Collector’s Focus: The Modernist Perspective

Introduction by John O’Hern

John Sloan (1871-1951) was a founder of the Ashcan School with Robert Henri (1865-1929) and others. It was named such because that’s where critics thought their work belonged. Henri said, “There is only one reason for art in America, and that is that the people of America learn the means of expressing themselves in their own time and their own land.” Their depictions of gritty, immigrant and working-class life were counter to the decorous art of their contemporaries.

Beulah Stevenson (1895-1965), Cerro Gordo, 1950. Oil on board, 20 x 24 in. Courtesy Addison Rowe Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.

Sloan’s The Haymarket, Sixth Avenue, 1907, was shown in 1908 in the only exhibition by a group known as The Eight which included Sloan, Henri, Everett Shinn, Arthur B. Davies, Ernest Lawson, Maurice Prendergast, George Luks and William J. Glackens. The Brooklyn Museum notes, “The Haymarket was especially provocative because it showed lavishly dressed women entering a well-known dance hall unaccompanied by male companions. These women were independent and pleasure-seeking, defying society’s expectations. This type of realism in art shocked many viewers who were accustomed to idealizing and genteel subjects.”

Sloan was also an organizer of the International Exhibition of Modern Art held in 1913 in New York City’s 69th Regiment Armory, now known as the Armory Show. It was the first large exhibition of modern art in America, introducing such artists as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Marcel Duchamp, Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne and Vincent Van Gogh, and including American artists influenced by their work.

The exhibition rocked the art world, upsetting the establishment but inspiring contemporary artists. Responding to the exhibition, President Theodore Roosevelt wrote, “Probably we err in treating most of these pictures seriously. It is likely that many of them represent in the painters the astute appreciation of the powers to make folly lucrative which the late P.T. Barnum showed with his faked mermaid. There are thousands of people who will pay small sums to look at a faked mermaid; and now and then one of this kind with enough money will buy a Cubist picture, or a picture of a misshapen nude woman, repellent from every standpoint.”

Stuart Davis (1892-1964), NY Street Signs, 1938. Gouache, pencil on paper, 18½ x 22 in. Courtesy Helicline Fine Art, New York, NY.

Beulah Stevenson (1890-1965) lived most of her life in Brooklyn Heights, New York, was a curator at the Brooklyn Museum and was a printmaker, painter, illustrator and teacher. She knew many of the major artists of the day and studied with Hans Hofmann in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and with Sloan at the Art Students League in New York.

Sloan traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1919 and returned every summer for the next 29 years. He invited Stevenson to New Mexico one summer and she returned often, inspired by the vibrant colors of the Southwest. She gravitated more to Hofmann’s colorful abstractions as can be seen in her painting, Cerro Gordo, 1950, with its energetic brushstrokes of intense color.

John Sloan (1871-1951), The Haymarket, Sixth Avenue, 1907. Oil on canvas, 261/8 x 3413/16 in. Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY. Gift of Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney.

Stuart Davis, who had exhibited in the Armory Show of 1913, visited New Mexico once, in 1923. He was overwhelmed by the area’s vastness and intensity. He found more inspiration in the cityscapes and details of New York. He had studied in Europe but declared he would create art that would be “rigorously logical, American, not French. America has had her scientists, her inventors, now she will have her artist.”

His New York Street Signs, 1938, deftly blends the grittiness of the Ashcan School, the hard-edged geometries of advertising and the abstractions of modernism.

In the following pages, the country’s premier historic American fine art galleries showcase exceptional modernist works currently available to collectors.

Ralston Crawford (1906-1978), St. Louis Cemetery No. 2, 1954. Oil on canvas, 16 x 12 in. Courtesy Debra Force Fine Art, New York, NY.

Located on New York’s Upper East Side, Debra Force Fine Art specializes in American paintings, drawings and sculpture from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, offering exceptional artwork with a focus on quality and research. Among the modernist pieces in their wide-ranging inventory are works by Ralston Crawford (1906-1978), whose works from the 1950s centered around architectural images and the city of New Orleans, such as St. Louis Cemetery No. 2. Another work by Marsden Hartley (1877-1943), Little River after Rain – Franconia, New Hampshire, recalls the time the artist spent there in 1930. The gallery notes, “Since both Crawford and Hartley were very prolific artists who worked in a variety of styles and explored many genres over the course of their careers, as a collector it is important to identify the period or subject that is most of interest and learn about it in depth by looking at examples in museums and private collections, viewing exhibitions and catalogs, and working with galleries so they can let you know when something that may be of interest becomes available.”

Marsden Hartley (1877-1943), Little River after Rain – Franconia, New Hampshire, 1930. Oil on canvas board, 16 x 127⁄8 in. Courtesy Debra Force Fine Art.

J. Kenneth Fine Art has remained committed to a well-curated group of artists and estates within the secondary and blue-chip markets with an emphasis on the contributions of post-war artists who have been traditionally overlooked. In addition to being a longtime representative of Lynne Drexler years before her current recognition by the fine art establishment, the Palm Springs, California, gallery showcases other under-represented artists including Norman Carton, Helen Gerardia, Jacob Semiatin and Taro Yamamoto.

Norman Carton (1908-1980), Untitled #511, ca. 1953. Oil on canvas, 12 x 20½ in. Courtesy J. Kenneth Fine Art.

“It has become abundantly clear that collectors and institutions are more aware of the contributions of artists who had once been pushed to the fringes of art history,” says gallery owner John K. Alexander. “The recent resurgence of interest in these artists has brought new energy and enthusiasm to the art market. For those who are avid art collectors, it’s a great time to explore the expanded inclusion of what are now market-viable artists and genres.”

With roots dating back nearly a century, New York’s Rehs Galleries specializes in 19th- and early 20th-century American and European art. Currently in their ever-evolving inventory is a piece by Swedish-American artist Bror J.O. Nordfeldt (1878-1955), who was a known for his modernist style. Three White Horses is a striking example of his work, which often incorporated strong colors, simplified forms and flattened space. Nordfeldt was a versatile artist who worked in various media, including painting, drawing, and printmaking. He was a prominent figure in the early to mid-20th-century art scene and was associated with several modernist movements, including fauvism and expressionism.

Taro Yamamoto (1919-1994), Untitled, 1957. Mixed media on paper, 19½ x 11 in. Courtesy J. Kenneth Fine Art.

Malcom H. Myers (1917-2002), Animals Crossing the Bridge, 1962. Intaglio, etching, open bite, aquatint, roulette and color Stencil, 24 x 36 in. Courtesy Rubine Red Gallery

Rubine Red Gallery, also located in Palm Springs, represents contemporary artists as well as historic. Their Estate Collection highlights artists creating in mid-century including Malcolm Myers, Reginald Pollack, Lynne Mapp Drexler and more.

Featured here are two works by Myers, a central figure in American printmaking for decades, most notably during the modern era (1950s to the 1970s) when abstraction and abstract expressionism played a significant role in American art.

Malcom H. Myers (1917-2002), Don Quixote Edition II Red, ca. 1985. Intaglio and color stencil, 18 x 24 in. Courtesy Rubine Red Gallery.

Charles Hopkinson (1869-1962), Judgment of Paris, ca. 1940. Tempera on canvas, 33 x 43 in., signed lower left. Courtesy Vose Galleries.

“His penchant for experimentation and pushing boundaries in the art form have made his work highly sought after,” says gallery owner and Myers’ estate manager, Jason Howard. “And being a very prolific artist has meant that a wide range of his works are still available for collectors. His works exude a mid-century flair and sensibility, with inspiration drawn from jazz music, New York City, the Don Quixote/Spanish Revival craze of the late 1960s and the wonderfully quirky animal characters he so often incorporated in his art. Myers’ work has an inherent happiness that collectors of modernist art love.”

Established in 1841, Vose Galleries is the oldest family-owned art gallery in America. The gallery specializes in top quality 18th-, 19th- and early 20th-century American realist paintings and works on paper, two examples of which are featured here. A leading portrait and landscape painter in the 20th century, Charles Hopkinson (1869-1962) received his training at some of the most prestigious American and European institutions. After traveling and painting abroad for many years, the artist returned to Massachusetts and married Elinor Curtis in 1903. Judgment of Paris was completed at the Curtis estate around 1940 and is Hopkinson’s interpretation of the famous Greek myth of temptation and beauty. The warm sunlight streaming down on his subjects and his use of lively strokes to capture the sparkling ocean imbue the composition with a modernist bent.

Carl Gordon Cutler (1873-1945), Before the Storm. Watercolor and graphite on paper, 17¼ x 251/8 in., signed lower left: ‘Carl G. Cutler’. Courtesy Vose Galleries.

Carl Gordon Cutler (1873-1945) is best remembered for his participation in The Boston Five, a collective of modern artists including Charles Hopkinson, Marion Monks Chase, Harley Perkins and Charles Hovey Pepper. The group sent paintings to the famous Armory Show of 1913 and later exhibited at Vose Galleries in 1929 and 1930. Cutler’s modernist approach employed a spontaneous, plein air technique combined with an emphasis on decorative line. His artistic practice was defined by an embrace of color and a keen understanding of its emotive potential as can be seen in Before the Storm.

Featured Galleries

Addison Rowe Gallery 229 E. Marcy Street Santa Fe, NM 87501 t: (505) 982-1533 addart@addisonrowe.com, www.addisonrowe.art

Debra Force Fine Art 13 E. 69th Street, Suite 4F New York, NY 10021 t: (212) 734-3636 info@debraforce.com, www.debraforce.com

Helicline Fine Art New York, NY By Appointment Only t: (212) 204-8833 hello@heliclinefineart.com, www.heliclinefineart.com

J. Kenneth Fine Art 668 N. Palm Canyon Drive Palm Springs, CA 92262 t: (802) 540-0267 jkennethfineart@gmail.com, www.jkennethfineart.com

Rehs Galleries 20 W. 55th Street New York, NY 10019 t: (212) 355-5710 info@rehs.com, www.rehs.com

Rubine Red Gallery 668 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Suite 102 Palm Springs, CA 92262 t: (760) 537-7665 jason@rubineredgallery.com, www.rubineredgallery.com

Vose Galleries 238 Newbury Street Boston, MA 02116 t: (617) 536-6176 info@vosegalleries.com, www.vosegalleries.com