Zheng Wu, “Overlapped Providence,” gouache (Best in Show)
Works by several talented students from Eastern Tennessee have the honor of being displayed this tall at the Knoxville Museum of Art. Perhaps these are the artists of the future?
The Knoxville Museum of Art and the Tennessee Art Education Association present the “East Tennessee Regional Student Art Exhibition” Friday, November 24, 2017-Sunday, January 14, 2018. Now in its 12th year, the exhibition offers middle and high school students from around East Tennessee the opportunity to participate in a juried exhibition and to display their talents and be honored for their accomplishments in a professional art museum environment.
Grace Sivak, “Crazy Face,” chalk and glue (Best in Middle School)
Students, family, friends, and the public are invited to a reception and awards ceremony Tuesday, December 5 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Knoxville Museum of Art. The event is free and open to the public.
The East Tennessee Regional Student Art Exhibition is open to students in grades 6-12, attending public, private, or home schools in 32 counties across East Tennessee. Fewer than a third (349) of the more than 1,073 entries in this highly competitive show made it through a rigorous jury process. The best-in-show winner will receive a purchase award of $500, and the artwork will become a permanent part of the collection of Mr. James Dodson, on loan to the Knoxville Museum of Art’s Education Collection.
Jessica Ilgner, “I Know You Have a Heavy Heart,” watercolor (Best Painting)
Since 2005, the East Tennessee Regional Student Art Exhibition has presented the work of nearly 4,000 students who have competed for a total of $7 million in scholarships made available to eligible juniors and seniors by colleges and universities from around the nation.
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John B. Neagle, “Pat Lyon at the Forge,” 1829, oil on canvas, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
The National Portrait Gallery in Washington is currently showcasing powerful artworks that explore the creative visions of some of America’s finest artworks while also delving into our storied social and economic history.
“The Sweat of Their Face” is a powerful and apropos title for a current exhibition on view at the National Portrait Gallery. Indeed, Americans are well-known for their work ethic, much of which has been captured over the decades by our greatest artists.
John Rose, “Miss Breme Jones,” circa 1785-87, watercolor and ink on paper, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum
On view through September 3, 2018, the show presents viewers with representations of American laborers across genres and centuries of art. “Artists such as Winslow Homer, Dorothea Lange, Elizabeth Catlett, and Lewis Hine depict laborers through the changing landscape of America,” the NPG writes, “from child and slave laborers to miners, railway and steel workers, to the modern gradual disappearance of the worker. Approximately 75 objects in all media (including video) highlight a point of connection between the artists and their predominately anonymous subjects.”
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Daniel Sprick, “Souls in Purgatory,” 2016, oil on board, 30 x 48 inches
The Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn, New York, is the proud venue of an eye-popping exhibition featuring painting by some of the most talented hyper-realist artists working today. But that’s not all. Who’s — and what’s — included, and for how long?
Last weekend, the Nassau County Museum of Art opened a tour-de-force exhibition on realism in art, focused in part on contemporary artists who are taking trompe l’oeil to new heights in the 21st century. “Fool the Eye” will continue through March 4 and features works by, among others, Salvador Dalí, Janet Fish, Audrey Flack, Jasper Johns, Judith Leiber, Roy Lichtenstein, Vik Muniz, Ben Schoenzeit, and Victor Vasarely. Contemporary artists include Lorraine Shemesh, Marc Sijan, and Daniel Sprick.
According to the museum, viewers should “get ready to be amazed by an exhibition filled with optical illusions and artistic sleight of hand! To separate what’s real from what is a clever ruse in ‘Fool The Eye’ takes an alert eye and the willingness to examine art carefully. Enjoy the visual journey. Take a few steps to the right and observe, draw your conclusions about what you think you see. Then, a few steps to the left reveals a whole new image. The guesses multiply. Is it a flat surface or a sculpture? Is it a photograph or a painting? Is it made of wood or bronze, rubber or steel? Is it real or faux? Expect the unexpected through moments of fascination, intrigue, shock, and astonishment.
“‘Fool the Eye’, on view at the Museum’s Saltzman Fine Arts Building from Saturday November 18, 2017 through March 4, 2018, challenges viewers to experience the wonder of masterful artistic techniques. This exhibition includes examples of traditional trompe l’oeil (meticulously painted, hyper-real images) and a wide range of other approaches to illusion. See larger-than-life oversized objects, hypnotic geometric abstractions, sculptures made of unexpected materials, images with mind-bending impossibilities, and fine art so seemingly realistic, they are (nearly) indistinguishable from real things. The magic will provoke debates in every gallery about reality and deception.”
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Twenty-seven years after Agnews staged Lotte Laserstein’s last exhibition before her death, the gallery is once again mounting a vibrant display of the artist’s work. What’s the angle of the new show?
The first exhibition in London dedicated solely to Lotte Laserstein since the ground-breaking 1987 exhibition at Agnews will open at the same location on November 8. On view through December 15, “Lotte Laserstein’s Women” is a focus exhibition at Agnews that seeks to “acknowledge and reinstate Laserstein as one of the great women artists in the canon of 20th-century art from which she and many other women artists of the inter-war period have been excluded,” according to the gallery.
Lotte Laserstein, “Sitting Model — Madeleine,” circa 1943
Agnews continued, “The exhibition is comprised both of works for sale and on loan; some of the works have rarely been seen in public and others have not previously been exhibited. Many of the loaned works are from private collections except for one, her ‘Self-portrait at the easel’ (1938), which has been loaned by the Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin.”
Lotte Laserstein, “Nude with raised arms,”Lotte Laserstein, “Russian Girl,”
“Lotte Laserstein is so important because the 20th century, like no other period before it, produced an extraordinary number and diversity of women artists who, despite their obvious and varied talents, were marginalized and their work underappreciated,” added Anthony Crichton-Stuart, director of Agnews. “Despite the fact that they greatly enriched our cultural history, the roles of these women artists in both the commercial and academic worlds has never been fully recognized. Thus, Laserstein’s work, like many other women painters, architects, sculptors, and photographers, particularly from the inter-war years, is only now getting the attention it so justly deserves. Thanks to incredibly generous loans from Sweden, Belgium, Britain, Germany, and the U.S.A., this exhibition reveals a powerful body of work by a woman painter whose destiny and creative output were particularly influenced but also nearly destroyed by the major political, social, and cultural crises and upheavals of the first half of the 20th century.”
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Viewers have a chance to see a range of dynamic narrative paintings by a skillful artist who seeks to depict extreme melodrama and disrupt figure/background interplay. Sound interesting?
The Westmoreland Museum of American Art will open on December 8 a fascinating solo exhibition of paintings by Kenneth Nicholson. On view through February 4, “Dark Matter” is as much an exercise of the mind as it is the eyes. Nicholson’s engaging pictures present a fragmented reality, juxtaposing strong, planar elements with distorted figures and interiors. According to the press release, the extreme melodrama depicted and disruption between figure/background interplay “releases the character’s inner drama into the negative space.” The artist himself added, “There is a particular way that a shadow smacks against the wall behind to people eagerly avoiding eye contact. As one slips out of awareness, the weight of the room takes their place.”
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Nikolai Fechin, “Portrait of Nadezhda Sapozhnikova,” 1908, oil on canvas, 56 x 36 1/2 inches (estimate $1,591,080-$2,386,620)
In this ongoing series for Fine Art Today, we take a longer look at the history and features of a soon-to-be-available artwork of note. This week we highlight a spectacular selection of Russian masterpieces available soon in London.
On November 28, Sotheby’s in London will auction an incredible selection of Russian masterpieces by many of that nation’s most celebrated painters, including Nikolai Fechin. The sale will also see the first appearance on the market of a private European collection of works by Alexandra Exter, a central figure of the Russian avant-garde. Inherited by the present owners from Ihno Ezratty, a friend of the artist from her years in Paris and executor of her will, the collection of 14 works includes examples across a variety of media.
Ivan Pavlovich Pokhitonov, “Sunlit Landscape in Winter, Zhabovshchizna,” circa 1902-1906, oil on panel, 6 3/4 x 10 1/2 inches (estimate $132,590-$198,885)
Without a doubt, the star of the sale will be Nikolai Fechin’s “Portrait of Nadezhda Sapozhnikova” which depicts the artist’s friend and patron and was painted before the artist emigrated to America, where the painting has remained ever since. According to Sotheby’s, the painting is being auctioned to benefit the acquisition fund of the San Diego Museum of Art and is being offered for the first time.
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Luke Hillestad, “The Fool,” oil on canvas, 42 x 42 inches
Self-proclaimed kitsch painters Jeremy Caniglia and Luke Hillestad will discuss their experience working with the figurative master Odd Nerdrum at the Nerdrum School during a December lecture that could illuminate the future of figurative painting. When and where?
Wet Paint Artists’ Materials & Framing in Saint Paul, Minnesota, will be the venue for an engaging art history talk with acclaimed painters Jeremy Caniglia and Luke Hillestad. On December 16 from 10 a.m.-1 p.m., the two Odd Nerdrum pupils will discuss a number of fascinating topics, including the different techniques and approaches used at the Nerdrum School — such as the Apelles palette, toning of the canvas, imprimatura, color layering, sanding, and glazing — different approaches to build a composition, and a discussion of masterworks from Odd Nerdrum’s canon.
Jeremy Caniglia, “Evening Star,” oil on panel
Examples of Caniglia’s and Hillestad’s works will be on display for the talk. Interested parties must reserve a spot by contacting Wet Paint. To learn more, visit here.
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Hollis Dunlap, “Pink and Blue Nude,” oil on panel, 16 x 20 inches
Sirona Fine Art is welcoming back a very talented artist this winter for his second solo exhibition in South Florida. A graduate of the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, he’s been honing his realist techniques since age 14.
For the second time, artist Hollis Dunlap will be the sole focus at Sirona Fine Art in Hallandale Beach, Florida. In fact, Dunlap began showing his work with Sirona’s gallery director at a gallery in New York City at a young age, over a decade ago — so their roots run deep. The exhibition features Dunlap’s newest works, and viewers can expect a continuation of the artist’s search into his skills and passions as a painter.
Hollis Dunlap, “In Shadows,” oil on panel, 16 x 16 inches
“His works are not political or concept-driven,” the gallery says, “yet still there is an abstract symbolism that he tries to achieve with color and composition. One of the ways that Dunlap’s work has evolved is a deliberate flattening of the background space, an interplay of areas of pure paint and areas of carefully resolved and rendered form.
Hollis Dunlap, “Meditations on Light,” oil on linen, 50 x 40 inches
“There are new ideas of color here, an attempt more to inject colors from Dunlap’s mind’s eye rather than being subject to his keen and masterful observational skills. There are some not obvious inspirations such as classic album covers, influenced by both music and psychedelic color vibrations. You can see the sculptural influences in building the form from the artist’s lifelong influence of Michelangelo, as well as Diebenkorn, Kokoschka, Van Gogh. Dunlap also notes Euan Uglow for his use of space, color, and formal composition, and his appeal to more cerebral realist painters who create works as much from the inside as what the eye perceives.
Hollis Dunlap, “Pink and Blue Nude,” oil on panel, 16 x 20 inches
“There is an intentional centering of the figures to present them more as symmetrical iconic forms and not to focus on any dynamics of point of view or cropping the form. This allows the concentration on the surface, the paint application and a nearly counter-intuitive use of brushwork. There is a kinetic movement to the chromatic mark-making that sculpts forms into a painted space that is held together by personal and considered choices of chroma and tone. Though expertly skilled and able to work photographically accurately, Dunlap says that he doesn’t want to show every blade of grass, or every strand of hair, just the beautiful and interesting blades and strands.
Hollis Dunlap, “Send My Regards from Rome,” oil on panel, 12 x 16 inches
“Though Dunlap doesn’t want to be seen as an academic realist, he also resists some contemporary elements that are ironic or obviously constructed for shock value. His attempts are to be sincere in his work, with figures that are naturalistic in their depicted surroundings. Once again citing Michelangelo as an influence, many of the new figures are presented in a way that is not typical of a male artist’s gaze, in poses that are not dependent on the model being male or female. The emotions that Dunlap wants to connect to the viewer are related in the expressions in both the gesture and faces of the models, of a sense of meditativeness, lost in thought, quiet and reflective moments. It is a proper summation of the way Dunlap has conducted his approach to making art, in a concentrated and sublime way, a visual intellectual who speaks in a silent language of form and color that he has spent his entire lifetime creating.”
Dunlap’s solo exhibition runs through February 2. To learn more, visit Sirona Fine Art.
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Titian, “Portrait of Archbishop Filippo Archinto,” 1558, oil on canvas, 45 3/16 x 34 15/16 inches
Important selections from one of the finest collections of European art ever to have been formed in the United States by a private collector is currently on view. Including masterpieces by key figures of the Renaissance, the Dutch Golden Age, and 19th-century American and French masters, this show is one for the ages.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is celebrating the centenary of the remarkable bequest of John Graver Johnson — a distinguished corporate lawyer of his day and one of the era’s most adventurous art collectors — to the city of Philadelphia in 1917. “Old Masters Now: Celebrating the Johnson Collection” — on view now through February 19 — includes masterpieces by key figures of the Renaissance such as Botticelli, Bosch, and Titian; important 17th-century Dutch paintings by Rembrandt, Jan Steen, and others; and works by American and French masters of Johnson’s own time, most notably Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, and Édouard Manet and Claude Monet.
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James Wilson Morrice, “Canal San Nicolo, Lido, Venice,” 1904, oil on canvas, 59 x 81 cm. National Gallery of Canada
The first exhibition of the A.K. Prakash Collection of works by James Wilson Morrice (1865-1924), one of Canada’s most celebrated modernist artists, will adorn the walls of this renowned institution soon.
Recently gifted to the National Gallery of Canada, the entire donation from the A.K. Prakash Collection of 49 works by James Morrice — 45 paintings in oil and four watercolors — will be on display. The exhibition, titled “James Wilson Morrice: The A.K. Prakash Collection in Trust to the Nation,” and the accompanying publication bring to life the passion of an avid collector and philanthropist, Ash K. Prakash, who was determined to understand and celebrate the artist’s legacy.
James Wilson Morrice, “The Regatta,” circa 1902-1907, oil on panel, 23.4 x 32.8 cm. National Gallery of Canada
Via the NGC, “Taking visitors on a three-decade journey of collecting, this exhibition in the Masterpiece in Focus series explores the relationship between collector A.K. Prakash and his artist of choice, James Wilson Morrice, weaving the intricate story of the artist with that of the collector. Pioneering a fresh and vibrant use of colour, and known for his delicate handling of paint on small-scale wooden pochades, Morrice played a vital role in advancing modern artistic trends in Canada and abroad at the turn of the 20th century. The stories around his widespread travels and rise to fame as one of Canada’s most beloved modernist painters are shared through the passion of an avid collector who was determined to understand, celebrate, and preserve the artist’s legacy for all Canadians.”
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