Joining the ever-growing list of new museums opening across the People’s Republic of China, the Mu Xin Art Museum is just as astounding on the outside as it is on the inside.
 
Opening to great fanfare and anticipation on November 15 was the mesmerizing Mu Xin Art Museum at the historical scenic water town of Wuzhen in the Zhejiang Province. Designed by OLI Architecture PLLC. in New York City, the 72,000-plus-square-foot museum is an artwork in itself. Named after Mu Xin — a jailed Chinese intellectual who passed away in 2011 — the museum will “feature a combination of permanent and temporary exhibitions aimed at documenting the life and work of Mu Xin, as well as other artists’ and thinkers’ influence on his work,” the Jing Daily reports. “The current exhibits feature around 100 paintings and 50 manuscripts that were created throughout his life, selected from more than 600 paintings and 1,000 manuscripts left by him. The first two temporary exhibits explore the impacts of Friedrich Nietzsche and Chinese artist Lin Fengmian on his writings and paintings, bringing Nietzsche’s manuscripts to China for the first time.
 
“Mu Xin held a great reverence for the Chinese landscape painting tradition, and believed that ‘Northern Song Chinese painting reached a peak that resembles the great achievement of symphonic music in the West,’ says Toming Jun Liu, a professor in the Department of English at California State University who published a collection of English translations of Mu Xin’s “Prison Notes.” ‘His landscape painting has very naturally merged Eastern and Western modernist styles.’”
 
To learn more, visit ArtNet or OLI Architecture.
 
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.
 

Galleries all across the country are opening their holiday miniature shows as we race toward 2016. Fine Art Today has compiled a list of just a few. Who’s included?
 
Although temperatures continue to fall, the gallery scene across the country hustles and bustles energetically with a series of miniature holiday exhibitions. Any and all of the following are sure to delight the eyes and enliven the spirit:
 
“25th Annual Holiday Miniatures Show” at Abend Gallery, Denver, Colorado. 12/4-1/16

“Hardly Strictly Mini: A Biennial Holiday Benefit Exhibition” at Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, California. 11/21-1/03

“Annual Small Works Online Exhibition” at Cavalier Galleries, Greenwich, Connecticut. 11/27-12/31

“Little Gems: Holiday Show” at Dawson Cole Fine Art, Palm Desert, California. 12/2-12/23

“Arturo Chávez: Small Works” at Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico. 12/4-1/16

“Miniature Show” at Illume Gallery of Fine Art, Salt Lake City, Utah.

“Small Works Show” at Insight Gallery, Fredericksburg, Texas. 11/19-12/23

“Holiday Small Works Show” at Legacy Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona. 12/10 – 12/31

Stocked with “minis” at Gallery NAGA, Boston, Massachusetts. 12/15 – 12/19

“Artists of the Black Hills — Holiday Miniature Art Show” at Prairie Edge Galleries, Rapid City, South Dakota. 11/20-1/02

“Small Works 2015” at Principle Gallery, Alexandria, Virginia. 12/5-12/23

“Holiday Miniature Show” at Randy Higbee Gallery, Costa Mesa, California. Through 12/24

“Holiday Small Works Show” at Roux & Cyr Fine Art Gallery, Portland, Maine. 12/4

“Deck the Walls: Holiday Miniature Show” at Trailside Galleries, Jackson, Wyoming. 12/1-12/13
 
“Holiday Small Works Exhibit 2015” at Twilight Gallery, Seattle, Washington. 12/10-1/31
 
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.
 

Entering into its 23rd year of excellence in fine Western art, the Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale is ready to showcase a vast assortment of sculpture, painting, and more just after the New Year.
 
Since 1993 and in conjunction with the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Colorado, the Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale has earned a reputation as one of the premier exhibitions and sales of fine Western art in the United States. Located on the third level of the Expo Hall at the National Western Stock Show, the exhibition will open on January 9 and be on view through January 24.
 

John Taft, “The Road Ahead,” oil on linen, 16 x 20 in. (c) Image courtesy Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale 2015

 
Each year, show organizers highlight a Featured Artist, with painter Don Coen earning the distinction in 2016. Hailing from Boulder, Colorado, Coen “considers his work ‘photo-impressionistic’ and works primarily in oil stick, airbrush, and twig and ink,” per the event website. “Don’s painting ‘The Hush of Evening Snow’ will be the signature work for the 2016 exhibit and sale, and thereafter, will reside in the National Western’s permanent collection.”
 

Amy Laugesen, “Rustic Mare,” ceramic, 23 x 25 x 11 in. (c) Image courtesy Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale 2015

 
In addition to the Featured Artist distinction, the event offers a range of other honors, including Best of Show, Artists’ Choice, the Mary Belle Grant Award, People’s Choice, and the Southwest Art Award. The 2016 event will feature 63 outstanding artists, many of whom can be considered among the best Western artists. A full list of the 2016 artists can be found here.
 

Duke Beardsley, “Pony Tails,” oil on canvas, 56 x 72 in. (c) Image courtesy Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale 2015

 
Events will begin in earnest on January 5 with a lunch and lecture and a red carpet reception, where attendees will be treated to a scrumptious dinner. Attendees may also submit their intent-to-purchase forms.
 
To learn more, visit The Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale.
 
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.

In this ongoing series for Fine Art Today, we take a longer look at the history and features of a soon-to-be-available artwork of note. This week: William Adolphe Bouguereau, “Bacchante Teasing a Goat.”
 
Until recently, the name William Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) had long been forgotten and disregarded in the annals of history. A subject of vexed opinion and debate, Bouguereau suffered a similar fate to Rembrandt’s during the hundred years following his death in 1905, “ridiculed and banished from museums and official art circles,” as biographers Damien Bartoli and Frederick Ross suggest. Bouguereau’s masterful paintings could be had for an average of $500 to $1,500 in 1960 — undoubtedly a consequence of the rapidly shifting views and definitions of art during the 20th century,
 
As one of history’s greatest painters of the figure, it seems opinions — and the market — for Bouguereau’s gorgeous pictures were bound to shift, and indeed, 1960 appears to have been rock bottom. Since the “swinging ’60s,” the value of Bouguereau’s paintings has exploded, doubling on average every four years. In fact, Bartoli and Ross document that in 1979 alone, prices for Bouguereau’s work quadrupled. By 2000, Bouguereau’s canvases were regularly commanding seven figures, and the desire for his works has only continued to increase into the present.
 
As one of France’s preeminent academic and traditionalist painters, Bouguereau executed some 822 known paintings during his storied career, often portraying quintessential classical and mythological subjects. Bouguereau frequently depicted the figure, and his ability to render the human form is unparalleled; his knowledge of anatomy and physiology surfaces with remarkable clarity, craftsmanship, and skill. Bartoli and Ross write, “Bouguereau caught the very souls and spirits of his subjects much like Rembrandt. Rembrandt is said to have captured the soul of age. Bouguereau captured the soul of youth. Considering his consummate level of skill and craft, and the fact that the great preponderance of his works are life-size, it is one of the largest bodies of work ever produced by any artist. Add to that the fact that fully half of these paintings are great masterpieces, and we have the picture of an artist who belongs like Michelangelo, Rembrandt, and Caravaggio, in the top ranks of only a handful of masters in the entire history of western art.”
 
With a relatively modest starting bid of $200,000, the outstanding “Bacchante Teasing a Goat” heads to auction on December 15 via the Miami Auction Gallery. Brilliantly restored and in excellent condition, the picture’s colors seem as vibrant as the day Bouguereau applied them to the canvas. The viewer happens upon a playful, nude priestess and follower of the mythological god Bacchus as she reclines leisurely amongst forest foliage. She casually leans back, resting her weight upon her left arm as her right rises to block the powerful charge of a goat. As expected, the rendering of the subjects is absolutely stunning, especially with regard to the figure herself. The piece is charged with playful — perhaps erotic — energy and connotations, either being appropriate for the subject’s allegiance to Bacchus, the Greek god of wine, poetry, youth, and sexual excess. Auction estimates are as high as $400,000.
 
To view the full catalogue, visit the Miami Auction Gallery.
 
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.
 

Diving into the history of Britain’s “empire” from the 16th century to the present day, the Tate Museum in England recently unveiled a groundbreaking exhibition.
 
Featuring a vast collection of objects from across the United Kingdom, the Tate Museum on November 25 opened “Artist and Empire,” an exhibition that takes an in-depth look into how artists from all across the globe represented and responded to the British Empire’s expansion. Unfortunately, the history of colonial conquests often illuminates tragedies and circumstances associated with war and slavery. Even so, the remarkable visions of skillful cartographers, painters, photographers, and more bring profound beauty to otherwise painful memories and legacies.
 
The museum writes, “The show raises questions about ownership, authorship and how the value and meanings of these diverse objects have changed through history. It also asks what they still mean to us today. Historic works by artists such as Joshua Reynolds and George Stubbs are shown with objects including Indian miniatures and Maori artifacts, as well as contemporary works by Hew Locke and Sonia Boyce. Through this variety of artworks from a complex mix of traditions, locations and cultures, the fragmented history of the Empire can be told.”
 
Stubbs’s “Cheetah and Stag with Two Indians” is one such highlight of the exhibition. Executed with masterful precision, two Indians converse as they prepare to release a domesticated Cheetah for it to chase and catch the stag. One kneeling subject holds tight to a red belt that confines the big cat as the stag looks on with attentive alertness.
 
“Artist and Empire” opened on November 25 and will run through April 2016.
 
To learn more, visit the Tate Museum.  
 
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.
 

“The Crossing”
Watercolor
10 x 14 in.
 
http://richardsneary.fineartstudioonline.com/

About the artist:

Richard Sneary was born in Baltimore, raised in Kansas City, and educated at the University of Kansas.  Sneary has been drawing since the age of 5 when a piece he executed in kindergarten was published in the local paper.  That same year, Sneary’s aunt gave him a book, How to Draw Dogs by Walter Foster (although very worn and tattered he still has the book) as a Christmas gift.  It was those two events that started his successful art journey and encouragement kept him drawing and painting through high school and college.     
 
Sneary attended the University of Kansas, majoring in Architecture, and worked for various architectural firms in Kansas City during the summers.   As part of the curriculum for a degree in Architecture, students were required to take drawing, painting, and sculpture courses.  Sneary was fortunate to have gifted artist – Professor James Sterritt – as one of his instructors, whose influence still guides him today.  Sterritt’s classes were an oasis of creativity to all studying architecture at KU in those years.  As Sneary states, “We could step away from architecture and explore art and Jim made it fun.”
 
Sneary started his career as a painter in 2011 after 40 years working as an architect, architectural illustrator, and educator.  During the early part of his artistic career, Sneary worked primarily en plein air.  Sneary prefers painting subjects that reflect mankind’s presence in our environment…buildings, bridges, industrial structures, fences, telephone poles, people…and the natural landscape. 
 
Sneary is a signature member of the National Watercolor Society and Missouri Watercolor Society, and a President Emeritus of The American Society of Architectural Illustrators.  Recent awards include Best Architectural Award at En Plein Air Texas 2014; Dick Blick Art Materials Award of Excellence at OPS Plein Air Southwest Salon 2014; Honorable Mention at Wayne Art Center Plein Air Festival 2015 & 2013; Honorable Mention & 1st Place in Fast & Fresh at Plein Air Richmond 2014 & 2013 respectively; 1st Place in Quick Paint at Easels in Frederick 2013; 1st and 3rd Place in watercolor & Best of Show and 1st Place at Stems Plein Air Paint 2014, 2013, & 2011; Best of Show & Second Place at the Missouri Valley Impressionist Society Inaugural Juried Exhibition 2012 & 2014 respectively; 3rd Place Award at 2012 Plein Air Vermont; Best Architectural Award & Historic Preservation Award at Plein Air Easton 2012 & 2013 respectively; and Best of Show in the Stems Plein Air Paint 2011. 

Sneary is currently represented by Strecker-Nelson Gallery in Manhattan, Kansas.

Contact information:
http://richardsneary.fineartstudioonline.com/
816-765-7841
 

“Plowed”
Watercolor
14 x 21 in.
$2,350

www.susanlynnwatercolors.com
 
A nationally recognized artist, Susan Lynn’s watercolor paintings are frequently described as luminous and serene.  Drawn to the natural landscape, Lynn believes it is a subject that speaks to the viewer in a visceral way, tapping into universal memories and emotions, and the human connection to the world around us.  A Kansas City native, Lynn received a BFA degree from Kansas State University, and worked for 15 years as an architectural illustrator before transitioning to fine art.
 
Widely collected, her paintings are a part of the corporate art collections of Hallmark Cards, Sprint, and John Deere.  In addition to numerous gallery and juried exhibitions, Lynn’s paintings have been featured in solo exhibitions at the Birger Sandzen Memorial Gallery and the National Agricultural Hall of Fame, and was the subject of a feature article in the June/July 2013 issue of Plein Air Magazine.  Recent awards include the award for Best Use of Light at the 2015 Mountain Maryland Plein Air, Award of Recognition 2-D at the 2014 American Women Artist’s National Juried Exhibition, an Award of Merit at the 2014 Plein Air Southwest Salon, the Best Plains Landscape Award and the Western Art & Architecture Magazine Publisher’s Award of Excellence at the American Plains Artists 2014 Juried Exhibition.  Lynn is a signature member of American Women Artists, the Kansas Watercolor Society and the Missouri Watercolor Society, and a charter member of the Missouri Valley Impressionist Society.
 
Contact info:
www.susanlynnwatercolors.com
816-803-9244
[email protected]
 
 
 

“Taylor’s Gold and Fox Grapes”
Oil on panel
14 x 18 in.
Roux & Cyr International Fine Art Gallery

Leah Lopez is represented by the Roux & Cyr International Fine Art Gallery, in Portland, Maine. “Taylor’s Gold and Fox Grapes” is among the available artwork on display this December.  For more information contact:

Roux & Cyr International Fine Art Gallery
48 Free Street
Portland, Maine 04101
(207) 576-7787
www.rouxandcyrgallery.com
 
Leah Lopez grew up in Northern New Mexico, where the influence of a rich culture of artisans fed her imagination and inspired her creative interests. Her artwork has made its way into the hearts and homes of collectors all over the country.

Lopez has been honored with awards and accolades from esteemed organizations such as the American Women Artists, Salon International, National Association of Women Artists, Salmagundi Club, and Scottsdale Artists’ School.

Leah also enjoys the privilege of mentoring and teaching new and up-and-coming artists. She teaches at the New York Academy of Art and is frequently invited to instruct at art institutions along the East Coast.

Website:
www.leahlopez.com

Galleries:
Tree’s Place
RTE 6A at 28, Orleans, Massachusetts 02653
(508) 255-1330
treesplace.com
 
Roux & Cyr International Fine Art Gallery
48 Free Street, Portland, Maine 04101 (207) 576-7787
rouxandcyrgallery.com
New Masters Gallery
Dolores Street between Ocean and 7th, Carmel, CA 93921 (800) 336-4014
newmastersgallery.com
 
The Howell Gallery
6432 North Western Avenue, Oklahoma City, OK 73116 (405) 840-4437
howellgallery.com
 
Galerie Gabrie
597 East Green Street, Pasadena, CA 91101 (626) 577-1223
galeriegabrie.com
 
Roux & Cyr International Fine Art Gallery
48 Free Street, Portland, Maine 04101 (207) 576-7787
rouxandcyrgallery.com
 

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, Master Drawings New York 2016 will be a captivating week of exhibitions, sales, and more at 30 leading art galleries on the Upper East Side’s “Gold Coast” in New York.
 
From January 23­–30, the world’s top dealers in master drawings and watercolors will converge in New York City for the 10th annual Master Drawings New York. Featuring over 30 galleries, each exhibition of works will host an expert specialist to provide all necessary details on available works. Via the event’s webpage: “Highlights of the 2016 tenth edition of Master Drawings New York include an important Sonia Delaunay cover design for L’Album no.1 (474 dating to 1916), at the Leonard Hutton Galleries whose show is titled ‘Drawings and Watercolors: To Observe and Imagine.’ Lowell Libson Ltd., leading dealers in British art, will be showing a series of masterpieces including important works by Thomas Gainsborough, John Constable, Samuel Palmer and John Robert Cozens. Mireille Mosler will be showing newly re-identified pen, chalk and pastel portraits of prominent Swiss collectors, Nin and Fritz Meyer-Fierz, by Jan Toorop. She says, ‘These are quite remarkable portraits, commissioned by the collector, that were in the family for generations and only recently came on the market.’ Van Doren Waxter gallery is showcasing ‘Richard Diebenkorn Early Color Abstractions 1949–1955’ including several untitled gouache and graphite works by the artist from the early 1950s.”
 

Bartolomeo Passarotti (1529-1592), “Studies of Four Legs in Profile,” ca. 1560, chalk & ink, 11 x 8 1/8 in.
(c) Crispian Riley-Smith 2015

Hans Bol (1534-1593), “The Crucifixion,” 1573, pen, ink, wash with white, 10.75 x 7.75 in.
(c) Crispian Riley-Smith 2015

 
Previews of all the exhibitions and works on offer will take place on Friday, January 22, from 4-8 p.m. A full list of dealers can be found here, and a complete list of 2016 exhibitors can be found here. Event organizers also produced this video from Master Drawings New York 2015:
 

 
To learn more, visit Master Drawings New York 2016.
 
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.
 

Upon which side of the portraiture fence do you fall? Is the proper goal of the artist to simply record physiognomic details accurately? Or is it their duty to capture that which cannot be seen — the subtle nuances of an individual’s character that surface through fleeting poses and expressions? Or something more? Pushing the boundaries of traditional portraiture is artist Tamie Beldue, whose work suggests that reality is “fundamentally immeasurable.”
 
Hailing from Asheville, North Carolina, acclaimed artist Tamie Beldue works to extend the genre of portraiture beyond its traditional boundaries through the acute observation and recording of her models’ thoughts and feelings. However, Beldue doesn’t simply ask her subjects to verbalize these sentiments; rather, she has trained herself to notice the nonverbal cues expressed through their body language. Beldue writes, “The model’s independent thoughts and feelings are expressed through their body language in either fleeting or gradual changes — perhaps a transitory interruption in the rise and fall of breath, or the disappearance of a bone that was once pressing against the skin. I record these subtle nonverbal clues, instabilities, and movements over time with the intention to build an illusionary space of breathable air in which an inhale could be palpable.”
 

Tamie Beldue, “Portrait of a Butterfly,” 2015, graphite, watercolor, pastel, oil & encaustic, 40 x 40 in.
(c) Tamie Beldue 2015

 
Just as fascinating is the fact that this transaction between artist and subject is not one-sided. Beldue frequently challenges her own perceptions as each piece evolves, working organically to allow the full stream of observation and creativity to flow. “I also approach each juncture with fluctuating perceptions,” she says, “demonstrating that reality is fundamentally immeasurable; therefore, the accumulation of marks presented extends the work beyond traditional portraiture. I depict my subjects as economically as possible, leaving ambiguities in edges and areas that are underdeveloped to suggest the slight movements and gestures which typify each individual.”
 

Tamie Beldue, “Portrait of a Heart,” 2014, graphite, watercolor, pastel & cold wax, 40 x 40 in.
(c) Tamie Beldue 2015

 
The resulting works are something mysteriously — and tantalizingly — more than simply naturalistic re-creations of an individual’s appearance. Rather, Beldue’s portraiture argues that a figure can be more than just a sitter and, as she suggests, “sets the stage for a larger conversation on social discourse.” Beldue’s approach is outstanding because it makes an individual’s portrait more accessible to strangers, who can extrapolate from it something about human nature and themselves. Beldue achieves her goal with dazzling beauty, using both drawing and encaustic mediums to “compile layers of diligent perception to depict an image that demonstrates the complexities of a subject, time, and space,” she says. “In doing this, I learn something about myself while simultaneously offering a visual experience for others uniquely through my lens.”
 

Tamie Beldue, “ Tangible Identities, Blair I,” 2010, graphite, watercolor & encaustic, 13 x 13 in.
(c) Tamie Beldue 2015

 
Although they have an impressively soft appearance, the surfaces of Beldue’s pictures vibrate with life and energy. This push and pull between medium and image continues to be a tricky dynamic that challenges the artist. She writes, “Prior to 2008 and subsequently working with the encaustic medium, I had always been aware of the physicality of process; graphite & watercolor on paper, rather than the physicality of the work itself where the image supersedes the materials — this is something I continue to be challenged by. The multiple materials I work with in each piece enable me to think differently about the process, which I believe in turn, adds to the complexity of the image. For example, watercolor washes are first added as a very quick, gestural way of thinking, while the graphite is methodical and tightly rendered. Whereas the encaustic medium is added in thick layers, obscuring the entire image, allowing me to scrape and find my original drawing in a very physical way. In addition, soft pastels and oil have slowly been finding their way into the pieces for their inherent color and tactile expressive capabilities.”
 

Tamie Beldue, “Circular,” 2013, graphite, watercolor & encaustic, 27 x 39.5 in.
(c) Tamie Beldue 2015

 
Beldue will have a much deserved opportunity to explore her surfaces, and much more, uninterrupted as she begins a sabbatical from her teaching career tomorrow. “During this time I plan to devote all my energy towards uninterrupted studio time to explore quick studies, long and involved drawings of significant scale, and the move towards more ambiguous spaces and subject,” she says. “But of course, I will be watching for alternative unexpected possibilities that the work dictates along the way.” One thing is for sure: her audiences will also be eagerly awaiting to view the results — as will we.
 
Beldue’s website is currently under construction, but keep a close eye on http://www.tamiebeldue.com
 
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.