Scholar, Louisa Matthew, Examines Painting Techniques in Renaissance Europe
This essay is the second of a two-part series, and deals with the materials, techniques and physical history of easel picture-painting in Italy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It is inspired by looking closely at the collections of the National Gallery in London, England.
While there were certainly differences in the practice of painting north and south of the Alps – some mentioned in Part I and some to be discussed here – the similarities have often been underestimated. While a new Renaissance culture emerged first in Italy, and only slowly in spread to northern Europe toward the end of the fifteenth century, it would be misleading to conclude that Italy was always the primary source of cultural and artistic innovation. To do so doesn’t take into account the diversity of regional practices in both northern and southern Europe. Italy, for example, was not a unified entity but rather, an ever-shifting assemblage of independent political entities with varied histories, economies and cultural affiliations. We also tend to underestimate the speed with which ideas spread throughout Europe, even without the help of modern technology. Keeping this in mind, much of what was discussed in Part I regarding northern European painting, especially in Flanders, holds true for Italy: easel painting moved from panel to canvas, from tempera to oil, and from multi-part to single field formats, while the range of subject matter widened. Fine Arts MagazineMore
New York Artist, Kathleen Gilje, Revisits John Singer Sargent’s Portraits
“Every portrait is, in some sense, a self portrait that reflects the viewer. Because ‘the eye is not satisfied with seeing,’ we bring to a portrait our perceptions and our experiences. In the alchemy of the creative act, every portrait is a mirror.” In his opening paragraph of the chapter entitled, The Image as Reflection”, in Reading Pictures: Images of love and hate, Alberto Manguel explores the role that the representation of the human face plays in art in our psychological connection to a work of art.[1] From the moment of birth, we are linked to one another through the primal action of eye contact. We see others seeing us, and that provides a sense of safety and reassurance. Fine Art MagazineMore
ProperEnglish, as in “Crikey, It’s the Loo!”
Author’s note: British-isms in the text, such as theatre, are bolded; translations, when deemed necessary, follow in parenthesis – for example, bingo wings (flabby underarms, a ssociated with elderly denizens of gaming parlors).
Kroon Hall, Yale University. Centerbrook Architects
Our guide, a tiptop British architect from Hopkins Architects of London, was showing us Yanks, Mark Simon and me of Centerbrook, several buildings that her firm designed in Nottingham, England (yes, as in “Sheriff of”). Centerbrook and Hopkins would be working together on Kroon Hall, the new home of Yale’s School of Forestry and Envi ronmental Studies. Within our half of the collaboration, Centerbrook was tasked with, among other things, translating British architecture into an American context.
I was aware that Hopkins’ portfolio bristled with impressive green architecture – vegetated roofs, mixed-mode ventilation, wind cowls, and the like – but our guide kept referring to the Plant Room on the roof. No greenery or greenhouse, however, was in evidence up there.
After three mentions, I had to ask. It turns out she was referring to the Mechanical Equipment Room, or MER, as we call it stateside. The difference between our two cultures, architecturally speaking, would prove to be greater than I had imagined. It was all a tad dodgy (tricky or suspect) at first.
Yale had selected Hopkins out of six shortlisted firms known for their experience in sustainable design (Centerbrook also was shortlisted). Kroon Hall would be a symbol of Yale’s commitment to the environment and achieve the highest levels of sustainability, a LEED Platinum rating. Because Hopkins had only built one project in the United States, the university wanted an experienced American firm to assist them as the Executive Architects. So the marriage was arranged between us and the Brits.
Hopkins is known for designing low energy, high performance buildings, with a commitment to an honest expression of materials in a modern idiom, using systems, materials, and detailing developed in Europe, but new to the U.S. market. One of our tasks was to make plans and documents comprehensible for American contractors and suppliers. This entailed translating Brit-Lish into Amer-English.
Mind the Gap! (Watch Your Step, More or Less)
Exterior, Kroon Hall, Yale University, New Haven, CT
I thought it would be easy at first. Centerbrook has done some international work, and I have travelled a fair bit throughout England and Euro pe. I fancied that I was familiar with British-isms: WCs (bathrooms), lifts (elevators), colours, carparks (parking lots), smashing (jolly good), to name a few. But when it came to architectural terms, there was a whole new lexicon to master. We, and the project, could easily have fallen through the gap.
What in the Sam Hill are lippings, we beseeched? Answer: trim. Conversely, our colleagues from across the pond were anxious to know who, precisely, Mr. Sam Hill would be.
To compound matters, the Kroon Hall team included architects and engineers from Arup and atelier ten, each sporting a variety of accents from throughout the former empire, among them various American dialects. Also, because construction practices, procurements processes, and tight budgets and schedules would not allow a typical Hopkins building here, adaptations had to be made. Bespoke (custom made) elements were limited, so noble substitutions were found for Hopkins favourite items, while at the same time we were educating local contractors on the fundamentals of Brit-Lish: fittings (fixtures), skirtings (base trim), totems (bollards, or short vertical posts), and a bit of kit (equipment).
Cockups (Blunders) and Silly Buggers (Foolish or Irritating People)
To avoid committing, or being the abovementioned, we decided early on that our Title Sheet for Construction Documents should include a British-to-American Terminology Legend. This included 35 terms used by Hopkins and Arup in their drawings followed by the closest American translation, plus those blinking (damned) metric units. After a while we got the hang of it – 100 millimeters equals a little less than four inches. A wee bit is a quarter of an inch, or thereabouts, close enough. A pint of bitters is way bigger than a pint of Bud. We took to keeping a running list of all unknown terms as they came up, not just the architecturally-related ones. Some were a wee facety (a little rude).
Local Cuisine
We had to eat while we were in the United Kingdom, where we ingested succulent delicacies like Treacle Sponge (Steamed Sponge Cake with syrup or molasses cooked on top, often served with hot custard) and Spotted Dick (Steamed Suet Pudding containing dried fruit, usually currants, commonly served with custard). And you thought suet was for the birds! I’ll never forget mushy peas and rocket (a porridge dish and arugula), or nose and tail (often accompanied by jellied eels is all you need to know). We Centerbrookians will always have Fitzrovia, where we ingested pie (meat, not fruit) and pudding (dessert) at a friendly boozer (pub).
A Proper Aedifice
For all that potential confusion (and indigestion), the completed building turned out to be a spiffing (excellent) synthesis of the two cultures. Yale accomplished its goal of erecting a flagship building equal to its environmental ambitions. Hopkins was satisfied that Kroon Hall aptly represented its design and sustainable philosophies. For Centerbrook, not only was it a great opportunity to work on a significant piece of architecture, but it was also a chance to participate in a cross-cultural exchange of ideas and methodologies – a touch of Uncle Sam here, and a good bit of John Bull there.
Brilliant! (cool, awesome, sweet!).
by Jim Coan, AIA
Jim Coan is the Director of Architectural Practice and Building Science at Centerbrook Architects. He has been the Project Manager for a number of the firm’s larger projects including Kroon Hall at Yale University. In his career Jim has, only on rare occasions, found it necessary to use a dictionary to translate architectural terms.
New York’s Museum of Arts and Design Explores Meaning of ‘Beauty’, in ‘Dead or Alive’
In less sure hands, New York City’s Museum of Arts and Design’s Dead or Alive, an exhibit of thirty-seven international artists’ work composed of feathers, bones, egg shells, insects, fur, antlers, dried and rotting plants– with a few stuffed birds and animals thrown in– would be a creepy, crawly experience, conceivably sending people packing for the exits. Not so with this exhibition, though. Dead or Alive, conceived by chief curator David Revere McFadden and senior curator Lowery Stokes Sims, assisted by curator Elizabeth Edwards Kirrane, examines beauty in the extreme: living proof, so to speak, that a sow’s ear can, indeed, be made into a silk purse. It is also, despite outward appearances, an intellectual adventure encouraging serious thought on ecology, beauty, violence to humans and animals, and most notably, one’s own mortality. Fine Arts MagazineMore
Surrealist Art Form, Exquisite Corpse, Still Fascinates Artists and Collectors
The Exquisite Corpse has lived many lives!
But first, a brief explanation is required…
The early 20th century was an era of experimentation in the visual arts, music, literature, design and architecture—particularly in Europe. The world was swept up in scientific and industrial innovations of the period. Many believed that civilization stood poised on the brink of radical transformation, where the introduction of the automobile, controlled flight, expanded industrial production, scientific discoveries, growth of cities and reorganization of out-moded monarchies into powerful nation-states, could signal the advent of a new, forward-looking social order.More
The Hudson River School of Painting Helps Define American Identity
In this, the third in a four-part series on the history of the Hudson River and its role in shaping the American identity, we explore the place that an emerging community of writers had in defining the traits and personalities of what the world would later view as, ‘typically American’. This story is a complex one and involves the impact of Henry Hudson and his explorations of 400 years ago, the impact of Native American culture, the Dutch settlers and, later, English colonial control over the region, as well as the literary and artistic contributions that followed. They all add up to a picture of a period in early U.S. history that was complex and multi-layered, where civilization’s expansion exposed both the landscape and the people living in the Hudson Valley to radically new influences, as a new nation was being formed. Traveling the Hudson River nearly from end to end, the author concludes that the interaction of the river, the surrounding landscape and the long history of the region created our first cultural ‘melting pot’; fueled by the colorful and picturesque imagery made possible by the sum total of these influential factors. Fine Arts MagazineMore
Connecticut’s Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, Trains a New Generation of Artists
The next generation of artists faces a variety of daunting and complex challenges. Principle among them is the ever-shifting nature of the visual art world and what constitutes art, itself. Paint on canvas or graphite on paper is increasingly relegated to the mundane as installation and performance pieces vie for public attention and the critics’ affirmative nod. Added to this is the increasingly crowded field of self-declared artists who appear to bank on personal style and a well-managed public image to propel them into the spotlight. A third factor is the intrusion of technology into the artist’s studio and the exponential increase in low-cost facsimile works produced with a mass market in mind. The few galleries that attract the uninformed consumer, who is finding it increasingly difficult to differentiate between computer-generated simulations of original art or aftermarket reproductions produced en masse in foreign countries, do so in the name of revenue production. Especially in these difficult economic times, with 125 galleries going out of business in New York City in 2009, alone, the need to survive at any cost is paramount. Fine Arts MagazineMore
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Features Classic Example of Regency Era Design
The Regency era in the United Kingdom is the period between 1811 — when King George III was deemed insane and unfit to rule and his son, the Prince of Wales, ruled as his proxy as Prince Regent — and 1820, when the Prince Regent became George IV on the death of his father. The term Regency is therefore used to describe works of art produced in England between the late 1790s until 1837 when Queen Victoria ascended the throne. [1] Fine Arts MagazineMore
Krieble Gallery at Connecticut’s Griswold Museum Features Landscapes of Tula Telfair
Imagine a medieval troupe with a pageant cart carrying the universe inside, waiting to be unpacked. Tula Telfair could be their set designer. The borders to each of her canvases are marked by alternating strips of solid color, save for the lower edges, creating a series of proscenium stages. This is scenery in several senses, then, waiting for performances as well as observers.
But the players never appear, only the audience. These paintings throw what is the forgotten obvious into high relief; we make them appear by looking. For many of them, our observation becomes the only recognizable human presence. There is something here of the 19th century passion for the panorama, encompassing the world in a single view.Fine Arts MagazineMore
Finding the Unexpected: Art in Everyday Life
Image and irony. Culture and Kitch. The art of the unexpected and the humorous. Let’s take some time out from the serious business of art to visit a few sites in the world where art amuses, installations are enigmatic and a photographer’s lens is aimed at others; but we are, in fact, his subject:
This sight can be found close to the Interstate in Florida. It’s an attention getter aimed at selling something. Can you guess what?
This astounding array of lost luggage is stacked to the ceiling in the Sacramento airport. Rather than a baggage cart gone astray, it is a sculptural installation, ‘Samsonite’, by an unnamed artist who may have spent a bit too much time in airports and wants to get even with the system. Fine Arts Magazine
Here, the life guard on duty keeps watch over his flock. He stares at the horizon…the horizon stares back. But, hey, this isn’t what Baywatch is supposed to be and where’s Pamela Anderson?ine Arts Magazine 
Staying dry and hoping a cab will come by. I wonder if the artist is doing a water color? Fine Arts Magazine
Can you canoe? An aluminum canoe was ripped from its dock by a raging flood and sculpted to the tree by its force at the high-water mark. This New Jersey town left the installation piece in place as a memorial to the day their quiet stream burst its banks.
The entire staff at ARTES Fine Arts Magazine thanks you for you support. Consider this your invitation to our next Holiday party. A big company smile goes out to All!Fine
Fine Art Collecting: Art Fairs and Other Insurance Underwriting Challenges
Seeking – Director for Museum, open 4-10 days a year with hundreds of curators involved, and tens of thousands of visitors. Must be able to cope with logistical nightmares and able to please everybody all the time.
How many museums are there in the world? Have a guess. I have no idea so email me if you know. My point is there are thousands upon thousands of museums, more than it would be possible to count with any great ease. Museums are, for the most part, continuously in operation. Their time horizon, as a business, is long range. They are afforded the luxury of time to organize, correct, and improve. But, in the case of an art fair or expo, how do you cram all of these operational considerations into a just a few days of intense activity, and accomplish it without serious incident?Fine Arts MagazineMore
New York’s, William Green & Assoc., Architects, Create a West Coast Gem
What’s going on?
The dismaying dearth of intellectual rigor in our popular culture has been parried with an overly- zealous esotericism among the architectural elite. This clique of influential architects has been given a much louder voice by their precocious benefactors than befits their numbers and yet their stamp upon the contemporary architectural landscape has been profound.Fine Arts MagazineMore
Peabody Essex Museum Organizes Rare Glimpse of Ancient Maya Culture
An exhibit of ancient Maya art may seem like a puzzling choice for a museum, located in an historic New England seaport and best known for its collections of maritime and Asian art. But the relatively recent deciphering of the Maya hieroglyph for “sea”—literally the ‘fiery pool’—in the late 1980s, has radically changed the understanding of Maya culture and mythology: water and the ocean have been revealed as central to the Maya understanding of self and universe, whereas previously, their civilization was considered to be land-based. And so, Salem, Massachusetts, with its seafaring history, together with the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), whose focus is on art of the sea and the inseparability of that art from the culture in which it was created, offer an ideal setting for this revisionist exploration of Maya art.Fine Arts Magazine
(Left) Incense burner with a deity with aquatic elements; AD 700-750; Palenque, Mexico; Ceramic; Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes – Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Museo de Sitio de la Zona Arqueológia de Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico; Courtesy Peabody Essex Museum, photograph © 2009 Jorge Pérez de Lara. More
Contemporary Art Exhibit Revisits a Founder of the Movement
Stereotype and cliche are to Marjorie Strider as Istanbul is to Orhan Pamuk or the chador to Shirin Neshat. They are goads to her art.
She first came to art world attention in the 1965 “International Girlie Show,” with her blandly outrageous bikini girls flaunting their flawless suntans and smiling their Ipana smiles. They were the goddesses of airbrushed Playboy fantasy exposed as vapid and bloodless, sisters to the Barbie Dolls then relatively new to the market.More
Review of the 2010 Whitney Biennial Exhibition
If ever there were a middle-of-the-road exhibition, this year’s Whitney Biennial is it. In the spirit of an Obama promise for ‘Change’ and to ostensibly try to please everyone—traditional nattering nabob art critics included—guest curator Francesco Bonami and Whitney senior curatorial assistant Gary Carrion-Murayari transformed, with a few standout exceptions, what is usually a messy and colorful cacophony of coloratura voices all fighting to be heard, into a relatively tame and well-ordered blue-haired lady. This latest effort by the Whitney appears to lack pizzazz, speaking mostly in low, hushed tones and preferring dressed-down matinees to paparazzi-fueled, red carpet openings.Fine Arts MagazineMore