They say distance makes the heart grow fonder, which is something that art collectors have certainly felt as many of their favorite shows went virtual or were canceled outright during the pandemic. So now that events are returning, there is an outpouring of relief and gratitude for the shows that can once again welcome collectors.Paul Cornoyer (1864-1923), Washington Square, ca. 1900. Oil on canvas, 22 ¼ x 27 1/8 in., signed lower left: ‘Paul Cornoyer’. Courtesy Debra Force Fine Art.

John Sloan (1871-1951), Culebra Range, Early Autumn, 1923. Oil on canvas, 26 x 34 in., signed lower left. Courtesy Kraushaar Galleries.

One of those key shows returning is The American Art Fair, opening May 14 in New York City. It will serve as the anchor point for a suite of complementary events taking place all around the city during a spring period referred to as American Art Week. Other events include gallery shows, museum exhibitions and a number of high-profile American art auctions at Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Bonhams. The American Art Fair, which will feature more than 400 artworks from 17 leading specialists, will celebrate its 15th year when it opens at the Bohemian National Hall in New York’s Upper East Side. It will open with an expanded focus, says Thomas Colville, the fair’s founder.

Paul Sample (1896-1974), Church in Evansville (Schoolhouse), 1934. Oil on canvas, 24 x 28 in., signed and inscribed at lower center: ‘Paul Sample’; and in pencil on the stretcher: ‘Schoolhouse / Paul Sample.’ Courtesy Hirschl & Adler Galleries.

Charles Biederman (1906-2004), #27, 1936. Oil on canvas, 51 x 38¼ in., signed lower right. Courtesy Meredith Ward Fine Art.

“In our 15th year we are broadening the scope of the fair to include Latin American art and American Surrealism. Last year, we decided to permanently move the fair’s dates to May, opening the spring American Art Week coordinated with the American art auctions as well as museum and gallery exhibitions,” he says. “We hope to awaken both rediscovery and personal interactions through attendance at live art fairs.”

The fair opens May 14 and continues through May 17, and it will feature four lectures from leading American art specialists. On May 14, starting at 2 p.m., will be “Burn the Gondolas: Sargent, Whistler, and Modern Art in Venice” by Crawford Alexander Mann III, the chief curator and director of curatorial affairs at Telfair Museums. That will be followed at 4 p.m. by “Protests and Patronage: The Park Avenue Cubists and the Promotion of Abstract Art in America” by Carol Troyen, the Kristin and Roger Servison Curator Emerita of American Paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. On May 15, starting at 2 p.m., is “The Transcendental Painting Group” led by Susan L. Aberth, the Edith C. Blum Professor of Art History and Visual Culture Coordinator of Theology Program at Bard College. Then, at 4 p.m., is “Milton Avery: In Retrospect” by Erin Monroe, Krieble Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Admission to the fair and the lectures is free.Jane Peterson (1876-1965), Boat Landing, Edgartown, 1916. Gouache on paper, 17 x 23¼ in., signed lower left: ‘Jane Peterson’; and inscribed on the reverse: ‘Boat Landing Edgartown, 1916 NY WCC’. Courtesy Keny Galleries.

Sally Michel (1902-2003), Protective Felines. Oil on canvas, 40 x 50 in., signed lower right and titled verso. Courtesy D. Wigmore Fine Art.

Rockwell Kent (1882-1971), Birches, 1921. Oil on canvas, 34 x 44 in., signed and dated lower right: ‘Rockwell Kent Vermont 1921.’ Courtesy Avery Galleries.

Exhibitors at The American Art Fair include Alexandre Gallery, American Illustrators Gallery, Avery Galleries, Bernard Goldberg Fine Arts, D. Wigmore Fine Art, Debra Force Fine Art, Forum Gallery, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Kraushaar Galleries, Meredith Ward Fine Art, Questroyal Fine Art and Thomas Colville Fine Art. Joining the fair this year are five additional exhibitors, each with more than 40 years of expertise: Francis M. Naumann Fine Art, Graham Shay 1857, Keny Galleries, Mary-Anne Martin Fine Art and Somerville Manning Gallery.

The artworks they will be bringing range the gamut of historic American art, from the Hudson River and Ashcan schools, to Golden Age Illustration and Pennsylvania Impressionism, to the Transcendental Painting Group and early modernism.George Hughes (1907-1991), First Day at the Beach, 1956, used on the August 11, 1956 cover of Saturday Evening Post. Oil on canvas, 27½ x 21½ in., signed lower left. Used on the cover of the August 11, 1956 Saturday Evening Post. Courtesy American Illustrators Gallery.

Guy Péne du Bois (1884-1958), Attention, 1948. Oil on canvas, 20 x 30 in., signed lower right: ‘Guy Péne du Bois’; verso bears partial label: ‘1948 Whitney Museum Annual Exhibition of contemporary American Painting.’ Courtesy Graham Shay 1857.

Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902), Mount Baker, Washington, ca. 1891. Oil on canvas, 14 x 20 1/8 in., monogrammed lower right: ABierstadt”.
Courtesy Questroyal Fine Art.

D. Wigmore Fine Art will be bringing Ilya Bolotowsky’s abstract piece Centennial, an oil from 1949 that features hundreds of geometric forms overlapping and colliding together in a prism-like effect. Another work from the New York gallery is Protective Felines by Sally Michel, which will complement an exhibition for the artist that is ongoing at D. Wigmore Fine Art.

Dedra Force Fine Art will be showing several remarkable works, including Thomas Hart Benton’s Study for ‘Instruction.’ The work is a portrait of a distinctively dressed man wearing a hat, and the figure would appear in several similar works by Benton, including Instruction, which shows the man pointing at a young boy as they sit in front of an open bible. Another work being offered by Debra Force is Abbott Fuller Graves’ double-sided painting On the Banks of the Oise and Vase of Roses.Joseph Stella (1877-1946), The Red Pitcher, ca. 1930. Oil on canvas, 22 x 24 in., signed lower right; signed on verso: ‘Joseph Stella.’ Courtesy Thomas Colville Fine Art.

N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945), Eli and the Boy Samuel, Illustration for Children of the Bible, Part III, The Boy Who Anointed Two Kings, by Bruce Barton (Good Housekeeping Magazine, March 1929), 1928. Oil on canvas, 43 1/8 x 32 in. Courtesy Somerville Manning Gallery.

Other works include pieces by Charles Sheeler and Stuart Davis at Alexandre Gallery, a magnificent snow scene by Rockwell Kent at Avery Galleries, a park scene by Guy Péne du Bois at Graham Shay 1857, Childe Hassam’s watercolor New York Street Scene (Rainy Day, New York) at Hirschl & Adler Galleries, a beautifully colored harbor painting by Jane Peterson at Keny Galleries, a John Sloan landscape at Kraushaar Galleries, works by both Andrew and N.C. Wyeth at Somerville Manning Gallery, and a masterful Joseph Stella still life at Thomas Coleville Fine Art.

For more information about The American Art Fair, visit www.theamericanartfair.com.—

Lecture Schedule

May 14, 2 p.m.
Burn the Gondolas: Sargent, Whistler, and Modern Art in Venice
Speaker: Crawford Alexander Mann III, Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, Telfair Museums

May 14, 4 p.m.
Protests and Patronage: The Park Avenue Cubists and the Promotion of Abstract Art in America
Speaker: Carol Troyen, Kristin and Roger Servison Curator Emerita of American Paintings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

May 15, 2 p.m.
The Transcendental Painting Group
Speaker: Susan L. Aberth, Edith C. Blum Professor of Art History and Visual Culture Coordinator of Theology Program, Bard College

May 15, 4 p.m.
Milton Avery: In Retrospect
Speaker: Erin Monroe, Krieble Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

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