While women represent more than half of the fine art school graduates in the US, the share of female artists drops to about 5% in the auction market. This disparity is also reflected in art auction prices. In 2016, the first 63 most expensive lots could be attributed to male artists. Potential explanations range from differences in endowments and opportunity sets to perceived biases on institutional and market level.

The goal of the symposium is to gain a deeper understanding on the underlying causes of the gender divide in the art market using new results from academic research. The symposium will bring together key practitioners and academics of various backgrounds and different sides of the market to examine the phenomenon from a multidisciplinary perspective.

Megan Fox Kelly joins Yale Professor Jonathon Feinstein and  Roman Kraussl of Luxembourg School of Finance and Stanford University to discuss "Building Collections, Pursuing Passions, and Moving Markets" on a panel moderated by Yale School of Management student, Michael Nock.  Megan will present insights on changing collector profiles and the impact of their motivations on the art market.

Kicking off the beginning of the fall art fair season, EXPO CHICAGO returns this September to the historic Navy Pier welcoming its most international roster yet. 135 leading galleries representing 25 countries and 58 cities from around the world will present some of the highest quality contemporary art and culture. In addition to the leading international galleries, the 2017 exposition features a variety of programs such as the EXPOSURE section, which focuses on solo and two artist presentations by galleries that are eight years and younger selected by curator, Justine Ludwig (Dallas Contemporary), EXPO Editions + Books, featuring artist books, editions, and multiples; and the first EXPO PROFILE section, which highlights single artist installations and focused thematic exhibitions.

As part of its education series, ArtExpo will team up with APAA for a panel moderated by Megan Fox Kelly Next-Level Collecting: Smart Strategies for Collection Building" with Wendy Cromwell (Art Advisor, Member APAA), Helyn Goldenberg (Collector), Diana Wierbicki (Art Attorney), and R. Hugh Magill (Chief Fiduciary Officer, Northern Trust). This panel of professionals will provide insights on collecting, art law, fine art insurance , and wealth strategies for experienced collectors.

This year, EXPO CHICAGO will align with the Chicago Architecture Biennial reinforcing the city's rich history as a destination for arts and culture. 

“A Look at Robert Rauschenberg’s Mark”

MEGAN FOX KELLY was recently quoted in an article written by Henri Neuendorf for Medium.com. The article examines the American artist Robert Rauschenberg’s market while his artistic career enjoys the spotlight with the traveling retrospective exhibition organized by New York’s Museum of Modern Art and London’s Tate Modern.

Below are excerpts from the article. To read the full article click here.

“Rauschenberg’s work is undervalued and the market heavily favors rare early works such as pieces from his “Combine” series (which combined elements of painting and sculpture) and his silkscreen paintings (early experiments combining silkscreen and oil on canvas).Works from Rauschenberg’s “Combine” series are so desirable among collectors that they make up over half (13) of Rauschenberg’s 20 highest-selling lots at auction, yet due to their scarcity only six “Combine” works have come up at auction in the last decade. The remaining seven highest-selling lots are silkscreen paintings. Nevertheless experts say there’s serious growth potential across the entirety of his oeuvre.

…

Speaking as the advisor of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, KELLY notes “Theres a lot of work, very important work, that’s held in museum collections,” she explained. “The seminal works from the 50s and early 60s come up with rarity, and I think that’s why we have responses to them like we had [last auction season] for Rigger (1961) which sold at Sotheby’s for $12.3 million… I think that’s a response to people’s understanding that this work is incredibly rare, and rarer still on the secondary market.”

…

Aside from the early “Combine” works, KELLY said that Rauschenberg’s “Salvages” series from the 80s also generates significant market interest, aided by a lower price point typically ranging from between $500,000 to $2 million. She noted that the “Salvages” exhibition at the Ropac gallery in Paris last October sold out the day it opened. Similarly, works on metal from the “Urban Bourbon,” “Shiners,” and “Nightshades” series are also highly coveted, the advisor said.

This summer, the Museum of Modern Art presents “Robert Rauschenberg: Among Friends,” the artist’s first retrospective exhibition of the 21st century. The exhibition, which will run May 21st – September 17th, presents over 250 works that range in medium and span the length of his eminent career.

The exhibition identifies Rauschenberg as a connector and makes the argument that his genius resided in his remarkable openness to others. He brought together mediums and artists of seemingly unrelated fields. Such artists included Jasper Johns, Jean Tinguely, choreographer and dancer Trisha Brown, experimental composer John Cage, and and electrical engineer Bill Klüver.

Curator Leah Dickerman’s inspired decision to portray Rauschenbeg not as an individual star but as a creative collaborator distinguishes her presentation from more traditional career retrospectives. Rauschenberg’s groundbreaking mixed-media work that resulted from his singularly forward-thinking attitude continues to inspire young artists today. “Among Friends” breaks down the etymology of Rauschenberg’s most daring works, his past and most influential relationships that were accrued throughout his life. Dickerman’s study of Rauschenberg’s creative collaborations offers rare insight into the artist’s attitude vis-à-vis artistic creation. These principles Rauschenberg developed as an artist resonate today and serve as inspiration to a new generation of artists. 

The exhibition illustrates Rauschenberg’s pioneering approach to art with works such as “Mud Muse” (1968 -1971), a pool of 1,000 pounds of bentonite clay mixed with water which bubbles in bubbles and spurts as air is released in response to the sound levels created by the mud bubbling. Mud Muse, like other early Rauschenberg works, creates an intersection between art and science. One of Rauschenberg’s earliest collaborations was with his fellow artist and wife Susan Weil. The couple created this series of ghostly figures on light-sensitive paper when they were fresh out of their first year at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Black Mountain College was committed to an integrative approach to education, and the school’s interactive ethos lent itself to Rauschenberg’s interdisciplinary and collaborative art.

Other pieces that resulted from Rauschenberg’s close affiliation to other artists include “Auto mobile Tire Print” (1953), for which he had John Cage drive his car over 20 sheets of typewriting paper; “Erased de Kooning Drawing” (1953), a de Kooning drawing it famously took Rauschenberg a month and 40 erasers to rub out; “Set and Reset” (1983), an interactive set with which Trisha Brown’s dancers could perform.

The exhibition “Robert Rauschenberg: Among Friends” itself was a collaboration between the Museum of Modern Art and the Tate Museum London, as well as artist and filmmaker Charles Atlas. Atlas, who worked with Rauschenberg in the past, participated in the installation of works pertaining to the medium of moving image. His participation in the MoMA’s exhibition moved to pay tribute to Rauschenberg’s life-long interest in dance and performance.

Among Friends is more than a chronological survey of Rauschenberg’s career—it establishes the artist as an early and frequent collaborator who was inspired by some of the greatest creative thinkers of his time, and one who continues to inspire generations of artists today.

Megan Fox Kelly is the Advisor for Sales to the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.

The Association of Professional Art Advisors (APAA), the sole organization to establish guidelines for ethical art advisory practice and uphold standards of education and expertise, has elected Megan Fox Kelly (Principal, Megan Fox Kelly Art Advisory, New York) President.  Megan is an advisor to private collectors, foundations, and estates and is a leading specialist in artist estates and artist-endowed foundations.  

Newly-elected fellow officers include Vice President Elizabeth Szancer (ESKart LLC, New York); Secretary, Lisa Austin(President, Lisa Austin & Associates, Miami); and Treasurer, Jennifer Duncan (Director, Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies, Washington, DC). 

New APAA Board members include Gabriel Catone (Ruth|Catone, New York), Patricia Dellorfano (Lead Curator, Fidelity Investments, Boston), and Mary Hoeveler (M.G. Hoeveler, Ltd., New York).

They join the current board: Cynthia Altman (Curator, Kykuit, New York), Kay Childs (Topol Childs, New York), Wendy Cromwell(Cromwell Art, LLC, New York), Lee White Galvis (Attorney, New York), Patrick Legant (Patrick Legant-Art Consultancy, London), and Todd Levin (Levin Art Group, New York). 

The organization salutes Joe Houston (Curator, Hallmark Art Collection, Kansas City) who is completing a two-year term as President. “Joe has raised APAA’s profile as a resource for collectors, and the general public through on-line platforms and our newly designed APAA News,” says Megan Fox Kelly, “Thanks to his work, we continue to educate the public, media, and broader art community as advocates for standards of professional practice for qualified art advisors.”

About APAA

APAA, founded in 1980, is comprised of the leadingindependent art advisors and corporate art curators internationally.  Our advisors acquire, maintain and present art on behalf of private and public collections. Representing collectors in diverse areas of specialization, APAA members collectively purchase over $350 million annually at auction and over $400 million at galleries, private dealers and art fairs; and sell over $135 million for their clients on an annual basis.  Our members are required to adhere to specific standards of practice and the APAA’s Code of Ethics that establish and uphold professional standards and ethical work. 

 APAA’s Affiliate members are individuals and companies, such as appraisers, auctioneers, conservators, insurance providers, shippers/handlers and registrars, who support art advisors and corporate art curators and in their practices. Membership is by nomination.

 “APAA members are the leading practitioners in the field of art advisory internationally, and are distinguished as much by their independent, impartial advice, as by their years of education and experience.” says New York advisor Megan Fox Kelly. “We are not private dealers or auction house personnel and do not maintain inventories of art for sale. APAA members are independent advisors and advocates on behalf of their clients. We continue to grow our membership and look forward to welcoming art advisors and private collection curators who share our level of connoisseurship, scholarship, expertise in the art market, and ethical business practices. Our goal is to build a strong, representative international membership organization of art advisors who share our standards of practice.”  

Source:http://bit.ly/2pjJOKR

Image courtesy of Megan Fox Kelly.

Journalist Nate Freeman reports on Megan Fox Kelly’s recent election to become president of the Association of Professional Art Advisors (APAA).

Quoted in Freemans’s article, ‘Megan Fox Kelly Elected President of Association of Professional Art Advisors ’ (May 5, 2017), Megan Fox Kelly shares that, “We are not private dealers or auction house personnel and do not maintain inventories of art for sale. APAA members are independent advisors and advocates on behalf of their clients. We continue to grow our membership and look forward to welcoming art advisors and private collection curators who share our level of connoisseurship, scholarship, expertise in the art market, and ethical business practices.”

Founded in 1980, the APAA acts as a watchdog that sets the ethical standard for art advisors. Megan will replace Joe Houston, the curator of Kansas City’s Hallmark Art Collection, who served a two-year term. “Joe has raised APAA’s profile as a resource for collectors, and the general public through online platforms and our newly designed APAA News,” Fox Kelly said in a press release. “Thanks to his work, we continue to educate the public, media, and broader art community as advocates for standards of professional practice for qualified art advisors.”

Read the full article by Nate Freeman here.

Megan Fox Kelly was honored to be a part of Art Law Day at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City. As a member of a professional panel,“The Nitty-Gritty on Knoedler: The Details and the Practical Take Away,” the group discussed insights, information, and practical tips for appraisers and related art world professionals gained from the Kneodler gallery scandal. Leading attorney, Emily Reisbaum and FBI Special Agent, Meredith Savona, both of whom were involved in the criminal investigation and civil cases, provided the details and background of the events of the case as it unfolded, untangling for the audience what was a complex and multi-layered fraud. Attorney John Cahill moderated the discussion. The group discussed how Knoedler has affected the art market and its methods of operating. Megan provided the perspective of an art advisor and board member of the APAA, which upholds a standard Code of Ethics for its members designed to protect clients from fraudulent conduct.

Megan Fox Kelly was honored to join The Aspen Institute Artist Endowed Foundation’s Initiative as a part of the panel discussion on “Strategy Spotlight: Navigating the Art Market and the Art Dealer Relationship.” She joined panelists Sanford Hirsch, Executive Director, Adolf and Esther Gottlieb Foundation; Leah Levy, Executive Director, Jay DeFeo Foundation; Morgan Spangle, Executive Director, Daedalus Foundation; Derek Gillman, Distinguished Teaching Professor, Art History and Museum Leadership, Drexel University. The panel successfully examined the nature of gallery representation within the global, multi-platform art market.

Please join us at The Armory Show, Pier 94, in New York for a panel discussion on how experts assess quality  and value  in the current art market.

With the expansion of the art market in the last decade to one that is truly global, the vast amount of information and choices can make it challenging for collectors to determine what works have truly lasting quality.  Art advisors Megan Fox Kelly and Todd Levin will join in a discussion with leading international gallerists Thaddaeus Ropac and Marianne Boesky, moderated by renowned arts journalist and Editor-in-Chief of ARTnews, Sarah Douglas, Friday March 4th at 11:00.  The panel will address the meaning and relevance of quality and value in contemporary art and how experts make qualitative judgements.  

This panel is sponsored by the APAA, the Association of Professional Art Advisors.

The European premiere of the HBO documentary, Remembering the Artist Robert De Niro Sr. was celebrated at the 2014 Rome Film Festival. The Fondazione Cinema per Roma and the MAXXI – National Museum of XXI Century Arts organized a screening of the documentary by Perri Peltz and Geeta Gandbhir, dedicated to the life and work of Robert De Niro, Sr. After the film, Italian film critic, and Rome Film Festival senior programmer Mario Sesti moderated a panel discussion with the artist’s son Robert De Niro. 

In honor of the European premiere of the documentary, United States Ambassador to Italy John Phillips and his wife Linda Douglass hosted a private screening of the film at Villa Taverna, the U.S. Ambassador’s residence. The event was attending by Robert De Niro, HBO filmmaker Perri Peltz, art advisor Megan Fox Kelly, art industry professionals in Rome and other distinguished guests..

The Aspen Ideas Festival is the nation's premier, public gathering place for leaders from around the globe and across many disciplines to engage in deep and inquisitive discussion of the ideas and issues that both shape our lives and challenge our times. Some 350 presenters, 200 sessions, and 3000 attendees comprise the annual Festival, launched in 2005, on the Aspen Institute's campus in Aspen, Colorado.

Imagine some of the most inspired and provocative thinkers, writers, artists, business people, teachers, and other leaders drawn from myriad fields and from across the country and around the world – gathered in a single place, ready to teach, speak, lead, question and answer – all interacting with an audience of thoughtful people who have stepped back from their day-to-day routines to delve deeply into a world of ideas, thought, and discussion.  

The Aspen Institute produces the Aspen Ideas Festival in concert with its partner, The Atlantic. The mission of the Festival is to create a stimulating and invigorating convocation that links some of the foremost thinkers in the world today with civically-minded leaders in business, the arts, politics, philanthropy, and so forth, who will both share ideas and questions and drive thought to action.

Evening Session
Remembering the Artist: Robert De Niro, Sr. (Film and Discussion)

7:00 pm - 8:00 pm MDT on Saturday, June 28, 2014

Robert De Niro, Sr. was part of the celebrated New York School of artists who enjoyed success in his early career during the 1940s and 50s in New York City. But the art market of post-war France offered little opportunity for De Niro. He returned to the United States and continued to paint in relative obscurity. He found solace writing about his hopes and dreams in his journals and poems, hoping that one day his work would be rediscovered. Finally, his dreams were realized, orchestrated by the man who knew him best—his son, the actor, Robert De Niro. A presentation of "New Views: Documentaries and Dialogue," made possible by generous donations from Leonard Lauder and Jane and Michael Eisner.

Robert De Niro, Perri Peltz, Jane Rosenthal, Megan Fox Kelly

Paepke Auditorium

HBO hosted a premiere for the documentary Remembering The Artist: Robert De Niro, Sr. on June 5, 2014 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, followed by a private opening reception and dinner at DC Moore Gallery in Chelsea, where De Niro Sr.’s paintings and drawings are on display and for sale.

The film will air on HBO on Monday, June 9, 2014 at 9pm.

The exhibition continues at DC Moore Gallery, 535 West 22nd Street, NY through July 11, 2014.

Follow information about the film on Facebook and Twitter.

Pictured are Megan Fox Kelly, art advisor to The Estate of Robert De Niro Sr., Perri Peltz, the film's producer and co-director, and Geeta Gandbhir, co-director and editor, on the red carpet preceding the premiere at MoMA.

REMEMBERING THE ARTIST: ROBERT DE NIRO, SR.  IS A MOVING, DEEPLY PERSONAL LOOK AT THE LIFE AND CAREER OF THE ESTEEMED FIGURATIVE PAINTER

HBO DOCUMENTARY FILMS PRESENTATION PREMIERES IN THE SHORT FILM PROGRAM AT THE 2014 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

In 1945, painter Robert De Niro, Sr.’s work was included in the fall exhibition at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century Gallery alongside the work of Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.  The following year, De Niro had his first solo exhibition at Guggenheim’s gallery, an extremely prestigious honor for a young painter. However, this well-received exhibition would prove to be the highpoint of De Niro, Sr.’s public success. As his work soon fell out of step with the popular art movements of the time, De Niro struggled with poverty and desperation.

The HBO Documentary Films presentation REMEMBERING THE ARTIST: ROBERT DE NIRO, SR. is a deeply moving portrait of the painter told by art experts, the artists who worked alongside him, by De Niro, Sr. himself, via found footage interviews, and most affectingly by his son. Actor Robert De Niro, Jr. reads from his father’s letters and journals and provides his own moving recollections of his father’s personal and professional struggles as part of his own mission to honor and preserve his father’s legacy and artwork.

In REMEMBERING THE ARTIST, Robert Storr, Dean of the Yale School of Art, art advisor Megan Fox Kelly, and fellow artists Albert Kresch and Paul Resika explain how De Niro, Sr.’s professional career fell in and out of step with the American art scene – a scene that changed drastically in the years leading up to World War II. In the early 1930s, avant garde European artists, politically oppressed by the Nazi party, came to the U.S. and took up teaching positions, exposing young American art students to the newest trends in European art.  


One of the most important of these teachers was Hans Hofmann, an Abstract Expressionist who set up schools in New York City and Provincetown, Mass., where an entire generation of young American painters studied.  De Niro, Sr. studied in Provincetown and New York with Hoffman, who called him one of his most promising students ever.

De Niro, Sr.’s two shows at Guggenheim’s Art of This Century followed.  At a young age, he had found his artistic voice and was greatly admired by his colleagues.  He was part of the celebrated New York School of artists who were well-known during the 1940s and ‘50s. His paintings blended abstract and expressionist styles with a representational subject matter, bridging the divide between European Modernism and Abstract Expressionism.

De Niro, Sr.’s initial success was short-lived, as his work was eclipsed first by the American Abstract Expressionist painters and later by the emergence of Pop Art. As the art world embraced these new movements in the late 1950s and early 1960s, more traditional painters like De Niro were marginalized. De Niro went to Paris to immerse himself in the art of the masters and enliven his own work and career. But the art market of post-war France offered him little opportunity. He returned to the United States and continued to paint in relative obscurity until his death from prostate cancer in 1993 on his 71st birthday. He found solace writing about his hopes and dreams in his journals, hoping that one day, his work would be rediscovered and afforded the critical acclaim that had eluded him throughout his career.

REMEMBERING THE ARTIST also traces De Niro, Sr.’s personal story from his childhood in Syracuse, NY, where he felt misunderstood by his demanding father, to his marriage to Virginia Admiral, an up-and-coming painter herself, whom he met at Hofmann’s school, to the birth of his child, Robert De Niro, Jr. in 1943.   When De Niro, Jr. was a toddler, his parents separated, likely because of De Niro, Sr.’s unacknowledged homosexuality. They would, however, always remain close.  As De Niro, Jr., grew up, he observed his father’s career disappointments and bouts of depression.  De Niro, Jr. movingly talks of the irony of dealing with the early days of his own success as an actor while taking trips to France to try to help his father, literally carrying paintings under his arm from art gallery to art gallery. Robert De Niro, Jr. has remained committed to honoring his father’s legacy after his death, maintaining his art studio as it was when his father worked there so that his children will appreciate their grandfather’s work.

REMEMBERING THE ARTIST: ROBERT DE NIRO, SR. was directed by Perri Peltz and Geeta Gandbhir and produced by Perri Peltz.  Rudy Valdez served as director of photography and Geeta Gandbhir served as editor.  Megan Fox Kelly served as art advisor.  Music is by Phillip Glass.

ROBERT DE NIRO, SR. (Photograph ©1966 Paul Waldman)

10 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT CHOOSING AN ART ADVISOR

By Eric Bryant, Art+Auction
Published: October 7, 2013

Buying art is an increasingly complex endeavor. Professional art advisors are at the ready to help with all these tasks and more. But with the range of collecting areas increasing all the time and no regulators overseeing the industry, finding the right advisor can be a challenge.

Art+Auction magazine spoke with several leading art advisors, including Megan Fox Kelly, about how clients should go about seeking their best match and maximizing that relationship.

Some excerpts follow:

Collectors of all stripes can benefit from working with an advisor, but they may require different services depending on their level of knowledge at the outset. “Many new collectors dive in too quickly,” says Megan Fox Kelly, an advisor who has run her own firm for nearly 15 years. “Taking the time to look, read, learn—to go to museums, private collections, galleries, studios, and art fairs with your advisor and to really learn what kind of art is truly exciting to you—will make for a much more meaningful collection in the long run.” Once you establish your tastes, introductions to top dealers and access to works not available to the man off the street are the basic starting points.

For those whose walls are already crowded, an adviser can provide a clear eye to help analyze the quality of holdings and identify gaps. Maintaining diverse holdings of art can involve many tasks—some esoteric and some mundane—that may be unfamiliar to collectors, and advisors can help.

Advisors can also bring experience to bear on a range of questions touching on charitable donations and estate planning. “A great deal of my work focuses on museums,” says Megan Fox Kelly. “For many of my clients, the most rewarding aspects of collecting involve supporting shows and making loans and gifts. I research where the gifts will make the greatest impact. On the financial planning side, we explore options for bequests to museums or family members, [or for] designating works for eventual sale to benefit a charitable institution.”

Read the full Art+Auction article.