Fine Art Connoisseur Jul/Aug 2017

B. ERIC RHOADS Chairman/Publisher bericrhoads@gmail.com 561.923.8481 facebook.com/eric.rhoads @ericrhoads You, the art enthusiast, walk into a gallery, see paintings on the wall, browse a bit, and leave. On occasion you pause before specific works you love, but then you move on. On special days, when you’re in the right mood and extremely stimulated by a piece that “speaks” to you, your rationality starts sending messages like “Where would I hang it? I can afford it, but do I really need it?” Soon you are talked out of the purchase by your non-emotional decision-making skills. On rare occasions, however, your emotions become so strong — and the conditions so right — that you take the plunge. That moment when you bring the artwork home releases “feel-good endorphins” in your brain, and they…

In May, the White House released details on its proposed Fiscal Year 2018 “skinny budget,” which will, among other things, give the 52-year-old National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) just enough money to wind down its activities and close permanently ($29 million vs. its previous allocation of $150 million). For now, let’s overlook the fact that the resultant savings are paltry when measured against the government’s $1.1 trillion annual budget. And let’s overlook the fact that NEA grants support arts events in every state, usually at organizations unable to replace that funding with private dollars because their communities are poor or sparsely populated. Instead, let’s focus on something you may not know: closing the NEA will kill off almost all of our country’s temporary museum exhibitions of high-value masterpieces. Why?…

ISAAC MIZRAHI Designer and entertainer Photo: Jason Frank Rothenberg “?et me get right to it,” says Isaac Mizrahi when asked why he responds so viscerally to the paintings of Florine Stettheimer (1871–1944). “Color! It’s the first thing I’m drawn to in her canvases. Her intensive use of color pulls me in. They are like candy or ice cream — colors that are delicious.” Mizrahi — a fashion designer, actor, cabaret singer, writer, comedian, filmmaker, and entertainer — does not shy from expressing his passions, in private or in public. “When I was looking at her paintings at the Jewish Museum, I was losing my mind in the galleries, I was so excited,” he says, referring to a major exhibition there of the artist’s works, Florine Stettheimer: Painting Poetry. It runs through…

BRIAN SINDLER (b. 1957) makes plein air paintings that come to life with just a few simple but strategically placed brushstrokes, carrying all the correct information. Some of his paintings are so simplified, in fact, that they border on abstract. That strict focus on design — large planes of color, strong geometric shapes — strips away extraneous visual detail and allows us to focus on the feeling of a certain landscape or vista, particularly what the artist himself felt when viewing it. The 6-x-6-inch plein air sketch Ephraim Yacht Club, for instance, transmits an immediate sense of moodiness and mystery. It’s a scene that takes place, one might imagine, on a midsummer night, with mist so gray and smoky that the silhouette of the yacht and slight flicker of umber light…

Although the tradition of painting and drawing plants can be traced back to antiquity, it reached its zenith in western Europe between the 17th and 19th centuries. This area of artmaking is not nearly as widespread today, yet the quality of work being made is still extremely high, and its quantity is growing steadily. As ever, botanical art combines aspects of science and art, requiring the artist to understand the physical structure of plants and to communicate this knowledge in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Botanical works are made for pleasure, for sale in galleries, and also for study, much as parts of the human body are illustrated to help scientists and doctors understand anatomy. Without having sought it, the field of botanical art has acquired an “eco-warrior” aspect because many…

The career of Julie Bell (b. 1958) is a testament to the enduring power of realism in American art. Focused on eight recent paintings, this article reveals the depth of her inspiration and sensitivity to her subject mattereven as it underscores the broad range of influences she has absorbed and made her own. The daughter of an architect father and artist mother, Bell grew up in Beaumont, Texas, in an environment that nurtured her desire to become a painter. Drawing has mattered as long as she can remember, yet she only began to study art formally during high school, then majored in drawing at DeKalb County Community College in Atlanta. There Bell was inspired by her teachers and introduced to color theory, which she has so evidently come to master.…