Innholdsfortegnelse for Sep/Oct 2017 i Fine Art Connoisseur

Chairman/Publisher bericrhoads@gmail.com 561.923.8481 facebook.com/eric.rhoads @ericrhoads Being an artist has rarely been easy, and the stereotypes are often true: angst, financial difficulties, substance abuse, etc. Of course, many other artists are healthy, happy, and sometimes even wealthy. Whatever their situation, most feel they are genetically programmed to make art, even if this means a life of struggles. I devote much of my time to minimizing those struggles by showing artists how to market their work better, and I’m glad to say it has helped many artists transcend the daily grind. But I also recognize that struggle can be essential to developing one’s artistry; it’s often the thing that moves the work from good to great. My chief concern today is artists’ having to contend with time-consuming distractions in order to make…

Jonathan Galassi’s favorite work of art hangs in his New York City living room, and, though he looks at this drawing every day, he never sees what’s really there. No one can. “That’s part of the beauty of it for me, that the work never got finished,” says Galassi, who has been the president and publisher of Farrar, Straus & Giroux for more than 30 years, as well as a major poet and translator of works by Montale, Leopardi, and Primo Levi. It’s the fact that his pencil drawing on paper (by an unknown 16th-century Italian artist) remains incomplete that makes it possible for him — and any other viewer — to imagine its central figure whole. “The male figure is in the process of becoming, rather than realized,” Galassi…

In Madrid, the Fundación MAPFRE has done it again. Three years ago, it opened an astonishing retrospective of the Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla (1863–1923), and now comes another revelation, the exhibition Zuloaga in Belle Époque Paris, 1889–1914. On view at MAPFRE from September 28 through January 7, this project examines the early career of the great Spanish painter Ignacio Zuloaga (1870–1945), offering a new perspective on his aesthetic formation and objectives Zuloaga is usually interpreted as a participant in the nativist artistic movements known as España Negra (Black Spain) and the Generation of 1898 (the disastrous year in which Spain lost the remainder of its global empire to the United States). Zuloaga’s use of black and other dark tones is often associated with his passion for Spanish Old Master paintings…

Charleston. Orlando. Nice. Manchester. Charlottesville. These places have become symbols of what is wrong with the world, of the tragic hatred and untreated illness that drive individuals to commit brutal crimes against other human beings. Yet these cities also reveal much of what is right, especially the sacrifices made by bystanders, rescue workers, doctors, and caregivers. There is forgiveness in the unlikeliest of circumstances, bravery and commitment after every act of destruction. On June 17, 2015, nine members of Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church were murdered in cold blood by one man during their evening Bible study because they were Black. They were members of America’s oldest independent African American congregation, known locally as “Mother Emanuel” and founded in 1816. Two years later, city officials arrested 140 members and…

It used to be that wealthy collectors would donate their prized possessions to established art museums. Some of the most renowned American institutions, like New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, virtually owe their existence to legacies from private collectors. In recent decades, however, a different trend has emerged: the collector who creates his or her own museum. Examples include the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation in Los Angeles, the Brant Foundation in Greenwich, Connecticut, and the Rubell Family Collection in Miami. The advantages are obvious; the founders are assured that their carefully assembled caches will not be absorbed into a larger collection, or hidden in storage. In addition, they have significant input on programming and management. Yet there is one key challenge:…

ARTISTS & GALLERIES Gloucester, Massachusetts September 17–October 28 The North Shore Arts Association has gathered a remarkable group of 95 works by the late Charles Movalli. Also an author, teacher, and jurist, Movalli was admired as an avant-garde painter who bridged the worlds of modernism and traditionalism. Curated by his widow, Dale Ratcliff Movalli, this retrospective’s works will all be available for purchase. Illustrated here is the final painting that Movalli completed. INFORMATION: 11 Pirates Lane, Gloucester, MA 01930, 978.283.1857, nsarts.org New York City September 14–21 Fifteen new oils by New York-based painter Edmond (Eddie) Rochat will soon grace the walls of Cats on Broome Gallery. Inspired by 17thcentury Dutch genre paintings and film noir, Rochat’s paintings employ dramatic, tenebrist light to comment on themes related to modern urban life.…

This is going to be a busy autumn. I am eagerly looking forward to the first Figurative Art Convention & Expo (FACE), to be convened by Fine Art Connoisseur in Miami November 8–11. In addition to all of the gifted artists sharing their technical secrets, we will be thrilled to welcome the remarkable guest speakers recently announced by our collaborator, Prof. Michael Pearce. They include Prof. Donald Kuspit, best known for his groundbreaking book The End of Art, and Dr. Elliot Bostwick Davis, who has curated major exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, including the recent Jamie Wyeth retrospective. A few registration slots are still available, and details can be found at figurativeartconvention.com. Eric Rhoads and I really look forward to welcoming you to the lovely Biltmore Hotel…

PEREGRINE O’GORMLEY (b. 1977) makes one-of-akind wooden sculptures — full of whimsy, satire, and deep sentiment — that are welcome additions to any collection focused on artisanal process and time-intensive craftsmanship. Each sculpture is hand-carved from a variety of species, including juniper, maple, yew, black walnut, red cedar, and Alaskan yellow cedar, using knives and gouges. Molds are then made from the wood originals for limited bronze editions. The artist, who was named after the peregrine falcon, credits his reverence for nature and love of natural materials — as well as his ability to observe his surroundings with sensitivity — to his father, who taught him at a young age to look at life with awe and wonder. “While walking through the woods near our house, my father would point out…

If you had occasion to visit St. Helena in the heart of California’s Napa Valley in the late 1880s, then you might have heard the curious sound of an English hunting horn disturb the quiet hillsides where olives, grapes, and oranges were being cultivated. It was the habit of Tiburcio Parrott (1840–1894), owner of the agricultural estate Miravalle (later the setting for a 1980s television series, Falcon Crest) to ride into St. Helena to see to his affairs in a carriage specially built with a platform on the back, where his servant sat. When business was concluded and they were heading down Pope Street, Tiburcio had his servant blow the horn to alert the women at the local Stone Bridge Saloon/ Bordello that he was on the way.1 Such were…

Although Thomas Ralph Spence (1845– 1918) depicts a student immersed in her book, it is difficult for us to study his own life as an artist. “Spence was by no means prolific artistically,” explains Peter Rees, director of 19th-century paintings at the London headquarters of Bonhams, where on September 27 he will coordinate an auction that includes this work. “We know that, over a period from the 1870s until 1916, he exhibited only 13 pictures at the Royal Academy’s annual exhibition. He was a highly trained and prolific architect, but he was a minor artist who made paintings of fantastic quality.” Even when young artists demonstrate exceptional talent and drive, it seems that most parents have always been reluctant to encourage their children to pursue careers in art. Such was…