+,-./&)0(&)**' THE ARTS "#$%&!'(&)**' !! Bhavsar among biggest names at Biennale !"#$%&&'()**+,-&.(/%&(*&0/123(,32*&(2/(4)1/+05(&6%-#-/

Painted in 2006, “Abdhee” has By Jyotirmoy Datta Left, Janet and Natvar been loaned to “In-Finitum” by Bhavsar on roof terrace London collector Kersti Urvois, oes the 53rd Venice of Hotel Focari Palace in who flew to Venice for the exhibi- Biennale mark the end of Venice. Campanile of San tion opening with her husband, art? Marco Square is in the Louis. D distance on left and on Most critics have damned it, right is the dome of Santa Bhavsar’s paintings have no while recognizing it as the biggest Maria della Salute lines, contours, forms, areas or event – in size, noise, and money Cathedral. The Grand demarcations. – of the art fraternity of the world. Canal is below with the They are without subjects or Bridge around the Beyond the hoopla at the annual objects, impossible to copy, inde- extravaganza was an exhibition corner. Below, Natvar Bhavsar’s scribable, ineffable, beyond con- where Gujarat-born New Yorker painting, “Abdhee,” was cepts or definitions, unique trig- Natvar Bhavsar was among the part of the exhibition “In- gers of ruminations and ideas biggest names. Finitum” at Palazzo about the cosmos and creation, The Biennale, which opened Fortuny in Venice. Here Bhavsar, center, is seen but not in themselves harboring to the public June 7, makes with New York collectors any ideas, concepts, thoughts or

Venice into a city of, for and by R Liora and Charles Peck.

A ruminations. S V

artists, with art replete on water- A

H Janet Bhavsar also made it B

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buses, taxis, bars, restaurants and E

N June 4 to the Peggy Guggenheim A days full of lunches, dinners and J cocktails for the USA pavilion, parties, as Martin Gayford reports meeting Jennifer Stockman, pres- in The Times of London. Old and masters in any serious European ident of the Guggenheim, her new wealth rub shoulders. view of world art. husband David, director Richard Not just a place; Bhavsar’s Armstrong, and curator Paul sublime “Abdhee” occupies the Schimmel of the Los Angeles central place in a show which is Museum of Contemporary Art, "7)08(/%&(#-88&./ about man’s deepest meditations among others. 027&.(2/(4)1/+05(92. on the limitless and the eternal. At the opening of “In-Finitum” :%2;.21<(/%&()035 Venetian writer Myrium Zerbi came such exalted figures as Axel =0$-20(,2-0/&1(9%) Fanna described it as “the best Vervoordt, the main curator of painting she had ever seen.” the exhibition, a Belgian designer, >-0$.(2(,32*&(#&.-$&. Called “In-Finitum,” the show an art dealer from Turin and a /%2/()>()3$(20$( at Fortuny is the third in a trilogy sculptor. 7)$&10(72./&1.(-0 of shows that started in Venice And after the inauguration, the during the 2007 Biennnale dis- Bhavsars joined Urvois and her 205(.&1-)+.(?+1),&20 playing works by some of the designer friend Renzo Zengiaro. ;-&9()>(9)13$(21/@ biggest names in contemporary Next day, Bhavsar got a private and 20th-century art alongside viewing of the Biennale. Smee old masters, ancient sculptures, calls the exhibition astonishing. “Evidence of ludicrous wealth Asian art, textiles and various “With ‘In-finitum,’ Vervoordt, is everywhere at the Biennale, installations, Smee reports. guided largely by intuition, has which officially opens today. In this show, the presence of attempted something no aca- Cartoonishly sleek yachts, all reg- Bonnard, Delacroix and Picasso - demically trained curator would istered in the Cayman Islands, immortals as they are - is a coin- dream of.

line the near the cidence. R

A In pulling it off, he has created S V

entrance to the Biennale. Bhavsar is inevitable. Without A H an astonishing exhibition, made B

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Politicians and art collectors knowing it, the show seems to E

N all the more so by its unforget- A have arrived at the numerous have been curated around J table setting.” exhibition openings all over the Bhavsar. lagoon by water taxi, many of the men with trophy wives in tow,” writes the Critic-at-Large of the Boston Globe. Bhavsar and his wife, Janet Envelope bearing 90-cent stamp fetches $431,250 at auction Brosious Bhavsar, were lionized in Venice, with the artist telling except for the “Calcutta Ice By Jyotirmoy Datta Desi Talk: “I was saddened by the House Cover.” contrast between the hoopla and For four decades the cover the art. The noise drowned out et another chapter in the remained lost to philately. Most the thought.” extraordinary adventures collectors thought the thieves Janet Bhavsar’s journal of the of a mailed envelope – had soaked off the 90-cent Y stamp to make it more saleable. couple’s trip to Venice was pro- which began its journey from vided to Desi Talk. Boston to Calcutta in 1873 bear- Then, on a cold winter day in It gives one an actual feel of ing a mere 90-cent stamp, – was January 2006, an elderly couple 2009 – of the closed in an auction room in walked into a small stamp shop partying, the notables, the excite- New York City on June 13 when in Chicago and inquired if three ment. it sold for $431,250. stamp items had any value. Two The “real story” this year was The torn envelope, known in were worthless, but one was the “collateral events” notes philatelic circles as the recognized by the dealer as the legendary “Calcutta Ice House Sebastian Smee of the Boston “Calcutta Ice House Cover,” because it is the only authenti- 1967, from the home of an Cover.” Globe on June 7. bears the nation’s first bicolor cated example of the 90-cent Indianapolis stamp collector It was about this cover that “The best of these is at the stamp, issued in 1869, portray- Lincoln stamp still affixed to its named J. David Baker. Richard Searing wrote in “The Palazzo Fortuny, the majestically ing Abraham Lincoln. original envelope. The crime was part of an Chronicle of Classic U.S. Postal disheveled former residence and Stolen in 1967, resurfacing 40 The cover was first bought by organized burglary operation Issues” that “I hold little hope workshop of the great textile years later, the storied cover a collector named Grant that targeted stamp collectors that this unique cover survives designer, painter, inventor, pho- sold above its presale estimate Squires, who toured India in whose names and addresses today. tographer and dressmaker of $300,000 to $400,000 and was 1914. It passed from collector to were listed geographically in the To survive over a century and Mariano Fortuny,” Smee said. the star of the sale at Robert A. collector until its theft. member directory of The be lost in this manner is a sad Among the biggest names at Siegel Auction Galleries in New American Philatelic Society. fate for such a marvelous Fortuny was Bhavsar, the only York City. The cover was one of 250 In 1974, the FBI recovered cover.” Indian painter who finds a place It is prized by philatelists envelopes stolen on Dec. 9, the stolen Baker collection, besides that of old and modern