Salmagundi presents the 115th Annual Thumb-box Exhibition and Sale, in the 1,887 square foot Skylight Gallery of its historic 1853 townhouse at 47 Fifth Avenue. The exhibition is the 115th time the show of small works is presented by the organization, a tradition begun by club founders in 1908.

“Small works are a chance for artists to explore their greatest ideas before committing to a larger finished work,” says Jacob Collins, Realist painter and current President of Salmagundi. “The works are a small window into the artist’s thought process.”

Thumb-box paintings are similar to what most galleries today call ‘small works,’ ‘cabinet works’ or ‘intimate works.’ with traditional rules specifying works of less than 20 x 16 inches in either direction. The yearly Salmagundi exhibition received the name, ‘thumb-box,’ after the compact wooden paint box that was used to paint outdoor locations and then to carry the wet panels back to the studio.

In the past, participants of the thumb-box show were artists like Junius Allen, R.S. Bredin, John Fabian Carlson, Antonio Cirino, John Folinsbee, Antonio Martino, Hobart Nichols, Thomas Olenchak, John Pellew, Arthur Towell, John Gale Tyler, Walter Granville Smith, and John Scott Williams to name only a few.