Decades of dedication in Vail

There’s no place Jim Tylich would rather be than Vail Village.

Tylich is celebrating Vail Fine Art’s new Solaris location with a grand re-opening on Tuesday. It’s his second Vail Village gallery.

It’s 4,000 square feet dedicated to their artists’ visions and imaginations, delicately appointed and every square inch a glamorous artistic delight.

The Tylichs have been been part of Vail’s art community for more than two decades. Their Solaris gallery is one of five they own and operate: Solaris; 227 Bridge Street; Aspen; Breckenridge and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

You’ll remember that Vail Fine Art was in the Crossroads Center for 20 years, where Solaris is now located. Tylich built a large gallery and clientele in that Crossroads location.

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When Peter Knobel began to prepare for Solaris, Tylich was among the first to sign for a space.

“Peter does things right,” Tylich said. “We knew the building would be beautiful and and we knew it was a good location.”

If you were ever in the Crossroad gallery, you’ll know the way to the Solaris gallery. The new front door is about 10 feet from where the old one used to stand.

While Crossroads was being demolished and Solaris was being built, Tylich opened galleries on Bridge Street and Wall Street. The Bridge Street gallery is still with us.

“The point was to give my clients a place to go and take care of them during that three-year period,” Tylich said. “They’re open and it works. I’m enjoying it all.”

Vail’s gallery business is different, and in a good way, Tylich says.

“One of the things about Vail is that you have people who’ve made their own money and spend their own money. In other places, they’ll have someone else buy their artwork for them, sometimes an attorney. That’s not the case here. People tend to take care of these things for themselves.”

Over the years, Tylich has bought art from 30 or 40 different countries, mostly French Impressionist pieces from France.

“The artists do things to it based on their language and culture. All those things affect art,” Tylich said.

Tylich has traveled the world, searching out underappreciated artists and giving them a home. In fact, he built his businesses on that foundation.

Years ago, he was working in an Aspen gallery when an older, foreign artist stopped by to show his portfolio. The gallery owner wanted nothing to do with Stephen Csoka, but Tylich knew better.

The young Tylich followed Csoka out the door and told him he’d be proud to show his work – just as soon as he had his own gallery.

The art world is no different from any other; it’s all about relationships and networking. Tylich’s relationship with Csoka led him to Vladimir Krantz, a Soviet-era artist who stayed under the Communist’s radar by some incredibly clever means. (More on Krantz later)

At Tuesday’s event, they’ll be giving away works by some of Tylich’s favorites, including Don Sahli, Jerry Georgeff and Krantz.

Don Sahli is an American painter, born in 1962 in Borger, Texas, a small town on the panhandle. By the time he was 17 years old, art galleries in Texas and New Mexico were selling his paintings.

Sahli began his formal art education at the University of Texas in Austin. A year later, he met Sergei Bongart, the famous Russian colorist. At Bongart’s invitation, Sahli followed him to California and became his last apprentice. He remained with the Russian for three years, until Bongart’s death in 1985. Sahli is prolific, earning his living as a professional artist all his adult life. He founded the Sahli School of Art in Evergreen.

Artist Jerry Georgeff captures not only the place, but the mood and the moment. Georgeff was born in 1948 in the coalfields of West Virginia where his father scratched out a living for the family. He was exposed to art for the first time after his family had moved to Dayton, Ohio, when his elementary school took him and his classmates on a day trip to the Dayton Museum of Art. At a young age he fell in love with the masters of Impressionism. This inner love for art would finally surface in his mid-30s, when he began painting seriously.

Vladimir Pavlovich Krantz was born in Mozdok, Checknya in 1913. His mother was Cossack, and his father came from nobility. His life in the Soviet Union made him an artist in some of the most clever and creative ways. He managed to remain an “amateur,” free to choose to paint landscapes instead of bureaucrats forcing him to glorify the USSR’s socialist labor system. Decades, wars and careers came and went, and by the 1970s Krantz’s lyrical landscapes gained public acclaim.