Gotta Have Art: Scottsdale galleries have evolved over decades

Many proclaim that art is in Scottsdale’s DNA. As the world-renowned Scottsdale Art Walk celebrates its 50th anniversary this spring, it’s time to do some “art genealogy.” 

To understand how art became embedded in our community’s genes, one must trace the evolution of Scottsdale’s galleries and gallerists.

Today, Scottsdale is home to dozens of galleries, offering Western, Native American, contemporary, traditional and graphic art, as well as photography, crafts, jewelry and antiques. Although galleries in various areas of Scottsdale, the trail of the now 50-year-old Thursday Night Art Walk winds through those in Old Town Scottsdale.

Here are just some of the family tree entries in Scottsdale’s gallery genealogy:

•As a modest farming and ranching community from its founding in 1888 until after World War II, Scottsdale’s population welcomed artists to settle here. However, the town did not have galleries, museums or events to exhibit arts and crafts until after World War II.

•Boston Museum of Fine Arts School-educated Marjorie Thomas became Scottsdale’s first resident artist when she arrived in 1909 with her mother and tubercular brother. Her first commission was to paint the town namesake Chaplain Winfield Scott’s U.S. Army mule, Old Maude. She set up an art studio in her home on Indian School Road at Scottsdale Road and participated in exhibitions ranging from the Fine Art Expo at the Arizona State Fair to shows at pre-war inns and resorts.

•Ed Graves operated a craft shop at the Graves Guest Ranch in Scottsdale in the early 1900s, offering authentic Southwestern items, such as Native American woven baskets and blankets, paintings and pottery.

•Chicago- and European-trained artist Jessie Benton Evans built a home on the southern slopes of Camelback Mountain circa 1913, and held cultural salons at her Casa del Desierto. She served as a judge at the annual Arizona State Fair Fine Art Exhibit, taught art at the Jokake School for Girls and painted many Scottsdale desert landscapes.

•In 1922, Scottsdale artist Garnet Davy Grosse and other local artists established National Art Week, which grew to a nationwide celebration.

•In the 1930s, George Ellis constructed homes in an area known as Cattletrack; many artists, architects, writers and other creative individuals established home studios there, referring to it as the Left Bank (of the Arizona Canal). Artisans held exhibitions and events for the public then, just as they continue to do today.

•Tom Darlington opened the Arizona Craftsmen Center in February 1946 on the southwest corner of Main Street and Brown Avenue, featuring artisans such as Wes Segner (silversmith), Lloyd Kiva New (leather artist), Phillips Sanderson (wood carver), Lew Davis (painter), Mathilde Schaefer Davis (ceramics) and showcasing the ornamental ironwork of George Cavalliere (located across the street). Its opening attracted hundreds of curious arts and crafts enthusiasts; even former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited the center in 1946 and 1947, writing about it in her national column, My Day. The demonstration studios and art events were popular among visitors, residents, and the news media. The center closed after a major fire in spring 1950; several of the artisans relocated their exhibition studios to a new area now known as Fifth Avenue and reopened the Arizona Crafts Center in November 1950.

•Leo and Buck Saunders opened Scottsdale’s first art gallery and art supply store, the Trading Post, on Brown Avenue just north of Main Street in 1949. Among their initial artists were Ted DeGrazia, Pop Chalee and Ralph Goltry.

•During the early 1950s, other gallerists opened throughout Old Town. Bob and Betty Dillon opened The Navajo Shop at 118 E. Main Street. The Bonnell family opened the White Hogan featuring an array of well-known Native American craftspeople. Manuel and Margaret Berg opened The Blue Door gallery at Indian School and Scottsdale Roads. An article in the Nov. 23, 1950 Scottsdale Program reported, “The shop will carry paintings by southwest artists, fiesta costumes, Rio Grande blankets, santos and Spanish gold filigree jewelry.” El Patio Art Gallery operated at The Patio Shops on East Main Street. The Camelback Gallery operated at intersection of Camelback and Scottsdale Roads. Brice and Judy Sewell opened The Little Museum/Sewell’s Indian Arts on First Avenue, later moving to Fifth Avenue. Interiors Associates studio at 39 W. First Street offered furniture fabrics, ceramic accessories and mural work by artists Allen Ditson and Lee Porzio.

•Galleries and art studios outside of Downtown Scottsdale in the 1950s, included Segner’s Craft Village on Miller Road, Lew and Mathilde Davis’ Desert School of Art on McDonald Drive in Paradise Valley, the Ellis family’s Cattletrack art enclave, Avis Read’s Stable Gallery at McDonald and Miller and Anne McCormick’s Indian Arts & Crafts Village on Via de Ventura at Pima Road.

•Most inns and guest ranches in the Scottsdale area closed for the summer during the 1950s and 1960s. Gallery and shop owners often left Scottsdale for the summer, opening similarly named galleries in Petoskey and Mackinac Island, Michigan, as well as Santa Fe and Taos. 

•In 1956, Scottsdale experienced an expansion of galleries and art studios. Artists and World War II Army Air Corps veterans Francis Beaugureau and Bill Schimmel launched the Beaugureau-Schimmel Gallery in January at the Craft Center on North Miller Road. They also ran an art school at the gallery. Leather and silk-screen fashion artist Lloyd Kiva opened the Kiva Craft Center on the south side of Fifth Avenue in January, featuring craft studios, galleries, shops, and restaurants. Kiva’s collegial artist-merchant team hosted fashion shows, art exhibits, music performances, and other gatherings, including the annual Thieves Market sale, which attracted celebrities, visitors, and residents. Ray Graves launched Gra-Wun on Fifth Avenue, while William V. “Bill” O’Brien opened O’Brien’s Art Emporium at 82 Marshall N.W., later moving to 7112 Stetson Drive, where it operated through the early 1990s.

•Building on the momentum of 1956, Dick Seeger opened the Dick Seeger Design Gallery at 28 W. First Avenue in 1957, before relocating it to the Kiva Craft Center in 1962. In 1958, Paul Hulderman and his wife Kay opened the House of Six Directions at 60 W. Fifth Avenue. According to a Nov. 11, 1979, Arizona Republic article, Hulderman’s gallery name derived from the idea that “six “ includes zenith and nadir (up and down) along with the four compass points. Hulderman emerged as a leader in the arts and gallery communities, playing a key role in establishing the National Indian Arts Expo in Scottsdale, the Fine Arts Commission, and the initiative to build a Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts. Bill McGee launched McGee’s Indian Den in 1959, and within a few years, he had two locations in Downtown Scottsdale — one at Pima Plaza and another on Stetson in a tall clock tower building, which also included a museum of Native Americana. By 1964, McGee’s showcased rug weaving demonstrations by Navajos visiting from Northern Arizona.

•Galleries continued to open in Old Town throughout the 1960s. Suzanne Brown and Elaine Horwitch began selling art from their station wagon, naming their business The Art Wagon. By 1966, they had moved into a storefront on Main Street. Muriel Bigar Berkson opened GOMA, or the Gallery of Modern Art, in 1964. The Udinotti-Hack Gallery opened at 313 Western Park Drive in 1965, later becoming the Udinotti Gallery in 1966, operated by artist-gallerist Agnese Udinotti.

•Clare and Riva Yares opened the Yares Gallery at 125 W. Main Street featuring contemporary art. Riva’s friend Nick Nolte, an aspiring actor at the time, tended bar at the gallery’s grand opening, according to her memoir, “Sleeping with Dogs: Reva Yares, a Memoir.” Riva later built a standalone gallery on Bishop Lane. Among the artists she exhibited were Lew Davis, surrealist Roberto Matta and Francois Gilot (former partner of Picasso, later the wife of polio vaccine pioneer Jonas Salk).

•“When she rebuilt her space in Scottsdale, Riva made a statement about the nature of her intentions: this is a commercial gallery that has the look and feel of a well-run museum, and that presents its artists with all the panache of a public institution. There is, however, one important difference—no museum director actually presides over the gallery. Instead, Riva is a constant presence in the magnificent building she has created,” wrote Riva’s friend Edward Lucie-Smith in the introduction to “Sleeping with Dogs,” published in 2011.

•Western clothing merchants Troy and Marilyn Murray transitioned their business to sell art at Troy’s Cowboy Art Gallery on Main Street in 1970. Years later, the Murrays’ daughter Jinger and husband Brad Richardson continued the family tradition and own/operate the Legacy Gallery on the northwest corner of Scottsdale Road and Main Street. They are known for major art exhibitions and auctions of Western art.

•After the new Scottsdale Civic Center Library opened in late November 1968, its mezzanine was used as a civic art gallery, exhibiting works of many local artists — Marjorie Thomas, Lew/Mathilde Davis, Sandy Sanderson and more. Dan Noble, then head of Motorola Government Electronics in Scottsdale and an artist himself whose artistic moniker was Elbon, also exhibited in the Mezzanine Gallery.

•In 1970, Scottsdale Galleries Inc. at 47 W. Main Street held an auction of artifacts included in the estate of Don Pablo, who had operated the “House of Relics” on the northeast corner of Scottsdale and Pinnacle Peak roads in the 1950s and 1960s. The sale included items ranging from Kachina Dolls and Indian rugs to turquoise church bells, Western furniture and cast-iron stoves.

•Elaine Horwitch opened The Elaine Horwitch Gallery June 1, 1973, at 7064 Main Street. Among the artists featured in her opening ad: Ben Goo, Merrill Mahaffey, Fritz Scholder and more. By 1977 her gallery had moved to 4200 N. Marshall Way, and her exhibitions included Bill Schenck, John Dawson, Earl Linderman and others.

•“It’s a joy to be involved in the world of contemporary art, to be a part of the excitement of artistic creation at the time it is happening. Certainly, I admire the masters of the past centuries, but each time I see a fresh vision of what art is and what art can be, that special moment of discovery becomes a new threshold.” Elaine Horwitch wrote this commentary in “Linderman, The True and Incredible Adventures of Doktor Thrill,” published by George Alpert in 1984.

•According to ads in the Scottsdale Progress, art galleries along West Main Street began hosting a Tuesday night art walk in early 1975. A few months later, the weekly event, sponsored by the Main Street Arts Association, was changed to Thursday nights. In its early years, the event took a break June through September. Shop keepers and entertainers dressed in Renaissance attire to welcome guests to a 1977 Thursday night Main Street Art Walk.

•When the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts opened Oct. 23, 1975, its lobby/atrium was used for civic art shows. The debut exhibit showcased Western paintings of W.H.D. Koerner and sculpture of James C. Turpen Jr.

•In September 1977, Lovena Ohl opened a gallery in the new Mercado Verde, 7373 Scottsdale Mall, specializing in primitive and contemporary Indian arts and crafts. Her artists included Charles Loloma, Al Momaday, Tony Da, Harvey Begay and many others. In 1978, she established the Lovena Ohl Foundation, through which she helped support young Native American artists. Mrs. Ohl was honored with the 1994 Arizona Governor’s Art Award and was inducted into the Scottsdale History Hall of Fame in 1996.

•Lee Cohen opened Gallery 10 in Scottsdale around 1978 and later expanded to a second gallery in Carefree. He was a leader of the Scottsdale Arts Center Association and chaired the Scottsdale Cultural Council from 1992 to 1994 before his death in 1995.

•Gilbert Ortega opened his first Scottsdale Native American art gallery and jewelry store on East Main Street in 1979. He had previously worked at McGee’s Indian Den at Pima Plaza during the 1960s, then developed a multistate chain of Gilbert Ortega Native American art galleries based in New Mexico. In the mid-1970s, he sold his stores to pursue a brief recording career in Nashville. Following the opening of his first Scottsdale location, he expanded to Fifth Avenue, Hilton Village, Lincoln Village, The Borgata, The Galleria, and several other sites in Scottsdale, as well as throughout the metro Phoenix area. In 1999, his gallery shop at First and Brown Avenues burned down, resulting in the loss of all inventory (but no injuries); he rebuilt on the site. After his death, his family continued to operate the galleries.

•“Most mornings, I arrive in Old Town early, long before any of the shops have opened, and usually drive along Brown Avenue and up Main Street, always observing, evaluating my stores and the other small businesses that are such an important part of our community. I park behind the museum store where I have my office and wander into the store. There, in the silence and the soft light of the gallery not yet opened for business, I admire — with pride — beautiful pottery, rugs, baskets, jewelry. Today, my business is one of the largest Native American arts and crafts enterprises in the country. The galleries showcase the finest artisans.” Gilbert Ortega wrote these words in the forward to “The Story of the Man Behind the Name: Gilbert Ortega,” by Patricia Bezunartea, published in 2007 (four years after Gilbert Ortega’s death).

•According to Arizona Corporation Commission records, the Scottsdale Gallery Association incorporated as a 501(c)(3) in May 1989.

•The Scottsdale Gallery Association introduced the Summer Spectacular Art Walk in 1990, typically held in early July. The association, in collaboration with merchants and restaurants in Old Town Scottsdale, participated in major events occurring in Scottsdale and throughout the Valley. For instance, in 1996, the Super Bowl Art Walk took place on Thursday, Jan. 25, just days before the first Super Bowl played in the greater Phoenix area (at ASU’s Sun Devil Stadium on Sunday, Jan. 28). Building on the success of the Super Bowl Art Walk, the Scottsdale Gallery Association organized a Fiesta Bowl Art Walk in late December 1996.

•Galleries continue to thrive in Old Town and throughout Scottsdale, a testament to the perennial interest of residents and visitors in authentic art, crafts and jewelry representing the Southwest and the world. Gallerists have found creative ways to attract customers despite competition from online art sales and temporary arts and crafts sales events. The Scottsdale Gallery Association and individual galleries have been generous to the community, supporting local charities and helping promote tourism.

The Scottsdale Art Walk, now entering its sixth decade, continues to attract attendees, especially at its themed Gold Palette art walks.

See you on a Thursday stroll through Scottsdale’s galleries, or any time the cultural bug hits you!