SherryArt: Water Lilies, Africans, Paintings and Humor

Luc Tuymans Show at SFMOMA - A Dialogue

We have a loose circle of artist friends who meet Friday afternoons at SFMOMA in the rooftop café.  One cold February day a discussion burst out about the Luc Tuymans show in the gallery next to the café. I had not seen the show and had never heard of Luc Tuymans. But after listening to all the impassioned comments, I got up and did a quick tour of the exhibit. My opinion: Tuymans evokes the history of the 20th century, from Belgian colonialism in the Congo to Auschwitz right up to Condolezza Rice with  a portrait of this statesperson.

“The Secretary of State”, 2005, oil on canvas, 18” x 24 ¼ inches  Luc Tuymans

The paintings tend to gray and monochromatic but they are still 'painterly.' It is an intellectual body of work that expresses thoughts, historical facts, commentary on public events. It is probably meant to evoke feelings in the viewers related to their responses now, or in the past, to these events. I felt it was interesting but an intellectual experience rather than an emotional one. Although the show didn't interest me a whole lot, I still think Tuymans is an important painter who is taking on the conscience of the Western Colonial and asking us to think about what we've done.

In the following days such a lively discussion of the show, its reviews, and the artist followed among us on Facebook. I am not using the names of the speakers because I don't have their permission. They can comment on this blog entry if they wish to be identified.

Henry Ossawa Tanner - African American Artist

Henry Ossawa Tanner is a world-famous "Negro" artist almost unknown in his native America. I'm publishing this story in acknowledgment of Martin Luther King Day, 2010.

Why isn't Henry Ossawa Tanner a household name?  He is a major American artist with an international reputation. Is he relatively unknown here because he is an African American?  He has been acclaimed among black leaders including Booker T. Washington, Edward Bannister, and W.E.B. DuBois.  Tanner's solid accomplishments in painting and his illustrious family history, together with their relative exclusion from American arts and letters, make a strong argument for multiculturalism - in this case the inclusion of non-white-male artists in the canons of our books and universities.

"The Banjo Lesson"  Henry Ossawa Tanner 1893

New Year's Letter for 2009

The greatest thing about this year has been turning 70 (as in 70 years old) and discovering that I can only live in the present. Remembering all the past decades, in broad strokes or small details, is exhausting.  I cannot look at all the things I've done or things that have happened without feeling the fatigue and effort I must have expended although I probably wasn't even conscious of doing a lot. Everything must have come naturally at the time, but looking back from this vantage point exhausts me, so I don't do it.

Looking to the future has been rendered impossible because so many friends, family and acquaintances have already passed on that I feel I have to live today because who knows what will happen tomorrow. On New Year's Eve I wore three beautiful handmade silver and gemstone necklaces. Most of the friends at my dinner asked why I was wearing all three necklaces and were shocked when I said "Well I'll wear them all now because who knows if  I'll have a chance to wear each one in years to come."

So Tired All I Can Do is Cook!

Repainting studio; trip to Olympia for Thanksgiving; three day Open Studios; friends from France visiting for a week; too exhausted now to do anything but cook. Friends from Maine coming for dinner tomorrow, December 21st.

So far I made chicken liver pate - sautee chicken livers in chicken fat with pulverized pistachio nuts and some black olives. Add some liquor (I used Russian pepper vodka because I couldn't drink it anyway). Put the stuff in the mini-blender. Then put the mixture in a small baking dish with high sides like a tiny souffle dish and place in tin with water and cook in oven 350 degrees for about 50 minutes. Take out and run a knife around sides; then turn over onto serving dish. Take additional ground pistachios and cover pate with thin sprinkling. Refrigerate for a while. Serve with toast or crackers. I made up this recipe but it's delicious.

Then I made mushroom risotto. Absolutely buy Italian Arborio rice for this dish. Sautee some garlic in generous portion of olive oil. Then add 1 1/2 or 2 cups of rice (depending on how many people). Sautee the rice in olive oil until evenly coated. Cook the rice in open pot by stirring slowly and adding liquid slowly. Liquid is home made chicken broth and white wine. Add slowly and alternately and keep stirring the whole time. I forgot to say that before you start the rice cook a lot of mushrooms - mixed esoteric varieties plus generous portion of shitakes. Take stems off shitakes and cut up and use stems and if shitakes are large, cut in half or quarters. Put mushrooms in open sautee frying pan with lots of butter and/or chicken fat and a little liquid and cook for about fifteen minutes. As rice cooks add salt and pepper to taste and a little saffron if you have it. When rice is about 7/8 done add mushrooms and mushroom liquid and continue cooking rice. If rice isn't done, add more wine. Keep cooking if serving immediately but if not, leave rice not quite cooked and heat up the next day and add some more wine.

Then I cut up four large anjou (dark red) pears into very thin slices. Since they are not quite ripe I made a mixture of pear liqueur and ginger syrup and poured over pears to soak over night. Ginger syrup is my new find - like maple syrup but tastes like ginger. Then tomorrow I'll bake the pears in a pie shell arranged like leaves. I make a mixture of one egg and about 1/4 cup half and half or heavy cream beaten together and maybe add a little cardomon. If I have time I'll buy a second fruit tomorrow like a pomegranite or cranberries or maybe candied ginger and add this to the pie. Place the pears and other fruit in the pie crust (Marie Callendar's frozen crusts are great in supermarket) and pour cream mixture over it. Bake 425 for ten or fifteen minutes then lower to 350 for another 40-45 minutes.

Haven't picked main course yet. Email me with questions or add a comment.

Two Weeks In Nebraska

I'm visiting Nebraska for two weeks. I post about it because people on the east and west coasts ask the weirdest questions about Nebraska and have no idea that it's here. My daughter Juliana, her husband, her two children and her black miniature dachsund (don't ask) live in a neighborhood called Happy Hollow or Dundee. Warren Buffett has been living about six blocks away for nearly fifty years in his legendary 'normal' house; his daughter lived nearby until recently.

Here is Warren Buffett and his family probably fifty years ago. I never saw a picture of him before as a young man. This is from a book called Dundee, Neb. - A Pictorial History, ©2000 Dundee Memorial Park Association. 

A Universal Computing System Dialogue

Yesterday I had a long discussion about a universal computing system. We don't learn to drive every time we change cars. I imagine that within five years computers will finally have their five or six main parts (operating system, motherboard, chips, memory, etc) standardized and compatible with everything else. People from theoretical mathematicians to grandmothers will be able to approach and use the same machine at whatever level they need. It's absurd that after forty years this hasn't happened yet. Imagine if we had twenty different television systems, etc.

The End of the Affair

Sixty years.  Affairs like this don't end after sixty years. These love affairs are usually marriages that end with death, regardless of what the survivor does after the death of the beloved. This is different. Sixty years without even a marriage. More passionate for the whole duration than I can explain to you. More intense; more fantasies; more realities; nitty gritty and sublime in one dose, in the same block, in the same hour. Could anyone without this same passion ever understand?

$150,000 New Prize for an Individual Artist

From Dec 11th Philadelphia Inquirer

By Amy S. Rosenberg

Jack L. Wolgin, the man who commissioned the iconic Clothespin sculpture across from Philadelphia's famous City Hall, once again is poised to make his mark on that city's arts landscape, this time by endowing an unprecedented fine-arts prize through Temple University's Tyler School of Art.

Officials at Tyler said the $3.7 million gift from Wolgin, 92, will create the world's largest prize solely for fine artists, an annual $150,000 juried award to be known as the Wolgin International Prize in the Fine Arts.

It will be awarded exclusively to an individual fine artist who creates "work that transcends traditional boundaries and exemplifies the highest level of excellence in painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, ceramics, metals, glass or fibers."

*********

I've known Jack Wolgin all my life. As I great philanthropist I hoped he would build the Louis Kahn designs for Mikvah Israel, perhaps the oldest Sephardic synagogue in America. This project would have honored Kahn in his native city of Philadelphia where he is woefully under-represented, and Wolgin and Jews. But alas, as an artist myself, I'm happy to hear about Wolgin's enormous and hopefully prestigious art prize. I figure it will take six months for the art noise to die down and the fame to set in. Here's a picture of Jack in his West Palm Beach home with a Rufino Tamayo from his collection.

And can I just add that when I was in high school my mother used to register for courses at the nearby Tyler School of Art and then I would attend the classes because you had to be eighteen to register. I took sculpture for three years at night and lots of art history with the great Dr. Herman Gundersheimer. 

Sausalito Artist Frances Galli 90 Years Old and Still Painting

 
Suzie Bucholz and Frances Galli in Suzie's Studio

On November 5th friends at the ICB Building in Sausalito helped Frances Galli celebrate her 90th birthday. Her husband of 67 years joined us and many women spoke of Francis as their inspiration, mentor and role model. Frances has always been an artist with over twenty years in her Sausalito studio. She met her husband when they were both working for Patterson and Hall, an art agency in San Francisco that handled work for the high profile advertising agencies of the day.

 
Frances' husband, painter Stan Galli in Frances' studio before party

Dani Roach, Leslie Allen, Aiko Morioko, Elaine Gentile

Frances and Stan spent twenty five summers in Italy and two full years in Rome and all of this "Italian" is reflected in the colors and subject matter of her paintings. But these are only the facts. Here's the real story:

Frances, at ninety, still drives from her home in Kentfield to Saualito almost every morning to work for several hours in her studio. She's sharp and she's amazingly beautiful. She participates in all our Open Studios and has a bunch of new paintings each season. Frances is sweet, funny and helpful. We all want her for our best friend. But most important to me is that she has added twenty-five years (at least) to my painting life. I could never find a role model when I was young. The women painters in New York were still married to male artists and they served their husbands. Only later did the Helen Frankenthalers and Lee Krasners become known and successful on their own. What a relief for me, The Oldest Woman on the Web, to finally want to emulate this older woman committed to painting all her life! We love Frances and celebrate her life!

 

ARTISTS FOR OBAMA

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IMAGE TO YOUR SITE! NOW!

St.Basil's Cathedral Paintings - Imitation, Forgery or Just Art?

I was shocked to find the image of St. Basil's Cathedral pictured on the left below which seems to be an almost direct copy of my painting of St. Basil's, pictured on the right. I queried my friends and art "aficionados" about their opinions, some of which appear below followed by the spur of the moment response of an art historian friend. Please click on "Comments" and add your opinion and I'll try and figure out how to use the Poll Widget and set up a real poll. And I would love to hear what other artists do in these cases. I used to live in Maine where the lobstermen just burned down the house of any other lobsterman who wandered into his territory on the ocean.  But I guess that doesn't cut it in California. Thanks, Sherry.

   
The painting on the left appeared on a woman's blog saying it was created in July 2008, 16" x 20" and sold as a commission for $450.00. I don't really want to give her more publicity. The painting on the right was made in 2007, has appeared in several places online and comes up prominently in searches. It is 36" x 36" and is for sale for $2400.

Bite the Bronze Heirloom Tomato

Sausalito Artist Laura Lengyel of the ICB Building unveiled her delicious bronze sculpture “Tilted Tomato” in Pittston, PA at the 25th Annual Pittston Tomato Festival Anniversary Ball on August 16. The work was commissioned by Pittston’s previous Mayor Michael Lombardo as a tribute to this former coal-mining town in Northeastern PA now known as the “Quality Tomato Capital of the World” on the scenic Susquehanna River. Lengyel’s stunning sculpture of a giant ”Heirloom Variety” tomato with its bright ruby red patina weighs 350 pounds and measures 32” high x 29” x 27.” If you're planning a great dinner party “Tilted Tomato” is available and may be ordered as a limited edition multiple by contacting the artist.

Artists Poisoning Themselves

Hunter's Point has been a huge artists' studio site for years. Built on a former naval installation, it has recently been condemned for toxicity and the fate of the artists has been up in the air for years. A former studio artist, who moved away to avoid the toxicity, just received this email (sic) from "The Point."

I'd love to do an artists gatherine but I should point out that we are not suppposed to eat outdoors at the Point anymore according toe Arc Econoloy at one of the meetings I went to. There is a certain amount of ytoxic dust around and it's one thing to breathe it in and anothe to actually inbgest it.

p-ardon my misspellings...something is wrong with this comp0uter

Hunter's Point Drydock. Photo by Randy Reddig

Hunter's Point. Photo by Randy Reddig

Intelligent Design Isn't About Art

I recently sent my son-in-law this link to a New York Times article about the possibility that everything on our planet (perhaps in our universe) is merely the computer simulation of an advanced civilization with all its implications of Intelligent Design.

Our Lives, Controlled From Some Guy’s Couch
By John Tierney August 14, 2007

Until I talked to Nick Bostrom, a philosopher at Oxford University, it never occurred to me that our universe might be somebody else’s hobby. I hadn’t imagined that the omniscient, omnipotent creator of the heavens and earth could be an advanced version of a guy who spends his weekends building model railroads or overseeing video-game worlds like the Sims.

Rusty Reno (aka R.R. Reno) is a Christian theologian, author and Features Editor of First Things, a Catholic intellectual journal. (His wife, my daugher, is a seriously conservative almost Orthodox Jew!)

Rusty responded to the article by saying: "Thanks for the article. This is the most plausible explanation I've had to date about the behavior of our teenagers, Jesse and Rachel."

Rusty gave me a great laugh and, more importantly, an excuse to publish pictures of Rachel and Jesse, 18 and 16 respectively.

New Blood at Sausalito's ICB Artists' Studios

30 year ICB Artist Elaine Gentile welcomes newcomer Dana King