Fine Art Connoisseur January/February 2021

In spite of COVID-19’s downsides — and there are many — there has been a little sunshine emanating from the art world. For many, the word “pivot” comes to mind. Artists and galleries have had to pivot to survive, and for some this has resulted in better-than-normal sales, as well as lower costs through offering virtual shows in lieu of pricey venues and cocktail receptions. For collectors, spending time at home with their art has revealed the gaps, triggering focused efforts to find new works that enhance the collection. And for those many cooped-up people who found themselves staring at empty walls or aching to remodel their spaces, there has been the powerful realization that art is needed. Though such good news can be found within the pandemic’s dark clouds, we…

This is not the winter you were expecting. It certainly isn’t mine. Last January I was lucky to spend a week in Rome exploring museums, palaces, and churches in glorious sunshine, with few tourists and lots of after-Christmas bargains in the shops. If COVID-19 was in the air (and surely it was), I did not know. This January — probably like you — I am almost attached to my computer and television, communicating with others via Zoom and exploring the world vicariously through websites and streaming content. This existence would be deeply depressing without the knowledge that I will get vaccinated this spring (hopefully), and then perhaps the wheels of “normal” life can slowly start to turn again. It’s impossible to overstate how keenly many of us miss direct experiences of the…

Every day in the music studio of her Los Angeles home, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers plays along with Felix Mendelssohn. As she tunes her 1741 Ex-Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesù instrument, reputed to be perhaps the best-sounding violin around, and launches into passages of works she will perform in concert halls around the world, Meyers acknowledges the great composer. His scores are in the room, and so is a painting by him, one of some 300 he completed in his short lifetime (he died at 38). Meyers owns a diminutive yet uncannily detailed watercolor created by the composer in June 1837. It depicts the Lake Como locale where he and his wife, Cécile, honeymooned. “Until recently, no one even knew this painting existed,” says Meyers. Her husband purchased the work at a…

Every winter, Fine Art Connoisseur dedicates part of an issue to highlighting America’s art museums and the important, wide-ranging roles they play in our lives. I am particularly fond of this initiative because I spent much of my career working in art museums and still love visiting them because they always expand my horizons through their exhibitions and other programs. Of course, my visits became less frequent during 2020, the year most of us hope to forget. Throughout the pandemic turmoil, I have been impressed by the resilience of our museum colleagues, and by their unwavering dedication to sharing the joys of fine art even when it’s harder, or impossible, for us to enter their remarkable buildings. One of their chief challenges is negotiating the difficult financial conditions triggered by the sudden…

ONGOING FROM 2020 Through February 15, 2021: I Ventured into the Dream: A Retrospective of Sheryl Bodily; Hockaday Museum of Art, Kalispell, MT Through March 6, 2021: Qualla Arts & Crafts Mutual: Tradition and Innovation; Blowing Rock Art & History Museum, Blowing Rock, NC Through March 7, 2021: Collectors' Legacy: Wickenburg's Treasures; Desert Caballeros Western Museum, Wickenburg, AZ Through March 20, 2021: Drawing from Life: Ben Long & Tony Griffin; Blowing Rock Art & History Museum, Blowing Rock, NC Through March 27, 2021: Small and Mighty Acts Altar for Black Lives; Blowing Rock Art & History Museum, Blowing Rock, NC Through April 10, 2021: Blue Ridge Conservancy: Place Matters; Blowing Rock Art & History Museum, Blowing Rock, NC Through May 3, 2021: Sage Grouse: Icon of the West, Photography by Noppadol Paothong; National Museum of Wildlife Art,…

LUCAS BONONI (b. 1991) has worked persistently to reach the position in which he now finds himself: an emerging realist earning the admiration of a wide range of collectors, fellow painters, and art professionals. At 28, the Los Angeles-born and New York City-based artist has been creating art full-time for seven years, a pursuit that entailed several sacrifices to make his dream a reality. To that end, Bononi believes in mastering the business side of his profession and spends as much time educating himself about marketing and selling his art as he does creating it. He is, in that sense, a quintessential millennial: entrepreneurial, resourceful, and eager to achieve what matters most to him. Bononi’s early dedication to building a business carried with it the realization that his finances (and life)…