A Day at Queens College, Queens, NY

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On Monday, December 15, under the Professionals Campus program of Queens College I spent an afternoon with beginning art history students in Dr. Deborah Vischak's class. (The Manhattan skyline is a change since my graduate school days.)

 The day was organized by Lauren Cooper who visited the gallery back in July. She works with

Laurie Dorf, AVP for Institutional Advancement. Ms. Dorf introduced the program; Dr. Vischak moderated; colleague Rona Schneider also participated.

The event was held in Klapper Hall. It was great to be back there -- the scene of all those art history classes in the 1970s. At the Godwin-Ternbach Museum I visited the Daghlian Collection of Chinese Art with director Amy Winter. Ranging from hundreds of years before the Christian era through to the nineteenth century, the show focused on ceramics; included were pieces older than the county of China itself. In addition to plates and bowls, there were small models of yurts and chicken coops, perhaps for funerary purposes. In particular, pieces from the Song Dynasty (960-1279) reflected it’s “golden age” brilliance.

At Red Dot Miami

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Red Dot is in full swing. The traffic has been great; the visitors have been friendly and interesting and interested, looking especially at the William Baziotes paintings, the Angelo Pinto reverse painting on glass, Red Beach Flag, 1970, and the Peggy Bacon embroidery collage, Valentine Concoction, 1959.

 

Peggy Bacon, Valentine Concoction, 1959

There have been showers every day since we’ve been in Miami, all starting suddenly, coming down in buckets, and ending just as quickly.  It’s fine if you are snug and dry in the tent and it sounds wonderful. And then the sun comes out again and it’s beautiful!

RED DOT FAIR, MIAMI

Tonight is the opening of the Red Dot Fair, Miami.  Mostly we're ready and the fair looks great.  There was a brief shower this afternoon (sounded nice in the tent), but the day is really fine.  The "Recent Acquisitions" group is a little crowded, but I like it that way.  How else can we show the Peggy Bacons, Alexander Brooks, AND the Isabel Bishops!  

Brook's Bordello Nude, about 1935, relates to a bed headboard and footboard (both sides) that he painted with several boudoir scenes.

THE ABSTRACT PRINT

 

THE ABSTRACT PRINT

ON VIEW THROUGH THIS SATURDAY, 
November 22, 2014

 

Ansei Uchima,

Forest Byobu 
(Shrub Oak), 1979

Prints by JOSEF ALBERS, FRED BECKER, 
EDMOND CASARELLA, MINNA CITRON,
WORDEN DAY, DOROTHY DEHNER, 
SUE FULLER, PETER GRIPPE,FANNIE HILLSMITH, 
DOROTHY BROWDY KUSHNER, 
ALICE TRUMBULL MASON, 

HUGH MESIBOV, ANNE RYAN, 
LOUIS SCHANKER, and ANSEI UCHIMA.    

   

These works may be viewed at WWW.SUSANTELLERGALLERY.COM, under EXHIBITIONS.

ANSEI UCHIMA SHOW IN OKINAWA NOW ON VIEW

Colors and Wind: The World of ANSEI UCHIMA is on view from September 12 through November 9, 2014.

This extensive retrospective of work by UCHIMA is part of the series Artists with Okinawan Roots at the Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum, Naha City, Okinawa, Japan.

Ansei Uchima was born in Stockton, California. At the age of nineteen he traveled to Japan to study architecture and was stranded there by World War II. He studied painting in the early 1950s, and in 1954 he began to study historical Japanese prints. In 1957 he began to make his own prints, working in the tradition of the sosaku-hanga movement, begun in Japan in 1918. In 1960 Uchima moved to New York City. In 1962 he began teaching at Sarah Lawrence College. He taught there until 1982, and was named a Professor Emeritus in 1985. Uchima was married to the artist Toshiko Uchima. The artists Isamu Noguchi and Shiko Munakata were among their friends.

Ansei Uchima, After Redon, 1972, watercolor.  This drawing is on loan from the Gallery to the Exhibition.

PAFA: Kelley Collection of African American Art Now On View

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The Harmon & Harriet Kelley Collection of African American Art: Works on Paper

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building

Now on view through October 12

William E. Smith,
 A Friendly Game, 1944

Curator Anna O. Marley’s striking installation of the Kelley Collection is in one enormous room without dividers or vitrines. Directly across the entrance is a William E. Smith ink study of World War II-era musicians with their instruments. It’s a small work with fine detail but still an arresting first sight upon entering the room. (A Smith drawing from the Gallery's collection is at right.)

The exhibition is arranged thematically in groups such as dance scenes or political protest. In personal notes from the collectors Mrs. Kelley commented that she was drawn to the works of the depression era through the dignity with which artists drew the figures at work and to the portrayal of everyday farm life that she herself experienced as a child.

The main focus is on the 1930s and 40s, a period when many African American artists entered the field, in part through the efforts New Deal programs such as the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Broad Street, Philadelphia.

JODY PINTO’S Land Buoy unveiled in Philadelphia.

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It was a BEAUTIFUL DAY. Friday, August 15 was the ribbon-cutting of Washington Avenue Park with JODY PINTO’S Land Buoy referencing both ecology and the history of the site.

Jody Pinto, Land Buoy, August 15, 2014, at the
eastern end of the Washington Avenue Park.
The artist is at the top, in turquoise.

       The park was developed by the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation and is part of a series of projects renewing Philadelphia’s waterfront. It is the original location of Pier 53, an immigration entry point and home to an early Navy shipyard. A path leads the visitor through established trees and a newly planted local habitat, and past spots where one can actually touch the river water. At the furthest end of the walkway, and a clear destination point, is Land Buoy.

       The Washington Avenue Park is in South Philadelphia, at Washington Avenue and Columbus Boulevard, directly behind the Sheet Metal Workers Union Hall. Across the river are the city of Camden and the Battleship New Jersey. It feels like midway between the Benjamin Franklin and Walt Whitman Bridges.

       Philadelphia has made enormous progress in reclaiming its waterfront. Adjacent to the park is a walking and bike path -- turn a corner and there are quiet and greenery and stunning river views. There were unconfirmed rumors of bizarre turtle activity and one very handsome cormorant. There’s no question that fish and birds are returning to this stretch of the Delaware.

      Pier 53 was an immigration point from the 1870s until 1915. Remnants of the old foundations that are still in the water extend beyond the new walkway – these grid-patterned wood pilings delineate the scale and shape of the original pier. The more than one million arrivals were mostly eastern and southern European families; some of their descendants still live nearby in the Italian Market neighborhood. Jody Pinto’s father, the artist Angelo Pinto, and this family came to American through Pier 53.

       Land Buoy is fifty-five feet tall, with a rope-inspired spiral staircase that leads up sixteen feet. There’s a solar-powered blue top that will glow at night. The act of walking up the stairs lowers anxiety as it raises expectations: the 360-degree view at the top is breathtaking. If there’s enough wind the spire will move and seem to adjust itself – to be on the stairs when that happens is amazingly invigorating.

       On Friday, when the crowd had gathered, Philadelphia’s Mayor Michael Nutter was clearly enjoying himself. It was such a pleasant occasion and everyone was having a good time. He did express concern about that afternoon’s Little League game.  He needn’t have worried: Mo’ne Davis carried the Taney Dragons to victory. It was a wonderful day all around.

Useful links:

http://www.delawareriverwaterfront.com/search?q=pier+53

http://washingtonavenuegreen.com/index.html

An extensive discussion of the Pinto family’s Philadelphia history:

http://hiddencityphila.org/2014/08/the-pintos-a-philadelphia-immigration-story-told-through-art-at-pier-53/

Historical photographs of the Pier:

www.delawareriverwaterfront.com/hi-res-photos/2013/10/30/pier-532