Hudson River Valley Trip

Our patrons are back from their wonderful trip to the Hudson River Valley, where they enjoyed enviable weather, attended the races at Saratoga and toured numerous museums and collections. Friends membership coordinator Tim Brown took tons of photos, and the slideshow appears above. Ooh, aah and make a note to yourself that you want to go on the next trip like this!

Paintings from the West Foundation Collection

GMOA recently acquired two significant American paintings from the West Foundation Collection of Atlanta, Ga. The foundation gave Benjamin West’s “Portrait of Captain Christopher Codrington Bethell” (1769) and John Linton Chapman’s “Via Appia” (1867) to the museum in honor of our director, Bill Eiland, and in anticipation of the reopening.

Benjamin West, a native of Springfield, Pa., was a founding member of the Royal Academy in England and taught important American artists, including Samuel F.B. Morse and Washington Allston. The portrait by West (below) is now the earliest American painting in the museum’s collection.

John Linton Chapman was born in Washington, D.C., but was a longtime resident of Italy. He painted the Via Appia, the section of the Roman road that led to southern Italy, several times. This version (below) shows the view along the road looking back toward Rome. The painting was part of the museum’s award-winning 2004 exhibition “Classic Ground: Mid-Nineteenth-Century American Painting and the Italian Encounter” and is also on the cover of the exhibition catalogue.

“Both paintings, important additions to the museum’s already strong collection of American art, will be on display in the new permanent collection galleries when GMOA reopens on January 29,” says Paul Manoguerra, GMOA’s curator of American art. “We are grateful to the West Foundation for giving these two excellent paintings in celebration of the new galleries and the work of our director.”

Update on Dalí exhibition

“Salvador Dalí: The Late Work” is currently on view at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. Click here to read our blog post about the exhibition.

Lynn Boland, GMOA’s Pierre Daura Curator of European Art, will be giving a lecture as part of the exhibition. He will discuss the Surrealist movement and its underlying theories along with an overview of Dalí’s art and his relationship with other Surrealists.

His lecture, “The Supreme Pleasure of Being Salvador Dalí: Hand-painted Dreams and Surrealism Nightmares,” will take place on November 4 at 7 p.m. in the Rich Theater in Atlanta. The lecture is free but seating is limited. Contact the Woodruff Arts Center Box Office at 404.733.5000 for tickets (limited to two per person).

"Art for Athens Kids"

“Art for Athens Kids,” an exhibition on display at the Lyndon House Arts Center (LHAC), includes art by children from the Pinewoods Learning Center. The kids, ages 8 to 10, worked with Toni Carlucci (a frequent instructor for GMOA’s Art Adventures program), Juana Gnecco, Karina Lopez and Beatris Ramirez to create ceramic tiles for the exhibition.

The children took drawing and painting lessons, created images to reflect their stories and then transferred them to clay. According to LHAC, this project is meant to “foster an appreciation for Hispanic folk art” and is “an opportunity for children to be able to tell an aspect of their life stories through art, and develop a sense of place and belonging.”

“Art for Athens Kids” is on view in the Lyndon House lobby through August 28 and is free and open to the public. Hours of operation are Tuesday and Thursday from noon to 9 p.m. and Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. This program is supported by the Grassroots Arts Program of the Georgia Council for the Arts.

Football and Art at LACMA

“Catherine Opie: Figure and Landscape,” an exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), focuses on high school football. Over the past three years, photographer Catherine Opie went to football games in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Louisiana, New York and Texas to take pictures.

According to LACMA, this project allowed Opie to explore masculinity, community and national identity. “It’s another chapter in her ongoing exploration of how gender constitutes identity and being part of a group within society can create or limit opportunities for shaping one’s life,” says curator Britt Salvesen. The background of each image shows the landscape in which the photograph was taken, while the players reflect diversity in identity and behavior.

This exhibition is shown in conjunction with “Manly Pursuits: The Sporting Images of Thomas Eakins.” Both collections use male athletes to focus on idealism and realism.

“Catherine Opie: Figure and Landscape” is on view through October 17.

"My Mother's Clothes"

"My Mother’s Clothes", an exhibition at Jackson Fine Art, a photography gallery in Atlanta, features photography by Jeanette Montgomery Barron of the wardrobe of her mother, Atlanta socialite Eleanor Morgan Montgomery Atuk.

Barron began the project when Atuk was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Barron realized that when Atuk viewed photographs of her wardrobe, it jogged her memory and briefly brought her back from the degenerative disease. The combination of photographs and emotional value creates a “collection with a compelling narrative that explores the complex interstices between memory and the tactile, evoking a complete life through the objects that surrounded it.”

Barron began experimenting and selected specific backgrounds to make “a multi-layered snapshot of the past.” After Atuk passed away, Barron’s project became an even more moving collection. A publication of the pictures combines them with Barron’s written recollections of her mother.

Barron comments on her work: “I suppose this project started as my way of coping with the loss of one part of my mother, her memory, then, with the loss of my mother. It has helped me understand and appreciate her more, thankfully. Ultimately, this project is a love letter to my mother.”

"My Mother’s Clothes" is on view at Jackson Fine Art through next Wednesday, August 27. Click here to read an article on ArtsCriticATL.

Construction Updates from Holder

Good afternoon. Here's the latest construction update from Holder.

Current week - Activities/Issues:
• Installing Skylight shades
• Installing interior/exterior signage
• Completed painting AESS Exposed Steel
• Working on punch list items
• Working on miscellaneous millwork items
• Sealing concrete floors
• Functional testing of building systems

Next week - Activities/Issues:
• Start demolition and build out of café
• Terrazzo tile repairs
• Work on punch list throughout the building
• Continue installation of interior signage
• Finish window blinds
• Complete misc. millwork items
• Design team punch galleries, connector and lobby

South elevation exterior with landscaping

Gallery display cabinets

Exterior lights on site wall

Exterior concrete benches

"Casa de Carton"

Don Lucho had an idea. To build an apartment entirely out of cardboard. Titled Casa de Carton, which translates to “Cardboard House,” the space makes the visitor feel as if entering a cartoon. The white paint and black line drawings enhance this feeling. The drawings provide details and a sense of space to an otherwise empty room. Lucho included details such as dirty dishes in the sink, toilet paper on the roll and books on the nightstand. His attention to detailing various everyday objects creates a unique art experience for the viewer. This form of art making is a great way to save money, be creative and recycle old materials. In the growing effort to be “green,” making art out of old boxes proves inventive and unique. For more information, check out the article on Lucho and his Flickr page.

Casa de Carton has similarities to the basement of Lexington, KY, native Charlie Kratzer. Kratzer took the cream painted room and transformed it by drawing on the walls with Sharpies and magic markers. Decorated with his favorite literary characters, historical figures and famous paintings, he created a world that brings them to life as the cultural influences they were. Kratzer says, “People are amazed that with something as simple and inexpensive as a Sharpie, you can decorate a whole basement.” And the result is impressive. The walls include Winston Churchill, scenes from Picasso’s Salon and even Rocky and Bullwinkle. Check out the article online to see a 360° view of the basement.

Construction Updates from Holder

Here are the construction updates from the week of August 13.

Current week - Activities/Issues:

• Installing Skylight shades

• Installing interior/exterior signage

• Painting AESS Exposed Steel

• Working on punchlist items

• Working on miscellaneous millwork items

• Sealing concrete floors

• Functional testing of building systems

Next week - Activities/Issues:

• Sealing concrete floors

• Terrazzo tile repairs

• Work on punchlist

• Continue installation of interior signage

• Finish window blinds

• Complete misc. millwork items

• Design team punch galleries, connector and lobby

Interior Lobby GMOA Logo

Interior Gallery Signage

Connector Glass Railings & Tile

StreetSmARTS

The Wall Street Journal—Ariel Zambelich

In January, the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) and the Department of Public Works (DPW) started a program called StreetSmARTS. For years, San Francisco had strict laws against graffiti. Although fines and jail time helped decrease vandalism, graffiti was still very common. With this new program, the city is working with street artists and pays them to paint buildings legally.

The program commissions the city’s well-known street artists to create murals on private property, which is “a proven and effective strategy for making property owners less vulnerable to graffiti vandalism,” according to SFAC. StreetSmARTS is modeled after similar projects in New York, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.

Francisco Aquino, a San Francisco graffiti painter and StreetSmARTS artist, says that the program “helped draw a more defined line between vandals and artists in the street art community,” and that “older, more-established street artists view graffiti as art and want to persuade the younger artists to join their ranks and create legal murals.”

Read this article for more information.

iPhone Apps

Art Daily has an article this morning about MOMA's new iPhone app, which can be downloaded for free here. GMOA is working on its own iPhone app, which will incorporate elements of a tour, but we're impressed with the features of MOMA's, such as the ability to snap a picture of a work of art and send it as a postcard to a friend. GMOA obviously doesn't have 32,000 works of art, but we hope our app will be fun and useful to you.

I Art Athens

I Art Athens is a new-ish organization in town aimed at helping local teens express themselves through art. It just produced this video, in which several local artists who work in a variety of media (painting, photography, spoken word, jewelry making) are interviewed about who encouraged them. I Art Athens also has a wishlist section of its website in which it's soliciting in-kind donations of art supplies.

Construction Updates from Holder

Here's your weekly construction update. Things are looking more and more finished as signage is being installed.

Current week - Activities/Issues:
• Installing Skylight shades
• Installing interior/exterior signage
• Sanding of intumescent
• Installed cane detection rail
• Installed east entry awning/metal panels
• Striped parking lot
• Working on punchlist items
• Cistern/BRAE Pump owner training
• Poured balance of sidewalk by loading dock entrance

Next week - Activities/Issues:
• Seal concrete floors
• Work on punchlist
• Continue installation of interior signage
• Finish window blinds
• Complete misc. millwork items
• Start functional testing of building systems

South elevation landscaping

Interior glass door signage

Exterior signage installed

East entry awning installation

Virtual GMOA

Larry Forte, our Daura Art Handler and man of many talents, has been hard at work building this fabulous foam-core model of the expanded and renovated building so our curators will be able better to visualize both exhibitions and the installation of the permanent collection. It's not quite the same as walking through the real thing, but we also can't take the top off the real museum.

Construction Updates from Holder

Here are the construction updates from the week of July 30th.

Current week - Activities/Issues:

New Gallery / Connector

• Installing intumescent paint

• Final finish on wood floors

• Installing Skylight shades

Existing Building Renovations

• Walking off Completion List

Storage Bar

• Walking off Completion List

Site / Sculpture Garden

• Installed BRAE cistern pump system

• Planted trees

• Striping/wheel stops in parking area

Next week - Activities/Issues:

New Gallery / Connector

• Final clean

• Signage

Existing Building Renovations

• Final cleaning

• Walk off completion list

• Install aluminum awning/metal panels

Storage Bar

• Walk off Completion list

Site / Sculpture Garden

• Walk off Completion list

Lights installed in parking garage area

Parking garage skylight progress

Names etched in sculpture garden wall