Innholdsfortegnelse for May/Jun 2018 i Fine Art Connoisseur

When you admire a work of art, do you ever wonder what went into its creation? When someone asks plein air painters, “How long did it take you to paint that?” they are sorely tempted to reply, “Three hours and 30 years.” They mean, of course, that it took decades to reach a point where they can make superb paintings in just three hours. Though it’s not unusual for aficionados to watch artists work, they rarely consider what kind of training and experience occurred before the artists attained enough confidence to do so in front of others. This came to mind in March as I was painted by three accomplished artists — Kerry Dunn, JaFang Lu, and Nell O’Leary — during an eight-hour Facebook Live broadcast. Through our conversations, I…

Frank DiLella knows famous faces. As host of the New York-based On Stage television show, the charismatic and handsome DiLella has a face that’s become famous to his viewers, as well as to the Broadway actors, directors, and choreographers he interviews on air. “If that’s true, that I’m recognized, to some degree, then I should say also that I completely, honestly, truly love what I do, being a voice for the performing arts community. I’m humbled by the talent I encounter.” While some people post their favorite faces on Face-book or Instagram, DiLella displays many of his choices on what he calls the “gallery wall” in his Manhattan apartment. Hanging there are photos of stars he has befriended and interviewed, including Vanessa Redgrave and Tommy Tune, along with 1940s images…

Ann and Jim Belk love living in Richmond, Virginia, but they love leaving it, too. Ann says, “We now have more time to travel, and one of the joys of those experiences is bringing art home. Luckily Jim and I have very similar tastes, so ‘hunting’ for art has become something we enjoy doing together. Our collection has been enriched by pieces from Costa Rica, Cuba, England, France, Haiti, Morocco, and Peru, and from galleries in Hawaii, Key West, New Orleans, and Santa Fe.” Jim adds, “I love buying art ‘on the road’: one of my favorite pieces was purchased at an art fair in a Jackson Hole parking lot!” Their love of art started early, actually. Ann’s paternal grandmother and her sisters were accomplished watercolorists and her own family…

Lee and Christy Mardesen still possess every artwork they have ever acquired. Indeed, the first original painting Lee purchased — an oil landscape he spotted in a sidewalk show when he was just 17 — hangs in their mountain home today. “Later,” Lee recalls, “I shared my passion for art with Christy, but she didn’t grasp my enthusiasm. That forced me to learn more and to examine why it drove me: I needed to make sense of it to her. That process made art even more important to me than it had been. Since then Christy has embraced art in her own right and now drives many of our purchases. She has certainly developed her own tastes and loves, but fortunately we dovetail on most things.” Today, Lee explains, “There…

Diane Morrison and Alex Glass-man have deep personal connections to art-making, ones that clearly inform their collecting of other artists’ work. Diane started sketching and painting when she was 10, inspired by her mother’s superb design sense, an uncle who designed hotels, and an aunt who designed lingerie. In 1981, while healing from the chemotherapy that eradicated her breast cancer, Diane used pastels on paper to convey the images that came to her while meditating. She later earned a Master’s degree in art and psychology with a thesis focused on art as healing, comparing such abstract expressionists as Jackson Pollock with mystics like Germany’s Meister Eckhart (c. 1260–c. 1328). During that period she also mounted a solo show of her paintings and writings at the University of Colorado. By contrast,…

WE are all in this together. Everyone who reads Fine Art Connoisseur believes not only in representational art, but also in the talent, training, rigor, and dedication required to attain excellence in this field. Though the artists appearing in this issue are generally faring better than their counterparts did, say, 40 years ago, it’s still not easy for them to get noticed or make a living, so I’m always keeping an eye open for kindred spirits in other cultural sectors from whom we might borrow ideas. Recently I learned about the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship, established in 2016 to preserve master craftsmanship by celebrating artisans’ capacity to make something of lasting beauty with their hands. The foundation supports people who make — for example — lace, leatherwork, haute…

Something decidedly new is happening in realist art. Around the world, ever more painters are breaking free of tradition, technical precision, and — dare I say it — predictability. They are blurring edges into their backgrounds, leaving passages unfinished, and abstracting forms to better convey their themes. Recently I met with a baker’s dozen of these innovators to discuss how their work has changed and to observe the freedom they now feel while experimenting with fresh methods and letting their curiosity breathe. Over the past quarter century, fans of contemporary realism have focused primarily on “tighter” painters who render form accurately, but now there is more room for unexpected elements conveying what the artist actually feels in front of his or her subject. Among the methods being adopted to help…

Adeline Miller grew up with an appreciation of art and antiques imbued by her mother. She always enjoyed browsing in galleries and museums, but suddenly one day she decided to buy something. At Lovetts Gallery in Tulsa, where Miller still lives, she purchased a painting of an elegantly dressed lady and a still life scene. She still owns both, along with more than 270 other artworks. Among the artists now represented in her collection are Janice Anthony, Cecile Baird, Gary Bowling, Cynthia Brown, Otto Duecker, Michael Dwyer, Ron Fleming, Scott Fraser, P.S. Gordon, Melissa Greene, Tracey Harris, Virginia Harrison, Richard Heisler, Charles Jarboe, Kreg Kallenberger, Adonna Khare, DeLoss McGraw, Kali Marquardt, Douglas Miller, Jacob A. Pfeiffer, Sangita Phadke, Joel Daniel Phillips, Mary Russell, Jeannette Pasin Sloan, Jonathan Sobol, Skip Steinworth,…

ARTISTS & GALLERIES Los Angeles June 16–30 New paintings by Aaron Westerberg will soon go on view at NOH/Wave. Raised in San Diego, he studied with the artist Jeffrey Watts and attended the California Art Institute, where Westerberg later taught. His reverence for Old Master and 19th-century precedents is visible in the timeless elegance of his scenes, which deftly balance classic technique with contemporary subject matter. INFORMATION: 420 East 3rd Street, Los Angeles CA 90013, nohwave.co John White Alexander (1856–1915) was an internationally admired portraitist who rivaled his contemporaries John Singer Sargent and William Merritt Chase. Later in his career he won applause for paintings of femmes fatales, usually richly attired and strikingly posed. This interest blossomed after Alexander encountered Juliette Very, the Parisian model who became his muse. Now,…

For the artist Reginald Marsh (1898–1954), the New York street life worth capturing included the Third Avenue El (elevated train) and the ominous shadows it cast, the Bowery’s drunkards, and women vamping along the Coney Island boardwalk. The artist could often be found behind a steel girder furiously and furtively sketching passersby on the sidewalk. In this ink and watercolor wash drawn from exactly such a vantage, we see one of Marsh’s favorite types passing by — an attractive woman in a flouncy dress, with a purse dangling from her right hand. “That idealized woman appears, verbatim, in many of Marsh’s works,” says Todd Weyman of Swann Auction Galleries, which is selling this one-of-a-kind drawing in its American Art sale. “She alone shows what a master draftsman he was.” The…

On public view this season in Long Island City, the artistic Queens neighborhood across the East River from Manhattan, is the groundbreaking exhibition Portraits of Immigrants: Unknown Faces, Untold Stories. This show features 10 life-size oil-on-canvas paintings, all created by Betsy Ashton (b. 1944), whose journey to this milestone has been totally unique. In 1971 Ashton was an illustrator, artist, and art teacher just three credits away from earning an M.F.A. at American University in Washington, D.C. At that moment she abandoned fine art to pursue what became an award-winning career on television. She started, in fact, by teaching art on a local channel, but soon was reporting and anchoring the news. While working for Washington’s WJLA, she became the only TV reporter ever to draw her own courtroom sketches…

Howard Tullman has been a force in contemporary American art for more than 40 years. Until recently, he and his wife, Judy, collected energetically, acquiring over 1,600 works that are primarily figurative realist works. Concentrated in a 5,000-square-foot Chicago loft, this trove has astonished thousands of by-appointment visitors with its mix of manners, subjects, and media — mostly paintings and drawings, but also sculptures, constructions, and videos. Last year the Tullmans decided to sell the loft and cull the collection, recognizing that their grown daughters do not want to inherit everything. The trimming process has necessarily taken time and has encompassed not only donations to museums but also two large sales at Chicago’s Leslie Hindman Auctioneers last October and February. (More such sales are to come.) The proceeds have benefitted…