By Rob Pierce
Since the beginning of the 20th century, the climactic landscape of the Monterey Peninsula has attracted artists from around the world, eager to try their hand at capturing the spirit of the dramatic shoreline. Over the ensuing century, hundreds of artists produced thousands of works, each a unique interpretation of the region’s natural beauty.
After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the region was inundated with musicians, writers, painters and other artists who established an artist colony after the bay city was destroyed. The new residents were offered home lots – ten dollars down, little or no interest, and whatever they could pay on a monthly basis. Among the visual artists to participate in the burgeoning arts community were Armin Hansen, Mary DeNeale Morgan, Carl Oscar Borg, Roi Clarkson Colman, William Louis Otte, Rinaldo Cuneo, William Henry Price.
San Francisco native Armin Hansen is generally considered the most significant artist to work in the Monterey Peninsula during the early-and mid-20th century. Stormy Sea (pictured below) depicts a ship struggling through stormy seas. This painting is an excellent example of Hansen’s powerful oceanographic scenes, for which he is best known.
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Armin Hansen (1886 - 1957)
"Stormy Sea" SOLD
Carmel artist Mary DeNeale Morgan was born in San Francisco in 1868, where she became a favorite pupil of William Keith. Morgan attended summer classes in Carmel that were led by William Merritt Chase and later became the Director of the Carmel School of Art from 1917-1925. Equally facile in watercolor, gouache and oil painting, Morgan’s works often feature the windblown trees and rocky coastline of the Monterey Peninsula.
Mary DeNeale Morgan (1868 - 1948)
"Lake Merritt, Oakland"SOLD |
Thursday, April 13, 2017
Early California Painters of the Monterey Peninsula by Rob Pierce
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
“Monterey Places” Exhibit at the Monterey Museum of Art
An
outstanding group of paintings is currently on display through August
29th, 2016 at the Monterey Museum of Art, Pacific Street.
“Monterey Places” presents works from the permanent collection
that focus on the beauty and history of Monterey County. The exhibit
features early California paintings by influential artists including
M. Evelyn McCormick, Charles Rollo Peters, and Armin Hansen, as well
as contemporary works by Johnny Apodaca and Andrea Johnson.
Click
here to learn more about the exhibit and view some of the works
online.
The
exhibit also includes a web-based interactive virtual gallery
where visitors can “explore and engage with the paintings, and
learn more about the specific locations, local histories, and the
artists who created them”.
Click
here to see the interactive gallery now and discover the paintings
and places featured in this fascinating exhibit.
This
is a great opportunity to get personally involved with the artworks
on display and to discover, learn, and interact! Visitors to the
various current exhibitions are encouraged to write down and share
their reactions and thoughts about works on display. There are short
films to watch, large-screen slide show presentations, tours given by
their enthusiastic, energetic, and well-educated docents, lectures,
and even stations set up where you can create your own artworks.
It's nice to be reminded that visiting a museum is supposed to be
fun, entertaining, inspiring, educational, and exciting! Charlotte Eyerman, hired as the Director in 2013, has been doing a spectacular job of
moving the museum boldly forward into the 21st century, and the staff has been extremely successful at engaging, entertaining,
and educating visitors using a combination of technology, creative
ideas, and social media.
The
Monterey Museum of art is located at 559 Pacific Street, Monterey, CA
(831) 372-5477. For additional information and hours, visit their
website www.montereyart.org
Friday, March 25, 2016
FOUR REASONS WHY HISTORIC ART REMAINS IMPORTANT TO THE CALIFORNIA MARKET
FOUR
REASONS WHY HISTORIC ART REMAINS IMPORTANT TO THE CALIFORNIA MARKET
By William A. Karges Fine Art Editorial Staff
What
is it that has always attracted people to Early California painting?
Works created during the period between 1870 and 1940 by artists such
as Granville Redmond, Guy Rose, and William Ritschel continue to
remain popular among people of all ages. With the current frenzy
surrounding modern and contemporary art, why are collectors, museums
and gallery visitors still so fascinated by this more traditional
style of painting?
1)
Traditional art is self-sustaining
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| Granville Redmond (1871 - 1935) "California Landscape" SOLD |
Certainly
there is ample room for all types, mediums, subjects, and talents in
the art world. The nature of art is to encourage experimentation, and
to open viewer's minds to new ways of thinking and experiencing the
world. Art is a medium that, at its best, evokes an emotion, but it
has many purposes, including breeding thoughts and ideas, and
connecting us to each other through the simple fact that the works
were created for humans by other humans.
However,
as corporate marketing agencies spend huge sums to convince visitors
of flashy art fairs, surfeit with celebrities, that it's perfectly
normal for a canvas painted blue with a white line to sell for $43.8
million dollars, one begins to suspect that the contemporary art
world is more about a “scene” than about the art itself.
Yet
the private market for historic California art remains strong without
all the fanfare and high-priced marketing of its modern, postmodern,
and abstract brethren. The reason is that collectors of these prior
genres tend to be more self-educating –
that is, historic collectors appreciate the visual aesthetic
qualities of the work, but also foster connoisseurship by seeking the
historical significance of the objects themselves. The market is
driven less by external trends and more by a conscious intellectual
endeavor to understand the contextual whole.
2)
It preserves our history
For
over one hundred years, the California Art Club has existed for the
exclusive purpose of fostering and preserving the rich tradition of
fine art in California. One of the oldest, largest, and most active
art organizations in the country, it continues to attract an
increasing number of new members, and any study of the history of the
art of the region will contain by necessity the history of the CAC
and its members, such as William Wendt (1865–1946), Edgar Payne
(1883–1947), Franz Bischoff (1864–1929)
Other
groups, such as the Traditional Fine Arts Organization, continue
to grow in popularity and membership. The TFAO, a non-profit group
“dedicated to furthering education in American Representational art
through advocacy, publication, and research,” similarly works to
preserve the history of the arts.
The CrockerArt Museum in Sacramento, established in 1885 and home to a vast
and important collection of early California paintings, recently
tripled its size and has become one of the leading art museums in
California, and the recently opened Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University, displaying a significant collection of
20th century representational art, is drawing large,
enthusiastic crowds.
The
history of art in California is quite literally the history of the
people, places, and events that have shaped the world we live in.
Without organizations and patrons dedicated to the preservation and
appreciation of this artistic legacy, our own history would be lost
to the fog of time.
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| Orrin White (1883 - 1969) "Southern California Landscape" Oil on canvas, 26 x 32 inches SOLD |
3)
Historical art preserves our environment
In
order to understand the reasons for this enduring love of paintings
created in the “Golden State”, a good place to look is the
California landscape itself.
California
landscape paintings, plein air works in particular, call attention to
the exceptional and unparalleled beauty of the hills, mountains,
deserts, and farmlands of California which, in turn, remind us of the
fragile nature of our unique habitat. As with John Muir, we are
inspired to become better custodians of these precious lands, and to
protect and nurture the environment.
Early paintings of Yosemite, by
artists such as Gilbert Munger and Thomas Hill, served to draw
attention to that area, and helped to spark a new era of conservation
and environmental protection for its unique and exceptional beauty.
Artists and writers were extremely important in
influencing Nineteenth Century trends in American conservation.
One
of the great museums in the state is the Irvine Museum, which is
dedicated to the preservation and display of California art of the
Impressionist Period (1890-1930). In her welcoming statement for the Irvine Museum, the institution's founder, real
estate heiress Joan Irvine Smith, notes that “Much of what
originally made California a 'Golden Land' was directly linked to the
environment, especially the land and water that nurtured and
sustained a rare quality of life. Over a hundred years ago, the
splendor of nature fascinated artists and compelled them to paint
beautiful paintings. As we view these rare and remarkable paintings,
we are returned, all too briefly, to a time long ago when the land
and its bounty were open and almost limitless.”
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Thomas Hill (1829 - 1908) "Three Deer Overlooking the Valley" Oil on canvas, 12 x 18 inches SOLD |
4)
The market is strong
In
spite of – and at least partially because
of –
a recent surge in turnover of contemporary art, current auction
records for important paintings from the Early California period are
remarkably strong. Today's overheated market for contemporary work
with little or no proven track record is providing astute collectors
with a perfect opportunity to acquire certain early California
paintings on the private market at somewhat more modest prices than
those seen a decade or two ago, just as Joan Irvine was able to
acquire historic paintings for the museum by circumventing the
contemporary art bubble of her own time.
Simultaneously,
important major works by the most popular artists in the genre are
commanding stronger prices than ever, proving again that the market
for the most desirable first-rate works still remains bullish. A
painting by William Wendt (1865-1946) “The Old Coast Road”, circa
1916, was sold in April 2015 for $1,565,000, setting a new public
record for the artist. The Director of Fine Arts at Bonhams in Los Angeles, Scot Levitt, commented of the sale, "This was the most exciting sale that I have had the distinction to auction in my 30 years working with the company". Shrewd collectors know that significant
paintings from this genre continue to enjoy an enduring position in
the history of art, and can comfortably count on the fact that their
importance and relevance over time has been repeatedly proven.
While
all of this may be somewhat of a simplification, it’s clear that
the appeal of historical California art is multi-faceted and often
rooted in deeply-felt emotions and fundamental human nature. The
pieces from this halcyon era inspire us to care more about, and
protect, our fragile environment.
They can make us feel peaceful,
centered and quiet, and can function as a counterpoint to the fast
pace of today's world that's crowded with glowing screens,
overflowing email inboxes, and ringing cell phones.
They can bring us
joy, pleasure, and memories of happy times spent with people we've
loved. And, most importantly, the paintings from this special era in
California history make us feel connected to the past, connected to
the land and the environment around us, connected to the artists
through time, and to each other.
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Alson Clark - Early California Impressionist
Alson Clark - Early California Impressionist
Alson S. Clark (March 25, 1876 to March 23, 1949) was among America’s
most prominent Impressionist painters. Born to an affluent family,
Clark was able to develop his artistic talent at a young age by
taking night classes at the Art Institute of Chicago, and through
exposure to European art and painting during a two-year trip to see
the world with his family in his teenage years. After graduating from
high school, he left Chicago to study under William Merritt Chase at
the Art Students League in New York and the Chase Summer School of
painting in Shinnecock. He then studied under James Abbott McNeill
Whistler at the Academie Carmen in Paris, instruction that Clark
acknowledged as a life long influence.
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| Alson Clark "Chicago" Oil on canvas, 18 x 22 inches SOLD |
Returning to New York briefly in 1901, Clark met his wif Atta Medora McMullin when she modeled for his work. He spent much of his early career in Paris, taking residence in the city from 1902 until 1914. The Clarks were able to travel extensively throughout life, supported by sales through galleries such as William Macbeth in New York and William O’Brien in Chicago. The Clarks visited much of Europe and spent a year living in Giverny in 1910, where there was an active artist community surrounding Monet. Clark’s work in Europe often focused on architecture, depicting beautiful European Chateaus and historical buildings from the Middle Ages. He also served as an aerial photographer after the outbreak of World War I.
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| Alson Clark "The Golden Hour" Oil on board, 25 1/2 x 31 1/4 SOLD |
Visiting
the Canal Zone in 1913 to see the construction of the Panama Canal,
Clark spent months painting its final construction phase. His work
earned him a solo exhibition of 18 paintings at the Panama-PacificInternational Exposition in San Francisco, putting him in the ranks
of such distinguished artists as Frank Duveneck, James Whistler,
William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam, and John Singer Sargent as the
only participating Americans.
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| Alson Clark "Culebra Cut, Panama Canal, 1914" Oil on canvas, 26 x 32 SOLD |
In
1919, the Clarks moved back to the states and settled in Pasadena,
California. While Clark was primarily a landscape painter, he also
worked on a number of mural projects in California, including the
now-demolished Carthay Circle Theater in Los Angeles, the California
Club, bank buildings, and private homes. His works—painted in plein
air—often demonstrated a technically refined impressionism focusing
on landscapes with figurative elements and historical architecture.
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| Alson Clark "San Gorgonio" Oil on canvas, 18 1/2 x 22 SOLD |
In an exhibition at Detroit Museum of Art featuring architectural studies such as “The Pope’s Antechamber at Fountainbleau,” and “Façade of the Chateau of Blois,” one critic noted:
His
colors are harmonious and one is charmed with the pictorial qualities
of the scenes before him. The artist has not been so jealous of his
art as to distract you with it, but has rather concealed it.
Clark
and his wife spent the rest of their lives in California, although
they continued to travel frequently throughout the Southwest and
Mexico, where some of the artist’s favorite subjects included
Mission San Gabriel and Mission San Juan Capistrano.
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| Alson Clark "San Juan Capistrano" Oil on canvas, 26 x 32 SOLD |
He befriended artist Guy Rose, joining him as a teacher at the Stickney Memorial School of Art and taking over as Director when Rose died of a stroke. Maintaining connections to the art world in New York and Chicago, the artist continued to enjoy success until his death in 1949, becoming one of the most highly-regarded California Impressionists and receiving solo exhibitions at spaces such the Stendahl Gallery.
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
William S. Schwartz, "Romantic Modernist"
William S.
Schwartz
William A. Karges Fine Art
William A. Karges Fine Art
William
S. Schwartz (February 23, 1896 – February 10, 1977) was born to a
poor family in Smorgon, Russia, where he attended art school on
scholarship in adolescence before immigrating to the United States at
the age of 17. There Schwartz, who had “chosen his life’s work
early on,” managed to support himself as an opera, vaudeville,
radio and concert singer and painting houses in order to pursue his
ultimate dream as a painter.
After
moving to New York to live with his sister and then Omaha to study
with J. Laurie Wallace at the Kellom School, Schwartz ultimately
ended up in Chicago, where he studied under Ivan Trutnev and Karl A.
Buehr at the Art Institute of Chicago. He graduated with honors in
life drawing, portraiture, and painting before his career took off in
1926 when he had his first solo exhibition of three at the Institute
in 1926.
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| William Schwartz "Daydreams" Oil on canvas, 14 x 11 inches SOLD |
He
was well known as a distinctive character who sported a handlebar
mustache with long hair and a thick accent and was known to frequent
Riccardo’s Restaurant and Gallery with other well-known artists
such as Ivan Albright, Malvin Albright, andAaron Bohrod. In 1921,
Schwartz met and eventually married Mona Turner—then a married
woman and mother of two—who he adored and benefited from greatly as
she became both his muse and “least lenient critic.” Together
they toured the US by car to visit friends as Schwartz painted the
country en plein air.
Throughout
the Great Depression he supported himself by painting murals in a
regionalist style at numerous post offices for the Federal Art
Project. He incited minor controversy with his nude lithographs, and
his subject matter moved freely between genres to suit his vision. “I
have painted in faith and in freedom,” wrote the artist, “faith
that somehow what I have done will reflect the best that is in
me—freedom to choose my own themes in my own way.” Ultimately
Schwartz was most known for and worked most prolifically in symbolist
and abstract styles, but he characterized the American scene as,
“more colorful and challenging than I or any artist might hope to
record in a hundred lifetimes.”
Identifying
himself as a “romantic modernist,” he was heavily influenced by
surrealism and incorporated influences from cubism and constructivism
into his abstract works.
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| William Schwartz "Figures in a Rocky Landscape" Oil on board, 10 x 12 inches SOLD |
In the 1920’s he began his series
Symphonic Forms,
regarded by many as the height of his oeuvre. Marrying his two
passions, art and music, the paintings from the series feature
surreal biomorphic forms and bright colors recalling the fauvists.
Punctuated by jagged cubistic shapes and tonalistic hues, his
symphonic scenes evoke the timbre, notes, and compositional scale of
the vibrating and evolving musical works they were inspired by, such
as Beethoven’s Symphony
No. 23. Recalling
Kandinsky’s lyrical mysticism, Schwartz’s work seems to capture
the spirit of music in its variegated form.
Writing
for the Chicago Tribune in 1970, Schwartz put his work into his own
words:
My
subjects are the beauty and wonder, the laughter and poetry, the pity
and terror of the present world, which is the only universe I know.
My drawing, composition, color, and techniques are based on the best
education I could come by and extended to the limits of my own
creative invention and capacities. I do not imitate. Therefore I, and
I alone, am responsible for the vision of the world I set before the
viewer.”
Swimming
between different styles and influences and inspired by the American
landscape and subject matter, Schwartz’s surreal visual opuses
stand out as stunning reminders of his work as a uniquely abstract
modernist.
Schwartz,
William S. “An Artist’s Love Affair with America.” The
Chicago Tribune. April
5, 1970, Pages 64-65.
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Early Northwest Modernist Z. Vanessa Helder
Early Northwest Modernist Z. Vanessa Helder
William A. Karges Fine Art
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| Z. Vanessa Helder "Palouse Barnyard" 15 x 22 inches SOLD |
Born to an artistic and somewhat
eccentric family whose interests included music, theosophy, and
astrology, Z. Vanessa Helder was an unconventional figure often found
strolling Seattle’s streets dressed in her finest with her pet
skunk in tow. Her mother was passionate about art and gave Helder her
first painting lessons at a young age, eventually leading the
prolific young artist to study art at the University of Washington.
She kept an unorthodox school of pets throughout her life (at one
time she made several inquiries with various state agencies only to
find out it was illegal to own a flying squirrel) and an active
social life amongst artists, architects, and bon vivants. Undertaking
considerable work both teaching and supporting professional artists
through the art associations that sustained Seattle and California’s
vibrant art scenes before galleries and museums, Helder’s art and
social life were intertwined.
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| Z. Vanessa Helder "Brattleboro Street" SOLD |
In 1934 Helder moved East with a
scholarship to the Art Students League of New York where her artistic
style picked up precisionist influences under a number of artists
including Robert Brackman, George Picken, and Frank Vincent. There
she also joined the National Association of Women Painters and
Sculptors as well as winning membership in the American Watercolor Society in 1943. Attracting the attention of prominent gallerists of
the time such as Maynard Walker and especially Macbeth Gallery,
Helder’s characteristic style and Northwestern subject matter
brought her attention in exhibits at the Whitney and aforementioned
MOMA while simultaneously raising interest in her friends and fellow
artists such as Robert O. Engard and Blanche Morgan back home.
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| Z. Vanessa Helder "Cows and Barn" SOLD |
Moving back to Washington, Helder became a member of the Women Painters of Washington (WPW), was employed by the local branch of the federal Works ProgressAdministration (WPA) art programs creating murals, lithographs, and paintings, and spent two years teaching at the Spokane Art Center. It was around this period that Helder created one of her most well known works, a series of watercolors for the Bureau of LandReclamation depicting the Coulee Dam during its construction, exhibited at the Seattle Art Museum in 1939.
Developing a distinct precisionist
style that defied watercolor’s usual billowy brushstrokes, Helder’s
tight yet airy compositions were rendered in an elegant, tempera-like
finish. Her subject-matter focused mostly on winterscapes, portraits
contrasting collections of natural and manufactured objects, and
angular architectural structures framed by rural scenes.
She enjoyed
the influence of Washington artist Elizabeth Colborne, whose
watercolor and woodblock prints left an impression of simple
composition; her contemporaries and teachers on the East Coast, whose
early modern precisionism trained her eye to industrial subjects; her
husband John “Jack” Patterson, whose work as an architect gave
her a special perspective; and a love of Chinese painting.
Assimilating her interests into her natural talent, Helder fluidly
expressed her subjects in a striking, technical style that retained a
sense of atmospheric lightness on canvas.
In 1943 she followed her husband to Los
Angeles as he pursued professional opportunities. There she found
success, joining the board of the California Watercolor Society while
continuing to exhibit old and new works in California, Washington,
and New York. In addition, she maintained active involvement in the
Los Angeles art associations that were the primary exhibitors of
California artists at the time. However, as more abstract styles
began to take precedence in painting, the watercolor master’s work
fell out of favor and she exhibited less regularly before her death
on May 1, 1968. Helder’s works were then donated to the Westside
Jewish Community Center where they were slowly sold off over the
years, leaving hundreds of works unaccounted for to this day.
 |
| Z. Vanessa Helder "Near San Jacincto" 15 x 20 SOLD |
Exhibitions/Collections
Z. Vanessa Helder has been exhibited at
museum’s including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum,
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Denver Art Museum, and the
Seattle Art Museum and is included in collections at the National
Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian Institution, the Newark
Museum, the High Museum of Art, the Portland Art Museum, Portland,
Oregon, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the St. Louis Art Museum, the
Academy Of Arts And Letters, Washington State University, I.B.M.
Corporation, the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture and the
Whatcom Museum of History & Art.
Friday, July 10, 2015
ARMIN CARL HANSEN
"MARINE PAINTER OF MONTEREY"
William A. Karges Fine Art
Born in San Francisco in 1886, the
well-traveled painter and etcher Armin Hansen was less worldly than
an explorer of life at sea, both on deck and even more so in
capturing the spirit of marine life on canvas.
 |
| Armin Hansen "Fishing Boats" 10 x 14 inches SOLD |
His father Herman Wendleborg Hansen was a distinguished American Western artist himself who provided him with early instruction. Continuing his studies as a formal painter at what would become the San Francisco Art Institute (then the Hopkins Institute of Art) under Arthur Mathews, Armin went on to the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich under Carlos Grethe after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fires destroyed much of his home city.
Remaining abroad after finishing, Hansen’s attraction to
marine life led him to Niewpoort, Belgium, and from there on board as
a deckhand on Norwegian fishing trawlers and other commercial
vessels.
 |
| Armin Hansen "Stormy Sea" 25 x 28 inches SOLD |
He eventually returned to California
and settled in Monterey in 1913. There, eschewing at once the more
conservative impressionistic tradition and the modernist trends of
his day, Hansen went on to fashion a robust style featuring stoic
figures enduring the throng of chaotic seascapes, realized in deep,
saturated primary colors and bold angular brushstrokes.
 |
| Armin Hansen "Aground" 12 1/2 x 15 1/2 inches SOLD |
Although
throughout his career his subject matter ranged from oils and
etchings of aquarium-like still lifes to landscapes and frenetic
rodeo scenes, he is most known for his depictions of Portuguese,
Japanese, Sicilian fishermen and boats painted in Monterey, which
evince the rugged endurance of men amongst tidal forces and sealed
his legacy as one of California’s most important artists of his
time.
 |
| Armin Hansen "Cosimo and Pals" 10 x 12 inches SOLD |
Elected to the National Academy of
Design in 1926, Hansen moved in circles including the Carmel Art Association, the Monterey School, and the Society of Six. He was one
of the best teachers of his day, and taught both C.S. Price and
August Francois Gay. He exhibited at the 1915 San Francisco World’s
Fair Panama-Pacific International Exposition. While his subject
matter took up where art and literature of the preceding century left
off, his singular style captured what it was to endure shifting and
elemental forces in America and heavily influenced the techniques of
the modernist generation that studied under him.
For additional information about this important artist, visit the Crocker Art Museum June 6th through October 11th, 2015 to see the comprehensive exhibit, "Armin Hansen: The Artful Voyage". This extraordinary collection of nearly 100 paintings was organized by the Pasadena Museum of California Art, and curated by Scott A. Shields, Associate Director and Chief Curator at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. The collection includes a wide variety of subjects and styles, as well as paintings that have never been seen before by the public. Call (916) 808-7000 for additional information.
The show will open at the Monterey Museum of Art October 29th, 2015 and continues through March 7th, 2016. Call (831) 372-5477 for additional information.
Don't miss this extraordinary opportunity to learn more about this unique, exceptionally talented and influential Early California artist.
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