Report from Asheville, June, 2012

The Asheville Art Museum specializes in American Art beginning in the 20th century. Their premier Art Fair is June 22 through 24, 2012.  

Peter Grippe, The City, 1943

Nearby, at Black Mountain College, 1933-1957, teachers included, Josef Albers, Peter Grippe, Fannie Hillsmith, and Ben Shahn.

Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains near the Appalachian Trail, Asheville is the birthplace of Thomas Wolff, Roberta Flack, Zelda Fitzgerald, James Daugherty, and Elizabeth Blackwell, first recognized woman doctor in the US, and home to the Spanish architect Rafael Guastavino (innovator of the timbrel vaults used so effectively at the Manhattan Municipal Building).

Elizabeth Blackwell monument, Asheville

 The largest city in Western North Carolina, in what was the Cherokee Nation, Asheville is the site of the US National Climatic Data Center – the world’s largest active archive of weather data.

In the twentieth century Asheville endured a series of dramatic financial twists, including claim to the largest per-capita debt owed by any city in the nation at the time of the 1929 crash. Rather than default the city paid the debts off over a fifty-year period resulting in slow economic growth. An unanticipated consequence is an extensive range of Art Deco architecture. And the hot-dog vendors all have a vegetarian option.

S & W Cafeteria Building, Asheville Art Deco

St. Louis Mercantile Library Fair Review

St. Louis Weekend, May 4, 5, and 6, 2012

As with so many places, Spring came early this year to St. Louis, and there were many wonderful gardens on the way to Mr. Wizard’s.

It was a beautiful weekend on the University of St. Louis campus, with only a few thunder storms. The fair, May 4, 5 and 6, was very well attended – by far the biggest crowd ever.  There was interest in the Fred Shane material as well as that of Peggy Bacon and Anne Ryan.

Fred Shane
Old Man with Yellow Suspenders, 1980
14 x 12inches

And, of course, no visit is complete without a trip to the St. Louis Mercantile Library itself; there was an installation of Worlds’ Fair related material.

AMERICANS IN MEXICO EXTENDED

On view by appointment or by chance, June 5 through June 20, 2012. 

Theodore Haupt, Market Place, 1950

Paintings and works on paper from 1940 to 1982 by PEGGY BACON, ABE BLASHKO, ELIZABETH CATLETT, THEODORE HAUPT, LAWRENCE A. JONES, CHARLES KELLER, DOROTHY BROWDY KUSHNER, DORIS ROSENTHAL, and JUDITH SHAHN.

In addition to Haupt's monumental Market Place, 1950, there are extremely rare works by Lawrence A. Jones, surprising drawings by Peggy Bacon.

Lawrence A. Jones, Market Place, 1973

There are also market views by Charles Keller, Lawrence A. Jones, and Judith Shahn.

Link to site:

www.susantellergallery.com

SUSAN TELLER GALLERY

568 BROADWAY • NEW ROOM 502  NEW YORK, NY  10012

212-941-7335

National Medal of Honor Day on March 25

On Thursday morning, March 22nd, on our way to the McNay Museum Fair in San Antonio, we fell into the American Airline’s ceremony at LaGuardia honoring veterans in conjunction with National Medal of Honor Day.

The procession of Medal of Honor recipients in Terminal  D was led by a military honor guard; both the New York City Police and Fire Departments’ bagpipe bands played, and along the corridor were placards with pictures and biographies. Service men and women saluted, officials stood at attention, and the rest of us clapped as ribbon-wearing veterans, from Korea, Viet Nam, and more recent wars, were honored.

It was a nice -- it combined the official and organized effort of city, military, and commercial, with the impromptu enthusiasm of the hugely diverse world of airport "gates."  We really felt that we were at the right time in the right place.

McNay Museum Fair This Weekend, March 24 & 25

Franz Kline, Thorpe, 1955

Saturday, March 24, 10 to 5

Sunday, March 25, noon to 5

McNay Museum Art Fair

San Antonio

This is the sixteenth year of the McNay Museum Fair, and it’s our sixteenth year as well. 

McNay’s brochure for the 2012 fair featured a fairly secret booth from last year – well, the Susan Teller Gallery booth (with gallerist Bill Teller). James Daugherty’s drawing for a New Yorker cover, Ice Skater, 1925, is clearly at center.

This year we will be showing intaglios by Peggy Bacon, Will Barnet, Reginald Marsh, and Angelo Pinto, as well as black-line woodcuts by Anne Ryan, Edmond Casarella’s tour-de-force relief print, Rock Ledge, Judith Shahn’s Mexico City Street Scene panorama, and a 1955 drawing by Franz Kline, Thorpe (referring to the Native American Olympian Jim Thorpe). 

Judith Shahn, Mexican Street Scene, 1950

America @ Work

March 8 through June 6, 2012

Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London

James Daughtery, Mural Study, 1935

Works by JAMES DAUGHERTY, RIVA HELFOND, AXEL HORN, BEN SHAHN, FRED SHANE, and HARRY STERNBERG, are view in the exhibition America @ Work, New Deal Murals in New London and Beyond.

Riva Helfond, Aviators, 1943

Curated by Barbara Zabel the show is on view at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, Connecticut College, New London.

Harry Sternberg, Steel, 1937

PALM SPRINGS FINE ART FAIR

February 17 through 19, 2012

Palm Springs Convention Center

Inaugural Year of the Fair and our first trip to Palm Springs.

THEODORE HAUPT, THE THREE GRACES, 1941

It’s Modernism Week in Palm Springs: THEODORE HAUPT'S Acrobats, 1939, and Three Graces, 1941, HUGH MESIBOV'S Mechanical Dancers, 1943, and ANNE RYAN'S Collage, 1951, will all be on view. 

We're featuring Industrial Realism with FRED SHANE'S monumental painting Clam Shell Dredge, 1952, JUDITH SHAHN’S Plimsoll Line, 1949, and CHARLES KELLER'S Saturday Siesta, 1946. PEGGY BACON & HER CIRCLE show up as well with drawings and prints by ISABEL BISHOP, REGINALD MARSH, and MARGUERITE ZORACH.   

Also on hand will be works by WILL BARNET, HOWARD DAUM, DOROTHY DEHNER, PETER GRIPPE, FANNIE HILLSMITH, BERNARD ROSENQUIT, and LOUIS SCHANKER.

FRED SHANE, CLAM SHELL DREDGE, 1952

The big news is that curator Peter Frank selected paintings by DOROTHY BROWDY KUSHNER and FRED SHANE for the exhibition The Big Picture, on view at the Fair. Sub-titled Paintings from Southern California, 1960-1980, The Big Pictures is designed to celebrate the development of the LA art scene, and is part of the multi-venued extravaganza, Pacific Standard Time.