Latest Feature Articles
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Contemporary Sculptor, Matthew Ritchie, Installs Large-Scale Works in U.S., European Venues
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Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain with Combined Contemporary Art Exhibition
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Maryland Historical Society Art and Artifacts Tell Story of Divided Nation
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A Quiet Stroll through Palm Beach International Fine Art Fair*
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Denison Museum of Art, Granville, OH, Exhibit- Modern China in Cultural Flux
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Romare Bearden and the ‘Prevalence of Ritual:’ An Eloquent Voice in African-American Art
A Quiet Stroll through Palm Beach International Fine Art Fair*
Posted on 20 February 2012 | By Carolina Fernandez
Raoul Dufy, Promenade au board de la mer (c. 1924). Courtesy Waterhouse & Dodd, London
Once a year, preferably in the heart of winter, I leave Connecticut for Florida, where 360-degree vistas of water and warm weather renew the eternal sunshine of my mind. Such was the case last week, when I headed out of New York’s Westchester County Airport for a direct flight to Palm Beach. This wonderfully efficient mode of transport is a mere thirty minutes drive from my house, with non-stop service to the very manageable West Palm Beach airport. This allows me to avoid the hassles of expensive overnight parking and airports crowded with the hustle of international travelers—all careening for attention—in languages not my own. But I understand that this service has a short shelf-life; the last direct flights will end in August, for lack of consumer demand. Such was noted all too well on my own flight down, which held only eight passengers, all of us asked to sit in first class, presumably so that the flight attendants had fewer steps to walk in order to serve us our very non-first class non-alcoholic beverage and potato chip dinner. artes fine arts magazine Read more
Denison Museum of Art, Granville, OH, Exhibit- Modern China in Cultural Flux
Posted on 10 February 2012 | By Beth Pacentrilli
China transformed dramatically in the 20th century. The political system alone saw great changes in the span of 37 years—shifting in 1912 from a monarchy to the Republic of China, and in 1949 to a Communist state. When China opened its ports and took on new trading partners, Chinese society was infused with Western ideas and artistic expression. The exhibition, China Modern: Designing 20th Century Popular Culture, chronicles the country’s changing character by celebrating its 20th century graphic art and material culture. The more than 170 objects in the exhibition explore Chinese designs and styles in advertising, packaging, and promotional art for cinema, music, comic books, pulp fiction, fashion, games and toys; and bring two contrasting 20th century ideologies—Capitalism and Communism—to the level of popular culture.
Left: Dried Lichee Box (1930s–1940s). Manufactured by Fook Loong, Canton. Lithograph on paperboard. Photo:© Alan Borrud, Portland, OR. artes fine arts magazine Read more
Romare Bearden and the ‘Prevalence of Ritual:’ An Eloquent Voice in African-American Art
Posted on 9 February 2012 | By Richard Friswell
Bearden has, “the aware[ness] that the true artist destroys the accepted world by way of revealing the unseen, and creating that which is new and uniquely his own. [He] has used cubist techniques to his own ingenious effect.” ~Ralph Ellison
Of the Blues: Carolina Shout (1974), collage, mixed media. Collection Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC. Purchase: NEA & Charlotte Debutante Club Fund. Courtesy Bearden Foundation & VAGA, NY.
If visual art could have a soundtrack— and a rhythm—it would likely be found in the work of Romare Bearden. The groove of Duke Ellington’s jazz beat and the syncope of Louis Armstrong’s improvised trumpet riffs are captured, but barely tamed, in the multi-layered, often surreal imagery of Bearden’s Harlem street scenes. Today, the foundation representing the life and work of Romare Bearden, and the city’s Studio Museum in Harlem, with a growing collection of his paintings, prints and collages on permanent display, sit just blocks away from the famed Apollo Theater, in the heart of New York’s Harlem neighborhoods. On a sun-lit January day, I navigated the broad, busy streets of the city at the intersection of 125th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard (Seventh Ave.)—once the epicenter of an unfolding drama for African-Americans pursuing the American dream—to meet with the team at the Romare Bearden Foundation and learn more about this towering figure of 20th century art. artes fine arts magazine Read more
Contemporary Sculptor, Matthew Ritchie, Installs Large-Scale Works in U.S., European Venues
Posted on 8 February 2012 | By Emese Krunak-Hajagos
How would God, if he was an artist and a scientist, see our universe from beginning to end in fast-forward? We may discover the artistic/scientific answer to that question in Matthew Ritchie’s multimedia works. The objects he creates are monumental and extremely exciting.
Ritchie started to think about the universe and its possible artistic representation in the 1990s by merging physics, art, mythology, philosophy, religion and history. His starting point was that science is the new art, as well as the new religion, creating multiple parallel mythologies and theories of creation, or cosmogonies. Ritchie creates a spectacular visual world guiding us through the stories of the beginning and the end.
Left: 1. Matthew Ritchie, Monster of the East (2011), oil and ink on linen, 74” x 56”. Monstrance, 2011, L&M Arts, Los Angeles, November 2, 2011-January 14, 2012 ©Matthew Ritchie. Courtesy of L&M Arts, Los Angeles. artes fine arts magazine Read more
Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain with Combined Contemporary Art Exhibition
Posted on 5 February 2012 | By Natalie Maria Roncone
The Inverted Mirror: Art from “La Caixa and MACBA Collection, opened at the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao thanks to a collaboration agreement between the ”la Caixa” MACBA Foundations, later extended to include MACBA Consortium, for the purpose of combining their respective contemporary art collections. There is a total of 5,500 works in this common fund and it is one of the most important collections in Spain and Southern Europe from the period spanning the second half of the 20th century until the present day.
Left: Felix Gonzalez-Torres (Guáimaro, Cuba, 1957– Miami, Florida, 1996), Untitled (Last Night ), 1993, 24 10W/120V satin-white light bulbs, electric wire, transformer. MACBA Collection. Fundació Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona. Long term loan of Colección Alfonso Pons Soler. artes fine arts magazine Read more
Maryland Historical Society Art and Artifacts Tell Story of Divided Nation
Posted on 30 January 2012 | By Avi Decter
Divided Voices at the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore is a notable effort to provide a narrative of the American Civil War as it was experienced in Maryland. This exhibition is well worth a visit by anyone interested in American history and culture—or, for that matter, interested in contemporary American life. The exhibition is instructive both for what it has achieved and what it has not achieved. For the thoughtful visitor, Divided Voices is likely to evoke meaningful reflection on one of the seminal events of our national story and on our response to that event 150 years later.
Left: Tattered battle flag of the 4th Regiment of U.S. Colored Troops- part of the ‘Divided Voices’ exhibition. artes fine arts magazine Read more
Delhi Photographer Captures the Myriad Faces and Moods of India
Posted on 23 January 2012 | By Sushma Bahl
JJ Valaya, Paradox 9 (2011)
The idea of contemporary India, and a quintessential one at that—a conglomerate of many Indias, with its fluid social fabric and multitudes of people—is the paradox that confronts the photo-artist, JJ Valaya, an accomplished designer and pioneering fashion guru. Through his viewfinder, Valaya captures the fascinating multiplicity of a burgeoning city where he has lived and worked for decades, tantalizing us with loving and nostalgic glimpses of this place he knows so well: glamour and grime; sophisticated and commonplace; classical and popular; rich and poor; old and new—whether spontaneous or carefully-planned—all are framed by the photographer’s eye in different parts of Delhi, India’s capital city. artes fine arts magazine Read more
OPEN 14 – Venice’s International Exhibition of Sculptures and Installations
Posted on 12 January 2012 | By Edward Rubin
Each year, OPEN generously peppers the beautiful island of Lido with unexpected, imaginative artistic surprises and is one of the most entertaining sculpture and installation exhibitions in the art world. Essentially an outdoor walking tour with a few in-hotel installations, OPEN begins the moment you disembark from the vaporetto onto the Piazzale St. Maria Elisabetta. It continues along the shop and restaurant-laden Via Lepanto, morphs into the lushly planted promenade of Lungomare G. Marconi, and ends overlooking the beach, at the very chic Hotel Westin Excelsior, the infamous hangout of the Venice Film Festival crowd. This year, Madonna and George Clooney were all the rage, followed closely by lusting hordes of screaming acolytes.i
Left: Tarshito (Italy), Applauses (2007) Made at Tarshito studio with Isabella De Chiara, Roma e Agnieszka Blazy, Polonia, Angela Ferrara,Bari; Martinelli Corato, and Bari, metal structure and ceramic hands. Photo: Edward Rubin. artes fine arts magazine Read more
Dutch and Flemish Masterworks on Display at Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts
Posted on 27 December 2011 | By Susan Schopp
She was born in Belgium, he in the Netherlands; they both live in the United States. Between them they’ve assembled the finest private collection of Dutch and Flemish Old Master paintings in the world. Unlikely though it might seem, Golden: Dutch and Flemish Masterworks from the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection, currently on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, is the first time that the van Otterloos have seen their collection displayed in its entirety.
(Left) [IMAGE 1] Godfried Schalcken, Young Girl Eating Sweets (detail), 1680-85, oil/panel, 73 x 61″. Collection Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo. Image courtesy Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts fine arts magazine Read more
Hyper-Realistic Sculptor, Carole Feuerman Masters the Subtle Human Gesture
Posted on 26 December 2011 | By Richard Friswell
Carole Feuerman, Grand Catalina (2005-11) oil paint on resin (o/r), 62x38x17"
My first encounter with Grand Catalina (2005-11) came unexpectedly, as I thumbed through the pages of the gallery section of an art magazine. Her uplifted face, eyes closed, suited and capped for laps in the pool, skin still moist with droplets of water as she appears to slip from the water, riveted me in an unexpected moment of intimacy with this life-like image. Lashes and brows neatly arrayed, the pouting lips appeared ready to gasp for a breath of pool-side air. If her eyes were to finally open, I wondered if she would be surprised to see me—a stranger, so close by!? The work conveyed a sense of strength and capability, while also offering an alluring vulnerability and sensuality. In the few moments that I studied the image, I imagined that this larger-than-life-sized figure, seemingly brimming with self-assurance, would have no difficulty managing whatever the world handed her, once she finally emerged from her momentary reverie. artes fine arts magazin Read more
