american art
Blog Posts tagged with american art
page 3 of 12
Judith Shahn, The Early Work
Posted: September 18, 2011 14:19 Last Updated: | Susan TellerJudith Shahn (1929-2009) was born in Paris to the artist Ben Shahn and his wife, Tillie Goldstein. She lived in New York City and spent summers in Truro, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. As a small child Shahn painted alongside her father and as a young artist she took life classes with the painter Moses Soyer. She attended Olivet College, Michigan, and graduated from Mexico City College in 1949. She was a painter, draughtsman, printmaker, and graphic artist. Her drawings appeared in The New Yorker magazine from 1958 to1992, as well as in Harpers, The Nation, Gourmet, and others. Starting wit...
Whitney's Breaking Ground Show closes September 18
Posted: September 05, 2011 14:13 Last Updated: | Susan TellerThe show is such a stunner -- everything looks wonderful. The Edward Laning 1931 painting of 14th Street is an entire universe. The Alexander Brook and the Isabel Bishop are just beautiful -- both are in the fabulous Salon Gallery. (Bishop's Nude, 1934, is modern before she was consciously modern.) Peggy Bacon, Arthur B. Davies, Ernest Fiene, Katherine Schmidt, Arthur B. Davies, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Georgina Klitgaard (Mrs. Kai Klitgaard), Katherine Schmidt, Marguerite Zorach, and Max Weber, are just a few of the others in the show.
My Kid Could Paint That...
Posted: August 25, 2011 20:45 Last Updated: | Heather Karlie VieiraHave you ever heard that? Have you ever said that? Well, we won't be taking names, so don't worry. Maybe you've asked yourself, "what is abstract art?". Here's my take on it. It is emotional. It is strong. It is powerful. Abstract art is more than splashes of color, squiggly lines and paint splatters. It is spontaneity. It is the raw emotion of the artist presented for all who dare to look. It is the visual representation of a feeling, or mix of feelings. An artist strives to represent something without external likenesses. The thing is not represented in realistic terms, but i...
An August Invitation
Posted: August 24, 2011 13:10 Last Updated: | Paul G. Stein"My dear McEntee…"On August 28, 1863, Sanford Robinson Gifford wrote to Jervis McEntee from a book shop at Saratoga Spa in northern New York State (the original letter is digitized on the Smithsonian Archives of American Art website). Gifford had recently returned from his final tour of duty with the New York Seventh Regiment in the Civil War. He was attempting to gather his friends, including artists Richard William Hubbard and Worthington Whittredge, for a sketching tour of northern New York. His letter is a revealing glimpse of the affection and humor that characterized the close relati...
A Civil War Ghost Story Mystery
Posted: August 10, 2011 20:41 Last Updated: | Heather Karlie VieiraHave I mentioned that I am quite good at buying unsigned paintings? Yes? Oh, wonderful then you know already. For those of you who are new to my blog, here's a little backstory: I am always buying things that I know very little about. There. I said it. It's part challenge and part gamble. It's what makes the antiques business fun. Reaching out and trying your hand at something new. This painting is no different. Actually, it is different. Very different... So, I had just given birth to our second child a week earlier. A dealer friend of mine had called to see how we were all do...
New York Times review of Peggy Bacon & Her Circle show
Posted: August 07, 2011 16:38 Last Updated: | Susan TellerIn Holland Cotter’s August 5th New York Times review of our Peggy Bacon & Her Circle show, he referred to the “distinctly geeky male students lurking in the background” of Bacon’s 1918 drypoint, Lunch at the League. Bacon puts herself and two friends, Dorothy Varian and Doris Rosenthal, in the print as well. Actually, he began “Historically, one of the most ephemeral aspects of art is the social environment that generates it, the networks of artists coming together and drifting apart.” Three of the League’s (and Bacon’s) teachers are represented: George Bellows, Kenneth Hayes Miller...
Fitz Henry Lane’s Personal Life
Posted: July 28, 2011 20:14 Last Updated: | James A. CraigGiven the enormous interest Fitz Henry (formerly Hugh) Lane’s artwork has generated over the years, it is perhaps only natural that little attention has been paid by scholars on Lane’s personal life. Further complicating matters is the fact that Lane left few artifacts beyond his artwork by which his daily life could be understood and “fleshed out.” With only a handful of private letters, newspaper clippings and reminiscences with which to guide us, an image of Lane has formed over time, one of a man who was dour, taciturn and lonesome. Contemporary quotes describing him as “nervous, quic...
PEGGY BACON & HER CIRCLE
Posted: July 27, 2011 07:50 Last Updated: | Susan TellerJULY 13 THROUGH AUGUST 18, 2011 Peggy Bacon & Her Circle is on view at the Susan Teller Gallery from July 13 through August 18, 2011. There are paintings and works on paper from 1918 to 1952. Bacon attended the Art Students League from 1915 to 1920. It was there she met Alexander Brook; they were married from 1920 to 1940. Two major works by Brook are in the show, including his portrait of Rosalie Hook, wife of the artist Robert Gwathmey. Bacon studied with George Bellows, Kenneth Hayes Miller, and John Sloan. Bacon taught at the League in 1935-36 and from 1948 to 1952. Sloan's print, H...
Kensett's Keepsakes
Posted: July 06, 2011 14:55 Last Updated: | Paul G. SteinIn the 1850s through 1860, John Frederick Kensett painted a series of at least five landscapes of the "Shrewsbury River" (now the Navesink River) along the New Jersey shore. The paintings are striking in their design and yet convey an atmosphere of translucent calm, for which they are justifiably renowned.A splendid example is included in "Painting the American Vision," an exhibition of Hudson River School landscapes from the New York Historical Society, on view at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts starting July 30. The exhibition travels to the Columbia Museum of Art in Colu...
John Storrs: Machine Age Modernist
Posted: June 22, 2011 09:14 Last Updated: | Susan TellerJohn Storrs: Machine-Age Modernist, is on view at the Grey Art Gallery of New York University, April 12 through July 9, 2011. There is a wonderful range of sculpture -- from cubist but still clearly figurative works, to stripped down, architectural-motif columns. There are several drawings, including some preparatory to commissions. As we were reminded in March, no visit to Chicago is complete without seeing Storr's Ceres, 1929, at the top of the Chicago Board of Trade Building. Reclining Figure Under a Tree, 1918-20 Wood engraving, 6 x 6 inches Unpublished illustration for Walt Whitman’...
DJuna Barnes in Midnight in Paris
Posted: June 12, 2011 07:38 Last Updated: | Susan TellerPeggy Bacon would have been so pleased to see her pal Djuna Barnes featured in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris. Now showing, the film opened May 11 in Cannes, of course. Barnes (1892-1982), the American modernist writer, was part of Bacon's Greenwich Village crowd, and figures in Bacon's Off with Their Heads, published 1934. Link to Peggy Bacon show images: http://www.susantellergallery.com/cgi/STG_exh.pl?exh=exh_apr11 Link to site: WWW.SUSANTELLERGALLERY.COM
The Prodigy
Posted: May 30, 2011 10:25 Last Updated: | Paul G. SteinSometimes a small painting can tell a big story. Such is the case with a six-by-nine-inch landscape by John S. Jameson. The painting is on display at the Olana State Historic Site in Hudson, New York, in the new exhibition, "Rally 'Round the Flag: Frederic Edwin Church and the Civil War.”Born in 1842 in Hartford, John S. Jameson was a rising young star among the New York painters at the time of the Civil War. The patriotic tug of duty, however, changed his course.A prodigy in both art and music, Jameson attracted attention in the 1850s while just barely a teenager. His father was the organi...
Anatomy of an Auction
Posted: May 24, 2011 15:25 Last Updated: | Bill RolandAs co-founders of Roland Auctions, Manhattan's newest auction house, my brother Rob and I face a recurring challenge. As soon as the property in the monthly auction is picked up, we have to start filling the gallery again. It often takes weeks of intense appraisals and negotiations before we are able to offer high caliber fine art, antiques and decorations from Manhattan's premier apartments and estates. That's why I say we're in the business of building relationships. For instance, it required strong relationship building and negotiation skills to bring three exceptional collections to ...
Last Saturday, show ends Wednesday, May 25
Posted: May 20, 2011 11:52 Last Updated: | Susan TellerOn View through Wednesday, May 25 DOROTHY BROWDY KUSHNER & ROBERT KUSHNER: RECONFIGURED FLORA Mother and Son: Paintings, fabric pieces, and drawings -- from the 1930s to the 1970s for Dorothy and from the 1970s to 2000 for Robert. Dorothy Browdy Kushner (1909-2000) and Robert Kushner (born 1949), mother and son, painted side by side, sharing a deep interest in the natural world. This show explores areas in which interest, methods, and styles, travel from parent to child and then occasionally back to parent. The entire show may be seen under Exhibitions at WWW.SU...
The Joy and Peril of Self Promotion, or "The outdoor weekend show".
Posted: May 16, 2011 16:58 Last Updated: | Robin Wethe AltmanDefinition of PERIL 1: exposure to the risk of being injured, destroyed, or lost. and this is the definition of the word "joy: a : the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires. As an artist, I have found that if I want to have a chance at success, good fortune or the prospect of possessing what I desire, I have to risk the possibility of being injured, destroyed or lost. An artist's life is not one of hiding in solitude and indulging in self expression. An artist's life demands that I must expose myself, my he...
Finding my Niche
Posted: May 16, 2011 12:09 Last Updated: | Robin Wethe AltmanAs a younger artist I envisoned myself in prestigious galleries, accepting awards from people "on high". I soon lost patience with that. I found that what I love most is to create exactly the kind of art that my heart desires. I've had no problem finding people who love my work and buy it, and as far as I'm concerned, that's all that matters to me. I've always had a childlike quality to what I do. I used to try to "overcome" that, but now I embrace it. I am childlike. I love to see the world through my own lens, in the way I want to see it. My worst critics in life where all in my head. The...
Finding Myself, the "She" Series.
Posted: May 16, 2011 12:09 Last Updated: | Robin Wethe AltmanIt took me many years to find a better sense of security. Not just years, but pain. Pain is a good thing. It tells you that something isn’t right. I did all sorts of things to avoid the pain, but until I stepped forward and claimed myself, I didn’t get my release. On a spiritual level it’s about “self-realization”. I love that term because it signifies that what transformation is about is the realization! The realization of who you really are. It’s not about becoming something “else”. It’s about peeling off a skin that doesn’t fit you anymore. What’s underneath has always been there. One wo...
Today
Posted: May 16, 2011 12:09 Last Updated: | Robin Wethe AltmanI have overcome a lot of insecurities in the last 10 years. I don't know what the future holds, but I feel confident that I will be just fine. I love my life!
East Coast Beach Life
Posted: May 16, 2011 12:09 Last Updated: | Robin Wethe AltmanI grew up in an art colony by the sea and I have a fondness for the mentality of "beach people". Beach people value relaxation. I've painted Laguna Beach for years since it is my home. I've also traveled to Hawaii several times and painted Island seascapes. Now I'm enjoying the experience of the East Coast beaches. What I like about them is the subtlety of the colors there and the openness of the beaches. There's a Zen feeling on the East Coast beaches. There are fewer colors available, so these paintings are more restful. In this series I'm accentuating the delicious feeling of solitude...
Emotions Are Indicators
Posted: May 16, 2011 12:09 Last Updated: | Robin Wethe AltmanArtists are capable of intense emotions. That's something I've had to navigate in life over and over. They say the "sensitive" in a herd of animals is the one who senses danger first and alerts the rest which is a good thing, but high sensitivity can also drive a person completely insane. What I finally learned to do after many years of suffering is, yes... be aware of my emotions because they inform me. I don't suppress emotion, but I let it serve as guidance. I'm careful to not indulge in negative thoughts for too long though, because that habbit almost destroyed my life at one time. When...
Finding Alphonse Mucha
Posted: May 16, 2011 12:09 Last Updated: | Robin Wethe AltmanI was in Barnes and Noble one day and found a book about Alphonse Mucha. I didn't know much about this artist before finding and reading the book. Although I did take art appreciation and art history classes in college, I was far more interested in my own self discovery than I was in other artists. I think a lot of us artists are self absorbed. But anyway, I am impressed by his sense of design and line work. I also love the way he portrays women. Alphones's women are classy women though feminine as well. I decided to allow myself to experiment with a little of his flavor in my painting, "Sh...
Thoughts on How to Make a Living As An Artist
Posted: May 16, 2011 12:09 Last Updated: | Robin Wethe AltmanI have had the most success through my personal sales at art shows where the artist sells their own work. This way I have a connection to my clients that I wouldn't have through a gallery. Galleries are nice, but you can't count on them. If you are in a gallery and sell your own work as well, avoid selling your work for less than the gallery does no matter how tempting it is. 1. Have a mailing list!!! Get people who even stop and look for a few minutes to sign it. 2. Get "Constant Contact" a newsletter that goes to your clients once a month. Write your thoughts and show th...
A Weekend In The Mountains
Posted: May 16, 2011 12:09 Last Updated: | Robin Wethe AltmanI could have pushed myself to work last weekend. I didn't think I could afford to take a trip. But one thing I know is that life is for living. I don't think I will say on my death bed, "I WISH I would have created 20 more paintings". An artist NEEDS to take time to drink in the beauty of life, take time to observe, to breath, taste, smell and feel. That's part of our work! I did that last weekend with my partner Paul who had 4 gigs in the mountains, enough to make it worth his while to go. We were provided a rustic cabin to stay in and there was a fresh snowfall up there. Oh com...
Fine Art Daily, May 12, 2011
Posted: May 12, 2011 05:06 Last Updated: | Jean Dixon SandersMay 12, 2011Miss Morning Glory can grow irises in Florida, but I can't. I have to be content with my ongoing hydrangea experiment. If I was a wandering hiker in Scotland right now I would be enthralled by the magic that comes with bluebells, which have been duly noted by our intrepid Highlanders stalking the Great Glen Way. And if I were in London I would be joining the scrum of garden folks, queuing up for tickets to the Chelsea Flower Show. Sigh.
Fine Art Daily, May 11, 2011
Posted: May 11, 2011 05:12 Last Updated: | Jean Dixon SandersMay 11, 2011It is starting to heat up here, and some of the spring flowers are gasping for coolth. The pansies incinerated a few weeks ago. We had a cheerful purple-y display near the front door in a chartreuse trapezoid of a pot. This morning I noticed that the petunia that I was ready to toss had put out two more brave pink trumpets. I'll stick it in the shade with the orchids, which are just going to town with exuberance. I guess I finally hit upon the right mix of shade, watering and benign neglect. Two of the orchids are from my cubicle days and were used to arctic blasts of ge...
WINTERTHUR ANNOUNCES THAT U.S. PREMIERE OF...
May 14th, 2013The Civil War and American Art Opens at the Met
May 16th, 2013Lens of a Legend: Harry Benson Photographs
May 13th, 2013PROVENANCE TAKES PRECEDENCE: AMERICAN ART AT...
May 13th, 2013Rembrandt Peale portrait of George Washington...
May 16th, 2013Complete Andy Warhol Endangered Species and Ads...
May 13th, 2013BONHAMS NEW YORK TO OFFER IMPORTANT STUDIO...
May 13th, 2013