Monthly Archives: May 2012

May 31: Panel Discussion • Managing Your Art Career

(by Mitch Kahn & Beth Kurtz)

With Managing Your Art Career, second in a well-attended series of panel discussions produced by the Program Committee, Fine Art Connoisseur editor Peter Trippi returned to SCNY, accompanied by 4 gallery owners, 1 internet auction specialist and 1 artist, to talk about various strategies and tools that artists can use to promote their careers as well as effective ways to seek out and engage with gallery owners in today’s evolving art markets.

THE PANEL (Seated L-R)

Denise Bibro has exhibited works of a diverse group of contemporary artists in corporate and alternative spaces since 1980. After showcasing work at her art salon in Union Square, she opened a gallery in SoHo in 1987, moving to its current Chelsea location in 1997.

George Billis is President of two successful art galleries and the Red Dot Art Fair; based in New York, Los Angeles and Miami.

Shawna Brickley is Specialist for Modern and Impressionist Art at artnet Auctions, a division of artnet Worldwide, a round-the-clock auction site with offices in Berlin, Paris, New York and London.

Kim Foster opened her gallery in SoHo in 1994. She was among the first to migrate to the Chelsea art district in 1998.

Madelyn Jordon is director and owner of Madelyn Jordon Fine Art in Westchester County, New York.

David Jon Kassan, born in Little Rock, Arkansas, is a contemporary painter best known for his life-size realistic portraits.

MODERATOR (Standing):

Peter Trippi is editor of Fine Art Connoisseur, the bi-monthly magazine that serves collectors of historic and representational painting, sculpture, drawing and prints. He is also president of Projects in 19th Century Art, Inc., the firm he established to pursue a range of research, writing and curating opportunities.

DISCUSSION HIGHLIGHTS:

• Know a gallery’s taste and aesthetic before submitting your work. Visit often and get to know the staff.

• Do not bring your portfolio to a gallery during a reception for another artist.

• Do not even think about bringing your portfolio to a gallery on a Saturday (busiest day of the week).

• Do not approach an art fair organizer or dealer at an art fair (they are far too busy attending to the event).

• Do not bring original work to a gallery unless it is requested.

BEST WAYS TO PRESENT YOUR WORK TO A GALLERY:

• CD: Send images of selected works on CD, accompanied by color printouts and bio. Submit good quality photos of your work.

• Email: Send an email (always include an image at the top) with links to your website and any important press notices.

• Website: A good website is important.

• Pricing: Include retail pricing

WHAT NOT TO EXPECT:

• Galleries will not return materials that have been submitted • consider them disposable.

• Galleries will not respond unless they are definitely interested • do not follow up with phone calls or letters.

OTHER TOOLS:

• Analog: Networking and shmoozing are powerful tools. Make contacts through friends and other artists.

• Digital: Facebook, Instagram and Constant Contact are good starting points.

REGIONS:

Consider regions of the country that have a strong market for your style of work. The large markets of New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Santa Fe may appear to be the most desirable but smaller cities may prove more successful, especially early on.

Only 1-2% of all artists make a living from their work.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Art in America issue #14 has an article with gallery info and email addresses.  

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Photos: Mitch Kahn and Dan Dillon

May 29: Fleet Week Lunch @ SCNY

Tuesday afternoon, May 29th, the Salmagundi Club hosted close to 100 members of the armed forces visiting NYC during Fleet Week at it’s annual Fleet Week Luncheon. In attendance were representatives of the Coast Guard, Marines, Navy and Air Force, taking shelter at 47 Fifth Avenue on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far.

L-R: Lance Corporal Channing Ellebracht, Lieutenant Colonel Neil F. Murphy, Jr., Alicia Murphy, SCNY Executive Director Kathleen Arffmann, SCNY member Mike Stap and Major Chris Perrine

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May 28: SCNY Aboard the USCG Eagle

United States Coast Guard Cutter Barque Eagle

(By Mitch Kahn)

Originally christened the SSS Horst Wessel, the USCG Eagle was built in 1936 at the Blohm and Voss shipyard in Hamburg, Germany. She was the second hull of four in a new class of sail training vessels built with increased safety in mind. At the end of World War II, the four vessels then extant were distributed to various nations as war reparations. Horst Wessel was taken by the United States. She was first sent to Wilhelmshaven, Germany, then to Bremerhaven and was then commissioned into the United States Coast Guard as the Coast Guard Cutter Eagle on May 15, 1946. In June 1946 a U.S. Coast Guard crew, together with her German captain and crew who volunteered to train them, sailed the Eagle from Bremerhaven, through a hurricane, to Orangeburg, New York. The German crew was disembarked at Camp Shanks and the Eagle proceeded to her new home port of New London, Connecticut.

L-R Rear: David Knight, Gloria Sampson Knight, Lorraine Austin, Tom Austin, Bill Keena, Mary Keena, Chuck van Horn, Charlene Bank Keogh, Mitch Kahn, Isabell Coffey
L-R Front: Karen Loew, Charlie Yoder, Amy Yedowtiz-Digi, Lynda Yedowtiz, Lucy van Horn

The U.S. Coast Guard, like the naval and merchant services of many other nations, continues to employ sailing school ships to train its future officers. It has long been recognized that even in an age of technological complexity, sail training still provides the best possible foundation for seamanship. The sea has not changed. It remains the same unforgiving environment that it always was, as capable of destroying a modern supertanker as it was of destroying the frail wooden sailing craft of an earlier era. Anyone who aspires to become a seaman must begin by acquiring a firsthand acquaintance with the relentless forces of wind and wave at sea. Only by starting with such an understanding can the sailor learn to recognize and respect both personal limits and those of the ship on which he or she must depend both for survival and the successful accomplishment of assigned missions.

Yet Eagle is more than a school for seamanship. She also provides an unparalleled opportunity for aspiring seagoing officers to develop confidence, courage and good judgment: precisely the qualities the Coast Guard needs in its leaders. If wind is the force that can drive the ship, it is human ingenuity that has developed the means to harness that force and it is the crew who must employ those means to make it happen. In Eagle, cadets are the crew. To sail the ship they must learn to work together as a team, to be decisive in circumstances that can be both frightening and physically demanding, to give and respond to commands quickly and clearly, and in the end, there can be few experiences as intensely satisfying as the successful accomplishment of a sailing evolution.

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Photos by Mitch Kahn, Karen Loew and Charlie Yoder.

May 14 – June 15: Arti Et Salmagundi

(by Mitch Kahn & Bob Mueller)

The installation of the second half of the exchange exhibition between sister clubs Arti Et Amicitiae and Salmagundi kicked off with a gala dinner reception at SCNY on Monday, May 14th. With the memberships of both organizations well represented, the event served to further solidify the bond between the two clubs.

This reciprocal exhibition, consisting of 63 paintings by 23 Arti members, is the first showing of works by Dutch artists at SCNY and is in direct response to the exhibition by Salmagundi members in Amsterdam this past October.

Click to see video of SCNY exhibition opening at Arti et Amicitiae

Founded in 1839, Arti Et Amicitiae (Art and Friendship) is nearly Salmagundi’s exact counterpart, consisting of artists and lay members “who have love for the arts and enjoy the intercourse with those devoted to their pursuit”.

The “interchange of courtesies” between the organizations can be traced back to October, 1906. In July of that year, during the tercentenary celebration of Rembrandt’s birth, Salmagundi was the only foreign art organization to participate with Arti in a commemoration of the historic event. The festivities were pageant-like with two hundred torchbearers in seventeenth-century costume conducting eighteen delegations, representing Holland’s art organizations, in a parade from the Arti clubhouse to the statue of the great master in the city square. They laid floral wreaths at its base amid bands playing, choral singing and dramatic lighting. Queen Wilhelmina was so moved as to send her personal appreciation to Salmagundi for honoring the master in this fashion.

Following the Queen’s acknowledgment of SCNY in 1906 and establishment of reciprocity between our organizations there was little formal communication between Arti and Salmagundi. In 2009, Leendert Van der Pool, who holds memberships in both clubs, approached the Chairman of Arti, Arie Van den Berg, proposing an exchange of exhibitions. The proposal was then presented to the Board of Salmagundi, resulting in these ground-breaking exhibitions.

May 9: Douglas Allen and N.C. Wyeth highlight 2012 Library Dinner

(by Mitch Kahn)

The highlight of the 2012 Library Dinner was a powerpoint presentation by SCNY artist Douglas Allen, author of N. C. Wyeth: The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals.
About the Book: “More than 300 four-color and black-and-white illustrations by one of America’s preeminent painters are collected here, along with illuminating text from the artist’s letters, magazine articles about his work, and many other sources. The result: a fully realized portrait of a “golden age” illustrator whose work appeared in then Saturday Evening Post, a classic edition of Treasure Island, and elsewhere for 42 years.”

May 4: American Masters Gala & Sale

(by Mitch Kahn)

On Friday, May 4th, 2012, participating artists, their patrons, other SCNY members and members of the press gathered in the parlor and Main Gallery at 47 Fifth Avenue for the 2012 American Masters Exhibition Gala Reception & Sale to benefit the Salmagundi Club. Now in its 5th year, the show runs April 25th through May 10th. Wine and hors d’oeuvres were in bountiful supply as attendees awaited the results of the drawing at the culmination of the evening to see which lucky buyers would win the “first option to purchase” 94 works submitted by the 40 Masters participating in this year’s fund-raiser. A preview reception for SCNY members took place on Thursday, April 26th, followed by a demonstration by Sherrie McGraw on Wednesday, May 2nd. Sherrie is also the current featured artist in the SCNY Patrons’ Gallery.

Left to right: Fine Art Connoisseur Editor Peter Trippi with Babette Bloch, Marc Mellon, Richard Schmid and Mara Sfara.

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