"Landmarks of Syracuse" by David "RC" Oster

This best seller is available in our gallery or buy it on-line through our web store. The hand signed print measures 18" X 22". $25.00

"Orbit of Love, Chapter II"

I am in the process of reworking this blog and am going to go through and "retire" or "archive some of the images that I previously had in the side bar. This painting is a mixed media on canvas ( encaustic and oil). The canvas measures 24" X 24" and sold for $1,800.00. This piece garnered several awards at some prestigious regional shows including two Best of Show awards and one First Place in Mixed Media. I am happy to say this painting is part of a wonderful collection in the Syracuse area.

MODIGLIANI - The Movie

No I'm not a film critic and won't try to become one here, but I am going to suggest this film for artists, art historians and anyone who just enjoys a good movie set in post WWI Paris. Andy Garcia is fabulous as always in his portrayal of this hugely talented but tormented artist. A great look at the Paris of Hemingway,Fitzgerald, Picasso and Gertrude Stein. I think most will enjoy this sad but skillful narrative.

Set in Paris in 1919, biopic centers on the life of late Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, focusing on his last days as well as his rivalry with Pablo Picasso. Modigliani, a Jew, has fallen in love with Jeanne, a young and beautiful Catholic girl. The couple has an illegitimate child, and Jeanne's bigoted parents send the baby to a faraway convent to be raised by nuns. Modigliani is distraught and needs money to rescue and raise his child. The answer arrives in the shape of Paris' annual art competition. Prize money and a guaranteed career await the winner. Neither Modigliani, nor his dearest friend and rival Picasso have ever entered the competition, believing that it is beneath true artists like themselves. But push comes to shove with the welfare of his child on the line, and Modigliani signs up for the competition in a drunken and drug-induced tirade. Picasso follows suit and all of Paris is aflutter with excitement at who will win. With the balance of his relationship with Jeanne on the line, Modigliani tackles this work with the hopes of creating a masterpiece, and knows that all the artists of Paris are doing the same. Written by Sujit R. Varma

http://www.expo-modigliani.net/

Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center

The Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center is an exhibition space and resource center dedicated to exploring the history and legacy of the world's most acclaimed experimental educational community. We offer changing exhibitions, a video archive, research materials, and a selection of books and other materials for sale.

Location
56 Broadway
Asheville, NC
28801
828-350-8484

http://blackmountaincollege.org/content/view/13/43/

Back to Black Mountain

Asheville, North Carolina is a favorite destination for me. Nestled in the mountains of western North Carolina this small city is not only beautiful for the mountain atmosphere but also a cultural gem in the region. There are more art galleries per capita than any other city on the east coast. Asheville is likened to Taos and Santa Fe. The now famous River Arts District's "Studio Stroll" draws art lovers from New York, Ann Arbor and as far away as California. The restaurants, hippies and street entertainers make Asheville a fun place to visit.

In 2006 I was visiting the Asheville area when by chance I discovered Black Mountain, NC. Black Mountain is a small town just east of Asheville and was home to one of this country's most avant garde colleges, Black Mountain College. I say was, as the school has been gone for over 50 years, but during it's twenty plus years it attracted some of the most forward thinkers and artists of the mid 20th century. The faculty and students were a veritable Who's Who of modernists and post modernists.

It was at Black Mountain College that Buckminster Fuller developed the geodesic dome. The first "happening" took place. Joseph Albers, Willem DeKooning and Robert Rauschenberg are just a few of the names associated with BMC.

I visited the former campus where little remains of the once controversial school. The bauhaus style, student built studies building remains as a testament to the radical vision that was Black Mountain College.

I highly recommend the following book.


The Arts at Black Mountain College
Mary Emma Harris

It was at Black Mountain College that Merce Cunningham formed his dance company, John Cage staged his first "happening," and Buckminster Fuller built his first dome. Although it lasted only twenty-four years (1933-1957) and enrolled fewer than 1,200 students, Black Mountain College launched a remarkable number of the artists who spearheaded the avant-garde in America of the 1960s. The faculty included such diverse talents as Anni and Josef Albers, Eric Bentley, Ilya Bolotowsky, Robert Creeley, Willem de Kooning, Robert Duncan, Lyonel Feininger, Paul Goodman, Walter Gropius, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, and Charles Olson. Among the students were Ruth Asawa, John Chamberlain, Francine du Plessix Gray, Kenneth Noland, Arthur Penn, Robert Rauschenberg, Kenneth Snelson, Cy Twombly, Stan Vanderbeek, and Jose Yglesias.

In this definitive account of the arts at Black Mountain College, back in print after many years, Mary Emma Harris describes a unique educational experiment and the artists and writers who conducted it. She replaces the myth of the college as a haphazardly conceived venture with a portrait of a consciously directed liberal arts school that grew out of the progressive education movement. Proceeding chronologically through the four major periods of the college's history, Harris covers every aspect of its extraordinary curriculum in the visual, literary, and performing arts.

About the Author

Independent scholar Mary Emma Harris is Chair and Director of the Black Mountain College Project.

"Boys With Sticks"

"Boys With Sticks", 1992, mixed media collage. A good example of the work that I was doing in the mid 1980's through the mid 1990's. This piece sold at the Pyramid Art Center in Rochester, NY in 1994.

I have always liked this collage. So much so that I am going to revisit it by enlarging this image and printing it to be part of a new bigger resin or beeswax piece.

The original measured only approx. 11" X 14" and was primarily blues and grays. I now am going to go for a more earthy look by printing it in sepia tone and work off those colors.

"Where We Go"

This digitally manipulated photograph speaks of lonely, cold, dark January nights in the rural north country.

Matted signed prints available $50. Additional sizes and framing available. contact abbottsstudio.com.