The historic significance of the
place had much to do with his
involvement with coming to know
Florida art: “My research about
the property led to a study of
the history of Florida, which led
to Henry Flagler and his role in
funding and founding
Florida’s historic art
tradition.” Flagler’s
story, about how the
oil magnate came to
St. Augustine and that
his grand Ponce de
Leon Hotel had artists’
studios into which he
brought established
American landscapists,
was the impetus that
sparked Jim’s interest
in Florida art.
But it was, more
clearly, Florida
artists that caught
Jim’s imagination
while defining his
understanding of art’s
worth and
meaning.
For Jim,
art’s worth is
based upon
monetary
values as
much as its
aesthetic
values. It
might be
stepping
too far out
onto a limb
to say that, to
him, aesthetic
appreciation is predicated by the
marketplace; taste is learned but
adding financial value to artwork
somehow makes it look more
interesting. At least people will
look at artworks differently, if not
more deeply, when taste and value
merge.
Neither regionalism nor realism
was central to the art world when,
in 1972, Jim and Anne opened
the Kissimmee Valley Gallery
in Sebring. The gallery was a
statement about the
couple’s belief in
Florida. Jim’s course
was set, and, all in all,
he has and continues
to be an advocate
for Florida art and
artists. Furthermore,
Jim unabashedly
worked “to legitimize
art as commodity.”
This is perhaps more
palpable a reality today
compared to when Jim
and Anne got started,
when modernist thought
suggested that art
speaks for itself and
that the artist was above
worldly concerns. Of
course, this
has never
been reality,
which is
clearly the
case with the
resurgent
interest in the
Highwaymen.
In 1994,
Jim named
a then
nameless
cohort of
painters “The
Highwaymen;”
Jim’s book, Living
Dogs and Dead Lions,
is a short no-holdsbarred
look at the
economic side of art.
Harold Newton
this unleashed a cultural
phenomenon. On no uncertain
terms, art and commerce were
inextricably linked from the start.
The artists’ biographies, their
social positions and narratives of
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