Blue Heron Fine Art Blog

August Thoughts

by Jim Puzinas on August 31, 2010

The last two weeks of August are usually quiet for many businesses, including the fine art business. Many people are trying to catch the final vestiges of summer or preparing their children for the upcoming school year.

Blue Heron Fine Art exibiting at the last USArtists Show, Philadelphia, PA

If this were most years, I’d be able to indulge in a little down time as well. But this is not a normal summer for us this year. We have been busying ourselves with all the necessary prep that goes into our major fall art shows beginning with the prestigious USArtists American Art Show the first weekend of October and the Boston International Fine Art Show in November. Publicity photos, ad space, booth construction plans and hotel reservations all were due over this past month.

Edith Branson, Hands #114, oil on board 16" x 20"

Edith Branson in her NYC studio, circa 1935

Edith Branson in her New York City studio, circa 1935

Adding more excitement to the mix is the fact that Blue Heron Fine Art will be reintroducing the modernist works of New York City artist Edith Branson. Her work has not been seen publicly since 1940.

We are pleased that the family has entrusted our gallery with such an important task. Edith Branson will be next month’s featured artist and will be the subject of our next fine art blog, coinciding with the unveiling of four or five paintings representative of her ouevre at the USArtists Show running September 30 through October 3rd at the Pennsylvania Aademy of the Fine Arts Hamilton Building in downtown Philadelphia.

Hope to see you there and if you can’t make it, plan to stay connected by reading next month’s fine art blog.

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Fine Art in the Summer

by Jim Puzinas on July 31, 2010

Summer months are normally a busy time of the year for us at Blue Heron Fine Art. These steamy days are filled with planning and preparing many new acquisitions for our upcoming fall and early winter Show Schedule, including the USArtists Show in Philadelphia this October and the Boston International Fine Art Show in November.

What has made it a little more exciting this summer is that Blue Heron Fine Art has been invited to lend several of our gallery works to two very worthwhile exhibitions being held this July and August at two of my favorite vacation destinations, Provincetown, MA and Northeast Harbor, Maine.

Vaclav Vytlacil, "Boats at the Dock", Oil on Canvasboard, 11"x14"

On July 10, 2010 an exhibition titled DAYS LUMBERYARD STUDIOS 1914-1972 opened at the newly refurbished galleries of the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. This survey exhibition curated by David Cowan of Acme Fine Art, Boston, MA features artwork spanning almost one hundred years that was created by artists who once occupied studios at Days Lumberyard in Provincetown.

“The Days Lumberyard Studios in Provincetown Massachusetts ranks among the most important incubators for artists of the twentieth century. Two of that century’s most influential teachers –Charles Webster Hawthorne and Hans Hofmann- and many of their students, worked in studios there. In fact, more than one hundred artists had studios at the lumberyard and/or the adjacent Brewster Street annex between 1914 and 1972. Some of the most highly regarded American artists of the time maintained studios at Days for at least one season. Among them were: Edwin Dickinson, Ross Moffett, Charles Hawthorne, Vaclav Vytlacil, Myron Stout, Fritz Bultman, George McNeil, John Grillo, Peter Busa, Robert Motherwell, Lester Johnson, and Jan Muller. “ To read more ClickHere.

Jane Peterson, Oil on Board, 11' x14"

Also, being held at the Redfield Gallery, 125 Main Street, Northeast Harbor, Maine starting August 4 and running through August 17th will be a showing of wonderful Maine related paintings selected by Sunne Savage, including several modernist pieces as well as a lovely Jane Peterson on loan from our gallery. To read more ClickHere.

If your vacation plans this summer include a visit to either area, these stops should be circled on your calendar as “Must Sees”.

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Summer Reading, A Pop Art Primer

by Jim Puzinas on June 29, 2010

Two excellent books have just been released in the past month that define the circumstances that ushered into the American art scene what has been described as Pop Art by its early proponents. Even if your collecting interest is firmly entrenched in earlier more traditional painting styles, these books provide tremendous insight into the artistic revolution that forms the basis of much of what is created by today’s contemporary artists.

"The Pop Revolution" by Alicia Marquis

“The Pop Revolution” by Alice Goldfarb Marquis reads like an insider’s journey into the New York art scene in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. Filled with wonderful anecdotes, Ms. Marquis brings now famous artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol to life. Funny, entertaining and educational, this book is a quick read that I would describe as “catnip” for anyone interested in this period of American Art.

"Leo and His Circle, The Life of Leo Castelli" by Annie Cohen-Solal

“The Life and Circle of Leo Castelli” traces the rise of what was considered one of the most influential and powerful art dealers in New York City during the late 1950’s and 1960’s. More like a historical novel for the first hundred pages, the book takes a little time to get into as the author develops the lineage of Leo Castelli. Castelli’s European background and education provided him with the necessary tools to create one of the most successful contemporary art galleries in New York City. The stories are fascinating, in particular Castelli’s finesse in using his considerable influence to bring America it’s first Gold at the Venice Biennale in 1964.

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Jay Hall Connaway Revisited

by Jim Puzinas on May 26, 2010

Our gallery has sold many paintings by the American artist Jay Hall Connaway (1893-1970) over the years. So it is with great pleasure that we greet the current reappraisal of Connaway’s lengthy career recently undertaken by two prominent New England museums.

"Washing over Gull Rock", Oil on board, 29" x 36"

Beginning with the Portland (ME) Museum of Art exhibition last fall of 39 paintings by Connaway donated by Mrs. Marjorie Osbourne and culiminating with an ambitious show currently on exhibit at the Shelburne (VT) Museum through October 24, 2010, we are able to closely examine and appreciate the paintings of Jay Hall Connaway, an artist once heralded in the 1920’s as “the greatest sea painter since Winslow Homer”.

"Monhegan Dock, Fall 1968", Oil on board, 18" x 24"

Connaway’s previous obscurity had more to do with his timing. Returning to America from a scholarship lasting several years in Europe, Connaway was confronted by the Depression years and his lack of income. Still wanting to paint expressively, he ventured to the remote island of Monhegan (ME) where he lived year round through the 1940’s. The toughness of this island life is captured dramatically in many of his ravaged seascapes, highlighting his own isolation and Mother Nature’s fury. When I viewed my first large scale canvas “Washing over Gull Rock”, I was mesmerized and terrorized at the same time. The high horizontal line put the viewer right in the path of an incoming wave about to crash, threatening to take me out to sea.

"Sunderland, Vermont, 1951", Oil on board, 14" x 20"

Although it is his oil paintings of Monhegan that capture most collectors interest, Connaway did paint many country scenes while living in Vermont, which makes viewing the Shelburne Museum exhibit so intriguing. Juxtaposing both locales demonstrates the creativity and flexibility of an artist that is finally receiving well deserved recognition.

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Robert Natkin remembered

by Jim Puzinas on April 29, 2010

American artist Robert Natkin died last week, and with him passes a legacy of creating some of the most innovative forms of color abstraction. Utilizing bold post impressionist colors, Natkin produced several series of works including the Apollo Series of the 1960s. According to several sources on the artist, these works, with vertical stripes alternating between thick and thin, decorative and textured, are cheerful and light, invoking the lyricism of Apollo, the Greek god of poetry and light.

Although Natkin produced other series during his long career such as Steps and Grids, Field Mouse, and Intimate Lighting, the Apollo series remains my favorite period for this artist. It is for this reason that I choose to commemorate his life and share with you below an early and small work by Natkin from his Apollo period.

Robert Natkin, "Abstract, Apollo Series",dated 1962, Oil on silk. 16 1/2" x 11"

This painting highlights the creativity which marked Natkin’s career. Painted on a stretched silk fabric, Natkin captures the surface texture of a theater curtain, a subject which held fascincation with him from his childhood days in Chicago. Natkin loved the interplay of the light emanating from behind the curtain before it was lifted to start the show. Painted in small scale this painting captures his youthful anticipation of the activity about to be unveiled. Although most of Natkin’s work is large scale, it is the intimacy of this work and its unique medium that contribute to make this a timeless favorite.

Natkin’s work is in various collections including the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), the Guggenheim, the Sculpture Garden of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the the Whitney. Natkin was part of the Whitney Museum exhibit titled “Americans Under 35″ held in 1960.

The obituary from the New York Times as it appeared today is reproduced below.

Robert Natkin, Abstract Painter, Is Dead at 79

By NIKO KOPPEL

Published: April 27, 2010

Robert Natkin, a painter who rose to prominence in the late 1960s and 1970s with work that blended Abstraction with Post-Impressionist colors, died on April 20 in Danbury, Conn. He was 79 and lived in Redding, Conn.

The cause was a bacterial blood infection that developed during a hospital stay after a fall, said his wife, Judith Dolnick.

Mr. Natkin layered bright acrylic colors and forms on large-scale canvases, exuding the playfulness of Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky with the palettes of Henri Matisse and Pierre Bonnard.

He used cloths and netting as stencils to achieve textures described by John Russell of The New York Times in 1978 as having a “worked-over look that suggests that the painting has been traversed over and over by a very small truck that has just had its tires retreaded.”

His paintings are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. For more Click Here!

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Victor Candell, An American Modernist (1903-1977)

by Jim Puzinas on March 11, 2010

Victor Candell was a New York modernist whose initial preoccupation with explosions, violence and the horrors of the period following World War II led him to develop an dynamic abstract painting style. A number of his works from this period were purchased by the Metropolitan and Whitney museums.

In an interview with Victor Candell conducted by Dorothy Seckler for the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art in Provincetown, Massachusetts September, 1965, Candell remembers that he was invited by Mrs. Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, founder of the Whitney Museum to come into her first group of modern artists. He “was right there right from the beginning when it wasn’t called the WPA Project but it was called the Whitney Project when artists in this country were categorized. They were put into categories, A artist, and B artist, designations of quality. Well, I was much gratified that I was an A.” 1

"Sky Flowers" dated 1962, Oil on canvas. 10" x 11"

His first exhibit at age 43 was at the Brandt Gallery in 1940; dealing predominantly with social realist themes. Like many artists of his day, Candell was influenced by all the newer forms of art that were beginning to emerge in the 1940’s such as that produced by the Expressionists and by artists like Mondrian and Klee. He taught with Max Beckmann and showed regularly with the Grand Central Moderns. Large paintings by Candell were acquired by the Whitney Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. These works ushered in Victor Candell’s mature style as a New York modernist whose initial preoccupation with explosions, violence and the horrors of the period following World War II led him to develop a dynamic abstract painting style based on his early ideas of geometric organization of space and Cubism. 2

"Cloudburst" dated 1959, Oil on Canvas. 22" x 20"

In 1958 Candell and Leo Manso started the Provincetown Workshop, a small art school modeled after the Cooper Union that remained in operation for more than twenty years. For many art students of the day, this became a replacement for the recently closed Hans Hofmann School. Summers were now spent in Provincetown depicting the recurrence of seasons and the natural cycle of plant and animal life in his paintings 3.

"Sunset in the City" dated 1958, Oil on Canvas. 22" x 20"

It was in Provincetown, in the late 1950’s, that Candell found his “explosions in nature” 4 and used them as inspirations for many of his bold canvases, such as “Cloudburst”, where Candell portrays the energy released in a downpour as strong alternations of black and white color heightening the contrast between the two and again in “Sunset in the City”, where Candell portrays a searing New York City sunset as bright bands of red, orange, yellow and black against the city background.

Mr. Candell received numerous awards for his art work, including prizes from the Museum of Modern Art and the U.S. Treasury. His paintings are included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum, The Whitney Museum, The Corcoran Gallery, The Carnegie Institute, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

1 Dorothy Seckler, Smithsonian Archives of American Art, An Interview with Victor Candell, Sept. 1, 1965, p. 10

2 Seckler, p. 13

3 Seckler, p. 20

4 Seckler, p. 21

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Charles Green Shaw – American Abstract Artist founder

by Jim Puzinas on January 14, 2010

On occassion, our gallery is fortunate enough to acquire several works of a very important American painter. That is the case this month, which features two great works from the artist’s most collected period, the early 1940’s, a period characterized by hard edge abstraction.

As one of the founding members of the American Abstract Artists, a group whose intent was to provide exposure and understanding to the abstract and non-objective world, Charles Green Shaw remains a key figure in the history of American Art.

Born into a wealthy family, Shaw was described as a “wealthy man-about-town, poet and minor novelist” before he began to paint seriously when he was in his 30s. His parents died when he was young, and he was raised by an uncle. He graduated from Yale University and then studied at the Art Students League with Thomas Hart Benton. He also took private lessons from George Luks. Shaw’s work quickly progressed from his still-life studies with Thomas Hart Benton and George Luks to a divergence from cubism, ultimately resulting in pristine forms and ultimate clarity and structure.

He served in World War I and during much of the 1920s, lived in Europe, writing articles for the “New Yorker” and “Smart Set”. Shortly after, he turned to abstract painting and exhibited in important avant-garde shows, including those at the Salons of America, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Corcoran Gallery, American Abstract Artists, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. His association with Albert Eugene Gallatin and his prominent Gallery of Living Art from 1935 to 1942 provided a high profile venue to showcase his abstract works to the public. Along with fellow American Abstract Artists founder George L. K. Morris, these three abstract artists were collectively dubbed “the Park Avenue Cubists”, a reference to the group’s wealth and societal connections.

Through writings and exhibitions, the American Abstract Artists group strived to educate the general public about the emergence and intellectual underpinings of abstract art. It was this group that paved the way for broader acceptance of what many believe was the first truly American Art movement, Abstract Expressionism.

Shaw’s work is part of most major collections of American Art, including the Whitney Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Guggenheim, the Smithsonian Institute, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

credit: Michael Zellman, “300 Years of American Art”, Peter Falk, “Who Was Who in American Art”, Hollis Taggart Galleries.

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Art Colonies of New England at the Florence Griswold Museum

by Jim Puzinas on December 16, 2009

Competition, it seems, is everywhere, especially in the museum business. This year included ever increasing blockbuster single artist shows featuring the titans of the art world. Cezanne at the Philadelphia Museum this past spring, the Kandinsky show currently going on at the Guggenheim. All designed to entertain, educate and increase the ranks of museum membership as well as sales of catalogs and admission tickets. The noble cause of providing cultural education has become big business, the beginnings of which can be traced to the early self promoting efforts of Thomas Hoving, who championed such efforts at the Metropolitan Museum back in the late 1960’s. Mr. Hoving, who passed away, last week, can rest peacefully knowing that he indeed paid a major role in altering how people view and use their museums today.

Rockwell Kent, "Wreck of the D.T. Sheridan", O/C 27"x44", Portland Museum of Art

Art education and appreciation some argue have always been a major underpinning of any modern society. So it is a very good sign that many of us are interested enough to take notice and want to learn more, not only about specific artists, but of the many regional art colonies that provided the camaraderie that inspired them.

Eric Hudson, "Manana", Oil on Canvas 28"x34", Portland Museum of Art

Such an ambitious show was recently assembled as a joint effort of the Portland Museum of Art (ME) and the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, CT. Focused on the art colonies of Cos Cob and Old Lyme in Connecticut and on Monhegan Island and Ogunquit in Maine, Call of the Coast, Art Colonies of New England is currently on exhibit at the Florence Griswold through January 31, 2010.

Highly recommended for art lovers, art collectors, and artists, this show is manageable enough to navigate within an hour, and is very approachable in subject matter. A more than reasonable $8 admission fee gains access to three exhibition halls, each devoted to a different art colony. Presenting works from some of the oldest art colonies in this country, the show traces the development of impressionism in Connecticut and modernism in Maine. Many highly decorated artists like Hassam, Twachtman, Henri, Hopper, Metcalf and Rockwell Kent are presented alongside many equally compelling works by other fine artists of the day.

Edward Hopper's oil on panel "Monhegan Houses, Maine," circa 1916-1919, is part of "Call of the Coast: Art Colonies of New England," at the Portland Museum of Art.

I always judge a show by how many favorites I take notice of, and by that standard, this show is a resounding success. Greeted by Rockwell Kent’s large iconic Wreck of the D.T. Sheridan, the first room houses one of the best Eric Hudson paintings I have ever viewed. Manana is a bold and imposing Monhegan harbor composition that just dominates the room with its interplay of the darkest darks against the lightest lights. Wonderful examples of completely unified paintings are presented in the small works by Edward Hopper Monhegan Houses, Maine and Robert Henri Barnacle on Rocks. Though there are several large scenes by Charles Ebert on display, it was his small Foot of the Cliffs that caught my attention with its vibrant colors and confident brushwork.

Robert Henri, "Barnacle on Rock", Oil on panel 8"x10", Portland Museum of Art

Wonderful modernist pieces by James Fitzgerald and Reuben Tam were pleasant additions, but it was Clarence Chatterton’s mysterious Boating with Oliver, Ogunquit that made its way to the top of my list. Against a loosely painted and cheerful ocean backdrop, Chatterton captures an almost Hopper-like air of mystery, in this tense boating scene. One can almost feel the awkwardness of the situation.

Charles Chatterton, "Boating with Oliver, Ogunquit", O/C 20"x24", Portland Museum of Art

Another bonus, for art collectors, is that works by many artists in this show, like Charles Ebert or Jay Hall Connaway, can still be purchased for reasonable prices at various galleries throughout the country. The only negative was that as broad as the exhibition’s title suggests, the equally important and deserving art colonies of Provincetown and Rockport/Gloucester (Cape Ann) Massachusetts, are not represented in the show, leaving perhaps, something for us to look forward to in the future.

All images are courtesy of the Portland Museum of Art (ME) (PMA)

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Turning the corner in Boston

by Jim Puzinas on November 18, 2009

The Boston International Fine Art Show wrapped up after a four day exhibition put on by some of the finest art galleries in the country. Although I don’t have confirmation of final attendance levels from the show producer Fuscso and Four, energy and interest levels were higher than previous years. Has this show confirmed the building evidence that a recovery in the art market has finally begun? The answer is, yes !

Blue Heron Fine Art traditional booth at BIFAS 2009

Blue Heron Fine Art diplayed a traditional booth at BIFAS 2009

Blue Heron Fine Art's modern booth at BIFAS 2009

Blue Heron Fine Art also had a modern booth at BIFAS 2009

Let’s start with the preview party. This is the evening when the show producer partners with a local organization to raise money and awareness for that cause. Each year brings a different charity and the people attending are usually more interested in supporting that effort than in purchasing artwork. This year it was different. The preview party crowd was augmented with a number of serious Boston collectors who made a number of purchases throughout the evening. At least six five figure works were sold by galleries that night, including one from our gallery which went to a seasoned collector of Cape Ann works.

Shelley Brown of Blue Heron Fine Art and Domonic Boreffi of Addison Gallery share a moment before the opening.

Famed contemporary artist Sergio Roffo visits with Shelley and a few of his works in our gallery booth.

Friday the crowd continued steady throughout the day and ran right into New Collectors Night. Sales were good for some, and great for a few. Vose Galleries of Boston sold a Maxfield Parrish and an Edward Potthast painting with several other paintings put on reserve. Marine Arts Gallery of Salem sold an expensive painting by contemporary artist Richard Loud along with several other nice works. Although we sold nothing more on Friday, it was clear to me that collectors with real money to spend, ie over $10,000 , were back in the hunt. By contrast, most contemporary dealers sold fewer pieces than in previous years.

Saturday’s rainy weather did not deter the crowds from returning. Additional sales were made over the weekend by traditional dealers such as our gallery as well as many of the contemporary galleries. Addison Galleries of Cape Cod did particulary well on Sunday as did new exhibitor and show neighbor EA Fine Art.

Shelley and I at the close of the Show on Sunday.

By the time the show ended, most everyone had sold something, many had several sales, and one or two galleries did extremely well. This contrasts with the show a year ago, when there were few sales, and no one hit the cover off the ball. Perhaps, we have finally turned the corner….

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Art Market Recovery?

by Jim Puzinas on November 4, 2009

As an art dealer who exhibits at several antique shows over the course of the year, I am often offered a broader perspective on the health of the arts and antiques community. Having not exhibited at any show in the past 6 months, I didn’t know what to expect when I set up my stand at last week’s Hartford Fall Antiques Show. Was the economic uncertainty that pervaded every aspect of the economy this year, still holding collectors back from their purchases? Or had the recent stock market rally and the government rescue efforts been enough to jumpstart the antiques and fine art business?

Blue Heron Fine Art at the 2009 Hartford Fall Antiques Show

Attendance was steady, but light on Saturday. Excuses given were the weather, 70 degrees and sunny, Halloween, most couples with children had to get ready by 2pm, the economy, and yes, even the fear of contracting the H1N1 virus. The real test would be on Sunday.

I was pleasantly surprised! Attendance on Sunday, was much stronger with many of our regular collectors coming out to be tempted. Two lovely paintings found homes, a lovely impressionistic landscape by J. J. Enneking and a colorful and bold work by Harriet Randall Lumis. We reconnected with old clients, established a new one, and met many new friends who were eager to learn more about our fine art offerings. A nice surprise was actually meeting a “fan” of the gallery from the social networking site Facebook, who took the time out of her day to come in and see what all the fuss was about!

Paintings sold at the Hartford show by John Joseph Enneking, "The Pasture" (above) and Harriet Randall Lumis, "The Red Cottage" (right).

Although we chose to only bring traditional paintings to this venue, demand for modernist pieces was evident with a particularly beautiful Irene Rice Pereira work being offered by one exhibitor that went out on approval on Sunday. This modernist trend has been underfoot in the art market over the last several years, as many younger, and several older collectors expand their American collections to include paintings from the 1940’s and into the 1960’s. Additional evidence of this was seen last week at Shannon’s Auction House in Greenwich, CT where modernist works by Rolph Scarlett traded at 2 or 3 times their high estimate.

To be fair, although the show was a solid one for the gallery, it still was not at the same level as many of the Spring shows that we exhibit at in this building. Should the economy hold together and strengthen from here, I can only see additional demand building for the art market. I am off to exhibit at the prestigious Boston International Fine Art Show next week with a mix of traditional and modernist pieces. Hopefully, we can build on the success of last weekend. Would it be too early to say that perhaps the art market is back?