A Grand Collection

My family was fortunate to have another trip to Michigan's Mackinac Island again this year. We stayed at the Grand Hotel, whose legendary front porch and beautiful surroundings are a treat unto themselves. I wandered into the gallery area in the main Parlor which exhibits paintings from the world renowned Manoogian Collection. The Manoogians have exhibited over 400 paintings from their collection at the hotel for the past 25 years. Here is a sample of some of the pieces on display this summer.

Fairy Hordes Attacking a Bat, John Fitzgerald, British, 1832-1906

Fairy Hordes Attacking a Bat, John Fitzgerald, British, 1832-1906

The works on display include 19th and 20th century examples of many different types of painting genres and by a large collection of artists.

Rabbits, 1878 by Charlotte Mount Brock Schreiber, Canadian, 1834-1922

Rabbits, 1878 by Charlotte Mount Brock Schreiber, Canadian, 1834-1922

The George R. Rich Family Having Afternoon Coffee at the Villa Quisisana Overlooking Oresund, Skodsborg, Strandvej (Denmark), 1885 by Wenzel Ulrik Tornoe, Danish, 1844-1907

The George R. Rich Family Having Afternoon Coffee at the Villa Quisisana Overlooking Oresund, Skodsborg, Strandvej (Denmark), 1885 by Wenzel Ulrik Tornoe, Danish, 1844-1907

A Liberated Woman by John G. Brown, American, 1831-1913.

A Liberated Woman by John G. Brown, American, 1831-1913.

My assumption is that the cigarette and the way she looks down at the viewer indicate her liberated status.

Statue of Liberty Celebration by Frederick Rondel, American, 1826-1892.

Statue of Liberty Celebration by Frederick Rondel, American, 1826-1892.

This is just a small sample of the artwork on display, there are many fine examples of portraiture, tromp l'oeil, landscapes, still lifes, etc.  The art on display makes an already worthwhile trip all the more special.

The Last Hurrah

Rooms to Let in Slavic Village in Cleveland

There was a uplifting art happening in Cleveland last weekend called "Rooms to Let."  It was the second such event where foreclosed and abandoned houses in a hard hit area of Cleveland (houses that are scheduled to be demolished) are turned over to artists, who give them one last celebratory and dignified, send-off.

 Artist: Dana Depew
 Artist: Dana Depew
The houses are all roughly a hundred years old and the last few years have been less then their best years. They are filled with character, beautiful wood, built-in china cabinets, window seats, etc., but what the artists focus on, for the most part, are that the houses are also filled with the lives of their former occupants. The houses sheltered people whose lives cry out to be celebrated before the tangible evidence of their exsistence is gone forever. We as a society, especially one hard hit by its changes like Cleveland's Slavic Village, are too quick to erase the past as we rush toward the future and we often don't realize what has been lost until it is no longer there. "Rooms to Let" stops us in our tracks and makes us look at these places, see the beauty, enjoy some music, laugh and talk with people, honor these structures and the families who lived and loved in them.

 Artist: Christine Mauersberger
 Artist: Christine Mauersberger
 Artist: Christine Mauersberger
Having become blighted and a burden on the neighborhood, the city has no choice but to tear them down. This has been the story for many rust belt cities who deal with a loss of population and aging housing stock. For one more weekend though, people filled rooms, created music, gathered around them and enjoyed life. It was a celebration of the service of the houses as dwellings and the lives of the people who lived in them.

 Artist: Jeff Chiplis
 Artist: Paul Sydorenko


Good News

The Wedding Dance by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, c. 1566, Detroit Institute of Arts.

The New York Times reports that the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts is no longer in danger of being sold as part of the Bankruptcy filed by the City of Detroit. This is very good news for not only the DIA, Detroit and Michigan, but for any art lover that enjoys access to masterpieces through public museums. Do yourself a favor and visit this collection if you can, there are some very fine pieces and you won't regret it.

Capturing Beauty


There is an exhibition of the work of Sandusky, OH artist Charles Courtney Curran at The Frick Art and Historical Center in Pittsburgh, now through February 1, 2015. He studied in Paris and split his time between New York and North Central Ohio on the shores of Lake Erie. The exhibition is titled Charles Courtney Curran: Seeking the Ideal and his definitely captures an idealized and beautiful life full of lovely settings and people, but don't we all like a look into an ideal world once in a while?

The Price We Pay

Isabella and the Pot of Basil by William Holman Hunt, 1868

Many years ago a friend and I attempted to visit The Delaware Art Museum. We drove up from Baltimore during the day and when we arrived at the museum, we found the building was closed because a protestor had chained himself to the front entrance to protest the DuPont Annual Meeting taking place inside the museum. Now, at that time in the early 1990's the DAM had the best collection of Pre-Raphaelite art in the US and having just completed a thesis on the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, I was anxious to see their collection - I never got to.

I read an article in the New York Times in August that the Delaware Art Museum was arbitrarily and against the advice of the American Association of Museum Directors, divesting themselves of many of the most important pieces in their collection based on monetary, rather than curatorial, decisions. My feelings about the museum came to the surface again, disappointment and disbelief.

The image above is the painting they sold which they anticipated getting upwards of 13 million for, but it only realized 4.2 million (before auction commissions) I wonder if they think it was worth it now. The word is that two more pieces of the collection will go up for sale soon to pay a debt incurred for a construction project, soon there will be less to adorn those new walls.

Side by Side

The West Wind by Tom Thomson, 1916-17, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada

The National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario is hosting a study of two iconic Canadian artworks  by artist Tom Thomson through January 4, 2015. Tom Thomson's The Jack Pine and his The West Wind are examined side-by-side. I first came to know of Thomson after marrying my Canadian husband and visiting his relatives in Toronto when we went to the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) and I was introduced to the Group of Seven. They were a loosely tied group of landscape artists all choosing to focus on their surroundings as subject matter and thereby created the first major Canadian art movement.

The Jack Pine by Tom Thomson, 1916-17, The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario

Happy Father's Day

Portrait if

Alexander J. Cassatt

and his son, Robert Kelso Cassatt

by

Mary Cassatt

,1884-85,

The Philadelphia Museum of Art

Mary Cassatt

, the Impressionist artist, is well known for using her family as models in her artwork (men and boys are seen less often) as she spent a lot of her time around the women of the family. In this portrait we see

Cassatt's

father and her brother sharing an intimate moment. Her father was a railroad man and probably not around the house as often, or willing to sit still for very long (pure conjecture on my part). Happy Father's Day - perhaps you can capture an image of your father today?

The Armory Show - Then and Now

 Gallery A in the 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art (nicknamed "Armory" Show)

The International Exhibition of Modern Art (The Armory Show) of 1913 was a pivotal time in the world of art. It marked the first time that art considered to be the "modern" style was brought together and exhibited in one space. It took over a year of planning and received much public scorn from people unaccustomed and uninterested the burgeoning styles displayed like Cubism, Fauvism and Futurism.

 Currently, there is an exhibition of the same name taking place in New York at the Piers which highlights art of the 20th and 21st centuries and is primarily a venue to buy and sell. However, if you have the opportunity, it is also a chance to see works by famous and unknown artists in the same locations.


2014 Armory Show in New York through March 9, 2014

Supreme Painting


Suprematist Composition, 1916 by Kazimir Malevich

During the closing ceremonies of the Olympics in Sochi last night, reference was made to Ukrainian artist Kazimir Malevich, but not much else was said about him. He is one of the most important artists of the 20th century, less famous than Picasso, but no less important. This is considered to be one of the most important pieces of 20th century art and in his treatise of 1916 Malevich explained that he wanted to concentrate on color and texture and to move beyond traditional representation.

Artist Carrie Mae Weems on 30 Years of Genius - EBONY

 "Art has saved my life on a regular basis. I wanted to offer that experience to children, to enlist them, to show them the possibilities that are in the arts, to persuade them to pursue it for both their own personal salvation and for changing the way we are understood." Carrie Mae Weems

A Gold Star for Cleveland

A large detail of Louis Grebenak's WBOE mural, which awaits installation at ideastream in downtown Cleveland.
 
There is an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer today about a series of WPA murals that were saved from destruction by an art history teacher from Cleveland State University named Walter Leedy, who unfortunately did not live to see the results of his efforts. Much of the thanks goes as well to the ICA Art Conservation of Cleveland and to the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA). The artwork has been displayed around Cleveland, including on the campus at Cleveland State who leased two of the murals.