Museum of Modern Art Releases Free iPad App for MoMA E-Books -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Via ArtDaily Blog;

The Museum of Modern Art announces the release of MoMA Books, a free Application for the Apple iPad that allows users to purchase, download, and read a growing number of MoMA’s e-books, including favorite backlist titles that are no longer available in print, such as Atget by John Szarkowski. The MoMA Books App provides greater and more convenient access to exhibition catalogues that offer a lasting record of the Museum’s diverse exhibition program, scholarly texts on key works and artists in collection, and anthologies of important art-historical texts from around the world. …



Link to Article at ArtDaily Blog

Boca Raton Museum of Art Names Steven V. Maklansky as New Director -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Boca Raton Museum of Art Names Steven V. Maklansky as New Director

The Boca Raton Museum of Art's Board of Trustees announced that Steven V. Maklansky has been chosen as the Museum's new Director. He will begin his position July 1, 2011.  Mr. Maklansky has served as the Executive Director at the Brevard Art Museum in Melbourne, Florida since 2009.

"We are confident that Steven is the right leader to build upon the Boca Raton Museum of Art's solid foundation established over the past 60 years," explained Board President, Paul W. Carman. "He possesses the experience and leadership qualities ideally suited to fulfill our vision for the future."


Mr. Maklansky received his undergraduate degree from Tulane University, his Masters from New York University and is a graduate of the Getty Foundation's Museum Leadership Institute. He has written many books and articles and presented scores of lectures on a broad range of topics related to art and museums.



Article from ArtBlog.org

Zhang Xiaogang sets record for living Chinese artist -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

A triptych oil painting by Zhang Xiaogang sold for $10.1 million on Sunday at a Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong. The sale broke the record for a piece by a living Chinese artist, and was the latest sign of China’s phenomenal ascent in the global art market.


Mr. Zhang, who is 52 and based in Beijing, is now among a handful of living artists to have a work sell for more than $10 million. Less than a decade ago, many of his works were selling for $60,000 or less. He joins a group that includes Lucian Freud, Damien Hirst, Jasper Johns, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Gerhard Richter, according to Artprice.com.

Full Article from The New York Times
The Saatchi Gallery

Liz #5 to be Auctioned by Phillips de Pury & Company -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Phillips de Pury & Company will be auctioning off Liz #5 as part of its Contemporary Art Part I auction on May12th and is estimated at $20,000,000 to $30,000,000.  Liz #5 was painted at the height of the actresses' fame which coincided with the most significant creative period of Warhol's career.

Liz #5 comes from an important private collector who acquired it from the estate of famed art dealer and collector Ileana Sonnabend.  Beginning in the early 1960's, her gallery was instrumental in introducing postwar America Art to Europe and she represented the most prolific and groundbreaking artists of her time including Jasper Johns, Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol. Liz #5 remained in her personal art collection until her death in 2007.  This is the first time a work from her estate will come to auction and it offers the rare possibility to acquire one of the Sonnabend treasures in the open market.

Liz Taylor was one of Warhol's most famous inspirations alongside Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy. Taylor captured Warhol's attention early on with her life's high profile romances and tragedy; it was this vibrancy and pathos that so attracted Warhol to her and ensured she was a formidable influence on his work throughout his career. In his own words he once said, "Elizabeth Taylor, ohhhh. She's so glamorous."

Article about Auction
Phillips de Pury & Company website
Warhol Museum website
Liz Taylor website

New Director Named to Ringling Museum -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Steven High was named executive director of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.  The Sarasota museum, now a part of Florida State University, had a long and thorough search for the new director. 

Steven High, who is currently the director and CEO of the Telfair Museums in Savannah, Ga., will take office at The Ringling Museum on June 1, 2011.

“I am thrilled by the prospects and relish the opportunity that comes with being director of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, as well as the responsibility to honor and perpetuate the legacy of our founders, John and Mable Ringling,” High said. “The timing could not be better with the opening this year of the James Turrell Sky Space, new wing of the Circus Museum in The Tibbals Learning Center, the 2011 Ringling International Arts Festival and special exhibitions like Beyond Bling: Voices of Hip-Hop in Art. I am looking forward to meeting the community, museum members, supporters, partners and the press.” 

Press Release about New Director
The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art website  

Division of Cultural Affairs New Website -- by Florida Fine Art Blog

Check out the Division of Cultural Affairs new website. Redesigned for ease of use, I think they did a great job. If you are a corporation, arts organization, Florida artist or just art lover and supporter you will find this website an invaluable resource filled with important information. From our Grant programs, public exhibition opportunities, cultural endowments, "Poetry Out Loud" programs, Art in State Buildings, Individual Artist Fellowships and Community Arts Calendars this website has it all. The website even has a jobs posting section for opportunities in arts and culture and a wonderful Cultural Directory with local, state and national arts organizations and associations. GL

Division of Cultural Affairs website

James Hutchinson inducted into Florida Artists Hall of Fame -- by Florida Fine Art Blog

James Hutchinson Inducted into the Florida Artist Hall of Fame

by Florida Fine Art Blog

This past week on Wednesday night (March 23^rd, 2011), James F. Hutchinson was inducted into the Florida Artist Hall of Fame.  Established by the Florida Legislature in 1986, the Florida Artist Hall of Fame recognizes persons, living or deceased, who have made significant contributions either as performing or practicing artists in their disciplines.  These individuals contribute to Florida’s national or international reputation as a state with sustained commitment to the development of cultural excellence.  The award is the highest and most prestigious cultural honor bestowed by the State of Florida.  The Florida Artist Hall of Fame currently consists of over 30 inductees, including musician and performer Ray Charles, actor and director Burt Reynolds, writers Zora Neale Hurston, Tennessee Williams and Ernest Hemingway, filmmaker Victor Nunez, and visual artists Duane Hanson, Robert Rauschenburg and James Rosenquist.

"Video of the Week" -- Marcus Jansen A Painter's Allegory -- by Florida Fine Art Blog

This is a preview of the the new documentary about Florida artist Marcus Jansen.

The documentary premiered last Saturday (March 26th) at the Sidney & Berne Art Center in Fort Myers, Florida.  It was part of the Fort Myers Film Festival.  "Marcus Jansen A Painter's Allegory" was produced by Eric Raddatz, Flip Minott, Hank Sorrick & Edward Clay. Marcus was also chosen to do the Film Festival Posters.  

You can find my Artist Spotlight with Marcus here

Marcus Jansen website

New Book of Poems by Florida Artist Sean Sexton -- by Florida Fine Art Blog

 

Blood Writing 

poems by Sean Sexton

Florida Artist Sean Sexton has just come out with a new book of poetry.  Sean is a third generation Florida cattle man, a fine artist, author of children's books and now poems.  A real Renaissance man and one of the nicest men I have ever met.  I hope to be featuring Sean in my Artist Spotlight soon.

Good Article by American Press about Sean Sexton

Buy Sean's Book of Poems Here

Famliy Matters -- Jillian Mayer at David Castillo -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

April 9 - May 7, 2011
Reception Saturday, April 9, 6-9 pm

David Castillo Gallery is proud to present Jillian Mayer's solo exhibition Family Matters. Adopting a varied command of performance, sculpture, video, and drawing, Mayer's work is a hybrid of media culture.
The artist forays into the pseudo-science of young adulthood, the chemistry of love and relationships, and the tipping point of paradox with all the saturation of 1980s Saturday morning television. While the intuition of Penny from Inspector Gadget or the cleverness of Gadget from Rescue Rangers defeated a villain each week, Mayer's work reads as excerpted frames from nonlinear narratives. Unlike scripted television, Mayer guarantees no resolution, and the viewer is left pondering long past thirty minutes.
Mayer's protagonists are young people and anthropomorphic animals searching for a lodestar in an age when the glow of personal laptops and urban neon renders the night sky unreadable. In the perpetual dawn or dusk of our technological, virtual, intrapersonal, and experienced realities, Mayer identifies both imagination and captivity, rudimentariness and neo-futurism, popular entertainment and moral critique of which Beatrix Potter would approve. The Tale of Peter Rabbit is as inwardly complex and tragicomic as the cartoons, and later sitcoms, that provided stability through Mayer's nomadic upbringing.
In Getting to know you, an ongoing series that exists as performance, sculpture, and photographs, participants position themselves inside cut-out board scenes reminiscent of amusement park photo ops. The adopted milieu is often a disconcerting domestic realm with an air of passivity despite the contortion of the participant's body. Participants flop like mute ventriloquist dolls caught between two worlds-- literally part of Mayer's object narrative-- Peter Rabbit and Roger Rabbit-- a tourist in their own time.
Mayer's video work also explores disturbance within calmness, perversity within cuteness, and perniciousness within sentimentality. Inspired by her own teacup Chihuahua, Mayer uses the relationship between humans and domesticated animals to comment on the nuclear family, gender roles, dominant and submissive relationships, and the trope of heterosexual love. Her work is a contemporary incarnation of Potter's Museum of Curiosities, that barometer of Victorian culture that used sweet but stuffed rabbits, kittens, and guinea pigs to portray elaborate scenes of daily life.
The artist's nationality is youth and her conflict is one between personal identity and contemporary displacement. The seemingly passive act of watching television or staging participants in a performance of inaction for Getting to know you, is as Rush famously sings: "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."
Jillian Mayer was born in Miami, FL and received her BFA from Florida International University in 2007.

David Castillo Gallery

New Paintings by James Hutchinson -- by Florida Fine Art Blog

James Hutchinson

Newest member to the Florida Artist Hall of Fame

The Elliott Museum  -  Stuart, Florida

Saturday, March 25th 2011  -  4pm to 7pm

Join the Hutchinson's this Saturday night to celebrate Jim's induction into the Florida Artist Hall of Fame.  30 or so new paintings will be on display.  Jim received his awarded Wednesday night in Tallahassee.  I will be blogging about the ceremony, which I was lucky enough to attend,  hopefully tomorrow.

Kevin & Jim Hutchinson website

The Elliott Museum website

48th Annual Coconut Grove Art Festival -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

48th Annual Coconut Grove Art Festival

February 19th - 21st, 2011 

Coconut Grove, Miami Florida

I know I have written about how I dislike most of the art festivals that occur in South Florida, this one is different.  Voted one of the best outdoor art festivals every year, Coconut Grove offers a spectacular exhibition.  Hundreds of fine artist line the streets with their artwork.  Each artist takes a small tent and sets up shop showing all original work.  The show is juried so the quality is strong and the reputation of the festival pulls artists from around the world.  Many world class artists with big followings have shown and still show at this event.  Clyde Butcher was an exhibitor until recently and James Gibson, the famous Highwayman, never misses Coconut Grove. 

My advice for your enjoyment is to have a plan.  Map out where the festival starts and ends and try to park as close as possible to an entrance.  To get up close, in classic Miami fashion, you can find neighbors willing to let you park in their yards for a small fee.  Most important, if you really want to see the art and talk to the artists, Go Early!  By noon the crowds are so great that you will have a hard time getting close to the tents to see the work.  It also can get really hot by midday.  I make sure I arrive by 10am.  That gives me 2 hours to walk the festival, talk to the artists and even go back to any work I want to see again.  Make sure you check out the Church Art Festival that takes place along side of the main festival. After you have seen everything make your way over to Myers Park for some festival food!  Now is the time to find a place in the grass, get a drink or two and enjoy the afternoon.  There is usually a musical act on the main stage to enjoy and the people watching is pure entertainment.  The weather will be spectacular this weekend, perfect for the festival.

Another idea, and one my parents did for years, is to make a weekend out of it.  Get a room at the Mayfair or Ritz Carlton, both just a block from the festival.  That way you can see the festival at your leisure, check out the Miami Boat Show that is also taking place and at night find a little restaurant in the Grove.  Very Romantic!

The Coconut Grove Art Festival website with Map

Lost/Found -- Francie Bishop Good at David Castillo -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

 

LOST/FOUND

Francie Bishop Good

 February 12 - March 5, 2011

Reception Saturday, February 12, 6-9 pm

from the invitation;

David Castillo Gallery is proud to present Lost/Found, Francie Bishop Good's first solo exhibition at the gallery.

In a new series of photographs taken during trips to various women's recovery centers and domestic settings throughout the US, Francie Bishop Good examines the infinite conditions and possibilities of human identity and emotion in her subjects and the worlds they inhabit. Sometimes these worlds are of a psychological limbo and other times, Bishop Good captures a direct visual truth. Against the assorted backdrops of faded wallpaper, weatherworn city walls and stark living rooms, the artist's subjects are caught in moments of quiet contemplation, sometimes transitional desperation.

Bishop Good unfurls women's experience in her photographs, revealing her subjects' anger from life's tempest, forgiveness, desire, and aggression. Her work presents people that are both aware of and indifferent to their relationship with the camera's lens. The artist captures the intimate moments that reflect the intersection of a public and private persona, revealing the binary nature of identity. Known for her psychological portraits of women and children, Bishop Good's photographs reveal the subtle nuances of the human drama by examining the hidden feelings that belong to the realm of self-awareness.

Francie Bishop Good lives and works in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Her work has been the subject of solo and group museum exhibitions in the US and Europe. Bishop Good's work has been reviewed in Art in America, ARTnews, and The Miami Herald among others. She was awarded a 2011 South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship for Visual and Media Artists and this summer will be included in the Consortium's exhibition at Florida International University's Frost Museum of Art.

David Castillo Gallery website

Francie Bishop Good website

Purvis Young -- Happy Birthday -- by Florida Fine Art Blog

Purvis Young  (February 4th 1943 - April 20th 2010)

Purvis was born in Liberty City, Miami.  One of Miami's most celebrated artists Purvis is now shown in museums and gallery's around the world.   Being well known seemed to really please Purvis.  He also really enjoyed attention, something I  have found rare in most artists.  At gallery openings Purvis would have a line of people all day waiting to speak to him and he never seemed to tire of the conversation.  He would take great delight in pointing out that some of the most famous artists work and his occupied the same museum space.  

Purvis the artist was pure.  The work was created without filter, it flowed from Purvs naturally without editing.  He worked fast and spontaneous and over the years he developed a language of symbols so he could express his thoughts and feelings without judgment.  This stream of consciousness process that he created was fascinating to watch.  The way he held a brush and the way he pushed the paint around always reminded me of the master calligraphers in Japan.  There was an elegance to it.  

Its still hard to write about Purvis, he would have been 68 today. 

I have a website that has some great information about Purvis and a library of some of his paintings.  There is a nice collection of some of the more important articles written about Purvis, a page with all the video I can find on Purivs and even a list with links to all the Museums Purivs' work is show.   I will put some page links below to direct you to the specific pages.

The video above is from 2006 titled "Purvis of Overtown."  A wonderful documentary about Purvis, his work and his beloved Overtown, Miami.  GL

My Purvis Young Website

Purvis Young Videos

Purvis Young Newspaper Articles
My First Blog Post about Purvis

Three Artists/One Model -- Opening Feb 5th -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

LONG POSE

Three Artists - One Model - A Skylight

Aida Fry/Jussi Poyhonen/Paula Rubino

at

Mary Woerner Fine Arts - West Palm Beach

February 5th - March 5th

Mary Woerner has a wonderful gallery and she puts on top quality shows.  This one is not to be missed!  I love the idea of three artists working with one model and showing the work together.  Aida Fry is one of my favorite painters, she has strong figurative work and is an expert on color.  I represented her work for years in my galleries.  I am also lucky enough to be her nephew!  GL

Mary Woerner Gallery website