Episode 71: Joe Berton on What We Can Learn from a Well-Curated Collection

Your hosts’ pal and one of one of their all-time favorite Small Subjects guests Joe Berton had a busy summer checking in on some notable collections of miniatures, and these visits got him thinking about what all of us “makers” can learn from a lovingly displayed array of our fellow artists’ work.

Joe shares those thoughts in this episode, with quite a few interesting tales along the way. Below: Joe (back row at right) with miniatures enthusiasts Bill Neustadt, Dan Jones, Alec Dawson, Worth Linen, Ian McKenzie, Daniel Rey, and Greg DiFranco surrounding Dave Shults (seated) as the group offers a champagne toasts at the opening of Dave’s new private museum/exhibition space for his impressive collection in upstate New York.

Joe also talked about rescuing some special pieces from the late Ralph Koebbeman’s collection that wound up in Iowa after an earlier auction of the bigger dioramas in Wisconsin (a story related in Episode 36 of this podcast). Among the treasures Joe brought home: Josianne Desfontaines’ depiction of Bonaparte in Egypt, one of the pieces that first ignited his passion for miniatures more than six decades ago; Shep Paine’s hussar in brown, done as a demonstration piece for one of the master’s books, and his own vignette “The Riding Lesson,” now restored and back with its creator.