Posts from ‘Art History’
NMWA Sends Conservation Message
May 25, 2011, a ”migration conservation message tops the program for the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s 2011 summer exhibitions opening reception.” That evening Harvey Locke, Founder and Strategic Advisor to the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y) and Vice President for Conservation Strategy at the WILD Foundation, will speak to the audienence at 7 pm. His remarks will be followed by a talk by artist Dwayne Harty, who has documented the migratory corridor in his paintings. The reception begins at 5:30 pm.
Attendees will be able to view The Journey of Wildlife and Art and Above Timberline: Engravings by Carl Rungius, and the Wyoming winners of the 2011 Federal Junior Duck Stamp Competition.
A companion exhibition, Above Timberline: Engravings by Carl Rungius, runs May 7 through October 2, 2011. The exhibit features the complete set of
drypoint etchings by renowned Western wildlife artist Carl Rungius, who first visited Wyoming and Yellowstone in 1895.
The evening’s events are free to museum members, $12 for non-members. 307-732-5444 for information. psackrey@wildlifeart.org.
Y2Y map courtesy Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative.
•
There is a long list of reasons why Vertical Harvest’s garage garden project merits a green light. Its value as public art lies near the top.
The proposed vertical garden is more than a green project (see this link for an April, 2009 post on vertical gardens). Vertical gardens are one form of public art, and creating a good plan to incorporate public art into town planning would be a very smart move for Jackson. As Americans for the Arts notes, it’s important to clarify the difference between public art and art placed in public spaces. ArtSpot is an example of the latter; a vertical greenhouse an example of the former. ArtSpot offers art to everyone; one needn’t visit a museum or gallery. That is benefit in itself.
Public art incorporates planning around a specific site, considers how it will affect the public, how environmental conditions will figure in, evaluates what the art says about the site and community it inhabits. Vertical Harvest’s garden will provide healthy food, cleaner air, jobs (engineers, food growers, architects, designers, solar scientists…) and add welcome beauty to an unremarkable structure.
Successful public art is a powerful tourism tool. It builds cultural appeal. It builds recognition of place; it interprets place. All these elements stimulate economy. Well positioned public art draws people through urban spaces. Public art would engage visitors who don’t make it more than a block south, north, east and west of the Square and encourage them to venture further.
Often, public art is not fully appreciated until years after its installation. But you need only consider your favorite public art landmarks. Can you imagine the cities and spaces they inhabit without them? Over time, dynamic public art becomes an enduring symbol of place.
Vertical Harvest’s project design leaves most of the garage accessible for parking. If its building specs permit, the newly green space could be rented out for public functions, fund raisers, weddings, bat
mitzvahs, etc. All generating revenue. The Town of Jackson’s identity, going forward, seems up in the air. Adding significant amounts of public art to available spaces (planning for and creating an open sculpture garden adjacent to the Center for the Arts, for example) will help Jackson move into an identity clearly different from that of Teton Village and Shooting Star. It is a very difficult course to try and match their status as luxury ski resorts.
Jackson’s 2010 Fall Arts Festival’s resounding economic success indicates that arts are the Town of Jackson’s trump card. Let’s play it.
•
Eco-landscape designer Patricia Johanson sends this video made for a NYC art exhbition; the clip profiles the Petaluma Water Recycling Facility and Salt Lake City, “finally in construction after large cash settlements and other concessions to a developer who owned an easement across our trail.” Good public gardens and public art also increase real estate values, says Johanson.
•
Wyoming’s Olive Fell (1896-1980) will be the focus of Cayuse’s attention on Thursday, February 17. Stop by Jackson’s best Western and National Parks Americana gallery from 5-8 pm that day, and see how Fell’s work “presents a reflection
of the beauty in stillness, the peaceful wonder, and the fun and humor that still compose the American West.”
Cayuse’s Mary Schmidt shares Fell’s history:
“Born in Big Timber, Mt in 1896 (Fell) spent her early childhood in the remote areas of the northern part of the state….Her natural relationship with the wilderness drew her to move to the 1800 acre Four Bear Ranch after her schooling, and this is where she remained for the duration of her life. The Four Bear Ranch, 25 miles west of Cody, was close to both Yellowstone and the protected game refuge of the Absaroka Range; thus allowing her to track and observe animals. From the beginning Fell’s works were highly regarded on a national level. In 1934 her etching For Minds to Know was selected as one of best 100 prints of the year. Her works were seen at the International Etchers show in LA; the Northwest Printmakers show in Seattle; and at The National Art Exhibition in Chicago in 1939. It was a natural that Fell would develop a long relationship with Yellowstone. In the 20s through the 40s Fell created postcards, posters, and letters for park visitors. Locally she also began loaning works to the Buffalo Bill Museum, later renamed The Buffalo Bill Historical Center. Her works hung in the museum for years and they, along with the Montana Historical Society, still have the largest collections.”
•
Meet photographer John Richter during during Thursday, February 17th’s Gallery Walk.
Remember wildflowers?
Richter Photography is located at 30 King Street, across from Shades Cafe. Stop by to visit Richter and see his work 5-8:00 pm. For information, phone 307.733.8880 or email sales@johnrichterphoto.com.
A new collection of silk thread embroidery works from Japan’s Meiji Period (1868-1912) are on view at Heather James Fine Art. Jackson, a stand-alone-county-in-a-stand-alone-state, is being infiltrated by global movements and thought; many of those are expressed in art.
JapanGuide.com provides a summary of the Meiji Restoration: “Like other subjugated Asian nations, the Japanese were forced to sign unequal treaties with Western powers. These treaties granted the Westerners one-sided economical and legal advantages in Japan. In order to regain independence from the Europeans and Americans and establish herself as a respected nation in the world, Meiji Japan was determined to close the gap to the Western powers economically and militarily. Drastic reforms were carried out in practically all areas.”
Gold and silk threads illuminate these portraits of birds of prey. An interesting exercise would be to compare these Japanese works with avian arts from the same era at the National Museum of Wildlife Art.
“Japanese embroidery technique goes back more than one thousand years. It originated in China and was eventually introduced to Japan by Korean artisans, around the same time Buddism entered Japan,” says Heather James’ Lyndsay McCandless.
A six-panel Soga School painting of birds is part of this exhibit; the work dates from c. 1700. McCandless notes that falconry was introduced into Japan around 244AD.
“In the late sixteenth and seventeenth century, the samurai warriors had mastered falconry as part of their military training,” notes McCandless. “Both of these pieces really need to be seen and appreciated in person, so please stop by the gallery anytime and I would be happy to share them with you! Enjoy!” www.heatherjames.com
•
“What’s really happening is happening down in the studio with a pencil and a drawing pad, experimenting and exploring ideas and materials or executing the pieces themselves. But then how do you talk about that? If there were words, it would destroy the essence of my personal experience of fooling around with materials and ideas. I’ll leave the words to the critics.” ~Kate Hunt
Over-explaining and criticizing can suck art’s intrigue dry. We like to describe, let you know where the art is, comment and ask a few questions.
Montana born, contemporary Western sculptor Kate Hunt still resides in Kalispell, Montana. A former Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary artist, Hunt’s artwork is now available at Amangani Resort, where she has a large installation. Her work is included in the Yellowstone Art Center in Billings.
Hunt was kind enough to send me a note about an upcoming show of hers, Kate Hunt. The exhibition is up at Seattle’s Davidson Galleries, opened February 3 and is on display through February 26, 2011.
Her work is distinctive, dense, and very satisfying to take in. She’s at one with her materials. She
works in large and small scales, using materials we know: newspaper, steel, twine, nails, palm fronds. But she packs, wraps, stacks and binds these materials together to form objects that feel that they are only now arranged as they were originally meant to be. She gets to the core of these materials–and mixes a Western sensibility with Asian minimalism. Quiet, meditative, Hunt’s works can be large but they tread gently, like spirits.
If you were on an archeological dig and came upon any one of Hunt’s works, you would immediately be curious about the culture that created the blocks of nail-pierced blackened steel, curving columns and baled stacks of cut newspaper.
The show’s cover image features a row of broom-like, bristled sconces–dark paper swags hang off them like a goat’s beard. A few goats are wandering around inside, in front of the sculptures. “The goats are my pets and they just hang out,” says the artist. “They sleep in the studio I work in, in front of the fire. This day they were just there. They are named Pinky and Frida. Frida is the little female in front of the work.”
Hunt says that though a bit of time has elapsed since her last show in Jackson, she’s continuing on course. “Nothing has really changed about the materials, I just keep tunneling in deeper. One piece leads to another.” www.katehunt.com
•
The new exhibition opening at the National Museum of Wildlife Art, A Change of Seasons: Wildlife in Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, is on display at the museum February 11 – April 29, 2011.
Exploring ways wildlife adapts to changing seasons, the show reflects the pride artists take in recording animal behavior in the wild, says Curator of Art Adam Duncan Harris. The 
show’s title was inspired by T.D. Kelsey’s bronze sculpture, A Change of Seasons, (on the museum’s Rungius Road approach), depicting two bison shedding their coats as winter gives way to spring.
“This exhibition allows us to use the breadth and flexibility of the museum’s collection to illustrate through beautiful artwork how animals adapt to the various seasons of the year, from bears fattening up for their long winter hibernation to elk in velvet,” says Harris.
The show includes these notable works: Knight Errant by Carl Rungius, a winter scene; Mother Quail by Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait for spring; Curious Visitors by Michael Coleman, summer; and Virginia White-Tail by William Jacobs Hays, fall. Question and answer formats engage visitors, presenting queries about animal behavior.
“Why do moose stand around in the water?” and “Why do bison face into the wind on cold days?”
I don’t know the answers. Do you? A visit to NMWA is afoot! www.wildlifeart.org
•
‘Kay, this isn’t a haystack. This is a painting of a place where the ocean crashes against sea cliffs. I love this particular Monet because….well, because it’s a great example of why the Impressionists were a mega-movement and this study in blues, this immersion in color and abstraction, is currently on view at Heather James Fine Art, in Jackson. Ideally a larger view of the work would be displayed here, but when I tried blowing this seascape up to full size it looked like a fun house mirror image. That would be bad.
Knowing this Monet is in town provides a great excuse for passing on an ARTnews review of a recent Gagosian Gallery (NYC) show of Claude Monet’s works. In that Summer 2010 review, Alfred Mac Adam describes Impressionism as “a total immersion in color and mood, an LSD trip without the side effects.” Here is an excerpt from Adam’s review:
“The startling works here, in which the artist breaks free of the lilies, made us wonder if Monet could be thought of as the most daring painter in France after World War I. (Paintings) in the show, all titled Le Pont Japonaise, and painted between 1918 and 1924 (the year the “First Surrealist Manifesto appeared), move the stylization of objects…toward Abstract Expressionism. The object is of no importance in itself; it is simply a pretext for a riot of color.”
Several other works, says Adam, provide us with a “20th-century Monet we do not know.”
Also at Heather James: A continuation of an exhibition of photographs by Jackson’s own rogue attorney Gerry Spence. A catalog accompanies the show, and these newest Spence photographs will be on view through December 31, 2010. Click here to see the catalog and see a complete selection of works. For more information contact James Carona by emailing jim@heatherjames.com, or call the gallery at 307-200-6090.
It’s exhilarating to be home.
Recently the JH Art Blog was down. Hardly an ideal re-entry scenario, but we’re up and running again, and working to catch up with Jackson’s arts scene. It only takes a brief reacquainting visit to galleries to realize that Jackson’s regional arts scene, for a town of its size, is truly exceptional. It’s alive with eclectic work and great talent represented in every
venue. We’re not New York or Paris or Chicago….or Miami. But the quality of art here, the quantity of talent? We should be proud. Our subject matter reflects the region, yes. National and international influences are finding their way in, and when good management and vision are in play everybody wins.
Regarding the situation involving the Art Association and Aaron Wallis: I’ve had my conversation with Wallis, so we’re done as far as that is concerned. However, the current situation between him and the arts community is very unfortunate. No winners there. Hope it can be resolved.
The good news:
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful and Artists in the Park (officially Artists in the Environment) features Wilson, Wyoming artist Jocelyn Slack this Saturday, August 14th, at Oxbow Bend Turnout in Grand Teton National Park. Slack, an illustrator, works primarily in watercolors, pen and ink. She’s a regular contributor to Crane Creek Graphics and her work was included in the recent Center for the Arts exhibition of images of dancers.
Artists in the Park is sponsored by the Grand Teton Association and is free to the public. Look for Slack’s easel and the event’s Artist Demonstration banner. Artists in this series begin painting at 9:00 a.m. and end at noon. Bring a chair, snacks, and paints if the spirit moves.
Phone: 307-739-3606.
Item #2:
“I am fascinated with painting white objects because, in watercolor, white subjects are what appears in the place where there is no paint. By painting the shadows on the form and the negative space around the form, the form itself appears.” – September Vhay
Essence.
What Jackson painter September Vhay does best, some might argue, is capture the essence—the nut—of the animals she paints. Her new show goes up Saturday, August 18, at Trio Fine Art and features Vhay’s trademark graceful renditions of horses, wildlife, ranch animals, magpies and orchids.
The orchids are white, and Vhay says painting that particular flower connects her to her watercolor background. Structurally, the flower may appeal to the painter’s other identity; she’s a trained and practiced architect. In fact, orchid petals remind Vhay of draft horse haunches.
And the flowers hold still.
Trio’s artists are all trying new subjects. Vhay also will exhibit paintings of longhorns. For her, the bulls intrigue “…on many levels, from the shape of their horns to their symbolism of the West. Longhorns were the first cattle introduced to the U.S. in the late 1400′s due to their ability to handle harsh conditions and to breed easily. Their disposition is innately gentle, yet they appear intimidating due to the size of their horns, which can span up to 80 inches.”
“In one painting, this gentleness is expressed in the bulls eye,” Vhay said, “Yet his horns let you know that in an instant he would have no problem protecting himself.”
For info, log onto www.vhay.com, visit www.triofineart.com, or phone 307.734.4444.
Item #3:
Art Association Happenings!
The Jackson Hole Art Association’s Local Landscapes with Local Artists series features artist Tammy Callens on Saturday, August 14, 8:30 am – 12:30 pm. The half day of creative fun and
learning takes place at the Snake River Ranch.
This workshop costs $75; Art Association members may attend for $50. Billed as “Interpreting the Traditional Landscape,” (I take that to mean attendees will explore ways to interpret landscape in various ways) the morning includes:
· A one hour painting demonstration and talk by Tammy
· Two hours to create using the medium of your choice
· A critique and one-on-one direction from Tammy
· A simple picnic lunch will be included
Space is limited. To sign up, or for more info, call 307.733.6379.
Talk Like an Egyptian?
August 12 – 15, 2010 | 5 Lectures | Attend one or attend them all!
Beginning August 12th, the Art Association will present a series of lectures by Hisham El Meniawy. A native of Cairo, Mr. Meniawy is a history and archeology specialist of ancient Egypt. He studied at the university in Cairo and has lectured for 20 years in Europe and at conferences and archeology sites throughout Egypt.
Egypt’s ancient arts are a keystone of the world’s art history. Please contact the Art Association for more information on this series.
Coming up: The second Summer 2010 Jackson Hole Art Fair takes place August 20-22 at Miller Park, in Jackson. www.artassociation.org