Bishcoff on Art: Impressionism at Morris County Library

NJ.com: Bishcoff on Art: Impressionism at Morris County Library

Through July 18, the Morris County Library is hosting a show of early, never-before-exhibited watercolors by New Jersey impressionist Lee W. Hughes. Drawn from private collections, the 32 paintings on exhibit include landscape, marine and industrial subjects; most were executed en plein-air in Morris and Somerset counties, near Mendham, Brookside, Bernardsville and Califon.

Born in 1930, Hughes spent most of his career living in and painting New Jersey. He has taught at the Newark School of Fine Arts and at art associations in Morris and Somerset counties, and his paintings have been included in more than 200 exhibitions, including at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. His work is represented in the Morris Museum, Seton Hall University, Delbarton School and China’s Zhejiang Museum collections, as well as in corporate. He currently lives in California.

“The Collectors’ Collection” was organized by Connoisseur Fine Art, Bernardsville, and by Tracy Pollock and John Cross. The Morris County Library is at 30 Hanover Ave., Whippany (second floor). Free. Library hours are 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Photography exhibition at Plainfield Public Library

The Plainfield Public Library hosts its first Summer Invitational Photography Exhibition from July 16 to Sept. 30. The exhibition will feature 36 photographs from three local photographers: Paul LeGrand, William Monroe and Jackie Schnoop. All three have won multiple awards in the library’s annual Plainfield Photograph Contests; Monroe earned blue ribbons in 2006, 2008, and 2009, and two first prizes in 2010.

Most of the photographs have not been exhibited before. They range from cityscapes and landscapes to floral studies and urban portraits. The exhibit is in the library’s Room 2 Gallery. The exhibit will be launched with a reception for the artists on July 16 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and continue through Sept. 30.

The Plainfield Public Library is at 800 Park Ave., Plainfield. Open 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday. Free. For more information see plainfieldlibrary.info.

Brooklyn Museum cancels ‘Art in the Streets’ exhibit

The Brooklyn Museum has canceled the spring 2012 presentation of “Art in the Streets,” the first major exhibition on the history of graffiti and street art, for lack of money, the museum announced June 21. The exhibit has been controversial since it opened last April at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, where it is on view through August. Los Angeles police claim the exhibit has inspired a spike in graffiti and vandalism throughout the city. The exhibition had been scheduled to open in Brooklyn next March.

“This is an exhibition about which we were tremendously enthusiastic, and which would follow appropriately in the path of our Basquiat and graffiti exhibitions in 2005 and 2006, respectively,” said Brooklyn Director Arnold L. Lehman. “As with most arts organizations throughout the country, we have had to make several difficult choices since the beginning of the economic downturn three years ago.”

As Lehman says, Brooklyn is not the first arts institution to trim its programs in the wake of the banking collapse, but City Councilman Peter Vallone has been pressuring the museum to drop the show, saying it would “create more crime, as it did in L.A., and also send a message loud and clear that graffiti is commendable and worthy of posting in a museum exhibit.”

The show includes more than 50 artists from New York, LA, Sao Paulo, San Francisco and London. One of the New York artists, Angel (LA II) Ortiz, had to miss last April’s opening because he was locked up on Riker’s Island — or three separate tagging counts.