Innholdsfortegnelse for November/December 2020 i Fine Art Connoisseur

On view through March 21 at the National Veterans Memorial and Museum in Columbus, Ohio, is We the People: Portraits of Veterans in America, a unique exhibition featuring 50 large watercolor portraits of U.S. veterans painted by the South Carolina-based master Mary Whyte (b. 1953). Seven years in the making, this series features one veteran from every state, reflecting the sheer diversity of the armed forces and of this country itself. Beyond highlighting how remarkable these sitters are, one of Whyte’s objectives is to underscore the significance of veterans’ re-integration into civilian life smoothly and with the utmost respect for their distinctive life experiences. Among her subjects are a Missouri dairy farmer, a Rhode Island lobsterman, a Pennsylvania science teacher, and 47 others. Illustrated here are four more examples. America…

Admirers of great sculpture have a rare opportunity this season. On December 10, Clytie, the sensuous evocation of a classical myth created by England’s George Frederic Watts (1817–1904), will go up for auction during the British & European Art sale at Christie’s in London. In 2013, the trustees of the Watts Gallery, located in the countryside 45 miles south of London, decided to commission and gradually sell a posthumous, limited edition of nine bronze casts of Clytie to help purchase and restore Watts’s grand studio house nearby. Seven of those casts have already been sold, and now one of the remaining two is available. Impressive at almost three feet high, this bronze’s sale will benefit the Hope 2020 Appeal, a fundraising campaign to eliminate the fiscal deficit this challenging year…

During my 25 years in the field of figurative painting, I have observed two sharply conflicting schools of thought on the use of technology in studios. As a generation X’er who grew up before the Internet and cell phones, I have a nostalgia for simpler times. Still, I acknowledge both points of view. I first experienced this divide in 2006, when I transitioned from two years of mentorship under the California classicist David Ligare (b. 1945) to an apprenticeship with Norwegian painter Odd Nerdrum (b. 1944). Ligare’s primary visual references are 35-millimeter color slides that he takes of his subjects during the “golden hour” just before sunset. The photographic specificity of this Mediterranean light as it reflects off Monterey Bay is a central concept in Ligare’s work. With Nerdrum, by…

Recently, I received a call from an artist who had borrowed one of her own paintings from a collector (not me) for a show. The painting had been damaged in transit and the artist was beside herself: the work was one of her best, the collector was important, and the damage was extensive. The artist had spoken to other artists and collectors, and each of them had given her incorrect or incomplete advice. Having a painting damaged in transit is not uncommon. While I would like to say that every borrower, art handler, and shipping company treats artworks in their care like their own, I must admit, sadly, this is not always the case. So, what should you do when an artwork is damaged in transit? While the answer depends…

Everyone has one, so everyone is interested, to a lesser or greater degree. I’m referring to the human body, surely the most important touchstone in the history of art. Artists have been depicting the figure for millennia, sometimes in exacting detail and sometimes vaguely, but always with the understanding that every viewer has a direct connection with the subject — and also a way of assessing the rendition’s accuracy. The ongoing renaissance of classical realism means that figure drawing and painting have not been this good in North America for half a century. Though it would be easy to fill this section with examples from the classical ateliers, we have mixed it up here stylistically. Enjoy this array of approaches, and let us know which figure artists you are following…

Peter May collects houses and buildings. While most of these structures don’t actually belong to him, they are rendered in exquisite detail in his collection of more than 700 architectural drawings, one of the world’s largest private holdings of such ephemera. In addition, May has owned and lived in many real houses. Some of those brick-and-mortar residences are among America’s most architecturally distinctive, including a few designed by Ferguson & Shamamian, the New York City firm known for building what founding partner Mark Ferguson calls “new traditional” houses. May is the billionaire president and founding partner of Trian Partners, a New York City investment management firm. He says that, beyond managing other people’s financial portfolios, “One of the things I care about is architecture, especially detail in architecture. I have…

FOUR MASTERS TAKE STOCK FOUR DIRECTIONS — COMMON PATHS Steamboat Art Museum Steamboat Springs, Colorado steamboatartmuseum.org December 4, 2020 April 10, 2021 The Steamboat Art Museum (SAM) will soon present the exhibition Four Directions — Common Paths. It highlights the superb plein air paintings created in oils by Colorado’s Ralph Oberg, Skip Whitcomb, and Dan Young, and by Arizona’s Matt Smith. On view will be works both old and new, including studies made on site and paintings finished back in the studio, along with photographs of the adventures these longtime friends have enjoyed in the great outdoors. SAM executive director Betse T. Grassby notes the artists’ “long association with this museum, including the multiple times they have shown here individually, and also the 2016 National Exhibition of [the nonprofit organization] Plein…

How many artists’ lives were cut short before they reached their full potential? How have our museums and private collections been diminished by those artists’ early passing? Did each make his or her maximum contribution despite the brevity of their days? For some unfortunate artists, the answer to this last question must be, regretfully, no. Just inside the main entrance of St. Petersburg’s Repin Institute is a marble wall on which the names of student artists killed in action are listed in gold lettering. The entire class of 1942 was sent to the front line, barely armed and with little military training. Less than half came home alive. Likewise, the grand staircase in the old Leningrad Art Union was once lined with hundreds of photographs of young artists who died…

The art market is often called the Wild West because of its secrecy and lack of rules and governmental oversight. Some high-end galleries won’t tell you the prices of their artworks, or even whether they are for sale. Some auctioneers pull bids out of thin air as they try to get the bidding up to the reserve price. There is no CARFAX to warn collectors that the artwork they might buy has undergone significant restoration. Believe it or not, there actually is one area of the art market governed by laws in 14 states across America — Arkansas, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, and Wisconsin. That area is limited edition fine art graphic prints. (Photographic prints are also covered by…

AMBASSADORS THROUGH ART THROUGH THEIR EYES: SUSAN LYON & SCOTT BURDICK InSight Gallery Fredericksburg, Texas insightgallery.com November 6 27 Though they are married, Susan Lyon and Scott Burdick have distinctive approaches to making art, as the two works illustrated here suggest. Their next joint exhibition is set to grace InSight Gallery with an array of figures and still lifes depicted in oils, pastels, and charcoals. As intrepid travelers, Burdick and Lyon love to capture the people, buildings, wildlife, and scenery they encounter abroad. Burdick notes, “I see painting as both a way of exploring the world and then as the vehicle of sharing those discoveries with others. Through this unique language, one can say things that are impossible with words.” SETTING THE MOOD SUCHITRA BHOSLE Meyer Gallery Santa Fe meyergalleries.com November 20…

ARTISTS & GALLERIES Ithaca, New York northstarartgallery.com through November 29 North Star Art Gallery is presenting an exhibition of recent works by Brian Keeler, which he has titled Magical Mythologies: Reinventing Myth and Other Allegorical Works. He notes that myths and allegories highlight timeless themes that artists have revisited for millennia. Over the years Keeler has drawn inspiration from these literary sources — and also from such forerunners as Caravaggio, Velázquez, Bernini, and Carpeaux — to create his own interpretations of Greco-Roman myth.The gallery’s website features a brief video in which Keeler discusses the large painting illustrated here. Austin davisgalleryaustin.com through November 25 Davis Gallery has opened Evidence of the Search, an exhibition of recent oil paintings by Laurel Daniel. As the title suggests, the artist seeks to capture the…