. The Parrish Art Museum in Southampton has just opened an exhibition of the haunting bird-watching photos of Jean-Luc Mylayne, June 28-Sept. 20, 2009. And Guild Hall in Easthampton currently boasts a survey of works by Grace Hartigan, June 12-26, 2009, and a show of photos by Taryn Simon, June 13-July 26, 2009. An exhibition of works by six members of the Long Island Black Artists Association opens at Guild Hall on July 4-19, 2009, and "The Art of Fashion in the Hamptons," featuring designs by Betsey Johnson, Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Nicole Miller, Vera Wang and others, goes up Aug. 15-Oct. 18, 2009.

With Scope Hamptons skipping a year (it promises to return in 2010), the only art fair in the Hamptons is ArtHamptons in Bridgehampton, July 10-12, 2009 (for free admission passes, see the ad on Artnet’s homepage). The region has no shortage of home-grown art galleries, of course, including the Vered Gallery in Easthampton, presently showcasing beach photographs by Massimo Vitali. Gallery proprietor Janet Lehr earned some notoriety last year after being arrested by the local police for the crime of serving champagne at her openings.

Salomon Contemporary Warehouse, the summer project of Mary Boone Gallery director James Salomon, opens a show at its space on Plank Road in East Hampton that is guest-curated by sculptor Alice Aycock. Titled "Four at the Start," July 5-26, 2009, the exhibition focuses on early works from the 1970s by Vito Acconci, Laurie Anderson, George Trakas and Jackie Winsor.

Spanierman Gallery on Newtown Lane in East Hampton presents a show of shaped abstractions by Neil Williams (1934-88), July 2-Aug. 3, 2009. Based in Sagaponack, Williams was included in "The Shaped Canvas" (1964) and "Systemic Painting" (1966), both at the Guggenheim Museum, and was given a retrospective at the Clocktower in New York in 1986, two years before his untimely death at age 53.

The Hamptons also has some new galleries. The Rizzoli Bookstore at Empire Gallery in Sag Harbor features art shows along with books and book-signings; up right now is an exhibition of abstract color photographs by the accomplished magazine photographer Christophe von Hohenberg, June 6-July 6, 2009. Next up is "Beach Paintings" by Eric Fischl, Aug. 1-21, 2009, and a show of illustrations by Jean-Philippe Delhomme, Aug. 22-Sept. 18, 2009. 

The New York gallery Bernard Goldberg Fine Arts, a specialist in 20th-century American art, is also opening a new space in Easthampton. In the works are shows by Charles Burchfield, Aug. 6-Sept. 7, 2009, and John Button, Sept. 10-Oct. 12, 2009.

Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, with two spaces on Newtown Lane in East Hampton, is currently showing a survey of works by the New York photographer Bill Jacobson titled "Figure, Water, Land. 1989-2009," June 27-Aug. 2, 2009.

Fireplace Project in East Hampton is presenting "The Last Man Standing," a retrospective of photography and video by Anthony Goicolea, July 3-20, 2009.

Birnam Wood Galleries in East Hampton has "Modern Life: American Painting between the Wars," July 20-Aug. 7, 2009.

Tulla Booth Gallery in Sag Harbor is just closing the exhibition "Surf Report," a show of surfing panoramas by Blair Seagram. Next up is "Water 2009," July 3-24, 2009, featuring works by Jane Martin, Karin Laval and Tulla Booth.

And out in Amagansett, the Pamela Williams Gallery is currently presenting "Color Drift" by Denise Regan, June 20-July 13, 2009, with a show of landscape paintings by Janet Jennings, "Natural Selection," slated for July 18-Aug. 10, 2009.

Other stops include the Keszler Gallery in Southampton and the Silas Marder Gallery in Bridgehampton.

CLOSED IN NEW YORK
New York galleries, in contrast to the lively summer events in New York’s most famous beach community, seem to be closing at an alarming rate. At the beginning of the art-market recession, Jerry Saltz predicted that 50 galleries would go out of business. In a report last week, the New York Times said 25 galleries had closed. Coming up with an exact count is probably impossible, but herewith, a list of New York galleries that are not only closed, but missed.

A few date to the period before the economic collapse, but are included here all the same; other dealers are continuing to operate privately. Several galleries currently closed promise to return in the fall; these are not included in the listing here. The tentative total is 24: 31 Grand, Bellwether, Cohan and Leslie, Charles Cowles, Andreas Grimm, Gasser & Grunert, Buia Gallery, Cristinerose, Cynthia Broan, Clementine, Fruit & Flower Deli, Guild & Greyshkul, Kinz Tillou + Feigen, Lital Mehr, Moti Hasson, Andre Schlechtriem, Moeller Snow, Never Work, Oliver Kamm 5BE, Plane Space, The Proposition, Rare, Roebling Hall and Rivington Arms.

GROSVENOR HOUSE FAIR CALLS IT QUITS…
The Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair, a landmark of London’s spring art season, is no more, a victim of financial pressures. The 75-year-old antiques show, launched in 1934 and operated by the British Antique Dealers’ Association, just completed its 2009 iteration, which was called a "great success" [see "Duchess Sparkle," June 16, 2009]. Insiders say the problem is with the Grosvenor House hotel itself, which has tired of the art fair taking up its lucrative Great Room. All is not lost, perhaps: "The closure of this much-loved fair presents an opportunity for the trade to mount a new event commensurate with maintaining London as the center of the art market," the press release says.

…AND MASTER PAINTINGS WEEK GEARS UP
Old Master dealers in London have launched just such a new initiative, Master Paintings Week, that "serves as a virtual Old Master paintings fair within the capital," according to London art journalist Colin Gleadell. The event, scheduled for July 4-10, 2009, coincides with the Old Master auctions at Sotheby’s and Christie’s in London, and is spearheaded by dealers Johnny Van Haeften, Konrad Bernheimer (both of whom took a break from this year’s Grosvenor House Fair to start the initiative) and Jonathan Green. Agnew & Sons, Colnaghi, Simon Dickinson, Moretti Fine Art, Robilant & Voena, Trafalgar Galleries and Whitfield Fine Art are also among the 25 dealers participating. For complete details, see www.masterpaintingsweek.co.uk. Also on tap is Master Drawings Week, July 4-11, 2009, which was founded in 2001.

ROCK MANAGER ADDS PAINTER TO HIS STABLE
The American music manager Pat Magnarella, whose stable includes Green Day, Weezer and the Wallflowers, has added a contemporary painter to his list: British artist Charming Baker, a St Martins’ grad whose works could be called a cross between Banksy and Francis Bacon. Magnarella saw Baker’s exhibition at the Carmichael Gallery in Los Angeles in 2008, and subsequently helped arrange a show, "The Meaning of Everything," at The Gallery in London, June 5-14, 2009. "I want to use my experience with musicians to create a similar platform for talented artists," said Magnarella. For a YouTube vid of the London exhibition, click here.

ALL ART IS MAKEUP, REALLY
"Art is part of MAC’s DNA," says the 24-year-old makeup company, whose full name is Make-up Art Cosmetics, and which was acquired by the Estée Lauder Companies in 1994. "The human face is the canvas, makeup and brushes are the tools." MAC has been a master of imaginative marketing, and the firm’s newest undertaking involves three contemporary artists of note: painter and photographer Marilyn Minter, New Yorker illustrator Maira Kalman and painter Richard Phillips. Their task? To make works inspired by MAC’s "Fall Colour Collection" of cosmetics. The results are to be unveiled in special receptions at the artists’ studios on July 15, 2009, while a press release features extensive interviews about their MAC collaboration by critic Linda Yablonsky.

So, what does this team-up of art and make-up look like? Minter contributes one of her characteristic creepy-sexy close-ups of a woman’s eye, clotted with MAC’s glittery eye-shadow. Kalman’s "elfin" cartoon of a Young Woman at Yellow Table was originally executed using eye pencils and lipsticks, though the ultimate version is in gouache. And finally, Phillips presents a giant photo reproduction of his painting of a model’s face, Der Bondensee -- recently seen in his show at Gagosian gallery, Mar. 14-May 2, 2009 -- retouched by make-up maestro Pascal Dangin so that she is now sporting MAC’s fall colors (in interview with Yablonsky, Phillips talks about how he himself came to appreciate makeup during his days in the "death-rock Goth scene in Boston.")

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