Montparnasse- Walking pensively along Avenue du Maine recently, I imagine young Picasso, Braque, Brancusi, Modigliani, Soutine or Chagall tracing the very same path to the studio of fellow artist, Marie Vassiliev, who regularly offered plentiful lunches for only one franc, filling their bellies for the day. Afterwards, they returned to their modest nearby studios, as more
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The Bourdelle Museum, Paris: a Treasure in Montparnasse
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El Greco and the Icon Painters of Venetian Crete
Seeing the known anew is the grace of every great exhibition. In front of The Adoration of the Magi, by Michael Damaskenos at “The Origins of El Greco: Icon Painting in Venetian Crete,” at the Onassis Cultural Center in New York City, this belief strikes a particularly strong note. Painted in 1585-91, the sensation is more
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Architect, Robert Venturi is Subject of Yale School of Architecture Show
There will be no ruins of Las Vegas. Everything of its previous history is absolutely erased by design. Nothing will be left to uncover, as David Macaulay did in his post-apocalyptic comic, Motel of the Mysteries, which imagined a Howard Carter-like excavation of a roadside motor lodge. What seemed absolutely contemporary in 1968, when more
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19th Century American Artists and the Grand Tour
Eighteenth-century American artists relied on European art long before they set sail for the Continent. Mezzotints after French and English portraits were imported by the hundreds during the eighteenth century and supplied the colonists with what was often their only contact with fine art. John Singleton Copley wrote to Benjamin West on November 12, 1766: more
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High Tech Lighting Solutions for High Rise Living
As more people select high-rise living in cities across the country, they are facing the tremendous challenge of how to get lighting where they want it, when the construction is primarily concrete. Often they are given a few junction boxes from which to draw power for their lighting needs. Sometimes they don’t even have that. more
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Can We Say, ‘Primitive’?
Prehistoric Altamira cave paintings, France In the 1990s, I recall watching Sister Wendy Beckett, the reluctant celebrity spokesperson for a popular PBS series on art appreciation. This sequestered nun, who for decades had lived under a vow of silence, had gained notoriety for her views on famous works of art and now stood in her more
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Haitian Relief Effort- A Special Request
Our minds become numb and our eyes glaze over as the harsh reality of yet another natural tragedy in the world enters the corner of our visual field. Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, has once again been devastated by disaster. Having the misfortune to be built over one the many tectonic faults more
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Pinta Latin American Modern & Contemporary Art Fair, 2009, Scores Big Success
Three years ago the newly hatched, Pinta Latin American Modern & Contemporary Art Fair, jumped bravely into the ever-growing, melange of art fairs and biennales. Opening at the Metropolitan Pavilion/Altman Building in New York City, “The fair’s primary aim”, according to its director, Diego Costa Peuser, was “to bring Latin American art to the world.” more
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Recent Paintings by Connecticut Artist, Lenny Moskowitz, Currently on View
The seaside village of Stony Creek, Connecticut lays under a blanket of white. The January wind whips up a dusting of confection, frosting any figure or form that stands its ground in defiance of the cold with sweet, but merciless, revenge. The Willoughby Wallace Library Art Gallery sits close by the harbor road and tonight, more
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Diane Dewey Offers Key Points on Art Valuation
Recently, Diane Dewey, Contributing Editor for ARTES e-Magazine gave a presentation in which she described to the audience what she, as an appraiser, looks for when evaluating a work of art. These factors, that give value to art, are one aspect of the appreciation of an artwork. “When a work speaks to us we should more