Stamps, Part Deux: Arranging the Page

Click any image for larger view.


Click any image for larger view.


STAMP COLLECTIONS ARE SOMETHING AKIN to scrapbooks. How you arrange the stamps on a blank page can be an entirely personal design exercise. Some of the most beautiful arranged collections I have ever seen are arrowheads. Since they are pointed, displays usually end up with some unique, creative arranged designs. With the exception of the top image, these pages showcase unusual cancellation marks of stamps, which I think is a highly artistic collecting focus.

These stamps were part of the 2009 Heritage Auction Galleries Inaugural Signature Stamp Auction. Heritage Auction Galleries is the world’s largest collectibles auctioneer. The auction is online, through Live Auctioneers.

An AM repost from 2/7/09.

The Bonus Side of Cabinet Cards

All of us have seen cabinet cards, those 19th century portraits on heavy card stock you find for a buck in almost every antique shop in America. Did you ever consider the backs of these cards? Almost all have beautiful and graphic typographic or pictorial examples that advertised the photo studio or photographer. While many cabinet cards portraits (the fronts) can be relatively bland, you might want to flip the card over. Like a second chance lottery ticket—you just might have a second chance at something wonderful. These images are from Luminous Lint, the most comprehensive Web site on photography in the world. Luminous Lint is a labor of love by Alan Griffiths. (alan@luminous-lint.com)

These cabinet card backs are from the private collection of Anthony Davis, and were part of an online exhibition on Luminous Lint.
Antiq-photo Rainbow Creations
(www.19cphoto.com)

An AM repost from 2/11/09

Richard Serra at The Nasher Sculpture Center

Photos by John Foster.

My Curves Are Not Mad, 1987 Cor-Ten Steel, Overall: 168 x 539 3/8 x 139 in. (426.7 x 1370 x 353.1 cm.) Each plate: 168 x 539 3/8 x 2 in. (426.7 x 1370 x 5.1 cm.) Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection, Dallas


RECENTLY I HAD THE OPPORTUNITY to visit The Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Texas. Besides being able to view the installation of a major exhibition of monumental works by British artist Tony Cragg—the building itself was a stunning piece of architecture by Pritzker Prize winner Renzo Piano.

Though The Nasher Sculpture Center provided plenty of art to discuss, I want to write about the incredible work I viewed by Richard Serra (born 1939), entitled “My Curves Are Not Mad.” Imagine the fabrication process of bending and twisting two, 44 feet long, 14 feet high pieces of Cor-Ten steel, metal that weighs over 50 thousand pounds. But this is just the mechanics, the behind-the-scenes part. What I really want to address is the art of Richard Serra.

Choose a vantage point. Pick a time of day. Open your mind and your eyes to the subtle shifts of color and light, in a massive, immovable object that is in no way static. Shape and form become organic, steel becomes inviting and warm, and rust and light speaks to change. My photographs were taken about 1:00 in the afternoon, and the sun was nearly directly overhead. Still, under the Texas sun, these “gently” twisted and flexed sheets of steel fit beautifully into the formal outdoor sculpture garden of the Nasher Sculpture Center.

The Nasher is a lovely place, inside and out. And on this beautiful day—Richard Serra—a man of steel, warmed my heart.

Note: St. Louis is home to two Richard Serra pieces, one of which, entitled “Joe,” is housed at the magnificent Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts and the second, which is in a public space at Market Street and 11th, entitled “Twain”.

Who is Serge D.?

(Above) DOUBLE PORTRAIT: Francis Bacon and His Art
Serge D.
Oil on Canvas
1975
24” x 16”

(Above) DOUBLE PORTRAIT: Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn
Serge D.
Oil on Canvas
1973
24” x 16”


(Above) DOUBLE PORTRAIT: Art Critics
Serge D.
Oil on Canvas
1975
24” x 16”


(Above) DOUBLE PORTRAIT: Angie Dickenson and Sammy Davis Jr.
Serge D.
Oil on Canvas
1970
24” x 16”


ANDREW FLAMM & MICHELLE HAUSER find incredible things and make them available to collectors like me. Their shop, Odd Fellows Art & Antiques, is located in Augusta, Maine, but you can find them at most of the higher-end antique shows. As dealers, they represent a new vision in collectible antiques and objects—they, and a few others, who have been redefining the “antiques” industry. If anyone is going to bring the younger generation into this collecting field, it will be collector/dealers like Andrew and Michelle.

I saw these paintings several years ago at Andrew and Michelle’s display at the Intuit show in Chicago. I loved them, and I was surprised when Andrew told me the paintings are basically anonymous, except for the signature “Serge D.” I have to tell you, I think they are great. These paintings have a Chicago Imagists kind of look, sort of a cross between really quirky thrift store art and a highly stylistic point of view. Andrew says the paintings surfaced in Connecticut some years back, and nothing—absolutely NOTHING—is known about the artist. For what it’s worth, and it is a considerable compliment to Serge D., Michelle told me that the Chicago artist Karl Wirsum saw the paintings and liked them very much. Andrew says they have about 12 or 15 paintings by this artist.

So, who was Serge D.? Was he a talented art school painter who gave up too early because no one bought his work? Or, was he a self-taught artist with great talent who has disappeared from our sights? Talk to me, Serge.

An AM repost from 2/2/09