Maine Antique Digest April 2015

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12-D Maine Antique Digest, April 2015
- SHOW -
The Metro Curates show, managed by the Art Fair Company
in Chicago, opened at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New
York City to a spirited downtown crowd in the middle of
Americana Week (January 22-25). It vied for the attention of col-
lectors and dealers who had a long list of to-dos: going to auc-
tions at Sotheby’s, Christies, Arader Galleries, Keno, etc.; attend-
ing the New York Ceramics and Glass Fair and the Art, Design
& Antiques Show at Wallace Hall; and visiting exhibitions and
receptions at numerous museums and galleries. The events were
spread out around Manhattan, making it necessary for MTA Met-
roCards to be refilled often.
If the Winter Antiques Show is the Chanel of all the shows,
then Metro Curates is the Marc Jacobs—edgy with a splash of
fun, color, and whimsy. For example, Manhattan-based Adelson
Galleries, long known as a 19th- and 20th-century American
paintings dealer, had a booth filled with sculptures by Federico
Uribe, some made from colored pencils, others from plastic forks
and spoons, and some from faucets and garden hoses. AdamAdel-
son runs the family’s Boston gallery, which opened in 2012. “I’m
pulling him [his father, Warren] into the twenty-first century,” said
the son, whose interest is in contemporary and modern art.
There had been some complaints after last year’s show that
not enough folk art dealers were
represented, according to Susan
Baerwald, one of the partners in the
Summerland, California, gallery
Just Folk. This year saw the addi-
tion of New York-based dealers
Forum Gallery, Marion Harris, and
Joshua Lowenfels, as well as American Garage, Los Angeles, and
Leatherwood Antiques, Sandwich, Massachusetts.
Laura Fisher of Fisher Heritage, New York City, was also a first
timer-since the show became the Metro show, having exhibited for
years at the former antiques show managed by Sanford “Sandy”
Smith held at the pier. “I thought the show was beautiful, with
quality merchandise. I would like to see a more classic Americana
show, however,” Fisher added. She sold pictorial hooked rugs,
coverlets, and shawls and had interest in several of the “painterly,
dramatic” quilts displayed in her booth.
“We brought the crème de la crème this year,” stated Just Folk’s
Baerwald. “These are the icons of folk art,” she said, pointing to
the weathervanes, whirligigs, hooked rugs, quilts, carved wood
figures, game boards, and half a dozen works by Bill Traylor that
filled her booth. Many of them had been included in Roger Ricco
and Frank Maresca’s books American Primitive: Discoveries in
Folk Sculpture and American Vernacular: New Discoveries in
Folk, Self-Taught, and Outsider Sculpture, considered the bibles
of the genre. In addition, Just Folk published its own catalog for
this year’s Metro Curates show, Icons of Folk Art. The gallery sold
an Amish (or possibly Mennonite) Roman Stripes quilt made by
Mary Yoder in 1830 to the Houston Museum of Art, in addition to
several other sales, said Baerwald.
Besides American folk art, exhibitors offered historic and con-
temporary textiles, ethnographic art, applied and decorative arts,
and modern and contemporary fine art and design.
Gemini Antiques, Oldwick, New Jersey, took two booths to dis-
play the Weiss twins’ folk art and cast-iron toy collections. Steven
Weiss, who bought several things at Christie’s Americana sale
during the week, said he had a good sales volume. Among his
sales were a 36-drawer chest with original paint from 1870, sev-
eral trade store signs (including a large barber pole, circa 1880),
and other items. Steven’s twin, Leon Weiss, who had 36 sales by
midday on Sunday, said he sold a lot of mechanical penny banks.
“I have a large customer base in NewYork,” the Long Island, New
York, native stated.
Carl Hammer of the eponymous Chicago gallery reported that
the show was “so-so.” His theme for Metro Curates was “Inside
Out Booth,” showing “the influence of Outsiders to mainstream
contemporary art.” The gallery was exhibiting the following
weekend at the Outsider Art Fair in far west Chelsea. A carved
chest of drawers from an African-American West Virginian
barbershop with an accompanying wall shelf was a highlight
of the booth. Hammer also displayed paintings by Eugene Von
Bruenchenhein and a sculpture by Edgar Tolson.
William Siegal’s booth won the best booth design award this
year. The dealer, who is based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, said
he did “phenomenally well,” selling pre-Columbian objects and
masks and textiles. The LongHouse Award for Design Excellence
was presented to Siegal by the founder of LongHouse, Jack Lenor
Larsen.
Samplers sold at the show. Amy Finkel of M. Finkel & Daugh-
ter, Philadelphia, had “an excellent show,” selling by midafter-
noon on Sunday eight samplers, two pieces of glass, a large “hot
peanut” tin, and several pieces of Poole pottery.
There were a dozen booth talks given by dealers and artists,
as well as presentations and lectures given by curators, collec-
tors, journalists, and professors throughout the four-day run of the
event. The American Folk Art Museum had a pop-up shop and
invited its members to attend the show.
For more information, call (312) 587-7632 or visit the Web site
).
New York City
Metro Curates
by Julie Schlenger Adell
Edgy with a
splash of fun,
color, and
whimsy.
Gemini Antiques, Oldwick, New Jersey, sold
this equestrian cast-iron trade sign, made
for the Cincinnati Stove Works company,
circa 1901; the asking price was $28,500. The
36-drawer chest, possibly from a hardware
store, with original ivory paint and dove-
tailed construction, also sold. It was tagged
$18,500. The tramp art wood trinket box
with applied hearts and mirrors was $3850.
The cast-iron mythological mask, far right,
late 19th or early 20th century, was $18,500.
American Primitive Gallery, New York City, displayed an 1880s carved circus wagon figure of a Native Amer-
ican woman, intended to attract a visit to the big top. It was priced at $12,500. On the wall is an anonymous
20th-century oil on linen painting of a woman with roses, $3500. The pair of 1940s rotating shooting gallery
targets in the shape of stars was $7800.
These women were first in line for the Metro Curates opening and hurried toAmy Finkel’s booth to view and buy
samplers. Several sold, including a pair by Margret Marshall, 1734; one of Potosi , a five-masted ship, 1824; one
by Mary Robinson; a Shaker sampler from Enfield, Connecticut; and one by Hannah Jarrett, a Quaker, 1798.
“We had an excellent show,” said Finkel of M. Finkel & Daughter, Philadelphia. Several pieces of mid-1950s
Poole pottery from Dorset, England, priced from $120 to $700, sold as well.
Dick Lubinsky, an artist who lived in the
Bronx and suffered from schizophrenia,
painted this oil on canvas, Homeless Family in
a Van, circa 1960. Fountain Gallery, New York
City, asked $11,500 for it.
A new exhibitor to Metro Curates was American Garage,
Los Angeles, which was also exhibiting at the York
Antiques Show the following week. Some sales included
this 1930 cast-iron child’s carousel horse on a contem-
porary stand, priced at $4200. Not shown were a dou-
ble-sided wood “Boarding & Lodging” sign, circa 1930,
tagged $6500; a rare late 19th-century large 3-D solid
cast-iron crescent moon face from upstate New York,
tagged $18,000; and a late 19th-century “5000 Cigars
from Geo. T. Warren & Co.” zinc-lined wood box, tagged
$22,500.