Innholdsfortegnelse for Jul/Aug 2018 i Fine Art Connoisseur

Amazing things happen when people get together. Seemingly impossible challenges become do-able. Difficult goals become less daunting. Unity, support, and accountability to one another keep us on the right path. Throughout history, gatherings of artists working toward a common goal have changed the world. These collectives, often starting as a couple of individuals collaborating on a project, have resulted in massive change. A fine example is the French Impressionists, who in 1874 mounted their first exhibition under the rather unpromising name “Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Engravers, etc.” Its members dreamed that one day their work would be accepted despite the fact that it did not suit the old-school strictures of academic tradition. Their efforts created a movement that ultimately transcended unnecessarily politicized organizations like the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and…

Busy times ahead! I am truly fortunate to be anticipating some distinctive art adventures on the horizon. First up, this August, is the judging of artworks to be exhibited in the 37th annual Buffalo Bill Art Show and Sale. On view at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, the climactic moment of this benefit project (buffalobillartshow.com) will occur the weekend of September 21–22, but first it’s necessary to determine which pieces will receive prizes. Several years ago, I was kindly invited to attend the event itself — decked out in the proper hat and boots — and was mightily impressed by the quality and range of artworks depicting the land, people, and wildlife of the American West. The scenery in and around Cody — on the…

PAYING IT FORWARD KEEPERS OF THE FLAME: PARRISH, WYETH, ROCKWELL, AND THE NARRATIVE TRADITION Norman Rockwell Museum 9 Glendale Road Stockbridge, MA 01262 413.298.4100, nrm.org  June 9–October 28 Where better than the Norman Rockwell Museum to mount an exhibition titled Keepers of the Flame: Parrish, Wyeth, Rockwell, and the Narrative Tradition? This innovative project highlights the aesthetic thread that linked America’s three greatest illustrators to the long tradition of European narrative painting. They inherited its impulses through their teachers, who had themselves absorbed the requisite wisdom, knowledge, principles, and techniques from previous generations, reaching right back to 15th-century Florence. The show’s guest curator is Dennis Nolan, an artist and professor of illustration at Hartford Art School. He has selected more than 75 works not only by Parrish, Wyeth,…

Something special is coming this summer to the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, one of the two Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. On view from June 30 through September 30 is Truth and Beauty: The Pre-Raphaelites and the Old Masters, the first major exhibition to juxtapose artworks by England’s 19th-century Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood with the medieval and Renaissance masterpieces that directly inspired its members. In addition to paintings, works on paper, books, furniture, stained glass, and tapestries loaned from around the world, it encompasses more than 30 works drawn from San Francisco’s own collection. The artworks demonstrate the Pre-Raphaelites’ fascination with such Italian masters as Fra Angelico, Sandro Botticelli, Raphael, Titian, and Paolo Veronese, as well as northern Renaissance painters like Jan van Eyck and Hans Memling. The…

Mearly career was powerfully informed by the extraordinary masterworks that came before us. As a young man, I received no serious instruction, save for a few classes at the Art Students League of New York when I was 15. Instead, New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and Frick Collection became my de facto instructors. I regularly inspected their historical masterworks, hoping the mere act of looking closely would magically unlock their technical secrets. At the outset I was fascinated by the 15th-century Flemish art of Rogier van der Weyden and Hans Memling, later by Rembrandt and Velázquez. The museums became my art class and these painters my teachers. Long ago I stopped focusing on any single historical master or artwork because they are no longer my teachers. But curiously,…

The San Antonio-based art collectors Steven Alan Bennett and Elaine Melotti Schmidt, Ed.D., have sharpened the general guideline “Buy what you love” to a fine point. What they love is figurative realism; more specifically, by contemporary female artists; more specifically than that, depictions of women by women. “We really do believe women see themselves and one another differently, so the ‘women painting women’ definition has been an important organizing principle for us,” Bennett says. Important for artists, too, because the couple recently announced their endowment of the Bennett Prize, to be awarded to a female full-time artist working in figurative realism who has not achieved “full professional recognition,” which the Bennetts define as having sold a single work for $25,000 or more. According to artist Katie O’Hagan, whose work is…

ARTISTS & GALLERIES Jackson,Wyoming July 13–31  wilcoxgallery.com Wilcox Gallery is presenting its second exhibition of paintings by 18-year-old Kyle Ma, whose subject matter ranges from street scenes to florals and landscapes to battleships. Ma’s artistic journey started at age 4, when he began drawing from nature in his native Taiwan. His family later moved to Texas, where they live now. Ma will demonstrate his techniques on July 14. New York City through July 18  shepherdgallery.com A founding member of the Vienna Secession, Gustav Klimt ranks among Austria’s greatest artists. To mark the centenary of his death, Shepherd W&K Galleries has mounted a selling exhibition of Klimt’s drawings. Portland, Oregon August 1–September 1 jpepinartgallery.com Relish is used as both a noun and verb to describe the experience of enjoyment. J. Pepin…