2011 march nashville arts magazine

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12 | March 2O11 | NashvilleArts.com

12

12 Refined ReUsesculptures by

Gordon Chandler.

This kimono, created from salvaged steel and metal, sits impressively on the wall at a scale larger than life-size. Each sculpture is made from one oil drum. Chandler pushes and flattens the steel by hand, then cuts it into the patterns and forms that become the recognizable objects from everyday life. A total of nine wall kimonos, a red leisure suit, and a huge, freestanding kimono made from fifty-five-gallon steel drums make up the twenty-two original pieces in this large show titled Refined ReUse.

For over thirty years Chandler has employed materials from his personal landscape of everyday items that he finds in his surround-ing environment. Working with material he scavenges locally where he lives in Carrolton, Georgia, Chandler prefers to avoid making working models and creates his pieces as the work progresses.

the exhibition runs through March 26 at the rymer Gallery located on 5th

avenue North. www.therymergallery.com

SPOTLIGHT

Afternoon Freedom by david Nichols

Byron Jorjorian’s Missing Nature at the Parthenon.

Photographer Byron Jorjorian has been focusing on nature since he was a boy growing up in the woods around Meridian, Mississippi. Back then, he happily caught fish, turtles, lizards, frogs, and snakes and kept them as pets. Today he continues to capture all manner of creatures—only now he does it in pictures with a camera, while also creating beautiful images of the waterways and landscapes they inhabit.

Now recognized as one of America’s premier nature photographers, Byron Jorjorian has been a longtime supporter and friend of The Nature Conservancy, a leading conservation organization that has protected nearly 120 million acres around the world for people and nature. Since 1990, Jorjorian has been donating his time and photography to The Nature Conservancy’s cause, particularly in Tennessee where he resides.

As Parthenon curator Susan Shockley puts it: “Jorjorian hikes to these habitats where he photographs both the wildlife and the land. But Jorjorian creates much more than a simple record of a rural hike. His eye notices the yellow leaf just fallen from the tree, the spider’s web drenched in dew, or the swirl that water creates around a rock. He isolates, selects, and captures a vision of the world. His photographs generate a new habitat for his subjects, and he enables his viewers to see moments we might otherwise miss.”

a new exhibition of byron Jorjorian’s work titled Missing Nature is on

display at the Parthenon from March 26 through august 20, 2011. to view

more of his stunning photography, visit www.byronjorjorian.com.

http://www.byronjorjorian.com

http://www.NashvilleCherryBlossomFestival.org

NashvilleArts.com | March 2O11 | 37

37

37Never in a million years did i ever think that one day i would be sitting in Tony Bennett’s studio overlooking New York’s Central Park.

Unbelievably, here I am. The view is nothing short of spectacular. The park is covered in snow glistening in the afternoon sun. It is a magical scene straight out of those great black and white movies when men dressed in tuxedos for dinner at eight and ladies smoked long Turkish cigarettes through diamond-tipped holders. You get the picture.

But I’m not here to admire the scenery and reminisce about the past; I’m here to talk to the man, the voice, and the charisma that is Tony Bennett. Artist, performer, singer . . . descriptions that somehow seem way too small to describe so large a talent. An American icon of the highest order that still considers himself a student of life and of the arts. A man who at 85 years of age refuses to stop learning and who relishes every single second of every single day.

Bob Hope gave him his stage name, Tony Bennett, but he was born Anthony Benedetto. Quick to flash that famous smile and ready with an amusing anec-dote, he peppers his language with the artist’s lexicon. Make no mistake, he is serious about his art. This is no Johnny-come-lately riding the coattails of his celebrity status. Nor is he a weekend warrior painting to relax from the daily grind. Far from it. In fact, Bennett’s work has received accolades from fellow artists, collectors, and art institutions all over the world. Several of his paint-ings are in the permanent collection at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and one is in the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio.

Bennett has been painting all his life and still likes to attend the Art Students League with fellow artists young enough to be his grandchildren. He has stud-ied and refined his skills with several leading artists, most notably with the great portrait artist Everett Raymond Kinstler who he considers a friend and mentor. Bennett relishes the learning experience, immersing himself in his passion all the way, approaching each canvas with the same scholarly approach he has to his music. He loves having two careers and paints every day. He tells me that he can’t help it, that he has no choice, he has to paint. And I believe him.

Tony BennettSinging in Colorby Paul Polycarpou

I’m in class every day of

my life. From the moment I

wake up I’m in class.

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38The InterviewQ: it’s very rare to excel in two different fields of creativity, as a

performer and then as a painter. Not very many people can do that.

a: It’s two different concepts. And you know, it’s tough for the public to digest that you can do both things. For instance Fred Astaire introduced a lot of songs that are loved all over the world. Whether it’s a song like “Night and Day” or “I Get Along Without You Very Well” or “One for My Baby”—all these great songs that we all love in the American songbook were introduced by Astaire. But publicly Fred Astaire is only referred to as a great dancer. They never mentioned that he introduced all those songs. It’s tough for the average person, even an elite person, to accept someone who does two things well. People are still surprised to find out that I paint, even though I’ve been doing it all my life. That doesn’t matter to me. I’m just doing it because I have to. I don’t have a game going on or any ambition about it. I’m gonna keep painting. I’m not going to retire. My passion is even greater now than when I was younger. It’s more consistent now.

Q: you’re very much involved in bringing art into schools. how

important is this to you?

a: Very much so. My wife, Susan Benedetto, and I started a school, the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, in Astoria where I grew up. And the last ten years, 97 percent of all the students went on to college. They don’t drop out because they paint and they sing; they dance, and it’s all about the arts. Now we have seven schools that we’re sponsoring, giving pianos, providing wood floors for the dancers, paints, easels, whatever it takes. The dream is to start an art program in every public school. So


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Q: so even at an early age you had a sense of reaching for the

brass ring.

a: Yes, I did. You see the Italians and the Greeks, they created two thou-sand years of civilization and culture. Those two countries taught the rest of the world how to become civilized. They created everything like it was going to be around for a long time. They didn’t believe in obsoles-cence. They did everything with care. All of that was around me in my childhood. Even though we were poor we had a sense of that.

Q: When did you become aware of the power of singing and

painting in your life?

a: Well, my relatives were very encouraging to my brother, sister, and myself back then because we would entertain them. They would take out their guitars, mandolins, and they would make a circle around us, and we would entertain them. They would say look at how he paints or at how he sings; he’s such a good entertainer, he makes us laugh, and all of this, and I remember very clearly thinking this is who I am. This is how I can communicate. They like my paintings; they like my singing. And it stayed a very strong passion for me my whole life.

Q: so painting, like singing, was a way for you to communicate

your feelings to the world?

a: Yes, you could say that. During the Second World War, I was in France and Germany. Many years later I met people I was in the war with and they said to me, do you remember when you were in the trenches what you were doing? I said no. They said you were always sketching. While the bombs were going off, I was still sketching. So my whole life I’ve

they have a sense, even if they’re not going to become artists, of the difference between good art and bad art. Who knows, one day there may be more artists in the United States than any other country in the world. That’s what we’re working on.

Q: are your children involved in the arts?

a: My son paints; he is a very good painter. I have terrific children. They all work with me. My other son, we started the Bennett recording studio in Englewood, New Jersey, right over the George Washington Bridge. He’s the engineer of the recording studio. So he records me. My daugh-ter, Antonia, is a singer and she tours with me . . . so everybody is involved. My grandchildren are working on camera in film. We’re all in it together. They’re all good kids, very creative.

Q: tell me about that creativity. Where did yours come from?

a: It comes from my Italian-American family. My father died when I was 10 years old, and I was in a state of shock. I couldn’t believe it because we all loved him so much. And my mother was forced to raise three chil-dren by herself. Those were very hard times. My mother was a seam-stress, and she made a penny a dress to put food on the table. She had to work like a fiend to do as many dresses as possible. Sometimes she would take a dress and throw it over her shoulder and say to me, “Don’t let me work on a bad dress. I’ll only work on a good dress.” She didn’t want to do anything cheap. She wanted her work to be the best she could do it, and that made a big impression on me. To be the best I could and not settle for anything less.

bottom left: Venice, 2003

left: New York Rainy Night above: Azaleas

right: Burano, Italy


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40 the next stage is learning what to leave out, the edges and all this. You never stop. I’m in class every day of my life. From the moment I wake up I’m in class.

Q: do you like to paint plein air?

a: Yes, the more you paint directly from nature, the better it is. I can only do so much outside, because once I get recognized, it’s over. I leave early in the morning, like seven or eight o’clock, when no one is in the park yet so I can have two hours of just painting whatever I see that looks nice. And it’s the sunrises and sunsets that are the two best times to paint because of the dark and light.

Q: you paint every day. is that important to you?

a: It’s very important. I can’t stress that enough. The whole thing is repetition. It’s like playing tennis. The more you play tennis, the better you’re going to get. If you just play every once in a while, you’ll be a so-so tennis player. But if you play every day, and every day you work harder, you finally get very good at it. It’s the same thing with painting or music. Anything that you do well, it’s the repetition. With music, I still study music.

Q: What about canvases—do you have several paintings going at

the same time?

a: A wonderful stage and movie actor, Zero Mostel, taught me: “Paint two or three paintings at one time, then you don’t get burned out on one.” You go from one to the other, and finally anytime you feel a little wasted working on a painting, you go to another one, and it’s a lift. And then you get a little burnt out on that one, you return to the first one. And you go oh yeah! That one!

really had a passion. And now that I’m going on 85 this year, the passion is stronger than ever.

Q: how does that happen? how do you keep that fire burning?

a: It just happens. I can clearly tell you that I’ve never worked a day in my life, because I’m doing the two things I love. So it’s never like a pain in the neck to do it. When I wake up I’m either studying music or painting. And that’s it. With each stage of learning it’s like starting all over again.

Q: and you’re never too old to learn.

a: No. In fact, one of my favorite painters is Katsushika Hokusai, the Japanese painter, and it wasn’t until he was 102 that he said, “I’m only now just learning how to paint.” One hundred and two! You’re never too old to learn something new.

Q: When you start a watercolor, do you start with a sketch first? do

you have a clear vision in mind?

a: Rembrandt said, “The master is nature.” So the first thing I look at is nature. And it starts teaching you so much. There’s no teacher that is as great as nature. The more you look at nature, the more you realize how phenomenal life is. It teaches you to celebrate the rest of your life. Nature is unbelievable. It just goes on and on. I have an instinctive sense of composition that I get from nature.

You keep learning all the time. Whatever the next stage is. I know how to draw. Let’s say I have to study anatomy so I can see the body move-ments, so it’s not just a stick figure. I have to know what the body can do and what it can’t do. And you finally start studying as much as a doctor studies the inside of the body and realize where everything is at. Then

right: Homage to Hockneyabove: Central Park, New York


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42Q: are you painting for yourself, or are you painting for me? are

you thinking about the viewer when you paint?

a: That’s a tough question because I have to do it. It’s not that I want to do it; I have to do it. I see those flowers up there and say that would be a nice painting, and I go for it. I can’t seem to stop myself. So I guess I paint for myself first, but I also love it when people respond to my work. I’m always honored if I’m put in a magazine like yours, or when the Butler Institute recently called me one of America’s great artists. I couldn’t believe it.

Q: that’s a tremendous honor.

a: Oh, it’s wonderful. I also had three paintings in the Smithsonian.

Q: how important are the traditional techniques to you in the

creation of your art?

a: Essential! I asked the great entertainer Jimmy Durante fifty years ago—I met him at the Stage delicatessen eating chicken soup or something—and I said, “Jimmy, what do you think of rock ‘n’ roll?” He said, “They play three chords, and two of them are wrong.” So there’s your answer.

And that’s why I like the Academy in Florence. You see those students painting like the old school. And there’s no question if it’s put in a gallery on Madison Avenue in New York, someone’s going to buy it. It’s

above: Winter In Clio

right: Lovers In Monet's Gardensbelow: Sunday in Central Park

People are still surprised to find out that I paint,

even though I’ve been doing it all my life. That doesn’t

matter to me. I’m just doing it because I have to.


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43too good. They’ll make a great living. It won’t be the latest rage, you know, but it will be good art created from strong, proven principles.

Q: you like to be around other artists. is that for inspiration?

a: I live here in New York because the Art Students League is right up the street. It’s just a block and a half away. And the best teachers in the world are at the Art Students League. The students that go there have actually become many years later the teachers in the school, and they’re so good. When you go into those classes and have a solid four to five hours with a great teacher and with a class doing their work, you come out with a lot of knowledge and inspiration. I love being around artists because you learn from them. It’s a form of thievery.

Q: Who have you learned from? Who are your teachers and

inspiration?

a: I think Robert Wade from Melbourne, Australia, is the finest water-colorist in the world. And then I have two or three good teachers—Basil Baylin who is a very good portrait painter in New York, and Charles Reid, and Everett Raymond Kinstler. Those are my teachers. I live with them, I go see their work when I visit their homes in Connecticut. They paint so beautifully because they know the right values. The two paint-ers Kinstler has me study are Sorolla and Sargent.

I study these greats so that I don’t become tight with a painting. I don’t want to be tight. I want to just be there. If you look at a Charles Reid painting, they’re just an impression. He paints like a jazz artist, loose and improvised. But he has the chops, the training that allows him to do that.

Q: it’s interesting, when you’re being tony bennett, you’ve got the

band, the audience, the lights. When you’re anthony benedetto,

it’s a very singular thing—it’s you all by yourself.

a: But the rules are the same. When you’re on the stage, one of the things you learn is less is more. You have to know when to get off the stage and when to get on the stage. It takes about nine years of being in front of an audience to learn that. My audience is my teacher—they teach me what they like, what they don’t like. I base everything on really capturing the audience. And respecting them enough to let them show me what they want. Sometimes they want a certain amount of humor; sometimes they want some very dramatic thing, or something roman-tic. So you have to put all these very different colors together to create a show. It’s a very similar process to painting.

Leonardo da Vinci, on his deathbed, said, “Has anybody ever finished anything?” That’s what Leonardo said; there’s that much to learn. It never stops.

Mr. bennett will be playing at the tennessee Performing arts

Center in Jackson hall on March 30, 2011, at 8 p.m.

www.tonybennett.com

Our sincere thanks to Sylvia Weiner for her assistance with this interview.


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48We often don’t have elaborate sets

and lighting. It’s up to us to be creative

and inventive and to tell the story

through movement and dance. Christopher Mohnani, director


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49by Renee Armand | photography by Lawrence Boothby

Ballet, despite its origins as the dance of royalty and not of the masses,

is an art form that speaks to everyone. It is pure story-telling theatre but without words. Ballet is quite simply what feelings look like. It is the body’s need to express itself, to go beyond its physical limita-tions, perhaps even to fly.

The Dance Theatre of Tennessee, guided by the vision of its director Christopher Mohnani, has been telling its stories wherever it can find an audience, often in school gymnasiums to children who have never experienced the wonder and joy of ballet before.

“Bringing ballet to the people, that’s our goal, the driving force that we keep returning to. By taking our dance troupe to unconventional venues, we are impelled to be more creative. We often don’t have elaborate sets and lighting. It’s up to us to be creative and inventive and to tell the story through movement and dance. The classics have endured for a reason. Everything goes back to these movements, and our job is to make sure that the essence of the tradition is not going to be lost.”

Dance Theatreof TennesseeFrom the Ground Up


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54by Demetria Kalodimos

Think of his daybook as a dance card, an archive of encounters, both anticipated and accidental. A girl with a neon Afro, followed by the arts

patron who must be portrayed in a “manner befitting.” Juan Pont Lezica can switch gears like a sports car. And like the prizes pulled from a magi-cian’s hat, the photo might be a bouquet or a bunny. Artistically, it is always revelatory. Juan’s story is one hard to imagine in the United States. An only son, a gifted athlete well on his way to playing professional sports, given a box of paint and brushes instead, and a nudge toward art. Juan was that young soccer star in Buenos Aires. And thirty years later, it’s clear that his parents played the right hunch.

But oil paint takes too long to dry. Photographs, on the other hand, can be seen quickly, twice—the moment they’re taken, then later, even better, as they come to life on paper.

He has created high-impact fashion, art, editorial, and commercial photography on three continents for three decades. Yet he can quickly recall the first portrait he considered a keeper. “I took pictures of a girl in a bar in Germany, portraits, very classic with beautiful grain . . . they inspired me for a long time. And that’s the key. I want to reach a point where, decade after decade, the work still looks contemporary, current. The photos after years and years are still strong.” Pont Lezica has enjoyed a life as exotic as his name. At last count, he had seen 288 cities of the world. Fluent in five languages, he was hardly an ordinary tourist. Fueled with cash earned as a pioneering dance deejay, Juan left Argentina after the military coup of 1976 and caught an artis-tic spark in Europe. Formal study in lighting and technique came in Munich, Germany, where he began crafting a signature style. Work in a photo lab paid the bills, while creative currency came from his appren-ticeships to some of the top photographers in France and Germany, including Jean Paul Mann and Christopher Martin.

“(In the lab), we actually processed a lot of older material from Hollywood, transferring early format photo gels to film. I learned a lot of technical things, processing times, calibrating colors, and it’s funny, that’s not at all what I do in photography now. The technique I use now is much more simple. I’m not technical, yet I’m very detailed and demanding. If some-thing is not working, I don’t give up, I make it work. I am persistent. If I wanted to do it, I don’t see any reason why I can’t.” Lately, Juan is poring through books at the Brentwood Library, stacks of those heavy art anthologies, loaded with even heavier subject matter. Crucifixion scenes, baroque canvases bubbling with brocade and bare-ness, iconic sculpture like Rodin’s The Kiss. The idea is to resurrect these masterpieces through photography.

“I am thinking maybe on the sculpture I will paint the models white or grey and apply plaster to make it appear like real rock, where the figure emerges. I hope to have twenty to twenty-five pieces, even detailed triptychs. No Photoshop, no shortcuts. We will recreate the scene, in a real way.” He still won’t have to wait for the paint. Yet, in a way, the photographer is taking up the “brush” again, in an era where technology, he says, has impaired our collective eye. “People have changed their eye, their view. They don’t recognize film from digital. If I showed you a certain image today, you don’t see the subtlety. There is a new generation of young photographers who have never shot a picture on film! Digital has brought too much detail, too much perfection. Sure, there are images in high definition that are impactful, but when it comes to people, some-times you don’t want to see that much.” Or perhaps you wish to see, or be seen, in an entirely new way. That’s the uncanny, undeniable skill of Juan Pont Lezica.

www.cycstudio.com

Juan Pont Lezica

PHOTOGRAPHY

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62 by Lindsey Victoria Thompson

In a rare combination of collec-tions from across Tennessee and replicas from the International Museum Institute of New York, the world of ancient Egypt is brought into a new light at the Tennessee State Museum. The museum’s newest exhibition, Egyptian Relics, Replicas & Revivals, allows visitors a glimpse into the vast and myste-rious culture and history of the ancient Egyptians.

Detailed replicas from the International Museum Institute of New York as well as artifacts and items from The University of Memphis, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Vanderbilt University have come together to create this extensive exhibition, which features objects dating from ancient to modern times.

“This is the first time we have collaborated with another institution in order to bring a choice selection of over one hundred objects from our collection of over 1,500 Egyptian antiqui-ties—the largest collection in the mid-South—to a venue outside of Memphis,” said Dr. Lorelei H. Corcoran, director of the Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology at The University of Memphis. “This exhibition will

ARTIFACTS

allow us to showcase a wide range of pieces.”

The exhibition has three distinct sections, created to provide a thorough study of ancient Egyptian art, culture, and history while also featuring the contin-ued influence that ancient Egypt has specifically had on Tennessee. Artifacts from The University of Memphis make up most of the first section, which highlights the daily culture and funerary traditions of the ancient Egyptians by

featuring an ancient musical instrument, jewelry, furniture, and the devel-opment of the Egyptians’ written pictorial language, hieroglyphics. Notably, a small statue of a boat dates to over 3,600 years ago.

Perhaps the most widely known artifacts of ancient Egypt come from the tomb of Tutankhamun—commonly identified as “King Tut” or “the boy pharaoh”—which was unearthed as recently as 1922. Tutankhamun was,

historically, one of the lesser-known pharaohs until the discovery of his tomb.

Though he ruled for only ten years until he died at age 18, Tutankhamun’s magnifi-

cent burial has immortaized

Relics,Replicas & Revivals

Egyptian Treasures at the Tennessee State Museum


63

63him more than could have been predicted. It was a common practice of ancient Egyptians to entomb the deceased with lavish materials—from jewelry or games to pictorial wall narra-tives— to entertain the spirit for eternity.

The splendors of Tutankhamun’s tomb will, in part, be available in the second section at the Tennessee State Museum. One of the more striking works of the exhibition will look famil-iar to many. The death mask of Tutankhamun, made of gold and inlaid with semiprecious stones, represents the young ruler in a calm manner wearing his regal headdress and false beard. This portrait mask is most commonly viewed in textbooks, but an impressive replica produced by the International Museum Institute of New York will be on display for study.

“The staff of the Tennessee State Museum has worked closely with several other cultural and academic institutions to create this unique and fascinating look at ancient Egypt. This exhibit will give many visitors a glimpse of the stunning treasures resembling those found in the legend-ary tomb of the boy pharaoh, Tutankhamun,” said Museum Executive Director Lois Riggins-Ezzell. “This exhibition is particularly inspiring for young people who are learning about ancient civilizations and how they have helped shape our modern world.”

Finally, in the third section of this spectacular exhibit, the focus turns inward on the art and culture of Tennessee and how ancient Egypt has shaped this culture. Some focal points of this part of the exhibition will include

furnishings from Nashville’s Downtown Presbyterian Church, designed in the Egyptian revival style, (relatively) modern toys and collectibles, and modern artist and Tennessee native Red Grooms’ bright inter-pretation of Egyptian sarcophagi.

One artifact from the State Museum’s perma-nent collection has become an important part of this temporary exhibition. Estimated to be 3,300 years old, their ancient Egyptian mummy was donated to the Tennessee Historical Society in 1859. Especially inter-esting is that the mummy has an equally ancient partner, a mummified cat. Much as was the case with the tomb of Tutankhamun, this companion was meant to accompany and please the deceased into the afterlife. This particular piece allows for additional insight into the ancient mummification process and beliefs about the afterlife. For example, ancient Egyptians believed that every person possessed a ka that functioned almost as a duplicate copy of the original self. When a person died, it is said that the ka could live on in the body for eternity. However, the ka is truly safe only if the body remains whole and intact. This belief spurred the practice and complex art of mummification.

Egyptian Relics, Replicas & Revivals: Treasures

from Tutankhamun will remain at the tennessee

state Museum until september 4, 2011. admission

is, as always, free of charge. special events,

school tours, lectures, and films are also being

planned in combination with this exhibition. For

more information, visit www.tnmuseum.org.

This exhibition is particularly inspiring for

young people who are learning about ancient

civilizations and how they have helped shape our

modern world.

left: replica of lotus lamp found in the

burial chamber of tutankhamun.

center: replica of the bust of Nefertiti.

Courtesy international Museum institute

of New york.

bottom: replica of King tutankhamun’s

Golden Funerary Mask.

Courtesy international Museum institute

of New york.

opposite page : Model boat, possibly from

Meir, Middle Kingdom, about 1900 b.C.,

institute of egyptian art & archaeology,

the university of Memphis.


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66 The decades following World War ii were stimulating times for American art. Working in New York, California, the South and

abroad, abstract artists created compositions that addressed contempo-rary social concerns as well as personal history. By the late 1950s, the artists, art dealers, writers, and critics of that time were acknowledged as the forces that brought the United States to preeminence on the world’s art stage.

Modern Masters from the Smithsonian American Art Museum traces the epic story of American abstract art in the mid twentieth century through forty-three key paintings and sculptures. The exhibition is on tour from the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C., and comes to our own Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, offering Nashville residents the wonderful opportunity to view these artworks considered the best representations from this period.

Jochen Wierich, Curator of Art at Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, spoke with Nashville Arts Magazine about what Nashville audiences have to look forward to in viewing these exceptional works.

From the Smithsonian American Art Museum

left: ad

reinhardt,

Untitled

1940, Oil on

fiberboard

smithsonian

american art

Museum

Gift of Patricia

and Phillip

Frost

below: david

driskell,

Dancing

Angel

1974, Oil,

fabric and

collage on

canvas

smithsonian

american

art Museum

Gift of

Cynthia

shoats and

museum

purchase

bottom left:

larry rivers,

The Athlete’s

Dream

1956, Oil

smithsonian

american

art Museum

Gift of s.C.

Johnson &

son, inc.

exHIBITIONS


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67

“This exhibit tells the story of how abstract art became an American style and idiom. Abstract art in the early twentieth century had a hard time getting acceptance. It is just wonderful to see how this show puts all those early skeptics to rest and how it really documents how abstrac-tion flourished and found so many practitioners in the States.”

Wierich explains that Cheekwood shares many connections to these artists and this period of art. “Cheekwood has always collected twenti-eth-century art, and this exhibition ties in really beautifully with Cheekwood’s own collection. Larry Rivers, Robert Motherwell, and Helen Frankenthaler are some of the artists represented. Recently Cheekwood exhibited the current generation of abstraction from Tennessee. With the Smithsonian exhibition, Nashville audiences are going to see some of the masters that paved their way.

“What I love about this exhibit is that these twentieth-century artists were escaping totalitarian regimes in Europe, so there is this wonderful moment of experiencing a degree of freedom they had not experienced before, and abstraction was a kind of natural style, a conducive style to express those feelings.”

One question remains: Can we know which art is good art? Wierich offers us some helpful advice.

“Something that I’ve learned about our nation in this period of history: A good exhibition always gives you that experience, that extra some-thing that allows you to dig a little deeper in the history of a culture in a period. I think this show really opens up so many ways of learning about our past. And they’re just fabulous works, each and every one of them.”

Modern Masters from the Smithsonian American Art Museum runs March 19 through June 19, 2011, at Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art. On March 24 at 6 p.m., Virginia Mecklenburg, senior curator at the Smithsonian, speaks here in Nashville at the Massey Auditorium on the rise of abstract art and will share many of the personal stories of these artists, many of whom she has known or met.

Cheekwood is located at 1200 Forrest Park drive in Nashville, eight miles

southwest of downtown Nashville. Open tuesday, Wednesday, and saturday

9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., thursday and Friday 9:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. through

labor day and 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. in september and October, and sunday

11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Call (615) 356-8000 or visit www.cheekwood.org.

top right: Nathan

Oliveira,

Nineteen Twenty-

Nine

1961, Oil

smithsonian

american art

Museum

Gift of s. C.

Johnson & son,

inc.

below: robert

Motherwell,

Wall Painting III

1952, Oil on

fiberboard

smithsonian

american art

Museum

Gift of the

dedalus

Foundation

and museum

purchase made

possible by the

american art

Forum

left: Michael

Goldberg,

The Creeks

1959, Oil

smithsonian

american

art Museum

Gift of Mr.

and Mrs.

david K.

anderson,

Martha

Jackson

Memorial

Collectionfar right:

Grace

hartigan,

Modern Cycle,

1967, Oil

smithsonian

american art

Museum

Gift of Mr. and

Mrs. david

K. anderson,

Martha Jackson

Memorial

Collection


73

73The Lady ThingI’ve always had a lot of conflict around the Southern lady thing. Whenever I see restroom signs that say LADIES and MEN, I become offended. LADIES and GENTLEMEN doesn’t bother me. At least the play-ing field is level. Also, LADIES and GENTLEMEN has an elegant, show-biz tone I find somewhat appealing. (Ladies and Gentlemen! Lend me your ear!) As for restroom signs, the egali-tarian WOMEN and MEN is my preference. LADIES and MEN drives me to distraction . . . and, in some instances, to deface property.

One time I was at this really nice function, and, after I’d been there a while, I realized I needed to go to the bathroom. So off I went in search of the restrooms. Once there, I noticed the door to the women’s room facing the door to the men’s in a little recessed area just off the hallway. I also noticed that the sign on the women’s door said LADIES, whereas the one on the men’s said MEN. And it was in that moment that some-thing inside of me sort of snapped, and before anyone could stop me, I whipped out my black Sharpie and scrawled an international forbidden sign over LADIES. Then underneath that I wrote,

“WOMEN IS WHAT WE ARE!LADIES IS AN ASSUMPTION!!”

Thank goodness no one saw me do this, other than my good friend Kimbo Harrelson who, over the years, has grown accustomed to my occasional outbursts and often finds them amusing, which only serves to egg me on.

Gender disparity in restroom signs never bothered me growing up. It wasn’t until I was in my fifties that I began to even notice such things. Maybe because I started writing my first book right about then, I became more sensitive to words and their power. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words never fail to drive me to distraction and, in some cases, to deface property.

Believe it or not, I was raised to be a proper Southern lady in Spartanburg, South Carolina. So I grew up hearing all the things proper young ladies-to-be hear, like, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything,” “Cross your legs at the ankles when sitting, and keep your knees together!” “Never wear white after Labor Day,” “Ladies don’t sweat; they glow,” “Never chew gum in public,” and “Don’t point!” There’s plenty more where those came from, and the truth is I tried. I really did. But it just wasn’t in the cards for me to be a lady.

So the next time you see LADIES and MEN restroom signs, just remem-ber: “WOMEN is what we are; LADIES is an assumption.” Peace and love.www.tallgirl.com

BeYOND WORDS BY MARSHALL CHAPMAN

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[email protected] • www.bgajam.com • 615.435.3503held in Franklin, TN at the Battle Ground Academy Campus


79

79Greatest regret?No regrets. But I linger in the question.

Money, love, or talent. Pick one.

Love, defiantly love.

are you happy with where you’re heading?

There are things I’d like to have . . . but yes.

What is it like being you these days?

It’s definitely confusing in my tornado brain. I feel like I sweat it out a lot. Even when I’m serving, it’s a challenge for me. I enjoy the people, but the multitasking kicks my butt.

What subject matters do you like to paint?

Emotions. I like to play with metaphors, and I like to play with symbolism.

What do you like least about living in Nashville?

Sometimes I really hate the music business. As much as it is creative it can also be disheartening. Commerce and Art—it’s hard.

if you could live anywhere else, where would you live?

I was seriously thinking about London. But then I wouldn’t mind living in a hut in the South Pacific.

heidi schwartz is a painter, songwriter, singer, and touring musician. Most recently she has been focused on interpretive event painting, works focused on capturing the essence and atmosphere of special occasions. heidi schwartz can be reached at www.paintyourevent.com.

Heidi Schwartzartist

When and where are you happiest?Probably when I’m lost in a moment, fully engaged. Or somewhere on the beach.

What characteristic do you most like about yourself?I like that I’m unafraid to talk to people.

least?I really have a hard time getting organized. A really hard time!

tell me the last great book you read?A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers.

Who has inspired you along the way in your life?I’m not very sophisticated with a vast knowledge of artists, but the people who have been an inspiration to me are my friends and artists I know personally.

Who is your favorite musical artist right now?As Tall As Lions—an indie band I was listening to recently.

What is your most treasured possession?A couple of my own paintings, my 1978 Guild guitar, and my Mac—one won’t cut it.

What talent would you like to have that you don’t have?I would like to be able to get my stuff together. Organizing and being able to function in daily life—that’s a talent to me. I struggle with the little things.

What are you proud of now?I made a record, and every song had a painting to go with it. That was a big undertaking, and I was really, really proud of that.

Why Nashville?I initially moved here to go to Belmont and do music.

What is your greatest extravagance?I love to travel. India would be nice.

What would surprise me to know about you?I’m EXTREMELY sensitive. I can get my feelings hurt very easily—but I hide it.

What do you love about living in Nashville?That it’s a creative pocket.

What is the quality you most like in a man?Character, Strength, and Wit—that’s a three-in-one answer.

What do you like and dislike most about your appearance?My left eye. My right eye.

What is your mantra in life?I aim for balance.

is there a word or phrase that you overuse?“I don’t know.” I say that a lot.

What is a characteristic you despise in others?I hate lying.

Favorite characters in history you identify with?I really admire people who are not scared of stepping out. Martin Luther King comes to mind.

ANYTHING GOeS

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82

82abOut the artist

Gustave Cimiotti was an american painter who

was born, lived, and worked in New york City. a

fervent student of both art and music, Cimiotti

studied at the art students league and the

académie Julian in Paris. in 1913, the international

art scene descended upon New york with the

armory show that became the watershed event

for Modern art in america. Cimiotti was among the

approximately three hundred artists who exhibited

the newest, most innovative artwork the world had

ever seen. Cimiotti himself, though, was not yet

very well known at that time.

Often referred to as “the Grand Old Man of

romanticism” by his close friends Winslow homer

and John la Farge, Cimiotti was famous for his

charismatic love stories verbally told to anyone

who would listen. the artist’s passion for plein-air

painting took him to exotic places such as bermuda

and Monhegan, Maine.

While the impressionist movement was a great

influence on him and his work, Cimiotti continued

to develop his personal style and technique most

noted in his pastoral landscapes and vibrant use of

color. Cimiotti’s legacy remains largely a well-kept

secret. While he was a prolific and well-respected

painter of his day, his work and name have been

all but forgotten over time. thanks to paintings in

private collections such as this one that are well

kept, audiences can recall Gustave Cimiotti as

one of the many important artists responsible for

bringing impressionism to america.

Evelyn Reading a Book, by Gustave Cimiotti (1875–1969)

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MY FAVORITe PAINTING

Deby PittsDomestic Diva & Muse

We have collected the work of Gustave Cimiotti for many years and have

several of his landscapes and seascapes, for which he is most well known. This portrait, however, is my favorite. It is a wonderful love story in color. The model in the painting is Evelyn. Legend has it that Cimiotti fell in love with her while she posed for him. Eventually they married, and Evelyn would appear in many of his canvases. You can almost feel his love for her in the bright vibrant colors. The paint-ing pays homage to Whistler’s Mother and uses many of the techniques made popular by the Impressionists.

2011 march nashville arts magazine

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