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state of art Miles' searing confessions of life behind the green baize door:
APRIL/MAY
2006
with real skills a s a business woman. She was in the hair salon trade and this became Roy's first
After lunch at which the guest of honour was Princess Margaret, her lady in waiting started to look anxiously at her watch so, with a smile, 1 said loudly, 'Time to get back to our shops, ' and we all departed. Later that day, Geoffrey Agnew of the Bond Street dealers telephoned to say : 'We don 't run a shop. ' 'Really ? ' was my reply.
foot in the door of servicing public taste and understanding the fickle nature of the monied clas s e s . Indeed it was the sale o f the name and premises ofRoy's own venture into world of the powdered peruke,
Antoine 's
of Dover Street, that
funded his launch as an art dealer. To some, the biggest surprise in
Priceless is the appearance ofRM's wife Christine - he married in 1970 at the Chelsea registry office. B y
Well, they had started with one in Manchester!
Miles' account their personalities were chalk and cheese, which explains her invisible presence. But
WHEN YOU read the subtitle of Roy Miles' long 'cherished' journal
Royalty and the toffs appear with
her large estate in Yorkshire and
project you have some idea what
monotonous
in
' county set' connections could
you are in for : The Memoirs and Mysteries of Britain s ' N° 1 Art Dealer and indeed, the book is
Priceless,
regularity
Miles' face to the world is one that
with our Roy always in
have done no harm to the budding
where Miles' reprised his conjuring
the role of Raleigh sweeping his
gallerist, fresh from a career as a
with High Victorian painting. This
beams munificently and he loved
cloak (metaphorically speaking)
crimper in Dover Street. And
time it's
pre-glasnost Russian Art,
to confide 'just sold a million' ,
aptly named for the contents are
across the dirty puddle. Now in
Priceless is subsequently dotted with
similar in subj ect matter and
somewhat o f a catchphrase i n the
certainly priceless. Few people in
retirement he might muse on the
references to 'the Rolls' and 'the
execution to the traditional French
far
the London art world are unfamiliar
wasted years spent as unofficial
Bentley' - vehicles which, as anyone
painting so beloved by the 'monied
introduces Miles' obsessive en
off boom
times.
Which
with Roy, he's an effervescent,
courtier and wonder what happend
who has ever owned one knows, are
classes' . But the sadness begins to
gagement with the news media.
buoyant character and the common
to his knighthood (as Britain's W 1
next to useless in the city.
creep in before Bruton Street. The
Roy just cannot disguise his delight
art business, as Miles so often
at even the flimsiest mention in the
The illustrious career unfolds. It's
observes, was changing and there
most obscure rag, and a journalist from the Beano would be accorded
attribute of 'generous' is not at all
art dealer) - the waggish soubriquet
wide of the mark. During the many
The Duchess of Duke Street being
ups and downs in Miles' career, not
as near as the ebullient dealer is
a rapid waltz from Duke Street St.
was no role for him in the hip hop
all covered in this memoir, his
likely to get to an honour in this
James' to the gulag at Bruton Street
world of the White Cube. And
the champagne and confidence
generosity - especially towards
life . However, this is
a not
frankly, his patrons were dying off
routine equal to that dished out to
The Times.
those less fortunate than himself
unfarnilar stance, often taken by
(quite literally) and their children
the lead writer of
seldom wavered and this alone is a
those
wanted to be in with the new party
course, this is the key to Roy Miles
worthy epitaph. Those hoping for
perceived as a humble background:
art crowd preferring, one assumes,
- he is a thoroughly decent bloke
gratuitous
be
born in Liverpool ( 1 935) of an Irish
to show off a Warhol Mao to a bit
but as vain as the rest of us. Which
disappointed. Unlike i n life, Roy's
father and a broken marriage .
of Sergei Chepik buff n'fluff. The
is not to say he is above the sharp
literary exposures that teeter on the
Although it al so managed to
death of his wife Christine in 1997
manoeuvre in business and the
edge
encompass Prep School, a weekly
was obviously an unexpectedly
seizing of the moment in a deal. In
of
s c andal
will
indiscretion
are
-
from
what
might
be
Of
surprisingly - few and far between.
allowance on leaving home and a
harsh blow and it seemed to signal
the art world you last five minutes
His revelations are somewhat timid
new sports car from Mother at 2 1 .
the end of a glorious era - as well as
without this skill. But overall, his
and, on the whole, reserved for the
In fact, Mother i s omnipresent and
the end of a century [in art terms]
o c casional
deceased. The following inter
appears in
like no other.
promotion - and the pompous
change might be illustrative of
nonsense go-getting Scotswoman There is an engaging honesty in
pale to insignificance against his
Priceless
as a no
Roy M i les 264 pp. i l l us. H b . M etro Publ ish i n g £16.99 M I KE VON J O E L
Arts o f Africa
:
7000 Years
of African Art
ed. Enzio Bassani 412pp. 247 col ill us. H b . SKIRA /G rimaldi Forum £34.95 Arts of Africa : the contemporary collection of Jean Pigozzi
ed. Andre Magnin 368pp. 336 col i l l us. Hb. SKIRA /G ri maldi Forum £42.00 BY THE 1870s the modern system of dealers, galleries, selling exhibitions a n d the vernissage was w e l l established. A s the art business took firm control over, and to a n extent manipu lated, the careers and future prospects of a rtists, it cannot be a coincidence that they looked with e n vy at c u ltu res w h e re s u c h strictures were a bsent. Where the creative process was u nfettered by avarice and social stratagems. The post-I mpression ists had responded to the simplistic gra phics and linear q u a l ities of J a p a n es e wood b l o�k pri nts, used as packing for porcelain exports. By the end of the C19th the sculptured artefacts of Africa were to capture the imagination of the ava nt garde of th e d ay. I n 1889, P a u l G a uguin acquired two statuettes at the World Fair, from a presentation stand which included works from the G a bo n-Congo colony. After a d d ing
With a b o o k l i ke 7000 Years of
African Art, it is the i m ages that
spea k with the most clarity, and this one is more than generous with its selection of full page colour plates; divided i nto fu l ly described eth n i c groupings, accompanying catalogue a n d map. Concise a n d readable o r i e n tat i o n texts b y B a ss a n i ; O m o toso E l u y e m i ; V i o l ata E k p o ; H e l e n e Le l o u p a n d J ea n - Lo u i s
in
self
joie de
Roy's script - books with large text
spirit and that contagious
formats are seldom ghost-written
vivre.
and he covers his childhood and
the fray, his final sentence states:
Now at 71 and retired from
start in life with the various hurts
'I write as a free and happy man ' .
and disappointments thinly veiled.
This reviewer wishes him many more
This is probably unintentional as
years of the same. He deserves it.
mother of pearl, doll's eyes and other bits and pieces, he also added his signature - they are now i n the M a rc Felix Collection as G a uguin works. By 1906, a seminal year in the fusion of Western and African art, future giants of art history were collecting a n d rewor k i n g Afri c a n i m a ge ry. Picasso, Vlaminck, Derain, Matisse, M o d i gl i a n i a l l a c k n o w l e d ged the infl u ence of the n ew fas h i o n for Sculptures Negres tll_ The P a risian dealer, Daniei-Henry Kahnweiler, per c i p i e ntly noted that certa i n I vory Coast masks had all the design in gredients necessary for the synthesis of Cubism (Picasso owned a Kobe mask). In Germany, a similar desire fo r the u n a d u lterated ' p r i m itive' exp e r i e n c e led N o l d e , K i r c h n e r, P ec h st e i n a n d S c h m i dt-Rottluff, amongst others, to look to Africa as well as Oceania and the Far East.
silliness
affectations towards 'the rich' -
PRICELESS
+
Looks fa m i l i a r? E m i n e m : The two M rs M " s . C h rist i n e is o n the l eft.
Paudrat illum inate the key developments of N egro art. J ea n Pigozzi's coll ecti on of contemporary art from Africa is, in its own way, equally as inspiring. Pigozzi is himself a n interesting character and those with a long memory will recollect him as a 'society photographer'. This appeared to constitute Pigozzi taking Pola roid snaps of himself " with any available celebrity, so s uccessfu lly that a book was eventually published with him mugging alongside Andy Warhol and countless other media personalities. That was then, and this now, and here he is as a one man champion of a host of contemporary a rtists and photographers from Africa.
The burden on the African artist today is complex and omnipresent. They are well aware of the respect and im portance attri buted to the traditional a rts of their cou ntry. At the same time, the intern et and world commu nications introduce the influences and ideas of a global artworld. lt is a measure of their creativity and original ity, ably demonstrated in Pigozzi 's collection, that they can avoid the pitfalls of fakery and pastiche. The work of the photogra phers in the collection has a special strength, particularly the reportage images from the streets of Kinshasa by Abou Bakar Depara (1928-1997). T h e P i gozzi c o l l ecti o n offers an u n us u a l o p p o rtu n ity to review contemporary activity from within the Afri can a rtworld, a closed book to most readers. Profusely ill ustrated in full colour, the only gripe with this book is a design quirk - the liberal use of 30+ point type fortext isjarringand an unnecessary affectation. (MvJ) (1) Sculptures Negres Paul Gu i l l a me and G. Apol l inaire. Paris 1917 Callxte Dakpogan
( b . 1958) l ives and works i n Ben i n . Wire & found objects. Pigozzi collection