Innholdsfortegnelse for January-February 2022/ No. 61 i American Fine Art Magazine

While impressive auction results of historic American paintings and sculpture or an occasional celebrity collector may garner a newspaper headline now and then, there is no magazine, until now, that has offered complete and comprehensive coverage of the upcoming shows and events of this always-fascinating market that is so deeply tied to American history, society and culture. Previews of Upcoming Shows and Auctions The historic fine art of America’s greatest artists is in big demand and if you are serious about acquiring it, you need to know about it sooner so you can plan your collecting strategies. When you subscribe to American Fine Art Magazine you’ll know in advance what major works are coming to market because, every other month, you’ll have access to this valuable information when we email…

Artists taking the night sky and the objects that swirl there as subjects for their art is as old as art itself. Renderings in ochre and ash on cave walls tens of thousands of years old appear to represent celestial conjunctions, or a phase of the moon, or a comet streaking by. The constellations themselves might be considered an art form, a connect-the-dots aesthetic that makes one culture see as asterism of stars as Ursa Major, or the Big Dipper, while others see the same asterism as a salmon weir, wain or plough. These forms, moving against the black velvet curtain of the cosmos, become illustrations for stories, myths, faiths. Fast forward toVincent van Gogh, who was drawn to the wheeling stars, making the Big Dipper the center of a…

An exhibition currently on view at the Saint Louis Art Museum celebrates the St. Louis region’s vibrant cultural history as Missouri recently marked 200 years of statehood. Within the exhibition, titled Art Along the Rivers: A Bicentennial Celebration, visitors can explore 156 objects produced or collected over the course of 1,000 years—items that were made or collected within the confluence region surrounding St. Louis. The exhibition has five main thematic sections: Art at the Confluence, Art on Display, Art in Production, Art Communities and Art as Advocate. Paintings, sculptures, photographs, furniture, ceramics, metals and textiles that have rarely been considered in connection with one another come together in vibrant conversation during this monumental exhibition. “Though the confluence region is small, it has played an outsized role in the history of North…

In 2020 the Norton Museum of Art received a gift of a dozen paintings from collectors Doris and Shouky Shaheen that ranged in style from impressionism to realism. “Shouky Shaheen approached us and asked what would be helpful for the collection,” says Ellen Roberts, the museum’s curator of American art. “I picked these 12 paintings because they’re great examples by artists we have or artists we didn’t have in the collection until now. They fill a lot of gaps as well as just being beautiful examples of the artists’ works.” Included is art by Childe Hassam, Anderew Wyeth, William Glackens, Jane Peterson, Edward Henry Potthast, John Henry Twachtman, Guy Wiggins and Jamie Wyeth. Currently the Floridabased museum has the art on view in the exhibition From Hassam to Wyeth: Gifts…

After a successful November iteration of its American Art sale highlighting modernism, Christie’s will host its next auction for the department on January 19. This sale will be dedicated to more traditional American art, including Hudson River School landscapes, Western art, classic still lifes and maritime paintings. It is scheduled to reach buyers during the famed Americana Week in NewYork City. Quincie Dixon, junior specialist in Christie’s American art department, elaborates, “We’re thrilled to capture the relevant markets of the 19th-century works in a context of Americana Week. It will have the spotlight it deserves among sales of folk and decorative art where buyers are looking at this type of material.” Approximately 80 to 100 lots of art will be available in the American Art sale, with a selection of works…

For its November 18 auction, Christie’s announced a new format where they heavily focused on one segment of the American art market—modernism. It was held when the auction house hosted its more contemporary auctions with the goal of reaching clients with complementary interests. “We did see a lot of great engagement across categories with clients who collect postwar and contemporary art as well as some new clients,” says Christie’s American art specialist Paige Kestenman. “As a result, there was extraordinary interest and competitive bidding basically across the board.” The auction achieved six new artist auction records and nearly half of the lots in the sale sold above their high presale estimates. The top lot of the day was a spectacular Arthur G. Dove painting titled Sunset (est. $2/3 million), which…

LOUIS M. SALERNO Owner Questroyal Fine Art Our focus is American 19th - and early 20th-century paintings. The astounding and unexplainable valuations of certain 21st-century work has diverted attention from the celebrated works of the 19th and 20th century, however, fine examples across all price ranges continue to interest experienced buyers as well as newcomers. The surge in interest in digital creations and radical contemporary works has actually caused many to seek comfort in an art that they can understand and relate to. In many instances, 21st-century creations are alienating to a population that is seeking the tangible, the real and the relatable. Lately, visitors enter the gallery and state, “we have come to see real art.” The vast disparity in value between certain 21st - century works and the…

In 2022, many museums are looking back at our artistic history as well as our social history. Prominent among exhibitions this year are those that probe the history of Black Americans as artists and subjects. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in addition to hosting the Obama portraits through January 2, will host Black American Portraits through April 17. The museum notes that the exhibition “highlights emancipation and early studio photography, scenes from the Harlem Renaissance, portraits from the civil rights and Black Power eras, and multiculturalism of the 1990s. Black American Portraits chronicles the ways in which Black Americans have used portraiture to envision themselves in their own eyes.” The Springfield Museum of Art in Ohio will show BLACK LIFE as subject MATTER II through February 27. “Curated…

After its postponement last year due to the pandemic, FOG Design+Art returns for a much anticipated in-person event. Held at Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture in San Francisco, the fair opens with a Preview Gala on Wednesday, January 19, benefitting the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s education and exhibitions program. The fair, featuring 45 galleries that are among the global leaders in art and design, runs from January 20 to 23. Galleries exhibiting at the 2022 fair are Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, Kasmin Gallery, Alexander Berggruen Gallery, Jenkins Johnson Gallery and many others. Michael Rosenfeld Gallery will present a superb solo exhibition of collage works by Romare Bearden that focus on masterworks from the 1960s and 1970s. One of the highlights in this selection is La Primavera, painted…

MESA, AZ BRIAN LEBEL’S OLD WEST EVENTS JANUARY 21-22 Mesa Old West Auction Brian Lebel’s 32nd Annual Mesa Old West Auction takes place on Saturday, January 22, as part of the grander Mesa Old West Show & Auction from January 21 to 23 at the Mesa Convention Center. The event returns fully in person this year and continues to be a haven for collectors and aficionados of historic Western art, artifacts and memorabilia. The weekend OldWest Show hosts hundreds of vendors in antique, vintage, and modern western art and collectibles, and the auction will be available live, online, mobile, by phone or absentee. Two highlights in the OldWest Auction are Crow 1909, an oil by Olaf Seltzer estimated to fetch between $7,000 and $9,000, and Untitled/Herd of Cattle by Daro Flood,…

The Santa Fe Art Auction’s Annual Signature Live Sale has long featured a great collection of categories and genres—from cowboys and landscapes to abstraction and modernism, and everything in between—and this year’s sale, held on November 5 and 6, was no exception. Not only did the sale have a 90 percent sellthrough rate, it also realized nearly $4 million. The top lot of the sale, a unique departure from recent top lots, was a partial set—20 text volumes, as well as other ephemera—of Edward S. Curtis’ masterpiece The North American Indian. The books offered at the sale were part of the personal set of American tycoon and railroad executive E.H. Harriman, who worked closely with Curtis on a scientific exploration to Alaska in 1899. The set, estimated at $250,000 to…

JANUARY 20-23 FOG Design+Art Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture • San Francisco, CA Benefitting the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, this art fair brings together a diverse collection of dealers that feature fine art, contemporary and 20th-century design. www.fogfair.org THROUGH JANUARY 2, 2022 Black Artists in America: From the Great Depression to Civil Rights Dixon Gallery & Gardens • Memphis, TN The first exhibition in a three-part series explores the works of black American artists from 1929 to 1954. www.dixon.org JANUARY 7-9 Washington Winter Show The Katzen Arts Center American University • Washington, D.C. This annual art fair features fine art and antiques from over 35 outstanding dealers from across the U.S. and Europe. www.washingtonwintershow.org THROUGH JANUARY 9 Art Along the Rivers Saint Louis Art Museum • Saint Louis, MO In…

What event (gallery show, museum exhibit, etc.) in the next few months are you looking forward to, and why? I will be retiring on April 1, 2022, after 26-plus years here at The Westmoreland. I look forward to all of the exhibitions that we have scheduled now into early January 2025. I don’t have a particular gallery or museum show in mind; I will just enjoy having the time and opportunity to travel to see exhibitions in New York and elsewhere in the next years. What are you reading? I just finished reading Richard Russo’s Nobody’s Fool. I had read Everybody’s Fool several months ago and felt I missed a great deal of the story by reading this first. I could relate to his small town and characters having grown…

The mission of the National Arts Club is to stimulate, foster and promote public interest in the arts and to educate the American people in the fine arts. The club was founded in 1898, and in 1906, moved into the historic Samuel Tilden mansion across from Gramercy Park. Tilden had been governor of New York State and lost the presidential election of 1876 to Rutherford B. Hayes by one electoral vote. The National Arts Club has had three U.S. presidents among its members and from its inception has welcomed women as full members—an unusual practice at the time. The club’s art collection numbers over 600 works, many of which can be seen in a virtual tour and exhibition on the club’s website and on Google Arts & Culture. Its exhibitions…

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, a great deal of American artists began traveling to the Mediterranean region, that of Italy, Spain, the Middle East and North Africa. They came for many reasons—to hone their techniques in painting, as well as glimpse new, exotic inspiration from the region’s unique plant life, coastlines and distinct architecture. From that period of exploration came fantastic works of art from William Merritt Chase, Theodore Robinson, George Peter Alexander Healy, Frank Duveneck and others. Mediterranea: American Art from the Graham D. Williford Collection, currently on view at the Hunter Museum of Art, delves into the artwork created during this time and the history surrounding it. “For the most part, American artists traveled throughout Europe because of opportunities to study alongside the leading international artists of…

Helicline Fine Art in NewYork City was founded by Roy Goldberg and Keith Sherman in 2008 to bring American art and the expertise they have gained in over 35 years as collectors to the public. Their latest online exhibition is American Art: The WPA and Beyond featuring about three dozen paintings, works on paper and sculptures. It can be seen online through January 30 or by appointment at their Midtown Manhattan gallery. Sherman explains, “The WPA period is off the radar of most museum curators and is one the least popular periods of American art today. That’s reason for celebrating it, along with the spirit of the worker, the forgotten person, simple moments of everyday life, industry, muscular men, abstracts, mural studies and more. Actually, artwork from the first half…

Beginning with the annual Benefit Preview on November 3, in support of the Henry Street Settlement, and running through November 7, The Art Show pulled off another triumphant event of top galleries showcasing historical and contemporary works. Organized by the Art Dealers Association of American (ADAA), the event attracted thousands of national and international collectors, along with industry experts and art enthusiasts of all kinds. This includes attendance from major institutions like National Gallery of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Whitney Museum of American Art. Major collectors and VIPs noted by the ADAA were Iris Abrons, Sarah Arison, David Cross, Noa Fisher and Fran Lebowitz, to name just a few. The Benefit Preview, an elegant event that provides a “first look” at all the fair exhibitors, donates all…

New York City-based Swann Auction Galleries recently held its autumn edition of the African American Artsale on October 7 with tremendous success. This was the auction house’s first sale to hammer more than $4 million, in addition to achieving auction records for 11 artists, including Elizabeth Catlett and Howardena Pindell. Catlett’s limestone sculpture Head, created in 1943, sold for $485,000 (est. $150/250,000). And Pindell’s Untitled #57 shattered its high estimate of $40,000 when it hammered at $137,000. In total, the sale achieved more than $5 million, including buyer’s premium. “We were all thrilled with the auction’s results—it was our department’s and Swann’s highest grossing auction to date,” says Nigel Freeman, Swann’s director of African American art. “For both modern and contemporary significant artists, we saw strong sales including new record…