Art Market Updates

Thomas Cole (1801-1848), Portage Falls on the Genesee, 1839. Oil on canvas, 84¼ x 61¼ in. Gift of The Ahmanson Foundation. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Huntington Library Acquisition
An art acquisition partnership recently formed between The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, in San Marino, California, and the Ahmanson Foundation, in Los Angeles County will provide important funding for the Huntington, allowing it to purchase master works of American and European art for its permanent collection. A painting by Hudson River School artist Thomas Cole, Portage Falls on the Genesee, from 1839, is the first acquisition of the new program.

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Marsden Hartley (1877-1943), Mountains in Stone, Dogtown, 1931. Oil on board, 18 1⁄8 x 24 3⁄16 in. Bequest of James R. and Barbara R. Palmer, 2019.65 Credit: Palmer Museum of Art. All Rights Reserved.

Golden Anniversary
One of the top university art museums in the country, the Palmer Museum of Art, part of Penn State University, is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2022. With this major milestone comes numerous celebratory exhibitions, programs and events throughout the year, many of which highlight the Palmer Museum’s permanent collection of American art. One of the major shows to take place is An American Place: Highlights from the James and Barbara Palmer Collection, running January 29 to April 24, which showcases paintings, works on paper and sculpture drawn from the bequest of philanthropist Barbara Palmer.

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Robert Blackburn (1920-2003), Red Inside, 1972. Woodcut, 12 x 11½ in. Nelson/Dunks Collection.

Robert Blackburn at The Hyde
Held at The Hyde in Glens Falls, New York, Robert Blackburn & Modern Printmaking is a new exhibition that explores the artwork of 20th-century printmaker Robert Blackburn. The exhibition, which was developed by Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service in cooperation with The Trust for Robert Blackburn and The Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, features the artist’s “innovative, masterful expertise with the medium [that] helped define the overall aesthetic of the American ‘graphics boom.’” Robert Blackburn & Modern Printmaking is on view January 29 to April 24.

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John Henry Twachtman (1853-1902), My House, ca. 1896–99. Oil on canvas, 30 x 207/8 in. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; Gift of the artist.

John Henry Twachtman Catalogue Raisonné
An online catalog by Lisa N. Peters, John Henry Twachtman Catalogue Raisonné is now easily accessible to the public through www.jhtwachtman.org, in collaboration with the Greenwich Historical Society. The catalog, which has been in development for more than 30 years, delves into detailed records of the artist’s life, including correspondence and entries for every known artwork by Twachtman, which amounts to close to 760 works in total. Life and Art: The Greenwich Paintings of John Henry Twachtman, an exhibition at the Greenwich Historical Society, will take place in 2022.

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Laguna Art Museum raises $350,000
The Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach, California, raised more than $350,000 during its ninth annual Art & Nature Gala at the Sherman Library and Gardens in Corona del Mar. The funds raised at the gala go toward supporting outreach at the Laguna Art Museum, which houses a phenomenal collection of more 3,600 works of art from the 19th century to present day.

“We are grateful to those that helped us reach our fundraising goal,” says Julie Perlin Lee, executive director of the Laguna Art Museum. “With this generosity we aim to reach ten times the amount of school-aged children and to quadruple the amount of individuals we serve annually by connecting them to the arts.”

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Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure
Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure© opens April 9, 2022 at New York City’s Starrett-Lehigh Building and features more than 200 rarely and never-before-seen works by the esteemed Neo-expressionist Jean-Michel Basquiat. The family of Basquiat recently announced that renowned architect Sir David Adjaye OBE will be the designer for the exhibition, which includes paintings, drawings, ephemera and artifacts to give an intimate and multidimensional portrait of Basquiat that can only be told by his family. —