John Baldessari has outlasted critics and art-world fads. The California painter has been around long enough to be hot, in, out, rediscovered, forgotten and, now, all but canonized. A retrospective of Mr. Baldessari’s work opens Oct. 20 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Its name: “Pure Beauty.”
Born on June 17, 1931, in National City, Read More
On Feb. 11, 1964, when the Beatles played their first concert in the U.S., at the Washington Coliseum, they were booked by Frank Barsalona. Later, Mr. Barsalona founded Premier Talent with clients like the Who, Herman’s Hermits and Mitch Ryder. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame credits him with “envisioning something bigger for rock Read More
Today, in certain circles, Georg Jensen is a better known silversmith than Paul Revere. Ironically, for him, it was a consolation-prize career.
Growing up, Jensen wanted to be a sculptor. Born outside Copenhagen in 1866 to a knife-grinder father and housemaid mother, he studied to be one. But his career at it was short-lived. The Read More
As a student in Paris in 1927, young designer Charlotte Perriand was turned away by the legendary Le Corbusier after being told, “We don’t embroider cushions here.” A few months later, after a colleague took him to see a glass, steel and aluminum rooftop bar she had designed, he hastily changed his mind. She worked Read More
It is one of the truisms of the art world that the fine-jewelry market defies recessions. Whether that’s because the very rich don’t even notice downturns, or buyers turn to hard assets in tough times, the demand for baubles is ridiculously undented by economic realities. Since December 2008, a string of jewelry records have been Read More
Collectors and dealers eager to know whether the art market will roar back after a sleepy August won’t have long to wait. Sept. 13 kicks off Asia Week, a twice-yearly (September and March) blitz of themed auctions, gallery shows and museum exhibitions highlighting contemporary and classic works by Asian artists-everything from Tang Dynasty Read More
Poet and punk rocker Patti Smith, who spoke at the PEN World Voices Festival at Cooper Union earlier this year, had this advice for writers: “Buy yourself a nice pen.”
Bonham’s on Madison Avenue makes that more tempting on Thursday, Aug. 19, when it hosts an auction of hundreds of vintage fountain pens. The pens Read More
Sometimes, fashion can be revolutionary.
Eunice W. Johnson, a publisher and business pioneer, brought high fashion to African-American women right around the time they were fighting for their civil rights. Johnson, who died in January at 93, helped her husband build the Johnson Publishing Company, parent company to Ebony and Jet magazines Read More
“When they’re trying to figure out what made our civilization kick, Elvis will be thought of,” said Doug Norwine, a specialist in music and entertainment memorabilia at Heritage Galleries. On Aug. 14, in Memphis, Heritage will auction off 270 items owned by or related to the singer, including the white piano that graced Read More
A generation or two ago, the windows of most travel agencies or airline offices were lined, top to bottom, with tempting images of faraway places designed to lure the would-be traveler inside. But since the invention or widespread acceptance of television, glossy magazines and later the Internet, travel posters have been on the Read More
