Written by Gretel Sarmiento | 22 March 2010

Dark walls and low lights set up the mood for Reclaimed: Paintings from the Collection of Jacques Goudstikker, a traveling show now at the Norton Museum of Art through May 9.

The pieces shown here have been through a lot. They are part of one of the largest restitutions of Nazi-looted art and were only recovered a few years ago. Most of them look tired, old and would be far less intriguing if it wasn't for the moving story behind them.

Jacques Goudstikker (1897-1940) was a well-known Dutch Jewish art dealer who is credited with bringing a wider artistic culture to Amsterdam and in turn raising the cultural reputation of the city. He specialized in Old Masters, and often shared the works in this exhibit with the public through organized shows and galas.

Goudstikker (pronounced howd-sticker) held out against the Nazi threat to the Netherlands as long as he could, then escaped on a ship bound for England in May 1940. But while on board, he fell in the ship’s hold, breaking his neck.

Back on land, the Nazis seized his collection, consisting of about 1,400 pieces. The stolen works were intended for their homes and museums, not for the world. It took Goudstikker descendants, working as the Goudstikker Provenance Project, until 2006, and after decades of legal fights, to recover the works on display here.

Unfortunately, the constant little reminders of Goudstikker's story that accompany the display, and the family’s struggle itself, show poor faith in the very same works Goudstikker valued so much. It is possible the family and museum organizers were not as confident in the works as their owner was. And maybe they were right.

Take the story out – Goudstikker’s personal documents, his business card and his little black book -- and most of the exhibit loses its appeal. But it's also true that some paintings here would have done just fine independently of all that.

Nude Native Americans are seen defending themselves against European troops with stones and arrows in Landscape With an Episode From the Conquest of America, attributed to Jan Jansz Mostaert (1474-1552/53). Goudstikker was one of the first Dutch art dealers to promote northern Mannerist painters such as Mostaert, found here in the second room. This work of his is thought to be the first painted representation of the New World and reflects Europe's strong opinion about the Spanish invasion. The exact place depicted is not known.

An exquisite sample of Italian Renaissance is also here with Mary Adoring the Christ Child, a tempera-on-wood tondo dated 1490-1500. The vivid colors and drapery treatment along with the familiar religious scene and circular shape of this work would have you thinking Botticelli or Michelangelo at first. But this depiction of the loving Madonna contemplating her child is actually attributed to Filippino Lippi (1457-1504), a Florentine painter and son of Fra Filippo Lippi.

Among the 12 works in the third room are two girls who seem quite aware of the seductive power of their youth, freshness and health. Both paintings are courtesy of Pietro Antonio Rotari (1707-1762), who is known precisely for paintings of anonymous, pretty young women. Just look at them. Rosy cheeks. Playful smiles. The Frivolous Girl gives us a girl perfectly comfortable with herself -- and her bust. She wears a collar and flowers in her hair. Next to her, a bonnet and white shawl adorn a seemingly modest girl. She is holding a book but doesn't convince us. That look in her eyes contradicts the title: The Virtuous Girl.

If we are curious to know what a rigid palette can manage to do, we have only to look at the 1641 Winter Landscape With Skaters by Dutch painter Jan Josefsz van Goyen (1596-1656). This is one of many works that made van Goyen one of the most famous and prolific landscapists of the Dutch Golden Age. He was known for his river views, seascapes and winter scenes. This one is an oil piece on panel featuring variations of cream colors that make the sky seem like a breath of fresh air, literally. Its subtle blues and whites are the only break from the soft earthy tones that are never allowed to get out of control. A harmonious atmosphere with dynamic figures is the result.

One of the instances in which text, rather than color and composition, steal the attention is The Adoration of the Shepherds, by Flemish painter Joachim Beuckelaer (1533-1574). The Provenance project discovered the 1564 painting at the 2006 European Fine Art Fair in Holland. When photographs of the painting were compared with a photograph in the Goudstikker archive, they revealed identical cracks, which proved they were the same painting.

A looted piece known to have been destined for Hitler's proposed museum in Linz, Austria, is Louise-Marie Gonzaga de Nevers, by Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680), a pupil of Rembrandt. Supposedly it depicts the queen of Poland in 1646. Here she looks uncomfortable in a pose little respectable for a future queen.

Interesting pieces, all of them, but how good are they as art? It’s impossible to separate the worth of these works from their story, and it starts with the title of the exhibit itself: Reclaimed.

From that moment on, each piece of art is smothered in context and is left no chance to make an impression simply for what it is. And we, in turn, have been robbed of the right to decide: Do we really want to be here? Try walking out without feeling guilty.

Regal portraits, still lives and religious themes in all sizes, by different artists and different styles, are pleasant to look at but nothing we haven't seen before. As with our elders, we put up with them because we are told they deserve respect and admiration and because we have no choice.

Reclaimed is an OK show with a great story. More than anything, it's a show about the art of exhibiting. Watch how pieces otherwise thought of as nice but flat suddenly become important and dramatic when tied to the tragic tale of Jacques Goudstikker and the leading villains of the 20^th century.

Gretel Sarmiento is a South Florida-based freelance writer.

Reclaimed: Paintings From the Collection of Jacques Goudstikker is at the Norton Museum of Art through May 9. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays. Admission: $12, adults; $5, ages 13-21. Call (561) 832-5196 or visit www.norton.org.

Written by Katie Deits | 11 March 2010

Sometimes, the universe opens a window to a new world: If we step through it, our lives are changed.

And sometimes, we just have to return a pager.

Dr. Marvin Mordes was doing his neurology residency in Philadelphia, and had to bring a pager to his co-resident, who happened to be at an art gallery.

"After I met my co-resident, I couldn’t leave the gallery because the skies opened up. It was like a hurricane outside,” Marvin said. “The gallery owner talked to me for two hours, and I felt an epiphany, like something deep down inside me was uncovered. I ended up buying a Mark Toby drawing on paper for $4,500.”

His wife Elayne remembers her husband's epiphany well.

“When he brought the drawing home, I told him to take it back," she said. "That was more money than he earned in a whole year.”

Nothing doing, as it turned out. “That was in 1975, and that was the beginning of the infectious disease of collecting art,” Marvin said, chuckling.

Since that day 35 years ago, the couple has become leading collectors of contemporary art, patrons and donors to museums, and speakers at art fairs. They even conduct their own international art tours -- called Art Adventures -- for a select number of friends, collectors and curators.

But perhaps the most interesting thing about the Mordeses is that three years ago they reconfigured their personal living space into a private art museum. Elayne drew on her training in art and architecture to convert an old dental laboratory on Australian Avenue in West Palm Beach into their space for living and for art.

On the windowless street-side is the museum, and the living quarters are positioned at the rear, and more private, area of the building, which has 11,605 square feet of space.

The museum, called Whitespace -- The Mordes Collection, is a shrine to cutting-edge art, said Kara Walker-Tomé, an independent curator known for her annual Showtel and 10x10 exhibitions.

“Elayne and Marvin Mordes have an impressive collection of contemporary art,” Walker-Tomé said. “Whitespace is essentially a treasure trove of high-caliber artwork by international artists. It has been the best-kept secret in town.”

Lining the long, wide hall that leads to the master bedroom and guest suites are floor-to-ceiling bookcases filled with a collection of art books. These, along with a plethora of art magazines, are used for research.

From the living area, an immense swinging door easily turns on its axis to reveal hundreds of works of art in the museum. Elayne throws up her arms and exclaims: “You don’t own the collection, the collection owns you!”

A wide variety of styles and ideas is on display in the collection. Bath Stone Circle (1992) by the British artist – and Turner Prize winner – Richard Long (b. 1945) creates a feeling of walking in nature, an almost meditative atmosphere that comes from the circular geometric shape as it contrasts with ochre-toned spike rocks. An environmental artist, Long’s works are in collections in Japan, Iceland, Italy and India, as well as San Francisco, and he creates them in museums and outdoor locations.

One common thread throughout the collection is the intriguing and mysterious role that art presents in our lives, and the different interpretations that can be made depending on each viewer’s life experiences.

The Artist Who Swallowed the World (2006), by Austrian artist Erwin Wurm (b. 1954), is a large, rotund sculpture of a man dressed in a bright green shirt, perhaps a commentary on the amount of information people digest daily.

The celebrated Canadian-American artist Frank Gehry’s work is here in the Mordes museum, too, in the form of a corrugated-cardboard chaise longue called Bubbles (1988). In this work, Gehry shows the same sense of design and use of space that can be seen in his major buildings, such as Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum, Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall, and the Experience Music Project in Seattle.

The loft-like living area, which overlooks Lake Mangonia, is also filled with art, and here the Mordeses have left the furniture sleek and simple to keep the focus on the art. One chair stands out, with its large sculptural shape and burled wood: Chair Chair (1987-90) in red oak, Formica, cowhide and painted steel by American artist Richard Artschwager (b. 1923). A bare lightbulb hangs from a soldered metal chain over the chair; it’s titled Hanging Lamp (1988) by Austrian artist Franz West (b. 1947).

Positioned symmetrically in between the windows is an immense chromogenic print, a photograph of a cold winter scene and architecture by German photographer Sabina Honig (b. 1944). The print is framed in an architectural manner, and the perspective is so radical that it gives the feeling that one is looking through a window at the scene and could step right into it.

On the large square glass coffee table, an orange Dale Chihuly wavy glass sculpture sits in front of a television monitor with an image that looks like The Raft of the Medusa by French Romantic painter Théodore Géricualt. But on closer inspection, the image is not the painting and not a photograph, because small movements can be detected in the people.

The scene was created in 2008 by American-born artist Adad Hannah (b. 1971) who used people in 100 Mile House in British Columbia to pose as models. Each held his or her pose for up to 10 minutes to create the video production, which was featured at the Toronto International Art Fair. The Mordeses bought a Blu-Ray video of the project.

Over the grand piano, a photograph by German photographer Thomas Struth (b. 1954) adds international flair. Gracing the end of the kitchen galley is a photograph by Brazilian native and New York City resident Vik Muniz (b. 1961) in which he created a still-life painting-like photograph from an assemblage of dots cut from magazines. In the collection are several of Muniz’s works, including one of his most recent pieces, Medusa (After Caravaggio), which was recreated from large pieces of junk.

“Vik Muniz is exciting and stimulating,” Elayne said. “It is sculpture, painting; he even created a piece using dust balls that he collected from a museum. His work is not static, it’s always changing.”

Once a year, the Marvin and Elayne rearrange the collection. Elayne said the couple recently bought three major pieces that need to be installed: Giant Bent, a large plaster, iron rebar, hemp and graphite sculpture by Thomas Houseago, the Muniz photograph of Medusa, and Donations, by Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset.

"And, last night, I purchased a piece of graffiti art," she said. "It’s a domino effect; it forces you into all sorts of scenarios.”

In the collection is a wide range of art, including paintings, sculptures, video, ceramics and installations.

“After years of collecting, first starting with prints, paintings, sculpture and books, you start appreciating other things, glass, ceramics, the capability for understanding many types of media. It has expanded my love for all artwork," Marvin said. "The beauty of something that someone has made by hand gives me the feeling of wanting to own it and look at it. I believe the line between art and craft is nonexistent.”

After being very active for years on the Baltimore art scene, the Mordeses, who have a daughter and two young grandchildren, moved to Palm Beach County in 2001 when Marvin joined the Cleveland Clinic staff in West Palm Beach. They first moved to Jupiter while Elayne searched for a space they could live in and devote to their collection.

Elayne also appraises and acts as an adviser on contemporary art, organizes lecture series and curates exhibitions. It's something she was well-trained for, having studied art at the University of Maryland, done graduate work in architectural design at Drexel University, and take courses in art appraisal at New York University. She's now a member of the American Society of Interior Designers and Appraisers Association of America.

Last fall, the Mordeses dedicated a large room in the museum for exhibits to be staged by outside curators, calling it Whitebox. Walker-Tomé, who curated the first exhibition in the space, will handle the next one, called Approaching Nature. It opens Friday and runs through May 9.

“When Elayne approached me with her plan of opening the space to the public through the creation of the Whitebox exhibitions, I was quite excited,” she said. “There are so few galleries or art spaces in Palm Beach County regularly showing the work of regional contemporary artists. This was an opportunity that would benefit the community in a big way."

Walker-Tomé added that the daring work in the Mordes collection gives her license to showcase similarly edgy pieces for Whitebox.

"I knew I could select artists who are making cutting-edge work, again, showcasing the fact that we have artists in our area who are making contemporary work on the highest level," she said. "When the space is open for the public during openings and viewing days, they get to see not only Whitebox, but also the whole collection.”

Like true collectors, Elayne and Marvin are always on the lookout for great art.

“Sometimes, by the time we are ready to buy a second or third piece by an artist, the prices are already too expensive," Elayne said. "So, as we look for new artists, we go to galleries, talk to other collectors and dealers and ask questions. The art magazines are usually the first to notice new artists.”

Collecting art, living with and talking about art, keeps this couple on the move and passionate about their lives.

“This furthers my education in everything," Marvin said. "The bottom line is, I’m looking at things that people have done that I don’t do. It doesn’t necessarily make me richer by owning them, but they have enriched my life. It challenges my mind.

“We want to share what we have done. It’s a reflection of our personality and passion — not an ego trip — but to interest people in the art. Once smitten, it is a tremendous passion,” he said.

And at that, he got up and left to head to the ArtPalmBeach art fair, as Elayne energetically prepared to host a dinner at their home for all the art speakers at the fair.

"It is our mission to share our contemporary art, to share with people what is on the scene today," she said. "We don’t really own all this. We take care of it while it is in our care.”

Private and public tours of Whitespace – The Mordes Collection are available, and can be booked online at www.whitespacecollection.com. Reservations must be made as space is limited, and drop-ins are not permitted. The WhiteSpace/Elayne and Marvin Mordes Collection is located at 2805 N. Australian Ave. in West Palm Beach. Admission is $12 on public days. Proceeds benefit the Community Foundation of Palm Beach and Martin counties. Visit the Website or call (561) 842-4131.

Written by Jenifer Vogt | 09 March 2010

The Norton Museum has an expanding collection of contemporary art, and, like many museums that evolve and grow from their initial purpose, it does not have a permanent exhibit space for it.

Although significant, it would be difficult to justify replacing any of Ralph and Elizabeth Norton’s original collection, or changing the focus of current gallery space, and the museum already underwent a significant expansion in 2003 with the addition of the Nessel Wing (Oh, that every museum should have such troubles as what to do with so many great donated works). The temporary solution: biannual exhibits providing a peek at some wonderful — yet otherwise hibernating — gems.

This is the case with Here Comes the Sun: Warhol and Art After 1960. The exhibit showcases 40 works by significant contemporary masters that include paintings, drawings, and sculpture. The Norton’s curator for contemporary art, Cheryl Brutvan, has organized the exhibit chronologically, providing a microcosm of an explosive period in the evolution of art when the very nature of art itself was questioned, tossed in the trash, and made over on completely different terms. Then its old self begin to emerge again through the cracks.

Some might argue that it’s been the most exciting period in the history of art because during this time the epicenter of the art world moved from Europe to our own backyard. Although merely a glimpse, many of the artists that ushered, or partook, in revolutionary post-modern movements, beginning with Andy Warhol, are here. Donald Sultan, Keith Haring, Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Rauschenberg, and Joan Mitchell all make an appearance to remind one of the resounding triumph of post-World War II American art.

Actually, it’s a shame these works aren’t on permanent view. Many are stunning, such as Donald Sultan’s The Granary (1988), a massive concoction of tar and acrylic paint. They epitomize the radical shift that engulfed the art world and brought us to where we stand now. Although vastly different in style and medium, the unifying element is that these works were completed when the definition of art was challenged, the future of the paintbrush was questionable, and conceptual thought trumped artistic mastery.

Warhol, viewed by many as the messiah of post-modernism, and the man who married the fine arts and consumerism, rightly has his own wall at the entrance. The exhibit features his omnipresent Four Jackies (1964-1965), which depicts four images of the first lady. Then there is an assemblage of the Campbell’s soup cans that propelled Warhol to superstar status and marred the line between artist and celebrity. And it’s interesting to view Flowers (1964), the work that gave rise to issues regarding appropriation in art and resulted in a lawsuit from the original photographer, as well as referencing the hippie movement’s flower-child ideology.

There are four sculptures in the exhibit by Sol LeWitt, Anthony Caro, Nancy Graves, and Harry Bertoia that follow along on the progression procession. The Italian-born Bertoia’s minimalist Sunburst III (1968) stands delightfully near the exhibit’s entrance, seemingly inviting one to blow on it and make a wish. Then there’s Chilean-born sociopolitical artist Alfredo Jaar’s Untitled (Water) (1991-1994), which utilizes a light box and color transparencies to make a statement about reality and representation, and provides a hybrid of sculpture and photography.

Continuing with the hybrid theme, a large painting produced by Gianfranco Gorgoni and Robert Rauschenberg provides a witty glimpse into Raushchenberg’s day-to-day existence. Italian photographer Gorgoni came arrived in New York in 1968 to photograph and chronicle New York artists. There he befriended Rauschenberg. He captures the artist leisurely floating in his pool in Robert Rauschenberg, Captiva, Florida (1988). The image is hard to shake from the mind afterwards because of the intimate glimpse into Rauschenberg’s private world.

Moving from Rauschenberg to the aforementioned Sultan and Philip Pearlstein’s Untitled (1966), one views a mini-series on the reemergence of the “painterly” painters, those artists who seem inspired by the sheer physicality of the medium of paint and who gained momentum in the 1980s. Even after painting had been pronounced dead on multiple occasions, these “necrophiliacs” confirmed that the reports of death were, at best, greatly exaggerated.

It’s reassuring that the exhibit culminates with a work by Jacqueline Humphries. Her presence confirms that the Norton’s contemporary focus has merely just begun. The large, lyrically assaultive abstract painting Untitled (2009) inspires, and illustrates the beginning of an ever-evolving journey. Humphries’ work infuses abstraction with something fresh.

“The objective is to knit wildly varying perspectives into a unified space,” the artist has said. “Because of the way light reacts to the metallic paint, the paintings change as your physical relationship to them changes.”

Here Comes the Sun also knits “wildly varying perspectives into a unified space” with a procession of works primarily by American artists who leapfrog off of one another’s breakthroughs — and a few surprises thrown in, such as Picasso’s Harem Scene (1968). Although it’s a Cliff Notes version of the past 50 years, it’s impactful and it establishes the Norton’s commitment to contemporary art, which, hopefully, someday will have a permanent space.

Jenifer A. Vogt is a marketing communications professional and resident of Boca Raton. She’s been enamored with American painting for the past 20 years.

Here Comes the Sun: Warhol and Art after 1960 in the Norton Collection is on view at the Norton Museum of Art until May 2. Hours for this exhibition are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., and Sunday from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. Admission is $12 for adults, $5 for visitors aged 13 through 2, and free for children under 13. For more information, call 561-832-5196, or visit www.norton.org.

Written by Gretel Sarmiento | 25 February 2010

A "Wow!" is heard in the first room of the Flagler Museum's second-floor gallery.

It's uttered in response to Martin Johnson Heade's massive The Great Florida Sunset, one of the highlights of the Flagler's winter show, New World Eden: Artist-Explorers in the American Tropics, running now through April 18. It won't be the last.

In the mid-19th century, the German explorer Alexander von Humboldt, who had spent years in Central and South America, realized visual artists were needed to capture the raw beauty of the region. This exhibit is the happy reunion of those who responded to his call in very personal ways: Heade, Frederic Edwin Church, John James Audubon, Louis Rémy Mignot, Hermann Herzog and many more.

They came, they saw, they conquered -- with the brush. Three rooms comprise the exhibit, each of them a different color: blue, purple and peach.

Not everything in that first blue room needs a pause at the bench.

If one work does, it's The Great Florida Sunset, the largest painting Heade (1819-1904) ever produced, and commissioned by his friend Henry Flagler for the Ponce de Leon Hotel.

It's an unusual work because of that simple flat land Heade chose to depict using bold colors and use of light. It's simple, not dull and specially not devoid of emotions. Other landscape artists turned the eye in search of a more robust, eventful scene as the one captured by Church for In the Andes. It's less intimate and more idealistic.

Although a scientist, Church (1826-1900) shared von Humboldt's notion that the tropics was a place touched by the hand of God. His paintings thus reflect the divine without neglecting realism. They show an artist busy with studying the place's natural history and geological forms.

Before you move on, spend some time with Charles de Wolf Brownell's Limestone Cliff of Bolondron, Cuba, 1860. That serene multi-color sky seems to have inspired the rooms' wall color. Brownell, a contemporary of Church and Heade, spent winters in Cuba, where the family owned sugar plantations. It's not that surprising, therefore, to find natives depicted in this painting.

Right below, an iguana fuses with the environment, just as we would expect in real life and one single white bird is seen flying west. These two singular elements suggest a shift toward the more Darwinian outlook: focus on the individual rather than in the grandiose general vista.

The second room reflects just how strong was the influence of the author of The Origin of Species.

Here it is the hummingbird and orchid works by Heade that steal the show. We find two of the surviving hummingbirds prints he created while in Brazil and for a series he had hoped would capture the birds' habits and life cycles. He was the first artist to paint them from life and desperately wanted to capture their jewel-like coloring but was apparently unsatisfied with the results he achieved.

Ironically, he exceeds our expectations, for how close can an artist really get to capturing the iridescent color of a live hummingbird? Very close, it turns out. Hummingbirds and Their Nest, an oval painting from 1863, combines a dreamy background with that incredible distinctive color of the bird that fascinated Heade.

On the right side of the room his paintings get more elaborate. We find his orchids often paired with hummingbirds and beetles. One dramatic example is Large and Small Orchids with a Beetle, in which one big orchid (Cattleya labiata) is pushed to the foreground, to the point we feel we can reach it with our left hand. On the background, the plants yet to bloom appear to be moving. It's the perfect marriage of reality and imagination.

Complementing his paintings and Laura Woodward's watercolor takes on the red hibiscus flower are stuffed hummingbird displays, feather hats, beetle-inspired jewelry, orchid brooches and a sensational orchid vase from Tiffany and Co., which museum curator Tracy Kamerer said took many negotiations to bring to the exhibit.

The objects remind us that art manifests in our life in more than one way. It feeds fashion, literature, politics, religion. It appears in one medium and soon takes over the rest.

More jewelry, rare old books and romantic depictions of wilderness fill the third room of the exhibit. It is here that we find the bold Mignot, the romantic one, with an adorable, warm vision titled Tropical Sunset. In the first room he is seen mirroring his friend and travel partner, Church. One thing Mignot (1831-1870) did differently was to feature human interest elements -- bridges, people, paths -- in his works.

If Mignot remains obscure, a better-known 19th-century landscape painter who experimented a great deal with light effects and dared to add a personal touch to his work is George Inness (1825-1894). For a work that contains very little action -- a lone heron stands to the left-- Home of the Heron is surprisingly dreamy, highly mysterious and moody. This is a work to avoid if you feel down, but it's perfect for the adventurous soul and the meditative one.

While in this room, listen for another loud Wow! This time it belongs to Church: Twilight in the Tropics stands apart not just because of his darker tones but because of that romantic bright moonlight without which, we suspect, we could not see the magnificent vegetation. By now we are used to Church's daylight tropical vistas and big-picture style. But here he takes a closer look at individual plants and in doing so, a more Darwinian approach.

The intimacy of the painting, suggests an artist more in touch with his own essence or perhaps more devoted than ever to his work. The painting, whose lender is anonymous, actually dates to the time Church spent in Jamaica following the death of his two young sons in 1865.

If you are touched by nature or touched by the art it inspires, this small, sweet exhibit will be worth your time. Plus, it doesn't take an entire morning or afternoon to introduce you to works so precious that, according to Kamerer, "nobody wants to lend them anymore."

This year marks the museum's 50th anniversary and museum organizers wanted to do something simple and close to Flagler. It's not the exhibit to see if you're looking for edgy: This is, peaceful, warm, gorgeous; at times wild, but not looking to shock.

Once here, be like one of many natural elements you'll see depicted. Be water or a flower or a hummingbird. Go with the flow.

Gretel Sarmiento is a freelance writer based in South Florida.

NEW WORLD EDEN: ARTIST-EXPLORERS IN THE AMERICAN TROPICS runs through April 18 at the Flagler Museum on Palm Beach. Admission is free with a ticket to the museum. Adults: $18; $10 for youth ages 13-18; $3 for children ages 6-12; and children under 6 admitted free. For more information, call 561-655-2833 or visit www.flaglermuseum.us.

Written by Katie Deits | 07 February 2010

The recession "is a distant memory for art collectors," says David Lester, organizer of the 14th annual American International Fine Art Fair now taking place at the Palm Beach County Convention Center.

"The 14th edition of AIFAF is shaping up to be the best yet," he said.

The convention center has been transformed into an array of architecturally interesting rooms in which more than 80 vetted exhibitors from 13 countries are showing off sculpture, paintings, etchings, drawings, suits of armor and rare books, among other things. The fair ends Monday evening.

Kevin Baxter, the fair's public relations coordinator for the event, said the fair got under way Wednesday with brisk sales. The Richard Green Gallery reported sales of more than $1 million in the first 24 hours, and the Surovek Gallery sold an Andrew Wyeth painting for $750,000, Baxter said.

Also, Lawrence Steigrad Fine Art sold a Bernhard Osterman painting for $225,000, and the 19th-Century Shop sold an edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass for $480,000, he said.

One of the opportunities for fair visitors -- buyers and gawkers alike -- is the chance to see pieces that have been socked away in private collections and galleries. Students of art history can see original drawings in which artists have explored their ideas, view works that were never published, and discover new artists and styles.

For instance, Ping Pong Players, painted circa 1944 by the American artist Milton Avery (1885-1965), clearly illustrates Avery’s simplification of line and shape. In this piece, Avery departs from his usual passive subjects, deftly depicting an action sequence. The small oil on board can be found at Thomas Colville Fine Art.

Adelson Galleries of New York, specialists in American art, attracted a multitude of visitors to its tastefully appointed booth. Works by Andrew and Jamie Wyeth, as well as South Florida's own Stephen Scott Young (b. 1957) are on display.

Young’s realist paintings, primarily in watercolor, have rocketed in price, as collectors appreciate not only his technical skill but also his ability to convey the character of his subjects, who are often of African descent. Tropical subject matter and humble architecture are also captured in his paintings and drybrush works.

Third-generation painter Jamie Wyeth continues the family tradition of his father Andrew and his grandfather N.C. (also represented by Adelson Galleries), but raises the bar with his experimentation, exploring and courageously combining styles. The Sea, Watched is a recent 30-by-48-inch oil on canvas by Jamie. Adelson Galleries director Elizabeth Oustinoff said that the painting was created just after the death of Andrew Wyeth, who is represented at the shore with his father, N.C. In the foreground, Andy Warhol is pictured from the back, looking onto the scene.

"Jamie painted this in memory of the three people who were most influential in his life," Oustinoff said.

In the Holden Luntz exhibit at the far northeast corner of the fair, large, dramatically printed images by British photographer Nick Brandt stop visitors in their tracks. Brandt’s visions of Africa feature intimate photos of African animals, captured in a photojournalistic manner, naturally in their habitat.

In his artist’s statement, he describes his method: “I believe that being close to the animal makes a huge difference in the photographer’s ability to reveal its personality … I take my time and get as close as I can, inching my way to within a few feet of the animals.”

Sculpture in the fair ranges from classical to abstract to the highly unusual Adam and Eve by Janine Janet (1913-2000), in which the artist appliquéd birch bark and roots onto unique 50-inch tall plaster forms. These works by the late French artist who collaborated with Jean Cocteau are in the Alebreton Gallery and are priced at $295,000.

Visitors should make sure to see Saint Margherite, by Florence-born sculptor Salvatore Albano (1841-1893) in the Eduardo Cohen booth. Albano’s depiction of the saint in marble is on par with the best in classical sculpture, down to the minute detail of fabric and texture.

In the Browngrotta booth are several large tapestries, drawings and sculpture. Tom Grotta, who publishes books on artists, said Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz and the late Ohio artist Lenore Tawney "broke the barriers from craft to fine art in fiber art."

Abakanowicz’s (b. 1930) work was in five Swiss Biennales and is sought after by collectors and museums alike, he said. Her purple tapestry Stadium Faktur shimmers with texture, depth and femininity. Tawney (1907-2007) is represented by wall hangings, collage and mixed media assemblage sculpture that is fascinating in its juxtaposition of materials and symbolism. For example, in Bird Boy, she combined an old, battered cloth mannequin torso and legs of a boy with a bird for a head.

The fair also features a lecture series with art scholars, dealers, museum curators and other art specialists. Visit the fair's Web site for dates and times.

The American International Fine Art Fair is open to the public from noon to 7 p.m. through February 7 and noon to 6 p.m. on February 8. General admission fees range from $25 for a one day pass, $35 for a multi-day pass or $45 and $55 respectively with a catalogue. For more details on fair activities, please visit the
AIFAF Website at www.aifaf.com or call (239) 949-5411.