The American Art Fair is my favorite dealer show. It’s intimate, about 20 booths, and, hey, I’m a sentimental guy. The dealers are in the business of selling, but they’re connoisseurs, heritage builders, and the best of the best. I’m an American art scholar and know all of them as professional colleagues. The art is almost all before 1945, which is the line that art historians and critics draw between historical and contemporary American art. It’s not the most relevant or tightest boundary, but, more or less, 1945 marks the advent of both Abstract Expressionism and the hegemony of New York City as the center of the art world.
Alexandre Gallery devoted its booth to Loren MacIver (1909–1998), whose name I knew but, shame on me, whose work I didn’t. She was the first woman to have a painting in the Museum of Modern Art’s collection. I’d call her a Surrealist, but she’s really her own thing. Ashe Street Blooms, from 1940, is from the same period as her MoMA painting. MacIver worked off and on in Key West, where she painted it. It’s $65,000, which is a good deal. Phil Alexandre specializes in American Modernism, though he represents living artists, too. Pat Adams, Lois Dodd, and John Walker — three artists he represents — have idiosyncratic styles but go from strength to strength. He’s got a very good Arthur Dove exhibition now at his gallery.
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