A brilliant selection of realist paintings from the 1920s and 1930s are currently on display at this National Gallery that always seems to be showcasing something fantastic. Featuring more than 80 paintings, this show will leave you asking for more.

The Scottish National Gallery is calling them an “almost forgotten generation of artists,” referring to the principle artists featured during its current exhibition “True to Life: British Realist Painting in the 1920s and 1930s.” On view from July 1 through October 29, the exhibition — as its title suggests — focuses on the sidelined and largely forgotten cohort of realist artists after abstraction and distortion became fashionable in the United Kingdom after the Second World War.

“Many artists of the period opted for a new kind of hard-edged, sharp-focused realist painting, and found new subjects in modern life,” the museum writes. “This exhibition, showing only in Edinburgh, includes paintings of astonishing technical accomplishment and stunning beauty by more than 50 artists — including Gerald Leslie Brockhurst, Meredith Frampton, Laura Knight, James Cowle, and Winifred Knights. This is a unique chance to rediscover a remarkable, but little known period in British Art.”

To learn more, visit the Scottish National Gallery.

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EVOKE Contemporary is proud to feature works by painter Michael Workman during a solo exhibition. Visitors to the gallery will encounter truth, beauty, and goodness.

According to Santa Fe gallery EVOKE Contemporary, “Truth, Beauty, and Goodness” are the “broad, subjective, and sometimes discounted concepts that form the foundation of Michael Workman’s paintings.” Patrons who are lucky enough to visit the gallery this holiday season will encounter just those things during Workman’s solo exhibition, which runs from June 30 through July 22.

Included in the show are some 18 new landscape paintings — all executed masterfully with adroit combinations of expressive, feathery brushwork and tightly rendered forms. Also worthy of attention is Workman’s ability to capture the subtle effects of light as it cascades across mountainous landscapes, blankets a herd of cattle, or reflects off towering thunderhead clouds.

Continuing, the gallery writes, “Workman’s landscapes are idyllic; they depict the visual splendor of the American Southwest in colorful vistas, sunlit mountains, and far-reaching fields peppered with cattle. At the same time, his scenes convey a deeper meaning, one that simmers just under the surface, slowly escaping from among the layers of oil paint and intricate brushwork. Workman does not endeavor merely to paint an appealing picture, but also to share the spiritual connection he feels to the land and throughout his own life.”

To learn more, visit EVOKE Contemporary.

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How do you define an “Urban Realist”? Self-described as such, this accomplished watercolorist is making colorful waves on our nation’s West Coast. Who and where?

The Channel Islands Maritime Museum in Oxnard, California, is the current host of a great series of large-format watercolors by Daven Anderson. Titled “The Rivers,” the exhibition features about 48 paintings and continues to grow as Anderson works. A U.S. Naval Academy graduate, nuclear submariner, sailor, and artist, Anderson seeks to use his skillful watercolors to celebrate the life and work on our inland waterways from coast to coast.

Predominantly a self-taught artist, Anderson has spent years using watercolor to explore his fascination with urban life. Via his website, Anderson suggests, “One of his artistic intentions is to complete a series of approximately 65 works of the people and work on the inland waterway system.” Anderson is also the executive director of the Missouri Watercolor Society and managing director of the America Society of Marine Artists.

“The Rivers” opens on July 17 and will continue through September 24. To learn more, visit here.

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Three talented painters under the age of 30 are the focus of Arcadia Contemporary’s July exhibition schedule. If they haven’t already, collectors will take note.

On view from July 15 through the 31st, “Three Under Thirty” at Arcadia Contemporary in Culver City, California will feature paintings by Daniel Bilmes, Katie Whipple, and Rae Perry. Bilmes’ art explores many subjects, including figurative, still life, wildlife, and more. However, a common thread of deep personal exploration runs through his oeuvre. Katie Whipple has been climbing the ranks of representational painters for several years. More recently, the New York-based artist has focused her creative vision and superb technique on floral compositions. Finally, the sensuous and evocative figurative paintings of Rae Perry round out the show. Perry’s melancholic female subjects, in various states of dress and nudity, are often displayed in domestic, intimate settings, begging the viewer to extrapolate powerful narratives.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.

Works on paper, painting, and sculpture by the renowned artist Frederic Remington feature at the Metropolitan, New York, during this significant exhibition. Details here!

With paint, pencil, chisel, or any medium he could get his hands on, artist Frederic Remington (1861-1909) was one of the most important American artists to chronicle the American West and expansion toward the Pacific. He is often celebrated at museums around the country, and the Metropolitan in New York City has joined in commemorating this important creator with a significant exhibition of Remington’s paintings, sculptures, illustrations, and works on paper.

Opened on July 3, “Frederic Remington at the MET” draws heavily from the museum’s own holdings, but some selections featured were lent from public and private collections. “Although he lived and worked on the East Coast, Remington traveled extensively,” writes the museum. “His insightful depictions of trappers, Native Americans, cavalry, scouts, and, above all, his archetypal cowboys are some of the most iconic images of the Old West.” In addition to some 20 fantastic paintings, the exhibition includes “several sculptures purchased directly from the artist,” the MET continues. “Drawings related to Remington’s illustration work, on loan from The Rockwell Museum and the Frederic Remington Art Museum, will also be shown. Through juxtaposing works representative of each area of endeavor, the exhibition will highlight the unifying threads in the artist’s creative process.”

The exhibition will continue through January 2, 2018. To learn more, visit the Metropolitan.

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Trailside Galleries is pleased to be presenting recent works by acclaimed painter Kathleen Dunphy during “Capturing the Light” in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Dunphy created a special body of work for the exhibition that consists of landscapes, water scenes, still life, wildlife, and more.

As both the title and Dunphy suggest, “This show is all about light, which is actually the unifying theme through most of my work. To me, subject matter is not as important as dramatic light in a scene. Rather than showing a ‘postcard’ view of an area, I’m interested in depicting a distinct moment in time. Every day is so different, and I strive to highlight those unique qualities in each painting. I love fleeting light effects, especially the transient quality of early morning and late evening sun. I think we’ve all stopped in our tracks and marveled at that angled light striking the earth; in my work I try to capture the feeling of those moments of awe.”

She adds, “In this show, I’ll be featuring paintings that range from the first light on a mountain meadow to cows in the hot summer sun to the last rays of light glittering off a bend in a river. Additionally, I’ll have a few still lifes in the show. Light remains the theme for these works, too, both the light that hits the objects and also its reflection and refraction through the glass vessels that I collect to use in these works.”

To learn more, visit Trailside Galleries.

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In this occasional series, Fine Art Today delves into the world of portraiture, highlighting historical and contemporary examples of superb quality and skill. This week: Gustav Klimt, “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.”

Known as “The Lady in Gold” or “The Woman in Gold,” Gustav Klimt’s 1907 portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer (the first of two) is — without debate — one of the most stunning and compelling portraits in art history. In addition, many scholars suggest the painting as Klimt’s masterpiece and the most representative work of his “golden phase” — having taken the artist nearly three years to complete.

Bloch-Bauer was a member of a prominent Jewish family in Austria who frequently patronized artists of the Vienna Secession. This group of avant-garde artists, whose first president was Klimt, had rejected the traditional and academic practices of the Association of Austrian Artists. The portrait was first commissioned in 1903 by Bloch-Bauer’s husband, Ferdinand, who adored Klimt’s complex ornamentation and the Japanese block-printing influence seen in the Jugendstil style.

Since the portrait’s completion, it has taken on a life of its own — a direct result of the various changes in ownership since Adele’s untimely death in 1925 from meningitis. In her will, Adele suggested that the painting be donated to the Austrian State Gallery upon Ferdinand’s death, but the fate of Bloch-Bauer’s portrait was uncertain at best when, in 1938, Nazi Germany annexed Austria. Ferdinand fled the country, and many of his possessions — including the family’s prized collection of Klimt paintings — were looted and sold on behalf of the German state. Displayed by the Nazi’s after 1940, the portrait was renamed “The Woman in Gold” to conceal the sitter’s Jewish heritage.

Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer passed in 1945 and ordered his estate to be given to his nephew and nieces, including Maria Altmann, who became the center of an international battle for custody of Adele’s portrait, among other artworks. The painting was in the possession of the Austrian government after the Paris Peace Conference of 1946, and it took a major lawsuit in 2000 for the painting to be returned to the family. The storied battle that took place between Altmann and the Austrian government has been a compelling subject, retold in a number of documentaries, books, and a 2015 film titled Woman in Gold.

In 2006, the painting was sold for a then-record price of $135 million to Ronald Lauder for the Neue Galerie in New York City, where it remains on display today.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.