Works by internationally acclaimed photorealist Audrey Flack of women neglected or demonized in history feature in a New York exhibition.
 
With a career that has spanned six decades, artist and sculptor Audrey Flack hardly needs an introduction. Today, even at the experienced age of 84, Flack continues to produce powerful works that frequently find themselves in renowned public and private collections.
 

Audrey Flack, “Marilyn,” 2011, charcoal and pastel on paper, 18 1/2 x 13 1/2 in. (c) Audrey Flack 2015

Audrey Flack, “Une Bouchee d’Amour,” 2013, digital print and serigraph, 15 5/8 x 13 in. (c) Lafayette College 2015
 

This fall, visitors will have a unique chance to experience works by Flack at The Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, New York. “Audrey Flack: Heroines” will feature a number of works in a variety of mediums that spotlight women who have been demonized and mistreated throughout history. Although the works shown were produced over the past four years, the subjects parallel Flack’s work in the 1970s, in which the artist centered her artistic lens on heroic feminist imagery.
 
The exhibition, which opened September 26, will be on view through January 3.
 
To learn more, visit The Hyde Collection.
 
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The best scenes and colors the fall season can offer are on vibrant display in a current group exhibition of breathtaking oils.
 
With fall officially arriving last Wednesday, September 23, much of the nation prepares for the season’s best attributes: cooler temperatures and, of course, the full spectrum of saturated colors on display courtesy of our oxygen-emitting friends. Many are expecting a strong spectacle of colors in 2015 due to healthy spring and summer rainfall across many parts of the United States. Charts and graphs detailing “peak color” days have flooded social media, educating the masses on when — and where — to view the best colors in their region.
 

Karol Mack, “Aspen Dance,” oil on board, 20 x 16 in. (c) Greenberg Fine Art 2015

 
At Greenberg Fine Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, “peak colors” are on display from September 25 through October 9 during the stunning group exhibition “Emergence: Pure Nature.” Featuring 18 outstanding oils, these gorgeous fall scenes from locations across the nation take center stage and highlight why this season is considered by many to be the most beautiful.
 

Mario, “Serene Afternoon,” oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in. (c) Greenberg Fine Art 2015

 
Of particular note is Miguel Peidro’s “La Luz del Otoño (Light in Autumn),” a hypnotic display of exquisite skill and unreal beauty. Peidro has done the viewer two favors, capturing not only a moment of fall color at its height, but an outstanding composition featuring the calm trickle of a forest river as well. Commanding immediate attention, the picture is inundated — almost overwhelmingly so — with highly saturated red, orange, and yellow. Peidro’s loose application of paint gives the impression of nearly every leaf on each tree and activates the surface of the piece. The painting seems fantastical and documentary at once. Found in the lower right of the painting is the only reprieve for the eyes, as small tufts of green grasses and gray river stones balance the piece.
 

Stan Metzger, “Winds Over Lake Marie,” acrylic on linen board, 21 x 36 in. (c) Greenberg Fine Art 2015

 
Karol Mack’s “Aspen Dance” displays looser brushwork and predominantly more muted, earthy hues. Even so, the blending and arrangement of color is stunning, with energetic vertical strokes of orange, brown, red, and dark green setting the stage for a pair of ghostly aspen trees that cut through the patterning of color at center.
 

Joseph Breza, “Autumn Moonrise,” oil on canvas, 36 x 24 in. (c) Greenberg Fine Art 2015

 
Along with Peidro and Mack, featured artists include Mario, Joseph Breza, and Stan Metzger.
 
To learn more, visit Greenberg Fine Art.
 
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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: Lilla Cabot Perry, “The Scent of Roses.”
 
Although she received little formal training and began her artistic career in her 30s, Lilla Cabot Perry (1848–1933) produced an impressive body of work that helped promote Impressionism in the United States and Japan. A privileged child of the Boston Brahmin Cabot family, Perry married Thomas Sergeant Perry — a distinguished literature professor at Harvard University — in 1874. The Perry home was undoubtedly an intellectual salon and it has been suggested that it was Perry’s brother-in-law, artist John La Farge, who urged her to pick up the brush. The rest, as they say, is history.
 
Perry first studied at the Cowles School of Art in Boston before traveling to Paris in 1887, where she attended the Académie Julian and Académie Colarossi. It was around this time that Perry first encountered the work of Claude Monet, a moment that would profoundly shape the rest of her career. Taken by Monet’s beautiful avant-garde works, Perry sought out the artist and cultivated a professional relationship. Through informal critiques and casual lessons, Monet helped shape Perry’s aesthetic vision, which she took home to Boston. At home, Perry published several essays on Impressionism and encouraged her friends and acquaintances to pursue collecting works by Parisians Monet, Renoir, and Degas.
 
In 1893, Perry and her family moved to Tokyo, Japan, where for nearly 10 years the artist painted over 80 pictures of Japanese scenes, drawing upon traditional techniques and designs that formulated the core of the Impressionist aesthetic. By the time of her death in 1933, Perry had established herself as an important figure within the modern art movement, not to mention amassing an impressive corpus of outstanding paintings, many of which are highly coveted and collected today.
 
Such is the case on October 2 at Sotheby’s, New York, when Perry’s “The Scent of Roses” heads to auction. Featuring within the “American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture” sale, “The Scent of Roses” is an absolutely lovely picture, in which we find a seated female subject facing away from the viewer. Wearing a stunning green dress with flowing lace over her shoulders, the sitter leans her elbows on a small table while taking in the sweet aromas of a fresh bouquet of pink roses. The identity of the figure is unknown, her face draped in shadow, and the majority of the space itself has been significantly darkened, allowing the subject to radiate and separate from the picture plane. In the upper right corner of the piece, we find the slightest hint of another work adorning the wall, perhaps a Monet.
 
Perry’s brushwork within “The Scent of Roses” reveals her Impressionist sympathies. Albeit a calm and quite scene, the picture has a pulse of energy, most notably communicated through the sitter’s dress. Perry’s expressive and flowing strokes are readily detectible in the swaths of lime green, while the folds and subtle design in her lace creates a rhythmic dance across the center of the piece. The piece is sure to be a steal, with auction estimates set between $5,000 and $7,000. The painting currently resides in a private New York collection.
 
To view the full catalogue, visit Sotheby’s.
 
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.
 

Leah Lopez
“United”
Oil
16 x 20 in.
 
www.rouxandcyrgallery.com
 
Leah Lopez will be unveiling new works at Roux & Cyr International Fine Art Gallery in Portland, Maine on October 2, 2015. A wine and Cheese opening will be held for her solo exhibit from 5:00-8:00. All are welcome to come meet the artist. This exhibit will be on view through the end of October.
 
Leah Lopez is a devoted New York artist, painting between 4 to 12 hours a day. Her efforts are widely rewarded by the extraordinary oil paintings she produces. Often compared to the Dutch masters, Lopez brings emotion and sensitivity to the still life’s she creates. Working from her beautiful Union Square Studio, she delights us and captivates us with deep rich color and brightly lit objects that seem to emerge out of darkness.
 
“I’ve always been an explorer and a seeker, these experiences serve as inspiration for my paintings.”
 
Leah Lopez plays with light to lure her viewers into her delicate pieces. Her compositions dance the eye to explore every part of the artwork. Be it carefully rendered porcelain, brass, cloth, fruit or glass, a Lopez’s still life is unforgettable. Once drawn into her romantic spell, it is clear that her passion for color and value translate into an emotional creation that touches the soul.
 
Lopez will also be featuring equally emotional figurative work.
 
Roux & Cyr International Fine Art Gallery is honored to represent such artistic talent as Leah Lopez and many other artists from all over the world. The 3000 Sq Ft gallery houses stunning realism from ten different countries. It is a gallery like no other and an experience for both art lovers and collectors.
 
Roux & Cyr International Fine Art Gallery
48 Free Street
Portland, ME 04101
 
207-576-7787
www.rouxandcyrgallery.com
[email protected]

On view in Texas is a rarely seen but renowned collection of Islamic Art.
 
More than 60 masterworks in a variety of mediums feature in a current exhibition of the Kier Collection at the Dallas Museum of Art. Everything from rock crystal, metalwork, ceramics, textiles, and carpets to works on paper will keep even the pickiest of art lovers entertained. The collection is on a 15-year loan at the museum and is rarely exhibited.
 
The museum writes, “The Keir Collection is recognized by scholars as one of the world’s most geographically and historically comprehensive, encompassing almost 2,000 works, in a range of media, that span 1,300 years of creativity.”
 

Ewer, Egypt, late 10th-early 11th century, rock crystal and gold, 12 in. (c) Dallas Museum of Art 2015

 
A particularly outstanding example is a carved rock crystal ewer, which displays textbook examples of Persianate lion motifs and Greek-inspired Islamic patterning. Another manuscript painting displays quintessential Islamic-designed pointed domes, which radiate around the exterior of both folios.
 
“Spirit and Matter: Masterpieces from the Keir Collection of Islamic Art” opened on September 18 and will be on view through July 31.
 
To learn more, visit the Dallas Museum of Art.
 
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.

On view through the end of the month is a beautiful exhibition of new landscapes by painter Steven Lee Adams. Where can you catch a view?
 
With its renowned craft beer, the beautiful Cascade Mountains, and a host of available outdoor activities, individuals and families need little additional motivation to visit the small town of Bend, Oregon. However, just in case, on view through the end of the month is a delightful solo exhibition of the most recent landscapes from painter Steven Lee Adams at Mockingbird Gallery.
 

Steven Lee Adams, “Hoar Frost,” oil on canvas, 14 x 18 in. (c) Mockingbird Gallery 2015

 
Adams paints from the heart and endeavors to capture what he feels to be true, and his landscape paintings are timeless, with a radiant luminance that keeps collectors wanting more. “Knowing what is true because we ‘feel it’ is the axiom of great art, and it is our job to quiet the mind so as to allow access to the infinite,” the artist writes. “As a fine artist, I believe it is my calling to create something more than a pretty picture for a wall, I am looking for the things that connect us with our true home.”
 

Steven Lee Adams, “Passing Storm,” oil on canvas, 24 x 48 in. (c) Mockingbird Gallery 2015

 
A great example from the exhibition is “Pasture at Last Light,” which has a gorgeous full-spectrum palette. Standing within a purple shadow is a lone cow, perhaps the last of the herd to return to its barn. In the distance, the viewer finds a sun-bathed grove of trees along a fence line, their colors graduating from yellow, to orange, to red, and finally to a pair of evergreens toward the right edge. A beautiful stillness emanates from the picture.
 

Steven Lee Adams, “Solitude,” oil on canvas, 18 x 24 in. (c) Mockingbird Gallery 2015

 
Another captivating example is “Hoar Frost,” which displays the range of colors one can achieve even at the height of winter. A magnetic focal point rests at center and in the distance: a brightly highlighted tree basking in light, reflecting the morning’s frost. A tree imaged with much darker hues — namely, purples, grays, and a hint of deep blue — occupies the middle ground. Dancing back to the right side of the canvas and into the foreground is a similar tree. Within this work, the viewer is taken on a brief journey through the scene.  
 
“An Exhibition of New Works: Steven Lee Adams” opened on September 4 and will be on view through September 30.
 
To learn more, visit Mockingbird 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.

Artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, and Vincent van Gogh had a profound impact on the way art was produced during the 20th century, especially in Europe. However, modernism did make it to America in 1913, and the effects are still felt today. How did modernism impact artists in New Mexico?
 
New Mexico is widely known for its stunning scenery, desirable weather, and exquisite cuisine, facts that were no different at the turn of the 20th century than they are today. Modernist art made its American debut in 1913 at the Armory Show in New York City, and it did not take long for other artists to absorb its impact and discover the hidden secrets of the Southwestern state.
 

Jan Matulka, “New Mexico Landscape,” ca. 1923, watercolor on paper, 15 x 22 in. (c) Matthews Gallery 2015

 
Matthews Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is offering viewers a chance to learn more about modernism’s impact on the state and, in particular, how Santa Fe, Taos, and Albuquerque art colonies embraced the new art style — and took it further. The exhibition’s story launches from a powerful telegram from Mabel Dodge Lujan in 1918 to Andrew Dasburg, which stated, “Wonderful place. You must come. Am sending ticket. Bring me a cook.” Lujan’s affinity for Taos resulted in her recruiting of modernist artists to migrate to the state. “Eventually,” the gallery writes, “their work would transform New Mexico into a major American outpost for bold aesthetic innovation.”
 

Andrew Dasburg, “April Snow,” 1967, pastel on paper, 16 1/2 x 21 1/2 in. (c) Matthews Gallery 2015

 
Gallery owner Lawrence Matthews suggests, “This exhibition offers an immersive voyage through 20th-century New Mexico art history. Visitors to the exhibition will get an opportunity to see work by European modernists as well as work by the New Mexico artists.”
 
A highlight of the show is “Abstract Figure” of 1973 by artist Dorothy Brett. Undeniably influenced by Picasso, the nude female subject — presented frontally and in half-length — is fragmented and reduced into powerful planes of primary color and lines. The multiple viewpoints of the face — seen in red profile as well — are quintessential in modernism and cubism.
 
“The Modernist Impulse: New Mexico’s 20th Century Avant-Garde” opened on September 1 and will be on view through October 31.
 
To learn more, visit Matthews 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.

Another Fall Arts Festival for the ages is in the books for Jackson, Wyoming.
 
Widely recognized as one of the premier arts and culture events in the country, the Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival closed the book on Sunday, September 20. Thousands of artists, collectors, enthusiasts, and others converged on Jackson, Wyoming, for 11 days to experience an exceptional array of 50 events featuring music, food, wine, and art.
 
A particular highlight was the Palates & Palettes Gallery Walk, which featured more than 30 art galleries showcasing magnificent, original, and varied combinations of visual, contemporary, culinary, Western, landscape, wildlife, and Native American art. Among the noteworthy galleries were Altamira Fine Art, Astoria Fine Art, Asymbol Gallery, Cayuse Western Americana, Daly Projects, Diehl Gallery, Grand Teton Gallery, Heather James, Horizon Fine Art, Legacy Gallery, Mangelsen Gallery, Michelle Julene, Mountain Trails Gallery, Native Gallery, National Museum of Wildlife Art, RARE Gallery, Ringholz Gallery, Tayloe Piggot, Thai Glass Studio & Gallery, Trailside Galleries, Trio Fine Art, Turpin Gallery, Two Grey Hills, West Lives On, West Lives On Contemporary, Wilcox Gallery, Wild By Nature, and Wild Hands.
 
Didn’t make the event this year? Plans are already in motion for 2016: The Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce has already announced that artist Edward Aldrich will be the Featured Artist of the 32nd annual Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival, which will take place September 8–18, 2016.
 
To learn more, visit Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival.  
 
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.
 

Only days remain to view a tantalizing exhibition featuring selected works from the founding members of the Denver Artists Guild.
 
In conjunction with the release of The Denver Artists Guild: Its Founding Members, David Cook Galleries in Denver, Colorado, is offering viewings of 52 original works by some of the organization’s founding members. Considered one of Colorado’s best-kept cultural secrets, the Denver Artists Guild was established in 1928 but split amid controversy in 1948. Among the notable names in the Guild: Clara Dieman, Nena de Brennecke, Arnold Ronnebeck, John Thompson, Allen True, Enrico Licari, Louise Ronnebeck, Gladys Caldwell Fisher, Anne Van Briggle Ritter, and Paul St. Gaudens.  
 

Vance Kirkland, “Untitled,” 1937, watercolor, 19 x 27 in. (c) David Cook Galleries 2015

 
Among the included works is Vance Kirkland’s “Untitled” watercolor from 1937, which depicts Old Faithful at Yellowstone Park in Wyoming. Sharp, well-defined forms characterize the picture, with plumes of steam and water echoed in the tall rock formation in the foreground. Sprinkled throughout the picture are awestruck viewers of the natural phenomena as a pathway weaves around the stones and geysers.
 
Also noteworthy is Moritz F. Krieg’s “Untitled,” a painting undoubtedly inspired by the Cubist movement. Two figures stand at center with religious totems in their hands. Their forms have been reduced to their geometric essentials, with flat, sharp lines and planes jaggedly defining their shapes. The palette of the piece is lovely, with soft primaries patterned throughout.
 
“Denver Artists Guild” opened on July 1 and will be on view through Wednesday, September 30.
 
To learn more, visit David Cook Galleries.
 
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.
 

An annual event in Missouri is meeting with great anticipation — and purchasing — by everyone from first-time buyers to seasoned collectors.
 
For several years running, the American Legacy Gallery in Kansas City, Missouri, has hosted a “Collectors Resale Market” that continues to grow as high-quality American art is offered at a reduced rate. In what is described as an “exhausting” process, organizers comb through hundreds of submissions from private collections. Only original artworks that meet with the gallery standard make the cut, with this year’s event featuring over 250 works.
 
The event is made possible by consignments from families who have inherited works and aging collectors who are seeking to downsize their homes; the market offers up to 50 percent off the original price of the artwork. Adding a bit of drama and strategizing to the show and sale is the fact that each week the wall price is reduced an additional 10 percent. The game becomes deciding whether to strike quickly and pay a little more, or wait for a further reduction in price and perhaps lose the work to another collector.
 

Thomas Hart Benton, “Self Portrait,” lithograph, (c) American Legacy Gallery 2015

 
Several of the works featured in this year’s sale are from some of the biggest names in American art, including Thomas Hart Benton, Jackson Lee Nesbitt, William Reese, and Joseph Pennell. A beautiful example is “Catchin’ Up” by Bob Tommey, which depicts an observant cowboy who peers out of the frame toward the right. Crisp and clear, Tommey’s use of color and balanced compositional strategies surely make the painting highly coveted.
 
Another highlight is Thomas Hart Benton’s “Self Portrait” lithograph, which displays the artist in three-quarter length, gazing out at the viewer with mahl stick and brush in hand. His tight-lipped and pensive expression connotes an experienced man with little time for nonsense. The picture is — and will be — an undeniable part of history.
 
The “Collectors Resale Market” opened on Saturday, September 19, and runs through October 3. Prices continue to fall and art continues to sell, so collectors should make haste.
 
To learn more, visit the American Legacy 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.