17th century art – MATTHEWS GALLERY BLOG

Our first COLLECTOR’S FORUM workshop was this Friday, and the gallery was packed! We covered every angle of art collecting, from buying and selling to consignment agreements, insurance and art conservation. Event participants received a special packet at the end of the event with a comprehensive write-up on art collecting by Lawrence. Check out his beautiful introduction on the ‘passionate pursuit’ below, and come to our second workshop on Friday, October 24 to see our presentation and get the rest of the packet. Seats are limited, so make sure to contact us if you’d like to reserve a spot.

Lawrence Matthews and Matt Horowitz discuss a 17th century painting attributed to Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer

Close your eyes for a moment and think of a great piece of art you’ve seen and remember the way it made you feel. Was it was a sculpture, a painting or a drawing? Maybe it was a portrait or a landscape or an abstract. Maybe you saw it in a hometown gallery, in an artist’s studio, or in Paris walking through the Louvre. Wherever it was, remember that moment where you were overcome by that artwork, when you were flooded with a feeling that that swept you outside of yourself and put you in touch with something powerful and moving.

That is the true essence of art. The feeling you remember connects you to something deep within the human spirit and reminds you of what it means to be truly alive. It has nothing to do with money or the fame of the artist or how the art decorates a room. It has to do with the pure joy of imagination and creativity and our desire for beauty and intellectual enrichment.

Fine art conservator Matt Horowitz talks about caring for art with our oil painting by A.J. Barry

Now, imagine another scenario. You and your spouse live in a small apartment. You both have low paying jobs but are passionate about art. You develop a plan and over the course of several years of collecting you amass 4,782 artworks many of which are considered masterpieces. You even give 2500 works from your collection to 50 museums around the country. You do all this when the highest yearly salary you ever earned was $23,000. This is the story of Herb and Dorothy Vogel – two of the greatest art collectors in recent memory.

How did they do it with so little money? First, they developed a plan, then they learned as much as they could about art – they read; they took classes; they talked to artists, gallery owners, museum curators and other collectors. They became knowledgeable, focused on the type of collection they wanted, and excited about building it. Eventually they built it into one of the greatest art collections of the 20th century.

Collecting art can enrich your life and potentially create a valuable asset for you and your heirs. Following are strategies you will need to create, maintain and grow your art collection whether you decide to focus on just a few pieces or enough to fill a museum. These insights and practical advice will help you achieve your collecting goals.

Building an art collection involves four main areas:
1. Learning About Art
2. Buying Art
3. Caring For Art
4. Selling Art

Get the details on all of these pursuits next Friday at COLLECTOR’S FORUM Workshop 2, and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for daily gallery news.

Where can you find a character big enough to fit a charismatic actor’s personality? Try looking in the art world. Our final five selections for best art movie present unique challenges to bright stars, and they deliver.

Our picks:

The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965) ~ Rex Harrison and Charlton Heston were hot property when they signed on as Pope Julius II and Michelangelo for this Carol Reed classic about the painting of the Sistine Chapel. You can feel the actors sizing up each others’ Oscars in the battle of the wills between two of the Renaissance’s biggest egos, and it elevates both of their performances. We know that Michelangelo is destined to finish the monumental project, but we can tell the Warrior Pope means it when he screams, “Michelangelo will paint the ceiling! He will paint or he will hang!”

Basquiat (1996) ~ “No one wants to be part of a generation that ignores another Van Gogh,” says poet Rene Ricard (Michael Wincott) early in Julian Schnabel’s film. The statement is packed with the sort of hysterical hype that made Jean Michel Basquiat incredibly famous, and probably killed him. That’s not to say that Basquiat, played here with comfortable charm by acclaimed stage actor Jeffrey Wright, wasn’t a top talent. The film’s cast and crew is populated by people who witnessed firsthand the artist’s incredible rise and fall, from David Bowie, who briefly collaborated with Basquiat and plays a fantastic Andy Warhol, to visual artist Schnabel, who makes his directorial debut here. These folks know what made Basquiat and his work so special, and keenly understand the power and vanity of the world that devoured him.

Surviving Picasso (1996) ~ Newcomer Natascha McElhone plays Pablo Picasso’s long-suffering lover Francoise Gilot in this project that was blacklisted by both Picasso and Gilot’s estates. Perhaps that’s because the real draw is Picasso’s (Anthony Hopkins) string of fiery mistresses, played by some of Hollywood’s most beloved character actresses. While we’re meant to focus on the moody Gilot, it’s hard not to delight in the antics of Julianne Moore’s Dora Maar and Susannah Harker’s Marie-Therese Walter. It seems that surviving a relationship with the wayward artist was truly a matter of dispensing with sanity.

Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) ~ Colin Firth plays Johannes Vermeer and Scarlett Johansson his mysterious subject in this slow waltz of a film by documentarian Peter Webber. Vermeer takes notice of his new maid Griet and decides she’ll be his painting assistant and model, much to the consternation of his family. It’s a careful acting exercise for the leads, who must keep their growing interest in each other bubbling under the surface to make way for the film’s real star: the soft grey light of 17^th century Delft. The visual vocabulary of Vermeer and his contemporaries rules here, with characters forever pulling back curtains and pausing by glowing windows. It’s simple, spare and gorgeous—much like the painting that inspired it.

The Thomas Crown Affair (1999) ~ A self-made billionaire, bored with riches and romance, takes up art theft in one of the best vehicles ever crafted for the suave Pierce Brosnan. Mr. Bond plays Thomas Crown, who singlehandedly steals a Monet from the MOMA and arouses the suspicions of beautiful detective Catherine Banning (Rene Russo). A very stylish, wonderfully silly game of cat and mouse ensues. One lesson you’ll learn: if you steal a painting, don’t hang it on your wall.

Click here to browse our first five selections, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more meditations on art.

Tag: 17th century art

Top 10 Art Movies, Part 2