True Blue!

“True Blue! Antiques & Art with Blue” 
at the Fort Worth Show of Antiques & Art

(Plus Every Other Color Too!) 
 56^th Year  March 1, 2, 3, 2019

Blue your favorite color? You and about half of the world! No color has more fans or more complexity than the color blue.  On March 1, 2, 3, 2019, 150 exhibitors from across the nation will bring their best blues to the 56^th year of the Fort Worth Show of Antiques & Art, with the show theme, “True Blue – Antiques & Art with Blue.” Of course they’ll bring their reds and blacks and whites and every other color too. But expect to shop over 150 examples of vintage and antique blue, as well as the use of blues in select contemporary art. Look for baby blues, vintage denim and indigo, sapphires, lapis, Blenko glass blue, blue and white porcelain and transfer ware, Swedish blues and American primitives in early gray-blue.  There will even be some (vintage) Tiffany blue and vinyl records, featuring early Texas Blues.  

In the middle of the Fort Worth Cultural District, the Will Rogers Memorial Center will host the Fort Worth Show with a rich mix of styles, including American, French, Industrial, Garden, Mid-Century Modern, Fashion, and Jewelry, as well as Art, both antique and contemporary. “Very few shows attempt the range of styles and prices that the Fort Worth Show offers,” says Show Director Jan Orr-Harter. “Each exhibitor presents the best display, at the best price, of the best pieces in their specialty, whether it’s fine French furniture or flea market style.”  

Visitors to the show will learn that blue, as a color, is full of contradictions, such as “blue blood” and “blue collar.” At once evoking creative energy and sadness, the blues came late to the human world of decorative arts, with true blue being one of the last colors that ancient peoples mastered. 

Some blues recede, like deep blues on an oriental rug. Other blues jump right out, like the sky in an antique Maxfield Parrish print or the 1960s electric blue developed by artist Yves Klein. Almost all blues contain some mix of other colors, such as the greenish turquoise in the Native American jewelry or the pinkish/white “Haint” blue paint used in the southern states. You’ll find all of these at the Fort Worth Show, as well the photography of New York exhibitor Gordon Watkinson, left, printed in blue tones.

The Benefit Booth at the 2019 show will support college scholarships for young women through the Tarrant County Branch of the American Association of University Women. Since 1881, the AAUW has promoted education and action on behalf of girls and women in the United States. Their Fort Worth Show booth will offer vintage fashion, “something borrowed, something blue,” art, antiques, jewelry and more.      

So dust off those Blue Suede Shoes! See you at the Fort Worth Show!