Author: Michael Chappell

It is proceeding apace, the Jump start sale, that is. Not being a January white sale, necessary purchases have not been postponed by buyers eager to replace ragged sheets and toweling. No real obsolescence with our pieces, but low enough in price that it stimulates.

Fascinating, this notion of stimulation, begging questions about what makes the difference between passing interest to, as we say in retail, ‘pulling the trigger’? More pleasantly put, an affirmation of a desire to purchase is what everyone in retail is after, as it signals consumer confidence- be it a January white sale or our Jump Start sale of English antiques. My nephew and gallery colleague Jack Tremper tells me that our website hits are at nearly an all-time high for the month of January. Good news- interest has to start somewhere. Will this be followed by a wave of trigger pulling? We are optimistic, and optimism is the precursor of confidence- which, by the way, is contagious.

With apologies to the memory of Charles Dickens, internationally times are both good and bad, witness the indecision despite the good buys when it comes to the purchase of English antiques. Well, most durables, actually. Even from our vantage point, and I mean this quite literally, from our premises in the precincts of venerable Jackson Square, gallery traffic is very good and, moving to the virtual gallery, our website hits are better than ever. Times are, ostensibly, good.

And sales? Well, let me put it like this: we figured that our clients needed a bit of impetus, a jump start, as it were, hence the title of our first-ever January sale. An opportunity? I should say so, with all, and I do mean all, our furniture and decorative items from 20% to nearly 60% off.

For my readers that are not yet Chappell & McCullar clients, browse our site and let us know your interests. Shall we work together to make this, all around, the best of times?

Family took Keith McCullar and me to Fresno this last weekend to celebrate my father’s 80th birthday. As we gathered en famille a few days after the event,  it gave my father the opportunity to go skiing on his actual birthday with several of his buddies, all of them 80 or over. If I were to be in as good shape as my father when I enter decade number nine, my physical condition would have to materially improve over what it is now.

During a break in the festivities, I had a chance to read several recent issues of the Fresno Bee.  Shrunk to tabloid size, it nevertheless is replete with press about the closure of the Fresno Metropolitan Museum- and the perilous state of the Fresno Art Museum. Although not closed, the Fresno Art Museum, a venue established over 60 years ago for the exhibition of contemporary art, is certainly on hard times, with staff layoffs that include its longtime curator and my good friend Jacquelin Pilar. The museum may be able to keep their doors open with these cuts, but, sans curatorial staff, exactly what visitors can expect to look at is an open question.

My own first professional exposure to the art world came with an exhibition of ukiyo-e I curated at the Fresno Art Museum nearly 20 years ago. To say that it was an exhilarating experience is an understatement: life changing is closer to the truth. Consequently, I have an inordinate fondness for the institution.

While guest curators might occasionally be useful to enhance the exhibitions program of any art museum, it cannot be thought a permanent substitute. Certainly in the case of the Fresno Art Museum, its own collections do not possess sufficient depth to allow permanent display without being supplemented with visiting exhibitions. It was Jacqui Pilar’s vision and connections in the art world that has seen to this masterfully for nearly 20 years, keeping the museum full of some of the best things available. Ruth Asawa, Manuel Neri, and Oliver Jackson are just a few of the leading contemporary lights with major exhibitions hosted by the museum, all with curatorial oversight provided by Jacqui.

Will the trustees be themselves able to substitute? Doubtful, as the paramount role of any non-profit trustee can be defined in two words- ‘raise money’. To dilute that function will only exacerbate the museum’s difficulties. Moreover, while it certainly benefits a museum trustee to have a love of art, curating an exhibition is far more complicated than mounting pictures on a gallery wall. Actually, that is an extremely complicated task, too, as any successful exhibition requires a proper design that is both visually appealing and unfolds for the visitor in such a way that it compliments any explanatory text. The text itself, whether in wall tags, catalog, or both, must be both factually accurate and methodologically appropriate. Both display and text must work in tandem to achieve a site of meaning enabling the casual visitor to understand why the art came to be created in the first place- and why it is important for the visitor to see it. Although the trustees are charged with governance, management, and this includes curatorial activities, must be performed by professional staff. It is telling that the competence of the staff has more to do with a museum’s maintenance of its accreditation than the hands-on of its trustees.

To be fair, although it is the inability of the trustees to raise money that has resulted in so many staffers at the Fresno Art Museum getting axed, the poor economy has made what is always a tough job nigh unto impossible. Where Los Angeles has the likes of Eli Broad, whose $30,000,000 gift saved the Museum of Contemporary Art, Fresno is not possessed of a cadre of ultra heavy hitters who can erase a budget shortfall, or provide a massive influx of endowment funds, with a single stroke of the pen.

What to do? The Fresno Art Museum serves a need that, certainly absent the Fresno Metropolitan Museum, will otherwise go largely unmet in the fifth largest city in California, 200 miles distant from both San Francisco and Los Angeles. In his column this last Sunday, Donald Munro in the Fresno Bee opined that people were busy behind the scenes to ensure the museum’s survival but nevertheless hoped the local population  rallies to its support.  Me, too. If not everyone in Fresno understands or appreciates the iconic Fletcher Benton sculpture that dominates the forecourt of the Fresno Art Museum, I can assure them they would all miss it if it were no longer there.

As difficult as conditions have been in the trade in English antiques, no one, and that includes me, has had to wonder if friends or family were living or dead, where food to eat or water to drink were coming from, or required to sleep out of doors with no idea when or if shelter would be available. It is impossible to compare, or even to know, the ongoing misery in Haiti. And what to do? A generous gift to the Red Cross would be a good start.

The writs are flying, with the present owners of sadly now closed Partridge Fine Art claiming that the original owners had misrepresented the business at the time of its sale, albeit 4 years ago. This does the trade in English antiques no good at all, as the brickbats make claims that, while they might have some element of truth, have more to do with the venerable company trying to carry on in business with new management, no matter how illustrious and ambitious, unable to combat the rents on Bond Street and the overall economic malaise. With Partridge’s fabulous premises vacant since late last summer, I suspect that all nearby merchants, in the trade and not, would prefer to have some sort of resolution as doubtless litigation is having a dampening effect on tenanting a glaringly empty leasehold. Will a member of the trade take over what was designed, built and came to be known as a ‘Palace of the Arts’? We can hope.