End Days of Summer
August is a slow month in the art world as almost everyone is on vacation, however there are a couple of see-worthy openings this week:
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| R. Nicholas Kuszyk – click for a larger image |
If you are near the Academy in TriBeCa on Friday night (Aug 20) then check out this pop gallery opening featuring Nick Kuszyk at 186 Duane St. between Greenwich and Hudson from 6-10 pm. Kuszyk makes intricate, sometimes Bosch-like paintings of his ever-evolving robot society.
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| Francesco Longenecker |
On Saturday night (Aug 21), check out the opening of New Paintings curated by Academy alumna Renee Bovenzi. A snapshot of what artists are painting right now, it features many other alumni including Francesco Longenecker and Ali Banisadr. The show is at 560 Broadway, 3rd floor, Suite 305 and the opening is from 6-8 pm.
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| Aurel Schmidt |
If you are out East on Saturday night, then stop by the Fireplace Project in the Springs for Aurel Schmidt‘s solo show, opening from 6-8 pm. Schmidt makes beautiful drawings composed of decay and rot. Her work is included in the 2010 Whitney Biennial.
Also, don’t miss Glenn Horowitz in East Hampton with Will Cotton‘s amazing cake sculpture.
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| Will Cotton |
Start the Presses!
The printmaking program at the Academy is getting a big addition – as in a 1300 lbs. lithography press and several hundred pounds of litho stones!
This new equipment will facilitate a more robust printmaking curriculum offering a Printmaking track which will include courses such as “The Figure in Lithography†and “Narrative Printmaking.â€
Chair of Faculty and Printmaking coordinator, John Jacobsmeyer stands next to the Griffin Series I lithography press prior to its final installation in the printshop at the Academy.
For more information about the press and the new Printmaking track, please email John Jacobsmeyer.
Snapshots in Giverny
Faculty guide Wade Schuman shares some snapshots of things he likes in Giverny.
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| The Giveny Group: Gary, Ian, Jessie, Emily, Cara, Amber, Jason and Steve. |
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| A detail of Louis Brandin’s Jonah and the Whale at the Louvre. |
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| With a vase of roses, Emily Adams’ studio space at the Terra Foundation. |
A Rose is a Rose is a Rose
This is the opposite of the desert. Last week, I was in the Sinai Peninsula, where I spent some time drawing in the Blue Desert. In the 80s, artist Jean Verame made the actual desert landscape the canvas for an earth-art piece in honor of the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty. The blue paint was still visible on some of the rocks that he painted, flaking from decades of exposure to the sun. Perhaps it is in contrast to this barren expanse that the flowers in France seem extra saturate in color and scent.
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| Rose Study, oil on color print on canvas (a study for the pieces I’m doing here) |
I have been painting roses. There were roses in the monks’ gardens at the Saint Catherine’s Monastery, roses in the early Byzantine-syle icons that have survived for centuries within the monastery walls, roses on the dress of a lady standing in line at the Egypt-Israel border, roses on the plastic-wrap of the airplane utensils.
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| After a long day, Steve, Wade, Cara, and Amber relax amongst Rubens at the Louvre |
Yesterday, instructor Wade Schuman took us all on a serious tour of the Louvre. In attempts to appease each of our druthers, we spent ample time with the Italians (fighting back the Mona-Lisa crowd in a valiant attempt to see the Veronese), with Rubens, with Corot and Millet, with Bosch and Memling, and the list goes on. I was, secretly, on a bit of a rose-hunt, finding it to be a most fruitful line tying together some of the most disparate of paintings.
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| Fra Angelico, Coronation of the Virgin |
A decadent rose-wreath from 16th-century Spain (Juan de Arellano) and a 19th-century French still-life (Fantin-Latour’s fleurs share, to my surprise, some of the same subject matter as a Fra Angelico. Afterwards, exhausted, we rested our weary legs with the Greeks before heading back to the train.
Now we are back in the garden, preparing for our first critique, taking place in just a few days.
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| Gary, Jessie, Jason and Steve sketch at sunset in the cornfields |
The Birds are Chirping; Time to Paint.
by Jessie Brugger (MFA 2010)
A couple days ago, I woke up at six in the morning with a bolt of energy, so I decided to go for a run through the town of Giverny. That might sound like a huge athletic feat, so I will leave it at that… Okay, truth is…The town is incredibly tiny. But it is incredibly packed full of life! Buzzing bees, gurgling cooing doves, little red insects that look like flattened lady bugs, chirping crickets. (You might guess that I am not a insect and wilderness “guru.” In fact; I think I have been in the city too long because the sound of silence is something that scares me out of my boots.) I have fallen in love with it here, though. It’s gorgeous and it’s an Artist’s Paradise. It’s lush and the colours are stunning, and the evening light warms up the whole countryside.
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Here’s a recap of yesterday at the Louvre…
Yesterday was Amazing! We were treated to a Lively, Entertaining, Educational filled tour by our fearless leader and Academy instructor Wade Schuman. We spent seven hours soaking in all the stories that Wade could give us about the artwork. Though there were about fifty billion tour guides there with leaders and flags, Wade refused to carry a flag and was adamant about counting his “ducklings†every time we reached a new painting. Even a girl from the Czech Republic stuck close with us to take in Wade’s entertaining lectures. I’ve never heard so many funny little anecdotes about artists’ personal lives and their relationship to their art.
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| Studio-mate Steve sinks into Peter Paul Rubens’ “The Landing of Marie de Medicis at Marseilles 1623-25” |
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| Wade snapped a photo of Jacopo Bassano’s “Two Hunting Dogs Tied to a Tree Stump” |
We left the Louvre to find some delicious French grub, and hot chocolate. I wandered off to find an ATM and got completely lost. That’s not the first time… and it probably won’t be the last – Paris is one of most beautiful cities because of the tiny little streets that wind in and around architecturally beautiful buildings. But for a person like me who gets lost in anything other than the ever-so-easy-to-understand New York grid, it’s very confusing, but who doesn’t want to get lost in Paris?
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| Ian’s still life – in real life. |
Tous bien, we made it back to Giverny happy and safe. Last night, a few of us walked up a hill at midnight to watch the meteor showers. I have never seen so many stars in my life. It was beautiful.
Today is a work day. Off to the studios! I am working on drawings and maquettes that I am turning into a stop animation. Next to me in the studios, Ian has a chicken, into which he has made one of the most beautiful still lifes. Everyone here has such a different approach to their artmaking and that makes it very exciting and inspiring.
We have a crit with Wade soon; so gotta get to work.
À plus tard, Cheers!
Expansion/Renovations: Break on Through
… to the other side! Mike Smith, Operations Manager at the Academy, takes us through the new opening which will connect the two buildings for the new New York Academy of Art.
Follow our blog and see regular updates on the project! See our Flickr page for more photos.
Please click here to contribute to the project.
…to Paris to Giverny
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| Sketching during the train ride. |
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| Our studio at the Terra Foundation in Giverny |
We had most of the afternoon and evening to set up our studios and explore, strolling down to the Seine, hiking up hills to check out plein air painting spots, and even finding some ostriches and kangaroos a few blocks away. This area is filled with unexpected inspiration. When the museum and garden close, we more or less have the village streets to ourselves. After sundown the only illumination outside is from the stars, which is quite a nice break from New York.
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Parlé Francais?
My posts, written while I am in residence at the Terra Foundation in Giverny, will be about thoughts, ideas and the trip I am on and the art being made. I have been in Paris four days now taking in the culture and sketching ideas that I will work on during the residency. One of the most amazing places I have been so far is the house of Gustave Moreau. What a prolific artist!!! Looking at his paintings, I thought of how contemporary they looked. Its a four-story house filled from floor to ceiling with beautiful, exciting, intense images that I could look at forever. Just as I was about to leave, I saw a man reach behind a curtain and expose hundreds of drawings that you can sit down and go through. Moreau knew his anatomy! He did many sketches of plants, animals and human anatomy. It was an inspiring visit. I look forward to keeping a discussion with all artists and everyone about art, philosophy, writing and life forever. I am honored to be here and I owe it to my class to make the best out of this trip as I can. Please write any comments you have or ideas you want to share. I would love it. Thank you all for your support!
Hangin’ in the Garden (from Moses to Monet)
by Emily Adams (MFA 2011)
The week of August 9th, I will begin a residency graciously offered to several Academy students by the Terra Foundation for American Art. Our studios will be located not far from the famed Giverny gardens, which I assume most of us know best as they were seen through the cataractous eyes of the aging Monet. We’ll see how the ‘flesh-and-blood’ foliage compares to the feeling I got when sitting in the second floor room of the MOMA.
But first, I am headed back in time before I get to work as an American in Paris. I am taking a rather round-about-route, trekking from Israel to the Sinai Peninsula before arriving at Charles-de-Gaulle airport to meet my fellow painters in France. My hopes are to make it to the gates of Saint Catherine’s monastery, where some of the oldest surviving Byzantine icons still reside. They represent an important body of work to art historians and artists, among others. Due to the extremely remote location of the monastery, these paintings are some of the sole survivors of early iconoclastic periods. I look forward to seeing the figurative art of the first millennium in its native setting. These paintings were, arguably, a major taproot of what would become European panel painting (and I’m sure someone out there has drawn up the family tree, all the way to the Brillo Box). The gold in the paintings was made to reflect candlelight and the changing light of the sun crossing the desert sky in the interior of the structures.
In the midst of perhaps the most famous desert in written history, I will be considering a theme that will guide my work at the Terra Foundation: ‘the garden’ in its many incarnations throughout history will be on my mind throughout my journey.
I thought it fitting to leave you with the following poetic snippets… But I will be back, soon, to report from atop a water lily!
O you who dwell in the gardens…
-Song of Solomon
My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece.
-Claude Monet
Madrid to Barcelona to Paris to Giverny
This is Jason Sho Green, a second-year painting major at the Academy. I’m currently writing on the train from Madrid to Barcelona, on my way to Paris in a few days to meet up with the rest of the Terra Foundation/Giverny Residency group.
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| JFK [airport] gives you plenty of time on the runway to work on cabin interior drawings… |