Sunday, February 15, 2015
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Emma, Eric & I Win an Honorable Mention!
February 7 – May 17, 2015 Cushing Gallery
2015 Newport Annual Award Winners
BEST IN SHOW | Sponsored by Elizabeth A. Goddard
Chris Sancomb | Greater Than, Less Than
NEWPORT ART MUSEUM AWARD | Awarded by Nancy Whipple Grinnell, Curator
Thomas Palmer | Evening, Farewell Street
1ST DRAWING | Gladys Quentin Reed Memorial Award for Drawing
Nancy Gaucher-Thomas | Bianca VII
Honorable Mention | Whitney H. Overocker
1ST MIXED MEDIA | Thomas Wachtel Memorial Award given by Dr. Arthur & Catherine Bert
Rebecca Siemering | Captain America
Honorable Mention | Eric Hovermale & Rowena Burke
1ST PHOTOGRAPHY | Sponsored by Sandra Craig
Eileen McCarney Muldoon | Boy on Bed
Honorable Mention | Thomas Palmer
1ST PRINTS/PASTELS | Sponsored by Providence Picture Frame, Dryden Gallery, Ltd.
Mary Dondero | Rewilding the Arctic
Honorable Mention | Kit Callahan
Honorable Mention | Mary Jameson
1ST PAINTING | EGG & DART
Jessica Pisano | Fortuity
Honorable Mention | R. Curtis Grosvenor
1ST THREE-DIMENSIONAL | Jessica Hagen Fine Art + Design
Meris Barreto | Ikebana Sleeve: Life Flux
1ST WATERCOLOR | Sponsored by Roger King Fine Arts
Priscilla C. Malone | There’s a Surfer Under There
Honorable Mention | Lucinda Landon
Congrats to all!
Thursday, February 5, 2015
What the Forger Told Me
Mert knew he was the best living artist in the city where he'd lived and taught for 27 years. He made sure his students also became the best that they could be. He drew prolifically, portraying the buildings, landscapes, and citizens of Chicago.
He was born in 1921, the child of Eastern European immigrants and was a first generation U.S. citizen. He told me his home life was more than bleak: His family was riddled with neuroses. Doing everything he could do to not go home after school, he attended art classes every afternoon in the settlement house in his neighborhood.
Practice, practice, practice. Mert grew to excel.
Late afternoon one summer day, when his students at the Art Institute were not in town, a knock came at his door. It was a man he'd never seen before: well-dressed and carrying a small bag. He told Mert that he'd heard that Mert was the best artist around and that he needed a painting very similar to one in his bag. In fact, it turned out, he wanted a forgery of a lesser known work of an Italian artist. It had been in private hands but the man now had a buyer. Mert told the man that he would do no such thing. He did not copy others' work.
The man left and Mert got back to work in his 5th floor walk-up. He realized the man had left the bag with the small masterpiece behind and Mert realized he didn't even know the man's name.
Months went by. It was getting colder and the nights were long. One evening after a simple meal of borscht, Mert pulled out the painting and pondered- could he do it? Of course, he could! Hmmm...10 pm and on a whim, Mert challenged himself to the task of forging a famous artist's work. At 1:30 in the morning, he poked on his last mark to the picture. To his eyes, anyone who knew anything about the great master would know that this was a mere copy. And that was that.
Springtime comes slowly in fits and starts to the lakeside city of Chicago. Late afternoon when he had his window open to the breeze off Lake Michigan, the knock came at his door again.
"Are you finished?"
"Yes, I am."
The man took in the copy and asked what he owed the artist. The usually decisive Mert saw the numbers 50 and 75 go back and forth in his head. Before he could answer, the man had plunked down $750- onto the kitchen table and abruptly left with both paintings in the same small bag.
Today, at age 92, Mert knows that painting was turned right around and sold for a great deal more to a museum. Darned if he knew which one.
That is what the forger told me.
Rowena Dunlap Burke
March 2013
He was born in 1921, the child of Eastern European immigrants and was a first generation U.S. citizen. He told me his home life was more than bleak: His family was riddled with neuroses. Doing everything he could do to not go home after school, he attended art classes every afternoon in the settlement house in his neighborhood.
Practice, practice, practice. Mert grew to excel.
Late afternoon one summer day, when his students at the Art Institute were not in town, a knock came at his door. It was a man he'd never seen before: well-dressed and carrying a small bag. He told Mert that he'd heard that Mert was the best artist around and that he needed a painting very similar to one in his bag. In fact, it turned out, he wanted a forgery of a lesser known work of an Italian artist. It had been in private hands but the man now had a buyer. Mert told the man that he would do no such thing. He did not copy others' work.
The man left and Mert got back to work in his 5th floor walk-up. He realized the man had left the bag with the small masterpiece behind and Mert realized he didn't even know the man's name.
Months went by. It was getting colder and the nights were long. One evening after a simple meal of borscht, Mert pulled out the painting and pondered- could he do it? Of course, he could! Hmmm...10 pm and on a whim, Mert challenged himself to the task of forging a famous artist's work. At 1:30 in the morning, he poked on his last mark to the picture. To his eyes, anyone who knew anything about the great master would know that this was a mere copy. And that was that.
Springtime comes slowly in fits and starts to the lakeside city of Chicago. Late afternoon when he had his window open to the breeze off Lake Michigan, the knock came at his door again.
"Are you finished?"
"Yes, I am."
The man took in the copy and asked what he owed the artist. The usually decisive Mert saw the numbers 50 and 75 go back and forth in his head. Before he could answer, the man had plunked down $750- onto the kitchen table and abruptly left with both paintings in the same small bag.
Today, at age 92, Mert knows that painting was turned right around and sold for a great deal more to a museum. Darned if he knew which one.
That is what the forger told me.
Rowena Dunlap Burke
March 2013
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