Drawing Them In
January 2008
Toward the end of January each year for more than a decade, New York drawings dealers on the Upper East Side (as well as a handful of their visiting out-of-town and European colleagues) have opened exhibitions to coincide with the week of master drawings sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s.The weather conditions for which the city is notorious at this time of year (the locals excavating their vehicles from monstrous snow drifts or skiing down Fifth Avenue to midtown offices are among the seasonal entertainments) deter all but the most dedicated drawings dealers, curators, scholars and collectors, who come not only to attend the sales and openings, and, of course, to buy art, but also to visit the exhibitions and scholarly events hosted by some of the city’s museums during the week (see "Exhibitions" sidebar).
Just a year ago, many of the gallery shows were taken in hand by the New York dealer Margot Gordon and the London dealer Crispian Riley-Smith, who together launched an official event called Master Drawings New York, modeled on the July event in London that Riley-Smith introduced in 2001. As Gordon describes it, "It seemed a perfect time to do a similar event in New York. We decided to show drawings from the 15th into the 20th centuries; people can get a historical view of drawings this way. And the price range is intended to be very broad, too."
While some of the major dealers declined to be included in the new venture, most of the participants seem to have been pleased by the results; 12 will exhibit again this year, joined by several dealers new to the event. Dealers who become part of the official week, which runs from January 18 to 26, are given listings in a special leaflet and on the Web site (masterdrawingsinnewyork.com), and equal publicity.
"It was logical to repeat this in New York," says Riley-Smith, who will be offering Dutch drawings of the 18th and 19th centuries this year. "You are dealing with unique objects, and the crossover between clients is pretty significant. Clients need to shop around, and this is the easiest way to do it, when there is a lot going on." And in all this, of course, "there’s a clear benefit for the dealers as well as the auction houses, which have been very supportive of it, too."
And for the new collector, the official organization of Drawings Week simply makes navigating the galleries easier than it ever was. "Everyone gains from it," says London dealer Emanuel von Baeyer, who will show in New York again this year. "The leaflet helps people make their way around the galleries. It makes it more accessible because most of the New York drawings trade is by appointment, unlike in Europe where you have more walk-in galleries. This event makes people aware that they can come by and simply discuss drawings."
Armin Kunz of C. G. Boerner in New York says that like many of the drawings dealers, "we originally decided to sign up because we were doing a show anyway. But last year our experience was that it brought in an entirely new clientele. Even on the last weekend we had 50 people coming through." New York dealer Marianne Elrick-Manley observes, "People used to go around the galleries on a Saturday; Master Drawings Week gives the same feeling. It’s more intimate than a regular fair. I get to know the people who come in and I can give them some more attention." Events like this undoubtedly go some way to diminish the insider status of what has always been a particularly conservative area of the market, a sense that is especially evident if you talk to the younger dealers. Stephen Ongpin, a London drawings dealer who has been coming to New York in January for some years, argues, "Most of us would say we don’t want it to be this little closed world. An event like this shows the novice collector that it is not that nerve-racking to ring the bell and walk into a gallery on the fourth floor. It is a small world but I don’t think most dealers want it to stay rarefied."If over the past few decades drawings and prints have largely parted ways in the market, with auction sales and galleries devoted mainly to one or the other, drawings have largely retained their traditional relationship to sculpture and painting. The New York drawings auctions have always coincided with most of the Old Master paintings auctions, and it is not unusual for paintings collectors and drawings collectors to look at both. In recent years Sotheby’s has also incorporated a substantial sculpture section within its January Old Master paintings sale.
It is a trend also represented by dealers such as Trinity Fine Art Ltd. of London, whose Drawings Week material reflects the range of its holdings: In addition to a beautiful Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione drawing of Noah guiding the animals into the ark, the gallery is showing a selection of paintings by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot from a distinguished collection, as well as an extraordinary group of Renaissance sculptures, including four recently discovered Doccia porcelain figures after Girolamo Ticciati, a Soldani Benzi terracotta relief, a Gianfrancesco Susini bronze crucifix, and, not least, a terracotta head by Giambologna. And, for the first time, C.G. Boerner will host a sculpture dealer, Bernhard Decker of Frankfurt am Main, who will present medieval northern European sculpture and paintings alongside Boerner’s Old Master works on paper, among them a drawing in pen and ink with wash from the Holbein workshop dated 1548 and showing Christ in the house of the Pharisee Simon.
If the importance of looking at as much as you can over the course of the week to get a broad sense of the market cannot be overstressed, there is inevitably far too much material to comment on here. Just a sampling, then: Among von Baeyer’s offerings is a group of French 18th-century drawings, including a large landscape in gouache and watercolor by Louis-Nicolas van Blarenberghe and his son, Henri-Joseph, showing "A Village Scene" (1776), a sheet once owned by Baron Meyer de Rothschild; and a drawing in brush and ink by Jean-Baptiste Greuze of "Alexander Before Diogenes" (1767–69). Hill-Stone will participate in Drawings Week from its stand at the Winter Antiques Fair at the Park Avenue Armory. Do not miss its French and Italian drawings of the 16th to the 19th centuries, including a pen-and-wash drawing by Gilles-Marie Oppenord of Charon ferrying souls across the River Styx (c. 1723–34), a late 18th-century stage design in pen and colored washes by Pietro Gonzaga and a watercolor showing a "Head of a Young Breton Woman" (c. 1904) by the Swiss artist Carl Moser. Gordon, in addition to the 16th-century Italian material for which she is best known (this time including a preparatory sketch by Bernardo Strozzi in oil on paper for an Allegory of Charity and a study in red chalk by Cavalier d’Arpino for his fresco in the Palazzo dei Conservatori in Rome), will also show two works on paper from the 1970s by the Italian artists Giuseppe Penone (an untitled charcoal drawing) and Conrad Marca-Relli (a mixed-media collage). Among Marianne Elrick-Manley’s classic modern drawings is an unusual collage by the avant-garde artist and poet Mina Loy called "Communal Cot" (1949–50), a work that appeared in a 1959 exhibition of her "Constructions" organized by Marcel Duchamp at the Bodley Gallery in New York, depicting the homeless of the Bowery.
The dealers I spoke to point out that building a serious collection in the current market not only requires extensive browsing, of course, but also an effective strategy. A first step, one familiar to many of the biggest drawings collectors, is to find a dealer you trust, one who shares your tastes and understands your budget and your aims. However, says Kunz, it’s inevitable that "more seasoned collectors soon start to go out by themselves. There is a limited supply of material, after all. And if the dealer is open and collegial he or she will introduce you to other dealers. You will gradually gain access to what might appear to the newcomer as a rarefied world." He also stresses the importance of seeking the advice of knowledgeable museum curators in the field as a necessary antidote to the more or less market-driven concerns of the dealer.
Ongpin tells new collectors at events like Drawings Week "to find a dealer you like as a person and whose taste you share." But, he also insists, it’s not about an exclusive arrangement. "I encourage people to go to the auctions, see what they like, and then go to the dealer and discuss it with them. Auctions can be off-putting for a beginning collector. Dealers should be as helpful as possible in providing context for the material people are interested in." It’s an approach that certainly requires a dealer to take the long view: "Sometimes a collector buys a drawing from a competitor but you’ve introduced them to the field and made them feel comfortable," Ongpin says.
The message dealers want to communicate, it seems, is that they genuinely want to change people’s experience of this traditionally rather stuffy field for the better. And drawings events like those in London and New York are key to that effort. "The collegiality of these master drawings weeks is very important," says Ongpin. "And anyone who walks into my gallery and is interested in drawings is someone I want to spend time with. We’re a pretty friendly bunch on the whole."
Catherine Bindman is an art critic specializing in prints and drawings and an editor of museum catalogues. She was formerly deputy editor at Art on Paper magazine.EXHIBITIONS
The Frick Collection, "Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (1724–1780)" ends Jan. 28. 50 drawings and a small selection of paintings and etchings. 212.288.0700 frick.org
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "In the Light of Poussin: The Classical Landscape Tradition" (Jan. 7–April 13). Prints and drawings from the collection to complement "Poussin and Nature" (opening Feb. 12). "Abstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works" (through Feb. 3). Includes a small installation of drawings by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline and others from the museum’s permanent collection. 212.570.3828 metmuseum.org
The Morgan Library & Museum, "Michelangelo, Vasari and Their Contemporaries: Drawings from the Uffizi" (Jan. 25–April 27). Florentine draftsmanship. 212.685.0008 themorgan.org
DRAWINGS WEEK EXHIBITORS
C.G. Boerner 23 E. 73rd St. 212.772.7330, cgboerner.com. Crispian Riley-Smith Skipton, North Yorkshire. 011.44.1729.830.734, riley-smith.com. Exhibiting at Shepherd & Derom Galleries. David Tunick 19 E. 66th St. 212.570.0090, tunickart.com. Emanuel von Baeyer London. 11.44.207.289.4213, evbaeyer.com. Exhibiting at Stiebel. The Fine Art Society London. 011.44.207.629.5116. Exhibiting at Dickinson Roundell, 19 E. 66th St. 212.772.8083, simondickinson.com. Hill-Stone 212.249.1397. Exhibiting at the Winter Antiques Show, Seventh Regiment Armory, 643 Park Ave. Jean-Luc Baroni London. 011.44.207.930.5347. Exhibiting at Adam Williams Fine Art, 24 E. 80th St. 212.249.4987, adam-williams.com. L’Antiquaire & The Connoisseur 36 E. 73rd St. 212.517.9176. Margot Gordon Fine Arts 212.595.4969. Exhibiting at Shepherd & Derom Galleries, 58 E. 79th St. 212.861.4050, shepherdgallery.com. Marianne Elrick-Manley 212.873.7282. Exhibiting at Kouros Gallery, 23 E. 73rd St. 212.288.5888, kourosgallery.com. Mia N. Weiner Norfolk, Conn. 860.542.1893, oldmasterdrawings.com. Exhibiting at L’Antiquaire & The Connoisseur. Nissman, Abromson Ltd. Brookline, Mass. 617.792.6044. Exhibiting at Praxis International Art, 25 E. 73rd St. 212.772.9478. Stiebel, Ltd. 252 E. 68th St. 212.249.9069, stiebel.com. Trinity Fine Art 23 E. 73rd St. 212.717.7273, trinityfineart.com. W/S Fine Art London. 011.44.207.290.1540, andrewwyld.com. Exhibiting at Dickinson Roundell.