G.B. Carson: An Artful Life
Gary Carson began attending events at the Yellowstone Art Center in the late 1980s and introduced himself to me sometime around then. An art historian educated at the University of California, Berkeley, Gary studied with and was mentored by the great Peter Selz. They remained friends until Peter’s death in 2019 at the age of 100. As an appraiser and art consultant, Gary was one of the most sophisticated and knowledgeable men in the field of art that I have ever met. We shared an enthusiasm for the art of the San Francisco Bay Area, and he had deep first-hand experience and knowledge of the scene where he had lived and worked for many years.
In the early ‘90s, he was instrumental in helping me organize an exhibition of the prints and drawings of Christopher Brown, an important Berkeley-based artist I deeply admired. Gary accompanied him to the opening and lecture and on a subsequent day, took Christopher fishing. Being out on Montana’s rivers and hunting game birds with good dogs were central to Gary’s being, and he eventually built a home on the Missouri River near Townsend to more regularly pursue those ends.
We began seeing each other more often when he formed a relationship with Bay Area artist Catherine Courtenaye (eventually to become his wife) and the two of them began dividing their time between California and Montana. Catherine is also the niece of Donna Forbes; Donna, of course, was my boss at the Yellowstone Art Center, and I had met Catherine in the ‘80s when she came to visit her aunt. In 2018, Gary and Catherine curated a visit for my wife and me to Berkeley, San Francisco and Palo Alto that was unforgettable and absolutely wonderful, highlighting the art, food and heart-stopping traffic navigation of the area.
I learned more about Gary’s work with the estates of high-profile artists at that time, and we talked at length about art and artists and our adventures in the art world dating back to the 1970s. We were the same age, but Gary was deeper, more sophisticated and more learned than me. He read all the time, and he followed the art press and global happenings assiduously. For example, I went to documenta 6 (1977) in Germany to see Joseph Beuys’ works and hear him lecture. Gary had actually met and spent time with him!
I think his finest hour came during his service as a member of the Montana Arts Council. I know other Council members and staff would agree. His high aesthetic and ethical standards informed everything he said and did as a member. He elevated the Council by his presence. He advocated for nothing but the best in his progressive agenda for Montana. He strengthened and enlivened the cultural landscape of Montana.
I was just finishing a final edit on an essay about Willem Volkersz, a fellow 2020 Governor’s Award recipient, when Catherine’s text about Gary’s death appeared on the iPad screen. I was devastated by the news. It’s an incalculable loss for Catherine and the rest of his family. I am still processing it.
The last time I saw Gary and Catherine together, she served us gin and tonics at her Bozeman home. Gary, though gravely ill, ranged with fire in his eyes and typical intellectual acuity over several topics for an hour in the shade of a summer afternoon. He was resigned to his fate and grateful for having had a great life. He expressed confidence in the Arts Council going forward, satisfaction in collecting Sean Chandler’s work and sponsoring his exhibition at the Missoula Art Museum, and concern about other issues in the state. He was looking forward to seeing the Tinworks exhibitions.
Catherine has said, “My husband possessed an incandescent intelligence. It lit up those around him with its passion and brilliance. He was the ‘idea man’ who could string disparate thinkers and artists together in stimulating ways, making connections that seemed so right once he elucidated them.”
His is a life interrupted; now he rests beneath the soil of Montana, a place he loved and served. He is an irreplaceable loss to the art world, in Montana and beyond.
Rest in peace, Gary.
Tags: MAC News, Montana Art News, Carson and In Memory