Kimbell Art Museum's New Pavilion and Linnie Baird at our Library

The new Piano Pavilion on the left resonates, in a rectangular staccato way,
with the rounded galloping visual rhythms of the original Kahn Building.

Just after I posted my last blog about the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, the Museum started advertising on TV that it has just opened its new building. I've been wondering how any architect's work could sit gracefully beside the beautifully understated grand-ness of Louis Kahn's original building. The Kahn building is one of the greats of 20th century architecture and one of my favorites. Apparently the Kimbell's Board of Directors of the Kimbell felt similarly, because they hired esteemed Italian architect Renzo Piano to build what is now called the Piano Pavillion.

Renzo Piano has designed many art museums, two of which you might know. The Menil Collection building here in Houston is one of them, and the famous Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris is another. But it will be up to you to decide if this building is a worthy addition to the Texas art landscape. 

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Many thanks to all of you who have offered to show your paintings at OUR museum--or at least, our exhibition space--in the library. Room L-129 exhibition space is now booked until June, but we still have room for the paintings in the second half of the year. Linnie Baird hung her paintings today ahead of the Christmas rush; hers will grace the room all through January. 

Linnie works in oils and pen and ink. She's been painting for seven years, keeping up a legacy her father began. Originally from Alabama, she moved to Texas in her twenties and has been here since. You can feel the love in her Texas landscapes! Come and view Linnie's paintings. 

The Kimbell Museum has great art blurbs!

While traipsing along a random link-trail inside the Fort Worth’s Kimbell Art Museum website, I came across a list of the artists whose work they have in their collection. If you click here, you'll find what I'm talking about:  https://www.kimbellart.org/collections/list-artists

Clicking on “C”, and then “Caravaggio”, I discovered that the Kimbell owns Caravaggio’s famous early painting, The Cardsharps. Fair enough. What followed was dazzling. First it had what you’d expect: the date Caravaggio painted it, the medium and support and size of the painting, and that this piece is currently on show. 

What followed however, in the "Conservation" section, was a marvelous description that put Caravaggio’s style in its historical context, explained how he’d originally painted the figures and where he'd made changes, his quirks of painting technique that were helpful to know, and the painting’s provenance. It had none of that esoteric art jargon that numbs my brain and did have loads of useful, interesting information that educated me; information that I think is useful to artists. Check this out:

“Perhaps in lieu of underdrawing, Caravaggio used incisions to place elements on the canvas. In The Cardsharps there are only a few incisions in the wet ground, such as in the dupe’s fingertips and the edges of the cards, but this technique was greatly expanded in later works. Other innovative painting techniques in the Kimbell’s painting include the artist’s manipulation of the wet paint to enhance the realism of surface textures. When Caravaggio painted the silk brocade of the central cheat, he blotted the wet paint with his fingers or thumb. He also used the butt end of the brush to describe the black embroidery on the collar of the dupe.”

Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE the internet?

If you're ever in Fort Worth with some time to spare, the Kimbell Art Museum is a wonderful museum to explore. Their permanent collection is delightful and they have marvelous revolving collections. The current one is The Age of Picasso and Matisse: Modern Masters from the Art Institute of Chicago. It will be there until February 16, 2014. Go to  https://www.kimbellart.org/exhibitions

The image above: Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, The Cardsharps, c. 1595, oil on canvas. Kimbell Art Museum. Used with permission

The Son-of-a-Nazi Art Dealer Story just gets More Amazing

The New York Times just published a further story about Cornelius Gurlitt, the son of the prominent Nazi-era art dealer who has been discovered to be living among a trove of art treasures. After the last article I've been wondering: how has this come out now? Who finally found this man? According to this second article, German Customs officials simply stumbled upon it while following their professional curiosity. 

The article writer likens Cornelius Gurlitt to Gollum, the shrivelled hobbit in J.R.R. Tolkein's classic fantasies, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, whose life has been twisted and consumed by the magical ring he possesses. Cornelius Gurlitt has lived in a gloomy Munich apartment for all these decades, with no friends and no visitors except his sister, living for his art. What a fascinating tale. Here's the link: 

More Hidden Modern Art is Found in Germany

The news this week is about the announcement in Augsburg, Germany that 1500 paintings have been found in Munich that were apparently either confiscated or purchased by the Nazis during World War II. Here's the link to the New York Times article. 

In January 2010 contractors excavating to build a new subway station near Berlin's city hall found eleven bronzes in the rubble of a building destroyed in World War II. The bronzes are now being exhibited at the Neues Museum, amid Berlin’s archaeological collection. That story, written up in the New York Times, is available here.

Box

Today I want to show you this mind-blowing video called "Box". At the end a quotation comes up  that reads "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." That sums up my feelings, too. Enjoy!

And thanks to all the TAL Fall Exhibition and Show winners who graced our meeting room walls with their fabulous paintings through September and October. Please feel free to come in any time this week that's convenient to pick up your paintings. 

Painting Classic Portraits: Great Faces Step by Step by Luana Luconi Winner

After a summer blog vacation I can't wait to tell you about a treasure I've recently found. Luana Luconi Winner’s Painting Classic Portraits: Great Faces Step by Step is simply a book that cannot fail to build confidence and technique. She goes at the task of teaching how to create great portraits with personality by employing a variety of approaches, easy to follow instructions, and abundant color sketches, paintings, and photos. Winner shows you how achieve accurate facial shapes and proportions beginning with the skull and showing how facial features fit over them. She offers color charts for white skin that’s female, male, blonde, redhead, and brunette; for black skin using warm tones and cool tones, for Hispanics, Asians, and both native Indians and continental ones. She works in graphite, charcoal, oils, watercolors, and pastels, and demonstrates preliminary sketches, studies, and finished portraits. She gives detailed instruction about how the face and hands change from childhood through adulthood. And she shows you how to choose backgrounds and accessories that tell the story of the personality being painted. I believe this book is destined to become a classic and I urge you to pick it up at the library and give it your perusal. You may find you need to buy a copy for your studio. 

(And now I apologize. I posted this blog about a month ago--or at least I thought I had. After I posted it I was sure I had checked it--I usually do--and it was there. I went into the site last weekend and it wasn't there! Go figure. So if you came looking for this title and didn't see it, I apologize. Barbara)

Come to an Artist's Date at the Library!

Adult artists! Drop your morning chores, pack up your art supplies and your lunch, and come to the library to enjoy a day of sketching or painting with other adult artists--next Wednesday, July 10th, from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. We will provide easels, still life objects, clothed models, dessert and beverages; and after lunch, Judy Crowe, an accomplished local oil painter and instructor, will give a demonstration. We'll be in the library first floor front room and then Room L 129 for lunch and the demo. Call 823-559-4213 for more information. There's no registration and no fee.