[ Click here to view original article at Bloomberg.com ]


New Spanierman: 57th Street

July 11 (Bloomberg) --

`Flaming June (VI)'

Street-level galleries are rare in the 57th Street area, so it is a pleasure to come across the plate-glass windows of Spanierman Gallery's new, next-door expansion, aptly named Spanierman Modern.

This move, in the works since March 2005, signals Spanierman's intent to offer contemporary art in addition to 19th- and early 20th-century American painting and sculpture.

``Flaming June (VI),'' the inaugural exhibition, matches work by 11 new artists with paintings from the gallery's traditional roster. The early pieces serve as inspiration or points of departure.

Scarlet gashes amid yellow swirls unite a Willem de Kooning oil on paper to Marilyn Minter's enamel on aluminum ``Chewy,'' where a woman's moist red lips play with a mouthful of jewels. Michael Wetzel's two ghostly oil and egg tempura canvases, one of hunters and the other of a violinist serenading a figure on a chaise, create a leisure-class triptych by flanking Hercules Brabazon's impressionistic watercolor on paper of a Versailles picnic.

Among the older works, Brabazon, de Kooning and William Merritt Chase are priced at $7,000, $450,000 and $3 million respectively; newer artists range from $2,500 to $15,000. Wetzel's works are $6,000 each, and Minter's is in a private collection.

``Flaming June (VI)'' can be seen through Aug. 5 at Spanierman Modern, 53 E. 58th St.; (1)(212) 832-1400 or http://www.spaniermanmodern.com .

(Michael Killeen is an art critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the reporter on this story:
Michael Killeen at mkilleen5@verizon.net.

Last Updated: July 11, 2006 00:06 EDT