Utrecht Art Supplies Black Friday 40% Off - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Black Friday 40% off Utrecht Sale!

On Black Friday Utrecht is opening at 8:30 am and closing at 10pm! All day they will be taking 40% off Utrecht paint, canvas, brushes and paper. This includes all Utrecht paint, stretcher bars, folded canvas, wooden boards, Utrecht brushes, and all the open stock of Utrecht paper, pads and sketchbooks.

UTRECHT ART SUPPLIES 2354 N FEDERAL HWY FORT LAUDERDALE, FL 33305 (954) 630-1482 store39@utrecht.com
Website

12 Inspiring High Schools Keeping the Arts Alive -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Julia Perlowski recipient of the  “Arts Educator of the Year”

by the Cultural Foundation of Broward with some of her students. 

photo - Pompano Today Online

12 Inspiring High Schools Keeping the Arts Alive.  An alert reader of this blog sent in this article from OnlineColleges.net an online blog.  And it turns out not every school is cutting arts out of the curriculum.  In fact some are even expanding.  The linked article has 12 stories of High Schools that are coming up with creative ways to keep the arts from budget cuts.  Pompano Beach High School right here in Broward County is one of the highlighted schools.

Link to Article from OnlineColleges.net



Marcel Duchamp at Miami Art Museum - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Marcel Duchamp - Box in a Suitcase -1941

Focus: Marcel Duchamp at MAM

November 17, 2011 through Sunday, March 18, 2012

Via artdaily.og;

Miami Art Museum presents rare opportunity to see works by Marcel Duchamp

Focus: Marcel Duchamp, a rare opportunity for Miami audiences to experience the seminal French artist’s work firsthand. The display presents Miami Art Museum’s edition of Duchamp’s Box in a Suitcase, from 1961, alongside a small trove of works hailing from the collection of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota. The exhibition will be on view at Miami Art Museum from Thursday, November 17, 2011 through Sunday, March 18, 2012.

“Marcel Duchamp reoriented the way we understand the source of a given artwork’s meaning and value,” said MAM Associate Curator René Morales. “He questioned the barriers that separate art from everyday life, expanding our conceptions of what an artwork can be.”

Box in a Suitcase was one of the first artworks purchased by MAM for its collection. Conceived in 1941 on the eve of Duchamp’s departure from Europe to the US, it serves as a portable, miniature retrospective of his own work. With a characteristic attitude of detached irony, the self-exiled artist thus cast himself in the role of traveling salesman, transporting revolutionary ideas rather than housewares – not from door to door but from one continent to another. Surrounded by full-scale examples of Duchamp’s famous ready-mades as well as a rare early painting, Box in a Suitcase functions in this context as an exhibition within an exhibition.

David Joselit, author of Infinite Regress: Marcel Duchamp 1910-1941, will give a lecture on Duchamp’s work on February 18, 2012 at 2pm.

This one is not to be missed!  And a perfect addition to the already busy Art Basel weekend.  I have blogged about the old chess master before. GL
Check out my other posts here;
Duchamp Birthday wishes
Art Around the Web Marcel Duchamp
Making Sense of Marcel Duchamp website
Official Marcel Duchamp website

CALL FOR ARTISTS : South Region - New American Paintings -- by Florida Fine Art Blog

NEW AMERICAN PAINTINGS

Deadline: December 31, 2011 (Midnight EST)

CALL FOR ARTISTS: South Region Artists residing in: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington DC, West Virginia

Juror: Michael Rooks
Wieland Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art High Museum of Art

Online Submission Extended Deadline: December 31, 2011 (Midnight EST)

To apply online you will need to prepare four jpegs of your work (no larger than 1200 pixels at their greatest dimension) and a credit card for the entry fee of $50. All styles and media are welcome, as long as the work is singular and two-dimensional.                            

To submit: www.newamericanpaintings.net/submission/
Website: http://newamericanpaintings.net/

It's that time of year again and I love to point out this competition every year.  Please consider this magazine if you are serious about getting good exposure.  I cannot say enough about this competition or how many gallerists I know look to it for new talent.  GL

"Video of the Week" Marcus Jansen's upcoming show at Scope - by Florida Fine Art Blog

PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MARCUS JANSEN ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH

The Art Basel Miami Beach 2011 festivities will open on November 29th with SCOPE Art Fair, showing the best emerging cutting-edge artist’s on the international contemporary art scene.

SCOPE is the largest and most global art fair in the world featuring emerging contemporary art with 7 markets worldwide. It is our goal and passion to present the most innovative galleries, artists and curators while networking them with our Patrons through a unique program of solo and thematic group shows presented alongside museum-quality exhibitions, collector tours, screenings, and special events.

Among them is internationally acclaimed painter Marcus Jansen who had his solo show at Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center in downtown Fort Myers in May this year drawing over four thousand visitors to his reception. Jansen was also recently selected one out of only 18 selected painters internationally for this generations ABOLUT VODKA campaign like in the past Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst and Keith Haring.

The New York Times describes Jansen’s work, "surrealistic asphalt jungles." Jansen’s new three dimensional installation works will be represented by 101 Exhibit at SCOPE. Jansen will have work at the Fair as well as at 101 Exhibit Gallery located at 101 NE 40th St, Miami, FL 33137. Jansen is considered by many scholars and historians as one of the most exciting painters in America today.

Art critic and historian Donald Miller thinks Jansen’s paintings “have longevity” because “there isn’t anyone doing what he’s doing … [His paintings] have their own niche. They’re totally unique …. I have a roladex in my mind of all the paintings throughout history … and I’ve never seen anything like [Jansen's work].”

Jansen's work can be found in Who's Who in American Art and in Museum collections such as the
The Moscow Museum of Modern Art, (MMOMA), Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art, The New Britain Museum of American Art and the Smithsonian Institution.

Scope Website
Artists website
101 Exhibit
My interview with Marcus here.
For more information please contact: (239)826.6376
Scope is located at: SCOPE Pavilion | Wynwood Arts District | NE 1st Ave (Midtown Blvd) @ NE 30th StMiami, FL 33127.

Free Admission - Museum Day - Saturday Sept 24th - by Florida Fine Art Blog

In the spirit of Smithsonian Museums, who offer free admission everyday, Museum Day is an annual event hosted by Smithsonian magazine in which participating museums across the country open their doors to anyone presenting a Museum Day Ticket...for free!

Participating Museums Link

Smithsonian Website

Miami Art Museum Starts Vertical Construction -- New Times -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Miami Art Museum Starts Vertical Construction at Museum Park

From the Article at Miami New Times Blog;

The new MAM is being designed by Herzog & de Meuron, the same Swiss firm that created the "house of cards" parking garage at 1111 Lincoln Road, often cited for its architectural bravado.


Their design plan for the museum includes a library, an auditorium, classrooms, art and digital media workshop spaces, and a café. The entire structure will sit on an elevated platform and below a canopy, both of which will extend far beyond the museum's walls, creating a shaded veranda and plazas.

They promise lots of natural light and views of the surrounding park and bay as well as innovative landscape integration that melds the tropical park and modernist building. In a crafty design trick, the main gallery level will appear to float between other transparent levels.

The high-concept design makes even us here at New Times, Miami's resident skeptics and cranks, feel inspired. With the foundation now in place, the construction team will begin going vertical, and frankly, 2013 can't get here soon enough.

This has been a long time coming and there were times we never thought the ground breaking would take place.  Two things that will tell if this cultural facility will become like all the others in Miami or will this be the beginning of a new era of responsible construction. The first sign will be if the project is finished by its due date and the other more important sign to the public will be if they can complete the project without huge cost overruns.  Too many times the public has been promised something only to be saddled later with an enormous unexpected bill.  If the local governments want to use public dollars for these new cultural facilities in South Florida they must be able to show responsibility going forward or else the public will forever be turned off to new projects. GL

Link to Article at Miami New Times

Miami Art Museum website

Saturday, August 27 - Wine/Beer Tasting and Art Auction - Dali Museum - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

The Birth of Liquid Desires

Presented by The Zodiac Group
Formerly called Z-Grapes, this annual tasting and art auction is the Zodiac Group's largest fundraiser. Experience The New Dali indoors and out! Featuring tapas by Ceviche, tastings of fine Spanish wines and craft beers, live music and more.

Prices range from $50.00 to $75.00
Saturday, August 27
7:00 to 10:00 pm

Tickets are all-inclusive.
Additional details at Dali Museum website

Looks like a great event at one of my favorite museums in the Country!  GL

A Visual Escape to Sarasota, Florida’s Ringling Museum -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

A nice blog post with great pictures of the Ringling Museum. For those who have not been to the Ringling it is a fantastic art museum. Once in financial trouble, now with a new director and the partnership with Florida State University the museum is making big plans for the future. Not to be missed if your visiting the west coast.

A Visual Escape to Sarasota, Florida’s Ringling Museum

Marcel Duchamp -- Happy Birthday -- by Florida Fine Art Blog

Marcel Duchamp

28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968

The father of the “readymade”, Duchamp’s work still challenges us to see the truth of art. Duchamp’s influence is so total that at this point walking through any modern art fair you will see, ready-mades, Kinetic works, conceptual pieces; all movements and ideas that Duchamp shepherded into the art world. If there is just one artist to study, just one biography that will fascinate, frustrate and inspire, I would suggest Duchamp. His life was an intellectual journey for truth.

My love of chess is thanks to Marcel Duchamp. By 1918 or so Duchamp had for the most part moved away from art and concentrated on studying chess. That intrigued me and prompted me to purchase my first book on chess.  Chess has been something I have kept up with and always have a few games ongoing.


I have embedded a YouTube of archival footage of Marcel Duchamp describing his work. If you have the time, watch the other videos that are suggested when the video finishes. Also I have linked to a previous blog post I did with wonderful links to websites devoted to Marcel Duchamp. Enjoy!  GL




Blog link to Marcel Duchamp

Brevard Art Museum gets $1M gift, new name -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Brevard Art Museum renamed Foosaner Art Museum

The Foosaner Foundation has announced that it will donate $1 million to Florida Tech to be used to support the Brevard Art Museum, which the university now runs.

The museum will be renamed the Foosaner Art Museum.
In a prepared press release, Negroni-Hendrick, who lives in Cocoa, stated: "You don't have to be wealthy to help others...If you are fortunate enough to be able to afford to make financial gifts of any amount, you should feel good about doing so. But if not, we are all blessed with time and talents that we can share with others."
"It's a win win for the university and the community," said Carla Funk, the newly named Director of Museums for Florida Tech.

Link to Article from Florida Today website
Brevard / Foosaner Art Museum website

MARCUS JANSEN WITH AN ABSOLUT BLANK -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

MARCUS JANSEN

 PART OF NEW MOVEMENT OF CREATIVITY

WITH AN ABSOLUT BLANK

Press Release;  In collaboration with a new generation of artists, ABSOLUT VODKA is introducing ABSOLUT BLANK, a global creative movement, in which ABSOLUT appears as a catalyst for contemporary leading-edge creativity.

ABSOLUT has always challenged conventions through creative collaborations with artists such as Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Damien Hirst, and more recently Ellen von Unwerth and Spike Jonze. ABSOLUT BLANK is a daring new chapter for ABSOLUT. “In ABSOLUT BLANK, ABSOLUT has boldly made its iconic bottle into a blank canvas to inspire artists throughout the world to collaborate and fill it with creativity. We brought together creative collaborators from a variety of disciplines and watched the journey from pure white canvas to exceptional pieces of art. The result depicts how artists and creativity are inspired through ABSOLUT,” says Mark Hamilton, Global Marketing Director at The Absolut Company.

The recent cover artist of "New American Paintings" publication No. 94 southern edition, Marcus Jansen, is one of the only 18 selected artists to contribute to the ABSOLUT campaign with a uniquely painted abstract work of art. Much of which, depcits his typical style of "urban expressionism" and that can be seen in most of his his cutting-edge as well as socio-politically charged work. Jansen had a strong year in 2011,the book cover shows his work "Creeping Obstacles in Kansas", including a selection of 40 leading contemporary painters in America today selected by noted Juror and Director of the US Biennial Dan Cameron.

The 18 artists participating in ABSOLUT BLANK represent a variety of creative disciplines from across the globe; from drawing, painting and sculpting to film making and digital art.

“With ABSOLUT BLANK, we want to contribute to a global creative movement. Ultimately, making the world even more vibrant and exceptional. It All Starts With an ABSOLUT BLANK,” Mark Hamilton continues.  ABSOLUT BLANK will be launched in several countries and going live in the UK on July 13th, supported by TVC, Print, OOH, Digital and Experiential.

ABSOLUT BLANK TV commercial


For more information, assets and other artists work,
please visit ABSOLUT PRESS link
Marcus Jansen Website 
Gallery website
My Artist Spotlight with Marcus

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn -- Happy Birthday -- by Florida Fine Art

The Three Crosses 1653

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn -- Happy Birthday

Rembrandt was born on July 15th, 1606

For my thoughts on the Master and his work please follow the links to my past blog posts.

Rembrandt Web Catalogue - wonderful resource

My Favorite Painting - a story about me and a Rembrandt painting

Creative returns on investment: Funding the arts grows the bottom line -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

From The Star.com
Published On Fri Jul 1 2011
Laura Eggertson

Creative returns on investment: Funding the arts grows the bottom line

Gone is the desperation in the arts community in the 1990s, when “we were all trying to prove the economic multiplier effect” of investing in the sector, says Tricia Baldwin, managing director of the internationally acclaimed Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir.


Now those economic multiplier formulas are well-established. For every $1 the City of Toronto invested, cultural organizations were able to leverage $17.75 in 2009, for example, Foster, Kain and Prentice report in Creative Capital Gains: An Action Plan for Toronto.

Thanks to the groundwork that thinkers like Florida and others laid, in this decade “there’s much more appreciation of the contribution of the arts to society, and not just the economic effect but the effect of creativity,” says Baldwin.

Arts organizations no longer have to justify their existence before getting money formerly viewed as a government handout, she says. They can also cite their overall contribution to society.

Common sense is also dictating that governments support these industries, says Peter Williamson, a partner and executive producer at Breakthrough Entertainment, a film and television production company in Toronto.

”Generally speaking, the governments we’ve had for the last 10 to 15 years have seen the benefits of being able to stimulate employment and economic growth,” Williamson says. Both a provincial and federal film and television tax credit have assisted the growth of the film and television industry in Toronto, he says.

[...]

Arts funding and the overall economy

• In the GTA, there are an estimated 8500 arts and culture organizations. They employ 150,000 people and generate $9 billion for the region’s gross domestic product.
• $1 in City of Toronto funding generates $5.15 from other levels of government; $5.48 from the private sector; and $7.12 in earned revenues from ticket sales, program fees, venue rentals, and bar and gift shop sales.
• 2.9 million visitors reported cultural activity as the reason they came to Toronto in 2009.
• The Toronto International Film Festival generated $131.7 million worth of GDP in Toronto in 2008-09, created 2,365 jobs and generated $1.8 million in municipal taxes.
• As a whole, Ontario’s cultural sector contributes more than $19.7 billion to the province’s GDP, or 4.2 per cent.
• The cultural sector employs 252,000 people directly in Ontario.

The evidence is overwhelming at this point. You want a recovery? You want jobs and increased tax revenue?  Increase Arts Funding!  GL

Link to article at The Star.com

Sun Sentinel -- Public art on your dime. Should you still be paying for it? -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

                                Public Art Sculpture located at the Fort Lauderdale Airport

Public art on your dime  Should you still be paying for it?
Sun Sentinel
by Brittany Wallman
12:45 p.m. EDT, July 11, 2011
Behind a secure door, up an elevator, down a hallway, behind a partition and inside some crates is a piece of public art.
The colorful glass sculpture inside, called "Linaje,'' cost taxpayers $25,000 and was planned for "high visibility.'' So far, it's only getting exposure as a symbol of troubles in Broward County's Art in Public Places program.
Exasperated Broward officials, most of them supporters of public art, nevertheless said it's time to tighten up a program that has allowed the glass sculpture to lie unseen long after it was paid for and created, and that shifts tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to art when painful cuts have been made elsewhere.
Commissioners also want a say in what art gets built, where.
"I look at my own life,'' Broward's John Rodstrom said. "I have collected art in the past and I haven't bought a piece in a while. I don't have the disposable income. I think a lot of America feels that way right now.''
Some taxpayers don't want government taking their money and buying art with it, especially art they think is ugly.
Read the rest of the article here

Public Art Sculpture outside the Fort Lauderdale Convention Center

A big debate has risen in South Florida over public art funding.  In times of financial strain art funding is seen by many as a luxury that must be cut.   By others it is a convenient excuse for cutting the Government out of something they don’t think it should be involved in.  And still others are upset by what they perceive as money wasted on unappealing art.   

The article I have posted talks about some possible remedies, none of which seem like good ideas.  One idea is to put every art project expected to cost over $100,000 to a full public vote.  That reminds me of the Eiffel Tower story I once heard.  5 years after the 1889 Worlds Fair had ended in Paris a poll was taken to see what support there was for keeping the Eiffel Tower up.  90% of Parisians voted to take it down.  Now it's over a hundred years later and you would be hard pressed to find anyone in Paris willing to loose their most iconic structure.  It would be hard to imagine an art project anywhere that everyone agreed about, especially when it is first proposed.  

Another problem is that most do not realize that no additional funds are raised, no additional taxes are levied to pay for the art.  The budget for public art comes as a percentage of the total cost to build the public building.  The percentage is usually 1% to 2% up to a certain amount.  The selection process is very thorough and is set up to make sure that local artists and art suppliers benefit from the new construction just as local construction firms, plumbers, painters and electricians do.   Our artists serve an important role in our community; they should be included in projects that use public monies just like any other industry.  And when a vital arts community flourishes so does the rest of the community.    

South Florida is a tourist destination, it is our main industry.   Cultural tourism is a growing and important part of that industry.  Again I go back to the Eiffel Tower as an example; more than 200,000,000 people have visited the tower since its construction including 6,719,200 in 2006 alone.  Not bad for a public art project.  Or closer to home you can look at the new Dali Museum in St. Pete.  Many were against the project and fought hard to stop its public funding.   Now just 6 months after its opening in January the museum received its 200,000 visitor and has been named by USA Today as one of the “top 20 places you have to go before you die.”  That translates to hotel room reservations, restaurants, gift shops, cabs, and all the other purchases that tourists make.  And the dollars that the new “Cultural Tourists” spend are staggering.  A recent study shows that two cultural tourists spend more on average than a family of 5 does on vacation.   For the state of Florida, for every dollar spent on art, it gets back 4 dollars in economic growth.

Most importantly art shows us who we are and where we have been.  The absence of art will only show future generations our failings. 

“This world in which we live needs beauty in order not to sink into despair.  Beauty, like truth, brings joy to the human heart, and is that precious fruit which resists the erosion of time, which unites generations and enables them to be one in admiration.”  Pope John Paul VI 1965.

There have always been tough times and there has always been public art.  If every other generation of Americans could find the funds necessary to support the arts shouldn't we?  GL