The Printseller's Window: Solving A Painter's Puzzle November 6, 2009

In 1998, MAG director Grant Holcomb bid on a mysterious painting on the auction block at Sotheby's. Almost nothing was known about it, or about its remarkably talented painter, but Holcomb's risk paid off. In a review of auction sales that year, one writer hailed the work as "a masterpiece that is the equal of the best of William Harnett...John Peto...and John Haberle...the three great American titans of "trompe l'oeil." With photographs, engravings and antique bits of bric-a-brac--all overseen by a bespectacled and bearded figure - 'The Printseller's Window' is filled with puzzling bits that suggest a story. This exhibition tells how the painting's secrets have been given up one by one through the painstaking detective work of guest curator Pete Brown.