Nearly 50 modern and contemporary works from the famous collection of Burton and Emily Hall Tremaine will be auctioned Tuesday and Nov. 12 at Christie`s auction house in New York.
Modern pieces to be sold Tuesday include important works by Fernand Leger, Piet Mondrian, Juan Gris, Paul Delaunay, Georges Braque and Joan Miro. Contemporary pieces by Jasper Johns, Willem de Kooning and Alexander Calder will be offered a week later.
The Tremaine collection, which scholars consider one of the greatest collections of 20th Century art in the United States, was assembled over more than 50 years.
As Robert Rosenblum has written, the Tremaine collection ”ended up as a chronicle with astonishing, on-the-spot prescience, of what would matter most to younger generations of artists and spectators who followed in the adventurous footsteps of the early masters of modern art.”
The 49 pieces are expected to sell for more than $35 million.
Call Christie`s at 212-546-1119.
– Peter Galassi, curator of photography at New York`s Museum of Modern Art since 1986, has become director of the department, succeeding John Szarkowski, who has become director emeritus.
– The International Association of Art Critics, American Section, has voted ”Degenerate Art” and ”Sigmar Polke,” traveling exhibitions that came to the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Art, among the five best museum shows of the 1990-91 season. The others were large solo exhibitions for Kasimir Malevich, Tiziano Vecellio (known as Titian) and David Hammons.
– Jordi Bonet i Armengol, the Barcelona architect in charge of completing Antoni Gaudi`s church of the Sagrada Familia, will give a free talk on the history of the project at 12:15 p.m. Friday in Fullerton Hall of the Art Institute, Michigan Avenue at Adams Street.
– Dancer Alicia Perea will present ”Frida, A Dance Drama,” a solo performance piece on the life of painter Frida Kahlo, at 7 p.m. Friday through Sunday at the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, 1852 W. 19th St. Admission:
$10, or $8 for senior citizens and students.
– Author Laurel Bradley will speak on ”Modernism: Explained, Challenged, Redefined” at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Winnetka Community House, 620 Lincoln Ave., Winnetka. Admission: $7.
– Sculptor Sasha Sosno will speak (in French) on his work at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Alliance Francaise de Chicago, 810 N. Dearborn St. Admission: $5.
– The second annual Polish Art Book Salon will begin at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Polish Museum of America, 984 N. Milwaukee Ave. The free event will continue from noon to 5 p.m. daily through Nov. 10.
– Marva Jolly will lead a workshop on making African story pots at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Evanston Art Center, 2603 Sheridan Rd., Evanston. Admission:
$45.
– Michael Vickers, curator of classical antiquities at the Ashmolean Museum, will present a free lecture, ”San Marco, Solomon`s Temple, and the Parthenon-Recycled Stories in Venice,” at 5 p.m. Tuesday in the Fullerton Auditorium of the Art Institute, Michigan Avenue at Adams Street.
– George Schneider, associate director of the Art Institute`s department of museum education, will begin a four-program subscription series, ”An American in Paris, Gertrude Stein at the Vortex of Change,” at 6 p.m. Tuesday (repeated at 11 a.m. Wednesday) in the Morton Auditorium of the institute, Michigan Avenue at Adams Street. Series admission: $40, or $20 for students with IDs; single admission, $12 and $5. Call 312-443-3622.
– Artist Mierle Ukeles will speak about public art as a means ”to examine the relationship of public life, civic action and modern systems” at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the auditorium of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Admission: $3.
