Innholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2025 i Fine Art Connoisseur

In an era when algorithms curate our experiences and speculation over-shadows appreciation, today's art collector stands at a crossroads. The traditional markers of connoisseurship — the trained eye, historical knowledge, and refined taste — now exist alongside new metrics of value and accessibility that cannot be ignored. What distinguishes today's discerning collector is not merely acquisition but intention. As institutional gatekeepers yield ground to broader possibilities, we must ask ourselves what, if any, responsibilities accompany the privilege of collecting? How do we balance preservation with progress? When does stewardship become ownership, and ownership become legacy? I believe that the most compelling collections today reflect a consciousness extending beyond aesthetic value alone. They demonstrate awareness of provenance, ethics, artist's intent, and maybe even cultural context. These collections as a whole tell…

Dear Fellow Art Lover, The state of California is famously scenic, and one of its greatest pleasures is driving the Pacific Coast Highway. For much of it, motorists can admire the dramatic convergence of hills and sea, and it helps that the road is punctuated with interesting cities and towns. Everyone in the car will relish the Central Coast's rugged beauty, the ever-fluctuating light, and the moody transience of the fog that appears and disappears at will. Many visitors take walks or runs along the cliffs and beaches, sure to notice (and usually photograph) the characteristic trees bent by powerful ocean winds. Others come to play golf and tennis, dine at fine restaurants, and savor the state's excellent wines, but readers of Fine Art Connoisseur will also want to explore…

The world that Narelle Zeller (b. 1978) — a 46-yearold artist living in Canberra, Australia — depicts in her paintings would seem to be eternally young. Her subjects are largely 20-somethings posed theatrically, the women unafraid to partially reveal their firm breasts, the flowers in their hair fresh and at peak color. In part, this reflects the use of Zeller's own children — daughter Kiah (23) and son Tobias (18) — as well as her fervently hopeful outlook on life. “I love painting my son and daughter, and they are always available whenever I need someone,” she says. (Availability and willingness are key elements in an artist's life. Paul Cezanne painted his wife 27 times: “Hey, Marie-Hortense,” he might have said, “I need you to sit over there again.”) Other…

Nestled among the prestigious commercial galleries that line Santa Fe's historic Canyon Road stands a humble adobe farmhouse. This century-old structure was not merely a home but the creative sanctuary of Olive Rush (1873–1966), a pioneering artist whose influence on New Mexico's cultural landscape extends far beyond her canvases. For nearly half a century, the farmhouse's earthen walls witnessed the unfolding of a remarkable life — one characterized by community, exchange, and mentorship. After decades mostly closed to the public following Rush's death, this space has been given new life. In April 2024, through the efforts of her descendants and Santa Fe supporters, the doors of the Olive Rush Studio & Art Center opened to visitors for the first time. Those who step inside discover more than preserved artifacts; they…

A NEW CENTER OF EXCELLENCE PICTURING NATURE Museum of Fine Arts Houston mfah.org through July 6 The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) is presenting the exhibition Picturing Nature: The Stuart Collection of 18th- and 19th-Century British Landscapes and Beyond. On view are more than 70 watercolors, drawings, prints, and oil sketches created by such talents as John Constable, J.M.W. Turner, Paul Sandby, Thomas Gainsborough, Richard Wilson, John Robert Cozens, Samuel Palmer, and John Sell Cotman. The museum has acquired all of them since 2015, when Francita Stuart Koelsch Ulmer established the Stuart Collection in memory of her parents, Robert Cummins Stuart and Frances Wells Stuart. The family has long been engaged with both the MFAH and British art: Ulmer's great-grandmother helped found the museum in the 1920s, and Ulmer inherited…

ARTISTS & GALLERIES Cincinnati noaps.org May 9–31 The National Oil & Acrylic Painters' Society (NOAPS) will soon present its 8th Best of America Small Works International Juried Exhibition at the Eisele Gallery. On view will be 120 works created by NOAPS members living around the world, all in the format of 320 square inches or less. During the opening celebrations, members will participate in a plein air competition, visit the Cincinnati Art Museum, and enjoy a gallery talk presented by NOAPS president Pat Tribastone and member Hebe Brooks. Laguna Beach, California lpapa.org June 5–30 A nonprofit organization with members located worldwide, the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association (LPAPA) is renowned for the Laguna Beach Plein Air Painting Invitational, now in its 27th year. What is not as widely known is…

Founded in 1999 by the New Jersey collectors Fred, Sherry, and Kara Lysandra Ross with several of their fellow scholars, the Art Renewal Center (ARC) is a non-profit educational foundation that encourages the re-emergence of traditional art and training techniques. The fruits of its labors are becoming ever more apparent as time goes by. ARC is probably best known to readers of Fine Art Connoisseur for its impressive website (artrenewal.org), which contains more than 100,000 high-resolution images by Old Master, 19th-century, and early-20th-century artists, along with artist biographies and related articles. The site has evolved into an invaluable reference for anyone interested in historical realism. ARC is equally committed to bringing this rich heritage up to date by highlighting the booming field of contemporary realism. In addition to its ever-growing…

The cabaret singer and actress Lynne Charnay knows why she has reached the age of 100. “People think I must have wonderful genes, but I have terrible genes. I truly believe that my good condition and the age I've reached are because of my interest in other people.” Indeed, attending a glamorous and crowded New Year's Eve party at her rambling apartment on Central Park West, or one of her monthly salons at which a pianist plays on her baby grand Steinway, one encounters people of all ages. As her son, Tony Mark, a movie producer, says, “Everyone is here because they want to be here, not because they feel they should be here. They love the company of my mother.” Ms. Charnay was one of my late mother's college…

The field of watercolor painting is alive and well — more than well, actually. The artform really got moving in the 18th century, particularly in Britain, and its visibility has ebbed and flowed over time. Today is, in many ways, a new golden age for watercolorists, with societies active at the national, state, and local level, and with international collaborations becoming increasingly frequent. Watercolor works are regularly integrated into mainstream art exhibitions, and pieces by such historical masters as Winslow Homer and Andrew Wyeth trade for high prices on the secondary market. With all this good news, we must keep in mind that watercolors — like all works made on paper — are vulnerable to fading through overexposure to light. (No matter how expensive or well-made it is, the paper…

This season, a thoughtfully curated exhibition at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, gives British women artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries a well-earned moment in the spotlight. Opening June 14 and running through September 14, A Room of Her Own: Women Artist-Activists in Britain 1875–1945 showcases 25 talents who were living and working in the United Kingdom from Queen Victoria's reign right through the Second World War. Drawing largely from British collections because few of their pieces can be found in North America, the show encompasses paintings, drawings, prints, and decorative artworks by artists whose names deserve to be better known here. British art has always had a home at the Clark, beginning with key works in the private collection of its co-founders, Sterling and…

Cyclora mas. Magic lantern shows. The bicycle. With the growth of leisure in the 19th century, Americans had no shortage of entertainments to fill their increasing (albeit still limited) downtime. One of the more curious ones was the tableau vivant. Essentially recreations of famous paintings, sculptures, and historical events that are undertaken by costumed individuals, tableaux vivants (the French term for “living pictures”) began as an amusement among Europe's upper classes. Similarly sophisticated Americans followed suit. In her 1905 novel The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton describes the effect that tableaux vivants had on her lovelorn and socially disadvantaged character Lawrence Selden: To unfurnished minds they remain, in spite of every enhancement of art, only a superior kind of waxworks; but to the responsive fancy they may give magic glimpses…

A DEVOTED NEW MEXICAN Taos, New Mexico couse-sharp.org harwoodmuseum.org through May 31 The Couse-Sharp Historic Site and the Harwood Museum of Art have teamed up to organize and share the exhibition Legacy in Line: The Art of Gene Kloss. Gene Kloss (1903–1996) worked predominantly in oils and watercolors, but is best known for prints depicting the land and people of northern New Mexico. During her long career, she produced more than 600 etchings and an estimated 18,000 editioned prints. Most of the approximately 50 prints and watercolors in this season's exhibition were donated by Joy and Frank Purcell, longtime philanthropists in the Taos community. Those works are complemented by a range of drawings, plates, correspondence, and other archival materials. Born in Oakland, Alice Geneva “Gene” Kloss studied art and printmaking in…