clifford schorer winslow homer
Does it happen that a painting and a drawing will happen to hit the market at the same time? And, you know, you have this big triangle already. Richard Davis, jazz-bassist, recording artist, professor/educator at University of Wisconsin-Madison. I said, "I had a great time. There was a logic for the family dissolving the enterprise which was hard to overcome with the attraction of a sale. CLIFFORD SCHORER: And so I was very happy to be there at the moment when they needed the business side to think about things like the real estate, the liability, the employees, you know, the human resource matters, the board relationship between their board and our board when they're being absorbed into our board, that sort of thing. There was a stegosaurus that came up from the Badlands in South Dakota that I didn't move on fast enough, and then there was a triceratops that I didn't move on fast enough, but I had a second opportunity when the owner passed away. Investments. And my mother was. We know that T Dowell, Tylden B Dowell, and five other persons also lived at this address, perhaps within a different time frame. However, the first thing I seriously collected as an adultso, age 17 comes, I start a company, and within six months I'm making money. There were parts of the business I wanted to buy and parts of the business that I didn't want to buy. And you know, I'myou know, if you ask me to, I'll do the carpentry, the electrical, and the plumbing. You talked about improving the collection; are you continually culling and, as you buy better examples, selling lesser examples? So, yeah, they've been very sort of, again, inadvertent mentors. JUDITH RICHARDS: Mm-hmm. [00:34:02], CLIFFORD SCHORER: Well, that touches on another one of my collecting areas, actually. And my grandfather, similarly, was not particularly book-learned but was an incredible engineer. But they just weren'twith that type of a seller you need to be cash at the ready, because it's notthey're not going to bethese are folks you're approaching to say, "I may have a client for" They don't want to hear the next statement, "Well, I'd take a commission if you give it to me for a year to try to sell it." I guessI guess I felt a bit insecure about the fact that I needed their help to learn something. I thinktime-wise, I don't think I could participate in any more. So those areyou know, those are fun. JUDITH RICHARDS: You had no idea when you went to Plovdiv that there would be such a. JUDITH RICHARDS: This is Judith Olch Richards interviewing Cliff Schorer on June 7, 2018, at the Archives of American Art New York City offices. I mean, it wasn't really, JUDITH RICHARDS: You mean give up all your other. Or did you have friends who also had these interests? And knowing, of course, that, you know, in a way, sort of on day one, my business challenge was to take a business that was burning, you know, [] 8 million in losses, and flip it off instantly and reopen it as a business that would basically break even or make money, because I was not in the business of buying a company simply to continue the legacy losses of the previous ownership. So all of that was interesting, and there was no need there to say, Okay, you know, from the Nanking Cargo-type of plate, there are 15 different floral varieties. They would lay out their stamps and coins. So there wasn't alwaysthere was this idea that they werethey must have been from one commission, because they were the same size, but there was not a full knowledge of what this commission was until at least the last decade, when all these pieces came together. It was a Saint Sebastian. So I was born in 1966 in Rockville Centre, New York. [00:56:00], CLIFFORD SCHORER: I do like art storage and handling. clifford schorer winslow homer. Or maybe even the. JUDITH RICHARDS: Did you think it's a mark of a good dealer that he will engage in that conversation without pressing you to find out who you are? JUDITH RICHARDS: So that's a huge change? [00:54:00]. CLIFFORD SCHORER: You have to rein me in when I go off on tangents. Your perspective is unusually broad, at least it used to be. JUDITH RICHARDS: to the Imperial porcelain? So, you know, we can fight that territory one collector at a time, and if that means a deep engagement with one person to try to interest them in something that we think will be rewarding for them, JUDITH RICHARDS: I assume participating in art fairs is a way of broadening your audience, JUDITH RICHARDS: Perhaps collaborations within some other [00:46:02], JUDITH RICHARDS: symposium or whatever you can imagine doing, JUDITH RICHARDS: that will bring in people andyeah, and then convert that, JUDITH RICHARDS: current interest in only contemporary and Modern to, CLIFFORD SCHORER: Well, our first TEFAF, for which we received some praise and some criticismwhich is exactly what I wantas the radio personality says, "One star or five stars, and nothing in between." But, yes, I mean, I'm serving as the general contractor. I mean, in the smaller Eastern European museums back in the early '80s, when they weren't making any money, and nobodyyou know, they were pretending to work, and they were pretending to pay them, and nobody cared. I mean, they'reyou know, the Corsini are known, you know, a very famous Italian family, and there was one member of the family who was an art dealer. They will charge the buyer 20 to 25 percent." JUDITH RICHARDS: That would mean three or four years? CLIFFORD SCHORER: Because I'm in Beacon Hill, I'm going to the local auctions; I'm going to all the auctions. You know, the average home really can't take a panel painting because of the climate changes, you know, the humidity changes. It's what leads to bankruptcies in galleries, is buying too much stock and not selling it fast enough. New York? I'mI went to the MFA, you know, maybe a year and a half ago, and I have a major picture on view in their Koch Gallery. She shifted her little chair over, and I walked by. And, you know, I've watched her career rise. CLIFFORD SCHORER: Yeah. So that is something I did with them. [00:58:12], CLIFFORD SCHORER: Yeah. Wikimedia Commons. You know, thissort of the pre-1900 art is still centered in London. JUDITH RICHARDS: And the installation decisions? I'm always the general on my projects. How did that interest. [Laughs.] The following oral history transcript is the result of a recorded interview with Clifford Schorer on June 6 and 7, 2018. You talk to them about business; you talk to them about family. JUDITH RICHARDS: This must've been extremely difficult for your family as well as you. I said, you know, "They found it in 2004." It was never conceived as sort of being able to carry, you know, a 19th-century or earlier painting. 750 9th Street, NWVictor Building, Suite 2200 I mean, little things, but just lots of articles, publications, and now, you know, again, contributing to the San Francisco exhibition's works. CLIFFORD SCHORER: Yes, I mean, I think if I limited myself to sort of, you know, the quality of the paint, I think, in a way, that would be unsatisfying to me. [They laugh.] My maternal grandfather was dead by the time I was born. Clifford celebrated 56th birthday on May 31. I spoke to the auctioneers quite a bit. ", You know, these might not beor they might be; I don't want to opine on that. Clifford J. Schorer, Producer: Plutonium Baby. Or some of the 300? But, yeah. CLIFFORD SCHORER: So by the time I was 20, I started collecting, you know, monochrome from the Song period. Followers. JUDITH RICHARDS: When you bought that first painting, did you very quickly continue buying paintings? I mean, I would certainly still be able to collect, and probably more successfully, because I would be focused like a laser beam on sort of one thing, you know, one idea. I think that that's a big problem, very serious problem in contemporary, you know, and basically where a collector-dealer can make a market for their particular artists by using friends and colleagues to install things in institutions to give them that curatorial imprimatur. But this is correct. But anyway, no, I mean, you know, it was the good old days. Came back to public school in Massapequa, Long Island, because that was the most convenient homestead we could use, and failed every class. He soon turned his talent to oil painting. CLIFFORD SCHORER: They have their own studio. I mean, it's not a viewing area; it's not a formalI mean, it, you know. CLIFFORD SCHORER: So, saw them, bought them; in one case, I'll give credit to someone else because it's his discovery of the lot, but I would see them and buy them and then, you know, we would basically spend time working on them. Art collector Cliff Schorer recently located a missing painting by Dutch master Hendrick Avercamp after finding an image of it online on an $18 throw pillow. And, you know, obviously, we also value our clients; we work with our clients. Anthony's family livesthey own the Isle of Bute in [. [Laughs.] And I tried for one of them, but it wasyou know, it was because it was terribly underestimated, but of course, the marketplace knew how to make it 700 percent of its high estimate. CLIFFORD SCHORER: I think about a year. And thatyou know, in those cases, I think only if it rises to the level of a conflict of interest that violates the oath. ", CLIFFORD SCHORER: It's interesting. So. So, you know, that was a good start and I enjoyed that. [00:46:01]. I thought it really worked well. I love to run around and look for paintings for them. The Daniele Crespi, which was a very early Daniele Crespi that Otto Naumann, the dealer in New York, had purchased in 1994 as Lombard School. JUDITH RICHARDS: And is that a storage spacedo you feel that you need to have a storage space where there's a viewing area, that you can pull things out and sit there and contemplate the works or. Winslow Homer (1836-1910), Fisher Girls on the Beach, Cullercoats (1881), watercolor, 33.4 49.3 cm, Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY. Is it an official. And there are 7.9 or eight billion people now. JUDITH RICHARDS: Right. CLIFFORD SCHORER: I mean, there I was, really making capital available to gallerists whom I trusted and to buy pictures that I liked, so it was a veryI was not their first call. JUDITH RICHARDS: And you happen to be able to have this person who [laughs] shows you proof, too. It's a photo of her, and unfortunately, there's a lot of blue hair; there's no kids. You know? JUDITH RICHARDS: Do you recall his first name? [00:18:00], CLIFFORD SCHORER: P-L-O-V-D-I-V. Plovdiv. CLIFFORD SCHORER: That's a tough question. CLIFFORD SCHORER: So there's no more property in New York. And I must say, I was a little disingenuous with the employer about my age, and that came back to bite me later. And they said, "You're out of your mind." And we were able to put together a comprehensive Laserstein show. ], And in the Chinese export world, it wasn't quite that. It was Antwerp, right around Rubens's first Antwerp period. They invited my paleontological heroes, which they also did a wonderful job ofand I sat in the audience quietly, and then at the end of it, we came to an accommodation to create a permanent installation for the specimen, which is the largest specimen in the state. CLIFFORD SCHORER: No. I don't know that I ever, CLIFFORD SCHORER: Yes, no, no, other than going there and looking at things. This is a Renaissance object. Let's put it that way. CLIFFORD SCHORER: So their largest triceratopsian specimen is mine. It was a kind of seeding operation, where they would send objects all over the United States. And, you know, the best Procaccini, when I was looking back in 2000, was 5 to 6 million. So I went to the director's office. So, you know, when bold ideas come, I'm the kind of, you know, the vetting board for the bold ideas, and I enjoy that. A barrister represented Selina Varney (now Rendall) in the title dispute with Shirley Rountree (Rountree v Rendall) turning on the English and Irish laws of: So, it's the, CLIFFORD SCHORER: it's the hunt, the pursuit, the discovery, the investigation, the scholarship, the writing. JUDITH RICHARDS: So this book was based on photographs with 15 layers of varnish. Love to run around and look for paintings for them of, again, inadvertent mentors `` found! Started collecting, you know, obviously, we also value our clients about the., recording artist, professor/educator at University of Wisconsin-Madison, right around Rubens first..., that was a logic for the family dissolving the enterprise which was hard to overcome with attraction... 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