Category: projects

Dan Duray has an excellent scoop on an unheralded auction last spring to liquidate the art collection of Glafira Rosales, the only person convicted so far in the Knoedler Gallery forgery scandal.
About 236 lots were sold by the US Marshals via their auction contractor. Only one, a portrait of Rosales herself, betrays any connection to the caper, but that doesn’t mean they’re unrelated. Most of the works were bought at auctions since 2010, which means they were presumably bought with proceeds from Rosales & co’s fake postwar masterpieces.
The obscurity of the sale and the omission of the works’ criminal connection practically demand a Glafira Rosales Provenance Project. Maybe in the new year.

Right now, though, I’ll just call out two fascinating works:
This 1957 drawing by Ellsworth Kelly is of David Herbert, a dealer and gallery employee who worked with key NY figures like Betty Parsons, Sidney Janis, and Richard Feigen. Herbert was also dragged into the center of the Knoedler scam; Rosales claimed that Herbert, who died in 1995, was the source for the paintings, which she said belonged to an anonymous, but totally fictitious, European collector. As Patricia Cohen described it when the Knoedler forgeries began to surface:

Herbert planned to use the works to stock a new gallery that was to be financed by the original collector. But the two men had a falling out, and the art ended up in the collector’s basement until his death.
Ms. Rosales does own a 1957 line drawing of Herbert by Ellsworth Kelly that was recently part of an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. What she does not seem to have, however, are any records that track the ownership of the two dozen or so Modernist paintings she brought to market.

Rosales had been introduced to Ann Freedman, Knoedler’s president, Cohen reported, by a gallery employee Jaime Andrade. Andrade was Herbert’s partner. He was, presumably, the one who sold or gave Kelly’s portrait of Herbert to Rosales. This is how provenance is made: it is inferred along a chain of relationships.

The other work is now my favorite. It is so perfect I have made it my own. Untitled (Glafira Warhol), 2015, is a poster for “Look at Warhol,” a 1970 exhibition at Galerie Thomas in Dusseldorf. It’s hard to top the Marshal’s lot description

Sheet folded at text in top margin and hinged to mat, full sheet = 35.75” x 26.75”. No frame, non-archival mat only.

That’s right. The master forger and con artist who sold dozens of modern masters to the most venerable gallery in the country without detection also folded a Warhol poster into a mat from Michael’s and tried to pass it off as a Warhol print.

In Glafira’s defense, she is not alone. The web is littered with these posters, which art grifters pretend is worth $1,500 or more, even as they sell from vintage poster shops for less than fifty bucks. The Marshal appraised Glafira’s handiwork at $85. It sold for $905. I can only assume it is because an astute connoisseur recognized the brazen shittiness of the hack as the ultimate souvenir of the whole Knoedler affair.
And while the original now resides in an unknown private collection, I will make Untitled (Glafira Warhol) as an authentic replica edition object as soon as the posters arrive.
Secret fire sale held of 250 works confiscated from dealer in Knoedler gallery scandal [theartnewspaper]
LOT: 104 (1) DRAWING: Ellsworth Kelly (1923 – ) Portrait of David Herbert 1957, sold for $15,200 [txauction, note: dead txauction links updated to archive.org]
LOT: 142 (1) SERIGRAPH POSTER: Andy Warhol [txauction]
Glafira Rosales’ collection runs from Item number 18381 to number 18616 [txauction]
Previously, 2013: What You See Is What You Believe: Barnett Newmans From The Knoedler/Rosales Collection
2012: Here’s that Knoedler Gallery Rothko

David Hammons Slauson Street Studio, Bruce Talamon, 1974, image: roberts and tilton
Like Jasper Johns a decade before him, David Hammons made prints of his oiled body. Hammons’ were more narrative, rich with content beyond just the impression of the artist’s own body.

Waiting Chairs, Gabriel Orozco, 1998, image: metmuseum.org
As is his wont, Gabriel Orozco found his narrative, this time in India, in the stone wall darkened by contact with the hair of people who rested against it as they sat in these seats. We don’t know who they were.
I am pleased to introduce a work that combines these two threads of presence and absence, specificity and universality, anonymity and celebrity, found object and markmaking.

Untitled (Joan Collins Toile de Jouy), 2015, 59 x 72 inches, patinated toile de jouy fabric, stuffing, wood
Untitled (Joan Collins Toile de Jouy) is a shaped work, a painting, really, comprising an upholstered headboard from Ms. Collins’ New York apartment, altered in collaboration over the years by her and, apparently, occasionally, (an)other(s).
Interested parties, or at least those interested in having physical custody of the work, should contact me quickly, before the 14th. That’ll give us enough time to get the headboard from the auction in LA. Me, I’m happy with it right where it is. And wherever it ends up.
Lot 43: JOAN COLLINS TOILE DE JOUY HEADBOARD [julienslive.com]
Previously, related: Untitled (Merce At The Minskoff)

Untitled (141831674795), formerly known as: Beer statue TEST – DO NOT BUY
I haven’t written much about the eBay Test Listings project here since eBay shut it down and forced it into a different configuration. I’m happy to have it exist primarily on eBay, where it conspires against itself, making success and failure interchangeable.

ceci n’est pas 600px: just noticed it’s actually 500px
They don’t search well. The titles are opaque. The pricing across the series makes people wonder. And after surfing through the 800 even less expensive items in the “photographs > directly from artist” category, it turns out these aren’t always even the most eye-popping.

So it really does come back to their unique situation, unlike literally every other thing on eBay: they were specifically made and chosen to not be sold. To not be found, and to not be found attractive. At least to a bidder or buyer. Yet they are still made and chosen in some way, for some surpassing reason beyond their function. [An image is required for every eBay listing, even a test listing with nothing to sell.] And so I’m intrigued by the otherwise invisible images made by otherwise invisible people, which are intended to be seen by no one but themselves and maybe their colleagues, and their bots.
Really I just wanted an excuse to post that [bear+deer=] beer statue picture.
eBay Test Listing prints for sale, only through Art Basel Miami, though [ebay]
Previously, all eBay Test Prints-related posts, in chronological order:
7 March 15: Untitled (DO NOT BID OR BUY)
18 March 15: Proposte monocrome, ebay, rose
16 April 15: DO NOT BID OR BUY Meets DO NOT LIST OR SELL [includes CR]
7 May 15: eBay Test Listings, Reviewed
30 July 16: New eBay Test Listings Prints
10 September 15: Prince & Prints at Internet Yami-Ichi 9/12

“Untitled” (L.A.), FKA “Untitled” (Rossmore) image via christies
Howard Rachofsky bought Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ 1991 candy pour, “Untitled” (Rossmore)” in 1998. It consists of green wrapped candies spread on the floor with an ideal weight of 50 lbs. That was presumably the title when Ranbir Singh purchased it in 1991, and when he sold it in 1998, even though the 1997 catalogue raisonne lists it as “Untitled” (L.A.). [Another candy pour from 1991, also with green candies, but an ideal weight of 75 lbs., bears the orphan title “Untitled” (Rossmore II).] Rachofsky loaned his pour to the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, and exhibited in a bathtub of his Richard Meier-designed house.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, “Untitled” (L.A.), 1991, as installed in Howard Rachofsky’s tub, image by Andrea Duffie via forthworthanewperspective
Rachofsky and his wife donated or pledged the house and much of his collection to the Dallas Museum in 2005-Cindy Rachofsky specifically mentions the Felix piece in this interview-so it’s frankly baffling that he sold “Untitled” (L.A.) last week at Christie’s, even if it did bring $7.7 million. But DFW’s loss is Bentonville’s gain. [2024: updated dead url on that Cindy Rachofsky interview]
ArtNEWS reports the buyer of “Untitled” (L.A.) is Alice Walton’s Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. I would imagine that the politics of the Wal-Mart heir would have pissed off and/or inspired Felix to no end. But after re-reading his 1995 interview with Rob Storr about politics and culture and audience, and how he wanted to operate like a spy, I think he’d see the acquisition of his work by Crystal Bridges as a triumph. He has successfully infiltrated the beating red state heart of America’s conservative plutocracy.
Of course, in the 20 years after the artist’s death, the cultural terrain has shifted, and if it doesn’t exactly end up being the wrong one, the mountain Felix scaled offers views of still higher, more difficult peaks.

“Untitled” (Crystal Bridges) Wal-Mart money (endless supply) dimensions variable ideal weight: 50lbs [artnews tweet]

— gregorg (@gregorg) November 16, 2015

And so it occurred to me almost instantly to make another piece, inspired by Walton’s “Untitled” (L.A.) acquisition: “Untitled” (Crystal Bridges) consists of Wal-Mart money, free for the taking and endlessly replenished, with an ideal installation weight of 50 lbs. It could be a pour, but it probably works best in Felix’s other trademark form, as a stack piece. It looks a bit like “Untitled” (Passport #II), but with cash instead of little booklets.

“Untitled” (Passport #II), 1993
A US banknote weighs just under a gram, so 50 lbs is around 25,000 bills. They should all be of the same denomination, whether it’s singles ($25,000) or $100s ($2.5 million), as long as there is an endless supply.

$207 million of Sinaloa drug cartel cash weighed 4,500 lbs, not an ideal weight for the sculpture, but I’ll leave that to the owner’s discretion.
Since the Walton family only has $147 billion right now, they’ll have to manage the installation with an eye on both ROI and replenishment rates. I’m sure they can do it.

image of 1M Hauly from SDR Traveller
I’ve rebooted Felix works before, but I think the idea for this piece crystallized so immediately because I’d been primed to consider the spatial implications of a million dollars in cash. Just a few days ago, Michael Sippey tweeted about the 1M Hauly, a high-performance duffel bag by SDR Traveller optimized for the secure, discreet transport of $1 million, in 10,000 $100s.

fat v. flat, via SDR Traveller
Turns out used, street, dirty money takes up as much as 40% more space than crisp, fresh bank product, but the 1M Hauly can handle it all. When strapped, 10,000 bills fits into a 20.4 lb cube 18x12x6 inches. So if it were stacked, “Untitled” (Crystal Bridges) could be an 18×18-in square about 10 inches high. It’s an adorable scale, domestic, almost intimate, which will provide endless [sic] enjoyment and engagement for museum visitors. As long as they don’t get too grabby. And as long as the Waltons don’t go broke.
[I haven’t exactly asked, but I bet SDR Traveller would be willing to discuss the commission of a custom-sized travel bag for “Untitled” (Crystal Bridges). Interested collectors should get in touch with me for details.]

uncut sheets of new $100 bills at BEP in 2013, image: AP/LM Otero
UPDATE: OR, maybe there is another way. Uncut currency sheets sell for a premium from the Bureau of Printing & Engraving, but they’d really give the piece a Felixian feel. The ideal height for a stack of 32-note sheets like the ones above would be about 775 sheets, about 6 inches. The BEP online store only has 16-note sheets, though, for $1,800 each. See if you can get a volume discount, or a subscription.
Previously: On Politics and Art
suddenly related: “Untitled” (Orpheus, Twice), 2012

They are not the kind of thing to get excited over, necessarily, but every time I think about Agnes Martin’s 1973 screenprint portfolio On A Clear Day, I like them a lot. [I did not like seeing a complete set baking in the sun in someone’s freshly renovated loft kitchen one time, though. Respect, people.]
Martin had given up painting for seven years, and the invitation from Luitpold Domberger to create a print portfolio was instrumental in Martin’s decision to start making work again. [That she was also preparing for her first mid-career retrospective at the ICA in Philadelphia at the time might have helped. I guess we should read the new biography and find out.]

Anyway, On A Clear Day is 30 images Martin selected from over 300 drawings she’d done in 1971. So a subset, perhaps, more than a series. And a mechanical interpretation of her hand marking process.
The 8×8 prints on 12×12 sheets are printed in an edition of 50, plus 14 APs. It is not clear how many portfolios were kept together, but a bunch were broken up, and loosies show up at auction all the time. One’s coming up at Doyle in a couple of weeks, in fact: plate 8 from ed. 49/50. The estimate seems a bit low, but it says there’s a soft crease in the image.
I hate broken up sets, and have long wondered if you could put one back together. And by you, obviously, I mean me. How long would it take? Could you track them down, or do you just have to wait and watch? Which number should you work on? Should you keep a stash of loosies available anyway, to trade with reluctant sellers?
What have these prints been through since they’ve been apart? Have they been cared for, kept out of the sun? Framed nicely? Framed crappily? Lone silkscreens are not very precious. And there are nearly 2,000 of these things out there. Some might be shoved in drawers, or stuck inside a book. Isn’t it likely that some might not have survived at all? If there are already a couple dozen complete sets around, what’s the value to Martin’s legacy of one more?
But I guess it’s not really for or about Martin at all. She just provided the raw material for the project. If a reassembled Agnes Martin portfolio is a new work, Untitled (On A Clear Day), would an assemblage of mismatched Martin prints be a study?
I remember very well the set of ten On A Clear Day prints up top, which were at Phillips in 2008. They are a ragtag bunch of misfits, actually: three “a.p.s,” six “p.p.s”, and only one actual numbered print: plate 4 from, oh hey, 49/50. This project may start right now.
Oct. 27, 2015: Lot 125 Agnes Martin (1912-2004), ON A CLEAR DAY, est. $1,000-1,500 [doylenewyork]

I have added some prints found during the earliest days of the eBay Test Listings project, but only made available now for sale and entertainment which, after all, are the same thing.
See all available eBay Test Listings prints on eBay [ebay]