Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Fine Arts - Trip to Getty Villa

Minche Myers at Getty Villa

Paul Myers at Garden of Getty Villa


On Wednesday April 20, Minche and I went with the Rembrandt Club of Pomona College on their bus trip to Getty Villa at Malibu. We saw the exhibition of "In Search of Biblical Lands" featuring 19th century photographs of the Holy Land, particularly Jerusalem, curated by Kathleen Stewart Howe of Pomona College. The Holy Land became the first big international tourist destination in the 19th century, partially as a result of extensive photography of the region. The British in particular explored and mapped the region prior to World War I, and this work served as a basis for drawing borders up after the war and laid the basis for the way the Middle East is today. The museum itself is always a treat. Minche and I spent several hours exploring the exhibitions of Greek and Roman art. Then we had a delightful lunch on the upstairs veranda overlooking the museum and the valley it is nestled in with its vistas of the Pacific ocean in the distance. The bus ride back through rush-hour Los Angeles to Claremont was made pleasurable by the Rembrandt ladies pouring generous libations of red or white wine and passing out snacks. Nice museum trip.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Fine Arts - Ceramics Center at Scripps College



It was my pleasure to attend a beautiful luncheon on Tuesday April 12 held on the patio of the Scripps Art Department as part of the dedication of the new Joan and David Lincoln Ceramics Center facing the Art Department quadrangle. I and several board members of the Fine Arts Foundation ate lunch with several of the art faculty. After the dedication speeches--Joan Lincoln's was especially charming--we all took a tour of the new ceramics facility. I was fascinated by the kilns because they are very serious looking industrial-strength machines. Inside, there is an extensive work area featuring potters wheels for shaping the "mud" and other work areas for finishing and sculpting the pieces. The facility will be used by both Scripps and Claremont Graduate University, which are two of the leading academic ceramics programs in the nation.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Fine Arts - Scripps Dance Concert 2

Minche Myers at Garrison Theater
Reception at Garrison Theater


 My wife Minche standing in front of one of the beautiful tapestries in the lobby of Garrison Theater at Scripps College after she had completing some of her work on the refreshments for the Wednesday April 13 Preview Performance by Scripps Dance of its Spring 2011 Dance Concert. Connie Layne and Corinne Gallman had earlier assisted. The second picture is after the Preview when Fine Arts Foundation members, several of the dance students, and others gathered for refreshments and talk. A very fine afternoon.

Paris 1935: Destiny's Crossroads

My interview at Kindle Book Authors on historical novel "Paris 1935: Destiny's Crossroads." Kindle Author Interview

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Fine Arts - Scripps Dance Concert


Wednesday April 13. Scripps College Fine Arts Foundation sponsored a one-hour preview of the Scripps Spring Dance Concert at Garrison Theater Wednesday afternoon. Dance Professor Ronnie Brosterman introduced each student dance piece starting off with several solos and then moving on to group ensembles. After the last dance, the students sat on the stage and took questions from the audience on dance, life at Scripps, and their future plans. Professor Brosterman explained that dance was the use of the body moving through space to give expression to emotions and feelings. Costume and lighting often significantly enhance the visuals. She also explained that it is a physically demanding art form. Another key point she made was that in a professional dance troupe your body belongs to someone else while at Scripps Dance your body belongs to you--a very nice distinction.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Fine Arts - Pacific Standard Time cocktail party in Claremont - Fun!

Peggy Carlson Vice President of Rembrandt Club

Ellen Litney President of Rembrandt Club
The Rembrandt Club of Pomona College hosted a cocktail reception at a beautiful home in north Claremont last Saturday afternoon where over two hundred art supporters gathered. The subject was the Getty Foundation's project "Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980." Getty is supporting over 60 cultural institutions across Southern California with $10 million in grants to put on exhibitions starting next September and running through mid-2012. Joan Weinstein, the Getty director, provided an overview while Kathleen Stewrt Howe of Pomona College Museum of Art, Mary MacNaughton of Scripps College Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, and Rebecca McGrew, Pomona Museum curator spoke on exhibitions being hosted by the local college museums.

Our own Scripps College Fine Arts Foundation (where I am co-president) is hosting a luncheon May 11 where representatives of the Huntington Library will discuss their PST exhibition opening in September entitled "Sam Maloof and Art in the Pomona Valley." Scripps College was of course right in the thick of things in that Golden Age.

The overall goal of the Pacific Standard Time initiative is the truly laudable one that shows that Los Angeles and not New York was really the Big Fish in art after the Second World War. New York was, sniff, sniff, somewhat derivative of Picasso and Matisse and the Paris School while Los Angeles was more vibrant, truly original, and much more diverse. Hear, Hear!