Innholdsfortegnelse for May-June 2025/No. 81 i American Fine Art Magazine

Artists in the early-to-mid 20th century responded in two distinct ways to the rapid industrialization and tumultuous changes in the world around them. Some turned to realism. Others took to abstraction. Work created by artists in both camps is categorized as modernist, one reason that the genre is so difficult to define. There is no aesthetic cohesiveness and its beginnings, and more so its end, is nebulous at best—troubling to a culture that likes to dice up history into easily digestible, linear bites. What we can say is that American modernism was a reflection of American life in the 20th century, which is why the artwork that defines the movement is as diverse as the artists’ experiences who created it. Jacob Lawrence expressed the spirit of contemporary life during the…

Kay Sage was an American surrealist painter and poet, whose biography reads like a cross between a high-society romance novel (her first husband was an Italian prince) and a who’s who in the international avant-garde art scene of the 1930s. She married French surrealist Yves Tanguy; her work was sought out by the movement’s leader André Breton, and Alexander Calder was among her personal friends. And yet, Sage (1898-1963) and her impressive oeuvre of architecturally-based surrealism have largely been lost to the annals of time. The Mattatuck Museum, located in Waterbury, Connecticut, not far from Woodbury, where Sage and Tanguy lived out the final decade of their tumultuous marriage, is endeavoring to change that with the exhibition Modern Women: Georgia O’Keeffe and Kay Sage, on view through June 8. Sage’s…

Beginning June 12, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is hosting (Un)Settled: The Landscape in American Art, a collaborative exhibition among four participating museums in the Art Bridges Cohort Program’s American South Consortium. Laura Leonard, Art Bridges project coordinator and curatorial researcher on the final artist selection and interpretative materials, explains, “This project was enriched by the dialogue we had with our partners and sharing different viewpoints on the topic. As a result, the exhibition includes several regional artists to expand beyond the familiar and expected.” Expanding beyond the familiar and expected are a Puget Sound Salish, Washington, woven round bowl, circa 1900; and Aunt Fran’s Basket, 2019, a blown glass bowl by Dan Friday (Lummi Nation). Erin Monroe, Krieble Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture at the Wadsworth Atheneum…

Stemming from the Delaware Art Museum’s robust collection, comes the significant exhibition Inked Impressions: Etchings in the Age of Whistler, featuring 46 objects. Beginning in the mid-19th century, the movement to promote and professionalize etching made its way from France to Britain, and eventually the United States—pioneered by Frances Seymour Haden (1818-1910) and James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834–1903), one of the most innovate printmakers of his era and an iconic American painter. “In Paris, Haden and Whistler were introduced to the method of ‘artistic printing’ by master printer Auguste Delâtre,” explains Sophie Lynford, the museum’s Annette Woolard-Provine curator of the Bancroft Collection. “Artistic printing involved leaving a thin film of ink, known as plate tone, on the surface of the etched plate. The plate tone was then wiped carefully to…

On June 8, Freeman’s | Hindman will present its summer American Art & Pennsylvania Impressionism sale in Philadelphia. More than 100 lots will be available. “Despite some headwinds, we do see strength in this segment of the market,” says AdamVeil, head of the American art department. “The December 2024 iteration of American Art & Pennsylvania Impressionists laid bare the resilience of traditional American art, something we expect to continue in the months ahead. The enduring appeal of American icons—Sargent, Remington, Benton, Rockwell and the Wyeths—is providing a strong foundation, offering collectors assurance in uncertain times.” Noteworthy lots in the sale include Charles S. Chapman’s Tradition (est. $8/12,000), Fern Isabel Coppedge’s oil Winter, Bucks County (est. $60/100,000) and Daniel Garber’s Grey November Day (est. $60/100,000). “Our support [of the category] is…

NEW YORK SWANN AUCTION GALLERIES FEBRUARY 6 Abstract Beauty: The Collection of Patricia Scipio-Brim $1.2 million Swann Auction Galleries’ single-owner collection, Abstract Beauty: The Collection of Patricia Scipio-Brim was held on Thursday, February 6. The auction—which featured over a century of modern, post-war and contemporary African American art—was an overall success with a 98 percent sellthrough rate and a total of $1.2 million in sales. The top lot was a 1990 abstraction on paper by Ed Clark, which nearly doubled its $60,000 high estimate when it sold for $106,250. Other highlights include a 1971 acrylic on paper by Alma Thomas from her Atmospheric Effect series, selling for $100,000; as well as a 1958 watercolor and gouache by Beauford Delaney, which achieved $57,500. “We are thrilled with the terrific results of…

Based in the Pittsburgh area, the O’Brien Art Foundation’s mission “is to foster the preservation, understanding and appreciation of 20th - century American art beyond the accepted canon” through its efforts “to acquire, research, conserve, exhibit and loan works of art—in addition to supporting education, scholarship and publishing.” The foundation is a charitable organization formed in 2019 by long-time collector Marty O’Brien, whose vision is to create an encyclopedic repository of works across a variety of media by American artists from the late 19th century through 1985. The foundation believes that a 40-year historical reflection is helpful to contextualizing the art of any era. Rather than focusing on the most prominent artists as defined by today’s standards, the foundation acquires and presents the best examples of art produced by artists…

Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) was born in Maine and became a peripatetic painter, traveling the world, moving in the circles of the international avant-garde, but regularly returning to Maine. The exhibition Marsden Hartley: Adventurer in the Arts was developed by the Vilcek Foundation in collaboration with the Bates College Museum of Art’s Marsden Hartley Memorial Collection. It is on view at the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe through July 25. The museum notes, “Artworks from theVilcek and Bates collections will be exhibited alongside a selection of Hartley’s personal effects—mementos from his travels, snapshots, and keepsakes. The remarkable assemblage adds intimacy and depth, as well as a deeper understanding of his art, life, and wanderlust. The exhibition also features three important paintings by Hartley in the collection of the New…

In an exhibition on view through June 15, the Brandywine Museum of Art takes visitors through a survey of revered 20th - century artist Andrew Wyeth’s figurative works. Featuring rarely seen paintings and drawings, Andrew Wyeth: Human Nature explores one of the artist’s most enduring legacies—his highly original approach to the human body. “Alongside his iconic landscapes, enigmatic interiors, abstract watercolors and sensitive botanical studies, his figure paintings speak to a lifelong effort to capture the human condition in its most intimate and unfiltered moments,” says William Coleman, curator at the Brandywine Museum. This marks the first exhibition to specifically survey Wyeth’s figure painting, including early figure drawings made in his father’s studio (the famed N.C. Wyeth), self-portraits, intimate depictions of close family members, a little known and fascinating body…

In 1920, Marvin Cone (1891-1965) and his lifelong friend Grant Wood (1891-1942) went to Paris to improve their painting skills and to pursue their interest in impressionism and plein air painting. Both went on to develop their own distinctive style of painting in American regionalism. Cone wrote, “The purpose of art is not to reproduce life, but to present an editorial, a comment on life…The artist does not set out to imitate nature. What would be the purpose of that? Let the camera with its clever mechanism imitate. Art, such as poetry, music, and painting, is simply a portion of the experience of the artist. When we actually see ideals, they become real to us. Art traces an abstraction and makes it audible or visual. It symbolizes the whole of…

ONLINE SHANNON’S FINE ART AUCTIONEERS JUNE 26 Fine Art Auction Featuring close to 200 lots, Shannon’s online Fine Art Auction will offer quality examples of affordable American Art with most lots estimated below $3,000. Highlights include an oil on board byWilliam J. Kaula titled Home in the Hills, which has an estimate of $800 to $1,200; and a bronze of a lion byWilliam M. McVey, estimated to sell between $1,000 and $1,500. The gallery will be open for a public preview from June 18 through June 25. The sale takes placeThursday, June 26. Bidding is available live on www.shannons.com. SANTA FE, NM SANTA FE ART AUCTION MAY 7-8 Art of the West Santa Fe Art Auction’s Art of the West sale will feature an exceptional selection of Western artwork that…

Opening for its 18th year, with a mission to promote historic American art, The American Art Fair returns to NewYork City to showcase hundreds of artworks by 17 noteworthy specialists. The event boasts high quality 19th - and 20th - century American art by artists that were part of renowned movements like the Hudson River School, the Eight, tonalism, impressionism, the Ashcan School, modernism and surrealism. Thomas Colville, the fair’s founder, notes, “the combined expertise of our exhibitors—who include America’s longest-established galleries—is unmatched. Their knowledge and experience draw curators and collectors to Manhattan in May to celebrate American art.” Colville adds that new to the fair, are 18th century NewWorld paintings (as some of the Western Hemisphere was then called) exhibited by Robert Simon Fine Art, among them an 18th…

ONGOING Capturing Her Environment: Women Artists, 1870-1930 FARNSWORTH ART MUSEUM • ROCKLAND, ME The museum showcases the artistic lives of nine women artists who lived and worked in Maine in the 19th and early 20th centuries. www.farnsworthmuseum.org ONGOING Marsden Hartley: Adventurer in the Arts NEW MEXICO MUSEUM OF ART • SANTA FE, NM This new exhibition, developed by the Vilcek Foundation in collaboration with the Bates College Museum of Art, explores the work of the modernist artist, Marsden Hartley. www.nmartmuseum.org ONGOING Inked Impressions: Etchings in the Age of Whistler DELAWARE ART MUSEUM • WILMINGTON, DE This significant exhibition tracks the history of etching, made popular by Whistler, from Europe to the United States through 46 artworks. www.delart.org ONGOING Give Me Liberty: Virginia & The Forging of a Nation VIRGINIA MUSEUM…

The High Museum of Art, based in Atlanta, Georgia, is strategically expanding its collection by acquiring an astounding 591 artworks. The new collection includes work by American designer Isamu Noguchi, a painting by Nigerian modernist Ben Enwonwu, a mixed media work by contemporary artist Hank Willis Thomas and a painting by American modernist Raymond Jonson. “In 2024, our curators intentionally and thoughtfully acquired artworks that build upon strengths in our existing holdings and also offer new pathways for deeper audience engagement, two of the hallmark goals of our collecting program,” said director Rand Suffolk. One such highlight is City Forces, 1932, by Jonson (1891-1982), known for his depictions of the American Southwest. The museum adds, “Raymond Jonson was one of the key artistic figures active in New Mexico beginning in…

Twenty-first century eyes may see little reason for the storm of scandal stirred by James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s painting Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl at the Salon des Refusés of 1863. Yes, like his friend Henri Fantin-Latour, and the archflâneur of Montmartre, Édouard Manet, Whistler had dared to paint in bold, loose brushwork, contrary to the conventions of the tight rendering and slick finish of the contemporary academic style, but surely the textures and knife of pigment were not enough to provoke the giggles and titters of the bourgeoisie! Whistler left mysterious clues hanging and un-spelled. Her morning dress was the costume of domestic privacy, not usually seen in public; red hair reminded literary and Christian viewers of Mary Magdalene, the prostitute of biblical myth who washed…

Collectors will be offered a compelling glimpse into the diverse artistic expressions of both American and European modernists during the exhibition Universal Dreams: Modernism in Oil, Paper and Bronze at Helicline Fine Art. The digital show features paintings, works on paper and sculpture—spanning realism, abstraction, art deco, regionalism, caricature, WPA-era mural studies, American Scene painting and Vorticism—highlighting the evolution of modernist thought and reflecting the artistic shifts that defined the early-to-mid 20th century. “It captures the energy, diversity and evolution of 20th-century modernist art,” gallerist Keith Sherman says. “By presenting a wide-ranging selection of fine art, the exhibition highlights the interplay between artistic movements, social change and cultural identity. The inclusion of both American and European modernists allows for a dynamic exploration of how artists across different areas of the…

New England is famed for its art colonies, from Provincetown on the tip of Cape Cod to Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine. Inland there is the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire and farther west, on the border with Vermont, was the Cornish Art Colony. John Alexander, owner of J. Kenneth Fine Art in Shelburne, Vermont, notes, “Not to be forgotten are many smaller centers of creativity scattered throughout the Green Mountain State. The rural landscape and sprawling vistas of Vermont became a respite for artists wanting to escape pressures of urban life in NewYork and Boston. Among these are cities and towns such as Arlington, Bennington, Burlington, Dorset, Greensboro, Londonderry, Manchester, Peacham, Pownal, Shelburne, Stowe, Windsor and Woodstock.” Alexander has assembled the exhibition The Vermont Landscape: Late 19th Century,…

Capturing Her Environment: Women Artists, 1870-1930 explores the artistic lives of nine women artists who lived and worked in Maine in the 19th and early-20th centuries. With a focus on how women artists approached floral subject matter and landscapes, the exhibition features artwork by Constance Cochrane, Eleanor Parke Custis, Gertrude Fiske, Lilian Westcott Hale, Anna Eliza Hardy, Mary Ann Hardy, Georgia O’Keeffe, Ida Proper, Alice Kent Stoddard, Alice Swett, Beatrice Whitney Van Ness and Kate Furbish, many of whom were dismissed as hobby painters or overshadowed by male artists in their families. Anna Hardy (1839-1934), who received much of her training from her father, portrait painter Jeremiah Hardy (as did her aunt Mary Ann Hardy, also in the exhibition), is represented by Blackberries, an oil from circa 1860. “Although there…

On May 16, Heritage Auctions will host a pair of sales related to American art in Dallas. The star of the day is the American Art Signature Sale, which will feature around 50 works of art that will include Hudson River School works, Golden Age Illustration, sculpture and Western art. “The 50 lots will be emblematic of American art from throughout the 19th and 20th century,” says Heritage American art specialist Liz Goodridge. Among the top lots are two Ernie Barnes football works, Sandlot Football (est. $300/500,000) and Hold the Pocket (est. $250/350,000). The pieces, both packed with detail and energy in Barnes’ iconic style, come from the collection of John Mecom, the former owner of the New Orleans Saints NFL team. The pieces were special for the artist—Barnes played professional…

Nearly 200 lots of historic American artwork will hit the auction block this spring during Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneer’s yearly Fine Art Auction, offering collectors a variety of exceptional examples ranging from 1850 to present day. A massive range in price points—from $3,000 to $150,000—also ensures that every level of collector has the chance to acquire a new piece of art. Two major highlights in the upcoming sale are examples from the Ashcan School: Robert Henri’s 1915 portrait of a jovial young girl, titled Patience (Laughing Youngster), and George Wesley Bellows’ 1919 landscape Old Orchard, Newport, Rhode Island. “As a leader of the Ashcan School, [Henri] was celebrated for his vivid portraits of unique sitters and was an influential early 20th-century art teacher, shaping the movement’s focus on urban life…