5-12-10

Just Before The War

Russell Lee in 1939 Man drinking water Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, [reproduction number, e.g., LC-USF34-9058-C] The picture is LC-USF33-12327-M5

One of the nice things about seeing Art museum Touring is that I see and learn about art objects and I am reminded about many of the things I saw and heard in college. The

The government had people doing theater, concerts, visual artists such as Ben Shahn. Thomas Hart Benton did murals in public buildings. For more information about this period, there is a new book to check out, "When Art Worked: The New Deal, Art and Democracy" published in 2009 by Roger G. Kennedy. It is not in the local library, but it is on my list. I have re-read the detailed info in the catalogue, Just Before The War. Grab it if you ever find it in a used book store.

This period was so fascinating. Do check out the Westmoreland Museum of American Art exhibition if you are in western Pennsylvania before it closes May 16.

Sherrie

I have been looking forward to seeing the Frank H. McClung Museum exhibition, 2,000 Years of Chinese Art Han Dynasty to the Present and it was worth the trip. The curator and the exhibition staff did an outstanding job presenting the art work and explaining the art as well as the history of this fascinating country. I have looked at and studied Chinese Art, especially the pottery, for years and this really clear and useful.

One of the reasons I was so impressed with the information was the way pottery styles, clay, and technology was explained to a extent by the wars, invasions and cultural differences. An invasion could mean no white clay, no coal for kilns or materials, of the kilns were no longer available.

Now to the art. I was surprised by some of the pottery. As a potter, I have seen pictures of the pottery style usually in black and white. To see some pieces in living color was a slap your head Eureka moment. I had been getting the right color for the celadon for years. Explaining the technology and the clay was great. I got so caught up in the history, that I didn't tell you enough about the art. The objects were wonderful. The pottery, the cast metal, the paintings are beautiful. There were pieces that were inventive and fanciful. This is really a great show for potters and watercolorists. Go see it.

Sherrie

Japanese Rice Field Art

I was sent this email a couple of times. You may have seen these pictures; but, I couldn't resist passing it along. Wish I could properly credit the original author and photographer for these pictures. No credits accompanied the email.

I'll bet rice field art generates a lot art tourism!

- Sherrie

"This is absolutely amazing and so beautiful ? we need to look at things like this some to keep us sane ? There is good talent in the world!

RICE FIELDS OF JAPAN ? Astounding.

Stunning crop art has sprung up across rice fields in Japan, but this is no alien creation. The designs have been cleverly planted.

Farmers creating the huge displays use no ink or dye. Instead, different color rice plants have been precisely and strategically arranged and grown in the paddy fields.

As summer progresses and the plants shoot up, the detailed artwork begins to emerge. The colors are created by using different varieties. This photo was taken in Inakadate, Japan. Napoleon on horseback can be seen from the skies. This was created by precision planting and months of planning by villagers and farmers located inInakadate.

Farmers create the murals by planting little purple and yellow-leafed Kodaimai rice along with their local green-leafed Tsugaru, a Roman variety, to create the colored patterns. This is done between planting and harvesting in September.

The murals in Inakadate cover 15,000 square meters of paddy fields.

From ground level the designs are invisible, and viewers have to climb the mock castle tower of the village office to get a glimpse of the work. Closer to the image, the careful placement of thousands of rice plants in the paddy fields can be seen.

Rice-paddy art was started there in 1993 as a local revitalization project, an idea that grew from meetings of village committees. The different varieties of rice plants grow alongside each other to create the masterpieces.

In the first nine years, the village office workers and local farmers grew a simple design of Mount Iwaki every year. But their ideas grew more complicated and attracted more attention. In 2005 agreements between landowners allowed the creation of enormous rice paddy art plantings.

A year later organizers used computers for precise plot planting of the four differently colored rice varieties that bring the images to life." - Uknown

I will keep you in touch.
- Sherrrie

The Art of Illumination: Illuminating the Arts

The Wolfsonian's exterior walls will become exhibition spaces for the display of digital images, thanks to a three-year, $500,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Wolfsonian's initiative, The Art of Illumination: Illuminating the Arts, will utilize lighting systems and digital technology to display images ranging from large-scale reproductions of pieces in the museum's collection to commissioned contemporary works. The exterior displays will be presented in a variety of formats including images, video, film, static and moving text, and interactive mobile technology. The Wolfsonian began this project in 2005, working with New York-based Herves Descottes and L'Observatoire Internationale to develop the concept,
The Art of Illumination will bring the collection located within the museum's walls outside, introducing the materials to a large audience of passersby, which will extend the museum's reach. The project is partly a response to the physical design of the museum's building, originally built as a storage facility and deliberately designed to be inaccessible to the public. Now, as a public institution, the museum aims to reach the widest audience possible. The large variety of materials displayed through the "Art of Illumination" will allow the museum to address a mass audience to communicate the pivotal role that art, design, and culture play in shaping and reflecting human experience.

"At night, it will look like the building wakes up and turns into a dream, something magical," says Wolfsonian director Cathy Leff. "Miami Beach is a city to be experienced at night, and these projected images will give an identity to the building, allow interactive activities, break open the vault, and bring the collection and exhibitions outside for all to see and entice them to come into the museum."

Children's Museum of Oak Ridge

Oak Ridge Camera Club Salon Exhibit
Closes Nov. 7

The Landscape group was strong as was the people and architecture categories. I enjoyed Mike Slay's "Life was a Highway: and Peggy Turner's "Sitting Pretty" and Gretchen Kaplan's "A Serene Place" very much.

The Plants category had really outstanding technical pieces such as Rebecca Fairbank's "Fallen Leaf" and "Startazer". Peggy Turner's "The Eyes Have It" is the most unusual cat photo I have seen.

Go see the show you will enjoy it,

Sherrie.

Swallowtail
Peggy Turner

Knoxville Museum of Art

Contemporary Focus: Hunt Clark, Patricia Tinajero, and David Wolff
Closes Nov. 8

Very interesting work to see. Check it out!

I went to the Higher Ground exhibition for the fourth or fifth time. Each time, I have a different favorite. This time it was the Jolley glass, the Delaney portrait and paintings of the smokey Mountains.
I'm sure that my next visit will have new favorites. You can see the styles of art through the years done
by artists attempting to show East Tennessee to the world. This is a wonderful exhibition.

Sherrie

The "Birds in Art" at the McClung Museum was fascinating from the art works to the worksheet for children. The exhibition interprets birds in oil, watercolor, the graphic arts, bronze, wood and stone. The pieces reveal the bird as portrait, as being affected by humans, fierce birds in nature. The large sculpture showing a dead crow made of old automobile tires was fascinating. Mark Eberhard's painting "On The Edge" showing birds on the edge of extinction was very effective.

The worksheet for children was just outstanding. There was a great explanation the art terms of addition or subtraction in making sculpture in reference to art in the exhibition. There were games and areas to draw, maps and information. This is a great addition for children of all ages.

- Sherrie

The The Ewing Gallery of Art & Architecture University of Tennessee Knoxville is hosting an exhibition of traditional and contemporary Japanese artwork from the Japanese International Artists Society. Tom and I really enjoyed seeing the work on exhibit; but, just like everyone else, it is just fascinating to watch artists making art. Bakuzasn Takada and his students and assistants created some wonderful calligraphy pieces.

The works were created with vigor much the way Pollock did. I will never think of calligraphy the same way. The papers were huge. The artist had large brushes that were used to make wonderful lines.

The potter Sadato Ichinose, did a fascinating demonstration of throwing pottery. I enjoyed watching Mr. Ichinose using traditional throwing sticks to shape the pots.

The opening reception was a big ceremony with officials from the city, county, Japanese Consul General from Nashville, and University of Tennessee. There were many artists from Japan who came to see the exhibition. Many of the women wore the traditional dress of Japan.. The Ewing Gallery and the University did a great job organizing the exhibition, the food and the ceremony. A sculptural piece was donated to the University by the JIAS. It is going to be permanently placed in the lobby of one of UT's science buildings to give inspiration to those who look at it.

- Sherrie

One thing to watch out for is the exhibition is in two rooms on opposite sides of the main floor. We almost missed seeing the other room. There were no signs we noticed telling us the exhibition was continued on the other side. The last time we had been there that room featured work from the permanent collection.

- Sherrie

Do not miss this exhibition! It is from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The objects were found in 1940 in a cemetery in Panama circa A.D. 700-1100.

There were “hammered repousse plaques, nose ornaments, gold-sheathed ear rods, pendants, bells, bangles and beads-as well as ceramic and objects of precious and semi-precious stones, ivory, and bone.”

The information about the gold objects and how they were made was very interesting. The gold ore was dug, smelted and then pounded into sheets of gold thin enough to be formed.

I had studied Precolumbian art in college and had taken a jewelry class. This exhibition gave me I a much better understand of the technology of the people and the skill of the artisans.

Check it out!

Sherrie

Knoxville Museum of Art: Josh Simpson: A Visionary Journey in Glass

I went to the Knoxville Museum of Art to see the Josh Simpson glass exhibition that goes until April 19. I had seen his globlets at art shows and was impressed with his artistry. This exhibition is fun to see his body of work, a Josh Simpson's retrospective, and see the changes and directions that Josh Simpson made.

Simpson's planet series pieces were fascinating. I felt as if I was going into the center of these worlds. There are some beautiful pieces there and the paperweights are really special for the collector.

I'm hoping to make another trip to see the Simpson exhibition and really spend some time with the " Higher Ground: a Century of Visual Art in East Tennessee". I was not aware of some of the artists; but there are some beautiful paintings in this exhibition. Make the time to see these.

Sherrie