September 2010
Gallery Talk
by Myrna Zanetell
Menu of this month's listings, stories and columns
Art Museum begins 50th celebration Dec. 4
Events portending a year of celebration for the Golden Anniversary of the El Paso Museum of Art will begin with a kickoff party Dec. 4, 2010, marking 50 years since the museum first opened to the public.
An evening of holiday festivities will be climaxed by the announcement of the Members’ Choice Award, going to the piece of art that museum members choose as the one they would like to see added to the museum’s permanent collection. Additionally, the museum will present “Charles Russell: Transportation in the West,” drawings that were in the inaugural exhibition of the museum in 1960.
With this kind of a beginning, 2011 should be an exciting year at the EPMA. In fact, it’s truly amazing to realize that this priceless institution has been a member of the El Paso art community since it officially became the El Paso Museum of Art in 1960, the result of the gift of 57 works of European art from the Samuel Kress Collection.
Honoring that milestone, the museum has scheduled an outstanding exhibition focusing on the golden age of Dutch and Flemish art in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Opening March 6 and running through May 22, 2011, these works explore the richness of 200 years of painting and culture in the Netherlands and the area now known as Belgium. Combining a rich mix of portraiture, still-life and landscape paintings by artists such as Frans Hals, Jan Steen, Anthony Van Dyck and Peter Paul Rubens, the exhibition also investigates what was then a popular new genre depicting the simple beauty of the everyday lives of soldiers, musicians and even the peasantry, and the growing prosperity of the Dutch society as well as the impact of the Dutch War of Independence with Spain.
The exhibition also has a special significance in that it was curated entirely by our own museum, which brought together works from collections of Texas museums such as the Kimbell Museum of Art and the Blanton Museum of Art, with the majority of paintings coming from the collection of Sarah Campbell Balaffer in Houston.
Museum Director Michael Tomor relates, “We are very excited about exhibiting Dutch and Flemish art which we view as a complement to the Southern European art in our Kress Collection.”
This exhibition will also celebrate the publication of a full-color catalog with scholarly writing about the museum’s European-art collection. The previous catalog was published in 1960, is out-of-date and is no longer available. The bulk of funding for the publication comes from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, with the remainder from the National Endowment for the Arts and the EPMA Foundation. (Look for more information on the anniversary celebration as it becomes available.)
Now that the gorgeous jewelry from “Bedazzled” has found its way back to the Walters Museum in Baltimore and the event itself has been filed under “Memories,” Tomor reports that he was more than pleased with the response to this groundbreaking exhibition.
“‘Bedazzled’ generated 4,000 plus paid admissions. I had hoped for a bit more, but the good news is that community members made up the majority of these admission receipts, confirming that not only is the public interested in exhibitions focusing on crafts as fine art, but that they will most likely come back again.”
Proceeds from “Bedazzled” added approximately $35,000 to $40,000 to the museum’s exhibition funds, a sum that will help cover two exhibits coming in September. One is from the Aperture Foundation, the leading research institute for photography in this country, and will showcase photography from fine-art photographer Paul Strand. His “Portfolio 1940” contains the complete photographic works made by Strand during his 1932–1934 visit to Mexico, and the 1967 reissue “Mexican Portfolio” is a presentation of the classic film “Los Redes” (1936), including still shots taken during the film’s production in Veracruz.
The second exhibition highlights two collections from the Norman Rockwell Museum: “Picturing Health” and “Norman Rockwell: Behind the Lines.”
“These are less familiar Rockwell works, but I just love interesting exhibitions like this one,” Tomor confides.
“Picturing Health” showcases 12 original Rockwells commissioned by Pfizer Drug commenting on health care in a positive way. Additionally, 30 original images by post-1960 artists also relate to the marketing and promotion of health in American culture. Basically, the exhibition is a commentary on how health care has evolved in the United States from the days of the grandfather-like physician who made house calls to modern medicine’s increased focus on new drugs and technology. This is an interesting discussion that is especially timely in that it helps viewers see what has happened in the health-care industry.
“Norman Rockwell: Behind the Lines” features another 35 original paintings. This exhibition also comes with all the sketching materials Rockwell used to complete the work, mostly for the covers of the Saturday Evening Post, and also deals with Rockwell’s use of photography as a sketching tool.
Arts and ends
Brigitte von Ahn has long been known for her penchant for pushing the envelope when it comes to working in the medium of encaustic, so it should be quite interesting to hear about the exciting new experiences she and two of her students (Lori Wertz and Margarete Cronauer) will encounter as they take part in a course of instruction being offered at the Encaustic Academy in Weilheim/Teck, Germany (near Stuttgart) Sept. 20–24.
Brigitte is especially enthusiastic about this opportunity because Academy Director Monika Romer has designed a course of instruction that is “tailor made” for the type of encaustic painting that is popular in the U.S. (Encaustic, also known as hot-wax painting, uses heated beeswax with colored pigments.)
“We are going to concentrate on color applications with instruction by artists from Austria and other parts of Germany who do specialized work, which will definitely give us insights into how techniques differ in terms of European influences,” says von Ahn.
She relates that not only will they have the opportunity to master new skills, such as working with the palette knife, but they will also have the opportunity to experiment with a giant hot plate — one large enough for six students at one time.
“Rather than heating the wax with an iron, this unique tool gives artists the ability to place paper or canvas directly on the hot surface, which in turn melts the wax, allowing them to apply colors directly with the brush,” she explains.
Work inspired by this trip to Germany, much of it abstract still life, will be displayed at an exhibition scheduled for Nov. 13 at von Ahn’s studio at 7100 Westwind. The artist wants to encourage visitors to broaden their knowledge about tencaustics, one of the world’s oldest art forms.
She notes, “Archaeologists have found 2,000-year-old portraits done in encaustic on wood in Egyptian tombs. When people died, they put these portraits on the heads of the mummies so others would know what they looked like in life. Interestingly, what’s old has become new again, so what we are really emphasizing using these new techniques is that encaustic is just another medium in which to express your own free spirit.”
Saturday, Aug. 14, marked the kickoff of a new series of events at the Sasahara Gallery, also at 7100 Westwind, which owner Linda Noack has christened “Second Saturdays.” Noack has programmed a full slate of interesting shows on the second Saturday of each month, stretching into 2011. Gallery hours will extend from noon to 7 p.m., with a reception to begin at 3 p.m. that Saturday.
Animal lovers will want to attend the special Humane Society Benefit Exhibition scheduled for Sept. 11. Linda has planned a variety of activities to benefit the animals in the shelter, including a special grouping of paintings dedicated to pets that will hang until Oct. 2, with part of the sales going to the society.
In addition, Manny Guerra will paint portraits of pets (from photos brought in by interested persons). The highest bid in a silent auction will garner that person a commissioned portrait of their pet. Winner can choose between the work of artists Stephanie Conroy, Manny Guerra and Linda Noack. Another commissioned pet portrait will be raffled with the winning ticket to be drawn at 6 p.m. Each visitor to the gallery may complete a raffle ticket.
On Oct. 9, visitors can look forward to a double-feature event. Gallery artists will offer work inspired by the fall season to complement a solo show of contemporary paintings by A. Stein.
Congratulations to Melinda Etzold, whose first one-woman-show, “Vivid Expressions,” opens with a reception, 5:30 to 8 p.m. Sept. 3, at the Sunland Gallery, Sunland Park Mall. The exhibition title is a perfect choice for an artist known for her bright colors and passionate interpretations of landscapes, still lifes and animals, employing a wide range of mediums, including pastel, acrylic and encaustic. As an aside, Melinda also painted two of the chile peppers that will be auctioned off for the benefit of El Paso Hospice Sept. 10.
The Plein Air Painters of El Paso (which includes Bob Adams, Corrine Spinnler and Krystyna Robbins) will exhibit work in the two Rio Grande Theatre galleries during September. El Pasoan Janet Jackson and Kathleen Squires of Las Cruces (former members of The Five Painters, who were students of Earline Barnes) will also show their colorful, impressionistic paintings. This exhibition will open with a reception on Friday, Sept. 3, as part of Las Cruces’ regular “Downtown Ramble.”
Myrna Zanetell is a freelance writer specializing in the visual arts.
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