John Braseth guides art gallery as it marks 50 years

At the opening night of two new exhibitions at his downtown art gallery last month, John Braseth, silver-haired and elegantly gray-suited, wandered from group to group, talking to artists and collectors in his charming, gregarious way.

It's something he's done for many years now, as director and owner of Woodside/Braseth Gallery, Seattle's oldest major fine-art gallery, known for carrying high-caliber works by painters and sculptors working in the Northwest tradition. And it's something he'll likely do many times again, including next month, when the gallery celebrates its 50th anniversary (a celebration is planned 5:30-8:30 p.m. May 12).

It's a remarkable achievement in the local art scene, which has seen many a gallery come and go since Woodside/Braseth opened its doors decades ago.

It takes not only a good eye for art to build and sustain a gallery. It also takes an entrepreneurial spirit, business savvy, an understanding of how artists work and collectors think, the flexibility to change with the times and the perseverance to ride out the cyclical nature of the business.

"It's hard work. You have to have a passion for it," said Stephanie Stebich, director of the Tacoma Art Museum, which has in its collections some artists represented by Woodside/Braseth. "Fifty years is unusual."

Skills with business, people

Gordon Woodside, who died in 2007, founded the gallery in a house on First Hill.

A cantankerous character who worked mundane jobs before opening the gallery, Woodside had an outsize personality and flair for publicity, especially in the early days. He was arrested once for painting a green stripe down the middle of a street in downtown Seattle for St. Patrick's Day. A local art critic recalled being thrown out of his gallery. And he was never shy about sharing his opinions.

Artist Jared Rue, whose latest show at the gallery opened last month, recalls meeting Woodside for the first time about five years ago. Braseth had seen some of Rue's work and wanted the young artist to bring in three paintings to see how his clients would respond to them.

Woodside was at the gallery when Rue brought his paintings in. "Gordon walked over from a corner of the gallery and didn't say anything to me," recalls Rue, 39. Woodside pointed to two of the paintings, saying: " 'I like that one and that one. I'm glad you don't paint mountains. I'm sick of goddamned mountains.' Then he turned and walked away."

But Woodside was able to identify artists who came to define a Northwest aesthetic, including Paul Horiuchi, William Cumming and Louis Bunce.

There weren't many galleries in the area when Woodside/Braseth opened — perhaps only two, as Herbert Pruzan recalls. Pruzan, along with his wife, Lucy, who live in Seattle, was Woodside's second client when the gallery opened.

"Both Gordon and John have excellent eyes not just for a trend but for long-term quality, for the way that the artist expresses him or herself," Herbert Pruzan said.

Braseth, 51, came on board when he helped the gallery move in the late 1970s after Woodside sold his house to the Polyclinic and relocated to a former car showroom on Howell Street.

Braseth had the business and people skills that were not Woodside's forte.

He helped guide the gallery through the 1980s, when more galleries opened around town, especially in Pioneer Square, and the 1990s, when Microsoft boomed, tech wealth created new art collectors and the local business side of the art scene really became established.

Through it all, the gallery created a niche featuring high-quality Northwest art: established names but also newer artists.

Certain galleries in town are known for certain things. The Traver Gallery for glass art, for instance, the G. Gibson Gallery for photography, Greg Kucera for contemporary art and the Francine Seders, Foster/White and Woodside/Braseth galleries for Northwest art.

"For blue-chip and some of the masters (of the Northwest school), I think Woodside/Braseth," said Stebich, the Tacoma Art Museum director.

Stebich, along with others, attributes a large part of the gallery's success to Braseth and his way with both artists and collectors.

He instills confidence in his artists, she said, for instance encouraging one to paint bigger work. "For an artist to hear that from a dealer, that's an important coaching moment," Stebich said. "It means the dealer has confidence in you — that he can sell that work and that you're ready for that."

"He understands how artists tick," said Seattle sculptor Nancy Mee.

He also educates and grows his collectors, telling them: "You really need an early work by this artist," or "Stretch yourself. You need to have these sketches," Stebich says. "There's this lovely coaxing that happens."

James Tune, president of ArtsFund and a collector, tells the story of how, at one point, he and his wife had been coming to the gallery for two years, admiring the work of painter William Cumming.

"John called one day and said: 'William's finishing a piece. I think you'd like it.' " He drove Tune and his wife to Cumming's studio where "the paint was still drying" on the artwork, Tune recalls. They bought it on the spot.

"It's a good example," Tune said. "He didn't wait for us to find a piece; he found something we would like."

It's not that Braseth does anything that any other good gallery director wouldn't.

"I don't think it's a different model," Tune said. "I just think John is very good at it."

Being good means Braseth has had to adjust with the times — whether that means technical or economic change.

The Internet means dealers thousands of miles away can now decide much faster whether to feature an artist's works because they can see them instantly, digitally. Artists have an easier time being represented at galleries in different cities.

"The Internet has made the speed of doing business much faster and the overall exposure of our gallery much more national than regional," Braseth said.

And Braseth is now guiding the gallery through the recession. Business is down about 20 percent from a peak in 2006. Not great, but not bad compared with other galleries that have seen bigger plunges or gone under altogether.

"We rode the wave of just about every economic up and down that you can have," he said.

In the meantime, there's always the next change to respond to.

Said Braseth: "You don't last in this business if you don't look forward."

Information from The Seattle Times archive was used in this report. Janet I. Tu: 206-464-2272 or jtu@seattletimes.com