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Upstairs on HENNEPIN OMMERCIAL art GALLERIES seem to have the lives of TOM SEWELL mayflies. Many can’t keep Ctheir doors open for more than a few and the months. When the Bottega Gallery and Workshop opened for business BOTTEGA GALLERY at 816 Hennepin Avenue in Min- neapolis late in 1962, few thought it would last very long. Tom Sewell, known and respected regional artists, TOM MORAN the proprietor, had only just turned and a number of the younger artists 23. A magazine article, noting three went on to gain similar and even Sewell also courted artists with Minneapolis galleries that had gone larger reputations and followings. their own studio space, asking to out of business within the past few The gallery space had originally show their work either at the Bot- weeks, flatly predicted the Bottega’s been rented by Terry Riggs, one of tega or the nearby Inn Towne Motel, failure.1 Sewell’s friends. Sewell, who had where the management had agreed Housed in a second- story walkup worked with Riggs as a display man to let him display art in the restau- just above Joe Piazza’s popular Café at Dayton’s Department Store, of- rant and along the dim halls. His di Napoli restaurant, the Bottega fered to help out, and then Riggs early shows featured many of the lasted almost three- and- a- half years, suddenly left Minneapolis. The rent region’s young and promising art- much longer than anyone had ex- was paid up and Sewell decided to ists, including Jan Rivard Attridge, pected. It grew to be the focal point carry on, soliciting artists to use the Hollis McDonald, Sherry Blanchard, for a generation of young Minnesota space as a studio and display their and Larry and Nancy Rosing. Unlike artists, giving them a vital place work there. He hoped that custom- most fine arts galleries, Sewell’s was to gather and socialize, show their ers would relish the opportunity to also quite willing to exhibit work by work to the public, meet and talk visit the gallery, see artists at work, commercial artists from the Twin with some of the reigning stars of and purchase the art they made. An Cities’ advertising agencies. In its the art world, and be a part of the early press release announced that first months, the Bottega presented sea change in culture and art that the Bottega, as Sewell had named shows of paintings and watercolors was sweeping through the country in it, would serve as a “gathering place by Pat Nolan of the Campbell those early years of the 1960s. Many for local artists” and a “service to Mithun agency, Ron Anderson of of the artists who hung their work on architects and decorators looking for Knox Reeves, and Robert Gordenier the walls of the Bottega were well- made- to- order artworks.” 2 of McManus, John & Adams.3 268 Minnesota History Still, the Bottega very well might gional artists had been on view since Artists and visitors relaxing at have vanished quickly had it not 1951.4 A few were able to get their Minneapolis’s Bottega Gallery been for a show it hosted five months work displayed at organizations like after opening its doors to the public. the American Swedish Institute or bitions could be imperfect and that In the early 1960s, Minnesota art- the St. Paul Center for the Arts. Some good art, even great art, might go un- ists eagerly looked forward to three were given shows at the MIA’s Little recognized. But rejection of one’s cre- competitive exhibitions where their Gallery. And many held open houses ative efforts is never easy to swallow, creative efforts would be viewed if in their studios or set up booths to and the artists who had to return to selected by jurors, often well- known show their work at malls and small the institute and retrieve their work curators and artists from out of state. festivals. But inclusion in one of the were quite disappointed. To their One of these was the annual Minne- three prestigious competitive exhibi- surprise, they discovered that a new sota State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition. tions was a coveted validation for the venue was eager to display the art. The others were biennials, one held artists and their efforts. When Sewell, an artist and art at the Walker Art Center in even- In April 1963, the jurors rejected student himself, heard a few of the numbered years, the other at the almost 1,100 of the 1,212 pieces en- rejected artists grumbling about Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) tered in the MIA’s Third Minnesota the judging, he recalled the story of in odd- numbered years. There were, Biennial.5 Most artists understood the 1863 Salon des Refusés in Paris of course, other ways for the region’s that the judging for these large exhi- where artworks, many now consid- artists to get exposure. Some might be offered shows by one of the hand- ful of existing commercial galleries Tom Moran is a professor in the Center for Multidisciplinary Studies at Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY. His articles and essays have appeared in in the area, possibly the Premier, the numerous publications, including the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and Red Carpet, or, most notably, the Seattle Times. Kilbride- Bradley where first- rate re- Fall 2013 269 a one- dollar entry fee Sewell had charged artists for displaying their work. A few of the pieces were sold. In late May the show came to a close. As the art came off the walls, it was replaced by the work of Dick Sut- phen, a commercial artist from Knox Reeves who, ironically, had won a prize in the MIA’s biennial.7 Sewell’s Salon des Refusés was a brash and inspired move that caught the attention of artists and collec- tors as well as the press. The new gallery, an upstart in the region’s art scene, was suddenly on the map. It would remain there for another three years, a lively and important component of the rich artistic and cultural scene that was flourishing in the Twin Cities. During its life- span, programs at the Minneapolis School of Art and the University of Minnesota were grooming a fresh generation of talented young artists. The Walker Art Center presented an impressive menu of shows introduc- ing the newest influences in contem- porary art from around the world. Traveling exhibitions, such as Four Centuries of American Art and Art Hugely successful opening of the Bottega’s Salon des Refusés, 1963 USA filled the MIA galleries with crowds.8 The arrival of the Guthrie ered masterpieces, rejected for the was crowded, wall to wall, with art- Theater in 1963 infused the Twin annual Paris Salon were given a sec- ists and their friends, and through- Cities’ cultural life with new energy, ond chance. For Sewell, the jurors’ out its three- week run the show’s and a rising prosperity freed many decisions represented a golden op- popularity continued, as Sewell to consider collecting and investing portunity, and he immediately began hosted tours for a variety of groups in the arts. But young artists needed circulating the news: Any piece of from local schools and organizations. a space like the Bottega to nurture work rejected for this biennial would He acknowledged that some of the their talent and dreams. There, be welcomed into an exhibition at work on display might be “complete the new generation could come to- his new gallery. The Bottega would junk.” But he told Minneapolis Star gether, show their work, learn from host Minneapolis’s own Salon des columnist Don Morrison that the each other, and begin to make their Refusés.6 salon proved that “a lot of Minnesota places as artists in a challenging and The show was a huge success. artists are doing interesting and dif- fast- changing world. Paintings and photographs filled the ferent work whether it is fashionable gallery’s walls, sculpture was scat- or not.” Gallery visitors cast ballots tered around the floor, and overflow for the works they liked best, and TOM SEWELL was THE PERFECT HOST work was displayed in the entryway three of the artists— all painters— for such an undertaking. Flamboy- and staircase. The opening reception received cash awards funded by ant, energetic, personable, he dashed 270 Minnesota History about the Twin Cities on a motor scooter, sometimes clad in a raccoon coat or a wild Mongolian robe, deliv- ering flyers and press releases to the newspapers, visiting artists’ studios, and chatting up the gallery’s shows and artists with potential custom- ers. Sewell dragged a discarded sign advertising a plumbing company to the gallery, cut up and rearranged the letters to spell Bottega Gallery, and, although it lacked some of the letters, hung it out a second- story window. To advertise a show of paintings and drawings by Donald Pulver, Sewell hired a local character to parade up and down Hennepin Avenue wearing a sandwich- board Energetic Tom Sewell with art historian Barbara Kaerwer; sign. He wooed Robert Indiana, who the sign on his lapel reads, “See Me About Sales.” would become famed for his LOVE paintings, Robert Stankiewicz, a tridge, the doll constructions of Har- this highly respected earlier genera- world- renowned metal sculptor, and vey Hurley, and the stone mosaics of tion of artists brought additional rec- Robert Rauschenberg, a contem- naïf artist Gladys Severson. The year ognition to the fledgling gallery.10 porary icon— all in Minneapolis for closed out with two important shows.

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