April Newsletter Online

Click here for the Mims Studios Spring Newsletter

Winter Lecture Series: Manneriest Artists

 

The focus of this winter’s lecture series is on the generation of Mannerist artists working in Italy during the time of Michelangelo.   In these weekly, illustrated talks, director Jeffrey Mims presents a group of majestically creative painters - famous in their own time, but less well known today.   Beginning with artists such as Andrea del Sarto, Daniele da Volterra, and Francesco Salviati,  each lecture includes drawings and paintings of  the individual artist,  with biographical anecdotes and historical comparisons to better appreciate this distinctive period of art.

An offshoot to this study of Mannerist artists was a look at one of the distinguishing characteristics used by many of these Italian artists, “cangiantismo”.   Used primarily in the painting of drapery,  the “cangiante” effect is a system of changing color  tones in the shift from dark to light, imitating the effect of iridescence, or shot silk and often used during this period in fresco decoration.

Exhibition: The Nude

 

From January 25th - February 16th, Ann Long Fine Art in Charleston presents the recent work of Kamille Corry in a long awaited exhibition titled The Nude: The Most Enduring Subject in Art History.  The work of other artists including Jeffrey Mims, with whom Corry studied, will also be represented in this exhibition.

For more information visit annlongfineart.com

British Museum Online Collection

The British Museum has recently launched a comprehensive website of its vast collection of two dimensional objects (prints, drawings, and paintings).  New images are being added weekly, and when completed, every object in the collection will be online.

For more information about the database or to search the collection online visit the British Museum Research website. 

Second Edition of the Charles Bargue Course

The Dahesh Museum of Art has recently announced a reprinting of the Charles Bargue Drawing Course compiled and annotated by Gerald Ackerman.  To pre-order a copy contact the museum bookshop.   

Another Monstrous Museum Addition

Despite strong opposition, Florence, Italy’s Uffizi museum will go ahead with what has been called an “indecent and unheard of” expansion.  As opera and film director, Franco Zefferelli has so clearly stated, “This is a sign of profound incivility, of lack of respect for Florence, the monumental integrity of which is a value in itself… it is a wound and an abdication of care for the city.”  

See the article: Uffizi expansion goes ahead despite Florentine OppositionImage © Florencephotos.com, [info@florencephotos.com], [http://www.florencephotos.com], Firenze, Italy 1999-2006.

In England however, a modernist addition to the Holburne Museum was rejected.  Located in Bath, one of the most classical cities in the world, a proposed glass and steel addition to the 1796 Georgian building brought enormous protest from residents and architects alike.  The opposition rightly argued that such an addition would not only damage the area, but also set a “dangerous precedent.”

James Beck, founder of ArtWatch International, has died

Below is an excerpt from the NY Times Article ‘James Beck, 77, Art Scholar and Critic of Conservation is Dead‘ by Holland Cotter

NEW YORK - James Beck, a Columbia University art historian who became well known as a critic of what he viewed as the ruinous conservation of world masterpieces, including Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling, died Saturday in Manhattan. He was 77…

…It was the extensive restoration of the Sistine Chapel frescos, begun in 1980, that initiated his vigorous critique of conservation in the art historical field.

He argued that the Michelangelo frescos were being drastically overcleaned - a process that not only erased some of the subtle volumetric painting, he contended, but also exposed the entire surface to modern pollution…

…In 1992 he and the British journalist and artist Michael Daley founded ArtWatch International, a nonprofit advocacy organization to monitor the restoration, attribution and international shipment of works of art.

Click here to read The Times obituary by Michael Daley, director of ArtWatch, UK.

Flaming June to go on Display at Tate Britain

 

Flaming June, by Frederic, Lord Leighton will be on display at the Tate Britain beginning in March 2008, on loan from the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico. 

For the full article, visit The Art Newspaper online.