Elbow-room at Acquavella

That's Marie-Therese Walter's elbow, the painted one that got a hole punched in it when Las Vegas casino and resort mogul Stephen A. Wynn famously banged into it with his own elbow. (He also owns the painting, Picasso's 1932 "Le Reve" or, "The Dream.") As you can see from the close-up picture I took Thursday at Acquavella Galleries in New York, where the painting has just gone on view, the repair to the puncture has been expertly done. The damage is virtually impossible to spot. Which is as it should be for a conservation bill in the vicinity of $100,000.

"Le Reve" is the star of one of the fall season's more dispiriting New York shows. A dozen Picasso paintings, a work on paper and one sculpture, plus a slew of documentary photos all focus on Marie-Therese, the artist's young, blond mistress.

Among the lenders are the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and, from across the Atlantic, the Tate Modern and the Beyeler Foundation. A few unidentified collectors have also lent, plus hedge-fund zillionaire Steven A. Cohen. (He owns two.) The funniest moment comes in the credit line on the wall-label for "Le Reve," which says: "Private collection."

Um, OK.

Lee Rosenbaum, blogging at CultureGrrl, has rendered objections to museums lending to a business enterprise. She is right. Museum exhibitions have scholarly purposes. Gallery exhibitions have commercial ones. For art, that's the real distinction between "high" and "low." When museums lend to gallery shows, the waters get dirty.

This show pretends to have a scholarly aim -- there's a catalog -- but it's too small (and high-ticket) to be convincing as such. There is a serious exhibition to be done on the subject, but this one isn't it. As the gallery plays scholar, the museums spin the wheel of commercial fortune. You're left wondering what, aside from Las Vegas chips and Greenwich green, everyone is after.

In lieu of taking a cleansing shower after the mud-wallow, I suggest just clicking here.

--Christopher Knight

Photo credit: Christopher Knight

Comments

[ArtOutsider]

Mr. Knight, if the admission was free and the gallery isn't selling anything, why can't people like you and other art writers and bloggers just enjoy the works without being so concerned with the agenda? Sure, Acquavella is a rich gallery that sells to Steve Wynn and Mugrabi, and probably is showing the work as payback to highlight the collector's tastes. The Acquavella's also truly love art and could be showing the work to raise their cachet and share the art with the world simply because they can. But really, so what? Chill out. Wealthy patrons have always determined what happens in the art world, and even revered art critics have made fortunes befriending and taking gifts from artists. The general public just wants to see beautiful, historic art. Your comments and those of your compadres are just "inside baseball" talk that should be directed at other art-world professionals, not the general public. I've noticed you, Kenneth Baker, Modern Art Notes, and others all over this bandwagon. Some of the greatest art I've seen has been in private homes, corporate collections and the like. I don't see the problem with Acquavella hosting this show. "Scholarly purposes?" Most people go to museums to enjoy art; they're not trying to earn a PhD in Art History.