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1 Some of our favorite covers: Glenn Ness, Ali Cavanaugh, and Andrea Kowch.
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2 Arcadia Gallery booth, LA Art Show 2013. From left: Logan Maxwell Hagege, Ignat Ignatov, Tony Pro, Joseph Todorovitch, Joshua Rose, Jeremy Lipking, Casey Baugh, Marc Trujillo, Brad Kunkle, Sean Cheetham, Matthew Cornell, and Christopher Slatoff. Front from left: Danny Galieote and Sergio Sanchez. Courtesy Sergio Barrale.
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It is these moments listening to artists talk about their work, and then turning this into an article for our readers, that I cherish the most and thinking back on my time here, there has been so many—listening to David Leffel talk about rhythm in painting; hearing Richard Schmid talk about the importance of leaving a legacy of teaching;
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Robert Douglas Hunter on the occasion of his 80th birthday and he informed me that one cannot teach someone to paint, but rather the goal is teaching them to see. It’s moments like this when I sit back for a second, rise out of the experience for a brief moment and then smile and feel gratitude for being able to call such moments work.
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ecently, I responded to an email from my publisher, Vincent Miller, and thanked him for allowing me to spend every single day of the last nine years doing what I love. And now, given the opportunity that has arisen from the publishing of the 100th issue of American Art Collector, it’s my chance to thank you—the artists, gallery owners, collectors and art lovers— for playing a part in this “dream job” as well. To call spending the last nine years as Editor of American Art Collector a job would be a tremendous understatement. The time I’ve spent here at the magazine has been a dream, a true passion that I savor and look forward to every single day. Thinking back on the time spent with the magazine, I immediately recall two distinct types of moments: moments of experience such as the time I spent with John Pence, Will Wilson, and our Advertising & Marketing Director Amy Elliott Gause in Wilson’s studio above the John Pence Gallery and listened to him talk about his painting techniques, how he makes his own paints from raw pigment and his career in the arts for over an hour; and then moments of discussion when I was fortunate to interview many of the best artists working today and just listen to them talk about their life, art and passions, such as the time I interviewed
3 Bo Bartlett was first featured early on in American Art Collector and has reappeared many times.
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4 Kim Cogan’s career has taken off after appearing in American Art Collector.
5 We were one of the first magazines to start showing the work of Alyssa Monks.
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Kris Lewis speaking about the inspiration he receives from the stories of his Latvian grandmother; Jacob Collins discussing painting the figure; T. Allen Lawson talking about painting the landscape; Douglas Fryer on being outdoors and capturing an emotion in the landscape; Dean Mitchell talking about his childhood and its influence on his work; waking up on early, cold mornings in Jackson Hole and going wildlife spotting with Jim Morgan, who learned of these hidden places from going out for more than 20 years with legendary wildlife artist Bob Kuhn; Bo Bartlett on the time he spent with Andrew Wyeth; Jeremy Mann, Kim Cogan, and Carl Dobsky talking about the life and studio they had created in San Francisco with a group of fellow, like-minded artists; Kenny Harris on painting in a French chateau; Christine LaFuente on painting a still life; going to Charleston and being able to spend time with Robert Lange, his lovely and 4
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6 We were also the first magazine to prominently feature Robert Lange.
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wonderful wife Megan, COLLECTOR and the artists who they represent like Nathan Durfee and J.B. Boyd; standing in the Santa Fe studio of Francisco Benitez and watching him work exactly like an encaustic painter would have nearly two thousand years ago…all of these, and so many, many more are the things I remember when thinking back over the past 100 issues of this magazine. to haunt us—good and bad—and stay In fact, while interviewing artists for the within the realm of our consciousness. magazine, many tell me that if they could The first issue of American Art Collector talk about their art they would be a writer came out in September 2005. However, and not a painter and that is one thing that I started in June 2005. The first thing my still rings true to me over all the years of publisher asked me to do was start calling working at American Art Collector. Art is a around to the galleries and speaking with visual experience, completely visual; it is a the owners and gallery directors about the form of creative expression that comes to magazine. At the time, people were relieved us only in this way. No matter how much to finally hear that someone was coming one tries to intellectualize the process or the out with an art magazine completely end result, painting will forever be a visual dedicated to contemporary realist medium and needs to be thought of as such. painting. In fact, John Pence—who ended Thankfully, images still have the power to up securing our back cover and keeping it affect our lives. There are those truly great for the first eight years of our existence— paintings that have the power to steal sleep, commented that he had been waiting for such a magazine for 25 years. What’s funny about these original phone calls is that many of the people I talked to are still our clients today and these relationships have 8/31/10 2:35:44 PM
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turned into true friendships. Another call I made in those early weeks was to Steve Diamant, owner of Arcadia Gallery, now Arcadia Contemporary, in SoHo. Working with Steve and his wonderful staff over the past nine years has been nothing but a blessing, and when we find out that Steve has a booth at one of the many art fairs we travel to each year, it makes our trips even more something to look forward to. And, that, too, is one of the beautiful things about this industry—working in art is one thing, but working with good friends on a daily basis is something truly to feel thankful for. Other calls were to Smith Coleman at Coleman Fine Art; Ben Whiteside at Morris & Whiteside Galleries; James Umphlett at Eleanor Ettinger Gallery; Frank Bernarducci at Bernarducci.Meisel.Gallery; William Baczek at William Baczek Fine Art; George Billis of George Billis Gallery; Sue Greenwood of Sue Greenwood Fine Art; Gerald Peters of Gerald Peters Gallery; Michelle Ward of Principle Gallery; and Christi Manuelito, owner of Bonner David Galleries. Not only do I still talk to all of these gallery owners on a regular basis, I’m proud to still call them clients and am fortunate enough to work with them each and every month of American Art Collector. And, during those first weeks, when talking to gallery owners, collectors and artists involved in contemporary realism, everyone I spoke to kept referring me to someone named John O’Hern, the executive director and curator of the Arnot Art Museum in Elmira, New York. At the
7 Jeremy Lipking’s artwork has appeared on several covers of American Art Collector.
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Arnot—where John worked for 20 years— he created and organized, since 1992, the exhibition Re-presenting Representation that focused on the best contemporary artists working in the realist genre. So, of course, I called John straight away and invited him to be the first columnist for American Art Collector. He readily agreed and has been a contributor to all of our magazines ever since. In 2007, John retired from the museum and now lives in Santa Fe and writes for us on a full-time basis. His knowledge and expertise in realism has been a continual source of inspiration for what we do here at the magazine. What has been truly amazing over all these years of doing American Art Collector has been watching the artists grow and expand in their careers. When we started, we immediately picked up the deep pool of talented young artists working in the realist genre such as Kim Cogan, Casey Baugh, Kris Lewis, Brad Kunkle, Julio Reyes, Robert Lange, Ali Cavanaugh, Joshua Flint, Amy Lind, Jeremy Lipking, Logan Maxwell Hagege, Ignat Ignatov, Sergio Sanchez, Jeremy Mann, Carl Dobsky, Angie Renfro, Francisco Benitez, Mario Robinson, Mia Bergeron, Sean Cheetham, Ryan Brown, Jeffrey Hein, Candice Bohannon, Aron
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Wiesenfeld, Adam Miller, Alyssa Monks, David Kassan, Andrea Kowch, Scott Tallman Powers, Josh Elliott, Glenn Dean, Scott Waddell, Frank Gonzales, Michael Carson, and the many others we have published on the pages of American Art Collector. Some of these artists still remind me today that we were the first art magazine to ever publish their work and this is a fact
8 We visited Brad Kunkle’s studio well before his career skyrocketed.
9 Smith Coleman, owner of Coleman Fine Art, was one of the first clients we met.
that we cherish above everything else. We put Casey Baugh on the cover when he was 24 years old, traveled to the studio of Brad Kunkle and documented his beautiful gold leaf process of painting just in time for his first show at Arcadia Gallery, gave Robert Lange his first cover, as we did for other rising stars like Julio Reyes, Ali Cavanaugh, and Andrea Kowch.
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Traveling and visiting such clients has become an important part of my job as an editor and I fondly recall my first such adventure. We were asked by the Charleston Fine Art Dealers’ Association to come to their Fine Art Annual the first week in November—an event we still look forward to attending every year—and thanks to the graciousness of Smith Coleman of Coleman Fine Art, I was able to fly South for the weekend. Smitty was the first client I had ever met. I arrived in Charleston at night, woke up early the next morning and ventured out to find his gallery on Church Street. Of course, I arrived well before it opened and, after walking the neighborhood for nearly a half hour, made my way to the front door where I was instantly treated like an old friend. Now, every year when I head back to Charleston for this same event, Smitty and I take 8 off on Saturday afternoon and have lunch at one of Charleston’s local haunts. Of course, we talk about art and business, but also we catch up on family, on friends and other general life comings and goings. And this, too, is another wonderful lesson I’ve
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made this passion their life work. Gallery owners deserve all the credit in the world. They find the artists; give them exhibitions; call magazine editors—like myself—and stir interest in their artists; work with collectors—both old and new—and advise them in their collecting journeys; create interesting areas in cities and art districts across the country; participate in art fairs; and publish catalogs. Their contribution to the art market is one that I will continually admire as we continue publishing our magazines well into the future. I could write like this for days. And have. I don’t know how to properly sum up my time here in a way that includes everyone who has played such a vital role in the magazine. I guess the best thing to do is take the advice of all of the artists I’ve spoken to over the years and show you rather than tell you. And by showing, I’m referring to the 100 issues of our magazine we have published since we started. These are the true testament to what we live and work for every day. Go back, thumb through them from the beginning, take a moment and look at the wonderful visual journey that you can find in every single one of those 100 issues. It is truly something to behold, overwhelming and beautifully fulfilling all at the same time.
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learned about art—art galleries will never be owned by corporations or conglomerates. They are, in essence, mom-and-pop shops run by the person whose name hangs on the sign outside of the space. And, because of this, this business is and always will be about forging and keeping personal relationships. It is about spending time with people and sharing a passion for art, about listening and looking and sharing an interest in what we are all fortunate enough to make a living doing every day of the year. When we first started the magazine I also remember calling artists to interview them for articles and they would inevitably ask me how I heard about their work and show. The answer was simple: your gallery owner. I have been fortunate enough over the years to be able to work with so many talented gallery owners, people who are committed to art and have