Fine Art Connoisseur Jan-Feb2021 by Streamline Publishing, Inc.

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FEBRUARY 20 21 VOLUME 18 ISSUE 1

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AMERICAN T ONALIST S OCIET Y Fostering the Tradition and Art Form of Contemporary American Tonalism

Congratulations to our 2020 Award Winners! First Place

Second Place

Katriel Srebnik Winter Back Alley in Winchester VA

Third Place

Michael Albrechtsen Feeling the Calm

Honorable Mention

Denise LaRue Mahlke Touch of Glory

Ben Bauer Minnestoa Fall Landscape

Jeff Cornell M.E. Inspiration

Brian Sindler Early Morning, New York

Visit the 2020 Online Juried Showcase Exhibit at www.AmericanTonalistSociety.com

Deane G. Keller (1940–2005), Figure Study, Damascus, 1999, charcoal on paper, 43 x 29 in., private collection

Drawing offers a unique record of an encounter with a culture, of experience transformed from fleeting moment to lasting resonance. — Deane G. Keller (1940–2005)

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D AV I D B R E G A (1948-)

NATURE BOY Oil on Masonite, 36 x 28 inches Signed lower right, David Brega ’12

“Illusion is the first of all pleasures.” Voltaire

D AV I D B R E G A FINE ART

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Br ida Connolly bconnolly @streamlinepublishing.com 702.665.5283 CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Matthias A nderson Kelly Compton Max Gillies David Masello Louise Nicholson Charles Raskob Robinson C R E AT I V E D I R EC TO R

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Belly Dancer 20x16, oil on birch Showing in the WAOW 51st National Exhibition Opening Feb 5, 2021 at the Museum of Western Art, Kerrville, TX

Mar y G reen mgreen@streamlinepublishing.com 508.230.9928 Lauren Piemont l p i e m o n t @ s t r e a m l i n e p u b l i s h i n g .c o m 7 0 4 .6 1 8 .0 6 9 4

For more available work, visit WWW.HEATHERARENAS.COM Artist@heatherarenas.com 720-281-4632

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F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M

Mark Kelvin Horton SEWE 2021 Featured Artist Lightfall 36”x48” oil on canvas

Larry Moore

Ark 36”x48” oil on wood

Horton Hayes Fine Art 30 State Street Charleston, SC 29401 (843) 958-0014 www.HortonHayes.com info@hortonhayes.com

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HORTON HAYESA R T F I N E 12/8/20 4:48 PM

Ryan Jensen

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In Silence 30 x 40 Oil

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Women Artists of the West

51st National Exhibition America the Beautiful The Museum of Western Art, Kerrville, Texas February 5- March 19, 2021 ANDERSON FINE ART GALLERY St. Simons Island, Ga. CHERYL NEWBY GALLERY Pawleys Island, SC HIGHLANDS ART GALLERY Lambertville, NJ HUGHES GALLERY Boca Grande, Fl. PROVIDENCE GALLERY Charlotte, NC

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Attention retailers: If you would like to carry Fine Art Connoisseur in your store, please contact Tom Elmo at 561.655.8778. Copyright ©2021 Streamline Publishing Inc. Fine Art Connoisseur is a registered trademark of Streamline Publishing; Historic Masters, Today’s Masters, Collector Savvy, Hidden Collection, and Classic Moment are trademarks of Streamline Publishing. All rights reserved. Fine Art Connoisseur is published by Streamline Publishing Inc. Any reproduction of this publication, whole or in part, is prohibited without the express written consent of the publisher. Contact Streamline Publishing Inc. at address below. Fine Art Connoisseur is published six times annually (ISSN 1932-4995) for $39.99 per year in U.S.A. (two years $59.99); Canada and Europe $69.99 per year (two years $99.99) by Streamline Publishing Inc., 331 SE Mizner Blvd., Boca Raton, FL 33432. Periodicals postage paid at Boca Raton, FL, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Fine Art Connoisseur, 331 SE Mizner Blvd., Boca Raton, FL 33432.Copying done for other than personal or internal reference without the express permission of Fine Art Connoisseur is prohibited. Address requests for special permission to the Managing Editor. Reprints and back issues available upon request. Printed in the United States. Canadian publication agreement # 40028399. Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement #40612608; Canada returns to be sent to Bleuchip International, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2.

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F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M

PAU L S C H U L E N B U RG

A Corner in Heaven oil 36 x 24

508.255.6200 addisonart.com 43 South Orleans Road, Orleans, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

F I N E

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003 Frontispiece: Deane G. Keller 016 Publisher’s Letter 020 Editor’s Note 025 Favorite: Anne Akiko Meyers 127 Off the Walls 146 Classic Moment: Peter Smeeth

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VO LU M E

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ARTISTS MAKING THEIR MARK: THREE TO WATCH

Allison Malafronte describes the talents of Paul Batch, Lucas Bononi, and Megan (Mae) Read.

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PAUL SCHULENBURG: MAKING THE COMMONPLACE EXTRAORDINARY By Peter Trippi

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ELIZABETH COLOMBA RE-ENVISIONS THE PAST By Charles Moore

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DANIEL SPRICK: SEEKING “SOMETHING THAT FEELS TRUE” By Michael J. Pearce

083 By Daniel Grant

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Ernest Vincent Wood III (b. 1979), Vulnerability (detail), 2020, oil on linen, 14 x 11 in., private collection, First Place Winner of the Artist & Selfie Painting Competition (October 2020). For details, see page 101.

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AND THE WINNERS WERE... By Kelly Compton

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J.J. SHANNON AND HIS NETWORK OF FRIENDSHIPS By Barbara Dayer Gallati

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BOOKPLATES: SMALL IN SIZE, HUGELY COLLECTIBLE By Thomas Connors

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PICKING UP THE PIECES AFTER DISASTER STRIKES By David Masello

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Discover four top-notch projects happening this season.

ART IN THE WEST: ART IN PERSON AND ONLINE

APPRECIATING TODAY’S HEROES By Dan Bulleit and Peter Trippi

I S S U E

GREAT ART NATIONWIDE

RICHARD WILSON MAKES HIS OWN WAY

ON THE COVER

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PROTECT YOUR ART FROM THIEVES By Matthias Anderson

BELOVED CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL By Max Gillies

Fine Art Connoisseur is also available in a digital edition. Please visit fineartconnoisseur.com for details.

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F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M

PA R T I C I PAT I N G A R T I S T S Marc Anderson Pamela Ayres Olena Babak Beth Bathe Lon Brauer Carl Bretzke

Eli Cedrone Kathleen Denis Bill Farnsworth Neal Hughes Charlie Hunter Chris Kling

Alison Leigh Menke Ralph Papa Manon Sander Patrick Saunders Marc Shasha Nancy Tankersley

George Van Hook Richie Vios Tara Will Cory Wright Stephen Wysocki Vladislov Yeliseyev

RICHIE N. VIOS Victoria, Texas Grand Central, 16 x 20 in., watercolor vioswatercolor72@gmail.com 361.935.7884 www.vioswatercolor.com

Lighthouse ArtCenter • 373 Tequesta Drive • Tequesta, FL 33469 • 561-746-3101 • LighthouseArts.org/PleinAir

CHRIS KLING

Stuart, Florida Sunlight & Shadows, 12 x 16 in., oil on linen panel cbkling@bellsouth.net www.chrisklingartist.com

RALPH PAPA Boynton Beach, Florida Lagoon Bathers at Dubois Park, 16 x 12 in., oil on birch panel artistpapa@bellsouth.net | 561.374.0837 | www.ralphpapa.com

KATHLEEN DENIS Palm Beach Shores, Florida Pathway to the Bay, 14 x 18 in., oil on linen kd@kathleendenis.com www.kathleendenis.com

MANON SANDER North Palm Beach, Florida What Lies Beyond, 12 x 12 in., oil, cold wax manondesigns@comcast.net www.manonsander.com

Lighthouse ArtCenter • 373 Tequesta Drive • Tequesta, FL 33469 • 561-746-3101 • LighthouseArts.org/PleinAir

P U B L I S H E R ’ S

NOW IS THE TIME

NIKOLAI BLOKHIN (B. 1968), Portrait of B. Eric Rhoads, 2017–19, oil on canvas, 31 1/2 x 20 in.

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n spite of COVID-19’s downsides — and there are many — there has been a little sunshine emanating from the art world. For many, the word “pivot” comes to mind. Artists and galleries have had to pivot to survive, and for some this has resulted in better-than-normal sales, as well as lower costs through offering virtual shows in lieu of pricey venues and cocktail receptions. For collectors, spending time at home with their art has revealed the gaps, triggering focused efforts to find new works that enhance the collection. And for those many cooped-up people who found themselves staring at empty walls or aching to remodel their spaces, there has been the powerful realization that art is needed. Though such good news can be found within the pandemic’s dark clouds, we have also seen galleries failing, dealers closing their costly rented spaces in order to go private or online-only, and artists struggling to survive. None of us could ever have anticipated an event such as this or its positive and negative impacts, nor do we know what is in store for the future. What we do know is exactly what this periodical’s readers have in common: a passion for art. I suspect that the events of 2020 have caused us all to rethink our lives, our travel, and our art. We are and will be adjusting to the reinvention that is occurring in the ways we buy, sell, and even view art. And art itself is already reflecting these exceptional times, as you can see on the cover of this magazine. Though economic predictions should be left to experts more qualified than me, I believe the impact of newfound freedoms and the return to somewhat-normal life will result in an art boom. I suspect prices will soar and demand will exceed supply. If or when that day comes isn’t predictable at this moment, but I have a hunch it’s just around the corner. Meanwhile, we should not wait. We are needed now. Those of us who have the ability to purchase art should do what we can today. Why? Because although things may not look dire on the surface, your favorite gallery J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y

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may actually be hanging by a thread, or your favorite artist may have to take that side hustle again if she or he does not sell some work soon. I’ll say it again — if you have the means, this is the time. Not only because there are great bargains to be had, but because our world won’t be quite as wonderful if good artists and galleries cannot survive to keep filling our lives with the pleasures of artistic experiences. From my somewhat inside-track perspective, I can say with certainty that gallery professionals must and will continue to play an important role. More than ever, curation is needed. Expertise, a good eye, the ability to spot fakes, and solid advice about what’s important are increasingly essential in this confusing era of small screens and social media. As you read this, consider what you could do. Is it time to redecorate your offices or your new home (many of you have been moving to new places), or to enhance the collection you already have? Fortunately, many artists are producing their best work ever because they have had the time to push limits, try new things, and focus on artmaking when they normally would be distracted attending events. We are seeing giant leaps in quality in the studios — yet another reason to buy now. I don’t want to imagine a world where the best of the best have decided to take early retirement or we are left with fewer talents in the field because some just could not hang on. Our world is enriched by great artists and galleries, so if you’re in a position to do so, supporting them will not only make a huge difference to your collection, but to the very future of the art ecosystem we all cherish.

B. ERIC RHOADS Chairman/Publisher bericrhoads@gmail.com 561.923.8481 facebook.com/eric.rhoads @ericrhoads

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MICHAEL FRATRICH Fleur Du Soleil

48” x 36”

Oil on Panel

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Suzie Baker OPA, Allegory of Life - Detail, 24 x 36â&#x20AC;?, oil on linen panel, $12,000

T his past year was business as unusual: canceled events and workshops, scrambling in my role as OPA President to convert our many

shows to virtual events, entrenching into the studio to work on ideas and use this fallow year to learn new things. 2021 promises to be the year that we emerge from our hermitage with a renewed appreciation for community, bringing with us new insights and growth. This painting of Southern Magnolias clipped from a neighbors yard shows the phases of life from bud to seed pod, bringing the hope of new life. May this year-of-loss we have all collectively experienced bring beauty from debris this spring. We have hope.

W W W . S U Z I E B A K E R . C O M

P U B L I S E H D E I TR O ' SR ’ LS E N T O T E T R E

his is not the winter you were expecting. It certainly isn’t mine. Last January I was lucky to spend a week in Rome exploring museums, palaces, and churches in glorious sunshine, with few tourists and lots of after-Christmas bargains in the shops. If COVID-19 was in the air (and surely it was), I did not know. This January — probably like you — I am almost attached to my computer and television, communicating with others via Zoom and exploring the world vicariously through websites and streaming content. This existence would be deeply depressing without the knowledge that I will get vaccinated this spring (hopefully), and then perhaps the wheels of “normal” life can slowly start to turn again. It’s impossible to overstate how keenly many of us miss direct experiences of the visual and performing arts, and of places far from home. Thanks to technology, we can see so much at a distance, but it’s just not the same. Online recently I watched the actress Audra McDonald sing a dozen numbers to an empty hall, and though she was her usual riveting self, I appreciated her candid observation that the absence of a live audience made it all unsatisfactory. Indeed, the real excitement lies in interaction, something as true in fine art as in music. Having said that, some remote artistic experiences are just more satisfying than others. In November, the Mauritshuis in The Hague — one of the world’s great art collections — activated a remarkable virtual experience available for free downloading from its website (mauritshuis.nl/en). The Second Canvas app brings online viewers into the museum not only to admire every inch of its grand rooms, but also to zoom in on three dozen masterworks. They include all three of its Vermeers,

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four Rembrandts, three Jan Steens, Carel Fabritius’s Goldfinch, and more. It turns out the Maurithuis is the world’s first museum to be fully digitized in a gigapixel format, which means more than 100 times the resolution your smartphone offers. This allows us to discern the tiniest brushstrokes, and even to switch over to infrared photos that reveal the paintings’ underlayers. Kudos to the Mauritshuis and its tech partner, Madpixel, for raising remote engagement to the next level. But truly, I would much rather be inside that museum for real, wandering the rooms and inspecting my favorite paintings, even though my eyes won’t make out those underlayers. Fortunately, that visit will happen someday, and I am already grateful. Mark my words: once folks finally feel it is safe to travel and to gather in museums and theaters, it is going to be intense. If — and it’s a big if — our arts venues, airlines, hotels, taxi drivers, and restaurants can hang on just eight more months, oh boy. We cabin-fever victims will be booking trips, tickets, experiences, and outings of all kinds. Not just because we want to get out of the house, but because we have so traumatically learned how meaningful it is to be in the world, to experience life and art as they really are. Next time I’m in the Netherlands, if I must wait in line to enter the Mauritshuis, no problem. I will stand there patiently and I will chat enthusiastically with all the other art lovers standing nearby (something I never used to do). What a heretofore-unappreciated privilege that will be — to experience life together. See you there.

F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M

TRIPPI PHOTO: FRANCIS HILLS

ANTICIPATING REALITY, BEYOND THE VIRTUAL

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S E C O N D

H O N E Y M O O N

ANNE AKIKO MEYERS Violinist Photo: David Zentz

Cadenabbia, Lake Como, Italy FELIX BARTHOLDY MENDELSSOHN (1809–1847) 1837, watercolor on paper, 7 x 9 1/2 in. Private collection

very day in the music studio of her Los Angeles home, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers plays along with Felix Mendelssohn. As she tunes her 1741 Ex-Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesù instrument, reputed to be perhaps the best-sounding violin around, and launches into passages of works she will perform in concert halls around the world, Meyers acknowledges the great composer. His scores are in the room, and so is a painting by him, one of some 300 he completed in his short lifetime (he died at 38). Meyers owns a diminutive yet uncannily detailed watercolor created by the composer in June 1837. It depicts the Lake Como locale where he and his wife, Cécile, honeymooned. “Until recently, no one even knew this painting existed,” says Meyers. Her husband purchased the work at a Sotheby’s London auction of music manuscripts in 2015 and presented it to Meyers as a surprise. “We spent our honeymoon in this exact spot,” she recalls. “The watercolor sits in my music studio and I look at it every day to give me inspiration.” Not only does Meyers share the same honeymoon destination as her beloved Mendelssohn, but she has also played his iconic Violin Concerto in E Minor numerous times in Leipzig with the Gewandhaus Orchestra, for which Mendelssohn served as music director. “I visited the museum there devoted to him and admired the collection of watercolors he made, unaware that this painting even existed.” Cécile Mendelssohn wrote in her

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honeymoon diary that her new husband had been working hard on translating an earlier sketch of this landscape into a painting. According to the 2015 Sotheby’s catalogue, a drawing of the same scene exists in Oxford’s Bodleian Library, though this full-color scene was unknown then. It came down through the family of Fanny Hensel, Mendelssohn’s composer sister. Meyers compares Mendelssohn’s artworks to his compositions. “Like his paintings, the bones of his music are so classical, but the structure is romantic. That’s what makes his scores so difficult to perform. You feel the romantic imagery in his music. He was such an intellectual,” Meyers emphasizes, noting the composer’s ability to paint, write poetry, speak four languages, play multiple instruments. “He crafted so many pieces that are part of our collective consciousness — from the wedding march every bride walks down the aisle hearing to his octets and Scottish symphonies.” While admiring the paint-

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ing, Meyers confides, “I can hear the phrases of his violin concerto in there.” She has positioned the watercolor on a cabinet, the shelves above filled with scores, as well as photographs of Meyers on tour, some showing her with contemporary composers, including Arvo Pärt, who dedicated to her his Estonian Lullaby, which she premiered early last year. While her repertoire includes the concert hall classics, Meyers is best known for her embrace of living composers. She has made nearly 40 recordings, a sizeable number of which rose to number one on the Billboard charts. When she places her music on a stand and admires the painting just above it, “What I see every time are the blues of the painting, so crystalline you really feel the water. I’m always struck by Mendlessohn’s brilliance, his ability to create something that we are all affected by. He makes you think about the circle of life and how truly connected we all are. It makes me feel alive when I look at this.”

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Connect with artists at work Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re still the Westâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most premier event for art enthusiasts

Artist Jenny Foster at work during the show.

For 31 years, the Celebration of Fine Art has been the place where art lovers and artists connect. And now, that connection can be made in multiple ways. Visit celebrateart.com to discover featured artists, hear their stories, explore their work and add to your collections. This new virtual experience and online marketplace complements the live, juried invitational show and sale held annually in Scottsdale, Arizona, and it allows collectors to connect with artists and their work at any time. At Celebration of Fine Artâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s live event, known for bringing together seasoned collectors and first-time buyers from around the globe, art lovers will have the opportunity to browse 40,000 square feet of on-site, working studios offering an unparalleled selection of artwork in all mediums and styles. Where Art Lovers & Artists Connect

Santiago Michalek, You Think These Are Long, 55 x 32 in.

celebration of fine art

visit celebrateart.com Live Event:

Jan. 16-MaR. 28, 2021 | Open Daily 10am-6pm Loop 101 & Hayden rd, Scottsdale, Az 480.443.7695 For Tickets:

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CAROLYN THOME Studio #128 Point of Rocks, Maryland Saguaro Bloom, 20 x 30 in., photograph on aluminum carolynthome@me.com • 301.980.5476 www.carolynthome.com

KAREN O’HANLON Studio #231 Gold Canyon, Arizona Gold Peacock with Green Four Seasons, 24 x 24 x 2 in., 2D mixed media/paper irishcharms@msn.com • 253.951.6198 www.kpohanlonstudio.com

JUDITH DICKINSON Studio #238 & 239 Brighton, Colorado What Lies Ahead, 30 x 24 in., oil judith@judithdickinson.com • 303.902.0131 www.judithdickinson.com

MARTY LeMESSURIER Studio #103 Cave Creek, Arizona Quills, Ermine, and Fringe, 40 x 30 in., oil on canvas martylem@cox.net • 602.770.7643 www.martylem.com

ERIN W. BERRETT Salt Lake City, Utah

Star-Brites (detail), 40 x 48 in., oil on linen erinwberrett@yahoo.com www.celebrateart.com/ store/erin-w-berrett

PRISCILLA NELSON Studio #244 Scottsdale, Arizona Finding You, 36 x 30 in., oil on panel nelsonartllc@icloud.com • 480.636.1233 www.nelsonart.com

MARTHA PETTIGREW Studio #205 Kearney, Nebraska Abandoned, 24 x 36 in., oil on canvas the.artistmartha@gmail.com • 602.770.9950 www.marthapettigrewart.com

PATRICIA A. GRIFFIN

East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania

Marilyn and Monroe IV, 30 x 40 in., oil on linen pat@griffingallery.org • 570.656.2335 • www.patriciaagriffin.com Represented by: Aspen Grove, Aspen, CO; Gallery Wild, Jackson, WY; Goldenstein, Sedona, AZ; Going to the Sun, Whitefish, MT

BEVERLY FORD EVANS Franklin, Tennessee

No Place Like Home, 10 x 12 in., oil on linen bfevans@comcast.net • 615.400.5457 • www.bfevans@comcast.net

ANN GOBLE

Gainesville, Georgia Be Home Soon, 18 x 24 in., oil goble@charter.net • www.anngoble.com

WALTER MATIA Dickerson, Maryland

Busted Covey, 69 x 23 x 19 in., bronze walter@matia.com • 301.349.2330 • www.matia.com

STEFAN SAVIDES Klamath Falls, Oregon

Farm Boys, 39 x 35 x 21 in., cast bronze stefan@savidessculpture.com • 541.885.2912 www.savidessculpture.com

KIM SHAKLEE

Brighton, Colorado Tranquility, 20 x 11 x 9 in., bronze on walnut and granite rotating base kim@kimshaklee.com • 303.654.1219 • www.kimshaklee.com

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2020 January 2021 Volum e 10, Issue 6

JANU ARY

2021

7th Annual Salon Grand Prize Winner – Jim Wodark

6th Annual Salon G rand Prize Winner – Kathleen Hudson

SAN D

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FEBRUARY 2021

M U S E U M

G U I D E

Heather Arenas | Role Models | oil on cradled wood, 30 x 40 in.

SPECIAL SECTION

A SHOUT-OUT FOR OUR MUSEUMS BY PETER TRIPPI

very winter, Fine Art Connoisseur dedicates part of an issue to highlighting America’s art museums and the important, wide-ranging roles they play in our lives. I am particularly fond of this initiative because I spent much of my career working in art museums and still love visiting them because they always expand my horizons through their exhibitions and other programs. Of course, my visits became less frequent during 2020, the year most of us hope to forget. Throughout the pandemic turmoil, I have been impressed by the resilience of our museum colleagues, and by their unwavering dedication to sharing the joys of fine art even when it’s harder, or impossible, for us to enter their remarkable buildings. One of their chief challenges is negotiating the difficult financial conditions triggered by the sudden collapse in earned income (ticket sales, space rentals, cafe and gift shop revenues, etc.) and by the shifting of much philanthropy toward social justice and human services. Much has been said and published about viable coping strategies, and among the most interesting platforms for such conversations has been the American Alliance of Museums, the field’s largest membership organization.

It’s a sad fact that most places in America — including New York City, where I live — will not see tourism rebound until late 2021 at the earliest. Tourists are a key constituency within many museums’ visitorship, and so, without them, the institutions are rightly refocusing their attention on attracting more visitors from their immediate surroundings. This is not to say museums previously ignored their neighbors, but now is the ideal time to deepen these friendships. Every large town in America has at least one great art museum, so make a point to visit it soon, especially now that the weather is cooler. As awful as 2020 was, it is worth celebrating the fact that more museums invented terrific online programs to engage their current audiences, entice new ones, and — in some savvy cases — raise revenues, too. I have been simply amazed at the plethora of digital lectures, tours, workshops, and even benefit galas and summer camps devised in the past 10 months. These remind us of how creative museum staffers are, and also that the need for cultural enrichment is actually more urgent now that fewer of us can leave home. There are two more ways readers of Fine Art Connoisseur can support their beloved museums. First, join as a member. In the past 10 months, I have been signing up at various institutions as a lowerlevel member even when I am not particularly passionate about the museums’ specialties — I simply want them to survive, and I know how much they enrich my community’s life. Many museums have (wisely) created a cheaper virtual membership that allows first-timers to dip their toes in, or alternative membership categories that prioritize contact with institutional staff for research or expertise. Second, there’s the worthy impulse to shop. Many museums have terrific websites highlighting the same high-quality merchandise they sell in their on-site boutiques. Even though the holidays are behind us, why not click on the relevant webpage and buy art-related items to delight your loved ones while supporting your favorite museums? 2021 looks to be as challenging a year for museums as 2020, though in different ways. Let’s all do what we can to make their paths a little easier, and let’s thank them for all they do to lift our spirits, something more valuable than ever before.

HEATHER ARENAS (B. 1969), The Regulars, 2020, oil on cradled wood, 30 x 40 in., available through Reinert Fine Art

SPECIAL SECTION

2021 MUSEUM EXHIBITION CALENDAR ONGOING FROM 2020

M A RCH

Through March 6, 2021: Qualla Arts & Crafts Mutual: Tradition and Innovation; Blowing Rock Art & History Museum, Blowing Rock, NC

March 18–August 15, 2021: Beyond — Rossin’s SouthWest; The Booth Museum, Cartersville, GA

Through February 15, 2021: I Ventured into the Dream: A Retrospective of Sheryl Bodily; Hockaday Museum of Art, Kalispell, MT

March 13–May 9, 2021: "Small Expressions" Fiber Arts (Opening Reception March 13); The Brinton Museum, Big Horn, WY

AUGUST

August 6–October 2, 2021: Roads Well Traveled (Some Were Gravel): A Linda Tippetts Retrospective (Opening Reception August 5); Hockaday Museum of Art, Kalispell, MT August 14, 2021–January 23, 2022: Graham Hobart: Out of Africa and into the West; The Booth Museum, GA

Through March 7, 2021: Collectors' Legacy: Wickenburg's Treasures; Desert Caballeros Western Museum, Wickenburg, AZ

March 20–August 7, 2021: TRANSFORMATION (guest curated by Carlos Garcia-Velez, Allen Thomas, and Larry Wheeler); Blowing Rock Art & History Museum, Blowing Rock, NC

Through March 20, 2021: Drawing from Life: Ben Long & Tony Griffin; Blowing Rock Art & History Museum, Blowing Rock, NC

March 26–September 5, 2021: Cowgirl Up! Art from the Other Half of the West; Desert Caballeros Western Museum, Wickenburg, AZ

Through March 27, 2021: Small and Mighty Acts Altar for Black Lives; Blowing Rock Art & History Museum, Blowing Rock, NC

March 27–May 9, 2021 (Exhibition and Sale): 2021 Night of Artists; Briscoe Western Art Museum, San Antonio, TX

Through April 10, 2021: Blue Ridge Conservancy: Place Matters; Blowing Rock Art & History Museum, Blowing Rock, NC

A PR IL

September 11–November 7, 2021: Thomas Schomberg: Memories of 9/11 (Rosen Galleries 2 and 3); Brookgreen Gardens, Pawleys Island, SC

Through May 3, 2021: Sage Grouse: Icon of the West, Photography by Noppadol Paothong; National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, WY

M AY

September 11, 2021–January 2, 2022: Tucker Smith: A Celebration of Nature; The Booth Museum, Cartersville, GA

Through May 16, 2021: Living Legends: with a Special Tribute to Robert Bateman; National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, WY Through May 23, 2021: Expanding Horizons: Celebrating 20 Years of the Hartford Steam Boiler Collection; Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, CT Through Fall 2021: Four Corners, Many Hands: Historic Navajo Textiles from the Collection of Sam and Brenda Crissman; Desert Caballeros Western Museum, Wickenburg, AZ Through TBA 2021: Four Directions — Common Paths: Oberg, Smith, Whitcomb, Young — A 30-Year Connection; Steamboat Art Museum, Steamboat Springs, CO Through 2024: Spirit Totems: Sculpture by Herb Alpert; National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, WY

JA N UA RY FEBRUA RY

February 12–May 9, 2021: Spiro and the Art of the Mississippian World; National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, OK February 13–July 11, 2021: Vaquero Legacies & Diverse Descendants; The Booth Museum, Cartersville, GA February 14–March 7, 2021: 16th Illustrator Show — A Look Back at the First 15 years; The Brinton Museum, Big Horn, WY February 19–June 19, 2021: The Last Glacier Project: Todd Anderson, Bruce Crownover, Ian VanColler (Opening Reception February 18); Hockaday Museum of Art, Kalispell, MT February 27–May 23, 2021: Wild World: 200 Years of Nature in Art (the new Rosen Galleries); Brookgreen Gardens, Pawleys Island, SC

April 21–July 3, 2021: 97th Annual Spring Salon; Springville Museum of Art, Springville, UT

May 15–August 31, 2021: Un/Natural Selections: Wildlife in Contemporary Art; National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, WY May 15–September 6, 2021: T. Allen Lawson: Recollections and Reflections (Opening Reception May 15); The Brinton Museum, Big Horn, WY May 28–September 6, 2021: Still in the Saddle: A New History of the Hollywood Western; Briscoe Western Art Museum, San Antonio, TX

JU NE

June 4–September 19, 2021: Social & Solitary: Reflection on Art, Isolation, and Renewal; Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, CT June 5–August 21, 2021: Valued Species: Animals in the Art of Andy Warhol and Ai Weiwei; National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, WY June 12–August 22, 2021: The National Sculpture Society 88th Annual Awards Exhibition (Rosen Galleries); Brookgreen Gardens, Pawleys Island, SC June 12, 2021–Long term: Sculpture from the Brookgreen Collection and Waccamaw Neck Memories (Rosen Galleries 1 and 4); Brookgreen Gardens, Pawleys Island, SC June 17–August 7, 2021: Plein Air Glacier 2021 (Paint Out June 17–24, Public Party June 26, Exhibition/ Sale June 26–August 7); Hockaday Museum of Art, Kalispell, MT June 25–26, 2021 (Art Sale Event): Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition & Sale; National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, OK

JULY

July 10–September 5, 2021: The Art of Robert Martinez (Opening Reception July 10); The Brinton Museum, Big Horn, WY

August 27, 2021–May 9, 2022: Tattoos: Religion, Reality, and “Regert”; National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, OK

SEPTEMBER

September 10, 2021–January 2, 2022: New Beginnings: An American Story of Romantics and Modernists in the West; National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, OK

September 16, 2021–January 17, 2022: Vaqueros de la Cruz del Diablo: Photography of the Contemporary Northern Mexican Cowboy; Briscoe Western Art Museum, San Antonio, TX September 17–November 6, 2021 (Event and Exhibition): Steamboat Art Museum Plein Air 2021; Steamboat Art Museum, Steamboat Springs, CO

OCTOBER

October 2, 2021–January 24, 2022: Revisiting America: The Prints of Currier & Ives; Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, CT October 8–December 18, 2021: Montana Watercolor Society's National Watermedia Show (Opening Reception October 7); Hockaday Museum of Art, Kalispell, MT October 13, 2021–January 12, 2022: 35th Annual Spiritual and Religious Art of Utah; Springville Museum of Art, Springville, UT October 21, 2021–February 27, 2022: Poulsen/Yellowstone and Cawdrey/Glacier; The Booth Museum, Cartersville, GA October 23–December 19, 2021: "Classical Realism" The Art of Kent McCain (Opening Reception October 23); The Brinton Museum, Big Horn, WY

NOV EMBER

November 12, 2021: Small Works, Great Wonders; National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, OK November 27, 2021–January 2, 2022: Treasured Holiday Memories (Rosen Galleries 2 and 3); Brookgreen Gardens, Pawleys Island, SC

DECEMBER

March 27, 2021 Live & Virtual Auction March 28 – May 9 Public Exhibition & Sale

Celebrating its 20th Anniversary both in person and online, Night of Artists features nearly 300 new works of painting, sculpture and mixed media by 80 of the country’s leading contemporary Western artists. Don’t miss the largest Western art exhibition and sale in Texas and one of the largest in the United States. Register today at briscoemuseum.org/noa for the auction and sale as well as to view the artwork, see exclusive content, meet the artists, receive the most up-to-date information and more!

Mian Situ, The Meeting Place, Oil, 14” x 20” | Z.S. Liang, Entering Hostile Country, Oil, 42” x 30”

Black Bear by John Seerey-Lester

The inaugural exhibit in Brookgreen's new Rosen Galleries will kick off our 90th Anniversary Celebration. The themes of botanical, zoological illustration, and sporting art will fill the galleries with paintings, sculpture, etchings, lithographs, and drawings by great 19th, 20th, and 21st century artists. Exclusively at

Mule Deer by Sarah Woods

LEARN MORE AT BROOKGREEN.ORG/EVENTS/WILD-WORLD-200-YEARS-NATURE-ART

16 t h A n n u a l

March 26 – September 5, 2021 Only at the 21 North Frontier StreetWickenburg, AZ 85390 928.684.2272 • westernmuseum.org

EXPANDING HORIZONS Celebrating 20 Years of the Hartford Steam Boiler Collection Leading scholars lend contemporary perspectives on American classics

96 Lyme Street, Old Lyme, CT • 860.434.5542

Through May 23, 2021 • 24-hour advance tickets required • FloGris.org Theodore Robinson, Autumn Sunlight, 1888, Oil on canvas, Florence Griswold Museum, Gift of The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company.

Generous support provided by Connecticut Humanities, HSB, The David T. Langrock Foundation, the Department of Economic and Community Development/Connecticut Office of the Arts, and Connecticut Public.

I VENTURED INTO THE DREAM

ROADS WELL TRAVELED (S0ME WERE GRAVEL)

JOIN US! SHERYL BODILY RETROSPECTIVE THROUGH FEBRUARY 13, 2021

THE LAST GLACIER PROJECT

LINDA TIPPETTS RETROSPECTIVE AUGUST 5 - OCTOBER 2, 2021

PLUS

HOCKADAY MUSEUM OF ART

HISTORIC DOWNTOWN KALISPELL, MT

WWW.HOCKADAYMUSEUM.ORG (Top to bottom, left to right) Images: detail: Sheryl Bodily, Daughter Marion and Her Dogs, 2015. oil on panel; Sheryl Bodily, Silhouette, 2012, oil on panel; Ian Van Coller, Grinnell Glacier, c. 2000s, color photograph; Bruce Crownover, Andrews Glacier, 2018, reductive woodcut on Okawara washi paper; Todd Anderson, Tindell Glacier, 2017, reductive woodcut on Okawara Japanese washi paper; Artworks courtesy of the artists. Linda Tippetts, Model at Chinese Art Academy, c. 1990s, oil on canvas, private collection; Linda Tippetts, Casino Building, Catalina, c. 1990s, oil on canvas, private collection.

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE 2021

TODD ANDERSON, BRUCE CROWNOVER, IAN VAN COLLER FEBRUARY 19-JUNE 19, 2021

PLEIN AIR GLACIER 2021 A MONTANA PAINT OUT JUNE 17-24, 2021

APPLICATIONS DUE: MARCH 19 PARTY & SALE: JUNE 26, 5-8 PM EXHIBITION: JUNE 26- AUGUST 7

INFORMATION@HOCKADAYMUSEUM.ORG

FEBRUARY 12 – MAY 9, 2021

ANCIENT MYSTERIES REVEALED

A nearly forgotten people who created one of the most highly-developed civilizations in the Americas. An archaeological find unmatched in modern times. How did these incredible works of art and other treasures from all over North America end up at Spiro, and why? Spiro and the Art of the Mississippian World seeks to answer these questions and more.

1700 Northeast 63rd Street • Oklahoma City, OK 73111 | nationalcowboymuseum.org Exhibition support provided by the Henry Luce Foundation, the Kirkpatrick Foundation and National Endowment for the Humanities; Above: Effigy pipe of seated male figure. Known as Resting Warrior or Big Boy, and identified as Morning Star or the hero Red Horn. Leflore County, Oklahoma, Spiro Site, 1100 – 1200 AD, Bauxite (flint clay), height: 8 7/8 inches (22.5 cm). Fayetteville, University of Arkansas Museum. 47-2-1. Image courtesy The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Media Services/ Photo: John Lamberton.

a distinguished art museum with 14 masterwork galleries... a picturesque event venue... an outdoor sculpture trail... a world-class restaurant... a boutique museum shop... a boundless view... an unforgettable experience... The National Museum of Wildlife Art is More Than Art.

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Blowing Rock Art & History - 2021 Exhibition Schedule -

Small and Mighty Acts Altar for Black Lives November 7, 2020 - March 27, 2021

Qualia Arts & Crafts Mutual: Tradition and Innovation

American Impressionism: The Alexander Collection April 3 - July 18, 2021 Honoring Patricia and 'Welborn Alexander

November 14, 2020 - March 6, 2021

Small Metals of the Southeast

Drawingfrom Life: Ben Long & Tony Griffin

April 24 - September 19, 2021 Guest Curated by Adam Whitney

November 21, 2020 - March 20, 2021

Blue Ridge Conservancy: Place Matters December 12, 2020 - April 10, 2021

TRANSFORMATION March 20 - August 7, 2021 Guest Curated by Carlos Garcia-Velez, Allen Thomas, and Larry ,!\!heeler

The Big House: Abstract Paintings by Abie Harris July 31 - November 27, 2021

Pondering Pottery: The Gorelick Collection August 28, 2021 - February 19, 2022 Featuring the collection of Carol Gorelick and her family

Storyland: A Trip Through Childhood Favorites October 1, 2021 -January 22, 2022

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BRAHM

mowing Rock Art & History Museum 159 Ginny Stevens Lane I Blowing Rock, NC 28605 I BlowingRockMuseum.org

There is a lot of superb art being made these days; this column by Allison Malafronte shines light on a trio of gifted individuals. LUCAS BONONI (b. 1991) has worked persistently to reach the position in which he now finds himself: an emerging realist earning the admiration of a wide range of collectors, fellow painters, and art professionals. At 28, the Los Angeles-born and New York City-based artist has been creating art full-time for seven years, a pursuit that entailed several sacrifices to make his dream a reality. To that end, Bononi believes in mastering the business side of his profession and spends as much time educating himself about marketing and selling his art as he does creating it. He is, in that sense, a quintessential millennial: entrepreneurial, resourceful, and eager to achieve what matters most to him. Bononi’s early dedication to building a business carried with it the realization that his finances (and life) might initially be in the red before he would see the fruits of his labor. The artist was willing to take that gamble. In 2012, Bononi decided to quit his day job and live in a small subsidized studio while relying on a food bank for groceries so he could officially launch his art business and complete his degree. In 2016 he earned a B.F.A from San Francisco’s Academy of Art University, and the following year — eager to uncover yet another layer of the mysterious art of masterful painting — he moved to New York City in order to attend the Grand Central Atelier. Today, in his last semester there and with business picking up, Bononi has settled into a disciplined studio practice, where he creates stylistically multidimensional paintings like the striking Dried Roses, pictured here. This still life was created in April 2020, relatively early in the COVID-19 lockdown, and captures the tense and wild mix of emotions the world was facing then. “Roses have been the subject of many beautiful paintings in history,” the artist says. “In Dried Roses I wanted to capture these flowers after they had wilted and dried up in an attempt to bring them back to life through color and brushwork.” LUCAS BONONI (b. 1991), Dried Roses, 2020, oil

Bononi’s work is shown at Arcadia Contemporary (Pasadena), Haynes Galleries (Franklin, Tennessee), and Mirus Gallery (San Francisco). F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M

on linen, 36 x 24 in., available from the artist

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MEGAN (MAE) READ (b. 1982), Just Keep on Walking, 2020, oil on linen, 48 x 30 in., 33 Contemporary Gallery, Chicago

The paintings of MEGAN (MAE) READ (b. 1982) offer dreamy, melancholic escapism in a world that is more multi-dimensional and complicated than meets the eye. These weighty paintings, which usually feature a nude female form with metaphorical meaning, are more than just well-made classical subjects. As the artist explains, they offer a place of reprieve and contemplation, not only for viewers but also for herself. “The tensions, contradictions, and complexities of simply existing here and now often seem too big, too dissonant, and too surreal for me to grasp,” says Read. “My attempts to paint them are my way of trying to find an order in things and often lead to these layered portraits. I try to use the work as an avenue for reduced noise in a chaotic time and an opportunity to slow down and pause. To breathe.” Read has been an artist from a young age. She grew up in rural Virginia and could usually be found sketching and drawing the farmland and woodlands surrounding her. In her 20s, she began working in the design and tech industry. She later moved to Los Angeles, but after a few years she felt called back to her home state, and, after several more years as a designer and front-end developer, she also felt called back to her first love, painting. In 2017 Read decided to dedicate the rest of her career to it, and she has since become internationally recognized by exhibiting in museums and galleries. Her highly sensitive nature and nuanced ability to observe closely lend themselves to this vocation and the imaginative realist style she has chosen. The painting illustrated here is emblematic of many of Read’s works and her motivation for creating them. “Just Keep on Walking represents the journey through this interstitial space between our beginning and our death,” she explains. “It is, in fact, about finding, walking, and often stumbling along that path. The lamb, to me, represents the vulnerable self and also walking this path gently, with empathy for ourselves and others. Where we are traveling is still unclear to me. I am unsure of a god in any traditional sense. I am unsure of many things. This is what it is to me, but I also like that people with a more religious background might have a different association. In fact, while I was painting this, a song I hadn’t heard in years kept repeating in my head, the chorus of which goes: ‘God, give me strength to keep on walking; God, give me strength to keep on, keep on.’” Read’s work is shown at several venues including Abend Gallery (Denver), Arcadia Contemporary (Pasadena), and 33 Contemporary Gallery (Chicago).

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PAUL BATCH’s (b. 1979) plein air sketches and finished studio land- was actually the first painting Batch completed after a month-long sabscapes certainly stand out from the crowd. Although this artist has full- batical at the beginning of the pandemic. “It has been a weird month, palette flexibility, he often chooses to work with a limited number of to say the least,” he wrote on Instagram then. “First real day back at colors in a tighter range, which creates a depth of atmosphere, radiant painting in about three or four weeks. Feeling pretty thankful for what realistic light, and stunning color combinations not easily replicated. I have, and hoping the best for everyone.” Applying paint with a skilled hand and a range of brush sizes and types, Late Winter carries that sense of hopefulness and deftly captures Batch also uses palette knives and razor blades to achieve abstract lines, a majestic moment in nature that one would think is nearly impossishapes, and colors that harmonize with his more painterly passages. ble to recreate in paint. For Batch, the beauty is not only in the actual Born and currently residing in Massachusetts, Batch received subject, but also its symbolic meaning. “The last of the day’s light was both a B.F.A. and an M.F.A. from the Hartford Art School at the Uni- just about to burn off into darkness as nightfall approached,” he shares. versity of Hartford (Connecticut) and has been a full-time artist ever “The contrast between the warmth of the light and the coolness in the since. Although he paints portraits and other subjects, he is best known ground created quite an incredible moment. Much of my work involves as a landscapist as well as a popular teacher. Batch is one of many art- transitions. Whether it’s the time of day, or changing seasons of life, the ists these days who have learned to use online platforms to distribute poetic possibilities that occur during these moments are a metaphor for educational content, and he now offers downloadable videos and a our abilities to change and provide hope for tomorrow.” mentorship program from his website, as well as live Zoom workshops and demonstrations. Moving online is not the only adjustment Batch and other artists Batch is represented by Addison Art Gallery (Orleans, Massachusetts), Anderhave had to make in 2020. The range of emotions they have experi- son Fine Art Gallery (St. Simons Island, Georgia), Hueys Fine Art (Santa Fe), enced, from deep discouragement to profound resilience, has naturally Susan Powell Fine Art (Madison, Connecticut), Sylvan Gallery (Wiscasset, made its way into their art. The painting pictured here, Late Winter, Maine), and Tilting at Windmills Gallery (Manchester, Vermont).

PAUL BATCH (b. 1979), Late Winter, 2020, oil on panel, 11 x 14 in., Susan Powell Fine Art (Madison, Connecticut)

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BY PETER TRIPPI

T O D A Y ’ S M A S T E R S

PAUL SCHULENBURG:

MAKING THE COMMONPLACE EXTRAORDINARY

quiet yet steady player in the renaissance of American realist art has marked 20 years of full-time painting with the first book published about him. Launched last June by his primary representative, Addison Art Gallery (Orleans, Massachusetts), Paul Schulenburg: Oil Paintings is a handsome hardback volume running 200 pages and featuring more than 100 color reproductions, most of them full-page. Its appearance presents an ideal opportunity to assess Schulenburg’s artistic achievements thus far. Born in 1957 in Schenectady, New York, he grew up in a home filled with paintings created by his maternal grandfather, the talented hobbyist Frank Hazard Dygert. Schulenburg recalls, “My mother would tell me, ‘You have a talent like your grandfather. Don’t waste that gift.’ So rather than steering me toward a more ‘practical’ profession, my parents always supported me in my artistic pursuit. I think that has made all the difference.” Schulenburg’s ability was certainly noticed in 1975, when he won the top national Scholastic Art Award, then found himself at Boston University, on a scholarship, studying toward a B.F.A. in painting. Unusually for the late 1970s, BU faculty members such as Joseph Ablow, David Aronson, Sidney Hurwitz, Reed Kay, Morton Sacks, and John Wilson still offered a classical curriculum (rather than a modernist one), imbuing Schulenburg with the practical skills and appreciation for both beauty and history he has relied upon ever since. After graduation, weighing his career options, he was just 24 when his first wife died of leukemia, leaving him with their infant daughter. With continuing support from his in-laws, Schulenburg decided to set his paintings aside in order to work at home as a commercial illustrator until his little girl grew up. Like Winslow Homer,

The cover of the book Paul Schulenburg: Oil Paintings features By the Pier (2006, oil on panel, 30 x 24 in., collection of Jeff Bonasia).

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Edward Hopper, N.C. Wyeth, Rockwell Kent, and other talents, Schulenburg thrived in the busy, deadline-oriented world of illustration, and among his inheritances from those 19 years was the graphic clarity that defines his paintings today. Schulenburg knows how to promptly capture viewers’ interest through the deft arrangement of shapes, even before we slow down to see exactly what those shapes are. As to why his first monograph emerged last year — generally a year we hope to forget — Schulenburg explains, “2020 was my 20th anniversary of making the transition from illustration back to fine art, and also of exhibiting my work at Addison Art Gallery. Until then, there had been no looking back.” (Not coincidentally, the earliest work pictured in the book dates to 2000.) And as to why the transition occurred at all, he explains, “I remarried in 1993, and within a few years my wife, Pharr, said to me, ‘You went to school for fine art. Do you think maybe you should get back to painting?’ She has always believed in me and continues to encourage me.” Today the couple share their home and painting studio in Eastham on Cape Cod.

(ABOVE) First Encounter, 2020, oil on canvas, 30 x 48 in., private collection

(BELOW)

Sun Streaks at Low Tide, 2020, oil on canvas, 22 x 28 in., Addison Art Gallery, Orleans, Massachusetts

AN ARRAY OF SUBJECTS “Painting for me is like a personal journal,” Schulenburg notes, “interpretations of the people, places, and things I experience day to day.” Most straightforward are his Cape Cod landscapes, which, like the land itself, are usually horizontal, presenting us with a vision of shore, water, and sky, occasionally intersected with a vertical element such as a F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M

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(TOP) In the Shade of the Pier, 2018, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in., collection of Jim Stott and Jonathan King

(MIDDLE) Pulling Nets, 2019, oil on canvas, 28 x 37 in., private collection

(BOTTOM) Two Fishermen, 2020, oil on canvas, 16 x 16 in., Addison Art Gallery, Orleans, Massachusetts

sailboat’s mast or a building. In fact, the shoreline along Cape Cod Bay has a completely different character than that facing the Atlantic Ocean, a distinction that locals recognize instantly in his paintings. Schulenburg is best known for scenes of people working on the waterfront in strong summer sunlight. “I started painting commercial fishermen about 20 years ago,” he recalls. “On a gray Cape Cod day, I spotted them in their orange overalls, so colorful against the blue water. I was drawn to the drama and activity at the piers, as well as the opportunity to pursue figurative painting. I usually spend my time at the piers observing, trying not to get in the way. Occasionally I talk with someone who turns out to be a retired fisherman, or just off a boat. I’ve made several paintings of a young woman named Stephanie Sykes, whom I first saw working a few years ago. [She appears in Pulling Nets, illustrated here, and she also works for the Cape Cod Commercial Fisherman’s Alliance.] Another fisherman allowed me to board his boat and use it for a photo shoot.” Although these people work in crews as large as six, Schulenburg isolates them one or two at a time, not only to better appreciate their unique poses and gestures, but also to evoke the monumentality we have admired in earlier scenes of brave fisherfolk by Homer, Kent, and others. Usually glimpsed from the pier above, with no horizon to distract us, Schulenburg’s heroic forms are surrounded by abstracted shapes that drive our eye back to them. By expertly managing light and shadow, he contrasts the hardness of vessels and equipment with nature’s suppleness. “I am drawn to painting the fishermen in part because their work is so foreign to me,” Schulenburg adds. “They risk their lives on the open ocean harvesting fish. I paint on dry land, in less volatile conditions.” The artist is also intrigued by these men and women because he knows their way of life is threatened due to environmental factors, overfishing, and foreign competition. Equally under threat are the charming towns and settlements that dot the Cape — the cafes, storefronts, and cottages that Schulenburg paints with affection, yet never sentimentality. Thanks to rigorous zoning ordinances, the region’s historic villages are in better shape than many elsewhere, but the battle continues for preservationists and others seeking to retain their authenticity. Schulenburg is equally well regarded for limpid interior scenes that emphasize the way light falls on floors, walls, and furnishings more than any specific feature. “I like to think of what has happened in these spaces through the years,” he admits, and indeed comparatively few artists have so successfully evoked the personalities of empty rooms since the 19thcentury Danish master Vilhelm Hammershøi. At other times, Schulenburg populates these rooms with a figure, usually a woman and often his wife. As in all his work, he offers — in his own words — “a narrative quality, but it’s a partial narrative. I often find that what is most interesting is what is left unsaid.” In the figurative scenes, “a small change in the angle of a head or a tilt of the hips can completely change the emotional quality of a gesture.” Last but not least, Schulenburg paints the streets of New York City without the usual hubbub and away from the usually depicted landmarks: “I look for the overlooked,” he says, “for things that are a little unusual.” Like Hopper before him, Schulenburg investigates the hard-edged architecture with deft juxtapositions of raking light and planes of color, and with the occasional passerby inserted for scale and interest. Given his love of Cape Cod, some may be surprised to learn Schulenburg depicts the city at all. He explains, “Just as a trip to the beach can be refreshing, going from a rural area to the city can jolt the system and make you see the world through fresh eyes.” In a similar spirit, Schulenburg has traveled to — and painted — sites that intrigue him in the American Southwest, Mexico, Spain, Italy, and France. Schulenburg keeps on his artistic toes by mixing up his projects: he might spend one day outdoors painting, sketching, or taking reference photos, and the

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(LEFT) Sanctuary, 2019, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in., Addison Art Gallery, Orleans, Massachusetts

(BOTTOM) Time Off,

2020, oil on canvas, 26 x 40 in., Addison Art Gallery, Orleans, Massachusetts

work that feels parochial, instead transcending the here-and-now to become universal. Much of this has to do with the mood he endows — more contemplative than lonely, a bit mysterious without being self-consciously cryptic — and with what Salmagundi Club of New York chairman Nicholas Dawes calls his “ability to make the commonplace extraordinary.”

next day undertaking an interior scene. His genres may be wide-ranging, yet they always reflect his fascination with capturing light. Inevitably it is the scene’s key component, complemented by a sophisticated usage of negative shapes, management of warm and cool color, and lively brushwork often involving the impasto brush and palette knife. Even with explicitly New England-based scenes depicting lobstermen or Provincetown, Schulenburg somehow never produces

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A SENSE OF PLACE Cape Cod features prominently in Schulenburg’s art, and it has featured powerfully in his life. “When I was about 6,” he remembers, “my family started vacationing on Cape Cod for two weeks every summer. Those weeks were like heaven to me, and I fell in love with the seashore and the ‘Cape light.’ Every summer we would visit Provincetown, where I would see artists drawing and painting, and galleries up and down Commercial Street. I saw Cape Cod as a place where living as an artist wouldn’t be just a fantasy, but a lifestyle.” In 1899 Charles Hawthorne founded the Cape Cod School of Art in Provincetown, and artists have been flocking there ever since. Hawthorne himself painted local fishermen and residents of Provincetown, so “I suppose I am carrying on that tradition,” Schulenburg

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Sunrise in Brooklyn, 2015, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in., Addison Art Gallery, Orleans, Massachusetts

muses. “I find inspiration in Hawthorne’s gritty portrayal of local working people. I also admire the figurative work of Edwin Dickinson (1891–1978), who was more of a tonalist. I love the subtlety of color as well as the compressed space and flattened perspective he often used, which is similar to the overhead views in some of my fisherman paintings. In the mid-20th century, Henry Hensche (1899–1992) taught in Provincetown and introduced a more colorist approach to painting. I love his vibrant use of colors. My work probably falls somewhere between Hawthorne and Hensche — sometimes more colorful and sometimes more tonalist. It depends on the painting.” Not surprisingly, Schulenburg’s art — especially his cityscapes and townscapes — is often compared to that of Edward Hopper, who summered in Truro near Provincetown. “He’s so inspiring because there’s a real simplicity to his compositions,” Schulenburg enthuses. “And even though you associate his work with realism, he didn’t get caught up in detail; so much of his power was implied rather than rendered.” The same can be said of Schulenburg’s work, which is far more about big shapes than about exacting precision. As director of art at the Cape Cod Museum of Art, Benton Jones is in prime position to observe, “Through Paul Schulenburg’s complete devotion to his work and his caring, personal relationships with the expansive community of artists here, his studio has become a lightning rod for creativity.” Indeed, he has painted portraits of leading Provincetown artists (partly inspired by Hawthorne’s simplified “mud head” portraits), and since 2008 he has hosted a weekly model-pose at which colleagues can draw and paint together. (Even

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Stephanie Sykes has posed there, wearing her orange overalls and surrounded by fishing gear.) Schulenburg revels in the camaraderie, and notes that during the pandemic, he has been welcoming only a few colleagues to his studio but dozens more via Zoom from as far away as California and Britain. As a proud Cape Codder, Schulenburg helped to bring 18 leading artists from across the U.S. to paint together in Provincetown in 2010, and he has helped organize additional group trips to places such as Port Clyde (Maine) and San Miguel de Allende (Mexico). Many of Schulenburg’s collectors reside in Cape Cod or New York City, though plenty more have no direct connection with either place, living as far afield as Asia. He confides, “I find that when I really connect with my subject, people viewing my work will sense that and connect as well. It’s always an honor when people appreciate my work and want to have it in their homes.” Among his admirers are Jim Stott and Jonathan King of Kittery Point, Maine, who founded Stonewall Kitchen, a leading national producer of specialty foods. They own not only In the Shade of the Pier (illustrated here), but also a larger version of By the Pier, which appears on the cover of Schulenburg’s monograph. Dear friends of theirs purchased By the Pier from a gallery and arranged for it to be delivered to Stott and King’s home because their own house was being renovated. It was agreed that one couple or the other would acquire it, and once they saw it hanging on their own wall, Stott and King decided it must stay. In view of Schulenburg’s talent, such enthusiasm is understandable. In fact, it’s likely that Stott and King experienced a form of the awakening the artist has written about: “There’s a line you can cross into another realm, where the painting seems to take on a life of its own. I don’t mean like photorealism, but rather having an indefinable spark of something that takes it one step beyond the ordinary. Like one of Cézanne’s still life paintings, it becomes almost a living being. That’s when the artist falls in love and hopefully the collector does as well. That’s what I strive for.” Information: Schulenburg is represented by Addison Art Gallery (Orleans, Massachusetts); George Billis Gallery (New York and Los Angeles), and Art Essex Gallery (Essex, Connecticut). PETER TRIPPI is editor-in-chief of Fine Art Connoisseur.

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BY CHARLES MOORE

T O D A Y ’ S M A S T E R S

ELIZABETH COLOMBA

RE-ENVISIONS THE PAST

even a quick glance at the largescale paintings of Elizabeth Colomba (b. 1976) presents unexpected contrasts — of modern and historic sensibilities, of contemporary and period settings, of France and the Caribbean — what the artist calls “the fusing of my two worlds.” Born and raised near Paris, she is from a family with roots on the French island of Martinique. Colomba’s art features a deep-seated acknowledgement of the past that bodes well for the future, allowing her to explore her dual background and reshape narratives touching on Black individualism and culture in the late 1800s. Today Colomba works in a studio in midtown Manhattan, but she grew up in the Paris suburb of Épinay-sur-Seine. In search of opportunity, her parents had relocated from Martinique to France in 1971 with Colomba’s older sister, Myriam; the artist was born five years later. Her creative gifts were apparent early on. In fact, Colomba proclaimed at the age of 6, “I’m going to be Picasso!” And so her journey began: Colomba’s parents encouraged their younger daughter to experiment with watercolors and displayed her creations throughout the Caribbean restaurant they operated for three decades. When she was 8, her school class was asked to replicate impressionist and post-impressionist paintings as Father’s Day gifts. Already confident she could copy a Van Gogh portrait inch by inch, Colomba went on to do just that. It came easily to her, and she knew — as did her family — that she was onto something. The young artist adored books as much as the visual arts, and indeed a storytelling approach has permeated her artistry. Her oil on canvas The Library testifies to this: a young Black woman in a stunning period outfit poses by the window of F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M

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The Library, 2005, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in., private collection

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Biddy Mason, 2009, oil on canvas, 30 x 20 in., private collection

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(LEFT) Winter, 2017, oil on canvas, 72 x 36 in., available from the artist

(BELOW) Spring, 2019, oil on canvas, 72 x 36 in.,

available from the artist

an immaculate home library furnished with a patterned rug, a globe encased in glass, a bust of a white man, a floral-printed screen, and hundreds of books filling the shelves. The scene Colomba sets is peaceful, empowering, and evocative of her classical training. It’s also an immersive experience reshaping the trajectory of Black period paintings — but we’ll get to that. As a teenager, Colomba spent many a free hour at the local library, reading such books as The Image of the Black in Western Art, a multivolume scholarly publication that laid the foundation for her artistic voice. Edited by the art historian Ladislas Bugner and underwritten by John and Dominique de Menil, the Frenchborn collectors-philanthropists based in Houston, this series documents the appearance of Black subjects in Western paintings and sculptures. Colomba recalls that she found these volumes pleasantly surprising, and so she forged her own path to re-evaluate Black women in visual art. Among her objectives is to reveal that a Black subject “in a period setting is no longer synonymous with subservience and, by extension, does not instill fear or mistrust.” F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M

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Laure (Portrait of a Negresse), 2018, oil on canvas, 40 x 40 in., collection of JP Morgan Chase

the transition to painting full-time in 2007. Soon Colomba was winning attention for blending Old Master techniques and modern concerns into something that is almost pre-contemporary — a means of, in her own words, “reclaiming history and anchoring the spirit of the African diaspora by redefining its place.” Her project involves a form of visual reappropriation — a mental reset, if you will, that reconfigures Black people not in servile roles, but in narratives showcasing their honor and cultural sophistication. Colomba explains that her characters are recognizable in a sense, though ambiguous by name or identity. “I take them out of that context and give them a full scene,” she once told Vogue. Each scene conveys a sense of autonomy in the way the figures view themselves, and contemplation and reflection always play a critical role. Consider Colomba’s Four Seasons series, composed of four 6 x 3-foot canvases, each featuring the full-length figure of a luxuriously dressed Black woman. Spring depicts 12-year-old Léa, the artist’s niece, barefoot and clad in pink, determinedly extending an arm upward to pick roses. Its slightly She seeks to make each of her subjects “the center of her own story,” and with her paintings of regal, solitary women, she has done just that. Colomba undertook classical training in Paris at the École supérieure des arts et industries graphiques, nicknamed the École Estienne. This was followed by a year-long stint at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts. She spent much of her free time at the Musée du Louvre studying key works by Delacroix, Ingres, and the Dutch masters (particularly Vermeer, whose tranquil scenes clearly resonate with her). Upon completing her training in 1995, Colomba built a studio in her parents’ apartment, supplementing her income by working for advertising agencies. Three years later, she and a friend headed to Los Angeles to learn English while helping to create film sets, but soon she was developing storyboards and script illustrations. For the next eight years, Colomba lived in a spacious West Hollywood apartment, painting daily in her home studio and covering her expenses through illustration commissions for films like Tom Ford’s A Single Man. But in the early 2000s there were few connections between the movie industry in Los Angeles and Manhattan’s art world; while dining at the Chateau Marmont one evening, Colomba realized she would have to move to New York in order to pursue her true career goals. She made

Judith, 2007, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in., private collection

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desaturated tone owes to the fact that Colomba painted the first layer in the Old Master technique of grisaille and added the color later. The three remaining seasons from the series are no less captivating; in Winter, Colomba’s mother, who died in 2018, takes the proverbial center stage. Her close friend, the curator Dr. Kalia Brooks Nelson, posed for Fall, while Summer depicts a model the painter spotted on the street and promptly asked to photograph. Each Black figure is transported to the Belle Époque, living among luxuries that would have been inaccessible to most women of color in France then. Speaking of the Belle Époque, viewers will immediately discern Colomba’s fascination with the late 1800s. Slavery was abolished in France in 1848, so Colomba places her subjects in the transitional decades afterward, allowing them to take ownership of their lives and stories. For example, Laure (Portrait of a Negresse) showcases the subservient, austerely dressed maid from Manet’s famous Olympia (1863), but now she is wearing richly colored clothing and holding an umbrella while walking along a cobblestoned street near Paris’s fashionable Parc Monceau. This painting was much noticed in New York City between October 2018 and February 2019 while hanging at Columbia University’s Wallach Art Gallery in the groundbreaking exhibition Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today. (Alas, it was not included when this show moved to the Musée d’Orsay in Colomba’s native Paris.) The exhibition ideally suited Colomba’s artistry through its examination of the changing ways in which Black figures have been represented in modern art. Many of the historical artists represented there shared Colomba’s determination to defy current expectations, focusing instead on underlying elements related to the individual. Today Colomba continues to blend history not only with her own imagination, but also with often enigmatic, symbolist evocations of mythology, religion, and the feminine sacred. In this current climate focused on addressing systemic racism, her approach is especially intriguing: each individual depicted is in full control of her own life, a vision connecting the past, present, and future.

Daphne, 2013, oil and gold leaf on canvas, 36 x 24 in., Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City

CHARLES MOORE is a doctoral candidate at Columbia University and a curatorial resident at Artis/International Studio & Curatorial Program. He is a regular contributor to Artnet and Artsy Editorial. F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M

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BY MICHAEL J. PEARCE

T O D A Y ’ S M A S T E R S

DANIEL SPRICK SEEKING “SOMETHING

THAT FEELS TRUE” My Metaphysical Adventure, 1991, oil on canvas, 60 x 72 in., Denver Art Museum, Funds from Contemporary Realism Group, 1991.857

ince 1991, the Denver Art Museum has acquired a painting by the Colorado artist Daniel Sprick (b. 1953) every decade. The first of them, My Metaphysical Adventure (1991), is dominated by the fat comfort of red and white drapery and the contented symbols of bourgeois life: a teacup; a Persian rug on the table, borrowed from an interior scene painted by Jan van Eyck; a healthy potted plant; a burning incense stick, with its scented smoke drifting upward. This scene is full, rich, and beautifully painted. Yet its title describes instead a revelatory journey Sprick had begun recently; the decapitated, handless, and footless mannequin in the distance, the toothy mask on the wall, and the hooded apparition in the cloth at left are all ominous signs of disquiet, of discomfort with the material world’s luxuries. The museum’s second Sprick acquisition, Release Your Plans (2001), is an allegory that stops most visitors in their tracks. In it the artist finds his way through the everyday conceits of ordinary still life painting by presenting the magical mechanics and fantastic unrealities of a stringed arrangement. His composition is a delicate Rube Goldberg vanitas strung together like a folk-charm, a collection of unstable and barely balanced things on a white-draped altar. The white fabric is bound, and the precarious two-legged table is held in place only by the

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string that wraps around the earthenware pot. String also ties red and blue cloths to the white wall, lifts the stems of an elongated, anorexic houseplant, and wraps the plant to a vertical rod. Everything here is poised on the edge of collapse, caught in the frozen moment before the fall of a broken bottle becomes a violent, jagged fact, anticipating the tumble of the fragile eggshells balanced on a knife blade and held in place only by a human skull. Bewitched objects float in alchemical harmony. A white rose of respect hangs weightlessly against the rim of a floating plate while a levitating red

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Release Your Plans, 2001, oil on board, 59 3/8 x 64 1/2 in., Denver Art Museum, anonymous gift, 2006.25

rose of love and a supernaturally suspended glass sphere hover beside a vertical mirror balanced on its edge on the shelf of an easel. Everything is beautiful, everything is breakable, and everything is in danger. The inevitable fragments are already scattered on the carpet. Release Your Plans is a dazzling and novel painting that revitalized the still life genre by telling the fragile story of a personal relationship’s structure, held together by just a thread. Jared (2011), the third Sprick painting to enter the museum’s collection, is from his series of white portraits. Glowing light surrounds the dreadlocked figure in a transcendent bath of illumination, alluding to the transition from life to the other world. “I rely on beautiful light,” Sprick explains, but in his very recent work he is “trying not to depend upon it too much, because I think the secret harmony isn’t just isolated light. I think it’s patterns of distribution that really matter, that contain the essence.” PEOPLE & INTERIORS Sprick’s white portraits are powerful, yet as impactful as they are, they are less weighty than his pictures of Denver’s street people. In scenes like Souls in Purgatory (2016), their faces are so solid, so present, that it is difficult to tear our gaze away to their fraying and fragmented edges, where the physical forms disintegrate and we see through their clothes and flesh to the unfocused background of the city. These solid people — so direct and so detailed — are

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Jared, 2011, oil on board, 30 x 20 in., Denver Art Museum, Department of Painting & Sculpture funds, by exchange, and contributions given in honor of Guenther Vogt, 2014.55

evaporating into the immateriality of the urban landscape, half transported to another place. Fine light hairs are scratched into the carefully painted mass of their beards, gouged with a sharp screw through thin layers of delicate, balanced color to reveal the bright white gesso beneath. Truth dematerializes in the backgrounds of Sprick’s still lifes, too. In Release Your Plans, we immediately recognize the external appearance of the Campbell’s soup can, but when we examine it, the familiar logo has been replaced with the painting’s title. This strangeness is one of the three visual effects Sprick uses to remind us this is a painting: he also makes fast gestures of thickly sensual paint and casts quickly dry-brushed textures across backgrounds to leave rough surfaces. In his figurative scenes, these visual effects contrast with the smooth, photographic realism of the faces and other objects that Sprick shows us with pure clarity, crafted with the long sacrifice and attentiveness of intense observation. “I like paintings to look like paintings; they’re really made up,” Sprick explains. “I scrape them out and redo them so many times to finally find this combination of placement and angles and repetition and motif and color harmonies. Something that’s going to wake us up to a new reality. That’s what I’m searching for.” This contrast between the vague and the detailed imitates human vision. When we look, we only ever see a small circle of focus, and the rest is a blur. We never really see everything in sharp detail. But Sprick’s imitation of this centric constancy is more than a painterly trick: it’s a philosophical stance that lies at the heart of the revelation of a mysterious and unknowable truth. He makes us witnesses to the metaphysical impossibility of ever really knowing someone, of ever tracing the bond that feels its way in the darkness that separates mind from mind,

Souls in Purgatory, 2016, oil on panel, 26 x 32 in., private collection

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(ABOVE) Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 2016, oil on canvas, 80 x 144 in., private collection

(LEFT)

Living Room, 2020, oil on panel, 16 x 20 in., private collection

the impossibility of finding complete connection with another person. Love hints at the union, but consciousness cannot be unravelled from the bones and flesh of the human body. Portraits are memorials. Their purpose is to capture the image of the sitter for the audience, to extend their authority and influence over the world. Yet the best portraits also reveal something deeper than the illusion of presence, opening a space for personality and character through the weird alchemy between material and skill that coalesces in the hands of great artists like Sprick. F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M

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His frayed bodies are also profound reminders of death’s approach, of the temporary nature of this brief life. In his epic Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (2016), the skeletal figures materialize beside dead trees in the foothills above green Denver; gold-striped cloths tied to the bare branches flap in the dry chinook wind beside the bony riders. An impossible arrangement of dry tree trunks stands on the sharp precipice edge, spindlewoven strings stretched between them in a dream-catcher’s cradle of lines. This fragile defensive protection is set between the city and the ever-present spectres. Sprick’s more recent interiors record a bachelor’s quarantined and solitary life, crafted from light and dark. The feminine details of domesticity have vanished, the layered comforts of bourgeois life are gone, and scant furniture disturbs the empty shine of wooden floors. No complex arrangements of fruit, ornaments, bones, or houseplants complicate Sprick’s simple compositions. The thread that held the fragile forms together has vanished, and the recent interiors are filled with empty space. In Living Room (2020), a white couch and loveseat appear bright against the shadowed, polished floor, glowing under the dark void of the breakfast bar. Cleaning supplies stand on that bar beside a wineglass and bottle. Sprick notes, “I’m searching for patterns that have a key to some undiscovered harmonies. I suspect that there are some things in

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Daniel and the Writing on the Wall, 2020, oil on panel, 20 x 24 in., private collection

aesthetics that have never been discovered and I’m trying to find them. I think there are patterns and vibrations that could lead us to more beauty than we’ve seen. Really all I care about is finding beauty.” Bringing light to Earth has consequences, and above the loveseat he has imagined a huge framed enlargement of an ancient Greek vase adorned with bound Prometheus assaulted by Zeus’s liver-eating eagle, while his brother Atlas looks on helplessly as he struggles to support the world. Those who steal fire for the people are punished by the gods. These are paintings of transition, the contrast of blackness and whiteness in Sprick’s

Self-Portrait, Mount Vernon, 2018, oil on panel, 20 x 30 in., private collection

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life. During the COVID-19 pandemic, his still lifes have become delicate and austere. The carefully composed network of homely objects strung together has been minimized. In Isabelle’s Plate and Rooftops (2018), he gathers three fruits on a plate resting upon an almost empty glass. They are perched on a black box before a window overlooking the city. The mechanics are stripped away, concentrated to the minimum. Outside, a web of bare branches replaces the charmed net of comfortable things that formerly protected Sprick from the world. In Self-Portrait, Mount Vernon (2018), he presents a version of himself in a bare corner of the apartment, flanked by broad windows overlooking the pink suburban Denver reflected in his spectacles. Here Sprick is clean-shaven, dematerializing into the cityscape. Is it a coincidence that in his later Daniel and the Writing on the Wall (2020), he is bearded and wild, wrapped in the striped cloth we saw billowing near the horsemen? Of all his self-portraits, here

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Isabelle’s Plate and Rooftops, 2018, oil on panel, 20 x 16 in., private collection

Sprick most resembles his whiskied street geezers, the damaged people who vanish into America’s dirty boulevards. In the blurred background, the familiar-looking signs at right are printed not in standard English but in Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky of jumbled words. We see — in reverse — the words of the prophet at Belshazzar’s feast (“Mene, Mene, Tekel Upharsin” – “God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end. You have been weighed and found wanting; your kingdom is divided”). At bottom left, two shadowy, silhouetted figures hover.

Death and the Maiden, 2019, oil on panel, 48 x 60 in., private collection

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In Search of an Honest Man, 2018, oil on panel, 76 x 96 in., private collection

MOVING OUTDOORS In his recent outdoor scenes, Sprick joins such shadowy guides to the transitional world, shifting himself from domestic solitude into the vibrating, glowing life outside. Out there, Sprick has painted lush parkland with magical rays glowing on green, fresh-leaved trees and flowing rivers. He has entered the astral folk-charm that protected him, and now nature is his enchanted song. Sunshine works backwards here, receding in great swaths of light to a dark vanishing point. “It’s crazy light,” Sprick admits — the isolated and brilliant rays of a low sun glowing under branches against purple darks. In Death and the Maiden (2019), a young woman wearing a striped dress gazes at extravagant blue flowers, one hand cupped, another raised distractedly. A skeleton stands behind imitating her pose, perhaps about to touch her shoulder. In the distance, an artist renders this seemingly heavenly landscape with soft, idealized buildings along the water. In this gorgeous fiction, another skeleton is the artist’s companion. Floating above the woman, a glass orb reflects rectangular shapes of light — the studio’s bright windows — warning attentive viewers that this is a brilliant fabrication. The painting is an image of reality perfectly balanced with imagination, like a psychic’s vision. Sprick explains, “There’s a fine line between making things a little too sweet and making as heightened a reality as possible. It doesn’t have to be entirely plausible, just something that feels true, even if it isn’t.” For In Search of an Honest Man (2018), Sprick painted himself

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again in the mystical world; covered in that striped cloth, hobbling on bowed legs, he is helped by a woman in an overgrown garden. At left, a half-materialized skeleton watches them; at right a younger version of Sprick observes the scene, while a shadowy dog exits. The painting is alive with writhing foliage giving way to a hazy landscape. These paintings are not morbid premonitions. Death says, “Et in arcadia ego” (I too am in arcadia), but the ancient symbols are emblems of transformation, of the alchemical change from one state to another. The Denver Art Museum may acquire its fourth Sprick during 2021, but which one? Surely one of these landscapes with nature under the spell of the artist’s incantations. And in 2031? Sprick has now entered the culmination of the metaphysical adventure he began nearly 40 years ago: “I’ve already done enough paintings for one lifetime, but the reason I continue is that I think there’s some undiscovered territory. I want to find it. Find it or die trying.” Information: Daniel Sprick: Portraits is available for purchase at streamlineartvideo.com. MICHAEL J. PEARCE, PH.D. is the author of Art in the Age of Emergence and professor of art at California Lutheran University.

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BY DANIEL GRANT

T O D A Y ’ S M A S T E R S

RICHARD WILSON

MAKES HIS OWN WAY

e tend to imagine artists’ careers in certain ways. Most often we envision them retreating into the studio to do battle with The Muse, emerging with artworks that their dealers praise to the heavens, and for which collectors pay heavenly prices. Museum exhibitions and coffee-table monographs follow. (Well, maybe this goes too far, but it would be nice if it always happened like this.)

To be sure, our mental portraits of artists generally do not picture them driving their work around to outdoor art festivals, battling the elements while setting up a 10-x-10-foot booth for display, keeping one eye on the cash box and the other on a van parked nearby, watching other exhibitors’ booths while they take bathroom breaks, etc. Real artists don’t do that, right? Hopefully the experience of Richard Wilson (b. 1971), a gifted painter and pastelist based in Greenville, North Carolina, will overturn some readers’ expectations in this regard. During 2019, the latest full year of in-person art festivals, he participated in 18 of them, winning top prizes or best-in-show awards at 15. That meant 18 long weekends spent anywhere between New York State to Florida, and as far west as Colorado. That required Wilson to do a lot of driving, and everything else an artist, dealer, shipper, booth designer, and marketer does. Still, Wilson wouldn’t trade it for the chance to be represented by a brick-and-mortar gallery. “I do so well at these shows: I get 100 percent of the profits, and I am making new contacts all the time,” he explains. Those contacts frequently become collectors, buying at other times of year through Wilson’s website. Some even commission him to create portraits. One such contact is the Hollywood set designer Ina Mayhew, who visited Wilson’s booth at the Atlanta Dogwood Festival. Later she introduced his work to the set designer for the 2016 film Barbershop: The Next Cut and they acquired five pieces to adorn the “home” of the main character, played by Ice Cube. As an African-American, Wilson realizes he is a bit of a rarity: most exhibitors in America’s thousands of annual festivals are white, so many Black visitors find their way to his booth, including Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles, at the Essences Music Festival in New Orleans. Of that encounter, Wilson recalls, “I went up to her and said, ‘It would be an honor to have a piece of my work in your collection.’ She replied, ‘It would be an honor to have a piece of your work in my collection,’ and she bought one.” Also on this list are the two nieces of baseball legend Henry “Hank” Aaron — one at a Baltimore show and the other in Atlanta. The latter spotted Wilson’s portrait of her uncle and arranged for him to meet Aaron at his home nearby. Now 86, he promptly commissioned Wilson to paint his grandchildren. Fortunately, Wilson’s work appeals to viewers of all kinds, including commercial galleries. Indeed, he has been contacted by

Richard Wilson (right) presents baseball legend Henry “Hank” Aaron with his portrait of him in 2016.

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the latter regularly — one was “a famous New York gallery” — but he says it is difficult to keep a gallery supplied with artworks while continuing to exhibit at festivals. (In one year Wilson produces between 20 and 24 watercolors, oils, and pastels.) When he considered that gallery solo shows occur just once every two or three years, with dealers taking 50 percent commissions and sometimes making artists wait months for payment, it was not a difficult choice to stick with festivals. Wilson also has the type of personality that works well at a festival. He likes to talk, without jargon or obvious salesmanship. Visitors arrive expecting to converse with artists themselves, and indeed most events require the artists to attend. Chatting with strangers is a skill not taught in art school, so artists on the festival circuit must learn how, or else. Selling art direct requires them to be interesting, if not polite (as visitors are surprisingly tolerant of artists’ rough edges). They must be ready to reveal some things about the artworks, and about themselves. Conversation engages the visitor, and that engagement leads to an investment, first of time and hopefully of money. Moreover, the conversation gives buyers a “back story” they can share with

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(ABOVE) Bessie Coleman, 2015, pastel on paper, 24 x 36 in., collection of Milton and Camilla Briggs (LEFT) In His Shadow: Jackie Robinson, 2011, pastel on paper, 36 x 24 in., collection of Quinn Kiley

their friends, insights that make them feel like insiders. “Early in my career I was apprehensive to just start talking and give potential clients my card,” Wilson says, “but after practice I became much more comfortable. When I’m at my shows, I’m in my element, and the people who visit pick up on my excitement and energy.” TEACHING AND INSPIRING The stories he relates at festivals are not whimsical but historical, for Wilson sees himself as an educator as much as an artist. His subjects are frequently AfricanAmerican notables such as Hank Aaron, Michael Jordan, and Joe Louis, though others he depicts should be better known. He notes, “I did a painting of Bessie Coleman [1892–1926], the first African-American female aviator. Because U.S. flying schools would not admit her, she taught herself another language and went to France to learn how to fly. She came back to the U.S. J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y

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This Old House, 2010, pastel on paper, 50 x 34 1/4 in., collection of Jay and Betty Jean Moreau

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(ABOVE) Faithful Journey, 2015, pastel on board, 32 x 32 in., collection of the artist

(LEFT)

Spotlight, 2017, pastel on paper, 11 x 32 in., collection of Deborah Reed

to open a school that would teach flying to African-Americans, but then died in an accident. People don’t know much about her, so I wanted to paint her, to shed light on her amazing story that could possibly encourage others not to give up on their dreams.” The University of Georgia commissioned Wilson to paint the portrait of Mary Frances Early (b. 1936), the first African-American to graduate there. It now hangs in front of the president’s office. Recently he undertook a posthumous commission of Greenville attorney Earl Thomas Brown, who died in an automobile accident in 2016 at the age of 64 while running for a judgeship. That portrait is now displayed in Greenville’s Pitt County Superior Courthouse. In many of Wilson’s scenes, children figure as emblems of innocence; his favorite models are his three daughters, now 28, 25, and 20, when they were younger, and also several nephews. In art, the term “inspirational images” tends to mean scenes highlighting religious beliefs. Wilson’s work is certainly inspirational, but instead of spiritual faith he seeks to inspire AfricanAmerican youngsters to better understand their own cultural history. For example, his In the Shadow series features boys holding sporting equipment before a wall that depicts an athletic hero such as Jim Brown, Jack Johnson, or Joe Louis. The resulting image hints at the heights to which these children can aspire. After all, even if many adults know who these legends were, their stories need to be retold for the next generation. One example, In His Shadow: Jackie Robinson, shows a boy before what looks like a barn siding. On it is a faded image of Major League Baseball’s first African-American player. The barn’s door has been unlocked because, Wilson observes, “Robinson broke the color barrier. He unlocked the door not just for baseball, but for society as a whole.” Next time you visit the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, look out for Wilson’s In His Shadow: Arthur Ashe, now in the permanent collection there. Wilson taught for seven years at Pitt Community College (Winterville, North Carolina), having joined its faculty right after he earned a degree in advertising and graphic design there. He was often asked by public school teachers and administrators to make presentations about his art, to inspire students — through his professional success — to follow their own dreams. “I

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wanted to come up with eye-catching paintings, but also to teach a bit of history they don’t hear in school. That’s when I started depicting children, as I wanted them to see themselves. Because even when I was growing up, I didn’t see many paintings of African-Americans. I always heard about Amelia Earhart, but I never heard about Bessie Coleman,” Wilson explains. Of course, he did see some positive images, such as on television’s Cosby Show. “But, still, when you went to a gallery or museum, you didn’t see us. Children are impressionable, so when they learn to have pride, they see that they can do things, anything.” He himself learned this as a boy. He remembers telling his father, “I want to be an artist one day. And he replied, ‘Trust God, and put God first, and just believe, and it will come to pass.’” His father, Richard D. Wilson, Sr., who died in 2013, was an important influence. When Richard Sr. was in college, he planned to major in art but switched to mathematics “because there weren’t a lot of jobs in the art industry.” He became a middleschool math teacher but eventually was hired as a pattern-maker for Tom’s Togs in Conetoe, North Carolina, near where Richard Wilson was raised. (His mother worked there as an inspector and trimmer.) When he was 11, he was enrolled in a correspondent art school. Every public school has its art star, and at SouthWest Edgecombe High School in Pinetops, Richard was it. After seven years of teaching community college, Wilson was ready to try making art fulltime. He had already participated in some weekend festivals, and knew he would need to “add more shows to compensate for my last teaching salary.” It did not take long to discover the wisdom of his decision. The weekend after he resigned from Pitt, he showed at a festival where “I made more money than I had teaching for a whole year.” LOOKING BACK An equally significant subject for Wilson is his memory of growing up in the rural South. One such work is the pastel This Old House, which depicts the front end of an uninhabited house, surrounded by weeds and in need of a fresh coat of paint. “That was my grandmother’s house, and we had a lot of history there,” Wilson recollects. “She had nine children, and all of them and her grandchildren went by every weekend; my uncle would cook on the grill. This was the highlight of every weekend. But when my grandmother passed away, everybody stopped going there, so we kind of lost connection. In the piece there’s a

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(LEFT) Jack Johnson, 2018, pastel on paper, 58 x 26 in., collection of the artist

(BELOW) Tranquil Passage III, 2017,

pastel on paper, 12 x 36 in., collection of Marvin and Lititia McKesson

telephone wire on the roof, and it’s disconnected. My grandmother was the family’s glue.” That work dates from 2010, and a piece made earlier this year, A Window to the Past, seems to pick up the story. It is the same house viewed from a different perspective, with Wilson’s uncle walking around it. Alas, the actual house has been demolished, so Wilson worked from photographs and asked his elderly uncle to pose for the painting. Wilson himself needed some inspiration at that time. The COVID-19 pandemic was shutting the country down, and a series of police killings of Black men was generating anger nationwide. “I was really down after all my shows were canceled, and then with the killing of George Floyd. I thought, ‘Man, I’ve got to find a way to get inspired in order to come out of this.’” Wilson is surely not the first artist to whom art gave new purpose in 2020. Over the years, Wilson has worked in various media, including watercolors, acrylics, and occasionally temperas, but he prefers pastels, followed closely by oils. “I started off with pastels. What appeals to me most is their versatility and vibrant colors, but oils are becoming my new favorite. I thought they were going to be more challenging to use, but they’re actually easier. The layering process is similar, but I can add small details a lot easier.” In 2018, Wilson won the $5,000 top prize in the 20th annual Pastel 100 competition for Jack Johnson, which drew many offers from collectors, all of which he declined. “I love it when people want to purchase my work and have it in their homes. But I really would love to see this one in a museum where everyone can enjoy it” — where its story is bound to inspire even more impressionable minds and eyes. DANIEL GRANT is the author of The Business of Being an Artist and other books published by Skyhorse Press.

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BY DAN BULLEIT AND PETER TRIPPI

T O D A Y ’ S M A S T E R S

APPRECIATING

TODAY’S HEROES

Editor’s Note: Dan Bulleit’s painting Blue Angel recently won the People’s Choice Award in the annual exhibition mounted by the Brown County Art Gallery (Nashville, Indiana). It also won the Director’s Purchase Award, so it is now in that gallery’s permanent collection. Given its timeliness, we invited Bulleit to tell us more about this memorable scene.

“I

felt compelled to paint this tribute to healthcare workers in recognition of their response to the COVID-19 epidemic, and also in gratitude for their support during my ongoing battle with Stage IV colon cancer. Their all-hands-on-deck response to the pandemic has been widely acknowledged as a historic humanitarian mission, one that has often found itself against the grain of political rhetoric. Yet healthcare professionals have sustained their efforts, sometimes at the cost of their own lives. I cannot imagine where we all would be without their determination to go on saving lives. On a personal level, they have provided me with incredible care. Their compassion and support have gone way beyond what I anticipated and have made a huge difference in my recovery path and continuing challenges. “Healthcare professionals deserve both our gratitude and continued prayers. In appreciation, I offer Blue Angel, hoping it will help serve as a reminder that they continue to serve on society’s front line. Here a solitary nurse, who symbolizes all healthcare workers, attempts to gather herself on a short break during another long shift. In her fatigue, she questions if her team has done enough. The isolation and occasional doubt within all this turbulence almost consume her spirit. “I feel the painting makes a statement at this unique moment in time, and I am pleased that it has garnered more responses online than any other work I have created. More importantly, it has convinced more than 100 viewers on social media to get screened for cancer. I am particularly thrilled that it has been acquired by the Brown County Art Gallery, where hopefully many people will see it.”

important not only to make a living but also to allow your spirit the chance to soar and seek clarity. At some point you have to live the truth. It’s a greater journey, and we all need courage to follow our own path until we can’t.” Based in Greenville, Indiana, Bulleit is represented by Castle Gallery (Fort Wayne) and is an active member of Oil Painters of America, the Brown County Art Gallery Artists Association (Nashville), and the Hoosier Art Salon (New Harmony and Indianapolis). Over the years he has attended workshops with such significant artists as John Michael Carter, Ray Day, Daniel Edmondson, Daniel Gerhartz, Quang Ho, Diana Hutchinson, Charles Warren Mundy, Lori Putnam, and Laura Robb. Bulleit writes that he is especially “inspired by representational artists who blend suggestion with what is left to the imagination. I myself am moving from recording what I see toward more impressionistic scenes. Still anchored by the fundamentals, these are images that resonate loosely with some personal meaning. Through selective expression, suggestion, and nudging, there is excitement when viewers feel they are making a discovery of their own, sometimes as a whisper, sometimes as a shout.” More broadly, Bulleit notes, “Our lives are mostly spent living in gray areas between sharp milestones. I want to punctuate that common human drama with the beautiful subtlety we are likely to encounter at any hour — ideally in the velvety air of sublime moments. I want to capture experiences that have poetic meaning, ones we feel are ordinary but become extraordinary when we pause to appreciate them.”

AN ARTIST’S JOURNEY Dan Bulleit grew up in New Albany, Indiana, and attended the Colorado Institute of Art on scholarship. Having flourished as an art director and occasional illustrator at various direct marketing firms, he shifted to fine art full-time in 2016, focusing on oil paintings. Bulleit muses, “It’s

Information: dbulleit.fineartstudioonline.com

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DAN BULLEIT is a professional fine artist. PETER TRIPPI is editor-in-chief of Fine Art Connoisseur.

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DAN BULLEIT (b. 1956), Blue Angel, 2020, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 in., permanent collection of the Brown County Art Gallery, Nashville, Indiana

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BY MAX GILLIES

T O D A Y ’ S M A S T E R S

BELOVED CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL H uman beings love and respect all kinds of animals, but among the most cherished are dogs, horses, and birds. The Fine Art Connoisseur team decided to triple up and find out which artists are successfully depicting any member of this trio, and we have been thrilled to discover terrific work being made nationwide. In this section, we highlight a broad array of images, some of which transcend description or charm to underscore the more profound, even symbolist, meanings we humans have assigned to these fellow creatures over the centuries. A special note for bird watchers, if we may. Prepare to rejoice this April when the National Audubon Society publishes the latest edition of its indispensable field guide Birds of North America. Not updated since 1994, this 912-page volume is the result of close collaboration among leading scientists, scholars, and other experts to identify and photograph more than 800 species. Sadly, up to two-thirds of North American birds could face extinction from climate change in the half-century ahead, so the new guide also includes details on each species’ conservation status and remaining habitat. In addition to its over 3,500 photographs, the book contains range maps and a glossary. For details, visit audubon.org and knopfdoubleday.com. MAX GILLIES is a contributing writer to Fine Art Connoisseur.

ANN GOBLE (b. 1961), Sunshine on My Shoulders, 2020, oil on board, 16 x 12 in., private collection

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(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) MIKE BEEMAN (b. 1946), Easy Pose, 2013, pastel on paper, 8 x 6 in., private collection

JULIE

BELL (b. 1958), Mongolian Eagle Hunters, 2019, oil on wood, 30 x 40 in., private collection

LYN BOYER (b. 1952), Brothers,

2019, oil on linen, 16 x 20 in., private collection

JILL BANKS (b.

1958), Peacock Blue, 2012, oil on linen-lined panel, 24 x 18 in., available from the artist

KATHLEEN DUNPHY (b. 1963),

Scram!, 2020, oil on canvas, 48 x 72 in., available from the artist

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(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) LISA GLEIM (b. 1971), Diesel, 2017, pastel on board, 18 x 18 in., private collection

LINDA LESLIE (b. 1951), Borzoi Study, 2020,

oil on canvas-board, 16 x 12 in., available from the artist LAURIE KERSEY (b. 1961), Against the Wind, 2019, oil on canvas, 24 x 30 in., available from the artist

VICTOR

GRASSO (b. 1977), Practical Birdkeeping, 2016, oil on linen, 36 x 48 in., private collection

NICOLA LAZZARI

(b. 1957), Star Collector, 2017, bronze [edition of 9], 14 1/4 in. high, Sladmore Gallery, London

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(CLOCKWISE

FROM

TOP

LEFT)

JHENNA QUINN LEWIS (b. 1955), In Which the Key Was Taken, 2019, oil on linen, 20 x 14 in., private collection

JOHANNE MANGI

(b. 1953), Budgie: Waz Up?, 2018, oil on linen board, 6 x 6 in., private collection

TRACI

WRIGHT

MARTIN (b. 1980), Conan, 2017, charcoal on paper, 8 x 8 in., private collection (b.

1953),

WALTER T. MATIA Green

Wings,

2016,

bronze (unique), 65 x 27 x 14 in., available from the artist

DEANNE

MCKEOWN (b. 1938), Like the Wind, 2019, bronze [artist’s proof 2/5], 7 1/2 x 12 x 5 in., collection of the artist

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LILIYA MUGLIA (b. 1961), Hym Whiche Is Knowen for a Lyer, 2020, oil on canvas, 36 x 18 in., available from the artist

SALLY MAXWELL (b. 1946), Night, 2019, Scratchbord etched off, then colored with India inks, 36 x 12 in., Lovetts Gallery, Tulsa

SALLY MAXWELL (b. 1946), Day, 2019, Claybord airbrushed with blue ink, then drawn on with India

inks, then etched, 36 x 12 in., Lovetts Gallery, Tulsa

SUSAN NEESE (b. 1949), Reflective, 2017, oil on canvas, 30 x 24 in., available from the artist

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(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) LARRY MOORE (b. 1957), Aracari, 2020, oil on wood, 20 x 24 in., private collection

DEBORAH NEWMAN

(b. 1956), Taking a Break, 2019, oil on canvas on panel, 18 x 8 in., Vanessa Rothe Fine Art, Laguna Beach, California

ANN PISTO (b. 1950), A Warm

Place in the Sun, 2020, oil on linen panel, 11 x 14 in., available from the artist JAMES MORGAN (b. 1947), Winter Weeds, 2007, oil on linen, 16 x 12 in., private collection

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(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) ANNETTE RANDALL (b. 1956), Learning the Ropes, 2019, graphite pencil on board, 18 x 18 in., private collection

JOHN NICHOLAS ROWE

(b. 1954), Jockey, 2017, oil on canvas, 18 x 24 in., private collection

MANON SANDER

(b. 1967), It’s Looking Up, 2017, oil on canvas, 8 x 6 in., private collection

STEFAN

SAVIDES (b. 1950), Top Gun, 2017, bronze (tabletop-size edition of 35), 31 1/2 x 16 x 17 in., available from the artist

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(CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE) SANDY SCOTT (b. 1943), Roosting Rooster, 2011, bronze (edition of 50), 19 x 24 x 6 in., private collection

KELLY SINGLETON (b. 1971), Pretty Boy: Yellow Headed Blackbird, 2020, oil on panel,

14 x 18 in., available from the artist

JOSEPH SUNDWALL (b. 1948), Backshot, 2020, oil on linen, 34 x 34 in.,

available from the artist

SARA SCRIBNER (b. 1982), Red Bird (diptych), 2019, oil on aluminum panel, 23 1/4 x 32 in. (overall), Wally Workman Gallery, Austin

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EZRA TUCKER (b. 1955), Crabbing, 2019, acrylic on board, 40 x 30 in., private collection

DUSTIN VAN WECHEL (b. 1974), The Duck Pond, 2018, oil on linen, 24 x 24 in., private collection

CAROL LEE THOMPSON (b. 1958), Over the Hill, 2019, oil on board, 16 x 20 in., available from

JILL STEFANI WAGNER (b. 1955), Yorkie, 2016, pastel on board, 8 x 8 in., private

the artist

collection

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B Y K E L LY C O M P T O N

T O D A Y ’ S M A S T E R S

AND THE WINNERS WERE …

he year 2020 has been downbeat, but the inaugural edition of Fine Art Connoisseur’s groundbreaking Realism Live online conference in October was a huge success. Cohosted by publisher Eric Rhoads and editor-inchief Peter Trippi, this five-day event offered more than 1,600 participants watching from around the world over 30 demonstrations, lectures, and informative conversations by master artists — all focused on the best in contemporary realism. There was also lots of time for participants to get to know each other in Zoom breakout rooms, and to ask questions of the presenters via the fast-scrolling “chat-stream.” Realism Live concluded on October 24 with a festive virtual ceremony announcing the winners of the first annual Artist & Selfie Painting Competition. The rationale for this initiative was simply that, in our smartphone-dominated world, there are surprisingly few paintings being made today of artists and their studios — created either by the artists themselves or by colleagues. The editorial team at Fine Art Connoisseur feels it is important to document our own time, and so invited artists from around the world to show us how they see creativity and creatives today. During the ceremony, Eric Rhoads and Peter Trippi presented a total of $44,000 in cash and awards to winners in five thematic categories:

JEN BROWN (b. 1978), The Allegory of Painting, 2019, oil on canvas, 48 x 36 in., available from the artist — Best Selfie of the Artist

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• Selfie of the Artist: Jen Brown (Portland, Oregon) • Painting of a Living Artist: William A. Suys, Jr. (Wisconsin) • Painting of an Artist’s Studio: Alessandra Marrucchi (Italy) • Painting of an Artist in Plein Air: Jove Wang (California) • Painting of a Historic Artist: Gabriela Gonzalez Dellosso (New Jersey) Just as important, First Place went to Ernest Vincent Wood III (Kansas) and Second Place to Krystal Brown (Texas), while the People’s Choice Award was bestowed on the Québec-based artist Sybiline. All the winning paintings are illustrated here. INSIGHTS FROM THE TOP WINNER Soon after the big announcement, Cherie Haas, the editor of our weekly e-newsletter Fine Art Today, asked the First Place winner, Ernest Vincent Wood III of Wichita, Kansas, about his impressive self-portrait, which he

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KRYSTAL BROWN (b. 1968), The Dance, 2017, oil on linen, 16 x 20 in., available from the artist — Second Place

titled Vulnerability. (It appears in this article and also on this magazine’s cover.) Wood replied, “Recall when the pandemic started. There was so much uncertainty and fear, and our lives changed instantly. We lost so many simple pleasures like going to a restaurant, a movie, a church service, or even a family member’s home. From the perspective of a Midwesterner, I watched the virus closing in on Kansas. The stories from New York’s frontline workers about powerlessness and loss were hitting the news cycle. Each day a new case appeared in adjoining states. The dread of inevitability was very real. When will it hit Kansas? Sedgwick County? Of my friends and family, who will be the first affected? Or will it be me? “In April 2020, the uneasiness and, frankly, the bizarre reality in which I found J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y

myself, made me want to capture my own feelings. Vulnerability was the first intentional self-portrait I had painted in 10 years. I didn’t want to create something novel; I simply wanted to remember. “At the time, many people asked me and other artists, ‘How is the virus affecting your art? Are the times changing your subject matter? What are you making in response?’ These questions, though wellintended, missed the mark. My intention in making art has never been overt or oriented toward current affairs. If a painting is read as some sort of commentary on epidemiology, then its point has been lost. Rather, I want to touch on the human experience, gathering all the feelings of the present moment. My goal in artmaking has always been light, beauty, truth, redemption – and 2 0 2 1

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GABRIELA GONZALEZ DELLOSSO (b. 1968), The Burning of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard’s Masterpiece (Self-Portrait Homage Series), 2015, oil on linen, 70 x 105 in., collection of Mr. and Mrs. Gary Erbe — Best Painting of a Historic Artist

a little lightheartedness — in the face of a world that is dark, broken. Those themes are enduring and perhaps more needed than ever. “This virus’s contagiousness is at its most insidious when it makes us question the trust we have in our most foundational relationships. ‘Are you safe? Have you been compromised? Can I trust you?’ were questions I found myself asking of others internally, even with my most precious relationships. It was heartbreaking. As the title Vulnerability suggests, we all now understand a new level of vulnerability. Who are the people we can unmask before? Human relations thrive on knowing and being known. Could the most intimate act between individuals today be the removal of our masks? “This self-portrait was undertaken in a couple of painting sessions. After the layers dried, I completed it by adding some subtle color and value shifts in semi-transparent layers. (I hesitate to call them ‘glazes.’) “In general, I try to enter competitions whenever I have an artwork I’m truly satisfied with. Most artists would agree that can be hard, as we are the very toughest critics of our own work. This misguided view

ERNEST VINCENT WOOD III (b. 1979), Vulnerability, 2020, oil on linen, 14 x 11 in., private collection — First Place

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WILLIAM A. SUYS, JR. (b. 1955), Elijah at the Bouguereau Show, 2019, oil on panel, 20 x 16 in., available from the artist — Best Painting of a Living Artist

often causes me to refrain from applying simply because I don’t have a piece I want to showcase. This is foolish, really, and I now believe the advice ‘Don’t second-guess yourself. Enter a competition even when you don’t feel like it!’ “Vulnerability was a painting I made for me. I did not have grand plans for it. When I learned about the Artist & Selfie Painting Competition, I thought, ‘Maybe.’ As the procrastinator I am, I waited and entered on the deadline date. It took me that long to consider Vulnerability a good fit for the ‘selfie’ category. “And then, wow!” CAPTURING LIGHT’S ELUSIVE NATURE Ernest Vincent Wood III (b. 1979) earned his B.F.A. from Wichita State University, then studied at the International School for Drawing, Painting & Sculpture in Umbria, Italy, with sponsorship from the Koch Cultural Trust. He has exhibited three times in Killarney, Ireland, and most recently at Indiana’s Evansville Museum, where he staged the show Gravity. Paintings in which Wood rendered Bacchus as a female, entitled The Bacchae, are now in that institution’s permanent collection and on view in a long-term installation featuring female subject matter. This year he spent three months completing a commission for monumental paintings of Saints Boniface and Canisius at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Colwich, Kansas.

ALESSANDRA MARRUCCHI (b. 1951), Two Self-Portraits and a Lot of Life in the Middle, 2020, oil on canvas, 37 1/2 x 17 3/4 in., collection of the artist — Best Painting of an Artist’s Studio

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SYBILINE (b. 1976), My Precious, 2019, oil on canvas, 30 x 24 in., available from 33 Contemporary, Chicago – People’s Choice Award

Wood’s painting More than Material is a finalist in the Portrait Society of America’s International Portrait Competition, the winners of which will be announced in May 2021. Wood says his chief aesthetic priority is “capturing light’s elusive nature and achieving, in the words of [the 18th-century German art historian and archeologist J. J.] Winckelmann, ‘noble simplicity and quiet grandeur.’” While studying in Italy, he particularly admired the techniques of the 17th-century Roman Caravaggisti and the Dutch artists who were influenced by them. Wood’s own work features dynamic contrasts through intense value shifts and slight color exaggerations that allow the viewer a glimpse of what he calls “an idyllic sensory experience, often with a contemporary twist or clever innuendo.” Everyone at Fine Art Connoisseur congratulates Wood and the competition’s seven other winners, and we look forward to enjoying more of their artistry in the future. Information: The entire Artist & Selfie Painting Competition awards ceremony (October 24) can be watched for free at fineartconnoisseur.com/2020/10/artist-and-selfiepainting-competition-top-winners. KELLY COMPTON is a contributing writer to Fine Art Connoisseur.

JOVE WANG (b. 1962), My Demo, 2020, oil on linen, 30 x 40 in., collection of the artist — Best Painting of an Artist in Plein Air

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BY B A R B A R A DAY E R GA L L AT I

H I S T O R I C M A S T E R S

J.J. SHANNON AND HIS NETWORK OF FRIENDSHIPS

n 1893 the 31-year-old, London-based artist James Jebusa Shannon (1862–1923) made his American debut in the British Section of the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition with three portraits, two of which portrayed the American expatriate artist George Hitchcock and his wife, Henrietta.1 Although born in Auburn, New York, Shannon had lived in England since the age of 16, when he crossed the Atlantic to attend the National Art Training School (now the Royal College of Art) and subsequently carved out a flourishing career as a society portraitist exhibiting at major venues throughout Britain and Europe. Shannon’s decision to display the Hitchcock portraits in Chicago suggests a deliberate bid to underscore his American origins and pave his way into a new portrait market. This assumption is reasonable because both Hitchcocks were represented elsewhere in the Exposition; on view in the American section were three of George’s canvases (including the already famous Tulip Culture, Holland) and also Gari Melchers’s Portrait of Mrs. H. (Mrs. George Hitchcock). Although such connections were unlikely to be obvious to most fair visitors, fellow artists and informed collectors and dealers may have noted Shannon’s indirect announcement of his links with the colony of artists at Egmond aan Zee, Holland, the American faction of which was headed by Hitchcock, and later by Melchers.2 Moreover, the Hitchcock portraits mark the beginning of a long professional and personal association among the Hitchcocks, Melchers, and Shannon that intermittently shaped the latter’s career. Shannon’s portraits of the Hitchcocks had already gained critical favor in England.3 When his colorful, loosely brushed canvas depicting George painting outdoors was shown in 1892, Shannon’s adoption of an impressionist technique was noted as an apt reference to the sitter’s signature style.4 Reports of this success reached as far as the United States, as remarked in an article about Shannon in the Philadelphia Times.5 As for the portrait of Henrietta, London critics praised it as a prime example of Shannon’s skill in society portraiture, with one reviewer calling it “full of dignity, grace of outline, and simplicity of treatment.”6 Given that a reported 9,400 works of art were displayed at Chicago, Shannon did well to achieve the attention he did. However, reverberations from the highly publicized scandal surrounding Hitchcock’s betrayal of his wife may be one reason the American press did not specifically mention

Portrait of George Hitchcock, c. 1891, oil on canvas, 51 1/4 x 35 1/2 in., Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, Savannah, Georgia

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Portrait of Henrietta Hitchcock, 1892, oil on canvas, 77 x 41 1/2 in., private collection, photo courtesy Maas Gallery, London

Portrait of Gari Melchers, 1898, oil on wood, 15 3/16 x 10 7/8 in., Belmont, The Gari Melchers Home & Studio, Falmouth, Virginia, MWC 1826

their portraits. As one article stated about Hitchcock in the wake of his disgrace, “His fellow artists refuse, however, to recognize him.”7 SCANDAL Indeed, George Hitchcock (1850–1913) was noted not only for artistic talent but also for often shameful behavior, reports of which surfaced as early as 1868, when an arrest warrant was issued following an assault complaint lodged by a fellow student at Brown University. Accounts of his subsequent escapades told of unpaid debts and the desertion of a young woman on a trip to the American West. As one newspaper reported, “Upon one of his Bohemian excursions he made the acquaintance of his present wife and much astonished his brother artists when he returned … and introduced her as Mrs. George Hitchcock.”8 The couple married in London in 1881, but nothing else has surfaced to illuminate the circumstances of Hitchcock’s courtship of the beautiful American, Henrietta Walker Richardson (c. 1862–1938). Scholar Annette Stott has suggested that Hitchcock may have gone to Egmond that summer, and it may be added that this visit was perhaps F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M

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a part of the couple’s honeymoon. In any case, the Hitchcocks and their friend Gari Melchers officially took up residence in this isolated yet picturesque fishing village in 1884. Hitchcock’s career progressed smoothly, and in 1889 he was busy in Paris with his duties as secretary of the American art jury for that year’s Paris Exposition. It was soon revealed that the handsome artist was also busy with other things — namely an affair with one of his American students, Agnes O’Halloran, whose work was included in the Exposition likely owing to Hitchcock’s intervention. The saga of Hitchcock’s elopement with Agnes played out in major newspapers across the U.S. Readers were titillated by the details elaborated under such headlines as “The Villainy of a Coward: George Hitchcock Murders His Wife’s Happiness,” “Love Knows No Law: She Elopes with George Hitchcock, Secretary of the Art Jury,” and “At the Point of a Pistol: Miss Agnes O’Halloran Claims that She was Abducted by Hitchcock.”9 As for Henrietta Hitchcock, the press characterized her as dignified in response to her desertion, with one news item adding, “…she is not only a beautiful woman but in every way possessed of admirable qualities.”10 To the surprise of many, the Hitchcocks were reconciled by 1890. FRIENDSHIPS FORGED Because word of the scandal seems not to have reached Britain, Shannon was likely unaware of Hitchcock’s personal history when they met in London. This probably occurred in December 1890 in connection with the

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(FAR LEFT) The Purple Stocking, c. 1894, oil on canvas, 22 x 18 in., South African National Gallery, Cape Town (LEFT) HENRY WOLF (1852–1916); engraving after J.J. Shannon’s Portrait of Mrs. James Creelman; undated; sheet: 11 x 8 in.; image: 7 1/4 x 4 3/4 in.; private collection

Goupil Gallery exhibition of 24 of Hitchcock’s Holland subjects, which won positive reviews. Shannon’s daughter Kitty, then nearly 5, recalled meeting the Hitchcocks and how the handsome and charming George, nicknamed “Gorgeous,” and the striking Henrietta, whose nickname was “Miggles,” soon invited the Shannons to visit them in Holland.11 This was the beginning of Shannon’s close friendships with not only the Hitchcocks, but also Melchers. Shannon, his wife, Florence, and Kitty would make nearly annual summer trips to Egmond until 1909. Given that Shannon’s undated portrait of George Hitchcock was first exhibited in June 1892, it was probably executed the previous year, thus making it a souvenir of his first summer at Egmond aan den Hoef, where the Hitchcocks had moved in 1891 from Egmond aan Zee. Their new home was Schuylenburg, a small manor house within view of the extensive tulip fields that became Hitchcock’s preferred subject. The portrait apparently stayed in Hitchcock’s possession until 1909, when it was purchased by the Telfair Academy (Savannah, Georgia) through Melchers, who was the Telfair’s art adviser.12 The time Shannon spent in Egmond, away from London and the pressures of portrait commissions, allowed him to explore more creative avenues. In response to Hitchcock and Melchers, he introduced a more varied repertoire that emphasized patterned arrangements of brilliant color surrounding idealized figures. Shannon also often presented his sitters wrapped in quasireligious iconography like that seen in The Purple Stocking, where the circular form of a wall-mounted plate functions as a halo framing a girl’s head. EGMOND CONNECTIONS Except for the appearance of his portrait of Mrs. James Creelman at the 1895 Portrait Loan Exhibition in New York, Shannon would seem not to have exerted much more effort toward his American market. This impression is mistaken, however, since his sitter, Alice Creelman

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(once a practicing artist herself ), was married to the famous journalist who wrote an important article about Shannon in 1895, the year her portrait appeared.13 A web of social and family connections indirectly brought Alice into the Egmond orbit; in 1904 her sister Helen (a close friend of the Shannons) married the American artist Karl Anderson (1874–1956), who had studied with Hitchcock in Holland in 1901, and whose acquaintance with Shannon is confirmed in his description of Shannon’s London studio.14 Of particular interest, however, is the cooperation that eventually occurred between Alice Creelman and Henrietta Hitchcock in their roles as agents for Florence Shannon as she disposed of paintings from her late husband’s estate, of which more is said below. The Shannons and Hitchcocks remained in close touch until 1905, when Hitchcock’s affair with his student Cecil Jay (1880/83–1954) resulted in the Hitchcocks’ divorce and George’s marriage to Jay.15 From then on, only Henrietta figured in the Shannon/Melchers circle. Perhaps the last material evidence of the friendship between the couples is Fireside, a complex conversation piece depicting figures casually grouped in Shannon’s elegantly appointed London home. Among the identifiable individuals are George Hitchcock (playing a guitar), Florence Shannon (standing at the mantelpiece), and Henrietta Hitchcock (in black, seated at left). Although painted before George abandoned Henrietta for the second time, this portrait was not exhibited in London until 1907, possibly out of Shannon’s consideration for Henrietta’s feelings.16 Moreover, Shannon may have felt indirectly responsible for Henrietta’s situation since it is believed he had recommended that Jay study with Hitchcock.17 Fireside was displayed again in 1908 and 1909, by which time Henrietta had married the British journalist and art historian Charles Lewis Hind (1862–1927). Hind was already supportive of Shannon’s art, having written a well-illustrated article about him in 1896.18 AMERICAN SOJOURNS The timing of the Hitchcocks’ marital breakdown coincided with a new direction in Shannon’s career — going to the U.S. to cultivate a fresh portrait market. His American reputation was thriving in October 1904 when he arrived in New York, partly as a result of the gold medal he had just won at the St. Louis Universal Exposition. In addition, his American birth allowed him to satisfy the nationalist desires of potential patrons, while his fame for painting London aristocracy gratified those with cosmopolitan ambitions. Shannon’s presence was quickly announced; one newspaper reported that he was “sharing this season the studio of Frank D. Millet … and is painting several

Fireside (detail), c. 1904, unlocated, reproduced in Kitty Shannon, For My Children (London, 1933), opposite p. 117

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Portrait of Miss Virginia Gammell, 1905, oil on canvas, 50 x 37 in., private collection

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Portrait of Laura Spelman Rockefeller (Mrs. John D. Rockefeller), 1906, oil on canvas, 67 x 47 1/2 in., photo courtesy of Kykuit, a National Trust Historic Site, Tarrytown, New York, NT 2005.4.3

portraits for which he has received commissions. Shannon stands at the front rank of modern portrait painters, and an exhibition of his portraits will ... be an event of the late art season.”19 That showing occurred at Knoedler & Co. on Fifth Avenue the following February. This display of only six works, of which just one was a product of Shannon’s trip, was registered a success in the press, with one reviewer stating that their quality more than made up for the modest number.20 Shannon returned to the U.S. for the 1905–06 and 1906–07 winter months and on both occasions secured a studio in the Beaux Arts Building (also known as the Bryant Park Studios), where Melchers also had a studio. Knoedler mounted an exhibition during each stay, this time featuring the fruits of his American labors. The portraits of Virginia Gammell and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller drew particular notice in March 1906. One reviewer, describing Gammell as “a sparkling young beauty, with roses all around her and roses on her dress,” concluded that “[s]he did not suffer from the comparison.” As for Mrs. Rockefeller, the portrait was deemed to have gained the most attention from viewers attracted by her ”motherly face lightened by soft, brown eyes, keen and kindly, and with wrinkles brought out unsparingly.”21 Overall, critics agreed upon the high merit of Shannon’s art, a factor that doubtless contributed to his securing more than 40 commissions from his three U.S. forays. Henrietta Hitchcock crossed the Atlantic in the autumn of 1906, about the same time Shannon made his third trip. One announcement declared that her purpose was “to read a series of papers on Greece and modern art” at various cultural organizations and added that “Gari Melchers and J.J. Shannon are responsible for her appearance as a lecturer on art criticism.”22 Henrietta was struggling financially, having purchased Schuylenburg from her former husband with Shannon as the intermediary. With help from Shannon and Melchers, she secured speaking engagements illustrated with stereopticon views in New York, Balti-

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more, Washington, D.C., and Detroit. Melchers was a native son of Detroit and wielded considerable influence there. Moreover, one of Henrietta’s Detroit hosts was Mrs. H.H.H. Crapo Smith, mother of the artist Letta Crapo Smith (1862–1921), who had studied with George Hitchcock at Egmond in 1901 and 1902. On becoming Mrs. Hind, Henrietta continued to tread the lecture circuit, accompanied by her husband, during return stints in Detroit and Washington. Throughout her appearances, Henrietta reciprocated the kindness of Shannon and Melchers by naming them as two of the major American artists then practicing. Shannon never returned to the U.S., yet his three extended stays cemented his reputation as an American artist. He was elected an associate of the National Academy of Design in 1908, continued to participate in such annual events as the Carnegie Museum’s International Exhibition in Pittsburgh and the Albright Gallery’s exhibitions of American art in Buffalo, and received commissions from Americans who traveled to his London studio. By 1909 the Egmond circle had dispersed. Elected to full membership in the Royal Academy of Arts that year, Shannon remained in London; Melchers (by then married to Corinne Mackall) was teaching at the Grand Ducal Academy of Fine Arts in Weimar, Germany; the Hinds were mainly in London; while George and Cecil Hitchcock divided their time between Paris and Holland. In the Dunes, the final work to manifest the legacy of Shannon’s Egmond stays, was completed in 1909 and won admirers in London that spring.23 This painting portrays a romanticized (perhaps retrospective) vision of the artist’s wife and daughter seated in a landscape reminiscent of the Dutch coast. Although evocative of the high color and plein air manner introduced to Shannon’s art by Hitchcock, the canvas’s large size, uniform treatment of light, and simplified composition suggest that it was created from memory. Fond of Monte Carlo, Shannon seems to have spent as much as he earned, and, by 1911, Henrietta Hitchcock wrote to Melchers that the “Jebs” had left London in their “new big Rolls Royce machine” to travel through Spain and Italy.24 To maintain this lifestyle, Shannon largely put aside whatever efforts he had previously made to work outside portraiture.25 His output was devoted almost exclusively to commissioned portraiture until his last years, when ill health restricted his activity and he turned to a broad, quasi-impressionist style to portray figures in vibrant small-scale landscapes. EPILOGUE Sir James J. Shannon (he was knighted in 1922) died in March 1923, leaving the bulk of his estate to his wife, Lady Florence Mary Shannon.26 It was at this time that Alice Creelman and Henrietta Hind took on the task of organizing the sale of Shannon’s remaining paintings. C.L. Hind wrote the brief essay for the catalogue accompanying a small memorial exhibition held at London’s Leicester Galleries the same year.27 Alice organized a U.S. tour of small memorial exhibitions in 1924–25, reaching museum audiences in Buffalo, Cincinnati, Rochester, Memphis, Columbus, and elsewhere. None of the paintings sold out of the tour, including the much-admired In the Dunes. This touring collection was put into storage and then, through Creelman’s efforts, the Brooklyn Museum mounted a display in 1925. A portion of the works were unsold and remained in storage at the Brooklyn Museum until Henrietta arranged for their transfer to the Karl Freund Galleries in New York City in 1935.28 Since then, several have appeared on the market, while others, like the prize-winning Babes in the Wood, remain unlocated.29 It was Henrietta who was instrumental in the 1926 sale of In the Dunes and Mother and Child (which depicts Florence and Kitty) to the important collector John Gellatly, who donated them in 1929 to what is now the Smithsonian American Art Museum. By 1927 Henrietta was also widowed, continually beset by financial need.30 It was no doubt largely through the memory of her early associations with Shannon and a sincere belief in the merit of his art that she persevered in promoting his work.

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In the Dunes (Lady Shannon and Kitty), c. 1909, oil on canvas, 73 3/8 x 56 1/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., gift of John Gellatly, 1929.6.110

BARBARA DAYER GALLATI, PH.D. is curator emerita at the Brooklyn Museum and lives in Bristol, England. In addition to having published and lectured widely on her specialty of Gilded Age portraiture, she has contributed to a variety of exhibition catalogues, including Seeking Beauty: Paintings by James Jebusa Shannon (Debra Force Fine Art, New York, 2014) and, most recently, The American PreRaphaelites: Radical Realists (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2019) and Frank Duveneck: American Master (Cincinnati Art Museum, 2020).

Unless noted otherwise, all illustrations were created by James Jebusa Shannon.

Endnotes

1 The third portrait, Mrs. Charlesworth, is unlocated. In 1892 Shannon visited Amsterdam, New York, for family reasons. It is not known how long he stayed nor if he spent any time in Chicago or New York. 2 For the Egmond School, see Annette Stott, “American Painters Who Worked in the Netherlands, 1880–1914,” Ph.D. dissertation, Boston University, 1986; Annette Stott, ed., Dutch Utopia: American Artists in Holland, 1880–1914 (Savannah: Telfair Books, 2009); and Peter J.H. van den Berg, De Egmondse School: George Hitchcock en zijn Art Summer School 1890–1905 (Egmond: Bahlmond Publishers, 2010). 3 Shannon was generally mentioned as one of the British artists who deserved more attention. See, for example, Inter Ocean (Chicago), January 29, 1893:11 and “Popular Successes of the Art Palace,” Chicago Tribune, October 29, 1893:35. 4 “The London Society of Portrait Painters,” Guardian (London), June 24, 1892: 12. 5 “A Painter of Beauties: Success of Shannon, the Young American Artist,” Times (Philadelphia), August 14, 1892. 6 “The New Gallery,” Newcastle Weekly Courant, April 30, 1892: 8. F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M

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7 “The Hitchcock Elopement,” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), July 11, 1889: 1. 8 Chicago Tribune, June 28, 1889: 6. 9 “The Villainy of a Coward,” Pittsburgh Daily Post, June 26, 1889: 8; “Love Knows No Law,” Saint Paul Globe, June 26, 1889: 1; and “At the Point of a Pistol,” Evening Star (DC), July 22, 1889:3. 10 “Hitchcock the Esthete,” Chicago Tribune, June 26, 1889: 1. 11 Kitty Shannon, For My Children (London: Hutchinson & Co, 1933):18. 12 See Feay Shellman Coleman, “Melchers and the Telfair Academy: The Evolution of a Collection,” in Gari Melchers: A Retrospective Exhibition, Diane Lesko and Esther Persson, eds., Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, 1990, 125-148. 13 James Creelman, “An American Painter of the English Court,” Munsey’s Magazine, vol. xiv (November 1895): 128-137. The portrait of Alice Creelman was subsequently shown at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (in 1895–96), Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo (in 1908), Brooklyn Museum of Art (in 1922–23), among other U.S. venues. 14 [Karl Anderson], “Anderson’s Impressions,” Bellman, 8 (March 1910): 292–294. 15 North Holland Archives, Civil Registration Marriages, EgmondBinnen, July 31, 1905, record number 7. openarch.nl/nha:e04d9be4bd8a-4749-816f-e5a16824ae61 Stott (p. 159) states that Hitchcock quit Egmond in 1905, relocating to Zeeland. 16 At least one reviewer mentioned Henrietta as one of the figures, so anonymity was not assured. “An Art Congress,” New-York Daily Tribune, January 27, 1907: 9. 17 Berg, De Egmondse School, 114–116. 18 Lewis Hind, “The Work of J.J. Shannon,” The Studio, VIII, No. 40 (July 1896): 66–75. 19 American Art News, November 19, 1904, n.p. 20 Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 22, 1905: 5. 21 “Art Notes,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 13, 1906: 4. 22 New York Tribune, September 30, 1906, 23 “A Beautiful Painting by J.J. Shannon,” New York Times, May 14, 1909: 11. 24 Letter from Henriette Hitchcock to Gari Melchers, London, August 17, 1911 (Melchers Archive, Belmont, The Gari Melchers Memorial Gallery). 25 For example, Shannon often realized $7,500 for a full-length portrait in the early part of the 20th century. 26 Florence Shannon was reticent about involving herself in her husband’s public life. No evidence has been located of her accompanying him to the U.S., though their daughter Kitty was with him on the 1904– 1905 visit. 27 Alice Creelman was widowed in 1915 and engaged in art dealing to support her three children. Among other things, she expedited the sale of Titian’s Portrait of a Man in a Red Cap from Sir Hugh Lane to Henry Clay Frick. See Olivia Hunter, “Dealing in a Man’s World: Alice Creelman and Virginia P. Bacon,” nyarc.org/blog/dealing-in-a-mansworld-alice-creelman-and-virginia-p-bacon. Henrietta Hind (with her husband) promoted the work of various artists, including Hercules Brabazon Brabazon. After C.L. Hind’s death in 1927, the cash-strapped Henrietta continued to deal in art. 28 The Brooklyn Museum Archives contain a series of letters between Alice Creelman, Henrietta Hind, and various museum officials. 29 Babes in the Wood was awarded the Lippincott Prize at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1898. 30 Evidence of Henrietta’s perilous finances appears in a cablegram she sent to Gari Melchers in 1931 in which she said she was “desperate” and asked for a loan of 500 pounds. The cablegram is reproduced in Peter J.H. van den Berg, De Uitdaging van het Licht: George Hitchcock (1850–1913): Een kroniek in beelden en teksten over zijn leven en de Egmondse kunstenaarskolonie (Egmond: Bahlmond Publishers, 2008): 173.

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BY THOMAS CONNORS

BEHINDTHESCENES

BOOKPLATES SMALL IN SIZE, HUGELY

COLLECTIBLE

monogram. Signet rings. The school scarf. We have long fashioned accoutrements to reflect our personal and tribal identities. You might easily include bookplates in this universe, too. Created to mark possession of a printed work and to guide an errant volume back to its proper place in the library, these pasted-in nametags are as much affirmations of personality as they are signals of ownership. As the British writer and critic Sir Edmund Gosse (1849–1928) opined in 1913, “The outward and visible mark of the citizenship of the booklover is his book-plate.” Bookplates first appeared not long after Johannes Gutenberg blessed Europe with movable type in 1439. Among the oldest extant are those of Hilprand Brandenburg of Biberach, a Carthusian monk who lived in a monastery in Buxheim, Germany. Dating from the 1470s, one of his woodcuts depicts an angel holding a shield that bears Brandenburg’s family crest. The nobility and ecclesiastical elite had long branded the fine leather bindings of books with their own coats of arms, so such heraldic motifs remained a go-to design as use of the bookplate spread among men of means and learning. A colored woodcut that Lucas Cranach the Elder fashioned for a member of Germany’s Scheurl and Tucher family depicts a woman in an elaborate feather headdress holding representations of the clan’s coats of arms. In 1676, English portraitist David Loggan made a gift of bookplates to Sir Thomas Isham, noting, “It is weery much used a mongst persons of Quality to past ther Cotes of Armes before ther Bookes in sted of Wreithing their names.” George Washington’s bookplate, engraved for him in London in 1792, bears his family crest and the maxim Exitus Acta Probat (“The outcome justifies the deed”). Use of the family crest endured well into the 20th century, with President Theodore Roosevelt and Louis Comfort Tiffany among those employing it to convey both status and gravitas.

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Bookplate of Hilprand Brandenburg of Biberach, c. 1475, woodcut on paper (handcolored), dimensions unavailable because staff are not working on-site at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Rosenwald Collection, 1943.3.648

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LUCAS CRANACH THE ELDER (1472–1553), Bookplate of Christoph Scheurl, c. 1510, woodcut on paper (handcolored), 6 1/2 x 5 in., Art Institute of Chicago, gift of Joseph Adams, 1938.859

(BELOW) E.J. CROSS (lifedates

unknown), Bookplate of Jack London (1876–1916), c. 1900–16, 5 x 4 in., Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., Ruthven Deane Bookplate Collection

While not every bibliophile came from a family with a coat of arms, the bookplate — like the possession of books themselves — was a mark of distinction. The owner’s Ex Libris (“from the library of”) often relied upon an array of urns, garlands, and allegorical figures. Although the deployment of these symbols varied, these were visual conventions akin to those used in the fields of painting, sculpture, and architecture. CUSTOMIZING In time, bookplates began to express a more original character, either to better telegraph the owner’s sympathy with the life of the mind, or to reflect some aspect of his profession or personality. A bookplate created by Alexander Anderson for John Pintard, who founded the New-York Historical Society in 1804, features some traditional motifs, but also a palm tree that seems to reference his client’s profitable career in the China and East India trade. F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M

Individualization of the bookplate accelerated in the 19th and 20th centuries. While some incorporated a new set of standard motifs, such as a tree of learning, a stack of books, or a reader by a snug fire, many designs were more specific. The bookplate of the science fiction writer H.G. Wells depicts a man perched atop a hot air balloon, peering through a telescope. Jack London’s displays the head of a glaring wolf. Harry Houdini opted for his own likeness, while Sigmund Freud’s 1904 bookplate, designed by Bertold Löffler in the Jugendstil (the Germanic counterpart to Art Nouveau), shows Oedipus confronting the Sphinx. Chicago Tribune publisher Robert M. McCormick chose a view of his suburban estate, while President Calvin Coolidge went nostalgic with a rendering of his boyhood home in Vermont. In Hollywood, Mickey Mouse figured on Walt Disney’s bookplate; Joan Crawford’s consisted of a crudely drawn Venus de Milo surmounted by the actress’s face.

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It is intriguing to consider the degrees of taste expressed in such bookplates. While Crawford’s may read as her assertion that she was more of a timeless classic than a figure flickering in the dark, what are we to make of the design Arthur Allen Lewis devised for the photographer and dealer Alfred Stieglitz? Here a bare-chested archer draws an arrow from his quiver (one part N.C. Wyeth, one part antique relief sculpture). This doesn’t quite match our perception of Stieglitz as a pioneering champion of such modernist artists as Henri Matisse and Constantin Brâncuşi. Once an exclusive attribute of elites who possessed both libraries and the means to commission something personalized, the bookplate took an increasingly democratic turn through the appearance of universal, or readymade, bookplates. One of their most successful purveyors was the Antioch Bookplate Company of Yellow Springs, Ohio. Founded in 1926 by Antioch College students Ernest Morgan and Walter Kahoe, it offered off-the-shelf designs upon which book lovers could write their own names or have the company personalize them through overprinting. In time, Antioch commissioned or acquired designs by such leading artists as Rockwell Kent and Daniel Burne Jones. A number of them are still available for purchase from the online catalogue of the company’s successor, Bookplate Ink, which does custom work for libraries, universities, religious institutions, and individuals. Perhaps best known to the general public for his 1930 illustrated edition of Moby Dick, Kent was one of America’s more prolific bookplate

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ROCKWELL KENT (1882–1971), Bookplate of John Hay Whitney, 1925, pen and ink drawing, 3 11/16 x 2 3/4 in., James P. Keenan Collection

(RIGHT) ROCKWELL KENT (1882–1971),

Bookplate of Margaret Sanger, 1944, pen and ink drawing, 4 x 2 13/16 in., James P. Keenan Collection

designers. In addition to those sold through Antioch, he created plates for dozens of private clients, including birth control advocate Margaret Sanger (a seated nude leaning against a tree, with a child on her knees), and the publisher and equestrian John Hay Whitney. PRIZED AND TRADED By the mid-19th century, bookplates were no longer simply glued into books, but also passed around as collectibles. “Interest in collecting bookplates started in the 1860s and by the 1890s it had become a craze,” says James P. Keenan, director of the American Society of Bookplate Collectors and Designers (ASBC&D), which will celebrate its centenary in Oakland in September 2022. “It was largely a social thing,” notes Thomas Boss, a Boston specialist in the book arts who also collects and sells bookplates. “You would say to someone, ‘I hear you have a nice bookplate by Edwin Davis French; I’d like to trade mine by J.W. Spencely for yours.’” Covering the bookplate vogue in 1905, The San Francisco Chronicle reported, “It seems to be an unwritten law among the fraternity that a book-plate must always be sent in return for one received … and

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there is no instance in which this law has been infringed.” Interest was so keen that in 1880 the English poet and numismatist John Leicester Warren published A Guide to the Study of Bookplates. He observed that “the ex-librist is but a humbler class of bibliophile, whose slender resources admonish an abstention of the costlier luxuries of first editions.” By 1896, there were bookplate societies in Britain, Germany, France, and the United States. As ephemera and multiples, bookplates did not enjoy the same prestige as other works on paper (such as drawings), but — thanks to the aforementioned system of exchange and the low cost of purchase — aficionados amassed thousands of them. Many of these collections have since entered museums, public libraries, university libraries, and, of course, nonprofit organizations dedicated to the book arts, such as New York City’s Grolier Club. Among the world’s largest holdings is the Yale Bookplate Collection, which contains approximately 1 million specimens. “Yale started receiving donations of bookplate collections in the late 19th century,” explains Kathy Winsor Bohlman, who is special collections archivist J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y

at the university’s Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library. “But it was in the mid-20th century, when the library appointed Warren H. Lowenhaupt as its first curator of bookplates, that the collection really started to grow.” In 1955, Lowenhaupt donated his own collection, along with that of Dr. J. Sidney Pearson, which together increased the library’s holdings by 100,000 items. They continue to grow today. “We are actively acquiring, not only bookplates, but also books about bookplates, and archives of collectors and artists,” says Bohlman. “Recent additions include the Audrey Arellanes Papers, assembled by the author and collector who led the ASBC&D for 30 years.” A SEPARATE FIELD Today bookplate collecting is primarily pursued apart from books. In fact, notes the veteran Boston bookseller Ken Gloss, an otherwise desirable volume can be compromised by the presence of a bookplate if it belongs to a nonentity with no deep association with the book, or is artistically lacking. “If it’s the bookplate of somebody famous, like Charles Dickens, and you can prove that it came from his library, that someone didn’t just stick it in there, that obviously would increase the 2 0 2 1

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EDWIN DAVIS FRENCH (1851–1906), Bookplate of the Library of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1895, woodcut on paper, 5 1/8 x 3 15/16 in., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, presented by Theodore de Witt

only for exchange purposes. Some of the engravings of the early 20th century were reproduced by the thousands. Contemporary works are generally in editions of 30 to 100, printed by hand on handmade papers, signed and numbered.” The California-based engraver, printer, and book designer Richard Wagener made his first bookplate as a gift for his wife. “She’s an active bird watcher, so I made her a bookplate with an engraving of a rufous-sided towhee that was in our yard. That led to another bookplate for my brother, one for myself, and for some friends. Whereas in the past an ex libris was created with the utilitarian purpose of denoting ownership, many bookplates now also function as smallformat graphics collected as works of art. Many being created never see the inside of a book.” Kim Schwenk of Lux Mentis Booksellers in Portland, Maine, is fascinated with the occult and finds the work of artist Karl Hugo Frech (1883– 1945) of special interest. Born in Stuttgart and active in Bratislava, Frech created several bookplates with symbols referencing Eastern philosophies, Mesmerism, and astrology. Regarding bookplates generally, Schwenk is attracted to them not only for their artistic qualities and as indicators of provenance, but by the very urge to use them. “It’s someone’s attachment to that book that I find fascinating,” she shares. “In claiming ownership this way, you possess the book, and the bookplate acts as a talisman. And you leave a legacy that moves through history long after you’re gone.”

price,” says Gloss. “And it would be even better if it were signed.” Sometimes, a bookplate isn’t what it appears to be. One assumed to be that of Alexander Hamilton is, and isn’t. “It was created for Alexander Hamilton, a planter in Bermuda, not the Federalist,” Thomas Boss warns. Collectors can also be confused, he notes, by a tribute bookplate, which is “one that an artist does for a famous person, but that person doesn’t know about it. The artist Carl S. Junge made one for President Woodrow Wilson, who was sick at the time, and it’s not clear that Wilson ever saw it. He certainly never used it. There’s an FDR plate done by the surrealist Michel Fingesten in Germany; Roosevelt used a bookplate, but not that one.” Establishing a hierarchy of desirability can be complicated, in or out of a book, for there are nondescript bookplates connected to recognizable figures, and also artistically engaging plates belonging to nonentities. “There are some famous people who had bookplates that were nothing to speak of, a universal bookF I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M

plate — one that comes blank and you just write your name in,” explains Boss. “The poet Sylvia Plath, for example, had a universal bookplate and just typed her name onto it.” There are plenty of bibliophiles for whom bookplates are part of the collecting adventure, but for many bookplate collectors — especially those seeking contemporary renditions — it’s the image that counts. “Oftentimes,” notes ASBC&D’s Keenan — also a graphic designer who has run his own bookplate enterprise and penned several books on bookplates — “contemporary ex libris prints are used

RICHARD WAGENER (b.

Information: American Society of Bookplate Designers and Collectors, bookplate.org; Bookplate Society, bookplatesociety.org; Bookplate Ink, bookplateink.com THOMAS CONNORS is a Chicago-based writer whose work has appeared in a number of publications, including The Magazine Antiques, Hali, and Introspective.

1944),

Bookplate of James M. Goode, 2010, boxwood engraving, 3 x 4 1/2 in., courtesy of the artist

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I N S I D E T R A C K

BY DAVID MASELLO

PICKING UP THE PIECES AFTER DISASTER STRIKES

orest ranger Terra Kemper smelled the smoke and felt the heat as she drove from her home in southwestern Oregon to Collier Memorial State Park on the evening of September 7, 2020. A ranger as experienced as Kemper is able to “read” the smoke, the flames, the winds — and she knew right away it was time to evacuate the park’s Collier Logging Museum and also its campgrounds, where some 20 guests had pitched their tents for the night. Ultimately the 242 Fire, named for the nearest highway milepost, consumed 14,000 acres of forest, including roughly 486 of Collier’s 536 acres. It also consumed part of the museum’s collection of vintage vehicles, equipment, and artifacts, which were kept outdoors on its property. Kemper’s priority was to save people first and then, ideally, the historic objects at the museum, for which she also serves as curator. But for now, Kemper knew the fire would have its way. Soon thereafter, she contacted Elaina Gregg, emergency programs coordinator at the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation (FAIC), a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit funded by government agencies, individuals, foundations, and businesses that — among other things — aids cultural institutions with their collections and buildings. Gregg’s responsibilities include coordinating the National Heritage Responders (NHR) program, whose members are, as its mission statement reads, “trained professionals who provide assistance to institutions impacted by disasters.” What Kemper’s park had experienced surely qualified as a disaster. By the time the smoke cleared, three weeks later, Kemper was able to assess the damage, not only to the landscape she helps oversee as a ranger, but also to the museum noted for its collection of large-scale vintage logging equipment, as well as a unique log cabin moved to the site 50 years ago. Among the near-casualties was a rare

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Oregon park ranger Terra Kemper with the Collier Logging Museum’s rare 1906 steampowered Stiff Boom McGiffert log loader

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The tires and cab of the Collier Logging Museum’s stilloperating 1939 Caterpillar road grader were destroyed during the 242 Fire in September 2020.

1906 steam-powered Stiff Boom McGiffert log loader, mounted on railway wheels, which had been licked and blackened by flames. The tires and the cab of a still-operating 1939 Caterpillar road grader had been burned away, but, alas, that old cabin had been reduced to charred timbers. Kemper posted a request for help to Elaina Gregg, specifically about ways to stabilize the affected historic vehicles and equipment. On the other side of the country in Wiscasset, Maine, Molly O’Guinness Carlson, a conservator at the Head Tide Archaeological Conservation Laboratory, responded and volunteered to help. “After I sent the first e-mail to Elaina,” Kemper recalls, “I got a response less than 12 hours later from Molly asking what artifacts I needed help with.” Because of COVID-19 restrictions, Carlson and other volunteer conservators were not able to visit the Collier Logging Museum, but she could send along a steady stream of expert advice about how to stabilize the surviving artifacts. “Molly provided fabulous, helpful, comforting advice,” Kemper says. “She gave me the resources I needed in a written report. She really set me up to be successful on the many subsequent steps I needed to take.” WEATHER REPORTS NHR is accustomed to responding to big events — to damage inflicted by disasters such as wildfires, floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, and tornadoes, events so big they appear on radar and are visible from outer space. But NHR’s help is also about what happens after the storms pass and fires go out. Microscopic mold grows on documents and textiles. Metals corrode and rust. The structural integrity of historic objects becomes ever more compromised. Humidity warps works on paper. The security systems that protect institutions and collections fail as generators run out of fuel. Water works its way to short out wiring. “We play a critical role in providing disaster-related resources to the cultural heritage sector,” Gregg explains. “While FEMA [the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency] and other governmental organizations have started to include cultural heritage in their disaster planning efforts, FAIC’s primary focus is the protection of cultural heritage.” Gregg knows what it’s like to be on the administrative side when disaster hits, and also in the eye of a storm, as she previously worked at Miami’s

Vizcaya Museum and Gardens. She was on that 1917 mansion’s conservation and collections care staff when the winds and waters of Hurricane Irma hit hard in September 2017. After Gregg sought NHR’s help back then, she and other staffers began to work immediately with Viviana Dominguez, an independent conservator in Miami, one already well acquainted with the museum through previous contract projects in its rooms. Dominguez notes two main problems Vizcaya suffered once the Category 4 hurricane hit. “The winds and the storm surge were so great that they broke open the doors and the hardware holding the doors in place,” she says. In addition to the salt spray and the water from Biscayne Bay sloshing inside, numerous architectural features of the 32-room mansion were destroyed. “I arrived practically the next day,” Dominguez recalls, “and my specific role, as a volunteer, was to photograph and document the damage from water. Vizcaya had a staff conservator, but a lot of staff members had evacuated the site and couldn’t get back to it.” After providing this documentation and contacting numerous experts in conservation, Dominguez did what was most needed: She rolled up her shirt sleeves and trouser cuffs and waded into the water to start drying and cleaning surfaces and objects. “I helped sort wet textiles to send out for cleaning and repair. As the staff began to arrive back, they eventually took over.” For instance, a Portuguese needlepoint rug in the dining room was submerged, so Dominguez and others pulled it up and sent it to an expert restorer. Remko Jansonius, Vizcaya’s deputy director for collections and curatorial affairs, has lived through so many hurricanes during his 15-plus years at the museum that he admits to getting their names confused sometimes. “Irma was bad, that I remember,” he notes. Just prior to the storm’s arrival, a security guard mounted a time-lapse camera to the building, the footage from which records the extent of the damage, a real-life horror film that dwarfs the powers of Godzilla. “One of the real benefits of having Viviana Dominguez on hand,” Jansonius stresses, “was that she was able to sit down and really focus on some of the immediate concerns, while the

Conservator Viviana Dominguez processes a damaged textile from the music room in Miami’s Vizcaya Museum and Gardens.

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rest of the staff were running around in every direction attending to so many things. She was able to prioritize.”

(TOP) NHR volunteers Ann Frellsen, Bob Herskovitz, and Susan Duhl (kneeling) examine a damaged artwork at La Casa del Libro; photo: Karen Cana-Cruz

(MIDDLE) NHR volunteers Ann Frellsen and

Molly O’Guinness Carlson (in white suit) prepare to enter La Casa del Libro in Old San Juan; photo: Karen Cana-Cruz

(ABOVE) Wrapped artworks that were saved from destruction at La Casa del

Libro; photo: Ann Frellsen

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MEETING THE STORMS Even for museums in regions where hurricanes are customary, the storm names — Irma, Sandy, Maria, Florence, Katrina — become instant identifiers of periods in institutional history. Curators, directors, and other personnel invoke those names as if they are enemies who once literally stormed the gates to ruin buildings and artworks. While some damage lingers still, the real power of such storms and fires has since dissipated, in large part because of the work performed by NHR volunteers. Karen Cana-Cruz, executive director of Puerto Rico’s La Casa del Libro, which is dedicated to the history of books and arts related to publishing, remembers the unwelcome visits her institution received from Irma and Maria, which occurred one after another in September 2017. Irma arrived only six weeks after La Casa had reoccupied its freshly renovated historic building in Old San Juan. The storm felled so many trees on the island that the natural wind barrier they once provided was lost. A brigade from NHR arrived in late November to evaluate the entire building for leaks and ancillary damage. Fortunately, Cana-Cruz says, many of the museum’s precious holdings were still safely packed awaiting reinstallation. Two weeks after Irma, Maria arrived. “The main problem after Maria was that we didn’t have electricity,” Cana-Cruz explains. “That created a high humidity indoors that affected a lot of the collection.” In the many framed works on display, including some centuries-old incunabula (e.g., a page from the Nuremberg Chronicles of 1493), humidity became trapped between paper and frame, an ideal recipe for growing mold. So Cana-Cruz’s team asked Susan Duhl, a volunteer conservator with NHR, what to do. Should we open the building for air flow? She advised us not to do that. The salt air content was high outside, we had soot from cruise ships to contend with, and we also have a pigeon-filled park in front of the building. So she told us to keep the door closed. While she wasn’t there to solve our emotional problems after the hurricanes, just having her there to help did serve as comfort.” Indeed, the bonds forged between museum personnel and NHR volunteers transcend the professional, whether they are collaborating on site or remotely (as is happening now due to the pandemic). “The visits from these conservators were vital,” Cana-Cruz emphasizes. “They were not only excellent, expert helpers, but they are also now friends. Personal friends and friends of the museum and of our community.” (As it happens, Maine’s Molly O’Guinness Carlson was involved at Casa del Libro as well as at Collier Memorial State Park.) Anne Brennan, executive director of the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington, North Carolina, had a similar experience with the NHR conservators who helped her institution following Hurricane Florence in September 2018. She recalls being in New Jersey visiting relatives the week before the storm hit her hometown. “I remember seeing on the hotel TV the weather report showing a red dot on Wilmington as the landfall point.” Brennan headed home quickly, and, when it did hit, the storm was ostensibly a milder Category 1. Although she is a native of this region and has worked at the museum for 26 years, she confides, “Florence taught me that a storm’s category number does not matter at all. I thought I knew what a hurricane was, but Florence was unbelievable, something I’d never experienced.” The city of Wilmington was transformed into an island, with all roads cut off. Although the Cameron Art Museum’s building remained largely intact, the more insidious threat was humidity, as at Casa del Libro. With electricity out, humidity levels rose inside. The institution, which is noted for its works on paper, had a generator, but it failed. Eventually Brennan found herself in the vault with a flashlight, having to decide which works she would carry first to a less humid part of the museum. “Do I take the [Richard] Diebenkorns, the [Mary] Cassatts, the many prints from the Louis Belden Collection?” she

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Completed in 2002, the Cameron Art Museum was designed by architect Charles Gwathmey with a ventilation system inside the masonry that allows the building to “breathe” during hurricanes, which are a feature of life in Wilmington, North Carolina.

asked herself rhetorically. Brennan and the property plant manager brought as many pieces to the other side of the building as they could carry — as fast as possible. “Moving works of art puts them at greater vulnerability, even under good circumstances,” she emphasizes. One of the Cameron’s consultant painting conservators, David Goist, rose to the level of hero when he contacted NHR and provided Brennan’s phone number. Because its building was unharmed and the humidity levels had been stabilized, Brennan and Goist decided the Cameron could play a different role in Wilmington’s recovery: it hosted a free workshop for local collecting institutions, individual collectors, and studio artists affected by the storm. NHR helped expedite the event, and, as the city continued to recover, Brennan invited members of the cultural community to camp out in the museum if they needed to. For days, some 200 people rolled out their sleeping bags and pitched tents in the galleries and offices. “We have an on-site restaurant,” says Brennan, “so our chef was cooking like mad to feed everyone, including the pets they brought.” In summing up the experience, Brennan observes, “We had lost so many trees in town, but trees grow back. Our cultural heritage can’t grow back if we lose it. NHR helped us preserve it.” AFTER DISASTER PASSES Due to the COVID-19 crisis, on-site visits by volunteer responders are no longer possible, at least for now. “One of our biggest goals is to facilitate virtual assessments of damage and provide support remotely,” Elaina Gregg says. “We’re trying to figure out how we can help despite not being F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M

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there physically.” She adds that there are some benefits to NHR’s increasingly virtual role: “We’re able to provide greater access to more information. It’s hard to say if we’ll return to entirely in-person training when the pandemic ends, or continue with a hybrid of in-person and virtual. Webbased instruction is proving very helpful at this time.” Back in Oregon, Terra Kemper continues to survey the ravaged forest landscape and sniff for smoke, keeping in touch with NHR volunteer Molly O’Guinness Carlson 3,100 hundred miles away in Maine. Kemper also remains grateful to the many local volunteers who showed up to pressurewash the museum’s road grader, and now a group dedicated to preserving historic steam-powered vehicles is keen to restore the log loader. As an eighth-generation Oregonian, whose ancestors arrived via the Oregon Trail, Kemper knew already how committed the locals are to their forests. But she has also become acquainted with the dedication of kindred spirits who live far away. She reads aloud: “This is what Molly wrote in her latest follow-up: ‘Have I met your needs? What else can I do? This is what I’m here to do, to help you.’” Information: The Foundation for Advancement in Conservation offers a variety of emergency-related services; for details, visit culturalheritage.org/resources/ emergencies. Donations to FAIC are fully tax-deductible and can be made at cultural heritage.org/about-us/foundation/donate. Collier Memorial State Park and Collier Logging Museum, stateparks.oregon.gov. To see videos of the damage caused by Hurricane Irma at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, visit virtualvizcaya.org/irma. html. Museo Biblioteca La Casa del Libro, lacasadellibro.org. Cameron Art Museum, cameronartmuseum.org. DAVID MASELLO writes about art and culture from New York. His new book about the houses designed by the architecture firm Ferguson & Shamamian is forthcoming from Rizzoli this fall. 2 0 2 1

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GREAT ART NATIONWIDE

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FROM FRANCE TO GEORGIA IN DIALOGUE: CECILIA BEAUX Georgia Museum of Art Athens, Georgia georgiamuseum.org through January 31

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Located on the campus of the University of Georgia, the Georgia Museum of Art has launched its In Dialogue series of long-term exhibitions focused on one artwork in the permanent collection. The subject of the inaugural presentation is the painting Twilight Confidences, created in 1888 by the gifted Philadelphian Cecilia Beaux (1855–1942). It is currently hanging alongside three of Beaux’s studies on loan from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the prestigious

CECILIA BEAUX (1855–1942), Twilight Confidences,

1888, oil on canvas, 23 1/2 x 28 in., Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; museum purchase with funds provided by the William Underwood Eiland Endowment for Acquisitions made possible by M. Smith Griffith and the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation, GMOA 2018.117

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school where she became its first female instructor. After her American mother died and her father returned to his native France, Beaux was raised by wealthy relatives who encouraged her to pursue a career in art. She spent the summer of 1888 learning how to paint outdoors at Concarneau, a Breton village favored by expatriate artists not only for its seaside views but also for the fisherfolks’ picturesque traditional clothing. Twilight Confidences is Beaux’s first major exercise in plein air painting, in which

NATURE TAKES A BOW SOUTHEASTERN WILDLIFE EXPOSITION Charleston sewe.com February 11–14

MARK KELVIN HORTON (b. 1960), Onward, 2020, oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in., SEWE’s 2021 Featured Painting

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she juxtaposes the figures against a seascape. The preparatory studies on view reveal her fledgling efforts to capture fleeting light at dusk. Although she never painted outdoors again after leaving France in 1889, Twilight Confidences gave Beaux important experience in managing light and color as constructive and expressive elements, and also in mastering white as a container of all colors — lessons she would use for the rest of her life. Unlocated for much of the 20th century, Twilight Confidences resurfaced in 2007 when curator Sylvia Yount (now at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art) was conducting research for the High Museum of Art’s Beaux retrospective. Fortunately, the picture settled permanently in Georgia when the GMA acquired it in 2018. That does not mean it will always stay at home, however: it has already been confirmed for loan to the touring exhibition Whistler to Cassatt: American Painters and France, which will go on view later this year at the Denver Art Museum (November 14, 2021–February 13, 2022) and then the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond (March 26–July 10, 2022).

In a normal year, the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition (SEWE) is the largest gathering of its kind in America, and also South Carolina’s single largest annual event. On just one long weekend, more than 40,000 nature lovers regularly attend this celebration of wildlife and environmental conservation. Held at venues throughout the art-minded city of Charleston, it provides a platform for more than 500 artists, exhibi-

state public agencies to ensure that when our attendees arrive on site, there is a comprehensive health and safety plan in place.” Of particular interest to collectors is the juried show of 100 artists who depict animals and sporting subjects. This year’s featured artist is Charleston’s own Mark Kelvin Horton, best known for his paintings of Lowcountry landscapes. Of his Featured Painting (illustrated here), Horton says, “This has been an interesting and trying time for us all over the last several months, a period full of uncertainty, change, and adjustments. But one thing I feel certain of is that we have not, and will never, give up. We will keep pushing forward in our own way. This is the message and feeling that I seek to convey in the Featured Painting, Onward. I have spent the last 20 years capturing the drama of the ever-changing weather conditions of the Lowcountry, often focusing on more stormy views. Even though this place has an element of turbulent skies, there is a hopefulness and brightness that, along with the egret taking flight, portrays what I believe we all will have for the coming days. The design further expresses that sense of moving ahead with hope and grace.” SEWE also encompasses exhibitions featuring local artists, decoys, and sporting arms, as well as film screenings and lively demonstrations of birds of prey, retrievers, cooking, and art-making for all ages. Many events require tickets, so check before you go. Available on the website are details on SEWE’s VIP program, which provides privileged access to many events.

tors, and wildlife experts from around the world. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the organizers of SEWE’s 39th annual edition have confirmed that “there will be fewer event sites, a limited number of tickets available, and new processes in place to ensure a positive experience for all involved. We have been meeting regularly with local and

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ORIENTALISM AND MORE EUGÈNE-LOUIS CHARVOT Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens Jacksonville, Florida cummermuseum.org and gilesltd.com through January 27

The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens is presenting an exhibition that highlights its collection of art by the Frenchman EugèneLouis Charvot (1847–1924), the largest of its kind anywhere. Charvot devoted his professional career to medicine, but his real passion was art. Having grown up in the countryside, he began by painting pastoral scenes and made his debut in 1876 at the prestigious Salon in Paris. For the next 48 years he juggled his medical career in the French military with a

productive life as a painter, draftsman, etcher, and watercolorist. Ultimately Charvot was posted to care for soldiers in colonial Tunisia (1885–89) and Algeria (1892–96), where he documented what he witnessed, sending those works back to Paris for exhibition in the Salons. Unlike most other French artists who depicted North Africa, Charvot was not a tourist but a working member of the French colonial forces, and the insights he accrued clearly informed his paintings of genre scenes and nocturnes there. From Africa Charvot wrote detailed letters to his family, who over the decades carefully preserved them along with his artworks, sketchbooks, diaries, and documentary photographs. Fortunately, his daughter, Yvonne Charvot Barnett (1900– 2005), brought most of this material to Jacksonville, where it has landed safely in the Cummer’s permanent collection. In the exhibition and the handsome catalogue that accompanies it (co-published with D. Giles Ltd. of London), the Cummer’s former education director Susan Gallo examines the subject matter that fascinated Charvot, as well as his working methods and aesthetic inspirations. Opened in 1961, the Cummer is built on the site of the home of Ninah and Arthur Cummer and honors their impressive civic, social, and business involvement in northeastern Florida. Mrs. Cummer purchased her first painting in 1906 and ultimately owned more than 60 works. Upon her death in 1958, she bequeathed the bulk of her estate, including art, antiques, and the house, to a foundation dedicated to creating a museum. Though her residence was replaced with more modern facilities, two acres of formal historic gardens have survived.

EUGÈNE-LOUIS CHARVOT

(1847–

1924), View of Rue El – Alfahouine, 1889, oil on canvas, 47 1/4 x 39 7/8 in., Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, gift of Yvonne Charvot Barnett in memory of her father Eugène-Louis Charvot, AG.1999.5.3

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INSIGHTS FOR ALL AMERICAN ART: COLLECTING AND CONNOISSEURSHIP Merrell Publishers merrellpublishers.com 978-1-8589-4682-5 Hardback, 304 pages

Every field in the art world should have one of these. American Art: Collecting and Connoisseurship is a useful new book that contains 28 chapters about American art of the 19th and 20th centuries, each written by an acknowledged expert. Although there is plenty of art history here, the emphasis is firmly on buying and selling, valuation, conservation, legal issues, and other practical matters. This book is the brainchild of its general editor, Stephen M. Sessler. A mechanical engineer based in Atlanta, he and his wife, Linda, are active collectors and supporters of that city’s High Museum of Art. In 2006, as the museum wound down its own specialty “friends” groups, Sessler founded the Atlanta Art Forum, which brings in guest speakers at the top of their fields to discuss what the metropolitan region’s devotees of American art need to know. In the book’s introduction, he writes, “I could not help but think that the information and knowledge we had been so privileged to acquire for the past 12 years should also be available to a much wider audience. Thus, many (but not all) of the chapter authors are past speakers at Atlanta Art Forum programs.” The resulting publication has three sections. Part I is a historical overview that lays out what one needs to know about the Hudson River School, art of the American West, American artists in Europe, impressionism, modernism, African American art, and a short list of 20th-century masters: John Sloan, Everett Shinn, Marsden Hartley, Stuart Davis, Arshile Gorky, John Graham, Willem de Kooning, and Guy Pène du Bois. Part II focuses on connoisseurship, with tips on developing an instinct for quality, dealing in fine art, conservation, choosing wisely while forming a collection, researching artworks before purchase, art advisers, auctioneering practices, and legal issues surrounding buying and selling art. Part III goes broader with looks at changes in the market, including ways of connecting historical American art with the modern world, why galleries matter, and shifting tastes. In his insightful introduction, Sessler notes, “The market and the interest in historical American art have undergone a dramatic shift in the past ten to fifteen years as contemporary art has become the standardbearer for the art market in general: auctions that used to be wholesale are now retail F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M

plus; galleries that once specialized only in historical American art have either closed, converted to private dealer status, or have changed their business model to modern and contemporary; inventory-based galleries now operate on a consignment model; and some dealers have resorted to serving as art advisors. And of course, art price databases widely available on the internet have altered the landscape dramatically, providing a useful but incomplete summary of auction sales, frequently giving potential buyers a false sense of the real market.” He is right to raise all of these points before readers plunge into the 28 chapters, but before they do, the foreword by Elizabeth Broun, director emerita of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, offers additional context. She observes, “The whole field of American art experienced a Golden Age in the 1990s and 2000s, and by 2006 it had powerful momentum… The collegiality among collectors of American art during these decades was often recognized as dramatically different from the secret competitive collecting

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in other art fields. Collectors of American art felt they were compatriots in a common cause… [and] often visited each other’s collections, chatted openly about which auction works they intended to bid for, and traded knowledge, contacts, and expertise.” Alas, that network of collegiality has faded somewhat in the past decade as globalist contemporary art — with its fashiondriven, money-minded competitiveness — came to dominate not only the market but also museums. It is not too late to reclaim that spirit, however — in Americana and in other areas of historical art. The intelligence and openhandedness of this project — whose contributors waived their customary honoraria in order to keep the book’s purchase price affordable — offer one possible road map (back) to that place. Consider purchasing a copy to learn how.

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ART IN THE WEST

ART IN PERSON AND ONLINE

START THE YEAR WITH ART DENVER coorswesternart.com January 5–24

DAVID GRIFFIN (b. 1952), Graceful Silence, 2020, oil on linen board, 32 x 32 in.

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Like so many activities, the National Western Stock Show scheduled for this January has been delayed a year. Fortunately, the Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale that usually accompanies the stock show will proceed with its auction events online rather than in person. Now thousands more collectors living around

the world will discover what all the excitement in Denver has been about these past 28 years. Featuring 71 artists from across the United States, Canada, and Europe, the Coors show will again tempt with an eclectic mix of contemporary realist artworks capturing the Western way of life. This year’s edition will not have a featured artist, but will instead highlight several featured artists from past years, including William Matthews (1994), Karmel Timmons (2008), Quang Ho (2014), and Sophy Brown (2020). Among the talents participating for the first time are Evelyn Gottschall Baker, Jared Brady, S.M. Chavez, Chauncey Homer, Anita Mosher Solich, Jay Moore, Daniel Sprick, Ouida Touchon, and Rick Young. The fun starts on January 5 with the virtual opening and the first chance to buy. The project’s net proceeds will again support the National Western Scholarship Trust, which helps college students pursue training in rural medicine, agriculture, and veterinary medicine. The Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale began in 1993 as the joint inspiration of Coors Brewing Company and the National Western Stock Show. After the first successful edition, Ann Daley was hired as curator. Today the National Western Stock Show retains primary management and oversight of the project. Rose Fredrick became the curator in 1998 and has developed it into one of America’s leading Western art initiatives.

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UNDER THE BIG TENTS SCOTTSDALE celebrateart.com January 16–March 28

Now entering its 31st year, Celebration of Fine Art is Arizona’s longest-running art show. It brings together 100 artists from across America, all invited to spend 10 weeks creating pieces right in front of visitors. Their works range in approach from impressionism and realism to abstraction, and are made in every conceivable medium. Guests are invited to ask questions as the artists work, and their encounters are complemented by weekly demonstrations of woodturning, welding, kiln firing, and bronze pouring, as well as exhibitor talks every Friday. Everyone is welcome to explore the one-acre sculpture garden, which features nearly 100 pieces. In 1991, inspired by the Festival of Arts in Laguna Beach, California, Tom and Ann Morrow collaborated with Scottsdale city officials and the community to open CFA’s “big white tents” for the first time. Now encompassing 40,000 square feet of covered space, the event is carried on by Tom’s daughter Susan Morrow Potje and her husband, Jake. Susan Potje notes, “Though this year we’ll have enhanced ventilation and measures in place for distancing to protect everyone’s health, CFA will continue to be a place where people from all walks of life can engage with artists and see their work come to life.” For those who cannot make it to Scottsdale, visit CFA’s website to browse the artists’ newest creations and buy them directly.

ELIZABETH BUTLER (b. 1986), Delight, 2020, oil on wood, 48 x 48 in.

WOMEN ARTISTS HEAD TO TEXAS KERRVILLE, TEXAS waow.org and museumofwesternart.com February 6–March 19

Members of the nonprofit organization Women Artists of the West (WAOW) are set to celebrate its 51st anniversary with the National Juried Exhibition, America the Beautiful, hosted this year by the Museum of Western Art in Kerrville, Texas. On view and ready for purchase will be paintings and sculptures of all kinds. Just over half a century ago, four women, who felt marginalized by the traditional world of Western art, formed WAOW, which now has approximately 350 members. Living in more than 30 states, Canada, and Australia, they produce work in all media in two and three dimensions. WAOW’s mission remains to unite and encourage women artists through education, promotion, mentorship, and camaraderie. The organization has long sought to help aspiring artists through mentoring, so many members share their expertise with each other through workshops, publications, and an online forum for tips and extended discussions. NORI THORNE (b. 1953), Oaxaca Marketplace, 2019, pastel on paper, 24 x 18 in., available from the artist

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San Carlos Apache Olla with human and zoomorphic figures,

AMERICAN INDIAN ART AND MORE

c. 1910, basketwork, 23 1/2 in. high, 23 in. (diameter), Terry DeWald American Indian Art (Tucson) via the 37th Annual American Indian Art Show

SAN FRANCISCO americanindianartshow.com and sanfranciscotribalandtextileartshow.com February 25–28

In San Francisco, two important fairs have made the move online this year due to the pandemic. The 37th Annual American Indian Art Show will retain its crown as the leading showcase of American Indian art on the West Coast, with an emphasis on historic material but also contemporary Indian, Pre-Columbian, and Spanish Colonial items. The 35th Annual San Francisco Tribal & Textile Art Show will once again offer museumquality objects and artifacts from Africa, Asia, Australia, Oceania, and the Americas. Each show encompasses more than 50 exhibitors, many of whom will offer “Zoom office hours” so collectors can ask them questions directly. Also available will be free online talks about specific media and themes.

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The fairs’ co-owner John Morris notes, “There are some real upsides to doing these shows virtually. This will make it possible for some show-goers and exhibitors who haven’t been able to travel to us in the past to see, buy, and sell online.” His co-owner Kim Martindale adds, “We are projecting an even larger attendance for the virtual events than at past physical venues.” In future years, the organizers will ensure that every “live” edition of the fairs also has a virtual component to continue serving these geographically distant audiences. For those who want to “get in” early, the fairs will open with a ticketed online event on February 24. All of its proceeds will go directly to the nonprofit Native Art New Mexico, Inc., which will distribute them equally between Doctors Without Borders and an array of Native American youth programs.

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THE SHOW GOES ON CARTERSVILLE, GEORGIA boothmuseum.org/gala February 20

Not surprisingly, the Booth Western Art Museum has decided to postpone its annual For the Love of Art Gala and Art Auction from February 2021 until February 2022. But fear not, in its place this February will be a lively digital event also bearing the name For the Love of Art. On the evening of February 20, participants will join a live Zoom session to view the entertainment that includes musical performances, comedy skits, artist shout-outs, and a celebrity roast. During this Zoom session, guests will also bid in a live auction of paintings and sculpture created by a dozen leading artists of the American West. As of press time, these talents were expected to include Arturo Chavez, Mikel Donahue, Tom Dorr, Robert Griffing, Z.S. Liang, Clyde “Ross” Morgan, Bill Nebeker, Gary Niblett, Steve Penley, Jason Rich, Sonya Terpening, and Kathy Wipfler. Last but not least, the evening will encompass a jolly “paddle raise” for donations to the Booth’s Virtual Field Trip Fund. This reserve helps local schools take advantage of the museum’s rich collections and exhibitions via distance learning and ultimately through on-site field trips (as soon as it’s safe to offer them again). In addition, a silent auction of 60 lots of art, jewelry, books, and experiences will

be available for bidding on hindmanauctions. com. Among the artists expected to participate in this component are Dan Bodelson, Kevin Box, Lisa Danielle, John Fawcett, Deborah Fellows, Cathy Ferrell, Charlie Fritz, Walt Gonske, Logan Hagege, Amy Lay, Dan Meiduch, Paul Moore, Tom Palmore, Scott Rogers, Rebecca Tobey, and Ezra Tucker. For the Love of Art tickets and sponsorships are available now on the museum’s website, and auction items are being

A BRIGHT SPOT IN THE CALENDAR

Z.S. LIANG (b. 1953), Lakota Elder, 2020, oil on canvas, 12 x 16 in.

uploaded continuously. Online bidding for the silent auction will begin early in February. Rest assured that H. David Wright, who had been announced as this year’s Artist of Excellence winner, will be honored at the next inperson gala on February 19, 2022.

VICTORIA CURRENS (b. 1943), No Worries, 2019, pastel on paper, 18 x 23 in., available from the artist

SCOTTSDALE scottsdaleartschool.com February 18–March 19

The Scottsdale Artists’ School is poised to open The Best and the Brightest, the annual Juried Fine Art Show & Sale highlighting works by its top students living around the world. Anyone who had taken a workshop, program, or online class there since January 2017 was invited to submit works, all of which have been juried in. During the festive opening reception on February 18, guests will be able to purchase from the wall, and awards will be presented in the categories of oils, drawings, pastels, sculptures, small works (no larger than 8 x 10 inches), and water media. Because the public health situation in Arizona is ever-changing, call ahead to ensure this reception will occur in person. The school’s executive director, Trudy Hays, is quick to praise the “professional quality of SAS students” and laughs that she does “not envy the team assembled to jury the pieces F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M

because they have a difficult assignment.” Fortunately, the exhibitors are eligible for an array of awards. Last year’s Fine Art Connoisseur Award of Excellence went to the piece illus-

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trated here, created by Victoria Currens, who also took the first place ribbon in pastels for a second work.

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BY M AT T H I A S A N D E R S O N

C O L L E C T O R S A V V Y

PROTECT YOUR ART FROM THIEVES

ost of us expect museums and commercial galleries to have security systems, yet we seldom imagine that our own art collections are worth the expense or trouble of protecting in this way. Interestingly, monitoring the “perimeter” of your home (with an anti-intrusion system like ADT) is only half the story. Why? Because most art thefts are instigated by someone already inside the house and known to the owner — for example, a cleaner or a drunken pal of your teenager. Fortunately, there are several security firms out there that focus primarily on serving individual collectors without having to get an army of professional experts and installers involved. One such innovator is Art Guard, which uses MAP (Magnetic Asset Protection) technology. Measuring 2 x 2 x 1/4 inches, its standard sensor is positioned behind or beneath a stationary artwork or other valuable asset. It triggers the desired response — be it an alarm, text, e-mail, phone call, or police visit — as soon as it detects any motion of the tiny rare earth magnet attached discreetly to the object. The unique digital ID of each sensor is pre-enrolled into the in-home control panel, to which a locationspecific alert is sent once movement has occurred. Pressing one button on the mobile app arms and disarms the system from anywhere, and an individual sensor can be bypassed when its artwork is being moved or cleaned. Though this sensor system is self-contained, it can be hooked into an off-site central monitoring station for an extra fee. Art Guard’s “gold” system can manage up to 96 sensors, while the “silver” edition handles 64. Even more straightforward is Art Guard’s Safe Hook, made of plastic with a metal backing and screwed directly into the wall. Any artwork weighing up to 75 pounds is hung on the hook, which contains a battery-powered sensor that will ring as soon as the artwork’s weight is lifted up off of it. This device is not hooked into a larger system, so you must be in hearing range to respond to the alarm, but that may be sufficient for many homes.

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Art Guard’s MAP Gold System

Also worth investigating is Fortecho, a firm that relies upon RFID (radio frequency identification) technology. Its slim motion-sensing picture tags, object tags, and pressure sensors attach discreetly behind or beneath the artwork; up to 60 artworks can be connected to the touchscreen, which processes real-time alarm information as audible alarms are emitted to alert owners. A similar service is offered by GalleryGuard, which has some proprietary distinctions that make it worth considering, too. In a world where fine art is increasingly seen by criminals as a high-value and eminently portable target, taking even simple steps like these may ultimately prove to be one of your wisest acquisitions ever. Information: artguard.net, fortecho.com, galleryguard.com

Art Guard’s Safe Hook comes in a kit that even

MATTHIAS ANDERSON is a contributing writer to Fine Art Connoisseur.

includes the necessary batteries.

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O F F T H E W A L L S

12, and during that same period Aneka Ingold, winner of The Bennett Prize 1.0, will present her solo exhibition there. The 2.0 winner will be revealed at the opening celebration on May 27, and the finalists’ show will then move to museums in Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee. Like Ingold previously, the 2.0 winner will receive $25,000 annually for two years to allow her to devote the time necessary to mount a solo exhibition. For details, visit thebennettprize.org.

A RT I ST S & G A L L E R I E S

Hamburg School, Allegory of Air, c. 1680, pen and black ink over traces of black chalk with white heightening on blue paper, 7 1/4 x 6 1/8 in.

Jane Freilicher (1924–2014), Coleus and Verbena, 1973, oil on canvas, 15 3/4 x 14 in., Kasmin Gallery and the Estate of Jane Freilicher, photo: Diego Flores

New York City

kasmingallery.com January 2–February 27 Born in Brooklyn, Jane Freilicher (1924–2014) studied with Hans Hofmann and came of age in the heyday of abstract expressionism. Though she moved comfortably among such abstractionists as Willem de Kooning and Joan Mitchell, she remained committed to representation in her own art, much like her colleagues Fairfield Porter and Alex Katz. Kasmin Gallery began representing Freilicher’s estate in 2017, and now its second show, Parts of a World, highlights her intimate domestic subject matter through 15 still lifes ranging in date from the 1950s through the 2000s. Many of them depict flowers, which Freilicher painted in the same spirit as Pierre Bonnard and Henri Matisse, unconcerned by their traditional associations with femininity. They are seen, up close or at a distance, among the casual disorder of the artist’s studios in lower Manhattan and Long Island.

Endowed through the Pittsburgh Foundation by art collectors Steven Alan Bennett and Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt, The Bennett Prize is devoted to helping female realist painters find the parity that has eluded them historically. In November the organizers of The Bennett Prize 2.0 announced the program’s 10 finalists. They had received 674 entries from across the U.S., easily surpassing the inaugural edition. The four jurors were Steven Bennett, the artists Alyssa Monks and Katie O’Hagan, and Andy Warhol Museum director Patrick Moore. Together they selected as finalists Sophia-Yemisi Adeyemo-Ross (Rhode Island), Tanmaya Bingham (Oregon), Chloe Chiasson (New York), June Glasson (New York), Holly Keogh (North Carolina), Lavely Miller (Maryland), Rebecca Orcutt (Washington), Ayana Ross (Georgia), Su Su (Pennsylvania), and Amy Werntz (Texas) The finalists’ artworks will be exhibited at Michigan’s Muskegon Museum of Art from May 27 through September

New York City

annazorinagallery.com January 7–February 13 The Brooklyn-based artist Deborah Brown will soon open her first solo exhibition at Anna Zorina Gallery. Titled Things as They Are, it features paintings she has made since the pandemic started, primarily self-portraits and still lifes. Of course, these subjects are in easy reach during lockdown, but their depictions transcend mere description to offer a painterly, sometimes raw look at things (including oneself) normally overlooked or taken for granted.

AU C T IO N S & FA I R S

Los Angeles

theautry.org/masters February 27–April 11

New York City

christopherbishopfineart.com through February 12 From witches and satyrs to angels and mermaids, the lines between art, science, and magic have always been fluid. Now Christopher Bishop Fine Art is presenting the in-person and online exhibition The Magic of the Draughtsman: Images of the Occult, which uses nearly 20 Old Master and early modern drawings to survey shifting views of mysticism and alchemy as conveyed through mythology, religion, and literature. The artworks date from the 16th through the early 20th centuries.

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Deborah Brown (b. 1955), Marbles, 2020, oil on Masonite, 24 x 18 in.

Lavely Miller (b. 1978), Holly Rose, 2020, acrylic on paper on wood, 40 x 30 in.

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The Autry Museum of the American West is set to launch its annual Masters of the American West Art Exhibition and Sale, the proceeds of which help underwrite its educational programs, exhibitions, and public events. Works by 61 artists will go on view February 27, but the

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Robyn O’Neil (b. 1977), An Unkindness (detail), 2019, graphite, colored pencil, and acrylic on paper (triptych), 75 3/8 x 160 in. (overall), courtesy Susan Inglett Gallery, New York City

real action occurs on March 13 with the sale itself amid a full day of in-gallery and virtual experiences. The exhibition will remain on public view through April 11. Throughout the season, a series of virtual salons will showcase specific Masters artists, beginning on January 6 when Dyani White Hawk (Sičangu Lakota) converses with Joe Horse Capture, the Autry’s vice president of Native collections. (To participate, register online in advance.)

“Drawing has seen a remarkable resurgence as a preferred means of art-making over the last 35 years by young artists who have discovered exciting new possibilities for the medium.” Each artist creates openended narratives within natural landscape settings that imaginatively consider the complexities of modern human relationships. Their works have been gathered from TMA’s own holdings and collections across North America.

Sandro Botticelli (c. 1445–1510), Young Man Holding a Roundel, c. 1480, tempera on panel, 23 x 15 1/2 in., estimate upon request

New York City sothebys.com January 23–30

The undisputed highlight of the upcoming Masters Week auctions at Sotheby’s is a portrait by the Florentine legend Sandro Botticelli. He was at the forefront of Renaissance Italy’s re-envisioning of portraiture as high art, applying his unprecedented directness and insight decades before Leonardo painted Mona Lisa. Approximately a dozen examples of Botticelli’s portraiture survive, almost all now in museums, so the appearance of this privately owned one is cause for celebration. It is expected to fetch a price similar to those obtained by Gustave Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II (sold in 2006 for $87.9 million) and Vincent van Gogh’s Portrait of Dr. Gachet (1990, $82.5 million).

M USEU MS

Toledo, Ohio

toledomuseum.org through February 14 The Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) has mounted the exhibition Telling Stories: Resilience and Struggle in Contemporary Narrative Art. On view are 25 graphite drawings and one animated film created by Amy Cutler (New York City), Robyn O’Neil (Seattle), and Annie Pootoogook (Inuit, Cape Dorset, Canada). TMA curator Robin Reisenfeld notes,

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Umberto Boccioni (1882–1916), Against the Light (Controluce), 1910, graphite pencil and black ink on paper, 14 13/16 x 19 1/4 in., Collezione Ramo, Milan, photo: Studio Vandrasch

names as Alighiero Boetti, Giorgio de Chirico, and Lucio Fontana. Twentieth-century Italy gave rise to a nearly continuous series of revolutionary artistic movements, ranging from futurism to spatialism to Arte Povera. Often overlooked by most observers is the crucial role that drawing played, giving artists free rein to experiment with materials and techniques. For example, illustrated here is Umberto Boccioni’s Against the Light (Controluce), which depicts a young woman before a window with oblique rays of light falling across her face. The composition’s innovative sense of transparency hints at Boccioni’s interest in the optical interpenetration of bodies, which he further developed as leader of the futurist movement.

Edward Hopper (1882–1967), Le Pavillon de Flore, 1909, oil on canvas, 23 5/8 x 28 13/16 in., Josephine N. Hopper Bequest © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/ Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Washington, D.C.

phillipscollection.org through January 10 In 1906, Edward Hopper lived in Paris, and he revisited it in 1909 and 1910. This early, experimental phase of his career is unfamiliar to most of us, so the Phillips Collection has borrowed 11 of his Parisian scenes from New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art, which holds the largest collection of Hoppers anywhere. For those who cannot see it in person, Hopper in Paris can be enjoyed through a 360-degree tour available free on the Phillips Collection’s website. The Phillips has a long relationship with Hopper, stretching back to 1926 when founder Duncan Phillips spent $600 to acquire his oil painting Sunday.

Houston

Anders Zorn (1860–1920), Jean Burnay, 1884, watercolor on paper, 27 1/2 x 20 1/4 in., Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

menil.org through April 11

The Hague and Stockholm

The Menil Drawing Institute is presenting Silent Revolutions: Italian Drawings from the Twentieth Century, the first major survey of such material mounted in the U.S. Most have been borrowed from Milan’s Collezione Ramo, and among their creators are such starry

2020 marked the centenary of the death of the great Swedish artist Anders Zorn (1860–1920). Alas, a major touring retrospective of his work was delayed by the pandemic, so now it is going forward on an adjusted schedule.

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More than 200 works are on view through January 31 at the Kunstmuseum Den Haag in The Hague. They will next move to the Nationalmuseum, the largest art museum in Zorn’s homeland, for a showing there from February 18 through August 29.

Washington, D.C. npg.si.edu through January 24

The Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery is displaying Visionary: The Cumming Family Collection, an exhibition of 22 gifts and promised gifts of huge significance to this institution’s mission. Beginning in 1995, the collectors Ian and Annette Cumming worked with their friend D. Dodge Thompson (a senior executive at the National Gallery of Art) to commission or acquire more than two dozen portraits of national and global leaders. The sitters include Muhammad Ali, Neil Armstrong, Warren Buffett, Jane Goodall, Denyce Graves, the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, and Toni Morrison. Among the artists represented are Jack Beal, Chuck Close, Robert McCurdy, and Nelson Shanks.

Kansas City

theworldwar.org through April 11 The National WWI Museum and Memorial has organized the exhibition Silk and Steel: French Fashion, Women and WWI. In addition to revealing how female workers contributed to wartime industries, nursing, and transportation, it highlights the rise of shell art, which began when frontline soldiers wanted to send souvenirs to the women in their lives, but did not have the tools or time to create anything extravagant. Soon they were using the mountains of shell casings around them by filling those shells with sand and using punches and other tools to craft decorations and inscriptions. The resulting objects include pen holders, vases, lamps, and bracelets. After the war, these items continued to be produced as souvenirs for tourists visiting the battlefields.

OUT & A BOUT

Salman Toor (b. 1983), The Arrival, 2019, oil on panel, 18 x 14 in., private collection

New York City whitney.org through April 4

Having had to delay it due to the pandemic, the Whitney Museum of American Art has finally opened the exhibition Salman Toor: How Will I Know. Known for small figurative oil paintings that combine academic technique and a sketchlike style, Toor offers intimate views into the imagined lives of young, queer Brown men residing in New York City and Pakistan, where he was born. Several lush interior scenes depict friends dancing, binge-watching television shows, playing with puppies, and gazing into their smartphones. A more somber scene features a forlorn man whose possessions are on display for the scrutiny of airport security officers.

The gifted artist Gilberto Geraldo is having a busy season. The first Brazilian trained at both of Russia’s leading art academies, and also the founder of São Paulo’s Paulista Academy of Arts, he was recently appointed chairman of the departments of drawing and painting at the Princeton Academy of Art (princetonacademyofart.com), which has just opened a second building to provide even more studio spaces for teaching. Brazil’s Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional (IPHAN, portal.iphan.gov.br) will present two digital exhibitions of Geraldo’s art this year (January 5–29 and March 5–29). An award-winning example of his artistry, Living and Fishing, is illustrated here.

Gilberto Geraldo (b. 1962), Living and Fishing, 2003, oil on canvas, 59 x 74 3/4 in., private collection

Unknown maker, Lion Head Shell Art, c. 1918, brass shell casing, 8 3/4 x 3 1/2 x 4 3/4 in., National WWI Museum and Memorial, Kansas City

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Chuck Close (b. 1940), Al Gore, 2009, jacquard tapestry, 83 1/2 x 72 5/8 x 3/8 in., National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Ian M. and Annette P. Cumming, 2019.152, photo courtesy Pace Gallery

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Gilberto Geraldo (right) teaches a student at the easel.

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MAY 23-27, 2021

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