Innholdsfortegnelse for September/October 2024 i Fine Art Connoisseur

“Express yourself,” said my first serious painting instructor. “Just let it flow.” “But I want to learn to paint realistically, to depict objects and people,” I replied. “Those days are gone,” my teacher retorted. “No one wants that kind of art anymore, Eric. It went out with the Victorians.” I had always wanted to paint, so on my 40th birthday, my wife bought me some lessons. After two sessions of being told to slap my brush around, I got discouraged and quit. It was not until a few years later that I discovered a class in copying the Old Masters that reinvigorated my interest. Sadly, this story has been repeated to me hundreds of times by people who wanted to master realism but were told instead, “You can’t learn that…

TODAY’S MASTERS Figure painting’s death knell has been sounded again and again since Marcel Duchamp’s infamous nude descended that staircase in 1912. Portraiture, too, has often been sidelined, demoted to the lower status once bestowed upon still life. Yet somehow we humans cannot stop looking at representations of each other’s faces, whether they are a flattering record of the sitter, or a portal to some deeper musing on art and life. As enduring as the genre of portraiture is, not every artist has thrilled to it. Where Vincent van Gogh loved it, John Singer Sargent claimed — perhaps tongue in cheek — “Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend.” Oscar Wilde opined on this enterprise’s intricacy through The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), in which painter Basil…

HISTORIC MASTERS The history of illustration in the United States would not be what it is without Howard Pyle (1853–1911). A prolific magazine and book illustrator with more than 3,000 published works to his credit, Pyle was also a skillful and beloved teacher, training a generation of illustrators who came to be known as the “Brandywine School” after the Brandywine Valley of northwestern Delaware and southeastern Pennsylvania. To this day, Pyle’s influence can be felt in that valley, where the places he lived keep his legacy alive as centers for working artists. After studying in Philadelphia and New York, in 1876 Pyle embarked on a career as an illustrator. In 1879, he returned to his hometown, Wilmington, Delaware, and eventually opened a studio. His timing could not have been better.…

INSIDE TRACK In one small town in north central Utah, it was once common to hear children discussing which sculpture to buy as they walked to school. Mothers hung oil paintings in their homes and spoke enthusiastically with friends about upcoming exhibitions. Downtown, crates from galleries as far away as Boston and New York City arrived at a handsome museum that still stands as a testament to this community’s extraordinary cultural engagement. Located 50 miles south of Salt Lake City, Springville (population 36,000) has been uniquely devoted to art since its founding in the mid-19th century. Moreover, since 1922 it has been home to an annual juried exhibition that has involved such talents as Georgia O’Keeffe and Edward Hopper. What began as a way for students to acquire original art…

ARTISTS & GALLERIES Indianapolis vininggallery.org October 4–28 Vining Gallery is set to host its 5th Annual Invitational Exhibition. On view will be more than 150 small works created by 65 representational painters. The gallery is the brainchild of the painter Justin Vining, who also keeps his studio there. Newport, Rhode Island americanmarineart.com and thesailingmuseum.org October 11–November 11 The Center for American Marine Art is organizing the 41st Schaefer International Marine Art Exhibition at Newport’s Sailing Museum & National Sailing Hall of Fame. The event is named in memory of Rudolph J. Schaefer III (1930–2011), who founded the Maritime Gallery at Connecticut’s Mystic Seaport as well as its International Exhibition. His family has decided to revive the program, which features paintings, drawings, sculpture, and ship models created in the last two years…

TODAY’S MASTERS As fellow residents of Earth, wild animals have always fascinated humans, especially the artists among us. Thus many creatures appear in prehistoric cave paintings, and today the desire to depict them endures, stronger than ever. The artworks illustrated here confirm this ongoing enthusiasm, and it’s easy to learn more thanks to a host of activities happening across North America. For example, in Charleston next February, the annual Southeastern Wildlife Exposition (sewe.com) will again delight animal lovers with exhibitions, demos, and other activities highlighting the importance of conservation. Touring the country are the annual Art and the Animal exhibitions organized by the Society of Animal Artists (societyofanimalartists.com), and then there is the annual festival hosted by Artists for Conservation (artistsforconservation.org), which features an exhibition by leading international artists, screenings,…

TODAY’S MASTERS Based in Redding, Connecticut, Kathy Anderson (b. 1945) is a leading painter of floral still lifes and gardens, especially blooms gathered into groupings that provide contrasting colors and shapes. “I look for strong value patterns,” she says, “and for color combinations that excite me. A few weeks ago, I started a painting of white peonies, and now I have some pinks thrown in, even just spots of pink. That garden also had yellow lilies, which I wasn’t going to put in. But then I got home and thought, ‘You know what? I’m putting those in,’ and now they look so beautiful.” A florist, Anderson notes, is usually focused on creating symmetry, balancing colors and flowers in equal measure, with everything at its peak. Her paintings, on the other…

As part of their fundraising activities, both the Howard Pyle Studio in Wilmington and Painter’s Folly in Chadds Ford have hosted multimedia events for the public created by Michael Lynch, a professor and director of the Center for Undergraduate Research at Lincoln University in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Called Projected in Place, these immersive presentations literally project images of artworks and photographs onto the walls of the places they depict. Thus, a photograph of Pyle instructing students is projected onto the studio wall, making it appear that he is standing in the studio at that moment. A painting Andrew Wyeth made at Painter’s Folly is projected onto the wall of the room it depicts. The results are both historical and deeply evocative. “The event we did at the Howard Pyle Studio…

ART IN THE WEST CELEBRATING FEMALE CREATIVITY AMERICAN WOMEN ARTISTS Loveland Museum Loveland, Colorado americanwomenartists.org thelovelandmuseum.org September 14–November 10 The nonprofit organization American Women Artists (AWA) is set to present the exhibition Expanding Horizons at the Loveland Museum. On view will be 126 works in various media and styles, juried in from a pool of 755 entries. On September 13, everyone is welcome to attend the opening reception and awards presentation, which many participating artists will attend. AWA has offered encouragement to female artists since it emerged from the Women Artists & the West exhibition series mounted by the Tucson Museum of Art (TMA) between 1991 and 1994. Former TMA director Robert Yassin recalls that the exhibitions’ purpose was not to redefine history, but rather to provide a venue for contemporary…

“THE AMERICAN WEST” means many different things to many different people, and that fact should make us all glad. At Fine Art Connoisseur we have long been keenly aware of how art of the West differs from — and overlaps with — art made in or about the rest of this remarkable country. That’s one reason every issue of this magazine contains a separate section called “Art in the West” — to underscore that very point. Its existence does not mean we have passed on a comparable section titled, say, “Art in the Northeast.” Rather, it’s recognition of the fact that Western vitality in the fields of historic and contemporary realism is so noticeably strong that it shouldn’t be overlooked or made to wait on the sidelines. It makes perfect…

TODAY’S MASTERS “My goal always is to tell a story through my perspective,” Dustin Van Wechel (b. 1974) declares as he surveys the 12 paintings he’s finishing for his solo show this season at the Broadmoor Galleries in Colorado Springs, the town where he also lives. “My work is largely narrative. You seldom see me painting portraiture or even what you might consider wildlife figurative work. I am literally telling stories, and those stories come from being outdoors, seeing these things happen.” Yes, stories, of course, but wait a second. A solo show with only 12 paintings, I ask? Van Wechel pauses to consider before answering in the calm, thoughtful manner that makes it easy for me to imagine how he can spend days high in the Rocky Mountains observing…

HISTORIC MASTERS It’s the phrase a true art collector utters without hesitation: “I have to have this painting.” Naoma Tate made this remark to her private curator, Donna Poulton, as they waited for Reno’s annual Coeur d’Alene auction of Western and American art to begin on July 15, 2023. Tate is not only one of the most energetic collectors of American Western art, she is also among the most generous philanthropists in the U.S. art world, serving as a trustee of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West (Cody, Wyoming) and a board member of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, among many affiliations. When Tate saw Sioux Lovers, a circa-1887 oil on canvas by Thomas De Cost Smith (1864–1939) in person, she recalls, “I had looked through…

EVENTS PREVIEW IMPRESSIONISM IN DEPTH AMERICAN IMPRESSIONIST SOCIETY 25th Annual National Juried Exhibition Rockport Art Association and Museum Rockport, Massachusetts americanimpressionistsociety.org rockportartassn.org September 27–October 26 The American Impressionist Society (AIS) will soon open its 25th Annual National Juried Exhibition at the Rockport Art Association and Museum. On view will be 175 paintings, as well as 25 more created by AIS “Masters,” officers, and founders. Most have been executed in oils, pastels, watercolors, acrylics, or gouaches. A seven-member jury reviewed 1,601 entries, and a printed catalogue illustrating all the works they selected will be available for purchase. AIS Master Carolyn Anderson will serve as awards judge, distributing more than $85,000 in cash and merchandise, including $12,000 for Best of Show. (Her presentation will be held on September 26 at the Shalin Liu…

It’s not the typical backdrop for a family-friendly photo op: Max Beckmann’s triptych Departure shows prisoners being tortured, some blindfolded, others squeezing their eyes shut in the face of impending doom. But Alasdair Nichol, deputy chairman of the newly merged Freeman’s and Hindman auction houses, and one of the most engaging figures on PBS’s Antiques Roadshow (particularly while using his lilting Scottish brogue to full effect), so admires this Beckmann masterwork that he can’t help but find it whenever he visits New York’s Museum of Modern Art. “Just the other week, I had my son and daughterin-law stand in front of it so I could take their photo.” Though no one in its three panels is smiling, Nichol feels a certain glee when he’s in front of the triptych. Nichol…