Thomas Yamamoto had only seen it in a photograph, but the retired corporate finance executive was so enthralled by Mary Corse’s monochrome white canvas that he bought it first and then hopped on a plane to New York from Shanghai to inspect his newest treasure.
He glimpsed the $350,000 work up close for the first time Wednesday in the booth of Kayne Griffin Corcoran gallery at the Armory Show, the largest modern and contemporary art fair in New York.
“Normally, we’d put it on reserve, come here, see it and then buy it,” said Yamamoto, 69, who began collecting art with his wife seven years ago. “We were a little afraid that if we didn’t commit to it, it would go away.”
Such is the competitive nature of the global art market, with demand from new collectors, especially in Asia, driving up prices. As certain areas of the market become overheated, dealers and collectors are looking for value — and finding it among overlooked artists, many of whom are women.
Dirt Road
That’s the case with 72-year-old Corse, a pioneer of the West Coast Light and Space movement in the 1960s. Corse treats light as a subject and material of her paintings, activating them by using refractive glass microspheres that are common in highway paint. Working in the same studio off a dirt road for 50 years, she has been overshadowed by male peers such as James Turrell and Robert Irwin. That’s quickly changing.
Geez, wait until Yamamoto discovers Kazimir Malevich.
(Found via Kate of Small Dead Animals, who notes, “The Emperor Has No Paint.”)