Outstanding Works Of Art Shown At BIFAS '05

BOSTON

:Something wonderful happened in Boston on November 10: the ninth annual Boston International Fine Art Show opened. A three-hour gala party to benefit the Wang Center for the Performing Arts and its education program, Suskind Young At Arts, launched this year's show. Sound typical? It wasn't. It was a high energy beginning for a high energy art show.

The real beginning of the show happened months and months ago when show managers Tony Fusco and Bob Four lined up ten or 11 new exhibitors who were coming to BIFAS for the first time: Gerald Peters Gallery, New York City; Guarisco Gallery, Washington D.C.; Mongerson Galleries, Chicago; and Spanierman Gallery, New York City among them. They joined many other high-end galleries already present.

Some of the new galleries like Vose Contemporary Realism, a division of Vose Galleries of Boston, show new art, done as recently as 2005. "We are definitely not interested in maintaining the status quo," said Fusco, who is committed to having the work of living artists as part of the BIFAS mix. Vose brought lovely pastel and mixed media on paper pieces by Polly Thayer Starr (born 1904) excellent trompe l'oeil oils by Michael Theise (born 1959) and wonderful Boston cityscapes by Joel Babb that acted like magnets to bring customers into the double booth.

Fusco and Four have been diligent in bringing in important new groups of people to the event every year. Each of the nine galas have had a different charity sponsor. While it may not have started out as a conscious decision, the net result of what is now a strategy has been to continually widen the show's audience of informed art buyers from the Boston area. Loyal supporters of past galas return each year to shop the show. This year's gate was up by 500 people.

The special events planned each year are a critical part of the show's liveliness, bringing in even more new faces. Tony Fusco said, "Our Friday night Young Collectors program was a huge success. Missy Sullivan from the Forbes Collection was the guest speaker." While the program was heavily marketed to the 25-40-year-olds, Fusco noted that "hardly anyone was young. Next year we are going to call it 'New Collectors' and not 'Young Collectors.'" The lecture hall at the back of the Cyclorama could seat about 150 people, not nearly enough room to accommodate everyone who wanted to come. Sullivan spoke twice in back-to-back lectures to standing-room-only crowds.

The lectures were followed by cocktails and a meet-the-artists session with about 20 artists on hand to talk about their work in the show. Four or five artists came all the way down from Nova Scotia.

Saturday night the Canadian Consulate General in Boston sponsored a program with three panelists discussing the challenges, trends, the difficulties of dealing in international art: legal, financial, infrastructure and other barriers. Sunday, Steven Biel, author of American Gothic: A Life of America's Most Famous Painting, signed books after a book talk. According to Fusco, the author was pleasantly surprised by the number of people who came to meet him.

Joe Panarelli of Guarisco Gallery, Washington, D.C., was pleased with the show. "Tony and Bob did a very, very good job of organizing and publicizing the show. Every where I went I saw references to the show. It was all over; on the radio, too." He noted that most of the show attendees were from the Boston area. Guarisco Gallery brought a mix of American and European art. A stunning 381/4-by-50-inch Edward Willis Redfield painting entitled "Off Ocean Point, Monhegan," was priced under $400,000.

Gerold Wunderlich of Gerald Peters Gallery, New York City, stated, "I tend to go into these shows with no particular expectations, but consider them a very personal ad. If I am able to sell one or more works, all the better. The real purpose is to meet old clients, and introduce oneself to new clients. With that said, I felt the Boston International exhibition was a success. We in fact, did make a good sale, and have another work under consideration. If that happens to go then it will have been a great show. I thought the crowd was enthusiastic opening night and also for the following two days. I met a few new potential clients and hopefully the show will grow to something akin to the USArtists show in Philadelphia."

Katrina Thompson, Spanierman Gallery, LLC, New York City, said the gallery's reason for participating at BIFAS was to reach Boston collectors. "It was a great crowd," said Thompson. "We were busy the whole time." Spanierman sold one painting and is following up with several other possible sales. The gallery displayed a lovely William McGregor Paxton entitled "The Blue Book," 1914, an oil on canvas measuring 351/2 by 28 inches showing a beautiful woman in a pink silk Kimono reading a blue book. An Alfred Thompson Bricher landscape got a lot of attention. Also shown were a charming little Maurice Prendergast beach scene, a Frederick Edwin Church entitled "Sunset," a Thomas Moran oil of the Rocky Mountains and many other prizes.

Louis Salerno of Questroyal Fine Art, New York City, said that this was the gallery's best show at Boston for the past four years. Five pictures were sold, most to new clients. Questroyal brought paintings by William Trost Richards, John Kensett, Sanford Gifford, William Bradford and Jasper Cropsey. There was a painting of "Boston Commons" by Paul Cornoyer, a Niles Spencer of "Providence, R.I.," an Aldro Thompson Hibbard entitled "At the Dock, Gloucester," and a Guy C. Wiggins "Harbor, Gloucester, Mass." Marsden Hartley, Oscar Bluemner and Alfred Maurer added a bit of modernism to the booth.

Levis Benton Fine Art brought a polished bronze sculpture of a female nude by William Zorach entitled "Odalisk," a signed lifetime cast marked 2/12. There were at least three significant works by sculptor Albert Wein, including the powerful yet diminutive "Prometheus" holding up a flaming torch to reach 141/2 inches high.

Addison Fine Art made the trip from Orleans on Cape Cod, bringing several paintings by Pharr Schulenburg and Paul Schulenburg as well as contemporary realism from Peter Quidley and Garry Gilmartin. Renjeau Galleries, Natick, Mass., brought two snowy landscapes by Carol O' Malia that were getting lots of attention. Jeffrey Ringdahl's oil/resin abstracts were rich, simple and lustrous.

Albert Shahinian Fine Art of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., brought a mix of contemporary Hudson River paintings and modernism from the estate of Juanita Guccione and others. Shahinian sold seven paintings at his first-ever showing at BIFAS and was delighted with the supportive and welcoming show management and contacts he made for future sales. He thought the Cyclorama lent the show an "intimate and friendly environment" similar to what he tries to achieve in Poughkeepsie in his own gallery.

New England themes were found throughout the Cyclorama. At McClees Galleries, Haverford, Penn., one could find the oil on canvas "Winter Evening, Monhegan," by Andrew Winter. McClees also brought works by Philp Liter, Charles Morris Young, James Gale Tyler, Herman Hertzog, Frank Bicknell and George Luks. Richardson-Clarke Galleries, Boston, exhibited the dramatic "Scrub Pines and Coast, Cohassett, Mass." by Winckworth Allan Gay and "October Afternoon" by William Jurian Kaula. The dealer also hung works by Albert Bierstadt, Alexander Brook, J. Ambrose Prichard, William Paxton and Jane Peterson among others.

Gladwell & Co., London, displayed a mix of landscapes, still lifes, and genre painting. Johan de Fre's "Yellow Plums and White Pot" and Willem Dolphyn's "Strawberries with a Japanese Beaker" and "Cherries with a glass Vase," were crisp, hyper real still lifes with more than just a photorealistic appeal.

Heinley Fine Arts Ltd specializes in Barbizon paintings. Donna Heinley brought prime works, including a Jean-Francois Millet, works by Camille Corot, Theodore Rousseau and others. The art in her booth was enough to make you want to sit down and write poetry - or at least recite some Baudelaire.

Lazare Gallery, Charles City, Va., exhibited beautiful Russian paintings from the Moscow School of Russian Realism. Americans may not be familiar with their names, but the soft realism of these remarkable Russian paintings did not need any translation.

Inverness County Centre for the Arts is situated on Cape Breton Isle in Nova Scotia, Canada. A not-for-profit organization, the centre made a huge splash at BIFAS, bringing down several artists to Boston. Normally reliant upon tourist support, the show gave artists a chance to meet art collectors in a large US city. In all, 12 artists showed their work in Boston. Terry MacDonald's painting of a large ship at dock with a crowd looking on had the feeling of a modern day WPA painting or the Social Realism of Philip Evergood.

Susan Lanoue, Lanoue Fine Art, Boston, said that BIFAS was the dealer's very first art fair; the exhibition of contemporary art was elegant and spectacular. Artist Carrie McGee's colorful translucent tiles of acrylic resin that were suspended in a grid "sold in about ten second on Saturday morning," said Lanoue. "A painting also sold as a result of seeing the artist's work at the show and then coming to our Newbury Street gallery."

Tyler Mongerson, Mongerson Galleries, Chicago, participated in BIFAS for the first time this year, bringing Nineteenth and Twentieth Century American Western, sporting and wildlife art, with a few modernist pieces. "We had two goals: to see a number of clients in Boston who buy Western and sporting art and to discover the whereabouts of Theresa Bernstein's and William Meyerowitz's paintings. They summered in Gloucester. People would come into the booth and see the Meyerowitz painting on the wall and say 'I've got a couple of Meyerowitz paintings...' Then we could tell them about our catalogue raisonné project. We were successful on both goals." Mongerson also sold works at the show, two of which went to new clients. The gallery will definitely be back next year.