artscope magazine: July/August 2008 Welcome Statement: Brian Goslow, managing editor Letters to the Editor Past, Present, Future: ANISH KAPOOR ANDREW SAFTEL: How do we get there? WEDDED BLISS: The Marriage of Art and Ceremony A POLITIC, Gallery XIV El Greco To Velázquez: Art during the reign of Philip III Luisa Rabbia: Travels with Isabella, Travel Scrapbooks 1883/2008 Collector's Choice: Late 19th Century Vibrations OFF THE WALL: 2008 Annual members’ Juried exhibition Featured Artist Laurence Young An Artful Touch: An Artful Touch Gallery Everday Monuments: the Photographs of Jerome Liebling: SAM FEINSTEIN (1915-2003): A retrospective DORA ATWATER MILLIKIN: Geometry of Place Nancy Craig: New Paintings and Works on Paper, and Romolo Del Deo: New Sculpture and Bronze Furniture ALEX KATZ AND FRIENDS / THE GLEANERS BLACK WOMANHOOD: Images, Icons, And Ideologies of the African Body 215 College Street Artists' Cooperative Gallery Kevin Gilmore: Recent Paintings Paintings: Stephen Courbois, Sculpture: Pat Musick Penelope Jencks: Sculpture in Bronze, Terracotta and Plaster Theater: Counter Productions Theater: Ko FEST Music: Marblehead Summer Jazz Concerts and Festival of Arts Dance: Bates Summer Dance Festival Musings: FUNG WAH ADVENTURE Capsule Previews: May/June 2008

Nancy Craig: New Paintings and Works on Paper, and Romolo Del Deo: New Sculpture and Bronze Furniture Taylor M. Polites Berta Walker Gallery 208 Bradford Street Provincetown, Massachusetts Nancy Craig: New Paintings and Works on Paper July 11 through 27 Romolo Del Deo: New Sculpture and Bronze Furniture August 22 through September 7 THE ART WORLD OF THE NEW CENTURY IS IDENTIFIABLE MORE BY ITS FRACTURED INDIVIDUALITY THAN FOR A SENSE OF GENRE OR SCHOOL. ARTISTS DRAW ON AN ALPHABET SOUP OF DIVERGENT AND REACTIONARY ISMS RANGING FROM IMPRESSIONISM TO NEO-EXPRESSIONISM AND BEYOND. FINDING ARTISTS, THEN, WHO EMBED THEIR WORK IN A CLASSICAL VOCABULARY WITHOUT LOSING A MODERN VIEWPOINT OR ACCESSIBILITY CAN COME AS A SURPRISE. BUT BERTA WALKER, THE GRANDE DAME OF PROVINCETOWN ART FOR ALMOST 20 YEARS, HAS FOUND TWO UNIQUE ARTISTS WHO DO JUST THAT. NANCY CRAIG AND ROMOLO DEL DEO, WHO WILL BE FEATURED AT WALKER’S GALLERY THIS AUGUST, EXPRESSLY EMPLOY A CLASSICAL VOCABULARY. Craig is already a recognized master portraitist, receiving commissions from American as well as European royalty, including the Rockefeller, Forbes, Guinness, Windsor and Hohenzollern families. But that, according to Craig, is only her day job. She works on commissions to enable her to focus on her own painting and drawing when she returns home. Her personal works range from monumental canvases reminiscent of the scale and scope of Rubens (in Spain, she was known as “la mujer de Rubens”) to the drawings she loves. Those drawings in both ink and oil pastel on paper will be the feature of her show. “Like Degas,” Craig said, “I was born to draw.” Craig’s fancy has led her to create what she refers to as “Renaissance Dream Drawings.” They are reminiscent of the Metaphysical and pre-Surrealist artist Giorgio de Chirico’s work. Perspectives are based on Renaissance principles with geometrically patterned floorscapes, often in gold or red and white, peopled with mysterious and dissonant figures: horses, riders, acrobats, a cheetah. They are strange and quiet spaces filled with structures that recede into the horizon. Craig’s dreams are pulled in part from the sketchbooks she has maintained for decades. She begins with the geometric planes and populates them through search and inspiration. The horses swirl against the page in active arabesques while acrobats pose, waiting for a breath of life against the rigid and formal background. They are immediately recognizable and yet compel the viewer to descend deeper into the scene, to walk among these strange and wonderful creatures. Del Deo also employs a classical vocabulary in his work, but with a focus on bronze sculpture. “I don’t like art that is sacrosanct. I love bronze for its durability. Bronze only looks better with time.” As a young man, Del Deo studied at the Accademia in Florence and wandered freely through their archives. His work is infused with that Classical and pre-Classical education. His new show is called “Sirocco” after the fierce winds that blow from North Africa into Southern Italy, shaded red with Saharan sand. He compares the winds to whimsical beasts, personas in their Read the entire article in our magazine pages...