1.  Why post your collection online?

 

As indicated in our brief opening essay, A Note About the Collection, we are deeply committed to the promotion of scholarship about the artists of the Thirties and Forties generally, and of the American Scene movement in particular. With the rise of Abstract Expressionism and subsequent schools of painting, many have forgotten the powerful contributions of these painters, the vast majority of whom have been long overlooked by scholars.  Our hope is that this website might become a rallying point for the enlightenment of art lovers and both seasoned and beginning collectors, a window to a host of artists about whom so little has been written.  

 

Several years ago, we self-published a catalogue on our collection, as it stood at the time.  In 2015, another catalogue was published in connection with an exhibition of most of our paintings at the Northern Arizona University Art Museum in Flagstaff. In pondering an update to that original self-published catalogue to account for intervening additions and scholarship, it became apparent that the creation of an online catalogue offered substantial advantages to a traditionally published version. An online catalogue offers much broader access to the collection as well as the continuing opportunity to update and expand the information previously provided.  The online format also offers the chance to stimulate an ongoing dialogue with collectors, dealers, museum professionals and art enthusiasts through the medium of blogging.  It is our fervent hope and desire that, both through our own occasional commentaries and those of others, a community of art aficionados of the American Scene will take root and blossom right here on this site. 

 

2.  You offer a Contact Page.  Why should I be in touch?

 

While this website is open to everyone without requirement of registration, I would urge those of you who are so inclined to contact us with comments, thoughts, questions or corrections regarding any of the material posted on our site.  We are particularly interested in any additional information regarding our artworks and artists that we may not have already uncovered in our research, and invite you to submit any such information to us through our Contact Page.  

 

If you provide us your email address, we will contact you from time to time when new postings are made or updates are available. We will absolutely NOT use your email or other personal information for any other reason or share the same with anyone else.  If you are interested in offering a guest post on some aspect of the art of this period (or art collecting in general), please let us know.  Input is both welcome and encouraged.  That being said, in order to maintain the integrity of the site, we will at all times retain the sole right to determine what will be posted on our website.  

 

3.  Are paintings in your collection available for loan or sale?

 

We have loaned artworks from our collection to art museums in the past and would be pleased to do so in the future, so long as the proper conditions are met and the borrower is a properly accredited art institution. 

 

This is not a commercial art gallery website and we do not routinely sell works from our collection.  We do, from time to time, consign works we choose to deaccession to dealers or auction houses.  Feel free to contact us if you have questions or wish to be notified of any future decision to deaccession any particular work of art.

 

4.  You include catalogue entries for several works no longer in your collection.  Why?

 

With the concurrence of the current owners, where applicable, we have retained these listings for their educational and historical significance.

 

5.  What is the purpose of the “Recollections” which appear at the end of the webpages for certain of the works in the collection?

 

Christine Brindza, Glasser Curator of Art of the American West at the Tucson Art Museum, as part of her recent installation of an exhibition drawn from the collection of a Tucson couple, posted (below the traditional exhibition labels for each artwork) a brief personal anecdote from the collectors regarding some aspect of their acquisition or ownership of the work. We found this fascinating, and felt that fellow collectors would be interested or amused by the personal stories associated with specific artworks in our own collection.  Stories such as these are part of the joy of collecting and should be shared.  Accordingly, in those instances where we’ve had a story to tell, we’ve offered it up to posterity, for better or worse.

 

6.  Is the information on this site subject to copyright or other rights?

 

Except as otherwise indicated, all material describing artists and artworks on this site is the fruit of our labor and is subject to copyright.  Works of art reproduced on this site may be protected by copyright, trademark or related interests.  Where we are aware of such interests, we have endeavored to properly accredit such rights.  If we have inadvertently omitted necessary notices, we urge visitors to contact us with appropriate corrections or additions.