George R. Anthonisen (b. 1936), "Creation" (front), 1981–82, bronze (edition 3/9), 24 x 24 x 14 in., collection of Carol and Louis Della Penna; photo: Christian Giannelli
Still pursuing his artistry after 65 years, George R. Anthonisen is the subject of a retrospective at the James A. Michener Art Museum.
“Meditations on the Human Condition” features more than 40 figurative sculptures (primarily in bronze), as well as maquettes and frescoes, displayed in the museum’s galleries and garden. Through his art, Anthonisen investigates universal themes related to people’s capacity to destroy, create, question, and make noble choices; he is also admired for his evocations of the female form’s elegance and strength.
Born in Boston in 1936, he spent his youth in Vermont, where he was tutored by Elizabeth Clark Gunther, a landscape architect whose husband was the architect and painter John F. Gunther.
In 1955, while stationed in Europe with the U.S. Army, Anthonisen first visited the Louvre, where he was impressed by such iconic sculptures as the “Nike of Samothrace,” “Venus de Milo,” and Michelangelo’s “Two Slaves.”
He later studied art at the University of Vermont, then in New York City at the National Academy of Design and Art Students League. In 1967 Anthonisen enrolled at Dartmouth College’s medical school so that he could study human anatomy, and since 1971 he has lived in Bucks County near Doylestown.
Exhibition Details at a Glance:
George R. Anthonisen
James A. Michener Art Museum
Doylestown, Pennsylvania michenerartmuseum.org
Through October 13, 2024
As part of our effort to continue to help artists and art galleries thrive, we’re proud to bring you this week’s “Virtual Gallery Walk.” Browse the artwork below and click the image itself to learn more about it, including how to contact the gallery.
Want to see your gallery featured in an upcoming Virtual Gallery Walk? Contact us at [email protected] to advertise today. Don’t delay, as spaces are first come, first served, and availability is limited.
Charles Warren Mundy (b. 1945), "Rose Floral in Pink Vase," 2023, oil on linen, 20 x 16 in.
The nonprofit organization Oil Painters of America (OPA) will mount its 2024 National Juried Salon at Indianapolis’s James R. Ross Fine Art this summer.
Professional artist members from across the U.S. and Canada vied for only 100 spots, so there will be excitement during the opening reception when Master Signature artist Robert Johnson, in his role as juror of awards, distributes approximately $12,000 in awards.
Among the participants will be a range of OPA’s Master Signature artists: Daud Akhriev, Kathy Anderson, Nikolo Balkanski, Cindy Baron, Roger Dale Brown, Ken Cadwallader, John Michael Carter, James Crandall, Nancy S. Crookston, Howard Friedland, Albert Handell, Nancy Howe, Robert Johnson, David A. Leffel, Ruo Li, Calvin Liang, Kevin Macpherson, Sherrie McGraw, David Mueller, Ned Mueller, Charles Warren Mundy, Camille Przewodek, Scott Royston, Patrick Saunders, William Schneider, Michael Situ, William A. Suys, James Tennison, Deborah Tilby, Zhiwei Tu, Jeffrey Watts, and Christopher Zhang.
Zhongli Gong (lifedates unknown), "Polishing," 1984, oil on canvas, 55 x 45 in.
On view at Hirschl & Adler Galleries this season is “The Art of Trains,” an exhibition of highlights from the collection of Peter and Christine Mosse.
As a teen growing up in England, Peter became enthralled by steam locomotives and started collecting railroad documents and equipment. After moving to New York in 1977, he turned his attention to fine art that depicts anything to do with railroads.
Today the collection encompasses approximately 250 paintings, watercolors, and drawings made in Britain, North America, France, Russia, Haiti, and China.
Last year the Mosses promised the entire collection to the Center for Railroad Photography & Art in Madison, Wisconsin, where Peter serves on the board. In celebration of this generous gift, Hirschl & Adler has selected 22 representative works, which now comprise the first exhibition of railroad art in New York City in over 50 years, and very likely the first showing of such pieces from a single private collection.
“The Art of Trains”
Venue: Hirschl & Adler, New York
Through August 23, 2024
Website: hirschlandadler.com
As part of our effort to continue to help artists and art galleries thrive, we’re proud to bring you this week’s “Virtual Gallery Walk.” Browse the artwork below and click the image itself to learn more about it, including how to contact the gallery.
House by the Sea, Barb Walker, oil on linen, 12 x 16 in; Barb Walker
Want to see your gallery featured in an upcoming Virtual Gallery Walk? Contact us at [email protected] to advertise today. Don’t delay, as spaces are first come, first served, and availability is limited.
Gallery shot of John Steuart Curry: Weathering the Storm at the Muskegon Museum of Art
The Muskegon Museum of Art (MMA) in West Michigan is proud to present the exhibition: “John Steuart Curry: Weathering the Storm.” Through September 2, 2024, the exhibition will feature masterworks for the first time in over 25 years.
Gallery shot of John Steuart Curry’s most iconic works, “Baptism In Kansas,” loaned by The Whitney Museum of American Art, “The Tornado (Tornado Over Kansas),” from the Muskegon Museum of Art, and “The Mississippi” loaned by the Saint Louis Art Museum.
More from the museum:
Iconic paintings, such as “Tornado Over Kansas” and “Baptism in Kansas,” will be featured in the exhibition alongside other notable works loaned from The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Cincinnati Art Museum, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, The Saint Louis Art Museum, The Sheldon Museum of Art, The Syracuse University Art Museum, and Kiechel Fine Art.
“The Muskegon Museum of Art is home to one of Curry’s most famous paintings, ‘Tornado Over Kansas,’ as well as one of the best art collections of a small art museum in the country. Over the past 111 years, the MMA has enjoyed a reputation of being a small museum presenting exhibitions that regularly receive national attention. In this tradition, we are proud to present this groundbreaking John Steuart Curry exhibition,” says Kirk Hallman, MMA Executive Director.
The exhibition highlights the artwork that visually defined the Midwest and tells the captivating and tragic story behind the work and life of John Steuart Curry. His paintings, which depict picturesque rural landscapes, communal gatherings, and most famously, the devastating natural disasters that impacted the Midwest, influenced the national perception of life in the region through popular culture and media in the late 1920’s and beyond.
“How to Survive a Tornado” article in the April 1955 issue of Today’s Health featuring John Steuart Curry’s “The Tornado (Tornado Over Kansas)” painting
For this exhibition, the Muskegon Museum of Art has partnered with independent scholar and curator Patricia Junker, whose new research and insight into Curry challenges the conventional understanding of Curry and reveals the deeply personal, and emotionally tragic inspiration behind his breakthrough paintings and how a Kansas farm boy came to create paintings that became iconic visions of America’s Midwest in popular culture.
In addition to the exhibition, a full schedule of accompanying public programming will be presented.
“’Tornado Over Kansas’ was immediately embraced in popular media and the art world at the time of its release in 1929,” shared Art Martin, Senior Curator at the Muskegon Museum of Art. “It was a strange, iconic image of the American Midwest and captured the drama, weather, and struggle of the American farmer. For the first time in two decades, we are bringing together Curry’s greatest hits and re-examining his life, telling his story, including his personal tragedies during World War I that completely transformed who he was as an artist. If you’ve never seen Curry this is your chance and if you already know him, you’ll learn something new.”
There is a lot of superb contemporary realism being made these days; this article by Allison Malafronte shines light on a gifted individual.
There is a contingent of contemporary landscape painters whose works could easily be mistaken for those of 19th-century Russia’s renowned “Itinerants,” but Viktor Butko (b. 1978)’s educational lineage can literally be traced back to one of that movement’s leaders, Isaac Levitan (1860–1900).
Growing up in Moscow, Butko was deeply influenced by his grandfather Victor Chulovich, a famous painter whose teacher was a student of Levitan. After studying at the Moscow Art School, Butko trained at the Akademicheskaya Dacha, a summer school named after another Itinerant, Ilya Repin (1844–1930), who helped create that educational venue as an extension of the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg.
Butko got his introduction to American art and artists in 2002, when he began exhibiting with Thomas Kearns McCarthey Gallery in Salt Lake City. Eleven years later, he became involved with an invitational of American landscapists working at Plyos, a town in Russia’s Ivanovo region where Levitan painted some of his most celebrated works. Then Butko had a chance to experience America’s East Coast landscape and art scene when the invitation was reciprocated in 2016; he traveled to Long Island and Maine to paint with several of those same landscapists.
This cultural exchange, organized by artist Ben Fenske and Grenning Gallery (Sag Harbor), helped connect Butko not only to like-minded plein air artists but also to America’s own landscape painting history.
Butko has since relocated to Boston, where he lives and paints with his wife, fellow artist Kelly Carmody. He also spends several months each year living on Shelter Island and exploring Long Island’s East End, where he is known for lyrical interpretations of the local landscape. The work illustrated here, “Cloudy Sunset at Dering Harbor,” is one such painting that Butko completed on Shelter Island in 2021 — a simple scene brought to impressionistic life through his ability to capture the colorful, golden glow of sunset.
Viktor Butko, “Cloudy Sunset at Dering Harbor,” 2021, oil on linen, 40 x 47 in., Grenning Gallery (Sag Harbor, Long Island)
“I was impressed by the red sun setting in the clouds and the subtle color of the water,” the artist recalls. “When someone sailed in on a boat and left it on the shore, I decided that the image had taken shape, and I had to paint it.”
This two-man exhibition brings together the genius of Scott Christensen and Quang Ho, each providing a different and yet complimentary look at the landscapes of the American West.
Quang Ho, “Abalone Beach”
Location: The Museum of Western Art, Kerrville, Texas
Dates: Through September 21, 2024
Website: www.museumofwesternart.com
Bonus: Listen to these earlier episodes of the Plein Air Podcast with Eric Rhoads, featuring Scott Christensen and Quang Ho
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Related:
Scott Christensen art video workshop: “Three Landscape Studies”
In the first demonstration, Scott teaches you how to combine field studies to create a studio painting. In the following two demonstrations, painted in his studio, he shows you how to approach situations you encounter when painting en plein air. [learn more]
As part of our effort to continue to help artists and art galleries thrive, we’re proud to bring you this week’s “Virtual Gallery Walk.” Browse the artwork below and click the image itself to learn more about it, including how to contact the gallery.
Mana, 2024, John Hyland, oil on canvas, 16 × 12 in; 33 Contemporary
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Round the Corner to the Sea, Barb Walker, oil on linen, 12 x 12 in; Barb Walker
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Overpass With Field, Emma Kalff, oil on panel, 6 x 6 in; Emma Kalff
Want to see your gallery featured in an upcoming Virtual Gallery Walk? Contact us at [email protected] to advertise today. Don’t delay, as spaces are first come, first served, and availability is limited.
“Swirl”, Lin Melissa Yang, oil, 48 x 40 in; Intoxicated in the spring breeze among blossoms, whispers of yesteryears gently sway
Lin Melissa Yang: Capturing the essence of human expression and movement, my paintings explore the beauty of diverse forms and gestures. From the vibrant energy of a self-portrait, to the raw elegance of a black woman, further through dynamic compositions for dancing scenes, each stroke celebrates the unique allure of the human figure, and reflects the rich tapestry of human experience. Hosted by NoMo SoHo hotel in NYC, my 14 figurative paintings are on view from 5/8 – 11/1/2024.
“Eighty Thousand Springs,” Lin Melissa Yang, oil, 40 x 30 in; Eighty thousand springs unfold in the blink of a moment“Andromeda,” Lin Melissa Yang, oil, 40 x 24 in; won Gold Medal for CLWAC 125th annual open exhibition
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