Kodner Gallery: Pamphlet 2022 - 2023

KODNER GALLERY

A FAMILY OWNED BUSINESS FOR THREE GENERATIONS

In 1971, the late Martin Kodner of St. Louis established the legacy of one of the nation’s most respected names in fine and rare art. Family-run and locally owned since its founding, Kodner Gallery continues this legacy under the direction of Martin’s sons, Jonathan and David Kodner.

Today, Kodner Gallery is recognized for its impressive and eclectic collections of fine art of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Their proven expertise includes Impressionism, American Western, Regionalism, WPA, Ashcan Group, Hudson River as well as PostWar Modern and Contemporary paintings, drawings, rare prints, sculpture, decorative arts and antiques.

KODNER GALLERY

PROUDLY SERVING

the St. Louis Community for nearly 50 years.

Kodner Gallery provides a wide range of services for all client needs, including art advisory services, appraisals, consignment, direct purchase, collection development, restoration and framing consultation.

Kodner Gallery offers the highest level of consultation to collectors, corporations, and museums worldwide, including the St. Louis Mercantile Library, The Boeing Company, Monsanto, the St. Louis Art Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, Buffalo Bill Historical Society, First Bank and the St. Louis Science Center.

Kodner Gallery is proud to support local non-profit organizations such as American Parkinson Disease Association, Ranken Jordan Pediatric Specialty Hospital, Food Outreach, the Nine Network of Public Media, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, the Foundation Fighting Blindness, HateBrakers and Love U 2 Pieces.

Kodner Gallery owns and presents Trash or Treasure , an educational and informational fine art, antiques and collectibles evaluation event that has benefited Missouri and Illinois communities since 2003. Visit www.trashortreasureevents.com for more information.

TRUST, CONFIDENCE, INTEGRITY, SERVICE

Why should you choose Kodner Gallery?

TRUST

Trust is earned. Established through years of proven service and an unwavering commitment to our clients’ needs. Kodner Gallery is a home-grown family business with a vested interest in the St. Louis community since its founding nearly 50 years ago. Our respected name and distinguished history has put us at the forefront of today’s art market both locally and internationally. Whether you are a seasoned collector or new to the marketplace, our Art Advisors will guide you through the process of acquiring a new work. From assisting the St. Louis community to advising worldwide, Kodner Gallery specializes in the art of personal service, giving every visitor the opportunity to explore their personal taste and our expertise to ensure they’ve made the perfect choice. When acquiring or selling your valuable fine art assets, look to the experts at Kodner Gallery for guidance you can trust.

The Facts:

• Many of the Auction Houses are not locally run. Their out of state management may have little or no knowledge or interest in the St. Louis art and antiquities marketplace.

• Once acquired by the Auction Houses, the best pieces are often cherry-picked and sent to their venues in other marketplaces. This removes the personal and local connection and takes valuable commerce out of the St. Louis area.

• Employee turnover rate is high at the Auction Houses. At Kodner Gallery, our Art Advisors are always directly available to you from initiation to completion of your sale or purchase.

• Our Credentials: USPAP Certified, Appraisers Association of America (A.A.A.), New England Appraiser’s Association

CONFIDENCE

Kodner Gallery has always offered the highest level of privacy and discretion. Our private sales allow our clients to acquire and sell their fine art assets without jeopardizing the integrity and value of their work. All of our sales information remains private and confidential for both buyer and seller. Your personal information or images of your assets will never be overexposed on the Internet. It is this attention to confidentiality that has made Kodner Gallery the choice of collectors, corporations, estates and trusts both locally and globally.

The Facts:

• Auction sales are a matter of public record which can expose your personal business. Images of your artwork are embedded into the Internet and, should your fine art fail to sell, this dramatically decreases the chance for a successful future sale. All of our sales information remains private and confidential for both the buyer and the seller.

• Public sales can expose your personal business online. When buying, selling, or consigning with Kodner Gallery, our client’s personal and business information is strictly confidential.

• Sending valuable fine art assets to auction is a risk. For that reason, many local trust and financial advisors choose not to take a chance with their fiduciary responsibilities and gamble their clients fine art assets at auction.

INTEGRITY

Kodner Gallery has always sought to remove the “gray area” from the process of buying and selling. To that end, Kodner Gallery guarantees the highest net amount to our consignors and does not charge commissions. We cover all miscellaneous charges and expenses so there are no deductions from our consignor’s guaranteed net amount. Expenses for restoration, conservation, framing, insurance, packing and shipping are all covered.

The Facts:

• Auction Houses charge both Buyer’s Premiums (25% up to 28%) and Seller’s Premiums (10% up to 25%). These premiums combined allow them to take up to 50% in commission fees from the sale of your artwork.

• Be aware of the miscellaneous hidden fees. Auction Houses charge consignors for insurance, illustration, photography, handling, packing and shipping.

• When an artwork is brought to the auction block, it is only offered for sale during a small window of time, typically only 30-90 seconds.

• In an auction setting, many circumstances including poor attendance, undervalued or overvalued estimates, poor advertising, bad weather, economic factors, and concerns regarding condition or authenticity can greatly affect the final outcome of the sale.

• Auction Houses offer very limited guarantees regarding authenticity, condition, and results. Kodner Gallery stands behind the authenticity of every artwork for the duration of your ownership and we brand our services with trust, confidence, and integrity.

OUR OWNERS

JONATHAN AND DAVID Kodner

Jonathan Kodner , President and Director of Kodner Gallery, is an internationally recognized consultant and dealer in the field of fine and rare art. Jonathan’s expertise of French and American Impressionists, Masters of the Old West, Regionalists, 17 th -20th Century American and European landscape, still life and genre, as well as Modern and Contemporary Masters is widely known throughout the country and internationally.

After graduating from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1986, he began his career at the Missouri Historical Society as Exhibition Technician and then the Assistant Curator of Art. After several years in the institutional field, Jonathan joined his father in the gallery business at Kodner Gallery, which Martin Kodner founded in 1971. Jonathan became a member of The New England Appraisers Association while he worked alongside his father to build one of the most eclectic collections of fine art in the Midwest.

In 2001, Jonathan and his father participated in the Antiques Roadshow, when the Roadshow visited St. Louis. His father appraised paintings, while Jonathan appraised drawings and fine prints.

Over the past 20 years, Jonathan and David have established and produced Trash or Treasure

This fun, informative, and educational evaluation event of fine art, antiquities, and collectibles serves communities in both Missouri and Illinois, and continues to grow each year.

David Kodner earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin Madison in 1994. He has been a member of the New England Appraisers Association since 1997 and is a current member of the Appraiser’s Association of America. David has also successfully completed a 15-hour course and examination on the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP), the Congressionally-recognized set of appraisal standards promulgated by The Appraisal Foundation. David has been a partner and director of Kodner Gallery for approximately twenty years, and worked closely with his father, Martin Kodner, who was an original member of the AAA.

While much of David’s gallery business is based in buying, selling, and valuation of fine art, he dedicates much of his time to outreach for many of the community’s art institutions and charitable organizations. He has been a member of many organizations including The Young Friends of the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Collections Advisory Committee of the Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and the Arts and Education Council.

KODNER GALLERY RESEARCH PROJECTS FOR THE ARTISTS

Oscar Edmund Berninghaus and Carl Wimar

Martin Kodner, father of owners Jonathan and David Kodner, developed a lifelong fascination with the works of the great American artist and native St. Louisan, Oscar Edmund Berninghaus (1874-1952) and the extolled German-American artist Charles Ferdinand Wimar (1828-1862) . A member of the Appraisers Association of America and listed expert on both artists, over forty years ago Martin began producing the first ever Research Projects on either artist from the volumes of detailed information he culled during the course of his career.

Today, Jonathan and David are continuing his work. Through ongoing research, the Kodners are compiling data including biographical and documentary material, fine artwork, and commercial material that spans the lifetime and oeuvre of the artists.

OSCAR EDMUND BERNINGHAUS

American, St. Louis (1874-1952)

Born in St. Louis, Missouri at a time when the city was considered the “Gateway to the West,” Berninghaus developed an early interest in art through his father’s lithograph company. He took three evening terms at St. Louis School of Fine Arts, which was the extent of his formal training. The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad gave Berninghaus a commission in 1899 to paint the mountain scenery, mining camps, people and villages of Colorado and New Mexico. This opportunity introduced him to the small towns of Taos, where he met fellow artists Bert Phillips, Ernest Blumenschein, Joseph Sharp, Eanger Irving Couse, and W. Herbert Dunton. This group of six later created the Taos Society of Artists.

Berninghaus continued to take commissions throughout his career, including advertising illustrations for Anheuser-Busch, a mural for the Missouri State Capital building in Jefferson City and creating float designs for the Veiled Prophet Parade. He divided his time between Taos in the summers and his home in St. Louis until 1925 when he moved permanently to New Mexico. Berninghaus was best known for his paintings of horses and Native Americans. He painted the people of Taos in natural settings revealing an understanding of their life in a new age. Art historian Patricia Broder captured his breadth when she wrote of him, “He was at once a romantic and realist, poet and naturalist.” His artistic legacy helped visualize America’s epic history.

CHARLES FERDINAND WIMAR

German, American (1828-1862)

Charles (Carl) Wimar was born in Siegberg, Germany on February 20, 1828, and died in St. Louis, Missouri, November 28, 1862. At 15 years old, Wimar moved with his family from Germany to St. Louis, Missouri. Prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, the Missouri River was the center of America’s fur trading industry. The diverse people and scenery along this route inspired numerous artists, including the young Wimar. During his years in St. Louis, he became fascinated with the Western Frontier, the Native Americans, and the objects they traded. These interests, and their inherent conflicts, formed the locus of Wimar’s career.

During the 1850’s, Dusseldorf was the primary destination for American artists studying in Europe due to the influence of Emanuel Luetze and the Dusseldorf Academy. In 1851, Wimar departed America to study at the Academy. The training he received followed the European tradition of painting grand-scale historical compositions rooted in nature.

Wimar eventually grew discontent copying the works of others. Instead, he chose to study and sketch Native Americans, artifacts, and horses, developing his compositions with a systematic process. Wimar’s art shifted focus in 1856 upon his return to the Midwest. The West was no longer a dangerous and uninhabited land. It was now seen as a land of endless opportunity and expansion. In 1858-1859, Wimar made two voyages up the Missouri River to document the land that had consumed and inspired him throughout his lifetime. During the last years of his life, Wimar rejected the perpetuated portrayals of the romanticized myth of the American West, and decided to create works that objectively documented the land and its people before both became extinct.