New York’s highly anticipated spring tradition, American Art Week, is just around the corner. It’s a wondrous time of year when auctions, art fairs, gallery and museum exhibitions of historic American art are held across the city during a single week in May. The American Art Fair, taking place May 11 to 14, is undoubtedly one of the highlight events of this powerhouse week.
Jan Matulka (1890-1972), Broadway, ca. 1925. Ink and pencil on paper, 15½ x 11¾ in. signed lower right: ‘J. Matulka’. Courtesy Thomas Colville Fine Art.
“With hundreds of works, the fair is a ‘catalog’ of American art,” says fair director Catherine Sweeney Singer. Some of the most prominent names in historic American art will be represented at the four-day event, including William Merritt Chase, Robert Henri, Joseph Stella, Edward Steichen and the Hudson River School painters. Also featured are important tonalists, Ashcan School painters, modernists, surrealists and more.
Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012), Standing Strong, 2007. Bronze with variegated green patina, ed. 9, 31¼ x 10¼ x 9¼ in., initialed near base. Courtesy Dolan/Maxwell.
“The fair defines ‘historic American art’ as high quality works by nonliving artists—so this includes Sam Gilliam, who died in 2022, as well as works by overlooked, lesser known, and newly discovered artists. And yes, among these are women and artists of color,” Singer adds.
American Art Fair founder Thomas Colville notes, “We aim to build on the success of last year and know that the fair’s focus is its strength. With the highest concentration of expertise in historic American art, the fair is a great place to learn, explore and acquire the best examples of 19th- and 20th-century American art on the market.” He adds that the lecture series led by top curators and scholars is an integral element to the depth of the fair, with some lectures relating to current museum exhibitions.
Charles Courtney Curran (1861-1942), The Lanterns, 1913. Oil on canvas, 30¼ x 30¼ in. Courtesy Debra Force Fine Art.
“We begin with Claire Mosier’s groundbreaking work on Emil Bisttram; Shirley Reece-Hughes curated the recent Nevelson show at the Amon Carter; Kathy Foster’s Mary Cassatt exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art opens just after the fair; Erica Hirshler’s Fashioned by Sargent moves to the Tate after a blockbuster run at the [Museum of Fine Arts] Boston; Thayer Tolles of the Met contributed to the catalog for the multi-venue Monuments and Myths: The America of Sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Daniel Chester French; the exhibition is now at the Frist in Memphis and moves to the Michener in Doylestown [Pennsylvania] in June,” he adds.
Louise Howland King Cox (1865-1945), Blue and White, 1904. Oil on canvas, 50 x 34 in., signed ‘Louise Cox’ and dated ‘1904’ lower left. Courtesy Hawthorne Fine Art.
Colville will be bringing to the fair an incredible ink and pencil on paper by Jan Matulka from around 1925. Titled Broadway, the piece is perfectly “New York,” and graces the cover of the magazine you hold in your hands. “After Jan Matulka’s return to New York from Paris in 1924 he focused on views of the city in a series of drawings, lithographs and paintings that conveyed its tightly compacted but dynamic energy,” Colville comments. “This drawing was recently acquired from the estate of Thomas Armstrong, the former director of the Whitney Museum and was included in the Whitney’s 1979 to 1980 traveling retrospective of Matulka’s works.”
George Lovett Kingsland Morris (1905-1975), Floor-Show, 1947. Oil on canvas, 30¼ x 22¼ in., signed, dated and inscribed lower right: ‘Morris’; on verso: ‘George L K Morris / Floor-Show / 1947’. Courtesy Hirschl & Adler Galleries.
For a second year, Dolan/Maxwell’s entire booth will be devoted to works by artists of color and women, and primarily works on paper. Along with a piece by Gilliam, Dolan/Maxwell will exhibit Elizabeth Catlett’s 2007 bronze, Standing Strong.
“Debra Force Fine Art’s booth will feature impressionist, post-impressionist and modernist works by artists including Romare Bearden, Charles Courtney Curran, Childe Hassam, Reginald Marsh, John Singer Sargent, Edward Steichen and Andrew Wyeth, among others,” says gallery director Bethany Dobson.
Irving Ramsey Wiles (1861-1948), Scallop Boats, Peconic Bay, ca. 1915. Oil on panel, 10 x 14 in., signed lower left: ‘Irving R. Wiles’. Courtesy Thomas Colville Fine Art.
In addition, Graham Shay 1857 will be bringing more than a dozen sculptures, including Albert Wein’s Moment of Waiting from around 1960. Other notable works on paper include Sargent and Prendergast at Adelson Galleries, and Burchfield at Meredith Ward Fine Art and Questroyal Fine Art, to name just a few.
The American Art Fair will be held at the Bohemian National Hall on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
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