This has been a busy summer with seven trips, 6 Roadshow cities, and one visit to San Diego for a fund raiser. In Raleigh the Roadshow found the most expensive object in the history of the show and our first pieces appraised at over a million dollars. The Chinese jades will be seen when the show airs in January 2010. While we all found interesting things at the ethnographic table, the highlight had to be the very early Tlingit bowl found by first time appraiser Ted Trotta in San Jose and the end of the season.

While we hear doom and gloom all over the art world ethnographic art seems to be holding its own. Considering economic pressures the auction markets performed pretty well in the U.S. and Europe this summer. Gneerally the private medium markets did suffer while high end pieces continue to find interested buyers. There was much complaining after Santa Fe and the Ethnographic show and the American Indian show at the newly renovated Sweeney center. For those dealers that were buying on letters of credit in 2008, there is a problem now servicing the note and obtaining new credit. Expect to see more vultures circling both the dealers and the sales in 2010. There is not much reason to believe the economic scene will improve in the next 18 months. And in fact investors like Buffet are pulling back from stocks in anticipation of another major dip in the stock market. As a dealer you better be providing value in whatever you offer whether it be art or services. As a collector, selling quietly is certainly a safer bet than the auctions which could become more of a gamble as the worldwide recession deepens. I do know of some major objects that are scheduled to be auctioned in both Europe and U.S in the next 18 months; so it will be interesting.

Whatever you as a collector or dealer need to do, it is prudent to seek some outside opinions before executing a plan. This time like many in past, can be a great opportunity to both make money and expand your holdings. The cost of professional advice is cheap compared to the potential loss or gain.

Who is This Green Man?

Image courtesy of www.tribalmania.com

What exactly is “Outsider” Art? (Part I)

It is art created on the fringes of society without regard for traditional genres—certainly a nebulous definition. To bring more clarity to the issue, we have to go back to the artist and collector who was one of the first champions of “outsider art.” Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) famous French artist from the 20th century, was disillusioned with the established, mainstream art world and found great creative energy within the art of the mentally challenged and those who created art on the fringes of culture and society. In 1945, he coined the term “Art Brut”, (or “raw art”) for these artists who were not conditioned by academic training, museums, and society about what art should look like. Dubuffet noted: “It may be that artistic creation, with all that it calls for in the way of free inventiveness, takes place at a higher pitch of tension in the nameless crowd of ordinary people than in the circles that think they have the monopoly of it. It may even be that art thrives in its healthiest form among these ordinary people, because practiced without applause or profit, for the maker’s own delight; and that the over-publicized activity of professionals produces merely a specious form of art, all too often watered down and doctored.”1

It should be noted that Jean Dubuffet was only one of many European avant-garde artists who looked for forms of expression outside of the academic tradition. His interest in self-taught painters was echoed by the Cubist interests in tribal art, and the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist interest in Japanese prints. Many of you may not be aware that Henri Rousseau, whose paintings you are most likely familiar with, was a self taught painter who caught the eye of the avant-garde, specifically Picasso. Henri Rousseau worked as a toll booth collector to earn a living. His coworkers, knowing his passion for art, and believing in the power of his work, used to let him leave work early so that he could work on a painting.

Now Rousseau is best considered as a naive painter, as opposed to brut. Naive painters are self-taught, but live within the bounds of culture and society. Brut painters know nothing of society, nor are they concerned with it. They simply paint their inner world.

Here at the gallery, it is our pleasure to present you with both naive and brut painters. We hope the worlds these artists create will both intrigue and delight you.

Thevoz, Michel Art Brut, Editions d’Art Albert Skira S.A., Geneva, 1995, p. 5.

(I will continue the discussion on European and American “Outsider” art in our next blog.)

Care and Feeding of Your Collection

On the Antiques Roadshow we are constantly frustrated by the lack of documentation in the objects we see. As viewers you hear the appraisers often discussing how a little documentation could mean a great deal in the ultimate value of the object. When Don Ellis appraised the Ute 1st phase chiefs blanket in Tucson we were told that the blanket had been handed down through the family from Kit Carson. Both Don and I believed this oral history but we had nothing to prove it. Had we been able to document this history we both agreed at a minimum this would have added another $100,000 to the estimate of $350,000 to $500,000. The point to all this is that the care and feeding of your collection is important and now easier than ever with the available technology. I have listed below a few simple things you can do that will pay big dividends for you and your family in the future.

1. If you don't have a digital camera, buy an inexpensive Canon or Sony ($200 and under) and photograph every object in the house. Take group shots of each room.

2. If you are computer savy, download these images to your computer and make some disks that you will store outside the house. If you are not computer savy, take your camera to a Kinkos and have them make a disk or put it on a USB thumb drive. The new thumb drives work great and make it very easy to add or delete data.

3. On this blog I have provided lots of information on finding an appraiser. Buy a few hours of time from a recognized appraiser and have them walk through the house to point out important objects, fakes, conservation issues, and range of values. Record it or take notes.

4. You probably won't do this one.. but sit down and write a short paragraph on all your important objects that were identified by the appraiser. Also put this info on your disk or thumb drive. In the event of a house fire, you do not want to store this data in the house.

5. Economic times are tough so insurance is an issue that each collector must address individually. I will say that major collections that are covered where premiums are based on appraised value should be re-assessed during economic downturns.

6. The greatest probability for loss is undoubtedly fire and breakage. Most good security systems have a fire alarm component; however, a great deal of damage can be done before the fire department is on scene. If the budget can handle it, a policy covering this type of loss is important.

Featured Folk Artist - Blacktop

Blacktop (Ken Gentle)
Alabama native Ken Gentle is a self-taught artist who began painting as a way of sharing his experiences of growing up in the South. In his multi-media paintings he uses water colors, chimney soot, enamels, and acrylics which typically start with a base of "black tar" on wood or cardboard (hence the moniker “Blacktop"). His style of using a mixture of found objects further complements the stories he tells.

My paintings and drawings are a process of storytelling - bringing and invoking the past and spirits into people and environments. They are also about a way of life, about the struggle of life and the events that have changed our lives. I focus on contemporary social and political issues which include the complexities of relationships. Rural southern scenes of people at work, old houses, churches, baptisms and the struggles of everyday life are my favorite subjects. I have a passion for telling the stories of growing up in the south where the simple pleasures of life are important and cherished."

My Process:

The process begins with a wood panel or cardboard; next I apply a thin layer of a tar mixture to the surface; a color tinted sealer (my mixture) is then applied next I apply the background color. When the surface has dried for a period of time I rough in the subject matter with several homemade tools. Next I apply the various levels of paint to surface; then remove some paint by scratching the color away so the black tar will show through. Once the painting is completed I apply a clear sealer. (The process has been heat tested to several hundred degrees with no affect on the painting.) For obvious reasons I cannot share the chemical combinations that I use to obtain my end product.