Category Archives: Visual Art

Envision Little Rock finalists part of 2nd Friday Art Night tonight

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envisinolrIn celebration of the 100 year anniversary of John Nolen’s 1913 “City in a Park” master plan for Little Rock, the Envision Little Rock design competition sought creative ideas for the establishment of an iconic gateway to the city at the intersection of Capitol Ave and I-30. In 1913, Nolen saw Capitol Avenue as the ceremonial boulevard that would transect the gridded streets of downtown Little Rock, establishing a visual and physical connection between the Capitol building and the proposed Choctaw Depot to the east. The competition challenged the public and professional design community to generate innovative concepts for the eastern terminus of Capitol Avenue in Little Rock.

Tonight, studioMAIN will open their exhibition of the competition finalists. The public is invited to come celebrate, discuss, and vote for your favorites. There are 3 public vote awards, in addition to the two main prizes that will be awarded by the Envision Little Rock jury later this month. Polls close August 31st at midnight.

Come see the wonderful group of entries by local designers and students. This is going to be a wonderful evening of big ideas and discussion of our city’s future. Don’t miss out!

studioMAIN is located at 1423 South Main Street.  The reception tonight is from 5pm to 9pm.  It is one of the participating sites in 2nd Friday Art Night.

The Perils of Collecting Rembrandt: Ark Arts Center extended hours and lecture tonight

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In conjunction with the “Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of Kenwood House, London ” exhibit, the Arkansas Arts Center will remain open for extended hours this evening.  The galleries will be open until 9pm.  In addition, Dr. Catherine B. Scallen will be presenting a lecture entitled “Collecting Rembrandt: Perils and Pleasures One Hundred Years Ago.”
Catherine Scallen

Catherine Scallen

Professor Scallen is Chair of the Department of Art History and Art at Case Western Reserve University, where she has taught since 1995. She received her BA from Wellesley College, her MA from the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art, and her PhD from Princeton University. After receiving her doctorate, she held a graduate internship in the Paintings Department of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

A specialist on the paintings and prints of Rembrandt van Rijn, her book, Rembrandt, Reputation, and the Practice of Connoisseurship, was published in 2004.  She has been a faculty lecturer on trips to The Netherlands and Belgium for Princeton University and CWRU, and is the author of two courses for The Great Courses Company, Art of the Northern Renaissance and Museum Masterpieces: The National Gallery, London. Attendees are welcome to stay after the lecture to view Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of Kenwood House, London during the exhibition’s special extended hours.
In addition to the extended gallery hours and lecture, the Best Impressions restaurant will be open until 8:30pm.  Advance reservations are strongly recommended; to make them call (501) 907-5946.
On display through September 8, “The Treasures of Kenwood House” is organized by the American Federation of Arts and English Heritage. It is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities with additional funding from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. In-kind support is provided by Barbara and Richard S. Lane.

It is presented in Arkansas by: Bank of the Ozarks; Harriet and Warren Stephens, Stephens Inc.; Windgate Foundation.  The exhibition is sponsored in Arkansas by: Chucki and Curt Bradbury; Sandra and Bob Connor; Remmel T. Dickinson; Lisenne Rockefeller.

This special exhibition showcases 48 masterpieces from the collection known as the Iveagh Bequest. These magnificent paintings reside at Kenwood House, a neoclassical villa in London. The tour of Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of Kenwood House, London will provide a unique opportunity to view superb paintings outside the United Kingdom. Most of these paintings have never traveled to the United States before, and many of them have rarely been seen outside Kenwood. The highly acclaimed works represent the greatest artists of their periods, including Rembrandt van Rijn, Thomas Gainsborough, Anthony van Dyck, Frans Hals, Joshua Reynolds, J.M.W. Turner and more.

Sculpture Vulture: Laughing Sally

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LaughingsallyToday’s Sculpture Vulture is Shelley Buonaiuto’s Laughing Sally.  It is located by the River Market Tower on Third Street in downtown Little Rock.

The sculpture was purchased at Sculpture at the River Market show and sale and installed in May 2009.  The plaque accompanying the sculpture says:

Here sits “Laughing Sally.”  May she make your day a little brighter!  A gift from River Market Tower LLC and Moses Tucker Real Estate to the Citizens of Little Rock.  May 2009.

Shelley Buonaiuto and her husband Michael are both artists.  They met while studying sculpture and painting at the University of Massachusetts.  They have also lived in New York and New Mexico.  A few years ago, they moved to Fayetteville where they reside today.  Shelley won “Best of Show” at the first Sculpture at the River Market for her sculpture “Wind.”  She spends several months a year producing new one-of-a-kind clay pieces and also takes commissions for portraits.

Rembrandt Lecture at Arkansas Arts Center tonight

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Rembrandt van Rijn Portrait of the Artist, ca. 1665 Oil on canvas Kenwood House, English Heritage, Iveagh Bequest (88028836) Photo courtesy American Federation of Arts

Rembrandt van Rijn
Portrait of the Artist, ca. 1665
Oil on canvas
Kenwood House, English Heritage, Iveagh Bequest (88028836)
Photo courtesy American Federation of Arts

Tonight at the Arkansas Arts Center, there is a lecture in conjunction with the Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of Kenwood House, London exhibit.

The Arkansas Arts Center is presenting “Rembrandt and Fallibility,” a lecture by Jon L. Seydl, the Paul J. and Edith Ingalls Vignos, Jr., Curator of European Painting and Sculpture, 1500-1800, at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The program begins at 5:30 p.m. with a reception followed by a 6 p.m. lecture at the Arkansas Arts Center.  The admission is $10 for non-members; free for members and students.

A specialist in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Italian art, Seydl was awarded a B.A. in Art History from Yale University in 1990, and then earned his M.A. (1998) and Ph.D. (2003) in Art History from the University of Pennsylvania, writing his dissertation on images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the eighteenth century. His exhibitions include Rembrandt in America (2011-12); The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection, on Pompeii in the modern imagination from the eighteenth century to the present day (2012-13); and is currently planning projects on Golden Age Seville, the Renaissance painter Savoldo, and art in the age of Shakespeare.

Attendees are welcome to stay after the lecture to view Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of Kenwood House, London during the exhibition’s special extended hours.

Best Impressions restaurant will also be open during the extended hours.

Arts Council announces Gov Arts Award recipients

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Arkansas_Arts_Council_logo_2The Arkansas Arts Council has announced the recipients of the 2013 Governor’s Arts Awards.

They are:
Arts Community Development Award – Bob Ford and Amy Herzberg (Fayetteville)
Arts in Education Award – Paul Leopoulos (North Little Rock)
Corporate Sponsorship of the Arts Award – Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard, PLLC (Little Rock)
Folklife Award – Paula Morell (North Little Rock)
Individual Artist Award – Robert Hupp (Little Rock)
Patron Award – Lee and Dale Ronnel (Little Rock)
Lifetime Achievement Award – Billie Seamans (McGehee)
Judges Special Recognition Award – Farrell Ford (Arkadelphia)

The awards will be presented in the fall.

Last Week of “Jazz Through the Eyes of Herman Leonard”

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Dinah Washington photo by Herman Leonard

Dinah Washington photo by Herman Leonard

Fans of jazz, photography or American popular culture in the 20th Century have one more week to see the exquisite exhibit “Jazz Through the Eyes of Herman Leonard.”  The exhibit, which opened in March, closes on July 21 at the Clinton Presidential Center.

Herman Leonard was a popular and influential photographer well into the 2000s, but is best known for his crisp, high-contrast black and white images of famous jazz performers from the 1940s and 1950s.

The exhibit features the who’s who of this uniquely American music.  If you have a favorite jazz singer, musician or composer, Herman Leonard photographed them – and they are featured in this collection.

Leonard caught the eye of jazz fans around the world, and Bill Clinton is no exception. Clinton called Leonard: “The greatest jazz photographer in the history of the genre” and has several Leonard prints hanging in his office in Harlem.

This exhibit features over 40 large-format black and white prints made and signed by Herman Leonard. To help tell the story of the artists in the images personal objects will accompany the stunning Leonard images.

Sculpture Vulture: Eagle of the Rock

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IMG_6178With Independence Day a few days ago, it is appropriate to feature Eagle of the Rock in the Sculpture Vulture.

This was one of the original six sculptures placed in the River Market, back in November 2004.  Sculpted by Sandy Scott, it depicts an eagle taking flight from atop a craggy rock.  The eagle and rock are cast in bronze which is then set upon a limestone base. It is situated on President Clinton Avenue to the west of the entrance to Clinton Presidential Park.

The sculpture was donated by the Jennings Osborne family.  The sculpture and the surrounding area is known as Osborne Plaza.