Fine Art Connoisseur May/June 2024

“How can I know what’s good?” asks a friend who has recently grown fascinated by the idea of collecting art. “I know what I like, but what if it isn’t good?” His question stirs a valid debate because each collector has distinctive objectives. For most, there is the passion for art and the need to be surrounded by it. Eor others, it’s about filling their homes with pieces that impress visitors. Still others want a hedge against inflation, something that rises in value as currency falls. In all these cases, the best thing a collector can acquire is the ability to assess an artwork’s quality. Today I shudder to recall what I loved at age 20, and I’m thankful I did not get it tattooed on my arm because my…

Recently I have been reviewing this magazine’s back issues, and I am struck by how often — before the pandemic — we covered recordbreaking prices obtained at auction for masterworks by the likes of Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko, and Lucian Freud. We’re talking $150 million here, $100 million there. I have not noticed until now how significantly those stories have faded. Occasionally we learn through the art press that a certain billionaire or oligarch has acquired one of these masterworks, but their sales are now conducted privately rather than in public auctions, though still most likely via Sotheby’s or Christie’s in New York City. There is nothing illegal about this, but it does make the auction scene less exciting and visible than it once was. More importantly, it means that…

Dear Fellow Art Lover, Part of the fun of admiring and acquiring art is visiting the wonderful places where it is made and sold. This season, as most Americans’ holidaying gets underway, we are pleased to highlight two standout art destinations: Charleston, South Carolina, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Both cities are among America’s oldest, yet both are experiencing thrilling new bursts of energy in every category. Their populations are growing (though not overly so), and so the range of artistic endeavors pursued there has broadened accordingly. Both offer a delightful mix of excellence, diversity, and laid-back charm. The art available ranges across periods — from the l8th century right through last week — and there is always someone interesting to chat with. Your coffee barista may be a folk…

In a world where we must usually choose between destinations of natural beauty or cultural riches, the city of Santa Fe in northern New Mexico offers that rarest of luxuries — having it both ways. Located 7,200 feet above sea level, this community of 88,000 residents is set in a high desert landscape of wildflowers, sagebrush, and juniper pine. Driving northward out of Santa Fe through canyons and mesas, or hiking in nearby foothills and mountains, visitors are virtually guaranteed a dose of clear, intense light and vast blue sky with scudding white clouds, punctuated by the occasional sharp, short thunderstorm. Dotting the surrounding landscape are imposing Indian pueblos and tawny adobe churches that have long withstood the climate’s extreme heat and cold. Settled by Native Americans long ago, the…

Founded in the 17th century with the support of England’s King Charles II, the picturesque seaport of Charleston, South Carolina, has long been renowned not only for wellpreserved houses, churches, and cobblestone streets, but also for its cultural sophistication. Although it was even more cosmopolitan in the 18th century, when almost every British or American ship trading along the Atlantic coast put in here, today’s Charleston offers art galleries, antique shops, and boutiques well worth exploring. Its inns, bed-and-breakfasts, and cafes are admired for hospitality and quality, with most an easy stroll from the city’s many historical sites. Many of the latter are operated by the Historic Charleston Foundation, and knowledgeable guidance can always be obtained through the visitor bureau (charlestoncvb.com). The most prestigious visual arts institution in town is…

While the self-described New York Fashion Geek, Reginald Ferguson, knows that clothing styles go in and out of fashion, his taste for the artist William H. Johnson (1901– 1970) never varies. Ferguson, who is New York’s best-dressed man, is also someone who helps make other men look their best, and he remembers the first time he saw the paintings and drawings of Johnson, an artist he so reveres that he calls him “Mr. Johnson.” “I’ve known of Mr. Johnson’s works since childhood, when I first encountered them at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Now here he is in the show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art [The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism, on view through July 28].” (A portrait painted by Johnson serves as that exhibition’s lead image.) So intrigued…