Monday, March 15, 2010

Naked in the City, Hadrian's Wall, Op-Art & George Ohr


IN THE NEWS:

"It really is the naked city -- at MoMA, anyway. For the next few months, daring patrons will squeeze through two live nude "performers" -- alternating couples, opposite and same sex -- who stand in a narrow doorway of the new exhibit, "Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present," opening today." The New York Post Story

Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present


"Legions of sightseers attend Hadrian's Wall illumination- "They came, they saw and they clambered on the ramparts – in numbers not seen on Hadrian's Wall since the Romans called it a day and pulled out their legions 1,600 years ago. Drawn by the first-ever lighting of the 70-mile monument from end to end, thousands of visitors filled every local car park, lay-by and footpath, while helicopters and a Nasa satellite recorded the necklace of beacons from above."


ARTS ALMANAC:

March 15, 1673: Salvator Rosa, Italian Baroque-period painter, printmaker & poet who worked in Naples, Rome and Florence, died.

March 15, 1956: Lerner and Loewe's musical "My Fair Lady" opened on Broadway.

March 15, 1997: Victor Vasarely , the Hungarian-French Op-art pioneer, died in Paris.


IN OUR STORE:

"George Ohr, Art Potter. The Apostle of Individuality"
By Robert A. Ellison, Jr.

“George Ohr (1857-1918) was the most revolutionary art potter of his time. Working in the relative isolation of Biloxi, Mississippi, around the turn of the century, he transformed symmetrical wheel-thrown pots into unprecedented abstract configurations, nearly half a century before the nonrepresentational ideas of the Abstract Expressionists took hold. As an artist, Ohr's goal was to make no two pieces alike. Furthermore, he fulfilled the ideal of the Arts & Crafts movement by doing all of his own work - from digging the clay to firing the kiln. Ohr's eccentric forms and flamboyant personality led to his being dubbed The Mad Potter of Biloxi, but in fact he was an American icon of creativity. Today, his unique works are highly regarded and sought out by collectors and museums all over the country. This exquisitely designed volume contains over 300 unpublished works by Ohr, and features all new photography accompanied by an accessible text. The clarity and number of illustrations will make this book the new essential reference on this extraordinary artist.” $65~


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