Tag: art

The Gibbes Shades of Green

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”Because when we open ourselves to art, we open ourselves to the world – to people and ideas, to beauty, craft, process and detail, to different cultures, to pain and pleasure, to questions, expression and emotion, to truth and transcendence.” 

”The Gibbes Museum of Art is home to the foremost collection of American art that incorporates the story of Charleston. The Museum connects the city and region’s artistic past to a vibrant contemporary art scene. This is what we believe.” 

– The Gibbes Museum of Art

Mrs. Elizabeth Digby Peale Polk, 1770
By Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827)

Girl with Cat, ca. 1845-50
By unidentified artist (painted in New England)
Oil on canvas

Rosy Moon off Charleston Harbor, ca. 1908-1916
By Birge Harrison (1854-1929)
Oil on masonite

April (The Green Gown), 1920
By Childe Hassam (1859-1935)
Oil on canvas

Originally titled April 1859, this painting is believed to be a portrayal of the artist’s mother, Rosa Hawthorne Hassam, pregnant with her son. In April 1859 she would have been three months pregnant with Hassam, who was born on October 17, 1859.

The Green Fan (Girl of Toledo, Spain), 1912
By Robert Henri (1865-1929)
Oil on canvas

Magnolia Gardens, ca. 1920
By Alfred Hutty (1877-1954)
Oil on canvas

Alfred Hutty traveled to Charleston for the first time in 1920 to teach a season of painting classes at the Gibbes Museum of Art. Overwhelmed by the city’s beauty, he returned every winter for the next thirty years.

Designs, Wrightsville Beach, 1968
By Minnie Evans (1892-1987)
Collage with oil, crayon and pencil on canvas

Ms. Johnson (Estelle), 1972,
By Barkley Hendricks (b. 1945)
Oil and acrylic on linen canvas

Corene, 1995
By Johathan Green (b. 1955)
Oil on canvas

Steamboat ”Victoria”, 1859
By James Bard (1815-1897)
Oil on canvas

Among the various treasures, a small sample you have seen – and hopefully enjoyed – above, there is a very interesting collection of miniature portraits such as the one below, of the fair Eliza Izard (Mrs. Thomas Pinckney, Jr.), painted by Malbone & dated 1801.

This is where we learned that the first American miniature portraits were painted in Charleston, and the Gibbes’ collection is one of the most important portrait miniature collections in the United States. Containing more than six hundred objects, it spans nearly two hundred years and represents the work of over a hundred artists.

The miniatures, too small to be photographed with a smartphone camera, are not just tiny masterful works of art, but also remembrances of loved ones in the age before photography. They are tokens of love and affection, passed down to us through generations and, as such, should be treasured for ever.  

The Gibbes Museum of Art – Charleston, SC

April 11th, 2018

The art of ageing gracefully

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1/
Mama, You Known I Never Paid Matisse
No Never Mind, 2000
By Sigmund M. Abeles (b. 1934)
Pastel on handmade paper

Sigmund Abeles captures the very essence of old age in this portrait of his mother shown seated in a nursing home setting. The portrait was painted from a photograph shortly after the sitter’s death.

2/
Kona Kai, 1967
By Robert Bechtle (b. 1932)
Oil on canvas

3/
502 Lucerne Street, ca. 1983-86
By Edward Rice (b. 1953)
Oil on canvas

Rice is well known for his ultra-realistic paintings of architecture, often picturing southern locales with which he has a personal relationship. 502 Lucerne Street was at one time the home of his grandmother. The building, located in North Augusta, South Carolina, originally served as the city jail and is now the artist’s studio

4/ & 5/
View of the Schuylkill County Almshouse
Property of the Year 1881, 1908
By Ralph F. Reed (1884-1966)
Oil on canvas

The Gibbes Museum of Art

Charleston, SC

April 11th, 2018

Charleston || And now for some Art…

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@ the Gibbes Museum of Art.

We will have a better view of the galleries tomorrow but, today, I wanted to share with you the one portrait that stood out from the entire collection of the Museum, in my eyes at least. I can’t explain why, but the longer I look at her, the more she captivates me.

Mary Whyte, 1999
by Jill Hooper (b. 1970)
Oil on canvas

A classically-trained painter, Jill Hopper has earned acclaim for her portraits, landscapes and still-life paintings. She paints from life with natural light and attentive engagement with her subjects is the hallmark of Hooper’s work. This portrait conveys Hooper’s deep respect for fellow Charleston artist Mary Whyte. Posed holding the tools of her trade, Whyte is clearly identified as an artist. 

Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC

April 11th, 2018

Charleston || The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art

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@ the College of Charleston School of the Arts. The beating heart of a young, vibrant art scene. Hope Morgan
Smoke Show
Charcoal on paper

Ruth Marten, New York
The Mimic, 2013
archival digital print

From 1972 to 1980 Ruth Marten was a significant figure in the underground tattoo world in Greenwich Village and, as one of the few women practicing the craft, influenced people’s concept of body decoration. Hired by Jean-Paul Goude for her first illustration for Esquire, she had a 30 year career illustrating for many magazines, music and book covers.

Long-Bin Chen (b. 1964)
Zen Garden, 2013
donated books and plaster

The Halsey Institute hosts between five and seven exhibitions per year, highlighting adventurous contemporary art by emerging and mid-career artists of national stature. All exhibitions are accompanied by extensive educational programming. In addition, the Halsey Institute has maintained a strong international component over the years, bringing in artists from all over the world for residencies, lectures, and exhibitions. 

April 11th, 2018

Heartbreak America

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”…no other nation on Earth comes close to experiencing the frequency of mass shootings that we see in the United States. No other developed nation tolerates the levels of gun violence that we do. Every time this happens, we’re told that tougher gun laws won’t stop all murders; that they won’t stop every deranged individual from getting a weapon and shooting innocent people in public places. But the evidence shows that they can stop some killings. They can save some families from heartbreak. We are not helpless here. And until all of us stand up and insist on holding public officials accountable for changing our gun laws, these tragedies will keep happening”.

“We should soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalises racist sentiments; leaders who demonise those who don’t look like us, or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life, or refer to other people as sub-human, or imply that America belongs to just one certain type of people.”

“It has no place in our politics and our public life. And it’s time for the overwhelming majority of Americans of goodwill, of every race and faith and political party, to say as much – clearly and unequivocally.”

Former US President Barack Obama

August 5th, 2018 following the mass shootings in
El Paso, Texas on August 3rd 2019 & Dayton, Ohio on August 4th 2019.

 

SCAD || Opera In a Box

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”There are twenty-four antique loudspeakers out of which come songs, sounds, arias, and occasional pop tunes. There are almost two thousand records stacked around the room and eight record players, which turn on and off robotically syncing with the soundtrack. The sound of someone moving and sorting albums is heard. The audience cannot enter the room. To see and hear his world, they have to look through windows, holes in the walls, and cracks in the doorways and watch his shadow move around the room.”

If you are intrigued, click on “Opera for a Small Room” for a video clip. This collaboration between Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, has to be one of the most powerful, multisensory installations I’ve ever experienced, totally immersive, even though one may not even enter the box.

SCAD Museum of Art – Savannah, GA

April 4th, 2018

SCAD || Moving Mountains

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legend
poetry
spoken word
image
inspiration
moving

Stills from ”Moving Mountains”
a film by Yang Fudong

Yang Fudong is an important figure in the contemporary art scene and independent cinema movement in China. His films and photographic work, often derived from traditional Chinese painting, examine tensions between urban and rural, historic and present, worldliness and intellectualism.

The artist often presents works of epic scale and duration that invite the viewer into a richly crafted and layered experience. The exhibition features the U.S. premiere of his most recent film, “Moving Mountains,” a 46-minute, black-and-white film, as well as photographs from the film set, drawings and props.

The film is inspired by the ancient tale of a man, whom some called foolish, for seeking to move a mountain, and extolls the virtues of perseverance and collective action. The artist makes this story a poetic reflection upon human nature and the shifting values to which it can be subjected. Visually, the artist drew inspiration from a masterful ink painting, “The Foolish Old Man Removes the Mountains,” produced in the early 1940s by Xu Beihong. The film mirrors the spirit of endurance that Xu Beihong’s painting extolls. Yet, “Moving Mountains” also explores a new interpretation by taking the old story of the foolish man as an outlet for musings on contemporary realities. The spirit of motherhood is also central in the film and embodied in a character played by the famous Chinese actress Wan Qian.

SCAD Museum of Art – Savannah, GA

April 4th, 2018

SCAD || To-day and To-morrow (and To-morrow…)

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One of the pleasures of traveling is the discovery of museums like SCAD. Surprisingly stimulating, visually & intellectually, we found some of the most interesting, powerful and – why not, funny works, both within the brick walls of this magnificent 1853 structure that once housed a railway depot for the Central of Georgia Railway, as well as in the surrounding area outdoors. And to think that, before visiting Savannah, we had never even heard of SCAD!

Christopher Chiappa
LIVESTRONG Savannah, 2018

Melissa Spitz
”Do you need some Xanax? You’ll feel better”, 2013

Melissa Spitz
”I fell down and broke my jaw”, 2012

Toyin Ojih Odutola
Waiting for Supper, 2017
Charcoal, pastel and pencil on paper

Toyin Ojih Odutola
The Abstraction of a Continent, 2017-2018
Charcoal, pastel and pencil on paper

Mariana Castillo Deball, “To-Day, February 20th,”

For her exhibition at the SCAD Museum of Art, Castillo Deball presented the most recent iteration of the project “To-Day,” which combines historical research about a specific site and a physical form that contains this research, which the artist calls a “fictional character.”

This ongoing project is founded in a set of parameters that the artist herself has set:

“Each time the piece takes place, the character is shaped by this one-day history. It is important to mention that the date is decided by the situation and not by the artist. The date always coincides with the official opening of the exhibition, in this case the 20th of February. The documentation and visual material departs from newspapers, travel logs, birthdates, obituaries, holidays, observances and any other traces related to this particular date. ‘To-Day’ is an archive of events, with an arbitrary point in common. The piece will be completed after 365 editions.”

SCAD Museum of Art – Savannah, GA

April 4th, 2018