A u t um n
North
A rt
Dakota
A u c t io n
Museum
of
Art
The North Dakota Museum of Art is grateful to the following entities who have given generously to guarantee that the arts may flourish.
High Plains Reader K V LY T V KXJB TV Leighton Br oadca sting M a r s h a l l F i e l d ’s N o rt h D a k o ta P u b l i c R a d i o
North Dakota Museum of Art
AUTUMN
Art
Auction
S at u r d a y, o c t o b e r 3 0 , 2 0 0 4 Wine and hors d’oeuvres 6:30 pm Auction begins at 8 pm
Autumn Art Auction is Underwritten by High Plains Reader
Auction Preview
KVLY TV
October 3 until auction time in the Museum galleries
KXJB TV
Monday - Friday, 9 to 5 pm, Saturday - Sunday, 11 to 5 pm
Leighton Broadcasting Marshall Field’s North Dakota Public Radio
Patrons Best Western Townhouse Coldwell Banker/First Realty Encore/Icon East Grand Floral Grand Forks Herald Marshall Field's Community Office of Academic Affairs, UND
Preview Party Thursday, October 28, 7 pm, Museum Director Laurel Reuter will lead an informal discussion about the work in the Auction.
Greater Grand Forks Symphony Orchestra Gustafson and Gluek James Hawley Holiday Inn Hugo’s Lumber Mart Master Chorale Ellen McKinnon
Leaders Altru Health System Avis Rent A Car Blue Moose Bar & Grill
Minnesota Public Radio Museum Café National Car Rental North Dakota Quarterly
Bremer Bank
Roadking Inn
Bronze Boot
Rydell Auto Center
CC Plus Interiors, Incorporated Chester Fritz Auditorium Clear Channel Radio Community Bank
Steven Schultz, M.D., P.C. Summit Brewing Company Cancer Research, UND Whitey's
Congress Inc. Vicki Ericson, State Farm Insurance
Auction Sponsors continued next page
Buy local. Read the sponsor pages Endorsing Sponsors
to learn about those who invest in the Museum.
4 bLoW zErO
Please return their investment.
Alerus Financial
—Ann Brown, Chair, Museum Board of Trustees
Avant Brown Corporations Camrud, Maddock, Olson & Larson Capital Resource Management Center for Innovation CEO Praxis, Inc. Choice Financial Dr. John Clayburgh, DDS
Supporters
Farmers Insurance Group
A Touch of Magic on the Boardwalk, Chef Nardane
Dr. Greg Frokjer, DDS Gary and Nancy Petersen Gregory Norman Funeral Homes Happy Harry's James S. McDonald, D.D.S.
Brady, Martz, and Associates Browning Arts Columbia Liquors Columbia Mall Dakota Food Equipment
Lakeview Inn and Suites
David C. Thompson, Law Office
Letnes, Swanson, Marshall, & Warcup Ltd.
Drees, Riskey, and Vallager, Ltd.
Merrill Lynch North Dakota Eye Clinic Northern Plumbing Supply
Edward Jones, Mark A. Larsen English Department, UND Randy Fenley, State Farm Insurance
Nuveen Orthodontics
Forks Chem-dry
Rite Spot Liquor
Forks Frame Up
Steamomatic
Grant Shaft, Attorney
Dr. Curtis Tanabe, DDS
Home of Economy
UBS Financial Services
Ink, Inc.
Valley Dairy
John Deere, Forks Equipment
Xcel Energy
Monarch Travel Moosbrugger, Carter & McDonagh Paul D. Stadem D.D.S. Polar Communications Dr. Maxine Rasmussen
The Autumn Art Auction exhibition is funded in part by a general operating grant from the Bush Foundation.
Robert Vogel Law Office, P.C. Travel Lodge US Bancorp Piper Jaffray Jack Wadhawan, Crary Homes and Real Estate Wall's Medicine Center, Inc. Wells Fargo Zimney Foster, P.C. Attorneys at Law
Burton Onofrio, Auctioneer
Dawn and John Botsford, Chairs
Burton Onofrio recently retired as Attending Neurosurgeon at the
Autumn Art Auction Committee
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, where he also served as Professor of Neurosurgery in the Mayo Medical School. His first
Carolyn and Lin Glimm, Co-chairs Jeanne Anderegg
job after retirement was as Senior Consultant for Pain Disorders,
Carrie Boldish
Neurosurgical Service, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. His training includes an M.D. degree from the Medical College of Cornell University (1957); a surgical residency at the
Ann Brown Al Boucher and Thomasine Heitkamp Madelyn Camrud
New York Hospital Medical Center (1958); and a fellowship at
Cheryl Gaddie
the Mayo Clinic in neurosurgery (1964), all of which resulted in
Jim and Lori Ingeman
a life-time career at the Mayo Clinic.
Jon Jackson Denise and Jim Karley
As busy as his professional career has been, he has also lived a
Ralph Kingsbury
wonderful life within the arts. It began when he married Judy
Cherie Lemer
Onofrio, a self-taught potter who has emerged as a sculptor of
Rick Mercil
national stature. Many Museum regulars will remember Judy’s
Marsy Schroeder
1993 show, one of most popular shows we ever mounted.
Bonnie Sobolik
Judy was deeply involved in the Rochester Art Center, and Burton
Victoria Swift
soon joined the Board of Directors. Most recently—another
Devera Warcup
retirement job—he co-chaired the Capital Campaign Building Committee of the Rochester Art Center. The new building opened in the spring of 2004 with the central gallery named in honor of Judy and Burton Onofrio—gifted by a former patient. In another corner of his life, Onofrio runs art auctions. For twenty-six years he was the auctioneer of the Rochester Art Center annual auction, most often organizing it as well. Both the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota Art Department have called upon him to serve as auctioneer. For twelve years he has been the announcer of the Rochester Art Center Art Festival. Onofrio’s days, however, are spent in Judyland, the garden he created with his wife Judy. And finally, this is a man who loves animals, in particular his
Dawn Botsford is a campus events coordinator for the University of North Dakota Office of Student and Outreach Services. John and Dawn are graduates of the University of North Dakota and live in Grand Forks with their sixteen-year-old son, Tom, a junior at Central High School. John Botsford works for Alerus Financial in Grand Forks and is president of Botsford & Qualey Land Company—a regional land brokerage company. He also serves as president of the Myra Foundation, a private charitable foundation created by the late John Myra. Notably, the Myra Foundation has supported the Museum Concert Series since its inception in the early 1990s. Carolyn and Lin Glimm will Chair the 2005 Autumn Art Auction.
Museum Mission Statement
As inhabitants of the Northern Great Plains, we struggle to ensure
Rules of Auction
q Each registered guest will receive a bidding card as part of
that the arts are nourished, and that they flourish, because we
the price of a ticket. Upon receiving the bidding card, each
know that a vital cultural life is deeply essential to isolated
guest will be asked to sign a statement vowing to abide by
people. We have concluded that to study the arts is to educate
the Rules of the Auction listed in this catalog.
our minds, for through the arts we learn to make difficult
q
Absentee bidders will either leave their bids on an Absentee
decisions based upon abstract and ambiguous information. This
Bid Form with Museum personnel in person or by phone, or
is the ultimate goal of education. Furthermore, we have come to
bid by phone the night of the auction. Absentee bidders, by
value the arts because they make our hearts wise—the highest of
filling out the form, agree to abide by the Rules of the
human goals. Therefore, in the most difficult of times, and in an
Auction.
environment that might be perceived as alien to the visual arts, we propose to build a world-class museum for the people of the
q Each bidder will use his or her own bidding number during the auction.
Northern Plains. q The North Dakota Museum of Art, by legislative act, serves as the
q
All sales are final. In September 2002 the Office of the North Dakota State Tax
official art museum of the State of North Dakota. The Museum's
Commissioner determined that the gross receipts from the
purpose is to foster and nurture the aesthetic life and artistic
sales made at the Auction are subject to sales tax. State sales
expression of the people living on the Northern Plains. The
tax is 5% of the total sale and the Grand Forks city tax is
Museum will provide experiences that please, enlighten and
1.75% of the first $2,500 of the sale. Out-of-state buyers
educate the child, the student and the broad, general public.
who have the work shipped to them will not be subject to
Specifically, the Museum will research, collect, conserve and
North Dakota sales tax.
exhibit works of art. It will also develop programs in such related arts as performance, media arts and music.
q In the event of a dispute between bidders, the auctioneer shall either determine the successful bidder or re-auction the item in dispute. q Purchasers may pay for items at any point following the sale of that work but must pay for all art work before the conclusion of the evening. Absentee bidders will be charged on the evening of the auction or an invoice will be sent on the next business day after the event. q Works of art in the auction have minimum bids placed on them by the artist. This confidential "reserve" is a price agreed upon between the artist and the North Dakota Museum of Art below which a work of art will not be sold.
From the Museum Director
Six years ago we began the Autumn Art Auction with the
work. Today we call this the Donaldson effect, in recognition of
stated purpose of developing a buying audience for our own
the impact Karen Burgum’s buying for her new Fargo hotel had
artists. A few years earlier we inaugurated the Museum’s first
upon our local market. While a wonderful thing for artists
winter silent auction, and gradually the bidding became more
and for the region, we still don’t know how long-term prices
competitive. Soon people were acquiring larger works and
will be affected.
turning their homes and businesses over to original art. Over the years, the audience attending these events also shifted from
With this auction we have chosen to bet on our audience by
established, older couples to young people starting their first
including several large paintings priced at the high end of our
homes. Thus, a market was born.
market. The cover piece from the 2003 auction, Alec Soth’s photograph of a houseboat on the Mississippi, which was
Artists like Walter Piehl always participated, always sold, and
purchased for $1,250, is now worth five times that amount—if
saw the value of his work steadily increase with time. Other
one could find a copy for sale. Aganetha Dyck’s Triptych on the
artists, not as well known, sold their works for less than I like, but
cover of this catalog is worth considerable in the Canadian
they decided to stay in the game. Again, as the public came to
market. We are organizing a large show of her work next summer
recognize and appreciate new work, buyers stepped forward and
so she generously donated Triptych to help pay costs for
prices became respectable. The fall auction came with a broadly
the exhibition.
circulated, full-color catalog; the undiscovered became familiar. I am pleased. I have had the pleasure of watching an art Traditionally, commercial galleries set prices and support them—
community firmly take hold in the Red River Valley, and it has
and the artist— over the years until the prices become widely
opened its arms to those who live far beyond our own place. I am
accepted. Auctions have long had the role of ratifying gallery
also grateful to Gretchen Kottke who traveled throughout the
prices. Things have shifted in our times as auction houses have
region with me, visiting artists’ studios and selecting works to
gained prominence. Work by young artists is moved to auction
include in the auction.
more quickly. Subsequently, the auction becomes the place
Laurel Reuter, Director
where prices are established.
North Dakota Museum of Art
The Northern Plains is another territory. Commercial galleries are almost non-existent—but still critical. For example, the Rourke Gallery in Moorhead has sold regional work for decades, and Gretchen Kottke’s GK Gallery in Cooperstown (now shuttered) introduced artists such as Mike Marth, Jay Pfeifer, and Kathryn Lipke to the public outside of Fargo. Occasionally a private buyer will affect the market, paying premium prices for large bodies of
Lot #1
Charles Beck Fergus Falls, Minnesota Untitled Oil on paper 7 x 14 inches, 2003 Range: $350 – $450
Charles Beck is best know for his woodcuts. Less known,
exciting because they constantly change weekly, even daily.
but equally important, are his oil-on-paper paintings, one of
Beck enrolled at Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota, in
which appears in this auction. In all his work, Beck is affected by
1941. His professor, Cy Running, influenced Beck in those early
where he lives. The landscapes around Fergus Falls, Minnesota,
years when Beck was making watercolors, but ultimately, Beck
always his home, continually reappear in his woodcuts and
let go of influence and developed a style, undeniably his own,
paintings. Beck says, "You have to make art from what you're
which has served him well for a half-century. In 1950, Beck
interested in. I'd rather make a woodcut of a plowed field with
returned to Fergus Falls with his wife Joyce, having completed
some conviction than a crucifixion with none." Color and
military service and graduate school at the University of Iowa.
textures are what he takes from the landscape, but the horizon is
Beck's work is represented by the Rourke Art Museum,
his biggest influence. He continues, "The separation between the
Moorhead, Minnesota, and his work is also in its permanent
sky and what I call vertical space and horizontal space . . . seems
collection. A painting from the same series as the one in the
to be a part of every landscape. I seem to feel the need to show
auction recently entered the North Dakota Museum of Art’s
the sky in the background." He believes landscapes are extremely
permanent collection.
Lot #2
Byron Johnson Bemidji, Minnesota Ojibwa Sewing Basket Black ash and sweet grass with lid 6.5 x 8 x 11.5, 2004 Range: $400 – 600
Lot #3
Linda Whitney Valley City, North Dakota Crater Horse Mezzotint, edition 1 of 11 Image 5.9 x 7. 8 inches, 2004 Range: $300 – 400
Byron Johnson became a basket maker by working in the
Linda Whitney, a native of Devils Lake, received both her
woods and through the guidance of his seventy-five-year-old
BA and her MFA from the University of North Dakota with a
great aunt. Back in 1991 she asked him, What do you do with
specialization in printmaking. Today she is an associate professor
those downed black ash trees? He replied, It is junk wood. We
of art and chair of the Art Department at Valley City State
either use it for firewood or leave it in the woods. Soon he was
University. In 1999, Whitney received the North Dakota
delivering logs to her. Then she took him to the Headwaters
Governor’s Award for the Arts in recognition of her long years of
Basket Guild meeting where Peg Solberg of Lengby, Minnesota,
service to the arts in North Dakota. This has included such
was demonstrating. Next thing he knew he was learning to make
activities as giving printmaking workshops throughout the region;
baskets, specializing in black ash.
serving on numerous boards including the 2nd Crossing Arts Center, Valley City, and Print Studio Advisory Board, Plains Art
In 1992 Johnson made his first basket of #2 round commercial
Museum, Fargo; various positions at the North Dakota Museum
reed. He was hooked, but mostly on making baskets of black ash.
of Art including Head Docent; visiting artist at such institutions as
The wood costs nothing and, when properly worked, takes on a
the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota State
beautiful sheen. So he spends many a day pounding away with a
University, Fargo, Northern State University, Aberdeen, and the
three-pound shop hammer on newly felled logs until gradually
Blackduck, Minnesota, public schools in conjunction with a
the growth rings separate. Once the growth rings are cut, they
touring visit by the Rolling Plains Art Museum.
can be stored for five to six winters—the season in which a farmer makes baskets. If he needs birch bark for trim, he simply
Whitney’s work in the auction is a small mezzotint, which is a
goes to the wood pile and strips away the bark. The reed,
labor intensive, intaglio drypoint process. Mezzotint is among
however, is the one material he purchases commercially.
the most physically demanding mediums in art, one tried and
Johnson, born in Bemidji, runs a nearby small farm that his father acquired in 1986.
He also participates in the regional craft
community. Of all the teachers he has taken workshops from, John McGuire of New York who also works in black ash, has influenced him the most. He also learned from his Indian friend, the late Frances Keahna, a White Earth Elder from Naytahwaush, Minnesota, who is widely recognized as a master of the blackash basket. Until she died at the age of 92 in 1998, they helped each other. He delivered ash to her and they would demonstrate together, with Johnson assigned to splitting the ash, of course. The black ash reeds used in this auction basket are combined with sweet grass, the smell of which will linger for a long time.
quickly abandoned as “too difficult” by many a printmaker. A copper plate is “rocked” with a curved, notched blade until the surface is entirely pitted. At this stage, an inked plate would print a rich, uniform black. The artist then uses a scraper or burnisher to flatten the raised parts, a little for dark grays, a lot for light grays, completely for white (after inking and wiping, the plate holds no ink where it is smooth). Colors are achieved by similarly working one or more supplementary plates. The result of this process is an image emerging from pitch black “nothingness” — a true analogue to Creation. Outlines are simplified by absence of line, while substance is rendered with a virtually infinite range of tonal subtlety.
—Fitch-Febvrel Gallery
Lot #4
Rachel Hellner Vancouver, British Columbia Standing Figure Acrylic and graphite on paper 22 x 28 inches, 1998 Range: $400 – 700
obvious tension made a deep impression on me, as did films that my father wanted us to watch about the holocaust. He wanted us to be aware of the atrocities committed to our people, to be proud of our heritage. I was traumatized by what people were able to do to each other. I was, as a child, very aware of rifts, pain and persecution that seemed to be prevalent in relationships between different peoples. I would soon experience this on a personal level. Rachel Hellner was born in 1968 in London, England, to a Canadian (Winnipeg) mother and an American father. They had
When I was eleven, my parents divorced and my mother and two
moved to London in the mid 1960s from New York, in response
sisters moved to Canada. I remained in England with my father.
to both the Vietnam War and growing crime in the Unite States.
For the next twelve years, I visited my family during vacation
According to the artist, My father, a Rabbi, was offered a job
time. It was a painful separation, considering the distance
leading a small congregation in Finchley, a suburb of London. My
involved, and mapping the journeys back and forth provided
mother and sister Marni accompanied him to their new home by
inspiration that I would later use in my art.
boat. This crossing of the Atlantic Ocean seems to be a theme with our family.
My work is about relationships, portrayed through figurative and landscape images. I explore the balance and tension that is ever
My mother’s father was born in Poland and was fortunate to have
present in life, and the interconnectedness of time and memory.
escaped the holocaust by moving to Canada when he was a
The images I use are often partial or silhouetted. Marks, colors
child. Her mother, whose parents were from Russia, was born in
and negative spaces represent figures, often incomplete,
Winnipeg. My father’s side was from the Ukraine. His father
disappearing and reappearing, representing a state of being and
moved to the States from the Ukraine; his mother was born in
a suggestion of the memory each of us will be and the legacy we
London while the family was en route to the United States from
will leave. Much like fossils, we are fragile and beautiful, yet
Russia. My father, in the 1960s, moved from the States to London
hardy and preserved through the imprints we make on the world,
and then I, in turn, moved from London to Canada. The
allowing us to exist in a time beyond our own.
accessibility of travel by this time allowed me to travel much more frequently than previous generations.
Hellner received her undergraduate honors degree in painting from Saint Martin’s School of Art, London, before moving to
My early years were relatively uneventful. As a family, we were
Victoria, British Columbia, where she currently resides and is a
fortunate to be able to travel and spent every summer camping
practicing artist. As well as completing her Masters in Art
abroad. We spent a lot of time in Israel, and, although the 1970s
Education at the University of Victoria, she is teaching at the
were a time of relative peace between Jews and Arabs, the
College of the Rockies in Cranbrook, BC. Rachel is a studio
Lot #5
Laura Youngbird Whapeton, North Dakota Dress Silkscreen and collagraph 38.5 x 23 inches, 2000 Range: $400 – 600
Laura Youngbird was born on December 26, 1954. Youngbird is from Grand Portage, Minnesota, of German and Anishanabe descent. She is the oldest of seven children and has four children of her own. Youngbird’s parents met in Arizona. Her mother and family were moved there by the United States government in the early fifties during the Relocation Act. Her father was stationed in the Air Force and the family traveled all over the United States while they were growing up. Youngbird studied mechanical drafting after high school and had
Art Museum, Fargo, North Dakota; Women’s Network Annual Art
a career as a mechanical designer before finally going back to
Show, Moorhead, Minnesota; McKrostie Art Gallery, Grand
school to study art. She completed her MA in drawing and
Rapids, Minnesota; and the Rourke Gallery, Moorhead,
printmaking from Minnesota State University, Moorhead. She
Minnesota. She is an Artist-in-Resident for the North Dakota
now teaches art at the Circle of Nations School in Wahpeton,
Council on the Arts having completed workshops for the Fargo
North Dakota, a therapeutic, off-reservation boarding school.
Public Schools. In the summer of 2003, the artist was awarded a
Youngbird works in series and her recent work deals with the
Jerome Fellowship to work and study with master potter Richard
effects of the early boarding school experience. Her grandmother
Bresnahan at Minnesota’s St. John’s University.
and mother grew up in boarding schools. Many of the images Youngbird works with are based on old photographs of her grandmother, who scratched her face out of nearly every photograph. Her grandmother died of cirrhosis of the liver and
A
COLLAGRAPH
is a print made from a collage plate. The plate is
created by gluing other material such as a cloth dress,
alcoholism when she was 35 years old.
cardboard, aluminum, string, sand, and so forth, onto a firm
Her work has been exhibited at the Memorial Union Gallery,
on top of the inked collage plate and run through the printing
North Dakota State University, and the Spirit Room, Fargo, North Dakota; Two Rivers Art Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota; GK Gallery, Cooperstown, North Dakota; Ojibwe Art Expo, Plains
surface such as a piece of Masonite. Dampened paper is placed press. This allows the printmaker to introduce greater texture to the usual layering of ink. The final print is both embossed and printed. In this print Youngbird has combined collage with silkscreen in order to enrich her image.
Lot # 6
Mary-Celine Thouin-Stubbs Leonard, Minnesota Torso Windswept Series Manzanita wood Heights range from 4.5 – 6 inches Diameters various, 2004 Range: $275 – 300 for all three
Mary-Celine Thouin-Stubbs, a native of Hibbing, Minnesota, graduated from Saint Cloud University. She has explored many art forms over the years, including ceramics, jewelry, metals, and photography, but woodturning remains her passion. She is self-taught in this art form, having discovered it by accident in 1974 while taking an elective college course in upholstery. The chair she was working on required a lathe, and as
international artist conference in Whangarei, New Zealand, and
she watched a fellow student help her, she was completely taken
for the Lake Emma Canadian Collaborative Conferences in 1996,
with the woodturning process. Since there were no teachers
1998, 2000 and 2002. She was selected into the Assistantship
available to her, she began to explore on her own. According to
Program at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Tennessee and
the artist, “I am as captivated with woodturning now as I was
featured in Minnesota Monthly magazine and on Venture North,
thirty years ago.”
a television program in Duluth, Minnesota.
Today her art always encompasses woodturning but she is
When speaking about the work in the exhibition, the artist says,
equally fascinated with the process of Turkish Ebru marbling,
There are times when I choose a piece of wood for a particular
with its rich history and the patterns and colors characteristic of
form. In these instances I take very specific control over the
the craft. Typically, marbling is applied to paper and fabric.
shaping of the finished piece. Then there are times when I put a
Thouin-Stubbs, however, is a pioneer in marbling on wood.
unique piece of wood on the lathe, and I allow the wood to
Today she works with both techniques, both separately and
speak to me as I turn and shape it. This taps into a completely
combined.
different side of me—a mind set that is more free and one that requires me, as the artist, to let go of control.
Thouin-Stubbs has been widely recognized for her exquisite work in wood. Among her honors are invitations, with funding,
Watching a raw piece of wood unfold on the lathe, as I turn away
to attend two New Zealand International Artists Collaborative
the bark and the weathered exterior, is a rich way for me to
Conferences and the International Marblers Convention in
appreciate the inherent beauty in nature. The wood then
Gatlinburg, Tennessee. She has served as a resource artist to an
becomes my teacher, inviting me to both see and listen in
Lot #7
Marlon Davidson and Don Knudson Bemidji, Minnesota Thirteen Woodland Windows Mixed media 59 x 60 x 10 inches, 2003 Range: $1,000 – 1,300
MARLON DAVIDSON and DON KNUDSON
It should be obvious to the viewer that Don Knudson is
have been collaborators for decades and each has had an
responsible for the wood sculptural elements of the work and
individual career in the arts: Marlon as a teacher at Bemidji State
Marlon Davidson for the collage, paper and painted areas of
University and as a painter and a printmaker, Don as a sculptor.
the work. Both artists are responsible for the actual design of
Both have exhibited widely, have been in many juried
the piece and it is impossible to say which comes first, the
exhibitions, and have work in collections locally, nationally, and
collage elements or the sculptural portion of the piece. They
internationally. Both artists attended Bemidji State College (BSU)
happen simultaneously.
and the Minneapolis School of Art (MCAD). Marlon and Don live in Bemidji where they continue to make collaborations and
The work Thirteen Woodland Windows was executed about two
individual works.
years ago and has been exhibited in a two-person exhibit at the Bemidji Community Arts Center. Since then it has been a part of
According to the artists, We draw our inspiration from and hope
the artists’ collection and has hung in their home. The wood
to express a reaction to our natural environment. In addition
elements are elder brush collected near Bemidji and the paper is
there are elements in our work that are reactions to our complex
a mixture of D’Arches and Daniel Smith illustration board,
twenty-first century culture. We have a high respect and seek to
acrylic paint and India ink. The work has a coat of preservation
continue our knowledge of the history of world art and hope to
media. Glue, paper and materials are as archival as the artists
react to critique we receive in a variety of forms. Our materials
can make them.
are found and collected objects and include wood, paper, paint, ink and metal.
Lot #8
Ingrid Restemayer Minneapolis, Minnesota The Year of the Shrub Solar print, cotton paper, cotton thread 22.5 x 15.25, 2004 Range: $800 – 1,000
Ingrid Restemayer is a printmaker and fiber artist
University of North Dakota. In the past several years, Ingrid has
originally from North Dakota now living and working in
shown extensively and gained gallery representation across the
Northeast Minneapolis.
US and overseas. Recently, Ingrid has been a partner/owner of a
Influenced by generations of fine
crafters, Ingrid’s work reflects traditional embroidery techniques and
hand-stitching
while
often
incorporating
small gallery in Minneapolis.
intaglio
printmaking, photography and/or found objects.
As well as being dedicated, full-time, to producing and exhibiting her artwork, Ingrid also serves as a board member of
Ingrid studied overseas at Whitecliffe College of Art and Design
the Northeast Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce and is heavily
in Auckland, New Zealand, and in 1996 earned her BFA in
involved with the development of the Northeast Minneapolis
Printmaking, Fiberarts and Mixed Media Visual Arts at the
Arts District.
Loral Iverson Hannaher was born in 1956 in Fargo,
creativity, including human creativity. My choice of subject is
North Dakota, and grew up in Moorhead, Minnesota.
She
often the humble everyday objects I collect, often from nature:
received her BA in painting in 1978 from Minnesota State
objects I observe and meditate on. Each object reveals qualities
University Moorhead. In 1981 she received her MFA in painting
of its character—and my own—in its form, shape, textures, color,
from Michigan’s Cranbrook Academy of Art.
After graduate
and scale. I am interested in ideas such as open form and closed
school she taught in the North Dakota Artists in Residence
form, inside and outside, wholeness and fragility. In Helicopter
Program for five years. Since 1987, Hannaher has taught drawing
Seeds I began with an interest in the beautiful form of a child’s
at Minnesota State University Moorhead. Her work has been
head illuminated from an obscure light source, and, importantly,
exhibited in St Paul’s Minnesota Museum of Art; The Minneapolis
with a great love for this particular child, my daughter Lily. The
Collage of Art and Design Gallery; the Plains Art Museum, Fargo;
“helicopters” came later; the atmosphere created is meant to
Provincetown Museum, Massachusetts;
reflect the expression of the child’s face and some of the wonder
North Dakota State
University Gallery, Fargo; Western Montana College Gallery and
of nature and of childhood itself.
Museum, Dillon; and the Winnipeg Art Museum. She most recently exhibited in Serious Moonlight 2004 at the Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. According to the artist, My drawings and paintings are an exploration of my world, Since childhood I have been drawn to woods, beaches and my backyard. I am inspired by nature’s
Lot #9
Loral Iverson Hannaher Fargo, North Dakota Helicopter Seeds Pastel on paper 24 x 36.5 inches, 2001 Range: $750 – 900
Lot # 10
Details
Donovan Widmer Grand Forks, North Dakota Fishing Lures for Homosapiens Mixed media with sterling silver Installation 72 x 36 inches, 2002 Range: $2,000 – $2,500
Donovan Widmer recently graduated with his MFA in jewelry design and metalsmithing from Illinois State University, Normal. He accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Art in metalsmithing at the University of North Dakota starting in the fall of 2004. He arrives in North Dakota with good exhibition and collection experience. Among his career highlights are work in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and inclusion in the international exhibition Anti-War Medals that is touring throughout Europe and the United
In describing his work, the artist says, The denotation of jewelry
States (through 2005).
as a type of lure is the result of materiality. The most blatant example is found in the assemblage of fishing lures and hooks.
The work in the auction, Fishing Lures for Homosapiens, is a
The colorful fishing lures are overwrought with faceted stones,
series of three separate units, intertwined in composition and
referencing the classic jolaire style of jewelry. The refined beauty
principle. The individual lures serve as brooches. Two brooches
of the pedestrian object, coupled with the value of the materials,
are assembled from chocolate, sterling silver, 24 karat gold foil,
forces the viewer into a position of defense. The viewer must
which are encrusted with garnets. In the third brooch, the
choose between the risks presented with regard to the end gains.
chocolate has been replaced by a cigarette. The lures hang from
Choosing between the irrational response to an addiction and the
three fishing poles.
rational logic of the fear pain. The final decision is left to the
Beauty, texture, surface, light, color, the same issues that concerned the Renaissance painters and the Dutch masters, are the issues that concern me.
—Zhimin Guan
Lot #11
Zhimin Guan Moorhead, Minnesota The Book Oil on paper 25 x 32 inches, 2003 Range: $800 – 1,000
Zhimin Guan was born in China in 1962. He started to
Today Zhimin Guan is an Associate Professor of Art at
paint when he was nine years old, influenced by his father,
Minnesota State University Moorhead.
Chintian Guan, a traditional Chinese calligrapher and ink painter. Zhimin received rigorous training in calligraphy and ink
Guan’s art works have been exhibited throughout China and
painting before he was fifteen years old. At the same time, he
the United States in such institutions as the China National Art
developed a strong interest in the Chinese philosophy of Taoism
Gallery in Beijing; China Academy of Fine Arts Museum,
and in ancient Chinese poetry. In college, he concentrated on oil
Hangzhou; Singapore Asian Arts Gallery; the Salmagundi
painting and again received rigorous training in drawing and
Club, New York; CCC/USA, Philadelphia; The Minneapolis
painting in the Western classical style. From 1985 to 1994, he
Institute of Fine Arts; Dunton Gallery in Chicago; Fraser
taught painting, drawing, and design at Dalian Institute of
Gallery, Washington, DC; Museum of Southwest Texas, Corpus
Industrial Design in Dalian, China. Besides teaching, Guan
Christi; Plains Art Museum, Fargo; and the North Dakota
devoted himself to his art practice.
Museum of Art.
In the spring of 1995, Guan came to the United States, driven by
His works have been published in art journals such as Asian
the desire to examine the complexities of Western contemporary
Artists (Singapore), Observation (Beijing), China Picture Story
arts. After three years, he earned his MFA in painting and drawing
(Beijing), Lincoln Journal Star (Lincoln, Nebraska), Marvelous
at Fort Hays State University, Kansas. Guan has successfully
Color (Dalian, China), The Metropolis (Shanghai), and Who’s
blended his academic training in visual art with the aesthetics of
Who of Chinese Art (Beijing), among others.
Eastern philosophy. As an artist, he is deeply committed to unifying the West with the East in his own distinctive manner—a new synthesis of technique underpinned by a holistic philosophy.
Lot #12
Jim Dow Boston, Massachusetts St. Stanislaus Church, Warsaw, North Dakota C print 16 x 20 inches, 2001 Range: $1,200 – 1,400
biggest and most impressive building for miles around, the brick structure was added to the National Historic Register in 1979. After restoration several years ago, it is still a remarkable place of worship and numbers among North Dakota’s most important historical buildings. Jim Dow’s interest in photography began at the Rhode Island School of Design where he earned an undergraduate degree in graphic design. Upon completion of college, he was hired as a printer for Walker Evans and the Museum of Modern Art. Over a two-year period, he made prints for both the Museum’s 1972 Evans retrospective and the monograph that accompanied the show. He also began to photograph in series, including Jim Dow has formed the single, most important body of
Seagram’s Bicentennial project, The County Court House, which
photographs about North Dakota that exists, according to
sent twenty photographers across the country photographing
Museum Director Laurel Reuter. In 1981, the North Dakota
court houses.
Museum of Art received a grant from Target Stores to allow Dow to photograph environmental folk art throughout North Dakota.
A sports fan, Dow has photographed numerous places where
He spent three months in the state completing that commission.
people watch games throughout the United States, Great Britain and Argentina. Sport, he says, is as close to religion as anything
Dow returned to the State during the summer of 1998 while
we’ve got. Dow was an official photographer at the Los Angeles
photographing the ballparks in the Northern and Prairie Leagues.
Olympics and has photographed, by commission, all of the
Once again he fell in love with North Dakota. Since that trip he
major league baseball stadiums in the country. He has
has come back several times a year, widening his focus to
also photographed the University of North Dakota’s old hockey
include Northwest Minnesota, expanding his subject beyond folk
rink as well as the playing fields and locker rooms in small towns
art as he
across North Dakota—the places where men come to remember
seeks out the markings humans leave upon the
landscape. It soon became apparent that Dow’s work added an
and youngsters come to dream.
important dimension to the Museum’s larger Emptying Out of the Plains project. Subsequently, the Museum is in production stages
Dow is working on a concurrent project photographing the great
of a book of over 125 photographs, funded by the Elizabeth
private social clubs of New York City. His work is collected by
Firestone Graham Foundation and the Nathan Cummings
many institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago, the
Foundation. Publication is set for early 2005.
Canadian Centre for Architecture, the George Eastman House, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The North
The magnificent photograph in the exhibition is of St. Stanislaus
Dakota Museum of Art, however, owns the largest holding
Church, the spiritual and social center for the mostly Polish
of his photographs.
descendants of the Warsaw community. The historic Gothic Revival style Catholic church was dedicated in 1901. Easily the
Jim Dow, who was born in 1942, lives with his wife Jacque and
Lot #13 Marley Kaul is one of the region’s most senior artists. Now
Marley Kaul
retired, he was long-time chairman of the art department at Bemidj State University. He continues to paint daily in his studio near Lake Bemidji, to exhibit generously throughout the region,
Bemidji, Minnesota The Gardener Attempts to Tame the Universe Acrylic on canvas
and to see his work moving into significant private and public
60.5 x 52.5 inches, 2002
collections. For example, he was one of the artists chosen to fill
Range: $3,700 – 4,700
a room at the Hotel Donaldson in Fargo. And he remains a teacher, leading the public into an understanding of his paintings. According to the artist:
• The icon of Gabriel as a messenger • Pie from last year’s apples
The Gardener Attempts to Tame the Universe is one of the eight
• Tea for the gardener—a time to stop work and reflect
large paintings that directly relate to the garden metaphor. The
• Tools for cutting, digging, and planting
garden illustrates birth and rebirth, a place to meditate on our
• The natural rhythms continue through seed planting, cuttings
relationship to the earth, a symbol of faith, time and acceptance
(geraniums), and through natural sounds and our own music
of failure.
• Natural light, gro-lights and shelter contribute to growth
Some symbols to contemplate:
This painting is drawn from the artist’s experiences with natural
• The pigeon as a messenger
processes and a poetic response to everyday life.
Lot # 14
Jennie O Winnipeg, Manitoba Rita Mixed media doll, digital photograph, 2004 Doll, 7 inches high; photograph, 11x14 inches Jennie O is a self-taught visual artist born in 1975 in a town house on Dixie Road in Mississauga, Ontario.
Range: $500 – 600
Raised in
Winnipeg, Manitoba, she studied anthropology but with three classes left to graduate she decided to pursue a career in art. Aside from her own drawing, painting, textile work, and dollmaking, she makes art with kids at Art City, an inner-city drop-in center founded by international artist Wanda Koop. According to the May issue of Border Crossing, Jennie O tells a story that could break a girl’s heart. Sitting in her studio, surrounded by fragments of fabric and numerous pairs of scissors, by paintings and dolls, and framed by a canopy of fetching lingerie that hangs from a makeshift clothes line, she explains why she makes the art she does. I guess the doll thing stems from when my parents split up. I had a million dolls and we had a garage sale and I sold every one of them. It was a rash decision, and I suppose I’m trying to make up for the ones I sold. Once the artist makes the small dolls, she places them in threedimensional settings and either photographs or paints them. The art work comprises both the representation of the doll and the doll itself, which is normally hung or placed in proximity to its two-dimensional image. grandfather made doll houses out of shoe boxes for the children. Jennie O describes the work in the auction: Rita is a doll portrait
My grandmother sewed all of the doll’s clothes. I have only met
of my mother’s dead sister. My mother Raymonde Ferrari is one
my French-Italian family a few times as they live in a small
of twelve children. They grew up really poor and had no toys to
Arcadian town in New Brunswick, Canada. The dolls and photos
play with, only cut out dolls from the Eaton’s catalog. My
are representations of the stories my mother tells of her family.
Lot #15
Aganetha Dyck Aganetha Dyck was born in the Depression and raised on
Winnipeg, Manitoba
a Manitoba grain farm near Marquette by her immigrant
Triptych, from series Sizes 8 - 46, 1976-81
Mennonite parents. Her sense of beauty is intimately connected
100% wool, Eaton (department store) labels
to a sense of the well-worn, the used, the secondhand, to objects
Three units, each 11 x 16 x 1 inch flat
that make up the fabric of daily existence. Possessing a close
Range: $2,800 – 3,500
affinity with the language of objects, Dyck developed an uninhibited attitude toward art, a partiality for commonplace things, and a heightened visual and conceptual sense that combines to make art defined not only by its ambiguity and wit, but also by its persistent aesthetic questioning. in museum publications internationally. Most of the works in this After moving to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, in 1972, Dyck
series are in permanent collections in major Canadian museums
began to break out of the social mould that shaped the lives of
and galleries including The Canada Council Art Bank in Ottawa;
middle-class women of her generation. She enrolled in art
The Winnipeg Art Gallery; Musee de Rimouski, Rimouski,
courses, including various textile classes, none of which suited
Quebec; and in private collections internationally.
her temperament—especially weaving. The accidental shrinkage of fleece she was washing led to the body of work that would
Aganetha Dyck soon moved into the bee yard, making whole
establish her reputation. In 1981 she produced Close Knit, an
bodies of work in collaboration with bees. Today this Winnipeg
installation of sixty-five shrunken sweaters whose configuration
artist is considered one of Canada’s most original and significant,
presented a strong affinity to the human form. They looked like
attested to by her extensive exhibition record. In the summer of
miniature beings both comical and sinister. The clothing has
2006 she will create an exhibition in the North Dakota Museum
come to serve as a metaphor for the human condition. The
of Art, collaborating with both bees and her photographer son as
enigmatic and shifting relationships between clothing, the body,
part of the Museum’s Emptying Out of the Plains project.
the psyche, our subjectivities and society, open up a space for the expression of fantasy and imagination. Clothing, like fantasy,
The artist’s work is represented in numerous public collections
captures our imagination and allows us to explore alternatives.
including the Canada Council Art Bank, Manitoba Arts Council
—quoted in part from Canadian curator, Shirley Madill
Art Bank, Calgary’s Glenbow Museum, Saskatchewan Arts Board, Winnipeg Art Gallery, The University of Winnipeg, Montreal’s
The work in the exhibition comes from a much larger series titled
Concordia University, Vancouver Art Gallery, North Dakota
Sizes 8 - 46. They were/are women’s adult sizes. Many
Museum of Art, as well as many private collections in Germany,
components of Sizes 8 - 48 have been exhibited and documented
England and the United States.
Lot # 17
Cyrus Swann Pine River, Minnesota Box with Bottles Thrown and altered soda-fired stoneware, found rusted steel box 5.5 x 14 x 6 inches, 2003 Range: $150 – 200 Lot # 16
Mark Browning Miles City, Montana Untitled Watercolor on paper 26.5 x 17.5 inches, 1984 Range: $500 - 700
Mark Browning lives in Miles City, Montana, where he also directs the Custer County Art Center and continues to work as an artist. From 1981 through 1993 he lived in Grand Forks as co-owner of Browning Arts, a gallery and frame shop. Browning is a self-taught artist in both watercolor and wood constructions, having never completed a degree program. This, however, has not hampered his career as he has shown in over
Cyrus Swann lives and works in Pine River, Minnesota.
seventy-five solo, group, juried, and invitational exhibitions in
After receiving his BFA from Bemidji State University, he moved
the Untied States and Canada. These have included such
back to his home town and developed a studio by remodeling the
prestigious exhibitions as Watercolor USA in Springfield,
out buildings on his family farm. He works in a diverse range of
Missouri, National Watermedia Biennial in Rochester, New York,
materials, blending functional ceramics with his interest in image
and Montanascapes at the Yellowstone Art Center in Billings.
making and salvage art.
He has always accepted leadership roles in the arts including
Box with Bottles comes from my explorations and recoveries of
serving on the, Board of Directors of the Montana Art Gallery
particular junk pieces I salvaged from an old farm dump. I would
Directors Association, member of the North Dakota Council on
pass by on walks, usually something would draw me in, and I
the Arts from 1990-1993, and President of the Greater Grand
would start sorting and thinking. My attraction seemed to lean
Forks Arts & Humanities Association form 1986-1988.
toward the patina surface developed on rusted metal. I saw so many similarities to the surfaces I was developing on my work in
The work in the auction is donated to the Museum by Mike and
clay, in my mind I would see them together. A series of four tool
Kitty Maidenberg, thus all proceeds from the sale go to enhance
and tackle box pieces fitted with flask and medicine bottle
the Museum’s permanent collection.
shapes re in part the result of my diggings.
Lot #18 Adam Kemp, born in 1962, grew up grew up forty miles
Adam Kemp
northeast of London in the Essex countryside. His father worked
Grand Forks, North Dakota
in advertising and acted in amateur theater. His mother, primarily
More Bloody Daisies (Labor Day, 2004)
a mom to her four sons, taught biology and tennis and was a
Conté crayon, graphite, carpenter’s pencil,
restaurateur. Both parents were passionate gardeners and their
oil pastels on board
children endlessly built walls and paths and created spaces out-
38 x 88 inches, 2004
of-doors. According to Kemp, My dad would paint with flowers.
Range: $800 – 1,000
From age fourteen through nineteen, Adam sketched with watercolors because I could take them anywhere. At about
work. Sometimes it is a successful relationship; sometimes not.
sixteen, I noticed there were a lot of things that could be painted
But he has the ability as an all around contractor to put the
on—and I did. He graduated from Newcastle upon Tyne with a
mistakes right. Kemp, committed to recycling materials and
B.F.A. in 1986 but not before studying for a year in a wood
collaborating with people, maintains that more than ever, the
restoration school in Florence, Italy, and working with a
process is the art. I have always done shows with groups of
Newcastle blacksmith on and off for six months.
people. I run the Museum’s Children’s Camp sessions as
While in college he realized he was a failed watercolor painter.
collaborative process.
I put too much paint on so I would have to give my pictures a
In addition to paintings, Kemp’s work includes a commissioned
bath in the tub. Finally the Department of Painting asked him to
wall mosaic at the Hotel Donaldson in Fargo (summer 2003);
leave just as the Department of Sculpture invited him in. The
murals at the International Center at the University of North
Sculpture Department was grounded in the tradition of the British
Dakota (2002); School of Fish created by Kemp and thirty-one 6
Modern School—Sir Anthony Caro, Henry Moore, and most
through 12 year-old children enrolled in the 2002 Museum of Art
importantly, Barbara Hepworth, whom his parents had taken him
Summer Arts Camp for Children; set for a play, Flood of
to visit when he was a child. Her studio in Cornwall looked like
Memories by Francis Ford, based on the North Dakota Museum
my bedroom so I figured there was hope.
of Art Oral History project following the 1997 flood; and Café Kosmos, a meeting place for high school students which Kemp
Kemp took an M.F.A. degree from the University of North Dakota
took on as a personal mission after the flood. He and the high
where he learned to cast bronze in the new foundry. Using skills
school students turned the two-floor building into a work of art.
acquired as a sculptor, Kemp makes a living building things. He
Kemp continues to teach popular week-long sessions in the
finds a symbiosis between his construction work and his art
Museum’s Summer Art Camp.
Lot #19
Antonin Boubin II (1903 - 1974) Untitled Oil on Canvas 24 x 30 inches, 1972 Range: $1,000 – 1,500
Antonin Boubin II was born in 1903 in Czechoslovakia.
Boubin and then his family were allowed to leave Prague. Shortly
In 1954, he married Vera Kapkova. Boubin practiced dentistry
after, all emigration from Czechoslovakia was denied.
before running afoul of the Communist government. Until his death, he bore the marks of beatings incurred over a three-and-
In Vienna, Mr. Boubin approached the American Consul
a-half year period of prison internment for refusing to capitulate.
General who referred him to the Untied States Catholic
In retaliation, his lucrative dental practice in Prague, his home,
Conference for Migration and Refugee Service in New York. The
artist studio, and all his belongings were confiscated. He was
family soon arrived in New York and, after three weeks without
forbidden to practice the dental profession in any manner and,
finding work, accepted an invitation from the Sisters of St. Joseph
although allowed to paint, was forbidden the sale of paintings as
in Crookston to move to Minnesota. The Sisters, joined by the
a livelihood.
whole community of Crookston, welcomed the Boubins to their new home where the artist was to live out his life as a painter.
Many Prague citizens signed papers to join the Communist party preferring dictation to total loss of security. Others, like Boubin,
As a young man, Boubin studied at the Artist’s Academy in
preferred this loss to the suffocation of individual freedom, and
Prague and in Cairo, Egypt. His work reflects the quality and
still others committed suicide rather than accepting either.
technique of old Europe where painters mixed their own colors
Boubin turned to the only form of work allowed him: that of a
from ground powders and practiced glazing techniques. Paint
farm laborer or woodcutter. Many lean years followed coupled
brushes, canvas, and tiny bags of colored pigments were part of
with harassment from neighbors who submitted to Communism.
the very few possessions the family brought out of Czechoslovakia.
Boubin and his wife had two sons and all four occupied a six-byeight foot room for over three years. One day, desperate for food,
Today Boubin’s paintings are sought by the government of the
Mrs. Boubin took a painting from the room in an attempt to
Czech Republic where their value is ten times what they fetch in
obtain money, milk, or food in exchange. Again a neighbor
the United States. Yet they remain dear to those who live in the
informed and this time both wife and youngest child underwent
Red River Valley as part of the cultural and immigrant history.
severe interrogation by the police before they were released. Boubin’s wife Vera joined the staff of Sanders restaurant when it In 1967, an engineer in Vienna who had seen and remembered
first opened in Grand Forks. If you eat there today, order the
some of Boubin’s earlier works, commissioned him to paint
duck, still made from Mrs. Boubin’s recipe.
family portraits. It was through this official’s letter that first —Quoted in part from the Crookston Daily Times, 10/28/70
Lot #20
Ewa Tarsia Winnipeg, Manitoba My Blues for Mr. Miro Monoprint, one of two Image 12 x 12 inches, 2002 Range $200 – 250
Ewa Tarsia, a Polish artist now living in Winnipeg, speaks
harmony between form and content. In the process of
eloquently of the impetus behind her art: Nature, natural forms
development, I discover the spirit and different personality of
and the human figure are sources of unending interest to me —
materials I choose to work with. I work from imagination, based
discovery and awareness of form as three-dimensional reality, the
on stored information derived from nature and our sophisticated
way light reveals forms, how commonplace objects and the
civilization. This enables me to bring a three-dimensional solidity,
human figure no longer exist as just objects, but as shape and
showing the shape by means of color, light and texture.
forms in space. All of these caused a lot of excitement years ago for me, and since then I have been exploring these concepts.
Ewa Tarsia was educated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Poland. Later she studied sculpture in Austria and advertising art
Painting, tapestry, paper installations, intaglio techniques and
in Canada. Today she makes her home in Winnipeg.
sculpture are my favorite disciplines. They enable me to express form in depth and simplification of surfaces combined together to
She began her active exhibition career in 1988 in Poland. In
produce a synthesis of two-dimensional movement (dynamic
2002-03 she showed in international print biennials in Montreal,
patterns) and three-dimensional volume.
Spain, France, and England. In 2004 she participated in the San Diego Art Institute Multimedia International Exhibition.
Some spatial relations in my work are purely abstract, others are with mathematical formulae, and some have emotional attributes
She has work in private collections in Poland, Austria, Germany,
such as mysterious, sinister, happy. Very often repeated elements
Canada, United States, Japan, Chile, Brazil, France, Spain,
in my compositions (pierced areas, ropes that are uneven in their
Holland as well as in several public collections including
thickness, tiny or large shapes attached or separated) are used in
Ministry of Heritage and Culture in Manitoba, Intercity Papers in
order to make an abstract form and space, and to create shadows
Winnipeg, Agentur Barth in Germany, Consulate of the
and rhythms.
Netherlands in Winnipeg, Tama University in Tokyo, Japan, and French Embassy in Gdansk, Poland.
Although I use different media for wall hangings, sculpture and paintings, all these disciplines have the same form and similar
Her awards and grants include a Winnipeg Arts Council Grant,
character and they are built on a base of similar feelings and
2003; Manitoba Arts Council Grant, 2002;
emotions. The materials I use in my work enable me to achieve
promote work of three Winnipeg artists, 2002; Gordon Eliasson
MPA grant to
Lot #21 Linda Welker had a solo exhibition at the North Dakota
Linda Welker
Museum of Art in the fall of 2004. At that time the Museum
Portland, Oregon Convoke
acquired a major installation, Text, from her Navigation Series.
Mixed media collage with paper, Welker began her studies at Reed College and then completed a
silk, indigo and pigment
BFA in painting at the Museum Art School (now Pacific
Image 10.5 x 52 inches, 2004
Northwest College of Art). She subsequently studied tapestry,
Range: $800 – 1,000
complex weave structures and handspinning with various instructors including Christine Laffer, Marcel Marois, and Madelyn Van der Hoogt. Welker has exhibited at numerous
When I first learned about Linda Welker’s work, I had no idea
galleries throughout the country and was awarded an Individual
how powerfully it resonates within space, how masterfully and
Artist Fellowship from the Oregon Arts Commission in 2002 and
deeply she interacts with materials, and what a completely
Regional Arts and Culture Artist Project Grants in 2000 and 2002.
sensitive artist she is. Linda’s two installations on the Reed College campus have created spaces of heightened sensitivity
Works such as Convoke incorporate, as the title suggests,
concerning memory, longing, notation, sound, loss, and hope.
allusions to erasure/overwriting, tallying, and/or the rhythms and
The work is sometimes painfully quiet, but as one begins to
phrasing which are part of musical notation. At first glance, the
listen, the imagistic voices rise and crescendo with a persistence
work seems to display actual text; upon closer examination, it
sensual, especially in the time/experience equation that it
presents the viewer with text-like marks. In format and spacing,
requires the viewer to solve in order to be absorbed. There is a
these stitched or scratched markings suggest real language, but
mysterious quality of “pre-existence” to the two bodies of work
are in fact undecipherable.
at Reed. In their pre-verbal or metalinguistic states, Welker’s pieces collide with the present, and ask us whether anything has
The structure of language clearly has a counterpart in the
changed, whether and how objects speak, and how they
structure of musical notation. Both require cadence and rhythm
fundamentally reaffirm the importance of nuance—i.e., ART—in
to be comprehensible, and both involve the visual and aural
organizing experience along a continuum. These are but a few
senses. The correlation between the written word that recounts
of the reasons why it has been an honor having Linda’s
experience and relies on memory, and the use of the tally mark
work at Reed.
to record the simple occurrence or presence of an experience or thing, is interesting. It leads to ways of looking that allow the viewer to think of experience and memory in either the extended narrative of poetry or written prose, or its more cryptic version as a mark symbolic of an experience.
Stephanie Snyder, Director, Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College
Lot #22
Annette Cyr New York, New York Still Life with Dead Cat Oil on canvas 65x 52 inches, 2000 $6,000 – $7,000
Annette Cyr’s paintings, in both content and energy, evidence a
Returning to the University of California, Santa Barbara, Cyr
love and connection with nature and life forces. Her heritage
was accepted into the highly selective College of Creative
includes ancestors from the Northern Plains of the United States.
Studies. Upon graduation she was awarded the Richard O.
Her
a
Anderson Scholarship to attend the Skowhegan School of
French/Chippewa father and Dutch/Scottish mother. Her father
Painting and Sculpture in Maine. She went on to receive her
was born in Butte, Montana, of a French Canadian/Manitoba
MFA in painting from Yale University and upon graduation was
father (whose parents arrived from Arcadia via covered wagon)
awarded Yale’s prestigious Winternitz Fellowship. Cyr’s
and Irish/British/Mennonite mother.
painting has received numerous awards including a NEA
mother
was
born
in
Duluth,
Minnesota,
of
Fellowship in painting, as well as grants from Art Matters, Inc., In high school, she was immersed in the art and culture of
and New York State Council on the Arts, and artist residencies
Tuscany for one year as a foreign exchange student, then for one
at Yaddo and Macdowell art colonies.
year in collage in Paris, drawing from the sculpture in museums and studying every film in the archives of Cinematique. The
Still Life with Dead Cat was inspired by the French painter Jean
Europe years gave her direct contact with the grand tradition of
Chardin (1699-1779) whose unsentimental genre and still-life
European painting with which she has been mischievously
paintings of 18th century bourgeois Paris often included dead
working ever since.
animals, recently killed for the family table.
Lot #23
Kim Fink Grand Forks, North Dakota Ballad of Sexual Dependence Lithograph / serigraph 22 x 15 inches, 2000 Range: $250 – 300
Kim Fink is an associate professor of printmaking at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks. He is also frequently invited as a guest artist or professor at other institutions. For example, he spent the falls of 2001 and 2003 at American University, Corciano, Italy. In the summer of 2002 he was a resident instructor at the Chautauqua Art School in Tennessee. Fink received his MFA in printmaking from the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, studying at Philadelphia and at the branch in Rome. He created Ballad of Sexual Dependence, the work in
to write and to become a fashion designer. The drawings
the auction, as his contribution to a suite of prints by artists from
symbolize the dreams and desires of a typical American girl—that
Print Arts Northwest for the Gordon Gilkey Center for Print
is, the self-image of a thirteen-year-old girl attempting to find
Collections at the Portland Art Museum in Oregon. In a similar
her place.
venture, Fink and his students have produced a portfolio of prints by artists exhibiting at the North Dakota Museum of Art over the
Born and raised in the American West, I am in love with its truly
past four years. The portfolio will be published in late 2004 by
postmodern expressions of popular cultures. I look for common
Sequoia Press, of which Fink is the founding coordinator and
links over the centuries. I have an interest in across-the-centuries
printer. The artist and his family moved to Grand Forks in 1999
and around-the-globe cultural relationships. I incorporate
from Las Vegas, Nevada.
traditional hand-printing processes and drawing with computer assisted images, mixing them with collage and chine colle. I
According to the artist, BALLAD OF SEXUAL DEPENDENCE is part of my
appropriate images from mass media sources such as newspaper,
series exploring the role of females in our American society.
internet, magazines, and found objects, altering them to fit my
Inspired by my two daughters, Kirsten, who is moving out on her
needs. I transfer them to paper, layering images to achieve a
own and learning to navigate the world, and Kathryn, who is just
Baroque-like over-richness in images, color and textures.
beginning her journey into womanhood. I see both young women attempting to create and define themselves as women.
I am inspired by music, jazz in particular. incorporating an improvised variation on the theme to art making, I create visual
Kathryn collaborated with me on this piece. The central figures
hybrids by combining aspects of painting, drawing and
are symbolic portraits of my daughters. The border is infused with
printmaking. Using metaphor, I suggest multiple interpretations.
Kathryn’s drawings: a fan letter to Mariah Carey—whom she now
My work is twenty-first century pop, where multiples create a
despises—and fashion drawings done as she follows her dream
vast obsessive-compulsive reference to the history of our
Lot #24
Belkis Ayón Havana, Cuba (1967 – 1999) Untitled (La Sentencia) Serigraph, edition 5/70 Image 32.25 x 27 inches, 1993/2004 Range: $1,200 – 1,400
According to Darryl Couturier—the artist’s Los Angeles dealer—
prominent, sometimes the sole figure in a work, describing very
Belkis Ayón was, without question, one of the most important
personal issues. What some of these issues were are still open to
contemporary artists among the current generation living and
conjecture, as she took her secrets with her.
working in Cuba. Her untimely suicide in September 1999, at the age of 32, took away a brilliant artist, master craftsman and
The work in the auction is a serigraph, published in April 2004 in
technician working in a medium (collography) few artists the
a limited edition of seventy, reproducing the image of one of
world over work in today.
Belkis Ayón’s most important collographs. It was originally published in an edition of six in 1993, followed by a second
Belkis was also a visionary addressing issues of contemporary
edition of three a year later. The current series was published by
Cuban life and culture using a vocabulary she originally based
the estate of Belkis Ayón in order to fund the publication of her
on a Cuban secret society of men called Abakœa. The early work
Catalogue Raisonné under the sponsor of Daros Latin America,
of the late 1980s and early 1990s was more literal in its
Zurich, and the Belkis Ayón Estate, Havana. This edition is limited
interpretation and representation of the origins, rituals and
to seventy serigraphs and the buyers will be mentioned in the
symbolism of Abakœa. By the latter half of the 1990s, Belkis
publication due out in 2005—including whomever purchases
began introducing herself into the imagery as an onlooker and
print number five in this auction. Belkis was born in 1967, and
later as a more fully developed figure to begin addressing her
graduated from the Institute of Superior Arts in Havana in 1991.
own feelings about being a woman in her own daily world. At the time of her death, Belkis’s own image was becoming more
Lot #25
Gretchen Kottke Cooperstown, North Dakota Going Home Oil on canvas 16 x 12 inches, 2004
the death of his grandfather and his return to Nepal for the lighting of the pyre. To me, the piece is central to what my work is currently centered around in that no two people can have the same experience of anything, can they? Because even if the thing is the same, the people having the experience are different. Gretchen Kottke studied French and art at Jamestown
While studying French during the 1960s, I discovered
College and the University of North Dakota. After college, she
existentialism. Over the years I have worked extensively in the
left North Dakota and worked in the medical field both as a
Civil Rights Movement and with the Sierra Club. These interests
health care worker and as an administrator. Thirty years later, she
have impacted my work profoundly.
returned to Cooperstown, North Dakota, and opened the GK Art Gallery. It proved to be one of the most rewarding challenges in
Kottke is also a Master Gardener, an interest that led her to
her life, a gift to the people of North Dakota, and a major support
commission a public garden in Cooperstown created by a team
system for artists from the three-state region. According to
of artists led by Kathryn Lipke.
Museum
Director,
Laurel
Reuter,
Gretchen’s
work
in
Cooperstown is a stellar example of the difference that one
Since closing her gallery, Kottke has begun work as a volunteer
person can make in creating a lively cultural life in a rural place.
curator at the North Dakota Museum of Art. In January 2004 she
Kottke closed the gallery in June 2003 in order to devote her time
selected the work for the Museum’s Silent Auction. She also
to painting.
traveled with Director Laurel Reuter making studio visits in North Dakota, Minnesota, and Manitoba to select work for this
Kottke recalls, I have been making art since I can remember. As
current auction.
a student at Cooperstown High School, I made Christmas sets. I also had a piece accepted for an exhibition at North Dakota State
Kottke has exhibited in group exhibitions in Los Angeles, Denver,
University while still in high school. My work has always focused
the Puget Sound area and North Dakota. While mounting solo
on the human spirit. Through painting I explore relationships with
exhibitions for dozens of other artists in her gallery at
others and connections with the environment.
Cooperstown, she never gave herself that privilege. Her first solo exhibition was in Tumwater, Washington. She is currently
Going Home was inspired by my sort-of-adopted son, Ashu, on
showing at the Spirit Room in Fargo.
Lot #26
Kevin Flicker Morris, Minnesota Coiled and Paddled Jar with Ten Impressed Patterns Wood-fired stoneware 20 x 8 inches, 2004 Range: $200 – 300
Kevin flicker, a fourth generation Minnesotan, was born in St. Cloud in 1952 and grew up in Rochester. In 1974, after graduating from the University of Minnesota, Morris, with degrees in Psychology and English, he enrolled in a ceramics night course and became immediately infatuated with clay. Over the course of the next ten years he developed a personal clay aesthetic via numerous ceramics courses and workshops from a variety of teachers, but his most influential training was a rigorous apprenticeship served with Master Potter Richard Bresnahan at St. John’s University in Minnesota in 1985. Flicker has been teaching ceramics courses at UMM since 1987. As a teacher he is committed to a standard of excellence that has led many of his students to continue their studies after UMM in graduate or apprenticeship programs. He was recently awarded a Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of Minnesota’s College of Continuing Education. While Flicker has exhibited his
essence of that particular form. Cretan forms intrigue me enough
work throughout the region, he especially enjoys producing
that I return to them again and again, honing them down over the
affordable, high quality functional pots for the local population
years as they continue to evolve, however subtly.
using as many local natural materials as feasible. The pot in the auction was fired in UMM’s woodfired kiln, which Flicker, who is uninterested in fleeting ceramic trends, strives for
was built last year by Flicker, along with a group of current and
his pots to have a certain timeless quality. Though primarily
former students. Constructed primarily from industrial waste
trained as a production thrower, he is also deeply attracted to
material that was otherwise destined for the landfill, the kiln is
hand built ceramic forms, as in Coiled and Paddled Jar with Ten
designed to yield decoration on the pots from the firing process
Impressed Patterns, the work in the auction. Flicker often makes
itself rather than from applied glazes. A veritable “river of fire and
pots like this in
multiples of four or five, working his way
ash” snakes its way through the tightly packed pots in the kiln’s
patiently from one to the next. He feels that working in series in
interior, giving color and texture that cannot be achieved in any
this manner gradually allows the important elements of a
gas or electric kiln.
particular form to reveal themselves. He explains, As I explore variations within successive sets of series, I draw closer to the
Flicker lives in Morris with his wife Judy in a Craftsman-style
Lot #27
Judy Jennings Winnipeg, Manitoba Red Stained glass 25 x 25 inches, 2004 Range: $500 – 650
recalls one of her teachers telling her that working with glass always makes something beautiful, but there still has to be a purpose behind it. To that end she has pursued the study of both historical and contemporary glass and has traveled extensively exploring stained glass, glass painting, kiln fired glass, architectural glass design, mold making, sand casting, Judy Jennings was born in Winnipeg, although she spent
sandblasting and relief carving.
twenty years in Ontario as a nurse before returning to her home town. She gave up the medical field in order to concentrate on
For example, Jennings went to Japan for a Glass Arts Society
glass. According to Jennings, I began working with glass years
Conference and workshop; to England, Ireland, Wales, France,
ago. I have cut it, leaded it, melted it, fused it, torched it, painted
Switzerland, and Germany with study groups of fellow glass
it, and even blown it. Glass is an endlessly fascinating medium
artists; to Japan for a paper making workshop, to Pilchuch Glass
that keeps challenging me to learn new ways of using it
School in Washington for workshops, to New Hampshire to study
in my designs.
glass painting with Richard Millard; to Syracuse, New York, to study advanced mold-making, sand-casting, and sandblast relief
Most of my stained glass work is commissioned which gives me
carving with Eric Hilton; to Mexico on several occasions to study
the opportunity to work with the clients to develop a design to
with Narcissus Quagliata, Eric Hilton, and Dan Fenton, all major
suit thee space, the light, and the people who will be living with
glass artists.
my art. When I am not working on a large stained-glass project, I play with compatible glass, fusing it in the kiln and working it
Judy designs windows and screens in glass, using age-old
with a torch. I will work with glass forever because it always has
techniques of leading, etching and painting to create
more to teach me.
contemporary works that dance with light and color. Her work is represented in many private collections as well as the Province
Her greatest challenge came from St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in
of Manitoba, the Manitoba Provincial Legislative Building, Holy
Rochester, Minnesota. They wanted a series of artists to each
Redeemer Church, and Young United Church. You can see her
create a stained-glass window for their modernist building.
works throughout Winnipeg at Holy Redeemer Church, Young
Jennings convinced them to let her make all of the windows.
United Church, Westwood United Church, Charleswood United
They agreed and she began designing the windows for the church
Church, and Chevra Mishayayes Synagogue.
sanctuary and lobby, moving forward one window at a time as the church community raised the funds. The entire project
Jennings has submitted work to the Museum’s winter silent
involves over a thousand square feet of glass and took six
auction for several years. Museum Director Laurel Reuter has
years to complete.
been so impressed with her wit, her sensitivity to color, and her creativity, that she has invited Jennings to mount an exhibition in
Working with glass was a seduction that drew her in about
the near future—either a solo exhibition or a show in
sixteen years ago while designing a suncatcher in a night school
conjunction with the glass artists with whom she has studied.
class. After that one project she was hooked. As inspiration she
Lot #28
Walter Piehl Minot, North Dakota Ice Angel: Sweetheart of the Rodeo Acrylic on canvas 48 x 36 inches, 2002 Range: $2,400 – 2,900
Walter Piehl, born into a family that raised rodeo stock,
one of the very first to turn his back on the established ways of
rode horses as a matter of course. When he arrived at graduate
painting and bronze casting, rendered into clichĂŠ by followers of
school at the University of Minnesota in 1969, Bill Goldstein,
Frederic Remington and Charles Russell. By 1978 Piehl and his
now the Director of Universal Limited Art Editions but then a
horses were well on their way. By drawing, overdrawing, and re-
fellow student, commented that from the beginning Walter drew
drawing, Piehl could leave the traces of movement on the paper.
with great confidence and skill. We were beginning students
He worked and reworked the surface, always leaving enough
and he arrived full-blown. He put his hand to paper and the
description for the viewer to follow the motion of a falling hat, a
lines flowed. And he drew horses.
rider flying backward, the gesture of a flinging hand, a boot following the body into a somersault as the rider is tossed.
But before that, at the beginning of his experience with the world outside of Marion, North Dakota, Walter went to Concordia, a
As he matured, his skill as a painter matured as well. Just as he
small Lutheran college in Moorhead, Minnesota, enrolling in
was interested in observing the subtlety of a creek bottom, he
1960. Cy Running was his teacher. Walter was the skittish colt. I
wanted his surfaces to dance with subtle variations. Drips,
was so used to calendar art, to illustration, to cowboy art as it
feathered edges, scumbled paint, the judicious use of glazes, all
appeared in the magazines, I had a hard time.
contribute to his rich surfaces.
Piehl went on to draw and paint horses, year after year, never
Today Piehl is widely recognized as one of North Dakota’s senior
wearying of his subject, never despairing in his quest to create
painters and as the artist who singularly pioneered the
contemporary Western art. In the beginning he worked alone,
contemporary cowboy art movement. In 2003 the Plains Art Museum mounted a retrospective of his paintings and drawings.
Lot #29
Jon Olson Minot, North Dakota Untitled Oil on two joined canvases 32 x 20 inches, 2004 Range: $650 – 750
Jon Olson received his MFA from the University of North
Olson moved from direct figurative painting to abstraction and
Dakota in 2001. For his Master’s exhibition, Olson’s series of
back again. In his current portraits, Olson intends that the figures
portraits showed his interest in how, Each of us harbor many
transcend themselves. The paintings have very little to do with
identities within and without ourselves. The large body of work,
the individuals themselves, he says, and everything to do with the
Informed by observation, self-examination and cathartic
application of paint on the surface. He is interested in the
episodes—indeed, life and death, came after seven years of
universality that can be found in individual models. His
making art, according to the artist.
enjoyment comes from taking a traditional form of painting, such as portraiture, and attempting to turn it into something new.
Olson earlier painted under the tutelage of Walter Piehl at Minot State University. It was in Piehl’s presence, Olson says, I really
This is the third painting Olson has made of the man in the
began to understand the possibilities of painting, and I pursued
auction painting. Yet in looking at all three, the viewer would not
painting in a fashion I had not previously known.
know each was based upon the same person. Olson teaches on the art faculty of Minot State University. In
Lot #30
Marjorie Schlossman’s work will be familiar to the audience at the North Dakota Museum of Art where she had her first museum exhibition in the summer of 2004. Blessed Be the
Marjorie Schlossman Fargo, North Dakota
Ties, the painting in the auction, was in that exhibition but
Blessed Be the Ties
because the artist has never set out to sell her work, almost
Oil and acrylic on canvas
nothing has come on the market. This represents a rare
60 x 92 inches, 1998
opportunity for someone to acquire a major painting by this well-
Range: $3,500 – $4,500
established North Dakota artist. The Museum produced a catalog for Schlossman’s exhibition which draws heavily upon her own writings in her journals. In it
attitudes toward painting. But first, she took a degree in literature
she says, It is the habits of painting that we recognize in the work
from Northwestern University. Over a decade later she returned
of an individual artist. I wonder about these habits or patterns.
to Fargo to raise her seven children and to paint.
Are they an unresolved issue being worked through again and again? Or attacked many times, the unexamined oversight? Or
The artist toyed with becoming a
composer, having studied
are they like fingerprints or a handwriting style?
violin since childhood. She concluded that she could only devote her time to one thing and chose painting and to play as
It would take years for Schlossman to develop her own “painting
an amateur in the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony.
style or voice.” She was born in California but moved to Fargo, her mother’s home town, shortly after World War II ended. Years
Around 2000, Schlossman began to work on the Roberts Street
later she would return to California where she was to become a
Chapel, a private venture she carved out of an old building in
painter, influenced by both the California light and West Coast
Fargo. She has completed two sets of paintings for the chapel. and will finish the third before 2004 runs out. Soon the Chapel
Lot #31 Ione Thorkelsson Roseisle, Manitoba Blackbird Blown glass with layers of color 7.5 x 5.5 x 5.5 Range: $400 – 500
Ione Thorkelsson works as a glass blower in her studio and home near Roseisle, Manitoba. Primarily self-taught, she first established a studio in 1973 after taking a short workshop at the Sheridan College School of Design, Mississauga, Ontario. She has supported herself by making glass ever since. Her personal explorations in hot- and warm-glass techniques have been augmented by attendance at workshops and conferences. Her formal training is in architecture, which she studied at the University of Manitoba from 1965-69. Thorkelsson’s work has appeared in one-woman and group shows across Canada, the United States, and in Hong Kong. In 1998 the Winnipeg Art Gallery mounted her show titled, Unwilling Bestiary: Retrospective and Recent Work. In conjunction with the exhibition, the Museum produced a catalog and she created a book, The Unwilling Bestiary, with the poet Lea Littlewolf (Winnipeg: Turnstone Press, 1998). In addition to her active exhibition schedule, Thorkelsson accepts commissions. These have included a commission to produce the Green Globe Awards for the West End Biz Association, Winnipeg, 1999; Carey Awards for We Care, 1995 et seq.; award-winning series of stoppered bottles by Fusion Group for the Flax Council of Canada, 1994; the Blizzard Awards for the Manitoba Motion Picture Industry Association, 1993 et seq.; chalices for St. Alphonsus Church, Winnipeg, 1990; and altar vessels for St. Mary ‘s Cathedral, Winnipeg, 1998.
Lot #32
“Miskomin” Anthony R. La Fromboise Grand Forks and Dunseith, North Dakota Traditional Basket Birchbark 22 x 13 x 12 inches, 2004 Range: $400 – 500
Lot #33
David Madzo Minneapolis, Minnesota Untitled Acrylic on board with painted frame 22.5 x 15.25 inches, 2002 Range: $600 – 1,000
“Miskomin” Anthony R. La Fromboise was born in Ft. Lewis, Washington, in 1952 to Dan La Fromboise and Ramona Anquot. His parents were enrolled members of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. His father was in the military for 20 years so the children attended various schools. In 1968 La Fromboise followed in his father’s footsteps into the military. After three years in the Marine Corps, he received his GED. Shortly after completing service, he moved to Missoula to attend the University of Montana. In 1974 he graduated with a bachelor degree in social work and psychology. A year later, while living on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation, he married Rebecca Cree, the daughter of North Dakota’s famous traditional basketmakers, Francis Cree and Rose Machippiness Cree. La Fromboise also wanted to make baskets but not the willow baskets his wife’s family were known for. He consulted his great aunt and she taught him to work with birchbark. The basket in the auction is based upon the shape of a traditional Chippewa utility or storage basket used to store dried corn, beans, or wild rice. His baskets have been sold and exhibited widely including in the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C., and in the Museum of Man and Nature in Winnipeg. They can also be found in the North Dakota Museum of Art Shop. In addition to basketmaking, he has been cited by the North Dakota Council on the Arts as a Master Artist in Storytelling. La Fromboise is currently enrolled in graduate school at the University of North Dakota studying educational leadership.
David Madzo is not only a maker of magical paintings, he is a technically accomplished craftsman. He handles pigment, washes, and glazes like a master, according to North Dakota Museum of Art Director, Laurel Reuter. Using thinned acrylic, he builds up layer after layer of transparent washes, the surface made rich with both under- and over-drawing. The auction work was created with washes of acrylic paint on board, and the image was extended onto the frame. Madzo graduated with a BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (1977) and an MFA from the University of North Dakota with a concentration in painting in 1980. Following graduation he moved to the Twin Cities where he still paints in his Minneapolis studio. He was quickly picked up by the Thomas Barry Gallery where he had his first solo exhibition in 1986 and he continued to exhibit for the next decade. Madzo has a long relationship with the North Dakota Museum of Art which culminated in a solo exhibition that opened in January 2003. Madzo has been the recipient of a Jerome Foundation Fellowship (1983), a McKnight Foundation Fellowship (1985) and a Bush Foundation Fellowship (1987). In addition to painting, the artist has an enviable position as the only paid person on Habitat for Humanity construction sites where he oversees dozens of volunteer "carpenters."
Lot #34 What birds plunge through is not the intimate space
Barbara Hatfield
in which you see all forms intensified.
New York, New York
(Out in the Open, you would be denied
Left: Forming
your self, would disappear into that vastness.)
Right: Integration Watercolor on paper
Space reaches from us and construes the world:
12 x 9 inches, 2003
to know a tree, in its true element,
Range: $750 – 1,000, pair
throw inner space around it, from that pure abundance in you surround it with restraint.
Barbara Hatfield's vision and sensibility is shaped by the
It has no limits. Not till it is held
openness of her native landscape, North Dakota's Red River
In your renouncing is it truly there. —Ranier Maria Rilke
Valley, and further developed by her interests in the poetic and philosophical lessons of Asian art. The work reflects nature's directness and it's paradoxical strength and fragility. It brings the distillation of a moment and the effort to depict its essence.
According to the artist, Rilke offers us instruction: ‘throw inner
Works on paper in ink, watercolor, and pastel exemplify her
space around it.’ He invites us to see not only with our eyes but
willingness to let the abstract speak and allow viewers ample
wholly, to allow ourselves the fullness of experience that
space for their own inquiry and imagination.
openness can bring. What arises as you allow yourself to ‘look’
The work is
animated by a subtle energy and often meditative, opening a view both from and to a contemplative space. Hatfield earned a Bachelor's degree from Minnesota State University in Moorhead and a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from
wholly?
Lot #35
José M. Fors Havana, Cuba, and Spain Los Objetos II Serigraph, edition 1/5 21.75 x 59.25 inches, 2004 Range: $1,200 – 1,500 José Manuel Fors was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1956 and grew up to become a significant photographer whose work was seen in the North Dakota Museum of Art in 2001 in the exhibition Conceptual Art from Cuba.
de Arte San Alejandro from 1972 to 1976, and at the Instituto de Museologia from 1983 to 1986. He began exhibiting his work in
Fors is an obsessed collector of objects and family memorabilia
Cuba in 1983 in solo exhibitions, in Venezuela in 1993, in Japan
that he utilizes in his constructions, photographs, and prints. He
in 1997, in Belgium in 1998, and on a regular basis at the
rephotographs the family archive of photographs and mailed
Couturier Gallery in Los Angeles in 2000. His work has been
postcards in a number of processes to convey the layers of
seen in important group exhibitions around the world including
meaning and memories they accumulate with time. This includes
the 2001 exhibition Shifting Tides: Cuban Photography after the
processes such as double exposing negatives with both sides of
Revolution at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
the postcard and working the negatives with scratches and other manipulations before printing. The resulting prints are then
Fors is included in numerous public collections including Casa
heavily toned. The artist places the photographs in tableaux
de Las Américas, Havana, Cuba; Phototeca de Cuba, Havana,
where they take on a calendrical or diaristic significance based
Cuba; Fototeca de Pachuca, Pachuca, México; Fundación Museo
in time, memory, and space.
de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California; Museo Las Américas,
Of his work, Fors says that, rather than a story, he wants to
Managua, Nicaragua; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana,
convey a frame of mind, his way of seeing and assimilating what
Cuba; Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale, Florida;
is around him in his process of assigning permanent meanings to
Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Houston, Texas; and the
things past. He seeks to reconcile personal histories and family
University of Virginia Art Museum, Charlottesville, Virginia.
association with the collective experience. Fors was educated in Havana where he studied at the Academia
Lot #36
Sjoerd Doting New York, New York Clouds over New Jersey Oil on board 10 x 12 inches, 2001 Range: $200 – 300
Sjoerd Doting was one of nine artists who lost their
there was so much of everything, so much that I wanted to paint.
studios on the 91st floor of the World Trade Center on September
And when the weather did change, I could see storms
11, 2001. A year later the North Dakota Museum of Art opened
approaching from far away—moving too fast to capture except in
an exhibition of paintings by those artists, many of which were
a quick sketch—until they would finally reach the Towers and
recreated from sketches or memory. Only a handful of finished
envelop them.
paintings survived, having been taken home for some reason. back at their studios or in their
I was constantly struck by the silence in our huge empty space—
carrying bags. This exquisite little painting by Doting was saved
something I never experienced in the city, even at home. All
and appeared in the North Dakota exhibition. It is a sketch of
you could hear, barely, was the hum of the air conditioning.
what he saw as he worked at his easel by the window on the 91st
The silence made the city below seem oddly serene, so unlike
floor. Large detailed paintings would grow out of quick sketch
New York. The experience of the view was overwhelming and
paintings such as this.
inspiring. It was the most exhilarating period of painting I ever
Several artists had sketches
had. I could not keep away. I wanted to see the sun rise, the According to the artist, After living in New York City for eighteen
sun set, even the night. I did not want to leave my perch,
years, painting from the 91st floor of the World Trade Center
even for lunch.
seemed like a dream come true. For me, the view from up there tied together all the previous New York cityscapes I had done.
The memory of that summer and those magnificent views has
There were the bridges I had painted from. The buildings,
made me want to recreate the paintings I lost, even though I
churches, smokestacks, and distant hills also appeared in my
know they could never be the same paintings. But I hope they
paintings. I could now see the City as part of the greater
will convey some of that view that is forever etched in my mind.
landscape and, most of all, surrounded by water—almost like Holland, where I am from. And cycling to the WTC every
Sjoerd Doting is originally from Holland and studied at the
morning, I would take note of buildings and streets that, in fifteen
University of Amsterdam, the National Academy of Design and
minutes, I would be painting from the 91st floor.
the Art Students League, both in New York. Doting had a solo show at the 175th Annual Exhibition at the National Academy of
It was an unusual summer, with many incredibly clear days,
Design, New York; the 35th Juried Exhibition at the Parrish Art
when it seemed I could see forever, beyond New Jersey,
Museum, Southampton, NY; the National Competition at the First
Brooklyn, and Long Island. With the light, shadows, and colors
Street Gallery, New York; the Small Works Show at the
constantly changing, revealing endless possibilities, it seemed
Washington Square East Gallery, New York University; and at the
impossible at first to chose one spot or one time of day, because
Cork Gallery, Lincoln Center, New York. Doting has received two Nessa Cohen Grants from the Art Students League and a merit
Lot #37 Gretchen Bederman’s art is dominated by horses and
Gretchen Bederman
women. According to the artist, these images symbolize and
Bismarck, North Dakota
visually animate the elements of earth and its relationship to fire,
Riding
air, and water. She combines memories of actual places with a
Oil with wax on canvas
mixture of reality, myth, and dream. She uses the figure in both
48 x 72 inches, 2002
human and animal form to tell the story of these nearly abstract
Range $1,700 – 2,000
seasonal landscapes. Bederman has been in twenty-seven group shows and twenty solo exhibitions in North Dakota and Minnesota since 1992. She recently completed a five-month residency at the Jamestown Arts
The painting in the auction represents Bederman at her grandest,
Center and taught figure drawing at Bismarck State College.
taking on what appears to be history painting. The accurately
Bederman grew up in Houston, Texas, and settled in North
painted horses are emerging out of a Cézanne-like landscape
Dakota after a 1980 visit. She completed her undergraduate work
formed by shapes of color. The riders with their almost masked
at Minnesota State University Moorhead and received an MFA in
faces are “everyman.” The setting could be anywhere. According
painting from the University of North Dakota in 1996. While in
to Museum Director Laurel Reuter, this edgy painting ushers in
Grand Forks, she served as a docent for the North Dakota
“another Bederman” for those who have followed her
Museum of Art and worked as an Artist-in-Residence at Lake
development over the years.
Agassiz Elementary School. This past year Bederman represented the North Dakota Council
Explore . . . Endure . . . Evolve . . . North Dakota Quarterly is proud to participate in the North Dakota Museum of Art’s Autumn Art Auction, continuing our ongoing promotion of art and artists in the upper midwest. Our Lewis and Clark issue (71.2) features the work of nine North Dakota artists, and our covers regularly feature artwork from the region and beyond. Other recent issues include Hemingway: Life and Art (70.4) and The Fiction Issue (71.1), only $12 each. Mention this ad when ordering a subscription to receive either a free previous issue or a $5.00 discount from our regular price of $25.00 for four issues. Kathryn Lipke, Birch Tree North Dakota Quarterly, PO Box 7209, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks ND 58202, (701) 777-3322 e-mail: ndq@und.nodak.edu www.und.nodak.edu/org/ndq
North Dakota Museum of Art, Post Office Box 7305, Grand Forks, North Dakota 58202-7305 USA Phone: 701.777.4195 Fax: 701.777.4425 E-mail: ndmoa@ndmoa.com www.ndmoa.com
North Dakota Museum of Art Board of Trustees
North Dakota Museum of Art Foundation Board of Directors
Ann Brown, Chair
Kevin Fickenscher
Charles Christianson
Nancy Friese
John Foster
James E. Gjerset
Cheryl Gaddie
John Gray
Robert Gallager
Daniel E. Gustafson
Betty Gard
Darrell Larson
David Hasbargen, Vice-President
Fern Letnes
Jean Holland
Margery McCanna-Jennison
Sandy Kaul
Betty Monkman
Gretchen Kottke
Gerald Skogley, Chair
Darrell Larson
Pat Traynor
Judi Paukert Brian Petersen, Treasurer
North Dakota Museum of Art Staff
Laurel Reuter, President Annette Rorvig
Elizabeth Ackerman
Pat Ryan
Rachel Bushaw
Gerald Skogley, Honorary Chair
Sheila Dalgliesh
Mary Wakefield
Justin Dalzell
Wayne Zimmerman
Deborah Douglass
Anthony Thein, Emeritus
Jill Erickson
Corinne Alphson, Emerita
Rachel Evenson Kopp
David Blehm, Emeritus
Suzanne Fink
Julie Blehm, Emerita
Amy Hovde
Virginia Dunnigan, Emerita
Kathy Kendle
Bruce Gjovig, Emeritus
Brian Lofthus
Ellen McKinnon, Emerita
Kile Martin
Sanny Ryan, Emerita
Laurel Reuter
Rex Wiedereanders, Emertus
Anna Shields
Barb Lander, Emerita
Jennifer Verlinde
Robert Lewis, Emeritus
Gregory Vettel
Douglas McPhail, Emeritus
Matthew Wallace Stacy Warcup and over fifty volunteers