Bob Four and Tony Fusco really know how to put together an art show. Back for the second year, the mood was buoyant at their AD 20/21 fair showcasing art and design of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries March 26′9. The event drew a larger crowd to the Cyclorama at the Boston Center for the Arts than has been seen at many other places in recent memory.
This year’s program combined 35 dealers in fine art, furniture and decorative arts and 15 dealers from the Boston Print Fair, which is now part of AD 20/21. The mix resulted in a vibrant affair drawing enthusiastic community support. The preview party beneficiary was the Boston Architectural College.
Attentive showgoers expressed exceptional interest in the objects, and sales were steady throughout the preview with assurances of more to come over the course of the weekend. Traffic was strong and steady; sales were better than anyone might have anticipated. And dealers appreciated the care that Fusco and Four took, especially such touches as the dealer luncheon.
Exhibitors presented buying opportunities in the area of Art Nouveau, Arts and Crafts, Art Deco, Mid-Century Modern and contemporary paintings, prints, furniture and jewelry. American, European and Asian works on paper, photographs and posters ranged from Old Master to the Twenty-First Century. Buyers were appreciative of the objects for sale and some made wise use of their buying opportunities.
Dealers came from across country and around the corner and everywhere in between. On view was a special exhibit of the Modernist furniture of designer and architect Vladimir Kagan, who was awarded the first AD 20/21 Lifetime Achievement Award. Other Modern furniture booths were that of Greg Nanamura of New York, who had a tasteful display of Twentieth Century furniture and art objects such as the colorful pyramidal Lucite sculpture by Norman J. Mercer.
The van Straaten Gallery of Colorado Springs, Colo., brought etchings, lithographs, woodcuts and other works on paper by Kiki Smith, Katherine Bowling and Kayla Mohammadi, and solar plate etchings by Susan Hambleton. The gallery was founded by William van Straaten, who also founded Riverhouse Editions, which publishes fine prints and was represented at the show.
Boston’s Childs Gallery showed work by Boston-born abstract artist Henry Botkin, Sally Michel, Donald LeDue’s bronze “Northwind 1945,” Milton Avery’s 1944 gouache “The Harbor” and Thomas Hart Benton’s circa 1927 oil on canvas “Menemsha Pond, Martha’s Vineyard.”
Watertown, Mass., art photographer Karin Rosenthal attracted visitors to her booth of her own images of sensuous landscapes and abstract nudes.
Powers Gallery of Acton, Mass., showed paintings by Gene Mackles, who specializes in Boston scenes, mixed media by Maeve Harris and “La Dogana” by Wolf Kahn. The offerings elicited very strong interest.
Sunne Savage of Winchester, Mass., showcased the art of Robert S. Neuman with a retrospective of his 25-year “Lame Deer” series. (It should be noted that Savage and Neuman are married.) She added a twist with two cases of desirable gold jewelry by Sam Shaw.
Marc Chabot came from Southbury, Conn., with an intriguing selection of Indian space paintings by such lights as Peter Busa and Gertrude Barrer. Chabot, an artist himself, also showed the woodcut of George Washington, “Patriae Pater,” and a fine Milton Avery work.
Dalton’s Gallery of Syracuse, N.Y., specializes in Arts and Crafts and had some appealing woodblock images of Maine scenes by Carroll Thayer Berry, as well as prints by Helen Hyde, Margaret Patterson and William Henry Jackson. Dalton’s booth was also filled with art pottery, including the elegant stoneware of Toshiko Takaezu.
Show producers Tony Fusco and Bob Four wear many hats. They are dealers who represent the estate of such Twentieth Century Modern artists as Karl Hagedorn and Sam Stetson, both of whose work was displayed prominently in their booth. Their company, Fusco and Four, is also a marketing and public relations concern, with a focus on arts-related entities. Fusco is the founder and current president of the Art Deco Society of Boston and is a prime mover of that art in the area.
The Berkeley, Calif., gallery Scriptum offered fine modern Japanese prints that were well displayed and well received, and sales were made.
Langhorne, Penn.’s Cara Antiques had an explosively hued display of Clarice Cliff pottery, majolica of every description and Palissy ware.
The Maine gallery Home and Away of Kennebunk specializes in contemporary Inuit art, Eskimo and Native American art and the booth is typically a hive of activity. This event was no exception, and many sales were reported.
Dealer Susanna J. Fichera, who is based in Bowdoinham, Maine, sold “Interior 7-79” by Alfred McNamara and an abstract early in the preview, and another over the weekend. She also showed “Hunter Home from the War, 1946,” by Carl Springhorn that attracted interest.
Boston gallery Martha Richardson Fine Art is a mainstay of Fusco and Four shows. Several days after the show, Richardson reported some excellent follow-up, with major interest in several important pictures.
It was no easy feat to get a good look at the glittering yet tasteful estate jewelry offered in the booth of Dana Kraus’s Regalia, where traffic and sales were especially busy.
The Cyclorama at the Boston Center for The Arts is at 539 Tremont Street, in the South End. For information, www.ad2021.com or 617-363-0405.
