Friday, January 07, 2011
A little birdie told me…
I just can’t resist passing on this bit of art trivia about a live parakeet who’s an essential (and required) component of a current art exhibit at the Whitney Museum in New York. Click here to read all about it. I especially love the lengths to which the museum administrators must go to in order to be sure they’re not sued for cruelty to animals: eight employees take turns coming in to keep the bird, called Peetie, company. What a relief!
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Holiday greetings from an alumnus in the Netherlands
We just got a Christmas card from Johan Arp including a marvelous drawing. He writes:
I graduated from FAS in Amsterdam in 1970 and directly started designing and making art part time in combination with my regular job as a banker at ABN AMRO. I retired from the bank in 2007 and I’m very happy to be a full time artist and designer now. The 24 Lessons of the FAS Course were very solid and I’m still using the textbooks and working with the FAS methods. It gives me great pleasure!
You can see Johan’s art at his website: www.johanarp.nl
Happy holidays to all—we wish you a creative and art-filled 2011!
Christmas/New Year greeting by Johan Arp. (click to enlarge)
Friday, December 10, 2010
Transported by technology to a monastery in Milan
The great Leonardo completed his masterwork, The Last Supper, in 1498 after several years of work. Sadly, the painting started to crumble as its tempera paint began to dry, and it has not been able to be seen by the general public. But now, in New York City until January 6, contemporary art lovers can visit a multimedia exploration of this painting, complete with a reconstruction of the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Art critics may quibble at the “big production” aspect of this presentation, which features portentous music and moving images, but there’s no arguing with the impact of seeing this iconic work full size (and in enlarged detail). Here’s a review by a skeptical art critic, and here’s an article about the process of creating this experience. What do you think?
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
Artworks that survived Hitler
Today’s New York Times has a front-page article describing a routine excavation in Berlin that turned up a number of pieces of sculpture. At first, the find presented a mystery. Although the pieces were easily identified as early twentieth-century works, it took a while to unravel the connection among them. It turns out that the pieces were victims of the Nazis’ campaign against what they called “degenerate art.” They were seized from museums in the 1930s, exhibited as examples of “degenerate art”—and then they disappeared. It’s possible that they were hidden by Erhard Oewerdieck, who is known to have protected and supported Jews and anti-Nazi activists. One theory proposes that he was sequestering the art in a building where his office was located. In 1944, the building burned in the aftermath of Allied air raids, and the sculptures were buried in the rubble. An exhibition featuring the resurrected sculptures is touching, since it reminds us that the past is not lost—perhaps just temporarily misplaced.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Don Smith—a new FAS alumnus on our website
We’re delighted to have Don Smith join the FAS website. Don’s story of how he became a student of Famous Artists School is memorable; the artwork he’s been producing over a long career in art is even more so. And the icing on the cake is that Famous Artists School is becoming a Smith family tradition, as Don’s son and granddaughter have also taken a Course with us. Take a look at Don’s page to read his story and browse his art.
Welcome, Don!
Friday, November 19, 2010
New wing opens at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston
Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts has just opened its new wing dedicated to the Art of the Americas. It’s four floors, with 53 galleries, providing space for 5000 objects, more than twice the number of Americas material that was previously on display. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the new installation is that it throws a wide net around the meaning of “the Americas”, so the works on display include not only Euro-American, but also Native American, Mesoamerican, and South American.
The collection is organized chronologically on the four floors, with pre-Columbian at the bottom and modern art at the top. Moving through the installations gives a historical perspective on cultural interchange and the development of different societies through the ages. Highlights include vintage ship models, 17th century Puritan domestic artifacts, embroidered samplers, the portraits of John Singleton Copley, and liturgical objects from multiethnic Central and South America. The experience of visiting these new galleries is an exciting adventure, both visual and intellectual.
Sunday, November 07, 2010
Art That is Truly Underground
Just read a fascinating article in the New York Times about the “Underbelly Project.” 103 street artists from around the world painted murals onto the walls of a abandoned NYC subway station and they are not divulging the whereabouts of the station. Only the artists themselves have ever seen the show (save one or two reporters who were allowed to visit, though not allowed to give out names of the curators nor any identifying characteristics of the location.) As the article states, “The only people with a chance of stumbling across it are the urban explorers who prowl the city’s hidden infrastructure or employees of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.” With the rise in popularity of street artists such as Banksy, one of the goals of the project was to return street art to its roots, a place of rebellion unattached to commerce. It’s mind boggling to contemplate the lengths at which these artists went to create the work, from dodging subway trains and subway workers to risking arrest and more. As one of the curators points out, “There is a certain type of person that the urban art movement has bred that enjoys the adventure as much as the art. Where else do you see a creative person risking themselves legally, financially, physically and creatively?” To read the whole article and see a video of the space, click here.
Friday, November 05, 2010
2010 Winner of Trip to United States
We just returned from our annual visit with our Japanese licensee, Kodansha Famous Schools. Each year, over 1600 of their students and alumni submit their artwork to the KFS Art Contest. One of the two top prizes is the Cortina International Prize. This prize brings the winner to the United States on an all-expense paid tour, complete with bilingual guide, museum and artist studio visits, and sightseeing, usually in New York and Boston.
This year’s winner is Toshiyuki Watanabe, in the photo with Cortina Famous Schools president Robert Livesey. Mr. Watanabe was trained as an architect, and has just recently begun to develop his artistic skills with a Famous Artists Course. His painting, “Anger”, is at left in the photo. Because of his interest in architecture, Mr. Watanabe is hoping to include visits to notable buildings in his itinerary. We’re looking forward to welcoming him next spring!
Monday, August 16, 2010
Picasso at the Met (video)
Nice little guided video tour here of a Picasso retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Interesting to see who influenced his early works and how he gradually developed his own style. A good reminder to beginners that it takes time to develop one’s own voice!
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Monet, Father of Modernism?
I’m a little late to the game on this one, as the exhibit has already come and gone. Monet and Abstraction, at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Spain, featured 107 works of Monet’s and his successors, including Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock. “We wanted to present a new way of seeing Monet. It’s also a way to help the public understand abstract art, often less accessible, through Monet, who everybody loves,” said Paloma Alarco, the curator. I’m fascinated by the idea of Monet’s influence on the abstract expressionists. I can see, in the water lilies pieces, the simplicity of color and design making abstraction not that far of a leap. What do you think?
