I recently consulted to the family of Darthea Speyer, Parisian Art Dealer and collector on the disposition of her Gallery’s and personal art Collections.  We selected Christie’s to host what became a very successful single-owner auction sale on July 7^th. The auction included a wide variety of fine and decorative arts.  A few of the Highlights included: an Alberto Giacometti Floor Lamp, Jean Arp bronze, Marcel Duchamp “Valise”, Ed Paschke paintings, and paintings by Indian Artist Vishwanadhan.  

The process began with a painstaking cataloguing of the gallery and personal collections.  We camped out in Darthea’s Apartment located on the Champ de Mars with a staggering view of the Eiffel Tower from the garden. It was the most elegant and tasteful apartment I may have ever experienced. Christie’s may still have images of the apartment in their illustrated online catalogue.

Darthea opened her gallery at the least auspicious moment during the 1968 Student Revolutions in Paris .  Despite the troubled moment for a start, the gallery operated continually until ceasing operations this past January. Darthea gave many American artists their very first exposure in Paris . James Speyer, Darthea’s late brother, was a well known architect and curator of Modern Art at The Chicago Institute.  James designed the gallery space on Rue Jacques Callot in Paris and recommended some of the American artist’s included in the Gallery’s stable. Thus the very interesting group of American works included in the auction. Additional American works from the collection will be included in an auction at Christie’s in September in their “First Open” Auction.

Click here to see the results of the sale illustrating the offering and the auction prices realized.   -Sam Berkovitz

Check out this detailed review of our Clyde Hare Memorial Retrospective from Kurt Shaw in yesterday's Tribune Review!

On Saturday, June 12, the memorial exhibition of Clyde Hare’s photographs opened at Concept Art Gallery. A large crowd came to see the exhibition of 60 photographs which spanned the course of Hare’s career and to listen to a lecture by the Carnegie Museum of Art Curator of Photography, Linda Benedict-Jones. In her lecture, Benedict-Jones presented Hare’s photographs by decade from the 1950s through the 1990s.

 

Hare’s photographs of a transforming Pittsburgh cover the walls of the gallery, reminding us of our history as a city. Many of Hare’s photographs show iconic symbols of Pittsburgh including bridges, buildings, and industry. From the steel mills that once lined the rivers to local life seen on the streets of Pittsburgh , this exhibition displays a past that is becoming less familiar to many.

Hare’s photographs range in composition from journalistic to artistic. In Pittsburgh, he started documenting the changes happening to the city in the 1950’s. Later in his career he experimented with photos of ice and color, creating another, more abstract side to his work. His range of photographs reflects the talent of a man who had an eye for beauty in an industrious city.  

The exhibition will run through October 2, please join us in celebrating the life and work of this talented Pittsburgh photographer.