“LOOKING
SOUTH: Three Centuries of Italian Paintings presented
by
scholar-dealers Otto Naumann and Robert Simon”
Exhibition
January 6 – February 15 at Otto Naumann Ltd in New York
A major
exhibition of Italian paintings will open at the 22 East 80th Street gallery of
Otto Naumann Ltd. on January 6 and remain on view until February 15.
Exhibition Catalogue
Exhibition Catalogue
“LOOKING
SOUTH: Three Centuries of Italian Paintings” will feature more than forty Renaissance and Baroque
masterworks dating from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, including
several important discoveries never before publicly exhibited.
According to
Otto Naumann, “The rich history of the collecting of Italian Renaissance and
Baroque painting in America has been explored in several recent books and
exhibitions. This past September the
Frick Collection sponsored a two-day conference “Going for Baroque; Americans
Collect Italian Paintings of the 17th and 18th Centuries.” It was at this event that the idea for
“Looking South” was born.”
Attending
the conference were Otto Naumann and Robert Simon, both Old Master painting
dealers with a passion for Italy and Italian art who began their careers as art
historians. During the lunch break they
lamented the fact that there had been no major commercial exhibition of Italian
paintings in New York for many years – this despite a resurgent interest among
collectors and museums for paintings of the period. They decided to combine their resources and
expertise in order to mount “Looking South.”
The
exhibited works range from portraits to still-lifes, from mythological subjects
to mysterious allegories, from intimate devotional paintings to grand
altarpieces. Paintings by some of the greatest
names of Italian art will be featured, including Titian, Palma Vecchio, Ribera,
Baglione, Crespi, Cavallino, Mattia Preti, Ceruti, and Bellotto. These have all been carefully conserved and
meticulously researched, a process that draws on the academic backgrounds of
the two organizers as well as their decades of experience in the
connoisseurship of Old Master paintings.
Otto Naumann
received his M.A. from Columbia in 1974 and his Ph.D. from Yale in 1979 and was
a Professor of Art History at Boston University and the University of Delaware
before leaving academe. His catalogue of
the paintings of Frans van Mieris is the standard work on the artist; as a
dealer he has handled works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, Rubens and
Velazquez.
Robert
Simon’s 1982 doctorate is from Columbia. He was a Research Fellow at the
Metropolitan Museum and has published and lectured widely on Bronzino, the
subject of his thesis, and numerous aspects of Italian painting. He was involved in the recent discovery of
Leonardo da Vinci’s lost painting Salvator Mundi and is currently writing a
book about its history and recovery.
Robert Simon
adds that, “While Renaissance and Baroque art continues to attract enthusiastic
audiences in museums, the exhibition hopes to highlight the availability of
major works accessible to collectors who have become devotées of Italian
painting.”
All works in
the exhibition are for sale. A brochure
and digital catalogue will be available on January 6 at www.ottonaumannltd.com
or www.robertsimon.com. Otto Naumann Ltd
is located at 22 East 80th Street. Exhibition hours are from Monday to
Saturday, 11 to 5.
Among
highlights in the exhibition will be a major painting by Titian, “St.
Sebastian,” painted for his patron Federico Gonzaga, oil on canvas, 74 ¾ by 37
¾ inches, Giovanni Battista Beinaschi’s altarpiece the “Martyrdom of Saint Peter,” oil on canvas 116
¼ x 76 inches, Bernardo Bellotto’s “Architectural Caprice
with a Self-portrait,” oil on canvas, 61 ½ x 44 ¼ inches, and a spectacular
“Still-Life with Musical Instrument” by Evaristo Baschenis, oil on canvas 38 x
57 1/8 inches.
IF YOU
VISIT:
“LOOKING SOUTH: Three Centuries of Italian
Paintings
presented by
Otto Naumann and Robert Simon”
at Otto
Naumann Ltd
January 6 –
February 15, 2014
22 East 80th
Street | 11-5 Monday to Saturday
www.ottonaumannltd.com
(212) 734-4443 or www.robertsimon.com (212) 288- 9712
Please
contact Susan Bishopric for high resolution images and interviews…
(212) 289- 2227 or susan@susanpr.com
