I went to The Winter Show so you don't have to...

The 72-year-old show is going strong and looking younger.

I finally made it up to The Winter Show today after multiple false starts due to weather, travel and general too busyness. I’m glad I did; it’s always fun, as long as you go into it with an open mind, and a plan to enjoy just what catches your eye. It’s kinda like going to the Met if it were 1/10,000th the size and everything was for sale. It used to be that the show didn’t include any modern objects or furniture at all, but that is changing as the show tries to bring in younger collectors and their original client-base shuffles off to that chintz-covered Chippendale armchair in the sky.

So, these are the pieces that caught my eye, and called on me to take my phone out of my back pocket and shoot a pic. I was focused on the bits and bobs of modernism, but there is is a whole range of things to enjoy if you open up that modernist brain and accept that all of what we love was built on and rebelled against all that came before and that’s why it is interesting, to me at least!

Right when you walk in you are witness to some jousting by the old guard and the newish guard. Charles and Ray are winning this bout with this “Paint-Grained and Gilded ‘Fancy’ Side Chair” from 1825.

I hate to say it, but this Chippingdale “Ball & Claw” side chair is crushing the Frank Gehry “Wiggle Chair”. I always referred to it as the “Squiggle” chair. Whoops!

This legendary dealer Bernard Goldberg greets you in the first booth you see, and I have always been a big fan of Warren McArthur’s furniture which Mr.Goldberg is sitting in. The trifecta of Elie Nadelman, Josef Hoffmann and Warren is hard to beat.

This is what one usually thinks about when you picture The Winter Show, but come on, who doesn’t love a faux bois demilune table with a well used dough bowl and a duck decoy on it? And look at the folk art butcher diorama. Pretty amazing when you let your Modernist Guard down and just look and don’t judge.

Lot’s of stands include modernist furniture as their seating. I’ve always, along with loads of other people I know, wanted to do a book on art fair booth furniture. Not sure why no one has done that yet.

I loved some of the Japanese ceramics on Joan B. Mirviss’s stand. This is by Miwa Kazuhiko (Kyūsetsu Xiii) from 2023. The booth design was so beautiful as well.

This Christo and Jeanne-Claude “Wrapped Toy Horse” from 1963 was intriguing, especially when priced at $450,000.00. Hit up Jonathan Boos if you need it. He has great things.

BUT, if I was gonna spend almost a half a million dollars in his booth, I would go for this Ben Shahn painting “Atlantic City” from 1946. Zoom in if you can, weird and cool…

This “Scholar’s Rock” looks perfectly fine in this booth, kinda where it belongs right? But imagine this placed in say, Mies’s Barcelona Pavilion. Can’t you see it? Would look killer, right? This is where I should use AI, but I’m too lazy. Maybe one of you guys can handle that for us?

This was fun to see in the newly minted dealer power group Graf, Kaplan & Zemaitis’s booth. I’m not saying this is the exact chair (could be), but it is the exact model, the Gustav Stickley “Eastwood Armchair” from 1901, that I saw in an antique mall in Chicago when I was in grad school. It was $550 dollars. I wanted it, but didn’t have the money on me or a way to transport it as it is huge, so I told the nice lady, who said that it had just come in that day, that I would think about it. I went home, opened up my books and auction catalogues, found it, and realized I had to go back to get it when they opened the next day. Surely it would be there since I saw it at 5pm and they closed at 6. I was there when they opened and it was already gone! Still to this day one of my biggest picking flubs. This one is priced at 325k.

This chair by Grete Jalk from 1963 is another heartbreaker in Graf, Kaplan & Zemaitis’s booth. Years ago at the 26th Street Flea Market I was ambling along when I saw someone lift one of these over the fence and start carrying it to a stall. Looking back I should have RUN, not casually sauntered over as he set it down next to a second one. As I opened my mouth to ask how much, two dealers stepped right in front of me (they had the right to as they were technically closer) and asked the price. The sellers said $1,200. The dealers said “Each?” and the sellers “No, for the pair.” The dealers then had the audacity to ask what the best price would be and at this point, enough was enough and I said out loud,”If you don’t buy them for $1200, I will”. They quickly pulled out their check book. I should have turned and vomited and gone home, but I kept my cool, stayed focused and literally at the next booth bought a Line Vautrin box for $25. It wasn’t the score of the year like those guys just had, but it definitely paid my rent for a few months. Moral of the story? Run, don’t saunter when you see something amazing even if that sprint is gonna cost you a few extra bucks.

I love this Grueby tile from 1905 designed by Addison B. LeBoutillier. Mark my words, Arts & Crafts is going to have a comeback.

We are still on Graf, Kaplan & Zemaitis’s stand now looking at this little freak. It’s a Gerald Summers “Weighted Towel Horse” from 1937. Plywood nerdery at its highest!

Continuing on in GKZ World…I could have done the whole post from there! I have always loved these Dan Johnson “Gazelle Chairs” from 1958. As someone I know has famously said, “That thare is a chair for lookin’ not settin’”.

Last one from GFKW, the Finn Juhl “Chieftan Chair”, this one from 1956. Another “lookin’” chair, but at least I wouldn’t be worried that it would explode into kindling if I happened to plop down on it. This was priced at $175k and is available as we speak if you have been looking for one.

Moving on to Nikolaus Kolhammer’s booth, this Dagobert Peche mirror is amazing and would look killer in any interior of any period. It’s from c.1922.

This was an odd combination in the same booth, but I’m happy to see any and all modern at this fair.

Bad picture, but there is always amazing artist jewelry on Didier Ltd.’s stand. Here we have a selection from the great Alexander Calder.

I never EVER would have guessed this was a Wilfredo Lam. Early work from 1930. Must have been during his drunken horny sailor period.

Did I mention there were books as well? I could go for this one. I’m rewatching Mad Men and would highly recommend it as it’s a TOTALLY different animal in wide screen 4K. Anyway, Don’s boss Bert Cooper keeps bringing up Ayn Rand to anyone that will listen, so I may have to relive my college years and re-read it as well. That is, as soon as I finish “Half His Age” by Jennette McCurdy which is pretty, pretty, pretty good.

I read this in high school, but the cover didn’t look like that. I wish it had, 80k sounds pretty good right about now. These and more goodies are on Peter Harrington’s stand.

I’d like this as well Mister Harrington! This would be the closest I would ever get to having an original painting by Helen Frankenthaler.

This was the smallest booth in the fair (you know I love a tiny booth) and possibly the best. All game boards. Ricco / Maresca has been killing it in this arena for decades, since 1979 to be exact.

Love this pairing from Geoffrey Diner Gallery. They always bring the design heat. Word on the street is that Geoffrey is Brad Pitt’s art/design advisor, but I can neither confirm nor deny that.

I think this would look good in your bathroom [insert tech billionaires name]. Pasko Vucetic and Victor Kovacic teamed up to make this amazing but slightly disturbing piece “Hatred & Madness” in 1898. French & Company from New York had it priced at 650k.

These Romare Bearden piece from the late 60s and early 70s were cool. Love the frames as well. They were on Alexandre Gallery’s stand.

I did not know Lucie Rie made mirrors. These were subtle and charming and priced attractively (compared to say a similarly sized Line Vautrin) at 27K & 29K each. I know, it’s a wacky world we live in where a 30K mirror seams reasonable.

Rose Uniacke’s stand was beautiful and the best smelling of the lot. The Ponti chair was sold and was priced at 68k? You can still grab the Jean Royere nesting tables for 216k or the Jean-Michel Frank lamp for 115k. The screen in the back is by Simone Prouvé, daughter of Jean Prouvé.

Everyone was talking about this. Yes, very cool provenance, but too messed-with for me. Make sure to read the photo caption above. I guess design wasn’t the writer’s strong suit.

I would take this Sonia Delaunay tapestry if you forced me too.

I would also take this Hans Hofmann off your hands if you don’t want it. “Blissful Darkness” from 1959. You also have a very blissful bank account to grab this from Debra Force Fine Art for 950k.

Sara and Jim of Glass Past always have an amazing booth filled with Venetian glass.

But this group of early American glass from the 1800’s was a scene stealer in my opinion. A very beautiful presentation as always.

Loved seeing this William Harper brooch. He was my jewelry professor way back when. He claimed on the first day of class that he never gives A’s. When I got my first semester grade, it was an A-. When I gleefully told him that I had indeed gotten an A he shot back, “No you didn’t! I gave you an A minus!” Loved Bill…

No Winter Show would be complete without some Bill Traylors. These were at Hirschl & Adler and priced 225k, 110k and 90k. Becca, eat your heart out!

Thomsen Gallery always has sublimely beautiful Japanese works. I am especially drawn to his baskets which sell like hot cakes.

Well that is all folks! You still have time to get up to the Park Avenue Armory and see this show, it closes this Sunday, February 1st. I highly recommend it!

Thanks for reading and see you back here next week!

-Patrick