A Trip to Boston and a Documentary Add to My Gardner Museum Heist Obsession

Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675), The Concert, ca. 1664,
Oil on canvas, 72,5 x 64,7 cm
Stolen from Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

I was in Boston for a couple of days last week. On the top of my list of things to do there was my first ever, long overdue visit to the fabulous Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Adding to the mystique of the beautiful outside-in Venetian palazzo that Gardner herself designed and its dazzling array of masterpieces and artifacts, was my curiosity about the still unsolved 1990 Gardner Museum heist. Thirteen masterpieces, including three Rembrandts and a Vermeer, were stolen. Some were slashed from their frames -- frames that still eerily hang where Gardner originally placed them.

After my visit, I arrived back in L.A. pleasantly haunted by the history-laden cobblestone streets and cemeteries of Boston, and decidedly under the spell of Isabella Stewart Gardner. Finding Rebecca Dreyfus's 2006 documentary about the Gardner heist, Stolen, was the perfect segue from an all-too-short vacation back to my hectic life.

In an interview, Gardner biographer, Douglass Shand-Tucci, sets the tone for the present day visitor and echoes my own feelings: "The Gardner Museum is now touched with evil as a result of the robbery in a way that has deepened the experience going through it. Many people made it into a pretty postcard kind of place. Mrs. Gardner was not a pretty postcard kind of person . . ."



The story of the heist is set against a background of grainy black and white footage of turn-of-the-century Boston, voice-overs of Gardner's letters read by Blythe Danner, and the ongoing investigation of fine art detective Harold Smith. Adding to the complexity of the investigation, we intermittently hear snippets of voice messages left on a tip line -- even one from a who woman claims the culprits were John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The Beatles did it!

We learn about Gardner's motivations for amassing her collection:

"They say that Isabella Stewart Gardner is the original Victorian salvage hunter. She'd go off on a rummage hunt, often a salvage hunt. Mr. Gardner would be, at times, very upset. She wouldn't leave a note at the hotel, she'd be out looking for her favorite pieces of salvage that she could save and then resurrect them. Broken columns, balconies, fireplaces from Northumberland, were in attics and basements of churches, stained glass windows from 1150 a.d., [unclear] Cathedral covered with vestments and cobwebs, and she recycled all the things in Europe that no one seemed to care about."

In a letter to her art agent in Europe Stewart wrote: "Dear Berenson, I suppose the picture habit, which I seem to have, is as bad as the morphine or whiskey one. And it does cost. I am drowned in a sea of debt. You would laugh to see me. I haven't had but one new frock in a year."

Titian, (1490–1576), Rape of Europa, 1559-1562, oil on canvas, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

A museum docent recounts Gardner's frame of mind after acquiring Titian's Rape of Europa:

"One evening so ecstatic, after a wonderful dinner party in the Titian room, she swirled into a frenzy and said, 'Tis I who have hopped upon the back of Zeus and become Europa, the mother of Europe' and left her ball gown. Of course as we all know in the portrait the goddess is upon the back of Zeus flying around the heavens in a night gown. So Mrs. Gardner disrobed her ball gown, ran through the long gallery back up to her dressing room on the fourth floor, changed into another gown and came back downstairs. So, for posterity, the green moiré fabric, Worth’s Paris gown, is in the wall, under the Titian as sort of a replica and souvenir of the enchantment that Bel Gardner felt when she received and purchased her Europa. She was ecstatic with joy."

We meet dicey characters from the underbelly of the art world such as master art thief Myles Connor, antiques dealer and ex-con, William Youngworth and, through a Scotland Yard connection, reformed art thief, Paul "Turbocharger" Hendry. Much speculation surrounds the role Boston mob boss and then fugitive Ray "Whitey" Bulger may have played in the caper:

"In 1990 at the time of the Gardner heist, Whitey Bulger was the absolute lord and master of the Irish underworld. . . . Whitey Bulger had a dark presence that cast a very long shadow over Boston. Chilling is the word. . . He ruled through violence and intimidation and fear. . . . In this town, if a consortium of thugs pulled off the Gardner heist, Whitey Bulger would hear about it in two seconds flat. "

By the end of the film, the investigation has widened to include IRA connections and never realized plans to use Senator Ted Kennedy as a go-between to negotiate for return of the stolen work. Art detective Harold Smith stayed on the trail of the theft until just a week before he died in 2005, and many others continue the hunt to this day.

Ray "Whitey" Bulger was arrested by the FBI in June of this year and is in custody in Boston charged with 19 counts of murder. Some speculate that Bulger knows the whereabouts of the stolen Gardner paintings and is using the information as a get-out-of-jail free card.

We can only wait and hope!

Click here to rent or learn more about Stolen.

Click here to read my review of Ulrich Boser's 2009 bestseller, The Gardner Heist.

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

Lisa Adams: Born This Way

September 11 - October 9, 2011

October 2:
Panel Discussion: Sunday, October 2, 3pm

Sincerely Whose? Authenticity, Irony and Uncertainty in Contemporary Art

October 9:
Closing Reception for Lisa Adams: Born This Way, 2-5pm
Book Signing for Lisa Adams's Monograph: Vicissitude of Circumstance, 2-3pm
Artist's Talk by Lisa Adams, 3pm

October 10-22:
Closed for installation

October 23:
Opening Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm

October 30:

Reading and book signing: Author Hunter Drohojowska-Philp's Rebels in Paradise: The Los Angeles Art Scene and the 1960s, 3pm

November 20:
Closing Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm
Artist's Talk by Susan Sironi, 3pm

November 21 - December 3:
Closed for installation

December 4-11: ArtZone 2011
Opening Reception: Sunday, December 4, 2-5pm
Closing Reception: Sunday, December 11, 2-5pm

Discovering the Highwaymen: Florida’s Outsider Artists

One of the best things about writing a weekly art blog is that I’m always on the lookout for hidden gems of art history – or in this case, outsider art history -- that come as a wonderful surprise to me, much like finding buried treasure. So I was delighted when I logged on to Netflix recently and up popped a suggestion for a film I might like titled The Highwaymen: Florida’s Outsider Artists. The description read:

“This documentary focuses on a piece of American culture that is rarely spoken of. The Highwaymen tells the tale of a group of young African-American, self-taught landscape artists from central Florida in the late 1950's and early 1960's. In a time of segregation, the men traveled the region selling their detailed paintings from the trunk of their cars. Today, the paintings, originally sold as 'junk art,' are virtually priceless.”

My curiosity went on high alert and I rented the DVD asap.

The nearly hour long film credits the birth of this outsider movement to a group of artists in Ft. Pierce, Florida who had little to no formal training. “They painted Florida back country scenes mainly – coastal savannahs, hard-wood hammocks, tannin-stained rivers, almost always topped by expansive skies, capacious clouds and bold strokes of dramatic colors.”



Central to the development of the Highwaymen was white artist, A.E. “Bean” Backus, often referred to as the dean of Florida landscape painters. Backus studied painting at Parsons in New York and soon brought the Hudson River Style to the big skies and Everglades of Florida. Despite the predominant racial prejudices and segregation of the 50’s and 60’s, Backus was willing to help any young student who wanted to study to become an artist.

One of the first African American artists that “Beany” took under his wing and taught his painting techniques to was Harrold Newton. Newton learned quickly and would sometimes paint as many as three or four paintings a day. No respectable gallery would show the work of an African American artist, so Newton began going from door to door, often bartering his work for rent, medical treatment, groceries or gas.

In 1955 an art teacher at Ft. Pierce’s segregated Lincoln Academy recommended another student to Backus, a young African American man named Alfred Hair. Hair is often credited with being the founder and spiritual leader of the Highwaymen.

Hair wasn’t satisfied with the painstaking brush painting of Backus or selling an occasional piece of work. He wanted to speed up the process and make money. So he developed a technique of painting faster using a palette knife with looser strokes. He painted on inexpensive construction materials, primarily Upson board and later Masonite. Old window and door frames were used for framing.



To gear up production, Hair soon began recruiting neighborhood kids to work for him, many of whom went on to become the original group of artists now referred to as the Highwaymen. They saw painting as the road to financial freedom and churned out work, factory-style, at an amazing rate, with some claiming that there are over 200,000 Highwaymen paintings in existence. Why work in the fields picking oranges for $6 a week, when you could sell a single painting for $10-$15?

Hair, well on his way to fulfilling his dream of becoming a millionaire, was tragically murdered at the age of 29. His group of followers were deeply affected by his death and lost some of the momentum he had created. They continued to paint, however, and the original 26 members went on to become inducted in the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 2004.

Prices for the paintings of the Highwaymen sky-rocketed in the early 2000’s, primarily as a result of bidding, buying and selling on EBay. Some of the works by the original 26 members of the group now sell in the five-figure category.

Click here to learn more about the Florida Highwaymen

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

Lisa Adams: Born This Way

September 11 - October 9, 2011

October 2:
Panel Discussion: Sunday, October 2, 3pm

Sincerely Whose? Authenticity, Irony and Uncertainty in Contemporary Art

October 9:
Closing Reception for Lisa Adams: Born This Way, 2-5pm
Book Signing for Lisa Adams's Monograph: Vicissitude of Circumstance, 2-3pm
Artist's Talk by Lisa Adams, 3pm

October 10-22:
Closed for installation

October 23:
Opening Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm

October 30:

Reading and book signing: Author Hunter Drohojowska-Philp's Rebels in Paradise: The Los Angeles Art Scene and the 1960s, 3pm

November 20:
Closing Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm
Artist's Talk by Susan Sironi, 3pm

November 21 - December 3:
Closed for installation

December 4-11: ArtZone 2011
Opening Reception: Sunday, December 4, 2-5pm
Closing Reception: Sunday, December 11, 2-5pm

Classic Edvard Munch Film; Lisa Adams: Vicissitudes of Circumstance; MFA Debate Video

Director Peter Watkins’ classic 1974 film Edvard Munch is a rich and complex look at the life of the angst-ridden Norwegian artist in his native Kristiania (now Oslo), from roughly 1884 to 1894, the formative years in his early career. Filmed in the style of a documentary, period characters speak directly to the camera in their native Norwegian with English subtitles, while the film is narrated in English. Artfully interwoven are scenes from Munch’s childhood, of his older sister and mother dying of tuberculosis (a disease that almost claimed the young Edvard as well), Munch’s love affair with the married “Mrs. Heiberg,” as well as the political and philosophical debates of the era.


("Edvard Munch" was originally created for Norwegian television in 1974, then edited and re-released later as a DVD. This is the only trailer I could find and the scenes it contains are not in the DVD; the subtitles are in Greek, rather than English; but it does capture the feel of the film.)

In 1884, Kristiania was the capitol of Norway and was ruled by the middle class, the bourgeoisie, which was politically conservative and Protestant. Prostitution was legal and managed by the police, yet there were no child labor laws. Nearly one third of the industrial labor force was made up of boys and girls working as much as 11 hours a day.

Nihilism, anarchy and the works of Karl Marx were sweeping across Europe. Munch identified with a group of young bohemians, radical writers, artists and students, who believed in free love and the overthrow of the bourgeoisie. They also believed that all evil could be traced to Christianity.

In answer to Christianity's 10 commandments, Munch's Bohemian group published nine of their own. Among them were: to never borrow less than 5 kroner; to never wear celluloid cuffs; to never fail to make a scandal in the Kristiania Theater; to never regret; to sever all family bonds; and to take one's own life.



Edvard Munch, Fourth version of the painting The Sick Child, 1907


Much of the film focuses on Munch's work "The Sick Child," a painting about the death of his sister. "Illness, insanity, and death were the black angels that kept watch over my cradle and accompanied me all my life," Munch would later recall. The break-through painting came from the deep soul-searching of this period of his life and is often sited as the first Expressionist painting. The painting was strongly attacked by both the press and the public.

This hauntingly beautiful film is long, nearly three hours, but captivating. It deftly avoids the usual pitfalls and stereotypes of depicting an artist's motivation, soul searching, life and work. It ends too abruptly, however, and gives no hint of Munch's long career and life to come.

Click here to buy Edvard Munch from Barnes & Noble


Lisa Adams: Vicissitudes of Circumstance

The timing of the release of Zero+ Publishing's monograph, Lisa Adams: Vicissitudes of Circumstance, could not have been better for us. The book arrived the same week as the opening of Offramp Gallery's Lisa Adams: Born this Way which runs at the gallery through October 9, 2011.

The beautiful hardcover book contains 30 color plates of Adams' oil paintings along with an introduction by Los Angeles writer Ezrha Jean Black and an essay by theatre and art critic James Scarborough.  

Click here for more information and/or to order the book.

MFA Debate Video

The post I did on the debate I participated in last summer MFA: Is it Necessary? has by far gotten the most hits and re-posts of anything I have written to date. But the post only gives my side (con) of the debate. So, as promised, here is the Artillery Magazine video of the entire debate. My esteemed opponent is art collector, Marlene Picard. (She gets a real zinger in on me in her first rebuttal. Touché, Marlene!)



Click here for more Artillery Magazine videos and debates.

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

Lisa Adams: Born This Way

September 11 - October 9, 2011

October 2:
Panel Discussion: Sunday, October 2, 3pm

Sincerely Whose? Authenticity, Irony and Uncertainty in Contemporary Art

October 9:
Closing Reception for Lisa Adams: Born This Way, 2-5pm
Book Signing for Lisa Adams's Monograph: Vicissitude of Circumstance, 2-3pm
Artist's Talk by Lisa Adams, 3pm

October 10-22:
Closed for installation

October 23:
Opening Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm

October 30:

Reading and book signing: Author Hunter Drohojowska-Philp's Rebels in Paradise: The Los Angeles Art Scene and the 1960s, 3pm

November 20:
Closing Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm
Artist's Talk by Susan Sironi, 3pm

November 21 - December 3:
Closed for installation

December 4-11: ArtZone 2011
Opening Reception: Sunday, December 4, 2-5pm
Closing Reception: Sunday, December 11, 2-5pm

Remembering Aron Goldberg; Offramp's First Art Fair

What a blur of a two weeks it's been since I last blogged! Offramp Gallery participated in our first art fair, we prepared for an upcoming show at the gallery, and sadly, I lost a good friend, artist and former painting teacher, Aron Goldberg.

As a tribute to Aron, a gifted artist and brilliant man, I'm posting the following video which was produced as a preview of a 2009 solo exhibition mounted at Offramp called Aron Goldberg, a Life in Self Portraits. Aron was suffering from Alzheimer's at the time (you will see this clearly reflected in his later work) but was still lucid enough to appreciate and enjoy this last exhibition of his work during his lifetime. R.I.P dear Aron.




The fair that Offramp participated in was Flag Stop Art, An Alternative Contemporary Art Event. It was held at a Lexus dealership here in the Los Angeles area. Inside were curated and juried shows. Outside were 50 storage PODs, which were available at a very affordable price to artists, galleries, curators and artist/curators. Offramp showed its eight represented artists in three PODs. It was a challenge to install in the 8' x 16' spaces, and exhausting work, but very rewarding in the long run. We made a lot of new friends and learned a lot about taking our show on the road. 

I was asked to speak on one of the panel discussions, The White Walls are Shifting: Innovative Models of the Contemporary Art Gallery. I was specifically asked to speak about Offramp Gallery's business model. A transcript of my remarks follows.

I've always thought that art and business make for strange bedfellows. Call me old fashioned, but I still believe that art is supposed to be transcendent, to speak to the human condition and not be all about money -- in other words, it's the opposite of selling cars or hamburgers.

It seems to me that the art world has worked very hard in the past few decades to force art into standard business models with an emphasis on branding, marketing, celebrity, trade fairs, investment and profit -- and as a result, we've lost touch with some of the loftier reasons we got involved with art in the first place.

That's one of the reasons that I was so happy to be able participate in FlagStop -- it's not primarily commerce-driven. Events like these give artists, curators and galleries a chance to strut their stuff without breaking the bank.

That having been said, if you haven't yet seen Offramp's three PODS, we have some very nice things for sale.

My gallery experience came from the ten wonderful years I spent working at the Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park. We all wore many hats at Barnsdall and as a result, I learned just about everything about the logistics of putting together exhibitions and running a gallery.

Of course, Barnsdall is not-for-profit, so what I didn't learn at Barnsdall was how to sell art. (All too often it seems as if Offramp's business model is also not-for-profit.) How do you sell enough art to support yourself and your artists without selling out, without seriously compromising your ideals? It's a huge challenge and I'm still working on it. Check back with me in a couple of years and I'll let you know how it's going.

For those of you who don't know, Offramp Gallery is located in a wonderful rambling old house with a large garden adjacent to the 210 freeway in Pasadena. The inspiration for starting Offramp Gallery came as much from the house itself as from my need to do something meaningful with my life. The house used to be a bungalow and a ballet studio which were eventually joined together by a large living room. The old dance studio has high ceilings and skylights and as soon as I saw it I knew it would make a perfect art gallery. The house has a history in the neighborhood as a cultural center and I'm happy to be continuing that tradition.

Since Chaz and I live in the house, everything the gallery does -- the gallery, the art, the visitors, and the events -- becomes an extension of our home & social life. It's a wonderful way to live. The art we show is, by necessity, on the smaller side -- it's work that would fit into your home, and that you don't need to build your own personal museum to house.

Our overhead is relatively low, since we don't have to pay rent on a separate gallery space and do most of our marketing digitally. I can't over-emphasize how important digital marketing has been and continues to be for Offramp's growth. We aggressively maintain our email list, keep our website up to date, and stay actively connected to friends, fans and collectors via social media and blogging. It's relatively inexpensive and very effective.

I've run Offramp for three years without a salary, supported by a modest inheritance, my wonderfully generous life partner, Chaz Alexander, as well as friends and the multi-talented, hard-working artists who show at Offramp. I'm very optimistic that Offramp will turn the corner in the next couple of years and become profitable. In the meantime, I can honestly say that running Offramp has been the most wonderful, most rewarding, three years of my life.

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

Lisa Adams: Born This Way

September 11 - October 9, 2011
Opening Reception, Sunday, September 11, 2-5pm
Artist's Talk, Vicissitude of Circumstance Book Signing & Closing Reception, Sunday, October 9, 2-5pm

September 11:
Opening Reception for Lisa Adams: Born This Way, 2-5pm 

 

October 2:
Panel Discussion: Sunday, October 2, 3pm
Sincerely Whose? Authenticity, Irony and Uncertainty in Contemporary Art

October 9:
Closing Reception for Lisa Adams: Born This Way, 2-5pm
Book Signing for Lisa Adams's Monograph: Vicissitude of Circumstance, 2-3pm
Artist's Talk by Lisa Adams, 3pm

October 10-22:
Closed for installation

October 23:
Opening Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm

October 30:

Reading and book signing: Author Hunter Drohojowska-Philp's Rebels in Paradise: The Los Angeles Art Scene and the 1960s, 3pm

November 20:
Closing Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm
Artist's Talk by Susan Sironi, 3pm

November 21 - December 3:
Closed for installation

December 4-11: ArtZone 2011
Opening Reception: Sunday, December 4, 2-5pm
Closing Reception: Sunday, December 11, 2-5pm