The second annual American Art Fair opened to a capacity crowd on November 30 and went on to welcome a steady stream of collectors and museum curators through its closing hour on December 3. The intimate setting of the National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts †a beaux-arts mansion on Fifth Avenue that was home to Archer Milton Huntington and his wife, sculptress Anna Huntington Hyatt †proved a magnificent and natural setting.
As several dealers commented, many of the American artists being showcased had either studied or shown at the National Academy. This was certainly true of “A Boy and His Dog” by John LeFarge, 1874, shown by Thomas Colville Fine Art of Guilford, Conn.
Colville, along with Alexander Acevedo, proprietor of Alexander Gallery, New York City, originated the concept American Art Fair. The idea was simple: to provide the museum curators and collectors that come to New York to shop the high-level American auctions with a venue in which to view and purchase fine academic American art.
At end of show, several dealers reported multiple sales. Others spoke of pending sales they expected to finalize in coming days. Generously, the dealers donated five to ten percent of the proceeds from selected paintings to the National Academy Museum.
The 11 exhibitors chose their suites imaginatively, some displaying elegant portraits that looked as though they could have hung on the high-ceilinged walls for decades and others looking as though the artists had arrived at the tipping point of Modernism.
At the top of the museum’s winding staircase was New York City’s Hirschl & Adler Galleries’ exhibit, where a portrait of Margaret Coldwell Westinghouse, “Young Girl in a White Dress,” in frothy white frock and pearls demanded attention. The artist, Frank Weston Benson, brought out the young heiress’s personality by perching her on a corner chair. This naturally gave one leg a jaunty look. On a far wall, separated from the purely academic, was Agnes Pelton’s “Sandstorm,” a tempest of Transcendentalist light and abstraction.
Colville’s exhibition offered a buffet of pleasing imagery and masterful brushstrokes. Easily identifiable works by John Singer Sargent, John Haberle and Albert Bierstadt, among others, flanked Sören Emil Carlsen’s contemplative still life titled “Spanish Brasero,” 1926.
William Merritt Chase’s large “Autumn Still Life,” circa 1906, at Avery Galleries, Bryn Mawr, Penn., was among the first to receive a red button. Above the mantel was Thomas Moran’s “Icebergs” and nearby, Guy C. Wiggins’s “Madison Square in Winter.”
At Hammer Galleries, New York City, Robert Henri’s charming portrait of “Thammey” lit up the wall like a child about to skip across Central Park. Painted while on vacation in Maine, it is, as Henri said, of “‘my people&‧ expressing themselves naturally along the lines nature intended.”
Meanwhile, Andrew Wyeth’s “Deserted Light” brought another side of Maine into focus. William McGregor Paxton’s 1915 portrait of Louise Converse (Mrs Junius Morgan) in white dress against pink cherry blossoms showed clearly why he was known as the “Court Painter of Philadelphia.”
At Debra Force Fine Art, New York City, a Thomas Hart Benton called “The Twist” drew crowds that endlessly marveled at how clearly the painting evoked the 1960s. Meanwhile, two Oscar Bluemner works, both with red houses, turned as many heads.
Menconi & Schoelkopf Fine Art, New York City, presented a landscape by Joshua H. Shaw that seemed to have a back story as apparent as the painted one. Created in 1918, just a year after the artist immigrated to the United States, the painting evoked nostalgia for England. Why else would a castle rise from an “American Landscape”? Another painting by an artist in a foreign land was William L. Metcalfe’s “Giverny.” Notably, the provenance of the painting is attributed to Booth Tarkington, who passed it to a private collection where it was held until 2009.
Bernard Goldberg Fine Arts, New York City, focused on the works of Marguerite and William Zorach. Marguerite’s “Night Still Life” was among the works offered. William, an Academician turned Modernist, thrilled with “Bridal Falls, Yosemite,” 1920, a water color on paper that catches the movement of the falls in deep blues and shades of green.
At Questroyal Fine Art, New York City, Childe Hassam’s “Newport, RI” captured the sailboats and the old church spire. A quiet Andrew Newell Wyeth called “Rose Hips,” a study for “Black Water,” contrasted a splash of color against a black and tan ground.
Alexander Gallery, New York City, captured the essence of mayoral privilege, circa 1880, with John McAuliffe’s “Mayor of New York City.” The painting showed Mayor Hugh Grant driving a carriage through Central Park, as was his habit. In the background, the architectural details of the Dakota rise above the trees. The remainder of the exhibit was devoted to the Hudson River School artists.
Godel & Company, New York City, was tucked into a corner of the exhibition floor, but John Singer Sargent’s “Val d’Aosta: Stepping Stones” and Severin Roesen’s “Floral Still Life” saw their share of traffic. A small plein air painting titled “An Artist at His Easel” by Worthington Whitteredge, painted at the height of fall foliage, had many a viewer contemplating the context. Another small gem was “After Breakfast” by William Anderson Coffin, in which a man sharpens his billiard skills while a woman in black sits stiffly by the floor-to-ceiling windows of a Parisian apartment.
Finally, Gerald Peters Gallery brought viewers together with four magnificent portraits and several Anna Hyatt Huntington tabletop bronzes. “Portrait of Louise Getz” by Robert Henri was still fresh and inviting, the bohemian air of a beautiful woman embodied in dark hues with only an orange collar to illuminate her beauty. According to Regan Upshaw, the show had attracted every important “curator, dealer, collector.”
The one group no one really expected padded through at the eleventh hour, toting pads and pencils. When their teacher located a suitable group of still lifes, the class of children plopped on the marble floor, opened their tablets and set to work. It was a moment unto itself, the next generation of American artists, Academicians at work.
The Third Annual American Art Fair will again be conducted concurrently with the American auctions in 2010. For more information, www.theamericanartfair.com or 917-842-4333.
