Show Preview | Chuck Sabatino

Santa Fe, NM
McLarry Fine Art, August 7-21

This story was featured in the August 2020 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art August 2020 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

AS A BOY GROWING up in New York City’s Bronx borough, artist Chuck Sabatino made regular treks to the National Museum of the American Indian in Manhattan, where the institution’s impressive collection of artifacts mesmerized him, visit after visit, with its beauty and history. Today, decades later, Sabatino continues to visit museums that specialize in Native American history; for the Scottsdale, AZ, artist, these trips are equal parts research and pleasure as he hunts for new material to portray in his still-life paintings. “Chuck is always exploring new artifacts,” says John Knox, director of McLarry Fine Art, which has represented Sabatino for nearly as long as the 30-year-old Santa Fe gallery has been open. “He has boundless amounts of energy,” adds Knox. “It’s really what keeps him going, and his love for painting is evident in his work.”

If Sabatino’s illustrious career as one of the West’s most respected still-life artists isn’t enough evidence of that prolific energy, one can find it in abundance at McLarry’s annual solo exhibitions featuring the artist’s work. Sabatino’s latest show opens on Friday, August 7, with around 20 new oil paintings that highlight the historic and prehistoric Pueblo pottery he has faithfully studied for years. In numerous paintings—some as large as 7 feet tall—Sabatino also devotes his attention to other Indian artifacts, from a Lakota Sioux headdress copiously adorned with eagle feathers, to beaded storage bags from the Cheyenne and Sioux tribes, to an Apache poncho and buckskin dress top. Perhaps the question isn’t which tribes are represented in the artist’s work, but rather, which tribes aren’t represented.

When Sabatino was growing up in the 1940s, John Ford, Howard Hawks, and other Hollywood movie directors were bringing landmark western films like Fort Apache, Red River, and Gangsters of the Frontier to the silver screen. Sabatino himself eagerly took in all the big westerns of the day; meanwhile, make-believe games of cowboys and Indians allowed him to bring those frontier stories to life in his Bronx neighborhood, hundreds of miles away from the real American West. But his interest in the region never waned. In 1988, after retiring from a successful career in New York City as an art director and award-winning television producer, Sabatino pulled up stakes and moved with his wife, Millie, to Scottsdale. The artist was finally home—and free to paint full time.

When Sabatino first turned to still-life painting, pottery dominated his imagery. Gradually, as he sought to add visual contrast to his earthen-hued arrangements, he incorporated an array of objects, including colorfully beaded moccasins and ceremonial garments, tobacco bags with leather fringe, and even vintage photographs by American photographer and ethnologist Edward S. Curtis. This rich variety, both in texture and color, has allowed Sabatino to temper his realistic style with a painterly touch that reveals his own hand in the process. It’s a “historic-meets-contemporary approach,” says Knox, that attracts collectors to Sabatino’s work. “His dark, rich backgrounds make objects in his paintings pop,” he adds. So much so, in fact, that collectors have told Sabatino it almost feels like they could lift the objects right out of his paintings. —Kim Agricola

contact information
505.988.1161
www.mclarryfineart.com

This story was featured in the August 2020 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art August 2020 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

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