Arts Collection - Posters, Art Prints, and Framed Art Leader

2007-01-14T07:02:00.000-08:00

Welsh art travels for London show

Renoir's La Parisienne was donated to the national museum

Some of Wales' finest arts treasures are going on display 150 miles away in London - but for a limited period only.

Renoir's iconic impressionist work La Parisienne, which had not left Cardiff's National Museum of Wales for over 20 years, is the star of the show.

The Art Treasures of Wales exhibition at Christie's in London is to raise awareness and funds for the museum.

The four-day event also marks the start of a year of celebrations for the centenary of the art collection.

More than 30 paintings, sculpture, works on paper and applied arts will be on show from Sunday to Wednesday at the London auction house.

We are holding this exhibition to give people a glimpse of our treasures

Museum director general Michael Houlihan

La Parisienne, a legacy from the art collecting sisters Gwendoline and Margaret Davies, and one of the highlights of the first impressionist exhibition of 1874 is the star of the show, according to the museum.

Also on view are other well-known works like Cezanne's Midday, L'Estaque, of 1879 and Monet's San Giorgio Maggiore by Twilight of 1908.

The museum is using the exhibition as a platform to raise funds for the redevelopment of its displays at Cathays Park in Cardiff, where it is placing art on the ground floor.

It has received grant aid from the Welsh Assembly Government, but still needs a further £1.7m for the work which will group the collections within one continuous series of galleries by 2009.

Little-known collection

But it also said it wanted to raise awareness of the fine art on offer for visitors to Wales.

Museum director general Michael Houlihan said: "We are holding this exhibition to give people a glimpse of our treasures in the hope that they will support us in our efforts to create a gallery worthy of the collection and encourage people to visit us at home in Cardiff to see these works of art in all their glory."

Richard Wilson's Dolbadarn Castle is among Welsh works on show

Paintings by Welsh artists and in particular the rich tradition of landscape artists led by Richard Wilson and his famous view of Dolbadarn Castle are also on show at Christie's.

More recent artists - among them Gwen John, Lucien Freud and David Hockney - are also included, along with a recent purchase, Kamikaze by Peter Blake.

Sculpture and examples of the museum's little-known collection of fine miniatures have also been packaged for the trip to London.

Charles Cator, Christie's co-chairman, said: "The exhibition in January will provide a wonderful opportunity to view some of the outstanding works of art from the museum and we look forward to welcoming visitors from far and wide to this superb exhibition."

A series of informal gallery talks by the museum's curators will be held on each day of the Christie's exhibition.

2006-12-13T18:22:00.000-08:00

The London-based auction house, Christie's, tallied sales totalling more than $363m at its spring and autumn Hong Kong auctions this year, compared with just $100m in 2003.

In a region where a Chinese bank looking to raise $22bn can attract half a trillion dollars in initial public offering of shares orders, $19.4m does not seem that much for a piece of porcelain. The price paid for an 18th century imperial Chinese "swallows" bowl at the Hong Kong auctions of Christie's - a world record for a Qing dynasty ceramic - is a reminder that Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's mega-IPO in October was just one facet of an investment craze sweeping Asia. "What's happening to us is symptomatic of what's happening to the world," says Edward Dolman, Christie's chief executive. "It's being driven by the extraordinary amounts of cash that are around. It's a great time to be selling art."

The London-based auction house tallied sales totalling more than $363m at its spring and autumn Hong Kong auctions this year, compared with just $100m in 2003. Rival Sotheby's, which concluded its biannual auctions in the territory in October, realised sales of $246.5m. Mr Dolman credits the nouveaux riches of China and India for the current Asian art boom, but despite their enthusiasm they are still only keeping pace with their western peers.

Regardless of whether an auction is held in the US, Europe or Asia, Christie's calculates regional sales totals based on the addresses registered by buyers, providing a rare window on to global wealth creation and capital flows. This yields some distortions thrown up by tax havens, but it also shows Asian purchasers accounting for a relatively modest 10 per cent of demand. This is because the rich are getting richer everywhere, not just in Asia, and as they do so their capacity for conspicuous consumption of art is expanding. "We've never seen so much money coming in from China, Russia, Wall Street, the City, India," Mr Dolman says. "We always think, ‘Is it about to go?' But most of our clients can always afford [to buy art]. It's about how confident they feel, and there is a feeling of stability about the clients' sources of wealth."

After the stock market crash of 1987 damped demand in the US and Europe, Japanese money supported the market for another two years. Christie's thinks Asia could again account for 30-35 per cent of the market within five years. But before this happens Chinese and Indian buyers will have to demonstrate an interest in art from beyond their own regions

2006-10-19T18:00:00.000-07:00

Mesa’s Art on the Move lets you dress up for a good cause

By Chris Page, Tribune

October 19, 2006

Even the hoity-toitiest of arts organizations in the Valley of the Sun — aka the land of cargo shorts and flip-flops — know not to expect blacktie fineries from their audiences.

But once a year the Mesa Arts Center Foundation humbly requests the presence of your cummerbund for its annual fundraising gala, Art on the Move.

The $175-a-plate dinner, auction and evening of light entertainment on Nov. 11 at Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre in Mesa is not only a way to support MAC education programs and performing arts groups — organizers hope to bring in $125,000 from the evening — it’s also an excuse to dust off tuxedos and pull cocktail dresses from the backs of closets.

“Quite frankly,” organizer Debbie Ardolino says with a chuckle, “this is my first opportunity this year to dress up.”

The effort goes toward a good cause, she says. This year’s city budget cutbacks in arts support have threatened several MAC programs, including its Stageworks theater for young audiences. The foundation largely picked up the slack. Art on the Move, now in its seventh year, is only part of more than $780,000 the foundation looks to raise this year.

Beyond raising ducats for the arts center, the event also unites a few of Mesa’s favorite arts groups: Will Prather’s Broadway Palm, the Valley’s mega-dinner theater, is hosting the event in its supperand-showhouse and providing a multicourse meal and entertainment from its current production of the musical “A Chorus Line.” The evening will be emceed by Brian Nissen, star and creator of “Citrus Valley Playhouse,” a staged variety show that’s quickly become a staple at the MAC.

The silent and live auctions will include donated items from Valley watercolorist Peri Miller and Scottsdale architect Paolo Soleri, who has donated a set of the ceramic and metal wind bells for which he’s best known. Guests looking to get away from home for a while can bid on an eight-day, seven-night trip to Maui.

“It’s a coming together of all these people to support the Mesa Arts Center,” says Ardolino, “which is wonderful.”

Art on the Move
When: 6 p.m. Nov. 11
Where: Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre, 5247 E. Brown Road, Mesa
Cost: $175
Information: (480) 219-8052 or www.artonthemove.org

2006-09-14T10:25:00.000-07:00

Art plan to get public airing
A proposal by Seattle artist Buster Simpson for artwork downtown will be the subject of a public meeting.

Art work that may one day chime downtown has raised some eyebrows among downtown business owners, although others embrace it.

But, partly to answer questions posed by downtown business owners, a meeting to let them hear and see the proposal first hand is set for Thursday.

The 7 p.m. meeting, open to the public, is in Room 130 in Olin Hall on the Whitman College campus. The artist, Seattle-based Buster Simpson, will explain and demonstrate the work and answer questions. ``I hope to have a discussion,'' he added.

He will also show the latest refinements to the work, which is slated to be installed behind Macy's above where Mill Creek daylights.

Titled ``Walla Walla Bound,'' the work now includes a campanile, or bell tower, made of discs from a harrow plow. Some of the discs would be stacked upon and attached to an upright pole. Another row of discs would line a horizontal pole that would extend over the open channel. Both poles would protrude from a base placed behind a wooden fence now behind Macy's. The fence would be replaced with a 10-foot-high, wire-mesh fence.

The discs would play locally produced compositions at regular times in the day and also sound briefly to mark events in the creek, such as a fish passing or changing water levels.

The bell tower would run on a solar panel attached above the vertical part of the sculpture. Next to the solar panel would be another panel displaying an image of the McNary Dam, the first dam the creek water hits as it flows down the Columbia River.

A second part of the project entails attaching license plates stamped with words along creek containment walls between Park Street and Ninth Avenue. Several plates strung together as short poems would be posted together at different spots.

Both parts of the work are meant to focus attention on efforts to rehabilitate the creek to a more natural habitat.

Money for the $381,000 work comes from the Washington State Penitentiary expansion project. By state law, 0.5 percent of construction costs for new state facilities has to go to public art.

`Still just too many questions'

Kathleen Obenland, president of the Downtown Walla Walla Foundation, said board members feel downtown business owners haven't had enough say in the proposed project.

``We feel there are still just too many questions,'' she said. Among those is how loud the disc will be, ``whether it will add to or detract from downtown.''

The board also has questions about placing the discs behind Macy's. She noted a teen fell into the creek and drowned there recently, raising safety concerns about the site.

The parking lot behind Macy's has been considered as a place for a multi-level

guess (the disc sculpture) would be covered up,'' Obenland said.

Although he noted he's only the city's liaison on the project, which will be gifted to the city by the state Corrections Department and Arts Commission, city Parks and Recreation Director Jim Dumont said he's heard his share of questions about the proposed work as well.

They've included questions about how loud, how often and what times of day the discs would ring, what they'll sound like and whether they would disrupt downtown business operations.

People have asked if the disc volume will be controllable, how the discs will be mounted in place and whether someone could climb the fence.

He's also heard from people ``that love (the art work),'' Dumont added.

One resident who used to work near the intersection of Main and First Avenue told the U-B he remembers when, years ago, ``50 miniature bells'' used to be play ``old nostalgic tunes'' on the hour at the downtown intersection.

Bob Branscum, then manager at a First Interstate Bank branch, which no longer exists, near the bells, said he remembers people complaining about those bells.

In particular, he remembers one or two artists who worked downtown and complained the bells disturbed ``their peace and quiet.''

So he finds it ``interesting'' that now an art work that will chime is being proposed downtown. ``I guess thought patterns have changed,'' Branscum said.

At a previous City Council meeting on the art work, Phil Wasser, owner of Land Title of Walla Walla County, recalled how his building and a downtown church once played chimes but stopped after people complained.

In a phone interview earlier this week, Simpson responded to some of the concerns.

He said the discs will sound similar to church bells. And how loud they ring is adjustable, even from a remote location. He is proposing the discs play a composition at noon and 6 p.m. daily and then chime to mark events in the creek. He also is proposing the discs not ring at all between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m.

Simpson noted that neighbors don't seem to complain about the bells that chime every hour in the clock tower at Whitman College. And he hopes the community is willing to give the chimes a chance.

For example, a song could play for a minute at noon. ``But maybe it would be so beautiful people would want it to go longer,'' Simpson said.

At the very least, he hopes the disc would chime to mark fish passing upstream, as the art is meant to focus the community on efforts to rehabilitate the creek.

In response to questions about the proposed site, Simpson envisions his work fitting well with a possible parking garage, particularly if it includes stores on its first floor.

As he interprets the Downtown Master Plan, the area behind Macy's is envisioned as a public passageway and gathering place and he thinks his work would add to that.

Simpson also thinks the work would meld well with the Master Plan's goal of developing a downtown promenade along Mill Creek.

Simpson also responded to concerns about safety around his proposed sculpture. As his fence would be higher and more transparent than the present one, he believes it will make the area safer than it is now.

But, for all the questions some downtown business owners have raised, others strongly support the proposal.

Nathan Morgan, game buyer at the Book and Game Co. at First and Main, said he's excited about having more art downtown.

He thinks it would draw more people downtown, give them something to talk about and give him an opportunity to point people toward other downtown art.

Stephenie Bowen, part owner of Sweet Basil Pizzeria on First Avenue, said putting art behind Macy's would be better than what she sees in that parking lot now at night - ``some kids hanging out'' and being ``very destructive'' and creating ``a lot of trouble.''

Even if the discs ring in the evening, it would be better than ``kids cussing and blasting their music so loud,'' what she claims comes from the parking lot now, she added.

Bob Austin, owner of Merchants Ltd. on Main Street, said he wondered about Simpson's proposal at first but then viewed Simpson's work on his Web site and ``it put a big smile on (his) face.''

On the site, he found out about a similar work Simpson did in which he lined up old farm equipment in a field. When the cowboy poet Baxter Black first saw that work, he was skeptical at first, too, Austin said.

But, when Black stopped and looked at it, he realized it ``honored our ancestors and the American agricultural heritage,'' Austin said. With time, Black and others got to like that piece and now send visitors there with pride.

``I think that's a perfect analogy to what (Simpson's) doing here,'' Austin concluded.

He also said the ``handful'' of downtown business people with concerns about Simpson's work are the same people ``who say nay to anything.''

Speaking for the Downtown Walla Walla Foundation board, Obenland said the board generally ``loves'' art downtown, but ``it has to fit downtown.''

And although the board has felt downtown merchants haven't had enough say in this proposed work, she recognizes that's what Thursday's meeting is for.

Dumont said the city had urged the public meeting partly because of the lack of public input at several previous meetings when Simpson made presentations to the City Council, Planning Commission and before the committee that retained him.

Dumont also said downtown businesses received a special invitation to the Thursday meeting so they ``have an opportunity to hear and see the proposal and comment on it.

Simpson invited the public to come as ``just a beginning to open a discussion about the creek running through town and how it can become more of a city amenity.''

FOR YOUR INFORMATION

For more information on the proposed art work, Walla Walla Bound, go to www.bustersimpson.net/wallawallabound. Information about the proposal is also included in a show that features the work of artist Buster Simpson, which is on view at the Sheehan Gallery on the Whitman College campus through Oct. 5.

2006-09-07T08:54:00.000-07:00

New Islamic art shows at Boston Museum

LING LIU

Associated Press

NEWTON, Mass. - A woman with flowers in her hair, beaded necklaces and red lipstick picks up a blossom to smell. Birds, monkeys and insects surround her as she walks through a colorful forest.

This image from a 300-year-old velvet wall-hanging is not what usually comes to mind when most Westerners envision the Muslim world. But a new art exhibit at Boston College hopes to change that perception.

"When you see the word 'Islamic,' the first word you think of shouldn't be 'terrorist,'" said Jonathan Bloom, an Islamic and Asian arts professor at Boston College. "If we recognize that Islamic culture has made great contributions to world culture, then we're already a step ahead."

Bloom and his wife, fellow Islamic and Asian arts professor Sheila Blair, are curating "Cosmophilia: Islamic Art from the David Collection, Copenhagen," on view at the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College through Dec. 31.

The term "Islamic art" describes both sacred and secular art created in places where Islam was the main religion. "Cosmophilia," or "love of the ornament," features 123 items that show the importance of decoration, one of the signature features of Islamic art.

The items in "Cosmophilia" are on loan from the C.L. David Collection, a nonprofit museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. The collection was established in 1945 by Christian Ludvig David, a wealthy lawyer and businessman who died in 1960. Because the collection is located outside of a major art center, it remains virtually unknown. This is the first time Americans will see any of the items featured in "Cosmophilia."

Bloom hopes the exhibit confronts a popular misconception that Islamic art is only about religion.

"If people know anything about Islamic art, which they usually don't, the one thing they think is that Islam prohibits images of people and other living things. This isn't true," said Bloom, gesturing to the many items in the exhibit that depict people and animals.

The items on display range in date from the seventh century to the 19th century, and originate from Western Europe to East Asia. Some items are secular while others are sacred, and they are made from materials including wood, ceramics, ivory, metalwork, stone, textiles and paper.

Bloom and Blair went out of their way to produce an exhibit they say is more "user-friendly" than traditional museum exhibits, which often lay out items according to chronology or medium. Instead, they divided the exhibit into five visual themes that the average viewer would notice when looking at each piece: figures (depictions of people and animals), writing, geometry (geometric patterns), vegetation-arabesque (floral patterns) and hybrids (items which display multiple themes).

"We're not trying to talk to art historians," said Bloom. "We don't want people to have to walk through the exhibit reading a book."

Bloom pointed out three small boxes made of brass and ivory, which he says academics call "caskets."

"For most people, a casket is what you'd put a dead person in. We call it a box. You learn not to use the fancy terminology," he said.

Exhibition and collections manager Diana Larsen, who designed the exhibit installation, placed each item at the height it would have been displayed in its original setting. For example, a large wool rug is laid out on the floor, and a 700-year-old blue and turquoise Mihrab tile is hung on the painted outline of a Mosque in a position that indicates the direction of Mecca.

In the four years since they began planning the exhibit, Bloom, Blair and museum director Nancy Netzer taught three undergraduate classes at Boston College related to the exhibit. Students researched the background of individual items, painted the hallway outside of the museum based on tile designs from the Ottoman Turks, and helped write labels for each display.

Netzer says the exhibit will provide a positive message about Islam and its values.

"It's different from what we read in the newspaper every day," she said. "We're not reading about the beauty and culture of the Muslim world."

2006-08-16T23:14:00.000-07:00

Art gets under the skin

A HOBART artist's work using human tissue has sent authorities into a spin.

But Alicia King just wants people to debate the technology of biology.

Artist-in-residence at the University of Tasmania School of Medicine, King, 25, has grown a cell "membrane" over her sculptural forms, using a stock line of human tissue cells.

The uni's ethics committee has given her permission to use her own and consenting patients' discarded tissue.

The Royal Hobart Hospital has rejected her advances so King plans to use her skin cells.

Her Melbourne exhibition, which opens tonight, coincides with parliamentary stem cell legislation debate -- adding interest to her art.

"I use the cells over three-dimensional forms, it forms an outer membrane," said King, who is doing her PhD in fine art.

She uses a stock line of cells called He--La, fast-growing ones originally taken from a cervical cancer in 1951 and used in labs around the world.

Her work, which uses dyed-pink cell membranes, poses questions about what it means to be alive.

"That's what it's all about, about how we define ourselves as human," said King.

"I'm interested in issues like xenotransplantation, using animals to grow organs for humans. I think people should be part of the debate.

"It's about how we treat other living things and our relationship with them."

King says she has her own concerns about animal welfare, but not hard and fast rules.

She hopes to use discarded tissue, probably skin cancers.

"Tissue is already used for research, with consent, and then discarded. But I'll use my own anyway, taken off by a surgeon in a shave biopsy," she said.

RHH chief executive officer John Menzies said such use of tissue could not be approved.

"While we appreciate an artist's creative desire to use various and unusual materials in the creation of artworks, the Royal Hobart Hospital does not and can not authorise the use of human tissue or clinical waste for the purpose of or the use of such materials in art," he said.

King's work, called I'm growing to love you runs until September 24 at the Linden St Kilda Centre in Acland St.

2006-08-16T23:12:00.000-07:00

Art Museum: A Small Investment for Large Return


	Art Museum Director Janet Riker.

The University Art Museum has greatly enhanced its profile since its inaugural exhibition in 1967, becoming a leading exhibition facility in the region and a critical part of the intellectual infrastructure accessible to UAlbany students. Yet major upgrades and facelifts have been harder to come by.

"It is time to address the restoration and renovations required to make the University's Museum a venue that fully accommodates the most recent developments in contemporary art and meets the accepted standards of the field," said Art Museum Director Janet Riker.

Three Selective Investment Awards will boost the Museum's ascent up the aesthetic ladder. "The initiatives were developed as part of the Compact Planning process by the entire Museum staff," said Riker. "They are critically important projects but very difficult to support with general operating income or through outside fundraising. They will enable us to accurately assess our overall facility needs, launch an endowment campaign and address a much-needed technical upgrade.

"While not huge infusions of cash, they represent substantial investments in the Museum's future. I'm thrilled now to be able to move forward on our goals, and confident that these resources will help us leverage additional support."

2006-08-12T00:12:00.000-07:00

The fine art of faking it

Art buyers are being reminded again of the daring of forgers, writes Simon Caterson

August 12, 2006

ART forgery is almost as old as portable art itself, dating back at least as far as the Romans copying the Greeks, but its exposure never fails to cause a sensation.

In purely monetary terms, the National Galley of Victoria's disputed Head of a Man is worth an estimated $25million if it really was painted by Vincent van Gogh, but almost nothing if it was not.

As The Australian's art critic Sebastian Smee has pointed out it is not the first time doubts have been raised about this jewel in the NGV's crown. In 1999, Rembrandt's Portrait of Rembrandt, bought in 1933, was confirmed as genuine sufficiently to satisfy the NGV after testing. Nor, by any means, is the now disputed picture the only van Gogh painting that has been called into question.

In 1932, a Berlin cabaret performer turned gallery owner named Otto Wacker went on trial in connection with 30 fake van Goghs he had displayed. Suspicions were aroused by the paintings even though Wacker had obtained certificates of authentication from Julius Meier-Graefe, an art critic at one of Germany's most respected newspapers.

In his 1970 book The Fabulous Frauds: Fascinating Tales of Great Art Forgeries, Lawrence Jeppson writes that Meier-Graefe testified in court that some of Wacker's van Goghs "were of such high quality that, if proved false, no expert in future would ever be able to distinguish between true and fake van Goghs with any certainty". Wacker was convicted of fraud on circumstantial evidence and the source of the fake van Goghs was never discovered.

Despite the exposure of the Wacker forgeries, not all of them dropped out of circulation. As late as 1970, a "self-portrait" peddled by Wacker was hanging in the National Gallery in Washington, DC.

The NGV's van Gogh portrait may be many things, including the genuine article, but at least the disputed picture does not appear on the list of known Wacker forgeries. Nor does the van Gogh sunflower painting bought by a Japanese corporation in 1987 for nearly $US40million; its authenticity has been defended by the National Gallery in London, where it was exhibited for 10 years, against claims that it is a fake.

The NGV's portrait could be considered a bargain compared with Blue Irises, for which disgraced Perth entrepreneur Alan Bond agreed to pay $US49million in 1987, though he subsequently failed to produce the cash. Even an unsigned minor work by van Gogh can attract serious money, as occurred in 2003 when a Japanese auction house sold an obscure portrait for $US500,000 after initially setting the reserve price at $US80. A last-minute authentication resulted in some spirited bidding.

"The problem with art," writes novelist Peter Carey in Theft: A Love Story, "is the people who buy it." But while art forgery typically emanates from unscrupulous dealers and neglected artists out for revenge on the snobbish art world that has failed to reward their genius, the practice is not unknown even among the old masters.

Michelangelo was not above producing fakes, according to his contemporary biographer Giorgio Vasari, who died in 1574. In Lives of the Artists, Vasari, who met Michelangelo, describes how the then struggling young artist, who was an accomplished copyist, was advised that an original life-size statue of a sleeping Cupid he had sculpted could be sold for a higher price if the buyer thought it was an ancient artefact. Vasari wrote that Michelangelo then buried the statue and used other ageing techniques.

When the buyer, a cardinal, learned of the deception, he promptly demanded a refund. Interestingly, in this case Vasari sided with the artist against the victim of the hoax: "The fact is that, other things being equal, modern works of art are just as fine as antiques; and there is no greater vanity than to value things for what they are called rather than for what they are."

In despair, the artist character in Carey's novel asks: "How do you know how much to pay if you don't know what it's worth?" Vasari acknowledged that "every age produces the kind of man who pays more attention to appearances than to facts". Meanwhile the Cupid statue, which, despite the deception perpetrated by Michelangelo would now be considered priceless, appears to have been lost.

The life of an artist is often chaotic and some modern artists have proved themselves adept at manipulating the trade in their work. Pablo Picasso, who was the most commercially successful artist in history as well as one of the most widely imitated, was aware that his signed works were much more valuable to collectors than unsigned ones.

Picasso would also authenticate his own work on the basis of his own assessment of its quality. He told an interviewer who asked him how he remembered which paintings were his and which were not: "If I like it, I say it's mine. If I don't, I say it's a fake."

Picasso has even been quoted as saying he was prepared to claim a fake as his own work: "If the counterfeit were a good one, I should be delighted. I'd sit down straight away and sign it."

The art market in Australia, as elsewhere, is riddled with fakes, or at least it's rumoured to be. In contrast to the vigorous public discussion of literary hoaxes, little is said publicly by the art establishment about forgery in this country, a reticence that has been interpreted as self-protection. No one who buys or sells art wants to see the expensive investment suddenly rendered worthless.

It is a matter of public record, however, that forgeries of many of Australia's best-known artists have been listed in sale catalogues, only to be withdrawn. According to online consultancy Caslon Analytics, assumed Australian fakes include a "Russell Drysdale" known as Boy Feeding Dogs, a "Brett Whiteley" called Lavender Bay, and a picture entitled Siege at Glenrowan that, it was claimed, formed part of Sidney Nolan's iconic Ned Kelly series.

Whistleblowers such as historian Susanna De Vries-Evans and art dealer Lauraine Diggins have claimed that art fraud in this country is highly organised and extensive. DeVries-Evans admits to having once bought a fake Arthur Streeton and alleged that she received death threats followed her attempts to return it.

De Vries-Evans holds our libel laws partly responsible for creating what she says is a climate of fear in the art world. An unsubstantiated accusation of fraud can certainly prove costly. In 1995, a Double Bay art dealer who was falsely accused of selling fakes was awarded more than $100,000 by the NSW Supreme Court after a disgruntled overseas buyer claimed he had been sold a phoney Picasso lithograph.

Occasionally, though, some light touches this dark trade. A scandal broke in 1998 when it was revealed, during a court case in Sydney over a contested will, that hundreds of fakes had been sold by deceased Paddington art dealer Germaine Curvers. Painter William Blundell admitted that he had been paid by Curvers to produce a steady stream of what he termed "innuendos". The commissions from his patron included supposed Nolans, Arthur Boyds, Drysdales and even the odd Picasso. According to Blundell, the works were produced for a nominal fee merely as "decoration", though Curvers was said to have resold them at a profit of as much as 2000 per cent.

Blundell boasted of producing thousands of fakes over three decades; if true, that would make him one of the most prolific and versatile art forgers of all time. Some artists, he said, were a doddle. "The Whiteleys are easy," Blundell said in an interview with Ben Hills, "I can do 20 or 30 sketches in a couple of hours." A week after Blundell made his stunning confession, a Sydney auctioneer withdrew a Whiteley charcoal sketch from sale, citing buyer nervousness.

Forgery on an impressive scale has also been uncovered in indigenous art, with the incidence of real or alleged fakery similarly dependent on the stature and saleability of the individual artist.

Leading painters such as Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula, Kathleen Petyarre and Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri have all found themselves embroiled in controversy. In 1997, Petyarre's estranged de facto husband claimed he was largely responsible for a prize-winning work entered by his former partner. A subsequent inquiry by the Museum of the Northern Territory found insufficient evidence to sustain the allegation.

Two years later, Tjupurrula admitted he had signed a work that was painted by someone else, while fellow artist Ginger Riley identified works bearing his name which he said he had not produced on sale at galleries in Melbourne and Adelaide.

In 2001, Adelaide art dealer John O'Loughlin pleaded guilty to selling fake Tjapaltjarri paintings, some of which had reportedly found their way into the NSW Art Gallery and Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art.

Other indigenous artists have been exposed as impostors. Sakshi Anmatyerre was revealed to be Farley French, an Indian from Kolkata who sold works to Paul Hogan, the Sultan of Brunei and members of the Packer family. Male Aboriginal painter Eddie Burrup turned out to be Perth-based Elizabeth Durack, a white woman of Irish descent.

Large sums are involved, but art forgery is not just about the money. In reality, the estimate as to the market value of a painting such as Head of a Man is immaterial, given that a picture owned by a public gallery for so many decades is never likely to again be offered for sale. Of greater importance to the NGV, and the taxpayers who fund it, is how individual art lovers would respond to the picture if it turned out to be a fake. Would they be entitled to feel that their trust in the experts has been abused?

When the Eddie Burrup hoax was revealed, Art Gallery of NSW director Edmund Capon was quoted as claiming that the issue was of no importance in relation to the gallery's attitude to the work. "I don't give a hoot who painted it," he declared. "We're not judging the artist. We're judging the work of art."

Some of his colleagues, however, expressed outrage at the deception. Though some commentators claim that the issue of the artist's identity does not affect the aesthetic quality of creative work, no art exists in a vacuum. Biographical, historical and emotional factors are among those that inevitably shape appreciation of art.

The well-known legend of van Gogh, the painter who suffered for his art, feeds the public fascination inspired by his work and drives up the price. In our secular modern world, works of art attract some of the idolatry once associated with religious relics. Much of the popular appeal of Aboriginal art lies in the perception of an aura of pre-commercial spiritual authenticity.

We should not underestimate the ethical aspect of human creativity. Even if Picasso was correct when he said that art is the lie that tells the truth, faith in the genuineness of art is essential to an appreciation of its meaning and value. As professor of philosophy Denis Dutton explains: "Part of what individuals admire and enjoy in art is innovation and originality; forgery by its nature is derivative and unoriginal. Historically speaking, the artist is an imaginative and revolutionary creator; the forger is always a parasite."

2006-08-08T07:55:00.000-07:00

Smithsonian Museums Make Art Conservation Part of the Show

Lunder Conservation Center allows visitors to see conservators at work

By Lea Terhune
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington – For six years American art lovers were deprived two of the country’s most significant collections. The Old Patent Building in Washington badly needed restoration, and that meant the two museums that called it home, the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) and the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) had to close. Now, both museums are open again, and the public is well rewarded for the wait.

Not only was the Old Patent Building refitted and museum exhibits revamped, but unexpected innovations debuted at the July 1 reopening. The most unique of these may be the Lunder Conservation Center, which has boldly taken conservation out of the back room. Floor-to-ceiling glass walls enclose five conservation areas, which offer the public a look at experts saving precious artworks for posterity. Putting conservation activities on permanent view is a museum first.

The areas on view include separate conservation spaces for paintings, objects of art, paper and frames. Artworks in stages of painstaking restoration are on display, as are the people restoring them.

When asked about working in a fishbowl, SAAM paper conservator Kate Maynor said it took a little adjustment for the conservators, but that it is “fantastic” for the visitors. “It’s not only giving them a window into the more specialized work that we do here, but into more basic preventive care that people can apply to the things that matter to them.”

The conservation labs care for the works in both the SAAM and NPG museum collections. Although conservators rely on the "eyeball" test to assess an artwork, the labs are equipped with sophisticated technological aids. NPG paper conservator Rosemary Fallon describes the process: “We examine it in various lighting conditions, even ultraviolet light, and that can give us clues about what the materials are. Sometimes by looking we can tell what the materials are. Sometimes it’s a little more complicated than that.”

When it gets more complicated, on-site ultraviolet and infrared viewing systems and stereomicroscopes are put to work. If more analysis is required, the Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute in Suitland, Maryland, can conduct more extensive tests. Conservators also study the artist’s habits and circumstances, and collaborate with curators to determine what should be done to conserve an artwork. The first step is often to “stabilize” a work, to prevent more deterioration before further treatment. “Our patients can’t speak to us; we have to decipher what they need,” Maynor says.

The 981-square-meter center gives conservators expanded workspace. Labs are equipped with large tables and specialized equipment for cleaning and repairing works of art. There is a suction table for removing stains, a spray booth and other tools of the esoteric trade. Each lab has specific needs. Frame conservators gild, carve and cast materials to restore old frames and make new period-appropriate frames. Painting conservators carefully clean, repair and sometimes retouch paintings. Paper conservators are challenged with preserving ephemera such as prints, photographs, drawings and watercolors. Object conservators restore 3-D objects of diverse materials from small figurines to huge sculptures.

The conservation team also monitors temperature and humidity in the galleries using hygrothermographs. Some fragile works require the creation of microclimates within their glass cases, Maynor explains.

The six-year hiatus while the museums were closed gave curators a chance to conserve pieces for which there was no assessment time during the usual cycle of new and returning exhibitions. “During all that time we were reviewing, examining,” says Fallon.

Beyond maintaining the collections, the center provides a resource for conservation science. The goal is to “inspire all who visit to learn more about how to care for treasured objects at home and encourage them to help preserve public art in their communities,” according to SAAM director Elizabeth Broun.

Information kiosks and displays beside each lab educate visitors about that lab’s particular conservation techniques through video clips and “before-and-after” photos. A live camera lets visitors closely watch ongoing work in the paper lab, the objects lab and the paintings studio.

Conservation becomes more difficult when artists choose materials that do not have prolonged durability. Maynor said, “We work with artists to educate them about the consequences” of using poor materials. Outreach programs also are planned for conservation professionals, students and the interested public, who might want to know the best way to care for Granny’s quilt or that heirloom Federal table.

Additional information is available on the NPG Web site, the SAAM Web site and the Smithsonian Institution Web site.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

2006-08-05T03:23:00.000-07:00

State Funding Announced for Allentown Art Museum Expansion

Story posted on 2006-08-04 18:32:00

It's been years in the making , but plans to expand and modernize the Allentown Art Museum are moving forward. Governor Ed Rendell announced the state is investing 6 million dollars in the museum's expansion and modernization project. WFMZ's Joscelyn Moes has more.

Reporter
The Allentown Art Museum is getting to be too big for its current building.
So to accommodate its growing needs , the museum plans to expand and modernize.
Today , Governor Ed Rendell threw his support behind the project in the form of a 6-million dollar state grant.
6:17-6:27--Governor Ed Rendell sdfdsfsdfdsfsdfdsfsdfsdfsd
And when you think about what this project is gonna do , it's really almost mind-blowing the difference it's gonna make.
Reporter
Governor Rendell says once the project is completed it will helpimprove the quality of life for local residents, draw visitors to the community, and spark additional economic activity.
15:20-15:29--Governor Ed Rendell
That's important to businesses who make relocation decisions. They want their employees to be able to experience high quality art, culture, music.
Reporter
Under the museum's current plan , the building will more than double in size.
19:18-19:33--David Brigham
People will see some things rolling out in the next 12 months including the demolition of the properties behind us which are part of our expansion site, improvements to the interior of the museum, and renovation of the sculpture court at the back of the building.
Reporter
The additional space will help accommodate the growing number of visitors.
In the last four years , the number of people passing through the museum's doors has jumped 80 percent.
21:40-21:50--David Brigham
We're not reinventing the old retail Allentown. This is a new Allentown and culture is going to be one of the centerpieces of that.

The museum will be celebrating its 75th anniversary in 20-09 , and officials say they hope to make significant progress on the project by then.

The art museum won't be the only place growing in the Lehigh Valley.
Governor Rendell also made a stop today at Lutron Electronics in Upper Saucon Township.
He presented the company with a check for more than four million dollars to help pay for its expansion project.
Lutron plans to build a new 250-thousand square foot office building and a parking deck.
It's also adding on to its product evaluation building.
The project is expected to create some 500 jobs.

2006-08-02T09:22:00.000-07:00

Museum of Modern Art in New York Newly Expanded
By Joseph Mok New York City

Peter Reed

Today, MoMA occupies a space more than 58,000 square meters, almost double its original size and capacity before the expansion project from 2002 to 2004.

In order to transform MoMA's original buildings and additions into a unified whole, the museum conducted a worldwide search for an architect to carry out their vision. Peter Reed is MoMA's Senior Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs.

Architect Yoshio Taniguchi designed the expansion and refurbishment of the Museum of Modern Art

"You are visiting the newly expanded MOMA. We nearly doubled in size with this new building by Yoshio Taniguchi. There was something of an international -- not quite a competition -- but the museum invited 10 architects to make a kind of a proposal. And it was to get an idea how these architects think. In other words, we weren't asking for a blueprint of MOMA but how might you approach the idea of designing a modern art museum,” Mr. Reed told us. “That list of ten was then reduced to three finalists. And Yoshio Taniguchi was one of them. In the end, the trustees selected Taniguchi to design this building."

The Entrance
Taniguchi takes inspiration from the streets in New York City for the lobby design. The interior promenade offers expansive views of the Sculpture Garden and the light-filled atrium, which soars almost 34 meters above street level. The lobby houses the information center and ticket counters. It also provides access to the museum's theaters, restaurant, stores, and Sculpture Garden.

One of many sculptures in the MoMA garden

Sculpture Garden
Among all the expansion and renovation, Taniguchi considers the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden the most distinctive single element of the museum. He preserved Philip Johnson's original 1953 design, but enlarged the garden and re-established the southern terrace. Views of modern sculptures, lush plants, and the reflection pool of the garden are now available from numerous vantage points throughout the Museum.

Museum of Modern Art art gallery

Art Work
The new David and Peggy Rockefeller Building houses the museum's main collection and temporary exhibition galleries. Spacious galleries for contemporary art are located on the second floor; while smaller, more intimately scaled galleries for the main collection are on the levels above. Expansive, sky-lit galleries for temporary exhibitions are located on the top floor.

MoMA's collections are divided into six broad categories:
· Painting and sculpture · Architecture and design
· Film and media · Photography · Drawings
· Prints and illustrated books

Museum of Modern Art vehicles exhibit

Architecture and Design Collection
Established in 1932, the architecture and design collection is the world's first curatorial department devoted to this category. The architecture collection documents buildings through models, drawings, and photographs. The design collection includes more than 3,000 objects, ranging from appliances, furniture, and tableware to tools, textiles, sports cars and even a helicopter. The collection provides an extensive overview of modernism.

Notable Artwork
Some of the most renowned paintings and drawings from the 19th to the 21st century are among MoMA's collections.

Claude Monet's culminating work from his career, the triptych "Water Lilies" covers a length of 6 meters of the wall.

Vincent van Gogh's "Starry Night" paved the way for expressionist paintings to come.

Pablo Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon", is perhaps the single most influential work in the history of modern art.

Paul Cezanne's watercolor "Foliage" explores colors and lines, leaving almost an unfinished impression.

Andy Warhol's iconic "Golden Marilyn Monroe", captures the glamorous yet transient legend of American popular culture.

Edward Hopper's "House by the Railroad" expresses a consistent theme of his works: loneliness.

Andrew Wyeth's "Christina's World” is probably one of the most familiar American paintings of the 20th century.

And the list goes on. Familiar as these works may seem to visitors, curators of MoMA emphasize the idea of revisiting artworks.

Visitors enjoy relaxing in the museum's sculpture garden

"When I can, during the day or during the week, (I) take time out and to spend time in the galleries,” says Reed. “It might be in the painting gallery. There is a sense of revisiting, which I think is very important to stress for us as curators and for the visitors. Is it enough to say, ‘Oh, I saw that Jackson Pollack painting. I've seen it. Been there. Done that.’ What I like to do is revisit it. Look at it again and again and again and study it. And sometimes you see things differently. Sometimes, it's the relationship of how that work is installed in relationship to another work in the gallery. And I think this is important. This idea of looking repeatedly at works of art is important."

Intertwining dynamic architectural expression and brilliant exhibitions throughout the year, today's MoMA is more prepared to receive visitors around the world for a visit or a revisit.

2006-07-31T20:18:00.000-07:00

Namibia: Perfecting the Art of Hunting


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New Era (Windhoek)

July 31, 2006
Posted to the web July 31, 2006

Chrispin Inambao
Windhoek

Some 45 kilometres outside Windhoek is located the Omitara Eagle Rock Hunting Academy on Etango Ranch, a neat family-owned farm that offers a series of short courses on how to successfully mount professional hunts.

The courses are conducted by Volker Grellmann, one of Namibia's most famed hunters whose exploits in the bush are as legendary as this bear of a man.

His tale remains untold though his real-life expeditions could make some beastly adventures dreamed in Hollywood look tame by comparison.

But anyway the energetic Grellmann and his wife Anke have been offering hunting courses since 1974 mainly to Namibians though his students include various German and Austrian nationals. Other students were from America, Hungary, Kenya and Tanzania. Those trained were residence permit holders.

The school initially started with daylong and two-day seminars with various presenters and as time went by these were lengthened to several days at various game reserves. Towards the end of the 80s the first 10-day course took root at Omitara Eagle Rock though the school itself was founded in 1978.

Grellmann was quick to point out that since there are many farms that parroted the name of his institution, Omitara Eagle Rock "should not be confused with similar names established at later dates".

"After Independence we bought a farm to also establish a professional school for hunting and environmental matters," he told New Era.

When asked why he established the school, he said: "Well, because I think there was a need for it and the successes proved us right. There are very few hunting professionals that did not go through one of our courses."

Grellmann who has been in the local hunting industry for several decades says matter-of-fact that as far as he knows the school is the only institution that educates and hones the skill of professional hunters.

Students who went through his hands are in the age group 17 to 68.

He developed the curriculum used and in 2000 he adapted it for the Namibian Professional Hunting Association (NAPHA) so that the association could accommodate the first intake of Previously Disadvantaged Namibians (PDNs).

"For most game hunting and legislation related subjects I am the principal lecturer, for botanical excursions we do bring in specialists from NAPHA, the Botanical Institute or from the Ministry of Agriculture," he said.

His son Robert offers theoretical shooting lessons and practice.

Courses at the institution run for 10 consecutive days of a duration of eight to ten hours daily non-stop. PDN courses stretch over 12 days plus two days of oral examination.

"We probably have had over 1000 hunting guides and professional hunters on our courses since 1974. PDNs that have successfully passed the examination now stand at 92."

All students counted together have a passing rate of between 75 - 80 % and students allowed to do the oral examination are said to generally fare better.

The medium of instruction is mainly English, except some PDN courses that have been offered in Afrikaans, having been the lingua franca for most students coming from a farm-workers' background.

"Courses are offered in twelve to sixteen students per class - maximum, to be able to give enough attention to the individual learner during theoretical and practical exercises. There is enough equipment for all - a donated beamer will assist with the next courses to include more illustrations in the power point formats," says the man fondly known as "the Beard of the Elephant."

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Practical training during the theoretical course is limited to group activities such as valuating and measuring trophies, professional capping and skinning of a trophy animal, safe handling of fire-arms, learning to shoot and sight-in rifles, judging distances, etc. Practical shooting starts with a smaller calibre "to build confidence and ends up with heavy calibre rifle shots."

"Students are even exposed to setting a safari table and serving properly.

During the practical course there will be a complete full stalk of an animal plus all the other components for the practical examination. Most students do some practical exercises after the course under the mentorship of their employer or an experienced professional hunter," Grellmann explained.

Once they passed their theoretical the students are normally tested in a gruelling two-day practical test by competent Environment and Tourism officials within four to six months after they have passed their theoretical exams.

After this scrutiny they are requested to acquire a first aid certificate, obtain a drivers licence, list up a personal liability insurance of up to N$500 000 - only then they can start to guide clients possessing a valid trophy hunting licence.

"We get feedback from employers and also students and stay in touch with most of them. Some of them have become real 'stars' in the meantime. Very few, if any have disappointed us."

Grellmann has devoted his life to the industry and had the privilege to assist Namibia in setting up "a well managed and controlled trophy hunting industry".

"The recent CITES allocation of black rhinos to the list of Namibian trophy animals for me is the pinnacle of achievements for Namibia and all the role players in this industry," stresses a man who initially cut his teeth in this important sector by starting as a hunting consultant in 1968 because the legislation at the time prevented him from becoming a game capturer.

Since all training institutions are required by law to be accredited with NQA of NTA or to become part of a registered institution such as the Polytechnic of Namibia, he is currently negotiating as he has received offers to register with international organisations.

Courses offered by the school are already endorsed by NAPHA for which it has run most of the courses and it has also offered lectures on introduction to trophy hunting to members of the Namibia Tourism Board, WWF and IRDNC.

On funding? "Originally we had anticipated rather optimistically receiving funding from outside sources, for example in SA the state provided R2 million for the initial setting up of a course for previously disadvantaged hunters.

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"At the end we had to finance everything ourselves as far as all fixed assets, buildings, fitting, furniture and equipment were concerned. We are however very grateful for donations from some international organisations - Shikar Safari Club (school rifles), Sariari Club Namibian Chapter for computer equipment, SCI Touscon for record books and measuring equipment, Dallas Safari Club for hunters safety instructions and Houston Safari Club."

There were also various individuals with smaller contributions from much needed earplugs to stationery and a much-appreciated major donation by Oasis in the form of juices and soft drinks. There is presently also a drive to obtain some scholarships from the larger international hunting associations.

The last course for PDNs was held from 10th to 23rd February of this year and another one will probably materialize in the first half of November. A dedicated big game safari assistants course for participants from the northern communal areas is planned for the last week of November and first week in December of 2006.

2006-07-30T03:01:00.000-07:00

Artists love Art on the Rocks

Karin Coron of downstate Ypsilanti will be showing her landscapes in oil pastels at Art on the Rocks this weekend. The show runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. (Journal photo by Stephen Stacy)

By STEPHEN STACY, Journal Staff Writer

MARQUETTE — An array of artists from across the country are in Marquette this weekend for the Lake Superior Art Association’s 48th annual Art on the Rocks show.

“We’ve got over 70 new artists this year,” said Mary Earle, co-chairwoman of the annual art fair. “It’s nice because we get to see art that we might not normally see here.”

April Bates of St. Petersburg, Fla., makes wearable art out of recycled materials such as shirts, jackets and jeans that she purchases from thrift stores. “I like to play with stuff that doesn’t seem to change what is already there, “Bates said of the inspiration for her art.

She said that she loves to travel and show her art because she gets to meet so many new people.

Husband and wife artists Steven and Karin Coron of downstate Ypsilanti both have booths set up to showcase their art at this year’s show. Steven’s art focuses on Lake Superior while Karin paints landscapes in oil pastels.

“This is our passion and it’s what we like to do,” said Steven, who teaches high school photography. Being a teacher, I want to keep my hand in the craft because it makes it easier to teach.”

Karin said she will have shown her art at nine shows this summer by the time she’s able to take a break in August.

“You don’t get in to these shows automatically,” Karin said. “When I get done in August, I have to get my booth ready for next year and start applying for next year’s shows.”

Steven, who is originally from the area, said the trip doubles as both an art showing and family reunion as most of his family is still living here.

“This a big tradition for the area,” Earle said. “We’ve got so many new artists, it’s like a new show every year.”

2006-07-28T19:18:00.000-07:00

Art, surf come together

Museum to host block party for exhibition

Now's the time. All you who have been wanting to learn more about the surfing culture, and all you surfers who have wondered what goes on in a fine art museum, get to Highland Avenue for a blow-out, fun-filled party and exhibition all about surf culture.

The Brevard Museum of Art and Science and the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame and Museum are joining to present "Surf! Art! Party!" The family-friendly block party will be in front of the museum from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday.

While there, you can view the art exhibition, "Eternal Summer: The Art of Surf Culture," co-curated by professional artist and surfer Bruce Reynolds.

"It's going to be awesome," said Tony Sasso, the surfing executive director of the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame and Museum.

"I'm just so excited because I think this is going to be way beyond what anybody expects."

Activities include music by Danny Morris Band, known for their surf music and Morris' cover of Dick Dale surf guitar.

"Danny can rip a lick just as good as anybody," Sasso said. "That's going to be a real neat experience for a lot of people."

If you're looking for more acoustic sounds, the Tribal Drums group will perform in the intimate al fresco space known as Link's Garden. Activities include a giant sand pile for children to play in and a puppet show of "Turtles' Way: Loggy, Greeny & Leather."

Skateboarders will do a demonstration by Graffiti Skate Zone.

"They set up portable ramps and it's pretty cool," Sasso said. "I'm not sure most folks realize how far skating has advanced."

Food will be provided by Mel Broom's Delicious Meats, Natures Table and Da Kine Diego's Insane Burritos.

Scott Brasington, co-owner of Da Kine's, thinks a cross-cultural event and exhibition like this will promote interest in the "good vibes of surf" and in the museum.

"I know it will be my first time going in (to the museum) and I've lived around here forever," he said. "I never thought of it, so (the event) has put it on my radar."

Saturday's event also will include a live auction for artwork by Reynolds, prints by John Severson, a T-shirt signed by surfing champs C.J. and Damien Hobgood and a travel package to Costa Rica.

This unusual event came about after months of collaboration between Sasso and Dane Pollei, executive director for the Brevard Museum of Art and Science.

"We got talking one day and he said, 'I'd really like to do something fun, kinda like a surf art exhibit,' " Sasso said. "And I had always wanted to do a surf art exhibit at our museum and didn't have the room."

Knowing he would need help, Sasso went to Reynolds.

Reynolds has work in the permanent collection of the Walt Disney Corp. His work also has shown in the Philadelphia Museum of Art and at art shows in Laguna Beach, Calif., Baltimore, Md., Kansas City, Mo., and New York City.

In Florida, he has shown at the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts and those in Winter Park. He frequently comes away with awards in the Melbourne and Space Coast art festivals.

This will be his first time to show at the Brevard museum.

Other artists with works on view at the museum's surf exhibition include Robert Brennan, David Burton, Wayne Coombs, Steve Forstall, Jim Hannan, Reggie Holladay, Mark Longeneker, Henry Lund, Pat Madden, Eric Maurus, Michael "Nemo" Nemnich, Rick Piper, Larry Pope, Gary Propper, John Severson and Damian Share.

As described by Reynolds, who lives in Cocoa Beach, the exhibition includes: classic type surf art, wave and scene oriented to avant garde type of artwork, collage, mixed media, assemblage, enhanced photography, art surfboards, art made of discarded surfboard parts, printmaking, memorabilia and more.

Pollei said the exhibition shows the extent of the surfing culture into mainstream society.

"Certainly part of it is to recognize and celebrate an important part of our local culture, but it's also to make people realize that the influence that surf culture has on contemporary art with this, we want people to come in and say, 'oh yeah, that is art.' "

Contact Harbaugh at 242-3717 or pharbaug@brevard.gannett.com.

2006-07-28T19:10:00.000-07:00

MFA agrees to return disputed art to Italy

New joint effort on stolen works

At left, a marble statue of Sabina sold to the Museum of Fine Arts by a Swiss dealer in 1979. Above, a vase from the Apulian region.

By Geoff Edgers and Susanna Pinto, Globe Staff | July 28, 2006

After years of denying its collection included any looted art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has agreed to return an unspecified number of works to the Italian government.

In exchange, Italy will loan the MFA objects from the country's vast antiquities holdings, and both sides have pledged to work together to ensure the museum doesn't acquire stolen works in the future.

On Tuesday, MFA director Malcolm Rogers and other museum representatives met in Rome with Italian government officials about the artifacts and yesterday issued a joint two-paragraph statement offering sketchy details of the agreement. According to the statement, the MFA and Italian officials made ``significant progress toward a final agreement" that will include ``the transfer of certain objects of Italian origin in the Museum's collection to Italy."

The statement referred to the impending deal as a ``cultural partnership." But neither side would comment on which objects were included, or when the deal will be finalized. Yet the arrangement appears to mirror one signed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York earlier this year, in which the Met agreed to return a 2,500-year-old Greek bowl called the Euphronios krater, among 20 other objects. In exchange, the Italian government will loan the Met works of ``equivalent beauty and artistic or historical significance."

The MFA's agreement would mark the end of a lengthy drama that began in October, when Italian authorities, pursuing the J. Paul Getty Museum, announced that they also had evidence proving that the MFA had purchased looted works. That led to a series of exchanges between Italian officials and the museum, an initial meeting in May and a second trip to Rome this week.

Maurizio Fiorilli, the attorney representing the Italian government in its negotiations, confirmed yesterday that he had provided the MFA with a list of 42 suspicious works earlier this year, including 16 connected with accused art smuggler Robert E. Hecht Jr. Though he would offer no more specifics on how many works might be headed to Italy, Fiorilli said he expected the final agreement to be signed Sept. 30, and for works to be sent by the MFA before the end of the year.

He also praised the museum for its cooperation.

``The MFA took our dossier seriously and, motivated by the best of intentions, they want to collaborate with the Italian authorities," he said.

Included in Fiorilli's files, which a Globe correspondent in Rome was allowed to view briefly yesterday, were details on three objects long thought to have been looted. They are a 6-foot marble statue of Sabina, sold to the MFA by a Swiss dealer in 1979, and currently on display in the museum's Roman court gallery; a 2,300-year-old jar purchased by New York collectors Shelby White and Leon Levy for the MFA in 1991, and no longer on view; and a vase from the Apulian region of Italy that the MFA purchased from the Royal-Athena Galleries in New York in 1988, and that has been on loan to the Fitchburg Art Museum since 2005.

Hecht is currently on trial in Rome, accused along with former J. Paul Getty Museum curator Marion True of taking part in a smuggling ring. Hecht, once a premier art dealer, has sold or given the MFA about 116 objects over the years, not including coins.

Some archeologists, long critical of the MFA for refusing to return suspicious objects, said the Italian government should have held the museum responsible for keeping looted artifacts.

``The Italian government is letting these museums down without [losing] face which, in my view, they certainly deserve [to do]," said Colin Renfrew, director of the McDonald Institute for Archeological Research in England. ``The MFA, in some ways, has been one of the leaders of acquiring looted antiquities."

The three named pieces in Fiorilli's files were acquired while Cornelius Vermeule was the museum's curator of classical antiquities. Vermeule, who worked closely with Hecht before retiring in 1996, declined comment yesterday, referring calls to the MFA.

Ricardo J. Elia, a Boston University archeology professor and author of a 2001 study showing that more than 94.5 percent of the Apulian vases in the world had inadequate documentation, called on the MFA to revamp its acquisitions policy.

``I'm not going to congratulate the museum for being forced to make this agreement in order to avoid a lawsuit," Elia said yesterday. ``This has to lead to a fundamental change in the way they're acquiring antiquities."

The MFA's current acquisitions policy calls for the museum to conduct ``rigorous research" on an object before it is acquired. But if a piece's ownership history cannot be determined, ``the professional staff of the Museum must use their judgment in determining whether to proceed with the acquisition."

``Obviously, it's a huge loophole," says DePaul University law professor Patty Gerstenblith, an expert on cultural property issues. ``It basically says do your research and then do what you want to do."

The MFA has long contended it did not know of any stolen objects in its collection. But a 1998 examination of MFA records by the Globe showed that 61 of 71 classical objects acquired from 1985 to 1987 had no documentation. Scholars say that's a giveaway that the artifacts were dug out of the ground by looters, and smuggled out of the country by shady dealers.

Attempts by the Italian government to recover antiquities have been rebuffed by various museums over the years. But raids of now-convicted art smuggler Giacomo Medici's Swiss warehouse and Hecht's Paris home, in 1995 and 2000 respectively, uncovered documents and photographs that dramatically strengthened the Italian case.

In February, after being confronted with some of that evidence, the Met in New York agreed to return 21 looted artifacts to Italy, including the Euphronios krater. In June, the Getty and Italian officials released a joint statement similar to that issued by the MFA yesterday, stating that a number of objects would be returned without revealing how many or which ones.

Thomas Hoving, director of the Met when it purchased the Euphronios krater in 1972, said yesterday that the MFA deal benefits both sides.

``They've done the lovely thing they should have done, and that's good for them," he said.

2006-07-28T03:48:00.000-07:00

By REBECCA STEFFAN, Enterprise Staff Writer

LAKE PLACID — The impressionistic painting of wildflowers by Alice Sheehan elicited gasps of wonderment from several observers, not just at her skill but also at the dexterity with which her 98-year-old fingers painted the small canvas.

“It’s just incredible,” said Bernadette Staofan, a staff member at Mercy Healthcare Center in Tupper Lake.

The 16th annual New York Association of Homes & Services for the Aging’s Art Competition and Exhibit features the work of 70 artists and is open to the public every afternoon at the Uihlein Mercy Center in Lake Placid Monday through Friday from 1 to 3 p.m. until Aug. 2.

Sheehan, who resides at St. John’s Home in Rochester, is the oldest person to have her work displayed in the exhibit.

Ranging from photographs to abstract paintings and watercolor landscapes, the diversity of the exhibit reflects the different areas and viewpoints of the artists.

“Best in Show” was awarded to Lamberto Hechanova, a 66-year-old resident at the Margaret Tietz Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Jamaica, N.Y. A painter and a sculptor for more than 60 years, Hechanova drew his award-winning abstract piece, “Intriborough,” with Bic pens.

Marian Walker’s painting, “A Long Time Ago,” earned the 89-year-old resident of the Guild Home for the Aged Blind in Yonkers a Merit Award in the exhibit.

In Walker’s biographical sketch, she calls herself “Grandma Moses” because she has been painting for so long.

The New York Association of Homes and Services for the Aging and NYAHSA Services Inc. jointly sponsor the exhibit every year, as well as the exhibit tour, which includes only 10 stops.

The exhibit will travel throughout New York until October, but Donna Beal, director of development at the Mercy-Uihlein Health Foundation, said it’s great for the residents to see the exhibit, especially because it is only shown at 10 locations.

After the Uihlein Mercy Center, the exhibit will travel to the Albany County Nursing Home.

Bryan Hutchins, a Mercy Healthcare Center resident in Tupper Lake, attended the exhibit with fellow residents and staff, including Staofan.

Hutchins said he enjoyed the exhibit, “very, very much.”

The exhibit is part of Uihlein’s effort to provide residents with enjoyable activities. One resident was so inspired by the exhibit that she asked if she could participate in next year’s competition.

“It’s so nice for residents to experience this; we have a large focus on providing enjoyable services to residents,” Beal said.

Along with art exhibits and Lake Placid Sinfonietta performances, residents at Uihlein participate in a horticultural program, financed by the Garden Club of Lake Placid. Residents can plant and tend flower and vegetable gardens at the center; for residents who are unable to venture outside, armchair gardening is available in the center, according to Beal.

A large canvas titled “Tracks to Success,” featured the paint trails of seven wheelchairs in different colors. According to the plaque accompanying the piece, wheelchair art can be therapeutic to children and those who are “physically limited and wheelchair-dependent.”

Each artist chose a color of paint and directed their wheelchairs over the canvas.

“Their wheels are an extension of themselves,” reads the plaque. The artists, Jessie, Willie, Jerome, Kadiedra, Luis, Ali and Adrian, are identified only by their first names.

A booklet detailing the winners’ artistic backgrounds, ages and places of residence is available at the exhibit.

The NYAHSA selected the 70 pieces from nearly 300 submissions and presented awards in two separate categories: Resident/Registrant and Staff/ Volunteer. The Best of Show award is presented only to the former category, and Merit and Honorable Mention awards are presented to both.

The tour began in April and will travel across New York until October.

2006-07-27T20:22:00.000-07:00

Vancouver gallery opens drive-thru art exhibit

Last Updated Thu, 27 Jul 2006 17:01:15 EDT

CBC Arts

A new program from the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver allows viewers to access art via a drive-thru window.

Motorists can now access an art exhibit at a drive-thru window at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver. (CBC)

"It's innovative," says Ian Grais of Rethink Advertising. "It uses the gallery space and it's an accessible way to see art."

Drivers can pull up to the kiosk and select from one of six short videos from Vancouver artist Brady Cranfield. Each piece from the series, called Day Tripper, is modelled after a hypothetical day in the life of a Vancouverite.

Gallery director Christina Richie says the program blurs the distinction between art and marketing.

"I prefer to think of it as outreach," she told CBC Vancouver.

The gallery opened the drive-thru window Wednesday night and offered $5 gift certificates from Starbucks to the first 50 patrons.

Exhibit visitor Chris Raedcher enjoyed the convenience of the exhibit but was confused by its message.

Chris Raedcher makes his selection from Day Tripper, a series of six videos by Vancouver artist Brady Cranfield. (CBC)

"I think its kind of so deep I don't get it," he said.

Ironically, the Day Tripper segments feature a man walking — and not driving — through Vancouver.

Making art more accessible to motorists is not new in Canada. The Norfolk Arts Centre in Simcoe, Ont., has run the Simcoe Drive Thru Art Gallery for the past seven years. But the Simcoe initiative is decidedly low-tech. Murals and paintings are placed along town streets and not in a dedicated drive-thru window.

The exhibit, which runs until the end of August, is open from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.