ARTISTS
SOUTH BY SOUTH WEST
Once a sleepy oasis of mountains, valleys, and sun-baked adobe homes, TUCSON is becoming a mecca for artists and collectors alike TUCSON is AN EASY
Henry Cabot Beck / Southwest Art
01 Feb, 2004
Once a sleepy oasis of mountains, valleys, and sun-baked adobe homes, TUCSON is becoming a mecca for artists and collectors alike
TUCSON is AN EASY PLACE TO FIND-my girlfriend Susie and I drive southeast from Phoenix along Interstate 10, a road that cuts through the Gila and Pima reservations. We`re headed for Arizona`s second-largest metropolis, an authentic southwest destination with an allure both old west and new west. Nestled between the Santa Catalina Mountains to the northeast and the Tucson Mountains to the southwest, Tucson is located in a valley surrounded by saguaro forests so thick with cactus it`s like a surreal living statuary. There is said to be something otherworldly, even mystical about it-as Rod Serling used to say, "A land of both shadow and substance." Filled with Spanish-style architecture, the town reflects its historic Native, cowboy, and Mexican heritage while also showing off contemporary postmodern touches.
Right now, what we glimpse off the highway in the far blue-green distance is flat desert punctuated by distant peaks, and we can almost imagine men on horseback making their way across this rugged American outback.
For the artists who live in Tucson today, the terrain has different meanings. Jinou Naval, a Tucson-based painter and the president of the Tucson Plein Air Painters` Society, says, "There`s something about the challenge of painting the desert that attracts so many artists to the area. At first glance it seems a colorless place, but as you paint it you begin to see all the details, the real colors that Tucson has to offer." For those intent on capturing the often-muted beauty of the Tucson light, the society organizes paint-outs everywhere from the San Xavier Mission to Pima Canyon to the Lazy K-Bar Ranch, with particular emphasis on Tucson`s ranches, missions, historical sites, and unspoiled wilderness.
The Tucson of today offers opulent casino-resorts like the Casino Del Sol and gated suburban communities as well as colorful, funky sun-baked barrios. The city is home to such local heroes as singer Linda Ronstadt, author Barbara Kingsolver, Dances With Wolves screenwriter Michael Blake, health guru Dr. Andrew Weil, and muralist Gonzolo Espinosa, currently celebrating his 30 years as an artist with an exhibition at Rakes Taller 222 Gallery. It should be remembered that Tucson was part of Mexico until 1854, that in later decades renowned hombres such as Pancho Villa used to stop by for the occasional cocktail, and that as recently as 2002, Tucson ranked seventh as the best city for Hispanics according to Hispanic Magazine.
For our investigation of The Old Pueblo, the nickname by which Tucson is often known, we choose a unique lodging situated in the downtown arts area: the Royal Elizabeth Bed & Breakfast Inn. On the outside, the Royal Elizabeth is a modest adobe house. But look inside and you find a richly detailed Victorian interior, all cut glass and beautifully polished fir originally brought by covered wagon from San Francisco. Built in 1878 by a railroad engineer who fell in love with the town, the inn has been restored to elegance by its current owners, Jack Nance and Robert Ogburn, who have upgraded its rooms and suites by combining fine antiques with top-shelf technology. Their home-baked muffins, scones, and cookies are the toppers.
Downtown Tucson, also known as the Arts District, is currently undergoing redevelopment, especially now that the city has thrown its efforts into the Rio Nuevo project, which promises hundreds of millions of dollars towards construction. This money will hopefully also find its way toward funding Tucson`s contemporary art community, places like Davis-Dominguez Gallery and the long-established Etherton Gallery. The latter sits in a 1930s-era brick building above a fine and convivial restaurant, the Barrio Grill, and the gallery is a large, comfortable space in what used to be a dance hall.
Terry Etherton has been running the place since 1981. He says, "I wanted to create my own identity. I`ve seen many galleries come and go over the years, and I`ve been invited to join other galleries, but I decided early on that I didn`t want a Dairy Queen or a Subway next door. I just wasn`t interested in that. I want to stay away from the strip-mall mentality."
And yet many aspects of Tucson`s art scene are not downtown: numerous galleries can be found in satellite clusters scattered about the city`s periphery.
"Twenty years ago this was it-dirt roads on the edge of town. Now, I`m at the third-busiest intersection in Tucson," reflects J. Mark Sublette, owner of Medicine Man Gallery, which stands in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains in the northeastern part of the city. "It`s often said that Tucson has `quiet money,` and there are people here who can afford and appreciate art," he comments.
Sublette handles a wide variety of art and artifacts, including pre-Columbian pottery and Native American rugs, but his gallery is especially well known for its affiliation with the late Maynard Dixon, who was among the very best of a handful of notable southwestern painters in the first half of the 20th century.
"I could do what I do and have all this in Phoenix and manage quite well-maybe even better-but I like the atmosphere here, the small-town feel that is still a part of the place," Sublette says. "And there are a lot of great Tucson-based artists-Ken Riley, Howard Terpning, to name only two-who choose to live and work in Tucson because it has that small-town feeling and perhaps a more real feeling of what the Southwest was all about and still is."
Terpning and Riley are two members of an elite group known as the Tucson Seven, and are among the most successful names in the Tucson art world. Other members of this exclusive club include Duane Bryers, Don Crowley, Tom Hill, and Bob Kuhn.
Harley Brown, the seventh member, remembers what it was like when he first came to Tucson from Calgary, Alberta. "The whole range of wacky desert flora was something that I`d never seen," he says. "At first it was like going into another universe, all these oddball barrel cactus and so on, and then I became very attached to them. Now I find them incredibly beautiful."
Riley, 84, settled into the foothills 30 years ago. "We all moved here for the same reason," he says of his fellow artists. "We liked the pace and the visual attraction of Tucson. It`s changing, that`s true, and it`s more crowded, but it`s no less attractive, no less beautiful."
All of these artists can be found at Stuart Johnson`s gallery, Settlers West, one of Tucson`s oldest and best-known galleries, located on the northeast side of town and specializing in western and wildlife art. "What we deal with primarily is representational art," says Johnson, "and our commitment is to strong, collectable Western art-not necessarily cowboys and Indians. Western painting can be a broad subject, but we do do a lot with historical paintings. One thing I can guarantee about Settlers West is you won`t ever see a painting of a red canvas with a yellow dot in the middle."
Johnson, 59, has been working at steadily improving his gallery and increasing his client base for 32 years. From his perspective, "It used to be that much of the market was touristbased, but that`s changing and a lot of the art is selling to locals. I have to say, the art market is alive and well in Tucson and continues to grow, and the collector environment is steadily improving." (The art scene here encompasses, as well, Settlers West Contemporary Fine Arts & Graphics, with limited-edition prints, serigraphs, and giclee canvas prints as well as original artwork and books.)
Also in northeastern Tucson is El Presidio Gallery, which was established by Henry Rentschler 25 years ago and is managed by his daughter, Johanna, and her husband, Peter Orlando. Says Orlando, "You might not, at first, think of Tucson as an art market, but if you know a little bit about it as a retirement and a resort environment, it does make sense."
Although El Presidio started in the Arts District, it has moved out into the foothills and now has two locations.
Tucson is home to 30 to 40 art galleries. Others worth visiting include Jane Hamilton Fine Art-Hamilton used to live in a teepee in Taos, and her gallery exudes a pleasing New Age ambiance-where you might find the Serene Southwest Show on display, along with traditional, contemporary, southwestern, and whimsical art. Then there`s Old Pueblo Frameworks and Gallery for custom framing, limitededition serigraphs, giclee prints, photography, and sculpture. And Sanders Galleries specializes in Navajo pottery, Hopi kachinas, and traditional and contemporary southwestern art, representing more than 50 artists.
After three days, our gallery-hopping expedition winds down on a Sunday evening. Tucson at dusk is a magical place, especially during the winter months. We head over to the Barrio Grill on South Sixth Street for tortilla soup, spinach-citrus salad, and a spectacular polenta, all washed down with martinis, then stroll back to the Royal Elizabeth, passing the historic St. Augustine Cathedral with its carved sandstone facade that features crucifixes among cactus and other desert flora.
As the sun sets, modern Tucson sets with it, and The Old Pueblo`s antiquity emerges stronger than ever. Then an older Native gentleman seems to appear from the very shadows, offering to tell us something about our futures. Like any magic, it is at the same time enticing and chilling, and we pass on the opportunity. But the mysticism lingers until we are well away from the city, driving north through the desert on our way home.
SIDEBAR
TUCSON FAST FACTS BARRIO GRILL 928.629.0191 EL PRESIDIO GALLERY 520.733.0388 ETHERTON GALLERY 520.624.7370 JANE HAMILTON FINE ART 800.555.3051 MEDICINE MAN GALLERY 520.722.7798 OLD PUEBLO FRAMEWORKS AND GALLERY 520.529.9677 SANDERS GALLERIES 520.299.1763 SETTLERS WEST CONTEMPORARY FINE ARTS & GRAPHICS 520.323.8838 SETTLERS WEST GALLERIES 520.299.2607 ROYAL ELIZABETH B&B 877.670.9022
ILLUSTRATIONS
ABOVE: EL PRESIDIO GALLERY. BELOW: DOME PEAK MOUNTAINS AFTER SUNDOWN BY MICHAEL STACK AT SETTLERS WEST GALLERIES.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: DOWNTOWN TUCSON; AN ARMY OF SAGUAROS IN THE FOOTHILLS; ETHERTON GALLERY; THE TUCSON MUSEUM OF ART; MARIA MARTINEZ POTTERY AT MEDICINE MAN GALLERY.
ABOVE: THE ROYAL ELIZABETH BED & BREAKFAST INN. BELOW: LA PLACITA ENTRYWAY.
OLD CHINATOWN, CARSON CITY, NV [1937] BY MAYNARD DIXON AT MEDICINE MAN GALLERY.
AUTHOR AFFILIATION
Henry Cabot Beck, who lives in Phoenix and New York, also appears in the pages of Interview, the New York Daily News, and Country Music.
COPYRIGHT: Copyright Sabot Publishing, Inc. Feb 2004. Provided by Proquest- CSA, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Only fair use as provided by the United States copyright law is permitted.
PROQUEST-CSA, LLC- MAKES NO WARRANTY REGARDING THE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, OR TIMELINESS OF THE LICENSED MATERIALS OR ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED.
TUCSON is AN EASY PLACE TO FIND-my girlfriend Susie and I drive southeast from Phoenix along Interstate 10, a road that cuts through the Gila and Pima reservations. We`re headed for Arizona`s second-largest metropolis, an authentic southwest destination with an allure both old west and new west. Nestled between the Santa Catalina Mountains to the northeast and the Tucson Mountains to the southwest, Tucson is located in a valley surrounded by saguaro forests so thick with cactus it`s like a surreal living statuary. There is said to be something otherworldly, even mystical about it-as Rod Serling used to say, "A land of both shadow and substance." Filled with Spanish-style architecture, the town reflects its historic Native, cowboy, and Mexican heritage while also showing off contemporary postmodern touches.
Right now, what we glimpse off the highway in the far blue-green distance is flat desert punctuated by distant peaks, and we can almost imagine men on horseback making their way across this rugged American outback.
For the artists who live in Tucson today, the terrain has different meanings. Jinou Naval, a Tucson-based painter and the president of the Tucson Plein Air Painters` Society, says, "There`s something about the challenge of painting the desert that attracts so many artists to the area. At first glance it seems a colorless place, but as you paint it you begin to see all the details, the real colors that Tucson has to offer." For those intent on capturing the often-muted beauty of the Tucson light, the society organizes paint-outs everywhere from the San Xavier Mission to Pima Canyon to the Lazy K-Bar Ranch, with particular emphasis on Tucson`s ranches, missions, historical sites, and unspoiled wilderness.
The Tucson of today offers opulent casino-resorts like the Casino Del Sol and gated suburban communities as well as colorful, funky sun-baked barrios. The city is home to such local heroes as singer Linda Ronstadt, author Barbara Kingsolver, Dances With Wolves screenwriter Michael Blake, health guru Dr. Andrew Weil, and muralist Gonzolo Espinosa, currently celebrating his 30 years as an artist with an exhibition at Rakes Taller 222 Gallery. It should be remembered that Tucson was part of Mexico until 1854, that in later decades renowned hombres such as Pancho Villa used to stop by for the occasional cocktail, and that as recently as 2002, Tucson ranked seventh as the best city for Hispanics according to Hispanic Magazine.
For our investigation of The Old Pueblo, the nickname by which Tucson is often known, we choose a unique lodging situated in the downtown arts area: the Royal Elizabeth Bed & Breakfast Inn. On the outside, the Royal Elizabeth is a modest adobe house. But look inside and you find a richly detailed Victorian interior, all cut glass and beautifully polished fir originally brought by covered wagon from San Francisco. Built in 1878 by a railroad engineer who fell in love with the town, the inn has been restored to elegance by its current owners, Jack Nance and Robert Ogburn, who have upgraded its rooms and suites by combining fine antiques with top-shelf technology. Their home-baked muffins, scones, and cookies are the toppers.
Downtown Tucson, also known as the Arts District, is currently undergoing redevelopment, especially now that the city has thrown its efforts into the Rio Nuevo project, which promises hundreds of millions of dollars towards construction. This money will hopefully also find its way toward funding Tucson`s contemporary art community, places like Davis-Dominguez Gallery and the long-established Etherton Gallery. The latter sits in a 1930s-era brick building above a fine and convivial restaurant, the Barrio Grill, and the gallery is a large, comfortable space in what used to be a dance hall.
Terry Etherton has been running the place since 1981. He says, "I wanted to create my own identity. I`ve seen many galleries come and go over the years, and I`ve been invited to join other galleries, but I decided early on that I didn`t want a Dairy Queen or a Subway next door. I just wasn`t interested in that. I want to stay away from the strip-mall mentality."
And yet many aspects of Tucson`s art scene are not downtown: numerous galleries can be found in satellite clusters scattered about the city`s periphery.
"Twenty years ago this was it-dirt roads on the edge of town. Now, I`m at the third-busiest intersection in Tucson," reflects J. Mark Sublette, owner of Medicine Man Gallery, which stands in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains in the northeastern part of the city. "It`s often said that Tucson has `quiet money,` and there are people here who can afford and appreciate art," he comments.
Sublette handles a wide variety of art and artifacts, including pre-Columbian pottery and Native American rugs, but his gallery is especially well known for its affiliation with the late Maynard Dixon, who was among the very best of a handful of notable southwestern painters in the first half of the 20th century.
"I could do what I do and have all this in Phoenix and manage quite well-maybe even better-but I like the atmosphere here, the small-town feel that is still a part of the place," Sublette says. "And there are a lot of great Tucson-based artists-Ken Riley, Howard Terpning, to name only two-who choose to live and work in Tucson because it has that small-town feeling and perhaps a more real feeling of what the Southwest was all about and still is."
Terpning and Riley are two members of an elite group known as the Tucson Seven, and are among the most successful names in the Tucson art world. Other members of this exclusive club include Duane Bryers, Don Crowley, Tom Hill, and Bob Kuhn.
Harley Brown, the seventh member, remembers what it was like when he first came to Tucson from Calgary, Alberta. "The whole range of wacky desert flora was something that I`d never seen," he says. "At first it was like going into another universe, all these oddball barrel cactus and so on, and then I became very attached to them. Now I find them incredibly beautiful."
Riley, 84, settled into the foothills 30 years ago. "We all moved here for the same reason," he says of his fellow artists. "We liked the pace and the visual attraction of Tucson. It`s changing, that`s true, and it`s more crowded, but it`s no less attractive, no less beautiful."
All of these artists can be found at Stuart Johnson`s gallery, Settlers West, one of Tucson`s oldest and best-known galleries, located on the northeast side of town and specializing in western and wildlife art. "What we deal with primarily is representational art," says Johnson, "and our commitment is to strong, collectable Western art-not necessarily cowboys and Indians. Western painting can be a broad subject, but we do do a lot with historical paintings. One thing I can guarantee about Settlers West is you won`t ever see a painting of a red canvas with a yellow dot in the middle."
Johnson, 59, has been working at steadily improving his gallery and increasing his client base for 32 years. From his perspective, "It used to be that much of the market was touristbased, but that`s changing and a lot of the art is selling to locals. I have to say, the art market is alive and well in Tucson and continues to grow, and the collector environment is steadily improving." (The art scene here encompasses, as well, Settlers West Contemporary Fine Arts & Graphics, with limited-edition prints, serigraphs, and giclee canvas prints as well as original artwork and books.)
Also in northeastern Tucson is El Presidio Gallery, which was established by Henry Rentschler 25 years ago and is managed by his daughter, Johanna, and her husband, Peter Orlando. Says Orlando, "You might not, at first, think of Tucson as an art market, but if you know a little bit about it as a retirement and a resort environment, it does make sense."
Although El Presidio started in the Arts District, it has moved out into the foothills and now has two locations.
Tucson is home to 30 to 40 art galleries. Others worth visiting include Jane Hamilton Fine Art-Hamilton used to live in a teepee in Taos, and her gallery exudes a pleasing New Age ambiance-where you might find the Serene Southwest Show on display, along with traditional, contemporary, southwestern, and whimsical art. Then there`s Old Pueblo Frameworks and Gallery for custom framing, limitededition serigraphs, giclee prints, photography, and sculpture. And Sanders Galleries specializes in Navajo pottery, Hopi kachinas, and traditional and contemporary southwestern art, representing more than 50 artists.
After three days, our gallery-hopping expedition winds down on a Sunday evening. Tucson at dusk is a magical place, especially during the winter months. We head over to the Barrio Grill on South Sixth Street for tortilla soup, spinach-citrus salad, and a spectacular polenta, all washed down with martinis, then stroll back to the Royal Elizabeth, passing the historic St. Augustine Cathedral with its carved sandstone facade that features crucifixes among cactus and other desert flora.
As the sun sets, modern Tucson sets with it, and The Old Pueblo`s antiquity emerges stronger than ever. Then an older Native gentleman seems to appear from the very shadows, offering to tell us something about our futures. Like any magic, it is at the same time enticing and chilling, and we pass on the opportunity. But the mysticism lingers until we are well away from the city, driving north through the desert on our way home.
SIDEBAR
TUCSON FAST FACTS BARRIO GRILL 928.629.0191 EL PRESIDIO GALLERY 520.733.0388 ETHERTON GALLERY 520.624.7370 JANE HAMILTON FINE ART 800.555.3051 MEDICINE MAN GALLERY 520.722.7798 OLD PUEBLO FRAMEWORKS AND GALLERY 520.529.9677 SANDERS GALLERIES 520.299.1763 SETTLERS WEST CONTEMPORARY FINE ARTS & GRAPHICS 520.323.8838 SETTLERS WEST GALLERIES 520.299.2607 ROYAL ELIZABETH B&B 877.670.9022
ILLUSTRATIONS
ABOVE: EL PRESIDIO GALLERY. BELOW: DOME PEAK MOUNTAINS AFTER SUNDOWN BY MICHAEL STACK AT SETTLERS WEST GALLERIES.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: DOWNTOWN TUCSON; AN ARMY OF SAGUAROS IN THE FOOTHILLS; ETHERTON GALLERY; THE TUCSON MUSEUM OF ART; MARIA MARTINEZ POTTERY AT MEDICINE MAN GALLERY.
ABOVE: THE ROYAL ELIZABETH BED & BREAKFAST INN. BELOW: LA PLACITA ENTRYWAY.
OLD CHINATOWN, CARSON CITY, NV [1937] BY MAYNARD DIXON AT MEDICINE MAN GALLERY.
AUTHOR AFFILIATION
Henry Cabot Beck, who lives in Phoenix and New York, also appears in the pages of Interview, the New York Daily News, and Country Music.
COPYRIGHT: Copyright Sabot Publishing, Inc. Feb 2004. Provided by Proquest- CSA, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Only fair use as provided by the United States copyright law is permitted.
PROQUEST-CSA, LLC- MAKES NO WARRANTY REGARDING THE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, OR TIMELINESS OF THE LICENSED MATERIALS OR ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED.