Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Coming up: Open Studio Weekend - A Festival of the Arts

November 7th-8th, 2015 Washington ArtWorks, Montgomery County’s largest visual arts facility, opens its expansive 30,000 square foot visual arts center in Montgomery County to the public for its bi-annual Open Studio Weekend: A Festival of the Arts filled with art, shopping, film screenings, food trucks, live music, and more! 

Over 70 artists occupy studios at Washington ArtWorks where creativity abounds for artists working in sculpture, painting, glass, fibers, jewelry, photography, and more. Each artist not only creates works of art, but also runs their own business from their studios where visitors shop, watch demonstrations, and network with some of Montgomery County’s finest artists. 

During Open Studio Weekend: A Festival of the Arts, food trucks, Holy Crepes, Balkanik Taste, and Curley Q’s BBQ will fill Washington ArtWorks’ free, large parking lot with smells of sweets and savory treats while local bands play live music. 

Films by video artists from Rockville to the Philippines will be screened throughout both days while recycle and reuse sculpture competitions allow adults and children to get creative with found objects and art. 

“This festival is going to be the largest that Washington ArtWorks has seen to date. With 70 artists working across a variety of mediums, delicious food trucks, great, live music, films from across the globe, and art-themed games, Open Studio Weekend: A Festival of the Arts at Washington ArtWorks is going to be an event no one will want to miss” says President and CEO, Missy Loewe.

Open Studio Weekend: A Festival of the Arts will be held from 12:00pm – 5:00pm both Saturday and Sunday, November 7th and 8th. Conveniently located at 12276 Wilkins Ave., Rockville, MD 20852, the arts center offers free parking and easy access from Twinbrook Metro Station.

Washington ArtWorks at 12276 Wilkins Avenue in the Twinbrook area of Rockville, Md, offers workshops, exhibits, and outreach programs to serve the visual arts community and the public in the National Capital Region. Additionally, the organization created “ArtWorks Aid”, to provide charitable services to members and causes of their community.  Please contact Natanya Khashan at 301-654-1998 or Natanya@WashingtonArtWorks.com for more information. 

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Opportunities for artists

The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center 2016–2017 EXHIBITION SERIES | Time: Entropy and Change
The concept of entropy is often defined as nature’s tendency to move from order to disorder. Other ideas associated with entropy are: a lack of predictability, change in condition or appearance and gradual decline over time into disintegration or dissolution. In nature, this phenomenon is seen in the slow degradation of elements such as stone or wood, or in a myriad of other possibilities. Time is the key to both entropy and change, whether in nature or in human lives.We invite artists to propose an individual or group exhibit that expresses or relates to these intertwined concepts.  
The Department of Visual and Performing Arts is calling for exhibition proposals for the Open Gallery in The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center that address the theme, “Time: Entropy and  Change”. Four exhibitions will be scheduled for the 2016–2017 academic year. 
Application Process
Eligibility: Applicants must be at least 21 years of age. Current Montgomery College students are not eligible to submit proposals.
Eligible works: The Open Gallery is primarily linear wall space that can accommodate two-dimensional works up to 54” tall. Freestanding, pedestal, and wall hung three-dimensional works up to 75lbs. will also be considered. Video and digital works that can be displayed on monitors will be considered. Video projections are not eligible. A floor plan of the gallery is available on our web site, http://cms.montgomerycollege.edu/arts-tpss/exhibitions/opportunities.html 
Deadlines: All proposals must be received by April 8, 2016 to be considered. Applicants will be notified by June 1. 
Submission: Mail or deliver all proposal materials in one envelope to:
Claudia Rousseau, Exhibitions
Committee Montgomery College, TP/
SS Campus7600 Takoma Avenue,
CF-128 Takoma Park, MD 20912 
Application materials can be obtained here.

Monday, October 19, 2015

DC Alley Museum

The DMV is now becoming known for fresh (non-historic) public art and vibrant mural painting done by our living artists. A coalition of painters from the region have come together and created the DC ALLEY MUSEUM in BLAGDEN ALLEY – opening 24/7 on Friday OCTOBER 30TH in downtown WASHINGTON DC.

Just a few blocks from the now trendy Blagden Alley, there once was a Museum of Temporary Arts, a d.c. space, a Washington Project for the Arts, and in the Shaw neighborhood alley, there were spaces known as The Fight Club, The Warehouse, and Signal 66, not to mention dozens of artists and production businesses like City Lights and Eco Media, all in venues created by artists for the presentation of their work.

The DC ALLEY MUSEUM builds on this tradition in a fresh way while celebrating the temporary nature of outdoor artworks and life. Beginning in 2015 a series of works were commissioned by artists with a history in the Shaw neighborhood and the alley -- BILL WARRELL, LISA MARIE THALHAMMER, ROZEAL BROWN, ANIEKAN UDOFIA, CITA SADELI CHELOVE.

They have created a stunning display of new works painted directly on the garage doors of several buildings. In the coming year more artists will be commissioned from across the city to fill more blank garage doors and walls. The museum will expand to include video documentation of the multi-year project, connecting new generations of artists with some of our city’s “old masters.”

Murals get the artwork of painters out into the public sphere in a uniquely bold and playful way, a great way to educate the public about local artists living and working in their community. Imagine a Museum that features DC artists open 24/7 without restrictions (no hours, no guards, cameras encouraged); welcoming the entire city to stroll or drive through, stop in the LA COLOMBE coffee shop and pick up your postcard/map of the DC ALLEY MUSEUM and join in the art, music and celebration.

This wonderfully serious artwork is made possible with a grant from the D.C. COMMISSION ON THE ARTS AND HUMANITIES • PUBLIC ART BUILDING COMMUNITY PROGRAM and the BLAGDEN ALLEY NEIGHBORS that supply the canvas for some of DCs finest artists.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION   https://www.facebook.com/events/434721746728129/ 
OR Contact: Lisa Thalhammer lm@lisamariestudio.com or Bill warrell@dciproduction.com

Sunday, October 18, 2015

The tale of "A Regatta on the Grand Canal"

A lengthy dispute over a Venetian regatta scene by Vincenzo Chilone, confiscated from a Jewish family in Nice in 1943, has been resolved by Art Recovery Group.

Following the German invasion of France in 1940, the collaborating government established at Vichy adopted many of the Nazis’ anti-Semitic policies, including the systematic confiscation of Jewish property. Among the first art collections in southern France subjected to seizure and forced sale was the extensive collection belonging to John Jaffé, a prominent textile merchant, and his wife Anna.

The Jaffé Collection was considered one of the finest privately-owned art collections in France and comprised works by Goya, Fragonard, Rembrandt, John Constable and JMW Turner. Following the death of Anna Jaffé in 1942, the collection, bequeathed to her niece and three nephews, was promptly seized by pro-Nazi French authorities. Encouraged by Karl Haberstock, a prominent Nazi art dealer, the entire Jaffé Collection, totalling over 200 works of art and property, was deposited at the Hotel du Savoy, Nice, in June 1943 and scattered through a forced sale.

Among them was ‘A Regatta on the Grand Canal’ by Vincenzo Chilone (1758-1839), a small Venetian festival scene valued today at £60,000 ($90,000/€80,000). At the time, the painting was attributed to Bernardo Bellotto, a pupil and close follower of Canaletto’s.

In private hands ever since, ‘A Regatta on the Grand Canal’ last appeared on the open market in 1985 at Sotheby’s, London, and was purchased in good faith by an Italian collector unaware of the work’s history. On notification of the historic claim attached to the Chilone, the collector contacted Art Recovery Group to oversee the restitution process and to organise a just and fair resolution with the Jaffé heirs.

Art Recovery Group reached out to Alain Monteagle, great-nephew of Anna Jaffé and representative of the 11 living claimants to the family’s spoliated collection, and an amicable resolution was agreed shortly thereafter.

Commenting on his family’s restitution efforts, Alain Monteagle, said:

"I’m often asked why we continue to look for looted works of art so long after the end of the war. Firstly, giving up would mean that Hitler and his accomplices have won in one of their aims. The Nazis tried to destroy an entire civilisation, a cultural treasure of mankind, but looking for these looted works helps us to understand our past and the lives of our families some of which have been lost forever.

"But more importantly, if we do nothing then what deterrent does that give for the art looters in many places in the world today? Why would they stop? Or even museums or dealers - why would they care that there are still blood stains on the paintings they buy?"

Christopher A. Marinello, CEO of Art Recovery Group, added:

“We are very pleased that the Jaffé heirs can have closure on a dispute spanning seven decades and we hope that this resolution will encourage the art trade to be more receptive in its recognition of Nazi-era claims. Resolutions like these are only made possible when information about historic losses is shared, so we encourage all claimants to register looted objects at no cost on the ArtClaim Database.”

Pursuant to the terms of a confidential settlement agreement, ‘A Regatta on the Grand Canal’ will be auctioned at Christie's in an upcoming sale.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Sam Gilliam Finally Takes Off

From Bloomberg:
In the late 1960s, the American artist Sam Gilliam started to make “drape paintings,” wherein he would cover canvases with paint and hang them from the wall without stretchers. The paintings became sculpture, and the paint itself—acrylic pigment mixed with resin—a type of construction material.
 Much like the output of his contemporaries (Gilliam came a few years after Morris Louis, Helen Frankenthaler, and Kenneth Noland), his work falls in the Color Field genre of painting, an abstract, postwar movement that turned canvases into flat picture planes. But unlike those same contemporaries, Gilliam has been almost entirely neglected by the art market until fairly recently. This April, his work achieved its highest auction result ever, when a 1969 painting with a high estimate of $60,000 sold for $197,000 at Swann Auctions in New York. In contrast, Frankenthaler’s auction record is $2.8 million; Noland’s auction record is $2.1 million; and Louis’s is just under $3 million, or approximately 1,400 percent more than Gilliam's best.