Etherton Gallery in Tucson is going into its 28th year, but from the recent press attention they have received, you might think the gallery is a new, shiny thing. While at AIPAD Miami Photography Show last month, one of the many side events to Art Basil Miami, the gallery received a write up in the Miami Herald for selling an historic photograph for $12,500. The Vanishing Race, a master print by Edward Sheriff Curtis, is an iconic image of Native Americans on horseback. Another photograph that grabbed attention in Miami was The Raft of George W. Bush, by Joel-Peter Witkin. The Witkin photograph copies Théodore Géricault's 19th. C. painting The Raft of the Medusa not only in composition, but in its intent as caustic ridicule of a ruling government. That Witkin's photograph, the last available print in the series, did not come to the gallery by way of the secondary market, but is available as the work of a gallery represented artist, only added to the buzz. Less than two weeks later the Wall Street Journal named the book Snowbound, a new collection by Etherton photographer Lisa M. Robinson, to their season short-list. We spoke recently with the gallery's director, Terry Etherton, to ask him what was behind the acclaim.
Terry, you have had some good press over the last month, though it didn't originate in Tucson, where the gallery is. How important are trade shows to the gallery?
Very important--we do at least two big shows a year. The next one is Photo LA in Santa Monica, January 11 - 13. Sometimes we do a Chicago show, as well. In Miami a number of museums brought groups to the show, so we met collectors who otherwise would not know about gallery. For Europeans visiting, everything looks like it is on sale, especially when they are spending Euros. It's not just the sales at the show, but the followups, the emails and the relationships that begin there that are important to us.
You have had good luck with younger and mid-career artists. How do you spot talent on the rise?
When people are good, they know it. It's apparent in the way they hold themselves--they don't act defensive. By the time they come to us, they should be doing the art for themselves, not just for the market. We spend a lot of time helping the artists, using our experience to help identify and avoid pitfalls, and we stick with them over the years. But we are not primarily a gallery of young artists, the gallery is a mix of artists in different career points, mid-career artists like Chris Enos and Kate Breakey, who are showing now with Lisa Robinson, and also well known photographers. Alex Webb and Elliott Erwitt, who will be showing in February, are both with Magnum in New York.
Phoenix has many new art spaces, and of course, the big party-crowds at First Friday, but Tucson has so many more established, mid-career artists.
I am still discovering them. Many of our artists work quietly, and don't put themselves out in public aggresively. But when there is something happening in the arts in Tucson, there is a lot of solidarity and community support. People like living here, and it shows.
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