American Art That Means Progress for Sale at Auction
Jack Warner's 40-year quest for art cannot exist summed upwardly simply, or typified in one work.
Nor can it exist undone by the loss of a single painting, even ane as awe-inspiring as Asher B. Durand's "Progress (The Advance of Civilization)," which was sold terminal calendar week for a reported $40 one thousand thousand.
But in terms of aesthetics, the celebrated sweep ranging from 16th to 21st centuries, encompassing fine art by Winslow Homer, James McNeil Whistler, Childe Hassam, Georgia O'Keefe, Andrew Wyeth, Edward Hopper, Mary Cassat, Frederic E. Church and James Peale, silverish by Paul Revere, piece of furniture by Duncan Phyfe and others, the loss of "Progress" tin but be seen as regression.
"Information technology was the keystone of the collection," said Tom Armstrong, director emeritus of the Whitney Museum of American Fine art, "not necessarily artistically, but certainly with Jack."
Armstrong edited the lavish 2001 book "An American Odyssey: The Warner Collection of American Fine and Decorative Arts," at the behest of The Monacelli Press and renowned sale house Sotheby'due south. The previous definitive book on the collection, published in 1984, was titled simply "Progress."
Durand's "Progress" was 1 of 2 major works sold last week; the other was Martin Johnson Heade'south "Two Hummingbirds With An Orchid." It was one of a series of hummingbird paintings by Heade, according to Graham Boettcher, the William Cary Hulsey Curator of American Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art. Durand'south "Progress" is more "a definitive work, a definitive masterpiece." No figures were known for the Heade sale, only the final public offering of one of his hummingbird paintings was last Dec at Sotheby'south, when it went for $962,500.
Selling an nugget
Of class, art isn't just about dollar values, merely it's the green of money, not tints of oil, that is driving the changes.
"The collection is not being liquidated; non at all," said Robby Johnson, marketing manager for the Westervelt Company, which owns the greater part of the drove at the Westervelt-Warner Museum of American Fine art. Warner was the passionate collector, merely near of the work was purchased during his 49 years every bit chairman of the board of Gulf States Paper Corporation, which underwent a restructuring after selling its pulp and paperboard operations in 2005, becoming the Westervelt Visitor.
"Information technology was a corporate nugget, and it was decided through our November lath meeting that sure not-core corporate assets will be sold," Johnson said. "It'due south not the beginning time nosotros've sold art."
Interest in the art world was renewed upon the sale of "Progress" regarding the ultimate disposition of the Westervelt-
Warner Museum's contents.
"That's been the multi-meg dollar question for years: What's going to happen to that drove?" said Boettcher, who has curated a pair of exchange exhibits with the WWMAA.
"I ever thought at that place was a gentlemen's understanding it would remain in ane piece. I'd beloved to see information technology stay intact, only I guess that's one of the pitfalls of a corporate collection. Information technology wouldn't exist the first great corporate collection to be sold: IBM and Playboy sold off theirs."
Passion and vision generally drive such collections, Armstrong said.
"In most cases they get extremely valuable, and they become an asset," he said. "To Jack, information technology wasn't an asset. Information technology was a work of fine art. When it passes to a group that wait at it as an asset, this happens."
Who bought it?
Only a handful of American fine art collectors could or would pay such an amount for the slice, amongst them Bill and Melinda Gates, or Alice Walton of the Wal-Mart fortune, who is amassing masterworks for her Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, set up to open in November. It'due south unlikely, in today's strapped economic system, that whatever not-for-profit institution, fifty-fifty the largest museums, could raise $twoscore meg without selling off major works.
"Alice Walton is the leading candidate," Armstrong said.
Durand is divers by two masterpieces, Boettcher said: "Kindred Spirits" and "Progress." Walton purchased "Kindred Spirits" from the New York Public Library in 2005 for a reported $35 million.
"I would non exist surprised if she wanted to unite those ii together," he said. "I know (Walton) has visited Jack a couple of times. I met her at Jack'south 90th altogether political party a couple of years ago.
"If you had virtually unlimited means, every bit she pretty much does, and if your aim was to have the best collection of American art possible, and so yeah, it makes sense."
Given the price of "Kindred Spirits," the $xl 1000000 figure for "Progress" is plausible.
"She's been able to purchase up the very acme of the field, very superlative-quality works that these days are and so rare," said Betsy Broun, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. "The best pieces are merely going to be in the stratosphere."
The collection
Warner, a lifelong art lover, began the serious stage of amassing the collection in 1970 at a Sotheby's sale. Art dealers quickly began to honey the sight of Warner at an sale, just as his fellow collectors began to dread it.
"It was not put together with tons of advisers; it was put together following his ain personal passions," Broun said. "It turned out to exist an advantage to be in Tuscaloosa instead of New York or Greenwich, Conn. He wasn't going to be dissuaded by going out to dinner with five friends who would say, 'Well, Garber is non that important.' "
Warner early on focused on 19th-century artists, then began easing into early 20th-century modernists, Georgia O'Keefe and impressionists such every bit Daniel Garber, whose luminous "Tanis" is some other of the collection's gems.
"At some point he went back to the early on days, the artists and furniture pertaining to George Washington, i of his heroes," Broun said.
Most of the works date from 1790 to 1840, but some come up from every bit early as the 16th century. Other gems, along with "Progress," include Thomas Cole's "Falls of Kaaterskill" (1826), Albert Bierstadt'south "Seal Rock, California" (1872) and John Singer Sargent's "Capri" (1878).
The Westervelt-Warner is said to be the only museum with portraits painted from life of Washington, Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson. Nearly every American form is contained within: Colonial, Native American, American Impressionist, Ashcan and Hudson River schools.
For decades, Warner housed pieces at the Gulf States Paper headquarters, the Academy Society, the Mildred Warner House, the University of Alabama President'south Mansion and his residence. In late 2002, the drove was consolidated at The Anchorage in North River, adjacent to the Yacht Club and Golf Club he built. Warner designed interiors and lighting for the renovated building, matching golden and mustard hues to the breeches on the life-size portrait of Washington.
The WWMAA, originally called Westervelt-Warner Museum — The Art of Young America, also displays decorative art, including the Revere silverware, Phyfe article of furniture, fine porcelain and early American artifacts such as rifles and pistols.
At its opening, Gail Andrews, director of the Birmingham Museum of Art, called it "the finest privately held collection of American art in the world. I tin say that without reservation," she said.
In a 10-minute video at the WWMAA that greets visitors, Terry Stent, chairman of the board of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, says "In my estimation, it is ane of the top two collections of American art in the world."
The fine art world conspicuously knows, only not everyone fully appreciates it, Boettcher said.
"And so many of the iconic works of American art are in Jack'southward collection. It'southward actually i of the most comprehensive views of American art that you can make it any museum, short of the Metropolitan Museum of Art" and a handful of others in New York and Chicago.
"And it's correct there in fiddling old Tuscaloosa," he said, laughing. "I've witnessed people experience that museum for the first time, and be caught totally slack-jawed. They just tin't believe the incredible significance and quality of every slice in that collection, Jack'southward incredible eye. In furniture and decorative arts, it surpasses examples in the Met.
"If anything were to really happen to jeopardize that collection and remove key pieces, it would be a sad twenty-four hours for the people of Alabama."
Riches of the region
Armstrong, who has as well been director of the Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Andy Warhol Museum, said Warner's sense of place roots the WWMAA.
"My life's piece of work has been involved with collectors," he said. "Ultimately they want to exist known in the large centers, where they build upwards the sense of themselves, and the sense of themselves to others, and they want to enter a larger community, a larger sphere of power.
"Jack wanted to stay in Tuscaloosa."
But there are positive ways to view change, Broun said.
"Any museum director in America would accept said first choice would have been to donate the whole collection to our museum," she said. "The second choice is to give collectors an opportunity to learn some of the greatest masters in the field."
Should Walton acquire works for her Crystal Bridges Museum, that wouldn't be the worst result, although it's eating up some large-city arts collectors.
"That gives me some glee," Boettcher said. "Although I'm not a native Alabamian, I've lived here five years, and I'yard a defender of this state and this region. There's so much cultural richness in this state. The people who've been in the field a long time, they know not to disbelieve the South, Southerners and Southern collections."
Information technology's not the worst of ideas for Broun either, who grew up 60 miles from Bentonville, Ark., where Crystal Bridges is being built.
"If works are leaving Tuscaloosa and going to Bentonville, I think that can exist a good thing, rather than having them go to a coast," Broun said. "Jack created a nifty museum for those in Tuscaloosa, and I think anyone who feels committed to American fine art has to pay a pilgrimage there.
"Perhaps the aforementioned matter will happen in Bentonville. Wing-to country, rather than wing-over."
Source: https://www.tuscaloosanews.com/news/20110227/warners-highly-respected-collection-loses-progress
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