Innholdsfortegnelse for March/April 2025 i Fine Art Connoisseur

As I watched Los Angeles burn on television, tears welling in my eyes, I was struck by a haunting parallel to my earliest memory: being held in my mother's arms as we watched our family home succumb to flames. Though we had recently moved most of our possessions out, that building held irreplaceable treasures — memories that my parents would recall with wistful regret well into their 90s. This personal connection to loss through fire has given me a unique perspective on the recent catastrophic events that have devastated countless collections of fine art across our nation. The scale of artistic devastation is staggering. Tens of thousands of paintings and sculptures have been lost to the flames in Los Angeles alone — from masterworks in mega-mansions to entire private collections…

There are many reasons people collect art, and they're all worthy of applause. Perhaps it's to enliven our living spaces, to enjoy beauty or technical virtuosity, to connect with artists and others in the community, to satisfy an urge for creativity, to invest in something that will grow in value, or to feel kinship with the past. Fine Art Connoisseur has always been devoted to celebrating the great collectors we see all around us, and also to inspiring newcomers to give collecting a go. In every issue we highlight the stories of those who acquire art with passion, and we are particularly excited to do this now. Why? Because when it comes to realism (or representation, or figuration — whatever you choose to call it), we are living in a…

Daud Akhriev (b. 1959) has a complicated relationship with his homeland. A Russian born in “deportation,” he grew up with fellow deportees — gypsies, Greeks, and Germans from the Volga River region — whom Stalin had kicked out of Russia and sent to the Soviet republic of Kazakhstan. The Kazakhs, Akhriev fondly recalls, not only made room for thousands of foreigners, but folded them into their communities. “They took care of absolutely everybody. They didn't see us as traitors, as we had been portrayed,” he recalls. “Maybe that's why I like the ethnic look, because everybody in Kazakhstan was still dressed like in old times.” If you know only this about Akhriev, you will understand his subject matter: patterned tapestries, cloisonné vases, Russian teapots, formal, silent interiors, models draped in…

In the 17th century, landscape and still life couldn't hold a candle to history painting. In his hierarchy of art, the architect and theoretician André Félibien went so far as to assert, “The artist who does perfect landscapes is superior to another who paints only fruit, flowers, or shells. The artist who paints living animals deserves more respect than those who represent only still, lifeless subjects. And as the human figure is God's most perfect work on earth, it is certainly the case that the artist who imitates God by painting human figures is more outstanding by far than all the others.” Although Dutch collectors would have disagreed (they also appreciated genre scenes of peasants dancing), such thinking endured into the early 20th century. In any atelier where representation still…

On an episode of PBS's long-running television series Antiques Roadshow, a man brought in a marine painting he had inherited from his father several years before. He didn't know anything about its creator, Francis A. Silva (1835–1886), and so was interested to learn about him, the artwork, and — of course — its value from regular Roadshow expert Debra Force. If she were to handle the painting, the New York art dealer declared, she “would probably sell it for around $250,000.” The owner's first response was “Holy smokes” and then, “That's worth more than my house!” This owner soon realized that he didn't want something quite this valuable at home, so he loaned the Silva to the Seattle Art Museum for almost a decade. Ultimately, he consigned it to Debra…

Jack Esterson AIA and Hon. Richard Montelione of Brooklyn have collected art throughout their 40 years together. Now the co-founder and principal of Think! Architecture & Design, Esterson declares that “Art has always been in my DNA.” As a young artist from Syracuse, he was lured by the irresistible pull of New York City, and while studying architecture at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute found himself surrounded by artists, designers, and art historians. “I had no money to collect,” he recalls, “so I made art and bartered with my artist friends.” Esterson continues, “What I had learned rubbed off on Rich, who is a brilliant legal intellect [in fact, the native New Yorker is now a State Supreme Court judge] but once lacked self-confidence in assessing art. Today, after four decades of…

Tracie and Brian Sullivan live in Dana Point, California, and together they lead a firm that produces newsletters, conferences, and other services for the insurance industry. Tracie says she began drawing and painting as a child, took lessons from a local artist, and “fell in love with creativity,” ultimately going on to study fine art and art history at the University of Southern California. She was just a teenager when she purchased her first “real” artwork, a painting by the renowned local artist Patrick Kelly (1939–2024), at the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts, an annual show launched in 1932, though the famous artists’ colony of Laguna Beach actually dates back to the 1910s. (Laguna Beach is six miles north of the Sullivans’ home.) It was that same popular festival that…

PERFECT PAIRING INSIDE/OUT: NEW WORK FROM JULIETTE ARISTIDES & LORI PUTNAM LeQuire Gallery Nashville lequiregallery.com March 25–May 31 LeQuire Gallery is set to host an exhibition of recent works by two of America's leading artists, teachers, and authors — Juliette Aristides of Seattle and Lori Putnam of Charlotte, Tennessee. Their paintings of landscapes, built environments, and interiors reflect distinct approaches — Putnam inclines toward impressionism and Aristides toward realism — though each has a unique artistic voice that eludes classification. “Typically,” explains LeQuire Gallery director Elizabeth Cave, “I wouldn't pair different genres within the same exhibition, but the subject matter, in particular Aristides's interiors and Putnam's exteriors, represents what I consider to be signature themes for each artist. Combining them was an intriguing thought.” (Aristides is also exhibiting a series of…

As a stranger to a new city, Jen Tullock was immediately welcomed by a fellow stranger. The man who greeted her was French, tall, wearing a classic beret, and draped in layers of capes. The moment Tullock, then an aspiring actress and now an accomplished one, saw the man, he beckoned, staring straight at her with a hand outstretched. The figure is the subject of Edouard Manet's Beggar with a Duffle Coat, which hangs at the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC). “The painting is situated at the top of a grand staircase in a move that feels intentional, as the outstretched arm, to me, acts as a welcoming gesture,” says Tullock, who, when she first encountered the canvas in 2006, was beginning an internship at the AIC. She recalls that…

As ever more people around the world leave the countryside to settle in cities and suburbs, it makes sense that more artists are turning their attention to the beauties and banalities of metropolitan life. Even if we don't reside in a city, we probably visit one regularly, and we've all felt our hearts pound faster as we approach a skyline of skyscrapers or stroll through a buzzing crossroads like Times Square. The heritage of depicting cityscapes is long and prestigious, ranging from the Florentine Renaissance to Canaletto's Venice, the Impressionists’ Paris, and Hopper's Manhattan. Today a wide range of artists worldwide sustain that legacy, showing us not only the famous and scenic areas, but also the grubby and neglected ones. All of these sites contribute to the totality of urban…

Many art lovers may not realize that the Plattsburgh State Art Museum, located on the campus of the State University of New York (at) Plattsburgh, holds the most comprehensive collection of works by the brilliant and controversial American artist Rockwell Kent (1882–1971). The museum's Rockwell Kent Gallery, inside the Benjamin F. Feinberg Library, was renovated recently and reopened to the public this January. The reinstallation is well worth a visit at any time of year, preferably in the summer when the rugged Adirondack Mountains nearby are at their most verdant and accessible. Also a writer, political activist, and tireless explorer, Kent is best known for his paintings of Arctic landscapes, prints, and bookplate illustrations. Born to a well-to-do family in Tarrytown, just north of New York City, he attended the…

Today many people are concerned about the potential competitive threat posed by artificial intelligence (AI), but for a long time now young artists have felt challenged by technology in general, and at a loss for inspiration. Some of the brightest fine art stars on social media seem close to burning out, which makes me wonder why people with such talent and popularity can be heard wondering aloud what to paint next, even whether they should change fields. A clue lies near at hand: try finding something fresh on your smartphone. Unfortunately, the algorithms we find there, built over the years through our own likes and settings, make it harder to find new imagery and ideas. This confluence of positive reinforcement, search engines, and market forces is powerful, but there are…

Paula Holtzclaw is a nationally admired artist based in Waxhaw, North Carolina, approximately 30 miles south of Charlotte. What her fans may not know is that Holtzclaw is also a dedicated collector of contemporary representational art, much of it made by colleagues she knows personally. “I have never made a purchase based solely on the artist's name or the piece's current or future commercial value,” she declares. “I buy only what speaks to me on a personal level, something that — as they say — ‘grabs you and won't let go.’” Holtzclaw's “appreciation of art reaches back as far as I can remember. By the second grade, my creative endeavors were being recognized and encouraged by my parents and teachers.” She continues, “The first original artworks I can recall in…

Lynn and Dan Tarrence live in Milwaukee, where she works as an interior designer and he helps investors support environmentally sustainable companies. Their collecting journey began with a shared love of vintage black-and-white photographs featuring such iconic figures as Frida Kahlo, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Paul McCartney. In 2016, when Dan was serving on a nonprofit board, he was invited by a fellow trustee to visit his newly opened Lily Pad West Gallery. Through the friendships the Tarrences formed with this Milwaukee gallery's owners, Alan Perlstein and Terry Hamann, “we soon embarked on an inspiring journey into the art world.” During their first visit to Lily Pad West, Lynn was immediately captivated by Dan McCaw's painting Waiting, illustrated here. “In fact,” the Tarrences recall, “she couldn't take her eyes off it,…

CELEBRATING THE NORTHWEST Friday Harbor, Washington sjima.org March 6–June 2 The San Juan Islands Museum of Art has invited Andy Eccleshall to display 26 oil paintings in his exhibition Upper Left: Landscapes of the Pacific Northwest. Born in Britain and based in Edmonds, Washington, he focuses on the western half of his beloved state, with its ever-changing skies and rugged scenery. Eccleshall seeks to place viewers in the scene by evoking its moisture, wind, and filtered light. To heighten the landscapes’ dramatic power, he minimizes human elements and uses canvases as wide as 96 inches to convey a panoramic vastness. Illustrated here is Testament, in which a madrone clings precariously to the rocky coast of San Juan Island. Bright orange when it's alive, this tree turns ghostly white after it dies.…

LISA LACKEY (b. 1959) lives and works in New Jersey, a few miles west of New York City. She creates artworks — some as tall as five feet — made of fabric or paper (or both) that “read” as paintings, prints, or photographs from across the room, but surprise viewers when they draw near. Many want to touch her varied weaves, grains, layering, and hand- and machine-stitching, which all bring depth and nuance to the surface. “Like fractals,” Lackey says, “the closer you look, the more detail there is to experience.” Lackey grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in a home where “art was happening around me,” thanks to her father's home-based advertising agency and her mother's forays into fine art and craft. She particularly remembers a family visit to the…

This promises to be a year of growth and celebration for Michigan's Muskegon Museum of Art and the Bennett Prize for women figurative realist painters. In February, the museum opened a $15.4 million expansion that has nearly doubled its footprint from 31,800 square feet to 57,570 square feet. In May, the winner of the fourth cycle of the Bennett Prize will be announced at the museum and recent paintings by the 10 prize finalists will be exhibited at its new Bennett-Schmidt Pavilion, named in honor of collectors Steven Alan Bennett and Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt, whose support is helping to lead the 113-year-old museum into the future. The relationship between the San Antonio-based collectors and the Michigan institution dates back to 2017, when Bennett and Schmidt were looking for a…

Painting a self-portrait today raises numerous interesting questions. With the ubiquity of camera phones, Facebook, Instagram, and every other social media platform involving self-image, most of us have become skilled and self-conscious curators of self-representation. So why and how do artists decide to portray themselves now? Part of what makes a self-portrait done from life interesting is that it has a mind of its own. You can sit down at the start and say (likely subconsciously), “I'm going to make a painting that portrays me in this way.” But often something happens when you stare at and paint yourself over an extended period of time: the painting soon develops its own internal logic, takes on a life of its own, and to some extent eludes control. There's a beauty and…

Carl B. Bedell is an attorney based in central Virginia. He traces his first meaningful encounters with art back to when his family was stationed in Germany with the U.S. Army. “My parents took my brothers and me to incredible museums throughout Europe,” he recalls, and later he revisited them as a U.S. Army officer himself, while living in the Dutch city of Maastricht, renowned for its annual art fair. When he resided in Washington, D.C., Bedell became active with groups of young professionals supporting such local museums as the Corcoran Gallery, Phillips Collection, and Smithsonian Institution. After joining the Arlington County (Virginia) Commission for the Arts, he rose to chair its public art committee. (He maintains a second home in Arlington today.) These volunteer activities brought Bedell into regular…

Stephanie Marzella is a professional landscape painter. Inspired by the tonalist movement of the late 19th century, her scenes, she says, “express my emotional response to nature's mystery and her constant transitions, evoking a mood and atmosphere that often awaken emotions in the viewer.” Today Marzella resides on Johns Island, southwest of Charleston, where she paints the flat, luminous Lowcountry all around her. She is proud that “Charleston is home to a thriving arts community and has become a lively destination for buying art, especially from several excellent galleries in the French Quarter.” (Among them is Reinert Fine Art, which represents Marzella.) Much as she loves South Carolina, Marzella is not originally from there. She was born and raised near Cleveland and became interested in art during junior high school.…

One evening in my studio while burning midnight oil a vision came to me of what's beyond this mortal coil. A sudden flash of blinding light and then a puff of smoke revealed what will follow when we paint the final stroke. Off there in the distance through an evanescent glow I saw that there's a special place where oil painters go. A place where painting's all you do for twenty-four dash seven, a place the angels like to call: Oil Painting Heaven. In Oil Painting Heaven all the clouds are filled with easel, and when you have a one-man show red dots pop up like measles. While help is free and teachers teach and never charge a dime, advice that's unsolicited is treated as a crime. In Oil Painting…