Going Ape
It was the spring of 1985, and seven women artists were still pissed. The previous summer, the Museum of Modern Art in New York had held an exhibition entitled, “An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture” to inaugurate the museum’s newly renovated...
Buckskin Ceiling
A reader of this blog recently sent me an article from Bloomberg News entitled, “Prices of Contemporary Indigenous American Art Have Risen Over 1,000 Percent.” That statement is undoubtedly true, although, as with all “hot” tips on Wall Street, by the time the tip...
Old Timer
My wife says that you know you’re getting old when you visit an antique store and recognize something from your past. “Oh, my grandmother had one of these!” you say, picking up a kitchen implement. “Oh, my mother had one of these!” you say, picking up something else....
A New Solstice Celebration
On December 21, a few years back, I attended a Winter Solstice celebration. The leaders of the celebration were a bespectacled, self-identified Native American, who looked and dressed like everyone else except for the birch-bark headdress he was wearing and the drum he carried, and an English woman wearing a bird costume. They were well-meaning sorts, but I soon left the ceremony and came home feeling disappointed. That evening I pondered the winter solstice and what it means to us today.
No Respect – And a Sigh of Relief
As a young dealer of American art, I sometimes looked enviously at dealers in Old Masters and French Impressionist art. Not only did they have excuses for frequent trips to art fairs in Europe, but they also had a worldwide clientele. The major Impressionist and...
Rosemary
In 1978, Roberta and I joined our friend Buzz Spector to found White Walls: A Magazine of Writings by Artists. One of the few publications dealing with word-and-image art, it soon began to attract submissions by some notable artists in the field. One evening as we sat around a table examining submissions for the second issue, Roberta held up a submission. “We’ve got to publish this,” she said in a tone that brooked no dissent. Not that there was any dissent, as Buzz and I were likewise struck by “Spell,” our introduction to the work of Rosemary Mayer.
Hope Springs Eternal
Two stories about art captured the general attention this past month. The first embodied every thrift store visitor’s dream, something that has kept the Antiques Roadshow franchise in business since 1977. It invites visions of “That could happen to me!”
In the Pink
As any retailer will tell you, presentation is everything. Painters, as retailers hoping to sell objects they make, have to consider how those objects are best presented. If a painting is to be framed, what kind of frame will present it to best advantage? Not framing a painting is also an aesthetic choice…
About to Get Shafted Again
The Appraisers Association of America is releasing a new edition of its handbook Appraising Art next spring, and I was asked to contribute a chapter on appraising the art of the American West. Since finishing my chapter, I’ve been thinking about how different my contribution would have been if it had been written, say, 30 years ago…
The Shelf-Life of Evil
The Appraisers Association of America is releasing a new edition of its handbook Appraising Art next spring, and I was asked to contribute a chapter on appraising the art of the American West. Since finishing my chapter, I’ve been thinking about how different my contribution would have been if it had been written, say, 30 years ago…
