Pittsburgh’s Carnegie family, Maine’s Farnsworths and Arkansas’ Waltons founded museums to enlighten and educate the workers on their railroads and in their steel mills that produced and sold the goods that made their families wealthy, exposing them to the arts. Money from an inheritance earned through the Irish linen trade and investment in mining opportunities by her father, David Stewart, allowed Isabella Stewart Gardner to amass a fabulous art collection that became so large it needed its own museum. Subsequently, the owners of these private collections generously opened their doors to the public. The Morgans cleaned out their attic of treasures taken from colonial outposts to fill multiple large galleries comprising the decorative arts wing at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. They donated Roman sculptures, casts taken from sculptures at Karnak, the Parthenon and Notre-Dame … [Read more...] about ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS: SOURCE OF DONORS’ WEALTH ROCKS THE ART WORLD
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COLOR FIELDS REVISITED: FLOOR VAN DE VELDE’S RHYTHMIC LIGHT BOXES AT SNHU
Floor van de Velde got inspiration for her light boxes — featured in her latest exhibition, “Variations on ColorFields,” which opens on November 8 at McIninch Art Gallery on the campus of Southern New Hampshire University, from a Rothko exhibition at the Harvard Art Museum. “The university decided to hang some of Rothko’s panels in a dining room,” she said. “The panels lost the majority of their pigment over the years and they were considered damaged beyond repair. But then the Harvard Museum decided to try to revive the color by using projected light. Most critics and curators were busy discussing whether this method was as reliable or effective as traditional art renovation techniques, but meanwhile it made for a fascinating show that played with notions of color and light. I found myself returning to the show several times and just sitting there enjoying the luminous color … [Read more...] about COLOR FIELDS REVISITED: FLOOR VAN DE VELDE’S RHYTHMIC LIGHT BOXES AT SNHU
ENCAUSTIC CROSSROADS: ADDRESSING ECOLOGICAL CONCERNS THROUGH WAX AT WSU
One of the highlights of any group exhibition opening reception is the taking of a photograph of all the participants together. When “Crossroads: 4 Perspectives,” opened on October 10 at the Mary Cosgrove Dolphin Gallery at Worcester State University, Patricia Gerkin was in Italy on a short vacation with her husband. A few days later, Debra Claffey would be in New Orleans attending Golden Paint’s Artist Educator Training Program, learning about their paints, grounds and mediums, Donna Hamil Talman in Marseille, France, and only Charyl Weissbach was at her normal workspace in Boston. The four make up the Elemental artist collaborative, the members of which first met through New England Wax, a group started in 2006 for New England artists working with wax. Finding a commonality, they set out to find opportunities for exhibitions for just the four of them. “We spent a good deal of time, … [Read more...] about ENCAUSTIC CROSSROADS: ADDRESSING ECOLOGICAL CONCERNS THROUGH WAX AT WSU
PEACE THROUGH UNDERSTANDING: CHINESE BRUSHWORK AT THE BRUCE MUSEUM
Honoring its mission as a community museum, the Bruce Museum continues to offer exhibitions and related programming while undergoing a major renovation in preparation for a celebratory reopening on February 1, 2020. Its Bantle Lecture Gallery is currently featuring the American debut of 15 works on paper — calligraphic writing, drawings and color wash painting — by contemporary Chinese artists who continue to practice and explore traditional methods of Chinese brushwork. The works on view were gifted to the Town of Greenwich as part of the 2019 US-China Art and Culture Exchange, and then gifted to The Bruce by the Town of Greenwich. When the collection arrived, the museum immediately recognized an opportunity to create an exhibition that connected its art, science and international culture areas as well as continue to encourage and expand community involvement. Corinne Flax, the … [Read more...] about PEACE THROUGH UNDERSTANDING: CHINESE BRUSHWORK AT THE BRUCE MUSEUM
AN EERIE FEELING OF FAMILIARITY: JONATHAN MONAGHAN’S FUTURISTIC VISION IN LOWELL
As 2020 approaches, many years since “we were supposed to have flying cars” have past. Popular stories in film and literature like “1984,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” and “Back to the Future Part II” take place in a future passed, leaving us laughing at the ridiculous technology that doesn’texist yet. But “The Running Man” and “Blade Runner” both take place in 2019 (the latter starts in November), but the planet isn’t like that either. This leaves us wondering what’s to come, since various predictions were proven incorrect by time. Enter a world unknown, and known, in “A Trace by the Future,” where 2019 meets an unnamed year, on view at UMass Lowell’s University Gallery through November 21. Washington, D.C.-based artist Jonathan Monaghan’s exhibition featuring recent work incorporates pastels and fluorescents, pop culture and technology in sculpture, video, print and … [Read more...] about AN EERIE FEELING OF FAMILIARITY: JONATHAN MONAGHAN’S FUTURISTIC VISION IN LOWELL
ENGAGING THE PLANET: FRIEL AND HIRST’S HANDS-ON ART AT CHAZAN
From November 21 through December 11, the Chazan Gallery in Providence presents “Of Rock and Air,” a two-person show of artwork by Mary Anne Friel and Leslie Hirst. These artists explore intense process-laden methods of making. Recently, while visiting their respective studios in Pawtucket, each explained their current aesthetics and what they will present at the Chazan Gallery. It was informative to see both artists at the stage of transition from labor-intensive, fabric-oriented processes to making decisions about the technical aspects of presentation for the Chazan space. Hirst is a full professor of Experimental and Foundation Studies at Rhode Island School of Design, and Friel is an associate professor in Textiles at the same institution. Looking at their upcoming exhibit in overview, one sees an obvious correspondence between their sensibilities. Friel’s artwork for the … [Read more...] about ENGAGING THE PLANET: FRIEL AND HIRST’S HANDS-ON ART AT CHAZAN