Couple renovates Carnegie library into art museum

A sculpture greets visitors outside the Clarinda Carnegie Art Museum. Image courtesy of Clarinda Carnegie Art Museum

A sculpture greets visitors outside the Clarinda Carnegie Art Museum. Image courtesy of Clarinda Carnegie Art Museum
A sculpture greets visitors outside the Clarinda Carnegie Art Museum. Image courtesy of Clarinda Carnegie Art Museum
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Once upon a time there was a little girl named Karen Kent who loved books. She liked to hop on her bike and pedal to the public library near her house in Clarinda, in southwest Iowa.

It was a classy building – all bricks and stained glass. She used to open the heavy front door and race up the wooden staircase beneath a portrait of an old rich guy named Andrew Carnegie, who must have loved books as much as she did. He’d donated a lot of money to have the library built, back in 1908.

Karen spent hours at a time there, week after week, year after year. She read most of the stories on the shelves and daydreamed about more. But even she never imagined how her own adventures would bring her back here years later. She never guessed that someday her own portrait would hang above the staircase, too, The Des Moines Register reported.

As Karen grew, she spent a little less time at the library and a little more with a boy named Bobby Duncan. They went on their first date in junior high. They fell in love. They got married and had two kids, named Paige and Todd.

By now the Duncans lived in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Bobby – now Robert – went to work fixing airplanes for his dad’s company, Duncan Aviation. He eventually took it over and turned it into the biggest family-owned plane maintenance business in the world.

Meanwhile, Karen played the piano, managed the Nebraska Chamber Orchestra and often dragged Robert to concerts. She joined the board of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Sheldon Museum of Art and dragged him there, too.

But Robert also took an interest in art, and soon the couple started building a collection of their own, starting in the late 1970s. They visited galleries. They went to auctions and art fairs. They bought an abstract sculpture by Georgia O’Keeffe – their first big purchase – and gradually amassed almost 2,000 works by the likes of Louise Bourgeois, Bruce Nauman and Kiki Smith.

Former Sheldon director George Neubert ranked the collection among the country’s 50 best in a Wall Street Journal profile about the Duncans earlier this year.

The collection outgrew the Duncans’ house, so they spread it out. They loaned some to their son, Todd, who took over the aviation business when Robert retired. They loaned some more to their daughter, Paige, who runs Clarinda’s branch of Bank Iowa, the other family business.

The Duncans moved some of their artwork to their second home, in Mexico, and to Duncan Aviation’s offices in Michigan and Utah. With another couple, they opened a gallery near downtown Lincoln, called The Assemblage, to display even more artwork, including the stuff both couples brought back last year from a three-week, 12-country spree through South America.

Karen was chopping vegetables in the kitchen two years ago when her assistant, Susan Roth, came up from the basement with a declaration: They needed to do something about the books. Stacks of them had taken over the house. There were so many, in fact, that Susan suggested constructing a storage building on the Duncans’ 40-acre property.

But Karen did her one better. She suggested buying an old, empty Carnegie library from somewhere and hauling it in. She knew of at least two in town that had been moved from their original locations and converted for other uses. One was a soup kitchen. The other housed an engineering office.

So the two women looked online for libraries for sale, and wouldn’t you know it? Up popped the one in Clarinda, where Karen had spent so much of her childhood. It had served as a library until 2004, when the town built a new one down the street.

The old building was to be sold at an auction – the next day.

“It almost puts a shiver through you, doesn’t it?” Karen said.

She made a few calls. The auctioneer told her the library might sell for as little as $20,000. The building-mover she found told her he couldn’t haul it to Nebraska because it would be too heavy for the Missouri River bridge.

But Robert told her they should buy it anyway. And so they did, for $33,000.

The Duncans tossed around a few different ideas for the old building but didn’t take too long to settle on an art museum. For years they had rotated their art collection among their family’s homes, their offices and the Lincoln gallery. So they figured they could just add the new museum to the rotation. Their gallery curator in Lincoln could send over a new batch of work every six months.

So the Duncans spent about $1 million to spiff up the building to its former glory. Work crews refinished the hardwood floors and re-installed some of the bookcases. They pulled the original chandeliers out of the attic. They repaired the windows and replaced six of them after a hailstorm this summer.

A roomy new elevator went in. A new patio opened out back. A Steinway baby grand piano was wrestled up the front steps and rolled into a corner for recitals and receptions.

Every choice was deliberate. Every detail was just so.

Finally, more than 700 people in this town of 5,000 showed up on Nov. 9 for the grand opening of the Clarinda Carnegie Art Museum.

They climbed the polished steps and saw a 6-by-7-foot portrait of a baby’s face, drawn in soft charcoal. They admired a sculptural dress made from 1,000 pinecones. They watched an odd video of a man smiling, painfully, for a solid hour.

That sort of artwork is rare in small towns. But at the opening, the building itself was the real star.

“It’s lovely,” said Mildred Jensen, who recently revisited without the crowds. “It has a second life. They’ve got it so bright. You can get in and enjoy it.”

A book club from Des Moines drove down for a tour with the museum’s director, Trish Okamoto. A woman named Sharon Yahnke stopped by, too, during a 30-mile trip from Sidney.

“It’s just a great destination,” she said. “For me, just like everybody else who grew up in small-town America, the Carnegie library was just part of my life. You’re always glad to see them put to good use.”

And nobody is more glad than Karen. She doesn’t bike to the building much anymore, but she’s still a frequent visitor. Sometimes she and Robert, now in their early 70s, fly in from Lincoln in one of their planes. One is plaid. Another is bright green with Jackson Pollock-y splatters.

It all sounds like a story she might have pulled from the old bookshelves, except it’s true.

“Everybody in town has been really great with this whole adventure,” Karen said. “I think everybody is pleased with the art, and we’ve had so many people thank us for saving the building.”

But the new project didn’t solve the problem at home.

“We still don’t have anywhere to put the books,” she said. “They’re all still down in the basement.”

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Information from: The Des Moines Register, http://www.desmoinesregister.com

Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-12-04-14 1414GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

A sculpture greets visitors outside the Clarinda Carnegie Art Museum. Image courtesy of Clarinda Carnegie Art Museum
A sculpture greets visitors outside the Clarinda Carnegie Art Museum. Image courtesy of Clarinda Carnegie Art Museum
A Robert Longo charcoal portrait of a baby, 2007, is displayed in the former Carnegie library. Image courtesy of Clarinda Carnegie Art Museum
A Robert Longo charcoal portrait of a baby, 2007, is displayed in the former Carnegie library. Image courtesy of Clarinda Carnegie Art Museum
The hardwood floor of the former library supports a dress made of 1,000 pinecones. Image courtesy of Clarinda Carnegie Art Museum
The hardwood floor of the former library supports a dress made of 1,000 pinecones. Image courtesy of Clarinda Carnegie Art Museum

Auction house withdraws lost letter to Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac in a Naval Reserve enlistment photograph, 1943. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Jack Kerouac in a Naval Reserve enlistment photograph, 1943. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Jack Kerouac in a Naval Reserve enlistment photograph, 1943. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Plans to auction the lost letter that inspired Jack Kerouac to turn On The Road into a literary classic have been put on hold after the estates of Kerouac and the letter’s author, Neal Cassady, made separate ownership claims to the 16,000-word missive.

Profiles in History spokeswoman Sabrina Propper said Wednesday the auction house’s Dec. 17 sale has been “postponed indefinitely.”

She declined to elaborate but the San Francisco Chronicle quoted Kerouac estate attorney Nick Mitrokostas as saying the estate believes the letter is its property.

Cassady’s daughter Jami Cassady told The Associated Press her family believes it holds the copyright to the words in the letter and would like to eventually publish them.

She said both estates are filing court motions but a hearing is yet to be scheduled.

Kerouac said the correspondence, nicknamed “The Joan Anderson Letter,” inspired him to scrap an early version of On The Road and rewrite it in three weeks in his friend’s fast-paced, stream-of-consciousness style. He called the letter “the greatest piece of writing I ever saw,” adding had it not been lost it would have transformed his friend and literary muse into a major literary figure himself.

Kerouac scholars have for decades considered it a key missing link in the author’s legacy.

It was found by LA performance artist Jean Spinosa as she went through her late father’s belongings.

“We want to be nice to Jeannie. We don’t want to cut her out of anything,” Jami Cassady said Wednesday, adding the estate has no problem with her selling the physical letter.

Kerouac believed it had been dropped off a houseboat in Sausalito, Calif., in 1955 after poet Allen Ginsberg sent it to a literary agent in hopes of having it published.

The former agent, Gerd Stern, always denied losing the letter.

“After 50 years, it’s a blessing to be vindicated,” he told the AP last month after it surfaced.

Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

 

 

Dee Dee Ramone’s artistic side on display in New York

Dee Dee Ramone (b. Douglas Colvin, American, 1951-2002), 'Self-Portrait,' 2002. Collection of Catherine Saunders-Watson. Copyrighted photo courtesy British-American Media Ltd. All rights reserved.
Dee Dee Ramone (b. Douglas Colvin, American, 1951-2002), 'Self-Portrait,' 2002. Collection of Catherine Saunders-Watson. Copyrighted photo courtesy British-American Media Ltd. All rights reserved.
Dee Dee Ramone (b. Douglas Colvin, American, 1951-2002), ‘Self-Portrait,’ 2002. Collection of Catherine Saunders-Watson. Copyrighted photo courtesy British-American Media Ltd. All rights reserved.

NEW YORK (AFP) – In one painting, the Ramones stand together on top of a globe as if the band is larger than life. In another, the Sex Pistols’ Sid Vicious is chased out of the infamous Chelsea Hotel.

The paintings are part of a new exhibition in New York of Dee Dee Ramone, the bassist and songwriter of the legendary punk band, who had a little-known visual-arts side that he pursued in the years before his death in 2002.

True to the punk ethos that the Ramones pioneered, the paintings show little formal training. But they are forcefully direct in their expression, depicting both the attitude and lifestyle of rock ‘n’ roll in the 1970s and 1980s.

The painting style is cartoonish, with characters drawn with outsized physical features. Most of the work depicts the Ramones or other bands — most frequently fellow punk icons the Sex Pistols, whose Britain by storm a few years after the Ramones’ debut.

Ramone, who struggled with depression and drug abuse, sometimes painted himself triumphant with his bass but in other self-portrayals appears macabre with tattoos of scorpions and skulls over his body.

“He would paint himself depending on how he felt that day,” said his widow Barbara Ramone Zampini, who organized the exhibition.

The paintings have previously gone on display in Los Angeles, where the street artist Shepard Fairey has championed his work, but the exhibition is the first in New York.

“He didn’t really have any art show before he passed away. He would have paintings and sell them because we didn’t have any money,” Zampini told AFP.

“I thought it was about time to bring it over to New York because this was his hometown.”

Zampini, who is originally from Argentina, said she hoped to bring the exhibition later to Europe and Latin America.

– Another artistic outlet –

The Ramones released their first album in 1976, sending shocks through the music world through the band’s strident energy and unabashed simplicity, with most songs lasting around two minutes.

The band, whose original members have all died, had enormous influence on rock music’s development. U2 wrote a song about the Ramones on the band’s latest album, with the Irish superstars recalling being mesmerized in their youth at seeing the New York punks in Dublin.

The exhibition, which opened Wednesday and runs until January 1, has a fitting location — the storefront gallery of the Chelsea Hotel, where Ramone lived with Zampini and which he profiled in a novel.

The hotel, which is under renovation, became legendary for the famous musicians who stayed there and their wild antics. Most notoriously, Nancy Spungen, the girlfriend of Sid Vicious, was found stabbed to death in the hotel in 1978 under murky circumstances.

Jerry Only, bassist of the punk band Misfits, recalled that he would see Ramone’s art on display in his room at the Chelsea Hotel.

“He needed an outlet when he wasn’t playing or writing music,” said Only, who showed up to the exhibition’s opening reception in his signature leather vest with metal spikes.

The exhibition also includes a collection of pictures of the band, including a series of black-and-white shots taken on the New York subway by noted rock photographer Bob Gruen.

“Dee Dee was just getting into painting,” Gruen said. “He could have gone on and had a real career but he passed away, so it’s too bad people didn’t know what he could do.”

#   #   #

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Dee Dee Ramone (b. Douglas Colvin, American, 1951-2002), 'Self-Portrait,' 2002. Collection of Catherine Saunders-Watson. Copyrighted photo courtesy British-American Media Ltd. All rights reserved.
Dee Dee Ramone (b. Douglas Colvin, American, 1951-2002), ‘Self-Portrait,’ 2002. Collection of Catherine Saunders-Watson. Copyrighted photo courtesy British-American Media Ltd. All rights reserved.

Marble head, believed to be of French queen, sells for $1.3M

A close-up view of a statue of Jeanne de Bourbon, Queen consort of Charles V of France, at the Louvre in Paris. Image by Kaho Mitsuki. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

A close-up view of a statue of Jeanne de Bourbon, Queen consort of Charles V of France, at the Louvre in Paris. Image by Kaho Mitsuki. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
A close-up view of a statue of Jeanne de Bourbon, Queen consort of Charles V of France, at the Louvre in Paris. Image by Kaho Mitsuki. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
PARIS (AFP) – A 600-year-old marble head, believed to be from a sculpture of French queen Jeanne de Bourbon, wife of Charles V, was auctioned off for 1.15 million euros ($1.3 million) in Paris on Thursday.

The head, believed to date from between 1370 and 1380, is decorated with intricate braids in fashion at the time and is “well preserved despite light damage to the nose and lips,” according to the Piasa auction house.

The work is attributed to Flemish sculptor to the royals Jean de Liege.

The auction house said all evidence pointed “to this exceptional head originating from the tomb effigy of Jeanne de Bourbon, Queen of France.”

Among the clues cited by Piasa were the form of a crown on the sculpture and damage to the back of the head suggesting it was hacked off when the tomb was vandalized during the French Revolution.

“Only a royal effigy could have warranted such an operation.”

Queen Jeanne, not renowned for her beauty, died shortly after giving birth to her ninth child when she was 40 years old.

“To find ourselves in the presence of the effigy bust of Jeanne de Bourbon may seem extraordinary,” said Piasa, adding that various elements from her vandalized tomb had come to light in recent years.

The auction house said the exact journey of the effigy from its removal during the revolution to its reappearance in the hands of a Belgian antiques dealer more than 50 years ago “will doubtless remain a mystery.”

“It was detached, preserved, then haggled over; sold to a trafficker in royal goods; bought by an admirer of the Ancien Regime; taken across the frontier before falling into the hands of the antiques trade; and finally acquired by a Belgian engineer enamored of beautiful objects.”

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

A close-up view of a statue of Jeanne de Bourbon, Queen consort of Charles V of France, at the Louvre in Paris. Image by Kaho Mitsuki. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
A close-up view of a statue of Jeanne de Bourbon, Queen consort of Charles V of France, at the Louvre in Paris. Image by Kaho Mitsuki. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

British cannon found in Detroit River going on display

View of the Cobo Center from the Detroit River, where the 18th century British canon was discovered by divers. Image by Mike Russell. This file is licensed by the Creative Commons, Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.

View of the Cobo Center from the Detroit River, where the 18th century British canon was discovered by divers. Image by Mike Russell. This file is licensed by the Creative Commons, Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.
View of the Cobo Center from the Detroit River, where the 18th century British canon was discovered by divers. Image by Mike Russell. This file is licensed by the Creative Commons, Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.
DETROIT (AP) – An 18th century British cannon that was found in the Detroit River in 2011 is going on display this weekend following a three-year restoration.

An event is planned Wednesday afternoon where the cannon will be shown to media. It will be displayed at the Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Belle Isle.

Detroit police divers found the cannon during a training exercise in July 2011. It was pulled out of the water a few months later.

The cannon was located 20 feet underwater behind downtown’s Cobo Center. The Detroit Historical Society says that based markings on the cannon it was made in East Sussex, England, in the mid-1740s. It was embossed with the crest of King George II.

The Detroit Historical Society says the cannon likely was used in various conflicts before being moved to Fort Lernoult in Detroit. When the British abandoned Detroit in 1796 the society says the cannon probably ended up in the river after soldiers were ordered to destroy some weapons.

Several other cannons have been found in the same area of the river.

Joel Stone, Detroit Historical Society senior curator, and a team at the society’s Collections Resource Center were key in the restoration project. Work on the cannon started in 2013 at the Cranbrook Institute of Science in suburban Detroit, where it was displayed for special exhibit.

The Dossin Great Lakes Museum is open Saturdays and Sundays at Belle Isle, an island park in the Detroit River. Admission is free.

___

Online:

http://www.detroithistorical.org

Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-12-10-14 1114GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

View of the Cobo Center from the Detroit River, where the 18th century British canon was discovered by divers. Image by Mike Russell. This file is licensed by the Creative Commons, Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.
View of the Cobo Center from the Detroit River, where the 18th century British canon was discovered by divers. Image by Mike Russell. This file is licensed by the Creative Commons, Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.