For those of you who continue to inquire about the Calder sculpture Janey Waney that has been in Gramercy Park for the past 3 years, we just learned that it is now on view at the European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht, the Netherlands.

After the fair ends on March 23rd, Janey Waney along with 16 other Calder sculptures, will be installed in the garden of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where it will be included in a major exhibition of Calder's monumental sculptures starting June 21st.

We look forward to its return to Gramercy Park after the exhibition at the Rijksmuseum ends on October 5th.

MARCH 13, 2014

Harry Heuts The Alexander Calder sculpture "Janey Waney" at the entrance to the European Fine Art Fair.

MAASTRICHT, the Netherlands - New Yorkers arriving at the invitation-only preview to the European Fine Art Fair on Thursday afternoon were greeted by a 26-foot-tall Alexander Calder sculpture that might look a bit familiar to some. Before being installed at the fair's entrance here, the bright-red 1969 standing mobile had been on view in Gramercy Park for the past three years.

 

Christophe van der Weghe, the New York dealer, organized the Calder's installation here, although he declined to provide any details about its owner. But, this being the gossipy art world, other dealers familiar with Calder's work said it belongs to David and Leslie Rogath, collectors from Greenwich, Conn., who had displayed "Janey Waney" in their garden before lending it to Gramercy Park. It is now for sale, several said, for about $20 million.

 

After the fair ends on March 23, "Janey Waney," along with 16 other Calder sculptures, is heading to the garden of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam where it will be included in a major exhibition of Calder's monumental sculptures that opens there on June 21st.

 

The sculpture was originally commissioned by the N.K. Winston Corporation for the Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove, Long Island. At the time, Jane Holzer, the collector and star of many of Warhol's films, was married to Leonard Holzer, the mall's developer. Calder named "Janey Waney" after Ms. Holzer, because she had seen a maquette of the sculpture in his studio and suggested he make it a large outdoor work.

 

In past years the fair's organizers experimented with more unusual installations at the entrance. Last year there was "Mary Poppins,''a bizarre hanging creature fashioned from handmade woolen knitting and crochet by the Portuguese artist Jona Vasconcelos, which dealers said looked like a piņata. A computerized light installation created by the American artist Leo Villareal in 2012, wasn't a hit either. That work was the brunt of many nicknames, including "the disco inferno.'' But so far "Janey Waney'' hasn't ruffled any feathers.

 

Click here to read the article on the NY Times website.