Gustave Baumann

More than any other artist Gustave Baumann captured the essence of Santa Fe.  He was born in Magdeburg, Germany in 1881 and when he was 10 years old his family moved to the U.S.  At 17 he took night classes at the Art Institute of Chicago while working for an engraving house.  He then went back to Germany in order to attend the Kunstgewerbe Schule in Munich where he learned wood carving and how to make wood block prints.

He was attracted to New Mexico by the Taos Colony of artists where he had a number of friends and colleagues but decided that was not for him and settled in Santa Fe.  Of particular interest to him here was the open door policy of the new art museum, which had opened in 1917, the year before Baumann arrived.  There, artists were free to put up their works of art in the galleries.

Baumann created in many media but his prints and puppets came to the fore and he is probably best known for the former.  His works can be found not just in Southwest museums but in museums around the country and have become relatively pricey in recent years.  His favorite subjects are the Southwest landscape and the Indians’ dances.  Here are a couple of his prints as they relate to both.

Just before leaving Santa Fe I had a rare opportunity to visit the artist’s home and studio. He built it in 1923 and it has been in private hands until recently.  Two years ago the Historic Santa Fe Foundation took advantage of the opportunity to buy and restore the building as it was when Baumann lived and worked there, which he did until his death in 1971.

Our visit began in what we might refer to today as an entry hall. It is about 10 feet wide and 15 feet long and was used as the shop from which the artist sold his work.  He painted a decorative frieze based on Indian designs and made nails part of the frieze. From these he could hang his pictures so that he never had to ruin the beautifully painted walls with additional nails.   All the colors used in the house echo those used in his woodcuts.

The little dining room off of the hall has the only original light fixture and the ceiling is in metallic paint, which was probably most helpful in reflecting the limited light that he got from his electric fixtures.

We were ushered into a tiny space which was the hub of the house. It was lined with shelves that exhibited his collection of kachina dolls. Off of that was a small room made of cement and brick with a steel door which alone represented a good percentage of the building’s cost.  This was his vault in where he kept his original wood blocks as well as finished works of art and important papers.

Off of the hub we could also walk into Baumann’s private quarters where we saw his bedroom, as well as the bedroom added when his daughter was born. Note the tie rack he built into one of his closets… a Baumann puppet!

There are a number of Kiva fireplaces, which obviously needed to be used during the very cold winters. These are signature elements of Santa Fe architecture and they were often decorated.  The one illustrated here has a plaque with a Katsina on it.

As with many long-lived buildings, this house expanded. The large room with plenty of sunshine on one side of the house served as Baumann’s studio until he constructed an additional building on the back.  The former studio then became his puppet theater where he entertained his friends with puppet shows.  Like Calder’s Circus at the Whitney, the puppets are a beloved part of the collection of Bauman’s work at the New Mexico Museum of Art.  While they have recently been restored and exhibited they are considered too fragile to perform. However, reproductions have been made and every Christmas they are featured in a puppet show at the museum to the delight of children and adults alike.

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Having just finished this missive I am reminded of two Baumann exhibitions here in Santa Fe.  One which we received a preview of earlier this year is called “Gustave Baumann: Painter, Printmaker, and Puppeteer” and is currently showing at the Governor’s Gallery in the State Capitol.  It runs until September 2.  The other is just of the artist’s woodblock prints and will open at the New Mexico Art Museum on July 1 and runs through the end of the year.  

Lending Our Photo Collection

In the mid 1970’s Penelope and I collected vintage photographs.  When asked what period I collect, I usually answer works from between the wars, though there are many exceptions.  In those days we bought only as much as we could hang on the walls of our apartment and investment was the furthest thing from our minds.  After all when you buy photos for hundreds of dollars how could they possibly appreciate that much?

At the time we lived in a small one bedroom walk up so the collection is not that large, only about 50 prints.  Eventually we moved to a Park Avenue co-op and then briefly to what amounted to a railroad flat on the west side of Manhattan. There, we had a very long hallway connecting all the rooms.  Since there were no windows it was the perfect venue to show works on paper.

When we moved to the house back on the east side where we remained for over a decade, most of the space was used for the gallery’s art so the photography collection remained in a closet.  Today, we have a gallery and pied-a-terre in New York and our house in New Mexico is devoted to our Native American Collection.

So what to do with the collection?  Because of its appreciation in value our accountants recommended not selling and, in any case, we love it and don’t really want to part with  our photos.

I don’t believe in putting works of art in a crate long term.  Too much can happen to art when it is out of view.

We then had the following idea.  Remember, not long ago I wrote about the “Clouds” and “Earth Now” photo exhibitions at the New Mexico Museum of Art.  The quality and thought behind those exhibitions made us fans of the Museum’s photography curator, Kate Ware.  We, therefore, decided to ask whether the museum might be interested in a long-term loan.  It had the advantages that people could see and appreciate the collection and the museum would cover the insurance costs.

 After consultations between curator, director and registrar, concerning questions such as, how many linear inches will it take up in their limited humidity and temperature controlled storage facility, they agreed that it would fit well with the works the museum already owned.

But we still needed a contract.  These can get extremely complicated and demanding on both sides but in this case it was rather simple.  The main issues were how long the contract would be in effect, so that either side could opt out if they so wished; whether loans would be allowed to third parties and under what circumstances, as well as issues of exposure to light, i.e. how long a work can remain on view. 

As with all contracts the countersigned contract arrived at the last minute, hand delivered by the registrars who came to pick up the boxes of photos. 

The Library Arrives

As mentioned in a previous missive we are moving much of our gallery’s library to our house in Santa Fe.  And, as is bound to happen, there came a day at the beginning of the month that the truck arrived with 180 cartons mostly filled with books!  They had been packed up by our art movers in New York, Gander & White, and the cartons were handed over to Art Handlers, Ltd. which specializes in art moving in Santa Fe and they brought them cross country.  In order to avoid the tornados near Joplin they took the southern route but had not checked with Mother Nature first.  When the truck arrived in Nashville with a blown turbo, which took a day to replace, they could not leave again for another day because of tornado warnings there as well.  Happily those tornados did not hit and finally, three days later than anticipated they arrived in Santa Fe.

Then with less than a day’s rest they delivered the shipment to our house.  On the way in, however, they had to lop off some large branches from our tree at the driveway to allow their truck to pass.  The owner of the trucking company, Sharon Pattison, who had accompanied the shipment from New York and her heroic truck driver, Jay Quintana, arrived with four men to lift the cartons out of the truck and set them as near as possible to their eventual resting place. As much as you expect it, it is still a shock when it all arrives!

Sharon and Diana Nixon, our New York librarian, were by the truck to direct in which direction the specific cartons should go.   Penelope was in the basement where she had had metal shelving erected and pointed to the area where we planned to shelve the books and I was there to take care as to where the fine arts, which came along would be placed; more on this next week.

As of this writing it has been a week since the truck unloaded; the books are in place and there are a very few cartons still to be opened.  Not that this is the end of the job, as we still have all the books that have been already housed in Santa Fe that will have to be integrated!

Now, the next question that comes to mind is where are what books.  There is method to our madness: exhibitions and museums as well as most sculpture and decorative arts volumes are here in Santa Fe; books related to provenance research, such as collections and auction catalogs, are going to our New York warehouse; and old master drawings and paintings as well as a selection of sculpture and decorative arts books being at the gallery.  Thank goodness for our library software. We will be looking there first to be sure where the book might be!

As I have heard so often, the Frick library is two blocks from the gallery, why not just use that.  Unfortunately, not everything is there.  In rare cases visitors to the Frick have been guided to our library, also old European auction catalogs might not be available or the volume desired is not always easily accessible.  One never knows when a publication must be retrieved. 

Albert Paley @ Gerald Peters Gallery

Gerald Peters has a huge pueblo-style gallery with outdoor space here in Santa Fe, the perfect venue to show the art of Albert Paley.

Albert Paley (Philadelphia 1944-) started out as a jeweler buy he never made small delicate jewels he made major statements. It wasn't long until his statements became larger and he turned them into incredible pieces of metal furniture with lyrical lines. Later he continued to create the decorative arts but increasingly worked on major pieces of sculpture in his 40,000 square foot studio in Rochester, New York.

Penelope met Albert in her days working in the 20th Century Department at the Metropolitan Museum and they stayed in touch. Once when she went to his studio he had just found his first winch, an elevator winch, which could twist metal. He gave her an illustration piece.

Believe it or not in the early 1980’s she was allowed to hand carry this ten pound piece of twisted steel onto her plane home. Things have gotten heavier and larger since. The exhibition that arrived 25 years later in Santa Fe was brought on two semi 18 wheelers carrying three tons each of Albert's work, his art is not for the faint of heart!

The Peters’ gallery director for contemporary art, Abigail von Schlegell, supervised the full day of off loading from the trucks and then four days of unpacking and installation. It wasn't as if she could change her mind and move the indoor sculptures (300-800 lbs.) around on her own.

The resulting exhibition does justice to both Albert's largest pieces and his small objects including candlesticks and even a menorah.

Many of the table objects are placed in a smaller gallery and usually on top of one of Albert's tables, so as not to be dwarfed by the sculpture.  Since, when one is installing very heavy items such as library shelves for art books or large pieces of sculpture one must keep in mind the weight that the floor will bear, the sculpture that is12 feet high and weighs 1200 pounds was a special challenge. That remains outside. Still, looking at the gallery, the way the exhibition seems to build up to the larger pieces and the way the walls are used for drawings make it work wonderfully.

As much as I like Albert’s sculpture in the appropriate outdoor setting I tend to gravitate back to my roots and enjoy the objects and furniture most. The piece I would buy for myself, not necessarily the one I might buy for the museum, is a round glass topped table. Needless to say, that is one of the first pieces that was sold from the show… yes, I did pick it before I saw the red dot!

Working on the scale he does Albert is preparing two years ahead for a bigger challenge: sculpture to adorn Park Avenue like Jeff Koons’ current installation.
 

Bill Cunningham New York

This newly released film puts a new light on Bill Cunningham and his world of fashion and social events. Fashion has been his passion since he was a child and he started his professional career as a milliner. After a stint photographing for Women’s Wear Daily and Details Magazine he started taking photographs for the New York Times in the early 170’s.

Cunningham rides his Schwinn bike everywhere and you may have seenthis distinguished elderly gentleman (he celebrated his 80th birthday a couple of years ago) riding day and night in his blue smock cover-up with a red reflective vest at night.

Cunningham lived for many years in a rent-controlled artist’s studio in Carnegie Hall. The only amenity he had in his small apartment was a bed tucked between file cabinets. Even the community bathroom was down the hall! Those files contain an archive of fashion and New York society for the past half-century.

Anyone who is in the fashion, social or not for profit world knows or knows of Bill Cunningham. If you look at the Sunday Styles section of the New York Times you have seen the two full pages he garners every week of images with a minimum of copy. One page is in color and illustrates street fashion and the other in black & white highlights the beautiful people from the social events that have occurred during the past week.

For his fashion page he often plants himself at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th street where you will find the likes of Trump Tower and Tiffany’s. This is where the world passes. He looks at what people are wearing. It might be a Kennedy or another glitterati passing but he does not concentrate on the faces only the clothes and how they are worn. He also loves the outrageous outfits that people wear. Each week he picks out a theme which might be shoes or people who wear black and designs a page around his theme and photographs.

As for his weekly social page he obviously cannot attend all the benefits that occur. There are far too many so Bill Cunningham chooses the events he will attend with his camera according to the sponsors and whether he feels their cause is worthy of attention.

If you are into fashion you desperately want to be seen on his page and if your are in the social or business world you want to be seen as attending the worthy cause as well. I must confess that since I attend some of these dinners and usually see him snapping away on his Nikon film camera (he has the film developed at a local shop on Time Square and scans the images at the Times) I have wanted to make it into the Sunday social column. Since I do not like to wear a Tuxedo to these events and look like every other male in the room including the waiters, I put on a black western outfit with a silver bola tie and buckle. This always attracts Cunningham’s attention and he has taken a number of photos of me and dutifully recorded my name but I only made it into the Times once and that was at a benefit for the World Monuments Fund when I stood between the art dealer/philanthropist Eugene Thaw and museum director Sam Sachs!

Cunningham is an important international chronicler of fashion and in 2008 he was made an Officier des Arts et Lettres, a great honor from the French government for his work in fashion. He loves Paris and attends all the fashion shows he can. I sure hope he can continue for sometime and that his archive will be preserved at an institution where it can be consulted but historians for centuries to come.

Pastels

The night before we left for points west we caught the opening of “Pastel Portraits: Images of 18th Century Europe” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The exhibition was in the drawings galleries reserved for exhibitions. These are three good sized rooms which are, for most drawings shows, hung cheek by jowl leaving no breathing room. In this case, however, since there are only about 40 works everything has some space, but the rooms certainly do not look empty. It makes the exhibition more relaxing to look at. You do not feel rushed to see it all but can savor each wonderful picture.

The show is curated by two Met staffers, Katherine Baetjer, Curator of European Paintings and her collaborator Marjorie Shelley, Sherman Fairchild Conservator in Charge, Paper Conservation. Marjorie has always had a special interest in pastels and has started a collection within her department of artists’ materials as well. Up front we get an explanation of the medium illustrated by an actual artists work table which has spaces for pastels as well as brushes and watercolors. We also find drawers of pastels arranged by color with every hue, far surpassing the colors offered in MS Word. The medium became extremely popular in Europe during the 18th century with some 2,500 artists employing pastels by 1750.

I tend to look at portraits similarly to snap shots that our friends and relatives have taken. I begin to feel if I have seen one I have seen them all - not another one of Aunt Minnie on the beach, please. When it comes to art I want to see another dimension. I want it to grab me. Style and quality are all important and sometimes the name of the sitter can illuminate the piece. Pastel is an excellent medium for showing the expressions of it’s sitters and also for showing such vanities as the powder coming off of their wigs or the lace of their frocks.

Going around the exhibition, my wife or I would say “oh, I love that one” but the other would then disagree and love something else. That, for me, is the sign of a good exhibition when different people can enjoy different works and then agree on a few that we both think are great or we both dislike.

One that we could agree on is by Rosalba Carriera (Venice 1673 – Venice 1757) of Gustavus Hamilton 2nd Viscount Boyne, in Masquerade Costume. Part of the Met’s collection it is not the cover picture of the catalog but it is the featured work on their website. The picture was probably created at the 1730 or 1731 Carnival in Venice and who doesn’t want to remember themselves in costume. Penelope and I have such a photo of ourselves and had it reproduced on a postage stamp, which we used for our 35th anniversary invitation.

Charles Antoine Coypel (Paris 1694 - Paris1752) was clearly a master in this medium and the exhibition has three examples. As I am writing this I remember that we have a portrait in oil of Charles de Rohan, Prince de Montauban also by Charles Antoine Coypel. If you compare it to one belonging to the Metropolitan, a double portrait presumed to represent François de Jullienne and his wife in 1743, though one can plainly see the similarity in the style, the pastel gives the sitter a more ethereal and less realistic look while the oil is more solid and down to earth.

The exhibition challenges the preconceptions we have about pastel. It surprises us with the range of effects the artists created with the medium, from the meticulously detailed laces and brocades of the aristocratic double portrait by Coypel illustrated above, to the spontaneity achieved by free strokes of Greuze in the Frick’s portrait of the actor Baptiste Aîné. I guess you will just have to see that one for yourselves!

Joan Taub Ades Collection

Anyone who has seen the social pages of a major city newspaper has noticed how many benefits can be fit into a single week. Sometimes 3 or more a night!

At one gala event, a dinner at the Frick Collection given, in honor of Clare and Eugene Thaw, we met Joan Taub Ades. We quickly learned that not only is she a lovely person but we became very excited when we heard that she had a particular interest in old master drawings and more specifically, French 18th century drawings. When we mentioned Stiebel, ltd. Joan knew of us but was not personally acquainted.

At these events one often meets people who are so interested in what their table partner is involved in and, in my case, are always taking my card and promising a visit, but this rarely happens. Joan Ades, however, actually came by. Here was a “real” collector with a purpose. Joan was not just looking for the biggest names she could buy but for images that she enjoyed and wanted to live with. While this might seem perfectly logical too few look at collecting that way. Today, collectors get so concerned about the investment value of what they are buying that they forget the rest!

Joan and her husband both are passionate about the arts, and they both enjoy dance and the opera as well, but the opera is her husband’s true love and the drawings “belong” to Joan. Aside from the simple purpose of enjoying her collection she has an additional goal in mind, to acquire drawings that would some day fit well into the Morgan Library’s incredible collection of works on paper. Why? Because, some day, she planned to give her entire collection to the museum.

At the end of last week, we went to the opening of “The Age of Elegance: The Joan Taub Ades Collection” at the Pierpont Morgan Library. It was not the usual mob scene opening that one has at many New York Institutions but it seemed like quite a personal opening with short talks by the director, William Griswold and Joan Ades. We learned that she insisted on only having her friends and not the entire Morgan guest list nor the entire Morgan staff. This was her party.

The exhibition installation is also intimate. Though Joan was offered a larger exhibition space for her collection she picked the Clare Eddy Thaw Gallery which is relatively small but the 38 drawings looked perfect. Even though they had to elimate one of the chosen drawings at the last minute, because of space, Joan was pleased.

The show is intimate and has great character. These are only drawings that Joan likes, she was not talked into any one of them. It is not difficult to discern her taste: though there are a few Italian drawings and a wonderful Adolf Friedrich Menzel (1815-1905) that I personally love, she clearly gravitates to the French school particularly the 18th century. Also, her taste tends to be for very finished drawings where the artist has thoroughly thought out his idea, be it a preparatory work of not.

Joan bought a couple of drawings from our gallery, one by Jean-Baptiste Isabey (1767 -1855). This charming depiction of an early 19th century beauty, a drawing that would flatter any sitter, is also an exceptional example of the use of rich velvety black chalk that Isabey developed.



















But the drawing I have to give Joan extra credit for is by Jean-Simon Fournier who was active at the end of the 18th century. It is quite a large drawing 51.2 x 41.4 cms. done with graphite and black chalk. It depicts three young women decorating Edme Bouchardon’s sculpture.



















That Joan had the courage to buy a work by a little known artist shows her independence. Once upon a time, it had been thought to be by the well-known artist Maguerite Gérard, sister-in-law and student of the famous artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard. When the Gérard scholar quashed that attribution it was re-attributed, by another to another.

Though the decisions on what to acquire have been Joan’s alone, through her support of the Morgan she has gained the invaluable advice of Cara Dennison, Curator Emeritus. The entire department of drawings and prints contributed to the curating of the current exhibition and the writing of its catalog. These curators are the best of the best.

For many collectors the museum exhibition and catalog is the culmination of their ambition. So I asked Joan if she would stop collecting. Her reply, “Oh, no. You keep on going until you close your eyes”!