The first woman president of the Nueva Vizcaya State University had just started her second term when illness struck her down. The woman of science who was also an advocate of the arts passed away on her birthday, April 23, also Shakespeare’s and Cervantes’ death anniversary
THEY DO NOT make university presidents and administrators like the late Marilou S. Gilo-Abon (1955-2010) anymore, if they ever did.
Many, if not most, educational administrators are content to emphasize, and remain on the level of, the ceremoniousness associated with the job, upon appointment to such positions of institutional leadership. Not Abon.
She was, in her illustrious life and productive academic career, recently and sadly cut short by serious ailment, a genuine luftmensch, but with a decisive twist. She was, without it being a patent contradiction, both impractical and practical.
As the eminent art critic and historian Dore Ashton notes, using the word in reference to the singularity of avant-garde Filipino artist David Medalla, luftmensch in English means “impractical visionary” and is therefore a redundancy.
“Was there ever a practical visionary?,” Ashton asks.
Abon, whom I have not known for very long but I now feel I have known and been dreaming about for a lifetime, was one such practical visionary.
Like all visionaries, she was or could be seen by envious, conservative or spiteful competitors and peers as possessing an essentially impractical side to her person. It is their inadvertent contribution to enlightenment, if so, to count her among the few real luftmenschen in our midst.
Yet although a certifiable dreamer, she moved about the world of action with elfin ease and grace. Her almost impossible dreams and visions as an academic leader she willfully put into practice, against all opposition, skepticism, even hostility from entrenched interests.
I have worked under many educational administrators locally and abroad (who predictably, and in due course, ossify into Kafkaesque bureaucrats) but none or precious few could come close to approximating the sheer iconoclasm and irreplaceable style of Abon’s academic leadership.
At the time of her untimely death on April 23, incidentally her 55th birthday, she was completing the first year of her second term as president of Nueva Vizcaya State University (NVSU), a two-campus state university system in Nueva Vizcaya in the capital town of Bayombong and the nearby large and vegetable-trading municipality of Bambang.
Granted a charter as a state university through legislation sponsored by Rep. Carlos Padilla in 2004, NVSU was the result of a merger between the older Nueva Vizcaya State Institute of Technology of Bayombong (established 1916) and the younger Nueva Vizcaya School of Arts and Trades, later Nueva Vizcaya State Polytechnic (founded 1946), in Bambang.
Achievements
Specialized, like most regional higher education institutions (HEIs), in the agricultural and practical sciences (technology and trades), NVSU expanded phenomenally, under Abon’s unusual and dynamic leadership as its first charter and female president beginning in 2005, to include an extension campus in Hong Kong (2008) and a splendid variety of faculty/student exchange programs with sister universities and institutions in Thailand, Hong Kong, China, Australia, Singapore, Spain and Israel.
Degree programs in ecotourism, hospitality management, veterinary medicine, and environmental science, among a host of others which she deemed pertinent to the needs of the province, were set up one after the other during her first term (2005-2009) alone, in addition to the consolidation and upgrading of NVSU’s traditional strengths in forestry, the agricultural sciences, and education.
Herself an accomplished research scholar in social statistics and development studies, Abon saw to the establishment and staffing of enterprising research and extension programs or centers at NVSU, sensitive to the peculiar natural and cultural configurations of Nueva Vizcaya as a rice/vegetable and citrus-growing province, and as home to a dazzling array of ethnolinguistic groups like settler Ilocanos, migratory Tagalogs, and some 19 indigenous communities like the Ilongot, Kalanguya, Isinai and Gaddang.
Examples include a Center for Environmental Resources Management and Sustainable Development, a citrus center, and an innovative program in fisheries.
A Bambang Studies Center, in a gesture toward local and regional studies that has been the most lively transdisciplinary research development in the Philippine academy since the 1980s, was on the drawing boards by the end of her first term and the beginning of her abortive second.
For some of these enterprising initiatives, the university recently received citations from the Council of Higher Education in outstanding research and extension, and in an exemplary case of excellent institutional governance, from the Department of Budget and Management and the Commission on Audit for its vauntedly scrupulous accounting office and practices.
Unlike literature program
More astonishingly, NVSU was close to instituting an unlikely AB Literature program in late 2009, the resultant context within which I and a number of colleagues from the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Arts and Letters developed a working relationship, indeed affectionate friendship, with her.
One might ask what business a regional HEI otherwise niched in the practical sciences and technology has dreaming of, and intending to establish, a humanistic and impractical program like literature among its degree offerings?
Indeed, some parochial elements in and out of the university and the province might have scoffed at the more general visibility, lately, of a presumably sleepy and narrowly-gauged NVSU, in the field of culture and arts development.
After all, it organized, in coordination with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the Likhaan Center of the University of the Philippines, a “Pagpupugay sa Gawad Pambansang Alagad ng Sining sa Panitikan” and literary studies conference in August 2009 to honor National Artist Edith Tiempo, most famous daughter of the province and the Gaddang people.
At the August 2009 conference, Abon asked me and Univesity of Santo Tomas professors Ferdinand Lopez, Ralph Galan, Jack Wigley, and Inquirer Art and Books subsection editor Lito Zulueta to deliver papers on the aesthetics and politics of Tiempo’s oeuvre to a capacity crowd of faculty and students from its two campuses and other Nueva Vizcaya colleges.
In fact, at its recent and spectacular 6th Charter Anniversary celebration which I and the same group of UST professors, with the addition of dancer and poet Nerissa Guevarra, attended and participated in, and which an already visibly ill Abon gamely and bravely presided over, a cultural performance troupe from Hunan Agricultural University (one of NVSU’s sister institutions) was in town to stage performances of classical and modern Chinese/Tibetan dance and to deliver dance lessons to interested participants.
‘Art in sciences’
The answer or explanation is not difficult to find.
Featured in a December 2009 number of Women’s Journal, as part of its Women in Service to Education series, Abon expounded her belief, as then dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Central Luzon State University, one of several key positions she occupied at that university before accepting the NVSU presidency, that “there is art in the sciences and science in the arts.”
One might recognize this as a modern restatement of the ancient Greek notion of poeisis, in which, as the Women’s Journal interviewer paraphrases Abon, “art and science are fused, and not poles apart, much like being two sides of the same coin.”
Muñoz itself, the “Science City” where Central Luzon State University (CLSU) is located and whose artistically inclined incumbent Mayor Nestor Alvarez, a biology PhD and former CLSU Arts and Sciences dean, Abon counted as a very close associate and friend, has become an unusual center for culture and arts development in the Philippines, among whose most striking events in recent memory were the series of public-access conciertos performed there by world-renowned classical pianist Cecile Licad.
Tulips and beauty
In the tribute and necrological rites organized by the CLSU College of Arts and Sciences and held on April 27, to honor Abon, close friend and colleague Dr. Carmelita Ramos testified that upon Abon’s arrival on the CLSU campus at age 21 to begin her academic career, “We already noticed that distinctive sense of style for which she would be known and which she would characteristically exhibit all her life.”
It was a self-fashioning which, for Ramos, marked Abon out to be an aesthete, somebody who made art a way of life and “beauty a manner of becoming” (translated from the Tagalog).
In his poignant and moving response to the CLSU testimonials, Abon’s son, Rhys Carlos, alumnus of UST’s distinguished architecture program, confirmed that Abon raised him and his sister Kaye (a recent UST literature graduate) with an eye to beauty and the development of artistic sensibility.
“In our afternoon conversations, while I was growing up,” Rhys recounts, “she once told me that for flowers, she favored the tulip. I never asked and she never explained why.”
Reflecting upon his mother’s life, Rhys said “I am now only beginning to understand why this was so, why she loved this flower. Tulips are fragile but, precisely for that, are such things of beauty.”
Likening his mother and the beauty of her life to the tulip, Rhys noted how the tulip starts out as a tubular blossom “but can be seen at its most beautiful once it spreads its petals and begins to wilt.”
One lesson then that he wanted others to take from his mother’s momentous life and early death is that “death is what makes life meaningful, and that things are beautiful exactly because they never last.”
The Women’s Journal feature on Abon observes that one of the most striking characteristics that one is likely to impress anybody about her, on meeting her for the first time, is “her way with words.” I told Rhys after the tribute how much of his mother I saw in him and his sister Kaye. But he did not need to remind me how he prefaced the tulip anecdote with the disclaimer that “My metaphorical predilections are as nothing, compared to my mother’s speech.”
I do not know of any architect who speaks in this literary and beautiful manner, or at least it is not everyday that one comes across somebody like that who does.
But then again, why wonder when it was somebody like Abon who raised him, and sought to convince others in the regional and science academy, and perhaps people like me now in the literary and humanistic academy, that “there is art in science, and science in the arts”?
“Think of me as a dream,” Franz Kafka once wrote (and it is my favorite artist David Medalla’s favorite quote). As an academic, I have always dreamed about and wished for an institutional superior and leader like Abon to be at the helm of our educational institutions.
Like a dream she had come to life, no matter how briefly, in my own waking world, and in the many worlds she had touched and graced with her bounteous gifts. But like a beautiful dream, no matter how deep the sense of loss, she must come to pass, and be allowed to fade away so hauntingly.
Oscar V. Campomanes of Ateneo de Manila University and the UST Graduate School is a native of Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
‘Maoists should choose ballot rather than bullet’
Sri Sri Ravishankar, the exponent of Advaita Vedanta and the spiritual leader of the Art of Living Foundation (founded in 1982), in an exclusive interview with Zeenews.com’s Swati Chaturvedi on her chat show ‘Kahiye Janab’, expressed his opinions on cleaning Yamuna, Indian politics, Mayawati, Maoists and much more.Swati: Everyone is focusing on cleaning of Ganga for publicity. So why did you emphasize on cleaning Yamuna rather than Ganga?
Ravishankar: Six months ago, I saw on Zee News that people were taking bath in Yamuna near Vrindavan and at the same time were drinking the contaminated water.
People have a lot of faith in the holy river. So something needs to be done. Yamuna, which flows through the heart of Delhi, has to be saved. A lot of sewage is dumped into the river. So it needs to be cleaned and the government is doing nothing.
Swati: What’s your say on the scandals involving spiritual gurus?
Ravishankar: Some people have indulged in such activities. But that doesn’t mean everyone is corrupt. In every profession whether doctor, banker, police official or politician, there are some corrupt individuals. So it’s not right to pin-point anyone.
Swati: Do you think such individuals have taken advantage of people’s faith?
Ravishankar: It’s nothing new. Raavan too came disguised as a saint and kidnapped Sita. So paakhandis have been there since ages. But at the same time there were gurus like Vashisht and Vishwamitra. So it’s not correct to say everyone is a paakhandi.
Swati: Were you distressed when you heard about the involvement of spiritual gurus in scandals?
Ravishankar: I am thankful to the media that they highlighted such ill doings. The role of media in the society is to inform and educate, thus, it should bring into light such incidents so that people become aware.
Swati: Some yoga gurus are becoming rajguru. What do you have to say in this regard?
Ravishankar: (Laughs) Politics has become so dirty and corrupt that people have lost faith in it. Spirituality needs to be brought in. People have asked me so many times to cleanse the political system of the country.
Swati: Why don’t you do then?
Ravishankar: I will not go behind politicians. People should elect those who have regard for values. They should elect those individuals, who have broad vision, belief in transparency and equality. People say that good people run away from politics but I’ll ask them not to do so.
Swati: What’s your reaction to Baba Ramdev joining politics?
Ravishankar: He is doing it on public demand. He must have taken the decision for our country’s good.
Swati: Will you ever join politics?
Ravishankar: No, but I will request the politicians to broaden their vision and do away with vote bank politics as well as self interest. 1, 157 drains are dumping sewage into the Yamuna. Thousands of crores has been spent to clean it but nothing positive has been achieved. I would request all the politicians to come forward leaving behind all personal interests and help in cleaning the river.
Swati: Do you believe that anyone will come forward?
Ravishankar: (Laughs) Everyone has something special in them. One just needs to identify it. So, I just want to say that no one is wrong. A criminal can become a good person as in the case of Saint Valmiki.
Rulers and social workers, if they work together, can bring about great improvement. I would request the Delhiites to come forward once in a week and help in cleaning Yamuna. If we do so for a year then certainly the water will be clean.
Swati: How have you kept yourself away from controversies?
Ravishankar: I speak my heart. I teach people to be simple and easy-going.
Swati: What’s your say on currency garlands? Is it corruption or faith?
Ravishankar: People who believe in Mayawati have presented her with currency garlands. But Mayawati should understand the situation herself. I cannot comment on whether it is corruption or faith. But I believe that if a certain party has enough money it should indulge in social service.
It’s good that Mayawati has done quite well in leading and integrating people of all caste and religion. Crime rate has declined to a great extent in her rule. But there’s lot more she can do.
Swati: Do you agree with the Government’s strategy towards Maoists?
Swati: Do you agree with the Government’s strategy towards Maoists? Ravishankar: Maoists are not bad people. They are not partying in jungles. Maoists have stood up for a cause. If people like them join mainstream and handle the government affairs then a revolution is certain in the country.
But I don’t agree with the violent path followed by Maoists. I request them to lay down arms and choose the ballot rather than the bullet. I would like to tell them that all of us are affected by corruption. We are also fed up of dirty politics. But killing police officials, organizing blasts and laying down mines are not justified.
Swati: If the government requests, will you act as a mediator?
Ravishankar: Yes, if the government gives me an opportunity then I am ready to act as a mediator between Government and Maoists.
Designing minds: Michael Courdin
Design details, art and accessories were found during shopping trips to Montreal and New York City, adding vibrancy to the Rockcliffe home.
Michael Courdin shows me around the Rockcliffe house with pride. It's not his, but belongs to a client. Still, he knows it well. Courdin has been working with this client for years -- so long, in fact, that he and her family have become friends.
Courdin likes it when business relationships morph into friendships. He says he's had it happen many times in the 30-plus years he's been working in Ottawa as a designer.
"The most important thing for me in my career is the longevity of my relationship with my clients," he says, adding, "I'm now doing my clients' children's places."
Eventually, we settle in the comfortable main-floor family room to talk -- about the house, about design, about clients and the best places for shopping.
How did you get your start?
"My first job was at Taarn Torontow Interiors, downtown near where the old Rideau Club was. I had studied art, and I needed a job. I walked in and they hired me." He was fortunate, he adds, because one of
the designers on staff mentored him, teaching him about scale, proportion and colour.
When did you go off on your own?
"When they closed in 1977, they gave me the clients and the samples, and I started working out of my apartment in Sandy Hill. I brought in associates as I got busier."
Which designers do you most admire?
Courdin says he likes the work of Christian Liaigre and Philippe
Starck. Both are French designers. Liaigre is known for his minimalist, soothing interiors; Starck, sometimes called the Bad Boy of French design, is more modern. His Ghost Chair is a classic.
"I like the eccentricity of Liaigre, his uniqueness. He is not afraid of mixing components and styles. I like Starck for his inventiveness and his simplicity."
What is good design?
Good design, he says, is something that lasts forever, be it modern or traditional. Scale and proportion are always important, he adds, and furniture has to work within the size of the room.
What gives you most satisfaction as a designer?
"I think it's the end result, the pleasing of the client. Putting everything together like pieces of a puzzle so that it all balances. It's kind of like creating a painting -- getting the right combinations of colours and textures and patterns."
How do you know when a room is done?
"In the case of the living room in this house, which I refer to as 'traditionally eclectic,' it took two years for me to put it together."
Finding the right pieces involved what he calls treasure hunting. "I went to New York to find the Persian rug, and to Montreal to find the andirons for the fireplace and the Biedermeier secretary. At one point, I couldn't do anything more to it."
What makes for a good client?
Openness to new ideas and a willingness to communicate, says
Courdin. "I don't like being allowed free rein. I prefer it when the client has a huge input. I ask my clients to do homework. I give them a stack of magazines, and I ask them to go through them and mark the pages for feeling, style, colour, ambience, and show me what they like about each room. So then what I do becomes their personal style."
Courdin likes it when business relationships morph into friendships. He says he's had it happen many times in the 30-plus years he's been working in Ottawa as a designer.
"The most important thing for me in my career is the longevity of my relationship with my clients," he says, adding, "I'm now doing my clients' children's places."
Eventually, we settle in the comfortable main-floor family room to talk -- about the house, about design, about clients and the best places for shopping.
How did you get your start?
"My first job was at Taarn Torontow Interiors, downtown near where the old Rideau Club was. I had studied art, and I needed a job. I walked in and they hired me." He was fortunate, he adds, because one of
the designers on staff mentored him, teaching him about scale, proportion and colour.
When did you go off on your own?
"When they closed in 1977, they gave me the clients and the samples, and I started working out of my apartment in Sandy Hill. I brought in associates as I got busier."
Which designers do you most admire?
Courdin says he likes the work of Christian Liaigre and Philippe
Starck. Both are French designers. Liaigre is known for his minimalist, soothing interiors; Starck, sometimes called the Bad Boy of French design, is more modern. His Ghost Chair is a classic.
"I like the eccentricity of Liaigre, his uniqueness. He is not afraid of mixing components and styles. I like Starck for his inventiveness and his simplicity."
What is good design?
Good design, he says, is something that lasts forever, be it modern or traditional. Scale and proportion are always important, he adds, and furniture has to work within the size of the room.
What gives you most satisfaction as a designer?
"I think it's the end result, the pleasing of the client. Putting everything together like pieces of a puzzle so that it all balances. It's kind of like creating a painting -- getting the right combinations of colours and textures and patterns."
How do you know when a room is done?
"In the case of the living room in this house, which I refer to as 'traditionally eclectic,' it took two years for me to put it together."
Finding the right pieces involved what he calls treasure hunting. "I went to New York to find the Persian rug, and to Montreal to find the andirons for the fireplace and the Biedermeier secretary. At one point, I couldn't do anything more to it."
What makes for a good client?
Openness to new ideas and a willingness to communicate, says
Courdin. "I don't like being allowed free rein. I prefer it when the client has a huge input. I ask my clients to do homework. I give them a stack of magazines, and I ask them to go through them and mark the pages for feeling, style, colour, ambience, and show me what they like about each room. So then what I do becomes their personal style."
Have you ever had any design disasters?
Courdin recalls putting up an iron curtain rod and hanging white linen drapes on rings. "After about a year, I had a call from the client saying that black finishing from the rod had flaked off onto the drapes. Well, the drapes had to go into the garbage."
He credited the client.
What's your favourite room at home?
"My favourite room is my living room, but I don't live in it. I'm a collector, so I collect things I like, no matter what style or period. My
living room is absolutely eclectic. It has a Chinese Deco rug, a 40s chrome lounge chair, a Venetian mirror on the mantel, and Italian vases and lamps. I like the visual stimulation of the pieces."
What, in your opinion, is really awful design?
"Sometimes, I see colour combinations that are totally wrong. For example, if you've got too many colours at once. That can jar me."
Where do you get your inspiration?
"My favourite magazine is The World of Interiors. I don't think most of my clients would like it, because the esthetics are quite bizarre. A little tilt off the ordinary really pleases me."
Where do you like to shop?
New York's the best place to go, he says, explaining that he loves to go to the Decoration and Design Building, 979 Third Ave., New York City, one block down from Bloomingdale's. www.ddbuilding.com. It's got about 16 floors of showrooms.
"I also like Notre-Dame Street in Montreal. There are great treasures to be found there, and the stores are not as expensive as up the hill in Westmount."
Do you have a signature style?
"No. My work with every client is different."
What colours are in right now?
"Magenta and turquoise. But I love colours like that in small doses. Often, if there are pieces of art in a room, I will pull the colours out of that. Art is really important. And it doesn't have to be on the walls. I can see a rug possibly as a piece of art."
What trend would you never like to see emerge again?
"If I think back to my beginnings, orange and magenta and pink were hot. I still like them, but in small doses. These days, we're all overwhelmed. I don't like trends. Trends don't transcend." Good design, Courdin states, is something that lasts.
Courdin recalls putting up an iron curtain rod and hanging white linen drapes on rings. "After about a year, I had a call from the client saying that black finishing from the rod had flaked off onto the drapes. Well, the drapes had to go into the garbage."
He credited the client.
What's your favourite room at home?
"My favourite room is my living room, but I don't live in it. I'm a collector, so I collect things I like, no matter what style or period. My
living room is absolutely eclectic. It has a Chinese Deco rug, a 40s chrome lounge chair, a Venetian mirror on the mantel, and Italian vases and lamps. I like the visual stimulation of the pieces."
What, in your opinion, is really awful design?
"Sometimes, I see colour combinations that are totally wrong. For example, if you've got too many colours at once. That can jar me."
Where do you get your inspiration?
"My favourite magazine is The World of Interiors. I don't think most of my clients would like it, because the esthetics are quite bizarre. A little tilt off the ordinary really pleases me."
Where do you like to shop?
New York's the best place to go, he says, explaining that he loves to go to the Decoration and Design Building, 979 Third Ave., New York City, one block down from Bloomingdale's. www.ddbuilding.com. It's got about 16 floors of showrooms.
"I also like Notre-Dame Street in Montreal. There are great treasures to be found there, and the stores are not as expensive as up the hill in Westmount."
Do you have a signature style?
"No. My work with every client is different."
What colours are in right now?
"Magenta and turquoise. But I love colours like that in small doses. Often, if there are pieces of art in a room, I will pull the colours out of that. Art is really important. And it doesn't have to be on the walls. I can see a rug possibly as a piece of art."
What trend would you never like to see emerge again?
"If I think back to my beginnings, orange and magenta and pink were hot. I still like them, but in small doses. These days, we're all overwhelmed. I don't like trends. Trends don't transcend." Good design, Courdin states, is something that lasts.
Former Cairo auctioneer bilked art owner, Greene County jury concludes
A Greene County Court jury has found the former owner of a Cairo auction house guilty of grand larceny for failing to pay an art owner the auction proceeds she was planning to use to finance her mother’s nursing home care.
It took five hours for the jury to render a guilty verdict Thursday against 46-year-old Anthony Bonneau, the previous owner of T’s Family Auction on Edwards Road in Cairo.
Greene County District Attorney Terry J. Wilhelm said it was an unusual case with an unfortunate ending.
It all started when California resident Valerie Ducos commissioned Bonneau to sell the artwork of her grandfather, the celebrated Works Progress Administration artist James Michael Newell.
Newell’s murals, which depicted the social scene of the nation at the time, have been exhibited and placed in permanent collections at the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian, the White House and the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as other institutions.
The brochure handed out at the Oct. 24, 2009 preview had announced that more than “300 original paintings, watercolors and drawings” by Newell would be up for auction. The brouchure went on to describe the auction as a “rare opportunity to purchase significant investment art.”
Wilhelm said Bonneau auctioned the artwork for $40,455 on Oct. 25, 2009, and after taking out his $16,182 commission, owed Ducos more than $24,000.
“She basically never got a penny from all of this stuff, which she felt was worth way more than what they sold for,” Wilhelm said Friday.
Ducos testified at the trial that at the time she had commissioned Bonneau, he told her he was planning to hold the auction in New York City. Wilhelm said the plans changed several times after that.
“She came in (to New York) for the auction and was very disappointed. She had been promised a lot of things, and (the auction) was ultimately held at the Cairo Hose Company, with only 25 people attending,” Wilhelm said. “It was extremely poorly done in the beginning. The art work went for way less than it should have.”
A month after the auction, Wilhelm said, Ducos got a letter from Bonneau, who apologized for not having sent the money. Enclosed was a check, which Wilhelm said bounced.
“It’s a case of a guy being a total crook,” he said, adding that Ducos believed her grandfather’s murals were worth as much as $100,000. She had planned to use the money to pay for her mother’s residency at a nursing home.
According to Wilhelm, Ducos is from the Woodstock area, and her grandparents had a home there.
Calls to Bonneau’s Albany attorney, Paul Devane, were not returned. The number for T’s Family Auction in Cairo has been temporarily disconnected.
Bonneau, who is out on bail, is scheduled to be sentenced June 29.
It took five hours for the jury to render a guilty verdict Thursday against 46-year-old Anthony Bonneau, the previous owner of T’s Family Auction on Edwards Road in Cairo.
Greene County District Attorney Terry J. Wilhelm said it was an unusual case with an unfortunate ending.
It all started when California resident Valerie Ducos commissioned Bonneau to sell the artwork of her grandfather, the celebrated Works Progress Administration artist James Michael Newell.
Newell’s murals, which depicted the social scene of the nation at the time, have been exhibited and placed in permanent collections at the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian, the White House and the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as other institutions.
The brochure handed out at the Oct. 24, 2009 preview had announced that more than “300 original paintings, watercolors and drawings” by Newell would be up for auction. The brouchure went on to describe the auction as a “rare opportunity to purchase significant investment art.”
Wilhelm said Bonneau auctioned the artwork for $40,455 on Oct. 25, 2009, and after taking out his $16,182 commission, owed Ducos more than $24,000.
“She basically never got a penny from all of this stuff, which she felt was worth way more than what they sold for,” Wilhelm said Friday.
Ducos testified at the trial that at the time she had commissioned Bonneau, he told her he was planning to hold the auction in New York City. Wilhelm said the plans changed several times after that.
“She came in (to New York) for the auction and was very disappointed. She had been promised a lot of things, and (the auction) was ultimately held at the Cairo Hose Company, with only 25 people attending,” Wilhelm said. “It was extremely poorly done in the beginning. The art work went for way less than it should have.”
A month after the auction, Wilhelm said, Ducos got a letter from Bonneau, who apologized for not having sent the money. Enclosed was a check, which Wilhelm said bounced.
“It’s a case of a guy being a total crook,” he said, adding that Ducos believed her grandfather’s murals were worth as much as $100,000. She had planned to use the money to pay for her mother’s residency at a nursing home.
According to Wilhelm, Ducos is from the Woodstock area, and her grandparents had a home there.
Calls to Bonneau’s Albany attorney, Paul Devane, were not returned. The number for T’s Family Auction in Cairo has been temporarily disconnected.
Bonneau, who is out on bail, is scheduled to be sentenced June 29.
Oakland Museum reopens with open invitation
The new extension of the Oakland Museum's Gallery of California Art.
"Makeover" understates the exhilarating effect achieved by renovation of the Gallery of California Art and the fresh deployment of its contents as the Oakland Museum of California - two-thirds of it, anyway - reopens today after a two-year renovation.
The museum gives its answer - a bracing one - to the question of how a 21st century cultural institution should use its resources.
As if mindful of the appalling decline in California public schools, the Oakland Museum has embraced its role as cultural educator with a surprisingly light, inviting touch.
The Gallery of California Art represents the new model. It arranges artworks on a pattern of intersecting themes. It intersperses them with items from the museum's departments of history and natural sciences, and with interactive features ranging from touch-screens to flat files filled with ephemera available in most museums only to researchers.
The survey does not shy away from puzzling contemporary art - Will Rogan's comic conceptual video, "One Thing I Can Tell You Is You Got to Be Free" (2000) plays just inside the entrance. It offers difficult works as if they have accessible dimensions and straightforward ones as if they have submerged mysteries.
Rather than present a simple chronology of art, the curators have divided the space thematically, with California Land, California People and California Creativity as the wide subject areas.
Within "Land" we find not only landscapes by painters as different as Wayne Thiebaud and Manuel Ocampo, but encased topographical models from the Natural Sciences department that miniaturize great chunks of California terrain. They nearly steal the show.
An adjacent section on the Gold Rush contains an absorbing selection of daguerreotypes. Here we can compare an 1852 daguerreotype of Eliza Johnson with a portrait of her painted six years later by Charles Christian Nahl, and decide for ourselves the comparative advantages of each as a portrait medium.
An adjoining gallery designated "Open Space 1" gets inaugurated with a selection of work and memorabilia of Japanese American Mine Okubo (1912-2001), who found herself confined to an internment camp during World War II, after having assisted renowned muralist Diego Rivera.
California People has a wall full of portraits as its centerpiece - paintings and photographs from every historical corner of the museum collection. Two video screens hang among them, displaying at random self-portraits that visitors have made - and inviting others to add theirs - at an interactive terminal just to the side.
Old-school museum-goers may dismiss this feature and others like it within museum as pandering gimmickry. But it may give people who find it engaging a taste of the difficulty of self-portraiture that they might never have otherwise.
No hard boundaries separate the categories in which artworks have been placed.
Samples from the Dorothea Lange archive of photographs and papers flank the self-portrait area, rather than keeping company with the members of the Group f64, or the pictorialist photographers, whose work has dedicated areas elsewhere on the floor.
The art of Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993) occupies a space at the center of the Gallery of California Art, through which small, long-running monographic surveys of individual artists will rotate. Diebenkorn's art makes a perfect compass among the various thematic areas around it, because he ventured with equal confidence into portraiture, landscape and abstraction.
The sight of daylight to one side and at the far end of the Gallery of California Art will be a refreshing surprise to visitors familiar with the museum.
The modest expansion designed by San Francisco architect Mark Cavagnero has opened a long side gallery dedicated to Art of Our Time, and an airy one at the end of the original enfilade given over to contemporary art. Clerestory windows let the light of the present day infuse both spaces.
The thematic installation, with its overlaps and ricochets, may strike some visitors as scrambled. But to the curators' credit, they offer a broadly accessible experience of the uncertainties, surprises and never-ending reappraisals that face all viewers - no matter how sophisticated - who hope to know their position in historical time and cultural space.
Inevitably, in a curatorial juggling act of this complexity, some balls will get dropped - and the jam-packed Gallery of California History adds a whole other layer of challenge to memory and attention. Best to visit the two departments on separate days.
But the Gallery of California Art, light on wall and label text, lets visitors find for themselves connections such as the 1953 Adaline Kent sculpture in the Modernism area and photographer Roger Sturtevant's mid-30s portrait of Kent at work, or the eyeline that links Kent's sculpture with Robert B. Howard's 1950 "Study for 'Custodian,' " so similar to hers in style.
Over an afternoon or over a lifetime of looking at art such connections deepen the pleasure of being alive to one's time. We cannot ask more of a museum than to make that opportunity available.
Oakland Museum of California reopening
11 a.m. Saturday, public welcome ceremony, including Native American Ohlone blessing and premier of a dance work by Project Bandaloop. Expanded and reinstalled art and history galleries will open, as will the new museum store and new restaurant, Blue Oak.
Other opening-day entertainers will include yo-yo wizard Dazzling Dave, whistler Sean Lomax and the Oakland Hip-Hop Dance Institute.
Overnight program: 6 p.m. Sat.-6 a.m. Sun., will feature live DJs, a dance music showcase, "California Futures" - ongoing conversations and events about California culture, including food, screenings of California films, plus fire dancers.
The Art Market: High hopes for Picasso
It’s all about Brody in New York next week. As the Impressionist and Modern art sales get under way, the high note is Christie’s sale, on May 4, of the collection of Frances Lasker Brody, the Los Angeles-based collector and philanthropist who died in November. Christie’s wrested this highly desirable consignment from Sotheby’s by giving an overall guarantee that is rumoured to be around the collection’s $150m upper estimate. The star lot, Picasso’s “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” (1932), is looking for $70m-$90m alone, and the buzz is that it could go even higher. This painting, along with Giacometti’s portrait bust of his brother Diego (est. $25m-$35m), carry third-party guarantees, meaning that Christie’s has outside investors underwriting the lots.
Sotheby’s, however, has only one guaranteed lot in its May 5 evening sale, a Picasso portrait from 1965 (est $8m-$12m) that bears the “irrevocable bid” symbol. The reappearance of guarantees – on which both auction houses lost heavily during the 2008 recession – is a sign of renewed confidence in the art market.
Prince Felix Youssoupoff has gone down in history as one of the co-assassins of Rasputin, the “mad monk”. After the revolution, Youssoupoff was exiled and, during a stay in Corsica in 1929, despite being untaught artistically, produced 15 caricatures illustrating themes such as jealousy, doubt, indifference. After his death, the group was dispersed at auction, with two going to the French crooner Charles Aznavour. Now the French Art Deco specialist L’Arc en Seine is showing eight of the drawings as part of France’s Year of Russia celebrations. They are priced at €20,000 ($26,000) each, but gallery co-owner Raphael Ortiz says he is hoping to find a single buyer to keep them together. Recent sales of Russian art have produced a mixed picture. The ash cloud put a dampener on proceedings both in New York, where Sotheby’s and Christie’s were selling paintings and works of art, and London, where Phillips de Pury staged its much-hyped Bric sale. The New York sales were reportedly sparsely attended, but Sotheby’s sale totalled $13.6m, well within expectations. The strongest bidding was for Fabergé, which, with its evocation of the glories of a lost era, continues to exert a powerful grip on Russian collectors. Sotheby’s scored a new auction high of $986,500 for the Russian-born surrealist painter Pavel Tchelitchew, for a portrait of the socialite Ruth Ford. Christie’s smaller Russian sale made just under $5m, and again Fabergé did well: an obsidian model of a crow flew over its $10,000-$12,000 estimate to $98,500.
At Phillips de Pury in London, the Russian segment of the Bric sale raised £2.3m ($3.5m), almost in line with its target of £2.2m (presale estimates don’t include premium; results do) although only 46 per cent of the lots found buyers. But some good prices were set; top lot was Eric Bulatov’s “Entrance-No Entrance” (1994-95), which made £715,250 (est. £350,000-£450,000), while a satire of Russian official art, “Meeting between Solzhenitsyn and Böll at Rostropovich’s Country House’’ (1972) by Russian duo Komar & Melamid, raced away at £657,250, well over its £100,000-£150,000 estimate.
One of the biggest art scandals of recent years concerns the dealer Lawrence Salander, who last month pleaded guilty to stealing some $120m from customers and investors. New York has been transfixed by the Salander story: how the high-flying dealer, operating from an Italianate palace in Manhattan, once claimed he could “corner the market in Renaissance art” but left a trail of victims, including tennis champion John McEnroe, after his gallery filed for bankruptcy in 2007. Salander, 60, is facing up to 18 years in prison.
Many works of art are still held by the bankruptcy court and will be sold at some future date; the art advisers Gurr Johns are handling the deal, which is believed to be going to Christie’s; both firms declined to comment. Meanwhile Stair Galleries of New York is selling ornate and eclectic items from Salandar’s Manhattan townhouse next Sunday: 244 lots of furniture (such as an Italian walnut credenza at $400-$800), Rococo-style chandeliers, Chinese porcelain vases and a carved sandstone Buddha head ($500-$700).
“We have kept our estimates very low,” says president Colin Stair, “And we’re expecting a tremendous amount of interest. Bankruptcy auctions are like blood in the water.” Viewing continues this week and the whole group is estimated at up to $200,000.
Volcanic ash prevented London dealer Johnny van Haeften from getting to the Dorotheum, in Vienna, for its Old Master paintings sale, but not from buying Frans Francken II’s “Man Choosing between Virtue and Vice”. Estimated at just €400,000-€500,000, the opulent early 17th-century work shows the human soul on its journey to heaven – or hell. “I didn’t even start bidding on the telephone until it got to €2m, and there were lots of people against me, German and Russian I think, plus two of my own clients,” says Van Haeften. He paid more than €7m for the painting, which he still hasn’t seen. “But colleagues have vouched for it,” he says. The price sets a new record for the artist and any Old Master sold in Austria.
Sotheby’s, however, has only one guaranteed lot in its May 5 evening sale, a Picasso portrait from 1965 (est $8m-$12m) that bears the “irrevocable bid” symbol. The reappearance of guarantees – on which both auction houses lost heavily during the 2008 recession – is a sign of renewed confidence in the art market.
 |
| ‘Le doute’ by Felix Youssoupoff |
At Phillips de Pury in London, the Russian segment of the Bric sale raised £2.3m ($3.5m), almost in line with its target of £2.2m (presale estimates don’t include premium; results do) although only 46 per cent of the lots found buyers. But some good prices were set; top lot was Eric Bulatov’s “Entrance-No Entrance” (1994-95), which made £715,250 (est. £350,000-£450,000), while a satire of Russian official art, “Meeting between Solzhenitsyn and Böll at Rostropovich’s Country House’’ (1972) by Russian duo Komar & Melamid, raced away at £657,250, well over its £100,000-£150,000 estimate.
One of the biggest art scandals of recent years concerns the dealer Lawrence Salander, who last month pleaded guilty to stealing some $120m from customers and investors. New York has been transfixed by the Salander story: how the high-flying dealer, operating from an Italianate palace in Manhattan, once claimed he could “corner the market in Renaissance art” but left a trail of victims, including tennis champion John McEnroe, after his gallery filed for bankruptcy in 2007. Salander, 60, is facing up to 18 years in prison.
Many works of art are still held by the bankruptcy court and will be sold at some future date; the art advisers Gurr Johns are handling the deal, which is believed to be going to Christie’s; both firms declined to comment. Meanwhile Stair Galleries of New York is selling ornate and eclectic items from Salandar’s Manhattan townhouse next Sunday: 244 lots of furniture (such as an Italian walnut credenza at $400-$800), Rococo-style chandeliers, Chinese porcelain vases and a carved sandstone Buddha head ($500-$700).
“We have kept our estimates very low,” says president Colin Stair, “And we’re expecting a tremendous amount of interest. Bankruptcy auctions are like blood in the water.” Viewing continues this week and the whole group is estimated at up to $200,000.
Volcanic ash prevented London dealer Johnny van Haeften from getting to the Dorotheum, in Vienna, for its Old Master paintings sale, but not from buying Frans Francken II’s “Man Choosing between Virtue and Vice”. Estimated at just €400,000-€500,000, the opulent early 17th-century work shows the human soul on its journey to heaven – or hell. “I didn’t even start bidding on the telephone until it got to €2m, and there were lots of people against me, German and Russian I think, plus two of my own clients,” says Van Haeften. He paid more than €7m for the painting, which he still hasn’t seen. “But colleagues have vouched for it,” he says. The price sets a new record for the artist and any Old Master sold in Austria.
Morocco pavilion at Shanghai Expo - The Kingdom's legacy and the life art
Morocco is the only African country having its own pavilion in Shanghai expo 2010, the 4,000 sq meter pavilion is meant to showcase the Kingdom's legacy of ancestral civilization and the Moroccan art of life , the Chinese Embassy in Rabat said in a statement.
The Moroccan pavilion day will take place on September 30, and will be an opportunity to highlight Morocco's arts, history, culture, environment and urban development.
The pavilion is inspired by the rich culture of Morocco, which embodies wisdom and the spirit of innovation. It showcases the legacy of traditional civilization and the art of life. The exhibition represents different aspirations of residents and their lives as well as Morocco's thinking over history, culture, environment and urban development.
Morocco is the only African country that has built its own pavilion. Its exhibition area, 4,000 square meters, also tops the list of African countries. Morocco boasts a special environment combining Arab Muslim and African cultures. Its people have developed special lifestyles and these will be showcased.
The pavilion aims to create a cozy and comfortable place for visitors. Advanced technologies have been used to create it as a work of art.
Shanghai expo 2010 brings together 242 countries, regions and international organizations. It will be the largest in the expo’s history with over 70 million visitors expected. The 184-day event will be livened up by 20,000 artistic and cultural events.
On November 18, 1999, the Chinese government officially decided that Shanghai would bid for the 2010 World Expo. With support from home and abroad, Shanghai won the bid on December 3, 2002, at the 132nd General Assembly of the International Exhibitions Bureau.
Expo 2010 Shanghai China is a great event to explore the full potential of urban life in the 21st century and a significant period in urban evolution. Fifty-five percent of the world population is expected to live in cities by the year 2010. The prospect of future urban life, a subject of global interest, concerns all nations, developed or less developed, and their people.
Being the first World Exposition on the theme of city, Exposition 2010 will attract governments and people from across the world, focusing on the theme "Better City, Better Life." For its 184 days, participants will display urban civilisation to the full extent, exchange their experiences of urban development, disseminate advanced notions on cities and explore new approaches to human habitat, lifestyle and working conditions in the new century. They will learn how to create an eco-friendly society and maintain the sustainable development of human beings.
Naked volunteers pay homage to LS Lowry
Hundreds of people shed their clothes and their inhibitions today, baring all in the name of art.
Volunteers posed for Spencer Tunick, the American artist, in a park in Salford as he aimed to reflect the work of LS Lowry in a large-scale installation.
Naked figures, male and female, young and old, spread out across Peel Park as Tunick gave them instructions through a loudspeaker.
The installation, Everyday People, featuring a mixture of photography and film, focuses on ordinary men and women, referencing the style of Lowry who is best-known for his “matchstick men” - figurative works depicting a mass of bodies going about their everyday lives.
The work was commissioned by The Lowry gallery in Salford to celebrate its tenth birthday and will be shown there from June 12.
Tunick, who is famous for his art works featuring naked bodies, has photographed similar pieces at the Sydney Opera House in Australia, the Institut Cultura in Barcelona, Spain and the Baltic Centre in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear.
Over 4,000 people applied for 1,000 places for Everyday People, which is being staged in eight secret locations around Salford and Manchester, with volunteers ferried between each location in heated buses.
Speaking after the event, Tunick said: “I think being naked creates a new meaning for the background. It creates a relationship between the concrete world and the real world.”
Joyce Stevens, 56, a secretary from Liverpool, was among the naked volunteers.
She said: “I wanted to push my boundaries and see how far I could go.
“When I was registering initially I didn’t know what it was letting myself in for. Towards the end it was a bit chilly but I feel like I’ve accomplished something.
“Liberated is probably not the word but maybe that will kick-in when I’m back sitting on the bus and a bit warmer.”
Stephen Parkinson, 42 a shop assistant, from Wrexham, North Wales said: “It’s been a good day and everybody has been buzzing about the event. I’m little bit cold but it is worth it.
“People say that it’s a sexual experience but it’s actually more tribal. We are bonding with a good group of people. We were all waiting outside the Lowry at 10.30 last night to make a piece of history.
"Spencer’s done some good work and I hope that one day it will be there as a piece of art for everyone to enjoy.
“I didn’t really know much about him apart from a few pictures I’d seen on the internet but after doing a bit of research I decided I wanted to have a go at it when the opportunity came along.
"It was more out of intrigue than passion but everybody’s got into the spirit of things and it’s just been truly great.
“Some people view naturism a bit like a scene from Carry on Camping but they need to understand that it’s not like that any more. It’s about celebrating the body and being with like-minded people of all shapes and sizes.
"It’s not to everybody’s tastes but it shouldn’t be frowned upon.”
Joyce Stevens, 56, a secretary from Liverpool, said: “I wanted to push my boundaries and see how far I could go.
“When I was registering initially I didn’t know what it was letting myself in for. Towards the end it was a bit chilly but I feel like I’ve accomplished something.
"Liberated is probably not the word but maybe that will kick-in when I’m back sitting on the bus and a bit warmer.”
Victoria Denning, 56, a humanist from Birmingham: “I’d heard about Spencer before and had seen a lot of his other work in the likes of Sydney, Barcelona and Mexico.
"When you look at it to start off with, quite often don’t realise that it’s naked bodies being photographed. It becomes a single entity.
“Immediately you feel that it’s a piece of artwork. As soon as we stripped-off and walked down the first hill it didn’t look like naked bodies, it looked like art straight away.
“As Spencer puts you all into position and tells you what to do, you begin to see what it’s going to look like. I’m really looking forward to seeing it when it’s finished so I’ll be coming back up to Salford for that.
“There was one very drunken man, who we came across on the street, for a look who will have wondered what was in his cider last night.
"But there was nothing sexual at all and it wasn’t like exposing yourself because everybody else was in the same position.”
Chris Walton, 18, nightclub promoter from Altrincham, Cheshire said: “I’m always looking for new experiences and fancied doing something a bit crazy, so when I heard this on the news I thought it was right up my street!
“When you’re getting your kit off in a situation like this you have a laugh about it with your mates, because there’s a safety in numbers thing.
“At times we all had to move in one direction. Whether getting naked in a park is the right direction to be moving-in is a different question, but maybe something will come from it.”
Bob McDevitt, 42, a publisher from Glasgow, also took part. He said: “I took part in the Newcastle one a couple of years ago and I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to have a go again because it’s such a unique experience.
“There’s something about people taking their clothes off that is a real leveller. Prejudices and concerns go out the window. It was about learning and expressing what it is to be human."
Volunteers posed for Spencer Tunick, the American artist, in a park in Salford as he aimed to reflect the work of LS Lowry in a large-scale installation.
Naked figures, male and female, young and old, spread out across Peel Park as Tunick gave them instructions through a loudspeaker.
The installation, Everyday People, featuring a mixture of photography and film, focuses on ordinary men and women, referencing the style of Lowry who is best-known for his “matchstick men” - figurative works depicting a mass of bodies going about their everyday lives.
The work was commissioned by The Lowry gallery in Salford to celebrate its tenth birthday and will be shown there from June 12.
Tunick, who is famous for his art works featuring naked bodies, has photographed similar pieces at the Sydney Opera House in Australia, the Institut Cultura in Barcelona, Spain and the Baltic Centre in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear.
Over 4,000 people applied for 1,000 places for Everyday People, which is being staged in eight secret locations around Salford and Manchester, with volunteers ferried between each location in heated buses.
Speaking after the event, Tunick said: “I think being naked creates a new meaning for the background. It creates a relationship between the concrete world and the real world.”
Joyce Stevens, 56, a secretary from Liverpool, was among the naked volunteers.
She said: “I wanted to push my boundaries and see how far I could go.
“When I was registering initially I didn’t know what it was letting myself in for. Towards the end it was a bit chilly but I feel like I’ve accomplished something.
“Liberated is probably not the word but maybe that will kick-in when I’m back sitting on the bus and a bit warmer.”
Stephen Parkinson, 42 a shop assistant, from Wrexham, North Wales said: “It’s been a good day and everybody has been buzzing about the event. I’m little bit cold but it is worth it.
“People say that it’s a sexual experience but it’s actually more tribal. We are bonding with a good group of people. We were all waiting outside the Lowry at 10.30 last night to make a piece of history.
"Spencer’s done some good work and I hope that one day it will be there as a piece of art for everyone to enjoy.
“I didn’t really know much about him apart from a few pictures I’d seen on the internet but after doing a bit of research I decided I wanted to have a go at it when the opportunity came along.
"It was more out of intrigue than passion but everybody’s got into the spirit of things and it’s just been truly great.
“Some people view naturism a bit like a scene from Carry on Camping but they need to understand that it’s not like that any more. It’s about celebrating the body and being with like-minded people of all shapes and sizes.
"It’s not to everybody’s tastes but it shouldn’t be frowned upon.”
Joyce Stevens, 56, a secretary from Liverpool, said: “I wanted to push my boundaries and see how far I could go.
“When I was registering initially I didn’t know what it was letting myself in for. Towards the end it was a bit chilly but I feel like I’ve accomplished something.
"Liberated is probably not the word but maybe that will kick-in when I’m back sitting on the bus and a bit warmer.”
Victoria Denning, 56, a humanist from Birmingham: “I’d heard about Spencer before and had seen a lot of his other work in the likes of Sydney, Barcelona and Mexico.
"When you look at it to start off with, quite often don’t realise that it’s naked bodies being photographed. It becomes a single entity.
“Immediately you feel that it’s a piece of artwork. As soon as we stripped-off and walked down the first hill it didn’t look like naked bodies, it looked like art straight away.
“As Spencer puts you all into position and tells you what to do, you begin to see what it’s going to look like. I’m really looking forward to seeing it when it’s finished so I’ll be coming back up to Salford for that.
“There was one very drunken man, who we came across on the street, for a look who will have wondered what was in his cider last night.
"But there was nothing sexual at all and it wasn’t like exposing yourself because everybody else was in the same position.”
Chris Walton, 18, nightclub promoter from Altrincham, Cheshire said: “I’m always looking for new experiences and fancied doing something a bit crazy, so when I heard this on the news I thought it was right up my street!
“When you’re getting your kit off in a situation like this you have a laugh about it with your mates, because there’s a safety in numbers thing.
“At times we all had to move in one direction. Whether getting naked in a park is the right direction to be moving-in is a different question, but maybe something will come from it.”
Bob McDevitt, 42, a publisher from Glasgow, also took part. He said: “I took part in the Newcastle one a couple of years ago and I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to have a go again because it’s such a unique experience.
“There’s something about people taking their clothes off that is a real leveller. Prejudices and concerns go out the window. It was about learning and expressing what it is to be human."
Friday, April 30, 2010
Designer Ilene Pearl Bannwart to Show iPEARL Collection at James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown PA During the Museum's Icons of Costume Exhibition
Bucks County based artisan and fashion designer, Ilene Pearl Bannwart, will show her iPEARL fashion collection at the James A. Michener Art Museum on Saturday, May 8 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. In conjunction with the current exhibition, Icons of Costume: Hollywood’s Golden Era and Beyond, the Museum’s Denoon Shop is presenting a Fashion and Accessories Trunk Show featuring regional artisans.
Yardley, PA (Vocus/PRWEB ) April 30, 2010 -- Bucks County based artisan and fashion designer, Ilene Pearl Bannwart, will show her iPEARL fashion collection at the James A. Michener Art Museum on Saturday, May 8 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. In conjunction with the current exhibition, Icons of Costume: Hollywood's Golden Era and Beyond, the Museum's Denoon Shop is presenting a Fashion and Accessories Trunk Show featuring regional artisans.
"It's wonderful to be part of this talented, select group of regional artisans and designers presenting at the Michener Museum during the Icons of Costume exhibition," commented Pearl Bannwart. The iPEARL collection features couture quality, classic jackets and coats in rich European fabrics with an unexpected kaleidoscope of color, silk lining inside. These exclusive, limited edition, and some one-of-a-kind, meticulously tailored and detailed luxurious investment pieces can be worn as eveningwear or casually with jeans.
Pearl Bannwart will be introducing selections from her new iPEARL rainwear collection at the trunk show. "The luxury rainwear category has always fascinated me. Why shouldn't women be able to obtain smart, savvy fashion creations that are impervious to the weather?" said Pearl Bannwart. The iPEARL collection has gained a strong following throughout the Greater Philadelphia area and nationally through fine specialty stores. Unique boutiques along the Philadelphia Main Line, and in Chestnut Hill, Princeton, Sarasota, Evanston, and St. Louis have presented the brand as well as Takashimaya New York. The iPEARL collection provides discerning women of all ages and sizes with sophisticated, luxurious jackets and coats that are timeless and effortlessly wearable.
Admission to the trunk show at the James A. Michener Art Museum, 138 South Pine Street in Doylestown, is free. Proceeds support the community programs the museum offers all year.
Media contact: Donna Weaver, WeaverWorks, 215-428-0972
About the iPEARL collection
The iPEARL collection, known as 'Luxurious fashions for elegant women', is the vision of Ilene Pearl Bannwart. Pearl Bannwart launched her concept for the iPEARL collection two years ago. Her firsthand, in depth knowledge of fine custom apparel can be traced back to her family heritage, the love of fine clothing, and the arts. The Bucks County, Pennsylvania designer was born into a St. Louis family whose lineage was steeped in the art of crafting fine quality garments. Her ancestors immigrated to America from Russia and Poland, and were skilled artisans in the world of design and tailoring. As a child, she had the good fortune of being outfitted in a custom made wardrobe, which soon became the standard she expected in clothing, and continued over the years. She loved fabrics and textiles, and spent hours studying those and poring over pattern books.
Ever the student of fashion, Pearl Bannwart has traveled extensively around the world. This global perspective enhanced her knowledge of the apparel industry and influenced her appreciation of fashion worldwide. A graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, her focus could have been fashion design, but she followed her avocation for music and voice studies. After a career in development for the nonprofit sector, Pearl Bannwart returned to her love of quality fashion and fine textiles. As the designer of iPEARL, she is living out her passion by creating styles for elegant, discerning women of all ages and sizes. The iPEARL collection retails from $500 to $2,900. For more information, visit www.ipearlfashions.com
Yardley, PA (Vocus/PRWEB ) April 30, 2010 -- Bucks County based artisan and fashion designer, Ilene Pearl Bannwart, will show her iPEARL fashion collection at the James A. Michener Art Museum on Saturday, May 8 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. In conjunction with the current exhibition, Icons of Costume: Hollywood's Golden Era and Beyond, the Museum's Denoon Shop is presenting a Fashion and Accessories Trunk Show featuring regional artisans.
This rich turquoise cashmere iPEARL topper length jacket features Trapunto stitching on the collar, cuffs and hemline.
 It’s wonderful to be part of this talented, select group of regional artisans and designers presenting at the Michener Museum during the Icons of Costume exhibition.  |
Admission to the trunk show at the James A. Michener Art Museum, 138 South Pine Street in Doylestown, is free. Proceeds support the community programs the museum offers all year.
Media contact: Donna Weaver, WeaverWorks, 215-428-0972
About the iPEARL collection
The iPEARL collection, known as 'Luxurious fashions for elegant women', is the vision of Ilene Pearl Bannwart. Pearl Bannwart launched her concept for the iPEARL collection two years ago. Her firsthand, in depth knowledge of fine custom apparel can be traced back to her family heritage, the love of fine clothing, and the arts. The Bucks County, Pennsylvania designer was born into a St. Louis family whose lineage was steeped in the art of crafting fine quality garments. Her ancestors immigrated to America from Russia and Poland, and were skilled artisans in the world of design and tailoring. As a child, she had the good fortune of being outfitted in a custom made wardrobe, which soon became the standard she expected in clothing, and continued over the years. She loved fabrics and textiles, and spent hours studying those and poring over pattern books.
Ever the student of fashion, Pearl Bannwart has traveled extensively around the world. This global perspective enhanced her knowledge of the apparel industry and influenced her appreciation of fashion worldwide. A graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, her focus could have been fashion design, but she followed her avocation for music and voice studies. After a career in development for the nonprofit sector, Pearl Bannwart returned to her love of quality fashion and fine textiles. As the designer of iPEARL, she is living out her passion by creating styles for elegant, discerning women of all ages and sizes. The iPEARL collection retails from $500 to $2,900. For more information, visit www.ipearlfashions.com
Trunk Show This Weekend at Art-Sea Living
We are huge fans of Art-Sea Living here at Boca Raton magazine so we're very excited about this weekend's sale and trunk show. This Saturday and Sunday, 12 local artists will be showcasing and selling their awesome artwork, jewelry, home decor and other cool accessories and things. Also, there will be a huge sale (discounts of 10–50 percent off) on store merchandise. And there will be wine too... just saying.If you haven't checked out this awesome boutique and art studio, this is a great weekend to do it, especially if you're still looking for a cute Mother's Day gift. And while you're there, sign up for an art class—Art-Sea Living offers really cool pottery painting, jewelry making and lots of other classes.
1628 S. Federal Highway, Boynton Beach, 561/737-2600, art-sealiving.com
Picasso Painting Could Fetch $90 Million At Auction
Picasso's "Nude, Green Leaves and Bust," was painted in 1932.
The Picture Show
Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times (center); photographs by Nora Sherma
The photos are drawn from the Getty's permanent collection, and represent an all-star cast of photographers: Edward Weston, Man Ray, Weegee, William Eggleston and more. It may be a bit of a stretch to say that there's great significance in Edward Quigley's peas or Eggleston's freezer. For the most part, they were experimenting — and photographing pretty much everything.
But the collection of photos is still a nice celebration of food and, if anything, shows how far we digital-camera-yielding, blog-posting photographers have come.
See also: Color Sells: Nickolas Muray's Food Photography, and stay tuned for more from Saveur.
Children can learn life skills through the arts
Teamwork, leadership skills, confidence, problem solving, analytical thinking, excellence in academics — qualities every parent wants their children to develop, yet most probably don't realize they can by studying the arts.
According to research from the National Endowment for the Arts, youngsters who participate in the arts develop critical thinking and problem solving skills, qualities important to today's employers. Youth who are exposed to the arts are "more likely engage in positive civic activities, like volunteering, exercise, and attending sporting events" as adults.
"The arts have a long lasting and tangible effect on our lives," says Wendy Leigh, vice president of education at the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts. Abilities such as confidence, critical thinking, team building and teamwork "are skills they can take into any situation in life so you really get a lot out of your investment and it tends to be often times a life changing experience."
The Patel Conservatory offers full-day and half-day summer camps in dance, theater and music, but also classes for children and for adults year-round. Those children wanting to try everything will enjoy Instrumental Petting Zoo, where they sample lots of instruments, and Arts Explosion, camps that delve into music, theater and dance for children in pre-K through ninth grade. For teenagers, camps like Summerplay, in which they write their own play as a group and perform it on stage, Patel Conservatory Youth Theater and Rock School are top picks.
Because the Patel Conservatory is part of the downtown Straz Center for the Performing Arts, one of the finest performing arts venues in the world, Leigh says, students experience the best in facilities, curriculum and instruction. Says Leigh, "All of our teachers are working professionals who are perfecting their craft in the real world," allowing students to see their teachers perform as well as instruct.
Patel also offers financial assistance on the basis of financial need and available funding resources. To register or to receive a brochure by mail, call (813) 222-1002 or visit www.patelconservatory.org.
Practically next door to the Patel Conservatory is the new Tampa Museum of Art, www.tampamuseum.org. Half-day and full-day camps are available for students age 6 to 14, June 21-Aug. 6. This year's campers will explore a variety of styles, working with clay, sculpture, painting, drawing and decorative arts. The museum's goal is for children to gain a greater appreciation and understanding of art, and develop a talent for self-expression.
Camps such as Drawing and Painting, Mixed Media and Sculpture, Visual Storytelling: Comic and Illustration and Conserve, Collect and Create are offered. Weekly costs are half day, $125/$150 (members/nonmembers) and full day, $200/$225 (members/nonmembers). To register, call (813) 421-8373 or e-mail laura.cook @tampamuseum.org.
The YMCA offers some art camps, such as Picture This and Arts and Crafts at the Interbay-Glover location. Children will be given cameras and will creatively express themselves through journalism in camps June 28-July 2 and July 19-23. The Arts and Crafts camp will run June 21-25, July 12-16 and July 26-30. More information is available at www.tampaymca.org. Different YMCA branches have their own camps. Check the above Web site.
At $75, the city of Tampa's full day Kids Create Art camp is an affordable option, for children 8 to 12 years old. Offered at three locations in June and July, the 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. camp focuses on painting, pottery, singing and other activities. More information is available at www.tampagov.net/parksandrec and by calling (813) 274-8615.
For the third summer, Carrollwood Cultural Center at 4537 Lowell Road will offer arts camps. From June 14 to Aug. 6, half-day morning and afternoon camps with the option of extended care will be available.
About 30 camps, with names like Digital Zoom, Choral Rock, Pottery, Dance, Yoga, Robotics, You Can Draw, Rainforest Animals, Airplanes 201 and Hip Hop, will be offered throughout the summer. Costs are $100 for non-members with a $10 discount to members. More information is available at www.carrollwoodcenter.org.
A new arts camp with a magical flair has come to Tampa from down Miami. Creative Camps, www.TampaCreativeCamps.com, will be located in Hyde Park next to Indigo Coffee for children ages 5 to 12.
"Every day, children will learn a magic trick," said Jackie Toledo, investor. "All kids should be exposed to a performing art. It can only make them stronger in other aspects of their lives," Toledo said, citing school presentations as an example.
"It's all acting. — It allows the child to work on public speaking and build self-esteem," she said.
One benefit parents will appreciate is that free extended care is included, so even though camps officially last from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., parents can bring children from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. More information is available by calling (813) 410-5682 and at www.tampacreativecamps.com.
Some camps, like the Kids Community College in FishHawk, offer arts and crafts as part of their overall curriculum. During Animal Planet week, children will make fossils; during Marine Extreme week, they'll paint sea murals, and so on. Specific information is available at www.kidscc.org.
Finally, some children, especially if they have a parent home during the day, don't want to attend camps. But that doesn't mean they have to miss out. Private lessons in all art forms can be found in the area. Beth Kokol Arts (www.bethkokolarts.com), Art Explorers (www.artexplorerstampa.com/Art_Explorers/Home.html) and the Patel Conservatory all offer private lessons as well as camps.
According to research from the National Endowment for the Arts, youngsters who participate in the arts develop critical thinking and problem solving skills, qualities important to today's employers. Youth who are exposed to the arts are "more likely engage in positive civic activities, like volunteering, exercise, and attending sporting events" as adults.
"The arts have a long lasting and tangible effect on our lives," says Wendy Leigh, vice president of education at the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts. Abilities such as confidence, critical thinking, team building and teamwork "are skills they can take into any situation in life so you really get a lot out of your investment and it tends to be often times a life changing experience."
The Patel Conservatory offers full-day and half-day summer camps in dance, theater and music, but also classes for children and for adults year-round. Those children wanting to try everything will enjoy Instrumental Petting Zoo, where they sample lots of instruments, and Arts Explosion, camps that delve into music, theater and dance for children in pre-K through ninth grade. For teenagers, camps like Summerplay, in which they write their own play as a group and perform it on stage, Patel Conservatory Youth Theater and Rock School are top picks.
Because the Patel Conservatory is part of the downtown Straz Center for the Performing Arts, one of the finest performing arts venues in the world, Leigh says, students experience the best in facilities, curriculum and instruction. Says Leigh, "All of our teachers are working professionals who are perfecting their craft in the real world," allowing students to see their teachers perform as well as instruct.
Patel also offers financial assistance on the basis of financial need and available funding resources. To register or to receive a brochure by mail, call (813) 222-1002 or visit www.patelconservatory.org.
Practically next door to the Patel Conservatory is the new Tampa Museum of Art, www.tampamuseum.org. Half-day and full-day camps are available for students age 6 to 14, June 21-Aug. 6. This year's campers will explore a variety of styles, working with clay, sculpture, painting, drawing and decorative arts. The museum's goal is for children to gain a greater appreciation and understanding of art, and develop a talent for self-expression.
Camps such as Drawing and Painting, Mixed Media and Sculpture, Visual Storytelling: Comic and Illustration and Conserve, Collect and Create are offered. Weekly costs are half day, $125/$150 (members/nonmembers) and full day, $200/$225 (members/nonmembers). To register, call (813) 421-8373 or e-mail laura.cook @tampamuseum.org.
The YMCA offers some art camps, such as Picture This and Arts and Crafts at the Interbay-Glover location. Children will be given cameras and will creatively express themselves through journalism in camps June 28-July 2 and July 19-23. The Arts and Crafts camp will run June 21-25, July 12-16 and July 26-30. More information is available at www.tampaymca.org. Different YMCA branches have their own camps. Check the above Web site.
At $75, the city of Tampa's full day Kids Create Art camp is an affordable option, for children 8 to 12 years old. Offered at three locations in June and July, the 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. camp focuses on painting, pottery, singing and other activities. More information is available at www.tampagov.net/parksandrec and by calling (813) 274-8615.
For the third summer, Carrollwood Cultural Center at 4537 Lowell Road will offer arts camps. From June 14 to Aug. 6, half-day morning and afternoon camps with the option of extended care will be available.
About 30 camps, with names like Digital Zoom, Choral Rock, Pottery, Dance, Yoga, Robotics, You Can Draw, Rainforest Animals, Airplanes 201 and Hip Hop, will be offered throughout the summer. Costs are $100 for non-members with a $10 discount to members. More information is available at www.carrollwoodcenter.org.
A new arts camp with a magical flair has come to Tampa from down Miami. Creative Camps, www.TampaCreativeCamps.com, will be located in Hyde Park next to Indigo Coffee for children ages 5 to 12.
"Every day, children will learn a magic trick," said Jackie Toledo, investor. "All kids should be exposed to a performing art. It can only make them stronger in other aspects of their lives," Toledo said, citing school presentations as an example.
"It's all acting. — It allows the child to work on public speaking and build self-esteem," she said.
One benefit parents will appreciate is that free extended care is included, so even though camps officially last from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., parents can bring children from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. More information is available by calling (813) 410-5682 and at www.tampacreativecamps.com.
Some camps, like the Kids Community College in FishHawk, offer arts and crafts as part of their overall curriculum. During Animal Planet week, children will make fossils; during Marine Extreme week, they'll paint sea murals, and so on. Specific information is available at www.kidscc.org.
Finally, some children, especially if they have a parent home during the day, don't want to attend camps. But that doesn't mean they have to miss out. Private lessons in all art forms can be found in the area. Beth Kokol Arts (www.bethkokolarts.com), Art Explorers (www.artexplorerstampa.com/Art_Explorers/Home.html) and the Patel Conservatory all offer private lessons as well as camps.
Cleaners Paint Over Priceless Banksy Art
Getty Images
Melbourne Deputy Lord Mayor Susan Riley last week sent a clean-up team into Hosier Lane, renowned internationally for its colorful street art, to clean up garbage in the graffiti-lined passage after local residents complained.
But the request went awry when the cleaners painted over a Banksy stencil of a rat hanging underneath a parachute and adorning the wall of an old council building.
"Unfortunately the contractors were not made aware by us that that was an important piece. It is the nature of graffiti art. It's very vulnerable to other people's work," Council chief executive Kathy Alexander told local radio.
The reclusive Banksy, who is regarded as one of the world's top street artists, painted several stencils in Melbourne during a 2003 visit. His satirical and distinctive art is often directed at anti-war, cultural and anti-capitalist themes.
Who takes the blame for painting over the priceless piece?
Move mind, body and soul with Live Art
Dance company announces plans for new season
Susanne Chui, kneeling, and Jacinte Armstrong, of SINS (Sometimes in Nova Scotia dance collective) perform at the 2010-11 season launch of Live Art Dance at the Sir James Dunn Theatre in Halifax.
When Compagnie Marie Chouinard performed The Rite of Spring at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium in 1999, it was the beginning of a love affair for Halifax dance fans.
"There were about 250 to 300 people and it was the beginning of building Marie’s audience here," says Paul Caskey, executive director of Live Art Dance Productions.
"Since then the audience (for the Montreal company) has exploded."
The show was so popular, Live Art has brought it back for its 2010-2011 season, Caskey said Thursday during the season launch at the Sir James Dunn Theatre in Halifax.
The Rite of Spring will be paired with 24 Preludes by Chopin for a show at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium on Nov. 17. It is an appropriate pairing because this year marks the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth.
"Marie has a demonstrated gift for mixing music and movement," said Caskey. "Her dance is widely accessible but also really profound art, a magic mix. She’s the undisputed queen of contemporary dance."
The season is designed says Caskey "to move you mind, body and soul."
It features seven shows, including three world premieres.
Le Carre des Lombes from Montreal presents Danielle Desnoyer’s quintet La ou je vis, Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 at the Dunn.
"It’s richly visual and highly physical . . . agitated, urgent and driven by desire," says Caskey.
It features stunning visuals by media artist Manon de Pauw.
SINS (Sometimes in Nova Scotia) — composed of Halifax dancers Jacinte Armstrong, Susanne Chui and Vancouver-based Sara Coffin — has commissioned a new work by Vancouver choreographer Daelik and will be joined by Halifax dancer Elise Vanderborght and actor/dancer Cory Bowles.
The world premiere of Xs will be presented Oct. 7-9 at the Dunn along with the world premiere of New Work by Toronto’s Susie Burpee. Both works will be developed during residences at Ross Creek Centre for the Arts near Canning in September, with support from Live Art.
"We wanted to work with Daelik because he is a theatre artist who was in dance a long time. His work is rooted in contemporary, contact improv and improvisation rather than ballet," said Armstrong, after performing a short piece with Chui for those attending the season launch.
"When he works, he does a lot with improv and props and theatricality . . . though it is a dance piece. He asked to have an actor and Cory is filling that role. He’s part of our group, so it’s an added bonus working with him. And he’ll be doing the music."
Montreal Danse and George Stamos present the world premiere of Troglodyte Plastique, Jan. 20-22 at the Dunn. The work, to be danced by Nova Scotia native Stamos, Rachel Harris and Elinor Fueter, was inspired by a series of masks he unearthed at Value Village in Dartmouth and will feature live music by Jackie Gallant.
From Feb. 17-19, Montreal native Paul-Andre Fortier’s Cabane will be presented in three found locations to be announced Nov. 17. Running during the Canada Winter Games, the work is equal parts dance performance and installation art and "challenges the audience to open their eyes to that which we take for granted," says Caskey.
On Saturday, March 19 Wen Wei Dance of Vancouver and the Beijing Modern Dance Company present Under the Skin at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium.
The work will feature 12 dancers, six from each company. It fuses elements from the Occident and the Orient with the idea that under the skin we are all the same.
Caskey says the large audience for Wen Wei’s 2007 debut in Halifax was proof of the effectiveness of word of mouth. He adds that the Chinese dancers are like Olympic level acrobats in their incredible level of training and their virtuosic bodies combined with their interpretation of toothy material should create a knockout show.
The final presentation is Audible, from Vancouver’s 605 Collective, May 5-7 at the Dunn.
The five performers, all trained in contemporary dance, blur the line between street and stage combining hip hop, jazz, popping, locking and ballet.
In the company’s first full-length work "the erosion of intimacy in the age of social media gets put under the microscope: data-addiction, online voyeurism, texting and tweeting . . . connecting without really connecting," says Caskey.
As well the company is entering a special partnership with OneLight Theatre’s Prismatic Festival to present the Canadian premiere of Junkyard/Paradise by Montreal’s Mayday Danse Oct. 15-16 at the Dunn.
Live Art subscribers will get discounted tickets to the work, choreographed by Melanie Demers which explores the contradictions of everyday life.
Caskey was pleased to note that Live Art has experienced a 30 per cent increase in attendance despite the economic downturn.
"Last year the average attendance for a three-night run at the Dunn was just over 300. This year the attendance is over 400."
Susanne Chui, kneeling, and Jacinte Armstrong, of SINS (Sometimes in Nova Scotia dance collective) perform at the 2010-11 season launch of Live Art Dance at the Sir James Dunn Theatre in Halifax.
When Compagnie Marie Chouinard performed The Rite of Spring at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium in 1999, it was the beginning of a love affair for Halifax dance fans.
"There were about 250 to 300 people and it was the beginning of building Marie’s audience here," says Paul Caskey, executive director of Live Art Dance Productions.
"Since then the audience (for the Montreal company) has exploded."
The show was so popular, Live Art has brought it back for its 2010-2011 season, Caskey said Thursday during the season launch at the Sir James Dunn Theatre in Halifax.
The Rite of Spring will be paired with 24 Preludes by Chopin for a show at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium on Nov. 17. It is an appropriate pairing because this year marks the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth.
"Marie has a demonstrated gift for mixing music and movement," said Caskey. "Her dance is widely accessible but also really profound art, a magic mix. She’s the undisputed queen of contemporary dance."
The season is designed says Caskey "to move you mind, body and soul."
It features seven shows, including three world premieres.
Le Carre des Lombes from Montreal presents Danielle Desnoyer’s quintet La ou je vis, Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 at the Dunn.
"It’s richly visual and highly physical . . . agitated, urgent and driven by desire," says Caskey.
It features stunning visuals by media artist Manon de Pauw.
SINS (Sometimes in Nova Scotia) — composed of Halifax dancers Jacinte Armstrong, Susanne Chui and Vancouver-based Sara Coffin — has commissioned a new work by Vancouver choreographer Daelik and will be joined by Halifax dancer Elise Vanderborght and actor/dancer Cory Bowles.
The world premiere of Xs will be presented Oct. 7-9 at the Dunn along with the world premiere of New Work by Toronto’s Susie Burpee. Both works will be developed during residences at Ross Creek Centre for the Arts near Canning in September, with support from Live Art.
"We wanted to work with Daelik because he is a theatre artist who was in dance a long time. His work is rooted in contemporary, contact improv and improvisation rather than ballet," said Armstrong, after performing a short piece with Chui for those attending the season launch.
"When he works, he does a lot with improv and props and theatricality . . . though it is a dance piece. He asked to have an actor and Cory is filling that role. He’s part of our group, so it’s an added bonus working with him. And he’ll be doing the music."
Montreal Danse and George Stamos present the world premiere of Troglodyte Plastique, Jan. 20-22 at the Dunn. The work, to be danced by Nova Scotia native Stamos, Rachel Harris and Elinor Fueter, was inspired by a series of masks he unearthed at Value Village in Dartmouth and will feature live music by Jackie Gallant.
From Feb. 17-19, Montreal native Paul-Andre Fortier’s Cabane will be presented in three found locations to be announced Nov. 17. Running during the Canada Winter Games, the work is equal parts dance performance and installation art and "challenges the audience to open their eyes to that which we take for granted," says Caskey.
On Saturday, March 19 Wen Wei Dance of Vancouver and the Beijing Modern Dance Company present Under the Skin at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium.
The work will feature 12 dancers, six from each company. It fuses elements from the Occident and the Orient with the idea that under the skin we are all the same.
Caskey says the large audience for Wen Wei’s 2007 debut in Halifax was proof of the effectiveness of word of mouth. He adds that the Chinese dancers are like Olympic level acrobats in their incredible level of training and their virtuosic bodies combined with their interpretation of toothy material should create a knockout show.
The final presentation is Audible, from Vancouver’s 605 Collective, May 5-7 at the Dunn.
The five performers, all trained in contemporary dance, blur the line between street and stage combining hip hop, jazz, popping, locking and ballet.
In the company’s first full-length work "the erosion of intimacy in the age of social media gets put under the microscope: data-addiction, online voyeurism, texting and tweeting . . . connecting without really connecting," says Caskey.
As well the company is entering a special partnership with OneLight Theatre’s Prismatic Festival to present the Canadian premiere of Junkyard/Paradise by Montreal’s Mayday Danse Oct. 15-16 at the Dunn.
Live Art subscribers will get discounted tickets to the work, choreographed by Melanie Demers which explores the contradictions of everyday life.
Caskey was pleased to note that Live Art has experienced a 30 per cent increase in attendance despite the economic downturn.
"Last year the average attendance for a three-night run at the Dunn was just over 300. This year the attendance is over 400."
Comic art festival puts Lucerne at cutting edge
Featured: Dan Perjovschi has drawn images in white chalk on a wall of the Lucerne Theatre (Dan Perjovschi)
Lucerne may be a perfect tourist destination but until now it has not been known as a centre for cutting edge art.
This may be about to change, as the Fumetto International Comix Festival this year celebrates its 19th anniversary with a series of intriguing projects and exhibitions and the launch of a new pilot programme, Punkte10.
Fumetto started in 1992 as a small trade festival focused on comic arts, but has developed over the years into a major nexus for contemporary drawing, sketching, and comics. But more importantly it is known as a centre for the promotion of graphic art as fine art.
With its special annual themed contest, Fumetto supports the development of the careers of emerging artists by awarding them a stipend and organising an exhibition.
In addition to the annual contest, the festival also hosts large exhibitions in various spaces throughout the city, like museums, performance spaces, and galleries.
In the past few years, Fumetto has moved towards integrating into the festival internationally known contemporary artists bridging comic and fine art. Last year’s David Shrigley solo exhibit at the Lucerne Kunsthaus and this year’s Dan Perjovschi and Olaf Breuning participations prove that drawing and text is back in a big way.
This year Fumetto, in collaboration with Südpol Music and Dance Theatre, and Akku Art Center in Emmen, is launching Punkte 10, a public art festival taking place in parallel to the international comics festival in May.
“It's quite a long time that Fumetto and Südpol have been dreaming of creating an event like this,” said Südpol director Phillipe Bischopf.
With its special annual themed contest, Fumetto supports the development of the careers of emerging artists by awarding them a stipend and organising an exhibition.
In addition to the annual contest, the festival also hosts large exhibitions in various spaces throughout the city, like museums, performance spaces, and galleries.
In the past few years, Fumetto has moved towards integrating into the festival internationally known contemporary artists bridging comic and fine art. Last year’s David Shrigley solo exhibit at the Lucerne Kunsthaus and this year’s Dan Perjovschi and Olaf Breuning participations prove that drawing and text is back in a big way.
This year Fumetto, in collaboration with Südpol Music and Dance Theatre, and Akku Art Center in Emmen, is launching Punkte 10, a public art festival taking place in parallel to the international comics festival in May.
“It's quite a long time that Fumetto and Südpol have been dreaming of creating an event like this,” said Südpol director Phillipe Bischopf.
Installations and performances
He said the idea stemmed from two convictions: that art in the public sphere can have a very important influence on the perception of the current art scene and that the treatment of the public sphere is a very delicate and critical matter.
“Creating an event like Punkte 10 is connected with the hope of producing discussions on what and how the public sphere in Lucerne could and should be defined, changed and invented,” he explained.
“We want to surprise the visitors with unexpected actions and interventions on the streets that they walk on in their daily life and to which they usually don’t pay any attention. The public sphere, as anything else in human life, is constructed and produced by society members, and it would be nice to point out this fact in an intelligent manner.”
Punkte 10 features installations, performances, and other events all in the public space. The featured artist this year is the internationally renowned Romania-based artist Dan Perjovschi, who is also participating in Fumetto.
His project for Punkte 10 involves drawing his iconic images and text in white chalk on the side wall of the Lucerne Theatre, which has been painted in black for the occasion. This drawing process is in itself a performance, open to the public to watch and discuss the social and political implications that Perjovschi evokes.
Another installation of note is Micha Aegger’s sculpture on water, featuring numerous floating white balls connected together to create an organic and amorphous shape, but attached to the bottom of the river to remain in place.
In addition to the installations and art projects placed at various locations throughout Lucerne, Emmenbrücke, and Kriens, Punkte 10 also features music and dance performances, as well as children’s activities.
“Creating an event like Punkte 10 is connected with the hope of producing discussions on what and how the public sphere in Lucerne could and should be defined, changed and invented,” he explained.
“We want to surprise the visitors with unexpected actions and interventions on the streets that they walk on in their daily life and to which they usually don’t pay any attention. The public sphere, as anything else in human life, is constructed and produced by society members, and it would be nice to point out this fact in an intelligent manner.”
Punkte 10 features installations, performances, and other events all in the public space. The featured artist this year is the internationally renowned Romania-based artist Dan Perjovschi, who is also participating in Fumetto.
His project for Punkte 10 involves drawing his iconic images and text in white chalk on the side wall of the Lucerne Theatre, which has been painted in black for the occasion. This drawing process is in itself a performance, open to the public to watch and discuss the social and political implications that Perjovschi evokes.
Another installation of note is Micha Aegger’s sculpture on water, featuring numerous floating white balls connected together to create an organic and amorphous shape, but attached to the bottom of the river to remain in place.
In addition to the installations and art projects placed at various locations throughout Lucerne, Emmenbrücke, and Kriens, Punkte 10 also features music and dance performances, as well as children’s activities.
Making an impact
As a pilot, Punkte 10 has much to learn from this year’s experience and how it can leverage what it has created to make an even bigger impact next year and in the years to come.“I hope that the festival will develop during its two year pilot phase into a Swisswide-known and respected platform for art in the public space,” said Fumetto director Lynn Kost.
“Fumetto will be one of the partners to accentuate the content of the festival in the future, and push Lucerne forward as a centre for this lively art form.”
She said art in the public space provoked discussion, and different opinions could be discussed with other people, creating opportunities to enter into contact with one another.
“I hope visitors will take advantage of these opportunities and approach each other to exchange ideas. I hope as well that they will participate and interact with the artists and experience how exciting art can be,” Kost said.
The art of map making
Diogo Homem's A Chart of the Mediterranean Sea, 1570, is over a metre wide
More than simply a topological survey of a country or continent, the maps on display are as diverse as their decorative features - from hunting dogs to sea monsters and cherubs blowing the winds across the ocean.
Picked from a "long shortlist" of 26,000 maps from the library's 4.5 million-strong collection, curators Peter Barber and Tom Harper carefully selected 80 impressive wall maps, some of which have never been displayed in public.
 |  The artistry of maps is seductive and like the teaspoon of sugar that helps the medicine go down  Peter Barber |
The maps on show date from 200AD to the present day. Some are made of silver, carved in wood or marble, or stitched tapestries that were intended for display side-by-side with some of the world's greatest paintings and sculptures.
Some of these "pictorial encyclopaedias" rival them in their artistry.
Diogo Homem's 1570 Chart of the Mediterranean sea is dripping with gold and saturated colour, while Pierre Descelier's World Map of 1550 is a hand-painted visual representation of the legends and natural history of the world.
Fred W Rose's war map depicts Russian foreign policy as the tentacles of an octopus threatening and throttling the Ottoman Empire.
Propaganda
Aside from the aesthetic quality, this artistry and creativity by the cartographers do serve a purpose, Mr Barber explains.
"The main purpose of virtually all of the maps here is propaganda because propaganda consolidates power.
"But the power isn't necessarily political, it could be for status, such as the map of a merchant's estate. And for a map has to be pretty to work as a status symbol. An ordinary ordnance survey map would not do.
"The artistry of maps is seductive and like the teaspoon of sugar that helps the medicine go down, tries to persuade us to swallow a particular political message."
 The world's smallest atlas, made for doll's house of Queen Mary, is on show |
When geography came into being as a subject during the Enlightenment maps have been regarded as its handmaiden.
Art, they argue, has no place.
"Since about 1800 people have tended to associate maps with mathematical geography, but it is a self-closing view to say if something is pretty it can't be a map," says Mr Barber.
"Lots of people consider it superficial and wrong for us to include these decorative maps in the exhibition. In some cases they don't appreciate art and at a deeper level there is still the view that if a map is not primarily about geography and measurement then it really shouldn't be included.
"But some of the outstanding examples in this exhibition have actually been acquired in art galleries rather than from map dealers, such as Grayson Perry's Map of Nowhere and Steven Walter's London.
"We have also acquired political posters containing maps, some of which are quite striking images that have only recently become available from map dealers.
"With this exhibition I wanted to talk to my peers and show them that maps were works of art and demonstrate that they played a role in court life, in political life.
"Sometimes when you make this point some people look at you like you're a man from Mars."
'Money maps'
Meanwhile, a new exhibition examining the crossover between art and geography is to open at the Royal Geographical Society (RGS).
The RGS asked contemporary artists Susan Stockwell and Agnes Poitevin-Navarre to respond to their extensive collection of maps.
Creative Compass examine themes of migration, identity, gender and global economics inspired by the maps and photographs.
 Stockwell has produced several pieces inspired by maps |
Stockwell, meanwhile, raises questions about the global economics of power and colonial histories in her series of "money maps" and an intricate Victorian dress.
The dress is made from a map of the world with the countries and continents carefully placed to relate to an organ of the human body.
Her map of Afghanistan, made from US dollars carefully stitched together, is a subtle comment on American imperialism. The red stitching closely echoes US state lines.
Maps are an important theme running through Stockwell's work - a map of the world made out of Chinese currency hangs at the V&A Quilts show - and it is an area she admits to be "fascinated" by.
She said: "Maps have this geo-political content. They are also about power and war and gaining territory, and, as an artist, I'm fascinated by them.
"I realised mapping is a very male language, a very particular male world that is very powerful in its own way. So by making a dress out of maps, which is about power and ownership and possession, is subverting the material and getting people to look at it differently.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)