Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum - Home Show

Courtesy: Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum

Last week I decided to docent for Santa Barbara's contemporary art museum, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum (CAF) Home Show, Revisited.  The site-specific show breaks down to the notion of exhibiting work in a traditional white cube art museum  -- and, instead, displays art in people's homes. The curators of the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum invited 10 Los Angeles-based contemporary artists to "reconsider the societal and cultural notion of “home” by creating site-specific installations in residences throughout Santa Barbara."

The Home Show includes works by internationally-known artists Piero Golia, Evan Holloway, Bettina Hubby, Florian Morlat, Kori Newkirk, Jennifer Rochlin, Ry Rocklen, Kirsten Stoltmann, Stephanie Taylor, and Jennifer West. The exhibition has been reviewed in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the Santa Barbara Independent.

The exhibition is kind of like a treasure hunt, asking visitors to traverse homes in Santa Barbara all the way to Carpinteria to see artworks. The Home Show inhabitants must welcome visitors into their homes every weekend  from 11a.m. - 5p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays through July 17.

As an art appraiser I'm often asked to visit private homes to appraise artworks, so I thought the exhibition was an interesting concept to invite strangers into peoples homes. By inviting the public into private homes, these ten artists explore concepts of privacy, voyeurism, and status.

I served as a docent in the home of art dealer Candice Assassi’s contemporary loft in Carpinteria, California.  Assasi's home looks out onto a beachfront campground populated by summertime campers.  Artist Kori Newkirk decided to play with the exchange of viewership and voyeurism.  Newkirk mounted a neon sign to a roof beam facing the campground that reads “No Visible Neurosis.” Written backwards, viewers must look at it with a mirror from the front porch.  While looking out toward the campers, the viewer must also look at oneself in the mirror, while viewing the the neon sign. The artpiece attempts to make a commentary on a visitor's judgement of a stranger's home -- and perhaps the person in the mirror as well.

Art appraisers often seen great paintings, sculpture, and drawings hidden away in private collections. While it's interesting to see art on museum walls it is magical to see how people live around art in their everyday lives. This exhibition is a great way of inviting visitors into the personal spaces of those who surround themselves with art.

Millard Sheets: California Watercolorist

Some of my favorite artists to appraise are those California artists who worked in and around Santa Barbara. Millard Sheets (1907-1989) who was born in Pomona, California and became one of the most prolific artists on the West Coast.

"Padua Olive Hills Drive" 1940 (Image Courtesy: Otis Art Institute)

Millard Sheets grew up on a ranch and developed a love for horses and the rustic life of Southern California. Sheets gained his art degree at the Chouinard Art School in Los Angeles (1925-29). As a young artist during the 1920s, he became familiar with the work of the American scene painters, Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood, who were part of a movement called American Regionalism. Wood and Benton were interested in painting American life. Sheets decided to focus on his native Los Angeles area.

As an art appraiser in Santa Barbara, I often come upon collectors of the California Watercolor school. Millard Sheets, Milford Zornes, Rex Brandt, Phil Dyke, George Post and others developed the California Watercolor style of painting. These artists used watercolor instead of oil to paint on-site and outdoors.

Depicting daily life of everyday people, laborers, and immigrants, Sheets captured the struggles and tribulations of Californians during the 1920s. The California Watercolorists found watercolor and paper a more versatile and easy medium to transport than oil. Up until the 1920s, watercolor had been seen simply as a sketching tool for artists, not a medium in itself. Sheets and his colleagues changed this.

Upon completing his schooling, Sheets decided to travel to Europe, where he became exposed to the modernist movements of the 1930s. Millard Sheets returned to California and began teaching at Chouinard. He also taught at Scripps College and Otis Art Institute, where he became an influential member of the art community. He was a member of the California Art Club; American Watercolor Society; Bohemian Club; National Academy.

During the Great Depression he began painting under the WPA as part of the team of muralist painters. Sheets painted more than 100 murals  and mosaics in and around Claremont, Pomona, and greater Los Angeles. While some have been destroyed many still remain.

With his signature style, his works depict the landscapes of Pomona, Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, Santa Barbara, Palm Springs, and throughout California. Sheets eventually moved north to the Mendocino coast and painted throughout the Bay Area.

As an art appraiser, Millard Sheets paintings are among the most sought-after and valuable of the California Watercolorists. His unique aesthetic and prolific output place him as one of California's much beloved artists.

American Artist & Realist - Alexander Brook

Black and White, 1941

Courtesy Smithsonian Museum of American Art

I recently appraised two early drawings by the California artist Alexander Brook (1898-1980). Part of the bohemian circle of artists living in the Pasadena area during the mid-century, Brook refused to adopt the growing movement of Abstract Expressionism. He loved painting the American scene in all of its gritty beauty.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, the young man began his artistic studies at the Art Students League during 1914-1918.  Brook studied with John C. Johansen, Frank V. DuMond, George Bridgeman and became acquainted with fellow artists Reginald Marsh, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, among others. These artists formed a movement of art known as American Realism. A member of the Society of Independent Artists, Brook and his colleagues refused to be part of the National Academy of Design.

During the Great Depression, Brook traveled and worked throughout the South, including Georgia and Florida. He began exhibiting his work in New York at the Downtown Gallery the National Academy of Design, Rehn Gallery, Knoedler, and the Carnegie Institute International Exhibition of Modern Painting (1930). He also began teaching at the Art Students League

When doing an art appraisals of paintings by artists like Brook, I am also amazed by their enduring commitment to a certain method and technique. Alex Brook was a realist painter who refused to adopt Abstract Expressionism during the post-war period. While the values of works by Jackson Pollock and Sam Francis, Brook was adamant about realism. His works consist of figurative work, still-lifes, and landscapes, and figures, often of women.  He later traveled to Europe, where he was influenced by the works of Picasso, Goya.

Brook lived in the Los Angeles area and exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He became a member of the San Francisco Art Association and received awards at the Art Institute of Chicago (1929), the Pennsylvania Academy (1931), the Guggenheim Fellowship (1931).

Desert Finds: Palm Desert Art Appraisal Day

This weekend I was lucky enough to be part of the Palm Desert Historical Society's Art Appraisal Day. I was asked to be the appraiser for an Antiques Roadshow-style event which was part of the month long Desertscapes.

The annual event takes place every April focused on celebrating the art of the desert. The Palm Desert Historical Society did a great job finding desert locals to bring their Southwestern and California paintings, drawings, prints, and photos for an informal evaluation.

I saw mixture of great southwestern art, including artworks by Conrad Buff, Edgar Payne, James Swinnterton, among lesser known Palm Springs artists.

The best part was meeting the interesting people who found these treasures at flea markets, auctions, or inherited them from family members. While many of the artworks were of a modest value, some of them were Western artists considered among the best in California and the Southwest.

The desert art historian, blogger, and writer Ann Japenga, who helped organize the Desert Appraisal Day,  recently sent me a great article on an art discovery.

A Connecticut man recently decided to sell two oil paintings that hung in his basement. After an estate removal company offered the man a measley $125 a piece,the decided to get a proper appraisal done by a certified appraiser. As it turns out, he had two paintings by one of the most important American artists of the 19th century (with auction records of up to $2.5 million!)

You can read the full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/06/arts/design/jasper-f-cropsey-paintings-of-the-hudson-river-school-turn-up.html?_r=1

 Jasper Francis Cropsey "Autumn Landscape, Sugar Loaf, Orange County, New York" Jasper Francis Cropsey, ca.1870-75/Metropolitan Museum Of Art

Art Find of the Month - William Stubbs

This month's ART FIND submission is an interesting work by the East Coast painter William Stubbs. As an art appraiser in California I often deal with Western art, but I have a keen interest in American art done on the other side of the country.

After watching too many episodes of Antiques Roadshow, all of us hopes to find a treasure at a weekend estate sale. This time, our reader seems to have done so! Back in 2008 our reader and avid treasure-hunter headed out to an estate sale on the north shore of Long Island.  Here, he found this painting by the famous marine painter William Stubbs. 

Painted in 1880 this painting, "Three Masted Ship in Storm" appears to be a quintessential ship portrait done by Stubbs.  William Pierce Stubbs (1842–1909) was born in Orrington, Maine. As the son of a shipmaster, Stubbs learned the architecture of a ship by working on it. It is thought that he became the master of his father's ship between 1863-73. In 1871 he painted  his first ship portrait and by 1876 he was known as a Boston area marine painter. Stubbs shared a studio with the artist Wesley Webber and continued painting well-known ships in the area.

William Pierce Stubbs exhibited on of his early paintings in Boston's International Marine Exhibition of 1889, where he gained acclaim as a young American artist. Stubbs produced a small body of work and is acknowledged by the American art market as a professional and listed artist. Stubbs worked throughout the Eastern seaboard, creating a number of ship paintings. His paintings are held in the collections at the Mariner's Museum, the Mystic Seaport Museum, the Beverly Historical Society, the Philadelphia Marine Museum, and the Smithsonian Institution.

William Pierce Stubbs has a highly recognizable style. Most of his works depict the profile of a ship with a focus on detail. He often includes the name of this ship within the painting. Known for his dramatic depictions of ominous weather and rough waves encompassing the ship, Stubbs almost always signed his paintings in red. Many of his paintings document important historical ships of the period.

William Pierce Stubbs current values are based on auction records and gallery pricing. Estimating an artwork's value takes into account the condition, size, authenticity, provenance, and the current economy. When estimating a value, an appraiser also has to consider the popularity of an artist’s style -- and whether the artwork is being sold at a gallery or auction.

Many galleries and auction houses on the East coast sell William Pierce Stubb's work. "Three Masted Ship in Storm" is a large painting and if it is in good condition, an early work of this quality could be highly sought after by collectors. Values for Stubbs work have a wide range of pricing which, like every art appraisal, are based on age, condition, rarity, artistic merit, technical workmanship, current trends and availability of an article.  The highest values are paid for famous, named ships. In an auction, this painting would likely be estimated between $5,000-$7,000, and perhaps more if the ship's name could be identified. A treasure indeed!

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Alissa J. Anderson is an art appraiser for Anderson Shea Art Appraisals in Santa Barbara, California. She specializes in appraisals for insurance purposes, resale value, estate tax, and charitable donation. She is a member of the Appraisers Association of America (USPAP-compliant), qualified to appraise American paintings, drawings, and sculpture. Anderson also works as an art writer and curator. (www.andersonshea-artappraisals.com)


©2011 Alissa Anderson, Santa Barbara, California. All Rights Reserved. This is not an appraisal. Authenticity is not guaranteed. This article is for educational purposes only. None of the contents of this article may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanic, photocopy, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of Anderson Shea Art Appraisals, and the appraiser’s signature. )

The Need for Insurance Art Appraisals

One of the most common questions I get from art appraisal clients is whether they need to spare the expense of an Insurance Art Appraisal Report, and if so, how often Insurance Appraisals need to be reevaluated. There is a great article on the topic just published on the Appraisers Association of America's website by Edward Yee. Click to see the Full Article.

To answer my first question: Yes, most insurance companies require appraisals on artworks valued at over $5,000. This means any artwork (i.e. California paintings, mid-century sculptures, figure drawings, impressionist watercolors) worth $5,000 or more -- need  Insurance appraisal report. This will enable you to protect your artwork in the case of damage, theft, fire, loss, etc.

In terms of art appraisal reevaluation, it is essential that insurance values be diligently updated every 2 years, even during stable markets. In Yee's article he says it is particularly important to evaluate works when there are either rapid increases or decreases in values. As an insurance client, is important to know the current value of your artworks so as to properly protect them. For clients who have artworks that have risen in value, but have not been reappraised at a higher price, will only be compensated for the old appraisal price in the case of loss, damage, or theft.

For artworks that have decreased in value, paying for a updated art appraisal can save clients money on their premiums. For instance, in the case of damage to an artwork, insurance carriers may question and ultimately refuse to reimburse a client for an artwork that is overvalued in an old appraisal (even if the client has been paying a high premium based on the overvalued artwork).

Another benefit to having consistent updated appraisal done is for future donations to museums. "Insurance appraisals can also, in some instances, serve as a strong basis for future donation appraisals, particularly if retail sales records have been maintained over a period of time and values have been updated every few years," says Yee. Since Charitable Donation Appraisals are often contested by the IRS, collectors want to make sure to have a reliable basis for establishing an artwork's market value.

All in all, while an Insurance Art Appraisal may seems like an extra expense, you are protecting yourself and your financial future if you have art in your home.

(Alissa J. Anderson does Insurance Appraisals, Fair Market Value Appraisals, Charitable Donation Appraisals throughout Southern California including Santa Barbara, Santa Ynez, Ventura, Westlake Village, Thousand Oaks, Ojai, Moorpark, San Luis Obispo, Pismo Beach, and the Tri-Counties.)

Early Painters of the Borrego Desert

This week, I've decide to highlight an article by Ann Japenga, who discovered a painting for $99 by desert artist Edith Purer. Our contributing writer and desert art expert is a former Los Angeles Times reporter whose work has appeared in many publications including Sierra, Utne, The New York Times.

Japenga says her introduction to desert art came when she bought her first smoketree painting at Carl Bray’s roadside gallery in Indian Wells some 15 years ago. Though she fretted over whether to drop $100 on the painting, she wound up with a far better deal than she could have guessed. The canvas was her doorway into the rich, bohemian world of the early desert artists.
She now writes the go-to online magazine on Desert Art: http://www.californiadesertart.com/

"Early Painters of the Borrego Desert" by Ann Japenga
(This article first appeared in The Sand Paper, the newsletter of the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association.)

Around 1930 a young botanist from Chicago came to the Borrego desert to dig in the sand and collect native plants. At some point hunting for tansy-mustard and tidy-tips wasn’t enough for her, so she took out her easel and began painting the dunes and smoke trees.

Last month I picked up one of her 1930s Borrego paintings on eBay for $99. When I hung the painting on my bedroom wall, it immediately connected me to Edith Purer herself (she became California’s first woman ecologist), as well as to the plants, topography and mood of Anza-Borrego. I live in Palm Springs, but the last thing I see at night is the Borrego desert.

(Painting of the Borrego desert, circa 1930s, by botanist and ecologist Edith Purer)

That’s the beauty of the early desert paintings: Their ability to connect you to landscape and history. Though desert paintings are soaring in popularity with collectors, you can still scour thrift shops and online sales and pick up lesser-known artists for less than $100.

The early California artists, also known as plein-air painters (plein air means “in the open”), are the original conservationists. The paintings of Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran, for instance, showed the world what was worth saving in Yosemite. In the Coachella Valley where I live, the early artists preserved in paint fields of verbena and cholla that are gone forever due to development.

In Borrego, you are lucky to have many of the original landscapes intact. In many cases, you can still locate the precise arroyo a painter captured, or stand in the exact spot the artist stood.

After landing an original Edith Purer, I started to wonder what other painters may have worked in Borrego. The only name I knew of was the irrepressible stagecoach painter Marjorie Reed, but there had to be more. After all, many now-famous painters captured the deserts just over the hill in the Coachella Valley—Jimmy Swinnerton, Paul Grimm, John Hilton.

North Shore art collector Allan Seymour told me the Palm Springs artists for the most part did not travel to Borrego. “The toe of the Santa Rosas made it a much longer journey for Palm Springs, LA or Laguna painters to journey all the way to Anza-Borrego,” he said. “This made the area a San Diego painters’ Mecca.”

Fortunately for Borrego history, San Diego was a hotbed of landscape painting in the early decades of the 20th century; and the most famous artists—Alfred Mitchell, Maurice Braun and Charles Fries—fell in love with the Borrego desert. At the time Edith Purer was scouting the dunes, Charles Fries was sketching at Coyote Wells while dodging falling boulders, coiled rattlesnakes and gem smugglers.

Alfred Mitchell brought carloads of his lady art students over from San Diego; some became avid Borrego painters themselves. William Bartko, who died in Borrego Springs, was out painting the favorite plant of the painters—smoketrees. While the coastal painters worshipped the eucalyptus, the desert painters could not get enough of the scrubby, shape-shifting smoketree.

Another San Diego painter who frequented Borrego, Charles Reiffel was compared to Cezanne and Van Gogh for the boldness of his imagination.

Maurice Braun, most revered of the San Diego artists, was heavily influenced by the School of Theosophy at Point Loma (known as Lomaland). With the mystical tenets of Theosophy guiding them, Braun, Alfred Mitchell and other Theosophists ventured over the hill to the desert. Amy Difley Brown, one of those who attended the Theosophy school, often camped in the desert with her granddaughter, Lynne Salmon, in a little teardrop trailer. Salmon, who lives in La Mesa, told me one of their most memorable campouts was going to visit Brown’s friend, Marjorie Reed, at Campbell Ranch.

What I’ve told you here is just an overview—and hopefully a temptation. There is plenty more to be discovered about the Borrego painters. A good place to start is The Journal of San Diego History (many editions are available online) and the website www.AskArt.com that compiles information about thousands of famous and obscure artists.

For more articles by Ann Japenga: see: http://www.californiadesertart.com/?page_id=7