Enjoying the Housatonic Museum of Art, Bridgeport, CT opening of Illustrating Connecticut, People, Places and Things are, from left: Deborah Bachard, Peter Werth, Jr., Pam Werth all of the Werth Family Foundation; Barbara Johnson, president HCC Foundation and Robbin Zella, director, Housatonic Museum of Art and exhibition curator.
Jim Spadaccini is requesting museum feedback on a survey he is conducting at Ideum- Museum Exhibition Design and Interactive Media. The folks at Ideum are in the process of writing their first National Science Foundation grant proposal to fund Open Exhibits. This is a project that will allow them to develop, test, and disseminate three open source software templates that will allow museum professionals’ to assemble electronic exhibits for the museum floor. If you are a museum professional, please take a few minutes to complete the survey — and please help spread the word about it. It will take about 20 minutes and Ideum will share the results with everyone who participates. They will also keep you updated about the status of Open Exhibits. Thank you.
Our monthly art listings for April 2008 are now online at The Art Guide website. Every month you will find our Art Calendar, Exhibitions Listings, Call for Entries and Gallery Services for galleries, museums and artists in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York.
This month's featured gallery is Brick Walk of West Hartford, Connecticut. Our featured artist is Sara Drought Nebel. The art fairs in NYC aren't the only place to find fine art. Check out The Art Guide and learn more about the fine art offerings in Southern New England.
Artists and Galleries - Get Listed online and in print at The Art Guide. Contact Graham at info@theartguide.com
Every week I receive the A.C.T. Tip of the Week in my inbox. The newsletter comes from the folks at Artist Career Training and they offer a host of inspiration and information for artists who wish to make a better living at selling and promoting their art. They also have a blog where artists can find valuable information which will save you time, energy and money. "Ten Tips for Success as a Professional Artist" is scheduled for March 6, 2008. A.C.T. offers a host of resources for artists looking to better promote themselves and also can hook you up with a community of like minded people.
The experts and artists in the Artist Career Training community emphasize these 7 "secrets" to making it in the formula "Exposure = Success!"
* Creating a signature body of work
* Polishing a professional public persona
* Managing a qualified mailing list
* Photographing and documenting all work
* Generating publicity for multiple events
* Leveraging art business relationships
* Marketing art in person and in all media
In 1853 Napoleon III delcared himself emperor of France and embarked on the daunting task of leveling huge sections of Paris, sweeping away the woefully antiquated medieval city and replacing it with a modern marvel complete with central sewage, a centralize railway system, fresh water distribution, a renovation and expansion of the Lourve, and the addition of a grand opera, three new monumental churches, well organized broad tree lined boulevards and tall modern buildings. The old was swept away and the new modern, urban Paris was ushered in. It was this push to modernity, which happened quickly and on a massive scale that fueled the impressionists enchantment with the new modern urban life, and later on the need to get away from it all in the countryside. The new science of optics also influenced them, as did the new growing lesiure class. The impressionists painted what was contemporary to them, beautiful new wide boulevards, railways, markets, the opera, and the middle class at lesiure boating, picnicing, dancing and swimming at the resort towns about 30 min. outside of Paris now made easily accessible by the new railway system. They painted the now, and the fleeting effects of movement, light and color. Their paintings reflected the fast pace and constant bustle of a new modern city. Their painting methods in turn reflected that aesthetic. They shook off the old academic ways of painting and the need to look toward the past or even inward. They looked outward and forward to the radical changes in their city and in society for inspiration. They painted with bright colors, favoring a play of warm against cool. The application of paint could be thick or thin but the strokes where energetic and remained on the canvas as dashes and daubs of paint, creating a textural surface. Many impressionists chose a "matte" finish for their paintings in direct opposition to the glossy, varnish of tonalist paintings. Some went so far as to squeeze their paint out onto brown paper or blotting paper so some of the oil would leech out. Monet didn't varnish his paintings and as a number of American artists went to Paris to study and paint the radical idea of not varnishing a painting made it's way back to America. In the exhibit at the Florence Griswold we see inscriptions on the back of some of Willard Metcalf's paintings that his paintings were not to be varnished as that would "change certain values" and "ruin it". Tonalist painter, Henry Ward Ranger, the founder of the Lyme Art Colony was a vocal proponent of varnishing and dismissed the unvarnished works of the impressionists as looking like pastels. Knowing that Monet intended his paintings to remain unvarnished, Ranger went so far as to try and convince a collector in Boston to have the Monet paintings he had purchased varnished.
There is of course an ideological battle going on here between old guard and avante guard, as well as painting interior emotions and exterior life, painting timelesness and a fleeting split second of time. On the practical side the arguements for varnishing are basically the same ones made by conservators and artists today. In the era of the impressionists, coal-fired furnaces fueled production in the factories of industrial cities and gas lamps lit the interiors of homes and galleries, hence a lot of sooty pollution in the air ready to cling to the surface of the painting. In fact some impressionist painters chose to display their oil paintings under glass in large cities rather than risk the dulling of their colors. Today the arguement is basically the same about pollutants in the air dirting the surface of the painting and now we add UV rays to the eqaution and worry about colors fading as well. Which is why many modern varnishes also contain UV protection. Fortunately for artists today there are many choices of resin based varnishes which will not yellow and darken over time as the traditional damar varnish will. So modern painters can use vibrant colors to their hearts content without a worry if they choose a modern non-yellowing varnish with UV protection.
But the question still remains and is still debated among artists, whether to varnish or not. Eventhough the problem of darkening has been solved for those who wish their colors to remain bright by using new modern varnishes and with traditional damar varnish still readily available for those who in fact hope their painting will "mellow" over time the question of the desired "look" is still hotly debated. The Finishing Touch is an interesting exhibit to see because in several paintings, in which documentation has clearly show that the artist intended to leave the painting unvarnished, and yet at a later date someone varnished the painting anyway, the curators of the exhibit have removed the varnish in some areas to illustrate the difference in appearance varnish can make. Other paintings which also had previously been varnished apparently against the artists wishes have had their varnishes removed and the painting has been restored to an appearance presumabely much closer to what the artist originally intended. It is interesting to also note that not all the American Impressionists eschewed varnishing. Childe Hassam varnished his works and others like tonalist painter Dwight Tryon varnished some paintings but left instructions for others not to be varnished. So the question remains, does a painting look better varnished or not? Are their valid reasons not to varnish, should a painting be varnished to protect it for posterity? Does a collector, curator, or conservator have the right to alter the appearance of a painting against the artists specific intent? When you see the exhibit you will be able to judge for yourself. As an artsit I'm thrilled to have both options open to me and would hope that my intentions would be respected by future caretakers of my art.
The Finishing Touch was curated by Lance Mayer and Gay Meyers independant painting conservators affiliated with the Lyman Allyn Museum. The show runs through April 27th, 2008.
Typepad has noted ArtPark as a featured blog. Having reviewed the Blog of gallery owners Rob and Laura Jones, I can say the posts here are both thoughtful and artful. Have a visit and read for yourself.
If all war is from unresolved emotion and beyond our thought.
Where genetics play craps with random outcomes
Patterns always repeat but not identically
A massive healing of humankindness is neccesary
for trust, to appear to give an example of kindness,
to transcend that we all fear. A lost of love and self
I will do my best as small as it might be.
If it be a moment we see our love in you and me
And hope in my travels I will prosper from love.
With it's occasionally path that needs to be cleared
from the brush upon the ground.
We have a chance.
Hope was written by Theresa Zwart-Ludeman
The Art Guide is expanding its reach into Massachusetts and New York. Presently the premiere monthly guide to galleries, artists and museums in Connecticut and Rhode Island, The Art Guide invites you to submit your gallery or art work for inclusion in this growing monthly publication distributed to art lovers, dealers and art organizations in the tri state area.
The Art Guide owes its success to the community which has embraced it. That first issue was made possible by our charter advertisers, who told us that if we created the right publication to fill the void in the market, they would support it. Support it they have, with almost all of our original advertisers still advertising today, along with many, many others. Along the way, the feedback received from gallery owners and artists has led us to add features such as the Calendar of Receptions, Focus on the Artist, Profile of the Gallery, Artist Showcase and Reviews.
Beautiful graphics and a heavy gloss paper make The Art Guide a pleasure to hold and browse. The Art Guide has recently redesigned its website and is constantly adding new features and improvements to it’s print edition. The Art Guide estimates its reach at 15,000 monthly readers who pick up the Guide free of charge at approximately 300 locations including galleries, museums and upscale inns and hotels.
We hope that the positive feedback from the art community will continue as we expand the geographic scope of The Art Guide. We will introduce other regional editions as the newer ones become established. Art is everywhere and we plan to serve art communities wherever there is support for our publications.
Stay informed. Reach new audiences. We have big plans and hope you will join us. Advertise in The Art Guide this month!
Visit our website: www.theartguide.com
Phone: 800-524-9055
Email: info@theartguide.com
Greetings:
The deadline for the December issue is Friday, November 2. Please submit ad copy/listing information by that date.
The November issue will ship this week, and it is jam packed. Its 56 pages feature 75 display ads, 125 exhibition listings and a Calendar with no less than 56 art events to attend. Taken together, these numbers make a compelling case for YOU to be advertising in the Guide. As one new gallery owner told me recently: "In looking to promote our gallery's opening, it was only a question of what size ad to take in the Art Guide." We agree that no other publication can reach the same audience at the same rates as The Art Guide.
What better time than the holidays to place a display ad that reminds the art community that you are alive, well and ready to sell art?
As always, thanks for your support of The Art Guide and Happy Halloween!!
For those of you with students or teens interested in pursuing a career in the visual arts, National Portfolio Day might be something you want to attend with your future artist. This event, held at the Hartford Art School, University of Hartford, November 3 is an excellent opportunity for students to meet with college representatives from various schools of art and design. Representatives will be available to review portfolios and provide feedback to better enable the student to prepare their portfolio for submission.
National Portfolio Day: 12:00-4:00pm
West Hartford
Hartford Art School, University of Hartford
200 Bloomfield Ave
West Hartford, CT 06117
860-768-4393
www.hartfordartschool.org
www.npda.org (sadly this site seems to be having some server issues. You can also try www.portfolioday.net)
