Wednesday, August 31, 2011
CW Peale: George Washington as a Colonel
One of 60 portraits of Washington by Peale. In this one, he is portrayed as a Colonel in the Virginia Regiment which served with the British in the French and Indian War.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
CW Peale: Self Portrait With Angelica
The woman is perhaps Rachel Brewer, his first wife (who bore him 10 kids and died when she was 46) and the girl is his daughter Angelica.
CW Peale: Portrait of John and Elizabeth Lloyd Caldwater
Note that John's paunch has not been the equivalent of photoshopped... it is there for all to see. Those who could afford to eat well, typically did so, with paunches and flab proof that they were wealthy.
The child, in a dress, might be a boy or girl. It was the custom during this time period for boys to wear dresses until they were four or so, when they would be moved into knee pants.
Monday, August 29, 2011
CW Peale: Fidele in Cymbeline (1771)
Nancy Hallam as the character Fidele in the Shakespeare play Cymbeline.
Cymbeline (pronounced Symbol-lin), also known as Cymbeline, King of Britain or The Tragedy of Cymbeline, is a play by William Shakespeare, based on legends concerning the early Celtic British King Cunobelinus. Although listed as a tragedy in the First Folio, modern critics often classify Cymbeline as a romance. Like Othello and The Winter's Tale, it deals with the themes of innocence and jealousy. While the precise date of composition remains unknown, the play was certainly produced as early as 1611
Cymbeline (pronounced Symbol-lin), also known as Cymbeline, King of Britain or The Tragedy of Cymbeline, is a play by William Shakespeare, based on legends concerning the early Celtic British King Cunobelinus. Although listed as a tragedy in the First Folio, modern critics often classify Cymbeline as a romance. Like Othello and The Winter's Tale, it deals with the themes of innocence and jealousy. While the precise date of composition remains unknown, the play was certainly produced as early as 1611
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Charles Wilson Peale (April 15, 1741 – February 22, 1827)
Exhumation of the Mastadon
The Artist in his Museum
Charles Wilson Peale (from Wikipedia)
Charles Willson Peale (April 15, 1741 – February 22, 1827) was an American painter, soldier and naturalist. He is best remembered for his portrait paintings of leading figures of the American Revolution, as well as establishing one of the first museums.
Early life
Peale was born in Chester, Queen Anne's County, Maryland, the son of Charles Peale and his wife Margaret. In 1749 his brother James Peale (1749–1831) was born. Charles became an apprentice to a saddle maker when he was thirteen years old. Upon reaching maturity, he opened his own saddle shop; however, when his Loyalist creditors discovered he had joined the Sons of Liberty, they conspired to bankrupt his business.
Career as painter
Finding that he had a talent for painting, especially portraiture, Peale studied for a time under John Hesselius and John Singleton Copley. John Beale Bordley and friends eventually raised enough money for him to travel to England to take instruction from Benjamin West. Peale studied with West for three years beginning in 1767, afterward returning to America and settling in Annapolis, Maryland. There, he taught painting to his younger brother, James Peale, who in time also became a noted artist.
Peale's enthusiasm for the nascent national government brought him to the capital, Philadelphia, in 1776, where he painted portraits of American notables and visitors from overseas. His estate, which is on the campus of La Salle University in Philadelphia, can still be visited. He also raised troops for the War of Independence and eventually gained the rank of captain in the Pennsylvania militia by 1777, having participated in several battles. While in the field, he continued to paint, doing miniature portraits of various officers in the Continental Army. He produced enlarged versions of these in later years. He served in the Pennsylvania state assembly in 1779–1780, after which he returned to painting full-time.
Peale was quite prolific as an artist. While he did portraits of scores of historic figures (such as James Varnum, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton), he is probably best known for his portraits of George Washington. The first time Washington ever sat for a portrait was with Peale in 1772, and there would be six other sittings; using these seven as models, Peale produced altogether close to 60 portraits of Washington. In January 2005, a full length portrait of "Washington at Princeton" from 1779 sold for $21.3 million dollars, setting a record for the highest price paid for an American portrait.
One of his most celebrated paintings is The Staircase Group (1795), a double portrait of his sons Raphaelle and Titian [named after famous classical artists) painted in the trompe l'oeil style. It is in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Peale's Museum
Peale had a great interest in natural history, and organized the first U.S. scientific expedition in 1801. These two major interests combined in his founding of what became the Philadelphia Museum, and was later renamed the Peale Museum.
This museum is considered the first. It housed a diverse collection of botanical, biological, and archaeological specimens. Most notably, the museum contained a large variety of birds which Peale himself acquired, and it was the first to display North American mastodon bones (which in Peale's time were referred to as mammoth bones; these common names were amended by Georges Cuvier in 1800, and his proposed usage is that employed today).
The display of the "mammoth" bones entered Peale into a long standing debate between Thomas Jefferson and Comte de Buffon. Buffon argued that Europe was superior to the Americas biologically, which was illustrated through the size of animals found there. Jefferson referenced the existence of these "mammoths" (which he believed still roamed northern regions of the continent) as evidence for a greater biodiversity in America. Peale's display of these bones drew attention from Europe, as did his method of re-assembling large skeletal specimens in three dimensions.
The museum was among the first to adopt Linnaean taxonomy. This system drew a stark contrast between Peale's museum and his competitors who presented their artifacts as mysterious oddities of the natural world.
The museum underwent several moves during its existence. At various times it was located in several prominent buildings including Independence Hall and the original home of the American Philosophical Society.
The museum would eventually fail, in large part because Peale was unsuccessful at obtaining government funding. After his death, the museum was sold to, and split up by, showmen P. T. Barnum and Moses Kimball.
Personal
In 1762, Peale married Rachel Brewer (1744–1790), who bore him ten children. The sons included Raphaelle Peale (1774–1825), Rembrandt Peale (1778–1860), and Rubens Peale (1784–1865). Among the daughters: Angelica Kauffman Peale married Alexander Robinson, Priscilla Peale wed Dr. Henry Boteler, and Sophonisba Peale became the wife of Coleman Sellers.
In 1791, he married Elizabeth de Peyster (d. 1804), his second wife, with whom he had another six children. One son, Franklin Peale, born on October 15, 1795, became the Chief Coiner at the Philadelphia Mint. His last son, Titian Ramsay Peale (1799–1885), became an important naturalist and pioneer in photography. Their daughter, Elizabeth De Peyster Peale (1802–57), married William Augustus Patterson (1792–1833) in 1820.
Hannah More, a Quaker from Philadelphia, became Peale's third wife in 1804. She helped raise the children from his previous two marriages.
In 1810, Peale purchased a farm in Germantown where he intended to retire. Peale named this estate 'Belfield', and cultivated extensive gardens there. After Hannah's death in 1821, Peale lived with his son Rubens and sold Belfield in 1826.
Expertise
Peale could accurately be described as a "Renaissance man", having expertise not only in painting, but also in other diverse fields, such as carpentry, dentistry, optometry, shoemaking, and taxidermy. In 1802, John Isaac Hawkins patented the second official physiognotrace, a mechanical drawing device, and partnered with Peale to market it to prospective buyers. Peale sent a watercolor sketch of the physiognotrace, along with a detailed explanation, to Thomas Jefferson. The drawing now sits with the Jefferson Papers in the Library of Congress.
Around 1804, Peale obtained the American patent rights to the polygraph from its inventor John Isaac Hawkins, about the same time as the purchase of one by Thomas Jefferson. Peale and Jefferson collaborated on refinements to this device, which enabled a copy of a handwritten letter to be produced simultaneously with the original.
Peale wrote several books, among which were An Essay on Building Wooden Bridges (1797) and An Epistle to a Friend on the Means of Preserving Health (1803). Peale named all of his sons for artists or scientists, and taught them to paint. Three of them, Rembrandt, Raphaelle, and Titian, became noted artists in their own right.
He was the brother-in-law of Nathaniel Ramsey, a delegate to the Congress of the Confederation. The World War II Liberty Ship SS Charles Willson Peale was named in his honor.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Jewish Museum Picks Director From Art World
From Wall Street Journal: Jewish Museum Picks Director From Art World
The Jewish Museum has chosen Claudia Gould, director of the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, as its new director, succeeding Joan Rosenbaum, who is retiring after 30 years.
Following Ms. Rosenbaum’s long tenure, in which she reinforced the museum’s focus on Jewish history and culture, the selection of Ms. Gould, who has spent her career in contemporary art, reflects the desire of the Jewish Museum’s board to add more dynamism and fresh ideas to this 107-year-old institution on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Robert A. Pruzan, the museum’s chairman, said in a telephone interview that Ms. Gould, who is to start in the fall, would bring “a tremendous amount of energy and vitality” as well as “current perspective on what one should be like to be successful in the future.”
In an interview Ms. Gould, 55, repeatedly praised the legacy of Ms. Rosenbaum, 68, while also suggesting that she would shake things up ever so gently by, for example, reinstalling the display of the permanent collection on the museum’s third and fourth floors, which has been unchanged for many years.
Ms. Gould imagines changing the presentation several times a year, she said, and sometimes giving a contemporary artist or architect the opportunity to comb through the collection — some 26,000 objects, including paintings, sculptures and ceremonial objects — and create an installation.
“Certainly the mission will not change,” Ms. Gould said of her plans, “but I do come from a contemporary background, and even the historical shows or exhibitions of Judaica” may reflect that.
She said she hoped to attract new and younger audiences by mounting exhibitions of architecture, design and fashion; showing more living artists; and deepening the museum’s ties to the Jewish Theological Seminary.
She also cited more practical goals, like recreating the museum’s Web site and improving its use of technology.
At the Institute of Contemporary Art, where Ms. Gould started in 1999, she has overseen an increase in the budget to $3.1 million, from $1 million, and has significantly expanded the exhibition program and staff. She has also strengthened the institute’s relationship to the university, creating two-year seminars for art history and writing students.
Ms. Gould organized the first museum surveys of artists like Lisa Yuskavage and Charles LeDray and mounted interdisciplinary exhibitions as well, like a retrospective of the fashion designer Rudi Gernreich housed in an installation by the architecture firm Coop Himmelb(l)au.
Before joining the Institute of Contemporary Art, Ms. Gould was the executive director of Artists Space in SoHo, from 1994 to 1999, and a curator at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio.
The Jewish Museum, which is dedicated, in the words of its mission statement, to “the artistic and cultural heritage of the Jewish people,” has vacillated somewhat between focusing on the artistic and the Jewish sides of that endeavor. In the 1960s it was known for daring exhibitions of contemporary art, much of it by non-Jews, including Jasper Johns’s first solo museum show and a landmark exhibition of Minimalism called “Primary Structures.”
Ms. Rosenbaum chose to re-emphasize the Jewish side of the museum’s identity, creating the permanent exhibition “Culture and Continuity: The Jewish Journey,” while also mounting shows of modern Jewish artists like Chaim Soutine and contemporary artists like Maira Kalman.
Ms. Gould said that she imagined her programming would be “a mixture of what went on in the ’60s and ’70s and what Joan Rosenbaum has done, which is really rooting it in the culture.”
With a $16 million budget, the Jewish Museum is significantly larger than the Institute of Contemporary Art. Asked why, after working exclusively in contemporary art, she was interested in running a specifically Jewish museum, Ms. Gould said she was drawn to the opportunity of working with an interdisciplinary collection, which includes everything from paintings by Édouard Vuillard and Lee Krasner to menorahs and other ritual objects.
Ms. Gould grew up in an interfaith home, with a Jewish father and a Roman Catholic mother. She said she was attracted to the challenge of having to decide what it means “to be a Jewish museum today,” a complex question for which she has no definite answer yet. Ask her again in a year, she said, “and maybe I’ll be able to answer it.”
The Jewish Museum has chosen Claudia Gould, director of the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, as its new director, succeeding Joan Rosenbaum, who is retiring after 30 years.
Following Ms. Rosenbaum’s long tenure, in which she reinforced the museum’s focus on Jewish history and culture, the selection of Ms. Gould, who has spent her career in contemporary art, reflects the desire of the Jewish Museum’s board to add more dynamism and fresh ideas to this 107-year-old institution on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Robert A. Pruzan, the museum’s chairman, said in a telephone interview that Ms. Gould, who is to start in the fall, would bring “a tremendous amount of energy and vitality” as well as “current perspective on what one should be like to be successful in the future.”
In an interview Ms. Gould, 55, repeatedly praised the legacy of Ms. Rosenbaum, 68, while also suggesting that she would shake things up ever so gently by, for example, reinstalling the display of the permanent collection on the museum’s third and fourth floors, which has been unchanged for many years.
Ms. Gould imagines changing the presentation several times a year, she said, and sometimes giving a contemporary artist or architect the opportunity to comb through the collection — some 26,000 objects, including paintings, sculptures and ceremonial objects — and create an installation.
“Certainly the mission will not change,” Ms. Gould said of her plans, “but I do come from a contemporary background, and even the historical shows or exhibitions of Judaica” may reflect that.
She said she hoped to attract new and younger audiences by mounting exhibitions of architecture, design and fashion; showing more living artists; and deepening the museum’s ties to the Jewish Theological Seminary.
She also cited more practical goals, like recreating the museum’s Web site and improving its use of technology.
At the Institute of Contemporary Art, where Ms. Gould started in 1999, she has overseen an increase in the budget to $3.1 million, from $1 million, and has significantly expanded the exhibition program and staff. She has also strengthened the institute’s relationship to the university, creating two-year seminars for art history and writing students.
Ms. Gould organized the first museum surveys of artists like Lisa Yuskavage and Charles LeDray and mounted interdisciplinary exhibitions as well, like a retrospective of the fashion designer Rudi Gernreich housed in an installation by the architecture firm Coop Himmelb(l)au.
Before joining the Institute of Contemporary Art, Ms. Gould was the executive director of Artists Space in SoHo, from 1994 to 1999, and a curator at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio.
The Jewish Museum, which is dedicated, in the words of its mission statement, to “the artistic and cultural heritage of the Jewish people,” has vacillated somewhat between focusing on the artistic and the Jewish sides of that endeavor. In the 1960s it was known for daring exhibitions of contemporary art, much of it by non-Jews, including Jasper Johns’s first solo museum show and a landmark exhibition of Minimalism called “Primary Structures.”
Ms. Rosenbaum chose to re-emphasize the Jewish side of the museum’s identity, creating the permanent exhibition “Culture and Continuity: The Jewish Journey,” while also mounting shows of modern Jewish artists like Chaim Soutine and contemporary artists like Maira Kalman.
Ms. Gould said that she imagined her programming would be “a mixture of what went on in the ’60s and ’70s and what Joan Rosenbaum has done, which is really rooting it in the culture.”
With a $16 million budget, the Jewish Museum is significantly larger than the Institute of Contemporary Art. Asked why, after working exclusively in contemporary art, she was interested in running a specifically Jewish museum, Ms. Gould said she was drawn to the opportunity of working with an interdisciplinary collection, which includes everything from paintings by Édouard Vuillard and Lee Krasner to menorahs and other ritual objects.
Ms. Gould grew up in an interfaith home, with a Jewish father and a Roman Catholic mother. She said she was attracted to the challenge of having to decide what it means “to be a Jewish museum today,” a complex question for which she has no definite answer yet. Ask her again in a year, she said, “and maybe I’ll be able to answer it.”
Chicago's Art Institute Names New Director
From The Wall Street Journal: Chicago's Art Institute Names New Director
The Art Institute of Chicago, one of the country's major encyclopedic museums and art schools, has hired a new president and director.
Douglas Druick, 66, a curator at the institute for the past quarter-century, has been serving as its interim leader since June. Mr. Druick succeeds James Cuno, who left earlier this year to join the J. Paul Getty Trust.
Mr. Druick, a native of Canada, has steadily climbed the institute's curatorial ranks, joining its prints and drawings department in 1985 and later helming its European painting and sculpture department, which spans medieval to modern art.
He is best known for organizing major surveys of Edgar Degas, Odilon Redon, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. His acclaimed 2007 exhibit, "Jasper Johns: Gray," traveled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
His hiring comes as the institute, which gets 1.6 million visitors a year, continues to rebuild its $783 million endowment since recession. In June 2008, its endowment was $827 million.
In a statement, board chairman Tom Pritzker praised Mr. Druick's "experience, intellect and vision" and said the hiring reflects a greater effort by the board to hang onto the institute's top talent
The Art Institute of Chicago, one of the country's major encyclopedic museums and art schools, has hired a new president and director.
Douglas Druick, 66, a curator at the institute for the past quarter-century, has been serving as its interim leader since June. Mr. Druick succeeds James Cuno, who left earlier this year to join the J. Paul Getty Trust.
Mr. Druick, a native of Canada, has steadily climbed the institute's curatorial ranks, joining its prints and drawings department in 1985 and later helming its European painting and sculpture department, which spans medieval to modern art.
He is best known for organizing major surveys of Edgar Degas, Odilon Redon, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. His acclaimed 2007 exhibit, "Jasper Johns: Gray," traveled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
His hiring comes as the institute, which gets 1.6 million visitors a year, continues to rebuild its $783 million endowment since recession. In June 2008, its endowment was $827 million.
In a statement, board chairman Tom Pritzker praised Mr. Druick's "experience, intellect and vision" and said the hiring reflects a greater effort by the board to hang onto the institute's top talent
Monday, August 22, 2011
State arts groups react to losing NEA funds
From Chron.com: State arts groups react to losing NEA funds
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Art organizations across Kansas, particularly those in rural areas, are scrambling to find ways to make up for lost federal and state funding but some say they are concerned they will have to stop operations.
Last week's decision by the National Endowment for the Arts to deny the state's request for federal funds was expected after Gov. Sam Brownback earlier this year laid off the staff of the Kansas Arts Commission and vetoed its funding, making it the only state in the country to end state funding for the arts. The commission was reorganized in July, with five of its 12 members replaced and the office moved to Topeka. Brownback's administration also created the Kansas Arts Foundation, a private organization charged with raising funds for state arts programs.
Kansas had provided about $700,000 a year to the commission, which then received about $800,000 in partnership grants from the NEA, and about $400,000 from the Mid-America Arts Alliance. The alliance is expected to withhold its money from Kansas as well, but that decision hasn't been made, Abby Beckloff, director of external affairs, told The Wichita Eagle (http://bit.ly/r9jUXQ).
The funding cuts are expected to hit small, rural arts groups harder than those in urban areas, which have more art supporters. For example, middle school students in Bourbon County probably won't make an annual trip to Kansas City, Mo., to see a play this year. And the Bourbon County Arts Council is operating out of the home of its executive director, Peggy Cummings, in Fort Scott.
"It's just been the biggest fiasco ever," Cummings said.
Across the state in Colby, the Western Plains Arts Association, which serves nine sparsely populated counties, will have to cut cultural programming and raise ticket prices.
"If we don't have any additional funding, I don't know how long we'll be able to continue," said Pat Ziegelmeier, executive director of the association.
In a letter last week to Kansas Arts Commission chairman Linda Browning Weis, the NEA said that the new commission "is deeply immersed in transitional activities and is not fully operational in ways that comply with the NEA's eligibility requirements." It invited Kansas to apply for the grant next year.
Weis said she sent the NEA a letter on Aug. 1 stating that even though the arts commission doesn't receive direct state funding, it is the lead agency in the state for arts programs. Usually arrangements can be made to secure some grant funding, she said.
"When the (NEA) letter said it was a final determination, I was stunned," she said. "I thought they understood we were a work in progress. Something that's done well takes time."
Kansas Citizens for the Arts, which advocates for public funding for the arts, issued a statement blasting Brownback for vetoing the commission's budget. "Governor Brownback has repeatedly and misleadingly claimed that his veto of state funding for the arts would not endanger $1.2 million in federal matching funds. With the state projecting a $180 million year-end surplus, we call upon the governor to listen to the Legislature and reinstate funding to the Kansas Arts Commission," the statement said.
Brownback, in a written statement, defended his revised commission. "The Kansas Arts Commission is doing an excellent job in a short period of time moving forward with a new vision for funding of the arts. I fully support their efforts and hope the NEA will as well," the statement said.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Art organizations across Kansas, particularly those in rural areas, are scrambling to find ways to make up for lost federal and state funding but some say they are concerned they will have to stop operations.
Last week's decision by the National Endowment for the Arts to deny the state's request for federal funds was expected after Gov. Sam Brownback earlier this year laid off the staff of the Kansas Arts Commission and vetoed its funding, making it the only state in the country to end state funding for the arts. The commission was reorganized in July, with five of its 12 members replaced and the office moved to Topeka. Brownback's administration also created the Kansas Arts Foundation, a private organization charged with raising funds for state arts programs.
Kansas had provided about $700,000 a year to the commission, which then received about $800,000 in partnership grants from the NEA, and about $400,000 from the Mid-America Arts Alliance. The alliance is expected to withhold its money from Kansas as well, but that decision hasn't been made, Abby Beckloff, director of external affairs, told The Wichita Eagle (http://bit.ly/r9jUXQ).
The funding cuts are expected to hit small, rural arts groups harder than those in urban areas, which have more art supporters. For example, middle school students in Bourbon County probably won't make an annual trip to Kansas City, Mo., to see a play this year. And the Bourbon County Arts Council is operating out of the home of its executive director, Peggy Cummings, in Fort Scott.
"It's just been the biggest fiasco ever," Cummings said.
Across the state in Colby, the Western Plains Arts Association, which serves nine sparsely populated counties, will have to cut cultural programming and raise ticket prices.
"If we don't have any additional funding, I don't know how long we'll be able to continue," said Pat Ziegelmeier, executive director of the association.
In a letter last week to Kansas Arts Commission chairman Linda Browning Weis, the NEA said that the new commission "is deeply immersed in transitional activities and is not fully operational in ways that comply with the NEA's eligibility requirements." It invited Kansas to apply for the grant next year.
Weis said she sent the NEA a letter on Aug. 1 stating that even though the arts commission doesn't receive direct state funding, it is the lead agency in the state for arts programs. Usually arrangements can be made to secure some grant funding, she said.
"When the (NEA) letter said it was a final determination, I was stunned," she said. "I thought they understood we were a work in progress. Something that's done well takes time."
Kansas Citizens for the Arts, which advocates for public funding for the arts, issued a statement blasting Brownback for vetoing the commission's budget. "Governor Brownback has repeatedly and misleadingly claimed that his veto of state funding for the arts would not endanger $1.2 million in federal matching funds. With the state projecting a $180 million year-end surplus, we call upon the governor to listen to the Legislature and reinstate funding to the Kansas Arts Commission," the statement said.
Brownback, in a written statement, defended his revised commission. "The Kansas Arts Commission is doing an excellent job in a short period of time moving forward with a new vision for funding of the arts. I fully support their efforts and hope the NEA will as well," the statement said.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Philadelphia:'Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus'
From the Daily Journal: 
Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), a grandmaster of painting and the greatest printmaker in the history of the medium, is now well established in the pantheon of art geniuses.
By 1641, he was already recognized as "one of the most famous painters of our age."
Signing works only as "Rembrandt," his name is synonymous with Holland's "Golden Age."
Constantly defying convention amidst personal troubles, Rembrandt is an artist for our times, too.
His life was a train wreck, well suited for celebrity gossip on TMZ.
By 36 -- at the height of his career -- the artist lost his wife from tuberculosis, soon after giving birth to their fourth child.
The painter was then left with an infant son (three previous children didn't live past infancy).
He subsequently had a drawn out affair with the baby's wet nurse, who sued him for support; Rembrandt had her committed to an asylum.
The artist had another relationship with a housekeeper, fathering an illegitimate daughter.
Meanwhile, Rembrandt was forced to sell his possessions, including an extensive collection of Italian, Flemish, German and Dutch art, to satisfy creditors.
The artist had also stopped paying his mortgage. With mounting debts, he ultimately declared bankruptcy and lost his home (now the Rembrandt House Museum) in Amsterdam, where he had lived and worked from 1639 to 1658.
Through all this turmoil, it is remarkable that Rembrandt was able to concentrate on painting, drawing and printmaking to achieve his acclaimed place in art history.
"Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus" is a landmark traveling exhibition organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Louvre Museum in Paris and the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Timothy Rub, director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, recently stated: "Rembrandt exhibits are few and far between. It is a wonderful event for us. It marks the first time that a substantial group of paintings by Rembrandt are seen in Philadelphia."
Indeed, this is the first show since 1932 to bring Rembrandt to Philadelphia and, rather surprisingly, the first time the Philadelphia Museum of Art has collaborated with the Musee du Louvre.
This is its initial American showing and the only East Coast venue where the exhibit will be on view until Oct. 30.
Installed in the Dorrance Galleries of the museum's main building, the exhibition is grand in concept but not in size.
It focuses on an innovative shift in the representation of Christ by Rembrandt, whose prolific career knew few boundaries. There are fewer than 50 works -- paintings, drawings and prints -- on display and most date from the 1640s and 1650s.
Without the theatrical hype of a typical blockbuster, this is the kind of viewing experience that requires close looking and contemplation to appreciate Rembrandt's application of paint and subtle use of lighting. In addition, these religious pictures are scaled for intimate domestic interiors; they aren't large altar pieces.
So what did Jesus look like?
Well, in Rembrandt's day, artists portrayed Christ based on officially approved sources, which included two holy relics that were considered miraculous "true" images of Jesus not made by human hands: the face on Veronica's Veil and the Mandylion (a napkin that Christ was believed to have pressed to his face).
A third reference used by artists was the Lentulus Letter believed to have been written by someone named Lentulus, a governor of Judea before Pontius Pilate. In this questionable eyewitness account, he described Jesus as ". . . a man of medium size" with hair "the color of ripe hazelnut."
The exhibit is introduced by Rembrandt's "Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery," painted in 1644 and on loan from The National Gallery in London.
Jesus with light brown hair and fair complexion is based on the formulaic approach for representing Christ.
Rembrandt emphasizes compassion, as Jesus gazes down at the brightly illuminated woman kneeling before him. The figures seem almost dwarfed by the magnificent scale of the elaborate architecture. In its day, this panel painting was well admired, realizing a hefty sale price.
"Portrait of a Young Jew" is a small painting dating from about four years later; the unidentified model wears a traditional skull cap to reveal his faith.
The painterly surface with its visible brushstrokes achieves a sculptural quality to build up the forehead and nose. The subject is seen close-up, suggesting a comfortable bond between artist and young man.
Rembrandt undoubtedly used models from his neighborhood in the heart of Amsterdam's Jewish quarter.
Most significantly, the show brings together for the first time a series of six oil sketches (from an original group of 8 that were inventoried in the summer of 1656 before the auction of the artist's studio contents).
These panels representing Jesus demonstrate a deliberate effort by Rembrandt to portray a more natural and credible representation of Christ. Each head drawn from life and believed to be a Jewish model is illuminated against a dark, unidentified background.
In 1648, in "The Supper at Emmaus," Rembrandt portrays a less idealized image of Christ. It may be one of the first times that Jesus appears convincingly Jewish to indicate how Rembrandt was working within the interfaith context of 17th-century Amsterdam to depict Christ with greater authenticity.
"The Supper at Emmaus" was the artist's favorite Bible story, dealing with an incident between the Resurrection and Ascension when Christ appeared to his disciples while on the road to Emmaus.
Rather than rely solely on its own substantial collection of paintings from 17th-century Holland, the Philadelphia Museum of Art put extraordinary effort into this exhibition to include loans of exceptionally rare works.
"Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus" is illuminating and informative, focusing on one of the great personalities in the history of art. This show is truly a Dutch treat.
Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), a grandmaster of painting and the greatest printmaker in the history of the medium, is now well established in the pantheon of art geniuses.
By 1641, he was already recognized as "one of the most famous painters of our age."
Signing works only as "Rembrandt," his name is synonymous with Holland's "Golden Age."
Constantly defying convention amidst personal troubles, Rembrandt is an artist for our times, too.
His life was a train wreck, well suited for celebrity gossip on TMZ.
By 36 -- at the height of his career -- the artist lost his wife from tuberculosis, soon after giving birth to their fourth child.
The painter was then left with an infant son (three previous children didn't live past infancy).
He subsequently had a drawn out affair with the baby's wet nurse, who sued him for support; Rembrandt had her committed to an asylum.
The artist had another relationship with a housekeeper, fathering an illegitimate daughter.
Meanwhile, Rembrandt was forced to sell his possessions, including an extensive collection of Italian, Flemish, German and Dutch art, to satisfy creditors.
The artist had also stopped paying his mortgage. With mounting debts, he ultimately declared bankruptcy and lost his home (now the Rembrandt House Museum) in Amsterdam, where he had lived and worked from 1639 to 1658.
Through all this turmoil, it is remarkable that Rembrandt was able to concentrate on painting, drawing and printmaking to achieve his acclaimed place in art history.
"Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus" is a landmark traveling exhibition organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Louvre Museum in Paris and the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Timothy Rub, director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, recently stated: "Rembrandt exhibits are few and far between. It is a wonderful event for us. It marks the first time that a substantial group of paintings by Rembrandt are seen in Philadelphia."
Indeed, this is the first show since 1932 to bring Rembrandt to Philadelphia and, rather surprisingly, the first time the Philadelphia Museum of Art has collaborated with the Musee du Louvre.
This is its initial American showing and the only East Coast venue where the exhibit will be on view until Oct. 30.
Installed in the Dorrance Galleries of the museum's main building, the exhibition is grand in concept but not in size.
It focuses on an innovative shift in the representation of Christ by Rembrandt, whose prolific career knew few boundaries. There are fewer than 50 works -- paintings, drawings and prints -- on display and most date from the 1640s and 1650s.
Without the theatrical hype of a typical blockbuster, this is the kind of viewing experience that requires close looking and contemplation to appreciate Rembrandt's application of paint and subtle use of lighting. In addition, these religious pictures are scaled for intimate domestic interiors; they aren't large altar pieces.
So what did Jesus look like?
Well, in Rembrandt's day, artists portrayed Christ based on officially approved sources, which included two holy relics that were considered miraculous "true" images of Jesus not made by human hands: the face on Veronica's Veil and the Mandylion (a napkin that Christ was believed to have pressed to his face).
A third reference used by artists was the Lentulus Letter believed to have been written by someone named Lentulus, a governor of Judea before Pontius Pilate. In this questionable eyewitness account, he described Jesus as ". . . a man of medium size" with hair "the color of ripe hazelnut."
The exhibit is introduced by Rembrandt's "Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery," painted in 1644 and on loan from The National Gallery in London.
Jesus with light brown hair and fair complexion is based on the formulaic approach for representing Christ.
Rembrandt emphasizes compassion, as Jesus gazes down at the brightly illuminated woman kneeling before him. The figures seem almost dwarfed by the magnificent scale of the elaborate architecture. In its day, this panel painting was well admired, realizing a hefty sale price.
"Portrait of a Young Jew" is a small painting dating from about four years later; the unidentified model wears a traditional skull cap to reveal his faith.
The painterly surface with its visible brushstrokes achieves a sculptural quality to build up the forehead and nose. The subject is seen close-up, suggesting a comfortable bond between artist and young man.
Rembrandt undoubtedly used models from his neighborhood in the heart of Amsterdam's Jewish quarter.
Most significantly, the show brings together for the first time a series of six oil sketches (from an original group of 8 that were inventoried in the summer of 1656 before the auction of the artist's studio contents).
These panels representing Jesus demonstrate a deliberate effort by Rembrandt to portray a more natural and credible representation of Christ. Each head drawn from life and believed to be a Jewish model is illuminated against a dark, unidentified background.
In 1648, in "The Supper at Emmaus," Rembrandt portrays a less idealized image of Christ. It may be one of the first times that Jesus appears convincingly Jewish to indicate how Rembrandt was working within the interfaith context of 17th-century Amsterdam to depict Christ with greater authenticity.
"The Supper at Emmaus" was the artist's favorite Bible story, dealing with an incident between the Resurrection and Ascension when Christ appeared to his disciples while on the road to Emmaus.
Rather than rely solely on its own substantial collection of paintings from 17th-century Holland, the Philadelphia Museum of Art put extraordinary effort into this exhibition to include loans of exceptionally rare works.
"Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus" is illuminating and informative, focusing on one of the great personalities in the history of art. This show is truly a Dutch treat.
Friday, August 19, 2011
A new look: SEPTA to unveil September art at Phila. subway station
From NJ.com: A new look: SEPTA to unveil September art at Phila. subway station
CAMDEN – September in Philadelphia will feel like springtime when a SEPTA subway station is set to blossom with original new artwork, designed by a Rutgers–Camden artist.
On Sept. 9, travelers using the Broad Street Line Spring Garden stop will find under their feet an inspired cacophony of colors, flowers, and layered designs borrowed from Van Gogh and reinterpreted by Philadelphia artist Margery Amdur.
Thanks to a commission won through a competitive process sponsored by the SEPTA Art in Transit program, Amdur has created 4,000 square feet of flooring, consisting of five original large scale paintings that will be embedded into industrial resin, so Philadelphians can frolic on top of flowers with no chance of squashing their beauty.
“I have made art all my life,” says Amdur, a professor of art at Rutgers–Camden. “My studio process is labor intensive and I am known for my attention to detail, but I asked myself was it possible to move my studio process into the subway station?”
A longtime traditional painter who uses mixed media, like frosted mylar and resin, to create pieces rich in layer and texture, Amdur wanted to nurture this process, but reinvent it for the digital age. While her work still begins with her tedious hands-on painting and sculpting the mylar, she now scans the 13-foot pieces, and then ships them to Michigan where they are made into a special fabric that will be embedded into the floors at the Spring Garden stop and permanently installed in just 48 hours by a resin fabricator.
Amdur, who has been showing her work in group and solo exhibitions all over the world for decades, is thrilled to have retained the studio quality of the pieces, while also establishing an innovative way to install this lively and complex public piece.
“I hope commuters can appreciate the liveliness under their feet. I have painstakingly visually massaged each painting, as if it were going to be viewed in a gallery setting,” she says.
Connecting the commuters, who might be attending two area high schools and universities, with the art world has been a goal of Amdur’s. Not only did she ride a trolley throughout the city scoping out other public art pieces, but she also interviewed commuters on their preferences for artists. A longtime theme of her work is incorporating a Paint-by-Numbers approach to establish an unfinished feeling that urges viewers to mentally, and during some exhibitions, physically, contribute to the work.
“I like to juxtapose images from popular culture, imagery taken from actual Paint-by-Number kits, with areas left open for interpretation. My work is a question that needs to be answered by the viewer,” notes Amdur. “When asking commuters who was their favorite painter, the vast majority said Vincent Van Gogh. Keeping that in mind as well as the name of the station, Spring Garden, I chose to work with floral imagery, including Van Gogh’s Sunflowers.”
To get future viewers on board with Amdur’s SEPTA commission, Ryanne Mangaser, an intern set to graduate from Rutgers–Camden this fall, has been helping the artist connect with new audiences through social media. A recently launched blog http://margeryamdur.wordpress.com has helped Amdur share her once personal process with a media-driven society. It’s been a learning process for both Amdur’s entrance into the digital world and Mangaser’s emergence in the professional art world. “I’ve been learning a lot,” says the senior studio arts major. “I’m getting an understanding of what has to go into people realizing your work and we’re both impressed with the immediate feedback you can get through online networking.”
While the feedback Amdur might get from commuters won’t be as immediate, it satisfies her to know that her art will be part of everyday life in Philadelphia, and hopefully give a visual boost to weary travelers.
“Public transportation is about getting to the next place, not really appreciating where we are now. I want to momentarily transport people to where sunlight and flowers typically don’t exist.”
A graduate of Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Wisconsin, Amdur resides in Philadelphia, where she creates her art in University City. Her work has been shown in galleries from Albuquerque to Istanbul and reviewed in various national publications, including NY Arts, New Art Examiner, and Sculpture Magazine. She teaches painting at Rutgers–Camden.
Establishment of the Art in Transit Program for SEPTA grew out of a belief that aesthetic enhancement at stations and facilities can be an integral component of broader community outreach and partnership building efforts, undertaken in conjunction with capitally funded construction and reconstruction projects. SEPTA stations, transportation centers, and headhouses are visible community landmarks. Using permanent art installations as a focal point, the Authority seeks to strengthen its identity as a provider of public transit service, and create an enhanced sense of pride and ownership for riders and the neighborhood surrounding a station.
CAMDEN – September in Philadelphia will feel like springtime when a SEPTA subway station is set to blossom with original new artwork, designed by a Rutgers–Camden artist.
On Sept. 9, travelers using the Broad Street Line Spring Garden stop will find under their feet an inspired cacophony of colors, flowers, and layered designs borrowed from Van Gogh and reinterpreted by Philadelphia artist Margery Amdur.
Thanks to a commission won through a competitive process sponsored by the SEPTA Art in Transit program, Amdur has created 4,000 square feet of flooring, consisting of five original large scale paintings that will be embedded into industrial resin, so Philadelphians can frolic on top of flowers with no chance of squashing their beauty.
“I have made art all my life,” says Amdur, a professor of art at Rutgers–Camden. “My studio process is labor intensive and I am known for my attention to detail, but I asked myself was it possible to move my studio process into the subway station?”
A longtime traditional painter who uses mixed media, like frosted mylar and resin, to create pieces rich in layer and texture, Amdur wanted to nurture this process, but reinvent it for the digital age. While her work still begins with her tedious hands-on painting and sculpting the mylar, she now scans the 13-foot pieces, and then ships them to Michigan where they are made into a special fabric that will be embedded into the floors at the Spring Garden stop and permanently installed in just 48 hours by a resin fabricator.
Amdur, who has been showing her work in group and solo exhibitions all over the world for decades, is thrilled to have retained the studio quality of the pieces, while also establishing an innovative way to install this lively and complex public piece.
“I hope commuters can appreciate the liveliness under their feet. I have painstakingly visually massaged each painting, as if it were going to be viewed in a gallery setting,” she says.
Connecting the commuters, who might be attending two area high schools and universities, with the art world has been a goal of Amdur’s. Not only did she ride a trolley throughout the city scoping out other public art pieces, but she also interviewed commuters on their preferences for artists. A longtime theme of her work is incorporating a Paint-by-Numbers approach to establish an unfinished feeling that urges viewers to mentally, and during some exhibitions, physically, contribute to the work.
“I like to juxtapose images from popular culture, imagery taken from actual Paint-by-Number kits, with areas left open for interpretation. My work is a question that needs to be answered by the viewer,” notes Amdur. “When asking commuters who was their favorite painter, the vast majority said Vincent Van Gogh. Keeping that in mind as well as the name of the station, Spring Garden, I chose to work with floral imagery, including Van Gogh’s Sunflowers.”
To get future viewers on board with Amdur’s SEPTA commission, Ryanne Mangaser, an intern set to graduate from Rutgers–Camden this fall, has been helping the artist connect with new audiences through social media. A recently launched blog http://margeryamdur.wordpress.com has helped Amdur share her once personal process with a media-driven society. It’s been a learning process for both Amdur’s entrance into the digital world and Mangaser’s emergence in the professional art world. “I’ve been learning a lot,” says the senior studio arts major. “I’m getting an understanding of what has to go into people realizing your work and we’re both impressed with the immediate feedback you can get through online networking.”
While the feedback Amdur might get from commuters won’t be as immediate, it satisfies her to know that her art will be part of everyday life in Philadelphia, and hopefully give a visual boost to weary travelers.
“Public transportation is about getting to the next place, not really appreciating where we are now. I want to momentarily transport people to where sunlight and flowers typically don’t exist.”
A graduate of Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Wisconsin, Amdur resides in Philadelphia, where she creates her art in University City. Her work has been shown in galleries from Albuquerque to Istanbul and reviewed in various national publications, including NY Arts, New Art Examiner, and Sculpture Magazine. She teaches painting at Rutgers–Camden.
Establishment of the Art in Transit Program for SEPTA grew out of a belief that aesthetic enhancement at stations and facilities can be an integral component of broader community outreach and partnership building efforts, undertaken in conjunction with capitally funded construction and reconstruction projects. SEPTA stations, transportation centers, and headhouses are visible community landmarks. Using permanent art installations as a focal point, the Authority seeks to strengthen its identity as a provider of public transit service, and create an enhanced sense of pride and ownership for riders and the neighborhood surrounding a station.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
The Dawn of a Faux-Bronze Age?
From the Wall Street Journal: The Dawn of a Faux-Bronze Age?
We don't think of artists as people who cut corners. As poor as he was, Vincent van Gogh didn't use 10% less paint on his canvases to save money, and Michelangelo didn't substitute quartz for marble. But the rising price of copper, the main component of bronze, has forced more and more sculptors to economize.
"It's ridiculous how expensive bronze has become," Manhattan sculptor Bryan Hunt said. Piero Mussi, owner of Artworks Foundry in Berkeley, Calif., stated that the per-pound price of bronze has risen in the past 10 years to $5 from $1.20. And Marc Fields, owner of New York's The Compleat Sculptor supply house, claimed his prices have more than tripled since 2008, reaching $7 a pound. (He also noted that shipping costs to New York City are higher than elsewhere.)
As a result, Mr. Hunt now casts some of his sculptures in a water-based plaster called Aqua-Resin, allowing him "to save way more than 50%. It's quicker to produce and less expensive for me, and I think the quality of the material is high."
He is not alone. Kitty Cantrell, a wildlife sculptor in Ramona, Calif., used to work primarily in bronze, but foundries now cast her work in polyester resin, which saves her more than half what she used to pay. "I'll work in bronze if someone is willing to pay 50% up front for casting," she said. In her studio are a couple of clay models from 2008—one of a wild turkey, the other of a group of vultures—that she will cast only in bronze when the economy improves. The turkey's long, slender legs are too likely to break if not done in metal, she believes, while the vultures are intended for outdoors and it isn't clear how the polyester resin will stand up to ultraviolet rays.
Mr. Fields said a growing number of artists are looking to Aqua-Resin, concrete, Fiberglass, gypsum- and polyurethane-based resins, plaster and terra cotta—which are less expensive than bronze and can be produced right in the studio, without the labor costs of a foundry. He said many of his customers are buying metal and mica powders that are poured into molds or applied as a patina to give a "faux finish" that resembles bronze or other metals. In fact, resin sculptures are often labeled as "cold cast bronze" or "bonded bronze," which may lead some buyers to believe they are purchasing a traditional bronze sculpture.
Many artists are offering different works—and sometimes the same works—in different media, to give prospective buyers a range of prices. "Nearly all my works are available in more than one material," Michael Alfano, a sculptor in Hopkinton, Mass., said. "It makes it more open and affordable to everyone."
New York's CFM Gallery has the work of Manhattan artist Aileen Fields in stone, bronze and acrylic. "The resins are OK if you are going to keep it inside, and they cost less" than bronze, Ms. Fields said. New York sculptor Carole Feuerman, whose life-size Aqua-Resin "Brooke With Beach Ball" is now outside Jim Kempner Fine Art in Chelsea, noted that her monumental bronzes are $335,000 while the resins of the same size cost $300,000. Mr. Hunt, on the other hand, claimed that "people pay to own one of my works, not for the materials used." His sculptures range from $60,000 to $210,000, depending on size and complexity.
Mr. Hunt's New York art dealer, Renato Danese, agreed, stating that "collectors are evaluating the quality of the work, leaving the choice of the material up to the artist." If prospective buyers ask about the durability of Aqua-Resin, he tells them that with regular care it should last "a very long time." But he said the subject doesn't come up often. Bronze may be the "Tiffany of metals," as Pomona, N.Y., sculptor Martin Glick said, but with faux-bronze finishes and discreet salesmen, buyers may not know to ask what the thing is made of.
Even when artists stick with bronze, they are looking to spend less, and that may affect foundries' bottom lines. "We haven't had as many reorders," Marjee Levine at New England Sculpture Service, a Boston-based foundry, said. Sculptors who previously would place an order for half an edition are now just asking them to produce "one or two" works at a time. "Everything is a bit slower." Other artists are seeking estimates from foundries far from home, in the U.S. and elsewhere—not because the price of bronze is lower there, but because labor costs are. "The cost of living is high in Boston, and we try to pay our employees a living wage," Ms. Levine said.
Mary Sand, a bronze sculptor in Philadelphia, claimed that "I can't afford any of the foundries on the East Coast"; she now uses Artworks Foundry in Berkeley. The labor costs of making the mold for one of her sculptures average $1,600 at Artworks, compared with $2,400 on the East Coast, she said, while the casting and patination costs $1,000, compared with $1,500 back east. Travel expenses—she visits the foundry to supervise the process—and shipping reduce some of those savings, but Ms. Sand sends Artworks multiple orders at once, which reduces the number of trips to the foundry.
Jeanne Touissaint at Art Castings of Colorado in Loveland said it is also "getting inquiries and orders" from East Coast sculptors. So are foundries in Mexico and Asia. Ms. Feuerman said she plans to try out foundries in Thailand and China in the coming year, because "it's so much less expensive, even if you add in shipping and traveling there."
The price of stainless steel, not bronze, was a concern for New York artist Rob Pruitt when he designed a statue of Andy Warhol, which the Public Art Fund commissioned and sited in Union Square ("The Andy Monument" stays on view through Oct. 2). The foundry bid came in at $80,000, "which ran into some budgetary limitations," he said. Someone suggested casting the piece in fiberglass, which cut the foundry costs in half (a different foundry was used). A coating on the sculpture gave it a metallic look, so you would never know.
Mr. Grant is the author of "The Business of Being an Artist" (Allworth).
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Alexander McQueen exhibition becomes New York's latest blockbuster
From Guardian.co.uk: Alexander McQueen exhibition becomes New York's latest blockbuster
In life, Alexander McQueen sometimes struggled to reconcile his extraordinary creativity with the commercial needs of business. In death the British designer, who killed himself last year a month shy of his 41st birthday, has officially achieved mass popularity with the news that the retrospective of his work at New York's Metropolitan Museum, which closed on Sunday, was one of the 10 most-visited exhibitions in the museum's 141-year history.
Since opening on 4 May, Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty has attracted 661,409 visitors in just three months, ranking it alongside other Met blockbusters such as Mona Lisa (1963) and Treasures of Tutankhamun (1978.)
The show proved so popular, startling even the museum, that the exhibition was extended by a week and extra morning and night-time hours were added as well as special Monday openings – "Mondays with McQueen" – when the rest of the museum was shut.
Despite tickets costing $50 on the Mondays, 17,000 visitors happily paid the price and 100,000 copies of the exhibition's $45 catalogue were also sold, a giant hardbacked book with a memento mori-style hologram cover that morphs McQueen's face with that of a skull.
This has not been the only hit McQueen show this summer. In London, the Duchess of Cambridge's wedding dress, which was designed by Sarah Burton – McQueen's right-hand woman in life and the head designer of the McQueen label in death – has been Buckingham Palace's main attraction since opening last month.
"We knew [the Met exhibition] would do well, but we didn't know how well," Anna Wintour, editor of US Vogue and now elective trustee of the Metropolitan Museum's board, told the New York Times. "One of the mailroom guys told me yesterday how much he enjoyed the show. It just shows you how fashion now reaches so many different people."
Despite that statement's decided ring of Marie Antoinette, McQueen, possibly more than any other designer, would have loved the sentiment. McQueen, whose real first name was Lee, the youngest son of a taxi driver and teacher who grew up in a tower block in Stratford, remained extremely proud of his working-class East End roots.
They became as inextricably part of his identity as his rebelliousness, morbidity and homosexuality, all of which made up his outward and possibly inward self-image as the "outsider on the inside" that was an integral part of his work.
The Met's show captured all this sensitively. Its themed rooms showcased McQueen's skills in tailoring, couture, and dresses that were more sculptural than strictly fashion. It also featured the attention-grabbing fashion pieces that often, to McQueen's frustration, received more attention than his actual fashion, such as the spray-painted dress and S&M jewellery. All of these factors have contributed to the enormous, if tragically posthumous interest in McQueen: his clothes were neither fashion nor art but a previously unseen hybrid of both, unshackled at last from the constraining expectations and ultimately niche appeal of either.
In life, Alexander McQueen sometimes struggled to reconcile his extraordinary creativity with the commercial needs of business. In death the British designer, who killed himself last year a month shy of his 41st birthday, has officially achieved mass popularity with the news that the retrospective of his work at New York's Metropolitan Museum, which closed on Sunday, was one of the 10 most-visited exhibitions in the museum's 141-year history.
Since opening on 4 May, Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty has attracted 661,409 visitors in just three months, ranking it alongside other Met blockbusters such as Mona Lisa (1963) and Treasures of Tutankhamun (1978.)
The show proved so popular, startling even the museum, that the exhibition was extended by a week and extra morning and night-time hours were added as well as special Monday openings – "Mondays with McQueen" – when the rest of the museum was shut.
Despite tickets costing $50 on the Mondays, 17,000 visitors happily paid the price and 100,000 copies of the exhibition's $45 catalogue were also sold, a giant hardbacked book with a memento mori-style hologram cover that morphs McQueen's face with that of a skull.
This has not been the only hit McQueen show this summer. In London, the Duchess of Cambridge's wedding dress, which was designed by Sarah Burton – McQueen's right-hand woman in life and the head designer of the McQueen label in death – has been Buckingham Palace's main attraction since opening last month.
"We knew [the Met exhibition] would do well, but we didn't know how well," Anna Wintour, editor of US Vogue and now elective trustee of the Metropolitan Museum's board, told the New York Times. "One of the mailroom guys told me yesterday how much he enjoyed the show. It just shows you how fashion now reaches so many different people."
Despite that statement's decided ring of Marie Antoinette, McQueen, possibly more than any other designer, would have loved the sentiment. McQueen, whose real first name was Lee, the youngest son of a taxi driver and teacher who grew up in a tower block in Stratford, remained extremely proud of his working-class East End roots.
They became as inextricably part of his identity as his rebelliousness, morbidity and homosexuality, all of which made up his outward and possibly inward self-image as the "outsider on the inside" that was an integral part of his work.
The Met's show captured all this sensitively. Its themed rooms showcased McQueen's skills in tailoring, couture, and dresses that were more sculptural than strictly fashion. It also featured the attention-grabbing fashion pieces that often, to McQueen's frustration, received more attention than his actual fashion, such as the spray-painted dress and S&M jewellery. All of these factors have contributed to the enormous, if tragically posthumous interest in McQueen: his clothes were neither fashion nor art but a previously unseen hybrid of both, unshackled at last from the constraining expectations and ultimately niche appeal of either.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Stolen art turns up in Calif. church
From Boston.com: Stolen art turns up in Calif. church
MARINA DEL REY, Calif. - A stolen Rembrandt sketch was too hot to handle for thieves, and even the detective who held the 17th-century artwork in white-gloved hands yesterday admitted that he was nervous.
After all, it was only days earlier that the 350-year-old artwork worth $250,000 was swiped from the lobby of a seaside hotel.
The 11-by-6-inch pen-and-ink drawing was found in an unlocked public area of an Encino church Monday evening after a caller recognized it from news accounts of its weekend theft, said Los Angeles County sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore.
It was verified as being the stolen piece shortly after midnight, he said.
However, experts will be asked to authenticate the work as a Rembrandt, and until then it will remain in an evidence locker, Whitmore said.
“It’s going to stay under lock and key until the detectives determine where to send it next,’’ he said.
The frame holding it will be fingerprinted and investigators will try to determine whether the church has any surveillance video, Detective Clarence Williams said yesterday as he held up the recovered artwork in a dark wood frame at a Marina del Rey news conference.
The Rembrandt was snatched from an easel on Saturday during a private art display in the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Marina del Rey. A curator was momentarily distracted by someone who seemed interested in buying another piece.
The thieves apparently tore open brown paper covering the back of the frame, intending to remove the mounted sketch, but then got cold feet.
“They realized that . . . it’s going to be very hard to sell’’ because of the publicity and might not have had the know-how and connections to sell the sketch, Williams said. “It doesn’t appear to be damaged or touched.’’
It was abandoned, “we believe, because there was so much publicity,’’ Whitmore said. “How do you sell it? What do you do with it?’’
It was not immediately clear whether the thieves were professionals or amateur opportunists.
“I honestly can’t tell you if it was well thought-out, at this time,’’ Williams said.
Investigators had several leads, Whitmore said.
MARINA DEL REY, Calif. - A stolen Rembrandt sketch was too hot to handle for thieves, and even the detective who held the 17th-century artwork in white-gloved hands yesterday admitted that he was nervous.
After all, it was only days earlier that the 350-year-old artwork worth $250,000 was swiped from the lobby of a seaside hotel.
The 11-by-6-inch pen-and-ink drawing was found in an unlocked public area of an Encino church Monday evening after a caller recognized it from news accounts of its weekend theft, said Los Angeles County sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore.
It was verified as being the stolen piece shortly after midnight, he said.
However, experts will be asked to authenticate the work as a Rembrandt, and until then it will remain in an evidence locker, Whitmore said.
“It’s going to stay under lock and key until the detectives determine where to send it next,’’ he said.
The frame holding it will be fingerprinted and investigators will try to determine whether the church has any surveillance video, Detective Clarence Williams said yesterday as he held up the recovered artwork in a dark wood frame at a Marina del Rey news conference.
The Rembrandt was snatched from an easel on Saturday during a private art display in the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Marina del Rey. A curator was momentarily distracted by someone who seemed interested in buying another piece.
The thieves apparently tore open brown paper covering the back of the frame, intending to remove the mounted sketch, but then got cold feet.
“They realized that . . . it’s going to be very hard to sell’’ because of the publicity and might not have had the know-how and connections to sell the sketch, Williams said. “It doesn’t appear to be damaged or touched.’’
It was abandoned, “we believe, because there was so much publicity,’’ Whitmore said. “How do you sell it? What do you do with it?’’
It was not immediately clear whether the thieves were professionals or amateur opportunists.
“I honestly can’t tell you if it was well thought-out, at this time,’’ Williams said.
Investigators had several leads, Whitmore said.
UK: Miró, Van Gogh and Tate St Ives – the week in art
From The Guardian: Miró, Van Gogh and Tate St Ives – the week in art
Joan Miró
The art of Joan Miró is part of the history of abstraction, as well as a highlight of the surrealist movement to which he belonged. His early dream paintings have much in common with the contemporary abstract works of Arp, while late works offer a European answer to the freedom of Pollock and the American abstract expressionists. A truly important modern painter.
• At Tate Modern, London SE1, until 11 September
Ron Arad's Curtain Call
Artists including Mat Collishaw and Christian Marclay project films on a giant silicone curtain created by designer Arad in a multimedia summer spectacle at the venue legendary for its association with 1960s psychedelic lightshows.
• At Roundhouse, London NW1, until 29 August
Tate St Ives Summer Exhibition
There is a minimalist tone to some of the art in this year's eclectic summer show at the Cornish Tate by the sea, as the restrained and passionate works of Agnes Martin are juxtaposed with Martin Creed's gallery half-filled with balloons. Two excellent reasons to include modern art in your British beach holiday, and the surf is amazing, too.
• At Tate St Ives until 25 September
Twombly and Poussin
You can get a very good notion of why the late American painter mattered so much in this excellent selection of mostly smaller works by him. It also features Poussin's majestic Arcadian Shepherds. Eerily, some of Twombly's works are funereally displayed in the mausoleum built into this gallery, while a film by Tacita Dean offers a portrait of the artist near the end of his life.
• At Dulwich Picture Gallery, London SE21, until 25 September
Thomas Struth
Panoramic photographs of resonant, spectacular places, and unsettling juxapositions of modern people with historical cultural landmarks, make Struth a distinctly thought-provoking artist.
• At Whitechapel Gallery, London E1, until 16 September
Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers, 1888
Sometimes this painting fills you with happiness. At other times, if the light on it is a little less bright, it can appear desperately melancholy. It is a modern version of religious art: where a medieval street corner might display a statue of the Virgin Mary to console people in their everyday lives, Vincent's flowers, in a faithless age, find hints of spiritual meaning in nature and offers evidence of earth's beauty to strengthen the soul. And yet the unease shows through.
• At National Gallery, London WC2
Giovanni Bellini, The Agony in the Garden, c1465
Bellini's rosy-fingered dawn creeping over a north Italian hillside, brightly illuminating a little town whose people are still asleep, is one of the most beautiful homages to the sun ever painted. Earth's star has not yet appeared in the sky, but the pink fiery promise of its coming that spreads through sharp blue is a miracle of natural observation.
• At National Gallery, London WC2
John Michael Rysbrack, Sunna, about 1728 -1730
Statues of Greek and Roman gods and heroes were the convention in 18th-century landscaped gardens, but Lord Cobham decided to be different in his garden at Stowe. He commissioned Rysbrack to carve marble figures of the pagan Saxon gods, a savage English pantheon. This deity with flaming hair hewn from stone is Sunna, the Saxon god of the sun, as imagined by 18th-century antiquarians.
• At V&A, London SW7
Sculptures from east pediment of the Parthenon, about 438-432BC
The wine god Dionysus reclines to watch the rising of the sun's chariot in the mythological representation of day and night that ancient Athenian sculptors carved on their city's greatest temple. Colossal marble figures of gods, fragmentary but overwhelmingly powerful, convey the titanic authority of Greek myth. While the sun chariot rises on the left side of the group, at the right of the scene one of the horses of the moon goddess rolls its eye.
• At British Museum, London WC1
Maeshowe, about 2700BC
Visitors to the Orkneys in summer are there at the wrong time of the year to see the winter solstice light penetrate this cairned chamber. But at any time of the year it is a fascinating testimony to ancient humanity's adoration of the sun. Just like ancient Egyptians and Aztecs, the neolithic builders of this camera-like stone structure aligned their architecture, and presumably their lives, to the cycles of the sun.
• At Stenness, Orkney Mainland
Joan Miró
The art of Joan Miró is part of the history of abstraction, as well as a highlight of the surrealist movement to which he belonged. His early dream paintings have much in common with the contemporary abstract works of Arp, while late works offer a European answer to the freedom of Pollock and the American abstract expressionists. A truly important modern painter.
• At Tate Modern, London SE1, until 11 September
Ron Arad's Curtain Call
Artists including Mat Collishaw and Christian Marclay project films on a giant silicone curtain created by designer Arad in a multimedia summer spectacle at the venue legendary for its association with 1960s psychedelic lightshows.
• At Roundhouse, London NW1, until 29 August
Tate St Ives Summer Exhibition
There is a minimalist tone to some of the art in this year's eclectic summer show at the Cornish Tate by the sea, as the restrained and passionate works of Agnes Martin are juxtaposed with Martin Creed's gallery half-filled with balloons. Two excellent reasons to include modern art in your British beach holiday, and the surf is amazing, too.
• At Tate St Ives until 25 September
Twombly and Poussin
You can get a very good notion of why the late American painter mattered so much in this excellent selection of mostly smaller works by him. It also features Poussin's majestic Arcadian Shepherds. Eerily, some of Twombly's works are funereally displayed in the mausoleum built into this gallery, while a film by Tacita Dean offers a portrait of the artist near the end of his life.
• At Dulwich Picture Gallery, London SE21, until 25 September
Thomas Struth
Panoramic photographs of resonant, spectacular places, and unsettling juxapositions of modern people with historical cultural landmarks, make Struth a distinctly thought-provoking artist.
• At Whitechapel Gallery, London E1, until 16 September
Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers, 1888
Sometimes this painting fills you with happiness. At other times, if the light on it is a little less bright, it can appear desperately melancholy. It is a modern version of religious art: where a medieval street corner might display a statue of the Virgin Mary to console people in their everyday lives, Vincent's flowers, in a faithless age, find hints of spiritual meaning in nature and offers evidence of earth's beauty to strengthen the soul. And yet the unease shows through.
• At National Gallery, London WC2
Giovanni Bellini, The Agony in the Garden, c1465
Bellini's rosy-fingered dawn creeping over a north Italian hillside, brightly illuminating a little town whose people are still asleep, is one of the most beautiful homages to the sun ever painted. Earth's star has not yet appeared in the sky, but the pink fiery promise of its coming that spreads through sharp blue is a miracle of natural observation.
• At National Gallery, London WC2
John Michael Rysbrack, Sunna, about 1728 -1730
Statues of Greek and Roman gods and heroes were the convention in 18th-century landscaped gardens, but Lord Cobham decided to be different in his garden at Stowe. He commissioned Rysbrack to carve marble figures of the pagan Saxon gods, a savage English pantheon. This deity with flaming hair hewn from stone is Sunna, the Saxon god of the sun, as imagined by 18th-century antiquarians.
• At V&A, London SW7
Sculptures from east pediment of the Parthenon, about 438-432BC
The wine god Dionysus reclines to watch the rising of the sun's chariot in the mythological representation of day and night that ancient Athenian sculptors carved on their city's greatest temple. Colossal marble figures of gods, fragmentary but overwhelmingly powerful, convey the titanic authority of Greek myth. While the sun chariot rises on the left side of the group, at the right of the scene one of the horses of the moon goddess rolls its eye.
• At British Museum, London WC1
Maeshowe, about 2700BC
Visitors to the Orkneys in summer are there at the wrong time of the year to see the winter solstice light penetrate this cairned chamber. But at any time of the year it is a fascinating testimony to ancient humanity's adoration of the sun. Just like ancient Egyptians and Aztecs, the neolithic builders of this camera-like stone structure aligned their architecture, and presumably their lives, to the cycles of the sun.
• At Stenness, Orkney Mainland
Monday, August 15, 2011
Fragile, don’t touch
From Boston.com: Fragile, don’t touch
CAIRO - In a smoky office a short drive from the Pyramids of Giza, Mohamed Saleh, once the director of Cairo’s Egyptian Museum and now the man in charge of the collections for a planned $550 million Grand Egyptian Museum, is asked how much he knows about the bust of Prince Ankhhaf. The precious 4,500-year-old statue, 20 inches tall, left Egypt decades ago and is now on prominent display at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.
Saleh nods, smiles, and opens his laptop.
Just a few clicks, and the stoic ancient face pops onto his screen.
Four words are all Saleh needs.
“It is a dream,’’ he says.
The dream is the idea of the Ankhhaf bust returning from Boston, where it has rested since 1927. The Egyptian government is demanding the statue’s return, and the MFA has refused.
But this conflict - one of many the MFA has faced over works in its permanent collection - has been further complicated by the recent tumult in the Egyptian government. And while some claims for ownership of works can be made on legal grounds, this one treads on murkier terrain. The bust of Ankhhaf was given to the MFA by a previous Egyptian government, so the current government has no legal case. Any appeal must be made on moral grounds: that the piece is part of Egypt’s patrimony, and belongs at home.
For now, Saleh, a soft-spoken cultural leader respected by both Egyptian and American curators, remains hopeful. He pulls out a thick document that shows the planned interior of the new museum, which is meant to hold 10,000 objects, range over more than a million square feet, and attract 5 million visitors a year when it opens in 2013, less than two miles from the Giza pyramids.
He points to a prominent spot at the top of a walkway leading visitors through the entrance. This is where he is planning to place the bust of Ankhhaf, a royal architect who is believed to have overseen the building of the Sphinx and the second pyramid of Giza. A glass wall will allow the new museum to display the bust in the shadow of that very pyramid.
Exceptional among treasures
There are countless treasures from Egypt, but only one bust of Ankhhaf.
The work is special, a limestone statue covered by a thin layer of reddish plaster. Artistically, what’s notable about the piece is the realistic depiction of the subject, not typical for works of the period. Ankhhaf’s hair is receding. His eyelids droop. There are muscles visible around his mouth.
It is the “most convincing example of individualized portraiture in the Pyramid Age,’’ Dows Dunham, MFA curator of Egyptian art, wrote in 1943, noting that the subject had the largest tomb in the royal cemetery in Giza.
But the piece is also incredibly delicate, which is why the MFA refuses to loan it to anyone, never mind send it permanently back to Egypt.
CAIRO - In a smoky office a short drive from the Pyramids of Giza, Mohamed Saleh, once the director of Cairo’s Egyptian Museum and now the man in charge of the collections for a planned $550 million Grand Egyptian Museum, is asked how much he knows about the bust of Prince Ankhhaf. The precious 4,500-year-old statue, 20 inches tall, left Egypt decades ago and is now on prominent display at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.
Saleh nods, smiles, and opens his laptop.
Just a few clicks, and the stoic ancient face pops onto his screen.
Four words are all Saleh needs.
“It is a dream,’’ he says.
The dream is the idea of the Ankhhaf bust returning from Boston, where it has rested since 1927. The Egyptian government is demanding the statue’s return, and the MFA has refused.
But this conflict - one of many the MFA has faced over works in its permanent collection - has been further complicated by the recent tumult in the Egyptian government. And while some claims for ownership of works can be made on legal grounds, this one treads on murkier terrain. The bust of Ankhhaf was given to the MFA by a previous Egyptian government, so the current government has no legal case. Any appeal must be made on moral grounds: that the piece is part of Egypt’s patrimony, and belongs at home.
For now, Saleh, a soft-spoken cultural leader respected by both Egyptian and American curators, remains hopeful. He pulls out a thick document that shows the planned interior of the new museum, which is meant to hold 10,000 objects, range over more than a million square feet, and attract 5 million visitors a year when it opens in 2013, less than two miles from the Giza pyramids.
He points to a prominent spot at the top of a walkway leading visitors through the entrance. This is where he is planning to place the bust of Ankhhaf, a royal architect who is believed to have overseen the building of the Sphinx and the second pyramid of Giza. A glass wall will allow the new museum to display the bust in the shadow of that very pyramid.
Exceptional among treasures
There are countless treasures from Egypt, but only one bust of Ankhhaf.
The work is special, a limestone statue covered by a thin layer of reddish plaster. Artistically, what’s notable about the piece is the realistic depiction of the subject, not typical for works of the period. Ankhhaf’s hair is receding. His eyelids droop. There are muscles visible around his mouth.
It is the “most convincing example of individualized portraiture in the Pyramid Age,’’ Dows Dunham, MFA curator of Egyptian art, wrote in 1943, noting that the subject had the largest tomb in the royal cemetery in Giza.
But the piece is also incredibly delicate, which is why the MFA refuses to loan it to anyone, never mind send it permanently back to Egypt.
Rembrandt drawing stolen from California hotel
From Forbes.com: Rembrandt drawing stolen from California hotel
LOS ANGELES -- A 17th Century drawing by Rembrandt was snatched from a private art display at a California luxury hotel while a curator was momentarily distracted, officials said Monday.
The theft of the $250,000 sketch from the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the upmarket seaside community of Marina del Rey happened around 10:30 p.m. Saturday night while someone who seemed interested in buying another piece held the curator's attention for a few minutes.
"When the curator turned back to the Rembrandt, it was gone," Los Angeles County sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said. It was not clear whether the person talking to the curator was connected to the theft, though Whitman said a team of at least two people was involved.
The sketch, called "The Judgment," was completed around 1655 and is signed on the back by the Dutch master. Rembrandt von Rijn is widely regarded as one of the finest painters in European art history and his worldwide name recognition has made his work a common target for thieves.
"Rembrandt is a name that criminals know or should know," said Chris Marinello, executive director of the London-based Art Loss Register, an international database of stolen artworks. "When they come across one, they see dollar signs."
Marinello said the theft was likely a crime of opportunity and not an operation carried at the command of a mysterious criminal with a private art collection, as is often depicted in movies.
"Hollywood would love us to believe there are paintings being ordered stolen," he said. "We have yet to find that."
Artworks tend to surface either very quickly after they are stolen or else disappear into the underworld where they are traded between criminals at a fraction of their value for drugs and other illicit materials, Marinello said.
The sketch was being displayed on an easel or wooden stand and was apparently not fastened down in any way, Whitmore said.
He described the theft as well-executed, "but not executed well enough to get away with," adding that investigators had several strong leads and that detectives were looking at video surveillance from the hotel.
Ritz-Carlton spokeswoman Vivian Deuschl said she could not comment because the theft was a police matter.
A sketch artist was putting together a suspect composite drawing based on witness accounts. It will be released at the end of the week.
The drawing was part of an exhibit at the hotel sponsored by the Linearis Institute based in the San Francisco Bay area community of Hercules. Messages left Monday weren't returned.
The stolen sketch was drawn with a quill pen and depicts what appears to be a court scene with a man prostrating himself before a judge.
Marinello said the artist thieves most commonly target is Picasso because of the volume of the Spanish painter's work and his name recognition.
In 1990, the criminals posing as police officers robbed the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum during the St. Patrick's Day parade in Boston. Marinello said the works, which included Rembrandt's only seascape, had a combined worth of as much as $500,000. Those paintings are still missing.
Anthony Amore, chief investigator at the museum and co-author of the book "Stealing Rembrandts," told the Los Angeles Times there have been 81 documented thefts of the artist's work in the past 100 years.
Marina del Rey is a sprawling community and small-boat harbor on Santa Monica Bay, less than 20 miles from downtown Los Angeles.
LOS ANGELES -- A 17th Century drawing by Rembrandt was snatched from a private art display at a California luxury hotel while a curator was momentarily distracted, officials said Monday.
The theft of the $250,000 sketch from the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the upmarket seaside community of Marina del Rey happened around 10:30 p.m. Saturday night while someone who seemed interested in buying another piece held the curator's attention for a few minutes.
"When the curator turned back to the Rembrandt, it was gone," Los Angeles County sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said. It was not clear whether the person talking to the curator was connected to the theft, though Whitman said a team of at least two people was involved.
The sketch, called "The Judgment," was completed around 1655 and is signed on the back by the Dutch master. Rembrandt von Rijn is widely regarded as one of the finest painters in European art history and his worldwide name recognition has made his work a common target for thieves.
"Rembrandt is a name that criminals know or should know," said Chris Marinello, executive director of the London-based Art Loss Register, an international database of stolen artworks. "When they come across one, they see dollar signs."
Marinello said the theft was likely a crime of opportunity and not an operation carried at the command of a mysterious criminal with a private art collection, as is often depicted in movies.
"Hollywood would love us to believe there are paintings being ordered stolen," he said. "We have yet to find that."
Artworks tend to surface either very quickly after they are stolen or else disappear into the underworld where they are traded between criminals at a fraction of their value for drugs and other illicit materials, Marinello said.
The sketch was being displayed on an easel or wooden stand and was apparently not fastened down in any way, Whitmore said.
He described the theft as well-executed, "but not executed well enough to get away with," adding that investigators had several strong leads and that detectives were looking at video surveillance from the hotel.
Ritz-Carlton spokeswoman Vivian Deuschl said she could not comment because the theft was a police matter.
A sketch artist was putting together a suspect composite drawing based on witness accounts. It will be released at the end of the week.
The drawing was part of an exhibit at the hotel sponsored by the Linearis Institute based in the San Francisco Bay area community of Hercules. Messages left Monday weren't returned.
The stolen sketch was drawn with a quill pen and depicts what appears to be a court scene with a man prostrating himself before a judge.
Marinello said the artist thieves most commonly target is Picasso because of the volume of the Spanish painter's work and his name recognition.
In 1990, the criminals posing as police officers robbed the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum during the St. Patrick's Day parade in Boston. Marinello said the works, which included Rembrandt's only seascape, had a combined worth of as much as $500,000. Those paintings are still missing.
Anthony Amore, chief investigator at the museum and co-author of the book "Stealing Rembrandts," told the Los Angeles Times there have been 81 documented thefts of the artist's work in the past 100 years.
Marina del Rey is a sprawling community and small-boat harbor on Santa Monica Bay, less than 20 miles from downtown Los Angeles.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Underwater art, birding fest offer different looks at Florida Keys
From Orlando Sentinel: Underwater art, birding fest offer different looks at Florida Keys
Whether by sea or by air, there are plenty of natural diversions in coming months in the Florida Keys.
Let's start in the water, where an underwater art exhibit has debuted on a former Air Force missile-tracking ship sunk as an artificial reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary seven miles south of Key West.
Austrian art photographer Andreas Franke is exhibiting a dozen digitally composited images on the Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, scuttled in May 2009. The 4-by-5-foot photographs stretch along some 200 linear feet of the starboard side of the Vandenberg's weather deck, 93 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.
One picture depicts a girl with a butterfly net trying to capture fish. In another, kickboxers compete next to one of Vandenberg's tracking dishes.
Raw video: Space Shuttle shuffle at NASA
The 20-square-foot images are encased in plexiglass and mounted in stainless steel frames sealed with silicone.
Joe Weatherby, the Key West resident who spearheaded the Vandenberg's sinking, hopes the exhibition can remain in place through the end of the year.
If you're not a diver, the skies will be the backdrop for the 13th annual Florida Keys Birding and Wildlife Festival, slated for Sept. 21-25 at the oceanfront preserve of Curry Hammock State Park at mile marker 56.2 in Marathon. The family event includes field trips and guided interpretive nature walks at sites throughout the Keys.
The festival's primary program starts on Sept. 22 at Key Largo's John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park (MM 100), with birder Kimberly Kaufman chatting about her experiences.
Eco-tours and activities on Sept. 24 include free admission to an environmental fair, wildlife art show and family day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Curry Hammock. All-day birding and wildlife photography excursions to Dry Tortugas National Park are set for Sunday, Sept. 25. Reservations are required and space is limited to 20 people per field trip. Festival admission fees haven't been set, but you can check keysbirdingfest.org for details.
For more on the underwater art, visit fla-keys.com
Art attacker slams Matisse at National Gallery of Art
The Washington POst: Art attacker slams Matisse at National Gallery of Art
By Emily Wax, Friday, August 12, 6:13 PM
In her second alleged attack on a world-famous piece of art in the past four months, Susan Burns, 53, was arrested for attempting to rip a $2.5 million Henri Matisse oil painting off the wall of the National Gallery of Art and slamming the frame three times against the wall, police said.
Burns, 53, of Alexandria, was being held at D.C. Superior Court, but a court docket indicates that Burns was to be “transferred immediately” from a D.C. jail to St. Elizabeths Hospital “and to be monitored closely.”
Her recent past includes a highly publicized arrest on April 1 for allegedly trying to tear an $80 million Paul Gauguin painting off the wall of the National Gallery of Art. She pounded the painting, which was protected by a plexiglass shield, with her fists.
This time, with the museum surveillance cameras rolling, she walked over to Matisse’s “The Plumed Hat,” then “grabbed both sides of the frame holding said painting, damaging the antique original frame of the painting,” according to an arrest affidavit sworn by police Lt. Dexter Moten. “No damage to the painting itself was immediately apparent,” Moten said in the affidavit. Burns was charged with unlawful entry, contempt, destruction of property and attempted theft.
Annabeth Guthrie, a National Gallery of Art spokeswoman, declined to comment because “the case is being investigated.” But the attack raises questions about security at the museum and the protection of some of the world’s most famous works of art.
A condition of her release after her April arrest required that Burns sign a form June 24 agreeing to “stay away from all museums and art galleries in Washington D.C. including the National Gallery of Art.”
“The Plumed Hat,” was completed in 1919 and shows a pensive brunette wearing a head covering adorned with large white feathers.
After her alleged April attack, Burns told an investigator that she thinks the Gauguin painting “Two Tahitian Women,” completed in 1899, “is evil. He has nudity and is bad for the children. He has two women in the painting very homosexual. I was trying to remove it. I think it should be burned. I am from the American CIA and I have a radio in my head. I am going to kill you.”
The painting shows two women; one is bare-breasted, the other has a blue cloth covering one breast.
“What she did was strange,” said a police officer, who asked not to be named. “But when you think about all the homicides in this city, it’s really not so bad. Maybe she just really hates art.”
By Emily Wax, Friday, August 12, 6:13 PM
In her second alleged attack on a world-famous piece of art in the past four months, Susan Burns, 53, was arrested for attempting to rip a $2.5 million Henri Matisse oil painting off the wall of the National Gallery of Art and slamming the frame three times against the wall, police said.
Burns, 53, of Alexandria, was being held at D.C. Superior Court, but a court docket indicates that Burns was to be “transferred immediately” from a D.C. jail to St. Elizabeths Hospital “and to be monitored closely.”
Her recent past includes a highly publicized arrest on April 1 for allegedly trying to tear an $80 million Paul Gauguin painting off the wall of the National Gallery of Art. She pounded the painting, which was protected by a plexiglass shield, with her fists.
This time, with the museum surveillance cameras rolling, she walked over to Matisse’s “The Plumed Hat,” then “grabbed both sides of the frame holding said painting, damaging the antique original frame of the painting,” according to an arrest affidavit sworn by police Lt. Dexter Moten. “No damage to the painting itself was immediately apparent,” Moten said in the affidavit. Burns was charged with unlawful entry, contempt, destruction of property and attempted theft.
Annabeth Guthrie, a National Gallery of Art spokeswoman, declined to comment because “the case is being investigated.” But the attack raises questions about security at the museum and the protection of some of the world’s most famous works of art.
A condition of her release after her April arrest required that Burns sign a form June 24 agreeing to “stay away from all museums and art galleries in Washington D.C. including the National Gallery of Art.”
“The Plumed Hat,” was completed in 1919 and shows a pensive brunette wearing a head covering adorned with large white feathers.
After her alleged April attack, Burns told an investigator that she thinks the Gauguin painting “Two Tahitian Women,” completed in 1899, “is evil. He has nudity and is bad for the children. He has two women in the painting very homosexual. I was trying to remove it. I think it should be burned. I am from the American CIA and I have a radio in my head. I am going to kill you.”
The painting shows two women; one is bare-breasted, the other has a blue cloth covering one breast.
“What she did was strange,” said a police officer, who asked not to be named. “But when you think about all the homicides in this city, it’s really not so bad. Maybe she just really hates art.”
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