Category Archives: Visual Art

Winslow Homer

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWith the snow today, many cultural facilities are closed and events are postponed.

February 24 is the birthday of American realist painter Winslow Homer. While the Arkansas Arts Center doesn’t have any of his pieces in their permanent collection they do have a portrait of him in their collection.

Entitled W. Homer from the Artists Series (#5), this 1987 monotype mixed media on paper is by Joyce Tremain.

The piece was purchased in 1989 by the Arkansas Arts Center Foundation.

Winslow Homer (February 24, 1836 – September 29, 1910) was an American landscape painter and printmaker, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th-century America and a preeminent figure in American art.

Largely self-taught, Homer began his career working as a commercial illustrator. He subsequently took up oil painting and produced major studio works characterized by the weight and density he exploited from the medium. He also worked extensively in watercolor, creating a fluid and prolific oeuvre, primarily chronicling his working vacations.

Free Admission at Clinton Presidential Center today

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Clinton Library 3The Clinton Presidential Center was supposed to be free on Monday in honor of the George Washington Birthday Federal Holiday.  Since the facility was closed due to the inclement weather, they have extended the offer today.  Also free are audio tours narrated by President Clinton.

This is a wonderful opportunity to see the new temporary exhibits, “Pigskin Peanuts” and “Heartbreak in Peanuts.”  In honor of the 65th Anniversary of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts, the Clinton Center – in partnership with the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa, California – celebrates the life and legacy of the creator of Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Lucy and the entire Peanuts gang.

“Pigskin Peanuts” features Schulz’s football-themed Peanuts comic strips. It also highlights how Charles Schulz often explored the theme of fairness in his comic strip and believed in giving everyone equal opportunity.

“Heartbreak in Peanuts” underscores the prevalence of love in the comic strip. Both exhibitions feature reproductions of Charles Schulz’s original Peanuts strips, student activities within the exhibition, 5–foot sculptures of Charlie Brown and Snoopy, and themed objects and ephemera.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Clinton Presidential Center

Sculptors announced for 2015 Sculpture at the River Market Show and Sale

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The  following list of Artists have been juried into the 2015 Sculpture at the River Market Show & Sale. Each of these Artists has also been invited to submit a proposal for the 5th Annual Monument Public Art Commission Competition.  Many favorites from past shows are returning, while the show also welcomes many new sculptors.

Mark your calendar for the Show & Sale – April 24-26, 2015

2015 Artists:

 

 

Second 2nd Friday Art Night of 2015

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2nd Friday Art NightForget friggatriskaidekaphobia. Don’t think of today as Friday the 13th. Embrace it as the second 2nd Friday Art Night of the year.  Among the highlights for tonight are:

Butler Center
Three exhibits continue at the Butler Center.  Reflections on Line & Mass: Paintings & Sculpture by Robyn Horn in the Butler Center Galleries (through April 24), Of the Soil: Photography by Geoff Winningham in the Butler Center Loft Gallery (through Febraury 28) and Echoes of the Ancestors: Native American Objects from the University of Arkansas Museum (through March 15).

Historic Arkansas Museum
Two exhibit openings – John Harlan Norris: Public Face opens in the Trinity Gallery for Arkansas Artists  and Lisa Krannichfeld: She opens in the Second Floor Gallery.  Live music by Whale Fire and food by The Veg.  As part of the continuing Year of Arkansas Beer, this month features Stones Throw Brewing’s Chocolate Stout.

Old State House Museum
Join violinist Geoff Robson and cellist Felice Farrell for a performance of works for solo strings by J.S. Bach. The performance will begin at 5:00 and last until 6:30. The museum will remain open until 8:00. This is a casual event and guests are welcome to drop in and seat themselves after the music has started.

Black History Month Spotlight – Henri Linton

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bhm HenriHenri Linton is a nationally known painter and a well-respected art educator.   Born in Alabama in 1944, he began painting and visiting museums as a young man.  He paid for art supplies by painting signs and shining shoes. After entering a national art contest as a teenager, he won a four-year scholarship to the Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio. Linton earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Boston University and a master’s degree in art from the University of Cincinnati Graduate School of Fine Arts.

In 1969, the chairman of Arkansas AM&N College (later UAPB) art department, John Howard, offered Linton a position on the faculty. With Howard as his mentor, Linton began a career teaching aspiring artists. When Howard retired as chairman in 1980, Linton took the position.

In 1996 and 2000, he was featured in solo shows at the Arkansas Arts Center.  His work is displayed throughout the state, including in public collections at  UAMS, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and the Arkansas Arts Center. He has highlighted some of his works in a book he co-authored, The Art of Henri Linton: Sequences in Time and Space (2003).

Linton also developed UAPB’s University Museum and Cultural Center. Gathering historical photographs, papers, annuals, books, newspaper clippings, tokens, mementos, and a variety of other artifacts, Linton organized, designed, and helped construct all the displays at the museum, which houses Keepers of the Spirit: The L. A. Davis, Sr. Historical Collection, which documents the history of UAPB.

In 2001, Henri Linton was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame.  For more on Henri Linton and other inductees into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame, visit the permanent exhibit at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center. That museum is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

Black History Month Spotlight – Barbara Higgins Bond

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bhm bhbArtist and illustrator Barbara Higgins Bond is today’s feature.  At the age of 12, she began painting and drawing as a hobby. Today, her work for the U.S. Postal Service and corporate clients has earned her a national reputation as an illustrator and commercial artist.

Born and raised in Little Rock, Bond decided her career after taking an elective art course at Phillips University in Enid, Okla. She transferred to Memphis College of Arts, earning a bachelor of/inc arts degree in advertising design.

Book covers, posters, record album covers, television commercials, magazine covers and collector’s plates are just some of the bearers of Bond’s extraordinary talent. Her most memorable projects throughout her 40-year career include designs of Queen Nefertiti of Egypt and Mansa Mussa, a 14th-century king of Mali, for Anheuser- Busch’s Great King and Queens of Africa series; commemorative stamps of W E. B. DuBois and inventor Jan Matzeliger for the Postal Service’s Black Heritage series; and Cognac Hennessy’s 1997 Calendar celebrating The History of Jazz & African-American Culture.

Bond’s work has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the DuSable Museum of African-American History in Chicago; The Children’s Museum in Indianapolis, Ind.; and at the Memphis College of Arts. Among her awards are the CEBA Award of Merit for work featured in Black Enterprise magazine; the Medal of Honor by the Arkansas Sesquicentennial Committee; and the Multicultural Publishers Exchange Book Award of Excellence for her illustration of Toyomi Igus’ When I Was Little.

Higgins Bond’s clients include the Bradford Exchange, McGraw-Hill, Franklin Mint, NBC, Hennessy Cognac, Anheuser-Busch, Frito-Lay and Columbia House.  She has illustrated more than 37 books for children and adults and is an adjunct professor of illustration at the Nossi College of Art in Nashville, where she lives.

In 1997, she was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame.  For more on Barbara Higgins Bond and other inductees into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame, visit the permanent exhibit at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center. That museum is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

Shadows for Groundhog Day

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Today is Groundhog Day.  In honor of prognostication based on shadows, some photos showcasing shadows.

0202Peace

Lorri Acott’s “Peace” sculpture at 2nd and Main

 

0202Barre

Windows and barres casting shadows in a Ballet Arkansas studio

The footbridge between Riverfront Park and the Old State House Museum.

The footbridge between Riverfront Park and the Old State House Museum.

A bird looking at its shadow in the River Market parking deck.

A bird looking at its shadow in the River Market parking deck.

The Broadway Bridge balustrade.

The Broadway Bridge balustrade.