Hi All!
It’s been quite a week and I had a riveting art history class Wednesday night, covering a range of topics from £ 1.5 million kitchen vases to throwing the West Coast W in a variety of Renaissance portraits. We also made the leap from Henry Vlll’s Superman pose, hands on hip, with a wide legged stance, to a new vaudeville star and public enemy number two- Legs Akimbo.
As you know, I like to keep you posted on interesting events happening throughout the art world (openings, exhibitions, auctions of note, etc…) and this week’s tidbit centered around the sale of a rare glazed porcelain vase that was bought over four decades for a few hundred British pounds by a British surgeon.
The striking glazed porcelain object then went to the surgeon’s son, where it sat in his kitchen, until a friend of the current owner noticed it and thought there might be more to the piece’s history.
It was authenticated as a rare Chinese vase from the Qianlong imperial court of the 1700s. The vase, intricately decorated with silver and gold cranes and bats on a blue background, would have taken several firings to achieve the incredible visual impact it has, as the enameling techniques utilized various colors that needed to be fired separately at different temperatures to achieve perfection.
The auction house set the estimate at between £100,00 and £150,000 British pounds sterling so it was quite the surprise when after tremendous interest from US, Asian and British bidders the gavel went down at £1,200,000 ( for a total of around £1.5 million with the buyers premium.)
( Note: next art class focuses on the work of Cecilia Beaux, an American artist, born in 1855, who was known for her incredible portraits. Together, with me, ProfValFranco, we’ll explore her beautiful images. We’ll ask why she has fallen off the radar of the contemporary art world, even though she was heralded as one of the greatest portraits artists of her time. By the 1930s, her reputation was at its peak, with her work receiving accolades internationally. She was even lauded as “the American woman who had made the greatest contribution to the culture of the world.”)
Our amazing week continued with our Friday night film: Arab Blues, set in modern day Tunisia and dealing with issues of being heard, immigration, repatriation, corruption, misogyny, and stereotyping and female psychotherapists.
Not everyone looks positively on a woman and a couch in this French language comedy that explores the role of women, and talk therapy, in Tunis. How do people open to the concept of therapy with a female practitioner in a male dominated society, that tends not to talk about its problems? Released eight years after Tunisia’s 2011 revolution that introduced democracy, and two years before Kais Saeid took office as President, the film brings up issues of political freedom in conjunction with issues of women’s rights. Saeid, an alumni of the International Institute of Humanitarian law, set aside the 2014 constitution, dissolved the elected Parliament and just recently dismissed 57 judges in what is being called by observers a push for one-man rule.
The post-screening conversations brought up many varied observations and viewpoints, as well as discussions about societal and cultural norms.
Our next film, I’m Fine ( Thanks for Asking), follows a recently widowed mom as she tries to piece together enough money to get back into an apartment during the pandemic. Danny tries everything from braiding hair to delivering food on roller skates, but is it enough to get her and her young daughter out of a tent and into an apartment in the dry and dusty environs of Pacoima, California? At times humorous and heartbreaking, this film was shot during the constrictive times of the Covid lockdown.
Thanks for joining me for weekly look at wonderful art and film lectures. Looking forward to seeing you this week as we explore more great art & film!
Regards,
ProfValFranco
profvalfranco 