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Current Exhibitions

Abstraction: A Tool for Today
July 1 - October 31, 2025
Virtual
Sound and Spectacle: Harry Bertoia and George Rickey
June 1 - September 30, 2025
Palm Desert, CA
Hans Hofmann: The Father of Abstract Expressionism
February 3 - July 31, 2025
Palm Desert, CA
A Selection of Sculptures
October 23, 2024 - September 30, 2025
Virtual

2024

Discovering Creativity: American Art Masters
January 10 - March 17, 2024
Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens - West Palm Beach, FL
Paintings of Dorothy Hood
March 18 - July 19, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
Legacy of the Land: Georgia O’Keeffe and Emily Kame Kngwarreye
July 10, 2024 - January 31, 2025
Jackson Hole, WY
Art Under $100,000
July 25, 2024 - January 31, 2025
Palm Desert, CA
Hans Hofmann
August 14, 2024 - February 28, 2025
Palm Desert, CA
Holiday 2024: The Art of Gifting
November 4, 2024 - January 31, 2025
Virtual
Andy Warhol Polaroids: Bring It to the Runway
December 1, 2024 - June 30, 2025
Virtual
Andy Warhol Polaroids: All That Glitters
December 10, 2024 - June 30, 2025
Virtual
Andy Warhol Polaroids: Me, Myself, & I
December 10, 2024 - June 30, 2025
Virtual
Andy Warhol Polaroids: Ars Longa
December 10, 2024 - June 30, 2025
Virtual

2023

Figurative Masters of the Americas
January 4 - February 12, 2023
Palm Desert, CA
First Circle: Circles in Art
February 14, 2023 - August 31, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
Florals for Spring, Groundbreaking
May 8, 2023 - August 31, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
Alexander Calder: Shaping a Primary Universe
August 23, 2023 - March 25, 2025
Palm Desert, CA
Art of the American West: A Prominent Collection
August 24, 2023 - August 31, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
Picasso: Beyond the Canvas
October 4, 2023 - April 30, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
Andy Warhol: All is Pretty
August 17, 2023 - June 30, 2025
Virtual

2022

Abstract Expressionism: Transcending the Radical
January 12, 2022 - January 31, 2023
Palm Desert, CA
Georgia O’Keeffe and Marsden Hartley: Modern Minds
February 1, 2022 - February 28, 2023
Palm Desert, CA
My Own Skin: Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera
June 16 - December 31, 2022
Palm Desert, CA
Your Heart’s Blood: Intersections of Art and Literature
September 12, 2022 - December 31, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
N.C. Wyeth: A Decade of Painting
September 29, 2022 - March 31, 2023
Palm Desert, CA
Meeting Life: N.C. Wyeth and the MetLife Murals
July 18, 2022 - April 30, 2025
Palm Desert, CA
Alexander Calder: Painting the Cosmos
March 2 - August 12, 2022
Palm Desert, CA
Josef Albers: The Heart of Painting
May 12 - November 30, 2022
Palm Desert, CA
Paper Cut: Unique Works on Paper
April 27, 2022 - October 31, 2023
Palm Desert, CA
More to Life: Impressionist Dialogues from Monet and Beyond
August 17, 2022 - August 31, 2023
Palm Desert, CA
Alexander Calder: A Universe of Painting
August 10, 2022 - August 31, 2023
Palm Desert, CA
Claude Monet: An Impressionist Genius
August 18 - October 31, 2022
Jackson Hole, WY
Marc Chagall: The Color of Love
September 8 - October 12, 2022
Jackson Hole, WY
Picasso - Prints and Works on Paper
September 1 - October 12, 2022
Jackson Hole, WY
Impressionism at Heather James Fine Art
September 1 - October 31, 2022
Jackson Hole, WY

2021

It Was Acceptable in the 80s
April 27, 2021 - August 31, 2023
Palm Desert, CA
Elaine and Willem de Kooning: Painting in the Light
August 3, 2021 - January 31, 2022
Palm Desert, CA
James Rosenquist: Potent Pop
June 7, 2021 - January 31, 2023
Palm Desert, CA
American Eye: Selections from the Pardee Collection
February 28 - December 31, 2021
Palm Desert, CA
Moore! Moore! Moore! Henry Moore and Sculpture
March 3, 2021 - April 30, 2022
Palm Desert, CA
Mercedes Matter: A Miraculous Quality
March 22, 2021 - June 30, 2022
Palm Desert, CA
A Beautiful Time: American Art in the Gilded Age
June 24, 2021 - August 31, 2023
Palm Desert, CA
Abstract Expressionism: The Persistent Women
November 1, 2021 - August 31, 2022
Palm Desert, CA
Andy Warhol: Glamour at the Edge
October 27, 2021 - September 30, 2023
Virtual
All We Have Seen: Impressionist Landscapes from Monet to Kleitsch
August 9, 2021 - September 30, 2022
Jackson Hole, WY
Andy Warhol Polaroids: Wicked Wonders
December 13, 2021 - June 30, 2025
Virtual

2020

Jewels of Impressionism and Modern Art
February 19 - October 31, 2020
Palm Desert, CA
The Gloria Luria Collection
March 16, 2020 - October 31, 2021
Palm Desert, CA
Norman Zammitt: The Progression of Color
March 19, 2020 - February 28, 2023
Palm Desert, CA
Pop Figures: Mel Ramos and Tom Wesselmann
March 26, 2020 - April 30, 2021
Palm Desert, CA
Cool Britannia: The Young British Artists
April 2 - September 30, 2020
Palm Desert, CA
Jewish Modernism Part 2: Figuration from Chagall to Norman
April 30, 2020 - December 31, 2021
Palm Desert, CA
Jewish Modernism Part 1: Abstraction from Gottlieb to Schnabel
April 23, 2020 - April 30, 2024
New York, NY
Alexander Calder: Bold Gouaches
March 25, 2020 - March 2, 2022
New York, NY

2019

Paul Jenkins: Coloring the Phenomenal
December 27, 2019 - March 31, 2023
Palm Desert, CA
The Californians
November 1, 2019 - February 14, 2020
Palm Desert, CA
Irving Norman: Dark Matter
November 27, 2019 - June 30, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
We Were Always Here: Japanese-American Post-War Pioneers of Art
April 4 - July 15, 2019
San Francisco, CA

2018

N.C. Wyeth: Paintings and Illustrations
February 1 - May 31, 2018
Palm Desert, CA
The Paintings of Sir Winston Churchill
March 21 - May 30, 2018
Palm Desert, CA
The Paintings of Sir Winston Churchill
June 1 - July 27, 2018
San Francisco, CA
The Paintings of Sir Winston Churchill
August 1 - September 16, 2018
Jackson Hole, WY
de Kooning x de Kooning
November 8, 2018 - February 28, 2019
New York, NY
Sam Francis: From Dusk to Dawn
November 15, 2018 - April 29, 2019
Palm Desert, CA
Wojciech Fangor: The Early 1960s
April 19 - June 30, 2018
New York, NY

2016

Ferrari and Futurists: An Italian Look at Speed
November 21, 2016 - January 30, 2017
Palm Desert, CA
Norman Rockwell: The Artist at Work
June 30 - September 30, 2016
Jackson Hole, WY

2015

Alexander Calder
November 21, 2015 - May 28, 2016
Palm Desert, CA

2014

Masters of California Impressionism
November 22, 2014 - May 23, 2015
Palm Desert, CA

2011

Painterly Abstraction: Spheres of AbEx
November 25, 2011 - May 31, 2012
Palm Desert, CA

2010

Masters of Impressionism and Modern Art
November 20, 2010 - September 25, 2011
Palm Desert, CA

2009

Picasso
November 20, 2009 - May 25, 2010
Palm Desert, CA

 

INTRO TEXT

“He is the great romantic of op art working not by rule but by a combination of intuition and experiment, appealing not to reason but to our yearning toward the mysterious.” – John Canaday, Fangor’s Romantic Op, New York Times, Sunday, February 15, 1970

History

“Try as you may, you cannot figure out how the illusion is created — and neither can Fangor explain it except in the most general way…As a colorist he has extended the limits — and keeps on extending them — of the simplest optical laws. …He is the great romantic of op art working not by rule but by a combination of intuition and experiment, appealing not to reason but to our yearning toward the mysterious. As the purely visual novelty wears off, the optical trick turns out to have been more than a trick after all and is revealed as a portal opening on to new experiences of color in space.” (John Canaday, Fangor’s Romantic Op, New York Times, Sunday, February 15, 1970)

The title SU 10, tells us it is the tenth painting of the “SU” series, suggesting a highly systematic approach that implies Wojceich Fangor is a dispassionate man of science. Nothing could be further from the truth. Fangor understood science well enough, but Copernicus held little interest for him. Notwithstanding his standing within the group of artists associated with the precise optical illusions of a Vasarely or Bridget Riley and the 1965 “Responsive Eye” op art exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art of which he as a vital part, Fangor was intensely passionate about his work; looking beyond a simple investigation of the principles of optics and perception and acutely aware and invested in real world applications.

More
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    Wojciech Fangor, Warsaw, 1959
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    Wojciech Fangor in his studio, early 1960s
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    Wojciech Fangor, Stanisław Zamecznik, Study of Space, Nowa Kultura Salon, Warsaw, 1958
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    Wojciech Fangor, “M 74” (1969) oil on canvas, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

WOJCIECH FANGOR: THE EARY 1960s

  • WOJCIECH FANGOR: The Early 1960s
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  • Wojciech Fangor, “Red Moons 2” (1961), 71 x 26 in.
  • Wojciech Fangor, “Green Points” (1961), 52 7/8 x 33 1/2 in.
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    Wojciech Fangor, “#29” (1963), 39 1/2 x 39 1/2 in.
  • Wojciech Fangor, “White Ellipse” (1961), 25 x 28 in.

Wojciech Fangor: The Early 1960s, an exhibition organized by Heather James Fine Art in 2018, presented nine large-scale paintings from the artist’s breakthrough period. The first U.S. traveling solo exhibition of one of Poland’s preeminent Post War abstract artists in more than 25 years, the exhibition celebrated Fangor’s distinctive use of saturated color and blurred silhouettes to create mesmerizing optical illusions. Several pieces from this show have sold, but 4 currently on view at our gallery in Palm Desert, California: Green Points (1961)Red Moons 2 (1961), White Ellipse (1961), and #29 (1963).

Visit the Fangor exhibition page

“art is an artificial creative deception of the viewer” -Fangor, interview published in 2015 in Contemporary Lynx Magazine

MARKET INSIGHTS

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    “SU 14” (1971), oil on canvas, 50 x 50 in. Sold Thursday, May 19, 2016 for $198,205 USD
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    “M 28” (1970), oil on canvas, 55.9 x 55.9 in. Sold Thursday, October 1, 2020 for $354,312 USD
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    “M 22” (1969), oil on canvas, 79.9 x 79.9 in. Sold Thursday, December 3, 2020 for $1,685,698 USD
  • Fangor works available privately outside of Poland are rare, and this piece is further set apart by its great provenance: SU 10 has remained in the same private collection since its creation in 1971
  • A similar work from the same series, SU 14, sold 4 years ago for close to $200,000 USD, before Fangor’s record auction results of the past 3 years which achieved his highest hammer prices to date.
  • Two recent auction results demonstrate the increasing value of Fangor paintings: M 28 just sold in October 2020 for over $354,000 USD and M 22 sold for over $1.68 million USD on December 3, 2020.

Top Results at Auction

"M 22" (1969), oil on canvas, 79.9 x 79.9 in. Sold Thursday, December 3, 2020 for $1,685,698 USD
“M 22” (1969), oil on canvas, 79.9 x 79.9 in. Sold Thursday, December 3, 2020 for $1,685,698 USD
"M 39" (1969), oil on canvas, 79.9 x 79.9 in. Sold Thursday, November 29, 2018 for $1,062,022 USD
“M 39” (1969), oil on canvas, 79.9 x 79.9 in. Sold Thursday, November 29, 2018 for $1,062,022 USD
"#2" (1964), oil on canvas, 59.1 x 59.1 in. Sold Tuesday, October 8, 2019 for $683,942 USD
“#2” (1964), oil on canvas, 59.1 x 59.1 in. Sold Tuesday, October 8, 2019 for $683,942 USD
"M 72" (1969), oil on canvas, 55.1 x 55.1 in. Sold Thursday, November 29, 2018 for $637,213 USD
“M 72” (1969), oil on canvas, 55.1 x 55.1 in. Sold Thursday, November 29, 2018 for $637,213 USD

Paintings in Museum Collections

"M 74" (1969), oil on canvas, 53 x 108 in., The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
“M 74” (1969), oil on canvas, 53 x 108 in., The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
"Number 17" (1963), oil on burlap, 39 ½ x 39 ½ in., Museum of Modern Art, New York
“Number 17” (1963), oil on burlap, 39 ½ x 39 ½ in., Museum of Modern Art, New York
"M 22" (1968), oil on canvas, 56 x 56 in., The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
“M 22” (1968), oil on canvas, 56 x 56 in., The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
"M 65" (1969), oil on canvas, 56 x 56 in., McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas
“M 65” (1969), oil on canvas, 56 x 56 in., McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas

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