Innholdsfortegnelse for Nov/Dec 2017 i Fine Art Connoisseur

As seen in the Frontispiece of this issue (page 3), American artists have long highlighted the world of industry in their paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints. Unfortunately, the dynamism of such historical images — the exciting throb of big things happening — has generally morphed into faded glory, visions of once-grand structures no longer operating at full capacity, if at all. Such scenes of melancholy and ruination possess their own charm, but industry and industriousness ain’t over yet; artists are finding ways to celebrate still-active sites, too. This spread, therefore, sets out a range of approaches being pursued by artists around the world. Sometimes it’s hard to believe Americans were once universally excited about technology’s capacity to spur opportunity and improve daily life. Eventually these attitudes co-existed — particularly as…

EDITOR’S NOTE: Scott Fraser: Selected Works is the handsome book published this autumn to highlight the four-decade career of one of America’s leading still life painters. Illustrated inside are more than 200 paintings and drawings, accompanied by a preface from scholar William H. Gerdts, an essay by curator Timothy J. Standring, and an interview of Fraser by his fellow artist Robert C. Jackson. We invited Dr. Standring to excerpt his essay, which traces how Fraser evolved into the master who created such mature works as Reign and Goldfish Arc (both 2012). Scott Fraser (b. 1957) finds painting irrepressible. He may not have read Horace, but he embodies that Roman poet’s dictum “Ut Pictura Poesis” (as is painting, so is poetry). This phrase can mean that paintings are mute poems, that…

Just when it seems as if everything in New York’s art world emphasizes the new, it is refreshing to find an artists’ membership organization that sustains the continuum of creativity, and has done so since its founding in 1871. Established in the Manhattan studio of sculptor Jonathan Scott Hartley (1845–1912), the Salmagundi Club is still thriving 146 years later. This season it is celebrating 100 years in its permanent home at 47 Fifth Avenue in Greenwich Village. Depending on whom you ask, the club’s name derives from The Salmagundi Papers, the potpourri of essays that Washington Irving published in 1819, or from salmigandos, a stew of meats served hot in 19th-century dining rooms. Like several other surviving clubs formed around the same time in Philadelphia, Chicago, and Providence, Salmagundi initially…

On Saturday, November 25, I will be in Virginia recovering from Thanksgiving feasting, but if I could reach Santa Fe that day, I would gladly help celebrate the centenary of the New Mexico Museum of Art. Exactly 100 years before, on November 25, 1917, this handsome Pueblo Revival building facing the city’s historic plaza officially opened to the public, welcoming a crowd of 1,200. It’s likely even more people will show up this time as the museum launches a series of 100 events with a free daylong celebration. It has recently been closed for restoration, and for the installing of three new exhibitions, including the promising-sounding Horizons: People & Place in 20th-Century New Mexican Art. New Mexico had been a U.S. state for only five years when the museum opened,…

ODILE RICHER (b. 1978) makes paintings that read like giant, gorgeous pages in a surreally romantic yet strangely realistic storybook. Metaphors, myths, allegories, allusions — all can be found in this Canadian artist’s highly detailed creations. Trained as a museum technician, Richer is primarily self-taught. She also studied at the Saidye Bronfman School of Fine Arts (Montreal) and the Academy of Realist Art (Toronto). Richer’s paintings are feasts for the eye that make us pause and ponder. They contain both overt and hidden symbols, and trying to solve the puzzle — or surmise what the artist was after — is only half our reward for close observation. In a painting such as Dandelion, for instance, several interpretations might apply. “This painting actually represents spring, hope, and youth in a romantic world,”…

Busy, multicultural, industrial Newark — New Jersey’s largest city — was ripe to become a center of art and design at the turn of the 20th century. Its vibrant streets had stories to tell and a community of artists eager to tell them. It had prosperity, and ambition among those seeking to become prosperous. And it had the visionary social leadership of John Cotton Dana (1856– 1929), who became director of the Newark Public Library in 1902. No mere administrator, Dana had a gift for understanding how to make a public institution relevant and accessible — “user-friendly” — to its community. As director of the Denver Public Library, he had implemented open stacks for patrons to browse at will and a children’s room where youngsters could choose their own books.…

It is always noteworthy when the artist Rose Frantzen (b. 1965) mounts a new solo show, particularly because she presents her intensely realistic portraits and figures in unconventional formats that catch us off guard — that make us look and think again. On view this winter (November 24– February 10) is her intriguing installation In the Face of Illusion, at Maquoketa Art Experience, a nonprofit space in the Iowa town where Frantzen was born and resides. Located halfway between Dubuque and Davenport, Maquoketa is also home to Old City Hall Gallery, which is exactly what it sounds to be. In 1991, Frantzen and her parents purchased this 1901 landmark and converted it into a venue where she makes and sells her painted landscapes, still lifes, figures, and allegories, some of…

Two hundred and forty years after his death, Georgia Governor Button Gwinnett (1735–1777) has gotten a facelift. A portrait by Jeremiah Theus thought to depict this signer of the Declaration of Independence recently underwent a careful restoration in order to confirm the sitter’s identity. Until now there was only one verified oil portrait of Gwinnett painted during his lifetime. Assessing the second one has necessitated an extraordinary journey through the increasingly converging fields of connoisseurship, conservation, and forensics. A COLORFUL LIFE Born in England, Gwinnett sat for a portrait by Nathaniel Hone at some point between 1754 and 1765, when he was active as a merchant in Wolverhampton. (That portrait was purchased anonymously at a New York auction in 2001.) In 1765 Gwinnett and his wife, Ann, immigrated to Savannah,…

The holidays’ approach signals the arrival of a particularly delightful feature of the art world — exhibitions of “small works” ideally sized, and priced, for thoughtful gift-giving. Small paintings, sculptures, and graphics are an ideal way to begin a collection (especially for youngsters) or to obtain a work by an artist you admire but cannot generally afford (at bigger sizes). Moreover, small works beckon us to look closer, to form a more intimate connection with the image and artist, whose touch we can more readily admire. Here is a snapshot of top-quality smallwork shows scheduled this season across the country. The shows are listed in order of opening date; please note that some venues host celebrations midway through the exhibition’s run. In many cases, these shows’ contents are posted online,…

LAZYBONES Norman Rockwell (1894–1978) 1919, oil on canvas, 26 x 24 in. Heritage Auctions, Dallas, November 3 Estimate: $1 million–$1.5 million AVIVA LEHMANN Director of American Art, Heritage Auctions While young Robert Grant was playing pool at a friend’s house in 1954, he made a mistake that cost roughly a million dollars. His mistake, far worse than sinking the 8 ball, was damaging a painting hanging on the wall behind him by pulling back his cue stick too far and too fast. He was required to buy the damaged work for about $100 from his friend’s family, but soon this piece will cost someone else a lot more. Grant punctured a canvas that the great Norman Rockwell had painted as an illustration for the September 6, 1919 cover of The…

“Realism” is a virtually meaningless term as far as art criticism goes. Primitive man in the caves at Lascaux was striving for realism, as were Holbein and Dürer in the 16th century, and Ingres and the Pre-Raphaelites in the 19th. Each period has its own nuanced approach as to what constitutes reality and how to interpret it. This year British museum visitors have enjoyed extraordinary encounters with 1920s and 1930s realism. First came America After the Fall, with great works by Edward Hopper, Charles Sheeler, and others, including Grant Wood’s masterpiece, American Gothic. It was presented at London’s Royal Academy of Art, as was Revolution: Russian Art 1917–1932, while Portraying a Nation: Germany 1919–1933, which included a major showing of works by Otto Dix, appeared at Tate Liverpool. These three…

It’s no secret that Florida is America’s third most populous state, nor that several of its cities are among the fastest-growing in the nation. The Sunshine State has steadily gained in population since Standard Oil baron Henry Flagler built hotels and housing along the Atlantic coast a century ago, yet it’s only recently that Floridians have focused in earnest on the visual arts. This development — a key indicator of sophistication — is surely related to the fact that more baby boomers are spending more time in their Florida homes. The region’s cultural vitality has been enhanced further by the arrival of worldly businesspeople not only from the northern states, Canada, the Caribbean, and Latin America, but also from Europe and Asia — thanks to the availability of direct long-haul…

ARTISTS & GALLERIES Pasadena November 17–December 15 An exhibition exploring the contemporary plein air movement is coming to American Legacy Fine Arts. Fleeting Moments: Works en Plein Air features more than 40 paintings by 24 leaders in the evolution and growing appreciation of outdoor painting. The participants are Peter Adams, Warren Chang, Christopher Cook, John Cosby, George Gallo, Quang Ho, Ramón Hurtado, Jean LeGassick, Jim McVicker, Stephen Mirich, Jennifer Moses, Michael Obermeyer, Joseph Paquet, Tony Peters, Daniel W. Pinkham, Scott W. Prior, Ray Roberts, Dan Schultz, Amy Sidrane, Mian Situ, Tim Solliday, Alexey Steele, William Stout, and Jove Wang. INFORMATION: Call for address and hours, Pasadena, CA 91103, 626.577.7733, americanlegacyfinearts.com San Diego November 10–December 30 Nearly 50 never-before-seen paintings by John Asaro are coming to Meyer Fine Art. This Californian…

HERE’S HOW YOU CAN HELP. Hello, dear friends. As a publisher of various art magazines and newsletters, I feel we have a responsibility to help our friends in the art community who’ve been impacted by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. When Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005, many galleries there were in trouble. Tourism fell way off, and locals were consumed with things other than buying art. At that time, Streamline Publishing stepped in and offered free advertising to help some of those galleries survive, and we later learned that helped a lot. Thankfully, good-hearted collectors found the websites, saw art they liked, and they made some purchases. We know that galleries in both Texas and Florida are seeing a lack of traffic and tourism, are impacted by flooding in their…