Zaplin Lampert - Celebrating 35 by Zaplin Lampert Gallery

Celebrating 35

Dear Friends, the masterful Gerald Cassidy, the modernist B. J. O. Nordfeldt, the New Yorker John Sloan, and Fremont Ellis, a member of the beloved Los Cinco Pintores. Turning to one of the pioneering artists of the American West, we present Albert Bierstadt, whose name in his lifetime became almost synonymous with the genre. Slightly later, the same could be said for Frederick Remington, once his work came before the public. In addition, we feature three other signature American artists: Frank Tenney Johnson, Maynard Dixon, and to fill the American art theme, Thomas Hart Benton. You may also notice some lesser-known artists whose work nonetheless deserves acclaim, including Frank Applegate, Barbara Latham, Richard Lorenz, and Theodore Van Soelen. I save Edward Curtis for last, because his photographs bring the gallery story full-circle. For this catalogue, we selected four Curtis images: two of his most iconic in goldtone format, “The Potter,” Nampeyo making her pottery, and “Cañon del Muerto,” riders on horseback beneath towering sandstone cliffs, paired with two outstanding portraits. It is my hope that through this catalogue you will get a sense of the American art that we are most enthusiastic about in this, our 35th year. And, of course, it provides yet another opportunity to express my appreciation for you, our friends and patrons, and for your continued support. We look forward to seeing you again soon!

Richard Lampert, June 2022

s specialists in historical art, and collectors ourselves, we’ve learned that every work holds unique characteristics that accrue along its journey: part history of the artist and the circumstances involved at the time of its creation, and part history of the people, families, and institutions who selected the artwork to display on their walls. It humbles me to imagine that a bit of that history might also include us. Many of you may know that my late business partner Mark Zaplin (1952–2014) and I first established ourselves with the works of legendary photographer Edward S. Curtis. Once we founded the gallery in 1987, we knew that Curtis would hold a central place, but that it would also make sense to widen our scope and develop our expertise to handle the historical art of New Mexico, the early American West, and American art of the 19th- and early 20th-centuries. As a consequence, we have been privileged to handle an incredible assortment of distinguished works of art over these thirty-five years. The many talents responsible for these paintings, prints, and photographs are well-represented in the pages that follow. Many belonged to the Taos Society of Artists or exhibited alongside them as associate members, for example Birger Sandzen and Gustave Baumann. Other notables representing the Taos School are Frank Sauerwein, who left an indelible legacy despite his short career, and Andrew Dasburg, whose vision linked the ancient land to cutting-edge modernity. Of course, since Taos drew many additional top-rate artists, we have chosen one of the great Taos paintings, by Joseph Fleck, to grace the catalogue’s cover. Likewise, the Santa Fe Art Colony attracted diverse artists of distinction, exemplified by

Joseph Henry Sharp

1859–1953

“Sharp and Addie’s [his wife] arrival at Crow Agency could not have been better timed. A great number of Indians, including many Crow, Sioux, Blackfeet, and Cheyenne, had gathered for a big Crow Council. Their colorful teepees stretched along the Little Big Horn in much the same way as they had for centuries. Sharp was ecstatic; it was like a restaging of history. He watched the ceremonies and read the slips of paper Addie handed him [he was deaf] as the old warriors who had fought in the great battles sat around the fire reminiscing and relating brave deeds.” – Forrest Fenn: “Teepee Smoke”

Moonlight and Firelight, Crow Reservation, Montana c. 1908–1910 Oil on canvas 16 x 20 inches Signed lower right

Richard Lorenz

1858–1915

“A ll European rules for color harmony are ignored; the color tone is pure Asiatic. These paintings, we are reminded, did not come from a student’s color chart in the Art Students League. They come from the hinterland heart of Eurasia, despite the French Impressionist technique that applied them to canvas.” – Frank Waters, Leon Gaspard

Above The Roundup c. 1900–1915 Oil on canvas 221/4 x 30 inches Signed lower left Right Buffalo Reclining c. 1863 Oil on panel 14 x 19 inches Signed lower right Work being sold to benefit the acquisition fund of the Petrie Institute of Western American Art, Denver Art Museum.

Albert Bierstadt

1830–1902

“Bierstadt approached the West with a somewhat different attitude than the explorer artists and photographers that preceded him. He was simply gathering images in bits and pieces which he would later compose into much larger, idealized canvases. He was a sightseer in the quest of the picturesque.” – William H. Goetzmann and William N. Goetzmann: “The West of the Imagination”

Frederic Remington

1861–1909

“Remington ‘has portrayed a most characteristic and yet vanishing type of American life. The soldier, the cowboy and rancher, the Indian, and the horses and the cattle of the plains, will live in his pictures . . . for all time.’” – Theodore Roosevelt: as quoted in “Painters and the American West,” volume 2

Cavalry Scouting Party 1894 Ink wash on paper 22 x 291/2 inches Signed lower left

1868–1952

Edward S. Curtis

Above Chief Joseph – Nez Percé 1903 Photogravure on tissue 15 3/8 x 11 1/8 inches Right Cañon del Muerto, Navaho 1906 Goldtone photograph in original frame 14 x 11 inches Signed lower left

Above The Potter (Nampeyo) – Hopi 1906 Goldtone photograph in original frame 10 x 8 inches Signed lower left Right Mosa – Mohave 1903 Photogravure on Japanese vellum 15 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches

Edward S. Curtis

1868–1952

“ T he fact that the Indian and his surroundings lend themselves to artistic treatment has not been lost sight of, for in

his country one may treat limitless subjects of an aesthetic character without in any way doing injustice to scientific accuracy . . . Indeed, in a work of this sort, to overlook those marvellous touches that Nature has given to the Indian country, and for the origin of which the native ever has a wonder-tale to relate, would be to neglect a most important chapter in the story of an environment that made the Indian much of what he is.” – Edward S. Curtis: “The North American Indian,” Volume 1, General Introduction

Bert Geer Phillips

1868–1956

“It was Bert Phillips who worked tirelessly to bring other artists to Taos, to make possible for them to stay there, and to promote the idea of an art

Na-Ah-Kun-Na c. 1905 Oil on canvas 18 x 141/4 inches Signed upper right Work being sold to benefit the acquisition fund of the Petrie Institute of Western American Art, Denver Art Museum.

colony. . . . Perhaps the most revealing thing regarding Bert Phillips’s thoughts in those first years in Taos was the following message he sent to Blumenschein: ‘For heavens sake tell people what we have found! Send some artists out here. There’s a lifetime’s work for twenty men. Anyhow, I’m lonesome.’” – Robert R. White: essay “The Taos Art Colony and the Taos Society of Artists,” in “Bert Geer Phillips and the Taos Art Colony”

Gerald Cassidy

1869–1934

Left Navajo Medicine Man c. 1920 Oil on canvas 181/4 x 14 inches Signed lower right Work being sold to benefit the acquisition fund of the Petrie Institute of Western American Art, Denver Art Museum.

Above Pueblo Woman and Child c. 1920 Oil on academy board 151/2 x 123/4 inches Signed lower left

1874–1952

Oscar Berninghaus

“Berninghaus’ long-standing reputation and popularity will make him as hard to ignore in the future as in the past. However, we should recall those qualities which have so firmly fixed his reputation— his great professionalism, dedication to art, sure skill and expertise with pen and brush, excellent use of materials and, most of all, the continuity of meaning in his art from the past to the present.” – James D. Burke, Director, Saint Louis Art Museum: as quoted in “Oscar E. Berninghaus: Master Painter of American Indians and the Frontier West”

Frank Sauerwein

1871–1910

Left Signal Smoke 1910 Oil on canvas 20 x 30 inches Signed lower right Above Winter Passage, Ute Reservation 1902 Oil on canvas 12 x 18 inches Signed and dated lower left

1871–1951

John Sloan

About John Sloan's work in New Mexico:

“These are paintings of quiet and calm, concerned as much with composition and color as with any kind of anecdote or idea—or, rather, content to let the composition and the color imply the meaning, the sense of resolution, the feeling of place both restorative and hospitable.” – John Loughery: “John Sloan: Painter and Rebel”

Birger Sandzen

1871–1954

Left Looking West, Santa Fe 1923 Oil on canvas 18 x 22 inches Signed lower right Above A Colorado Sunset (Moonrise) 1914 Oil on canvas 12 x 16 inches Signed lower right

Frank Tenney Johnson

1874–1939

“There is a high note of romance, pathos, and poetry in this artist’s work. In the opinion of many qualified

Beneath the Southern Moon 1923 Oil on canvas 36 x 28 inches Signed and titled on verso

critics, he was a superb draftsman; portrayed the horse as well or better than any; and the nocturnes he put on canvas have never been equaled by any other American artist.” – Harold McCracken: “The Frank Tenney Johnson Book: A Master Painter of the Old West”

1875–1946

Maynard Dixon

“Dixon had really beautiful, sensitive treatment of figures. While he’s best known for his landscapes — and his landscapes are astounding — he really did have a sense of the human form and of capturing the personality of the sitter.” – Kenneth Hartvigsen, Curator of American art, Brigham Young University Museum of Art: as quoted in “Meet the Master,” Arizona Highways

Left Arroyo and Mesa, Rio Arriba, New Mexico 1931 Oil on canvas on board 16 x 20 inches Signed lower left Right Study for Tradition 1922 Conte crayon on paper 24 x 15 inches Signed lower right

Eanger Irving C ouse

1866–1936

“From start to finish, the work of Eanger Irving Couse was consistent in theme, proficient in technique, and faithful to classical ideals. Thanks

Tumbling Water c. 1920 Oil on canvas 20 x 24 inches Signed lower left

to his major patron, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, which used his works to illustrate many of its promotional calendars, Couse’s signature subject, the American Indian as creator of objects both beautiful and useful, working in mystic harmony with his gods, was probably the single most familiar image to emerge from the Taos art colony.” – Joan Carpenter Troccoli: “Painters and the American West,” volume 2

Above Untitled Landscape (Hondo) c. 1935 Watercolor 171/2 x 205/8 inches Signed lower right Right Taos in Winter c. 1935 Watercolor 151/4 x 223/8 inches Signed lower right

Victor H iggins

1884–1949

“His great landscapes pay homage to the grandeur of the Taos mountains and to the dramatic moods of ever-changing skies, and he painted with devotion such lovely things as a circular track left by a wagon that has turned full ‘round in the fresh snow of early winter. Whether Higgins was painting white on white or opening his palette to the full spectrum of color he showed himself a master at transposing the overwhelming subjects of the Southwest into paintings of distinction.” – Robert A. Ewing, Curator-in-Charge of Fine Arts, Museum of New Mexico: catalogue essay for Victor Higgins retrospective exhibition, 1971–1972

1878–1955

B.J.O. Nordfeldt

“Nordfeldt went to Santa Fe, liked the place, and settled down for a residence of nearly twenty years. He became a part of the community. . . . Nordfeldt’s Santa Fe paintings had been especially conditioned by a quality that I can only call his love for the New Mexico mountains. A mountain is different as painted by any one of the great artists who were attracted to Santa Fe or Taos: whether John Marin or Georgia O’Keeffe or Marsden Hartley. Or Nordfeldt, who ‘felt’ the mountains in his own special way.” – Sheldon Cheney: Foreword to “Nordfeldt, the Painter”

Frank Applegate

1881–1931

Left Pecos Valley, El Macho Chapel 1937 Oil on canvas 22 x 32 inches Signed lower right Above Rain Over Santa Fe Hills c. 1920 Watercolor 141/2 x 21 inches Signed lower right

Thomas Hart Benton

1889–1975

“The river waters are suggestive of release. Their currents sing of freedom to everyone. The thought of floating effortlessly away on running water has an irresistible charm whether or no there is any real purpose or end set to it.” – Thomas Hart Benton: “An Artist in America”

Ozark River 1963 Ink and wash on paper 113/4 x 155/8 inches Signed lower right

1890–1964

Theodore Van Soelen

Above Bright Morning Sun c. 1935 Oil on board 181/2 x 243/8 inches Signed lower left Right Aspen Vista, Santa Fe c. 1927 Oil on canvas 26 x 20 inches Signed lower right

Andrew Dasburg 1887–1979

Joseph Fleck

1892–1977

“Joseph Fleck saw art as a means of giving pleasure to the eye. . . . As he became more attuned to the strong light of Taos and the marvelous

Fiesta Array 1929 Oil on canvas 50 x 461/4 inches Signed lower right

clouds that pass rapidly overhead in the region, he flared out his brushes to create more impressionistic images. His brightly colored, luminous landscapes reflect the warmth of summer, as well as the gold of the leaves touched by frost in the fall.” – Van Deren Coke: in “An Early Taos Painter,” catalogue of the Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe

1881–1971

Gustave Baumann

Rain in the Mountains Color woodblock print 44 of 50 91/4 x 11 inches Signed lower right

Summer Clouds Color woodblock print III 93 of 125 101/2 x 91/2 inches

Signed lower right

1897–1985

Fremont Ellis

Winter Near Cordova c. 1935 Oil on panel 20 x 24 inches Signed lower right

New Mexico Autumn c. 1940 Oil on canvas 24 x 30 inches Signed lower right

Gene Kloss

1903–1996

“She has never subscribed to current fads or egregious contemporary edicts, believing that rhythm, balance, design, consonances, modulations are intrinsic to all art of all ages. The sense of beauty, the inspirations and aspirations of life, the affinities and friendships, the communication of ideas—these are the motivating forces of any true artist.” – Phillips Kloss: “Gene Kloss Etchings”

Floral Still Life 1940–1945 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches Signed lower right

1903–1996

Gene Kloss

Penitente Fires 1939 Drypoint and aquatint 103/4 x 133/4 inches Signed lower right

Winter Stream 1934 Etching, drypoint and aquatint 77/8 x 97/8 inches Signed lower right

Barbara Latham

1896–1989

Back to the Pueblo Oil on canvas 20 x 16 inches Signed lower right

Designer Alex Hanna, Invisible City Designs Writer Stacia Lewandowski Photographer Jamie Hart Color Separatons Andy Johnson, Underexposed Studios

651 Canyon Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 505.982.6100 zaplinlampert.com

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