January 24, 2008 Issue
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Classified Chestnut Hill Local Don't Miss an Issue, Tell us what you see or Winner of Two |
New fine arts auction house in (of all places) Mt. Airy
“Like everything in life,” stresses art dealer and bon vivant Jeffrey P. Fuller, “you should first buy what you like, and second, buy what you know.” The president of Jeffrey Fuller Fine Art, Ltd., and director of the newly established Fuller’s Fine Art Auctions at 730 Carpenter Lane in West Mt. Airy, has been in the art business since 1974. Over the last 34 years, Fuller, 57, has developed a keen sense of where and how to sell. “Some things are better sold privately if there is no market at auction.” Having just concluded a major private sale himself, Fuller notes that perhaps 75 percent of art deals are conducted in this fashion. Most go unreported in the media, unless, he advises, there is a reason to make the information public. He says that an object “finds its own market at auction.” With appropriate marketing, he counsels, “you can attain the highest price.” A Chicago native, Fuller always expected he’d go into law. At Holy Cross, he majored in classical languages, but a junior year abroad in Vienna exposed him to Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. (Klimt was an Austrian Symbolist painter, 1862-1918, and Schiele was an Austrian Expressionist painter, 1890-1918.) “I had got myself into the 20th century,” he admits, and it appears he has never looked back. Fuller has curated a number of one-man exhibitions in Chicago and Philadelphia over the years, including showings of work by Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, Constantin Brancusi, Paul Cezanne and Andy Warhol. An Accredited Senior Appraiser of the American Society of Appraisers, Fuller has also found time to contribute his talents to a number of civic organizations that promote the arts. He came to Philadelphia in 1979 as a newlywed. His bride, celebrated photographer Martha Madigan, had accepted a position at Tyler, and both liked Philadelphia’s proximity to New York. Fuller met Madigan at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he often dropped in on classes taught by his “buddies.” It was Fuller’s task to find a residence for the couple. “I had only lived in big cities my entire life,” he remembers, noting he’d never had “a suburban address. In 10 days, I drove 600 miles looking for a place.” He fell in love with the area along the Wissahickon, and once he set foot in the Weavers Way Co-op and discovered tofu, he confesses that he thought: “This is perfect.” Fuller and Madigan bought the stone structure on Carpenter Lane— at auction, naturally — in 1997. Banks of clerestory windows admit an abundance of natural light into what is actually Madigan’s studio. Madigan, who has work in the permanent collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and at the Art Institute of Chicago, is renowned for her work in photograms. As Fuller explains it, with all the enthusiasm of both art appraiser and husband, Madigan’s model lies on paper, motionless in the sun for five to 10 minutes. The resulting image is toned with gold chloride, making, as he explains “more or less a paper negative.” Originally, Fuller had a gallery on 17th Street, between Sansom and Walnut, in center city, but the ferrying about of three children made a location closer to the couple’s home sensible and brought about the sharing of Madigan’s space and Fuller’s business. “I have been operating very comfortably here in the middle of the neighborhood,” Fuller notes, smiling, “and neither I nor any of my clients has gotten a parking ticket. “I have bought at auction my whole adult life,” Fuller explains, but the experience of conducting the auction for a fundraiser in upstate New York made him realize how much he wanted to be an auctioneer. When Madigan took an appointment at Temple in Rome, Fuller commuted back and forth across the ocean. It wasn’t until the fall of 2006, with the family resettled in Philadelphia, that Fuller was able to enroll full-time as a student in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania auctioneering course. The cosmopolitan intellectual was amazed. Of the 10 people in his class, two were “horse-and-buggy Amish. It was one of the most ‘different’ experiences I’ve ever had. At 57,” he concedes, “you think you’ve done everything. I’d lived in Europe for four years. I had been around the world.” Even in Rome, he recalls, he was in the same cultural milieu. “It was just that my friends spoke Italian.” Last year, Fuller was contacted by an executor of the estate of Harriet Fingerote, a legendary Philadelphia collector who had amassed a very “eclectic” collection. Fuller had known her well. Thus, Fuller’s inaugural auction was held on Carpenter Lane on Dec. 1. By the first of November, Madigan’s studio was filled with objects for the auction. The savvy Fuller held a week-long preview with valet parking. The neighbors were fascinated, opining this was the most excitement on the quiet street since a fire 53 years ago. “Don’t!” a horrified Fuller recalls pleading with them. “I don’t want to hear anything about a fire!” Auction day brought a standing-room-only crowd. Ten dozen bagels were given away in the morning and 10 dozen soft pretzels in the afternoon, “from the co-op, of course.” The auction included telephone bidders from around the world. “We call our clients five lots before the object in which they are interested comes up,” Fuller explains. Via eBay Live, interested parties could bid in real time. It was an unquestioned success, with many objects bringing prices far above estimates. As Fuller’s auction business expands, he expects to move back to the city, probably north of Broad. He praises the effect Temple president Ann Weaver Hart has had on North Philadelphia in “one-and-a-half short years.” “The art market is extremely strong,” Fuller states, citing irrefutable evidence in the heft of art magazines. “The size is determined by ads, and I have never seen magazines as big as they are now.” Fuller laments the lack of art education in today’s America. “People don’t understand art,” he sighs, noting that in Europe “average” people are cognizant of history and trends in the art world. His solution? “Join the museum in your town at the highest level you can afford, and go on a regular basis. After a while, you begin to understand art and understand what you like. That’s the way we as adults still have the possibility of an art education later in life. “I have always been an art dealer,” Fuller avows, “and will be until the day I drop dead.” He’s currently accepting consignments for a Spring 2008 Fine Art Auction. Fuller may be reached by telephone at 215-991-1900. Further information is available on his Web site, www.FullersLLC.com. More of Madigan’s work can be seen at www.marthamadigan.com.
|
