Most known images of Sam Houston (1793-1863) show the 1st President of the Republic of Texas as a middle-aged or older man. This portrait of Houston by Thomas Flintoff (1809-1892) was painted between 1849 and 1853. Current location of painting: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
MARYVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – A statue of Sam Houston planned for the Maryville Municipal Center will portray the American hero and former Blount County resident as a 20-year-old man.
Artist Wayne E. Hyde told The Daily Times that the sculpture will portray Houston at the age in which he enlisted in the U.S. Army in downtown Maryville.
Maryville city manager Greg McClain said he “knows of no other statue of Houston’s early time here.”
Hyde said he hopes to have the 7-foot-tall bronze sculpture ready for display by March 2015.
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Most known images of Sam Houston (1793-1863) show the 1st President of the Republic of Texas as a middle-aged or older man. This portrait of Houston by Thomas Flintoff (1809-1892) was painted between 1849 and 1853. Current location of painting: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Arare Chinese charger (large flat plate) estimated by the auction house to hammer for between $600 and $900 ended up realizing more than $1.1 million. Jeffrey Walker, president of Walker’s Fine Arts & Estate Auctions in Toronto, Canada, admitted he wasn’t up on his late Yuan/early Ming Dynasty chargers prior to the auction, so he assigned the plate a modest pre-sale estimate even after several people told him it was quite rare. No kidding. Produced in an imperial kiln, only a few examples are known to exist.
The glazed pottery, featuring a three-clawed dragon, is between 300 and 500 years old. The seller was the George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art in Toronto. It acquired it as a gift from Mrs. Waltraud Ellis, the widow of John Ellis, a former member of the Canadian Parliament. Upon her passing in June, she donated the plate to the museum. It was believed to have been passed down by her Austrian grandparents. The museum decided to sell it to invest in Canadian pottery and ceramics. The buyer was not identified.
An evening view of the courtyard at the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian.
WASHINGTON (AP) – The new “The Nile and Ancient Egypt” show at the Freer Gallery poses an obvious question: What’s an exhibit of Egyptian artifacts doing at one of the two Smithsonian museums of Asian art?
“Most of these objects were collected by Charles Lang Freer himself,” says curator Alexander Nagel, so it makes sense to display them in his eponymous museum. And Freer felt his mission — to help scholars draw connections between great civilizations throughout human history — would be unfulfilled without specimens from Egypt.
A self-made millionaire, Freer retired at age 46 and spent the rest of his life gathering art. Most of it originated in Asia, but he also made three trips to Egypt between 1906 and 1909. He died in 1919, and his collection became the Freer Gallery, which opened in 1923.
While traveling through Egypt by train, sailboat and donkey, Freer brought back about 1,500 objects, most of which are no bigger than a nickel.
Nagel plucked around 20 pieces (plus some larger items) from these multitudes, including jewel-like glass vessels, mosaic tiles and animal-shaped amulets.
Ancient Egyptians believed that the amulets, which came in the shape of crocodiles, hippos and other river creatures, provided the wearer protection and blessings, perhaps because of their close relationship to the Nile’s life-giving waters, Nagel says.
Small cosmetics bottles decorated with wave-like patterns also reflect ancient Egyptians’ deep reverence for the Nile, Nagel says. The curator and his colleagues recently X-rayed these vessels to find clues about ancient glassmaking methods. The shape of the bottles’ interior walls suggests that Egyptian craftsmen used a sandy-clay core to mold the glass, and then dug out the clay once the glass was cool.
Freer also bought tiny glass tiles featuring detailed images of faces or masks. Artisans mass-produced the objects by fusing together long glass rods and then cutting tiles off the end like slice-and-bake cookies, Nagel says.
Though beautiful, these tiles are fairly common. “Every museum has a few,” he says. That’s perhaps because Freer — a discerning collector of Asian art — was not very schooled in Egyptian antiquities. His purchases include hundreds of underwhelming artifacts (shards of pottery, seed-sized glass beads) and even a few which are clearly fakes.
His occasional credulity can be chalked up to his sheer awe of Egypt. In 1907, Freer told a friend that his hoard would be incomplete without examples of “the greatest art in the world.”
Andy Warhol’s portrait of Sarah Bernhardt. From the Collection of the Spertus Institute. Image provided by the Jewish Museum Milwaukee.
MILWAUKEE (AP) – The Jewish Museum Milwaukee is hosting a display of large silkscreen portraits by Andy Warhol.
It’s called “Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century” and will be on display through March 30, 2014.
The silkscreens feature Sarah Bernhardt, Louis Brandeis, Martin Buber, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, George Gershwin, Franz Kafka, the Marx Brothers, Golda Meir and Gertrude Stein.
The exhibit was first shown at the Jewish Center of Washington in Bethesda, Maryland in 1980.
Originally published as a portfolio of silkscreen prints on paper, Warhol was so pleased with its commercial success that he created additional versions of the series as silkscreen paintings on canvas.
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Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Andy Warhol’s portrait of Sarah Bernhardt. From the Collection of the Spertus Institute. Image provided by the Jewish Museum Milwaukee.
One-sheet movie poster for the 1958 Paramount motion picture ‘King Creole,’ starring Elvis Presley and Carolyn Jones. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Mercer Auctions.
ATHENS, Ga. (AP) – Elvis’ 1956 Gibson J200 is one of the world’s most iconic guitars, played by Presley in films such as “King Creole.”
If Bob Dylan’s Newport Folk Festival sunburst Fender Stratocaster sold for nearly $1 million recently, Athens guitar maker Scott Baxendale thinks Presley’s almost-60-year-old acoustic could fetch 10 times that amount.
If so, the J200 will be the most expensive guitar Baxendale has ever handled as he’s been charged with rehabbing the entire Elvis guitar collection housed at Graceland.
Baxendale will begin traveling in February to Memphis, Tenn., the first of many periodic trips to repair, restore and document the King’s collection of guitars, which Baxendale estimates number less than 25.
Most of the maintenance is general, he said. He’ll be setting up a workstation in a warehouse on the Graceland property, keeping the treasures close to home.
“I’d hate to be responsible for transporting Elvis’ guitars,” he said.
A musician close to the Presley family chose Baxendale for the job. Michael Lockwood, married to Presley’s only daughter Lisa Marie since 2006, found out about Baxendale’s conversions of antique 1940s Harmony guitars for Nashville musicians, including former Athenians Lera Lynn.
Baxendale said Lockwood researched him and found out about his experience maintaining the Roy Acuff guitar collection.
Lockwood reached out to Baxendale about Elvis’ collection and the rest is restoring history.
Some of the guitars, Baxendale said, aren’t on premises at the moment, including one that’s on loan to a museum in Liverpool. Waiting for them to return will stretch out the process.
Becoming Elvis’ guitar librarian isn’t the only piece of good news Baxendale has received recently.
American Craft magazine, which shines a light on domestic craftspeople carrying on traditional methods, has selected Baxendale as a finalist in its excellence awards. (The magazine, part of the American Craft Council, profiled the guitar maker last year.)
Baxendale will head to New York in February for an awards luncheon. If he wins, he’ll then travel to Scotland for a two-week residency at the Belvenie Scotch distillery, the sponsor of the awards.
The nomination, he thinks, is mostly due to the luthier school he runs here in Athens, but “I have a feeling the Elvis thing will help me out with that,” he said.
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
One-sheet movie poster for the 1958 Paramount motion picture ‘King Creole,’ starring Elvis Presley and Carolyn Jones. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Mercer Auctions.
Photo postcard showing Exchange Place, the transportation and business center of Waterbury, in the early 1950s. The Apothecary Building is at top center, and the Carrie Welton Fountain at bottom center.
WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) – The city is quietly bringing modern art to its public spaces, from a sculpture in the courtyard of City Hall to a mural on an empty downtown building.
An informal group guiding the city from a past of monuments and memorials to a future of floating metallic origami has done it behind the scenes, at almost no cost to taxpayers.
“Public art might not be the thing that saves the city, but it has a vital place at the table because it can change how people think about a place,” said urban planner Sam Gold, a group member.
The group, which hails from diverse communities of the local arts, government and civic groups, just unveiled a metal sculpture by local artist Brian Walters in a rear City Hall courtyard.
The group and Walters will make an even bigger splash next spring, when they unveil his large, fire truck-red origami sculpture in front of Silas Bronson Library.
“It’s made out of metal, which looks to the city’s history as the metal manufacturing capital of the country, but the color and form speak to the future,” Walters said. “It’s going to really pop.”
Even the modern form of the piece references the city’s past, however, reminiscent of the monumental, movement-heavy metal sculptures of Roxbury sculptor Alexander Calder, many of whose works were welded in the Brass City.
Walters, a Bethel sculptor, first learned to weld steel at Kaynor Tech in an adult enrichment program. Now the 35-year-old Walters teaches the class and works as a substitute teacher there.
After getting the commission to create the sculpture for Silas Bronson, Walters decided to donate the untitled work that sits on a small pedestal in the rear courtyard at City Hall.
One of the committee members discovered Walters’s work at a bike sculpture event at the Waterbury on Wheels celebration on the City Green last year, and asked him to stay in touch.
When the library spot opened up, she invited him to submit a few models of what he could create for a prominent spot in front of a modern building on a history-drenched street.
“It was a perfect fit,” said city grants coordinator Kathleen McNamara, the group member who spotted Walters. “It will really engage the public.”
The committee evolved from a group of city boosters and art and architecture buffs that came together to raise money for both art and landscaping at the newly renovated City Hall.
The money to buy Walters’s library sculpture came from a mix of leftovers, including the City Hall landscaping efforts, and state-funded Cool Waters mosaic project on 90 South Main St.
Members range from Gold and McNamara to Frank Tavera, the director of the Palace Theater, to Bob Burns and Cathy Smith, the director and board president of the Mattatuck Museum.
They all have a fine arts background of some sort. Gold and McNamara, for example, both studied art history in college. And McNamara makes jewelry herself.
The group has been seeking the city’s official blessing while working behind the scenes, wanting the security and the funding potential of an officially sanctioned committee.
An official committee would draft rules spelling out how it will solicit, select, display, protect and fund the public art, McNamara said. It would also spell out how to retire the art, if necessary.
As an official group, it would have better standing with grant-giving organizations, like the state Department of Economic and Community Development, and artists, she said.
Mayor Neil M. O’Leary agrees Waterbury needs art, and that sometimes the city itself will have to kick in to buy it, but he is the first to say he doesn’t know anything about it.
“I don’t have a problem putting money into something that will elevate the city’s image,” O’Leary said. “Every major city I’ve ever been to has some kind of public art, some kind of culture.”
Last week, O’Leary agreed to convert the work group into an official city committee by the first of the year.
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Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Photo postcard showing Exchange Place, the transportation and business center of Waterbury, in the early 1950s. The Apothecary Building is at top center, and the Carrie Welton Fountain at bottom center.
Red Wing Nokomis vase, 10 3/8in tall. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Humler & Nolan.
RED WING, Minn. (AP) – Red Wing Pottery, a 150-year institution in the Mississippi River town of Red Wing, Minnesota, has found a buyer.
Red Wing Stoneware Co. closed on a deal Friday to purchase Red Wing Pottery, Minnesota Public Radio News reported.
Bruce Johnson and his wife, Irene, bought the iconic stoneware company from third-generation owner Scott Gillmer. The couple also recently bought Red Wing Stoneware.
Now that they own both businesses, Bruce Johnson said he and his wife plan to have Red Wing Pottery take up large-scale manufacturing again, something that hasn’t happened since the 1960s. He also plans to use part of the facility as a classroom for community art classes.
Red Wing Pottery went up for sale just after Johnson bought Red Wing Stoneware. The two companies have a shared history, but since the 1960s have functioned as separate businesses. Johnson said he didn’t expect to buy Red Wing Pottery but the more he and his wife thought about it, “the more it made sense.”
Last month, the owner of Red Wing Pottery said competition from bigger retailers and foreign manufacturers had taken its toll and the store would have to close by the end of the year if they didn’t find a buyer.
The company operates a 32,000-square-foot facility that’s popular with tourists. The business got its start by selling farmers salt-glaze storage crocks in the 1860s.
The new owners plan to take a few months to re-brand the pottery store before reopening early next year. The company’s 13 full-time and 20 part-time workers will have to reapply for their jobs when the store reopens in the spring.
Johnson said he wants to position the company as a producer of premium products, not discount ware.
