The tenth edition of MASTER DRAWINGS IN NEW YORK –sister event to LONDON ART WEEK each summer – takes place Jan 24-31 here in New York, with a preview January 23.
This year several of the 30 participating dealers – who each stage their own exhibitions at galleries along the Madison Avenue “Gold Coast” on New York’s Upper East Side, have acquired spectacular finds – either new to the market, newly discovered, or never exhibited before.
Among these is the FERNAND LEGER gouache and pencil LES CONSTRUCTEURS (The Builders) which New York dealer DAVID TUNICK is offering. It is a major 1950 work shown only once before at the Grand Palais in 1971. It is the definitive study for the painting of the same subject at the Sonja Henie-Onstad Art Centre Museum in Oslo. The last time it was on the market was 1980.
London dealer LOWELL LIBSON LTD has a major rediscovered masterpiece by Sir Joshua Reynolds on offer, listing as missing since 1905. “Dionysius Aeropagites” has only been known from an 18th century engraving according to Libson. It depicts Reynolds’s favorite model, a street mender from York, George White. It perfectly communicates Reynolds’s ambitions as a history painter shortly after the founding of the Royal Academy.
Another recently discovered artwork at MASTER DRAWINGS IN NEW YORK this year is a Federico Zuccari drawing from an important private collection said to be unique. It is a preparatory sketch for the Escorial in Madrid and is being offered at the exhibition of Italian dealers MATTIA & MARIA NOVELLA ROMANO.
Among 20th century standouts this year is MARY-ANNE MARTIN FINE ART’s Gunther Gerzso’s 1940s Surrealist Sketchbook from the artist’s estate which has never before been exhibited. It includes 55 original drawings mostly done in the carbon transfer technique some with frottage and many augmented with pen, India ink and colored pencils. Some are experimental, reminiscent of Miro and Matta and others depict Pre-Columbian clay fertility figures in Surrealist settings.
