News
The Armory Show – Modern
The Armory Show is an annual art fair featuring international dealers specializing in historically significant modern and cutting-edge contemporary art. The fair gathers together hundreds of the finest galleries in the world and will take place from March 3 – 6, 2011 on Piers 92 and 94. Be sure to plan a visit to the MAM/FA stand in the Armory Modern section of the fair on Pier 92. For more information about the fair go to www.thearmoryshow.com.
Art Basel Miami Beach 2010
Please join us at Art Basel Miami Beach, Stand D-02.
We will be featuring works by Carrington, Covarrubias, De Obaldía, Gerzso, Goeritz, Kahlo, Lam, Matta, Mérida, Milhazes, Orozco, Ramos-Martinez, Rivera, Siqueiros, Tamayo, Toledo and others. For more information about the fair, click here.
Virtual Tour of MAM/FA Booth at Art Basel Miami Beach 2011
Click the images below to enlarge
Thirteen of the Questions Most Frequently Asked Me…
…by confused collectors who know I worked thirteen years in an auction house:
—Mary-Anne Martin, Winter 1996
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How can it save me money to ask a professional to bid for me at auction?
An experienced bidder can hear when there is real interest from the room or the phone and can also tell when no one is really bidding except the auctioneer (in behalf of the owner). In the latter case you are not really in a competitive situation, i.e., the cost of the work is not market driven. If you are simply bidding against the owner, you may well be paying too much.
The Latin American Market Comes of Age
Some thoughts on the past twenty-one years.
—Mary-Anne Martin, 1988
Twenty-one years ago the Latin American art market didn’t exist. Not to say that works by artists from Latin America weren’t being sold in various places, but they were not marketed as a collecting category. Much has occurred since I organized the first Mexican sale in 1977. It began as an experiment, a way to make my life at Sotheby’s more interesting and to attract the attention and approval of my superiors, who were focused on Impressionist and Contemporary paintings, the big money makers. My early experience with this field was completely accidental. I had been trained at Sotheby’s as an expert in Modern European pictures and none of my graduate school courses ever touched on the Mexicans or the artists of Latin America. There were no survey books to be had because Latin Americans viewed themselves country by country, not as a group. Sometimes I hear people criticizing the label “Latin American” as an outsider’s term, but I chose it to describe the auctions over “South American,” a term which excluded Mexico and Central America. Others have criticized the idea of separate auctions, since “art is art.” That is true, but there is no doubt in my mind that the huge interest in this field would not exist today if the auctions had not shed light on the art of this vast region with a common, though not homogenous, heritage. continue reading…