FRFA American Mood

(Front Cover) CHILDE HASSAM (1859-1935) Snowstorm, Fifth Avenue, New York Oil on canvas, 16 1 / 8 x 12 inches Signed and dated at lower right: Childe Hassam Jan. 1907 Edith Halpert, the greatest American painting dealer of the 20th century, once held an exhibition at her gallery that she called “What’s Wrong with this Painting?” Throngs of visitors came to the show and closely examined each of the works by artists such as Charles Sheeler, Stuart Davis, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi in an attempt to determine what was wrong with them. Today, we consider a number of these works masterpieces. So, what was wrong with these works? Nothing less than what frustrates every dealer to this day. Namely, these fine paintings had remained unsold. Now, I’m not so foolish as to think of comparing too closely Edith Halpert’s The Downtown Gallery with my own space. Still, many of the works of art in this catalogue could have hung comfortably on the walls of her gallery. Examining them, I realize that there are tremendous inter-relationships between successive generations of artists and that part of the greater story of an exhibition is the complementary nature of one work of art “speaking” to another. There always remains a common visual language that is constantly enriched by this form of ongoing dialogue. All of the fine works of art in this exhibition though can stand alone and will provide their future owners with many years of pleasure. Franklin Riehlman Many of these paintings have extensive publication and exhibition histories. Instead of publishing this information here, I have opted to make the illustrations as large as possible. Please email me at mail@franklinriehlman.com for complete cataloging information. AME R I C AN MOOD P A I N T I N G S O F T H E 1 9 T H & 2 0 T H C E N T U R I E S