George L. K. Morris' studio, with works by Juan Gris and Fernand Leger on view. © Image: Lindsay Pollock

One of the summer’s high points was a visit to the Frelinghuysen Morris House and Studio in Lenox, Massachusetts, a Bauhaus-inspired 1930s-40s time capsule preserving the bohemian upper-crust summer retreat of abstract painters, and wife and husband, Suzy Frelinghuysen and George L.K. Morris.

Kinney Freylinghuysen, the foundation’s director and Suzy’s nephew, guided us through the  house, filled with a dazzling array of artworks, personal artifacts and period furnishings by designers including Donald Deskey and Paul Frankl.

Later in the summer, I saw Kinney Freylinghuysen at Larry Salander’s sentencing. The dealer had robbed the estate of several million dollars.

To read more about Morris and Freylinghuysen, go here. Photos from my visit follow below.

Rosemarie Trockel at Zurich Kunsthalle

I arrived in cloudy Zurich on Saturday afternoon, checked into the comfy Helvetia Hotel (220 CH francs, or $192, for the night), bought a tram pass and set off in search of the Lowenbrau Brewery district, home to galleries I’ve come to know from the international art fair circuit.

The former brewery was converted to gallery space in 1996 and since it was the weekend before Art Basel, many held openings to welcome international collectors on route to the fair, an hour away by train. My Art Newspaper story on the real estate dramas and developments in the Lowenbrau district found here.

As a reward for all that diligent art looking, a colleague and I popped into the Baur du Lac, the town’s chi chi hotel. I spotted dealer Tim Nye, art adviser Meredith Darrow and Sotheby’s Warren Weitman and Eve Reid. One pricey Bellini was consumed.

I ate very well Saturday night courtesy of Hauser & Wirth who hosted a dinner at the old world  Kronenhalle restaurant in honor of sculptor…

Representatives from the venerable Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art swept through the Tefaf Maastricht fair this week, selecting three major pieces for the Hartford, Connecticut museum’s permanent collection. The works include a French canvas by Francois de Troy, an haute Baroque sculpture and a rare  colored Delft charger.

The items have been reserved by the museum and will be shipped to Hartford  for a final decision by the curatorial committee.

“We are looking now for pieces that fill holes, or are so fabulous we just can’t walk by them,” said Wadsworth’s director Susan L. Talbott.

A group of about ten Wadsworth museum curators, trustees and supporters–led by Talbott–fanned out at the annual Dutch fair. Last year the group snagged two major acquisitions. This year the haul was upped to three. Talbott declined to reveal prices.

The jewel-toned de Troy painting, titled The Astronomy Lesson for the Duchesse du Maine,  depicts a petit and rouged Duchesse, during a lesson with her tutor, Nicholas de Malezieu. In a feminist twist, the Duchesse is the figure of power and intellect in the picture, gesturing to a…

The opening of Las Vegas’ new $9 billion City Center was heralded with a Wednesday night bash. The evening featured bikini-clad Tiger Woods-style showgirls, fireworks, a new Elvis-inspired Cirque du Soleil show, former Sotheby’s chairman Alfred Taubman and the unveiling of a corporate art collection including a mesmerizing Jenny Holzer in the nightclub valet area. The evening marked the end of an era of big-money development on the Vegas strip.

The 67-acre faux-urban development features an art collection, acquired and installed for $40 million. Adviser Michele Quinn oversaw the project. For a town sorely lacking a major museum, the artworks are a major cultural addition. Maya Lin’s lyrical 84-foot long Silver River, traces the shape of the Colorado river and hangs above the Aria hotel check-in desk.

Nancy Rubin’s tilting, acrobatic Big Edge comprised of about 200 canoes and acts as a fulcrum, around which a series of glass buildings rise. Frank Stella’s 1969 Damascus Gate Variation I hugs the walls behind the check-in desk at Vdara, originally a condo and now a hotel with large rooms.

Delicate touches include…