Art-World Powerbroker, Eric I. Spoutz reminences & speaks of his preparation for a

This press release is about: spoutz, gallery, nesbitt, his, authenticated, paintings, had, detroit, artists, art, first,

2006-04-22, Peter Jameson - Art-World Powerbroker, Eric I. Spoutz reminisces & speaks of his preparation for a "rebound."
By Peter Jameson

Eric Spoutz‘s apartment in Palm Beach amalgamates into the upper stories of the high-rise which it is a part of, nearly invisible behind the blinding floodlights fixed upon the buildings façade. It was a rainy, balmy Florida evening. Nothing moved. The evening had the tranquility that the Ocean-front paradise known and coveted as Palm Beach has become famous for.

Suddenly Mr. Spoutz emerged from the shadows: He`d been sitting on his Ocean-front balcony, waiting and watching. A tall, strapping, dark-haired man in a Hugo Boss suit, he led the way into a small but elegant condo-like living area.

Formidably flamboyant paintings blazed from the overly lit walls: a gigantic eighty by eighty inch canvas with a single peach colored Rose depicted by Realist Painter, Lowell Nesbitt; “Hanna‘s Mirror,“ a canvas spanning nearly 10 feet in length projecting a series of seven conceptually laid exposures of a tropical landscape one superimposed upon another by Magic Realist, Ian Hornak; a large Jack Youngerman “Swirl” canvas . Combined with some chaotically gesturing potted plants and his collection of palace sized Persian Carpets, they deepened the exotic spell, evoking a kind of wild, yet tranquil and contemporary abode.
Suburban Detroit Upbringing
Mr. Spoutz provided a brief yet informative tour of his collection of post-modern canvases while he fetched a plate of Hors D`oeuvres from the bar, sipped a rum and coke, and smoked a Dunhill cigarette as he talked.

While his young career as an Art Dealer has variously been compared to those of Tibor de Nagy, Eleanor Ward, and Eugene Thaw, it evolved rapidly over the last 5 years. His representation of art has eluded classification or association with any one school or movement, making its own independent way from, and being retrospectively descriptive of the artistic taste that individuals are forced to self-develop when they grow up in the midst of average surroundings.

Born in Mount Clemens, Michigan to a Luxembourgian/American Father and an Czechoslovakian/American Mother who was educated at the prestigious Center for Creative Studies in Detroit, Mr. Spoutz found himself during his pre-adolescent years, raised in an upper-middle class Mid-Western family.

Self-Taught
"Being an only child I was more or less forced to find or make my own entertainment. I enjoyed reading books on American History, and then somewhat latter studying Art History. Really, I was quite sure that I was destined to become a Lawyer, Political Science Major, or a Real Estate Developer like my Grandfather on my Fathers side. My Uncle is Ian Hornak, the great contemporary Realist Painter and Draughtsman. Without him, without the exposure that he provided me to the greater world of culture, the world of New York, the world of Art, I don‘t know that I would be anything more then a normal guy living out his existence in an overly suburban setting somewhere in the Mid-West."

Earliest Work
Self-taught, he sold the first painting that he ‘represented‘ at the age of 12 to his Grandfather. " It was a botanical painting by Ian Hornak that was created in the tradition of the tradition of the Dutch and Flemish masters. A nice piece indeed, but as far as paintings by Ian Hornak go, nothing more then one of his quickies that he could ingeniously whip off in a week or so while simultaneously executing seven to ten other paintings of equal or greater importance. The significance of this first sale for me was not due to the amazing monumentality of the painting itself, rather, it was in my getting my feet wet by learning at an early age how to close a deal. My Grandfather who was my Dad‘s father wasn’t too hot on art. He thought that my Mother‘s Brothers paintings were overpriced and fluffy. I told him that my Uncle [Ian Hornak] could make anything he wanted, anything he requested. Really, I knew that Hornak would never do such a thing, but it was my strategy to entice my client, to get him motivated. After viewing photographs of some recent paintings by Ian Hornak, I finally convinced my grandfather to purchase a small, 12,000.00 dollar painting that would have retailed for 20,000.00 to 30,000.00 dollars on 57th Street in New York. It was my first sale."

By age 13 Mr. Spoutz already had three painting sales to his credit and decided that he had developed a strategy for the sale of artwork: “I realized at the age of 13 that I looked a little bit older then I really was. I also had a rather deep voice, sounding much older then I was. I came to the conclusion that I could easily go to the websites of professional art galleries on the internet that were located in the Detroit Metro Area and I could pick out images of a few artworks by artists who I was fond of, call or email the gallery, confirm the availability of the artwork, and then set about marketing it, unknown to the gallery that had the piece. My first successful strategy was to toss on a Bernini suit, print out the information off the internet and from my phone conversation with the gallery I had spoken with, place the photograph of the artwork and the folded spec sheet in my breast pocket, and have an older friend escort me to a local gallery opening at any reasonably high end location. I would just mill around the opening during the course of an evening and if I saw somebody who was alone and admiring a work or works on the wall that seemed to be created in a similar fashion, but usually by a different artist, then the artwork that I had the picture of, and information for in my breast pocket, then I would just start casual conversation with the patron. Sometimes the conversation would go far enough that I would actually be able to get to show the small, postcard sized image and spec sheet to the person and about ten percent of the time I would actually be able to get the persons phone number, call them the following day and over the course of the following week, close the deal. I sold three Jack Youngerman Gouaches in my 13th year, and a few other pieces by decent sized contemporary, New York based artists. Off of any one of those sales I would make anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. Not bad for a kid.”

Mr. Spoutz pointed to a small; eleven by eight inch expressionist style portrait on his wall which he said was the only Self-Portrait that Realist Painter, Lowell Nesbitt, ever created. He expanded by explaining that Nesbitt had painted it during his stay as a fellow at the Royal Academy in London.

"My mother was very encouraging about my involvement with art," Mr. Spoutz said, "my father was indifferent, but my grandfather on my fathers side wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer. He thought I was wasting my time with the art thing." Even so, he remembers that his Grandfather would say “he would be proud of me no matter what I chose to do in life."

At Macomb Community College, and later at Wayne State University where he stopped four credits short of a Bachelors Degree, Mr. Spoutz experimented with various self devised art marketing strategies, “some through the internet, some that required me to make physical appearances.”
Detroit Art Scene
At age 18 Mr. Spoutz opened a Gallery in the City of Detroit, “it was a small, but grand space,“ Spoutz said. “I looked a few of the best buildings in Detroit, and finally settled on the Fisher Building which is the tallest commercial, marble faced tower in the world. The building had thirty thousand square feet of hand painted frescos in the grand arcade and there was a former gallery space that was basically already set up on the second floor. I took it. Right from the start my direction was quite clear, I was going to represent Photo-Realism, Magic-Realism, and Super-Realism. Although I had already done some work with Abstract Expressionist artworks, I felt most at home with Realism as it was a Realist painting that was the first painting that I sold in my life in addition to my Uncle being a famous Realist Artist.”

At the end of the first summer that Mr. Spoutz opened his gallery he held his opening exhibit. “ I opened with a survey of works by some of the really powerful Realists of our time. Lowell Nesbitt, Ian Hornak, Otto Duecker, and then brought in some additional stuff that was inspired by realism, but was optical in it implications. Jean Pierre Yvaral who is the deceased son of Op-Art Founder, Victor Vasarely, was the artist I chose to bring a little bit of what I call Abstract Realism into the exhibit. Yvaral was famous for his polychromatic diffraction paintings, something that I am very fascinated by. I made sure that I had at least one polychromatic diffraction portrait painting of both George Washington and Marilyn Monroe, both icons in their own right, both American to the core! My first exhibit had about 60 paintings by my personal selection of artists.”

"After the first exhibit I realized I could never do anything but art dealing. I loved it, I was empowered by it, I was enthralled."
Lowell Nesbitt
His second exhibit was a retrospective show for the Famous Realist Artist, Lowell Nesbitt. “Lowell Nesbitt is one of those artists that legends are made of, whether we look at the diversity of techniques, subject matters, and mediums that he employed throughout his career, or we take a moment to reflect on the fact that most of the largest and most important art collections of the 20th century own his works, it matters not, he is indeed a legend in the art world of the last century. Nesbitt was the Official Artist for the Apollo 9 and 13 Space Missions, Official Artist for the United States Navy and Postal Service, Official Artist for the United States Department of Interior and the National Wildlife Fund. There were a couple of reasons that I chose Nesbitt to be the star of my gallery stable, the first being the attributes that I just mentioned, the second being his connection to my family. When my Uncle, Ian Hornak left Detroit in 1967 to move to New York City, it was Lowell Nesbitt who took Hornak under his wing and allowed him to live and work in his mansion on West 12th Street in New York City. Lowell did this not just for my Uncle, but also for many other then budding masters who were attempting to break into the Pop art world of the 1960’s and 70’s. Nesbitt was a great help to many of the artists who today we regard as the greatest masters of our time. Just as Robert Indiana brought Nesbitt into New York, so Nesbitt attempted rather successfully to pass the torch to a new generation of emerging artistic masters. Second, when I saw that the values of Lowell Nesbitt’s artworks were not as high as they should have been, but that he had one of the finest and most impressive resumes in the business this immediately sparked thoughts in my head of my aiding the then deceased Nesbitt in a reemergence into the mainstream art world. The first way that I planned to do this was by hosting the first full scale retrospective since the official Nesbitt estate retrospective that had been hosted by the Bayly Art Museum at the University of Virginia in 1994. The Retrospective that I hosted at the Eric I. Spoutz Gallery in Detroit displayed nearly 60 unique works spanning the majority of the artists mainstream career from 1955 to 1990. The exhibit went well and received decent press both nationally and internationally which I was very proud of. Upon the close of the exhibit I took it upon myself to assemble for my personal purchase the largest collection in the world of works by Lowell Nesbitt which I still own today.”

Once the first year of the Eric I. Spoutz Gallery had passed, Mr. Spoutz grew weary of his choice to open a gallery in the Mid-West rather then in New York City. “If I was to do it over again, and I will, I would most certainly forget about opening a gallery in the Mid-West and go right for the most challenging arena that the Art World has to offer, New York City, East 57th Street.”

Relocation to Palm Beach
By 2004 Mr. Spoutz had all but abandoned his Detroit gallery, the exhibits were no longer being hosted, there were no more new artists entering his Stable and his motivation to continue the business that be had started was nearly gone. “Regrets and depression had begun to set in on a gigantic level, my health was going down the tube. My weight had risen to 325 pounds, and I was drinking excessively. Although the public parties, or ‘openings’ as I called them, at my gallery in Detroit had stopped, the parties in my personal life were continuing on a larger level then ever. It seemed that the only thing I was using the gallery for was to bring fifty or eighty people up for my own private parties in the middle of night, Thursday through Saturday. Drugs started to run the show, and that’s when I decided that the show was over in Detroit once and for all.” Mr. Spoutz decided in the middle of 2004 that he was going to relocate his residence and business to Palm Beach, Florida by the January 1st, 2006. "I found a great place on the Atlantic in Palm Beach and knew right away that it was the place for my future home. I needed an ocean view and that’s exactly what I got. For my first few months in Florida I actually lived in Orlando where I opened a small office in the city’s most prestigious district, Winter Park, although, I quickly got my new home in Palm Beach furnished with my huge paintings, had a bunch of furniture custom designed in Italy and had enough palace size Persian Carpets, mostly Mashad, Kerman, and Kashan, which are my passion shipped in from the Middle East. For the first few months in Palm Beach I just stood back and enjoyed myself. I set about trying to revamp my lifestyle. It just seemed that if I could put drugs, sex and alcohol on the back burner that I would be able to be a better person. I got myself down from 325 pounds to less then 200 pounds in a very short period of time. I was very proud of that. Life began to resume on a safer and better level.”

Eccentricity & Outrageousness
"I have always done everything I could to try to fight against just being an art dealer. Art Dealing for me is a lifestyle, its form of existence." Mr. Spoutz said. "When my interest level in the representation of Realism started to wane, I had to find something to supersede that passion." "Every time I would walk into an art museum as a child I would look around and think to myself, I wonder what these paintings are worth? As a young adult that’s what I set about determining. Through the connections that I had built up internationally as an Art Dealer in Detroit, I decided I would try my hand at what I called the power-brokering of fully authenticated masterworks. One of the first masterworks that I represented and sold was a poorly executed, mid-career misty landscape, Claude Monet canvas that was fully authenticated by the Wildenstein Institute in Paris. I sold that for 850,000 dollars and took a five percent commission. It was a gas, it was fabulous, it was my destiny! Right away I set about finding higher quality, fully authenticated artworks primarily by Impressionist, Post Impressionist, Expressionist, Abstract Expressionist and Pop Masters that I could represent and sell. At least those were the movements that most fascinated me. With time I handled all of the big boys, Picasso, van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci, Dali, Matisse, Warhol, O`Keeffe, Cezanne, Degas, Renoir, Goya, Munch, Raphael Sanzio, Miro, Rubens, Lichtenstein, Chagall and Pollock. It was all very exciting to handle canvases ranging in price from 350,000 dollars to in excess of 80,000,000 dollars per piece and knowing that there were actually people out there who were capable, willing and excited to purchase these works! Most of my initial clients were in New York, although, I tended to find that the supply of high value masterworks wasn’t as good as I would have liked it to be in the States so I started to tap into sources within Switzerland and Japan neither one of which were subject to European Union Trade Guidelines, thus making it easier to market the works to my clients in the States.”

In the Controversy
In 2005, article by article, word started to leak out of the alleged less then ethical business practices of Eric I. Spoutz. Critics began to question the authenticity of a grouping of artworks that Mr. Spoutz was actively selling through an unlikely venue. “Sometime around 2003 I had purchased a few thousand attributed artworks from a couple of different private collections. Really I didn’t know what I was going to do with these, if anything, but then it hit me, I would try to sell them on eBay! I was very careful about this as I had already sold a good many fully authenticated masterworks to some of the most important collectors of our time. I had also done well in Realism and was reasonably respected within my industry. I just figured that if I opened a sales division of my company for eBay sales and offered affordable artwork to the public with the appropriate disclosures that both my clients and I would be safe. The works were offered with stiff terms and conditions of sale clearly stating that the works were attributed to the respective artists and that there was no assurance of authenticity, thus reflecting the roughly 2,000 dollar through 15,000 dollar price tags on the pieces. If the works had been fully authenticated the bare minimum starting prices would have been 75,000 dollars to well over 1,000,000 dollars. The works were speculative and clearly stated as such. Further research needed to be performed on the art if it was ever to have a chance at fully authenticated status. There was a self proclaimed art expert by the name of Preben J. Madsen in Denmark who took note of the auctions and decided that he would slander my name as a swindler. My response to his accusations is quite clear. I have never forced or coerced anyone to purchase the art that my sales staff was selling on eBay, everyone purchased the artwork based upon their own free will and those who purchased the works were forewarned that they should perform their own due diligence before purchase. In the eyes of the professional Art World, Mr. Madsen’s opinions are not to be taken as fact, they are merely his own personal opinions. No leading Auction House, Art Gallery, or Museum would ever consider relying solely on the personal opinions of Preben J. Madsen.

The Excesses in a Dark Interlude
The prospect of romance took Mr. Spoutz to Dallas, Texas, where while he continued to maintain his home in Palm Beach, he acquired a new secondary home and a fiancé. “I suppose somebody like me who is so incredibly abstract in his thought-processes is not a very good candidate for a stable long term relationship. I had to prove that to myself, though. So I went out to Dallas for one to two month intervals, got a house there, and tried my hand at settling down and being engaged to a woman who I thought just might be the right woman for me. It didn’t work. It was a financially costly mistake, perhaps even a disaster, although, truly a learning experience that I wouldn’t give up for anything.” Mr. Spoutz said.

New Horizons
Mr. Spoutz’s latest projects include the initial business plans for the opening of the Eric I. Spoutz Gallery at 41 East 57th Street in New York City, and the recent specialization in the purchase and sale of what he calls “high valued artworks of American Abstract Pioneers.” “Recently, I have taken a sincere and earnest interest in the artworks of the Stieglitz Group, the Precisionists and the general Abstract Artists from the early to middle portion of the 20th century. At the moment I am both buying and selling a great many fully authenticated paintings and drawings by artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Arthur Dove, Charles Sheeler, Charles Demuth, Maurice Prendergast, Stuart Davis, etc…”

The Dealer plans to open the Eric I. Spoutz Gallery in New York City by exhibiting these middle 20th century abstract artists. Mr. Spoutz said with obvious relish, “to open my New York Gallery with artworks by the Stieglitz Artists, Precisionists, etc… means that the bulk of the artwork that I will represent through the gallery will be in 45,000 to 2,200,000 dollar range which is a range that both my clients and I are comfortable with. I am still the worlds youngest and fastest growing Fine Art Power-Broker and have many great years ahead, watch out!”

Source: PR Web™

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