I regret to report that Bernard Perlin died on Tuesday 14 January 2014. Perlin and his art came to my attention when I was doing research on Edward John Stevens, Jr. Both artists were included in a 1950 Life Magazine article titled Nineteen Young American Artists. After acquiring a work by Perlin I contacted him and visited him at his beautiful home in Ridgefield, Connecticut, where he painted, grew pelargoniums in a glasshouse and enjoyed the company of wild turkeys and any other fauna that walked by his window. I subsequently acquired more work by the artist and eventually wrote an article on him that was published in 2012 in Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. Please contact me if you would like a pdf of the article. I also collaborated with Michael Schrieber in creating a website dedicated to the artist. Bernard Perlin was a beautiful, humble, sophisticated person. His painting "The Jacket" (shown here) is in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
OBSERVATIONS BY ALAN ROSENBERG
Provenance Research: Katrina McCormick Barnes
I recently acquired "A Night Still Life," a 1953 gouache by Edward John Stevens, Jr. which was previously owned by Katrina McCormick Barnes. Mrs. Barnes was a rather remarkable person which I think you can gather just from the images of her below. She was a member of the well-known Chicago McCormick family, the daughter of Joseph Medill McCormick and Ruth Hanna. In 1935 she married Courtland D. Barnes, Jr. She lived for many decades in New Mexico and died in Santa Fe in 2011 at age 98. She served on the boards of the Native American Rights Fund, the National Council of LaRaza, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Chicano Education Project, Her memory lives on particularly in the scholarship in her name that she endowed for minority students at the University of Denver.
Edward John Stevens, Jr. website
Dear Friends: I am excited to let you know about the debut of www.edwardjohnstevens.com, a site I have created devoted to the life and work of artist Edward John Stevens, Jr. The "about" section has a rather long essay but if you take a few minutes to read it I think you will find it interesting. Thanks for taking a look, -Alan.
Bernard Perlin Website
I am so pleased to let you know about the debut of www.bernardperlin.com, a site devoted to the life and work of 94 year old artist Bernard Perlin. I wrote all the content and collaborated with Michael Schreiber, who has been working tirelessly to catalogue the artist's work, and Ken Klein who designed the site. My essay on the artist is excerpted from a longer article that appeared in the December 2012 issue of Fine Art Connoisseur (please contact me if you would like a copy of the article). Thanks for taking a look.
