Hui | January 31, 2009

The characterstics that Pennsylvania German dower chests have never been mass reproduced in modern times and probably would never be, distinguishes them from other more grandeur types of furniture such as Duncan Phyfe chairs or Lannuier side tables, both of which can find their not-so-cheap and no-so-well-done modern reproduction. Thus, antiques collectors can say Nietzsche was wrong when he insisted that in a world of objective meaninglessness one must fall into nihilism unless one acts as if one’s acts recur eternally. Those Pennsylvania prize would never recur again in the next life, so treasure it when you can. [Read more...]

Category: Antiques, Auction, Collecting | 1 Comment »
Tags: Donald Shelley, dower chest, painted chest, Pennsylvanian German, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pook and Pook, Richard Machmer

Hui | January 30, 2009

But if we don’t show those things, and we don’t interpret them and we don’t use them to educate people, what are they surrounded by? Plastic and bad design and things that have no aesthetic quality at all. [Read more...]

Category: Art, Egyptian Art, Museum | 2 Comments »
Tags: Brandies University, Contemporary Art, Miron True, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Winter Antiques Show

Geo | January 27, 2009

This year’s Winterthur Furniture Forum topic is: Harbor & Home: Furniture of Coastal New England 1725-1825

Category: Antiques | 1 Comment »
Tags: Samuel Sewall

Hui | January 26, 2009

A former guard at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh has pleaded guilty to slashing a $1.2 million painting with a key and faces sentencing on April 7. Serebrykov slashed Night Sky 2 by Latvian artist Vija Celmins on May 16 because he didn’t like it. [Read more...]

Category: Art, Artist, Museum | 1 Comment »
Tags: Carnegie Museum of Art, Vija Celmins

Hui | January 25, 2009

The real startling object found in the show came from a dealer Thurston Nicholes from Breinigsville, PA. A painted chest, both dated and signed, was marked at 285,000 dollars. It did attract a lot of visitors, probably all wondering why it commands such a price. But it may have significant cultural heritage meaning or may even relates to some German descendants, it would be hard to imagine someone to buy it for its aesthetic or utilitarian purpose. [read more...]

Category: Antiques, Collecting, Show & Gallery | 2 Comments »
Tags: Alexander Wyant, American Barbizon School, Armony Antiques Show, Bruce Crane, painted chest, tonalism, William Merrit Chase

Geo | January 25, 2009

Some people write personal blogs, some link a web cam to their apartments and still others move into glass houses. Each, in their own way, puts their lives on display.   I’ve overheard more than one comment by a pedestrian noting that they “wouldn’t want to live in a fishbowl.”   What they are referring [...]

Category: Antiques, Architecture | 1 Comment »
Tags: Richard Meier

Hui | January 24, 2009

One of the appeals of the modern arts to the young generations is the intentional traces of human labor, the proof of art creation by means of visible brushwork, layers of paint and scribbled seemingly randomness that echoes the human natures. Here, far away from the fear and burden of being criticized by the convention of neoclassicism or other approved styles, the artists of the 19th century were bold and adventurous. They experimented, explored and tried out the subject with all different techniques. In these works, they shines not for their craftsmanship but for their artistic curiosity. [...]

Category: Art, Artist, Museum | No Comments »
Tags: Gilles Francois Joseph Closson, Johan Christian Clausen Dahl, John Constable, Morgan Library, Thaw Collection

Hui | January 24, 2009

Concertgoers, when entering the grand main lobby and see the restored shimmering golden hall, will sure agree with Alburn’s assertion that “Severance Hall is one of those singular and complete triumphs which come to an American community infrequently, if ever”. [...]

Category: Architecture, Music | No Comments »
Tags: Art Deco, Cleveland Orchestra, Nathan Milstein, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Severance Hall, Syria Mosque

Hui | January 23, 2009

Thus a simple series of clicks from a Nikon D70 camera and picking the best one to print out from online stores like shutterfly, at its best, leads to just beautiful pictures. Pictures are mass produced, thus can only be consumed; while artworks are toiled, thus set forth to be preserved. [...]

Category: Artist, Photography, Show & Gallery | 3 Comments »
Tags: ambrotype photograph, david sokosh, DUMBO, Edward Steichen, Metropolitan Museum of Art, tintype photograph, Underbridge Pictures, wet plate collodion

Geo | January 21, 2009

For residents of Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore and Boston wanting fine home furnishings there were enough residents to support a cabinetmaking industry before 1800. In Charleston and elsewhere, the furnishing were more likely to come from England. In frontier cities like Pittsburgh, however, the economics of transportation and the landscape made it necessary to import a cabinetmaker.[...]

Category: Antiques | No Comments »
Tags: Benjamin Bakewell, Carnegie Museum of Art, Doctor Felix Brunot, Ebenezer Denny, General Richard Henry Butler, James O'Hara, John Negley, John Neville, John Thaw, Picnic House, Schenley Mansion, Woodville