INSIDE: FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS • JOSEPH STELLA • NEW YORK ART WORLDS • THE WOLF FAMILY COLLECTION

ISSUE 68

March/April 2023

G LOUCESTER , M ASSACHUSETTS

Richard Hayley Lever (1876-1958), Gloucester Harbor from Pilot’s Hill

“Cape Ann [is] a region steeped in creative labor, whose own modesty and classic provincial indifference to self-promotion may have sometimes deprived it of its full recognition within the wider circles of American art.” - Kristian Davies, Artists of Cape Ann James Jeffrey Grant (1883-1960), Street Scene in Gloucester

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Now Inviting Consignments of American Art for Our June 4 Auction CONTACT Raphaël Chatroux 267.414.1253 [email protected]

ILLUSTRATED Carl Clemens Moritz Rungius (1869–1959) Tundra (detail) $150,000-250,000

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LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHERS

MARCH/APRIL 2023 Bimonthly PUBLISHER: Adolfo Castillo EDITORIAL/CREATIVE [email protected] PUBLISHER: ADVERTISING/ Wendie Martin ART COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT [email protected] FOUNDER Vincent W. Miller

Curating Your Year of Historic Fine Art!

EDITORIAL INTERIM MANAGING EDITOR Michael Clawson [email protected] EDITOR Sarah Gianelli [email protected] ASSISTANT EDITOR Alyssa M. Tidwell

Welcome to the March/April issue! We are excited to bring to you the complete Collector’s Guide to the 2023 Fine Art & Antique Shows. Beginning on page 57, this comprehensive section will help you plan your year with our curated list of the best shows across the country. We invite you to review our directory of the most significant shows of the year and read about each of their individual specialties. One thing we have learned about historic American art is that our readers are interested in education, and there is a renaissance of buyers looking for the perfect historic painting to complement their growing collection. This show guide will provide a path for you as you make travel plans for the spring, summer and fall ahead. These shows are truly a museum-like experience. The difference is that at a show you can actually purchase the art that you admire most, a piece that might be in your family for generations to come. We know that the average collection remains together for 40-plus years, so curate your collection carefully. The historic art being sold at these events that we cover—and often attend—are rare, special and valuable. Our writers are experts in their unique field of historic art, and you can rest assured you will finish this magazine with even more exceptional knowledge about the art we cover. Each month we bring the best museums, top galleries and dealers, and the leading auction houses to you. We know the journey of historical American art is an adventurous one and sometimes difficult to navigate. In this issue we have a six-page feature on Lynne Mapp Drexler, a historic abstract expressionist whose works are a concentration of vivid color and floral expression. Our preview of New York Art Worlds (1870-1890) at The Met starts on page 66 and explores what it was like living in the art world during that era through both decorative objects and fine art. As you can imagine, American impressionism was at its height during this time and the art is stunning. Most importantly, don’t miss our galleries and auction previews in this issue. Springtime represents rebirth, and there are many amazing historic paintings and sculpture coming to market and on display during these coming months! Enjoy! Best Regards,

Wendie Martin & Adolfo Castillo Publishers

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On the Cover Joseph Stella (1877-1946), Dance of Spring (Song of the Birds), 1924. Oil on canvas, 43⅜ x 22⅜ in. Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri, Bebe and Crosby Kemper Collection, gift of the Enid and Crosby Kemper Foundation, 2003.03.01. Photo by James Allison Photography, 2013.

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ASSISTANT EDITOR Chelsea Koressel SANTA FE EDITOR John O’Hern CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER Francis Smith EDITORIAL & EMAIL Casey Woollard TRAFFIC COORDINATOR [email protected]

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Copyright © 2023. All material appearing in American Fine Art Magazine is copyright. Reproduction in whole or part is not permitted without permission in writing from the editor. Editorial contributions are welcome and should be accompanied by a stamped self-addressed envelope. All care will be taken with material supplied, but no responsibility will be accepted for loss or damage. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the editor or the publisher. The publisher bears no responsibility and accepts no liability for the claims made, nor for information provided by advertisers. Printed in the USA. American Fine Art Magazine, 3260 N. Hayden Rd. Ste.201, Scottsdale, AZ 85251. Telephone (480) 425-0806. Fax (480) 425-0724 or write to American Fine Art Magazine, P.O. Box 2320, Scottsdale, AZ 85252-2320. Single copies 11.95. Subscription rate for one year is $45 U.S. To place an order, change address or make a customer service query, please email [email protected] or write to P.O. Box 2320, Scottsdale, AZ 85252-2320. POSTMASTER: Send all address changes to American Fine Art Magazine, PO Box 2320, Scottsdale, AZ 85252-2320 AMERICAN FINE ART MAGAZINE (ISSN 2162-7827) is published 6 times a year by International Artist Publishing Inc. CANADA American Fine Art Magazine Publications Mail Agreement No. 42330013, Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to Asendia, Inc. P.O. Box 400 LCD 20, Thornhill, Ontario, Canada L3T QH2 Application to mail at periodicals postage prices pending at Scottsdale, AZ 85251 and additional mailing offices.

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Rolling Hills, base region of the Olympic Mountain Range, Washington circa 1934 Signed lower right: P. vanVeen

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EDITOR’S LETTER

A Journey Through Time

T

ulips, crocuses and irises aren’t the only signs of spring. Another herald of the season is the sheer number of fine art shows that start to populate the calendar and the country. There are numerous blue chip events throughout the year, but as the days warm into summer, these shows—both historic and contemporary—take on a more breezy feel. The mountains thaw; seaside towns on the East Coast are in full swing and plein air festivals abound. In this issue you will find an entire section dedicated to the 2023 fine art shows. Features by leading industry experts explore the historical connection between decorative objects and fine art; previews of museum exhibitions delve into that relationship and a calendar of this year’s not-to-miss events are all within this comprehensive guide. I am particularly excited about this edition’s breadth and the new territory we venture into in its pages. We have a feature on once little-known artist Lynne Mapp Drexler who has captivated collectors in recent years as her works started soaring past modest auction estimates into the millions. Another piece dives into the largely lost art of the 1915 World’s Fair. With museum previews on Joseph Stella, sculptor Adaline Kent and others, this issue is especially full of stunning imagery—the kind of art that likely turned you into an aesthete and collector of fine art. We hope you enjoy the visual experience as much as you do learning about these intriguing artists, their work and lives, and the intellectual consideration of their place in the greater context by our team of talented and knowledgeable writers. Enjoy the journey!

Find us on:

Sarah Gianelli Executive Editor sgianelli@americanfineartmagazine.com

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Hughie Lee-Smith, The Ribbon, oil on canvas, circa 1960. Estimate $120,000 to $180,000.

African American Art April 6

Nigel Freeman • [email protected] Download the App

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hile impressive auction results of historic American paintings and sculpture or an occasional celebrity collector may garner a newspaper headline now and then, there is no magazine, until now, that has offered complete and comprehensive coverage of the upcoming shows and events of this always-fascinating market that is so deeply tied to American history, society and culture. Previews of Upcoming Shows and Auctions

Read Up-To-Date Auction Reports and Analysis

The historic fine art of America’s greatest artists is in big demand and if you are serious about acquiring it, you need to know about it sooner so you can plan your collecting strategies. When you subscribe to American Fine Art Magazine you’ll know in advance what major works are coming to market because, every other month, you’ll have access to this valuable information when we email you the upcoming issue—up to 10 days before the printed magazine arrives in your mailbox—and before the shows even open.

In every issue we’ll publish detailed analysis with charts highlighting the results of major shows and auctions so you can track the movement of key works and prices of major artists.

Inside the Homes of Major Collectors

Contributing Editors and Consultant Columnists

Our nationally-recognized fine art consultants and award-winning photographers take you inside the homes of the country’s top art collectors to give you full access to some never-before-seen collections.

TOP 10 LOTS FREEMAN’S AUCTIONEERS & APPRAISERS DECEMBER 4, 2011 (INCLUDING BUYER’S PREMIUM) ARTIST

TITLE

LOW/HIGH EST.

SOLD

JAMES ABBOTT MCNEILL WHISTLER (1834-1903)

BLUE AND OPAL – THE PHOTOGRAPHER

$150/250,000

$469,000

SPRING

$200/300,000

$241,000

NICOLAI FECHIN (1881-1955)

SEATED FEMALE NUDE

$80/120,000

$145,000

FERN ISABEL KUNS COPPEDGE (1883-1951)

EDWARD WILLIS REDFIELD (1869-1965)

LAMBERTVILLE ACROSS THE DELAWARE, WINTER

$30/50,000

$79,000

MARY ELIZABETH PRICE (1877-1965)

TIGER LILIES

$20/30,000

$79,000

RAE SLOAN BREDIN (1881-1933)

UNDER THE TREE

$70/100,000

$49,000

CHARLES ROSEN (1878-1950)

DELAWARE RIVER VIEW

$40/60,000

$43,000

FRANZ XAVER PETTER (1791-1866)

STILL LIFE WITH ROSES AND TULIPS WITH PARROT IN A BRASS VASE

$15/25,000

$40,000

JOSEPH HENRY SHARP (1859-1953)

OCTOBER SNOW – TAOS VALLEY (FROM MY STUDIO)

$20/30,000

$37,000

DAVID DAVIDOVICH BURLIUK (1882-1967)

FLOWER ABSTRACT

$12/18,000

$37,000

Some of the most authoritative fine art experts in the country will contribute regular columns explaining current and future trends to better inform your decision-making.

Who Makes the American Fine Art Market Tick? In each bimonthly issue you can read interviews with the people behind the scenes in this fascinating industry.

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National & International Galleries and Features

Regional and Independent Artists

Destination Art Fair of the West Returns to Reno Tahoe, Doubles in Size Join us in the High Sierra for a city to lakeside celebration of fine art, bespoke furniture, sculpture, music, short film, and more. Ongoing Live Music Awards Program and Gala ‘After Burn’ Market & Sculpture Walk Short Film Programming First Nations, Indigenous Peoples Pavilion

Apply to be an exhibitor

www.rtiashow.com | @rtiashow

In This Issue Feature

Departments

The Forces at Play



Artist Lynne Mapp Drexler emerges from obscurity and steps into the limelight decades after her death By John Kenneth Alexander

A Fleeting Fantasy

Art Show Calendar

14

Art Market Updates

18

Market Report

20

Recent Arrivals

22

New Acquisition

24



7KH/RVW0XUDOVRIWKH3DQDPD3DFL¿F International Exposition By Michael Pearce

COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO

2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS 58 Curator Chat with Medill Higgins Harvey

74 Market Report with Karen Rigdon

60 Designing Designs

75 Art & Antiques

An exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum LOOXPLQDWHVWKHLQGHOLEOHLQÀXHQFHRI Scandinavian design on American asthetics By James D. Balestrieri

66 Aesthetic Innovations The Met presents a collection of objects and art that illuminates the vibrant creative crosspollination in post-Civil War New York By John O’Hern

72 Fine Art Insights Insights from Show Producers & Exhibitors

The Charleston Show

76 Expansive Offerings The Philadelphia Show

78 Curating Perfection The Washington Winter Show

80 Fine Art Show Calendar

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MARCH/APRIL 2023 American Fine Art Magazine is unique in its concept and presentation. Divided into four major categories, each bimonthly issue will show you how to find your way around upcoming fine art shows, auctions and events so you can stay fully informed about this fascinating market.

Gallery Shows Previews of upcoming shows of historic American art at galleries across the country.

38 Joyous Color A virtual exhibition currently on view at Hawthorne Fine Art presents the artwork of Rhoda Holmes Nicholls

Museum Exhibitions Important exhibitions upcoming at key museums from coast to coast.

40 A Natural Bridge Joseph Stella at the High Museum of Art

46 A Modernist Maverick Adaline Kent retrospective at the Nevada Museum of Art

Event Report

50 Orientalism in the Occident Themed group exhibition at the Denver Art Museum

Coverage of all the major art fairs and events taking place across the country.

90 Cut, Cast, Carved and Coupled

54 A Lifetime of Devotion The Bruton Sisters’ at UCI Langson Institute and Museum of California Art

Annual American Art Conference

Auctions Previews and reports of sales at the most important auction houses dealing in historic American art.

104 Joint Auction Previews Maine, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina

Reports

106 Solid Sales Previews

94 Go West Scottsdale Art Auction Session I and II sale

98 The Spirit of America Sotheby’s sale of The Wolf Family Collection

102 American Vistas Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneers’ Spring 2023 Fine Art Auction

Freeman’s American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists sale

108 The Allure of Americana Sotheby’s Art of the Americas sale

110 Stellar Results Christie’s 19th Century American Art and From Peale to Peto: American Masters from the Pollack Collection

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John Marshall Gamble (1863-1957) Wild Lilac - Santa Barbara, Oil on canvas, 20" H x 30" W, $20,000-30,000

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the Best Fairs, exhibitions and Events Coast to Coast ONGOING Object Lessons in American Art

Fidelia Bridges (1834-1923), Chickadee and Thistle, 1875. Watercolor and gouache on paper, 14 × 9½ in. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Max N. Berry, 2020 2020.295.

Georgia Museum of Art • Athens, GA Over four centuries of work, this exhibition brings groups of objects together to ask fundamental questions about artistic significance, materials and how meanings change across time and contexts. www.georgiamuseum.org

ONGOING Adaline Kent: The Click of Authenticity The Nevada Museum of Art • Reno, NV This is the first retrospective to occur in 60 years of midcentury American artist Adaline Kent, featuring 90 works in a diverse range of media. www.nevadaart.org

ONGOING The Bruton Sisters: Modernism in the Making UCI Langson Institute and Museum of California Art • Irvine, CA The presentation, which includes related works by several of their contemporaries, reveals the Bruton sisters’ innovative use of materials, creative approach to design and fruitful collaborative process. www.imca.uci.edu

ONGOING Dreams and Memories Florence Griswold Museum • Old Lyme, CT This is an exploration of historic and contemporary art from the Museum’s permanent collection, that considers themes of dreams and memories as expressions of powerful forces in American society. www.florencegriswoldmuseum.org

ONGOING Joseph Stella: Visionary Nature High Museum of Art • Atlanta, GA Co-organized by the High and the Brandywine River Museum of Art, this is the first major museum exhibition to exclusively examine Stella’s nature-based works in more than 100 paintings and works on paper. www.high.org

THROUGH MARCH 3 Norman Rockwell and his Mentor, J.C. Leyendecker Elliot Museum • Stuart, FL The exhibition features 10 original works by Rockwell and Leyendecker, along with their magazine covers, as a unique comparison opportunity. www.hsmc-fl.com

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ONGOING

New York Art Worlds, 1870-1890 The Metropolitan Museum of Art • New York, NY Drawn from the museum’s collection, a selection of some 50 works in varied media, reveals the vibrant modern art world that emerged in New York in the post-Civil War years. www.metmuseum.org

Premier Auction March 24 & 25, 2023

Featuring: Martin Johnson Heade, Twilight in the Tropics, 1876, signed, oil on paper on board, 6-3/4 x 13-7/8 in. George Inness, Durham Connecticut, 1879, signed, oil on canvas, 18 x 26 in. David Johnson, View from West Point, 1867, signed, oil on canvas, 38 x 60 in. and many others

[email protected]

www.brunkauctions.com

828-254-6846

ART SHOW CALENDAR

N.C. Wyeth (18821945), Chadds Ford Landscape with Barn, c. 1915/1920. Oil on canvas, 25 x 30 in. “W” scratched into paint in lower right corner. Courtesy of Somerville Manning.

APRIL 27-30

Auctions at a Glance FEBRUARY 24-26 Winter Enchantment Sale

APRIL 15-15 Session I & II

Thomaston Place Auction Galleries • Thomaston, ME www.thomastonauction.com

Scottsdale Art Auction • Scottsdale, AZ www.scottsdaleartauction.com

The Philadelphia Show Philadelphia Museum of Art • Philadelphia, PA This annual show features around 50 of the leading exhibitors in the U.S., specializing in fine art, design, antiques, Americana, folk art, ceramics and much more, that span the 16th to the 21st-centuries. www.thephiladelphiashow.com

MARCH 2 Spring Sporting Art Auction Leland Little Auctions • Hillsborough, NC www.lelandlittle.com

MARCH 23 Women in the Arts

THROUGH MARCH 5 Edward Hopper’s New York Whitney Museum of American Art • New York, NY The exhibition will take a comprehensive look at Hopper’s life and work through his city pictures, from his early impressions of New York in sketches, prints and illustrations, to his late paintings. www.whitney.org

MARCH 5-MAY 28 Near East to Far West: Fictions of French and American Colonialism Denver Art Museum • Denver, CO This exhibition features more than 80 artworks, and explores the many ways that the style and substance of French Orientalism in the 1800s directly influenced American artists. www.denverartmuseum.org

MARCH 17-19 The Charleston Show Charleston Festival Hall • Charleston, SC Now in its second edition, the Charleston show features 30 exhibitors from the United States, England and Europe showcasing antiques, contemporary and traditional design, fine art and jewelry. www.thecharlestonshow.com

MARCH 24-JULY 23 Scandinavian Design and the United States, 1890–1980

Eldred’s Auction • Dennis, MA www.eldreds.com

Milwaukee Art Museum • Milwaukee, WI In more than 180 objects, this is the first exhibition to examine the extensive design exchanges between the United States and the Nordic countries during the 20th-century. www.mam.org

APRIL 6 African American Art

MARCH 24-AUGUST 13 Evelyn Hofer: Eyes on the City High Museum of Art • Atlanta, GA In more than one hundred vintage prints by photographer Evelyn Hofer, this retrospective focuses on urban capitals during a period of intense structural, social and economic transformations after World War II. www.high.org

THROUGH MARCH 26 We Are Made of Stories: SelfTaught Artists in The Robson Family Collection Smithsonian American Art Museum • Washington D.C. This exhibition chronicles the rise of self-taught artists in the 20th-century in 110 artworks by 43 artists, despite wideranging societal, racial and gender-based obstacles. www.americanart.si.edu

APRIL 19-22 The Wolf Family Collection Sotheby’s • New York, NY www.sothebys.com

APRIL 27 Fine Art Auction Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneers • Milford, CT www.shannons.com

Swann Auctions • New York, NY www.swanngalleries.com

THROUGH MARCH 26 Norman Rockwell Drawings: 1914-1976

THROUGH APRIL 1 Joseph B. O’Sickey: Exhibition & Sale

Norman Rockwell Museum • Stockbridge, MA This exhibition features studies and drawings for many of Rockwell’s most noted works, and is accompanied by a catalogue published by Abbeville Press. www.nrm.org

Wolfs Gallery • Cleveland, OH This exhibition and sale, on behalf of the Cleveland Institute of Art, contains major unseen works all in the colorful and exuberant style for which O’Sickey is so well-known. www.wolfsgallery.com

MARCH 30-APRIL 2 ArtExpo New York

APRIL 25-MAY 7 Boston Design Week 10th Anniversary

Pier 36 • New York, NY Now in its 46th year, this popular event hosts more than 200 innovative exhibiting galleries, publishers, dealers and artists from across the globe, and showcases contemporary work of over 1000 artists in a variety of materials. www.redwoodartgroup.com/ artexpo-new-york/

Various Locations • Boston, MA This annual event occurs in various locations, including virtual platforms, and features programs, guest speakers, tours and panel discussions by design-oriented businesses, museums and organizations, to name just a few. www.bostondesignweek.com

In every issue of American Fine Art Magazine, we publish the only reliable guide to all major upcoming fairs and shows nationwide. Contact our editorial assistant, Chelsea Koressel, at [email protected], to find out how your event can be included.

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painting and antiquities from such artists as John Singleton Copley, Frederic Edwin Church, Mary Cassatt, Childe Hassam, Robert Henri, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, John Singer Sargent, Marsden Hartley, John Marin and Georgia O’Keeffe.

An Exciting Lineup

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), Madame Ramón Subercaseaux, ca. 1880-81. Oil on canvas. The Fayez S. Sarofim Collection.

Masterworks on loan at MFAH The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston has announced a partnership with the Sarofim Foundation, in which masterworks from the collection of the late Fayez S. Sarofim will be displayed across the museum’s gallery buildings. Included in Sarofim’s collection, amassed over nearly six decades, is a superb selection of American art, European

The Hispanic Society Museum & Library—dedicated to the preserving, studying and exhibiting of art and culture of Portuguese and Spanish-speaking countries and communities—has announced phase one of its reopening with a robust 2023 exhibition schedule. Programming will focus on the commemoration of Joaquín Sorolla’s centennial, Jesús Rafael Soto’s centennial and Pablo Picasso’s semi-centennial. The Hispanic Museum & Library is currently undergoing a major upgrade of three landmark buildings and restoration of the Audubon Terrace in order to maximize the organization’s resources, afford the ability to better serve the surrounding community and increase the institution’s ability to welcome partnerships and collaborations with local and international partners. The HSM&L will reopen its Main Court, Upper Terrace and the iconic Sorolla Gallery, Vision of Spain (1912-1919) in March 2023 as part of the commemoration.

The Hispanic Society Museum & Library, Sorolla Gallery, Vision of Spain (1912-1919).

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A rendering of the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, opening in fall 2023.

Notre Dame to Open New Museum After nearly two years of research and design, the University of Notre Dame will unveil its new Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. The new museum expands upon the university’s esteemed Snite Museum of Art of Notre Dame, which will remain open until May 2023. The Raclin Murphy Museum of Art is set to open in November and will move to an entirely new building in the University’s arts district, serving as both an entrance to the campus and as a welcoming community partner. The project has been designed as a 132,000-square-foot complex that will “host the Museum’s renowned collections, dynamic exhibitions and engaging programs.”

George Voronovsky at High Museum The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, presents the first major museum exhibition of work by Ukrainian American artist George Voronovsky. “Born in a small village in eastern Ukraine in 1903,Voronovsky immigrated to the United States after World War II and began working in the rail industry in Philadelphia. Employed as a train car cleaner and upholsterer for many years, he eventually retired to Miami Beach in the early 1970s, where he turned his room in South Beach’s Colony Hotel into

George Voronovsky (1903-1982), Untitled (Circus), 1978-1982. Paint on canvas. Courtesy the Monroe Family Collection.

an art refuge, living in the area until his death in 1982,” the museum notes. George Voronovsky: Memoryscapes will be on view March 24 to August 13.

Lee Mullican at James Cohan Currently on view at New York Citybased James Cohan’s 52 Walker Street

location is the exhibition Lee Mullican: The Nest Revived. This is the artist’s fourth solo exhibition at James Cohan and spans 60 years of formal experimentation by the late California artist, teacher and curator. Running through February 25, Lee Mullican:The Nest Revived showcases important early paintings and rarely-seen wooden assemblages from the 1940s and 1950s along with a monumental painting, totemic ceramics and even groundbreaking digital art from the ’80s.

Love Letter Curated by artists Loie Hollowell and Harminder Judge, Love Letter is an exhibition currently on view at Pace Gallery that brings together works by Hollowell and Judge in conversation with paintings by iconic transcendentalist Agnes Pelton alongside Ghulam Rasool Santosh, a modernist Kashmiri painter

People Gemma Sudlow has joined Hindman as its new managing director, New York region, in a new role focused on launching the firm’s first fullservice Manhattan saleroom. Sudlow, an auctioneer with 17 years of experience in business development, will lead a team of Hindman specialists in New York, as well as experts in the key categories of Post-War and contemporary art, photographs, furniture and decorative arts and more.

Hindman has also announced the opening of a new Miami office after more than a decade of establishing a strong presence in Florida. This latest expansion gives Hindman representation in three

and poet associated with the neo-tantra painting movement in India. Made up of a total 24 works, the show aims to elicit “new connections between painting of the 20th century and the present day, foregrounding the experiential and transportive power of abstraction.” Love Letter is on view through February 25 at Pace Gallery’s New York location.

Agnes Pelton (1881-1961), Translation, 1931. Oil on canvas, 20 x 24 in. Courtesy Pace Gallery.

& Places

cities in Florida and 16 cities across the United States.

The Trustees of the Florence Griswold Museum have named Joshua Campbell Torrance as the next executive director of the 75-year-old cultural institution. Torrance brings more than 22 years of experience as executive director to his new post at the Florence Griswold Museum, which he began on February 6.

Aron Packer has joined Chicago-based Potter & Potter Auctions as director and specialist for the Fine and Outsider Art department. This department was

recently established after Potter & Potter’s successful debut in December 2022 with its Fine and Outsider Art Sale, which realized $155,000.

The Colby College Museum of Art has appointed Elisa Germán its new Lunder Curator of Works on Paper and Whistler Studies. In her role at Colby College, Germán will oversee aspects of the museum’s exhibition and collection initiatives related to prints, drawings and photographs. A special focus is placed on the nearly four hundred works by James McNeill Whistler in the museum’s Lunder Collection.

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MARKET REPORT

WHAT WE’RE HEARING FROM GALLERIES AND AUCTION HOUSES ACROSS THE COUNTRY.

THOMAS B. PARKER Director Hirschl & Adler Galleries A combination of lingering Covid concerns, an uncertain economic forecast and the ongoing dominance of contemporary art over the secondary market has resulted in some headwinds for historical American art. Still, as has always been true, top quality, correctly priced works of art, invariably find a buyer. Crucially, this market enjoys support not just from private collectors, but from institutional buyers as well. They tend to be buyers whose motives transcend speculative interest and resist fleeting trends in the marketplace. They are attracted by established artists, proven quality and stable values—things we used to assume were a given, but not necessarily in recent years. We have seen a notable uptick of

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interest in works from the 1930s and early 1940s, an era in American cultural history with parallels to our own. Tumultuous times are often the crucible for powerful visual expression. For instance, social realist paintings seem to resonate with today’s political tensions, general angst and sense of change. In particular, magic realism, a close cousin of surrealism, is enjoying renewed interest from collectors. Well-known artists George Tooker, Louis Guglielmi and Paul Cadmus are actively sought-after as well as lesserknowns James Guy, Jules Kirschenbaum and Clarence Carter. Even more exciting are the women associated with this movement like Honoré Sharrer, Gertrude Abercrombie, Dorothea Tanning and others. We are particularly excited about a German American artist named Winold

Reiss (1886-1953), a “jack-of-all-trades” who brought a distinctively modern sophistication to American painting, interior design, commercial illustration, furniture design and public murals. He’s perhaps best known for his innovative portraiture, particularly his acclaimed Native American portraits from the 1920s. But he also played an outsized role in the Harlem Renaissance movement, led art schools in both New York and Woodstock, and imbued numerous restaurants, train stations and other public spaces with his refined and highly stylized form of art deco. He was recently the subject of a major exhibition at the New York Historical Society in the fall of 2022 which introduced Reiss to an ever-widening audience. HIRSCHL & ADLER GALLERIES 41 East 57th Street, 9th Floor New York, NY 10022 www.hirschlandadler.com

African American Art and Artists Now through May 28, 2023

This exquisite portrait of singer and actress Ethel Waters by Luigi Lucioni is featured in the current exhibition and is an important piece in the Permanent Collection of the Huntsville Museum of Art.

Huntsville, Alabama | hsvmuseum.org Luigi Lucioni (1900-1988), Portrait of Ethel Waters, 1939, oil on canvas, 32 x 25 in. Museum Purchase

Late Winter Gallery Auction Saturday, March 18 at 12 noon Central time

Jack Lorimer Gray (1927-1981) Newtown Creek canvas 26 x 40 inches

SoulisAuctions.com

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Thomas Hart Benton and the Art of the American ballad. &WTIGMEPSǺIVMRKSJTIRGMPWMKRIHPMXLSKVETLWMRWTMVIHF] the artist’s love of American ballads and folklore. Frankie and Johnnie PEVKIJSVQEXPMXLSKVETLJVSQIHMXMSRSJ

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[email protected]

Insights into historic American artwork newly available from galleries and dealers around the country

David Gilmore Blythe (1815-1865), The Cobbler’s Shop, ca. 1854-1858. Oil on canvas, 17 x 22 in., signed lower left: ‘Blythe’.

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David Gilmore Blythe (1815-1865) The Cobbler’s Shop

Joseph Decker (1853-1924) Pears on a Branch

David Gilmore Blythe is one of a handful of American painters of genre scenes active before the Civil War whose work had both social significance and real artistic character. He worked in Pittsburgh which was a city with a large working class population with whom he identified. The Cobbler’s Shop, a recent acquisition of Thomas Colville Fine Art, depicts a destitute man seeking the repair of perhaps his only pair of shoes from a cobbler whose family apprehensively stand behind the opening door—they are not expecting good news to arrive. Blythe captures this moment of pathos in a manner that is not a caricature but a sympathetic evocation of their shared anxiety.

Joseph Decker, a native of Brooklyn, New York, studied in Munich, Germany, and traveled back there at least once after returning to Brooklyn during the course of his career. This work, found in a German private collection, was purchased by Thomas Colville Fine Art in Munich. It is one of a small group of highly detailed works by Decker painted around 1885, of fruit growing in nature in a style that all but anticipates the photorealism of the 20th-century. “There is nothing like them in this period on either side of the Atlantic,” says Colville. “Critics derided this approach as ‘too photographic’ to be considered art and Decker reacted by changing to a more painterly style

Above: Joseph Decker (18531924), Pears on a Branch, ca. 1885. Oil on canvas, 5¼ x 13 in., signed lower right. Left: Benjamin West (17381820), Master Copley And His Elder Sister, ca. 1777. Ink on paper, 45⁄8 x 7¾ in., signed lower left: ‘Benj.n West’; titled: lower center.

for the rest of his career. There are not more than eight or 10 of these tightly painted works by him known today and the largest, and most ambitious example, also of plumbs on a branch, is on view in The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Benjamin West (1738-1820) Master Copley And His Elder Sister This work, recently obtained by Thomas Colville Fine Art, depicts two young children seated closely together with a gameboard on a table in front of them. The girl wears a dress with sash and a wide-brimmed hat with ribbon and bow; the boy wears his hair in long bangs and is looking at the game pieces on the table. The crest rail of a chair is partially visible

behind him to the right. The sister is Elizabeth (Betsy) Copley (1770–1866), John Singleton Copley’s eldest child who later married Gardiner Greene of Boston. Next to her sits her younger brother, John Singleton Copley, Jr. (1772–1863), who as an adult remained in England, becoming the first Baron of Lyndhurst. In this drawing, Betsy appears to be wearing the same dress she wears in John Singleton Copley’s large group portrait, The Copley Family, ca. 1776-77, now in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Thomas Colville Fine Art 111 Old Quarry Road • Guilford, CT 06437 (203) 453-2449 • [email protected] • www.thomascolville.com

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NEW ACQUISITION

Henry Ossawa Tanner NORTON MUSEUM OF ART

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n efforts to diversify their collection, the Norton Museum of Art based in West Palm Beach, Florida, has acquired an important work by Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937), the first African American artist to gain international acclaim. The small pastel and watercolor painting Christ at the Home of Mary, exemplifies the artists “masterful rendering of light,” says museum representatives. In the exhibition Henry Ossawa Tanner: Intimate Pictures, the Norton has placed this significant work, depicting religious subject matter, alongside three additional Tanner pieces to showcase his ability to work across different mediums and with varying subject matter. “Whether in his religious pieces or in a landscape, he uses light to highlight what he wants to focus on,” says Ellen E. Roberts, Harold and Anne Berkley Smith senior curator of American art. “Even in these four pieces, you can really see that. It’s nice to show the variety he was able to work in.” Tanner found his way to France in 1891, where he continued his studies at the Académie Julian after attending the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He made France his permanent home after begin “struck by the lack of racism in the art community there,” says the museum. In the mid-1890s, Tanner began to focus on Christian subjects, when he experienced what the museum notes as “a strengthening of his religious convictions.” He was, after all, a son of an African Methodist Episcopal minister. As featured in Christ at the Home of Mary, “Tanner saw Mary, mother of Jesus, as a  symbol of faith and fortitude. He painted many images of her…,” says the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The painting was acquired by the museum through a local collector,

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Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859–1937), Christ at the Home of Mary, ca. 1905. Pastel and watercolor on paper, 11½ x 9½ in. Gift from Juan Rodriguez in memory of James P. Eskew III, 2022.23.

Juan Rodriguez, who has an ongoing relationship with the Norton. “He knew we were interested in diversifying our collection,” says Roberts, “and that we were trying to build that part of the American collection that includes Black and women artists—Otherwise, we’re not telling the full story of American art.” The Norton Museum of Art will

feature the painting, along with the additional works, as part of the Intimate Pictures exhibition through March 19. “What’s great about the piece, is that it’s even more beautiful in person than in reproduction,” says Roberts. “We encourage everyone to experience it for themselves, in person.”

LY N N E D R E X L E R

Raucous Green, 1965, oil on canvas, 48 x 36 inches. Provenance: Lynne Drexler Estate

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Lynne Mapp Drexler (1928-1999), Violet Sunlight, 1962. Oil on canvas, 32 x 49⁄ in.

THE FORCES T

here has been a major cultural shift and a growing interest concerning artists who have been historically marginalized within the canon of American art. A great number of artists continue to be ignored by collectors, brokers, gallerists and institutions alike. In the 20th century alone, many talented and welleducated artists remain conveniently

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tucked away in the shadowy back-pages of art history. In their time, many of these lesser-known artists were a part of significant art movements, exhibited in influential galleries and well-connected to more famous artists. Not too long ago, this was the case for Lynne Mapp Drexler (1928-1999). Drexler’s legacy as a painter languished in obscurity, not only in her lifetime,

but also, tragically, for years after her death. While the reasons for Drexler’s name having been omitted from the annals of art history are complicated, one overriding factor has remained constant for her and other women of the abstract expressionist era. Like other talented artists who were trained by the era’s finest teachers, Drexler was a member of the New York

Lynne Mapp Drexler (1928-1999), Feather Blue, 1967. Oil on canvas, 49½ x 44 in.

AT PLAY

School and a participant in America’s first major art movement. Abstract Expressionism had become renowned for the mythos and machismo of artists such as Jackson Pollock, a figure who had come to dominate the image of the movement and reinforce its aggressive “masculine” characterization. Drexler was among the many women of the ‘50s and ‘60s who were often eclipsed

by her male counterparts. Even though their work was executed with as much competence and training, women artists tended to be disregarded in the maledominated gallery scene of New York. The recent resurgence of interest in Drexler—which ignited when a piece soared past its $60,000 estimated value to reach $1.2 million in a spring 2022 auction at Christie’s—and other women

Artist Lynne Mapp Drexler emerges from obscurity and steps into the limelight decades after her death By John Kenneth Alexander

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Lynne Mapp Drexler (1928-1999), Untitled, 1959. Gouache on paper, 19½ x 24 in.

Lynne Mapp Drexler (1928-1999), Untitled, 1959. Oil on paper, 9 x 12 in.

like her has brought many of these artists out of the shadows with a new sense of discovery and appreciation. “I’ve always felt deeply within myself that I was a damn good artist, though the world didn’t recognize me as such. I wasn’t about to play their game,” the artist said in “Lynne Drexler: A Life in Color,” a film by Roger Amory. Born in the Tidewater region of southeast Virginia in 1928, Drexler moved to New York in 1955 to pursue her career as an artist. Like many artists of her day, she studied under Hans Hofmann in both his New York and Provincetown schools. Drexler’s other renowned teacher was Robert Motherwell at Hunter College. Her training from Motherwell, along with Hofmann’s lessons on color theory, would set the foundation for Drexler’s 28

Lynne Mapp Drexler (1928-1999), Stumps, 1968. Oil on canvas, 47¾ x 35½ in.

approach to painting. Her swatch-like patterns and vivid array of colors are quite distinctive when compared to her contemporaries of the abstract expressionist genre. Many of Drexler’s early collectors became enthralled with her work long before the frenzied atmosphere of the current art market that surrounds it. The fact that she was completely unknown to them was irrelevant once they became captivated by the brilliant colors of her palette, and the thoughtful intent by which her brushwork, shapes and patterns were placed within her picture plane. Drexler’s story also resonated with many would-be collectors. Devoted fans of Drexler’s work have marveled at her longoverdue recognition and admiration from the fine art establishment.

Collectors Rick and Sue Miller attended Drexler’s first solo exhibition held in California in 2015, 16 years after her death. “The manager of the Drexler estate was going to be at the exhibition to talk about Drexler’s work and answer questions,” Sue recalls. “I became intrigued by her story and wanted to know more about her—I wanted to know more about her upbringing, her education, under whom she studied, how she progressed from her early work to her later work.” The fact that Drexler had been overlooked as an artist based on her gender was not lost on Sue. “As an artist myself in the early ‘60s, I understood the frustration of not being accepted as a legitimate artist simply because of my gender,” she shares. “I’m very excited to see her work now being appreciated

Lynne Mapp Drexler (1928-1999), Green gage I, 1959. Oil on canvas, 14 x 17½ in.

and her name being recognized.” The Millers continue to be important collectors and champions of Drexler’s work. Like many other women, Drexler encountered multiple obstacles in her search for gallery representation in gender-biased atmosphere of the New York gallery world. While galleries were courting her husband, painter John Hultberg, Drexler would face the insult and indignity of being completely ignored or belittled.

As the mid-1960s approached, the movement of Abstract Expressionism entered its decline, eventually being replaced by Pop Art and, shortly thereafter, Op Art. Drexler was already making her own transition away for the movement by applying her signature style to a new series of visionary abstract paintings. Many of her abstract paintings created just after 1962 are clearly inspired by the landscape with the concepts of musical elements helping to guide the pictorial

arrangements. Music, especially opera, had come to help define Drexler’s creative expression. “I was not on the political fast track,” said Drexler about her experience in New York in the Roger Amory documentary. “I cannot make friends for gain.” Eventually, unsatisfied with the male-dominated art system and art politics of New York—Drexler finally moved permanently to Monhegan Island, Maine, in 1983. Well known 29

Lynne Mapp Drexler (1928-1999), Untitled, 1961. Crayon and watercolor on paper, 19 x 25 in.

Lynne Mapp Drexler (1928-1999), Purple Nude, ca. 1957. Oil on canvas, 18 x 24 in.

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for its summer art colony, Monhegan Island has a unique history and eccentric character. In sharp contrast to New York, the winter population of Monhegan Island is roughly 65 people—practically cut off from civilization. The ferry makes the trek to the island only twice a week in the dead of winter. The Drexler house is situated beneath Lighthouse Hill, with the cemetery and her gravestone not too far away. The lone house seems like an island unto itself, staring out across the field to the other houses in the distance and to the sea, beyond that. It is amid this solitude where Lynne Drexler chose to call home. Drexler became an integral member of the year-round island community. Of the island, the Monhegan Museum notes, she said, “There is no isolation in a place like this—impossible to find,

Lynne Mapp Drexler (1928-1999), San Pablo Bay, 1964. Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in.

but solitude is respected.” The remoteness and solitude of the island would impact her work. Her paintings of those times often reflect everyday life such as views from her windows, interior views of her house and even chores such as hanging laundry. The still life also became an important subject in Drexler’s repertoire, often floral arrangements peppered with dolls from her collection. “I sell enough here to make a living off of. I am not rich—but I have what I want,” the Monhegan Museum has documented. “As long as I have food, heat, roof over my head, food for the cat, and paint I am happy. Oh, and Jack Daniel’s.” “Many artists seem to be inexplicably linked to a locale where their creativity came into its fulfillment,

such as Monet in Giverny;Van Gogh in Southern France; Gauguin in the South Pacific,” state Rick and Sue Miller. “As a collector of Lynne’s work, we felt it altogether fitting and proper to make a pilgrimage to Monhegan Island to better understand what drove her inspiration and creativity. We were immediately immersed in the natural beauty of the island. Walking the paths and trails, stepping into what she might have seen and observed from an artist’s perspective, it truly became a pilgrimage to understand and appreciate her portfolio of art created over a span of so many years.” Drexler’s connection to the island also had a profound impact upon her spiritual life. Perhaps this is one of the most important aspects of Drexler’s amazing story, career and legacy. In

an essay published in John Fowles and Nature: Fourteen Perspectives on Landscape, Drexler wrote, “I came to believe in myself and my own inner resourcefulness. Living here revealed a strength and depth in me I didn’t know I had. When you live here you learn to see who you really are.You are very close to nature, and nature clarifies you to yourself. At night I feel a sense of awe in the way the black ocean stretches out to meet the black sky, and I’m aware of what it means to live in a universe. Everything here is reduced to essentials. I’ve forgotten how to act on shore. On shore is the false reality. Here, is the true reality.” John Kenneth Alexander has represented Lynne Drexler since 2015 and is the director of J. Kenneth Fine Art. 31

Main exhibit palaces of the [Panama-Pacific International Exposition] with Marina District neighborhood in foreground, 1915. Image courtesy of Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

William de Leftwich Dodge (1867-1935), Atlantic and Pacific (center panel), 1914. Oil on canvas, without decorative borders: 146 x 559½ in. Image courtesy of de Young Museum, San Francisco.

A FLEETING

Fantasy The Lost Murals of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition By Michael Pearce

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orty years before Disneyland was a twinkle in Walt’s eye, the spectacle of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco overwhelmed the masses and crowds with a wonderful world of shimmering towers, light shows and glittering parades. Attendees of the spectacular World’s Fair arrived at a splendid site filled with magnificent pavilions built upon 635 acres of seafront thrusting into the

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Bay. A brochure advertising the event boasted of spending $50 million on lavishly decorated buildings—housing exhibitions worth another $50 million. The drama of hundreds of sculptures and friezes decorated travertine courts and colonnades. Immense murals were the focal point of the sheltered ceilings of the dreamy palaces, and nine enormous but fine fountains set the thematic tone—joy,

Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956), The Four Elements Fire I – Primitive Fire, Exhibited at the court of Abundance, Panama-Pacific Exposition. Courtesy of the Herbst Theatre at the San Francisco War Memorial and The Master’s Light Photography. 

energy, life, play and youth, centered on tradition, pragmatism and order. The exposition would shape the future of painting and sculpture in California and

cement a popular American enthusiasm for murals that would last until 1939. The extravaganza was organized as a celebration of the completion of the

American-built, continent-crossing engineering marvel of the Panama Canal, but it was also a stimulus to San Francisco’s revival from the 33

Frank DuMond (1865-1951), Study for The Westward March of Civilization: Arrival in the West, 1913. Oil on canvas, squared in pencil, 32 x 100 in.

ruins of the 1906 earthquake which demolished much of the young city with fire and fury. In the aftermath of the 7.9 quake, an inferno burned for four days, incinerating 80 percent of the many wooden buildings. Rubble from the ruins was scraped into the bay to create land from sea, and some of which is said to have become foundations for the exposition’s cleared lot, transforming a swamp into “a garden of trees and flowers, a city of fantasy,” according to Jeanne Redman of the Los Angeles Times. Fairytale gems of romantic construction literally rose from the ashes of the wrecked city. Effusive, and exhausting the lexicon

of superlatives to describe the fantastic exposition, Redman continued, “It is the vivid realization of vague dreams. A dim city, with towers of ruby, amethyst and emerald wrapped in mist, or a city of the flashing white of sunshine and the glitter of gilt domes, softened by the fog that rolls in from the sea. Surely this is the land of illusions, and yet it is real.” A 435-foot-high Tower of Jewels was decorated with 135,000 suspended pieces of cut and mirrored Czech glass, which caught the sun in a glittering display of color, sparkling against the bright skies of floodlit night, when wonderful lightshows transformed the sky and buildings into ethereal visions

William de Leftwich Dodge at work on Atlantic and Pacific. Image courtesy of Pryor Dodge.

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of wonderland. Opening day saw 200,000 attendees and nearly 19 million people visited during the course of the year. In The Innocent Fair, a 1961 documentary film remembering the exposition with clips from an archive of silver nitrate film shot in 1915, narrator Walter Johnson recalled, “It was the most wonderful thing that ever happened to San Francisco.” The fair’s magnificent buildings, more palaces than pavilions, were themed as celebrations of American accomplishments in fine arts, education, social economy, liberal arts, manufacturing, industry, machinery, transportation, agriculture, agriculture (food products), livestock, horticulture, mines and metallurgy. Henry Ford showed a complete automobile assembly line. Newly invented infant incubators were demonstrated in use, saving the lives of newborns beneath the gaze of an enthusiastic audience. A stunt pilot flew loop-the-loops at night, with flares attached to the wings of the plane before losing his life in a fiery crash. Elaborate displays showing the achievements of all the states thrust home the idea of American excellence and success. Horses and cars raced for extravagant purses. But the art was the star. Nine artists were chosen to paint for the great palaces: Childe Hassam, Charles Holloway, Arthur Mathews, Robert Reid, Milton Bancroft, Edward

Charles Holloway (1859-1941), Study for The Pursuit of Pleasure, 1913. Oil on canvas, for transfer in graphite, 201/8 x 40 in.

Florence Lundborg (1871-1949), The Riches of California (left side detail). Displayed in the California Building tea room. Image courtesy of Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Simmons, Frank DuMond and William de Leftwich Dodge, all of whom were American. The organizers made a single exception for Welshman Frank Brangwyn, the prolific muralist and

art nouveau éminence. The official guidebook to the fair declared him “the world’s greatest genius in color.” American artist Jules Guérin, the art director of the exposition, thought

Brangwyn’s work was so important that he traveled to his London studio to admire the eight colossal canvases he produced, exploring the theme of the four elements. 35

Brangwyn’s paintings were loaded with crowds of figures and exaggerated the profusion of nature’s abundance, but there was little of the artificial posturing of mannerism. Brangwyn used the vertical canvases to compose great, dramatic images that explored the burdens and benefits of labor. They were the dominant decorative feature of the lavish Court of Abundance, a Moorish-Gothic architectural fantasy dominated by a tall tower overlooking a formal garden enclosed by long arcades. Two 22-feet-wide roundels completed the Court of Palms. Hassam’s was a rigid, formulaic decoration which did little to show off his skill as a loose master of impressionist light. (His achievements were on full display in a post-exposition exhibit in the Palace of Fine Art in a showing of more than

100 of his paintings and drawings.) Holloway’s The Pursuit of Pleasure was a lovely composition of fluid figures in sensual and light work. The dreamy Palace of Fine Art was certainly the most popular architectural achievement of the festival. A lagoon— all that remained of the reclaimed swamp—separated it from the rest of the exposition, lending it an aura of distinguished exclusivity. Beside the water, the great dome of a rotunda supported by eight lesser domes was the centerpiece to 1,000 feet of glorious curving arcade wrapping the palace. Carefully placed trees and bushes sheltered sandy paths and cast dancing shadows onto the warm travertine of this architectural fantasia, which provided the scenography for settings of romantic dances by white-clad,

flower-scattering maidens and the arrival of burly heroes in boats. The arched ceiling of the dome was decorated with beautifully curvaceous baroque spectacles by Reid, two depicting the birth of European and Oriental art, and two of art’s inspiration and idealism. Historic photos show Reid working on these vast sentimental images of beautiful women personifying art, wreathed in garlands of flowers. These were alternated with the “four golds of California”—wheat, metal, citrus fruit and poppies. Inside the Palace, a lavish series of 117 galleries contained an exhibition of international art so great that Redman wrote, “…it would take the average visitor, working 12 hours a day, 30 days to cover the pictures.” It was “the most comprehensive exhibition of American art in the country’s history.”

Interior of the Tower of Jewels showing William de Leftwich Dodge’s Atlantic and Pacific mural beneath the arch. Autochrome image courtesy of Pryor Dodge.

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Robert Reid standing in front of a mural, ca. 1900. Robert Reid papers, ca. 1880-ca. 1930. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Bancroft painted 10 murals decorating the ends of high passageways in the colonnade of the Italianate Court of Four Seasons: Festivity, Winter, Harvest, Summer, Fruition, Autumn, Seed Time and Spring. The two largest, Art Crowned by Time, and Man Receiving Instruction in Nature’s Laws were directly below the beginning of the span of the grand central arch. Simmons’ immense panels for the triumphal arch were graceful mixtures of the renaissance revival’s neo-classical figuration with celebratory American history painting, surpassed only by the spectacular symmetry of Dodge’s vast Atlantic and Pacific, which now fills a lobby wall in San Francisco’s de Young Museum, celebrating the triumphant meeting of East and West when the two oceans were joined by the Panama Canal. DuMond’s The Westward March of Civilization, now in the city’s Asian Art Museum, rejoiced in anthem-singing representative figures of the arts, science and religion, from Greece, Egypt, Europe—and Atlantis—meeting on the Pacific coast. Both painters featured whip-cracking ox-drivers, the tractormen of pre-mechanical farming.

Besides the great achievements of the fair’s palaces, murals decorated the national and states’ pavilions. Brangwyn’s student Edward Trumbull distinguished the Pennsylvania Building with his Penn’s Treaty with the Indians, and The Steelworkers. The Netherlands Pavilion was graced with Hermann Rosse’s The Arts of Peace. A pioneering woman among the field of male muralists, Florence Lundborg painted the glory and summer of The Riches of California, spanning the interior of the California Pavilion, a harvest scene of nature’s bounty topped with an inscription from Theocritus reading, “All breathes the scent of the opulent summer, the season of fruits.” The city of San Francisco possesses the Hassam and Mathews murals but keeps them in storage and they have not been seen for a century. Brangwyn’s murals are the glory of the Herbst Theatre at the San Francisco War Memorial. Bancroft, Simmons and DuMond’s paintings were destroyed when the exposition was demolished. Unlike the other buildings, which were constructed in the temporary wood and plaster of theatrical sets,

designed to last for only a year, the Palace of Fine Arts was constructed in steel and concrete to safeguard the lavish collection of paintings, etchings and sculptures from the perils of fire—still a freshly horrific memory to the citizens of the brave city. It was so beautiful that it was preserved after the close of the event, then completely rebuilt between 1964 and 1974, largely thanks to the inspiration of Johnson’s nostalgic documentary which showed it in an abandoned state of ruined disintegration. Sadly, Reid’s wonderful paintings were lost to the elements as the Palace decayed. The haunted decoration and shell of the building remains on its original site in the San Francisco marina, where the ghastly functional interior is now used as a sterile performance venue and coldly austere convention hall. Treasure was lost forever when the murals were destroyed—but the memory of these glorious paintings lived on in the hearts of the millions who saw them. John Walter, President of the San Francisco Art Association, wrote, “The Exposition had literally created tens and thousands of lovers and students of art.” 37

GALLERY PREVIEW: NEW YORK, NY

Joyous Color A virtual exhibition currently on view at Hawthorne Fine Art presents the artwork of Rhoda Holmes Nicholls Through March 28 Hawthorne Fine Art New York, NY 575 5th Avenue, 14th Floor New York, NY 10017 t: (212) 731-0550 www.hawthornefineart.com

Rhoda Holmes Nicholls (1854-1930), Portrait of a Woman. Watercolor on paper, 13 x 10 in. (window), 17¼ x 14 in. (mat), signed lower right: ‘Rhoda Holmes Nicholls’.

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onsidered one of the finest painters at the turn of the 20th century, artist and educator Rhoda Holmes Nicholls painted figures, landscapes, seascapes and more—rendered in delicate washes, energetic brushstrokes and a highly tuned sense of light and shadow. An online exhibition at Manhattanbased Hawthorne Fine Art features a dozen works by Nicholls in oil, watercolor and gouache landscapes, as well as portraiture and figurative works. Additionally, the show places particular

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Rhoda Holmes Nicholls (1854-1930), Italian Woman and Child. Oil and graphite on paper, 9 x 6¾ in. (window), 16 x 13½ in. (mat), signed: ‘Rhoda Holmes’ and inscribed lower right: ‘Venice’.

emphasis on the Venetian scenes for which the English-born artist is well known. “Nicholls was an ambitious and internationally recognized artist who excelled in both oil and watercolor,”

says Megan Bongiovanni, research associate at Hawthorne Fine Art. “In Italy, she was elected a member of the Roman Watercolor society, which was a rare honor for a woman. She exhibited widely, including in numerous annual

Rhoda Holmes Nicholls (1854-1930), Reclining Lady with Dog. Watercolor on paper, 12¼ x 15½ in. (window), 13 x 16¼ in. (mat), signed lower right: ‘Rhoda Holmes Nicholls’.

Rhoda Holmes Nicholls (1854-1930), Woman Waiting in Doorway, Venice. Oil on paper, 8 x 71/8 in. (sight), 83/8 x 75/8 in. (actual), signed lower left: ‘Rhoda Holmes’.

exhibitions at the National Academy of Design and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Her work was so admired that she became a sought-after instructor at the Art Students League and as head of the watercolor department at William Merritt Chase’s Shinnecock School on Long Island.” Bongiovanni continues, “We are excited to share a few early works by Nicholls, which were executed in Italy prior to her marriage to the American artist Burr Nicholls and subsequent move to the United States in 1884.” The oil and graphite on paper, Italian Woman and Child, as well as the oil on paper Woman Waiting in Doorway, Venice, are notable examples of Nicholls’ refined ability to capture scenes of Venice. “She captured women in their daily life amid the architectural detail and exquisite sunlight so unique to the Italian city,” Bongiovanni adds. “A watercolor sketch entitled Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute,Venice, includes color notations by Nicholls which provides a glimpse into [her] working process. Other highlights such as Portrait of a Woman and Reclining Lady with Dog reveal Nicholls’ skill with the watercolor medium.” Joyous Color:The Art of Rhoda Holmes Nicholls (18541930) is on view at www.hawthornefineart.com through March 28. 39

MUSEUM PREVIEW: ATLANTA, GA

A Natural Bridge Atlanta’s High Museum of Art presents an extraordinary selection of works by the unparalleled Joseph Stella Through May 21 High Museum of Art 1280 Peachtree Street, NE Atlanta, GA 30309 t: (404) 733-4400 www.high.org

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he pioneering modernist painter Joseph Stella (18771946), was born in Italy and immigrated to New York in 1896 when he was 18. He is perhaps best known for his paintings of the Brooklyn

Joseph Stella (1877-1946), Spring (The Procession), ca. 1914-1916. Oil on canvas, 755/16 × 403/16 in. Yale University Art Gallery, gift of Collection Société Anonyme, 1941.692.

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Joseph Stella (1877-1946), Red Flower, 1929. Oil on canvas, 57½ x 38¼ in. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2006.102. Photo by Dwight Primiano.

Joseph Stella (1877-1946), Tree of My Life, 1919. Oil on canvas, 84 x 76 in. Art Bridges, Bentonville, Arkansas, purchase. Photo © 2018 Christie’s Images Limited.

Bridge. In 1912 he wrote, “I was thrilled to find America so rich with so many new motives to be translated into a new art. Steel and electricity had created a new world. A new drama had surged from the unmerciful violation of darkness at night, by the violent blaze of electricity and a new

polyphony was ringing all around with the scintillating, highly colored lights. The steel had leaped to hyperbolic altitudes and expanded to vast latitudes with the skyscrapers and with bridges made for the conjunction of worlds. A new architecture was created, a new perspective.”

At about the same time as his iconic Brooklyn Bridge, 1919-20, he painted the extraordinary Tree of my Life, an exuberant paean to nature. The painting is included in the exhibition Joseph Stella: Visionary Nature at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta through May 21. Stephanie Heydt, the museum’s 41

Joseph Stella (1877-1946), Capri, ca. 1926–1929. Oil on canvas, 17¼ x 14¼ in., private collection. Photo © Christie’s Images / Bridgeman Images.

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Joseph Stella (1877-1946), Flowers, Oil on canvas, 74¾ x 74¾ in. Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Marshall, 1964.20.

curator of American art and head curator for the exhibition, writes, “Much of his emotional and spiritual life centered on his relationship with nature, and the exhibition offers the unique opportunity to revisit Stella through this lens. He was an incredible draughtsman, and his drawings rival those of the old masters, but he also delighted in experimentation. His style ranged from abstraction to realism to the archaic with such unexpected results.”

Reminiscing about the inspiration for the painting, Stella wrote, “A new light broke over me. One clear morning in April, I found myself in the midst of joyous singing and delicious scent… of birds and flowers ready to celebrate the baptism of my new art, the birds and the flowers already enjewelling the tender foliage of the newborn tree of my hopes, Tree of My Life.” Tylee Abbott, head of the American art department at Christie’s and a former contributing editor to this

magazine, comments, “There comes a moment in any great artist’s career when they shake off their influences and their past to come up with something truly groundbreakingly original. And that’s precisely what we have with Joseph Stella’s Tree of My Life.” The complex centrality of Tree of My Life echoes his Brooklyn Bridge paintings. It’s vibrant palette and that of his Red Flower, 1929, contrast with his intimate flower studies done in MUSEUM PREVIEW: ATLANTA

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Joseph Stella (1877-1946), Dance of Spring (Song of the Birds), 1924. Oil on canvas, 433/8 x 223/8 in. Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri, Bebe and Crosby Kemper Collection, gift of the Enid and Crosby Kemper Foundation, 2003.03.01. Photo by James Allison Photography, 2013.

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Joseph Stella (1877-1946), Flower Bud, undated. Colored pencil and metalpoint with incised lines on white wove paper, 223/8 x 27¾ in. Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, gift of an Anonymous donor, 2008.271. Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College.

metalpoint, colored pencil and crayon such as Flower Bud. He commented on his profound spiritual connection to nature, writing that his wish was “that my every working day might begin and end, as a good omen, with the light, gay painting of a flower.” Stella had read the poems of Walt Whitman in Italian before he arrived in New York. The critic Irma Jaffe wrote, “The immigrant community’s freedom from Victorian patterns of respectable

behavior and middle-class refinement coincided with those Whitmanesque concepts of democracy that conditioned the thought of progressives of that period.” The city became overwhelming for Stella and he often returned to Italy for rejuvenation. In 1917 he moved to Brooklyn and trod the streets where Whitman had walked. He wrote, “Brooklyn gave me a sense of liberation. The vast view of her sky in

opposition to the narrow one of NEW YORK, was a relief—and at night, in her solitude, I used to find, intact, the green freedom of my own self.” Like Whitman, Stella found the ineffable and the spiritual in the vitality of the city but sought it out more simply and joyfully in nature. The exhibition was organized by the High Museum and the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, PA, where it will travel in June. MUSEUM PREVIEW: ATLANTA

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MUSEUM PREVIEW: RENO, NV

A Modernist Maverick Adaline Kent’s quest to sculpt infinity Through September 10 Nevada Museum of Art 160 West Liberty Street Reno, NV 89501 t: 775-329-3333 www.nevadaart.org

By Meg Daly

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t’s always exciting when an underappreciated artist gets her due. Such is the case with Adaline Kent (1900-1957), the subject of an extensive retrospective, Adaline Kent: The Click of Authenticity, at the Nevada Museum of Art. Like too many women artists, Kent’s name has been overshadowed by male peers such as Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still. The exhibition seeks to redress the past and position Kent as a key figure in modernist art. The museum has devoted an entire floor to Kent’s creations. Featuring approximately 90 pieces, Kent’s entire oeuvre is explored. She worked in a range of media, including drawings, original pictures incised on Hydrocal (a plaster mixture), sculptures and a collection of terracotta. Nevada Museum of Art CEO David Walker notes that this is the first retrospective of Kent’s work that demonstrates her unique contribution to figuration, abstraction and surrealism on the West Coast in the United States. “Her work is a vital part of our regional history and has been overlooked for far too long,”

Adaline Kent (1900-1957), Presence, 1947. Magnesite, 42¾ x 17¾ x 7¼ in. Collection of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; gift of the Women’s Board and the Membership Activities Board. Image courtesy of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

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Adaline Kent (1900-1957), Never Fear, 1948. Incised Hydrocal with pigment, 22½ x 9 x 8 in. Private collection. Photo credit: M. Lee Fatherree.

Adaline Kent in studio, working on Night Club, 1930. Courtesy of Adaline Kent Family.

Adaline Kent (1900-1957), Lighthouse for Birds, 1956. Terracotta (two pieces), 31¼ x 8 x 7½ in. Collection of Adaline J. Hilgard. Photo credit: Ron Jones.

Walker says. “The exhibition and the catalog it inspired will be a remarkable contribution to the scholarship and recognition of this exceptional, midcentury artist.” The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog edited by Apsara DiQuinzio, the museum’s senior curator of contemporary art and organizer of the exhibition. DiQuinzio highlights Kent’s philosophical approach to artmaking.

According to DiQuinzio, Kent’s use of the infinity symbol, “can be understood as a fusion of her interests in time, space and nature.” The infinity symbol hovers above peaks in the Hydrocal painting Song; it echoes through the abstract sculpture Dark Mountain and it weaves through the delicate assemblage in Finder. “For Kent, the infinite was the wellspring of the growth and knowledge that led her to the discovery 47

Kent was particularly inspired by movement and often infused motion into her work. “To me, skiers, dancers, trapeze artists provide pleasure comparable to that of sculpture— an idea of form in space, space in form,” Kent wrote in a passage in her extensive art journals. “The feeling of space and movement seem to be the essence of our time.” In Lighthouse for Birds Kent imagines a respite for birds in motion. Art historian Alexander Nemerov writes poetically about Lighthouse in the catalog. “[The sculpture] offers no beacon, only a promise, a sign of light without the light itself, manifest in clay: a roosting spot, a haven, a gathering place among the restless migrations. It reveals to us our mortality and the place of that mortality in the universe, our fate to be swung round with the

Adaline Kent (1900-1957), Finder, 1953. Magnesite (two pieces), 70 x 40 x 12 in. Los Angeles County Museum of Art; gift of Galen Kent Howard Hilgard in memory of her sister. Ellen Kent Howard. Photo: Digital Image © [2022] Museum Associates / LACMA. Licensed by Art Resource, NY.

of her truth,” DiQuinzio says. Born in Northern California in 1900, Kent was the daughter of a noted conservationist and a suffragette. As a young Vassar graduate, Kent studied with Ralph Stackpole in San Francisco and with Emile-Antoine Bourdelle in Paris, where she lived for several years before finally returning to the Bay Area in 1929. She was part of San Francisco Bay Area’s celebrated mid-century art cohort, along with Charles H. Howard, Madge Knight, John Langley Howard, Robert 48

Boardman Howard, Henry Temple Howard and Jane Berlandina. Her work was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Bienal de São Paulo, among other notable venues. Inspired by her upbringing, Kent reveled in being outdoors. She and her husband skied and hiked in the Lake Tahoe region, which was a source of artistic inspiration for Kent. DiQuinzio observes that Kent’s Hydrocal painting, Wellspring, “reads like an abstract mental map of a High Sierra lake.”

Adaline Kent (1900-1957), Dark Mountain, 1945. Hydrocal with incised lines and egg tempera, 33¾ x 12½ x 8 in. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; purchase. Photo courtesy of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Adaline Kent (1900-1957), Wellspring, 1945. Tempera on incised Hydrocal, 14 x 16 ½ in. Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri; gift of the Betty Parsons Foundation. Photo courtesy of Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri.

rocks and trees, pebbles orbiting in the fantastic scheme.” Kent championed the advent of modern art. She celebrated the departure from art norms that she and her peers were undertaking. “Modern art is the expression of our time,” she wrote in her journal. “It differs from earlier art because of new knowledge. It brings out new horizons. Artists themselves, from the beginning, carry a constant—the need to create a personal truth. As a person lives in his time, he [sic] must share the ideas that make up

that time.” Kent was not only interested in producing fine art. She enjoyed creating decorative pieces such as lamps for Yosemite National Park’s iconic lodge, the Ahwahnee Hotel. In 1948 she was commissioned to make a sculpture for Thomas Dolliver Church’s Donnell Ranch garden. The garden came to be known as a masterpiece of modern landscape design that famously featured the first kidney shaped pool. Kent’s sculpture, Island, resembles a reclining figure and

includes passageways underwater for swimmers. Sadly, Kent was killed in a car crash in 1957. But her joie de vivre can still be felt. The Nevada Museum of Art retrospective gets its title from a poem in Kent’s journals entitled, “Classic Romantic Mystic.” The poem invokes “beings independent of their deceptive ordinary appearance.” “Freed from the trappings of convention,” Kent wrote, “I want to hear the click of authenticity.” MUSEUM PREVIEW: RENO, NV

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MUSEUM PREVIEW: DENVER, CO

Orientalism in the Occident A sweeping new exhibit at the Denver Art Museum explores how the style and substance of French Orientalism influenced American artists and their representation of the American West March 5-May 28 Denver Art Museum 100 W. 14th Avenue Parkway Denver, CO 80204 t: (720) 865-5000 www.denverartmuseum.org

By James D. Balestrieri

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ear East to Far West: Fictions of French and American Colonialism at the Denver Art Museum, places the art of the American West—in particular the art of the American Southwest—in an art-historical context embracing aims of empire, representational fictions of Orientalist exoticism, and otherness. As this exhibition makes plain, Orientalism applies to the Occident as well, to Indigenous peoples in the Western Hemisphere in particular who were equally exoticized and othered. Additional themes speak to the attractions and traps of places presented throughout history as picturesque and adventurous elsewheres—Joseph Conrad’s “dark places of the earth.” The exhibition is brilliant in its simplicity, and while there are hints of the same themes in Brian Dippie’s 1987 book, “Looking at Russell”, which takes some time discussing the influence of Eugène Delacroix and other European artists on Charles M. Russell, nothing approaching the subject in depth has, to my knowledge, been attempted up to now. Colonization has to have some moral justification that usually takes the form of enlightening the benighted, civilizing. The bald truth—rapacious exploitation—plays poorly. But in

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Eugène Fromentin (1820-1876), Bab-el-Gharbi Street in Laghouat (La Rue Bab-el-Gharbi à Laghouat), 1859. Oil on canvas; 557/8 x 40½ in. Musée de la Chartreuse, Douai, France, 148 ancien dépôt. © RMN Grand Palais/Art Resource, NY.

some strange version of Stockholm Syndrome, conquerors almost always find themselves in the thrall of the conquered. Myths of “noble savages”

and reports of wondrous, forbidding landscapes draw artists, scientists, entrepreneurs, adventurers; their images, reports, and experiences, in

Henry Farny (1847-1916), Mesa Village, ca. 1891. Gouache on paper; 15 x 93/8 in. Denver Art Museum: The Roath Collection, 2014.374.

turn, enthrall viewers and influence everything back home from architecture to fashion to food. Then, as happened in the late 19th century, there are those who inevitably aver that whatever is good or noble about the Indigenous, the colonized, couldn’t possibly be of their own making. Rumors abounded of “white Indians,” lost tribes of Israel, survivors of Atlantis, creating civilizations that have since tumbled into decadence, though why this is so is always a little vague. For some, the Welsh prince, Madoc, created the Mississippian culture, and Viking

Gerald Cassidy (1869-1934), Cui Bono?, ca. 1911. Oil on canvas; 93½ x 48 in. Collection of the New Mexico Museum of Art: Gift of Gerald Cassidy, 1915 (282.23P). Photo by Blair Clark.

Leif Eriksson discovered America, not Columbus, as if the place had a big “Vacancy” sign on it. The continent was—and continues to be—a tabula rasa for crackpot, jingoist theories. Into this maelstrom, in France and America, art stepped. And you have to keep in mind that art, at least EuroAmerican art, was searching for new inspirations, new subjects, and new things to see so there could be, as John Berger wrote, new “ways of seeing,” and new facture for artists. Organized by the Denver Art Museum’s Director of the Petrie

Institute of Western American Art, Dr. Jennifer R. Henneman, the exhibition reveals itself when you consider the paintings in pairs. Set Eugène Fromentin’s 1859 oil, Bab-el-Gharbi Street in Laghouat (La Rue Bab-el- Gharbi à Laghouat), depicting an Algerian street, side-byside with Henry Farny’s 1891 gouache, Mesa Village and you will see striking similarities. Each gives the viewer a sense of oppressive heat and of the consequent indolence of the people, few in number next to the ziggurat constructions of the dwellings. Perhaps 51

Alphonse-Étienne Dinet (1861-1929), Man in a Large Hat (Homme au Grand Chapeau), 1901. Oil on canvas; 15¼ x 10½ in. Musée d’Orsay and Cité nationale de l’histoire et de l’immigration, Paris: MAAO 9720, LUX 527. © RMN-Grand Palais/Art Resource, NY. Photograph by Daniel Arnaudet.

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Gerald Cassidy (1869-1934), Midday Sun, North Africa, 1920s. Oil on canvas; 64 x 51½ in. Private collection. Photography courtesy Denver Art Museum.

Catharine Carter Critcher (18681964), Indian Mystic, ca. 1924. Oil on canvas; 22 x 18 in. The Peterson Family collection. Courtesy Loren Anderson Photography.

without meaning to do more than document these respective places at a particular time of day, the paintings hint strongly at lost and more vigorous and glorious pasts. The birds overhead in Bab-el-Gharbi Street in Laghouat may well be vultures, indicating a people and culture in decay, while shadows in both works suggest places heading into eclipse, waiting to be reanimated by Western pluck and assiduity. Piercing eyes wreathed in white draperies in Alphonse-Étienne Dinet’s, Man in a Large Hat (Homme au Grand Chapeau), 1901, and Catharine Critcher’s 1924 oil, Indian Mystic, lead us to words like “inscrutable,” and “timeless,” which have everything to do with our fantasies and projections and little or nothing to do with the lives of the subjects portrayed. In Gerald Cassidy’s paintings, the 1911 Cui Bono? (Latin for “Who benefits?,” which no doubt asks who stands to gain from changing this man’s life in a New Mexico Pueblo) and the 1920s work, Midday Sun, North Africa, the same artist works in an Orientalist/Occidentalist tradition; these paintings—of the prince in the pueblo and sheik in the souk— immediately lead to phrases like “innate nobility” and “natural aristocracy,” again trading on our projections. Cui Bono? Who benefitted then from the projections, stereotypes, and fantasies of exoticism and the marginalization of the Other in North Africa and the American West? Who benefits now? My answers to these questions, the exhibition suggests, may say more about me and my relationship to history—history as a scholarly practice as opposed to history as fact— than they do about the subjects of the works, or even the artists themselves. If Edward Said, author of the seminal work on the subject, Orientalism, were here, he would say I should let Others, other than me, answer those questions for themselves. MUSEUM PREVIEW: DENVER, CO

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MUSEUM PREVIEW: IRVINE, CA

A Lifetime of Devotion An exhibition focuses on the Bruton sisters’ legacy and their role as pioneers in the advancement of modern art in California Through May 6 Langson Institute and Museum of California Art University of California, Irvine 18881 Von Karman Avenue, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92612 t: (949) 476-0003 www.imca.uci.edu

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rought together by leading expert and guest curator Wendy Van Wyck Good on the overlooked Bruton Sisters, is the first group exhibition of their artwork in more than 50 years. The Bruton Sisters: Modernism in the Making traverses Margaret, Esther and Helen’s most active years of production, and the significant impact they had on the California art scene from the early 1920s through the late 1950s.

Esther Bruton (1896-1992), Rabbit Hunt, 1929. Gold leaf, aluminum leaf and eggshell mosaic on wood screen, 62 x 57 in. Courtesy Annex Galleries and the estate of Madalyn and Philip Johnson, © Bruton Family Archive, courtesy of Barbara Carroll.

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Imogen Cunningham (1883-1976), The Bruton Sisters, Artists, 1930. Gelatin silver print, 8 x 10 in. © 2022 Imogen Cunningham Trust.

On view now at the University of California, Irvine, Langson Institute and Museum of California Art (IMCA), the exhibition examines 19 of the artists’ dynamic pieces in relation to another 12 pieces from their contemporaries, mostly woman artists, to “get a better sense of how they fit in with the modernist art movement at the time,” says Good. She continues, “There are a couple of main themes were trying to get across. One is [the sisters’] creativity with materials. They were always experimenting with different mediums: mosaic, oil painting, prints. They did everything and pushed the boundaries with everything they tried. Another thing that’s important, is these women had these really long careers in which they worked independently but there’s a big

element of collaboration. They worked together, helped each other and were able to achieve so much. Like when creating large scale public art, they had this amazing support system. The last point, is they were very interested in making what they called ‘a living art’ or art that is beautiful but has a useful purpose.” While all three sisters had some cross over in choice of medium—they all dabbled in printmaking—they did have distinct, individual interests and all maintained an evolving modernist style. Margaret (1894-1983) for example, the oldest, was a very accomplished modernist painter and was driven to create portraits before moving onto frescos and mosaics. In show piece Taos Woman, “you can see the modernist elements coming to the forefront,” says Good, “but her work became

Margaret Bruton (1894-1983), Taos Woman, 1929. Oil on canvas, 24 x 21 in. The Buck Collection at UCI Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art. © Bruton Family Archive, courtesy of Barbara Carroll.

increasingly more abstract, with more blocks of color, and more flattened appearance of the canvas, breaking things down more into shapes.” Esther (1896-1992), the middle sister, is best known for her murals. “In 1935, for example, Esther designed a series of circus-themed murals for the Cirque Room at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco and executed the work’s laborious application of gold leaf with the help of Margaret,” the museum notes. “One of Esther’s most widely acclaimed projects, the murals are still on view at the hotel today.” For the exhibition, visitors will see Esther’s “living art” pieces like Rabbit Hunt, a gold leaf trifold screen depicting a Native American rabbit hunt rendered in a modernist style. The piece is one of a pair. “These two screens are some of her most revered works. Beloved by the art critics,” Good remarks. The youngest sister, Helen (18981985), was known for her mosaics for the Works Progress Administration, such as Woman with Turquoise Bracelet. She also produced engaging prints like The Party—a party scene from the artist community boarding house known as the Stevenson House in Monterey, California. “All of the people in the print can be identified as their friends and fellow artists,” Good notes. “And the three women dancing are the three sisters. They were known for including each other in their work.” While quite prolific, the Bruton sisters’ legacy has been largely overlooked for several reasons: they were never big on self-promotion; their public works have either been destroyed or painted over; not living in the epicenter of the modern art movement (New York) and an overall discrimination of women in the arts. However, their legacy does live on in exhibitions such as this one. “It represents a lifetime of devotion to art—their main passion,” says Good. The artworks will also be displayed among archival materials that Good discovered in her research.

Helen Bruton (1898-1985), The Party, circa 1925. Linoleum block print, 10 x 13 in. The Buck Collection at UCI Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art. © Bruton Family Archive, courtesy of Barbara Carroll.

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COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO

2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

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ine art and antique shows hold a significant place in the marketplace. It is where national and international galleries have the opportunity to increase their exposure and broaden their collector base. No matter how we have adapted to—and even flourished during—pandemic-imposed isolation, I think we’ve all learned that’s there’s no substitute for in-person interactions and the deeper connections that result from them. These events provide a platform for dealers and exhibitors to meet existing and potential clients face-to-face and to essentially bring a scaled-down version of their galleries to collectors. Professionally, these networking opportunities are invaluable, but let’s not forget that community has a lot to do with it too. It takes a tremendous amount of work and significant financial investment to transport art of this quality to and from the multiple fairs these galleries travel to, year after year. It’s a niche market in which the world’s leading dealers in fine art operate. I have an inkling that a major draw is also seeing fellow art dealers that have long since become friends and with whom they share an utmost appreciation for art. What better feeling than being amongst your people? We have enjoyed creating our Guide to the 2023 Fine Art & Antique Shows and exploring the connection between historic American art and the decorative arts which, given all the fairs that combine the two, clearly exists. You will read about museum exhibitions that explore this relationship, hear from The Met’s curator of decorative arts, show exhibitors and producers, as well as industry experts on the state of the market. The section concludes with a comprehensive calendar of the 2023 art fairs, from contemporary to classic, highlighting the events we think you will be most interested in attending.

H A PP Y COLLEC TING!

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COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO

2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

CURATOR CHAT W E A SK LE A DING MUSEUM CUR ATOR S A BOUT W H AT’S GOING ON IN THEIR WOR LD

women to work as artists and artisans transformed the making, selling, consumption and viewing of art in the United States. It was a period of tremendous artistic innovation marked by cross-cultural exchanges facilitated by global travel and trade.

Medill Higgins Harvey Ruth Bigelow Wriston Associate Curator of American Decorative Arts Manager of the Henry R. Luce Center for the Study of American Art American Wing

The Metropolitan Museum of Art 1000 Fifth Avenue, NYC 10028 www.metmuseum.org What is your area of expertise in the field of decorative arts? My curatorial responsibilities include American silver, metalwork, jewelry, and mid-19th century furniture. I have a particular interest in the American decorative arts of the 19th century, which offer fascinating insights into the social, political and cultural history of that era—a dynamic period of profound change during which immigrant craftsmen, a burgeoning middle class with increased disposable income and leisure time, new commitments to providing greater public access to art, and increasing opportunities for 58

Do you have a personal favorite item in the American Wing? I cannot choose a favorite—that would be akin to having a favorite child. I do, however, have special affection for the Tiffany & Co. Magnolia Vase, which was a centerpiece of Tiffany’s display at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. For most visitors it is a difficult object to love. As they learn more, look closely, and can revel in its artistry and technical virtuosity, I find people come to share my enthusiasm. Created as an expression of national pride and a representation of the United States, the design refers to various regions of the United States: pinecones and needles symbolize the North and East; magnolias, the South and West; and cacti, the Southwest. Representing the country as a whole is the ubiquitous goldenrod, fashioned from gold mined in the United States. The team at Tiffany & Co. devoted years working to master enameling techniques and to find a way to create matte enamels that would naturalistically represent the colors and textures of the magnolia blossoms. It is an artistic and technical tour de force. What is the most satisfying aspect of your job as a curator? Acquiring a work of art that has a transformative impact on the displays

and narratives we share with our visitors is one of the most satisfying and rewarding aspects of my job. The process of thinking wholistically about our collections, identifying a work of art that will amplify and enrich our holdings, sharing the research and thinking that leads one to advocate for the acquisition with museum colleagues and donors, and successfully bringing that work into the galleries is always a great thrill. The way new juxtapositions change how you see and experience works of art is endlessly satisfying. How is The Met rethinking and reframing their exhibitions and collections today? Can you provide an example? At The Met, and specifically in the American Wing, we are expanding the scope of our collections and the narratives we explore. In recent years, the American Wing has increased its holdings of works by Latin American, Native American, Black and female artists. New members of the curatorial staff , and collaboration with a broad range of diverse individuals and communities are integral to complicating and diversifying the stories we share about American art. One example of the way we are rethinking and reframing our collections is an initiative called Native Perspectives. Native artists, authors, community members, curators and historians have been invited to write labels and provide audio content responding to 18th- and 19th-century Euro-American works in the American Wing’s collection. Offering a multiplicity of voices and

COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO

2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

Tiffany & Co., The Magnolia Vase, 1893. Silver, gold, enamel and opals, 307⁄8 x 19½ in. Gift of Mrs. Winthrop Atwill, 1899 (99.2).

perspectives, the contributors present alternative narratives and broaden our understanding of American art and history. What are you working on now? Currently, I am working on a project that is a great highlight of my career. It is an exhibition and publication called Collecting Inspiration: Edward C. Moore at Tiffany & Co. The show, originally scheduled for 2020, was

postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic and will open in 2024. The book to accompany the exhibition was published in 2021. It explores the story of Edward C. Moore, the creative leader who brought Tiff any & Co. to unparalleled originality and success during the second half of the 19th century. A silversmith, designer and pioneering collector, Moore sought out exceptional objects from around the world to be used as inspiration

for himself and his staff at Tiff any. The exhibition will juxtapose and prompt dialogues between the silver designed under Moore’s direction and the works of art from his collection, which range from Greek and Roman glass to metalwork from the Islamic world and Japanese textiles and baskets. It promises to be a revelatory and beautiful exhibition thanks to the amazing group of colleagues at The Met who have contributed to realizing this project. 59

COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO

2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

Lars Kinsarvik (Norwegian, 1846-1925), Drinking Horn, 1890. Birch, 13 x 18½ x 5½ in. Vesterheim NorwegianAmerican Museum.

DESIGNING DESIGNS By James D. Balestrieri

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An exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum illuminates the indelible influence of Scandinavian design on American aesthetics

COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO

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2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

candinavian and American design are so intertwined in the American experience since World War II that, in many ways, they are indistinguishable. Indeed, it might be said that Scandinavian design is all but invisible. After all, how many Americans remember, or even know, that LEGO is a Danish company? Yet, as Scandinavian Design and the United States, 1890–1980, a new and comprehensive exhibition opening at the Milwaukee Art Museum makes clear, the relationship between artists, craftspeople and designers from the disparate nations we group together as Scandinavia and their counterparts in the United States is a complex one, a delicate dance between form and function, economics and politics, and identity and industry. Milwaukee is the perfect place to host such an exhibition. Fertile farmland, rolling hills and a familiar landscape of hardwood and pines made Wisconsin a natural destination for Scandinavian immigration in the late 19th century, and the Norwegians, Swedes, Danes and Finns that made their homes there brought their traditional arts—such as tole painting— with them. Looking back on my upbringing in Milwaukee, I can say with absolute certainty that the sudden invasion of trolls in my grade school classroom constitutes my first introduction to Scandinavian design. The little plastic creatures, made by the Danish firm Dam, sported wild hair, big eyes and ears, and arms open wide. And they were everywhere—on desks, in lunchboxes, and, ubiquitously, on the ends of pencils, covering the erasers. Neither male nor female, their ugly-cute appearance, a deliberate repudiation of the cannibalistic troll under the bridge of fairy-tale fame, struck a chord with American children and adults. Their progression, from Thomas Dam’s handcarved wooden figures, to mass-marketed toys made of PVC plastic—and, more recently, a series of animated films that have revived the toys—epitomizes the exhibition as Scandinavian designers

Arabia (Finland), Fennia vase, designed ca. 1902. Earthenware, 137⁄8 x 37⁄8 x 37⁄8 in. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift of Margaret and Joel F. Chen through the 2018 Decorative Arts and Design Acquisition Committee (DA²), M.2018.122.

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COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO

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Lillian Holm (Swedish, 1896-1979), First Sight of New York hanging, ca. 1930s. Linen, cotton, wool, viscose rayon, 82 x 641⁄8 in. Collection of the Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI; Gift of Mrs. Lillian Holm in memory of Ralph T. Sayles, FIA 1965.14.

labored to maintain and project ideals of handcraftsmanship while taking advantage of mass production for export to an America that was open to their ideas and products. In the 1890s, however, Scandinavian-American immigrants sought acceptance as Americans. Through their arts, especially when they were presented at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1892 and other world’s fairs, they projected an aesthetic of handmade simplicity, aligning themselves with Colonial American silversmiths like Paul Revere and functionally beautiful furniture makers. Further, they stressed their positive role in 62

the settling of the frontier, asserted themselves as “modern,” and reminded other Americans that they were white Protestants, as the Founders had, for the most part, been. As well, this aesthetic dovetailed nicely with the homegrown Arts and Crafts movement, a reaction against manufactured goods that advocated the handmade and the natural. The earthenware Arabia (Finland) Fennia Vase, designed circa 1902, is an excellent example of the image Scandinavian designers and companies labored to broadcast. The Scandinavian campaign distanced them from the Italians and Eastern Europeans who were streaming

into the States in large numbers and creating unease about a potential loss of “Americanness” to new demographic realities. It is no surprise, perhaps, that, at the same time, a theory took hold that made Norseman Leif Eriksson the discoverer of America, centuries prior to the Italian Christopher Columbus. Eriksson did spend some time on what is now Newfoundland, but setting aside the myriad historical problems with both Columbus and Eriksson as “discoverers,” the salient point is that the idea also influenced design in the form of a Viking Revival or dragestil (“dragon style”). In Milwaukee’s Juneau Park, above Lake Michigan, there is a statue of Leif Eriksson—twin to another in Boston—a statue I visited many times as a child, sometimes with a pocketful of plastic Vikings and knights. Norwegian Lars Kinsarvik’s 1890 Drinking Horn, hand-carved of birch wood for the World’s Fair and the silver and brass Viking Boat Centerpiece, designed around 1905 and marketed by Providence, Rhode Island’s Gorham Manufacturing Company tell the story of politics enlaced in design and visual culture. My own Viking mania led me to purchase a spoon for my mother’s collection. Looking at it now, I see dragestil as periodic rather than as a one-off art and design-historical moment. Adorned with armorclad warriors and ships with dragon figureheads, even the company name “Finn Pewter Norway” is stamped inside the image of a rune stone on the back. That the spoon is made of pewter, a material long associated with Colonial America, should not be overlooked, bringing us back as it does, full circle, to the aims of ScandinavianAmericans in the 1890s. Scandinavian designers rapidly embraced modernism in the early 20th century, grafting it onto their aesthetic in the areas of architecture, textiles, metalwork, glass, ceramics, and woodwork, especially furnishings,

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2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

sharing their approaches and techniques in frequent, lively exchanges with their American counterparts. Swedish textile artist Lillian Holm’s wall hanging, First Sight of New York, for example, done in the 1930s, imparts a distinct Art Deco design to traditional Swedish technique. After World War II, promoting Scandinavian design became part of America’s exertion of “soft power” during the Cold War, a way of bolstering allies, especially those European nations threatened by the ambitions of the Soviet Union, and eliciting support for them at home. Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway— these were free nations with free peoples who combined ancient cultures and modern engineering. Their arts were functional, elegant, and, in a very real way, American. By 1950, the Scandinavian nations—now including Iceland— were enjoying a long moment in the American sun. Editor of House Beautiful magazine, Elizabeth Gordon, was an ardent cheerleader who helped organize two major exhibitions of Scandinavian design that traveled the country for years. In her mind, as Monica Penick’s essay in the wide-ranging, comprehensive catalogue states, “Gordon argued that Scandinavian designers, unlike many of their modernist counterparts (for example, designers from Germany

Peter Opsvik (Norwegian, b. 1939), Tripp Trapp chair, designed 1972. Beech, metal 3011⁄16 x 181⁄8 x 1911⁄16 in. National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway.

Tapio Wirkkala (Finnish, 1915-1985), Leaf Tray, 1951-1954. Birch, 1¾ x 13¾ x 73⁄8 in. Purchase, with funds from the Demmer Charitable Trust.

and the Bauhaus school), prioritized utility and beauty, and sought to bring well-crafted goods into the homes of ordinary people.” Harmony with surrounding objects, space, and the environment; the best raw materials— ancient and modern; artisanal care—even in manufactured goods; ergonomic consideration; portability; and, as time went on, sustainability and inclusiveness: these were, and are, the hallmarks of the Scandinavian design aesthetic after World War II. Anyone who has ever sat in an Eames, Kroll or Juhl chair, or one of the many imitators, has experienced wood bent to fit human contours and soft, cool leather seats and backrests, or the wine stem curves of a futuristic jet-age plastic chair and has felt at least some 63

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2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS Eliel Saarinen (Finnish 1873-1950), Study for the Festival of the May Queen hanging, Kingswood School, 1932. Watercolor, gouache and pencil on paper, image: 26¾ x 235⁄8 in. Cranbrook Art Museum.

the competence and confidence those chairs are meant to inspire.You might almost think you have something to say about art. Finnish artist Tapio Wirkkala’s Leaf Tray, handcrafted from laminated birch, won the Grand Prix at the Milan Triennial of 1951 and was named House Beautiful’s “Most Beautiful Object of 1951.” Gordon’s encomium on Leaf Tray in the catalogue includes the following words, which, lionizing as they are, set limits on Scandinavian design, limits that Scandinavian artists would come to resist: “Here is something lovely as a work of art, as handy as a kitchen stool. Here is simplicity, the eloquence of understatement, art that knows when to stop.” The elegant shape of Wirkkala’s Leaf Tray, and the hole at one end— presumably for a leather loop with 64

which to hang the tray, transforming utility into art—reminds me of yet another spoon, a fishing lure I bought at one of Milwaukee’s ethnic festivals and folk fairs, where people in the garb of their homelands speak the language of their homelands, sing their songs, and sell their food and wares. The spoon, my spoon, is also leaf-shaped, fashioned of a thick, polished brass alloy that has never tarnished in half a century. The red and black stripe along one side is enameled and has never chipped. My lure has two holes, one that leads to the line and rod, the other that connects to the hook. I do use it—it is a fish-catcher—but when it is not in my tackle box, I hang it from my shelf of angling books, as decor, memoir, art. I can’t recall the company name, but I bought it at the Finland booth at the folk fair. The sleeve reads,

in Finnish, “Kuusamo Uistin,” or “Lure from Kuusamo,” a town in Lapland, destroyed in fighting between the Finns and Nazis, that makes fishing lures to this day, lures that look good and last. As artisans in the United States absorbed the hands-on approaches of Scandinavian designers, Scandinavians in the Unites States made major contributions to the architecture and decoration of buildings such as the United Nations and influenced everything from home and office furnishings to auto design. At the Kingswood School for Girls on the campus of the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, for instance, Eliel Saarinen’s 1932 Festival of the May Queen hanging adorns the dining hall, combining a light, plain weave characteristic of Norwegian weaving with a design that marries a folk subject with modernist geometry. After 1960 or so, artists from Scandinavian nations began to feel that their own countries had swung too far in the direction of industry, and that Americans, particularly in California, were more open to artistic aims and experiments. At the same time, and into the 1970s and beyond, ecological concerns, new interest in the relationship between education and environment, and calls for products to take users, especially users with disabilities, into account, drew Scandinavian designers in new directions. The ubiquitous symbol for access to those with disabilities was designed by Danish student Susanne Koefoed in 1968 at a design seminar in

Thomas Dam (Danish, 1915–1989), Dammit troll doll, this example manufactured ca. 1963. Rubber, felt, wool, 8 in. Patricia K. Jeys, Estate of Betty J. Miller.

1972 and known to me as the Stokke Tripp Trapp high chair, which survived the kicks and scrapes of three highspirited children, adapting to them as they grew, before being donated. I am sure ours is still in use somewhere

or if not, being mostly wood, having returned to the earth from whence it came. When they weren’t trying to destroy the indestructible Tripp Trapp, they were often in the Baby Björn, yet another Scandinavian design and a genius thing—that is, until the child is big enough to kick. I missed the LEGO craze myself, though it proved formative for my son. I preferred my interlocking Lincoln Logs, which made stout cabins and stockades for my toy soldiers. In miniature, my cabins and forts mimic the log homes that Scandinavian immigrants built when they settled on this side of the Atlantic. Scandinavian Design is everywhere. Scandinavian Design and the United States, 1890–1980 helps us remember this and see it appear, as if by magic, right before our eyes.

2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

Finland. Objects we take for granted, such as user-friendly scissors with colorful, large plastic handles, came from these designers. One such object, very familiar to me, is Norwegian Peter Opsvik’s Tripp Trapp chair, designed in

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Gorham Manufacturing Company (Providence, Rhode Island, founded 1831), Viking Boat Centerpiece, model D 900, designed ca. 1905. Silver, brass 5 ½ x 137⁄8x 47⁄8 in. Collection of the Art Fund, Inc. at the Birmingham Museum of Art; Purchase with funds provided by Guy R. Kreusch.

Scandinavian Design and the United States, 1890-1980 March 24-July 23 Milwaukee Art Museum 700 N. Art Museum Drive Milwaukee, WI 53202 t: (414) 224-3200 www.mam.org 65

COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO

2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907), Richard Watson Gilder, Helena de Kay Gilder, and Rodman de Kay Gilder, modeled 1879, cast ca. 1883-84. Plaster, 8⁄ x 16⁄ in. Gift of David and Joshua Gilder, 2002, 2002.445.

AESTHETIC INNOVATIONS The Met presents a collection of objects and art that illuminates the vibrant creative cross-pollination in post-Civil War New York

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elena de Kay (1846-1916) spent her early years in Dresden, Germany, developing a passion for art. When her mother brought her family back to the U.S., she spent her summers in Newport, Rhode Island, where she became friends with Henry James and met the painter and stained glass artist John LaFarge. She later attended the Free School of Art for Women at the Cooper Union and, in 1871, she attended the first life drawing class open to women at the National Academy of Design. One of the few extant examples of her painting is that of a female nude painted inside the lid of her paint box. It is now in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and is featured in

2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

the exhibition, organized by Sylvia Yount, Lawrence A. Fleishman Curator in Charge of the American Wing, and Thayer Tolles, Marica A.Vilcek Curator of American Painting and Sculpture. The museum notes, “Drawn from the museum’s collection, a selection of some 50 works—paintings, sculpture, watercolors, illustrated books, and decorative objects including painted tiles, stained glass, and textiles—reveals the vibrant modern art world that emerged in New York in the post-Civil War years, laying the groundwork for today’s international cultural capital. These objects, made by New York–based artists or exhibited in the city, highlight late 19th-century aesthetic innovations and trends, while also revealing leading American artists’ roles as experimental tastemakers, organizers, exhibitors, and collaborators.” While women were allowed into life drawing classes at the League in 1871, male models were obliged to wear a loin cloth in life drawing classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA). In 1886, Thomas Eakins (1844-1916), a teacher

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its exhibition New York Art Worlds, 1870-1890 which runs through October 29. De Kay was a key figure in the burgeoning art world of New York. She married Richard Watson Gilder, a poet and editor of Scribner’s and The Century magazines. After their marriage in 1874, they purchased a carriage house near Union Square which they later called “The Studio” where artists and actors, writers and musicians gathered and met collectors and patrons. She was among the founders of the Art Students League, and with Augustus Saint-Gaudens and others, formed the Society of American Artists. Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907) created a plaster low relief titled Richard Watson Gilder, Helena de Kay Gilder, and Rodman de Kay Gilder, which was modeled in 1879. The museum notes, “Between 1877 and 1880, Saint-Gaudens completed around twenty informal, low-relief portraits of artists and friends, many of whom were part of his intertwined social and professional orbits.” The intertwined lives of artists and patrons, collaborations among artists and new movements in art are at the center of

Charles Ethan Porter, (1847-1923), Bouquet of Roses, ca. 1880. Enamel on porcelain, 4¼ x 8⁄ in. Partial and Promised Gift of Charlynn and Warren Goins, 2019, 2019.601.5.

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COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO

2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

Thomas Eakins (1844-1916), The Artist’s Wife and His Setter Dog, ca. 1884–89. Oil on canvas, 30 x 23 in. Fletcher Fund, 1923, 23.139.

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COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO

2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933), Squash Window with Pebbles, 1885–90. Glass, beach-worn quartz, lead came, 24 x 24 in. Purchase, Sansbury-Mills Fund and Anonymous Gift, 2015, 2015.707.

at PAFA, removed the cloth to illustrate an anatomical point in a class attended by women. He was dismissed from the institution. His painting, The Artist’s Wife and His Setter Dog, circa 1884 to 1889, was purchased by the museum in 1923. Eakins, known for the unrelenting realism of his portraits, portrays Susan McDowell Eakins in his studio with their dog Harry. Light from a skylight illuminates the model in the relative dark of the studio. The museum notes, “In this haunting work, Eakins’s wife wears an Empire-style gown and sits in an eighteenth-century chair with a Japanese picture book on her lap—accessories that symbolize the artist’s aesthetic ideals.”

The New York cultural elite, infused with an American nationalism, began to give way to artists of the New Movement who were more cosmopolitan. The Aesthetic Movement, which began in England, stressed that art should be beautiful rather than a vehicle for moral and allegorical teachings. Prominent among the American proponents of the movement was Louis Comfort Tiff any (1848–1933) whose extraordinary Squash Window with Pebbles, 1885 to 1890, is in the exhibition. New York artists in the period of 1870 to 1890 often worked together in studio buildings and held salon-style gatherings such 69

COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO

2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

John La Farge, (1835-1910), Autumn Scattering Leaves, ca. 1900. Watercolor and gouache on paper, 18 x 13 in. Gift of Jacqueline Loewe Fowler, 2020, 2021.14.20.

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COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO

as those at the Gilder’s studio. The museum explains, “Between 1877 and 1887, members of the Tile Club—among them Edwin Austin Abbey, William Merritt Chase, Winslow Homer, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens— gathered informally to paint ceramic tiles and promote artistic lifestyles. The professionalization of women’s roles in the New York art world—from students at work to observers of modern life—is represented in paintings by Louis Lang, Helena de Kay (later Gilder), and Edith Mitchill (later Prellwitz). The exhibition also explores how artists— including Cecilia Beaux, Charles Ethan Porter, and Elihu Vedder—merged artistic production with commercial endeavors in porcelain plaques, Christmas card designs, and illustrated books to reach broader audiences.” Vedder (1836–1923) produced an edition of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám : the astronomer-poet of Persia in 1884, containing 56 “accompaniments” to the text and, in the limited edition, a stamped leather cover featuring his “cosmic swirl of life”, an

Helena de Kay (1846-1916), Paint box with nude study, ca. 1871. Oil on wood, 2¼ x 9⁄ x 5⁄ in. Gift of Mary and William de Kay Pappenheimer, in celebration of the Museum’s 150th anniversary, 2019, 2019.442.1.

2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

Elihu Vedder (1836-1923), Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, 1884, 17⁄ x 15⁄x 2⁄ in. Houghton Mifflin & Co. (Boston and New York), Thomas J. Watson Library.

example of his commitment to the Aesthetic Movement.Vedder described the cosmic swirl as the “gradual concentration of elements that combined to form life; the sudden pause through the reverse of the movement which marks the instant of life; and then the gradual, ever-widening dispersion again of those elements into space.” Helena de Kay Gilder’s friend John LaFarge (1835–1910) often produced designs for stained glass windows in watercolor which could emulate the transparency of glass. His Autumn Scattering Leaves, circa 1900, is a study for an unrealized window. LaFarge designed a window for the Gilder’s home. When the couple moved, the window was removed and mounted as a fire screen that appears in the exhibition.

Through October 23 The Metropolitan Museum of Art 1000 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10028 t: (212) 535-7710 www.metmuseum.org

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FINE ART SHOW INSIGHTS

“Fairs are crucial for gaining new clients and visiting with existing ones. If they don’t come to us, we must go to them.” – Ashley Templeton, Guarisco Gallery senior associate

E X HIBITOR S A ND SHOW PRODUCER S TA LK A BOU T THE VA LUE OF FINE A RT FA IR S IN THE M A R K ET

Gladwell & Patterson has exhibited at the Palm Beach Show for over a decade and each year our trip to sunny Florida is the highlight of our exhibition calendar. The show offers us the opportunity to bring fresh artworks from our London gallery to our existing American clientele and to meet new collectors. The show has always been a huge success, with our most notable sales including paintings by Sir Winston Churchill, Gustave Loiseau, Norman Rockwell and Montague Dawson. – Gladwell & Patterson owner, Glenn Fuller 72

Art, antique and jewelry shows facilitate a marketplace bringing together domestic and international exhibitors showcasing items spanning every genre, juxtaposing many periods and movements all in one place all at one time. The Palm Beach Show Group preserved throughout the pandemic but in a scaled-back way. Fortunately for us, with the timing and location of our event in Palm Beach, Florida, we were able to produce the 2021 Palm Beach Show despite COVID-19. In order to adhere to social distancing and mask requirements, we limited the number of exhibitors and attendees, but the show’s success proved the much-appreciated importance of live and in-person events. – Scott Diament is the founder and CEO of the Palm Beach Show Group

COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO For more than 35 years, Rehs Galleries has been participating in art fairs and art and antique shows throughout the country. Over the years, certain shows have proven to be more successful than others; among them are The Newport Show, Antiques + Modernism Show, and those run by the Palm Beach Show Group. The latter includes their Palm Beach, Los Angeles, Baltimore and Naples shows. Today, it is important for most galleries to exhibit at fairs to broaden their client base in areas where they do not have a physical location. These shows allow dealers to meet and talk with new and existing clients. They also allow collectors to see the quality and condition of the works a specific dealer offers and compare them to other works at the show. That is normally a good thing for those dealers who are very selective about the art they buy and sell. – Gallery owner, Howard Rehs

2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

The Palm Beach Show is an opportunity that lets us share our expertise and the sheer breadth and variety of items we carry. We run a relationship-driven business and see that our clients’ attraction to art is deeply personal. Art is difficult to connect to and comprehend online. At the show, we get to interact with our clients, both old and new, who are equally excited to see us and these masterpieces in person. Lastly, since the pandemic we’ve seen Palm Beach Show newcomers tap into the vibrant art culture that makes the city so special. We cannot wait to interact with new clients who might walk into our booth for the first time; we are sure they will be as mesmerized by our collection as we are. -Rebecca Rau, owner of M.S. Rau

From the earliest artisanal fairs and pilgrimages dating back to the Greeks and Romans, to the first ever fair specifically for art in 1460, through the French Salons of the late 1700s and 1800s, to the creation of the first modern art fairs; Art Market Cologne in 1967 and Art Basel in 1970, art fairs have drawn the curious, the collectors and the commerce to sustain and grow. At their height, pre-pandemic, there were more than 300 art fairs globally each year. Like many others, the Boston International Fine Art Show was forced into hiatus due to COVID-19. We only relaunched a live show in October 2022 and happily, we are now planning our 25th Anniversary show in October 2023. We believe there will always be live art fairs. People love the excitement, the interaction and the networking. Whether or not you are in the mood to make a purchase, an art fair offers the opportunity to discover new artists and genres, speak with experts in the field, and share your knowledge and enthusiasm with others. A virtual fair might be interesting and convenient, but it lacks all of the human interaction of a live fair. – Co-producers Robert Four and Tony Fusco 73

COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO

2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

MARKET REPORT W H AT W E’R E HE A R ING FROM GA LLER IES, AUCTION HOUSES A ND MUSEUMS ACROSS THE COUNTRY

Karen Rigdon Vice President Fine Silver & Objects of Vertu, Furniture & Decorative Arts

Heritage Auctions Decorative Arts are selling well and finding their ways into homes of all generations. Rather than hurting the auction industry, the health crisis of the last years has stirred new interest as we have leaned into a more insular lifestyle. Time at home caused many to reappraise their surroundings from furnishing to collections. Some refined their interiors, some decluttered storage areas or started collections. No matter the impetus, all resulted in both buying and selling. Simultaneously many shops were closed or had limited stock, which pushed customers online where the entire world could be studied and sourced. As supply issues raged, we were seeing more material consigned than ever before, and we increased the number of Decorative Arts sales, adding monthly auctions. With more 74

opportunities and material available clients became increasingly comfortable buying online and subsequently gained confidence in bidding at auction as they learned to research archives and interact with auction experts. I cannot overstate the impact of these factors, which nearly doubled Heritage Auction’s sales in 2021. We continue to see high demand for the best of the best, whether Tiffany Studios lamps, Gilded Age silver or American Studio Pottery. Last spring a Tiffany Studios Dragon Fly lamp sold for $275,000, a very strong result for a table lamp, and earlier a Tiffany & Co. Silver Goblet Cup sold for $300,000, a top result for American silver. We also have seen regained interest in categories such as fancy flatware servers, which may be a result of a return to entertaining,

even if on an intimate scale. It is not unusual for a client that is a solid collector in one venue to suddenly expand into other categories, which may have to do with access to archives and experts in all areas. We see a great deal of cross-over buying at Heritage, for example a solid coin collector may jump into the Art Nouveau category. What was not expected but certainly welcomed are those who have started buying at the top of the market. The most exciting instance was the purchase of a Paul Revere, Jr. spoon for $32,500 which set a world record. It was purchased as the first piece for a new collection. Heritage Auctions 2801 W. Airport Freeway, Dallas TX 75261 www.ha.com

Art & Antiques The Charleston Show presents a quality collection of art, antiques, jewelry and more

2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

March 17-19, 2023 The Charleston Show Charleston Festival Hall 56 Beaufain Street Charleston, SC 29401 t: (330) 606-8226 www.thecharlestonshow.com

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ow in its second year, The Charleston Show brings together 30 exhibitors from across the United States, England and throughout Europe, showcasing fine art and antiques, contemporary design and jewelry. From mid-century furniture and folk art, to traditional and contemporary art, the show is building steam in the Charleston, South Carolina, area and beyond. Exhibitors at the 2023 event include Rehs Galleries, David Brooker Fine Art, James Butterworth Antique American Wicker and many others. A preview party takes place the evening of March 16 at 7 p.m., benefitting the Drayton Hall Preservation Trust. “This gala opening event provides an opportunity to support the collections and preservation of the historic estate as well as a chance for a first look at the antique show’s offerings,” according to the event website. A VIP reception begins at 6 p.m. The Charleston Show will be open to the public Friday, March 17, through Sunday March 19. To view a full list of exhibitors and purchase tickets, visit www.thecharlestonshow.com.

COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO

EVENT PREVIEW: CHARLESTON, SC

An example of the many treasures one can explore at The Charleston Show.

Additional examples of art, antiques and furniture at The Charleston Show.

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EVENT PREVIEW: PHILADELPHIA, PA

Expansive Offerings The Philadelphia Show returns with its premier offerings of fine historical art and antiques in a museum setting April 29-May 1 The Philadelphia Show Philadelphia Museum of Art 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway Philadelphia, PA 19130 www.the philadelphiashow.com

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fter reaching a landmark 60th anniversary last year, The Philadelphia Show returns to the grounds of the Philadelphia Art Museum’s East Terrace on April 28 with an expanded roster of exceptional exhibitors. Firmly established as a premier destination for museum-quality art and antiques, this year’s event will feature more than 40 leading dealers of fine art,

The Philadelphia Show takes place on the grounds of the Philadelphia Art Museum

collectible design, antiques, Americana, folk art, ceramics, porcelain, silver, jewelry, textiles and decorative arts. The Philadelphia Show welcome several

Edward Hopper (1882-1967), Oaks at Eastham, 1936. Watercolor on paper, 20 x 28 in., signed lower right: ‘Edward Hopper’. Courtesy of Betty Krulik Fine Art

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new exhibitors to the event, joining longstanding and returning galleries, to showcase works spanning from the 16th to the 21st centuries. While remaining true to its focus on American art, many galleries will also present important European and Asian works. Regular, returning participants of the fair include Jeffrey Tillou Antiques, Ralph M. Chait Galleries, S. J. Shrubsole, Olde Hope, Kentshire, Lillian Nassau LLC, Moderne Gallery and more. The show is excited to welcome new and returning exhibitors A La Vieille Russie, M. Hanks Gallery, Old Print Shop, Susan Teller Gallery and Thistlethwaite Americana. In recent years, The Philadelphia Show has made a commitment to welcoming dealers who specialize in works created by underrepresented artists. “Since 1988 I’ve owned and operated M. Hanks Gallery, specializing in African American art, and held many shows in my own gallery and participated in other art fairs across the country but this is my

2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

J.O. Osborne, View of New Brighton, Pennsylvania, 1850. Oil on canvas, 32 x 46 in., signed: ‘J.O. Osborne/September/1850’. Courtesy of Kelly Kinzle Antiques

COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO

Ronald Joseph (1910 – 1992), The Family, ca.1936-40. Oil on canvas, 34 x 28 in., signed. Courtesy of Clarke Gallery

first time exhibiting at the Philadelphia Show,” says Eric Hanks, founder of M. Hanks Gallery. “I’m excited to be a part of this show because I relish every opportunity to share my enthusiasm for and experience with this genre of work, but also because one artist whose work I’ve shown for many years, Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller (1877-1968), is originally from Philadelphia. She created a relatively small but impressive body of work that has failed to attract the attention and appreciation that it deserves in part because she is Black and in part because she is a woman. Everyone attending the show will benefit by learning more about this and other artists whose works I’m planning to bring and seeing up close some of the best examples of artwork they created.” In addition to the artists featured here, other highlights include pieces by Morris Blackburn, N.C. Wyeth, Willard LeRoy Metcalf, Jacob Lawrence, Charles White, Pegge Hoper, Stephen S. Pace, Ben Shahn, Susan Catherine Waters and many more. The fair will also feature special inperson and live programming leading up to, during and after the event for adults and children alike, and a curated loan exhibition, Faces in the Crowd, which celebrates faces in a post-pandemic world. Relocating to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a location that better serves the show’s distinguished audience of collectors, designers, industry experts and tastemakers, has proven to be a beneficial move, having amplified both the number of fair attendees and sales in 2022. “We are proud that The Philadelphia Show supports the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Education Department and outreach to our community,” says show chair Ellen Caplan. “The show is a place where both seasoned and entry-level collectors are welcome to discover and purchase works of art. We hope visitors see our show as a destination in which they may educate themselves about different genres of art and design and learn more about collecting from our very knowledgeable dealers.” The Philadelphia Show opens with a preview party on April 27 and runs through April 30.

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EVENT PREVIEW: WASHINGTON D.C.

Curating Perfection The Washington Winter Shows sees record-breaking sales over the course of a weekend of exquisite fine art and antiques, and engaging programming

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rawing roughly 2,500 visitors to the Katzen Arts Center at American University over the weekend of January 13, sales at the 2023 Washington Winter Show exceeded those achieved at any recent show to date. According to the producers of the event, this year’s most popular categories were ceramics (in particular Delft, Asian, English and European), furniture, midcentury pieces, silver, paintings, small precious objects, rugs and jewelry. They saw many collectors making purchases across multiple dealers and eras ranging from the 18th- to the mid-20th century. “Much like the show itself, the buying was eclectic covering a wide spectrum of themes, interests and periods,” says executive director, Jonathan G. Willen. The theme of this year’s show, Curating: From Classic to Contemporary, was brought to life by half a dozen “master curators” through a series

The Washington Winter Show was held at the Katzen Arts Center at American University and opened with a special preview night celebration.

of lectures, panels, discussions and book signings over the course of the weekend. Aldous Bertram, the inaugural

Fine art and antiques spanning centuries were in abundance at this year’s event.

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artist in residence, masterfully captured this year’s theme through a curated collage bridging past and present from collectible antiques to contemporary with various touch points of the exhibition. Ken Fulk, the engaging keynote speaker at the Lecture & Luncheon, took guests on a journey into his world of exceptional design from homes and hotels, planes and parties to restaurants, bars and beyond. The Show continued into a weekend full of inspiring and insightful panel discussions The Design Panel, moderated by Tori Mellot of Frederick Magazine with designers Robin Henry, Laura Hodges and Nestor Santa-Cruz, shared their methodologies for working with clients that have collections from classic to contemporary and tricks on how to curate personal objects into the most beautiful spaces. Saturday continued with a look into the world of Bunny Mellon with

COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO

a special lecture by this year’s loan exhibit partner, Oak Spring Garden Foundation. The lecture was a mix of personal stories from her grandson, Thomas Lloyd, and an insider’s look at Bunny Mellon’s ongoing legacy and

incredible collection from Sir Peter Crane, president of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation. The final day of the Washington Winter Show began over savory waffles and chilled mimosas hosted by the talented

Aldous Bertram, the inaugural artist in residence, masterfully captured this year’s theme through a curated collage.

and witty Jane Scott Hodges of Leontine Linens. Hodges shared her secrets for setting the perfect table, creating the most inviting and comfortable bedrooms and—most importantly—how to have fun doing it. One of her most inspiring tips shared during her lecture, “The Art of Living With Linens,” is to look around your house for small treasures to add to your table. In her words, “Your table top is not just for dishes, linen and cutlery! Setting the perfect table should be a reflection of you and the process should bring you joy.” Additional weekend highlights included “Booth Chats” by Carole Pinto of Carole Pinto Fine Arts and Paul Vandekar of Earle D.Vandekar of Knightsbridge as well as an insightful lecture hosted by presenting sponsor PNC Private Bank exploring the latest steps from industry experts in protecting fine art investments and generational antiques. Visit www.washingtonwintershow. org for updates on details about the 2024 event.

2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

Many of the leading art and antique dealers from the U.S. and beyond had a presence at the 2023 Washington Winter Show.

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C OL L EC TOR’ S G U IDE TO 2 02 3 FINE A RT & A NTIQUE SHOWS

MARCH 17-19

MARCH 23-26

APRIL 13-16

The Charleston Show

Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary

Expo Chicago

Charleston Festival Hall 56 Beaufain Street Charleston, SC 29401 www.thecharlestonshow.com Now in its second year, The Charleston Show brings together 30 exhibitors from the United States and Europe showcasing the best period to midcentury furniture, traditional and contemporary art and ceramics, jewelry, folk art, oriental rugs, silver, prints and maps, garden and architectural antiques.

West Palm Beach, FL www.artpbfair.com One of the highlight’s of the contemporary art fairs of the winter season, Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary (PBM+C) brings together world-class art presented by an internationally acclaimed group of galleries. As an added bonus, the art fair coincides with the worldrenowned Palm Beach International Boat Show.

Chicago, IL www.expochicago.com Entering its 10th year as a leading international art fair, Expo Chicago, the International Exposition of Contemporary and Modern Art will host 170 leading international exhibitors presented alongside one of the highest quality platforms for global contemporary art and culture. The exposition draws upon the city’s rich history as a vibrant international cultural destination, while engaging the region’s contemporary art community and collector base.

PATRONS BROWSE THE WIDE VARIETY OF OFFERINGS AT THE PALM BEACH SHOW

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COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO

APRIL 20-23

Art Market San Francisco San Francisco, CA www.artmarketsf.com

2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

Art Market San Francisco, the Bay Area’s longest running art fair, features contemporary works from 85 top galleries from around the world and a program of Public Projects curated by AMP’s Artistic Director, Nato Thompson. Art Market’s 11th edition, now under the leadership of fair director Kelly Freeman, will be a platform for the vibrant, experimental and inclusive strength that defines the Bay Area’s thriving arts community. APRIL 25-MAY 7

Boston Design Week Boston, MA www.bostondesignweek.com The 10th annual Boston Design Week features 80-plus in-person, virtual and outdoor events citywide, including the annual Design Week Awards on Friday, May 5th. This 12-day design festival offers renowned guest speakers, panel discussions, exhibitions and more, hosted by design-oriented businesses, universities, museums, non-profit organizations and professional societies. Most events are free of charge with registration, and all events must be open to the public. JULY 13-16

Hamptons Fine Art Fair Southampton, NY www.hamptonsfineartfair.com The Hamptons region has long been recognized as a Mecca for the creation and patronage of fine art. Currently over 1,500 artists reside in the region. This annual, well-curated, high-caliber art fair celebrates this epicenter of creativity and was created specifically for art-enthusiastic Hamptonites, but any contemporary art collector will appreciate its offerings of international and closer-to-home blue chip art.

APRIL 28-30

The Philadelphia Show Philadelphia Museum of Art 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19130 www.thephiladelphiashow.com The Philadelphia Show features nearly 50 of the leading exhibitors in the U.S., who specialize in fine art, design, antiques, Americana, folk art, ceramics, porcelain, silver, jewelry, textiles and decorative arts that span the 16th to the 21st-centuries. THE PHILADELPHIA SHOW TAKES PLACE ON THE EAST TERRACE OF THE PHILADELPHIA ART MUSEUM DURING THE LAST WEEKEND OF APRIL. PHOTO COURTESY OF VISIT PHILADELPHIA.

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2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS AT THE 2022 AMERICAN ART FAIR D. WIGMORE FINE ART SHOWCASED: ILYA BOLOTOWSKY (1907-1981), CENTENNIAL, 1949. OIL ON CANVAS 42 X 50 IN., SIGNED: LOWER RIGHT; TITLED ON REVERSE ON ARTIST LABEL.

COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO

MAY 13-16

The American Art Fair Bohemian National Hall 321 East 73rd Street, New York, NY 10021 www.theamericanartfair.com The American Art Fair focuses on American 19th and 20th-century works with more than 400 landscapes, portraits, still lifes, studies and sculpture exhibited by the nation’s premier specialists and galleries including Debra Force Fine Art, Thomas Coleville Fine Art, D. Wigmore Fine Art,Vose Galleries, Graham Shay, Avery Galleries, Questroyal Fine Art and others.

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Santa Fe Convention Center 201 W. Marcy Street Santa Fe, NM 87501 www.oldwestevents.com

2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

Brian Lebel’s Old West Shows and Old West Auctions are held annually in January in Mesa, Arizona, and June in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Consisting of a weekend dealer show and sale, along with an exciting, live Saturday night auction, both events showcase the best authentic cowboy, Indian and western art, antiques and artifacts available for sale. Both events draw dealers, collectors and artists from around the country and beyond in a lively, colorful, art-filled display.

COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO

JUNE 23-25

Brian Lebel’s Old West Show and Auction

ON THE BLOCK AT BRIAN LEBEL’S OLD WEST SHOW AND AUCTION AT THEIR JANUARY EVENT IN MESA, ARIZONA: EANGER IRVING COUSE (1866-1936), THE PIPE MAKER. OIL ON BOARD, 12 X 16 IN.

JULY 14-16

JULY 27-30

AUGUST 1-4

Art Santa Fe

Seattle Art Fair

Intersect Aspen

Santa Fe, NM www.redwoodartgroup.com/artsanta-fe/

Seattle, WA www.seattleartfair.com

Aspen, CO www.intersectaspen.com

Seattle Art Fair, founded by the late Paul G. Allen, is a one-of-a-kind showcase for the vibrant arts community of the Pacific Northwest, and a leading destination for the best in modern and contemporary art. Working alongside Beneficiary Partner Seattle Art Museum and the fair’s dedicated Host Committee, the Seattle Art Fair brings together the region’s strong collector base, the region’s top museums and institutions and an array of innovative public programming.

Intersect Aspen presents an art and design fair taking place each summer, in person at the Aspen Ice Garden. While fabulous in the winter months, Aspen in August is especially spectacular, and the perfect time to host this special gathering, bringing together a selection of outstanding galleries, collectors, curators and art professionals.

A boutique art fair, Art Santa Fe presents modern and contemporary art and design from 60 leading international galleries and emerging artists in an elegant gallery-style space. The fair closes out the annual Santa Fe Art Week, a nine-day festival featuring a myriad of art experiences and events, openings and shows, art talks, workshops and art walks at some of Santa Fe’s finest galleries, cultural museums and attractions.

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COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO

2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

JULY 29-30

The Newport Show Newport, RI www.thenewportshow.com Last year The Newport Show celebrated 25 years of bringing beautiful vintage and antique fine art, fashion, jewelry and furniture to art collectors. The show is a beloved highlight of the Aquidneck Island summer season. In addition to offering a variety of materials to collectors, The Newport Show is also a fundraising event for the Newport Historical Society and Boys & Girls Clubs of Newport County.

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AUGUST 10-13

SEPTEMBER 7-10

SEPTEMBER 8-10

Art Market Hamptons

Art on Paper

The Armory Show

Water Mill, NY www.artmarkethamptons.com

New York, NY www.thepaperfair.com

New York, NY www.thearmoryshow.com

Art Market Hamptons showcases museum-quality design, cutting edge contemporary art and compelling gallery presentations to a dedicated community of New York City and Long Island East End collectors. The celebrated fair is the highlight of the Hamptons summer season, and a cultural cornerstone produced in partnership with the region’s leading art institutions.

Coinciding with Armory Art Week, Art on Paper, New York City’s celebrated, medium-driven fair brings together 100 galleries featuring top modern and contemporary paper-based art. The fair’s ninth edition will showcase unique and powerful projects with a focus on can’tmiss performances highlighting the creative potential of paper.

A cornerstone of New York’s cultural landscape since its founding in 1994, The Armory Show brings the world’s leading international contemporary and modern art galleries to New York each year.

COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO

2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

AUGUST 4-7

The Nantucket Show Nantucket Boys and Girls Club 61 Sparks Avenue Nantucket, MA 02554 www.thenantucketshow.com The Nantucket Show presents a carefully curated selection of dealers from across the U.S. and abroad exhibiting a diverse range of contemporary and traditional fine art, antiques and decorative objects. Exhibitor specialties include American, English and European fine furniture, midcentury modern furniture, antique oriental rugs, ceramics, silver, antiquities, prints and maps, folk art, jewelry, ceramics, books, garden antiques and nautical antiques. WAYNE, PENNSYLVANIA’S THURSTON NICHOLS GALLERY SPACE AT THE 2022 NANTUCKET ANTIQUES SHOW.

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COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO

2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

OCTOBER 20-23

Boston International Fine Art Show The Cyclorama, Boston Center for the Arts 539 Tremont Street Boston, MA 02116 www.fineartboston.com Boston Center for the Arts—a 15,000 square foot circular venue under a domed skylight— will house 40 galleries showcasing the full spectrum of fine art from historic masters to contemporary artists. With an emphasis on historic American art from the 18th through the mid-20th-centuries, the show has recently introduced contemporary art section featuring juried up-and-coming and mid-career artists.

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COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO

2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

AUGUST 31-SEPTEMBER 3

Baltimore Art, Antique & Jewelry Show Baltimore Convention Center One West Pratt Street Baltimore, MD 21201 www.baltimorefallshow.com The Baltimore Art, Antique & Jewelry Show offers collectors the most all-inclusive buying platform from experts across all disciplines. Enjoy an impressive diversity of collections including furniture, American and European silver, major works of art, Asian antiquities, porcelain, Americana, antique and estate jewelry, glass, textiles, contemporary fine crafts and more.

SEPTEMBER 14-17

OCTOBER 12-15

Reno Tahoe International Art Show

The San Francisco Fall Show

Reno, NV www.rtiashow.com The Reno Tahoe International Art Show, which ran for the first time in 2022 at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center, presented interior designers, architects, consultants and collectors with a wide array of new and better fine arts and furnishings at prices untouched by a pressured market. The RTIA show showcases local talent alongside independent artists, national and international galleries in a lively, sophisticated exhibition filled with beautiful art and creative design, set off by live music performances, on-floor Talks and ongoing hospitalities.

San Francisco, CA www.sffallshow.org The San Francisco Fall Show features approximately 50 dealers from across North America and Europe, offering for sale an extraordinary range of fine and decorative arts from around the world representing all styles and periods, including furniture, silver, ceramics, glass, jewelry, rugs, textiles, paintings, prints, photography, books, sculpture and more. The four-day show offers the opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of great art and antiques with special programming each day.

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COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO

2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

NOVEMBER 3-5

Art San Diego San Diego, CA www.redwoodartgroup.com/ art-san-diego/ Art San Diego is a boutique art fair that presents 60 leading international galleries and emerging artists, immersive experiences and curated artist talks. Special programming provides a dynamic experience for attendees, offering opportunities to view and interact with works by preeminent international artists, experience leading museums “outside the museum walls,” and enjoy exhibitions that showcase the thriving art and design landscape of San Diego and beyond. NOVEMBER 9-13

Salon Art + Design New York, NY www.thesalonny.com Salon Art + Design, produced by Sanford Smith + Associates, is a curated fair presenting the best vintage,

NOVEMBER 1-5

The Art Show New York, NY www.theartshow.org The Art Show brings together the country’s top galleries to showcase incisively curated exhibitions of both historical and contemporary works. The fair’s intimately scaled presentations provides its audience with a wide scope of cultural experiences, meaningful interactions, and illuminating exposure to phenomenal artwork.

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modern and contemporary design enhanced by blue-chip 20th-century art. The Salon will feature over 50 leading art and design galleries from all over the world, spotlighting the trends of collectible design. DECEMBER 5-10

Art Miami Miami, FL www.artmiami.com Art Miami, one of the country’s foremost contemporary and modern art fairs, annually showcases the most significant artworks of the 20th and 21st-centuries in a “can’t miss” event for collectors, curators, museum professionals and art enthusiasts. Distinguished for its quality, depth and diversity, Art Miami features investment quality paintings, drawings, design, sculpture, NFTs, video art, photography and prints from leading international galleries during Miami art week.

DECEMBER 6-10

Red Dot Miami Miami, FL www.redwoodartgroup.com/red-dotmiami/ Red Dot Miami is a gallery-only contemporary art fair that takes place during the widely-attended Miami Art Week. The fair features site-specific installations, ongoing collaborations and commissioned events and special programming in the midst of a dazzling display of contemporary art. DECEMBER 6-10

Spectrum Miami Miami, FL www.redwoodartgroup.com/ spectrum-miami/ While sister fair Red Dot Miami is geared toward established galleries and artists, Spectrum Miami shines a spotlight on independent career artists, studios, younger galleries and emerging artists who are pushing the boundaries of contemporary art in exciting and meaningful ways.

COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO

DECEMBER 7-9

Art Basel Miami Beach Miami Beach, FL www.artbasel.com/miami-beach

Wilmington, DE www.winterthur.org

The Palm Beach Show West Palm Beach, FL www.palmbeachshow.com

The Winter Show New York, NY www.thewintershow.org

Washington Winter Show Washington, DC www.washingtonwintershow.org

Intersect Palm Springs Palm Springs, CA www.intersectpalmsprings.com

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 (DATES TBD)

Delaware Antique Show

2023 FINE ART & ANTIQUE SHOWS

Thousands of art dealers, artists, collectors and art aficionados will enjoy modern and contemporary art by masters of modern and contemporary art, as well as emerging stars, from 283 galleries from 38 countries at Art Basel Miami Beach, the only international Art Basel experience in the U.S. Also, the popular Conversations discussion series returns with 35 speakers across nine panels, exploring the evolving global art scene.

LA Art Show Los Angeles, CA www.laartshow.com

FOG Design+Art PHOTO CREDIT: SCOTT RUDD PRODUCTIONS, INC.

San Francisco, CA www.fogfair.com

Art Palm Beach West Palm Beach, FL www.artpalmbeach.com

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EVENT REPORT: NEW YORK, NY

Collectors, Kenneth Woodcock, Ofelia García and Ferris Olin in conversation during the panel called “Collectors on Collecting the Work of Women Artists” at IAC’s 27th annual American Art Conference.

Cut, Cast, Carved and Coupled Initiatives in Art and Culture’s Annual American Art Conference brought top experts together for a deep dive into the past, present and future lives of women artists

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eld in November, 2022, Cut, Cast, Carved and Coupled, Initiatives in Art and Culture’s 27th Annual American Art Conference continued IAC’s exploration of women in American Art—as artists, teachers, patrons, gallerists, scholars, curators and subjects. Three avenues of approach emerged as central to the conference’s discovering, or rediscovering, those who by virtue of sex are often overlooked and underrepresented in art history or, having achieved significant recognition during their day, fell into obscurity, whether relative or absolute. The

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first was media, including techniques traditionally viewed as “feminine.” The second was strategies women employed to be able to pursue their work in a male-dominated space and society. The third was the role of institutional and individual collectors in helping these artists achieve recognition. In terms of media (and by way of “cut”), Shannon Vittoria, assistant curator of American painting and drawing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art discussed the engravings of Mary Nimmo Moran and the Craze for “Little Media.” Contemporary

Native artist Carla Hemlock referenced the cloth, bead and woodwork and Indigenous lens she uses to craft artwork from cradleboards to quilts, forms addressing historical events, contemporary issues and the Haudenosaunee worldview. By way of “cast” and “carved,” Kirsten Pai Buick, professor of art history at the University of New Mexico, explored the marble neoclassical work of expatriate sculptor Edmonia Lewis. Karen Bearor considered I. Rice Pereira’s exploration of light and space in her 1940s-1950s

Sylvia Yount, curator of the American Wing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art leading a private curatorial tour for attendees of IAC’s annual American Art Conference at the museum.

Dorian Bergen, president of ACA Galleries and Lisa Koenigsberg, president and founder of Initiatives in Art and Culture at a luncheon and program sponsored by ACA at the Gallery.

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trailblazing glass constructions, works embodying techniques she would draw on in her 1960s Lapis oil paintings which were of such large scale they could not be realized in glass. Joyce Pomeroy Schwartz (Founder/President of Works Of Art For Public Spaces, Ltd.), documentary photographer and author Lynn Gilbert, and Maria Nevelson (Founder, Louise Nevelson Foundation, Inc.) spoke about the sculptor’s interior assemblages, architectural public artworks and iconic appearance, which was as crafted as was that of Georgia O’Keeffe and underscored the bold aesthetic of her work. With respect to metal and wood, frame historian Suzanne Smeaton addressed O’Keeffe’s involvement in the design of both wood and metal frames and in finishes of silver, black, and white, and in a form radically divergent

from her unadorned “clamshell” frames. In terms of strategy, Lisa Peters and Angela Fraleigh explored women’s use and adaptation of traditional visual vocabularies to create subversive alternate narratives. Lisa N. Peters discussed independent allegorical works, maintaining that Edith Mitchill Prellwitz, Ella Condie Lamb, Louise King Cox, Mary Lizzie Macomber and Ella Ferris Pell either knew one another or knew of one another, and achieved acceptance in a male-dominated art world in part thanks to the covert nature of allegory. Artist Angela Fraleigh discussed her rearrangement and repurposing of the visual language of Western art history in her subversive and layered figurative paintings which through alternative narratives reveal contemporary attitudes. Other strategies employed by

women to pursue their art were explored by Julie Aronson, curator of American painting, sculpture and drawing at Cincinnati Art Museum, who considered the lives of painters Elizabeth Boott Duveneck and Elizabeth Nourse and sculptor Bessie Potter Vonnoh, each of whom navigated challenging circumstances to make successful careers as professional artists. The greater freedom enjoyed by expatriates was further explored by Amanda C. Burdan who observed that there were specific strategies that expatriate women developed, including forming artistic households, establishing networks of friendship, and opting against marriage and children. Education was another strategy available to the more fortunate. Elisabeth (Lisa) Hodermarsky, curator of prints and drawings at Yale

Gallerist Debra Force; Whitney Museum curator Barbara Haskell; Peg Alston, whose gallery specializes in works by African American artists; and Christine Berry, co-founder of Berry Campbell Gallery, during their panel called “Women and Movement: Women and the American Art World.”

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Collectors Elaine Melotti Schmidt and Steven Alan Bennett, who created The Bennett Prize in 2018, in conversation with Fred Hill, co-owner of Collisart, LLC.

University Art Gallery presented a case study of women who were able to pursue art school and higher education in order to further their careers, exploring the achievements of women artists who have graduated from the Yale University School of Art over the past 150 years. Collectors, both individual and institutional, were and are key to bringing work by women artists to the fore. Anna O. Marley and Brittany Webb, curators from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, moderated a conversation with collectors Ofelia García, Ferris Olin and Kenneth Woodcock about the evolution and focus of their collections, their relationships with institutions and the ways they contribute to a sustainable

future for women in the arts. Timothy Peterson and Richard Gerrig, who have collected art together for over 30 years, argued, in referencing their own holdings of art by women, by artists of color, and from the LGBTQ community, that if people judged art based on the fundamental question “Do we want to live with this work?,” essentially every collection would be diverse. Committed to promoting women figurative painters and their work, Steven Alan Bennett and Elaine Melotti Schmidt, themselves collectors of figurative paintings of women by women, recounted their journey to establishing the $50,000 Bennett Prize for Women Figurative Realist Painters. Gallerist Debra Force of Debra Force Fine Art moderated “Women and

Movement: Women and the American Art World” in which panelists Peg Alston (Peg Alston Fine arts), Christine Berry (Berry Campbell Gallery), and Whitney Museum of American Art curator Barbara Haskell discussed changes in the perception of and market for women artists and explored the causes. The panel also explored the role of women collectors in the resurrection of women artists and in the rise of contemporary women artists. Most important, they sought to address the question: “Will the work of women artists eventually be absorbed in the overall realm of American Art, with gender no longer being a differentiator or will the exploration of women’s endeavors in American Art always have ‘A Room of One’s Own’.” EVENT REPORT: NEW YORK, NY

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AUCTION PREVIEW: SCOTTSDALE, AZ

Go West The Scottsdale Art Auction brings major works from the Southwest to bidders in Arizona. April 14-15 Scottsdale Art Auction 7178 E. Main Street Scottsdale, AZ 85251 t: (480) 945-0225 www.scottsdaleartauction.com

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ore than 400 works of art will be offered at the Scottsdale Art Auction, taking place April 14 and 15 in Scottsdale, Arizona. The sale is right at home amid Arizona’s natural beauty and rich history relating to the Old West, Southwest and cowboy culture. The sale will take place across the street from

a large cowboy-shaped sign with the city’s motto: “The West’s Most Western Town.” “We are very excited about this year’s sale because we have some major works that should thrill bidders, including some important work from Taos Society of Artists members Eanger Irving Couse, Oscar E. Berninghaus and Joseph Henry Sharp,” says auction partner Brad Richardson. “The sale has both contemporary and historic, and it’s split down the middle at about 50-50 for both. The historic material is especially exciting because we have a nice variety of artists.” Highlights in the sale include two major Berninghaus paintings: The Hunters, Taos, estimated at $750,000

to $1.25 million, and Home Seekers in Indian Country, estimated at $100,000 to $150,000. Major Berninghaus pieces are rare to the market, but when they do come up interest runs high. The Couse works, Indian Boy and Brave Looking at a Blanket (est. $400/600,000) and Taos Love Call (est. $300/500,000), are also stunning examples from another Taos Society of Artists member. Sharp will have two pieces in the sale: Houses Where the Penitentes Live (est. $100/150,000) and Adobe Village (est. $40/60,000). The auction frequently has several Frederic Remington works in the sale, and this year is no exception with an illustration piece from an 1898 issue of Harper’s Monthly. The gouache and

John Clymer (1907-1989), Welcoming the Trade Boat, 1978. Oil on canvas, 30 x 60 in., signed and dated 1978 lower right, and signed and titled verso. Estimate: $300/500,000

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Eanger Irving Couse (1866-1936), Indian Boy and Brave Looking at a Blanket. Oil on canvas, 50 x 59 in., signed lower left. Estimate: $400/600,000

Joseph Henry Sharp (1859-1953), Houses Where the Penitentes Live. Oil on canvas, 20 x 30 in. Estimate: $100/150,000

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E. Martin Hennings (1886-1956), Bow Hunter. Oil on canvas, 14 x 14 in. Estimate: $60/90,000

ink work features the character SunDown Leflare and has a colorful title—I Was Geet Up Un Was Looking at de Leetle Man. It’s estimated at $70,000 to $100,000. Another piece of illustration comes from Harvey Dunn, whose Esau in Search of a Home will be offered at $28,000 to $38,000. The painting 96

comes from a 1911 issue of the Saturday Evening Post. Other illustrators who became fine artists include Charlie Dye, Tom Lovell, John Falter and John Clymer, who will have two magnificent pieces available, Welcoming the Trade Boat (est. $300/500,000) and Wood Smoke Tales (est. $250/450,000). The sale will have several important

maritime paintings, with one highlight coming from Montague Dawson. His Clearing Skies, The Sobraon is estimated at $35,000 to $50,000. It shows the Sobraon, an English ship making an annual journey to Australia. Leon Gaspard, who painted in the Southwest but also in Russia and Eastern Europe, will have two paintings

Eanger Irving Couse (1866-1936), Taos Love Call. Oil on board, 34 x 46 in., signed lower right. Estimate: $300/500,000

available to bidders: Peasant Woman (est. $30/50,000) and Winter in Siberia (est. $30/50,000). Before he started painting in America, Gaspard traveled to Siberia to paint, including one time he went with his wife on their honeymoon. Other artists represented in the sale are Frank Tenney Johnson, Gerard Curtis Delano, Wilhelm Kuhnert, William R. Leigh, Robert McCall, Edgar S. Paxson and three landcape works by Edgar Payne, the California impressionist whose work is closely tied to Canyon de Chelly in Northern Arizona. The Scottsdale Art Auction will take place over two sessions. Bidding will take place live, but also via phones, internet and absentee bidding. Olaf C. Seltzer (1877-1957), Untitled, 1912. Oil on canvas, 20 x 30 in., signed and dated 1912 lower right. Estimate: $50/75,000 AUCTION PREVIEW: SCOTTSDALE, AZ

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AUCTION PREVIEW: NEW YORK, NY

The Spirit of America Sotheby’s presents a truly extraordinary collection of American artistry from the Colonial period to 20th-century Modernism with the unveiling of The Wolf Family Collection April 19-22 Sotheby’s 1334 York Avenue New York, NY 10021 t: (212) 606-7000 www.sothebys.com

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ver the course of four days and seven sales, Sotheby’s will bring 1,000-plus lots to auction that include American art, sculpture, furniture, decorative arts and 20th century design with highlights that include pieces by William Merritt Chase, Winslow Homer, Marsden Hartley, Louis Comfort Tiffany and Frank Lloyd Wright, among many others. “The Wolf Family Collection is comprised of a remarkable breadth of exceptional works of fine and decorative arts, with extraordinary examples of paintings and watercolors, sculpture, early American furniture, silver, Chinese export porcelain, design, and jewelry,” notes the auction house. “In its impressive totality the collection embodies the spirit of American artistry, design, and craftsmanship, spanning the 18th through 20th centuries.” Estimated to realize in excess of $50 million, The Wolf Family Collection will be offered at Sotheby’s New York beginning this April constituting one of the largest and most significant private collections of American art to ever come to auction. The sale series will launch with a season-defining Evening Sale, The Spirit of America, showcasing a selection of the collection’s top masterworks in fine art, sculpture, furniture, Chinese export porcelain, silver and 20th-century

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William Merritt Chase (1849-1916), In the Studio, 1892. Oil on canvas, 29 x 23½, signed lower left: ‘Wm. M. Chase’.

design. “Few collections so seamlessly bridge the currents of American art across centuries as does the Wolf collection, which, through this carefully selected group of paintings and sculptures, articulates a unique story of American history from Colonial

America through the 20th century,” says Kayla Carlsen, Sotheby’s head of American Art. The American paintings from The Wolf Family Collection represent quintessential works from a range of periods, subjects and styles spanning the history of American art, from

Winslow Homer (1836-1910), On the Beach at Marshfield, 1872. Oil on panel, 13¼ x 21½ in.

Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823-1900), Spouting Rock, Newport, Rhode Island, 1856. Oil on canvas laid down on panel, 25 x 37 in., signed lower right: ‘Cropsey’; dated lower right: ‘1856’.

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Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), Window from the Avery Coonley Playhouse, Riverside, Illinois, ca. 1912. Opaque and clear glass, copper-plated zinc cames, original oak frame, 24 x 383/8 in.

18th-century portraits to 19th-century landscapes to 20th-century modernism. The centerpiece of the collection is Chase’s masterpiece of American painting, with portrait highlights by John Singleton Copley and Gilbert Stuart—founding members of the American art scene in the 18th and 19th centuries—as well as depictions of the American landscape, including Hudson River School paintings by Sanford Robinson Gifford and Worthington Whittredge. European influences representing the cultural interchange that took place in that era are embodied in works by Homer and John La Farge, with work by American modernists Maurice B. Prendergast and Charles Demuth highlighting the technical, cultural, and artistic achievements of the 20th century. Painted in 1892, In the Studio depicts Alice Gerson, Chase’s wife and favorite subject, in the artist’s summer studio 100

Greene & Greene, monumental lantern from the entry of the Robert R. Blacker House, Pasadena, California, ca. 1908. Iridized and opalescent glass, mahogany, ebony, abalone, copper, fruitwood and silver inlays, drop: 23 in.

during their first summer living in Shinnecock Hills—an eclectically decorated space that inspired him creatively while also serving as a vibrant social space for Chase. This portrayal of Chase’s wife holding prints effectively pairs his artistic and personal lives in a single dynamic image. The success of In the Studio lies in Chase’s ability to combine his affinity for detailed, beautiful interior subjects with his talent for illustrating tender portraits of loved ones. On the Beach at Marshfield was among a group of paintings which hung in Homer’s “Kettle Cove” cottage in Prout’s Neck, Maine. Homer moved from New York City to Prout’s Neck in 1884, inspired by the raw beauty of the Maine coastline and produced many of his notable seascapes from the cottage where this painting once hung. Following the artist’s death in 1910, On the Beach at Marshfield (and

The Sand Dune, the related sketch) descended into the collection of his brothers, Charles S. Homer, Jr. and Arthur B. Homer, who identified the scene as Marshfield, Massachusetts. This painting relates to an illustration that Homer produced for the August 17, 1872, issue of Harper’s Weekly entitled On the Beach—Two Are Company, Three Are None. Both the Harper’s Weekly publication and this painting are emblematic of Homer’s preoccupation with summer beach subjects and his affinity for capturing the serenity of the sea. Additionally, a carefully curated selection of important bronzes in The Wolf Family Collection surveys the finest offerings of American sculpture by the most renowned artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is among the most impressive private holdings of American sculpture ever assembled. As with the broader collection, the

Paul Manship (1885-1966), Indian Hunter and His Dog, 1926. Bronze, 23¼ in.

American bronzes span various geographic regions and historical periods in a manner that presents a comprehensive study of American history through sculpture. The range of the collection includes multiple works by Paul Manship and Augustus SaintGaudens, offering a unique perspective into their practices. In June of 1925, prominent Minnesota-based banker and patron Thomas Cochran commissioned a

fountain in the artist’s hometown St. Paul, with Manship collaborating with the architect to install Indian Hunter and His Dog as the focal point of the Cochran Memorial Park fountain. This subject recalls John Quincy Adams Ward’s earlier execution of this theme in The Indian Hunter (which is also part of the Wolf collection). The reunion of Ward and Manship’s respective renditions of the Indian Hunter subject shows how closely Manship studied

his sculptural predecessors. Manship’s Indian Hunter and His Dog applies Native American subject matter in an art deco style, bringing a classical hunting figure into the 20th century. Manship was so pleased with his rendition of Indian Hunter and His Dog that he issued a reduction and cast several smaller versions of the original work, of which this work is a part of that group. AUCTION PREVIEW: NEW YORK, NY

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AUCTION PREVIEW: MILFORD, CT

American Vistas Shannon’s brings rare works by quintessential historic and 20th-century American artists to the market in their Spring 2023 Fine Art Auction April 27, 6 p.m. Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneers 49 Research Drive Milford, CT 06460 t: (203) 877-1711 www.shannons.com

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n April 27, Shannon’s will present their Spring 2023 Fine Art Auction, featuring roughly 200 lots that include numerous examples of blue chip American Art. The American Impressionist category includes an exceptional 50 by 60-inch Richard Hayley Lever (1876-1958) entitled High Bridge Over Harlem River, created circa 1913. This large canvas is elegantly framed in an impressive, custom Lowy frame. The package is ready-to-hang and an undeniable show-stopper in the auction gallery. This fresh-to-the-market painting is being offered from a private Connecticut collection of American paintings. From the same collection, is a bucolic landscape by J. Alden Weir called Summer in Connecticut - The Old Barn at Branchville. Weir lived in Branchville and is famous for his impressionistic renderings of rural Connecticut. He was also a founding member of the famed American Impressionist group “The Ten.” The painting has a high estimate of $18,000, while Sunshine in the Hills, another large work painted by Richard Hayley Lever during his time in England, painted during the artist’s time in England, is expected to achieve somewhere in the vicinity of $70,000. Other leading lots, include Bend

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John Fulton Folinsbee (1892-1972), Mule Barn, 1928-1929. Oil on canvas, 24½ x 30 in., signed lower right. Estimate: $30/50,000

Thomas Doughty (1793-1856), Promenade on the Hudson, 1839. Oil on canvas, 16½ x 24 in., signed and dated on stretcher. Estimate: $25/35,000

Richard Hayley Lever (1876-1958), High Bridge Over Harlem River, ca. 1913. Oil on canvas, 50 x 60 in., signed lower right. Estimate: $50/75,000

in the River by Hudson River School artist Jasper Francis Cropsey, which will be offered at $30,000 to 50,000. The painting, exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1892, depicts sheep grazing in a river bank. The luminist sky and fall foliage are typical of Cropsey’s best works. From the same collection, a charming Thomas Doughty Promenade on the Hudson from 1839 will be on the block for $25,000 to 35,000. The painting depicts a couple walking along a path with the Hudson river and highlands visible in the distance. Among the other notable American paintings in the auction are View at Grand Manan, a large seascape by Alfred T. Bricher; Grouse Shooting, a sporting scene in grisaille by A.B. Frost; and a

Alfred Thompson Bricher (1837-1908), Rocky Coast at Grand Manan. Oil on canvas, 18 x 38 in., signed lower left. Estimate: $25/35,000

work by James Fairman entitled Storm King on the Hudson. 20th-century American paintings by Michael Goldberg, four works on paper by Lynne Mapp Drexler from the 1960s

and a work by Russell Chatham will also be featured in the sale. Shannon’s is accepting consignments for this auction through March 15. 103

JOINT AUCTION PREVIEWS: EAST DENNIS, HILLSBOROUGH, NEW YORK, THOMASTON

THOMASTON, ME THOMASTON PLACE AUCTION GALLERIES FEBRUARY 24-26 Winter Enchantment Sale A remarkable selection of rarities and fresh-tomarket offerings will be on the auction block during Thomaston Place Auction Galleries’ three-day Winter Enchantment Sale, including paintings and sculpture, estate jewelry, antique and modern furniture, folk art and more.

“This sale offers an intriguing and diverse inventory, with items ranging from [the] 17th century to the 21st century, and items to appeal to all collecting tastes,” says Thomaston Place owner and auctioneer Kaja Veilleux. Among several important American works in the sale are watercolor and graphite work titled Study for Island Geese by Jamie Wyeth; a 1965 offset lithograph in four colors titled Shipboard Girl by

Roland Clark (1874-1957), Pintails. Watercolor, signed and dated. Courtesy Leland Little Auctions. Estimate $3/5,000

Roy Lichtenstein; and Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup (Cream of Mushroom) 1968 limited edition serigraph.

HILLSBOROUGH, NC LELAND LITTLE AUCTIONS MARCH 2 Spring Sporting Art Auction

Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997), Shipboard Girl, 1965. Offset lithograph on white wove paper, printed in four colors (yellow, red, blue black), 31½ x 25½ in., signed lower right margin: ‘RF Lichtenstein’. Courtesy Thomaston Place Auction Galleries. Estimate: $30/40,000

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Leland Little Auctions’ Spring Sporting Art Auction will offer rare decoys and sporting art, including a fantastic pre-1900, Harkers Island Egret decoy out of

the Guthrie family (Harkers Island, North Carolina). Among the painting highlights during the March 2 sale is Pintails, a 1929 watercolor by Roland Clark (1874-1957), depicting a flock of pintails taking flight above wetlands. The artist is best known for his dry points and etchings, so viewing and obtaining watercolors by Clark can be quite rare. The piece is estimated at $3,000 to $5,000.

NEW YORK, NY SWANN AUCTION GALLERIES APRIL 6 African American Art

Alice Barber Stephens (18581932), Scene of the 1915 Pan-Pacific Exhibition. Oil on canvas, 13½ x 10½ in., initialed lower center: ‘A.B.S.’ and signed in pencil on stretcher: ‘Alice B. Stephens’. Courtesy Eldred’s. Estimate $10/15,000

EAST DENNIS, MA ELDRED’S MARCH 23 Women in the Arts

Swann Auction Galleries’ spring African American Art sale will feature a broad range of scarce and significant Post-War and contemporary art. Headlining the sale is Ernie Barnes’ Daddy, an important oil from around 1970, depicting a joyful scene of a father with his son perched upon his shoulders. The piece has a presale estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. In addition, the sale includes Hughie Lee-Smith’s waterscape The Ribbon, circa 1960. A quintessential mid-career oil painting by Lee-Smith, The Ribbon is expected to fetch between $120,000 and $180,000. A number

Allen Tucker (1866-1939), The Rainbow, 1924. Signed and dated lower center: ‘Allen Tucker 1924’. Courtesy Eldred’s. Estimate: TBD

of contemporary works by African American artists from the 2000s will be offered in the sale as well.

EAST DENNIS, MA ELDRED’S APRIL 6-7 The Spring Sale A diverse selection of works are to be offered at Eldred’s The Spring Sale on April 6 and 7. Included will be a range of historic American and European paintings and antiques, as well furniture and decorative arts, sporting art, Oriental rugs, prints and multiples and more. Among the lots to look out for is New York artist Allen Tucker’s The Rainbow, from 1924. The sale will be broken into two sessions, each starting at 9:30 a.m. Online bidding will be available, as well as in-person, phone and absentee bidding.

Eldred’s Women in the Arts sale will feature notable American women artists, from 19th-century examples to important contemporary works. “The goal of the auction is to rediscover 19th- and early 20th-century female artists the market may be overlooking and to provide a new sales channel for established contemporary female artists looking to expand their reach,” says Joshua Eldred, president of the firm. A highlight in the forthcoming sale is Alice Barber Stephens’ Scene of the 1915 Pan-Pacific Exhibition, estimated to fetch between $10,000 and $15,000. Online bidding is available via eldreds. com, invaluable.com and liveauctioneers.com. Phone and absentee bidding are also available. In-person bidding to be determined. Ernie Barnes (1938-2009), Daddy, ca. 1970. Oil on canvas. Courtesy Swann Auction Galleries. Estimate $250/350,000

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AUCTION REPORT: NEW YORK, NY

Solid Sales Freeman’s achieves nearly $4 million in record-breaking American Art Week auctions

William Herbert Dunton (1878–1936), Grizzly Bear. Oil on board, 103/8 x 83/8 in., signed bottom right: “Dunton”; on reverse: pencil titled. Estimate: $30/50,000 SOLD: $302,400

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cross three consecutive sales, Freeman’s American Art Week reached $3,908,835—testament to the strength of the market for fine 20th-and 21st-century paintings, particularly for women artists and Pennsylvania Impressionist works. Held December 4, 2022, American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists set new auction records for

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multiple artists, including Bo Bartlett, whose monumental 2015 canvas The Promised Land led the sale at $352,800. William Herbert Dunton’s Grizzly Bear followed closely at $302,400, a remarkable result that exceeded the painting’s pre-sale high estimate by six times—the result of heated bidding among nearly a dozen collectors. Sale prices likewise exceeded their estimates for

Charles Burchfield (1893–1967), The Garden Path. Watercolor, pen, colored crayon and pencil on paper, 11¾ x 91/8 in., signed bottom left: artist’s monogram; dated bottom left: ‘1917’. Estimate: $40/60,000 SOLD: $119,700

landscapes by Edith Lucille Howard and Susette Keast, breaking records for the two Philadelphia Ten painters. Venetian Canal (Ponte dei Bareteri), an Italian scene by Jane Peterson, another woman artist who captured the attention of collectors, sold for $107,100. Works by the coveted Pennsylvania Impressionists continue to shine in the market, with Edward Willis Redfield’s Winter Brook

leading the selection at $151,200, and winter scenes by Walter Elmer Schofield and John Fulton Folinsbee likewise outperforming their estimates. American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists also featured fine works by Daniel Garber, George William Sotter, and Robert Spencer, whose Courtyard at Noon achieved $63,000. A Beautiful Reality: The Fine Art Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Rifkin, held

Emma Fordyce MacRae (1887–1974), Stelka, 1929. Oil on canvas 36 x 32 in., signed bottom left: ‘EMMA FORDYCE MAC RAE’; stamped on reverse ‘The Estate of the Artist’; inscribed on stretcher and frame reverse: artist. Housed in a Richard Kuehne frame (son of Max Kuehne). Estimate: $10/15,000 SOLD: $69,300

Edward Willis Redfield (1869–1965), Winter Brook, ca. late 1920s. Oil on canvas, 32 x 26 in., signed bottom left: ‘W.E. REDFIELD’. Estimate: $120/180,000 SOLD: $151,200

Susette Inloes Schultz Keast (1892–1932), Steeplechase and Steel Piers, Atlantic City, ca. 1926. Oil on canvas, 26 x 30 in, signed bottom right: ‘Susette Keast’; inscribed on bottom stretcher on reverse: artist and ‘Steel Pier’. Estimate: $60/100,000 SOLD: $75,600

December 5, featured an impressive 94 percent sellthrough rate and was led by Charles Burchfield’s The Garden Path, which achieved $119,700, nearly doubling its pre-sale high estimate. Burchfield’s Country Church in June (Country Churchyard) likewise exceeded pre-sale estimates to achieve $66,150. The Rifkin Collection also featured record-breaking results, including the $37,800 sale of Carl Sprinchorn’s The Blue Ice Forest, which set an auction record for works by Sprinchorn. American Art Week saw robust overall interest in Ashcan School artists like Everett Shinn, whose winter scene Philadelphia Docks sold for $113,400. On December 6, the week’s final auction, Collect: American Art, was also led by a Bo Bartlett canvas, Tar Man Study, which sold for $23,940, with Louis Aston Knight’s Canal View Through Gate and Paul Sawyier’s Riverscape both soaring past their pre-sale estimates to achieve $20,160 and $19,530, respectively. “This week’s auctions broke a series of records for individual artists, from Susette Keast to Bo Bartlett,” says Alasdair Nichol, chairman and head of Freeman’s fine art department. “We’re honored to have brought important single-owner collections to market in these sales, and we continue to see the impressive results of bringing such focused, narrative-driven collections to market.” 107

AUCTION REPORT: NEW YORK, NY

The Allure of Americana Sotheby’s Art of the Americas auction tops $4.5 million cementing the strength of the category in the marketplace

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n January 18, Sotheby’s presented their Art of the Americas sale in New York City. The sale featured works from many categories, including major landscape pieces from some of the most iconic artists to paint in North America. Of the 47 lots, 33 sold, topping out with John James Audubon’s (1785 – 1851) stunning piece White-Headed Eagle, which went to the highest bidder for $756,000, just shy of its upper estimate. Audubon studied his subjects with the scrutinizing eye of a scientist and this attention to detail can be seen in the intricate

John James Audubon (1785-1851), White-Headed Eagle, ca. 1828. Oil on canvas laid down on Masonite, 26½ by 39½ in.Estimate: $600/$800,000 SOLD: $756,400

Asher Brown Durand (1796-1886), Lake Hamlet (Passing Shower), 1855. Oil on canvas, 40 x 60 in., signed and lower right: ‘ABDurand 1855’.Estimate: $400/600,000 SOLD: $491,400

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feather-work and accurately rendered claws, but he also demonstrates his skills as a landscape painter. WhiteHeaded Eagle was likely completed in 1828 and one of many paintings that Audubon showed to the American public in order to advertise his naturalist book, Birds of America. Until 2015, the piece remained within the same family since 1840. Asher B. Durand’s highly anticipated colossal landscape Lake Hamlet (Passing Showers) did not disappoint, achieving $491,400, smack dab in the middle of its estimate range. A friend and mentee

Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902), Mountain Out of the Mist, ca. 1889. Oil on canvas, 26¼ x 36 in., signed lower left: ‘Bierstadt’. Estimate: $300/$500,000 SOLD: $428,400 Frederic Remington (1861-1909), Broncho Buster, copyrighted 1895; cast ca. 1899. Bronze, 22 in., inscribed on the base: ‘Frederic Remington’; numbered within the first initial on the base: ‘49’; inscribed on the base: ‘The Henry-Bonnard Bronze Co Founders. NY. 1899’, inscribed along the base: ‘Copyrighted by / Frederic Remington 1895’; numbered beneath the base: ‘49’. Estimate: $300/$500,000 SOLD: $428,400

of Thomas Cole, Durand was a prominent member of the second generation of Hudson River School artists and Lake Hamlet (Passing Shower) is a quintessential example of his atmospheric style and why he remains so highly sought after. Right on its heels were Frederic Remington’s Broncho Buster and Albert Bierstadt’s Mountain Out of

the Mist, both of which sold within their estimated values at $428, 400. Bronch Buster was Remington’s first sculpture. Based on one of the artist’s illustrations, the bronze depicts a cowboy taming a horse, and has earned a place as a true icon of Western art. Iterations can be found in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum

of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and other esteemed institutions. Mountain Out of the Mist is Bierstadt at his best, depicting the majesty of the Rocky Mountains enshrouded in wispy clouds, its commanding grandeur balanced by the peaceful river scene in the foreground. A tireless subject for Bierstadt and

endless source of inspiration, the artists spent more than 30 years capturing the splendor of the Rockies, and its representation of the American West. Other auction highlights include works by Francis Augustus Silva, Alfred Thompson Bricher and William Trost Richards, among many other works of historic American fine art.

TOP 10 LOTS

SOTHEBY’S, ART OF THE AMERICAS, JANUARY 18, 2023 (INCLUDING BUYER’S PREMIUM) ARTIST

TITLE

LOW/HIGH EST.

SOLD

JOHN JAMES AUDUBON

WHITE-HEADED EAGLE

$600/800,000

$756,000

ASHER BROWN DURAND

LAKE HAMLET (PASSING SHOWER)

$400/600,000

$491,400

ALBERT BIERSTADT

MOUNTAIN OUT OF THE MIST

$300/500,000

$428,400

FREDERIC REMINGTON

BRONCHO BUSTER

$400/600,000

$428,400

FRANCIS AUGUSTUS SILVA

BEDLOE’S ISLAND, NEW YORK HARBOR, LOOKING NORTH

$200/300,000

$226,800

ALFRED THOMPSON BRICHER

MISSISSIPPI RIVER (DUBUQUE, IOWA)

$120/180,000

$214,200

MARIA OAKEY DEWING

ROSE GARDEN

$200/300,000

$189,000

CORNELIUS KRIEGHOFF

HORSE DRAWN SLEIGH PASSING A CABIN

$30/50,000

$189,000

TOM LOVELL

THE ABANDONED DREAM

$100/150,000

$126,800

WILLIAM TROST RICHARDS

NEW JERSEY COAST

$100/150,000

$113,400 109

Stellar Results Two American-themed sales at Christie’s bring in more than $8.8 million in sales

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ack-to-back Christie’s sales on January 19 in New York City saw incredible results for American artists across several categories. The double-header sales were 19th Century American Art and From Peale to Peto: American Masters from the Pollack Collection. Both sales had sell-through rates higher than 92 percent. Many of the top highlights came from the 19th-century sale, including the top overall lot: Martin Johnson Heade’s Fighting Hummingbirds with Pink Orchid, which was estimated at $400,000 to $600,000. Bidding shot well past those estimates and finally closed at $945,000. The work

Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904), Fighting Hummingbirds with Pink Orchid, ca. 1875-90. Oil on canvas, 16¼ x 14 in. Estimate: $400/600,000 SOLD: $945,000

playful fishing scene with eight children. It sold for $819,000, nearly triple its high estimate of $300,000. Western painter and sculptor Frederic Remington had two

major bronzes sell well over estimates: Broncho Buster (est. $250/350,000) sold for $478,800 and The Rattlesnake (est. $150/250,000) sold for $390,600. Both bronzes

were low cast numbers, and Broncho Buster was even a lifetime cast. Landscape images also performed strongly, including pieces by Winslow Homer, James McNeill Whistler, Thomas Moran, Albert Bierstadt and many others. From Peale to Peto: American Masters from the Pollack Collection featured a mixture of still lifes, portraiture, maritime paintings and landscapes. “We were thrilled to see two sales of rare and important works, fresh to the market, and carrying thoughtful estimates, produce such strong results,” says Tylee Abbott, the head of American art at Christie’s. “There was intense interest throughout the day, with many longstanding collectors taking part, as well as institutions, and an influx of new collectors many of whom participated via the Internet. Christie’s is proud to have achieved a number of record prices including a record for the first professional woman artist in America, Sarah Miriam Peale; a record for Titian Ramsey Peale; and a record for John George Brown’s masterpiece A Thrilling Moment.”

John George Brown (1831-1913), A Thrilling Moment, 1880. Oil on canvas, 24 x 40 in. Estimate: $200/300,000 SOLD: $819,000

James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), Howth Head, Near Dublin, 1900. Oil on panel, 7¼ x 105⁄8 in. Estimate: $200/300,000 SOLD: $239,400

TOP 10 LOTS

19TH CENTURY AMERICAN ART/FROM PEALE TO PLATO JANUARY 19, 2023 AUCTION (INCLUDING BUYER’S PREMIUM) ARTIST

TITLE

LOW/HIGH EST.

SOLD

MARTIN JOHNSON HEADE

FIGHTING HUMMINGBIRDS…

$400/600,000

$945,000

JOHN GEORGE BROWN

A THRILLING MOMENT

$200/300,000

$819,000

FREDERIC REMINGTON

BRONCHO BUSTER

$250/350,000

$478,800

FREDERIC REMINGTON

THE RATTLESNAKE

$150/250,000

$390,600

WINSLOW HOMER

FALLEN TREE WITH MINKS

$200/300,000

$277,200

JAMES MCNEILL WHISTLER

HOWTH HEAD, NEAR DUBLIN

$200/300,000

$239,400

THOMAS MORAN

VENICE, SUNSET BEHIND SANTA MARIA

$150/250,000

$214,200

WILLIAM J. MCCLOSKEY

ORANGES IN TISSUE PAPER

$120/180,000

$189,000

WILLIAM BRADFORD

LOCKED IN THE ICE—WAITING IT OUT

$70/100,000

$189,000

WILLIAM HOLBROOK BEARD

BEARS PICNIC

$20/30,000

$151,200 111

Index

March/April 2023

Artists in this issue Audubon, John James

108

Critcher, Catharine Carter

53

Holloway, Charles

35

Redfield, Edward Willis

Barnes, Ernie

105

Cropsey, Jasper Francis

99

Holm, Lillian

62

Remington, Frederic

Bertram, Aldous

79

Cunningham, Imogen

54

Homer, Winslow

99

Saarinen, Eliel

64

Bierstadt, Albert

109

Dam, Thomas

65

Hopper, Edward

76

Saint-Gaudens, Augustus

66

Blythe, David Gilmore

22

de Kay, Helena

71

Joseph, Ronald

77

Sargent, John Singer

18

Bolotowsky, Ilya

82

de Leftwich Dodge, William

32

Keast, Susette Inloes Schultz

Seltzer, Olaf C.

97

Brangwyn, Frank

33

Decker, Joseph

23

Kent, Adaline

46

Sharp, Joseph Henry

95

Dinet, Alphonse-Étienne

52

Kinsarvik, Lars

60

Stella, Joseph

40

102

La Farge, John

70

Stephens, Alice Barber

105

Bricher, Alfred Thomas

103

Bridges, Fidelia

14

Brown, John George

111

Doughty, Thomas

26

Lever, Richard Hayley

103

Tanner, Henry Ossawa

24

34

Lichtenstein, Roy

104

Tiffany, Louis Comfort

69

54

DuMond, Frank

Bruton, Helen

55

Dunton, William Herbert

106

Lundborg, Florence

Bruton, Margaret

55

Durand, Asher Brown

108

Burchfield, Charles

106

107

Vedder, Elihu

71

101

Voronovsky, George

19 23

Nicholls, Rhoda Holmes

38

West, Benjamin

102

Opsvik, Peter

63

Whister, James Mcneill

50

Osborne, J.O.

77

Wirkkala, Tapio

63

110

Pelton, Agnes

19

Wyeth, N.C.

14

96

Porter, Charles Ethan

67

5

J. Kenneth Fine Art (Palm Springs, CA)

25

John Moran Auctioneers, Inc. (Monrovia, CA)

13

98

Folinsbee, John Fulton

83, 95

MacRae, Emma Fordyce

51

Chase, William Merritt

Couse, Eanger Irving

105

Manship, Paul

Farny, Henry

94

Tucker, Allen

68

51

Clymer, John

35

Eakins, Thomas

Cassidy, Gerald

104

109, 110

Drexler, Lynne Mapp

Bruton, Esther

Clark, Roland

107

107

Fromentin, Eugène Heade, Martin Johnson Hennings, E. Martin

111

Advertisers in this issue A.J. Kollar Fine Paintings, LLC (Seattle, WA) Art Expo New York (New York, NY) Boston Design Week (Boston, MA) Brunk Auctions (Asheville, NC) Debra Force Fine Art, Inc. (New York, NY) Dirk Soulis Auctions (Lone Jack, MO) Freeman’s (Philadelphia, PA) Huntsville Museum of Art (Huntsville, AL)

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12 2 15 1 21 3 21

Philadelphia Show, The (Philadelphia, PA) Reno Tahoe International Art Show (Reno, NV) Scottsdale Art Auction (Scottsdale, AZ) Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneers (Milford, CT) Swann Auction Galleries (New York, NY) Vose Galleries (Boston, MA)

Cover 3 9 Cover 4 17 7 Cover 2

April 28–30, 2023 April 27 Preview Party East Terrace of the Philadelphia Museum of Art A La Vieille Russie

M. Hanks Gallery

Arader Galleries

Moderne Gallery

Avery Galleries

Lillian Nassau

Diana H. Bittel Antiques

The Old Print Shop

Philip Bradley Antiques

Olde Hope

Jeff R. Bridgman American Antiques

Peter Pap Rugs

Marcy Burns American Indian Arts, LLC

Francis J. Purcell

Ralph M. Chait Galleries HL Chalfant Fine Art and Antiques Clarke Gallery Dixon-Hall Fine Art Dolan/Maxwell Gemini Antiques Barbara Israel Garden Antiques Kentshire Kelly Kinzle Antiques Betty Krulik Fine Art Glen Leroux Bernard & S. Dean Levy Nathan Liverant and Son

Janice Paull James Robinson Schmidt/Dean Schwarz Gallery S. J. Shrubsole Elle Shushan Silver Art by D & R Somerville Manning Spencer Marks Susan Teller Gallery Thistlethwaite Americana Jayne Thompson Antiques Jeffrey Tillou Antiques Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge

For further information on programming: thephiladelphiashow.com

Dealer List as of December 2022. Images, top to bottom: Willard LeRoy Metcalf, Boothbay, Maine, 1904, Oil on canvas, 26 x 29 inches, Signed lower right: W. L. Metcalf ‘04, Courtesy of Avery Galleries; Morris Blackburn, Still Life with Blue Pitcher, c. 1942, Oil on canvas, Courtesy Dolan Maxwell; N.C. Wyeth, Chadds Ford Landscape with Barn, c. 1915/1920, Oil on canvas, 25 x 30 inches, “W” scratched into paint in lower right corner, Courtesy of Somerville Manning; Susan Catherine Waters (1823–1900), New Jersey, Portrait of a Full-Length Standing Boy with Dog, Courtesy Olde Hope, Inc.

Scottsdale Art Auction April 14 th & 15 th, 2023

Estimate: $750,000 - 1,250,000

35" x 40" Oil

Oscar Berninghaus (1874 - 1952)

A UCTIONING O VER 400 W ORKS OF I MPORTANT A MERICAN , W ESTERN , W ILDLIFE AND S PORTING A RT S TILL O NLY 17% B UYER ’ S P REMIUM ! VISIT W W W .S C O T T S D A L E A RT A U C T I O N . C O M TO REGISTER

COLOR CATALOGUE AVAILABLE $40

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