Innholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2020 i Fine Art Connoisseur

Perhaps you’ve heard about the dream I had, the one that led me to invent the Figurative Art Convention & Expo (FACE). In my dream I was dining at a castle, seated at a very long table, and each chair was occupied by a famous artist from the past. Earlier this year I had that dream again, but this time, the great French master William Bouguereau stood up and toasted “The Whole of Art!” When I asked him what that means, he replied that artists can become too narrow and therefore hurt themselves. “All artists should study other art forms, not just their specialties,” he explained. “For instance, I was once obsessed with figures, but realized that if I did not also learn landscape painting, I could never place my…

Located in West Nashville, LeQuire Gallery is the studio and gallery operated by the sculptor Alan LeQuire (b. 1955). On view there this summer (July 18–September 12) is a survey exhibition of his work in bronze, terra cotta, and plaster. Its striking title, Monumental Women, underscores the fact that, throughout his 40-year career, LeQuire’s art has always honored the strength, perseverance, and beauty of women. “From the beginning of my training as a sculptor,” LeQuire explains, “the female figure has been the focus. Any possible form or texture can be found in the human body, and the magical configuration of forms in the female body can prompt an emotional reaction from almost anyone. That is why it is used in traditional academic training and why I continue to pursue an…

Hopefully sooner rather than later, art lovers will again be exploring their favorite museums and galleries. Now consider adding to your cultural itineraries some of the fascinating artists’ homes and studios described in Valerie A. Balint’s article. To facilitate your planning, Balint has authored a 256-page paperback book sturdy and lightweight enough to bring along. Its no-nonsense title — Guide to Historic Artists’ Homes & Studios — reflects its status as the first-ever guidebook to the Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios (HAHS) network, which now encompasses 44 sites located from New England to California. Published by Princeton Architectural Press, it contains 225 photos mixing interior and exterior shots, portraits of the artists, and examples of their artistry. These images adorn the lively site descriptions (organized by region) Balint has written…

In the annals of popular music, there are artists remembered only for a single hit song: Norman Greenbaum’s Spirit in the Sky of 1969, for instance, or the 2000 Grammy Award-winning Who Let the Dogs Out by the Baha Men. The phenomenon of the one-hit wonder also exists in the world of fine art where, seemingly out of nowhere, there appears an extraordinary work by an artist largely unknown, a work so exceptional as to be virtually inexplicable in the context of the artist’s lifetime oeuvre. What prompts the appearance of these minor masterpieces, and what circumstances explain the absence of comparable works from the same artists? The answers are not readily evident, as we shall discover through two paintings now in my family’s collection. As far as we can…

Well, 2020 has been like no other year, and it’s only half over. Here’s hoping that summer and autumn will treat us all better. Like every field, art has been clobbered, and we at Fine Art Connoisseur have been keeping in touch with colleagues everywhere to learn how they’re doing at this extraordinary time. We have been inspired by readers’ ingenuity and determination, and we salute you for sticking to your aesthetic guns. In May we decided to look closer by recording three lively Zoom conversations under the heading Contemporary Realist Art in Lockdown: What’s Going Well? What’s Not? Co-hosting these one-hour touch-bases with me was the New York City-based artist Katie G. Whipple. All three programs premiered online in early June and can be enjoyed by typing “Contemporary Realist…

THE NATIONAL SCULPTURE SOCIETY’S BUSY YEAR NATIONAL SCULPTURE SOCIETY Pawleys Island, South Carolina, and New York City nationalsculpture.org and brookgreen.org It’s summertime, which means that more Americans are spending time outdoors. Chances are the art lovers among us are stopping to admire the sculptures that adorn our parks, plazas, and other public spaces. Many of them were created by members of the National Sculpture Society, which was founded in New York City in 1893 by a group of America’s most prominent sculptors and architects, including Daniel Chester French, Richard Morris Hunt, Augustus St. Gaudens, Stanford White, and John Quincy Adams Ward, in order to “spread the knowledge of good sculpture.” The NSS has always held to the founders’ commitment to imagery inspired by the natural world, and thus the influence of…

Novelist and short-story writer Patrick Ryan likes a good plot. In his five books of fiction, he has told some of the most original stories in contemporary literature and has introduced characters who continue to resonate for readers long after the tales have concluded. Among Ryan’s favorite stories is one that has no words: Edward Hopper’s iconic Cape Cod Morning (1950). “One thing I love about Hopper is the same thing I love about fiction,” says Ryan, who also serves as editor-in-chief of One Story, the influential print magazine that publishes a single short story as each issue. “A fiction writer provides all of the narrative cues for the reader to visualize something, but with Hopper, you have to provide the narrative while he gives you only the visual. For…

KEVIN MCEVOY (b. 1980) has been painting honest reflections of everyday life for more than 15 years. Fascinated by what he calls “common things,” this realist sees the poetry in life’s myriad moments, from the mundane to the painful to the poignant. “It’s really simple,” the artist says. “I paint what I am with and where I am by relaying the story before me — the way the neck of a violin is worn down by a century of playing, the hopeful lines of a pregnant woman, the distant stare of a Vietnam veteran, or the painful regret in a prisoner’s eye.” McEvoy earned a B.F.A. at New York’s Stony Brook University; after graduating he moved to Florence with his wife, Margaret, to study classical drawing and painting at Charles…

The past year has been busy and productive for the Russian master painter Nikolai Blokhin (b. 1968). In Virginia last November he demonstrated his virtuosic technique to spellbound attendees of the Figurative Art Convention & Expo, and this February he welcomed Fine Art Connoisseur publisher Eric Rhoads and the Streamline Art Video team to his Saint Petersburg studio. There they filmed videos on drawing and painting for future release. The latter shows in detail, step by step, the techniques the ever-energetic Blokhin used to create the luminous painting illustrated here and on this magazine’s cover. This video will be released on August 21, and now the artist is planning his next moves. Blokhin epitomizes the prestigious tradition of intensive training that was perfected by Russia’s academic masters more than a…

While moving house, we worry if our possessions will be transported safely. Our anxiety only grows when it comes to unique items such as fine artworks, heirloom antiques, and family memorabilia — things that cannot be replaced if they get damaged or destroyed. Fortunately, the past decade has witnessed the blossoming of “fine art logistics,” an industry of professionals who get artworks safely from Point A to Point B. This field’s growth has been stimulated by the global proliferation of auctioneers, galleries, online platforms, fairs, and museum exhibition tours, but individual collectors have also played a role and now stand to benefit from the overall raising of standards. Only 25 years ago, it was difficult to find a firm that understood the special challenges of moving an artwork across town…

The Seattle-based artist Dale Chihuly (b. 1941) is known worldwide for colorful, expressive creations in glass that have — during his five-decade career — revolutionized our understanding of this material, which had long been discounted by connoisseurs of fine art as “merely” decorative or industrial. Through his efforts, glass has become another legitimate medium in the field of sculpture, as integral to it as bronze or clay. Chihuly’s work has grown in scale as production technologies become more sophisticated, and he continues to draw inspiration from diverse aesthetic traditions, including those of Italy, Ireland, Japan, the Czech Republic, and the Middle East. Glass has always captivated us — for its translucency, for its familiarity, for the thrilling possibility that it can shatter — yet Chihuly has empowered it to excite…

ARTISTS & GALLERIES Jackson Hole, Wyoming turnerfineart.com through July 31 Turner Fine Art is presenting the exhibition While We Were Still… Flowers Bloomed. On offer are floral still lifes created by 13 leading painters, primarily during the COVID-19 quarantine. Located throughout the U.S., these artists have focused their attention on flowers as symbols of beauty, delight, health, vitality, and hope. The project’s guest curator is Tim Newton, former chairman and CEO of the Salmagundi Club in New York City. Please check the gallery’s website for updates, possibly including an on-site reception to be held on July 10. Carmel, California rieserfineart.com from August 1 Rieser Fine Art will soon present the exhibition The Luminous Landscape: New Paintings by Kim Lordier. Of the COVID-19 pandemic, the artist writes, “We’ve been given the…