Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Monday, October 15, 2012
A home after 33 years
It's interesting how sometimes a work of art will travel around the years (or in this case stay put) before it finds a home.
Frida Kahlo Inside a Washington School Painting (Morris Louis) was done as an art school assignment for Prof. Alden Mason's painting class at the University of Washington in 1980. In the piece, my obsession with Kahlo peeks out as a pencil portrait within the abstract work.
This piece was part of the Passion for Frida: 27 Years of Frida Kahlo Artwork that I had at the original Fraser Gallery in Georgetown over a decade ago.
Now out of the blue, a collector in New York sees it, loves it, and tomorrow the work will be on its way to a New York City apartment!
Frida Kahlo Inside a Washington School Painting (Morris Louis) was done as an art school assignment for Prof. Alden Mason's painting class at the University of Washington in 1980. In the piece, my obsession with Kahlo peeks out as a pencil portrait within the abstract work.
This piece was part of the Passion for Frida: 27 Years of Frida Kahlo Artwork that I had at the original Fraser Gallery in Georgetown over a decade ago.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Review <-> Renew
REVIEW < - > RENEW: AN EXHIBITION IN CELEBRATION OF THE 25th ANNIVERSARY OF VISARTS
On View OCTOBER
28 – DECEMBER 29, 2012
25th Anniversary Celebration (tickets required)
Saturday, October 27 from 7:30 – 10:30 p.m.
(VIP Reception at 5:30 with Curators' Tour)
Public Opening Reception (free)
Friday, November 9 from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
 |
| Manon Cleary, Big J, 1977. Oil on canvas. |
Twenty five years ago Judy
Greenberg and Jack Rasmussen teamed up to bring the highest quality
contemporary art found in the Washington Metro region to galleries and resident
artist studios located behind a strip mall in Rockville, Maryland. Rockville Arts Place (RAP) was born. Visitors
encountered compelling exhibitions that reflected the vibrant community of
artists living and working in the area. Offering arts education, studio and
exhibition spaces, RAP became an important addition to the cultural climate of
the Rockville community.
Review
<-> Renew will be on view in the Kaplan Gallery and Common Ground Gallery at VisArts
from Sunday, October 28 – Saturday, December 29. The public is invited
to attend a free Opening Reception
on Friday, November 9 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
VisArts is located three blocks from
the Rockville Metro station at 155 Gibbs Street, Rockville, MD. Gallery Hours
are Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m., and on Saturday and
Sunday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, please visit www.visartscenter.org,or
call 301-315-8200. Admission
is always free.
Now
renamed VisArts and housed in a glass walled building on three floors in
Rockville Town Square, the tradition of excellence in the arts continues.
VisArts presents Review <-> Renew co-curated
by Judy A. Greenberg (Director of the Kreeger Museum) and Jack Rasmussen
(Director and Curator of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts
Center) in celebration of the 25th Anniversary of VisArts. This group
exhibition brings together the renowned artists who brought critical regional
success to the fledgling organization, Rockville Arts Place (RAP). The artists
selected for the exhibition all exhibited at RAP while Greenberg was President
of the Board and Rasmussen was Executive Director.
In the Kaplan Gallery, paintings by Lisa Brotman, Manon Cleary,
Sam Gilliam, Tom Green, Margarida Kendall Hull, and Joe Shannon are on display.
Early and more recent works by the artists are exhibited alongside Paul
Feinberg’s photographs of the artists early and late in their careers. The
paintings and photographs are accompanied by interviews with the artists
conducted by Feinberg.
In the
Common Ground Gallery, Review <-> Renew features more outstanding artists important to the
history of VisArts. Margaret Boozer, Robert Devers, Tim Tate, and Mindy Weisel,
working in glass and clay, have received wide acclaim for their exquisite sense
of material and rich, potent forms. They continue to push the boundaries of
ceramic and glass traditions with astonishing intelligence.
Review
<-> Renew offers
a brilliant sample of the artists who helped shape the history of VisArts and
the region’s artistic excellence. Their work has found its way into
important collections, museums and exhibitions around the world. Rasmussen’s
and Greenberg’s choice of artists and art, past and present, embodies the idea that the practice of
making art, particularly art of the highest quality, is a process of patient
accumulations and provocations over time. The resilience of VisArts as a non-profit art
center is due in large part to its long list of exhibiting and resident
artists. This celebratory exhibition acknowledges the past and looks forward
with renewed vigor and relevance.
ABOUT
THE ARTISTS:
Manon Cleary (b. 1942 – d. 2012) Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Manon
Cleary earned her MFA from Temple University, spending her first year in Rome,
Italy. There, she studied the work of old masters, an experience to which she
credited her becoming a figurative artist. In 1970, she moved to Washington,
D.C., and began a teaching career at the University of the District of Columbia.
Her work has been displayed internationally and is in permanent collections at
the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New
York, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona, and National Museum of Women in the
Arts, Washington, D.C. Manon’s work has been exhibited at the Osuna Gallery,
Washington, D.C., Addison/Ripley Fine Art, Washington, D.C., Maryland Art
Place, Baltimore, Maryland, Jackson-Iolas Gallery, New York, New York, J.
Rosenthal Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, and Grand Palais in Paris, France.
Sam Gilliam (b. 1933) Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Gilliam
earned his MA in painting at the University of Louisville before moving north
to Washington, D.C. Absorbing the innovations of the Washington Color School,
Gilliam quickly moved beyond it, following his own original and radical impulse
to take over the exhibition space and not confine his painting to the picture
plane. His work is in important collections across the United States, and he
has had major retrospectives at Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., the
Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, and the Contemporary Art Museum,
Houston, Texas. Gilliam’s work is
included in public collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of
Modern Art, and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York,
Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, Budapest, Hungary, and Tate, London, England.
Tom
Green
(b. 1942 – d. 2012) After receiving
a BA and MFA from the University of Maryland, Green moved to Washington and
became a hugely influential artist and teacher. He has exhibited in numerous
solo and group shows, including Whitney
Biennial, New York, New York, and 19 Americans
at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow,
Russia, and in the Washington, D.C. region, at the Kreeger Museum, the American
University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Smithsonian Museum of American
Art, and The Corcoran Gallery of Art. He received two National Endowment for
the Arts Fellowships, a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award,
and residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and the Virginia Center for the
Creative Arts. Green’s work is in public collections, including the Guggenheim
Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, and Smithsonian
American Art Museum.
Lisa
Montag Brotman (b.
1947) After graduating with a BFA
from the State University of New York at Buffalo, Brotman moved to Washington,
D. C. where she attended the Corcoran College of Art + Design and earned an MFA
from the George Washington University. Brotman has received two Individual
Artist Awards in the Visual Arts from the Maryland State Arts Council. Her work
has been exhibited in Europe and the United States, including the Washington,
D.C. area, at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the American University Museum at
the Katzen Arts Center, Saint Mary’s College of Maryland, The George Washington
University, Longwood University, Washington Project for the Arts, Rockville
Arts Place, School 33 Art Center, Arlington Arts Center, and Gallery Neptune.
Brotman’s work has been exhibited in five solo shows at Gallery K, London,
England and in a mid-career retrospective at the Maryland Art Place, Baltimore,
Maryland.
Margarida Kendall Hull (b. 1935) Born in Lisbon, Portugal, Kendall Hull
attended the University of Lisbon/College of History and Philosophy. After
moving to Washington, D.C., she graduated from the Corcoran School of Art +
Design in 1973 and earned her MFA in 1982 from the Catholic University of
America, Washington, D.C. Her paintings of alternative realities were shown
regularly in Washington, D.C., by the Osuna Gallery and Gallery K. For the past
ten years she has been represented by Galereia de Sao Mamede in Lisbon,
Portugal. Kendall Hull’s work has been in museum exhibitions at Gulbenkian
Museum, Lisbon, Portugal, Museum of Contemporary Art, Lisbon, Portugal, and the
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. Her works are in numerous public and
private collections in the United States and Portugal.
Joe
Shannon (b.
1933) Born in Puerto Rico, raised in
Washington, D.C., Joe Shannon studied art at the Corcoran School of Art, but he
was largely self taught. Looking at masterworks, lots of practice and
self-criticism revealed his direction. Shannon worked for the Smithsonian for
26 years as an exhibition designer and curator. He has organized world class
exhibitions, and written articles in major art magazines and newspapers, and
juried many shows. Shannon teaches currently at the Maryland Institute College
of Art in Baltimore; he lectures, and has taught at other universities. His
work has been shown in galleries and museums around the world and is in many
important collections, private and public, including Corcoran Gallery of Art,
Hirshhorn, and Brooklyn Museums.
Paul Feinberg (b. 1942) Paul Feinberg’s stories and photo
essays of Washington life have been appearing in the Washingtonian Magazine, the Washington
Post Magazine, and numerous national publications for over 30 years.
Focusing on portraits of city life and personal relationships, his stories have
included everything from “Days and Nights by the Bus Station” to “Mothers and
Daughters.” “Best Friends,” his Washingtonian
piece on long term friendships, was expanded nationally into his book Friends. Feinberg has had solo shows at
the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, the Washington Arts
Museum, Washington Project for the Arts, the Picker Gallery at Colgate
University, and University of the District of Columbia. He has been a part of
group shows at Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington Project for the Arts, Studio
Gallery, Tartt Gallery, Kathleen Ewing Gallery, Jack Rasmussen Gallery, Osuna
Gallery, and Arlington Arts Center.
Margaret
Boozer (b. 1966) Born in
Anniston, Alabama, Margaret Boozer lives and works in the Washington, DC metro
area. She received a BFA in sculpture from Auburn University and an MFA in
ceramics from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Her work
is included in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The
Museum of the City of New York, The US Department of State, The Wilson Building
Public Art collection and in many private collections. Boozer taught for ten
years at the Corcoran College of Art and Design before founding Red Dirt Studio
in Mt. Rainier, Maryland where she directs a ceramics and sculpture seminar.
Recent projects include a commissioned installation at the US Embassy in
Djibouti and writing a chapter for U. S. Geologic Survey’s Soil and
Culture. Recent exhibitions include Swept Away: Dust, Ashes and Dirt at the Museum
of Arts and Design in New York.
Robert Devers (b. 1960) Born in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, Devers
received a BFA in Ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from
the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He maintains a studio
in Mt. Rainier, Maryland and has taught at the Corcoran College of Art + Design
in Washington, D.C. since 1988. Devers is also the Visual Arts Coordinator of
the Amalfi Coast Music & Arts Festival. His work has been exhibited in the
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery at
Scripps College, Claremont, California, and the Smithsonian American Art
Museum’s Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. Devers work is in the permanent
collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery, the
International Monetary Fund, the Museo Artistico Industriale “Manuel
Cargaliero” in Vietri sul Mare, Italy and Museo Manuel Cargaliero, Castelo
Branco, Portugal, as well as numerous private collections.
Tim Tate (b. 1960) A Washington,
D.C. native, who has been working with glass as a sculptural medium for the
past 25 years, Tim Tate is Co-Founder of the Washington Glass School in Mt.
Rainier, Maryland. Tate’s work is in the permanent collections of a number of
museums, including the Smithsonian's American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery and
the Mint Museum. He was awarded the title of “Rising Star of the 21st Century”
from the Museum of American Glass and was also the recipient of the 2009
Virginia Groot Foundation award for sculpture. His work has been shown at the
Milwaukee Art Museum, the Fuller Museum, the Asheville Art Museum and the
Museum of Arts and Design in New York. He is a 2012 Fulbright Scholar recipient
and was Artist-In-Residence at the Institute for International Glass Research
(IIRG) in the UK.
Mindy Weisel (b. 1947) Born
in Bergen-Belsen, the only daughter of Auschwitz survivors, Weisel grew up in
New York and Los Angeles. She began painting at age 14, studied at California State University and received a BFA
from George Washington University in 1977. An acclaimed abstract artist,
working in paint and glass, Weisel has had numerous international commissions
and exhibitions. Her pieces are in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian
Institution, Hirshhorn Museum, National Museum of American Art, Baltimore
Museum of Art, The Israel Museum, and the United States House of
Representatives.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Minnie Mouse at 5'11" and size 0
From Ragen Chastain:
Lenny -
What's the world coming to when we're telling little girls that Minnie Mouse is too fat? Believe it or not, that's exactly what the department store Barney's is doing.For a holiday window display, Barney's and Disney have agreed to showcase Minnie Mouse wearing a designer dress -- and distorted so she looks like she's 5'11" and size 0.I work with kids who have eating disorders, so I'm not exaggerating when I say the message this sends is deadly. According to one study, hospitalization for children younger than 12 with eating disorders went up 119% from 1999 to 2006. Younger than 12.Studies warn again and again of the dangers of promoting an unrealistic body image. 81% of 10-year-old girls say they're afraid of being fat, and 47% of girls in 5th-12th grade say they want to be thinner because of the pictures they see in magazines.There is nothing wrong with tall, thin women. There is something wrong with changing a beloved children’s character’s body so that it looks good in a dress that almost nobody looks good in.Earlier this year, Seventeen magazine agreed to stop photoshopping all models after 75,000 people signed a petition asking them to do so on Change.org. I know that if enough people sign my petition, we can convince Barney's and Disney not to distort Minnie Mouse to make her look tall and skinny.Thank you,Ragen Chastain
Los Angeles, California
Friday, October 12, 2012
Mid City Artists Open Studios this weekend
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:Sondra N. Arkin
Chuck Baxter
Scott G. Brooks
Jane Cave
Robert Cole
Susan Cole
Michael Crossett
Aster da Fonseca
Thomas Drymon
Gary Fisher
Glenn Fry
Charlie Jones
Sally Kauffman
Miguel Perez Lem
Regina Miele
Lucinda F. Murphy
Betto Ortiz
Mark Parascandola
Dave Peterson
Brian Petro
Peter Romero
George Smith-Shomari
Robert Wiener
Colin Winterbottom
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Talk, talk talk...
No, not the VP debate tonight (Man... Joe Biden has some really awesome, pearly white teeth!), but my talk earlier today at Montgomery College - it was well attended and there were great questions and all the free artwork disappeared!
The talk now goes to some other venues around the nation - stay tuned!
The talk now goes to some other venues around the nation - stay tuned!
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Don't miss this tomorrow! Free Artwork!
Those of you who know me well, and those of you who know me through my writing, know that one of my pet peeves is the usage of "labels" to box people and art, or art and people, into easily distinguishable categories.One such label is the American invention of the Hispanic (now apparently not a PC term because technically it includes two European nationalities) or Latino label to pass for ethnicity and often and always wrongly for race.
What does that mean in art? And what does it mean to "Latino" artists? Does it mean anything?
If you want to hear my opinion on the subject then come by tomorrow, October 11, 2012, where starting at 4PM I will be presenting a lecture titled "On Identity in the Arts: What Does It Mean to be Latino?" at Montgomery College in Silver Spring, MD.
Note that it is at 4PM! ---- A change from previously announced times!
Prepare to understand why us "Latinos" are often as confused by the use of this term as the rest of the world. Bring an open mind and be prepared to be educated, entertained, and possibly pop-quizzed (kidding!). There will also be some free artwork to people chosen at random (not really) by me.
Plenty of free parking! Directions here.
Lori Anne Boocks at Studio
“Evidence” by Lori Anne Boocks
EXHIBITION DATES: October 31 - November 24, 2012
First Friday Reception: Nov. 2, 6:30 – 8:30 PM
Opening Reception: Nov. 10, 4 – 6 PM
WHERE: Studio Gallery, 2108 R Street N.W. Washington, DC 20008
Lori Anne Boocks's solo show at Studio Gallery is a dynamic exploration of
the power of stories and memory. In her acrylic paintings, she renders
text in expressive charcoal and forces the personal to become universal.
Words are rehashed, reworked, and stripped down to the bone then built
up again. Layers of color are added and partially removed to become a
lens through which she shares her cache of stories and invites viewers
to reflect upon their own.
By
documenting the past, she is gathering evidence: Evidence to describe
what a memory looks like and how it changes over time. Evidence from the
little crime scenes of our lives and the things we walk away from—or
the things we can't. Through these works, Boocks offers visible proof of
the significance of the many moments that make up our lives while
questioning her own remembrance of events.
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Lori Anne Boocks received her BFA
from Old Dominion University. Her work is included in private
collections in the Metro DC area, California, and beyond. Recent solo
and group shows include the University of Maryland University
College, Delaplaine Visual Arts Center, Maryland Federation of Art, and
Adah Rose Gallery.
For more information about Lori Anne Boocks visit:
Paintings: lorianneboocks.com
Art Blog: laboocks.blogspot.com
Art Blog: laboocks.blogspot.com
The Trawick Prize "best of the best" Sapphire Award
Carol Trawick, founder of The Trawick Prize, has established The Trawick Prize "best of the best" Sapphire Award
to mark the contemporary art competition's 10th anniversary and honor
the Best in Show winners from the past 10 years. In conjunction with the
Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District and the Bethesda Urban
Partnership, Trawick will hold a special "best of the best" competition
and exhibition, featuring artwork by winners from 2003 - 2012.
A jury comprising the 30 jurors from the past 10 years will determine one "best of the best" Sapphire Award winner, who will receive $10,000. In addition, the public can view the artwork online and vote for a "People's Choice" award winner, who will receive $1,000.
Online voting will begin on Sept. 17, 2012 and will be open through Friday, Oct. 19, 2012 through a partnership with Bethesda Magazine.
Click here to vote online for the Trawick Prize People's Choice award winner.
Click here to vote online for the Trawick Prize People's Choice award winner.
Artwork by nine of the 10 Best in Show winners will be on display in a group exhibition taking place Nov. 3 - Dec. 1, 2012 at Gallery B, located at 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite E. The award winners will be announced Friday, November 2, 2012.
Past Trawick Award Winners
2003: Richard Cleaver
2004: David Page
2005: Jiha Moon
2006: James Rieck
2007: Jo Smail
2008: Maggie Michael
2009: Rene Trevino
2011: Mia Feuer
2012: Lillian Bayley Hoover
The public opening reception will be held Friday, November 9 from 6-9pm
in conjunction with the Bethesda Art Walk. Gallery hours for the
duration of the exhibit are Wednesday through Saturday, 12 - 6pm.
The Trawick Prize was established in 2003 by Carol Trawick, a longtime community activist in downtown Bethesda. She is the past Chair of both the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District and Bethesda Urban Partnership, and also the Founder of the Bethesda Painting Awards. In 2007, Ms. Trawick founded the Jim and Carol Trawick Foundation to assist health and human services and arts non-profits in Montgomery County.
Tuesday, October 09, 2012
Want some free artwork???
Those of you who know me well, and those of you who know me through my writing, know that one of my pet peeves is the usage of "labels" to box people and art, or art and people, into easily distinguishable categories.One such label is the American invention of the Hispanic (now apparently not a PC term because technically it includes two European nationalities) or Latino label to pass for ethnicity and often and always wrongly for race.
What does that mean in art? And what does it mean to "Latino" artists? Does it mean anything?
If you want to hear my opinion on the subject then come by tomorrow, October 11, 2012, where starting at 4PM I will be presenting a lecture titled "On Identity in the Arts: What Does It Mean to be Latino?" at Montgomery College in Silver Spring, MD.
Note that it is at 4PM! ---- A change from previously announced times!
Prepare to understand why us "Latinos" are often as confused by the use of this term as the rest of the world. Bring an open mind and be prepared to be educated, entertained, and possibly pop-quizzed (kidding!). There will also be some free artwork to people chosen at random (not really) by me.
Plenty of free parking! Directions here.
You won't believe this...
This is incredible in the 21st century.
A remarkable Frank Lloyd Wright house in Phoenix is under threat of demolition. Wright designed the house for his son David and it is unique among all his residential designs. Your support is needed to urge the City of Phoenix to approve historic preservation designation for the house thereby extending its temporary protection from demolition.FLW is a national trasure. The Taliban destroys their own national treasures, not us. Sign the petition here.
Monday, October 08, 2012
Congrats to the Nats! And a little history...
Yep... the 1930s!
We
all owe a tremendous debt to Jackie Robinson. Not only because of Major
League baseball integration, but more importantly, because of the
significant advancement of race relations worldwide that was the real
aftermath of his actions during and after his baseball career. His
sacrifices must never be forgotten or diminished, and Robinson was and
will always be a hero, not just for Americans, but for mankind.
This story is all about the Cubans, and the American confusion between race and ethnicity and the racist notion of the "one drop rule." At the heart of the story is the fact that Caucasian Cubans who could prove pure European ancestry were allowed to play in the United States, and many American white players played integrated professional winter baseball in Cuba.
In Cuba professional baseball was fully integrated (curiously though, amateur Cuban baseball was segregated and only white Cubans could play in amateur teams). As a result of this background, American baseball team owners saw first-hand many great Cuban players of all shades and races play in Cuba, and some of the more enterprising ones began to test the limits and patience of a racist society by introducing some of them to the US public many years before Robinson. But let us first review a little history.
It was then that American students studying in the island taught fellow Cuban students how to play the sport. The game spread quickly, mostly due to the fact that the sons of wealthy Cuban families usually studied in American universities, where baseball was also spreading quite rapidly.
Apparently the first organized baseball game in Cuba took place on December 27, 1874, when the Havana team beat the Matanzas team 51-9 at "El Palmar del Junco" baseball field.
One of the Havana players was named Esteban Bellan, a catcher who was the first Cuban and the first Latin American to play major league baseball. Bellan learned how to play baseball while he was a student at Fordham University from 1863-1868.
During his time at Fordham, Bellan played for the newly created Fordham Rose Hill Baseball Club. This was the team that history tells us played the first ever nine-man team college baseball game in the United States against St. Francis Xavier College on November 3, 1859.
In 1868 Bellan began to play for the Unions of Morrisania, an upstate New York team. A year later he joined the Troy Haymakers for whom he played third base until 1872. In 1871 the Haymakers had joined the National Association, which became the National League in 1876.
The Haymakers later became the New York Giants, now the San Francisco Giants. Later on Bellan was instrumental, both as a player and manager, in establishing professional baseball in Cuba in 1878. He died in 1932.
As early as 1889, the US Major Leagues showed interest in Cuban players, when the legendary John McGraw, who visited Cuba regularly and eventually kept a permanent apartment in Havana, tried to sign a Cuban player named Antonio Maria Garcia (nicknamed "The Englishman" apparently because he was so fair of hair, eyes and skin). Garcia declined, since he was making a higher salary playing in Cuba.
A
couple of years later, John McGraw
brought to the US a Cuban player named Luis "Anguilla" Bustamante, who
he called "the perfect short stop." Unfortunately for Bustamante, who
was half black, his timing was off by half a century.Hearing of Bustamante's prowess, around 1903-4, Clark Griffith, then with the New York Highlanders (later the Yankees), had Bustamante brought up again for a try-out. As soon as Griffith saw Bustamante, according to Angel Torres, author of "The Baseball Bible," Griffith ended the try-out and simply said: "Too chocolate."
Let's now move the clock forward to 1910, when four Cubans debut in the Minor Leagues: Armando Marsans, Rafael Almeida, Alfredo Cabrera and a second chance for Luis Padron.
They play for the New Britain Class B team of the Connecticut League and a year later Marsans and Almeida begin to play for Cincinnati, and that's truly when the issue of race becomes a question in the mind of ignorant racists.
As published in the Cincinnati Tribune on June 23, 1911: The Reds have signed two players from the Connecticut league who have Spanish blood in their veins and are very dark skinned. As soon as the news spread that the Reds were negotiating for the Cubans a protest went up from the fans against introducing Cuban talent into the ranks of the major leagues.
Cuban baseball legend has it that when August Herrmann, the president and owner of the Cincinnati Reds, went to the train station to meet them, he gasped when he saw two young black men come out of the train, and that he even approached them first.
But they were not the Cubans.
The two Cubans had an escort who had brought them to Cincinnati, and he
in turn approached and spoke to a shaky Herrmann, who then met the
Cubans for the first time. Herrmann was pleased and relieved about their
appearance. They were not, as it was incorrectly reported in the next day's paper, "small and swarthy in complexion," [but showed] "practically no effects of the tropical heat and sun." The Reds appeased the alarmed fans by assuring them that both of these players were of pure European blood.
In fact, this was true, as according to Cuban sources and accounts of the times, Marsans was the son of Catalan immigrants to Cuba, and Almeida the son of Portuguese immigrants. This case of first generation Cubans was not that unusual in Cuba during the 1800s (both of them had been born in 1887) and even more after the Spanish-American War. The new nation had just achieved independence from Spain in 1898, and was in the midst of receiving large immigration waves from Europe. The large numbers of immigrants so alarmed native-born Cubans, that afraid that they would be outnumbered by European immigrants, Cuba severely curtailed immigration in the 1930s.
In fact, according to Hugh Thomas, in the first decade of the 1900s alone, nearly 200,000 European immigrants arrived in Cuba. Considering that the 1899 census noted that there were around 1.5 million people in the island, this immigration wave, together with significant immigration by Chinese and Eastern European Jews in the 1920s, had a significant impact on Cuban society and ethnic diversity.
To make matters worse for Marsans and Almeida, it was customary with Cuban and other Latin American players, regardless of race, to play in the US Negro Leagues.
In doing so, players could play year round: summer in the US and winter in Cuba. Both Marsans and Almeida had earlier played in the Negro Leagues.
This probably complicated things for Herrmann, and to further appease the fans, the Reds required that both Cubans bring notarized paperwork from the Cuban authorities, certifying that Marsans and Almeida were indeed white of unmixed blood.
Eventually the Cincinnati press must have been convinced of the racial purity of the Cubans, as a story appeared indicating that the Cubans were "two of the purest bars of Castille soap that ever floated to these shores." It is ironic that neither of the two Cubans was actually of any Castillian ancestry, but Catalan and Portuguese. It is also ironic, and erroneous, that several instances in recent books about Cuban baseball, by American authors, claim that either Marsans or Almeida was half black (and thus the first black person to play in the MLB). However, Cuban sources, such as Gonzalez Echavarria and Angel Torres, as well as the Cuban press of the time, clearly agree that both Marsans and Almeida were "blancos."
The unofficial honor of being the first player of evident African ancestry would fall on the broad shoulders of another Cuban a couple of decades later.
Cubans will also tell you that Marsans had accompanied Almeida as another interpreter, but when the Reds also tested him out, he ended up being the better player of the two and was also signed. Almeida played for the Reds for three years and Marsans ended up playing for many years for Cincinnati, St. Louis and the New York Yankees. In 1924 he also became the first Latin American to manage a professional US team, when he became the manager of the Elmira team.
The uniquely American cultural ignorance about the difference between ethnicity and race continues to this day (especially when dealing with whom we now refer to as "Latinos" or "Hispanics"), as Marsans and Almeida are still often referred to in articles and magazines as "light-skinned Cubans." It is as if the fact that they were born in a Caribbean island had somehow mutated their racial ancestry.
Although the abuse heaped upon them by newspapers, fans and other players eventually diminished, these two Cuban men played a key role in cracking open the race door, which would not open fully for many years later.
In 1912, Miguel Angel Gonzalez made his debut with the Boston Braves, and had a batting average above 300 for the four years that he played (1915-18) for the St. Louis Cardinals. Gonzalez spent 17 years in the majors, and also played for the Reds and Chicago Cubs.
But Gonzalez's true contribution to the story is more profound than his modest .253 career batting average. In 1934, with his playing days over, he was hired as a coach for the St. Louis Cardinals, and in 1938 he was the interim manager for the Cardinals, becoming the first Latin American manager ever in the Major Leagues.
He was fired in 1946 as a result of the famous controversy between MLB and Mexican baseball. Gonzalez is also one of the patriarchs of Cuban baseball, as he managed or controlled the legendary Cuban baseball team Havana Reds from 1914 until the end of professional baseball in Cuba in 1960, when it was terminated by the heavy hand of the Cuban Communist government.
Gonzalez tenure as both a coach in the US Major Leagues (in the photo we see Gonzalez (left) with manager Frankie Frisch and coach Buzzie Wares in the 1930s St. Louis Gas House Gang) as well as the Cuban professional leagues, had a profound impact on the constant flow of both Cuban players up north, and white American players to join integrated Cuban teams during the winter. This unique opportunity in Cuba for black and white American players, together with Cubans and other Latin Americans, to share a baseball diamond, was crucial to the eventual integration of MLB, and Gonzalez must be credited for his very important part in this tortured effort.
But the true patriarch and legendary superman of Cuban baseball, was without a doubt, Adolfo Luque, known in the US as Dolph or Dolf Luque. Much has been written about Luque and his impact on Cuban baseball (none better that Roberto Gonzalez Echavarria's The Pride of Havana).
However, I believe that Luque's contribution to how US owners, fans,
newscasters and players viewed Latin American players, as well as his
outgoing, aggressive personality, and ability to float back and forth
between professional Cuban and American baseball at all levels of
organization, delivered a key ingredient for the eventual breaking of
the race barrier.Luque was the first true Latin American star of the Major Leagues. He won nearly 200 games, played in nine World Series, and in 1918 had an astonishing 27 and 8 record with a 1.93 ERA while playing with the Cincinnati Reds.
He was also a man who did not take insults from anyone, and according to Gonzalez Echavarria, he was a "snarling, vulgar, cursing, aggressive pug, who, although small at five-seven, was always ready to fight."
These characteristics served Luque well in the racist environment of the early 20th century MLB. Although he was very fair and blue-eyed, and no one could distinguish him from the other white players until he opened his mouth, Luque was nonetheless the butt of many racial insults, to which he usually responded with brutal beanballs.
Once, while
pitching for Cincinnati, Luque heard insults coming from the Giants'
dugout. The fiery Cuban charged the dugout and punched Casey Stengel in the mouth (Stengel later claimed it wasn't him who had called Luque a "Cuban N-word," but it was the man seated next to him, Bill Cunningham).
The police sent Luque back to his bench, but his Cincinnati teammates
took over the fighting to restore Luque's honor, and a near riot began.
In the chaos of the fighting, Luque grabbed a bat and headed back to the
Giants dugout.Order was finally restored and both Luque and Stengel were ejected. It was not the first time that the aggressive Luque had taken matters into his own hands, for earlier in his career he had also fired a ball into his own dugout and chased one of his own teammates with an ice pick.
Luque died in 1957, after playing in the Majors from 1914-1935. After his playing career ended, he returned and began coaching in 1941 in the US Major Leagues and also managed several teams in the Cuban League (he even pitched in a game in 1946, when he was pushing 55) as well as many other teams in Latin America.
Adolfo Luque's overall impact upon the world of professional baseball certainly merits his inclusion in the Baseball Hall of Fame, where many lesser players of his era are included. As his New York Times obituary
testifies to, Luque was a respected coach in the Major Leagues, and
like Gonzalez, had a significant part in helping to establish Latin
American players as part of the national game.Because of his temper, Luque also commanded a respect, sometimes out of fear, that also played a key part in the acceptance of Latin American players, and helped immeasurably in paving the road for Robinson and all the others who followed in his steps. As Hemingway wrote in The Old Man and the Sea: "Who is the greatest manager, really, Luque or Mike Gonzalez? -- I think they are equal."
Between 1911 and 1929, seventeen Cuban-born Caucasian players played in the Major Leagues and many more, both black and white, in the Negro Leagues. Somehow, along the line, and probably helped by the full acceptance by MLB of players and coaches like Gonzalez and Luque, and clearly assisted by the exposure of American owners, white players and managers to Cuban baseball players, the pedigree requirement for obvious "whiteness" was discarded. As a result, in 1935, a Cuban of clearly defined African features makes his debut with the Washington Senators.
There exists a fairy tale perception in the United
States of a Cuban society that is a fully integrated, equal society
where race doesn't matter, and everyone lives in a happy melting pot
where the races mix and blend and racism is not a problem. Nothing could
be further from the truth, even today (especially with the revival of tourism), and while many advances have been made for racial equality
in Cuba, this perception diminishes the suffering and pain that
Afro-Cubans, like African-Americans, have had to endure for centuries.Cuba even had a race war in 1912, in which thousands of Afro-Cuban militants, demanding equal rights, were massacred in a matter of weeks by the Cuban Army. This genocide was the most dramatic example of how white Cuban rulers responded to demands for racial equality at the same time that Marsans and Almeida were playing in the Major Leagues.
As Roberto Gonzalez Echavarria eloquently discusses in his book The Pride of Havana, Cuban baseball was curiously integrated at the professional level while being racially segregated at the amateur level. The image at the top left says it all: It is the 1914 amateur team of the Central Soledad, a sugar mill plant near Guantanamo. The vast majority of Central Soledad's people were black Cubans, many of Jamaican and Haitian ancestry, and yet not one black man is represented in the team.
The Cuban baseball racial paradox is perhaps inexplicable to Americans, but made perfect sense in the racist Cuban society of the 20th century, which even allowed a President of mixed blood (the tyrant Fulgencio Batista) to take over the government in 1933, and yet refused him membership into the Havana Yacht Club, which only allowed white members.
But in professional Cuban baseball, black and white Cuban players, together with black and white professional American players and newscasters, as well as visiting US Major League teams, played in curious indifference to the racial division of baseball in the United States, and clearly showed Americans that black players - both Cuban and American - could play on an equal level to the MLB visitors.
Roberto Estalella was a handsome, powerful man, and his muscular appearance earned him the nickname "Tarzan" in the Washington press. He was also a man of evident African features, who in Cuba would not have been called black, but perhaps mulatto, or in the Cuban slang "jabao," which is the equivalent of the term "high yellow" used by African Americans to describe a light skinned person with some African ancestry, although in Cuba, "jabao" is not a pejorative or derogatory term.
Estalella's professional US career started with Albany in 1934 and then he played for nine seasons with the Washington Senators and the Philadelphia A's and also for other Minor League teams in the Deep South (he played for Charlotte and he also led the Piedmont League in batting two years in a row in 1937 and 1938). He would have played many more years, but he was one of the players fined by MLB for his part in the Mexican League fiasco of the 1940s.
What tribulations Estalella must have endured! He was no blue-eyed, pale skinned
Luque, able to blend in visually, and certainly in the Deep South, no
one was fooled by the owners' claim that Estalella was not black but
Cuban.But the spectacular deception worked, at least on paper, and this talented athlete thus became the first man of recognizable African ancestry to play Major League Baseball in the US.
Were there players before Estalella who had some African blood? Probably, as race mixing was not a unique Cuban phenomenon, and there are many instances of "white" American players with African features being passed as "Indian" and being abused by fans and other players (in fact, recent DNA studies show that as many as 50 million white Americans have a black ancestor in their family tree).
Babe Ruth was perhaps the most famous example of this point. "Ruth was racially insulted so often that many people assumed that he was indeed partly black and that at some point in time he, or an immediate ancestor, had managed to cross the color line," wrote Ruth biographer Robert W. Creamer. "Even players in the Negro baseball leagues that flourished then believed this and generally wished the Babe, whom they considered a secret brother, well in his conquest of white baseball."
While there's no evidence that Ruth had any black ancestors, the racist American belief that any possibility of African blood immediately makes the person "black" was disregarded in the case of Estalella, and later in the case of Tomas de la Cruz, another Cuban player of obvious African ancestry who played for
Cincinnati in 1944, as well as a Cuban of Chinese ancestry, Manuel
"Chino" Hidalgo, who was signed by the Senators and played in the Minor
Leagues, but never broke into the majors. Hidalgo was probably the first
man of Asian ancestry to play in organized professional baseball in the
US.Another Cuban baseball legend is the story of Branch Rickey and black Cuban player, Silvio Garcia.
If
we are to believe many Cuban stories of the times, Branch Rickey
started to seriously consider that the best strategy to break the color
barrier would be by bringing a black Cuban player to the major leagues.
His initial choice was a very good Cuban shortstop, Silvio García. According to Edel Casas,
the noted Cuban baseball historian, Rickey met with García in Havana in
1945 to explore the possibility of bringing Garcia to the Dodgers.As he would later do with Robinson, Rickey interviewed García and asked him: "What would you do if a white American slapped your face?" García's response was succint and sincere. "I kill him," he answered. Needless to say, García was never a choice after that.
In
1947, after Robinson finally broke the obvious racial barrier for
African-Americans, many black Cubans followed in his steps, in many
cases becoming the first black players in many MLB teams. None of these
was greater than Orestes Miñoso,
called "Minnie" in the United States. On April 19, 1949 Miñoso made his
debut with the Cleveland Indians, and became the first black Cuban and
Afro Latin American to play major league baseball. He collected 1,963
hits in his career and became the second major leaguer to play in five
different decades.However, like their American colleagues, many other earlier great black Cubans, such as the legendary Martin Dihigo, now in the Hall of Fame, never had a chance to play in the Majors.
It is thanks to the forgotten accomplishments of white Cuban players such as Gonzalez and Luque, and the hidden sacrifices of Cubans of color like Estalella and de la Cruz, and to the final smashing of the color barrier, accomplishments and sacrifices by Robinson, that many of today's stars of color from Latin America, Asia and the United States owe their success.
Great black Latin American players of all nationalities, such as "El Duque" Hernandez, Tony Oliva, the great Roberto Clemente and the record-breaking king of the long ball, Sammy Sosa continued to break new barriers and records, even in the 21st century, but they stood on the shoulders of those brave men who played in a brutal field where race was used as a weapon to diminish and destroy.
And perhaps there is no link more brilliant to this past than Roberto Estalella's grandson, Bobby, also a great Major Leaguer, who carried the great baseball tradition
of this unheralded hero of the past.This is a work in progress which ultimately will produce a book on this subject as well as a traveling photography exhibition. Please email me if you have any questions, corrections, additions, updates, images, etc.
Due by Friday!
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
FINAL DEADLINE: October 12, 2012, 5:00pm
FINAL DEADLINE: October 12, 2012, 5:00pm
Published bi-annually, this four-color, 8½ x 5½ inch
directory is the definitive listing of established and emerging
contemporary artists throughout the Washington region. It is widely used
by galleries, curators, art consultants, and art patrons. Copies are
distributed to selected art critics and other members of the press, and
to museums both within and outside of the region. The 2013 - 2014 Artist
Directory will be published in the spring of 2013, and will be
available for sale on the WPA website and at select area retail
locations at the price of $9.95.
Each participating artist will be featured on a full page (8½ x ½ inches).
The page will include the artist's name, a color digital image of their
work, their studio address and phone number, email address, web
address, categories to describe their work and studio practice, and
their gallery affiliation.
All
current WPA members are eligible for publication in the Artist
Directory. There is an additional participation fee that includes a copy
of the Artist Directory. The registration fee is $75. The final
registration deadline is October 12, 2012. No submissions will be
accepted after this date.
Registration for the 2013 - 2014 Artist Directory will be handled exclusively through WPA's website.
Each
participating artist can upload one image to be featured on their page.
Images must be submitted as .eps or .tif files in CMYK format. They
must be 300dpi and as close as possible to, but no smaller than 6 inches
on the longest side. If you have any questions regarding the 2013
- 2014 Artist Directory or any issues with registration, please contact
Christopher Cunetto, Membership Manager, at ccunetto@wpadc.org or
202-234-7103 x 2.
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