NEW YORK — Somewhat of an older stepchild of the buzzier Armory Show Contemporary taking place simultaneously in the Passenger Ship Terminal Complex on the Hudson River, the Armory Show Modern on Pier 92 is duller and smaller this year. During the VIP preview earlier today, the generously scaled and comfortably carpeted corridors of the 71 gallery strong Modern section were hospital-zone quiet and it was impossible to miss the few passing luminaries, such as MoMA chief Glenn Lowry and his deputy director Kathy Halbreicht, as they power-walked to the Contemporary section. Still, if you took the time to look, there were a number of first-rate works on display, at least in this viewer's opinion.
The highlight parade began at Bologna's Galleria d'Arte Maggiore with a late and luscious Paul Delvaux oil, "L'Echafaudage" (1977), featuring a single female nude figure standing underneath an open structure and crescent moon, set against a classic architectural backdrop. The delightful painting was on offer for $750,000, reasonable in light of the recent surge in Delvaux's fortunes at auction. The stand also included works by the gallery's hometown hero Giorgio Morandi and some late de Chiricos.
Some of the booths at the Armory Show Modern resembled mini-pastiches of Part II auctions in Impressionist and Modern Art — this is arguably a difficult terrain to find great work of any stripe or price. Meanwhile, for seemingly no particular reason, apart from their soaring secondary market status, a number of works scattered about the Modern aisles were decidedly Post-War/Contemporary material, as evidenced by the double-whammy wall of Joseph Beuys at Munich's Galerie Thomas. Beuys's fantastic photo-object, "Kunst = Kapital (Art = Capital)" (1984), featuring an encapsulated blow-up photo of the famed artist in his traditional felt hat and fishing vest, posing in front of a giant-tusked mastodon skeleton in an unnamed natural history museum. It was on offer for $485,000. It included a pot of red paint and the brush that Beuys presumably used to paint the captivating title. It was adjacent to a unique work, "Untitled" (1977), comprised of a felt board with a notch and two brown crosses on a metal clip, priced at $245,000. It is quite the exquisite clipboard.
New York's Chowaiki Gallery had a fun-filled, girlcrazy stand, which helped erase the somewhat geriatric feel of the section. Francis Picabia's stunning "Portrait de Femme" (ca. 1941) was priced at $350,000, while a large-scaled Vik Muniz, “Weeping Woman after Pablo Picasso (Pictures of Pigment)” (2007), actually sold for something in the vicinity of its $110,000 asking price. The digital C-print Muniz hails from an edition of six plus four artist proofs. The gallery's Ezra Chowaiki hinted the Muniz sold to a young American collector, a good sign considering how so much monetized attention is being paid to the decidedly hipper Pier 94 Contemporary section.
Getting back to true blue Modern, New York-based Forum Gallery's first-rate John Graham, "Angel in Dodecahedron" (1959), a 30-by-24-inch oil on canvas, captured the mesmerizing likeness of a young woman with whom Graham was obsessed. The painting, priced at $850,000, has a rich provenance and impressive museum exhibition history. As in Graham's quirky style, the painting is inscribed in Latin and English, including the imposing phase "Ioannus Sangermanus (John of Saint Germain, Paris)."
In another example of 'is this really modern?,' a rare Andy Warhol silkscreen ink on paper, "Race Riot" (1963), was priced at $1.3 million at New York's Armand Bartos's stand. The iconic image, purloined from Life Magazine photographer Charles Moore of a Black man being attacked by a Police dog during the raging Civil Rights demonstrations in Birmingham Alabama carries all the Warhol authentication rights' bells and whistles. Bartos was overheard telling a visitor that "I feel sorry for the people who don't have them," referring to the recent demise of the Andy Warhol authentication committee.
On a more idyllic note, Chicago's Carl Hammer Gallery had a splendid work by Outsider artist Bill Traylor, "Untitled Red Dog" (ca. 1939-42) executed in pencil and poster paint on found desk blotter paper from, priced at $350,000. With his bare teeth and red tongue, the dog resembled a ferocious animal from some prehistoric cave painting. Another Outsider artist star, William Hawkins, was represented with his Bible Belt-themed masterpiece, "Christ Giving the Key to St. Peter" (1989), an enamel and collage on masonite work and bearing the artist's birth date as a signature painted along the border, 'KY July 27, 1895.' It sold to a European museum for $65,000.
Jumping forward in time again, New York's Gary Snyder Gallery showcased a terrific and modestly priced George Sugarman sculpture, "Untitled" (1966), a jet-black laminated cardboard relief that appeared in the 1969 Whitney Annual Exhibition of Sculpture and Prints, priced at $65,000. It was a real stand-out.
Overall, you definitely got a sense that the fair was making a pitch for collectors to do business in lesser-known arenas. London's Browse & Darby featured Walter Greaves's "Portrait of James McNeill Whistler, Battersea Bridge" (1872), which was priced at $78,000. Greaves was the artist's personal boatman, ferrying Whistler around the Thames. This is believed to be one of perhaps four portraits of the great painter. He sure looks happy with himself, outfitted in a top hat, pince-nez, long coat, and walking stick. The composition fairly screams with swagger.
Finally, New York's D.C. Moore gallery's stand stood out with a spectacular and rare Charles Burchfield, "Orion and the Moon" (1917). Executed in watercolor, charcoal, colored pencil and gouache, it was on offer for a price somewhere in the upper six figures. The remarkably romantic yet forboding image, akin (in part) to van Gogh's "Starry Night," was the feverish memory of a precocious child taking in the darkness of his backyard in Salem Ohio. Even with the uneven and seemingly outdated landscape of the Armory's Modern section, there were isolated moments of the sublime.