Innholdsfortegnelse for May - June 2018 / No.39 i American Fine Art Magazine

The Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art’s new location in Denver, open now. The Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art has opened its new location only steps away from the Denver Art Museum and Clyfford Still Museum. The building is clad in golden terra cotta and glass tiles and will feature the inaugural exhibition Prints Near and Far: Contrasting Regional and National Prints from the Kirkland and Mayer Collections…Michael Gallagher has been named deputy director for conservation and the Sherman Fairchild Chairman of Paintings Conservation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He is tasked with overseeing the museum’s conservation and scientific research departments…Carnegie Museum of Art curator of fine arts Louise Lippincott will step away from her position in July. Her current exhibition at the museum is Visions…

At the turn of the 20th century, the American landscape experienced widespread changes in culture, economics, society and technology. There were fresh philosophies as artists, authors and other luminaries began to mimic the European notion of salons by creating their own gathering places to discuss art, music, books and more. For these artistically inclined, it was also about finding a distinct voice to comment on the times, places and notions—both perilous and uplifting. In the exhibition Modern Times: American Art 1910-1950 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, more than 135 paintings and sculpture from the permanent collection will be on view alongside 14 loan pieces to survey American modernism during some of its most celebrated decades. With the majority of the art coming from the museum’s offerings—that, prior to prints,…

The new exhibition at Hirschl & Adler Galleries in New York takes its title from an interesting, and quite funny, article in the March 1931 issue of Du Pont magazine, the trade publication of the manufacturer of chemical compounds and coatings titled, “Winold Reiss will not be classified.” As the author finds Reiss in his studio, he is teaching a class, preparing portraits, wrapping up illustrations, looking at swatches and samples for a hotel lounge, planning a new expedition to the West and talking on the phone to his wife. He even gets a plug in for two of Du Pont’s products: Fabrikoid, for upholstery, and Muralart, as a wall covering. The more you study Reiss, the more you see him as a Renaissance man in the tradition of artists…

David Park and Milton Avery, the first exhibition to pair two of the 20th century’s most influential figurative painters, is a thought-provoking and revealing exposition of two midcentury artists who resisted the objective abstraction of their time yet refined it for their own ends. It contains their paintings from the 1930s to the 1960s. Francis Mill of Hackett Mill in San Francisco explains, “Breaking conventions of historical categories, we juxtapose David Park and Milton Avery for the first time. Park pioneered figurative painting in 1950 when it was very unpopular, ultimately giving birth to the Bay Area Figurative movement. Avery introduced color as the true subject when gesture was paramount, which gave birth to the American color field movement. Conventional thinking has kept each of these artist’s dialogues separate. Together,…

Between 1966 and 1967, abstract artist Tadasky created his Series D works that moved from his early concentric circles, which concentrated on arrangements, to a focus on the thickness and thinness of lines. This includes using the spherical shapes in a variety of sizes and creating vertically oriented paintings that seemingly cascade like waterfalls. Through July 28, nine works from this period will be on display at the Lobby Gallery at 499 Park Avenue in New York City. In describing the series, Thomas Micchelli writes in his catalog essay, “Coming only a few years after Tadasky committed himself to circles, the D Series includes striking departures from the artist’s customary format of a circle enclosed within a square canvas. In D-155 (1966-67) and D-156A (1966), severely cropped circular bands interlock…

Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) said, “Most artists look for something fresh to paint; frankly I find that quite boring. For me it is much more exciting to find fresh meaning in something familiar.” In 1920, his father, N.C. Wyeth, bought a home in Port Clyde, Maine, for his family’s summer vacations. Andrew was 3. Port Clyde and the central Maine coast gave him the inspiration to paint many icons of American art. He also said, “One’s art goes as far and as deep as one’s love goes.” His love for the people of Maine and Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, is well known through his paintings of the Olsons and the Kuerners. Less well known by name but known by Wyeth’s paintings of him is the Maine fisherman Walt Anderson, his life-long friend.…

In the May 23 sale of American art at Bonhams in New York City, an array of works depicting everyday life of the times will cross the block. This includes a selection of modernist paintings by revered artists such as John Marin, William Glackens and Everett Shinn. There also will be a number of sculptures available, including one from recognized taxidermist and wildlife conservationist Carl E. Akeley. Then, there is a Venetian piece by Thomas Moran, as well as work from Charles E. Burchfield and Wolf Kahn. Among the highlights of the sale is Glackens’ Washington Square – The Green Dress (est. $70/100,000) that was acquired directly from the artist’s estate through Kraushaar Galleries in 1958 by a prestigious West Coast collector. The work remained in that collection for more…

Spanning all genres and media, Dallas Auction Gallery’s upcoming Fine Art Auction will include oil and acrylic paintings, watercolors, lithographs and bronzes, and takes place May 16. One of the most notable works in the sale is a rare untitled stucco painting by Pablo Picasso, painted in 1918 while he was on honeymoon with his first wife, Olga Khokhlova. Estimated to fetch between $250,000 and $450,000, the painting was a gift for their hostess Madame Eugenia Errázuriz, and Elizabeth Mann Rhodes, Dallas Auction Gallery’s fine arts associate director, notes, “This fresco celebrates the artist’s new marriage to Olga Khokhlova as well as the love and inspiration he drew from the Mediterranean.” The sale will feature a large selection of works by Texas artists, including paintings by Porfirio Salinas and Robert…

It is just across the river. A brief train ride from Manhattan and an easy stroll brings you to the Newark (New Jersey) Museum. I have been there on numerous occasions to see both special exhibitions and the ever-expanding permanent collections. This time, my visit was for an exhibition that inaugurates the museum’s new special exhibition galleries, part of a campaign to both re-organize and re-imagine this jewel like institution. I also went to see the recently-retired chief curator, Ulysses Grant Dietz, who has spent his entire and enormously productive professional career at this one institution. During his 37-year tenure, first as curator of decorative arts and subsequently serving as chief curator, Dietz has produced more than 113 exhibitions and installations, 13 books and dozens of scholarly articles and reviews.…

The agricultural landscape and the people whose labor made it productive are central to this exhibition. The farm had an historic place in the American imagination. It stood for the values of self-reliance, industriousness and public spirit. It was a world of plenty resulting from laborious repetitive work. When Europe was at war from 1914 to 1918 the United States became the breadbasket of the world, but as Europe recovered from World War I commodity prices fell, and farmers who had borrowed for new machinery or to buy land struggled. Between 1920 and 1929 nearly 6 million people left farms and rural bank failures reached record levels. The Depression for farmers occurred between 1919 and 1932 when their net income fell 70 percent and the Plains States were afflicted with…

With a farewell to the chilled, subdued notes of winter, Kraushaar Galleries’ Summer’s Coming spring exhibition welcomes the warmth and luster of the spring and summer months. The show, which focuses on landscape art, will feature a selection of 20th-century works by John Sloan, Alfred Maurer and Jim Dine. A smaller sub-show will focus on images of fruits, with works by Gifford Beal, William Glackens, Catherine Drabkin, Robert Kulicke and more, according to gallery director Katherine Degn. She adds that one of the bounties of summer is the fruit harvest, which felt like a natural element to include. The exhibition will feature about 15 works in total. “It’s always exciting to see how the paintings relate to each other and how different artists working at different times interpret a related…

Beatrice Mandelman (1912-1998) and Louis Ribak (1902-1979) went to Santa Fe, New Mexico, shortly after their marriage in 1942 to visit John Sloan who had been Riback’s teacher at the Art Students League of New York. They found Santa Fe congested, so they traveled north to Taos where they decided to settle—far from their roots in the New York art scene and its conflicts between social realism and abstraction. Taos had an art scene that was more traditional than they were used to, and there were no galleries showing modernist art. The heyday of the Taos Society of Artists, who romanticized the life of the Native population, had long past, however. Mandelman and Ribak weren’t alone in being attracted to a different Taos. Several modern artists had moved there before…

Like two repoussoir trees—one gnarled and majestic, the other vernal and green—that frame many early landscapes, two ideas: one tried and true, the other fresh, bookend Picturesque and Sublime: Thomas Cole’s Trans-Atlantic Inheritance, the new exhibition opening at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, New York, on the site of the artist’s restored home and studio. Focusing on Cole’s return to Great Britain—he had emigrated from the textile mill city of Bolton with his family in 1818—and his subsequent studies and travels in Italy from 1829 to 1832, the exhibition argues the artist’s real appreciation and love of the American wilderness and his stance against unbridled development really takes shape in Europe, where he bore witness, as an adult, to the impact of advanced industrialization and apprehended the…

ASHEVILLE, NC BRUNK AUCTIONS MAY 12 Premier Catalog Auction The estate of Elizabeth Dunn Clark of Springfield Farm in Middleburg, Virginia, will come to market during Brunk Auctions’ Premier Catalog Auction on May 12. Featured will be more than 300 lots from the estate that includes sporting art, jewelry, automobiles and furniture. As the auction house explains, Clark was an achieved and renowned breeder who supported animal hospitals and programs. “Her famous Springfield Farm Labrador Retriever kennels produced over 125 homebred champions and won five national specialty shows.” One of the highest estimated lots in the sale is a portrait of four retrievers and a black spaniel by British sporting artist John Emms that is estimated to sell between $60,000 and $90,000. The painting is a rarity for Emms, as…

FAIRFIELD, ME JAMES D. JULIA FEBRUARY 8-9 Fine Art, Asian & Antiques Auction $3.3 million Fine and decorative art, historical artifacts and top-tier antiques were highly sought after during James D. Julia’s February 8 and 9 Fine Art, Asian & Antiques Auction. The sale, which achieved more than $3.3 million, was led by Fernando Botero’s A Lawyer that sold for $150,750 against a $125,000 to $175,000 presale estimate. There was also success with Hayley Lever’s 1904 painting Fishing Boats – Sunrise that sold for $60,500. The work was signed and titled on a label from Clayton-Liberatore Art Gallery. Morris Graves’ War Maddened Bird Following St. Elmo’s Fire, a tempera on paper painting, brought $81,675, a price that was four times its low presale estimate. A work attributed to Paul Émile…

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond has recently acquired works of art by Archibald Motley Jr., Sanford Biggers and David Drake. Growing the museum’s collection of African American art has been a major focus of the museum’s acquisition strategy since 2015. Museum director Alex Nyerges says, “The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is committed to establishing a leadership role in the collecting and display of African American art. These three works are a significant step toward that goal and represent three distinct periods in African American history as well as important works of art that will delight and inspire our visitors for generations to come.” Motley’s 1927 painting Town of Hope is considered to be a masterwork by the artist. Motley was not a prolific painter, and his…

“…2018 looks to be another big sale. Last year approximately 20 percent of our sales went to new buyers, which is always encouraging!” We are coming off a very strong $16.1 million sale for 2017 and have seen continued strength in the Western art market. Judging by the quality of consignments coming in, 2018 looks to be another big sale. Last year approximately 20 percent of our sales went to new buyers, which is always encouraging! I wouldn’t say one or two artists are dominating the market right now. It’s more about the quality of the individual works. That said, we’ve seen tremendous interest in the work of Howard Terpning. He’s considered the dean of contemporary Western painters and retired a couple years ago. His market has always been strong,…

CARNEGIE MUSEUM OF ART www.cmoa.org Visions of Order and Chaos: The Enlightened Eye packs the Carnegie Museum of Art’s Heinz Galleries with 200 popular and never before seen works from the museum’s collection. The exhibition focuses on 1750 to 1850, during which the world changed dramatically. European and American works of painting, sculpture, furniture, prints and personal objects make visitors imagine tension between rational order and chaotic abandon that pervaded during the Enlightenment. WHISTLER HOUSE MUSEUM OF ART www.whistlerhouse.org Through June 23, the Whistler House Museum of Art presents The Allure of Venice. The exhibition showcases the work of New Englander Walter F. Lansil and other 19th century painters of the canal city. During the 1880s, Lansil found his richest inspiration and enduring subjects in Venice. At the same time,…

If I were to sum up the history of the art of the American West, I would say that it is the story of a race against time, a race of paint and ink, clay and bronze against progress and civilization, a nick of time thing that quickly ticks over into a too late thing before morphing at last into myth, nostalgia, fiction and sentimentality. And if I were to choose a single artist to stand on the fulcrum between the nick of time and too late, that artist might be Albert Bierstadt, whose early, dazzling panoramas, his “Great Pictures” celebrating the vast sweep of the American West, seem, in retrospect, to have been only the opening major chords in a long threnody lamenting a lost artists’ paradise. Albert Bierstadt:…

Dr. Robert Savage grew up in an anthracite coal mining town in eastern Pennsylvania. He recently retired from his 35-year practice in plastic surgery and as an assistant clinical professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School. His “second act” is “as a budding art historian and researcher.” He enjoyed “sketching, creating caricatures and cartoons” as a boy, but, he says, “My true love for art began as a student at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where I was inspired by one of those magical teachers, Sam Green.” An accomplished watercolorist, Green wrote American Art: A Historical Survey, published in 1966, which rapidly became the required reading for college art courses. There is a delightful synchronicity in that Green previously taught at Harvard and Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, where Dr. Savage…

Vose Galleries in Boston is putting to rest the fear some collectors have of purchasing works on paper. Light & Color: 150 Years on Paper, featuring Frank W. Benson & His Contemporaries, opens April 21 and continues through May 26. Artists as early as the 1870s presented works on paper as finished works of art rather than studies and their vibrancy holds up today. Alfred Thompson Bricher (1837-1908) was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and, essentially self-taught, he later set up a studio down the coast in Newburyport, Massachusetts. He began painting in oils and later turned to watercolor with the same attention to detail and intensity of color in his maritime scenes. He enjoyed success during his career and at an 1892 exhibition sold 71 watercolors and four oils.…

A reimagined and revisioned Art New York will now set the tone for what is turning out to be the new art fair season in the city. Coming together over the first weekend in May, Art New York will be joined by Frieze New York and TEFAF’s New York Spring show creating a holy triumvirate of art fairs showcasing everything from classical historic European and American art to leading contemporary offerings. “It’s working out well for us,” says Nick Korniloff, founder and director of Art New York. “There’s obviously a huge interest in art that week with the major galleries opening new shows, new exhibitions at the museums and major auctions. So, it’s a busy time for the art market. When you consider those activities, as well as Frieze and…

With his renderings of the Alps, Swiss painter Alexandre Calame influenced an entire generation of artists. In the 19th century, Calame’s paintings were prominently exhibited in Paris and his prints made their way across the globe, eventually becoming a sort of template for artists to study. His scientific attention to detail—whether it be his analysis of rock formation or the flow patterns of a river bed—serve as building blocks dropped into larger landscape painters. This approach to mountain-scapes was emulated not just by the European artists who studied with Calame, but the American artists who crossed paths with him. Drawing from its extensive collection of 19th-century landscape art, the Newark Museum highlights the connections between American and European alpine paintings in The Rockies and the Alps: Bierstadt, Calame, and the…

Works from the Ottenberg Collection will be sold at Freeman’s upcoming American Art & Pennsylvania Impressionists sale. The collection includes a wide variety of contemporary works, design and, most notably, around 20 paintings by Philadelphia modernist Arthur Beecher Carles. “Carles is an underappreciated artist, in my opinion,” says Alasdair Nichol, Freeman’s head of fine art. He notes Carles as one of his favorite painters, and continues, “He can be a difficult artist for people to get a handle on because he moves from realist works to abstract expressionism. He can be maddeningly uneven, but that’s what makes him a true artist.” One of Carles’ pieces crossing the block is a portrait of his wife, Caroline Robinson Carles, executed shortly after they met in 1924, which holds an estimate of $20,000…