fullpicture: Night at the (Crystal Bridges) Museum … but make it ✨FASHION✨ Join @derekblasberg and @karliekloss as they explore @crystalbridgesmuseum’s first fashion exhibition, “Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour” in this look behind the seams 😉 produced by none other than #FullPicProductions!
Jack Whitten was born in 1939 in Bessemer, Alabama. In his 20s, he attended a Speech from Martin Luther King Jr. regarding the Montgomery bus boycott. This speech kickstarted Whitten’s “vision for a changed America”[1] and interest in the civil rights movement. In 1960 he began studying art at Southern University and continued to participate in civil rights demonstrations. His concern for himself turning violent out of frustration in those demonstrations[2] led to him moving to New York to finish his schooling[3], which is where he remained to begin his art career. His heavy inspiration from abstract impressionism was drawn from meeting Bill de Kooning, Franz Kline, Philip Guston, Barney Newman, and Mark Rothko, as well as Jacob Lawrence and Norman Lewis.[4]
Broken Grid VIII was created in 1996. It is an 11 ¼” x 15” collage of sumi ink and acrylic on paper.[5] It and its sister work, Broken Grid VI, were created after Whitten became engrossed with the thought of compiling and visualizing all experience.[6] It is an attempt to ‘digitize’ his own mind at the moment of creating the pieces.[7]
The piece itself reads as an organized chaos. It utilizes clean cut tiles of paper overlapping in various orientations and tilts to create depth and to fracture and relocate the splatters of paint and ink that is on them. Broken Grid VIII is a very contemplative piece, where one can get lost in the journey of exploring all the texture and movement created by both the splatters and the limited color palette. With only warm and cool blacks and whites paired with the color of the paper, Whitten uses the visual weight of the contrast in those colors to create an asymmetric, monochromatic composition. I chose this piece due to having to do a double take when I scrolled past it in my search. It is so striking with the large cold white splotches cut up and layered with the rich darkness of the sumi ink. On top of that I think the collage aspect of it gave it enough of a ‘grid’ that the title suggests that you get lost in exploring the cervices and seeing how the differing tiles fit together. The use of the paper as a color is also very playful in the upper left of the piece and allows for the exploration of the different values of white creating visual interest. It also has a fascinating centralized movement that keeps your eye engaged and wanting to continue looping back to see if anything was missed at first look.
[1] Smee, Sebastian. “Jack Whitten: Once Neglected Artist Lately the Toast of the Art ...” The Washington Post, The Washington Post, 22 Jan. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/jack-whitten-a-neglected-artist-who-embraced-african-and-expressionist-art/2018/01/22/f9df8190-ffa8-11e7-8acf-ad2991367d9d_story.html.
[2] “An Interview with Artist Jack Whitten.” Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, 23 Jan. 2018, crystalbridges.org/blog/an-interview-with-artist-jack-whitten/.
[3] Sung, Victoria. “Stories of the Soul: A Farewell to Jack Whitten.” Walkerart.Org, Walker Art Center, 29 Jan. 2018, walkerart.org/magazine/jack-whitten-in-his-own-words.
[4] Ibid
[5] Whitten, Jack. “Broken Grid VIII, 1996 by Jack Whitten.” Ocula the Best in Contemporary Art Icon., Ocula Limited, ocula.com/art-galleries/hauser-wirth/artworks/jack-whitten/broken-grid-viii/. Accessed 4 Mar. 2024.
[6] Shiff, Richard. “I AM THE OBJECT Featuring Jack Whitten’s Work of the 1990s.” Contemporary Art Library, Hauser & Wirth, www.contemporaryartlibrary.org/. Accessed 4 Mar. 2024.
[7] Ibid
Bibliography:
“An Interview with Artist Jack Whitten.” Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, 23 Jan. 2018, crystalbridges.org/blog/an-interview-with-artist-jack-whitten/.
Shiff, Richard. “I AM THE OBJECT Featuring Jack Whitten’s Work of the 1990s.” Contemporary Art Library, Hauser & Wirth, www.contemporaryartlibrary.org/. Accessed 4 Mar. 2024.
Smee, Sebastian. “Jack Whitten: Once Neglected Artist Lately the Toast of the Art ...” The Washington Post, The Washington Post, 22 Jan. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/jack-whitten-a-neglected-artist-who-embraced-african-and-expressionist-art/2018/01/22/f9df8190-ffa8-11e7-8acf-ad2991367d9d_story.html.
Sung, Victoria. “Stories of the Soul: A Farewell to Jack Whitten.” Walkerart.Org, Walker Art Center, 29 Jan. 2018, walkerart.org/magazine/jack-whitten-in-his-own-words.
Whitten, Jack. “Broken Grid VIII, 1996 by Jack Whitten.” Ocula the Best in Contemporary Art Icon., Ocula Limited, ocula.com/art-galleries/hauser-wirth/artworks/jack-whitten/broken-grid-viii/. Accessed 4 Mar. 2024.
We had a great week exploring the beautiful state of Arkansas hiking, spa’ing, and art-ing. Hot Springs in the Ouachita Mountains was bohemian, outdoorsy, and fun. The trailheads are directly behind bath house row. Goat Rock Trail is a great hike, you could see natural springs bubbling up at various places. We visited two bathhouses, Buckstaff, and the Quapaw. At Buckstaff you soak in tubs, and are given a toga-sheet to wrap up in as you go from station to station (steam, sitz, etc). Quapaw has 5 large communal pools and everyone wears a bathing suit. Tbh, Buckstaff was the Gulag of spas. Everything was cold except the water they gave you to drink. My towel got wet, which made it even colder, and my attendant refused my request for a dry towel. I sipped my ketchup cup of hot water and tried to relax. The folks at Quapaw were delightful and we went all in.
Bentonville, a 4 hour drive north, has poured big money into developing mountain biking trails. It has a cute downtown with great restaurants, bike shops, etc. If you don’t mountain bike, the only thing to do is the Crystal Bridges Museum, but you can make a day of it hiking their 120 acre estate with trails and outdoor sculpture. They had a nighttime interactive exhibit called the Listening Forest which was beautiful. The museum itself is stunning architecturally, and the contemporary art collection is outstanding. It’s all American art—think Thomas Moran/Hudson River School and Georgia OKeefe.
Founded by Alice Walton, the WalMart empress, the museum is built with Walmart money, celebrates everything American, and as one might expect, is quite flashy. The building itself is stunning, and it seems the building is perhaps of greater value than what’s inside. Some of the exhibits are as much American history as they are art, so one might guess, bias exists. Remember that money talks, and in this case, this is a private museum with a single conservative donor. I am sure the curators walk on eggshells a bit. While I appreciate this massive support for the arts by one of America’s largest corporations, it just can’t go unsaid that money talks, and is this case, so does one of Walmart’s largest stockholders who funded a rather white-washed exhibit on American democracy.
· The exhibit We the People is called a “diverse perspective of equality and democracy.” It includes documents and art about the struggle for civil liberties in America. There were wonderful pieces about the civil rights movement of the 1960’s, art by indigenous Americans, and Japanese Americans during the WWII internment camps.
· Shockingly, there was NO mention of women’s rights. the 19th amendment, or the ERA, other than one painting of suffragettes; and nor do they mention LGBTGA rights. As I exited, I thought, surely there must be another room? Nope. So, I turned around and went back in via the exit door to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. I didn’t. I did enjoy seeing the Mark Bradford painting in that section. There is some hidden text, but it is obscured to such a degree that the reference is unknown. Bradford is one of my favorite painters but I don’t understand the meaning of this piece in this exhibit.
· I did some research. This exhibit is sponsored by Kenneth C Griffin, a wealthy hedge fund manager who owns a large stake of WalMart stock and is one of the richest men in the world. He bought the copy of the Constitution on display ($43 million) and is also a GOP mega doner. It sounds like the museum curator attended the Sotheby’s auction alongside Griffin when he purchased it.
· Also of note is the exhibit does not state the documents are copies, it implies they are originals which is rather showy, IMHO. There are 26 copies of the Declaration of Independence, 11 of the Constitution, and whew, they can be bought. I don’t get it.
· I like my art hung at eye-level where I can see it. They got fancy and thought it would look good to hang art all the way up some 20 foot walls. It does look good but I can’t actually see it.
· Some sections had NO tags identifying the painting, just one QR code for the entire section, and it was difficult to navigate. QR codes should be used in addition to tags not in lieu of.
· Lastly…half the main building is dedicated a snack bar.
Headed home we again saw the lovely Bass Pro Shops Memphis Pyramid Mega Store complete with saltwater aquarium, indoor quail hunting, a piranha pool, zip line over an alligator pit. And the floor is hot lava, I hear.
First-edition copy of US Structure may fetch $30 million
Written by Oscar Holland, CNN
An “extraordinarily uncommon” first-edition copy of the US Structure will go below the hammer in New York subsequent month, with Sotheby’s public sale home anticipating bids as much as $30 million.
Produced forward of the historic Constitutional Conference of 1787, it’s amongst simply 13 of the unique printed texts recognized to have survived — and certainly one of solely two nonetheless in personal palms, the public sale home stated in a press launch Tuesday.
The announcement comes lower than a yr after the one different privately-held copy fetched a report $43.2 million at public sale. The November sale, additionally held in New York, noticed a bidding conflict between billionaire hedge fund supervisor Ken Griffin and cryptocurrency group Structure DAO, which raised the equal of over $40 million from 17,000 particular person buyers in what Sotheby’s described as “essentially the most vital crowdfunding initiative ever undertaken.”
The group was finally outbid by Griffin, the founder and CEO of funding agency Citadel, who has since lent the doc to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Artwork in Arkansas. In a press launch, Sotheby’s stated the 2021 sale’s on-line following had made it essentially the most watched public sale in its historical past.
Richard Austin, Sotheby’s international head of books and manuscripts, expressed hope that subsequent month’s public sale will provoke a “related response” from the general public.
“The unprecedented sale end result we achieved for the Structure final November was a really distinctive and impressed second — one which signifies not solely the acute rarity of first printing copies of the Structure obtainable for personal possession, but additionally the enduring significance and affect of the Structure as the final word expression of the democratic rules that inform our every day lives greater than 200 years because it was first written,” he stated in a press assertion.
The total first web page of the doc, which Sotheby’s estimates will promote for $20 million to $30 million. Credit score: Sotheby’s
Drafted throughout a sequence of secret conferences presided over by George Washington, the US Structure was written to switch the sooner Articles of Confederation. Round 500 printed copies of the ultimate textual content have been distributed to delegates forward of the Constitutional Conference, which was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1787. The structure was ratified by most states in the course of the subsequent yr and got here into pressure in 1789.
Of the opposite first-edition printed copies recognized to have survived, 11 belong in institutional and authorities collections, together with these of the Historic Society of Pennsylvania, the New Jersey State Archives and the Library of Congress.
The copy up on the market in December has not been seen at public sale for over 125 years, in response to Sotheby’s, which described the merchandise as “extraordinarily uncommon.” Offered from the gathering of Georgia lawyer and politician Charles Colcock Jones in 1894, it was acquired as a present for businessman and collector Adrian Van Sinderen and has been in personal palms ever since. The merchandise has not been on public show since a Stanford College exhibition 35 years in the past.
Sotheby’s worldwide senior specialist for books and manuscripts, Selby Kiffer, described its return to the market as a “particular second.”
“Whereas the lasting significance and relevance of the Structure is commonly an anodyne speaking level at this time, the actual fact stays that it’s unequivocally essentially the most vital doc in United States historical past, and one that may proceed to affect the way forward for democratic rules in America and all over the world,” he stated in an announcement.
Originally published at Irvine News HQ
If you plan a vacation in Arlington, VA, you might want to consider visiting during the fall, when the temperatures are still mild. However, you may find it challenging to find a cheap hotel. The winter months are also cold, and you may have difficulty finding accommodations. This is the low season, and you should be prepared for fewer tourists.
If you are looking for a day out filled with water fun, then the Ocean Dunes Water Park in Arlington, VA, is a great choice. The park offers two giant water slides, several smaller ones, and a dumping bucket and waterfall. It also has a great pool area with a 500-gallon water feature. In addition, the park is located next to the Climb Upton vertical climbing course, so if you get wet, you can still cool off in the pool.
If you haven't visited it yet, you miss out on one of Arlington's best family activities. You can spend a day playing in the waterpark or nearby batting cages. For even more fun, you can also head to the neighboring Climb Upton facility, which features a 90-element vertical adventure course.
Visitors to Theodore Roosevelt Island will find a variety of activities to keep them busy while there. This car-free island is accessible via a footbridge from Arlington. The park features boardwalks through swamps and marshland, and nature trails. The park also offers Island Safari tours on weekends at 10:30 am. The island is also home to various bird species, including warblers and raptors. It also features spectacular wildflowers in the springtime.
This 91-acre island is a beautiful place to go hiking, bike riding, or relaxing. It is also a memorial to the 26th president and his contributions to conservation. It features two and a half miles of trails and includes a 17-foot bronze statue of the president. Other attractions include two fountains and four 21-foot granite tablets.
There are several things that you can do in Crystal City. You can stroll through the neighborhood or enjoy a delicious meal at one of the Crystal Citys local restaurants. If you are a sporty person, you might want to check out Crystal City Water Park, which offers several different activities for you and your family. For example, you can try your hand at basketball or volleyball. There are also plenty of options for shopping in the area.
While Crystal City Water Park is not known for its water slides, it still offers plenty of attractions. The Air Force Memorial is a great way to visualize the Air Force song; there are several other areas to relax. The park also has picnic tables and water fountains. There are also weekly community events held in the park.
A visit to the DEA Museum & Visitors Center in Arlington, VA, is a great way to learn more about the work of this agency. The Museum features an innovative learning environment with 180 artifacts and interactive technology. Interactive exhibits include touchscreen timelines, where you can see changes in drug law enforcement. You can also earn a Junior Special Agent badge, which requires you to complete challenges and think like a DEA agent.
The DEA Museum & Visitors Center in Arlington, VA, is located in a government building, so visitors must go through security checks. If you'd like to get a feel for how illegal drugs are used in America, check out the exhibit titled "Illegal Drugs in America: A Modern History." The Museum also has displays that teach visitors about drug paraphernalia.
If you are looking for a great day out, the city of Arlington, Virginia, is worth visiting for Long Bridge Park. This public park is popular because it is full of green spaces and has excellent views of the Potomac River. It features walkways and a variety of native plants and shrubs. It also has a large playground for kids and two sports fields. Visitors can enjoy the soft light and scenic views of the Crystal City skyline while they relax in the park.
Families visiting Arlington, Virginia, should take advantage of the park's activities and events. The children's activities in Arlington VA parks promote social and emotional development, risk, and reward. These games and activities allow parents and kids to interact and learn about the world around them. In addition, parents can get involved in the activities and cheer on the kids when they succeed.
Where MC would take them on holiday in the human realm (brothers, Diavolo and Solomon)
Lucifer:
- MC takes him to London solely so that they can watch a performance at the West End theatre (*cough* Phantom of the Opera *cough*)
- She also takes him to see Opera shows, knowing he’d be absolutely mesmerised by the performances they put on with the huge stages and complete orchestras
- They stay in a really high-end hotel and have romantic evenings eating at fancy restaurants and then sharing a bath together when they get back
- Shows him Buckingham Palace, “that’s where the English equivalent to Diavolo lives”
Mammon:
- VIVA. LAS. VEGAS.
- MC gets SO excited to take Mammon to Vegas because he will be in his absolute element with all of the casinos
- His eyes light up when he first sees the colossal hotels with all of their elaborate designs
- Him and MC become partners in crimes, hitting the casinos in their fanciest clothes and fake jewellery pretending they’re wealthy royals from a small country in Europe called ‘Devildom’
- They lose all of their money but they find it hilarious because they have so much fun together
Levi:
- this one is pretty obvious: she takes him to Japan of course! The home of anime
- Levi has never been so excited in all of his life as he walks through the city of Tokyo with wide eyes
- He falls in love with everything he sees, MC keeps treating him to little gifts that she notices he ogles over when they’re in shops (she does begin to worry how on Earth they’re going to transport it all back to Devildom afterwards though)
- They take cute selfies together: sharing bubble tea, Levi posing with cosplayers etc
***BONUS: MC takes Levi to San Diego so that they can go to the human Comic Con (she doesn’t tell him they’re going though). Levi has never felt so welcome in a place ever before in his life and begs MC to take him again the following year***
Satan:
- Satan reads a lot and he’s very gentlemanly with MC - when she looks at him she sees Mr Darcy
- To make her fantasies of Satan x Mr Darcy come to life, she takes him on a trip to England, renting out the most beautiful, historic cottage in the countryside
- The area around their cottage is so scenic, with willow trees and rivers; Satan describes it as ‘something he’d read about in a book’
- He loves the gesture! The pair often spend their evenings cuddled up naked under a blanket beside the fire as he reads Pride and Prejudice to her before it turns into something much steamier
Asmo:
- MC takes him to Paris obviously, what’s more romantic?
- It’s called the ‘City of Love’ and Asmo soon finds out why
- Their time away together is spent exploring cute French cafes, taking selfies in front of the Eiffel Tower and making sweet love in their elegant hotel (sometimes even on the balcony if they’re feeling extra frisky)
- They explore all of the high end shops and popular museums
- To solidify their love and to remember their holiday, they write their names on a padlock and attach it to the Pont des Arts bridge
- Also an excuse to be French kissing a LOT
Beel:
- MC takes Beel to Rome and not just because it’s a beautiful city filled with history, but because she wants to introduce him to possibly the best food the human realm has to offer: Italian food
- Beel falls in love with everything he eats there. His personal favourite is the gelato
- Every day MC treats him to some scoops of the flavour of his choice
- They make a wish in the Trevi fountain (MC assumes his wish is about food but it’s actually a plea for MC to always love him)
- Her and Beel unconsciously recreate the scene from ‘Lady and the Hound’ where they kiss after chewing on the same piece of spaghetti
Belphie:
- MC knows Belphie isn’t a very active person and would appreciate a peaceful holiday more than an all action one
- She takes him to a really scenic village in the Netherlands; one that is surrounded by tulip fields
- Belphie’s absolutely mesmerised by all of the colours and the windmills that erect from the ground
- He finds it so, so therapeutic
- MC does have to stop him from falling asleep in the fields though, “yes I know the flowers look comfy but you can’t use them as a bed!”
Diavolo:
- MC thinks the Prince of Devildom could do with a break considering how hard he works all of the time
- And where do humans go to get away from everything? The Maldives
- Their holiday is SO romantic, it’s just the two of them in their own beach hut surrounded by nothing but crystal clear oceans and white sands
- More often than not they will have steamy, shirtless makeout sessions in the sand every night after drinking too many pina coladas
- Lots and lots and lots of sex (with a view!)
Solomon:
- MC would take him to the Harry Potter studios in London or Universal Studios in America as a joke
- “Now you can feel at home with your wizard friends!”
- Solomon doesn’t find the gesture as funny but he makes the most out of the day, eventually giving in to her teasing
- MC cries with laughter whenever he poses next to any of the photo ops with his wand out and a dramatic expression on his face
- Their entire trip gets documented on Devilgram, showing the demons that they’re still staying in contact!
I am a multi-disciplinary artist of Indo-Caribbean descent. My experiences living in several countries and cultural contexts have greatly shaped my artistic practice. Recent and upcoming projects include a commission for the Sharjah Biennial 14, “State of the Art 2020” at Crystal Bridges Museum/the Momentary, a Denver Art Museum and the Biennial of the Americas jointly sponsored installation, a commission for the MCA’s Octopus Initiative, solo exhibitions at the Boise Art Museum of Art (2021), K Contemporary Art (2020), Unit London (2022), Hollis Taggart NYC (2022), and the Center for Visual Arts, Metropolitan State University of Denver (2018) and group exhibitions at Kavi Gupta Gallery (2021), Aicon Gallery (2021), Unit London ( 2021), Pen and Brush NYC (2019), and the San Antonio Museum of Art (2021). I received an MFA in painting and drawing and an MA in South Asian art from the University of Pennsylvania, PA. My work has been reviewed in publications and on-line platforms such as Hyperallergic, Document Journal, the Boston Globe, Widewalls, Cultured Magazine, and Wallpaper Magazine and is in the collections of Crystal Bridges Museum, the Denver Art Museum, and the Taylor Art Collection.
Statement
I am interested in how memory allows us to unravel and re-imagine historical narratives. My primary pursuit is to give voice to people whose voices were once quieted. Using both my own family’s ocean migrations and research on the period of colonial indentured labor during the 19th Century, I seek to expand our sense of “history.” Re-writing this colonial history contributes to contemporary dialogue by making visible the struggles and perseverance of those who lived it. I often focus on women and employ practices and materials associated with the domestic sphere such as embroidery, weaving, various fiber elements, etc. I re-imagine vintage and found materials that have a rich past as a way of creating a dialogue with the original makers and the time periods in which they were cherished as well as a means of navigating my own personal narrative. I often use vintage saris as a way of connecting women of the South Asian diaspora from around the world. Thinking about colonization in Guyana and the rest of the Caribbean is a way of tracing my family’s history in Guyana and India and of fostering discussion around contemporary issues surrounding gender and labor. Combining, re-contextualizing, and reconfiguring disparate materials is a way of making sense of the world around me and of reconciling multiple cultural spheres that I inhabit as an Indo-Caribbean woman.
Ken Griffin Buys Rare First Printing of US Constitution Sells for $43 Million
Citadel Founder Ken Griffin bought a first printing of the U.S. Constitution which sold for a record-setting $43.2 million at a Sotheby’s auction, the auction house announced Friday.
The auction Thursday garnered attention after a group of crypto investors under the name of ConstitutionDAO said they raised more than $40 million to purchase the document. In a tweet Thursday, the group said they lost their bid.
Griffin had been a noted crypto skeptic in the past, but he’s recently come around on Ethereum. At the DealBook conference this month, Griffin said Bitcoin would be replaced “conceptually” by Ethereum’s blockchain — the same blockchain used by ConstitutionDAO.
Griffin said he will loan the document to Billionaire Alice Walton’s Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.
The artifact carried a presale estimate of $15 million to $20 million and belonged to collector Dorothy Goldman. Her late husband, S. Howard Goldman, had purchased it for $165,000 in 1988.
The piece is one of 13 surviving copies of the Official Edition of the Constitution printed in 1787 for the delegates to the Constitutional Convention and for the Continental Congress.
As auctioneer Quig Bruning took the stand, a crowd gathered to witness the event and chit-chat filled the room. The first bid came in seconds, at $30 million.
The initial bid was quickly challenged, and began building in $1 million increments. The bid almost closed at $38 million, then an additional million was offered at the last second. “Quite the drama,” joked Bruning.
Within 10 minutes, the back-and-forth had ended with a record-breaking $41 million hammer price, $20 million over the estimated value.
Sotheby’s said the item is the most valuable historical document ever sold at auction.
The artifact’s sale “was a monumental and historic occasion,” said Selby Kiffer, senior international specialist for books and manuscripts at the auction house. “Tonight’s result reflects how relevant it remains 234 years later — not only in America but for global democracy.”
Like the previous blog, this blog will highlight multiple Black Women in Visual Media. Not to be considered just painters or collage makers or sculptors, these women are held highly as innovators and visionaries in the art community. In no particular order, this blog will bring a quick glimpse into just a few of these Black Women creators in modern world visual media.
Delita Martin, born in 1972 in Conroe, Texas, received her BFA in drawing at Texas Southern University in Huston, Texas in 2002. In 2009, she then later earned her MFA in printmaking at Purdue University. Knowing that she wanted to pursue art since the age of five, she became a multidisciplinary artist and has worked across various mediums such as printmaking, painting, and stitching, the latter incorporating indigenous and modern art-making. Martin actively uses storytelling to provide a platform for marginalized Black women and frequently uses various forms of symbolism to represent women in her artwork. Much of her work contains West African masks, similar to Loïs Mailou Jones from a previous blog, which highlight the connection between the mortal and spiritual world. Martin's influences include Elizabeth Catlett after she was exposed to her work as an undergraduate student.
In 2008, Martin founded her own studio called Black Box Press while also working as a lecturer at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock from 2008 to 2012. She is also a founding member of Black Women of Print, founded in 2018 which acts as a printmaking collective for Black Women, as well as a ROUX artist collective member.
Her work has appeared in the Havana Biennial and in Art Basel Miami and she has permanent collections held by many museums including the following; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Salamander Resort, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Bradbury Art Museum, C.N. Gorman Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, David C. Driskill Center, Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American-Art, Studio Museum in Harlem, Thrivent Financial, William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum, the US Embassy (Mauritania) and more.
Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze, born in 1982 in Nigeria, is a Nigerian-British Brooklyn based artist. Having been raised in the United Kingdom until the age of 13, she moved to America in 2004. She received a B.F.A. summa cum laude from the Tyler School of Art at Philadelphia's Temple University and received her M.F.A from Cranbrook Academy of Art, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, majoring in photography and textiles even though her favorite and most used medium is drawing. She currently resides in Brooklyn, New York where she continues to work with graphite, ink, and pigment drawings, often combining them with photo transfers, with many of her mixed-media drawings centering on the concept of cultural hybridity and displacement. She draws much of her inspiration from Nigerian artists and the Nigerian history of drawing.
Amanze was an Artist-in-Residence at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York, NY in 2011, in 2012 she earned a Fulbright Fellowship, and later received the Fulbright Scholars Award for Teaching/Research at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka the following year. She then became an Artist-in-Residence at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in 2014 and at the Fountainhead Residency in Miami, Florida in 2015. Amanze also participated in Opens Sessions at the Drawing Center, New York from 2015 to 2016 and was an Artist-in-Residence yet again at the Queens Museum in Queens, New York, from 2016 to 2017.
April Bey grew up in New Providence, The Bahamas, and earned her BFA from Ball State University in 2009 and her MFA in painting at California State University in 2014. Bey’s work has been exhibited at Band of Vices Gallery, Coagula Curatorial, Liquid Courage Gallery, and Barnsdall Art Park’s Municipal Art Gallery and she currently teaches in the department of Studio Arts at Glendale Community College.
Bey is best known for her mixed media work which mostly includes collage work that intertwines various materials such as caulking, resin, wood, and fabric. She uses her work to create commentary on contemporary Black Female rhetoric and attempts to capture strength, power, passion, and sensuality. Her work also explores the resilience of women as well as the hypocrisy of societal expectations towards women. Bey commonly uses photographs of Black Female figures such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Solange, Issa Rae, and Michaela Coel and adds text which speaks of the narratives Black Women are creating regarding their identity in modern times.
Dana King was born on March 7th, 1960, in Cleveland, Ohio, and served as a news anchor for San Francisco CBS Affiliate KPIX and a co-anchor on ABC's Good Morning America Sunday in the early ’90s before moving to CBS's CBS Morning News during the mid-’90s as well as other CBS News programs. King was well recognized for her career in journalism, even receiving a local Emmy for her reporting in Honduras in 1998 and 2000 and an RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award in March 2005. Eventually, King ended up leaving her anchoring job in 2012 to pursue an art career and follow her passion for sculpting.
King's mediums include charcoal drawing and oil painting but she is best known for her sculptures as well as many community projects that revolve around portraying political messages, stemming from her career as a journalist. One of her best-known sculptures is an outdoor sculpture dedicated to the memory of the women who led and sustained the Montgomery bus boycott which is currently on display at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, as of 2018. Not just an artist and ex-news anchor, King is also an entrepreneur, owning a thriving artists’ enclave located in Oakland, California. She also donated space from the building she owns at East 12th Street and 13th Avenue in Oakland, California to the Oakland community to paint a mural with the theme of “Oakland for all of us.” King donated the wall in hopes of bringing the community together and bringing awareness to political change.
There are so many other artists and influential Black Female visual creators out there making a mark on the world through innovative means and consisting of important messages. It’s a common theme among these artists that portraying the beauty of Black Women and women, in general, can be done elegantly and gracefully. There are powerful messages held in all of their work and their craft acts as an inspiration to women across the globe.
I know a lot of my New York friends got a tid bit miffed at Wal-Mart money buying up American treasures like Kindred Spirits for $35 Million. I know there was controversy.
But can I say it’s been a real joy having the next major art museum an hour away in Bentonville? I mean, the place features all sorts of American-born art from the 15th century onward. This was the first time I have ever felt connect to an American heritage older than 200 years.
Okay, second time.
The first time happened when I went to Brooklyn to check out Forefront and volunteered at this soup kitchen / clinic for the homeless, a nonprofit named Brooklyn Jubilee. They volunteered at the Dutch Reformed Church.
…whose motto was:
Doing good in the hood since 1633.
Yeah, okay. Felt connected then.
Anyways, seeing the original Rosie the Riveter, stuff by Warhol and other modern painters in addition to paintings that were on nearly every history and social sciences book the public school system handed me since the first grade.
Suddenly it meant something, and I actually cared again — I remembered my own people, the people who need my love as much as my enemy and neighbor and foreign guests, and I found myself feeling sorry for George Washington and John Adams as I stared at their paintings. And I wasn’t bitter anymore about the native american art, but rather stood there with a sense of loss — as if I’d misplaced something on a tour in a foreign country and knew if I went back to find it, I myself would be lost forever. There was no going back, but rather the basic confession that something had gone missing.
Or someone.
I was moved — and that’s what art should do, move us.
In any case, here are some of the photos from our tours:
If you’re in the area, you should at least give it one walk through. You may be surprised at what you find.
Hugs, Kisses, and ‘Merica,
Nice Art, but where are the *real* Crystal Bridges? I know a lot of my New York friends got a tid bit miffed at Wal-Mart money buying up American treasures like
“Greenland Landscape” (ca. 1932-33), Rockwell Kent
The dream of Alice Walton, heir to the Walmart fortune, has come true! The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened in 2011 in the small Arkansas town of Bentonville. Works by American giants are brought to a region that has until now had little opportunity to view the glories of America’s artistic heritage.
The real Rosie the Riveter dies at 92 - Mary Doyle Keefe
April 22, 2015
The 1940s were a pinnacle era for women in industry. During the war effort, everyone played a role, and millions of women worldwide gladly picked up the skills needed to keep their countries moving as the war played out. As such, there was no shortage of artwork created to help inspire girls and women to join the effort. One of the most famous pieces of art from this time is “Rosie the Riveter,” a name that became synonymous for handy-women and female inventors and engineers.
The original Rosie the Riveter was a painting by Norman Rockwell, and was published on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. The model in the painting was 19 year-old Mary Doyle Keefe, who just died today at age 92.
Although “Rosie’s” name has long been incorrectly associated with another famous image by J. Howard Miller (called, “We Can Do It!”), the original was published in the May 29, 1943 edition of the Post. It’s currently displayed at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas. Keefe spent much of her life representing the painting that made her famous.
However, strict copyright on the painting made it appear less and less in popular culture, until recently (meanwhile, Miller’s image continued to gain popularity).
Keefe was a telephone operator, not a riveter; regardless, she was paid a whopping $10 for appearing in the painting, and went on to share her story and experiences during the war with others throughout her life. The painting also inspired many others that showcased women participating in factory work, and is often attributed to helping portray women in industry in a new light.
And as one of millions of women who have been undoubtedly inspired by these images, we salute you, Mary! Thanks for all you did for America and the women who followed in your footsteps.
Spaniard Hernando de Soto was among the early European explorers to visit the territory in the mid-16th century, but it was a Frenchman, Henri de Tonti, who in 1686 founded the first permanent white settlement at the Arkansas Post. In 1803 the area was acquired by the U.S. as part of the Louisiana Purchase.
Part of the Territory of Missouri from 1812, the area became a separate entity in 1819 after the first large wave of settlers arrived. The next several decades were marked by the development of the cotton industry and the spread of the Southern plantation system west into Arkansas. Arkansas joined the Confederacy in 1861, but from 1863 the northern part of the state was occupied by Union troops.
Part of the land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase, Arkansas became a separate territory in 1819 and achieved statehood in 1836. A slave state, Arkansas became the ninth state to secede from the union and join the Confederate States of America. Today Arkansas ranks 27th among the 50 states in area, but, except for Louisiana and Hawaii, it is the smallest state west of the Mississippi River. Its neighbors are Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest and Oklahoma to the west.
The name Arkansas was used by the early French explorers to refer to the Quapaw people—a prominent indigenous group in the area—and to the river along which they settled. The term was likely a corruption of akansea, the word applied to the Quapaw by another local indigenous community, the Illinois. Little Rock, the state capital, is located in the central part of the state. In 1957, Little Rock Central High School became the focus of national attention when federal troops were deployed to the campus to enforce integration.
Hot Springs National Park and Buffalo National River in the Ozarks are major state attractions. Blanchard Springs Caverns, the Historic Arkansas Museum at Little Rock, the William J. Clinton Birthplace in Hope, and the Arkansas Folk Center in Mountain View are also of interest. New in 2011 is the Crystal Bridges Museum for American Art, designed by Moshe Safdie, which houses the collection of Walmart heiress Alice Walton.
Arkansas has a rich and unique culture unlike that of any other state in the southern region of the United States. It is place of traditional crafts and folk music. Few other states in the country have as deep a relationship with the arts and handiwork. Exploring the rural byways delivers visitors to little mountain hamlets where people are still involved in skilled labor their grandparents passed down to them.
Though the people may appear on the surface to be removed from the rest of American society, they may well prefer it that way. This is a culture of pioneers and independent thinkers. The locals are very friendly once they get to know you, and have an incredible blues and bluegrass music scene that easily matches their craftsmanship.
Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton brought national attention to the state with a long speech at the 1988 Democratic National Convention endorsing Michael Dukakis Some journalists suggested the speech was a threat to his ambitions; Clinton defined it "a comedy of error, just one of those fluky things".
People such as politician and educational advocate William Fulbright ; former President Bill Clinton who served as the 40th and 42nd Governor of Arkansas; his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ; former NATO Supreme Allied Commander General Wesley Clark , Walmart magnate Sam Walton ; 12 singer-songwriters Johnny Cash , Charlie Rich , and Glen Campbell ; the poet C. D. Wright ; and physicist William L. McMillan , who was a pioneer in superconductor research; have all lived in Arkansas.
Although it was not officially designated a national park until 1921, the territory now known as Hot Springs National Park was originally set aside by Congress as a U.S. government reservation in 1832—40 years before Yellowstone National Park was established as the first” national park.
Take time to enjoy all the opportunities for outdoor recreation, witness the wonders of underground caverns, cast a line at Bull Shoals Lake and try trout fishing on the White River, enjoy nature on a classic hiking trail or pick up the pace on miles of EPIC mountain bike trails.
Arkansas has so much to offer, from its rich history and great outdoors to its slow southern charm. Many folk love calling Arkansas home. In recent times many Discount Moving Companies are seeing a increase in relocations to the state.