Trove of Still Lifes on the Auction Block Weldon Collection of Paintings to Be Sold at Sothebys

Adriaen Coorte’s “Wild Strawberries on a Ledge,” from 1704, part of the 

Weldon collection to be auctioned at Sotheby’s. CreditSotheby’s

Until recently, Henry and June Weldon’s Park Avenue apartment reflected a kind of passionate, obsessive collecting of a bygone era. Wood-paneled rooms featured cabinets stuffed with rare English pottery and 17th-century Dutch and Flemish paintings hung cheek by jowl on every available wall. Asian sculptures were also scattered around the place.

“My father didn’t know when to stop,” said James Weldon, their son, shaking his head as he maneuvered through the cluttered spaces the other day. “He had an eye and understood what he was doing, for an amateur, that is.”

A prominent New York businessman who died in 2003, Henry Weldon couldn’t pass an art gallery or antique store without at least poking his head in; his wife, who died in October and was known as Jimmy, got a master’s degree in art history late in life. As a widow, she continued collecting with a vengeance — paintings, pottery and sculpture.


In 2000, the couple gave much of their pottery to Colonial Williamsburg. But the paintings — a group of about 70 works together worth more than $30 million — will be sold at Sotheby’s in New York. Breaking with the tradition of holding old master paintings sales in New York only in January and June, George Wachter, a chairman of Sotheby’s and an expert in old master paintings, said he decided instead to schedule the single-owner sale of the Weldon collection on April 22. “My idea was to hold it when New York is vibrant,” Mr. Wachter said. “It’s also at the same time as our magnificent jewelry sale.”

 

Included in the sale are tiny jewel-like still lifes by masters like Balthasar van der Ast and Adriaen Coorte; landscapes by Aelbert Cuyp and Jacob van Ruisdael; and three paintings by van Dyck that include a portrait of the artist Martin Ryckaert estimated to sell for $700,000 to $900,000. Highlights from the auction will go on view at the Sotheby’s York Avenue headquarters later this month to coincide with the old master painting sales, which start Jan. 29. They will also travel to Los Angeles, London and Amsterdam.

 MUSEUM BUYS A DELANEY 

The Brooklyn Museum has acquired its first painting by the 20th-century African-American artist Beauford Delaney. A still life that Mr. Delaney created in 1945 when he was working out of a cold-water loft in Greene Street — years before most artists settled in SoHo — the painting, 

“Untitled (Fang, Crow, and Fruit),” depicts a bowl of bright yellow fruit and next to it a Fang reliquary figure. A bird, hovering above the bowl, looks as if it were about to swoop down and devour the fruit. The painting’s original owner, Emanuel Redfield, was a celebrated civil liberties lawyer and counsel to the New York chapter of the Artists Equity Association. 

“Delaney probably gave the painting to Redfield for services rendered,” said Teresa A. Carbone, curator of American Art at the Brooklyn Museum. The son of a Tennessee preacher, Mr. Delaney studied art in Boston before settling in New York in 1929. He became a fixture in the downtown art world, hanging out with a bohemian circle that included the writer James Baldwin, whose portrait Mr. Delaney painted several times. In 1953, Mr. Delaney moved to Paris, where his style of painting became less figurative and more aligned with the Abstract Expressionists.

The Brooklyn Museum bought “Untitled (Fang, Crow, and Fruit)” from the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery in Chelsea for an undisclosed price, with money from the museum’s five-year-old African American Purchase Fund. “I’d seen the work a few years ago, but at the time we couldn’t afford it,” Ms. Carbone said. “It’s so powerful it stayed with me.” The painting fits well in two categories in the museum’s holdings — the first, its growing collection of 20th-century African-American artists, and the second, its strong group of American Modernist works that include paintings by Stuart Davis and Marsden Hartley. “Delaney and Davis were close friends,” Ms. Carbone added. “And this painting allows us to discuss traditional African-American art alongside Black Modernists.”.

“Untitled (Fang, Crow, and Fruit)” will go on view on Feb. 24 in the museum’s fifth-floor “American Identities” galleries.

‘DESIRE LINES’ AT THE PARK

The giant colored spools on three monumental industrial shelving units might at first glance seem to have been inspired by the coiled Con Edison cables that often dot the city, but the installation, which will occupy the Doris C. Freedman Plaza at the southeast corner of Central Park, contains 212 wooden spools wound with brightly colored ropes. In addition to coincidentally being the best-known Manhattan area code, 212 is the exact number of pathways that wind through Central Park, according to research conducted by the Italian-born, Paris-based artist Tatiana Trouvé, whose installation “Desire Lines,” which begins March 3, will be her first public art project in New York. Each rope is a different length, corresponding to the lengths of each pathway.

Tatiana Trouvé’s “Untitled”(2014), which will occupy the Doris C. Freedman Plaza on Fifth Avenue and 60th Street.CreditCourtesy of the artist, Johann König Gallery, Berlin and Gagosian Gallery, New York, Laurent Edeline

Like much of Ms. Trouvé's work, the installation deals with themes like memory, time and space. “It’s a site-responsive work,” said Nicholas Baume, director of the Public Art Fund, which organized the project, which will be on view through Aug. 30. “Besides the actual pathways, the project also is about the notion of our own mental maps.”

Ms. Trouvé, who is known for her meticulous research, went to great pains to measure every pathway she could find in the park. Her thinking behind the installation will be the subject of an exhibition, also opening on March 3, at the Gagosian Gallery’s Park Avenue space at 75th Street. On view will be drawings, models and small sculptures related to the project. “Although it’s a small show, it will have a lot of information,” Louise Neri, a director at Gagosian, said. “It will give the public a chance to see the thinking and work that went into the installation.”

NEW ROLE AT SOTHEBY’S

When Joshua Holdeman left Christie’s for Sotheby’s, where he started work last year, it was unclear what his new role would be. An expert in photography, 20th-century design and contemporary art, Mr. Holdeman has been dipping his toe in various departments without a specific role. But this week, Sotheby’s announced that he had been made worldwide head of Sotheby’s 20th-century design, photographs and prints.

Correction: January 10, 2015 

A report in the Inside Art column on Friday about the Brooklyn Museum’s acquisition of its first painting by the African-American artist Beauford Delaney misstated part of a comment by Teresa A. Carbone, curator of American Art at the museum. She said she believed the museum was the first to display African traditional art as art, in the 1920s, not that it was the first museum to show African-American art as early as the 1920s.

Salvador Dali Persistence of Memory

The Persistence of Memory is a 1931 painting by artist Salvador Dalí, and is one of his most recognizable works.

First shown at the Julien Levy Gallery in 1932, the painting has been in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City since 1934 which received it from an anonymous donor. It is widely recognized and frequently referenced in popular culture. Soft watches or melting watches is often how this work is described.

Own a print of this image:

                     

Salvador Dalí was born on May 11, 1904, in Figueres, Spain. From an early age, Dalí was encouraged to practice his art and would eventually go on to study at an academy in Madrid. In the 1920s, he went to Paris and began interacting with artists such as Picasso, Magritte and Miró, which led to Dalí's first Surrealist phase. He is perhaps best known for his 1931 painting The Persistence of Memory, showing melting clocks in a landscape setting. The rise of fascist leader Francisco Franco in Spain led to the artist's expulsion from the Surrealist movement, but that didn't stop him from painting. Dalí died in Figueres in 1989.

Salvador Dalí and Media exhibition

The Moscow Museum of Modern Art together with the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation presents Salvador Dalí and Media exhibition. For the first time in Russia, artworks by one of the most well-known provokers in the 20^th-century art will be shown in the light of media. The exhibition partner is the Spanish jewelry design house Carrera y Carrera, which will present a special project in one of the halls at 10 Gogolevsky boulevard. The project is an imaginary result of the collaboration between Dalí and Carrera y Carrera glossy publications.

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Elsa from Frozen Disney but with a new twist....

"Elsa's New Pet"

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Art with Ants

Ant Face 1937

Salvador Dali

Why Ant Art?

Ants have been used or depicted in art for centuries.

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"BugsLife"

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Man donates multi-million dollar collection to Nicolaysen Art Museum includes Dali and Picasso

'HE BOUGHT ART I THINK NOT AS AN INVESTMENT, BUT AS A TRUE PASSION'

Former Nicolaysen Art Museum executive director Brooks Joyner wraps one of more than 140 pieces of art belonging to Harry Ptasynski alongside Ptasynski's executive assistant Georgia on March 21, 2014, at Ptasynski's home in Casper. Ptasynski, a local art collector, passed away Dec. 19, 2013, and donated his extensive collection including works by Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and Toulouse Lautrec to the Nicolaysen Art Museum. 24 selected pieces are on display through Jan. 25 in the museum's Rosenthal Gallery. 

By BRENDAN MEYER Star-Tribune staff writer

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Eric Wimmer was in shock when he stepped into a Casper home full of art.

The curator of the Nicolaysen Art Museum was visiting the home in March because its owner, who recently died, had donated his vast collection to the Nic. Wimmer entered and was immediately greeted by a painting.

Was that an authentic Thomas Moran?

Wimmer has a master’s degree in art history. In grad school, Moran, a titan in Western art, was one of his all-time favorites. He’d spend hours at a Denver art museum looking at Moran’s paintings, and now there was one sitting right in front of him in the foyer of the Casper home.

But that was only the start.

Around the corner from the Moran was an authentic Pablo Picasso lithograph. There was a signed engraving from Salvador Dali. A lithograph from famed French artist Toulouse Lautrec.

Art was in every room, except for the bathrooms. There were paintings from legendary Western artists like Charlie Russell, Frederic Remington and W.R. Leigh.

“I’m like, ‘Where am I?’” Wimmer recalled.

Wimmer was in Harry Ptasynski’s home. Before he died last December, Ptasynski donated his beloved art collection to The Nic, more than 140 pieces valued at $4 million to $5 million.

“It was just an incredibly generous gift,” Wimmer said. “When he passed, we came in and packaged all of the art and took it to the museum. As his wishes were, we could determine which pieces we wanted to keep in our permanent collection. It was up to the museum to find a new home for the remainder (of the art) and use the new funds to help and keep the doors open for years to come.”

Ptasynski was an independent petroleum producer. He was a strong supporter of the Nic and served on its board for years. He started collecting art about 50 years ago, and as his collection grew, so did his connections to art dealers, spanning from San Francisco to Paris to New York.

He attended auctions and traveled the world to find the art he loved.

“He bought art I think not as an investment, but as a true passion,” said daughter Lisa Ptasynski, who grew up in Casper but now lives in Washington state. “He never sold any of those paintings. Once they were obtained, never was one traded or sold for one another.

“He knew what he liked, and that’s what he got.”

Ptasynski’s collection ranged from the well-known to the unknown. There were no labels or plaques naming the artists. You just had to know.

At night, he would linger in front of his art with a glass of wine. Instead of moving from one to another, he’d pick out a piece, study and appreciate its beauty. There were bronze sculptures, watercolors, oil paintings, engravings, lithographs and more.

“It was like being in a museum,” Lisa said.

Some of the pieces cost more than a sports car. For example, three months before Ptasynski died, Lisa asked her father if she could have her favorite painting. It was by Frank Tenney Johnson, depicting an Indian scout coming through a valley on a white horse in the moonlight.

“And he said, “Honey, that’s just too much responsibility. I don’t know how you would insure it. That is a $110,000 painting,’” Lisa recalled. “And he was right. When your $100,000 renter’s insurance doesn’t even cover one painting, it’s clearly too much.”

Instead, Lisa selected a less expensive painting.

She wasn’t the only member of the family who loved art. Harry’s wife Nola, who died just months before him, painted. Their son Ross, who also died last year, was a photographer, painter and drawer. Lisa studied art history and portraiture photography.

“Sometimes (Harry) would go out and buy (Nola) a $75,000 W.R. Leigh (painting) for her birthday,” Lisa said. “Much better than any Helzberg diamond, in my book.”

Art is what brought the Ptasynski family together, and now Lisa is happy to share her family’s passion. She was thrilled when she learned of her father’s plan to donate his collection to the Nic.

The exhibit is titled “Recent Acquisitions from the Ptasynski Collection” and features 24 pieces of art. “It goes from his wife’s work, Nola, all the way up to Picasso,” Wimmer said.

It will remain on display until Jan. 25. The works will appear at other shows in the future.

In honor of his donation, the Nic named a section of the museum the “Ptasynski Gallery.” As for the pieces that were not selected, the museum is in the process of finding the right institutions to house the classic pieces of art.

“We’re very happy to be able to show this to the community. It’s awesome,” Wimmer said. “To be able to say, 'In Casper, you can go down and see a Picasso or a Dali,' that’s really cool.”