“Chef de la Tribu des Serpents, Oregon,” 1862, a watercolor by Alexandre Homo

April 7, 2010 — Lisa N. Peters

Alexandre Homo, "Chef de la Tribu des Serpents Oregon tenant un fusil dans un paysage," 1862, watercolor on paper, 14-7/8 x 12-3/8 inches

Alexandre Homo, "Chef de la Tribu des Serpents Oregon tenant un fusil dans un paysage," 1862, watercolor on paper, 14-7/8 x 12-3/8 inches

Lisa N. Peters

For our current exhibition, American Works on Paper, we went to our flat files and discovered many intriguing images that had yet to be researched.  Among them is a watercolor by an artist who signed his name “Alex. Homo” and inscribed the work: Quisap / Chef de la tribu / des Serpents. Oregon. / 62’.  Aside from a few auction records, the only information in our library on the artist was in the Bénézit Dictionary of Artists.  As Bénézit revealed, the artist–as the inscription clued us in–was French.  He was born in Paris in 1840 and studied with Auguste Pequegnot (1819-1878), a Parisian painter of ornamental works, landscapes, and figures, who exhibited at the Paris Salon.

Bénézit indicates that Homo also showed at the Salon, exhibiting there in 1877.  The dictionary further notes that a number of works by Homo belong to the Musée de Bernay, in Normandy, and their Normandy subjects suggest that after he visited America, where our watercolor reveals that he traveled west, Homo settled in Normandy.  We’ve contacted the museum for more information on Homo and will provide it when it is received. According to Bénézit, the artist died in 1889. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in About the Artist, From the Archives. Tags: , , , , , . 2 Comments »

From the Archives: Interview with Betty Parsons

April 1, 2010 — Spanierman Gallery, LLC
Betty Parsons

Betty Parsons

In 1977, Helene Aylon, friend of Betty Parsons, interviewed the then seventy-seven year old artist; the interview appeared that same year in Woman Art Magazine.

This interview, of which an excerpt is posted below, includes conversation between Parsons and Aylon which touches on everything from the artist’s relationship with other female artists to her views on Abstract Expressionism (and many topics in between).

This is an enlightening, empowering interview—and certainly well worth a read!

Read the full interview on our website.

HA: You knew Martha Graham, Marlene Dietrich, and after all, you played tennis with Greta Garbo!

BP: Two or three times. Interesting the way I met her. I was asked on Christmas Eve by her ghost writer, Salka Fiertel. She said, “Come over and we are going to dress the tree.” I got there and Salka said, “go up to the attic and bring down a great big box of Christmas dressings…” So I went up there, and Greta and I stared at each other over the top of the box.

Read the rest of this post on the Spanierman Modern blog.

Posted in About the Artist, From the Archives. Tags: , , , . 3 Comments »

Betty Parsons: Travels, Both Literal and Metaphorical

February 2, 2010 — Lisa N. Peters
Betty Parsons and Timmy, on the Beach at Southold, Long Island

Betty Parsons on the Beach at Southold, Long Island, photograph, Parsons Estate

Lisa N. Peters

While working on our third exhibition of the art of Betty Parsons (1900-1982), opening February 9, I was once again amazed by Parsons.   She seems to have lived several lives at once and didn’t compromise on any of them.  Her New York gallery is viewed today as the most important and groundbreaking of the Abstract Expressionist era.  She championed the artists she showed, both famous (Jackson Pollock, Barnet Newman, Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko) and little known, with relentless energy and passion.  Friendship was important to her, and she kept close contact with her inner circle of friends; her work as a dealer was integral with her social life.  In addition to the artists she exhibited, her friendships included a surprising list of other well-known figures in the arts, including Georgia O’Keeffe, Martha Graham, Ezra Pound, Janet Flanner, and even Greta Garbo (for whom she was at times mistaken).

Read the rest of this post on the Spanierman Modern blog.

Posted in About the Artist, From the Archives. Tags: , , . 1 Comment »

A Lost Record Brought to Life, Dinner at the Salmagundi Club, 1908

January 21, 2010 — Lisa N. Peters

Lisa N. Peters

Salmagundi Club Dinner Menu

1908 Dinner Menu, Salmagundi Club, from the Spanierman Gallery, LLC, Charles Warren Eaton Archive

Our recent show of the work of Charles Warren Eaton led us to notice an archival storage box on a high shelf in our library that was catalogued under the artist’s name at some point in the past and then forgotten. It contained what scholars always wish for: a number of primary source materials that had never received scrutiny. Among them was the ledger book in the artist’s hand, from which we made many discoveries—one reported on this blog earlier. We also found an eight-page booklet measuring 10 x 6-3/8 inches with the title: Testimonial Dinner given to Mr. A. T. Van Laer by his friends in the Salmagundi Club, over whom he has long presided. Inside the booklet was a photograph of Van Laer, a photograph of one of his landscapes with his signature below it, and the menu for the dinner, which included fried perch, paté of sweetbread, roast Long Island duck, and strawberry ice cream. What was remarkable about this find was not the booklet itself, but that the plain brown coversheet that enclosed it, and two inside pages, contained original signatures of those who attended the dinner, a group of artists, collectors, and dealers that included a great number of important figures of the time. Bob Mueller, chairman of the curator committee at the Salmagundi Club, which since it was established in 1871 has been a gathering place for artists that also offers art classes and holds exhibitions, reported that a copy of the booklet exists at the club, but without the signatures and without a record of those who attended. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in From the Archives, Research. Tags: , , . Leave a Comment »

From the Archives: A Letter from Gershon Benjamin

October 22, 2009 — Spanierman Gallery, LLC
Katherine Bogden
Back in 2007-8 I had the great pleasure of assisting with the exhibition and catalogue for Over Seven Decades: The Art of Gershon Benjamin.
From a research standpoint, this was no small undertaking. Benjamin and his wife Zelda left behind no less than nine boxes of (previously unsorted) archive materials, which included everything from reviews clipped from newspapers and magazines to personal letters, professional correspondence, photographs, sketches, award certificates, legal paperwork—and the list goes on.

Although sorting and organizing this material was a tremendous amount of work it was also immensely rewarding. Besides helping us trace Benjamin’s steps from his time in Canada through his New York years and up until his death in Free Acres, New Jersey in 1985, these documents helped answer our more abstract questions: what went on in the mind of the artist, beyond the brush?

Benjamin’s letters read like windows through the canvas, giving both tangible evidence of his inspirations (such as the Greek sculptures he discusses below) and what he was after in his work—in Benjamin’s case he was always trying to capture the essence of the object (or as you’ll read in his letter, the “soul”).
I found the letters between Benjamin and Zelda particularly interesting for a number of reasons:
Posted in About the Artist, From the Archives. Tags: , . 3 Comments »
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