R. H. Quaytman and the Enigmatic Portrait L
Marie Antoinette: Beyond Fashion Jeff Magid: Collecting Old Masters in a Digital Age
First Impressions: Five Gallerists on Formative Art
Questionnaire: Annabelle Selldorf
Hermès, drawing on your mind
THE SON OF MAN, 1964 RENE MAGRITTE OIL ON CANVAS YOUR LIFE IS A WORK OF ART
16th-19th October 2025
Open 11am daily
Join us at Frieze Masters and journey through an immersive experience that explores the mythical origins of diamonds.
Presented by
Welcome to Frieze Masters 2025
This issue of Frieze Masters magazine marks my first as editor, and the first under the leadership of the fair's new director, Emanuela Tarizzo. It feels right that we begin together, with a shared commitment bistory to presenting history not as something fixed, but as a living,dynamicforce.
The voices of galleries and dealers are central to this vision, and our feature Sites of Discovery gathers stories of first encounters with treasured artworks, drawn directly from exhibitors.These perspectives ground the fair in the passion and knowledge of those dae of thos who sustain it.
Elsewhere in the magazine, Patrick R. Crowley exploreshow an obscure 19th century technique has influenced cutting-edge technologies and Alice Blackhurst assesses Marie Antoinette's enduring cultural legacy, as showcased in the V&A's new landmark exhibition. Abby Bangser considers how expansive domestic collections in house museums such as Sir John Soane's Museum and Kettle's Yard informed her curation of Reflections, a new objectbased section at the fair, while our inaugural collector's profile highlights how Old Masters inspire Jeff Magid-a dern collecter Studia articte Jeff Magid - a very modern collector. Studio artists Anne Rothenstein and Anju Dodiya discuss their mutual fascination with Japanese prints; R. H. Quaytman reveals her passion for a Roman work of art; anp Frieze Masters Talksparticipant CarlStrehlke examines Fra Angelico's enduring influence.
Finally, following her renovation of the National Gallery, architect Annabelle Selldorf closes the issue with a questionnaire on the places and objects that inspire her.
Together with Emanuela, I would like to thank the galleries, artists, curators, collectors and tors whoss passiod thisfair Wo visitors whose passion sustains this fair. We are delighted to welcome you - energised and inspiredto Frieze Masters 2025.
Emanuela Tarizzo
Director, Frieze Masters
Terence Trouillot
Editor, Frieze Masters Magazine
8
Gabori
Sooh Kath Sarah-Katharina Andres-Acevedo on Meissen menageries
FRIEZE FAIR
DIRECTOR, FRIEZE MASTERS
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF FAIRS
Kristell Chade
Romilly Stebbines illy Stebb
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
DIRECTOR OF EXHIBITOR RELATIONS
Amanda Henriques
Natasha Pee
SE BITOR RELATIONS MANAGER
Arlette Hermans
EXHIBITOR RELATIONS ASSISTAN
Francesca Manzin
FO
Amanda Sharp & Matthew Slotove
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Simon Fox
FRIEZE MASTERS M
Terence Trouillot
CREATIVE DIRECTOR, FRIEZE-BRANDED CONTENT
Nora Foster
SENIOREDITOR, FRIEZE STUDI
Chris Waywell
PUBLISHING & EVENTS MANAG
GALLERY INDEX COORDINATOR
Sophie Ruigrok
Elettra Gotti Ele
ART DIRE
Lorenz Klingebiel
Laura Laura Willian Williams
CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER
EmilyGlazebrook
HEAD OF PARTNERSHIPS
Alexandra Howker
DIRECT ANDED CONTENT & STUDIOS
Francesca Girelli
PUBLISHER
Lisa Gersdorf
Bosalind Eurness
JenniferWard MANAGER
FRIEZE MASTERS, TO ENQUIRE WITH
RoseCrosthwaite
AMERICAS & ASIA PACIFIC
MelissaGoldberg
FACEBOOK & INSTAGRAM @friezeofficial
friezecom/sion frieze.com/sign-up
BERLIN
Zehdenicker Straße 28 10119 Berlin, Germany barlin@fria +49 307675 80230 +49 30 7675 80230
The artist reflects on a Fayum portrait masterpiece on show with ArtAncient at Frieze Masters, and how it relates to the latest 'Chapter' in her practice, as seen in this year's Studio section
As told to TERENCE TROUILLOT
When I first setmy eyes on Portrait L (c.98-117 ), I felt an immediate connection.The figure's face is so vivid, so full of life, it's almost like she's blinking at you. Epeauetic nainting Idiscovered originated in Ga Encaustic painting, I discovered, originated in Greece before travelling to Rome and then Egypt.We only know ofthe tradition through Roman-Egyptian funerary panels from two millennia ago - colloquially known as 'Fayum from two millenniaago-colloquially known as 'Favum mummy portraits' - yet she looks straight at you across mummy portraits -yet shelooksstraigntat you across the centuries, as though about to speak.Ilove the history around these ancientpaintings.Apnarently. thepalette was around these ancient paintings.Apparently,the palette was restricted to only four colours: lead white, earth red,yellow haed Ithink ochre and lamp or bone black. I think I might try that. Theseencaustic portraits reverberate because oftheir stangreaess diwayssay tiey s startling realness.I always say they're almost too human, as ifthey're about to answer you back. I've painted with encaustic before; it's beautiful but difficult.The waxhas to be kept warm or it hardens instantly, so youend up working in these short, quick brushstrokes. But whoever made hort uickbrshstrokes.But whoever made
PortraitL mastered it differently. It's unusually painterly: thin layers, delicate shadows,almost no impasto.You can see howthe wax was thinnedandbrushedin,especially on the cheoke andthoee setonicking e 'eho the cheeks and those astonishing eyes. It's both intimate and anonymous, reminding me of porfraits by Hans and anonymous, reminding me of portraits by Hans Holbeinthe Younger or Jean Clouet -thekindofrealism that has a serious unflinching nature thathas a serious, unflinching nature.
I've been thinking about portraiture a lot recentlyparticularly with my new series of paintings of Queen Elizabeth I, which I'llbe showing at this year's fair. Elizabeth I. which I'llbe showine at this vear's fair. Elizabeth controlled her likeness so fiercely, approving Ezabe coonedher keess so ercely, approving only official images and burning the rest, and yet we still don't really know what she lookedlike. In PortraitL, we're given the opposite: a single image of a woman,seem- weregivethe astigie agsm ingly real and present, but whose life and identity are entirelylost.
There is no harderthing to paintwell than the human face - probably because we know instinctually ifit's true face-probably because we know instinctually if it's true
to life. One ofthe incredible things Portrait L shows is that realism inportraiture only became possiblewith the revolutionary introductionof painted shadows. I recall readingthat Elizabeth I preferred fow shadows inthe reading that ElizabethI preferred few shadows in the portraits she commissioned, as ifto deny the unsettling portraits shecommissioned, as if to denythe unsettiing depth that they bring - like a strange mirror reflecting something profound between the subiect and the viewer omething profound between the subject and the viewer. For me, painting has always beenaboutthat paradox: how an image can survive its maker and its subject, carrying a presence that feels alive even when everyone carrving a presence that feels alive even when evervone invoived is long gone. thats what this portran does. involved is longgone. That's what this portrait does. It collapses time. It's uncanny and moving. And, honestly, it makes me want to continue painting portraits FM
The New York gallerist on the Kaiadilt painter who created a unique painting style to express her universe
Gabori poured her entire knowledge and life into a decade-long painting practice.
Truthfully, I first encountered Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori's work online. Like being struck Juwarnda Sally Gabori'sworkonline. Like being struck by an illustration in a a book, the grid of her fuschia, yellow, red and blue abstractions necessitated a pilgrimage to see her work in person - which proved impossible, age to see her work in person - which proved impossible. as no Aierican imsttutions conected her. wnowas thts as no American institutionscollectedher.Who was this extraordinary woman who started painting at the age of 81, dispossessed fromherhomelandanddetermined to respond?
Gabori's paintings in bold, sweeping colours later becamethe centrepieces of our 2024 exhibition 'Desert + Coast', dedicated to seven master female Aboriginal painters - the largest international commercial gallery exhibition of Aboriginal art, and thefirst to present Gabori's work in the US.
Gabori was a one-of-a-kind artist.In 2005, she became the first ever painter in the Kaiadilt community in Queensland, Australia. Already an accomplished weaver and basket maker one day she nicked una naintbrush and basket-maker, one day she picked up a paintbrush while waiting for her weaving supplies to arrive. while walfing for ner weaving suppiles to arrive. Deeply moved by the medium, she poured her entire knowledge and life into a decade-long painting practice. Gabori had no inherited two-dimensional painting tradition to drawupon - no sand, bark or body painting among theKajadiltpeople. no history of easelpaintine among the Kaiadilt people, no history of easel paintingand so she made one up, entirely her own. trryh o Her work can feel akin to Western painters like the abstract expressionists, but it is rooted in something profoundly different: her memory ofCountry, of Bentinck Island, fromwhichshehadbeen displaced, and the lives, familyand historiesthattied her to it. There is something fearless about that gesture - turning personalhistory and cultural knowledge into vast, colour-saturated canvases. That freedom of form, the outpouring of experience, Ihatfreedom of form, the outpouring of experience, the bold transformation of tradition into work that leaps forwardin time and ontinto the wider worldstillinsnires forward intime and outinto the wider world stillinspires me today FM
and Salon 94 are jointly presenting the work ofMirdidingkingathi
FRIEZE MASTERS | B10 15-19 October 2025
The Regent's Park, London
D LAN CONTEMPORARY
Queen Marie Antoinette is a byword for fashionable profligacy, but a new V&A exhibition offers a more rounded view of the controversial monarch
by ALICE BLACKHURST
In 1783, a portrait of the Austrian-born French queen Marie Antoinette painted by Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun was removed from the Salon of that year on the grounds thatthat it it depicted depicted thethe notorious notorious sovereien sovereign inin insufficiently insufficiently exravaga. ressed a pastorar sP extravagant attire. Dressed in a 'pastoral straw hat and a simple billowing cream dress cut from muslin, the ensemble was a bold departure from the more estricted corsetry ofVersailles fashions atthe time and the court's preference for sumptuous fabrics. In posing in such a darinringly unstructured dress, which more approximated lin lingerie, the queen drew scorn from critics, laimed shs who claimed thatt she was shunning France's revered Lyon silk (then one of its mo one of its most lucrative industries) and disrespecting royal protocols. . The ensemble's roomy offer confirmationthat arms and shoulders appeared to ofoffer conhrmation that the modish queen was hiding somet the restr something up her sieeve.
The more mon lament about Marie Antoinette's tanelement with fashionis entanglement with fashfashion is that she was profligate and frivolous, spending ing at at lea least 300,000 livres a year on ostuming herselfwhhenthe average French peasant earned account only 700. (On accoununtof her clothes-worshipping, she was unt of her clothes-worshipping.shewas accused of pushing accused of pusining France into bankruptey, eariing na ing France into bankruptcy, earning her the epithet 'MaMadame Déficit, amongother slurs.) Now,a new exh a exhibition at theVictoriaandAlbert (V&A) Museum in Lonondon, Marie Antoinette Style, seeks to give more dimensionality to th brittle view ofher as the one popularimagination. trick or myopic Queen of Fashion' popularimagination. bughthe show celebrates Marie Antoinette through l the lens of sel self-ornamentation, it doesn't only showcase her spectaculacularly scaffolded couture court gowns-swooninggrandands habits designed by 'Minister of Fashion' Rose Bertin por the nastel whimeies in wistfalle -nor the pastel whimsies in wistfully washed-outd-out, bonbon tones toremost in the cultural bonbon tones foremost in the cultural imaginainary since Sofia Coppola's 2006 titularcinematic portrayaayal ofthe fated monarch. This multisensory survey aval ofthe fated monarch This multisensory survey allows allowsowsviewers to pore over some ofMarie Antoinette's ows viewers topore over some of Marie Antoinettes most st cherished props (her silk slippers and bejewelled hair hairccombs), catch a her preferred perfume comhs) catch a herpreferrednerfume whiff ot (recreated from herTrianon gardens)andobserve modern runway pieces (by Gaultier, Westwood,Chanel) that pay homage to the original 'material girl. It shows Marie Antoinette not only as anavid adolescent clothes horse, but as a mourner, mother, collector, tastemaker, patron of the arts and, before her sensationally grisly execution at the hands ofthe new French Republic in 1793, a prisoner, who, until her last meticulously choreographed outfit of blindingly white petticoat and matching garters as her hair was cut to shredsbefore a crowd, brought consistent kowine attention to the art and actofnettine drecced knowing attention to the art and act of getting dressed.
Marie Antoinette is closer to the modern-day template of a celebrity for celebrity's sake.
Iwasn't sure what witnessing the show in London, a citywhichhas always spliced royal reverence with punk subversion, might yield. TheV&A's location inthe Royal subversion miobt vield TheV&A's locationin the Roval Borough of Kensington provides a rather different setting fromthe Conciergerie inParis - itsdramatic'corridorof death', where MarieAntoinettespentthe last days of her life death' where Marie Antoinette snent thelast davsofher life awaitingtrial, was themorbid setting for a related exhibi- a tion in 2019.The show is also a departure from previous V&A productions appraising landmark cultural fioures V&A productions appraising landmark cultural figures through the prism oftheir clothing, such as 'Frida Kahlo: tougheprioth coing, te as Nmo: Making Her Self Up' in 2018 and'Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto' in 2023-24, both of whom had Fashion Manifesto in 2023-24. both ofwhom had towering artistic vocations alongside their penchants for self-adornment.
MarieAntoinette, only 14whenshe was propelled on tothe world's stage, iscloser to the modern-day template of a celebrity for celebrity's sake. Yet the crude objectification of her body - her bedsheets scrutinized for damning tion ofher body - her bedsheets scrutinized for damning menstrual stains fromthe moment sheentered Versailles as she effectively became the reproductive property of the French state - and the morass of baldly sexualized smear campaigns conspiring to incriminate her find illiade disinforationcm chilling parallels in today's disinformation campaigns against women politicians and the entrenched barriers to women's full bodily autonomy across the world. Through the fupbouse mirror that continnes to distort Through the funhouse mirror that continues to distort Marie Antoinette's legacy, many ofthe themes ofthis year's Frieze Masters - connoisseurship, discovery, expertise, identity and the reinterpretation of art history thronch identity and the reinterpretation of art history through a contemporary lens - reverberate. contemporary lens -reverberate.
Reading into Marie Antoinette's biography while researching thispiece, I was struck by how most commentators tators underscore the moments when she was ingloriously stripped of her armour: her brutal 'handover' ceremony from Austria to France, and her scandal-riven trial and execution. There is a voyeuristic charge in seeing icons execuion isa oysn ha divested. This show doesMarieAntoinettethe dignity of putting her back inherclothes FM
Rooted in legacy, 35 of the finest residences on the Côte d Azur bring together expansive living spaces, sweeping sea views, and six acres of landscaped gardens. Complete with concierge and wellness facilities, these residences are now available for immediate ownership.
BOOK YOUR PRIVATE VIEWING TODAY
RESIDENCES STARTING FROM 7M
Colquhoun reveals her unique position: receptive rather than subversive, attuned to hidden energies.
The London gallerist reflects on aromarkabla and ambicuoue ar a remarkable and ambiguousearly paintingby an artist better iet work known for her surrealist works
I first came across Demeter and Persephone (1928) in a friend's collection. Atthe time. Iwas buvine and selling a friend's collection. Atthetime,Iwas buying and selling works by Ithell Colquhoun (1906-88), andthis was one works by the Coiqunou (1906-88), and this was one ofthe earliest I had seen by her. Iknewher surrealist work, but this painting knocked me right betweenthe work,butthis paintine knocked me right between the eyes. I waked o a artists studo today andk eyes.If I walkedinto an artist'sstudio today and saw this picture, I'd think it was a compelling work of art. Painted during Colquhoun's timeinLondonin the late 1920s, thepiece prefigures her surrealist tendencies of 15zos, me dpiceprengures hrsr the following decades and was included in her landmark show, 'Ithell Colquhoun: BetweenWorlds', at Tate St Ives earlier this year. The canvas depicts two women locked in uhich dof an embrace that is slightly unclear but which doesn't feel like that of a mother and daughter. There hasbeen a lot of scholarship about Colquhoun's sexuality and queerness oflte hueally articulated itin her lifetime of late, butshe never really articulated it in her lifetime. Yetshe imbuesthis work with such ambiguity: an intimacy thatcomplicates conventional mythological readings and hints at a nuancedunderstanding ofgenderandidentity hints at a nuanced understanding of gender and identity. And her inventiveness - not nailing her colours to the And herinventiveness - not naiing nercoloursto the mast - reveals an independent spirit thatwould mark her whole career. er whole career.
The painting's warm, economical handling of paint suggests deep technical confidence,while its animate landscape - a tree that seems almost to lean into the landscape - a tree that seems almost to lean into the ngures-rodces her elong asciatio wia sen- figures - introduces her lifelong fascination with a sentient, spiritual nature. Colquhoun would go on to workin surrealist circlesin Paris, but departed from the group to explore the occult and various esoteric philosophies.Yet the esotmes. t even here, in this early exercise, she reveals her unique position: receptive ratherthan subversive. attuned to position: receptive ratherthan subversive, attuned to hidden energies. You could easily read this as a self portrait - Colquhoun, bob haircut and all, sitting on another woman's lap - but we simply don't know. another woman's lap- but we simply don't know. And that is the magic of this piece: she never reveals too muchlevingnetowonder EM too much, leaving us to wonder FM
BenHunter (Stand d B5) B5) include includes Ithell Colquhoun in its presentation at Frieze Masters
Ben Hunter is thefounderanddiBenHunteristhe founderand directorofhiseponymous gallery. based in St James's, London,UK.
A 19th-century French process that anticipated 3D printing by 150 years has contemporary lessons to teach us about how we perceive therole ofthe artist, as PATRICK R. CROWLEY explains
On 17 May 1861,the 30-year-old French artistand inventor Francois Willème delivered a lecture at the Société Française de Photographie in Paris, where he unveiled oten'! Wich his process of 'photosculpture." With the goal of making domestically scaled sculpture accessible tothe burgeoning domesticallyscaledsculptureaccessible to theburgeoning middle class of Second Empire France, Willème devised od on if an apparatus that transformed, as if by magic, two-dimensional photographs of its subjects into two-dimensional photographs of its subjects into three-dimensional sculptures at a fraction ofthetimeand costoftraditional methode Yet deeniteite aublicized til cost of traditional methods. Yet,despite itspublicized utility as a labour-saving device thatreduced the preliminary, ity as a labour-saving device that reduced the preliminary, time-consuming work ofproducing a modelwithoutreplacing the roleofthe artist - a claim that hasdistinct echoes inthedubious promise of today's artificialintelligenceandartincialinteingence itsutopian standard of zero work'-photosculpture proved acommercial failure. As a protocomputationaltechnigue a commercialfailure.Asa protocomputationaltechnique, however, it plays a secret yet hugely influential role in owever, plays a sect ytugeryio thehistorical development of modern technologies of scanning, machining,prototyping and printing that are so ubiquitous today. 'Solid Pictures', an upcoming exhibition s oitres,an doS ao at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, brings together these overlooked artefacts ofthe not- brings together these overlooked artetacts of the notso-distant past to reveal the historical richness of our contemporary world.
The novelty of Willème's process lay not only in its innovative application of pre-existing mechanical and chemical technologies, such as the pantograph, the photograph or even the nearly contemporary invention of the electrotype, but in its particularconhiguration of these electrotype, but inits particular configuration of these techniques. Together, they unleashed a new logic of sculptural space that was at once abstract andconcrete, ghoulish and marvellous; namely the dislocation ofthe human figure from its bodily and spatial relationship to itself In a large rotunda illuminated by a elass dome to itself. In a large rotunda illuminated by a glass dome, the subject would stand on a circular platform inthe middle of the room with a plumb bob overhead to establish a central axis. The platform was dividedinto 24 segments correspsponding to a o a set of24 interconnected sponding to a set of 24 iite cameras that were eembeddedd iinthe wall, hidden from view Within ten seconds the cameras simultaneously at d the keness otheshter i s g 15-degree increments. These images were developed as glass-plate negativeves that were ere projected on to frosted ere projected on to frosted glass screens. Assissistants would pla gasss platealaige place a large sheetofpaper on the other side of of the screen and trace the prohle of the ngurefor each 15-degree tranche or 'slice'. Each slice was then retraced using a pantograph: two styluses, connected by a framework of parallelograms joined by mechanical
D'APRES NATURE OBTENUE MECANIQUEMENT
Prsl'Arcde Triomphe
'A mechanical operator has developed for you,with impeccable accuracy, a statue whose original does not exist.'
Théophile Gautier
linkages, that allows forthe exactreplication, reduction or enlargement of a drawing or script.
Willème's innovation was toconnect the pantograph whemes ovaion was toconect the paogtapu to his apparatus, replacing one of its styluses with a cutting tool A mass of clay was set atop a turntable. As the ting tool. A mass of clay was set atop a turntable.As the assistatsfced st whi thestyus onone assistants retraced the silhouette with the stylus on one end of the pantograph, the cutting tool on the other end sliced intothe clay. In this way,the photographic informa- slicedinto the clay. In this way,the photographic information was first translated to paper and subsequently into the clay as it was rotated to each corresponding profile. The resultant clay 'sketch'would have had visible seams that were then smoothed out.The finer details, in many cases quite extensive, required finishing byhand. A mould was made from the clay model that, depending on the desired medium,could be sent to external collaborators. The finished portrait could be executed in a variety of The fnished portrait could be executed in a variety of - materials - plaster,bisque porcelain, terracotta, bronze and galvanoplasty (electrotyping) - and was promised in as little as 48 hours little as 48 hours.
No doubt inspired by the extraordinary popularity ofthe carte-de-visite, a small-format collectable portrait photograph patented by André AdolpheEugèneDisdéri photograph patented by André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri in 1854, Willemewas hercely protective ofnis intelle in 1854, Willème was fiercely protectiveofhisintellectual property,filing thefirstpatentsforhis novelprocess in 1860and 1861. French copyright law was especially comscianeany pre complex in the case of mechanically produced sculpture. One finds cartouches on thebasesof manyphotosculptures with the inscription 'Breveté SGDG', or 'sans garantie du gouvernement', meaning that the government 'does not ither the reality thepovelte or the meritof guarantee either the reality,the novelty, or the merit of
Affi Françols Willeme,Affiche pour le studio de FrançoisWill 1865, poster, 106 × 75 cm. Courtesy: Bibliothèque nationale de France
Right Artist u n, Ro servant de salle de pose. servant de salle de pose, Vingt-quatre aspects différents du sujet sont pris (detail), 1864, wood engraving. 36x25cm Courtesy: Cantor ArtsCenter at Stanford University. California
the invention, or the fidelity or exactness ofthe specification'. Any question about validity or infringement thus or had to be settled by the courts, and so it is no surprise that one critic lamented: The courts themselvescontradict that one criticlamented:"The courts themselvescontradict each other every day in the application ofthe law on this subject.² One could hardly blame them when critics like Theophile Gautier, in an aesthetic judgement that surely Théophile Gautier, in an aestheticjudgement that surely une nasod posed a juridicalheadache,exclaimed:'Without a model, without a maquette, a mechanicaloperatorhas developed for you,with impeccable accuracy,a statuewhoseoriginal a does not exist.
Aboutthat 'impeccable accuracy': thepromoters of photosculpture routinely toutedits capacity to register fine details, especially in women's dress, giving riseto a strongly eendered discourse about the applications of a stronglygendered discourse aboutthe applications of this new technology.Over and over, we find a male author at once awestruckand somewhat repulsed by the fashionable frippery encoded in photosculpture. Texturesof silk, shlefeinnereencodedin photosculature. Textures ofsilk. taffeta, velvet,lace and even hair, traditionally indexing surface effects that exceed depiction, are meticulously rendered inall their intricacy and delicacy as sculptural rendered in all their intricacy and delicacy as sculptural events oftremendous complexity. Ironically,mostofthese details were sculpted by hand after thepantograph process had been completed. Thanksto this time-intensivelabour, portraits ofwomen were significantly more expensive than portrans oeresig their typical male counterparts. Linking this obsession with detail to the very essence of photosculpture, with detail to the very essence of photosculpture. Gautier remarked that'she [i.e., photosculpture] knowshow toreduee herselfandis.content with a shelfasa nedestal4 to reduce herself andiscontentwith a shelf as a pedestal'. Anothercritic,extendingthis misogynist imperative that women take up less space and can be domesticated throueh miniaturizakedthat through processes of miniaturization, remarkedthat 'the male chisel of the sculptor deigns with good reason these feminine extravagances incompatible with the cvarit f the marble and the hich simplicity of the everity of the marble and the high simplicity of the grand style... Her place is inthe living room, not under the porticoes.Her figurines are to statues what miniatures are to historical portraite 5 are to historical portrai
Despite its democratizing ambitions, itperhaps comes slittle surprise that the first adopters of photosculpture played a key role in using it to ramify networks of soft power and ceey: Napole nd s deputies i power and celebrity: Napoleon III and his deputies in the Legion of Honour; the court of Isabella II of Spain; Pope Pope Pius Pius IX; IX: and and members members of of thethe Comédie-Francaise Comédie-Française theatre. Thedreamofphotosculpture's mass appeal was adde ssen never realized. By May 1867, six short years afterhe unveiled his process, Willème was out: the shareholders of his own company, deeply overleveraged, accepted his resignation and replaced himwith a new artistic directorin an ultimately unsuccesstul effortto stop thelosses.A major an ultimatelyunsuccessful effort to stop the losses. A major contributing factor to these was thetremendous cost ofthe labour involved,which the companyconsistently obscured. shourinvolved which thecompany.consistently obscured.
Indeed,thetouted appeal of photosculpture as a laboursaving process offers an early and trenchant example of a gimmick, defined by Sianne Ngai as both an aesthetic indeement and a canitalist form whose ambivalence lies judgement and a capitalist form whose ambivalence lies in our perception ofit as working too hard and not hard enough at the same time. For Ngai, the gimmick thus encodes a fundamental uncertainty about the relationship ofvalue andtimethat comprise labour. It may seem either vaite compriserabour.it seemeitner technologically outmoded or futuristicand can even toggle betweenthese positions over time. between these positions over time.
Ngai's reading of the gimmick offers a useful frame- ekforthinkiwndarorkfor thinkingabout the strange admixtureofwonder and suspicion that critics and consumers alike felt when and suspicion that critics and consumers alike telt when confronted with these newfangled objects inthe 19th century - an ambivalence about the technicity ofcreative labourthatcontinuesto hauntus today. Notcoincidentally, labour that continues to haunt us today. Not coincidentally, recent scholarship on the media aestheticsof photosculp- nlarein white hieate norcalain hadla ture, particularly in white bisque porcelain, has roundly judged themwith disdain.Themain charge of this criticism is that these objects are essentially styleless works that register a given set ofdata points with no intentionality register a given set of data points with no intentionality or internallogic corresponding to whattheorist Gottfried ofinternaiiogie corresponding towat theostGot Boehm wouldcall'iconic difference. The irony is thatthe vaunted realistic effects of photosculpture, especially in woens ess, have the leastto do wi potog women's dress, havethe least to do with photography in the whole process as they were meticulously done by hand.
Today, Willème's legacy can be discerned in platforms such as CNC (computer numerical control) machinesthatsand POS automate tool-paths using specific input instructions, thus merging human ingenuity and machine work in thus merging human ingenuity and machine work in a hybrid manner that artist Charles Ray, describing his use ofthe technology, likens to 'my idea of a Western hand, the hand of a robot'. But if the CNC machine corresponds to the pantographic step in Willème's process,the camera array in the posing studio planted the seeds for modern systems of spatial imaging: a CT (computed tomography) scan, for example, uses a motor- ized Xr socethat otates to create 2D 'elices'that are ized X-ray source that rotates to create 2D 'slices' that are stacked to to form torm a a 3D 30 image. image. In In the the end, end, photosculpture's photoscuiptures failure had less to do with the potential of its concept than the mismanagement of its business in a growine thanthe mismanagement ofits business in a growing speculative bubble.Plus ça change! FM
'Solid Pictures:Photosculpture and the Making ofModernLikeness curated by Patrick R.Crowley,is on view at the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, from 16 September 2026 to 17 January 2027. Patrick R. Crowley is an art historian, curator and historical consultant.Heis associate curator ofEuropean art at theCantorArts Center,Stanford University, California,US, and is theauthor of ThePhantomImage:Seeine theDead in AncientRome (University of TbePhantom Image: SeeingtheDead in Ancient Rome (University of Chicago Press, 2019).
Francols François Willème, Unfinished photosculpture bust, c.1860, oak and twine on base, overall (bust): 14x8x7cm: overal (base): 6 cm; diameter (base): (base): 6
See especially Robert A. A.Sobieszek, Sculpture as theSumofItsProhles: François Willème andPhotosculpture in France, 1859-1868',Art Bulletin 62 (December 1980), pp. 617-630; Woltgang (December1980),pp. 617-630; Wolfgang Drost, La Photosculpture entre art industriel et artisanat: la réussite de FrançoisWillème (1830-1905), Gazette desBegux-Arts106(October 1985). 5. 126: Jean-lneGall Photo/seulpture p. 126; Jean-Luc Gall, Photo/sculpture: L'inventiondeFrançois Willème', Etudes photographiques3 (November 1997),pp. 1-12; and Leticia Azcue Brea and Mario FernándezAlbarés.'Fotoescultura, nueva Fernandez Albares, Fotoescultura, nuevas aportaciones, in Carolina Miguel Arroyo Fotografía y museo: De los orígenes a la conquista de un espacio de visibildad en Espanay America Latina (siglos XIX-XXI, España y América Latina (siglos XIX-XXI 2023, Ministerio de Cultura, Subdirección General de Atención al Ciudadano, Documentación y Publicaciones, Madrid, pp.236-52
Ernest Lacan, 'III, in La Photosculp ,ibotoseuipture: etranger, 180o Société Générale de Photosculpture, Paris, p. 36
Théophile Gautier, Photosculpture, 1864, Paul Dupont, Par Gautier, Photosculpture, pp. 10-11 Paul de Saint-Victor,'V, Photosculpture. Brevets en France et à l'étranger (Paris: Société Générale de Photosculpture. 1866). 77
Seanne Ngai, Theory ofthe Gim seanne Ngar beoryof the ic AestbeticJudgment and Captahst Form, 2020, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, p. 2
Ibid.
Jene Schrät Jens Schröter,3D: History, Theory and Aesthetics ofthe Transplane Image, trans
Brigitte Pichon and Dorian Rudnytsky. 2014, Bloomsbury, London, p. 126 2014, Bloomsbury. London.p. 126 Kelly BaumandBrinda Kumar, CharlesRay d 2022 Museuat, oaries Ray Figure Ground, 2022, Museum of Modern Art, New York, p. 96
The New Yorkdealer on a mysterious painting - presented at Frieze Masters - attributed to the father but actuallyby the son
The most exciting part of buying art is the discovery that comes with unearth I acquired this 1906 portraitof a a young woman in profile, setagainst a black background, after being struck by its quiet elegance and confident brushwork. At the time, the Swedish auction househandling the piece attributed it it to Enea Ballarini, a talented Italian painter in his own right who, intriguingly, never set foot in Sweden
Through further research, though, a more compelling story emerged: the work is not by Enea, but by his son Ernesto. Ernesto was a successful musician and violin teacherwho spent much ofhis life in Sweden and Norway. teacherwho spent muchof hislifeinSwedenand Norway. He had no formal artistic training and likely developed his skille from snendinetimein his father'e sudioasachild skills from spending time in his father's studio as a child. This makes thetechnique in this portraitofthe 27-year-old SiriAmalia Charlotte Hagman from the cityofVäxjö even more impressive: the loose, confident brushwork of her more impressive the loose confdent brushworkof her flowing black garments givesway to delicate precision in the rendering of her face.
Weknow ofseveral otherworks incorrectly attributed to Enea that are in factby Ernesto.With a name, a biography toEheathat fact Eriesto. a and some truly remarkable portraiture,we can return his name to art history whereit belongs FM
Ambrose NaumannFineArtincludes ErnestoBallariniin its presentation, in shared with Otto Naumann, at Frieze Masters 2025 (StandD6) Ambrose Naumann is owner anddirectorofAmbrose Naumann Fine Art.
The most exciting part of buying art is the discovery that comes with unearthing stories.
Artists ANJU DODIYA and ANNE ROTHENSTEIN, showing in this year's Studio section, trace the influence of Japanese prints across centuries - from the claws of Hokusai's TheGreat Wave to the silences of nihonga portraits
Anju Dodiya My first encounter with Japanese ukiyowoodblock prints was at art school, but it wasn't an inspiring experience at all. It just seemed like some boring assignment - we had to replicate these black and white printe neing traditional woodeutting tools and white prints using traditional woodcutting tools. My head, at the time, was full of the abstractexpressionistsand postmodernists. I was more excited about Robert Rauschenberg than Hokusai. But after I came out of art Rauschenbere than Hokusai. But after I came out of art school, I had a calendar of Japanese prints, which I loved. Iknew nothing aboutthem;there was no information about the individual works. (These were the pre-internet davs!) the individual works. (These were the pre-internet days!) I pinned it upinmy studio, and I loved looking at it every pinnedtup andloved atevery day. During that time, my first ever body ofwork as an artist was a series of watercolours. WhenIhad a big pile artistwas a series of watercolours. When I had a big pile of them, I showed them to an artist friend, andshe said that I would probably liketheworkof Utamaro. Sothat's how I heard of Utamaro. And Iloved his work. Maybe itit had something to dowith the images depicting women in domestie scenes That wasthe beeinnine for me domestic scenes. That was the beginning for me.
Anne Rothenstein It's funny, because my father was a printmaker and he made woodcuts and linocuts. was a printmakerandhemadewoodcutsand linocuts Growing up, there were all sorts of images around the house. I wouldn'tknow whether they were Japanese or Marican Brailian Ruteothor hain or Mexican or Brazilian. But my brother, being a very sophisticated fellow, collected matchbox labels when all other boys were collecting football cards. Some of these matchbox labels, which were Japanese, had some of the most beautiful designs. I suppose it was the colourand most beautirr desigins. I suppose simplicity that really attracted me
Oneofthe big differences between our sensibilities is thatI am really interested in much laterJapanesewoodcuts feany teresteaterapaeseots than the ukiyo-e period. I'm interested in the simplicity. I don't know whothe first artist I discovered was,butthe main image that comes to mind is the back of a woman's head.These swathes of blacknessin the middle ofapainting, alongside perhaps the patternof a kimono, the depiction alongside perhaps the pattern of a kimono, the depiction of a woman where the face and body seem unimportant. honutalyfec I foundthat absolutely fascinating and mysterious.
AD Ialsolove that they're very elegant and, ofcourse, iful Butthore'e certain almost Iwould say nolit beautiful. But there's a certain, almost, I wouldsay polite structure, and suddenly theimages break from it. It could structure, and suddenlytheimages break fromit.It could be a twist ofthe posture.It couldbetheknotof the kimono. Oritcouldhe in ci ntienictdan ure Or it could be, in shunga - erotic pictures - a sudden flurry of activity in the middle of the bodies. Everythingelse is of activity in the middieofthebodies. Everything elseis sublime.When suddenly, you find this great energy and it breaks the picture. Ilove that. breaks the picture, I love th AR It has its own momentum in a way that I don't find in much European art. I admire many artists from a wide range ofcultures,butthere'ssomethine about a wide range of cultures, but there's something about these simpiegestures in Japanese woodcuts and pai- these simple gestures in Japanese woodcuts and paintings that I find completely mesmerizing. For instance, I am particularly moved by the nibonga artistShima Seien's self-portrait, Untitled [1918]. It's the most amazing image of a woman with a bruise on her cheek. I've read about this work,and some scholarshave tried to pretend it's just a smudge ofink. But others clearly see it is a woman who hae heen mistreated with a hruiced eve And the who has been mistreated, with a bruisedeye.And the
