VOL 05 ISSUE
15 
December 12, 2006
BACK ISSUES | ° | ¤ | CURRENT ISSUE
VOL 05 ISSUE
15 BACK ISSUES | ° | ¤ | CURRENT ISSUE |
| GREAT MASTERS OF THE NORTH:McALPINE AUCTION AT AMRC | ||||
 CHARLIE McALPINE'S LATEST & GREATEST
in a history of Alaskan art auctions at the Anchorage Museum moved the bidding action from
the atrium to the auditorium early this month. Prospective bidders can be seen inspecting
the works in a brief one hour period before the work. Shown in the photo at right from the
left are works by Eustace Zeigler, Sidney Laurence, J.P. Wilson, and Fred Machetanz.
Charlie McAlpine has known and worked with these artists (excepting Wilson)
during their lifetime and maintains a dealer's inventory of their work at his Far North
Gallery on Fireweed Avenue in Anchorage. He was present during the bidding
process to lend insight into individual paintings and their creator's history.
"Our goal has always been to bring rare Alaskana from stateside collectors back
to the land of its origins. ". |
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HOMESTEAD: LAURENCE NUGGET "Our finest Alaskan Masters are appreciated and collected on such a national level. Strong prices and a general paucity of materials have made it unlikely that we will be able to have another high quality auction like this one," McAlpine wrote in the catalog. Auctioneer Steve Morris, formerly of Seattle's Pacific Gallery, let the crowd of around 150 settle after their turn at a full bar hosted by the promoters. There were nearly seventy pieces arrayed on the stage and in the 'pit' with the lights on strongly both on the work and the audience to expedite things. Morris introduced his rules: "It takes two bids to make an auction. No hundred dollar bids. Paintings not bid close to the estimates will be passed. I'm not here to kill a picture, not to slaughter it's value. 10% Auctioneer surcharge." Working without spotters and acting as his own (dizzy) secretary, he got the action started early by presenting Sunrise, not shown, similar to the small Sydney Laurence, Summer Homestead, shown at left. "Laurence was a great luminist, whose work would grace any collection", opined McAlpine. These two 12"x10" oil on hardboard pieces went for $8000 and $9000 respectively, and two 16"x20" oils were sold at $25,000 and $30,000, which combined totaled $22,000 under the estimates. McAlpine must have been less than gratified. The local market seemed 'stagnant compared to that [in the stateside market] in California plein air and American Impressionism'. | |||
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APPROACHING WHALE: MACH
Patrons with the means and wiles might profitably have bid and flipped the paintings right
back outside to the C'ouer d'Alene annual western art auctions now held in Reno NV.
This was true for pieces by Zeigler and Machetanz as well, most coming in under
their estimates or passed. Russian Native by Zeigler (not shown) and Approaching
the Whale, by Machetanz, a detail of which is shown at left, exceeded their
estimates, coming in at $10,500 and $32,500 respectively. McAlpine named each
individual in the image who modeled for Machetanz. Other highlights of the auction included Zeigler's 26"x36" oil on canvas Mt McKinley Cabin (cf Issue #504) finding a new home for $40,000, and the sale of works by artists wives Jeanne Laurence and Ellen Henny Goodale, as well as a 30"x40" Mt McKinley by J.P. Wilson, a 'foremost' artist and painter of the dioramas at the Amrerican Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. that sold for $10,000. |
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BRACE YOURSELF:LIVING
ARTISTS McAlpine is an authentic art dealer, purchasing and even
commissioning work by living artists as well which was included in the show. Big Lake
painter James Belcher's 24"x36" Denali, not shown, sold for $17,500,
considerably more than the mountain painting of the late foremost. His Fireweed Sunset,
a detail of which is the index image this issue, found a new home that evening, and
altogether $60,000 was spent on six paintings for this contemporary master. 'He gets
light in the canvas and that's hard to do,' said McAlpine with respect. Don Kolstad, whose Brace Yourself shown at left was at Stephan's Gallery, not the auction, is another among McAlpine's 'stable' and saw several of his pieces passed over in person while remaining his usual cheerful upbeat self. His 24"X18" Early Spring (not shown) exceeded its estimate at $1350. Diane Tillion attended with her husband Clem and watched her watercolor Unalaska Russian Church (not shown) find a new home at $2000, and Lisa Ekemo's 48"x60" oil Seal Hunters (not shown) drew $4500. Alvin Amason would have shuddered had he been present. His large 42"x36" mixed media Otter (not shown) included a stick dangling a carved and painted bird in front of the canvas. Confusion reigned as this flat canvas was passed with a $3000 bid and the smaller 20"x22" Otter with it's own modeled nose in Amason's signature style sold at $2500 with the bird stick thrown in, a stunning misattribution either on my part or theirs. Afterward, McAlpine headed home after a long day's work with over $400,000 in receipts for fifty paintings. He likes working with Morris, who earned his 10% 'Buyers Premium' correspondingly, he said. "He knows how to talk to rich people." McAlpine referred to several of the artists whose paintings he was hawking as 'listed', which means that auction results have been reported on them to the major auction databases. Hopingly he is helping his own artists at least by adding his results to the pecuniary history of art. It didn't seem as though Museum Gala auction administrators attended, and if they did they got an eyeful of how to do it right. |
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RECTO VERSO:GALLUP AT
NO-HOST GALLERY Anchorage gets a chance this month to see the fun work
of Girdwood's Z Denise Gallup, who offers two types of fabric art at the Guest Gallery of
the International Gallery of Contemporary Art on D Street. Artists must hire the
space, and it is well lit and associated with hosted shows at the gallery. Gallup showed
her familiar multi-layered screens collectively referred to as Recto/Verso
(Front/Back), seen at left. The hanging scrolls divide the room the better to be seen
from both sides, each similar and devoted to one of seven chakras, or energy points along
the spine. In a string of 8"x8" box frames, not shown, she also offers a series
of sewn works she refers to as Mandalas, which are typically radially symettrical
visual aids to meditation. Gallup's Mandalas are not symettrical and she is
philosophical. "The emotional centers are like data banks, they carry patterns or
life lessons that are meant to be learned within a lifetime." NOTCH JOY:SUBLIMINAL ADVICE Gallup uses digital printing to make her own sewing patterns, sprinkled with disjunct homilies such as the one in Notch Joy Here, shown in a detail at left. Her concepts are not hidden and reward close inspection that allows her to draw a viewer near in order to reach out and touch them with positive instruction. Transparent, translucent, and opaque fabrics in the scrolls are colorfully dyed and owning one of the Mandalas could be good therapy for those who promise themselves to sew something some day. In the larger gallery, grandiosely matted and colorful c-type flower closeups and photos of Mexican pub murals are presented by Shelley Schneider this month. |
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FRICTION:SAGAN
RUSSE RESULTS A series of artist's proofs made on a Rasmuson Foundation
funded Individual Artist Project stay in a town outside Moscow in Russia recently also
grace the IGCA. Gretchen Sagan's Friction, shown at left, is one of a number of
artist's proofs described as a mixed technique involving engraving, aquatint, and monotype
presented in the south prong of the fork-like gallery. Sagan described enthusiastically
the methodical and painstaking, almost alchemical nature of preparing the plates for the
various processes. The results have a bit of the Russe psyche evident in Sagan's husband
Sasha's heritage. The compositions are reminiscent of Constructivism with a gloss of
scientific symbols, the desultory drawings resemble ion trails of particle science, and
the details of the aquatint areas especially evoke a smudgier, earlier time. Sagan's Theory, shown below left, adds a bit of color and a hint of scientific graphing to the mystery of two potatoes or astroids in mutual orbit to present her thinking about the dormant Time Changes project. Her volunteer and administrative positions and the support of the Alaska State Council on the Arts, the Alaska Native Arts Foundation, and the Rasmuson Foundation have presented wonderful opportunities, and she has shown work in two galleries this year, her first shows ever! |
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INDIVIDUAL ARTISTS:RASMUSON
AWARDS In New York City last month, United States Artists (cf
Issue # 505) announced that three Alaskan artists will be among the 53 initial recipients
of $50,000 unrestricted grants that the Ford, Rockefeller, Prudential and Rasmuson
Foundations helped to sponsor for artists across America, a program started this year
under the guidance of Amada Cruz in LA. Half of the awardees were from either CA or NY and
then AK, MN, and OR each with three, WA, IL, MA, and ME with two artists in all
representing fifteen different states. Congratulations to weavers Teri Rofkar of Sitka, Anna
Brown Ehlers of Juneau, and composer John Luther Adams of Fairbanks. Delores Churchill had her $25,000 NEA Heritage Fellowship confirmed by the $25,000 Distinguished Artist Award from the Rasmuson Foundation, project director Victoria Lord announced recently. In a new round of philanthropy, the Foundation is changing the lives of six artists with $12,000 Artist Fellowships. These include Hall Anderson, Ketchikan; Annette Bellamy, Halibut Cove; Rachelle Dowdy, Fairbanks; Annie Duffy, Fairbanks; Denis Keogh, Cordova; and Melissa Mitchell, Anchorage. Twelve $5000 Artist Project Awardees include Vernon Bavilla, Good News Bay; Daisy Demientieff, Anchorage; Christopher Ho, Bethel; Tony Hopfinger, Anchorage; Elizabeth Irving, Fairbanks; Matt Johnson, Anchorage; KC Lowe, Anchorage; Kathryn Mallory, Nome; Mary Matthews, Fairbanks; Eva Saulitis, Homer; Linda Schanelmeir, Fairbanks; and Sean Tracey, Juneau. Congratulations to those chosen and commiserations to the nearly chosen (regrettably informed). The application process requires everyone to put their best polish on their own proposals, and to make them as convincing as possible. It shouldn't hurt so bad to be among those not benefited by the Rasmuson Arts and Cultural Initiative largesse, and nobody should believe unconditionally in their own self-promotion, in a Vedic world. The next deadline for Project Award applications is March 1, 2007. Since the Individual Artist awards began three years ago, the Rasmuson Foundation has distributed $584,000 in Project Awards to 59 artists; $228,000 in Fellowship Awards to 19 artists; and $75,000 as Distinguished Artist awards to three. ARTISTS MATH: 81 artists, $887,000 total. Thank you, thank you, thank you, to the fourth power. |
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- ARTIST OPPORTUNITIES- 12/21/06 party KEN GRAY MEMORIAL SOLSTICE at MTS gallery in MountainView Artist participation encouraged, Thursday afternoon at 3:00 until the fires go out. Contact Jeff Patrick at his studio 563-6335 12/24/06 deadline MTS GALLERY CURATOR PROPOSALS sought: find out why you are eligible for a $1,000. stipend for organizing an art show at the MTS Gallery in Mt. View. 12/29/06 deadline SOA SITKA HIGH SCHOOL AIPP call for proposals, budget $75,000. four sites selected by committee. RFP online for this FY04 project. Contact Andrea Noble 907-269-6605 THE NEW LET THERE BE NEON by Rudi Stern The sign manufacturing world paused to place their hats over their hearts recently respecting the memory of the recently deceased Rudi Stern, who wrote a book both championing neon as an art and the preservation of skills being lost to inattention and punitive sign codes. ArtSceneAK recommends powering up the Open sign with this book... NEXT: 2007 CHANCES SHORTCUTS: Aggravated again?! Ecstatic?! Let us know you love us or hate us. Help correct attribution errors that you suspect. Tell us about your upcoming event or artist opportunity. Let us know about your website. Form makes it easy to try your hand at pumping or dumping. cf also ART IN ALASKA
From Sweden: "I have
about 300 paintings under the my bed, and about 500 in rolls and i certainly know that it
could be sold, because people like my art, and then I would not ask the good people from
Gothenburg social security to let me live. Moreover, I would even have a studio! And paint
and paint and paint:) Sorry, I am a painter, and I don’t see another sense of my life
besides to paint. From the literary world: " Not many people know that one of the best literary magazines in the nation comes out of UAA. Alaska Quarterly Review (AQR) publishes some of the best fiction, short plays, poetry, and literary nonfiction out there. Consider picking up an issue at only $6.95 at Borders, Barnes & Noble, etc. AQR also sponsors a special series focusing on Alaskan writers, the AQR First Friday Readings series at Bernie’s Bungalow. Stop by for some literary fun in February, March, April, and May (the festivities begin at 7PM)." --- Robert Clark Good Luck to Alexandra Sonneborn, who announced: "the LAST first Friday that I will be having at the Paintspot Gallery. I'm expanding workshop and studio space and will be offering lots more painting opportunities for local artists (for example, a weekly "open" studio for pastellists, and a beginning watercolor workshop, both with all supplies provided). " From Natasha Ala:"Attention Artists, The KVCC is looking for Dog Mushing related artwork to display during the month of January 2007. If you, or a fellow artist, has work relating to dog mushing and would like to be exhibited in this event please reply asap to 907-283-1991." KVCC = Kenai Visitors and Cultural Center. The Kenai Peninsula Photographers guild is showing there this month, and Paul Tornow's work is exhibited at a r t w o r k s in Soldotna. |
CHOICES 2006:POP QUIZ
RESULTS
Readers were sparing in their participation in our first READERS CHOICE survey, partially
explaining why art categories were dropped from mainstream press 'picks' this year.
Sculptors Joan Bugbee Jackson and Sheila Wyne both received emphatic nods as 3D faves.
Wyne, whose Fossil Series piece in the 100at$100 show at IGCA last month is shown
at right, was also indirectly mentioned for her support for the notion of a community of
artists in Anchorage. "I wish I had nominated the Loose Afilliation of Local
Artists (LALA) for pulling off seven or eight straight annual studio party extravaganza's
--- arguably the biggest and best independent artist event of each and every year since
the beginning of the new milennium", wrote Bruce Farnsworth, a partner in the
effort. His insights also included this late nomination for Art Administrator:"
if Helen Howarth, Arts & Culture Program Officer for the Rasmuson Foundation, doesn't
deserve special commendation for proposing, winning internal acceptance of, and managing
the RF Arts Initiative through its first two years then no one does." Amen.
LaRue Barnes shared these thoughts: "JenAnn Kirschmeir paints with colorful
passion showing us the beauty of dawn and twilight in both vista and vignette. I like that
she paints a "happy Alaska" with her choice of colors and grandeur. With
skillful sensitivity JenAnn catches the essence of her subjects in her portraits. David
Rosenthal reveals the subtle beauty of light play on land and sea, in fair and foul
weather. He makes dreary interesting."She went on to add:"The
Anchorage Museum at the Rasmuson is a personal favorite for many reasons. The
collection has both historical and contemporary works. The artifact cases are
uniform and easy on the eye as well as helping with curation. The collection is
large enough to be interesting yet not overwhelming. It also is so very
accessible."Other prominent favorites include NEMOArt Gallery, the Quonset Hut exhibition and its curators Chris Chiei and Dr Julie Decker, and Don Decker as arts correspondent received numerous plaudits including the following: "I think that Don Decker is very good, and fair, and he really does look carefully at what he is reviewing. Artists who resent his comments should pay more attention to what he's saying." That's tough for ArtSceneAK's publisher and Anchorage artist Donald R Ricker to relay, after Decker savaged his solo show at length early this year: Relieving the pain are the Readers Nods for ArtSceneAK's Art Advocacy, including:"for comprehensiveness, frequency, and sheer provocativeness, no competition." Aw shucks, Season's Greetings, and No Prizes to all. Annoint your competition in the BACK ISSUE Index.
Thanks and Welcome back to ArtSceneAK's only patron level subscriber, whose $100 contribution in the first year finally wore off recently."Don't wait so long to remind me about this. I am happy to help in this small way". Thank you to new subscribers in Anchorage and Fairbanks and Welcome back to renewers in Anchorage, Juneau, and Willow, one of whom said nicely:" I really enjoy and look forward to your publication each month. Keep up the good work!" Melissa Hesselbach is showing work at the Snow City Café this month: "I enjoy using art to tell stories in which I attempt to capture “snapshot” moments of time. Body language and facial expressions or moods created in landscapes by color and weather conditions or human conditions." Thanks and a tip of the hat to Heather Young at Art&Design online. She might have some free space ready for you, too. She says "It's time to energize the community. It's fun, easy, and things can happen if you make the effort.". From London"Thank you for the interest
and support shown for our website in the past year. We get so much pleasure from seeing
interesting work from around the world arrive on the Your Gallery pages, and more recently
in the newly launched STUART,
designed especially for art students to showcase their work. We will try to continue
improving the site and facilities over the next year. From Europe: "thank you! I send you all my best wishes back! We don't know Thanksgiving in Switzerland. But I think it's not bad to send from time to time my warmest wishes to my friends! Hugs " --- Daniela deMaddalena From L.Saunders McNeil at the ASCA (who has requested her name be removed from ArtSceneAK's lists, as has Charlotte Fox, agency head): "Thank you for attending the Alaska Native Artists Summit! An important part of this year's Alaska Native Artists Summit follow up is to get your feedback. Your recommendations and comments about this year's summit will help guide the planning and implementation of next year's Summit." No doubt they both read our review here last month. From a fellow artist consultant in Florida: "great news about you and your art works! Nice gallery also [IGCA]. You will never know how often either my wife or I mention your name during any given month. One of those very fond memories of Florence and the Biennale. Keep up the good work and write when you can." --- JL From New York City: "Happy
Holidays to you also. It is nice to know people around the world. I have a number of
exhibitions coming up in the city and upstate NY. A 'family friendly' show at the North Wall Gallery of the Sheldon Community Arts Hanger in Talkeetna features new work by nine local artists this month. Kerby McGhee is showing new work at the Cafe Savannah in downtown Anchorage this month: "any help in notifying folks throught the internet tubes would be appreciated. Hope you can make it." Two Crow Studio and Gallery in Juneau features the oil paintings of Anchorage artist Phoebe Greenough this month.
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text & photos © 2006 Donald R Ricker; artist's works pictured ©2006 to artists credited.
ArtSceneAK is published by Donald R Ricker and sponsored by
BETTER LETTERS, PO Box 103554, Anchorage AK 99510-3554
, a partial listing of links to Museums,
Galleries, and individual Artists around the state.
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