Attempted Bloggery: jazz

Showing posts with label jazz. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Jazz Musicians: Arthur Getz Original New Yorker Cover Art

Arthur Getz's New Yorker cover of January 4, 1958 depicts a trio of jazz musicians performing. The original art was sold at auction on Sunday in New York. The presale estimate was $2,000 to $4,000. It sold for $4,000, the high estimate.

Arthur Getz
Framed original cover art
The New Yorker, January 4, 1958

Arthur Getz's signature

Detail of the bassist

Detail of the pianist

Detail of the drummer

Hammer Galleries inventory stamp

ALS from Arthur Getz to the work's buyer

Hammer Galleries paid receipt of September 20, 1966

Arthur Getz
Auctions at Showplace sale of June 18, 2023

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/arthur-getz-jazz-musicians-new-yorker-cover-art-14-c-448459da27?objectID=179662034&algIndex=archive_prod&queryID=c75857ef7de11ad5ae8c78996ce2ad7d

Arthur Getz
Framed original cover art
The New Yorker, January 4, 1958

Arthur Getz
The New Yorker, January 4, 1958

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1958-01-04/flipbook/CV1/

The previous sale, then, occurred on September 20, 1966 at the Hammer Galleries in New York. The price was $650 plus tax. The price today, without the premium is $4,000. This leads to the obvious question: Was this artwork a good investment? Let's look at the numbers.

Six-hundred fifty 1966 U.S. dollars is the equivalent of $6101 today, representing a cumulative inflation rate of 837%. A good financial investment has to return more than the rate of inflation, so this artwork technically fails the good investment test. On the other hand, an investment in the S&P 500 placed in September of 1966 would have returned 5,287% which beats the rate of inflation several times over. With dividends reinvested, though, the same investment returns 26,426%, hands down the winner.

https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

https://dqydj.com/sp-500-return-calculator/

Clearly, in this instance, an investment in the stock market greatly outperforms the rate of inflation and creates wealth, while an investment in this particular work of art does not. To be fair, there were no index funds in 1966 that could mimic the performance of the S&P 500, but that's not really the point.

The point is that art is not an investment that can be relied on to appreciate in value year after year. Some art appreciates significantly over time and some, perhaps most, doesn't.

You are not likely to be able to predict what artists your grandchildren's generation will value. The lesson is not to avoid buying art. The lesson is to buy art that you love. The original purchaser of this Getz art admired it enough to contact the artist and he responded with an invitation to visit him in his studio. Some family's life was enriched by this art for some fifty-seven years. Who can put a price on that?

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Thursday, July 20, 2017

Jazz Club: Julian de Miskey Proposed New Yorker Cover Art

Julian de Miskey's biographical page on the Papillon Gallery website is illustrated with "Jazz Club," a proposed New Yorker magazine cover, we are plausibly told. The artwork is extraordinarily energetic, overrunning its borders on all four sides. The palette is dominated by reds and browns; the composition has exaggerated diagonals going off to the right and to the left. Animated horn players seen from above occupy the foreground, slender and angulated dancers fill the middle ground, and seated club-goers provide a simple line of perspective at the back.

Julian de Miskey, Jazz Club, c. 1928

De Miskey's published New Yorker cover of June 6, 1925—his second and the magazine's sixteenth—makes for an interesting comparison with "Jazz Club." It's basically the same subject, highly-stylized but by comparison far more static and with a more conventional use of space. It is designed for a two-color press, the magazine's financial constraints being paramount in its early days. The evident similarity with the circa 1928 cover proposal possibly may have precluded the latter's use.

Julian de Miskey, The New Yorker, June 6, 1925

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/418342252871496634/

Instead, the magazine may have gone with a more humorous take on the 1928 jazz scene, one which remained somewhat stylized but which focused on the activity at the tables in the night club rather than on the dance floor. By now, the magazine's covers are printed in four colors—and this one's the bee's knees!

Julian de Miskey, The New Yorker, January 14, 1928

http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1928-01-14#folio=CV1

The Papillon Gallery has useful biographical information on de Miskey:

http://www.papillongallery.com/julian_de_miskey.html

Note: Attempted Bloggery would love for readers to provide scans or photos of more original art by Julian de Miskey and for more proposed but rejected New Yorker cover art, particularly from published artists.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

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Saturday, April 6, 2013

Book Review: R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz, & Country

R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz, & Country

A love of music should be a blessing to cartoonists. The hours spent at the drawing board pass very pleasantly with music, and one can be endlessly inspired by artists working in an altogether different medium.

R. Crumb's musical tastes are legendary. He has an abiding love of blues, jazz, and country music. He possesses a large record collection with many obscure 78's. Back around 1980 he illustrated three sets of trading cards featuring his favorite musical performers. The illustrations are based on old photographs, many of them as obscure as the music.

Crumb uses his celebrity to popularize some of his musical heroes. His appreciation of them is absolutely authentic. Crumb is evidently more popular than ever since Terry Zwigoff's documentary was released, and in 2006 these three sets of trading cards were published in book form by no less than Harry N. Abrams. I doubt that there would be much interest in this sort of project if not for Crumb's participation.

The blues and country artists are totally unknown to me outside of this book. I don't have the companion CD, so for now they will remain unknown. The descriptions provided give tantalizing hints of their fine musicianship.

The early jazz greats, here depicted in watercolor and not Pantone, are less obscure. Almost a third of them are known to me and I can vouch, along with R. Crumb, for their greatness.