Ex Libris
American Art: Collecting and Connoisseurship General Editor: Stephen M. Sessler with foreword by Elizabeth Broun, PHD (Merrell Publishers, Autumn 2020). Hardback with jacket, 304 pages with 180 illustrations, $70.
One of the things that can be admired about the historic American art industry is the camaraderie that exists between collectors, dealers, auction specialists, museum curators, scholars and many more. They recognize that there is a wealth of knowledge to share and it is beneficial to work together to bolster
success at all ends of the market.there is also passion for the history, culture and context and then translating that into building cohesive and beautiful art collections. In the new publication, American Art: Collecting and Connoisseurship, general editor Stephen M. Sessler leads with his own passion for historic American art by thoughtfully
bringing together essays from 28 industry experts. Sessler and his wife, Linda, have been collecting historic American art since the early 1990s.they became members of the High Museum of Art’s Fine Art Collectors group that allowed for further immersion into the field through learning and experiences related to art. In 2006, when the museum downsized its programs, Sessler expanded his opportunity for discourse and founded the Atlanta Art Forum.
What started as a small group of active collectors listening to talks from scholars, curators and other experts has expanded into a nonprofit corporation that is of interest to novice and established collectors alike. It is a place where like-minded individuals can learn about art history, share collecting tips and discuss the ever-changing market.twelve years after the group’s inception, Sessler began the undertaking of this book in order to make the knowledge available to Atlanta Art Forum members accessible to a wider net of collectors. American Art: Collecting and Connoisseurship, focusing on the art of the 19th through mid-20th centuries, is an invaluable source for collectors of all levels.the book is divided into three smartly planned sections that allow contributing experts to speak on history, connoisseurship and collecting historic artwork and its context today.
Starting the book is
“The Historical Overview” section, which features separate essays that effortlessly
move from one period to the next, almost as if to tell trajectory of American art. It begins with the Hudson River School, in prose from the widely regarded expert, Louis M. Salerno of Questroyal Fine Art, moves to several comments on the modernists and rounds out with an overview on African American art.there is even a chapter dedicated to Marsden Hartley’s unpredictable auction market from Elizabeth Broun, PHD, director emerita of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. (Broun also wrote the book’s foreword.)
Each essay gives the reader insight to individual schools, periods and movements that allow them to become acquainted with the key artists—stuart Davis and John Marin, for two—and the impact their artwork had on other artists and the course of American art history.there is an obvious undertone of collecting in the section, which leads directly into the second part,“connoisseurship and the Collector.”while this segment includes discourse on legal issues for buying and selling art, a robust breakdown of how auctions evaluate art from Sotheby’s American art chairman Liz Sterling, and the importance of finding an art advisor, it also has finely crafted text that gets to the heart of why people are motivated to collect. In his essay “Confessions of an Art Collector Turned Dealer,” Avery Galleries’ Richard Rossello reflects on the ups and downs of collecting and making the transition to a dealer. Christie’s vice chairman Eric Widing’s “Connoisseurship and
Quality in American Art” touches on what to look for when buying artwork, reminding collectors of the basic tenets of collecting.
The final section,“current Themes in the Art Market” puts historic American art in the context of today. It allows the collector to look at art as it was in the past and how it could be interpreted in the present with particular emphasis on social issues and race.though it is the shortest segment of the book, it sets the stage for the current market and how it has changed over the years.throughout its whole, American Art: Collecting and Connoisseurship offers different perspectives, discernments and reestablishes the importance of this collecting genre.