Encinitas Arts Festival and The Door is Open

1^st Annual Encinitas Arts Festival is being held on  Sat May 5 from 10am-4pm at the Encinitas Community and Senior Center (1141 Oakcrest Park Drive,Encinitas,  92024). More info: Jim Gilliam 760.633.2260 or 2746

I went to this arts day expecting to see adorable little children leaping and spinning, painting and pasting and I was not disappointed. Who can resist watching kids in a tutu?  But it was so much more. I saw an extraordinary African drum group with jiving dancers Diop Percu, swirling belly dancers Glitter Dance Company, a  sexy latin dancer with so many costume changes it was also a fashion show Ooh La La Dance Company , Polynesian and Tahitian dancers Kailani’s Wahines, singers and musicians Paris-Rio Connection , Bridget Dolkas, Lars Hoefs, Peter Sprague, and a reading of Russet written  by 12 year old Kira Nolan by the Playwrights Project . This was all pulled together by Jim Gilliam with help from Sandra Jordon from all over the Encinitas, Leucadia, Cardiff by the Sea district. With two major stages and workshops and art displays, this was a something for everyone event and too much for any one person to experience. For those of you who remember Brava put on by the Performing Arts League, this was like a mini version and could have the potential to be a revelation for those with little knowledge of the abundant talent of these cities who boast more artist per capita than any in our county.

The Door is Open: An Intergenerational Dance Project with Kira Carrillo Corser sets as recipient of the SD Foundation Creative Catalyst Grant is on May 18 at 8 pm and May19 2 & 8 pm presented by Jean Isaacs San Diego Dance Theater at  City College Saville Theatre 14th and C Street, SD 92101. More info: Toni Robin  619.225.1803

I went to this performance expecting to see elderly dancers leaping and spinning and although that did not happen, the younger dancers that were a collaborative part of this performance did not disappoint. Jean Isaacs’s super story telling through dance was aided by the sets by Kira Corser. I would have liked to have seen more interaction between the dancers and the graphic displayed, but the charming stories of the senior citizens were touchingly told and filmed by Ms. Corser and these snippets informed all the dance performances. We enjoyed the remembrances of a lovely fluffy pink dress, a cry to god for the disappointments, and a strong and agile lullaby to a pair of new twin grandchildren. The older dancers were so charming and gentile that this was a very special performance and it was a true privilege to see how the two generations of dancers interacted. We hope that the video made by Kira Corser will spread the word about how beneficial this type of interaction truly is in making our society

A+ Art Blog: Big Art Big Bucks

Andy Warhol's "Double Elvis" sold for $37 million

Lichtenstein's "Sleeping Girl," depicting a woman with closed eyes and flowing blond hair, fetched $44,882,500;

Francis Bacon's "Figure Writing Reflected in Mirror" — sold for $44,882,500.

Edvard Munch's "The Scream" for $119.9 million

You add these and many many more similar auction sales and this explains how sales of art in auction in 2011 have come back to the $31 billion level that they attained in 2007 after the dip in 2008/9/10.  To put that in context, in the early nineties, sales were only in the hundreds of millions. We owe this current upsurge to the China and Asian markets. These figures comes from the cultural economist Clare McAndrew in a report for the European Fine Art Foundation. Sotheby’s just announced that sale in the May 2012 evening sale were $266,591,000.

How do those sales further break down? Peter Schjeldahl explains it in his New York article, All is Fairs. Modern and Contemporary art now accounts for 70% of art sold world wide. China then the US followed by the UK and a far fourth France are the nationalities that are buying. Half the sales happen in the auction houses like Christies and Sothebys but another $30 billion takes place in about 380,000 galleries and private dealers. Those two big figures, if you have not already done the math total over $60 billion a year in 2011.

I like this quote from Sarah Nicole Prickett  in her article The rise and rise of the art fair  in the Globe and Mail, “To see how art reaches the museum, the canon, you have to go to the fairs. I do not know if you can understand art without understanding the price of it. I suppose you could stick to an old-fashioned snob's dislike of art fairs, but that would be like eating meat, you know, without ever going to the butcher's shop.”

Private dealers do 31% of their business now in art fairs. Another quick calculation and you find a bit under $20 billion is spent for art at art fairs. Figures are not in for this year’s Frieze Art Fair at its first time in New York, but I think we can expect it to be over the $200 million that was made at the 2007 Frieze London. Amanda Sharp with and Matthew Slotover are the producers of the Frieze Art Fair and she says that 80 percent of the 45,000  visitors don’t buy art, but the arrival of this fair in the US heralds a change for New York. Although they had 10 other art fairs in March, none were on the scale or with the quality of Frieze.

Ann Berchtold who produced Art San Diego Contemporary Fair has followed the model of Frieze with focus on individual artists and specially curated spaces. The SD Art Prize at the fair is one very good example of this showcase of excellence. Last year, we managed for the first time with the help of sales of work by Adam Belt and Jay Johnson, to almost finance the prize for 2012.

You can see emerging artists nominated for the SD Art Prize at New Contemporaries V at Susan Street Fine Art Gallery opening on Thursday June 7th, 2012 from 6pm-9pm  showing from June 2 to July 3, 2012
Shawnee Barton, Lauren Carerra, Noah Doely, Rob Duarte, Alexander Jarman, Anna Lavatelli, Lee M. Lavy, Ingram Ober, Vincent Robles, Deanne Sabeck, David Leon Smith, Brian Zimmerman 
 200 North Cedros Avenue, Solana Beach, CA 92075 More info: Melissa Stager 858.793.4442

You can see the SD Art Prize 2012 show at Art San Diego Contemporary Art Fair Sept 6-9, 2012
Arline Fisch with emerging artist to be announced on June 7 and Jeffery Laudenslager with emerging artist to be announced on June 7, Balboa Park Activity Center, 2145 Park Boulevard, San Diego 92101

A+ Art Blog Patricia Frisher, the coordinator of the San Diego Visual Arts Network, writes these occasional notes. To leave a comment about this blog or see other comments, please go to the BLOG SPOT LINK

Collecting is a Wonderful Illness

Collecting is a Wonderful Illness on Nowness.com.

Simon de Pury and Daphne Guinness in Conversation, Part One

Auctioneer and art world impresario Simon de Pury sits down with friend and cultural patron Daphne Guinness to speak about connoisseurship and collecting in part one of a double-bill feature by filmmaker Johnnie Shand Kydd. Chairman and Chief Auctioneer of renowned auction house Phillips de Pury & Company, De Pury is often referred to as “the Mick Jagger of the auction world,” due to his lively auctioning style. Fluent in English, French, German and Italian, the Swiss-born dealer also owns an important private collection of contemporary art, acquired over several decades spent with gavel in hand. “Simon is obviously a grand seducer, and there was this wonderful element of flirtation going on,” says Shand Kydd of the tète-à-tète, “You can't fake that kind of chemistry." De Pury splits his time between London and New York, where he will preside over the sale of a Willem de Kooning estimated at $15m and a $12m Jean-Michel Basquiat at Phillips de Pury’s latest contemporary art auction this Thursday. “Collecting is a very personal and private occupation,” explains De Pury. “One does not necessarily wish to divulge one's passions.” That said, NOWNESS coaxed De Pury into revealing five of his favorite pieces from his collection. 

A group of Italian 1950s plastic Disney characters that I found in a small antiques shop in Rome. I collect high and low. All works I buy tickle my curiosity when I see them first, and in my private collection I do not rank anything by price.

The desk, chair, lamp and Universe logo from the Star Trek movie that I bought from Pierre Passebon at the first or second Design Miami fair. After having seen one slick piece of pure and beautiful design after the other, it was very refreshing to stumble across something fun and leftfield.

One of Helmut Newton’s nudes, shot at Chateau Marmont, was the first photograph I ever bought. Since being a teenager I worshipped his work. I bought it in an auction in London and was forbidden to hang it by my first wife when I brought it home.

I’ve been obsessed with Christopher Wool's work ever since I first saw it in the Whitney Biennial in the early 90s. I have been fortunate enough to acquire several works of his at a time when it was still quite accessible. I love his most recent work with which he proves he is one of the Greats.

My most recent purchase is a large drip work by Piotr Uklanski. There is great variety in his work and he never ceases to surprise me.