News

Menconi + Schoelkopf Presents Voyages, an Exhibition of Work by Richard Estes

Download the Press Release

Intimate Showcase of Estes’s Travel Inspired Works is Menconi + Schoelkopf’s First Formal Presentation of the Great Photorealist American Painter 

Voyages Will Be Open To The Public And By Appointment From June 14th Through July 30th 

NEW YORK, NY, Monday, February 8, 2021 – Menconi + Schoelkopf, a leading gallery in the field of American art, today announced that it will present Voyages, an exhibition of works by Richard Estes which represent his travels, as well as his vision of New York City. The show, which will run from June 14th to July 30th at the 22 East 80th Street location, is Menconi + Schoelkopf’s first exhibition of Estes’s work. 

Voyages delves deeply into Estes’s canon, offering a riveting and intimate look at some of Estes’s most impassioned work with pieces created from his own world travels, some even capturing him in transit itself. During a period when we share an unsatisfied longing for travel, the photorealism of these paintings captures small, personal moments of the artist’s adventures – touching down at an airport in Germany, approaching Antarctica by sea, stepping aboard the L train, and memorizing the landscapes of Hiroshima, Barcelona, the Pont Neuf and Central Park. 

“Menconi + Schoelkopf is pleased to welcome Richard Estes to our gallery program. As the greatest photorealist painter of our time, it is a privilege to present his work,” said Andy Schoelkopf, Owner of Menconi + Schoelkopf. “Through these 20 paintings, Voyages tells the story of both his personal adventures and exceptional work with special resonance. The gallery focuses on the important work of the most relevant and lasting painters and so presenting Richard’s work is both an honor and a natural fit for us as the canon evolves so rapidly in these times.” 

“Working with Menconi + Schoelkopf to put together Voyages has been a joy and an opportunity to share moments in time and place,” said Richard Estes. “This exhibition is the first of what I know will be a rewarding partnership with the gallery and I am grateful to Andy and his team for their collaborative and rigorous approach.” 

Richard Estes is the standard-bearer of photorealist painting and its most devoted and accomplished practitioner. His work is defined by a profound commitment to the fidelity and quotidian truths of his depictions. Of equal importance is his unique creative process in which repeated observations coalesce into an image in his mind. The painting of that image represents a vision within his subjective reality. Over the last half-century, the rare integrity of his process has unveiled a true understanding of the world around us, even as our cities, our landscapes and our rituals change – slowly and steadily, then all at once. As the pendulum swings back from abstraction and realism recaptures the imagination, Richard Estes is secured as one of the leading painters of the 20th century. His body of work includes his interpretations of timeless, pristine images of New York City as well as his many adventures in travel, some of which will be presented by Menconi + Schoelkopf in the June 2021 exhibition Voyages. 

About Menconi + Schoelkopf 

Menconi + Schoelkopf is a leader in the field of American art, focusing on the finest works of this country’s artists, created from 1875 to today. The gallery’s program communicates the entire sweep of the modernist impulse in America through its presentation of innovative and important works in both abstract and realist modes. The mission of the gallery is to expand the field of American art through research, scholarship and our treasured relationships with the leading collectors and museums. The gallery is a member of the Art Dealers Association of America, of which Andrew Schoelkopf serves as President, and the Private Art Dealers Association. It maintains a robust schedule of programming and exhibitions which support the engagement of new audiences. The gallery strives to inspire a richer understanding of the contributions of the leading American artists. The gallery is located on New York City’s Upper East Side and is open to the public and by appointment. Visit: www.msfineart.com for a schedule of upcoming programming or to engage with us. 

Images & Photo Credits: 

Images and photo credits are available here. 

Contact: 

Susan Ainsworth 

Ph: 1-917-861-7949 

Email: Susan@ainsworthassociates.net 

Exhibition

Charles Biederman at Menconi + Schoelkopf

May 20 - July 3, 2019

Charles Biederman’s meteoric career as an abstract painter in the 1930s saw him exhibiting alongside Alexander Calder and Charles Green Shaw, before he broke with painting entirely around 1940 in favor of a long and prolific career as a sculptor. Menconi + Schoelkopf presents a group of extraordinary canvases from this brief and powerful period as a painter, along with signal early examples of his wall-relief sculpture. Open to the public at 22 E 80th Street from May 20 through July 3, 2019.

Exhibition

Thomas Hart Benton at Menconi + Schoelkopf

April 29 - May 17, 2019

Often cited, along with Grant Wood, as a founder of what would be termed Regionalism, Thomas Hart Benton found his own vernacular, infused with the Synchromist flavors of Stanton MacDonald-Wright, as well as his own sculptural-modeling interpretations of Old Master practices. Though his work was, for a period, outshined by one of his star pupils, Jackson Pollock, Benton has lost little popularity or relevance, and indeed is enjoying renewed interest for his uniquely modern look at American country life. Menconi + Schoelkopf, in collaboration with Surovek Gallery and Lester Thompson Fine Art, presents a group of major works from across Benton’s long and extraordinary career. Open to the public at 22 E 80^th Street from April 29 through May 17.

Event

Gallery Talk: Winslow Homer in the Tropics

March 12, 2019

Stephanie Herdrich (Metropolitan Museum of Art) and Theodore Barrow (Hudson River Museum) discuss Winslow Homer’s brief forays to Florida, Cuba, and the Bahamas – at a critical point in American history and a turning point in the master’s career. A group of extraordinary watercolors by Winslow Homer will be on view for this event. A 1-hour panel discussion begins at 6 PM at the gallery, followed by a refreshments and book signing. Admission is free but seating is limited: please RSVP to info@msfineart.com.

Exhibition

Manierre Dawson at Menconi + Schoelkopf

April 1-26

Manierre Dawson occupies a special place in American art history as one of the earliest contributors to abstract art. His influences were many, but his quasi-cubist experiments in the 1910s notably developed largely apart from any significant awareness of Picasso or Kandinsky. Difficulty in dating many of these ground-breaking works has obscured their profound originality: whether or not he was the first to summit the mountain of abstraction, his path there was uniquely his own and certainly represents an extraordinary achievement. A group of extraordinary early canvases and sculptures will be on view at the gallery at 22 E 80^th Street from April 1 through April 26.

Art Fair

Andrew Schoelkopf on The Art Show 2019

Whitewall interviewed Menconi + Schoelkopf’s Andrew Schoelkopf, President of the Art Dealers Association of America, on the occasion of The Art Show 2019, to discuss member gallery presentations, new and returning exhibitors, and upcoming programming the ADAA is proud to support.

Click here to read the full interview.

Press

A Spotlight on Female Artists at the ADAA Art Show: M + S in Bloomberg

March 2

Menconi + Schoelkopf’s booth at this year’s ADAA Art Show featured works from the most seminal figures in American Modernism, including a stunning masterwork by Georgia O’Keeffe. Painted in 1929, the year the artist first traveled to New Mexico, the historic canvas shown at Menconi + Schoelkopf’s booth was one of a number of impressive works by female artists at The Art Show.

Speaking to Bloomberg on the significance of an increased exposure for women artists at The Art Show, ADAA president Andrew Schoelkopf said: “It’s about shining a brighter light on the areas of scholarship and market that didn’t receive their due. It’s very important to consider those omissions.” To read the full article, click here.

Art Fair

M + S at The Art Show

February 28 - March 3

Menconi + Schoelkopf is delighted to return to The Art Show at the Park Avenue Armory with a selection of extraordinary paintings by the innovators of American modernism and post-war painters that extended these aesthetics, including a masterpiece by Oscar Bluemner, a pivotal canvas by Marsden Hartley, and powerful examples by Fairfield Porter and Milton Avery. The Art Show, organized by the Art Dealers Association of America to benefit Henry Street Settlement, is the nation’s longest running art fair, welcoming more than 15,000 visitors during run of show. Menconi + Schoelkopf is exhibiting at Booth D26, February 28th through March 3rd.

Event

The ADAA’s UES Gallery Walk

Saturday, March 2, 2019, 3-5pm EST

Menconi + Schoelkopf is pleased to participate in The ADAA’s Upper East Side Gallery Walk, taking place on Saturday, March 2, 2019. Our doors will be open at 22 East 80th Street from 3pm to 5pm for our exhibition, Masters of Modernism. Be sure to check The ADAA’s official event listing for a guide of participating galleries to plan your visit to other noteworthy exhibitions, and to visit us at The Art Show February 28-March 3, booth D26, at the Park Avenue Armory. We look forward to seeing you in the neighborhood.

Press

The National Review features M + S at The Winter Show 2019

Menconi + Schoelkopf is thrilled to be featured in The National Review’s recent writeup on The Winter Show, alongside our esteemed peers, colleagues and friends. Brian T. Allen writes:

“Menconi + Schoelkopf is a fine firm whose principals have a distinguished pedigree among the best dealers in American art from the 1950s, when the market for old American things started to have a real pulse.”

Event

Marin | Burchfield at Menconi + Schoelkopf

Through March 1, 2019

In the early 1910s, John Marin made a turn towards modernism, embracing elements of cubism, fauvism and expressionism to forge a style that would quickly consolidate as a unique voice in American art. In these same years, Charles Burchfield was charting a parallel path in Cleveland, Ohio. Like Marin, Burchfield explored landscape in watercolor for its expressive potential, quickly finding a vernacular both novel and intimate, distinctly American and distinctly modern. Marin would peregrinate between New York City and Maine, while Burchfield chronicled the American Scene in Cleveland and then Buffalo, New York. They both worked into the mid-century, enjoying the support and praise of generations of collectors and younger artists. While their styles are notably distinct, many of their goals and habits were the same—not least among these a preference for watercolor as a primary means of expression.

Menconi + Schoelkopf will highlight these two painters with by presenting a dozen watercolors and oils by each. A rare Burchfield oil will join several examples on canvas by Marin, while the show will be dominated by their prodigious collective output in their shared medium of choice.

Through March 1 at 22 E 80^th Street, New York, NY, 10075. For more information, visit us at www.msfineart.com, (212) 879-8815, or info@msfineart.com.

Press

Praise for The Winter Show in New York Social Diary

January 18, 2019

The New York Social Diary wrote in their coverage of the fair:

“This years’ Winter Show delivers, and the pleasure is all yours. This exhibition seemed especially spectacular to my eyes.”

Highlights included a work by John Singer Sargent mounted in our booth as well as many other impressive works of art and antiques from our fellow exhibitors.

Press

M+S’s Winter Show Booth Featured in The New York Times

January 18, 2019

The Winter Show officially opened Thursday night and our booth is featured front and center in Jason Farago’s coverage of the evening in The New York Times.

Art Fair

M+S at The Winter Show 2019

January 18 - 27, 2019

Menconi + Schoelkopf is proud to present an exhibition of masterpieces of American art at the Winter Show at the Park Avenue Armory, opening on Friday, January 18th and running through January 27^th, 2019.

The Winter Show, formerly known as The Winter Antiques Show, is one of the longest-running and most prestigious fairs of art and antiques in the country. All objects are vetted by a committee of specialists ensuring only the finest works with extraordinary provenances and conditions are exhibited, and Menconi + Schoelkopf’s offerings will exceed these exacting standards. We will present masterpieces of traditional American art, including works by Thomas Cole and a group of exceptional watercolors by Winslow Homer. Masterpieces from the early 20^th century, including signal works by Ashcan artists William Glackens and Everett Shinn, will be on view as well.

Further selections will be at the gallery on East 80^th Street, and we invite you to visit us there during the week.

The Winter Show is open from 12:00 to 6:00 PM daily from Friday, January 18, through Sunday, Jan 27, 2019. The gallery is open to the Monday through Friday, and by appointment, at our new location at 22 E 80^th Street, New York, NY, 10075. Visit www.msfineart.com or email info@msfineart.com, or call (212) 879-8815 for more information.

Art Fair

Art Basel | Miami Beach Preview Day

December 5, 2018

Art Basel | Miami Beach opens to previews today at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Our booth, C16,  features masterpieces of American Modernism. Inquire with the gallery for a checklist.

Art Fair

M+S at Art Basel | Miami Beach

December 6-9, 2018

On Thursday, December 6, 2018, Menconi + Schoelkopf opens a booth of masterpieces of American modernism at Art Basel | Miami Beach. Join us, through December 9th, as we present masterpieces of American Modernism at booth C16 of the Miami Beach Convention Center. Extraordinary canvases by Stieglitz-circle painter Arthur Dove will be joined by post-war abstraction by Joseph Albers and Norman Lewis. Reach us at the gallery or on our cell phones on the floor of the fair

Art Fair

M+S at The American Art Fair

November 10-13, 2018

Menconi + Schoelkopf will exhibit at the eleventh installment of The American Art Fair, opening Saturday, November 10th, at the Bohemian National Hall. The fair begins its second decade of gathering the finest dealers of American art under one roof. Menconi + Schoelkopf has participated in every outing, and this year will present the same extraordinary level of quality, including masterful works by Hudson River School painters, American impressionism, and early American modernism.

The Bohemian National Hall is located at 321 E 73rd Street, New York. The fair runs through from noon until 6 PM, Saturday through Monday, and closes at 4 PM on Tuesday, November 13th. Admission to the fair is free.

News

Now Open at 22 E 80th Street

September 20, 2018

We’re now open at our new space at 22 E 80th Street, just a few steps from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After an extraordinary opening show, we have a number of gallery selections on the walls in advance of our next public exhibition, opening in January, 2019. In the meantime, we welcome your visit by appointment to see a particular work.

News

We’re moving!

September 24, 2018

After 17 years at 13 E 69th Street, Menconi + Schoelkopf is moving to 22 E 80th Street, between 5th and Madison Avenues. Our doors will open to the public September 24th, 2018, with an exhibition surveying American art from 1866-1966. Renovation continues at present, but we invite you to visit us at the end of September — or call to schedule an appointment before then!

Press

Canton Museum of Art Acquires Hassam ‘Watercolor Masterpiece’

March 5, 2018

ArtFix Daily reported that the Canton Museum of Art, Canton, Ohio, had recently acquired a masterpiece watercolor by Childe Hassam, writing:

“Max Barton, Executive Director of Canton Museum of Art, said, “We are thrilled to add this important, classic work of American Impressionism to our collection. A work by Hassam has long been on our search list, and we acquired a fine piece with an elegant subject and beautiful orchestration of color. Clearly inspired by Hassam’s exposure to the French style in the late 1800s, the painting is vibrant and crisp, and you feel as though you could step in and stroll the coastal waterway with the young lady.”

“Purchase [from a private collection] of “Bleak House, Broadstairs” was made through the Museum’s Accession Fund, which is restricted solely for the purchase of art.”

Press

Plaudits for the ADAA Art Show from The Art Newspaper

February 28, 2018

Sarah Hanson, writing for The Art Newspaper, took note of Menconi + Schoelkopf’s booth at the ADAA Art Show, writing:

“Andrew Schoelkopf, now a director at Menconi + Schoelkopf, was a youngster pressed into service by his dealer parents on opening night. “They’d never done an art fair before,” he says. “We had an extraordinary, big bronze by Elie Nadelman and a Stuart Davis. We sold three or four things that night. It was an exciting moment.”

“But only a few dealers saw a similar flurry of business during the Tuesday night preview. Sean Kelly found a dozen takers on clever new cut-out editions by Jose Dávila, which playfully reference Picasso and Calder ($18,000-$45,000). David Zwirner continued its 25th anniversary celebration with a salon-style hang of one work apiece by each of its 50 artists. They ranged from a drawing by new recruit Rose Wylie ($5,000) to a tiny, much-admired Fred Sandback relief ($250,000), with “quite a few” sales in the first few hours, according to director Veronique Ansorge. Schoelkopf, fielding inquiries on a Marsden Hartley ($1.85m) and a trio of Oscar Bluemner paintings on paper ($750,000-$2.45m), says the market for American Modernism is “the best it’s ever been”.” [ADAA’s Art Show misses Armory week crowds, but focused displays of challenging works still prove popular,” The Art Newspaper, February 28, 2018]

News

ADAA Names Andrew Schoelkopf as next President

March 2, 2018

The Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) today announced the appointment of Andrew L. Schoelkopf, co-founder and partner at the New York City gallery Menconi + Schoelkopf, as the organization’s new president. Having served a total of seven years on the ADAA Board of Directors, the ADAA Foundation Board, and The Art Show Committee, Schoelkopf will oversee the nation’s leading nonprofit organization of art dealers, encompassing nearly 180 members from 29 cities across the U.S. Founded in 1962, the ADAA is a leader in establishing best practices for the field and advancing scholarship and connoisseurship. Schoelkopf was officially recognized at the organization’s semi-annual meeting this morning, and his appointment is effective today.

Read the full press release below.

Press

Praise for M+S’s Art Show Booth in The New York Times

March 1, 2018

Roberta Smith, writing for The New York Times  on March 1, 2018, cited a painting in our booth as “one of the show’s stars,” writing:

“This year’s most plentiful American modernists include Marsden Hartley, Milton Avery, Oscar Bluemner and Charles Burchfield. Start with one of the show’s stars: Hartley’s magnificent 1932 Mexican landscape, “Lost Country — Petrified Sand Hills” at Menconi + Schoelkopf; its ocher hills, blue sky and white clouds have the simple force of a bull’s-eye.”

Press

Works on Paper Show Featured in American Fine Art Magazine

The March/April issue of American Fine Art Magazine, out now, features an article on our exhibition, Masterworks of American Art On Paper Vol. II. Pick up a copy on stands or at the gallery, through March 16th.

Art Fair

Masterworks of American Art on Paper, Part II: 1916-1966

February 27, 2018

On February 27^th, 2018, Menconi + Schoelkopf presents the second of a two-part exhibition of a century of American art on paper. The second half encompasses work from the Armory show to the middle of the twentieth century, chronicling the development of modernism through the early 1960s. Some twenty works of watercolor, pastel, oil, and acrylic—all on paper—will demonstrate the expansive role the support played, from artists of the Stieglitz Circle like Oscar Bluemner and Arthur Dove, through high modernists Milton Avery and Stuart Davis. The show goes on view simultaneously at the gallery, with masterpieces on view at the ADAA Art Show at the Park Avenue Armory, which runs through March 4^th. The show continues at the gallery through March 16^th, accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue, with essay by Dr. Judith A. Barter.

Event

Masterworks of American Art on Paper, Part I: 1866-1916

January 15-28, 2018

On January 16^th, 2018, Menconi + Schoelkopf presents the first of a two-part exhibition of a century of American art on paper.  The first part covers the births of the American societies for artists in watercolors and pastels in the 1860s and 70s, through the 1913 Armory Show. Expect exceptional works from Winslow Homer, Maurice Prendergast, and John La Farge. Part I will be presented concurrently at the gallery and at the Winter Antiques Show at the Park Avenue Armory, January 18-28th, 2018. The show continues at the gallery through February 9th, accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue, with essay by Dr. Judith A. Barter.

Art Fair

Art Basel | Miami Beach 2017

December 7-10, 2017

Our booth at Art Basel | Miami Beach included exceptional paintings, sculpture, and works on paper from across the twentieth century.

Art Fair

Art Basel | Miami Beach 2017: Checklist Available

December 7-10, 2017

Miami Beach Convention Center, Miami Beach, Florida – Thursday, December 7, through Sunday, December 10, 2017. Booth C18.

The fair doesn’t open until Thursday, December 7th, but a preview of our booth is available now. Contact us to receive a preview checklist of our booth at the fair.

For its third outing participating in Art Basel | Miami Beach, Menconi + Schoelkopf presents a highly-curated group exhibition of paintings by American modernists. These dozen masterworks will illustrate a narrative that joins the explosion of early modernism in the United States, beginning with the 1913 Armory Show, through its even more incendiary development in the Post-war years as Abstract Expressionism. Works by John Marin, Oscar Bluemner, Ralston Crawford, and Charles Biederman will sketch the way forward for vanguard modernism in the twentieth century.

Art Basel | Miami Beach

Miami Beach Convention Center | Booth C18

Event

Menconi + Schoelkopf at Art Basel | Miami Beach 2017

December 7-10, 2017

Miami Beach Convention Center, Miami Beach, Florida – Thursday, December 7, through Sunday, December 10, 2017. Booth C18.

For its third outing participating in Art Basel | Miami Beach, Menconi + Schoelkopf presents a highly-curated group exhibition of paintings by the early American modernists in and adjacent to the circle of Alfred Stieglitz. These dozen masterworks will illustrate a narrative that joins the explosion of early modernism in the United States, beginning with the 1913 Armory Show, through its even more incendiary development in the Post-war years as Abstract Expressionism. Pivotal works by such artists as Alfred Maurer will show the development of an American Fauve technique. Works by John Marin, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O’Keeffe and Oscar Bluemner illustrate the early moves toward Expressionism, abstraction, and Cubism, seen now as definitive steps away from realism and towards the painterly upheaval of the 1950s. Signal works by Stuart Davis, Ralston Crawford, and Charles Biederman will evince a different, no less powerful, lineage of that germinal moment in American painting—hard-edged abstraction and a prescient view of commercialism that can only be called proto-Pop.

Art Basel | Miami Beach

Miami Beach Convention Center | Booth C18

Of Interest

Frederic Remington at the Met

July 23, 2017 - January 2, 2018

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art showcases its holdings of the works of western artist Frederic Remington, through January 2, 2018. The Met describes its show:

The legacy of the enduringly popular American artist Frederic Remington (1861–1909), chronicler par excellence of the American West, will be presented through some 20 paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and illustrated books from the late 1880s until his death. Although he lived and worked on the East Coast, Remington traveled extensively. His insightful depictions of trappers, Native Americans, cavalry, scouts, and, above all, his archetypal cowboys are some of the most iconic images of the Old West.

Event

Louise Bourgeois at MoMA

September 24, 2017–January 28, 2018

September 24 sees the opening of a major retrospective on Louise Bourgeois at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. MoMA describes the show:

Louise Bourgeois: An Unfolding Portrait explores the prints, books, and creative process of the celebrated sculptor Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010). Bourgeois’s printed oeuvre, a little-known aspect of her work, is vast in scope and comprises some 1,200 printed compositions, created primarily in the last two decades of her life but also at the beginning of her career, in the 1940s. The Museum of Modern Art has a prized archive of this material, and the exhibition will highlight works from the collection along with rarely seen loans. A special installation will fill the Museum’s Marron Atrium.

Event

Grant Wood at the Whitney in 2018

March 2 - June 10, 2018

In 2018, the Whitney Museum of American Art shines a new light on the Regionalist master, Grant Wood.

The Whitney describes the show, which opens in March:

Grant Wood’s American Gothic—the double portrait of a pitchfork-wielding farmer and a woman commonly presumed to be his wife—is perhaps the most recognizable painting in 20th century American art, an indelible icon of Americana, and certainly Wood’s most famous art work. But Wood’s career consists of far more than one single painting. Grant Wood: American Gothic and Other Fablesbrings together the full range of his art, from his early Arts and Crafts decorative objects and Impressionist oils through his mature paintings, murals, and book illustrations. What the exhibition reveals is a complex, sophisticated artist whose image as a farmer-painter was as mythical as the fables he depicted in his art. Wood sought pictorially to fashion a world of harmony and prosperity that would answer America’s need for reassurance at a time of economic and social upheaval occasioned by the Depression. Yet underneath its bucolic exterior, his art reflects the anxiety of being an artist and a closeted gay man in the Midwest in the 1930s. By depicting his subconscious anxieties through populist images of rural America, Wood crafted images that speak both to American identity and to the estrangement and isolation of modern life.

This exhibition is organized by Barbara Haskell, curator, Whitney Museum of American Art.

Press

Praise for Sanford Gifford at Cole House

September 6, 2017

The Magazine Antiques ran an effusive article reviewing the Thomas Cole House exhibition of Sanford Robinson Gifford’s paintings of the Adirondacks. Bruce Weber writes:

“Among members of the Hudson River School of painting, Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823–1880) has long been considered one of the most brilliant painters of light and air. His art is the subject of the intimate, beautifully curated exhibition Sanford R. Gifford in the Catskills on view through October 29th at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, New York. Kevin J. Avery, a major specialist in the art of the Hudson River School, curated this showing of eighteen paintings of the region dating from 1846–1878, which range from Gifford’s earliest extant painting, a view of the famous Kaaterskill Falls in the Kaaterskill Clove gorge to View Near Kauterskill [sic, per the nineteenth-century spelling of the name], painted in 1878 when he was nearing the end of his life and adopted a looser and more painterly style. The exhibition purports to be the largest showing of Gifford’s work to be held so close to his childhood home in Hudson, the recently revitalized city laying directly across the Hudson River from Catskill, the home of pioneering landscape painter and dean of the Hudson River School Thomas Cole from 1825–1847.”

Of Interest

Gilded Age Drawings at the Met

August 21 - December 10, 2017

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art showcases its holdings of works on paper from the Gilded Age, through December 10, 2017.  The Met describes its show:

This exhibition features more than three dozen rarely seen treasures from The Met’s collection of late 19th-century American works on paper. Created during America’s so-called Gilded Age—which began shortly after the Museum was founded in 1870 and flourished through the 1890s—many of these innovative drawings in watercolor, pastel, and charcoal were acquired during the artists’ lifetimes and became the cornerstone of The Met’s important holdings in this art form. On view are iconic works by some of the leading American artists of the time, including Mary Cassatt, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, and Louis Comfort Tiffany, as well as several new acquisitions. Three recently promised gifts to The Met are a highlight of the exhibition—works by Cecilia Beaux, John La Farge, and Sargent.

Event

Charles Biederman (1906-2004)

September 20 - October 6, 2017

Menconi + Schoelkopf is pleased to present a group of works by American painter and sculptor Charles Biederman (1906-2004). Born in Cleveland in 1906, the painter became an early and powerful proponent of radical abstraction in the 1930s. By mid-decade, he was showing with Alexander Calder and A. E. Gallatin, working in a mature style that combined non-objective surrealism with an increasing interest in geometric abstraction. In a sudden and decisive break, he gave up painting in 1938, in favor sculpture and wall relief. While he abandoned canvas as a dead art form, the architectonic forms he devised in oil profoundly influenced his relief work, and remain a fascinating document of an important turning point in modern art. The rest of his career—which continued until his death in the early twenty-first century—would see his tireless reinterpretation of de Stijl-inspired constructions. Menconi + Schoelkopf presents a concise survey of Biederman’s oils and constructions from across his career. September 20 through October 7, 2017.

Of Interest

John Graham at the Parrish Museum

May 7 - July 30, 2017

On view at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York, is receiving praise for its monographic retrospective on the modernist painter John Graham. The Parrish describes the show:

John Graham: Maverick Modernist is a comprehensive survey of significant scope and scholarship, exploring how the artist became an influential figure in the development of a distinctly American approach to art-making in the first half of the twentieth century, and in what ways Graham’s own self-reinvention as an artist mirrors the resourcefulness and ambition of American artists defining a new direction. The exhibition is organized by Alicia G. Longwell, the Parrish’s Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Chief Curator, Art and Education, along with guest co-curator Karen Wilkin, independent curator, scholar, and critic, and consulting curator William C. Agee, Evelyn Kranes Kossak Professor of Art History Emeritus, Hunter College, City University of New York. Featuring approximately 65 paintings and a selection of important works on paper from the entire expanse of Graham’s four decade career, the exhibition is accompanied by a fully-illustrated, 150-page catalogue with interpretive essays by the curators.

ArtNews observes:

“This show comes as a timely reminder that there is no reason why an artist cannot do many different things in a career. Perhaps, for that reason, it will lead to a thorough reconsideration of Graham’s status. More than simply the intermediary between Picasso and Pollock, he is a pretty significant artist in his own right.”

Event

Just Off Madison, Spring, 2017

May 22, 2017

Please join us Monday, May 22, 2017, from 4-7 PM, for this year’s spring installment of Just Off Madison.

Just Off Madison is a select group of American Art dealers who host a collective open house during New York’s American Art week. With locations spanning a dozen blocks of Madison Avenue, the walkabout provides an opportunity for clients and colleagues to stroll leisurely along the Avenue, visit our galleries and view our quality offerings in intimate spaces.

Of Interest

Florine Stettheimer at the Jewish Museum

May 5 through September 24, 2017

Opening May 5th at the Jewish Museum, Florine Stettheimer: Painting Poetry presents over 50 paintings and drawings. This exhibition offers an important survey of the work of the modernist painter, designer, and poet Florine Stettheimer. Through September 24, 2017.

Event

Sanford Robinson Gifford at the Thomas Cole House

April 30, 2017

A new exhibition at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, New York, opens at the end of April, examining Sanford Robinson Gifford’s work in the Catskills.

Join Dr. Kevin Avery, Senior Research Scholar at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and curator of the Thomas Cole Site 2017 exhibition “Sanford R. Gifford in the Catskills,” to discuss the exhibition featuring paintings by 19th-Century landscape painter Sanford Gifford, whose work was Inspired by Cole. The exhibition will be presented in the New Studio gallery at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site and will be open to the public from 11am to 12pm on Sunday, April 30th.

The lecture will take place at 2pm at the Temple Israel located at 220 Spring Street, Catskill, NY 12414. The Temple is adjacent to the Thomas Cole National Historic Site located at 218 Spring Street, Catskill, NY 12414.

News

Joseph Stella on View Now

April 11 - 28, 2017

On view now, a group of newly available works by Joseph Stella. Stella was an American modernist of Italian birth who worked in a variety of styles and media. You may know his most famous work– the five-panel Voice of the City Interpreted, including perhaps the most famous rendering of the Brooklyn Bridge (Newark Museum of Art, New Jersey). Orange Bars (left) is a study for one of the panels in that masterpiece, executed in pastel as a dazzling abstract view of Broadway around 1920.

Stella’s work before and after the Brooklyn Bridge is extraordinarily varied and rich, from the “Ashcan” realism he produced in Pennsylvania from 1908-1918, to frenetic lines of Futurist Abstraction c. 1913-1918. His later work was just as rich, embracing a deeply personal symbolic narrative in brightly-colored scenes of figures and animals in glowing landscapes. The swan became a personal emblem, a symbol of the creative powers of the arts. In the pastels of his years in the Bronx, one can read a precursor to Milton Avery’s flat planes of color.

Event

Madison Avenue Gallery Walk

Saturday, April 29th, 2017

This year, Menconi + Schoelkopf will participate in ArtNews’s Madison Avenue Gallery Walk. On the Saturday preceding Frieze New York and the TEFAF New York fairs, the Madison Avenue Gallery Walk will give the public time and space to visit the over 100 galleries that span Madison Avenue and its adjacent side streets from East 57th St. up to East 86th St.

Of Interest

Marsden Hartley at Met|Breuer

March 15 - June 18, 2017

An important part of Marsden Hartley’s career is getting its moment under the microscope as Marsden Hartley’s Maine opens at the Met | Breuer building. Not only will there be some brilliant works by Hartley, the Met promises to fulfill the contextualizing mission of the Breuer building by presenting relevant works by other artists, including Cezanne, Winslow Homer, and even the Japanese master, Katsushika Hokusai.  Opens March 15th, on view through June 18th, before travelling to co-organizer Colby College Museum of Art.

Of Interest

Around Town: “Inventing Downtown” at the Grey Art Gallery

January 10 - April 1, 2017

For those interested in mid-century New York art outside of Abstract Expressionism, sure to visit NYU’s Grey Art Gallery before April 1, 2017. Inventing Downtown: Artist-Run Galleries in New York City, 1952-1965 explores the often chaotic art produced in that creatively-fertile setting. Seemingly without the constraints of the market, artists from Yoko Ono to Mark Di Suvero did pioneering work in sculpture, installation, performance and conceptual art — along with advancing the state of painting and more conventional forms. Inventing Downtown is curated by Melissa Rachleff, clinical associate professor in NYU’s Steinhardt School.

Of Interest

Around Town: Georgia O’Keeffe: Living Modern at the Brooklyn Museum

March 3 - July 23, 2017

Collectors and enthusiasts of American modernism, take note:  Georgia O’Keeffe: Living Modern opens at the Brooklyn Museum March 3, 2017.  Organized by guest curator Wanda M. Corn, Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor Emerita in Art History, Stanford University, and coordinated by Lisa Small, Curator of European Painting and Sculpture, Brooklyn Museum.

Art Fair

M+S at The ADAA Art Show

March 1 - 5, 2017

Menconi + Schoelkopf’s 2017 booth (A25) at the ADAA Art Show will present American modernism, from its first explosion around the 1913 Armory Show to the early Post-War years. Important modernist examples by Alfred Maurer will be on view, with mature abstract works by Stuart Davis representing the end of that continuum. Other paintings and works on paper will represent the Stieglitz Circle and the American Abstract Artists group, alongside seldom-seen works by other luminaries like Joseph Stella and Ralston Crawford. Opens March 1, through March 5, 2017.

Event

Gallery Exhibition of American Impressionism on view at Menconi + Schoelkopf

January 9 – January 31, 2017

On view through the end of the month, Menconi + Schoelkopf presents American Impressionism. The exhibition spans the late nineteenth century into the twentieth century including several jewel-like watercolors by Maurice Brazil Prendergast, a masterwork in oil by Everett Shinn, and an important garden landscape by John Singer Sargent, among others.

We hope you will join us here at the gallery to see these exceptional works of art.

Press

InCollect features TEFAF | NY and The American Art Fair

December 15, 2016

InCollect’s photoblog captured Menconi + Schoelkopf’s booths at TEFAF | New York and The American Art Fair this October and November.

Art Fair

Booth views from Art Basel | Miami Beach

December 1 -4 2016

For those who missed us at Art Basel | Miami Beach, take a quick glance at our booth, featuring masterworks by Georgia O’Keeffe, Ralston Crawford, Stuart Davis, and Oscar Bluemner.

Press

The Art Newspaper Highlight Stuart Davis at M+S Miami | Basel

December 2, 2016

The National Gallery’s Harry Cooper guided The Art Newspaper’s Pac Pobric through Art Basel | Miami Beach. The Expert Eye took time to linger on an early work by Stuart Davis Menconi + Schoelkopf’s booth, remarking:

Early in his career, Stuart Davis was enthralled by Vincent van Gogh, “but it wasn’t just a phase”, Cooper says. The US painter’s early interest in the Dutch post-Impressionist never deserted him, partly because Davis was a landscape and still-life painter. “But he worked even more quickly—there’s a lot of wet-on-wet technique in this painting—whereas Van Gogh made most of his paintings more deliberately.” Although this work speaks to Davis’s burgeoning self-confidence, it left significant room for growth. “This one is still a little immature,” Cooper says. “The yellow/purple complementarity is straight out of a textbook, and that warm brown chimney is more naturalist, an anomaly, as if out of a painting by Robert Henri [one of Davis’s teachers].”

Press

Observer Praises M+S at TEFAF | New York

October 25, 2016

The New York Observer’s review of the maiden voyage of the fair’s New York edition took time to praise Menconi + Schoelkopf’s booth. Andrew Schoelkopf was quoted praising the sophistication of the fair’s presentation:

“They did a great job setting up the fair,” said Andrew Schoelkopf, co-owner of Menconi + Schoelkopf Fine Art, a private dealer based in New York that had a booth showing American painting. “One of the most elegant ever in New York and so far the feedback is that people are delighted by it.”

Susan Menconi noted the high-level of connoisseurship in the fair’s vetting:

“We’re one of four dealers in American art,” added Schoelkopf’s partner, Susan Menconi.”

Of Interest

Ralston Crawford on view in “Horizon Lines” at Amon Carter Museum

November 2, 2016 - February 26, 2017

For enthusiasts in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the Amon Carter Museum presents a group exhibition of artists whose work centers on the horizon line. Among these is Ralston Crawford, whose important lithograph Overseas Highway, uses a sleek set of converging lines to move through space. If you’re in the area, stop in for a visit.

Through February 26, 2017.

Art Fair

Views of our booth at Art Basel | Miami Beach

December 1 -4 2016

Thanks to everyone who made this year’s Art Basel | Miami Beach a huge success.

Event

Just Off Madison: Fall Edition

November 21, 2016

Join us for the autumn edition of Just Off Madison, a neighborhood-wide open-house of art dealers and galleries near Madison Avenue on New York’s Upper East Side. Our doors will be open to the public between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM, Monday, November 21st.

Art Fair

The American Art Fair

November 18-21, 2016

Join us at the American Art Fair, the premier art fair devoted to American art. The show runs from November 18 through 21 at the Bohemian National Hall at 321 East 73rd Street. Our booth will present some of the finest works of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Art Fair

Praise for our booth at TEFAF | New York

November 2, 2016

The inaugural New York edition of Maastricht’s TEFAF closed last week, but the reviews are still pouring in. One reviewer, more accustomed to the European fair, cited our booth at the top of the review:

“Most exhibitors are regulars of the Maastricht Fair, but there were also newcomers, particularly in American art. Thus the New York gallery Menconi + Schoelkopf Fine Art showed many paintings of the nineteenth century including a beautiful landscape of Frederic Church ( Fig . 1).”

Art Fair

Menconi + Schoelkopf at Art Basel | Miami Beach

Dec. 1-4, 2016

The centerpiece of the Miami Beach art fair week, Art Basel | Miami Beach presents a unique opportunity for visitors and galleries to meet at a crossroads of the Americas under the auspices of one of Europe’s most important art fairs. Menconi + Schoelkopf will present a group exhibition of American modernism, including important early works by Stuart Davis, a major canvas by Georgia O’Keeffe, and important paintings by Oscar Bluemner. Art Basel | Miami Beach runs December 1 – 4, 2016, at the Convention Center.

Art Fair

Menconi + Schoelkopf at The American Art Fair

Nov. 18 - 22, 2016

New York’s preeminent art fair devoted to American art opens once more in late November at the Bohemian National Hall (at 321 E 73rd St, New York), and Menconi + Schoelkopf will be there with a booth of late 19^th-century paintings alongside works of American impressionism and works from the early 20^th century. The American Art Fair, in contrast to the extravaganzas at the piers and the Park Avenue Armory, is a more intimate setting: a highly-curated fair focusing exclusively on specialists in American art, expect an elegant affair with the highest levels of connoisseurship.

The American Art Fair runs from November 18 through November 22, 2016.

Art Fair

TEFAF | New York

October 22 - 26, 2016

Menconi + Schoelkopf is proud to participate in the inaugural run of the New York edition of TEFAF. TEFAF’s fair in Maastricht is among the world’s most celebrated art fairs, and October 2016 will see the expansion of its famously high standards of connoisseurship to New York.

Menconi + Schoelkopf specializes in the finest works of American art from the nineteenth century to the early post-war years of the twentieth. For TEFAF’s inaugural New York fair we will focus on American painting of the late nineteenth century. This was an incredibly fertile period in American art, with both the flowering of uniquely American expressions as well as a pollination of the latest techniques of European painting. Our TEFAF exhibition explores these hybrid developments, presenting certain of the finest works of the late Hudson River School alongside advanced works of American impressionism. The American tradition of landscape arguably reached its highest point in the western paintings of Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran—signal works by each of these tremendous painters will hang alongside an important painting by Frederic Edwin Church, the most celebrated painter of his generation. The exhibition will also showcase an extraordinary canvas by Mary Cassatt—a woman who was instrumental in shaping the development of impressionism in both Europe and America. The influence of advanced European painting will be further evidenced by important paintings by Thomas Wilmer Dewing and an exceptional cityscape by Childe Hassam, a pivotal work that looked ahead to the advent of modernism.

Of Interest

New Yorker Magazine Hails the Whitney’s Stuart Davis “In Full Swing”

The New Yorker’s Peter Schjeldahl praised the Whitney Museum of American Art’s new Stuart Davis retrospective, writing:

“The ebullient paintings of Stuart Davis, surveyed in a retrospective aptly titled “In Full Swing,” at the Whitney Museum, rank either at the peak of American modern art or a bit to the side of it, depending on how you construe ‘American’ and ‘modern.'”

Read the whole review here — Stuart Davis In Full Swing is on view on Gansevoort Street through September 25th, before travelling to the National Gallery of Art.

Press

ADAA Inside Stories features Just Off Madison

May 18, 2016

The Art Dealer Association of America’s Inside Stories mentioned Menconi + Schoelkopf in its coverage of this spring’s Just Off Madison.

Event

Stuart Davis at Menconi + Schoelkopf

June 1 - July 1, 2016

From June 1 through July 1, 2016, Menconi + Schoelkopf presents Stuart Davis (1892-1964), including ten important works from across the long and varied career of this important American modernist.

Stuart Davis (1892-1964) is a compact retrospective of one of the twentieth-century’s most celebrated visionaries. Stuart Davis’s career traces the growth of American art from turn-of-the-century Ashcan School to mid-century abstraction. His reinterpretation of cubism in the forties, fifties, and sixties—hard-edged planes of bright, cool colors and proto-pop distillations of consumer culture—have been so fully absorbed into popular consciousness that they seem inseparable from their era. This sophisticated vision was the product of decades of careful synthesis as Davis grappled with the meanings and means of modernism.

Stuart Davis remained active until the end of his life in 1964, helping to usher in a total transformation of American art. He was one of the youngest painters to be represented at the pivotal 1913 Armory Show, and was included in the Whitney Studio Club’s 1918 “Indigenous” American show. By 1964, New York had taken its place as the center of the art world, and the brisk abstraction Davis had helped invent was dominant. His embrace of consumer culture and graphic design anticipated Pop Art and its progeny, from Andy Warhol to Jean Michel Basquiat. As early as 1921, he was using the “Ben-Day” dots that would make Roy Lichtenstein famous, while his calligraphic black line can be found even in Keith Haring’s work. The soul of his work remains the carefully resolved picture: the balance of color, line, plane, and icon that tethers back to the early days of American modernism with persistent relevance today.

Menconi + Schoelkopf presents signal works in various media from each stage of Davis’s career, including little-seen masterworks from 1916 and germinal works from the Ashcan period. Davis turned his refocused his practice on drawing around 1930: works on canvas and paper will demonstrate his synthesis of line and plane. Also on view, works on canvas and paper from the last stage of Davis’s career, during which time he devoted himself to the interpretation of “the glamour of packaging,” developing his own lexicon of forms and pictograms to express the commercial landscape.

Event

Around Town: Stuart Davis: In Full Swing at the Whitney

June 10, 2016

Fans of Stuart Davis, take note: The Whitney Museum of American Art, lately of Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, will open a major show of paintings and works on paper by Stuart Davis on June 10th, 2016. The show’s focus is the painter’s practice of returning to themes and forms of his work from decades past; In Full Swing will be unique in major exhibitions of Davis’s work in its presentation of later works side by side with early works they re-interpret. Through September 25 at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Press

American Fine Art Magazine Previews Just off Madison

May 18, 2016

Am Fine Art Magazine 2016 Winslow Homer

The most recent issue of American Fine Art Magazine (No. 27, May/June 2016) features an extensive preview of Just Off Madison. Just Off Madison, a neighborhood-wide open-house, is on from 10 AM to 2 PM on Wednesday, May 18th at a dozen galleries and private dealers’ offices. American Fine Arts Magazine quotes M+S’s Jonathan Spies:

“The market feedback we’ve been receiving in 2016 has been very positive: strong interest in American Modernism leads a healthy appetite for the finest 19^th century paintings. But that doesn’t capture the interests and anxieties of new collectors and prospective collectors just at the edge of the field. There are substantial barriers to entry into the art market – not just price tag, but also information gaps and connoisseurship hurdles. We are eager to begin the discussion with those “wallflowers”: What’s keeping you from collecting, and how can we help make the art market less a thorny maze and more of a sunlit garden? Just Off Madison is always a great gateway for both sides of that discussion.”

The magazine’s coverage includes previews of several dealers’ offerings for JOM, as well as a helpful map of the participants.

Event

Just Off Madison, Spring of 2016

May 18th, 2016

Join us for Spring of 2016’s installment of Just Off Madison, a neighborhood-spanning open-house featuring some of the art world’s top private dealers. Wednesday, May 18, from 10 AM to 2 PM, Menconi + Schoelkopf will open our doors along with a dozen other galleries dotting Madison Avenue to any and all who would like to pop in. We generally encourage our clients to make appointments, but during Just Off Madison, we hope you will pop in as you like, see what’s on the walls, and let us know how we can best help you, whatever your collecting needs. Whether you are considering starting a collection or have been collecting for many years, we look forward to meeting you or refreshing our acquaintance over a cup of coffee during this morning-afternoon session of Just Off Madison.

News

PAFA Acquires David Johnson’s “The Hudson River from Fort Montgomery”

March 16, 2016

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts has announced their acquisition, along with some thirty other works, of David Johnson‘s The Hudson River from Fort Montgomery, which was included in our most recent catalogue.

Stephan Salisbury reported for Philly.com:

“The Johnson painting, The Hudson River from Fort Montgomery, measures more than 3 by 5 feet and presents a grand landscape view looking out toward the river, where sailboats and a steamer ply the waters. In the foreground are sheep and two leisurely travelers chatting on a path while a dog patiently waits.

“Brigham and Anna Marley, academy curator of historical American art, said the painting, now on view, is in very fine shape.

“‘Johnson is only known to have painted six paintings at this scale,’ added Marley.”

Menconi + Schoelkopf congratulates the Academy on the acquisition of a tremendous and tremendously important painting.

Art Fair

Menconi + Schoelkopf at the ADAA Art Show 2016

March 1, 2016

2016’s installment of the ADAA Art Show found Menconi + Schoelkopf with an impressive array of American modernist pictures, ranging from Stieglitz-circle painters like Oscar Bluemner and Georgia O’Keeffe to Ashcan School, Precisionism, and the post-war collages of Romare Bearden. Thanks to all who stopped by and helped make this the tremendously successful outing that it was.

Art Fair

Visit Menconi + Schoelkopf at the ADAA Art Show

March 2-6, 2016

This year’s ADAA Art Show opens Wednesday, March 2nd at the Park Avenue Armory, through Sunday, March 6. We are putting the finishing touches on our booth. Our exhibition will encompass various strands of American Modernism, including the early van Gogh-esque paintings of Stuart Davis, Ashcan work by Reginald Marsh, and on to Post-War collages of Romare Bearden. Visit us at Booth C9, through Sunday, March 6, 2016.

Event

On View: Important American Art from a Distinguished Private Collection

January 19 – February 5, 2016

Now on view in the gallery: Masterworks of American art from a Distinguished Private Collection. We have recently taken on a collection of American paintings from the late-19th to early-20th century. The collection focuses on Hudson River School masters, but includes still life painters as well as American impressionists. This extraordinary collection is presented in a new catalogue, available now. The very finest works from the group are on view at the gallery, including works by Albert Bierstadt, Martin Johnson Heade, Winslow Homer, and Childe Hassam.

On view through February 5th, 2016.

Publication

Important American Art from a Distinguished Private Collection: E-Catalogue Available Now!

We are pleased to announce the release of a new publication, Important American Art from a Distinguished Private Collection. The catalogue chronicles the very finest works from an extraordinary collection of American paintings from the second half of the nineteenth century. Forty-eight pages of richly illustrated, fully study sixteen important works, including paintings by Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Church, and Martin Johnson Heade. Copies are available at the gallery, and an e-catalogue is available here.

Lecture

Lecture at the Art Students League: Painters in Providence

Tuesday, January 19

Aficionados of American Modernism might enjoy a lecture at the Art Students League of New York:

Tuesday, January 19
Via Provincetown: The American Avant-Garde on Cape Cod, 1913–1966
Melissa Renn, PhD, Collection Manager, Art and Artifacts Collection, Harvard Business School

(more…)

Publication

Sanford Robinson Gifford E-catalogue

We have recently made available ten works by Sanford Robinson Gifford, luminary of the Hudson River School. In celebration of this group of works, we have produced a handsome catalogue which may be arriving in your mailbox soon! (If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, sign up here!) In the meantime, feast your eyes on the e-catalogue, which you can read through the web-portal or download for your personal device by clicking here.

Art Fair

The American Art Fair

November 15-18

On November 15, Menconi + Schoelkopf will present a booth at The American Art Fair. The American Art Fair features seventeen of the leading dealers in American art, spanning from the nineteenth century to the Post War period. Our booth will have a group of works by the Hudson River School master Sanford Robinson Gifford, early Modernist masterpieces, Precisionist gems and high-abstraction works from 1930s. The fairs runs through the 18th at the Bohemian National Hall at 321 East 73rd Street.

Publication

Fall Inventory Digital Catalogue Available

Hard-copies will be hitting mailboxes any day now, but the digital version of our fall catalogue is available today. Take a look, and subscribe to our mailing list if you haven’t already.

Publication

Biederman E-catalogue

Hard copies of the catalogue for our current Biederman show are arriving this week, but you can see it immediately as an e-catalogue. Biographical notes and analysis by Susan C. Larsen and over thirty works illustrated in color– and sign up for our mailing list for more. Charles Biederman is on view through November 6, 2015.

Event

Charles Biederman on view at Menconi + Schoelkopf

October 13 - November 6, 2015

October is Biederman month at Menconi + Schoelkopf. From October 13-November 6^th, Menconi + Schoelkopf will present a selection of Biederman’s finest work in many media. There will be a sampling of his studies on paper for both his paintings and constructions of the mid 1930s. Some of these studies were realized in large-scale canvases—several of which will be on view—while others found expression in three-dimensional sculptures and low-relief wall hangings. Biederman gave up painting in 1937 in favor of his deepening interest in reliefs, and several examples of these works, which would occupy his attention for the next fifty years, will be on view as well. The show’s centerpiece may be a unique sculpture in the round completed in the early 1940s. Its high-design joining of plexiglas and brass echoes de Stijl and the Bauhaus while signaling new directions in abstraction both for the artist and American art in the post-war era. This and thirty other works by Biederman will be illustrated in an upcoming catalogue with critical essay by noted Biederman scholar Susan C. Larsen.

Lecture

“The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement” at The Art Students League

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

In October, considering stopping by the Art Students League of New York on 57th St. on Tuesday, October 13 at 6:30 for Anna Marley’s lecture on American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, 1887-1920. Marley is Curator of Historical American Art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. The talk is free, but attendees are asked to RSVP to GalleryRSVP@artstudentsleague.org.

Publication

E-catalogues On the Way

We’re going to press with no fewer than three catalogues, arriving in mailboxes beginning in October–but we will release each of these as an e-catalogue, available here at msfineart.com, on the day that they go to press, so you don’t have to wait around for a visit from Mr. Postman. The first of these three– monograph on the strange and wonderful career of Charles Biederman–will drop on October 13, 2015. As a sort of appetizer, we are beta-testing the e-catalogue technology by releasing our recent catalogues as e-books. First in line is our most recent catalogue, released in March of 2015. Peruse the e-version here, and let us know what you think at info@msfineart.com.

Of Interest

Fitz Henry Lane at Princeton

A beautiful Fitz Henry Lane is joining the collection of Princeton University Art Museum. This masterpiece of Luminism was unveiled in a press release and reported by ArtFixDaily. As reported in Princeton’s press release,  said Karl Kusserow, the Museum’s John Wilmerding Curator of American Art described the work:

“In certain great works of his late career, Lane gravitated away from portrayal of the crystalline light that served as an essential feature of his early maturity and toward an exploration of more complex atmospheric conditions, such as fog. Although Ship in Fog portrays a relatively modest scene—a variety of ordinary craft in a sizable but not major port at the end of a late-summer day—what makes the painting extraordinary is Lane’s ability, unsurpassed in American art, to impart a resonant grandeur to such moments, as if to impress them both in time and for all time.”

We congratulate Princeton on their extraordinary acquisition.

Publication

Charles Biederman Catalogue Goes to Print

We’ve been working all summer on a brand new catalogue of works by Charles Biederman (1906-2004), and it’s off to the printers! The 40-page catalogue illustrates in color some 33 works by the artist, ranging from works on paper to free-standing sculptures in the round. The painter was hugely prolific in the mid thirties, showing with Albert Gallatin and Alexander Calder, and his breathtaking output is testament to an immensely fertile creativity. The works on paper are remarkably finished, but they are often studies in preparation for fully finished canvases or even gestures at large outdoor sculpture. Members of all three of these groups are presented, with critical essay by noted Biederman scholar, Susan C. Larsen. By 1937, Biederman abandoned — or at least claimed to abandon — painting, stepping past two-dimensional art for the third dimension. He would work, in the same fever of creation, for the next fifty years almost exclusively on wall-hung reliefs — several of these later works are reproduced as well. We are proud to present the most extensive publication on the artist in years — look for it in your mailbox in October, or drop us a line and we’ll add you to our mailing list.

Event

Just Off Madison: Morning Edition

November 18, 2015

This fall’s installment of Just Off Madison will be strictly for the early birds: instead of our usual evening open-house along Madison Avenue, JOM this fall will begin at 9 AM. Come by for a cup of coffee and a pastry, take a look at what’s on the walls, and talk to us about how we can assist in your collecting needs. On November 18th, from 9:00 to 12:00 noon, Menconi + Schoelkopf, along with ten other private dealers along Madison Avenue, will open our doors for a peek behind the curtain.

Press

American Fine Art Magazine on JOM

American Fine Art Magazine mentioned Menconi + Schoelkopf in an article about Just Off Madison in its most recent issue.

News

Otis Kaye at Menconi + Schoelkopf

Otis Kaye‘s life is shrouded in mystery, his work filled with riddles and wry satire. Working mainly in Chicago in the mid-twentieth century, Kaye insinuated himself into the lineage of the largely dormant trompe l’oeil style of painting, along with significant works on paper, updating the art form by filling his work with emblems of his favorite themes: money, markets, and chance. Wealth and value are invoked through reproduced money, but also present in Kaye’s work is the theme of risk. A device that may be unique to Kaye’s work is his tracing the lines of stock charts, as in the bit of stock ticker tape traces the plunge referred to in the title of But Abe, I Told You to Buy Low. While trompe l’oeil’s popularity has waned since the turn of the twentieth century, Kaye’s art looks almost prophetic today. Many nineteenth-century illusion painters used reproductions of bills in their work, but in Kaye’s work the illusion often amounts to a riddle or joke. The imaginative conversation, across centuries, between Kaye, Rembrandt, and Karl Marx, in Checks and Balances is a masterful example. We are delighted to have a group of more than one dozen works by the artist, including large-scale oils and works on paper. Make an appointment to visit, or email for information on individual works.

Conference

M+S’s Jonathan Spies to Speak at the Annual American Art Conference

May 15-17th

The 20th Annual American Art Conference is this weekend May 15-17th at the CUNY Graduate Center. This year’s theme is “Insight and Inclusion: Expanding Visions of American Art,” with a goal to shine a light on artists and movements that have been overlooked in recent years. Jonathan Spies of Menconi + Schoelkopf will speak on the career of Henry Augustus Ferguson, a Hudson River School painter who was well regarded in his day, but largely forgotten by the mid-twentieth century. Jonathan’s talk begins at 2:00 on Friday, May 15th at 365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street), but the conference runs through the weekend beginning Friday morning. See a complete list of speakers here, and register for the conference here, and use the promo code “early reg” for $100 off the registration fee of $350.

Press

Basel’s “yearbook” for 2014

Art Basel | Year 45 — Basel’s “yearbook” for 2014 — has just hit the stands, and Menconi + Schoelkopf is proud to be included in its pages. This year’s edition, chronicling the participants in the organizations three fairs, asked participants questions on more informal topics. Pick up a copy to find out what our colleagues would do if they weren’t art dealers.

Press

American Fine Art Magazine’s coverage of the ADAA Art Show 2015

American Fine Art Magazine‘s latest issue covers the ADAA Art Show, featuring coverage of Menconi + Schoelkopf’s modernism-heavy booth and reproducing our George Bellows painting, Portrait of Florence Budd.

(more…)

Publication

Spring E-catalogue has arrived!

Those on our mailing list and who joined us at the ADAA Art Show last week have already seen our new catalogue, but for those who’d prefer to do their browsing electronically, you can find it as a PDF here: Menconi and Schoelkopf Winter 2015 Catalogue

Press

ArtFix Daily Features the Alfred Maurer at our booth at the ADAA Art Show

ArtFixDaily.com featured a painting from our booth at the very top of their coverage of the ADAA Art Show, writing:

“This year’s fair also featured masterworks of American Modernism, including Alfred Maurer‘s Still Life with Pears and Indian Bowl, c. 1928, at the booth of Menconi + Schoelkopf. Maurer will soon be riding a wave of renewed interest. The first comprehensive examination of the artist’s work will go on view at Addison Gallery, in Andover, Mass., this Spring. A new book on Maurer from Yale University Press (released March 10) accompanies the exhibition.”

Read the full coverage here.

News

M+S’s Winter/Spring 2015 Catalogue is out!

It’s our biggest catalogue yet: 64 pages of in-depth description and analysis of some 25 works, ranging from maritime painting of the 19th century– Fitz Henry Lane, Mary Blood Mellon, and Robert Salmon– to Ashcan (Everett Shinn, George Bellows) to modernism (Marsden Hartley, John Marin, and Konrad Cramer) and beyond. Pick up a copy at our booth at the ADAA Art Show, March 4-8, at the Park Avenue Armory, or send us an email if you would like to be added to our mailing list.

The cover presents a detail of an early Synchromist canvas by Konrad Cramer

Improvisation, c. 1911-13
Oil on board laid down on board
15 3/4 x 18 3/4 inches
Inscribed on the reverse by the artist’s daughter: Painted by my father between 1911-1913. Aileen B.

Art Fair

Join us at the ADAA Art Show, March 3-8

Join us at the Park Avenue Armory (Park Ave. at 66th Street) for this year’s ADAA Art Show. Not to be confused with “The Armory Show” (which is over on the west side piers), the Art Show is New York’s longest-running and most esteemed art fair. Menconi + Schoelkopf has exhibited there for several years, and this year’s booth will be our most exciting yet. (more…)

News

Ralston Crawford, “The Artist’s Eye”

In conjunction with an extensive retrospective last year, the University of Wyoming produced an excellent video on Ralston Crawford.

(more…)

Press

Vernissage TV catches Menconi + Schoelkopf at The Art Show 2014

Just in time to whet your appetite for the ADAA Art Show, opening March 4th at the Park Avenue Armory, we’ve located some video of last year’s opening. You can catch a glimpse of the our booth, with masterpieces by Joseph Stella and Ralston Crawford at 3:19.

Press

Menconi + Scholkopf featured on ADAA Inside Stories

The ADAA’s Tumblr Inside Stories ran a feature on Early American Modernism. Given that our booth at 2015’s Art Show will present Ashcan and early modernism, we were a perfect fit. Click here to see more.

News

American Fine Art Magazine Reports on Just Off Madison

American Fine Art Magazine’s latest issue features a report on the most recent Just Off Madison. Just Off Madison is the twice-annually open-house event hosted by the private art dealers in the immediate vicinity of upper Madison Avenue.  (more…)

Art Fair

Art Basel | Miami Beach Checklist

Our design team published an illustrated checklist for our multi-media exhibition at Art Basel | Miami Beach last week.View the basic listing of works here:

Crawford checklist

Press

The Financial Times mentioned M+S’s booth at Art Basel | Miami Beach

“Art Basel in Miami Beach has a challenging new element called ‘Survey.’ An ‘art-historical’ section, it contains just 13 shows, some solo and some thematic. Displaying names both strange and familiar, from places as far-flung as Uruguay and Tokyo, it aims to provide mid-20th-century context to the contemporary work on view elsewhere: many of these artists, as Art Basel director Marc Spiegler explains, were models and mentors to today’s better-known names.

“If its aim is to boost the academic quotient, in the midst of the selling frenzy of the rest of the fair, it succeeds: the lists contain enough ‘-ists’ and ‘-isms’ to satisfy any academic. ‘Precisionism,’ anyone? That is, as if you didn’t know, ‘a uniquely American Modernist movement,’ and celebrated chez Menconi + Schoelkopf with work by Canadian artist Ralston Crawford….”

Event

Just Off Madison

November 19, 2014

On Wednesday, November 19, from 5-8 PM, Menconi + Schoelkopf, along with a dozen other private dealers situated near Madison Avenue, will open our doors in a neighborhood-wide open house of private dealers. We hope you’ll join us for this fun evening, or stop by another time to see what we have up.

Read the American Fine Art Magazine preview

Art Fair

The American Art Fair

November 16-19, 2014

Bohemian National Hall
321 East 73rd Street
New York, NY  10021

Art Fair

Art Basel | Miami Beach

December 4-7, 2014

We’re pleased to announce that for the first time Menconi + Schoelkopf has been invited to exhibit at the prestigious Art Basel | Miami Beach fair in December, and we’re already putting together our booth. The fair has opened a new section this year called “Survey,” showcasing historically-themed booths, and we will present a monographic retrospective of the American Precisionist Ralston Crawford. Primarily a painter, Crawford also worked extensively in photography. A variety of works will be on view, from the mid-century canvases that made his name, to drawings and photographs that elaborate on the abstraction process of this visionary Modernist. Visit us at booth S01.

Event

Just Off Madison

May 21, 2014

We are participating once more in the twice-annual Just Off Madison.  On Wednesday, May 21st, from 5-8 PM, Menconi + Schoelkopf, along with a dozen other private dealers situated near Madison Avenue, will open our doors in a neighborhood-wide open house of private dealers. We hope you’ll join us for this fun evening, or stop by another time to see what we have up.

Conference

The American Art Conference

May 16, 2014

Andrew Schoelkopf will be participating in a panel at the 19th Annual Art Initiatives American Art Conference.  This year’s conference will be held at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue (between 34th and 35th Streets).

News

Artnet.com Redesign

Artnet.com has redesigned their website, and we have taken the opportunity to entirely revamp our page there. Take a look to see their fresh design.

Art Fair

Spring Masters New York

May 1-4, 2014

Park Avenue Armory Park Avenue at 67th Street New York City

Press

Menconi + Schoelkopf in the Financial Times

April 18, 2014

The Financial Times mentioned Menconi + Schoelkopf in their wrap-up of the art market this week, highlighting the George Bellows Portrait of Florence Budd that will be featured at the upcoming Spring Masters fair.

Press

Menconi + Schoelkopf in Bloomberg News

April 9, 2014

Bloomberg News interviewed Menconi + Schoelkopf’s Jonathan Spies for a piece on artists whom the market may be undervaluing.  Reporter Katya Kazakina focused on Charles Biederman, whose work is being discovered by a new generation of collectors and curators.

Art Fair

ADAA – The Art Show

March 5–9, 2014

Park Avenue Armory
Park Avenue at 67th Street
New York City