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Artscope Magazine | March/April 2025

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PUTTING DOWN ROOTS: GROWING NUMBER OF ARTISTS TURNING TO THE BERKSHIRES

// Community, September/October 2022

by Marjorie Kaye

There is something, in addition to the mountain air, the beautiful surroundings and the vibrancy of the Berkshires, that attracts artists of all types like moths to a flame. Between the lush and well established areas like Lenox and Williamstown, and the gritty petri-dish of energy like North Adams, the settings for artistic evolution are boundless. Add in the great institutions like The Clark, Mass MoCA and countless others, and the area becomes more and more a destination for artists to put down rootsandcontributetoanever-growingvesselofcreativity. Upon arriving, one will discover a vast network of like- minded artists sharing a common goal: living, breathing and ingesting art. Artists are magnetized to one another in the Berkshires, and a supportive creative community continues to grow. There are those who are more established in the area, having been here for many years, providing … [Read more...] about PUTTING DOWN ROOTS: GROWING NUMBER OF ARTISTS TURNING TO THE BERKSHIRES

“A CRASH COURSE IN POSTWAR L.A. ART”: ON THE EDGE BRINGS QUINN COLLECTION TO ARMENIAN MUSEUM

// Features, September/October 2022

by Elizabeth Michelman

The rollicking energy of “On The Edge,” an exhibition of mostly Southern California artists of the 1970s through the ‘90s from the Jack and Joan Quinn Family Collection, is only rivaled by the exuberance of its collector, Joan Agajanian Quinn. This vibrant art lover, in partnership with her now-deceased husband, the prominent Los Angeles attorney Jack Quinn, lived and entertained amongst layers and layers of art, art objects and Armenian rugs they amassed over their 56 years of marriage. Architectural critic Martin Filler called the collection, on view through November at the Armenian Museum of America in Watertown, Massachusetts, “a crash course in post-war L.A. Art.” Quinn said that people asked her if she would show the exhibition at their galleries and women’s clubs and community things. “And I said no,” she replied. “Because I thought it was so narcissistic to take your … [Read more...] about “A CRASH COURSE IN POSTWAR L.A. ART”: ON THE EDGE BRINGS QUINN COLLECTION TO ARMENIAN MUSEUM

GROUNDED IN SPIRITUALITY, ABSTRACTLY: NEW HAMPSHIRE’S EDWARD KINGSBURY III IN BRATTLEBORO

// Features, September/October 2022

by Elayne Clift

When Edward Kingsbury III was diagnosed with severe Crohn’s Disease in 1997, he had no idea the illness would lead him to creating art that would be shown and appreciated around the world. A college student at the time, he was studying business and engaging in athletics so his limited ability to be active was a shock, and a challenge. Luckily, he was inspired by an artistic friend to consider creating art, especially abstract works. It proved to be a groundbreaking and life-saving experience. “I felt a real release and I was filled with new energy when she and other friends encouraged me,” Kingsbury recalled. “I started creating art works in an organic way that gave me a kind of positive flow and new energy and I enjoyed the visual stimulation.” Originally recognized for pen and ink abstractions as well as digital art, Kingsbury also focused on painting at the start of his artistic … [Read more...] about GROUNDED IN SPIRITUALITY, ABSTRACTLY: NEW HAMPSHIRE’S EDWARD KINGSBURY III IN BRATTLEBORO

A RARE OPPORTUNITY: DALÍ’S SURREALISTIC STACKED DECK IN SPRINGFIELD

// Reviews, September/October 2022

by Marguerite Serkin

Games of luck and chance hold their own natural order, outside the rules of measured existence, and into the realm of magical construct. Who better to visually celebrate the random structure of games of chance than Salvador Dalí? During the 1960s, Dalí (Spanish, 1904-1989) worked with the French printing firm Draeger Frères to produce a set of limited-edition playing cards, and created lithographs of the designs shortly after. Eight examples from Dalí’s “Playing Card Suite” are featured in “Card Tricks: Salvador Dalí and the Art of Playing Cards” currently on view at D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield Museums. Bearing the artist’s trademark asymmetrical illusions, the images are at once lighthearted and arrestingly bold in content and style. From childhood, Dalí’s persona was complex and often self-contradictory. Having lost an infant brother nine months before his own … [Read more...] about A RARE OPPORTUNITY: DALÍ’S SURREALISTIC STACKED DECK IN SPRINGFIELD

A SHARED SPOTLIGHT IN NEWPORT: O’KEEFFE’S THE STAR, BUT DONNAMARIA BRUTON SHINES

// Features, September/October 2022

by Beth Neville

Creating art is a puzzle. Interpreting art is also a puzzle — not a crossword type of puzzle, where one and only one word fits the squares across and another word down — art is a puzzle filled with possibilities. Should the huge flower be painted red or orange? And if Georgia O’Keeffe decides “red,” then what color could the background be? Blues and greens? Yes, red flower with blue/green background she decides. Now it is our turn to puzzle over the “meaning” of the red flower with the blue/green background. We decide; “The red flower is about sex.” “No,” says O’Keeffe, “it  is an abstract red flower.” The color red has many meanings in our Western society: anger, blood, love, Valentine’s Day, sex and more. So, when O’Keeffe chooses to paint a “red” flower she automatically teases us to answer “sex” to our interpretation of her puzzle. The puzzle becomes more complex, the … [Read more...] about A SHARED SPOTLIGHT IN NEWPORT: O’KEEFFE’S THE STAR, BUT DONNAMARIA BRUTON SHINES

THE HUSH OF HELD BREATH: JOHNSON’S QUIET PAINTINGS RETURN TO CASTLE HILL

// Reviews, September/October 2022

by Jesse Nathan

“In his mysterious paintings,” writes Leonard Michaels about Edward Hopper, “he makes felt what isn’t there, the nothing, the nothing that isn’t there.” The same ought to be said about Mitchell Johnson’s oeuvre. Not only because Johnson is an artistic descendant of Hopper, both brilliant colorists, and not only because both have made the landscape around Truro come alive in oil, but also because in some ways the statement is even truer in Johnson’s work, especially lately. True partly in the sense of what isn’t there — unseen narratives and events that bring a life to any given moment, any given moment of seeing — but also who isn’t there. Fewer human figures populate Johnson’s spare but vibrant art than do Hopper’s — and in his next exhibition, “Nothing and Change: Selected Paintings 1990-2022,” which is on view from September 7 through 18 at the Truro Center for the Arts, you can … [Read more...] about THE HUSH OF HELD BREATH: JOHNSON’S QUIET PAINTINGS RETURN TO CASTLE HILL