38 — Antiques and The Arts Weekly — September 4, 2015

SANTA FE, N.M. — Chicagoheiress Florence DibellBartlett is famous for twothings: her role in foundingSanta Fe’s captivating Muse-um of International Folk Artand the utterance, “The art ofthe craftsman is a bondbetween the peoples of theworld.” Grammar aside, thephrase offers a nutshelldescription of Santa Fe’s long-standing cultural delights:earthy but sophisticated,worldly beyond the city’s smallsize.

The most current interpreta-tion of Santa Fe style maybelong to Kim Martindale andJohn Morris, whose Objects of

Art Santa Fe at the Museo Cul-tural de Santa Fe in the city’ship Railyard District is inflect-ed with a California-by-way-of-New Mexico vibe. Rich in tex-tiles and sculptural works ofart, the show mines historywithout being overly historical.The point, long time-promoterMartindale says of the broadlyinclusive presentation, is tolook across cultures and medi-ums for common excellence invisual expression.

Objects opened on Wednes-day evening, August 12, with agala preview benefiting NewMexico PBS. The four-day showcontinued through Saturday,August 15, and was followed inthe same venue by the August17–20 Antique American Indi-an Art Show, also produced bythe Martindale Morris teamand incorporating some of thesame exhibitors, albeit withdifferent stock. The MartindaleMorris events are part of aweek of shows, auctions andgallery openings devoted tohistoric art and design in thestate’s capital. They precedethe granddaddy of them all, the93-year-old, juried Santa FeIndian Market and the satel-lite events that Indian Market,the nation’s foremost gatheringof contemporary Native Ameri-can art, has inspired.

The show was set up in twocolorful rooms, arraying fineand decorative arts and arti-facts, ancient to contemporary,offered by more than 70 deal-ers from New York and Massa-chusetts to Alaska, Hawaii,

Mexico and Tanzania.Lee and Vichai Chinalai, now

accompanied by their adultdaughter, Dhani, curated thespecial exhibit “Deeply Yao.”Installed in the El MuseoGallery adjacent to the fair, theshow featured the Shoreham,N.Y., dealers’ 40-year collectionof textiles, headdresses, jewelryand spiritual and functionalobjects made by the minorityYao people of southern China,Laos and Cambodia. Dozens ofworks, unlikely survivors froma migratory people, were pricedfrom the low four figures toabout $22,000. Highlightsincluded a man’s jacket andmatching horsehair cap, ayoung woman’s elaborate silverheaddress, ceremonial slippersand, notably, sets of exceeding-ly rare ceremonial paintings,one group dating to 1794. Thepaintings represent the pan-theon of Taoist gods.

Elsewhere in the show, Chi-nalai featured selections fromits line of contemporary fiberart, some of it the work of Thaicraftsmen supported by thedealers in recent years. LeeChinalai said that their newventure was inspired by theirpast participation in Santa Fe’sInternational Folk Art Market,held annually in July.

Gorgeous textiles are the spe-cialty of Casey Waller of Cara-vanserai, Ltd, who covered hisback wall with a bold, floralOttoman suzani embroidery.From Austin, Texas, Wallersaid that Objects, while morebeautiful than ever, had not

Taylor Dale Tribal Art, Santa Fe

Tambaran Gallery, New York City

Dan Cook/Rudi South, Santa Fe

Lee and Vichai Chinalai organized the special exhibition“Deeply Yao,” featuring their 40-year collection of textiles,headdresses, jewelry and spiritual and functional objectsby the Yao people of southern China and northern South-east Asia.

A pair of Chinese carpets at Moke MokotoffAsian Arts, New York City and Hudson, N.Y.

John Ruddy, Santa Fe

The Standard Art & Antiques Co., Santa Fe

Ghent & McCue, San Fran-cisco and Santa Fe

Customers inspect a kilim runner at in theshared booth of Casey Waller/CaravanseraiLtd and Jewel of The Lotus.

Objects Of Art Santa FeWorldly Delights, With An Emphasis On The Tactile

A dealer in Native American, Latin American and tribaland ethnographic art for more than four decades, theVenice, Calif., promoter Kim Martindale teamed up withJohn Morris to produce Objects of Art Santa Fe at El MuseoCultural in the city’s artsy Railyard District.

September 4, 2015 — Antiques and The Arts Weekly — 39

resulted in hoped for sales. “Wemade a larger number of small-er sales but failed to find buy-ers for the more expensive car-pets and wall hangings,” Wallernoted.Santa Fe dealer John Ruddy

arrayed casual cotton yukatajackets in indigo and white onan outside wall. Well known forAmerican textiles, Santa Fedealers Rose Adams and SkipHolbrook dazzled with quiltsand a charming needlepointsampler, signed and dated. Anexhibitor at New York’s Out-sider Art Fair, Texas dealerJean Compton paired rag dolls,quilts and other examples oftraditional American folk artwith edgy, Twentieth Centuryworks on paper by self-taughtartists.

No Santa Fe show is completewithout Indian art. BarryWalsh, a dealer from Holden,Mass., who trades under thename Buffalo Barry, featuredkatsina and other Hopi arti-facts, his chief love.

Chiefs’ blankets drew visitorsto Medicine Man Gallery,where founder Mark Sublettesigned copies of his latest art-world thriller, Between TheWhite Lines.

Kip McKesson ornamentedhis back wall with colorfulDorze hats from Ethiopia.Based in Dar es Salaam, heparted with an importantSukama dance figure fromTanzania on opening night andfollowed with strong sales oftribal and decorative objects.

“The crowd was good, and, asalways, the show was classyand beautiful,” said McKesson.

“I’ve had a busy week,” noted

Taylor Dale, a Santa Fe dealerin tribal arts who hosted areception in his gallery andparticipated in both Martin-dale Morris shows, swappingAfrican and Pacific artifacts forPlains and Northwest Coastmaterial as the week went on.

“I show Taos and Santa Fecolony painting, historic andwhat I call traditional contem-porary,” said Taos dealerRobert Parsons, who flanked acanvas by contemporary artistJohn Moyers, elected to theCowboy Artists of America in1994, with historic works bySanta Fe painter FremontEllis, a member of Los CincoPintores, and Oscar Berning-haus, a founder of the TaosSociety of Artists.

“I brought my most South-western material in the hopesof fitting in,” said Californiadealer Dennis Calabi, noting

James M. Jeter, Santa Barbara, Calif.

Santa Fe dealer Bill Hawn with a large traywoven by a San Juan Paiute craftsman fromUtah after a Yavapai design.

Moqui Trading Company, Spavinaw, Okla.

“13 Shades of Grey,” a chromatic presentation arranged byJ. Compton Gallery of Wimberly, Texas.

Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, Santa Fe, and Tuc-son, Ariz.

Cowboys and Indians Antiques, Albuquerque, N.M.

Robert L. Parsons Fine Art, Taos, N.M.

Tennessee dealer Terry Starace, LookingWest Art Gallery, and her Shih Tzu, Coco.

Looking West Art Gallery, Old Hickory,Tenn.

Ghent & McCue, San Fran-cisco and Santa Fe

Review and Photos byAntiques and The Arts WeeklyLaura Beach, Managing Editor

Early California Antiques, Los Angeles

40 — Antiques and The Arts Weekly — September 4, 2015

Bovis Primitive Arts, Santa Fe

Pook a Moon Gallery, Cloverdale, Ga

Wendy Worthington Wysong, Santa Fe and San Miguel deAllende, Mexico; Eric Salter, Santa Fe; Peter Grau, MexicoCity

Faircloth/Holbrook, Santa Fe

Barry Walsh of Buffalo Barry, Holden,Mass., with two Hopi katsinam. The cowand bird spirit figures were made betweenthe 1920s and the 1940s.

Maruskiya’s of Nome, Alaska

Monterey Garage, Los Angeles

Moke Mokotoff Asian Arts,New York City and Hudson,N.Y.

J. Compton Gallery, Wim-berly, Texas

Taylor Dale Tribal Art,Santa Fe

Kip McKesson African Art, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

Casey Waller/Caravanserai Ltd, Austin, Texas; Jewel ofThe Lotus, Kilauea, Kauai, Hawaii

Objects Of Art Santa Fe

Earl Nesbitt Fine Furniture, Edgewood, N.M.

September 4, 2015 — Antiques and The Arts Weekly — 41

sales of three works to twodealers and one work to a localartist. “This was primarily anethnographic event, not idealfor my kind of art.”

“I apprenticed in New Hope,Penn., with Jeffrey Greene,”explained craftsman Earl Nes-bitt, whose furniture shows theinfluence of GeorgeNakashima. Nesbitt, whosestudio is in Edgewood, N.M.,between Santa Fe and Albu-querque, called Objects an“interesting show.” It drawsserious collectors and I alwaysreconnect with clients.” Nesbittsells primarily to collectors ofvaried professional back-grounds.

Albuquerque artist VictoriaRoberts shared a large spacewith Kim Martindale and PhilGaraway. Composed of bits offound objects, Roberts’ shadowboxes and assemblages occupythe intersection of memory andimagination. The artist saidthat she recently sold a piece toNew York dealer Howard Rehsfor his personal collection andwill be represented by MarkSublette, who maintains largegalleries in Tucson and SantaFe.

Martindale, who began hiscareer as a promoter 36 yearsago working for Don Bennett,Santa Fe’s original show man-ager, doubles as a gallerist withspace in Venice, Calif. Upcom-ing Martindale promotionsinclude the Los Angeles FineArt Show, Historic & Contem-porary, January 15–18; the LAArt Show, Modern and Contem-porary, January 28–31; and the32nd Annual Art of the Americ-as Show in Marin County,north of San Francisco, Febru-ary 18–21.

If you could catch him, itwould be worth sitting JohnMorris down to hear about hispresumably more raucouscareer as a producer of rockconcerts, Woodstock and Fill-more East among them. InSanta Fe, Martindale and Mor-

ris teamed with local photogra-pher and Rhode Island Schoolof Design graduate BlakeHines to produce these twospecial shows, big on charmand unstinting in their imagi-nation.

For information, contact KimMartindale at 310-822-9145 orkrmartindale@mac.com; orJohn Morris at 310-456-2120 orjmorris@cybermesa.com.

Dan Cook/Rudi South, Santa Fe

Ghent & McCue, San Fran-cisco and Santa Fe

Robert Galvez Antiques, Glendora, Calif.

Dhani and Lee Chinalai with their new line of contempo-rary fiber art.

Albuquerque artist Victoria Roberts works with foundobjects to create evocative assemblages. She told Antiquesand The Arts Weekly that she recently sold a work to NewYork dealer Howard Rehs for his personal collection andwill soon be represented by Mark Sublette Medicine ManGallery in Tucson and Santa Fe.

Frank Hill of Frank Hill Tribal Arts, Santa Fe

Southwestern Pre-Historic Artifacts, Luna, N.M. The deal-ers combined early pottery and Pop Art prints by NativeAmerican artist Fritz Scholder.

In the foreground, a Tularosa black andwhite bowl, $12,000, at Southwestern Pre-Historic Artifacts, Luna, N.M.

Shoreham, N.Y., dealer Vichai Chinalai witha Yao ceremonial painting from a rare setdating to circa 1790. The Qianlong periodworks produced in northern Laos, Thailand,Vietnam or south China were part of theexhibition “Deeply Yao.” Vichai’s wife, Lee,has published on the subject of Yao ceremo-nial paintings and shamans’ robes.

Dancing Threads, Santa Fe

Chinalai Tribal Antiques, Ltd, Shoreham, N.Y., displayedthe work of one contemporary Thai artist who embroidersants onto garments made of indigo and mud-dyed cotton.