Innholdsfortegnelse for September/October 2021 i Fine Art Connoisseur

At first glance you may not think so, but artists have made — and continue to make — an enormous impact on the health of our natural environment. In the mid-1800s, the artist Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902) traveled to the American West with government surveyors and railroad builders to capture the rugged beauty of landscapes previously unknown to most of his countrymen. His scenes of Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Valley, the mountains surrounding Colorado’s Estes Park, and many other unspoiled areas were initially executed as plein air studies and drawings, which he then consulted in his New York studio in order to create massive versions in oil. Once they were finished, Bierstadt mounted theatrical presentations at which paying viewers marveled at his spectacular vistas, which were revealed from behind a curtain one…

Landscape and architecture are two longstanding interests of New Mexico artist NATASHA ISENHOUR (b. 1961). Decades of painting have taught her to interpret the ever-changing effects of light on form, and she incorporates those learnings into her oil and pastel studio paintings of Southwestern structures and terrain. An undergraduate degree in geology and painting outdoors regularly have certainly not hurt her ability to transfer keen visual observations to canvas and paper either. For a recent series of architectural portraits, Isenhour turned her focus entirely to unpopulated outdoor spaces, bringing her back full circle to the first subjects she painted as a budding professional 24 years ago. “This series examines the concept of abandoned dreams scattered throughout the American West,” the artist explains. “In these paintings I seek to combine the…

QUEST FOR THE BEST INDIANAPOLIS quest.eiteljorg.org September 10–11 Having pivoted online last year, the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art is excitedly returning to its preferred in-person format for the 16th annual Quest for the West Art Show and Sale. As in past years, pre-registered guests will enjoy opportunities to interact with the 51 top artists who have created the new works, all of them inspired by the people and history of the American West. September 10 will encompass several events, including a sale of smaller artworks provided by the artists for buyers just starting out on their collecting journeys (or established ones who no longer have wall space), as well as an afternoon social, cocktail party, and presentation of awards. The next day will focus on the…

July in New York City is generally hot and quiet, but this year it was perked up significantly — at least for those of us who love contemporary realist art — by an impressive display at Sotheby’s. On view were two large, interconnecting shows — highlights from the 15th International ARC Salon Exhibition, and lots offered in the Contemporary Realism: Important 21st Century Works auction, which was conducted entirely on sothebys.com. Kudos to the Art Renewal Center (ARC) team that organized these projects, especially Fred, Kara, and Sherry Ross, and also to Benjamin Doller, the Sotheby’s executive who coordinated the firm’s participation. Surely he was pleased that 21 out of 28 lots sold, an encouraging figure for the field of contemporary realism, which is relatively untested in the auction marketplace.…

When, at the age of 30, Laura Knight (1877–1970) and her husband, Harold, moved to the village of Lamorna in Cornwall, she had enough confidence and funds to — in her own words — “fling” paint at canvas. She may have been consciously quoting the British critic John Ruskin who, 50 years earlier, had written abusively of Whistler’s Nocturne: The Falling Rocket: “I have seen and heard much of Cockney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face.” Indeed, Knight delighted in slapping on paint, thick and juicy, yet never carelessly, and would often use her pricing, especially in guineas (the British currency that aristocrats quoted instead of mere pounds) to assert the importance…

OMAHA BOUND AMERICAN IMPRESSIONIST SOCIETY Gallery 1516 Omaha americanimpressionistsociety.org  gallery1516.org September 10–December 12 The American Impressionist Society (AIS) will soon open its 22nd annual National Juried Exhibition at Omaha’s Gallery 1516. On view will be 175 juried paintings, as well as 25 more created by AIS “Masters,” officers, and founders. AIS Master Charles Warren Mundy will serve as the awards judge, distributing more than $75,000 in cash and merchandise, including $12,000 for Best of Show. September 10 will encompass a range of intriguing activities. Mundy will present a talk titled “Seven Foundational Truths” and will also participate in a panel discussion, moderated by collector Tim Newton, with fellow artist Carolyn Anderson. Anderson will offer a lecture summarizing her take on the history of art, and during the exhibition’s public opening Newton…

In the post-COVID landscape, art museums that previously relied on public or private subsidies to survive will predictably find many of those funding sources shrinking, disappearing, or shifting their focus toward health and social justice causes. Virtually every independent museum in North America and Europe established in the last 40 years has been launched with the same basic assumption: that it will become financially self-sustaining within a few years. Unfortunately, the challenges that already existed for this sector before the pandemic have been significantly exacerbated by it, making the goal of long-term fiscal resilience even more unlikely if the museum does not already have a cast-iron guarantee of external support for years to come. Museums have been reopening at different points this year, but even at flagship institutions such as…

Private collectors often have questions about how to keep works in their collections in tip-top shape or concerns about developing — or shockingly sudden — condition issues. Finding answers can be difficult, since the original gallery/dealer, or even the artist, is not the best source of information about conservation, the profession devoted to the preservation of cultural property for the future. Fortunately, conservation professionals can readily provide guidance on the care and long-term maintenance of collections regardless of their size or type. When a painting is accidentally scratched while on display, a wooden sculpture is knocked off its pedestal, or a valued print or photograph suffers water damage from a leak in the wall, a qualified conservator can be called upon to assess the damage, provide a clearly written proposal,…

The former Whitney Museum of American Art, now known as Frick Madison, is one of New York City’s biggest works of minimalist sculpture. But unlike most such artworks, this is one you can occupy for an afternoon. When the building was completed in 1966 by architect Marcel Breuer (1902–1981), it was as if a giant public sculpture had settled onto a permanent plinth overlooking Madison Avenue. Breuer’s upside-down concrete ziggurat, with cantilevering floors and facades punctuated with projecting trapezoidal windows, is a modernist work of art that was designed to house other works of modern art. Designed in the aptly named brutalist style — whereby reinforced concrete in all its raw gray glory is left exposed, complete with smears of rust flowing down from the bolts that hold its concrete…

It is much more pleasant to speak of love and marriage than of splitting up, but divorce does happen, and it probably happens to art collectors at the same rate as everyone else. Marital property — everything acquired during the marriage — needs to be divided in some way: the cars, house, bank account, furniture. So, too, the artworks. Divvying up the art is frequently more contentious than those other assets, and it often gets as heated as battles over child custody because of the emotional attachment that one or both spouses have to the art. According to Dror Bikel, a Manhattan attorney specializing in family law, “Divorce is typically the most difficult time in someone’s life, so fear, anger, resentment, revenge, and all manner of motives, legitimate and otherwise,…