Innholdsfortegnelse for January - February 2020/ No.49 i American Fine Art Magazine

In 2020 The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City celebrates a monumental milestone of 150 years. As part of this celebration, Barrie A. and Deedee Wigmore have gifted the museum 88 magnificent examples of American aesthetic movement and Gilded Age decorative arts and contemporaneous paintings from their collection of 19th century American art. The Wigmores’ holdings are a testament to their commitment to collecting works of the highest quality. The collection, which was assembled over four decades, features outstanding works by luminaries of American art, including members of the second generation of the Hudson River School—Albert Bierstadt, Sanford R. Gifford, John Kensett, Alfred Thompson Bricher and Jervis McEntee. A number of other historic artists are included in the collection as well. “In the aesthetic movement, art infused every…

Salvador Dalí at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art The Argillet Collection, featuring the artwork of surrealist icon Salvador Dalí, will be held at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art in St. Augustine, Florida, from January 24 to 25. Jean Christophe Argillet—son of Pierre Argillet, publisher and longtime collaborator of Dalí—will join the gallery on opening weekend. This will be one of the largest collections of Dalí works available to collectors. This prestigious collection comes directly from the archives of Pierre Argillet, who shared a friendship of more than 50 years with Dalí, having cultivated what many consider to be one of the finest bodies of Dalí’s art. The collection includes original drawings, hand-woven Aubusson tapestries, original copperplate etchings and rare books. Significant Form An exhibition showcasing the work of Elie Nadelman,…

Thomas Moran and Thomas Cole spent their early years in the same small city in England: Bolton. Their parents worked in the weaving trade—Moran’s family specialized in textile designs; the Coles were known as fine weavers. Bolton was a hive of cottage industries. But the invention of textile mills transformed the city in a few short years. As children, Moran and Cole would have seen the undying fires of the mills and breathed in the fug of billowing smoke. They witnessed their parents’ craft—their art and livelihoods—made superfluous. Their parents took jobs in the mills that required them to work long hours for little money in oppressive conditions. The mills might have controlled Bolton, but poverty reigned. In response Ned Ludd and his Luddites rose in armed, bloody rebellion. It…

In Just Kids, her memoir of her life with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, Patti Smith writes, “Where does it all lead? What will become of us? These were our young questions, and young answers were revealed. It leads to each other. We become ourselves.” Mapplethorpe became a photographer whose work caused a sensation in the ’80s and ’90s, ranging from subtle but erotic still lifes of flowers, portraits of Smith and images of the gay S&M scene of New York. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City is presenting its second of two comprehensive exhibitions examining the “sustained legacy” of Mapplethorpe’s work, through January 5. Implicit Tensions: Mapplethorpe Now showcases his work in the museum’s collection as well as that of other contemporary artists “who offer expansive approaches to…

The Jewish Museum • 1109 5th Avenue • New York, NY 10128 t: (212) 423-3200 • www.thejewishmuseum.org Last month, the Baltimore Museum of Art announced that it would only acquire works by woman artists in 2020 in an attempt to rectify the museum’s massive gender imbalance. Further, during last month’s The American Art Fair, the talk was that American art curators were mainly interested in works by women and artists of color. It’s good to hear that Edith Halpert’s 100-year-old vision is finally coming to fruition. When Halpert envisioned her Downtown Gallery—located on 13th street in Greenwich Village—at the age of 26, she “relentlessly championed nonwhite, female and unknown artists and was a formative advisor in the shaping of many of the nation’s most celebrated art museums and collections, from…

Through January 25 Michael Rosenfeld Gallery100 Eleventh AvenueNew York, NY 10011t: (212) 247-0882www.michaelrosenfeldart.com In the 1940s as New York became the center of the art world artists began to reject the tendencies of the past to create an “American” art that was primarily representational. Barnett Newman (1905-1970) wrote, “We felt the moral crisis of a world in shambles, a world destroyed by a great depression and a fierce World War, and it was impossible at that time to paint the kind of paintings that we were doing—flowers, reclining nudes, and people playing the cello.” The progressive art collective Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors declared in 1943, “We condemn artistic nationalism which negates the world tradition of art at the base of modern art movements… Since no one can remain…

February 14-15 Copley Fine Art AuctionsCharleston Marriott170 Lockwood BoulevardCharleston, SC 29403t: (617) 536-0030www.copleyart.com Classic sporting artwork will hit the block during Copley Fine Art Auctions’ annual Winter Sale, including paintings by top-tier artists of the genre and fine decoys. The sale will return to Charleston, South Carolina, for the sixth year in conjunction with another wildlife and sporting art event, Southeastern Wildlife Exposition. This year’s two-day sale, February 14 and 15, will take place at the Charleston Marriott beginning at 10 a.m. each day. In the paintings category a rare watercolor, Western Pheasant Hunting, by Ogden M. Pleissner, is the standout offering. The work, with an estimate of $40,000 to $60,000, features a subject that Copley’s fine art specialist Leah Tharpe says “is incredibly rare and possibly unique within the…

CAREY L. VOSE Gallery Director Vose Galleries As the sixth generation of our family firm, I’m honored to carry on the tradition of specializing in American realist paintings from the 18th to 20th centuries, as well as representing a select group of contemporary (realist) New England painters and sculptors. In general, I would say that paintings with more activity, color and dramatic light generally fare better than more subtle, tonalist scenes in the current market. Prize-winning works that were exhibited during an artist’s lifetime are also typically more sought after, as are artists that were affiliated with a number of respected arts clubs and organizations. I’m also very pleased with the resurgence of interest from museum curators in acquiring examples by notable women artists of the early 20th century; in…

Dennis Carr has been named Virginia Steele Scott Chief Curator of American Art for The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California. Coming from a major curatorial role at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Carr joins The Huntington in January, where he will oversee a collection of items from the colonial period to present day encompassing paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings and more…The Philadelphia Museum of Art recently reopened its historic Kelly Drive north entrance after more than 40 years, a milestone for the museum’s Facilities Master Plan Core Project…Grace Yasumura is the first-ever Luce Foundation Curatorial Fellow for the Smithsonian American Art Museum, one of two curatorial training fellowships conducted by the museum… Nick Dawes, senior vice president for special collections at Heritage Auctions, has…

The Morgan Library & Museum • 225 Madison Avenue • New York, NY 10016 • t: (212) 685-0008 • www.themorgan.org Now on view at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City is John Singer Sargent: Portraits in Charcoal, which offers a rare glimpse into an often overlooked chapter of the painter’s distinguished career. Sargent, who largely stopped doing oil portraits in 1907, turned instead to charcoal drawings to fulfill his portrait commissions. The artist, then at the peak of his career, could often complete the works in less than three hours and would frequently bring in friends to entertain his sitters to enliven their facial features. “He started doing charcoal portraits, with exception to a few in the 1890s, mostly in 1907. He saw that switching to charcoal…

The Dalí Museum • 1 Dalí Boulevard • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 t: (727) 823-3767 • www.thedali.org The second definition in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines automatism as “the moving or functioning (as of an organ, tissue, or a body part) without conscious control that occurs either independently of external stimuli (as in the beating of the heart) or under the influence of external stimuli (as in pupil dilation).” The fourth definition brings us to art: “suspension of the conscious mind to release subconscious images.” In 1924, the French poet André Breton wrote the Manifesto of Surrealism in which he professed his belief in “pure psychic automatism, by which one proposes to express, either verbally, in writing, or by any other manner, the real functioning of thought. Dictation of thought in the…

Through December 21, 2019 Martha Richardson Fine Art38 Newbury StreetBoston, MA 02116t: (617) 266-3321www.martharichardsonfineart.com Leon Kelly’s artistic path was a long and winding one, with mastery of Fauvism, geometric abstraction and cubism being just some of the highlights of his journey. It was, however, his venture into surrealism that became Kelly’s signature, with his artwork appearing in countless galleries and exhibitions dedicated to the style. Through December 21, Martha Richardson Fine Art in Boston will present 24 paintings and drawings by the artist that show the evolution of his style from the 1920s to the 1960s. “Leon Kelly was somebody who was always searching, always looking. From the time he was a child he was copying the Old Masters, and when he was exposed to Earl Horter’s modernist collection…he was…

January 16-19 FOG Design+ArtFort Mason Center for Arts & Culture Festival Pavilion2 Marina Boulevard, LandmarkBuilding C, Suite 260San Francisco, CA 94123t: (415) 745-3315www.fogfair.com FOG Design + Art returns to the Golden Gate City for its seventh annual fair from January 16 to 19. Known for its boutique feel, the 2020 rendition of FOG will feature 48 galleries from around the world. “This year we are excited to be returning to our roots and presenting a smaller roster of dealers than we did last year,” says Steering Committee member Susan Swig. “We like to think of it as a highly curated fair.” Participating galleries include Marion Goodman, Gagosian, Gladstone, Kurimanzutto, Jessica Silverman, Berggruen Gallery, Altman Siegel, Demish Demant collaborating with Luxembourg & Dayan, Sprüth Magers, Hauser + Wirth, Pace Gallery, Lévy…

BOSTON, MA SKINNER INC.JANUARY 23-24American & European Works of Art Skinner Inc. will hold its American & European Works of Art sale at the start of the new year. The two-day sale begins January 23 with session I offering prints, photographs and multiples, while session II on January 24 brings paintings and sculpture. Amongst its diversity of offerings, which include more contemporary works, session II is where collectors will find primarily historic American fine art, with works from artists like Sanford Robinson Gifford, Fitz Henry Lane, Charles Burchfield, Theodore Butler and Alexander Pope Jr. hitting the auction block. Featuring strong American works, a highlight in the sale is Gifford’s Lago di Nemi, estimated at $200,000 to $300,000. This atmospheric oil painting was a study for Gifford’s major Italian landscape, Lake…

Marsden Hartley’s Birch Grove, Autumn was the top lot at Bonhams’ recent American art sale, achieving $500,075, just breaking its high estimate of $500,000. The piece, painted in 1910, was part of a small series of works from Maine that included some of the most modern and avant-garde compositions to have yet been painted in the United States. In addition, three world auction records were achieved for Sally Michel Avery, March Avery and Patsy (Pasquale) Santo. The sale, which took place at Bonhams’ New York auction house on November 19, had a strong sell-through rate of 83 percent sold by lot. “We saw strong competitive bidding from collectors on these superb modernist works with their significant provenance and exhibition history,” says Jennifer Jacobsen, Bonhams’ director of American art. “We are…

Santa Fe is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the United States, and while tradition is certainly important there, looking back into the past also creates opportunities for looking ahead into the future, which is what countless artists did throughout the 20th century. Many of those artists’ works were offered at the November 9 Santa Fe Art Auction, which realized $1.8 million. “Santa Fe Art Auction was delighted to open the new doors to its massively expanded permanent facility at the Baca Railyard to a packed house on November 9, with well over 200 registered bidders in attendance and more than 1,100 registered online across 20 countries,” says Gillian Blitch, president at Santa Fe Art Auction. “While the auction house launched a new website with its own proprietary online…

An acquisition of 23 works has recently come into the possession of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, from the collection of Los Angeles-based collector and noted scholar Gordon W. Bailey. Among both the historic and contemporary pieces included the acquisition is an oil on canvas by Henry Ossawa Tanner titled The Good Shepherd. Painted in 1917, the oil features a muted color palette and depicts a shepherd in the foreground, flanked by a pack mule and a sheep, with the rest of the herd filling the mid-ground of the composition. “Tanner gained great success in the international art world around 1900, and his work inspired generations of American artists,” says Mindy N. Besaw, curator at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. “The Good Shepherd is…

It wasn’t easy. Becoming a practicing artist in a fledgling nation. A country that could offer little in the way of ancient history, a supportive government, an enlightened or indulgent aristocracy or church patronage. Facilities for training were meager or unavailable. Instead of artists’ studios, there were cold and inconvenient rooms, often perched at the top of a house where the noises of everyday life intruded on the contemplative environment necessary for creative thinking. (It was only in 1835 when New York University built their first substantial building on Washington Square, that plausible studios were created at the top of the corner towers.) And if one succeeded in producing work of merit, there were few venues for exhibiting and, more importantly, for selling work. No critics to endorse or even…

After World War II, Joseph Solman made ends meet by working five months a year at the pari-mutuel windows at Aqueduct and Belmont racetracks, drawing sketches of his fellow subway passengers on the journeys out and back. Solman’s $6 window (a $2 bet each on a horse to win, place or show) was popular with players for the Brooklyn Dodgers. His son, Paul, was impressed when his father would arrive home with their autographs. He writes, “Landing Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese’s signatures: that was something. Meeting Bill de Kooning for a drink at the Cedar Tavern or hanging out with Milton Avery and his wife Sally: hey, they were just friends of the family.” The paintings of the father who brought home autographs were bought by avid collectors…

Palmer Museum of Art • Curtin Road • University Park, PA 16802 t: (814) 865-7672 • www.palmermuseum.psu.edu A forthcoming exhibition at the Palmer Museum of Art at Pennsylvania State University focuses on a major gift of important American drawings from the collection of Penn State alumnus, respected scholar and collector Dr. John P. Driscoll. Having earned a master’s degree and Ph.D. in art history, he began participating in the university’s art museum in 1972 working as a registrar before leaving the university to become a curator. Since then, among many other endeavors, Driscoll has established galleries in Boston and New York, renaming his business Driscoll Babcock in 2012. The works found throughout Driscoll’s entire collection span more than 150 years of American art history from around 1798 to 1950. Drawing…

Crocker Art Museum • 216 O Street • Sacramento, CA 95814 t: (916) 808-7000 • www.crockerart.org Granville Redmond (1871-1935) is regarded as one of the earliest California Impressionists, with his landscapes becoming among the most recognized in the nation. The artist, who was left deaf after contracting scarlet fever as a toddler, was born in Philadelphia but spent most of his life in California when his family moved to San Jose and enrolled him at what is now called the California School for the Deaf in Fremont. The school encouraged its students’ artistic pursuits, and early on the charismatic youth showed a particular adeptness for art. This support was only the beginning for Redmond who took advantage of the opportunities before him and molded a career around his adopted home…

Through February 14 D. Wigmore Fine Art152 W. 57th Street, 3rd FloorNew York, NY 10019t: (212) 581-1657www.dwigmore.com Artists of different traditions and backgrounds reflect and shape our view of the American West, land of the rancher and the cowboy. So, when I was given the opportunity to offer collectors the Western paintings of two successful American artists working during the Great Depression and World War II, I could not resist. The resulting exhibition is an exploration of the paintings of Adolf Dehn (1895-1968) in Colorado from 1938 into the 1960s and Peter Hurd (1904-1984) in New Mexico from 1928 forward. The 25 paintings hung in our gallery create a kind of a conversation between two artists who both captured the authentic West. These paintings provide more than a comparison and…

With record-breaking attendance as well as an unprecedented number of sales, the 12th annual American Art Fair triumphed during New York’s American Art Week in November. The fair’s focus on American 19th- and 20th-century works brought collectors and curators from all over the country. “We had our best attendance in the fair’s 12 years, and audiences for our lectures presented by Avis Berman, Barbara Haskell, Stephanie Herdrich and Erica Hirshler were mostly standing room-only. The fair has hit its stride as an anchor and destination for American Art Week,” says Thomas Colville, the fair’s co-founder. An unprecedented number of works sold during the preview, with a major sale within minutes of the fair’s close. Dozens of works sold at the galleries as follow up to the fair. Notable sales during…

One of four auctions held each year, the fall 2019 rendition of Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneers’ Fine American and European Drawings, Prints & Sculpture sale saw another successful run. The sale, which was held October 24, kicked off at 6 p.m. with a full room of bidders, a bank of 20 telephone bidders and participation from online bidding platforms, resulting in $2.4 million in sales with over 77 percent of the lots sold. A rare hunting scene, Pointers on the Hunt, by Percival Rosseau snatched the top lot for the sale when it sold for $100,000 (est. $80/120,000). Painted in 1927, the work depicts four sporting dogs that have caught the scent of the hunt. “We see it again and again, clients are still buying 19th-century landscapes and Hudson River…