Culinary Art History!

Mark Tansey-"Simple eye exam"-Metropolitan Museum

CSI tests authenticate Pollock’s final work

By Jennifer Gould Keil

November 8, 2013 | 4:06am

SOLVED: Fur from a bear rug at Jackson Pollock's Hamptons home was found in "Red Black & Silver" (left), owned by his mistress, Ruth Kligman (right with the artist).

The painting is abstract — but its origin is now crystal clear.
One of the art world’s greatest mysteries has finally been solved — as CSI tests have proven a painting owned by Jackson Pollock’s late mistress is truly the master’s final work.
Pollock paramour Ruth Kligman insisted until her death in 2010 that the pioneering New York painter gave her “Red, Black & Silver” as a love letter shortly before he died in a drunken car crash in 1956.
But since the artist’s wife, Lee Krasner — who hated the younger Kligman — ran the group that authenticated his works, the final painting was never declared a true Pollock.
Until now.
In an announcement likely to change art history, Kligman’s estate will reveal at a conference Friday the findings of a former NYPD detective that it says authenticates the work — including a hair from a polar-bear rug owned by the artist.
Forensics expert Nicholas Petraco, who was hired by the estate, found traces of rug fur stuck in the artwork’s paint.

Fur from this bear rug at Jackson’s Hamptons home allowed investigators to authenticate the disputed work.

Other telltale clues found in the paint were Pollock’s own hair and sand unique to the area around his East Hampton home.
It marks the first time crime-scene-style trace analysis has been used on fragments found in a painting, rather than just on the paint itself.
The discovery, if accepted by the art world, could lead to a huge payday for the Kligman estate.
A similar-size Pollock painting (about 2 by 2 feet) sold for $58.3 million at a Sotheby’s auction last May.
“There’s a f- -king polar-bear hair in the painting . . . It’s Dick Tracy,” said artist Jonathan Cramer, one of the estate’s co-trustees.
“The world was flat. Now it is round. It’s Galileo. Science can now be used to authenticate the art . . . We are [tracing] the painting back to where it was executed. It’s very CSI.”
Kligman was in the car when a boozed-up Pollock skidded off a curve in East Hampton on Aug. 11, 1956. She survived; he and another woman were killed.
Afterward, she knew better than to present “Red, Black & Silver” to the board run by Krasner and waited until the widow’s death in 1984 to attempt to get it named a real Pollock and his final work.
But the board was still populated by Krasner’s pals and “Red, Black & Silver” never got recognized.
Kligman died in 2010, leaving a trove of 700 artworks and letters from her lovers and friends, including artists Willem de Kooning, Jasper Johns, Franz Kline, Andy Warhol and Robert Mapplethorpe.
Her estate’s executors turned to Petraco, who consults for the NYPD.
Kligman had no beneficiaries, so the painting’s future is unclear.

A portrait thought to have been by an unknown German artist from the 19th Century has been identified as a work by Leonardo da Vinci. If true, it is a rare find indeed, the first additional work to be assigned to Leonardo in over 100 years. The rendering, which has been in the hands of private collectors, is in ink and colored chalks. Though some things can be determined about the work by it’s style, such as the left-handedness of the artist, it was not attributed to Da Vinci, or any of his contemporaries. Because of it’s more modern approach (and despite the Renaissance dress of the subject, a young girl shown in profile) it was thought to fit in with stylistic characteristics of a different time and place. The attribution is being made on the basis of a fingerprint, found in the upper left edge of the canvas (image above, top right), that has been analyzed and matched to another fingerprint in one of the master’s other works. (Leonardo, like many artists, got his hands into his work and left fingerprints in a number of paintings.)

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NEW YORK (AP) — A 1969 painting by Francis Bacon set a world record for most expensive artwork ever sold at auction.
"Three Studies of Lucian Freud" was purchased for $142,405,000 at Christie's postwar and contemporary art sale on Tuesday night. The triptych depicts Bacon's artist friend.
The work sold after "6 minutes of fierce bidding in the room and on the phone," Christie's said in a statement. The price includes the buyer's premium. Christie's did not say who bought the painting.
The price surpassed the nearly $120 million paid for Edvard Munch's "The Scream," which set a world record when it was sold at Sotheby's in a 2012 sale.
The previous record for Bacon's artwork sold at auction was his 1976 "Triptych." That sold for $86 million in 2008.
Among other highlights scheduled to be auctioned at Christie's is a bright orange-yellow and white oil painting by Mark Rothko. Reminiscent of a radiating sunset, the 1957 large-scale "Untitled (No. 11)" could fetch up to $35 million. In May 2012, Christie's sold Rothko's "Orange, Red, Yellow" for $86.8 million, a record for any contemporary artwork at auction.
Christie's also has an iconic Andy Warhol, "Coca-Cola (3)," estimated to sell for $40 million to $60 million. The Warhol auction record is $71.7 million for "Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I)," sold in 2007.
On Wednesday evening, Sotheby's is offering Warhol's "Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)," a provocative double-panel painting that could bring as much as $80 million.
Warhol produced four paintings in the "Death and Disaster" series. The other three are in museums.
Measuring 8 feet by 13 feet, the 1963 silver work captures the immediate aftermath of a car crash, a twisted body sprawled across its mangled interior. It has been seen in public only once in the past 26 years.
Other blue-chip offerings at Christie's on Tuesday include Jeff Koons' whimsical "Balloon Dog (Orange)," a 10-foot-tall stainless steel sculpture resembling a twisted child's party balloon. It is expected to sell for up to $55 million. It is one of five balloon dogs Koons has created in different colors. All are in private hands. It is being sold by newsprint magnate Peter Brant to benefit his Brant Foundation Art Study in Greenwich, Conn.
Also on tap is a masterpiece by German painter Gerhard Richter from the collection of Eric Clapton. Painted in gold and orange hues, the 1994 "Abstract Painting" is estimated to bring as much as $20 million. Richter's photo-based "Cathedral Square, Milan" brought $37 million at Sotheby's in May, setting a record for any living artist at auction.
Roy Lichtenstein's "Seductive Girl" could bring up to $28 million. The artist auction record is $56 million for "Woman With Flowered Hat," sold at Christie's in May.

How a Roman tombstone might have looked when it had been erected. They were painted, you see (we might say garishly).