Posted in Painting, tagged Hale Woodruff, Kansas City Art Exhibits, Murals, Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Roberta Smith on January 23, 2015| Leave a Comment »
This fall, the Nelson-Atkins will be exhibiting the “Amistad Mutiny” murals from Talladega College and significant works by Hale Woodruff, most painted in the late 1930s. Woodruff was born in Illinois, went to school at Herron School of Art in Indianapolis and the Art Institute of Chicago. Woodruff died in 1980. The murals are currently on exhibit at the National Museum of American History. Roberta Smith wrote about the exhibit when it was on view at NYU. Looking forward to this one!
Posted in Not Painting on January 18, 2015| Leave a Comment »
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is showing photos taken by Kansas native Gordon Parks. In some of the photos, taken in the late 1940s, Parks looked on places full of personal meaning. Places in Fort Scott, KS that played a part in his early life. In other photos, Parks looked up former friends and schoolmates, visiting and photographing them in Kansas but also in Columbus OH, Detroit, Chicago and St. Louis. The photos allowed Parks to explore his own past, as well as mark the life stories of African-Americans in segregated American. Huffington Post has a good write up of the exhibit, on view until September 2015.
Posted in Not Painting, tagged Lawrence KS, Site-Specific Art, Sol Lewitt, Spencer Museum of Art, Wall Drawing on January 16, 2015| Leave a Comment »
“Wall Drawing 519” by Sol Lewitt, 80’x11′ at The Spencer Museum on the campus of the University of Kansas-Lawrence.
Posted in Painting, tagged Art, Art in Cincinnati, Art in Ohio, Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati OH, Contemporary Art Center, Linda Warren Gallery, Michael Stillion, Murals, Painting on January 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Currently undergoing some renovations to the lobby of their beautiful Zaha Hadid-designed space in downtown Cincinnati, the Contemporary Art Center has made an inspired move. While the main entrance is closed, the museum asked local artist and curator Michael Stillion to paint a temporary mural for the temporary entrance. We asked Michael to tell us a little about the piece. Here’s what he sent:
“Blood, milk, sky and gold” is the title of this site-specific piece. The words describe each color used in the mural. Blood (life) is red, milk (food) is white, blue (weather) is sky and gold (money) is yellow. We need all of these things to live, only one we have imposed onto ourselves- gold. Using the patterns to push movement and flow becomes a dominant and approachable feature of the work. The realism of the simplified folds and wrinkles become an abstraction within the painting. There are two “flashes” positioned across from one anther. These “flashes” represent how quickly all these things we live for can be gone in an instant. The painting spans over fifty feet by ten feet of the Contemporary Arts Center’s walls. The location is in the temporary lobby of the institution. It will be on view for three months. After that time it will be closed off from the public becoming a hidden mural.
Here are a few more views of “Blood, milk, sky and gold”. Read a Q & A with Stillion about the piece at the CAC’s website. Here’s a link to the interview we did with Stillion way back in 2009.
