Space at Alice
220 Westminster Street
at the corner of Eddy Street
621-6127
www.artsandbusinessri.org

June 14 through July 21
Rediscovering Nature (in an Unnatural World): Paintings by Paula
Martiesian
and Michele Provost
Artists opening reception June 14, 5 to 8 p.m.
Gallery Night receptions June 21, 5 to 9 p.m.
and July 19, 5 to 9 p.m.

The Space at Alice, in conjunction with Cornish Associates, presents recent paintings by Paula Martiesian and Michele Provost. Martiesian and Provost first met in 2003 at the suggestion of fellow painter Bunny Harvey. Harvey thought the two painters shared common interests and would benefit from each others’ company. Over time the two painters became colleagues and friends.

Both Martiesian and Provost work exclusively from nature, responding to what they see with very unique approaches to color, abstracted space and line. Both create not just individual paintings, but sophisticated spatial and philosophical environments - locales that they return to again and again to explore from different perspectives.

Yet the two artists are radically different. Martiesian is a colorist who uses saturated hues, abstracted space and definitive line to translate what she sees in real life to the canvas. Martiesian states, ” My inspiration is not literal, but environmental. I have always been in love with trees, rocks, water - life that isn’t defined by right angles and straight lines. I fantasize about what the world might have looked like before mankind arrived and I search my immediate surroundings for hints of that world.

Many who are fans of my paintings believe my works are abstractions, but I quite literally “see” the scenes that I paint in the urban and rural green spaces around me. I accentuate the landscape I love - wild, unkempt and irreverent - and avoid certain elements altogether. My landscapes have no fences, no manmade grids, no telephone wires. They are microcosms of a world without human interference.”

Provost makes almost magical landscapes by interweaving strong shapes with a central notion of line that entwines, binds and finally, creates mass. Her landscapes are built on years of observation, a viewing of specific places that have grown to almost mythic proportions. Using painter’s mediums, Provost layers, scrapes and embeds line and color, finally building a surface that combines the gesture of drawing with the sensuous qualities of painting.

Provost states,” Juxtaposing tensions and relaxation, directing the eye from clue to clue, depicting interiority, the straining to describe and comprehend the ineffable, the ceaseless seeking to find the perfect memory of that momentary flash of perfect clarity, the attempt to recognize that which “we haven’t the subtlety of heart to see”[Pynchon], the paintings become visual metaphors and mysteries for the process of thought, understanding and the substance commonly referred to as life.”

Essay by Catherine Little Bert

Complimenting the main exhibit Who Creates the Art Market?
– museums, auctions, curators, critics, artists, collectors or galleries
is a small pocket exhibit of contemporary Rhode Island artists: Frank Gasbarro, Dana Levin, Paula Martiesian, Kenn Speiser and Carmel Vitullo. For the past twenty years, Bert Gallery has exhibited these artists, working hard to promote local talent beyond the state borders. The particular challenges for contemporary artists are addressed in this small installation.

A Rhode Island artist or any other contemporary artist from another part of the country faces extraordinary challenges to achieve recognition for their art. Our republic has never been keen on the concept of direct patronage of artists as compared to our European forefathers. Rather America’s capitalistic and practical nature has done little to foster national artistic culture.

By mid 19th century as America grew into an international power, the lack of attention to its cultural development became apparent and an embarrassment. Our design and artistic quality as a nation compared so poorly to other world powers. It became particularly humiliating at the Crystal Palace, or The Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. Out of sheer competitiveness Americans responded to the challenge and in the United States an era of remarkable growth of art schools, academies and art organizations lead to a maturation of art culture. The late 19th century saw a flurry of development in all the arts areas as Americans embraced the arts even if only sometimes as an “ornament of civilization”. Certainly, with new wealth came a desire to garner personal culture and social position by many.

The American artist as a professional status emerged in the late 19th and early 20th century. Not only did the numbers increase there were many levels of professional artists from international notables such as John Singer Sargent, Frank Benson, Mary Cassatt, Cecelia Beaux to regional and local professionals. Just at the Paris Salons alone by 1899 over 5,000 paintings were exhibited yearly, of which a good percentage were by American artists. Locally, Rhode Islanders such as S.R. Burleigh, Clara Maxfield Arnold, George Whitaker were successful and highly regarded professionals in their community who sold and exhibited art their entire careers. Being an American artist was never an easy profession but a profession nonetheless recognized in City Business Directories at the same professional level as teachers, doctors, lawyers, etc.

During the twentieth century in the Depression Era, when financial troubles for our nation abound, the WPA employed artists as a professional group to paint murals for public spaces such as libraries, train stations and other municipal locations. Artists were still recognized for their career expertise.

It was in Post depression era that we saw a shift in the artist as professional. The pursuit of painting as a career became tied to practical matters, teaching at art schools or for commercial purposes such as illustration and advertising. Art as a moniker of visual, social and political thoughts was being produced by fewer artists and supported by a shrinking audience of museums, critics and a small group of collectors. The artist profession was transformed mindful of practical proclivity of American society.

The late forties saw the emergence stateside of the great talents of Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Robert Motherwell and with this new generation of artists American visual arts shifted to the importance of the artist as the solitary creator where their paintings and sculptures needed no practical purpose or justification to the public at large. The artist seized the visual arts as their medium to express ideas, thoughts and commentaries pertinent to society.

By the 1960’s American artists took the visual stage on the international front and with this transformed the art world and profession. Museums, galleries and the art centers centralized to major cities most notably New York City. Artists evolved from a mundane professional class to individual art celebrities.

Today 6 billion dollars of art is sold at Sotheby’s and Christies with 18% of the sales being contemporary. Contemporary art stars are on the retainers of prominent galleries, bought and sold by hedge fund operators and placed in deep pocket museums. And so it goes… the transcendence of artist as an 18th century colonial era craftsman to a 21st century visionary apostle and “pop star” of the secular world.

With this current state of affairs, developing an audience for regional practicing artists is increasingly difficult. If New York art professionals do not pluck them in early career, it is hard for artists to support themselves in their own communities as art professionals creating and selling their art. An added dilemma facing the majority of artists today is that with the abundance of excellent art schools where hundreds of artists are trained per year, to be professionally successful is very limited to the small competitive arenas such as New York, London and Berlin.

While good art is being made in many other communities, such as Rhode Island, the accomplished professional artist needs to work hard to manage their career and develop a collector base. Despite these challenges, the good news is that artists are infinitely “creative” in finding a way to produce good art and jump the hurdles often place before them. The narrative on the American artist for the twenty first century is just beginning to unfold.

Well, Thursday is the last day of our current exhibit and we have had many visitors and questions about the auction market. So, for those of you too far a field to visit us at 540 South Water Street I’m posting the wall text that I wrote on the topic. (Pleave visit the slide show to see any of the images larger) Enjoy…

Catherine Little Bert
Rhode Island Auction Hits
American Art in Auction

Prior to the 1980’s, paintings by American artists lagged significantly behind their European counterparts. But as American collectors became interested in their native artistic heritage – American art prices began to soar. Rhode Island had its share of significant painters to add to the mix. With the stock market crash in 1987, Black Monday, there was a slow down in the art auction market by 1990. The art market has been significantly revived in the last 5 years. In the Sotheby’s Art Market Review of 2006 their description of the American Art market was “Domestic Bliss.”

The continued bullish mood and growing strength in the American art market was evident in the November 2006 week’s total for Sotheby’s and Christie’s auctions. Collectors and dealers responded strongly to quality as a selection of American art sent the sale total over the high estimates for both auction houses. Sotheby’s sale total of 82.8 million far surpassed the firm’s pre-sale high of 65 million, significantly exceeding Christie’s 38.2 sales total.”

“The Impressionist & Modern Art market continues its stratospheric rise, breaking all records with more than 2 billion in auctions sales worldwide in 2006, Sotheby’s is central to this market growth – tripling sales in the last two years and bringing new collectors to the auction rooms: new buyers accounted for 42% of Impressionist & Modern Art sales in 2006.
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Catherine Bert’s Lecture on:

Auction History: Gender Differences in the Auction Market

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Thank you for stopping by this afternoon for my discussion on gender differences in the auction market, a good topic to explore for Women’s History Month.

Before I delve into the details of gender differences, it is important to mention that you first need to understand the basics of bringing an artist to auction before thinking about our topic.

This current exhibit helps to highlight the varying conditions for each artist (both male and female) and how it reflects in the auction market. I have lots of documentation on issues to consider when looking at an artist in auction or understanding their auction prices. There are several factors or determinants of the value of an artwork by an artist. So heed this warning that you need to consider all of these determinants in order to interpret the auction numbers.

As you will find out shortly, there are dramatic differences between comparable male and female artists in auction.
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Auction Hits in the Rhode Island Market

March 6th – April 19th
Gallery Night: March 15th
Closed Gallery Night in April

The billion-dollar art auction market is booming across the world and some Rhode Island artists are making their mark. Who are the 19th and early 20th century Rhode Island artists who have hit auction highs? What if an artist sells for $5,000 in a gallery and $500 at a Sotheby’s auction—how do you interpret the data? Visit Bert Gallery and get an insider’s look at how different Rhode Island artists are faring in the auction market. Find out about the secondary market, a critical component in securing an artists’ reputation in the art world.

April Gallery program

• Saturday, April 14, 2007 at 4pm - What does auction data mean? Discover the inner workings of the auction market. Among the panelists are Charlie Wharton of UBS Financial Services, Inc. and Dan Mechnig of Meckandil Tool Co., Inc., both local collectors.

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