Francine Funke, An American National Treasure

by Carolee Ross
This feature article is copyrighted and may not be used without express permission of the author.

Francine Funke in her former Stamford Studio
photo by Carolee Ross

In reviewing the work of artist Francine Funke, I am reminded of the words of Dr. Meyer Shapiro at Columbia University, my art history mentor, who explained the difference between a competent technical artist and an artist who is a gifted genius.

He said, "In addition to the artistic skills and creative imagination that are the foundation of the work of art, the superbly gifted artist possesses an innate intelligence combined with an endless curiosity to try to make sense of the world he or she inhabits."

Throughout the more than twenty years we’ve known one another --Francine Funke's work has never disappointed me or fallen short of that definition. Hopefully, one day soon I’ll be writing about her retrospective exhibition and inclusion in the permanent collections at NYC’s Three Greats, The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art and the Guggenheim.

For Francine Funke has a multitude of skills, whether it be the creation of fine art, her expressive writing (Her book, “ON FIRE, poem and paintings”, is in the library collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the National Museum of Women in the Arts Library, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas, and the Cleveland Museum of Art). Add to that her innate problem-solving skills and ever-present curiosity and you’ve got an artist who will be celebrated in the annals of art history.

The Beginnings

            I first met Francine Funke at a Loft Artists party in downtown Stamford, Connecticut. Petite in stature, she was dressed as a ninja, ready for battle against any nemesis. She invited me to her studio to see her newest works and because I was always on the lookout for new artists to profile, I accepted. There, large sculptural wall pieces, sketches, appointment books and plans for new work filled almost every room, including an attic workshop/studio.

            Then, I was also told an intriguing secret. Rock music was playing everywhere and the petite artist started to dance. She looked at my expression of surprise and told me, “The connection between my art and dancing is simple. When I work, I play music, usually high energy rock. When I hear rock music, I must dance to it. So, I dance while I am working. Hopefully, the energy is transferred to the canvas or whatever else I am working on. I like to do art because I like to dance.”

            As we explored her wide range of work, she recalled a childhood filled with paints and pencils, and knew instinctively that she was an artist. Her work developed in a step-by-step evolution that began with her studies at Cornell University, where she studied with famed painters, Jim Dine and Robert Rauschenberg, received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts. She later completed her M.F.A. at Hunter College, working under the auspices of another group of New York greats – Tony Smith, Ray Parker and Robert Morris.

     

Lockwood Mansion
by Francine Funke

On view were her former series of chair paintings in all sizes, shapes and varieties, a theme she had explored for ten years. When she looked at a chair, she realized it was perfect because of her predilection for folding or “pop-up” pieces. “The distance between the fold, the length of the legs and the geometric planes lent themselves to the pop-up format,” she explained.

 Eventually the chairs metamorphosed into an entry piece for Rutgers National Sculpture Competition, a Christmas exhibit at the Vanderwoude Tananbaum Gallery in New York and group exhibitions including the Aldrich Museum in Ridgefield and the Bruce Museum in Greenwich. There was also the excitement of having her work displayed in Tiffany’s window, although Ms. Funke insists that doing the work is always more of a thrill than showing it. Awards were plentiful for the artist and her cacophony of chairs, including the award for sculpture at the Hudson River Museum’s 68^th Annual Competition and inclusion in the Connecticut Commission on the Arts “Artists’ Showcase,” by Alan Chastick, then director of the Yale University Art Gallery.

Fireworks Explode

The Kuwaiti "Plume" Series
Part of the Fireworks Series
by Francine Funke
Photo by Carolee Ross

            With all this success, why did Francine Funke start creating fireworks?  The space at the Barbara Braathen Gallery where she was having a show was “humongous, making everything look tiny,” said Funke. “Most of the pieces were in black and white. They needed some color.” So, striations of red and orange were added in a spontaneous gesture. Combining with the vortex created by the swirling moment of the special Oriental paper she used, the color had an incendiary effect and fire was born.

            “At the same time I started to add flames to my work, things started happening,” Funke added. “The war in Kuwait, the explosions, the fun fire, inspired me to do the “Plume” series, a reaction to Hussein’s destruction of the Kuwaiti oil fields.” In the Plume works, the backgrounds became ominous, dark maroon-red as fire mushrooms against the sky. “I learned about the fingers of fire, explosions and the renewal that fire gives, the purging which creates new life and new growth,” explained Funke.

            In creating the sculptured paintings from strips of Oriental rice paper, the artist fractures and reshapes the forms into richly textured planes that overlap and intertwine against a background of velvety blacks and grays. Treating the works as abstract explorations, they become the quintessence of fire.

            Her installation, “Plumes,” traveled to the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the Scottsdale Center for the Arts in Scottsdale, Arizona, the Discovery Museum in Bridgeport and the Russell Senate Rotunda on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, where her exhibition was sponsored by Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut. “The colors in these works jump off the canvas,” said the Senator. “I feel as though I am there, in the midst of destruction.”

The Lost and Found Series - Acrylic and Analine Dye on Canvas

Midnight Bouquet #2
by Francine Funke

Francine Funke writes:

“These works deal with the emptiness left by fire and destruction

and the process of rebirth that inevitably follows.

Emerging from the ashes, the loss, and the despair,

the human spirit must find nature and beauty in order to survive

In the Lost and Found Series, as in nature,

botanical forms are the first to emerge from obscurity.

These paintings are symbols of the persistence of life in its most elemental form

in a world sometimes filled with tragedy and darkness.”

       The name Lost and Found came from the process involved in the creation of the artwork.

       Writes Funke in her Lost and Found artist’s statement: “I laid down many colors on the canvas, and then covered the entire canvas with an overlay of deep sepia color. Then I used a solvent to remove that wash and reveal the color underneath. I removed the color, thinking of a botanical motif. It was a rather child-like process, as, when we were kids, we put down scribbles of colored crayons, then covered the whole thing with black crayon--and then used a pencil to draw. The multi-colored lines underneath were always a surprise. I wanted a very old world deep feeling--like a Rembrandt painting.

Solar Bouquet
by Francine Funke

The Mechanical Botanical Series

Fran says, “After the Epiphany--the flood gates opened wide! I started taking photographs and scans of every flower, weed, branch, leaf that I could find. These botanical ingredients were the "raw materials" for composing my mutated bouquets. Because I was manipulating everything on the computer (flipping, turning elongating, duplicating) -- whatever I envisioned in my mind, I could create immediately on the computer screen, at record speed. It was instant gratification!

         Sometimes, I did not even know the exact progression of the work, or remember what I actually did-- because it was going so fast.

         And, with every click of my mouse, I was amazed at the intricacies and other worldliness of the fruits of my labor.

        I was on a wild visual, kaleidoscopic ride in which the combinations and manipulations

of my new creations were limited only by the limits of my imagination

Artist’s Statement about the Mechanical Botanical Series

By Francine Funke

The Flower of Notre Dame
by Francine Funke

        The “Mechanical Botanical” Series, deals with the effects of Technology on Nature. This new work combines photography, traditional subject matter, digital technology, and my personal artistic vision.

        The Mechanical Botanical Series builds upon my recent interest in the persistence and rejuvenation of plant life. All aspects of existence on earth are inter-dependent, and continually developing, changing, and mutating. Based on that premise, how will advances in modern science alter organic forms? And how will that phenomenon ultimately be manifested?

        As an artist, all my skills and experiences ultimately influence my artwork—and in this case, it was my knowledge of photography and the computer that led me on an exciting journey of transforming beautiful botanical forms into a “weird science” composed of strangely exquisite “techno-mutations”.

        The discovery of the “Mechanical Botanical” Series was an epiphany, and the process of creating this work is intensely cerebral. In my mind, I can manipulate and alter form and shape—and the computer will magically render it visually. My collaboration with the camera and the computer never fails to surprise and amaze me in some way—and I am perpetually learning from the results of our efforts.

        In the end, the “Mechanical Botanical” Series hopefully provides the viewer with a new and startling way of looking at the world we now inhabit—and perhaps even a glimpse into the hybrid universe of tomorrow.

Francine Funke's Mechanical Botanical #3 will appear at The Creative Arts Workshop, 80 Audubon Street, New Haven, CT 06510,  (203) 562-4927 creativeartsworkshop.org  - opening tonight, May 18, 2012 and runs through June 22:  Boundless: New Works in Contemporary Printmaking,  A National Exhibition with Juror Anne Coffin  ,
Opening Reception: Friday, May 18, 5:30 - 7:30 pm
Free and open to the public

           

EarthWorks, An Exhibition at the Darien Nature Center

Featuring Artists Heidi Lewis Coleman, Lucy Krupenye and Nancy Woodward

By Carolee Ross

“EarthWorks” Opens on Sunday, April 22 at the Darien Nature Center

The opening reception will be held on Earth Day, Sunday, April 22 from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. in the Nature Center’s  Wetherstone Gallery at 120 Brookside Road, Darien, Connecticut.

              The Darien Nature Center, a small, Fairfield County oasis that houses live animals including rabbits, turtles, screech owls, reptiles and prairie dogs also features the work of select area artists. For Earth Day, Curator Ann Hart of Stamford-based “annart” has partnered with three local artists to present “EarthWorks,” a serene exhibit that borders on visual poetry in an era when society needs the calm and contemplative peacefulness of artworks that are meditative in nature.

            Hart explains in her curatorial statement, “EarthWorks is a celebration of nature’s simplicities and complexities through the eyes of three remarkably insightful artists; Heidi Lewis Coleman, Lucy Krupenye and Nancy Woodward. Each pays homage to the beauty of the current, the remnants of the past and the wonder of the unknown future.”

Heidi Lewis Coleman Explores Language in Art

"DOGWOOD"

2011

Cut Stainless Steel

 

In her artist’s statement Coleman writes, “My work reflects an ongoing exploration into the aesthetics of using language in art. While most conceptual artists incorporate text into their work as a means of analyzing popular culture or for making political and social commentary, I am more intrigued with developing text as a visual design element. I am particularly inspired by Asian art and have studied the intricate calligraphy used to decorate ancient scrolls and screens. The columns of simple, yet elegant characters may express specific meanings, but a viewer is not required to understand that meaning in order to appreciate the grace and integrity of the artwork.”

Coleman’s work focuses on developing text as a visual design element. Her mixed media assemblage pieces and steel sculptures incorporate her own abstract writing which is an invented, rhythmic language that she develops intuitively. Most of the artist’s assemblages are created using Thai papers which incorporate embedded bits of wood, leaves, petals and stems.

“For me, the languages have an ancient, almost mystical quality. I believe that because my artwork communicates in the abstract, individual viewers are not forced to translate it specifically, allowing them to “feel” the energy of each piece and to take away their own unique messages on a subconscious level, Coleman explains.

            Heidi Lewis Coleman studied at Parsons and the New York School of Design in New York City. She is a juried member of the National Association of Women Artists and the Silvermine Guild of Artists and is represented by Reynolds Fine Art in New Haven, Connecticut.

Lucy Krupenye Creates Wall Hanging Assemblages of Found Objects

Lucy at a former show at The Carriage Barn Arts Center with (from left)
"Ceremonial Totem", "Sea Creature", "Balance" and "Zen Shelter"

Krupenye believes that her sculptures are a reflection of her soul and she strives to create works of beauty, peace and tranquility in a world that is often surrounded by violence and hatred. Her work can be described as organic and Zen in feeling and are inspired by nature, music and the bits and pieces of the world around her, including stone, wood, metal and bone. She looks for treasures in the discarded pieces she finds in her Connecticut environment and searches for harmony in their creation.

Lucy Krupenye, who has her studio in Wilton, Connecticut, has been the featured artist in many magazines and newspapers, on the cable television program, Miggs B and her work was included in the book “The Art of the Birdhouse: Portraits of Artists and Their Creations. She has exhibited in galleries and museums in the Northeast including The Hammond Museum, The Stamford Museum, and The Silvermine Guild Arts Center and has won awards for her sculptures in juried exhibitions.

Nancy Woodward, A Photographic Artist Who Transforms Views of the Natural World

            Woodward's images result from her “hearing the calling to go further into the woods, to patiently wait for the sun and the clouds to illuminate the trees,” that she photographs, and then transforms into what she calls a “spiritual thank you.”

              She is a Norwalk native who works out of her Silvermine, New Canaan studio, where the digital darkroom, she says, "affords me the resources to coax out even the faintest of shadows and ethereal landscapes". Woodward is a regular exhibitor at Southport's "Rooms with a View." For the last six years, she has been an Artist in Residence at Silver Lake Conference Center in Sharon, Connecticut and is a member of the Ridgefield Guild of Artists.

EarthWorks, featuring artists Heidi Lewis Coleman, Lucy Krupenye and Nancy Woodward continues through June 8th.

Nature Center Hours:

Weekdays 9-4

Saturday 9-12

120 Brookside Road, Darien Ct 06820

203-655-7459

www.dariennaturecenter.org

           

Tito Puente, El Rey del Mambo by Carolee Ross

Recently I received a pleasant surprise. I saw that the United States Post Office had issued a commemorative set of stamps titled "Latin Music Legends," honoring Tito Puente, Carmen Miranda, Selena, Carlos Gardel and Celia Cruz. I went home and searched for the memorial I had written about my friend, Tito Puente, the year that he passed, June of 2000. This is from the archives of The Advocate/Greenwich Time, of the Times-Mirror newspapers and was originally printed on June 11, 2000. Following is the original article:

Tito Puente playing his beloved timbales

Tito Puente, el Rey del Mambo, The King of Latin Music, the consummate showman, the man who never forgot his Spanish Harlem beginnings is gone.

He was The Man, way before Carlos Santana, Ricky Martin and Marc Anthony appeared on the music scene. He played for presidents and with jazz greats such as Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, George Shearing, Cubana songstress Celia Cruz and pop singers such as Tony Bennett.

Tito Puente, playing at the Palladium Ballroom in the 1950's

It's hard to believe that it is 40 years since I first saw him play at the Palladium Ballroom in New York City. Mambo was the rage of the time, with crowds flocking from everywhere to hear the music and see dance master "Killer Joe" Piro teach the latest steps. Jazz stars from Birdland, the club just down the street from the Palladium, came by to groove and dance. Greats such as Charlie Parker, Max Roach and Gillespie stayed to watch Tito incorporate jazz harmonics into his music, producing the Latin jazz or "salsa" for which he was famed. The 1992 movie, "The Mambo Kings, paid tribute to the era, when people danced through the night as Puente clowned and beat his timbales.

For anyone who ever saw Puente perform, it seems inconceivable that this vibrant whirlwind of a man with the dazzling smile, the wild sock of curly white hair, the magic, rapidly flying hands and the impish grin could be gone. It is quite an achievement in an age of rapidly changing musical trends that his genius has endured for more than six decades. For those who mourn his passing, his music will never die.

Tito Puente in "The Mambo Kings"

The man nicknamed "Tito" was honored with the keys to the cities of Los Angeles, Miami, Boston and Hartford, received New York's Bronze Medallion and won an Eubie Award for lifetime achievement in the recording industry. He served as Grand Marshall of New York City's Puerto Rican Parade and in 1990, he received a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. A five-time Grammy winner, he received an honorary degree from Columba University. Puente penned "Oye Como Va"  in 1963, which 12 years later would be a hit for Santana. During his lifetime, Puente recorded more than 100 albums.

In 1993, I had the privilege of interviewing Tito before his concert at the Stamford Palace and in September 1999, I watched him memerize an audience at Norwalk's Oyster Festival, as he gave encore after encore to a cheering crowd. When Puente asked how many Latinos were in the audience, there was a universal handraising. That night, everyone was Latino.

How It All Began

When Ercilia Ortiz Puente enrolled her seven year old son, Anthony "Ernestito" in the nearby branch of the New York School of Music at 125th Street and Lenox Avenue, she never dreamed the boy would one day be hailed worldwide as "El Rey," The King of Latin Music.

Born shortly after his parents arrived in Spanish Harlem from Guanadillas, Puerto Rico, Tito grew up in the jumping, jiving era of swing music, listening to Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman. Surrounded by the richly diverse Caribbean street rhythyms played by the street bands of "El Barrio," he was also influeced by the new music coming out of Cuba.

When Ercilia Puente observed her first-born's passionate obsession with Gene Krupa, she managed to quietly slip a quarter from her sleeping husband's pants pockets for the boy's weekly music lessons. Tito would later win a drum contest, playing Krupa's solo, "Sing, Sing, Sing," his keen ear remembering the riffs. Young Tito rewarded his mother by giving her a personal nightly concert, playing classical, pop and Latin songs. During our interview, Puente reminisced about his childhood and his mother's encouragement. "One of my earliest memories is played the Puerto Rican dana "Mis Amores (My Loves) for my mother," he said. "She loved when I would play that."

Although his mother had signed him up for drum lessons, it was on the streets that he learned to play mracas, cowbells, claves, shakers and bongos. "Percussion is the heart of it all," he said. "Your heart pumps like the claves. It's what's inside you, keeping you alive. It's the sound which has roots in Afro-Cuban musi and the heart and soul of my music."

Puente was a seasoned performer before he waws 12, playng with society bands as well as local Latin bands. His muical versatility landed him his first professional engagement at age 13, when he sat in as substitute in the Noro Morales orchester. The place was the famed Stork Club, then the home of New York cafe society.

The Rest is Musical History

In his early teens, Puente got permission from his father, Ernesto Sr., a factory foreman, to play a 12-week engagement with a sextet in Miami. After returning to New York, Puente became a regular for the Machito Orchestra where he made musical history as the first performer to play timbales standing up.

Tito Puentes' Timbales, now on display at the Smithsonian Museum

"In the old days, in jazz orchestras, the prcussionists were in the back. In the front line were the saxophones, the trumpets, the trombones," Puente recalled. "Part of my job was to give the cues to he trumpet players. They aways had to turn back to look for the cue. Then, Jimmy Fiaua, ho was the band's sax player and my right-hand man for over 40 years, said, 'Tito, why don't you stand up in front -- it will be easier to give the cues" And from then on, it was the rhythym section up front, the congas, the bongos, the cowbells, the claves and the timbales. And a little showmanship on top of it doesn't exactly hurt," he added. "I try to send out good vibration to the public -- they feel it and it makes them enjoy the music more. I don't have a beautiful woman in front of the orchestra and I'm not Ricky Martin, waving my hips and showing my belly button. I need the people to see I'm having a good time."

In 1949, after he graduated from The Juilliard School of Music, taking advantage of the G.I. Bill (he served a stint in the Navy) Puente formed his ow group, "The Picadilly Boys, and started playng regularly at the Palladium Ballroom, a New York dance club on 52nd Street.

"The place was a melting pot," remembered Puente. "Jews, Italian, Irish, African Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, you name it. Everyone was equal. They were there to dig the music and dance."

In honor of his early nurturing, Puente established the Tito Puente Scholarship fnd in 1981, giving grants to musically gifted youngters in the Latin community. To date more than 200 grants have been awarded. During our talk, he urged young musicians to "stay cool," and finish their educations, advising that above all, they should stay away from drugs.

"You need to keep yourself centered so that you can use your creativity to the fullest," he said. "Keep vibrant, keep experimenting. We need new arrangers, composers, instrumentalists. Study your craft so when you are called upon to work, you are prepared to be your best."

Asked what he wanted as his obituary, Puente laughed and said, "Maybe just put a pair of timbales on my grave."



In Praise of Norman Rockwell by Carolee Ross

Artist’s Americana is now considered high art

Triple Portrait by Norman Rockwell
February 13, 1960

 

When I was a young art history student, Norman Rockwell’s visions of an idyllic America were dismissed at “kitsch,” the ultimate in sentimentality and bad taste. The intelligentsia of the academic world met my queries about Rockwell’s status in American art with silent disdain.

            It seemed that the prolific Rockwell, whose illustrations appeared in the Saturday Evening Post from 1916 to 1963, was one of those artists whose destiny was to be cherished by the public and detested by the connoisseur.

            There are probably a lot of red-faced professors now, for Rockwell’s status has changed dramatically over the past 30 years.

An Astonishing About-Face

            Art critics and scholars are now doing an astonishing about-face and the frigid dividing line between art for the masses and art for the elite is experiencing a quick meltdown and critics such as Robert Rosenblum, art critic for Artforum and professor of fine arts at New York University, and Paul Johnson, critic for the Spectator, are jumping on the Rockwell bandwagon.

            Writes Rosenblum, “We have a newborn Rockwell, who can no longer be looked at with sneering condescension and might well become an indispensable part of art history. In order to enjoy his unique genius, all you have to do is relax.”

            “Who was the most popular painter of the 20^th century?” asks Johnson. “I suspect the true answer is Norman Rockwell. . .Rockwell will slowly come to be ranked among the Old Masters, as he is already firmly wedged in humble hearts and minds. People do not like Picasso, they just feel they ought to, but they genuinely love Rockwell’s painting.”

            “Pictures for the American People,” a show that traveled throughout America a few years back, making its debut at Atlanta’s High Museum, featured all 322 of Rockwell’s Saturday Evening Post magazine covers and more than 70 of his paintings.

            Says Ann Morgan of the High Museum of Art and a former Rockwell model (she posed for his Crest Toothpaste ad in 1957) notes: “Rockwell scholarship has been very superficial. People see him a sentimental, but a number of his works are quite complex and profound.”

            High Museum’s director, Ned Rifkin, points out that Rockwell was one of America’s most successful mass media artists and makes connections to the posters and illustrations of 19^th century French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and to the pop artists of the 1960s. “It’s amazing how Rockwell created and distilled images into icons of popular culture.”

Saturday Evening Post Cover, 1949

A Master of Genre Painting

            Rockwell gave the American public exactly what it wanted, a 20^th century version of genre painting, or art of the common person. In a way, he is the descendant of 19^th century American masters William Sidney Mount, Caleb Bingham and Winslow Homer, who gave their vast audiences scenes from everyday life – children, farm life, people at work.

            What does Rockwell have in common with these artists? Adherence to facts, directness of vision, clarity and solidity. He was intrigued and captivated by the human condition and helped shape the iconography of the mass media of his time.

            But although he filled his pictures with bushels of visual facts, Rockwell was a fabulist, not a realist. He was, at heart, a propagandist for The American Dream, exaggerating the admirable and pleasant qualities of American life – the corners and outposts of our culture.

            Why is Rockwell’s popularity soaring? Because since the days of the disappearance of open plains and horse and buggy, Americans have sought a return to what they believe are simpler times.

Saying Grace, 1951, by Norman Rockwell
in the collection of Steven Spielberg

Director Steven Spielberg a proud Rockwell collector

            Movie director Steven Spielberg owes a debt to the art of Norman Rockwell, He owns “Saying Grace,” a Thanksgiving 1951 Saturday Evening Post cover, depicting a little boy and his grandmother, saying grace before their meal in a big-city restaurant filled with truck drivers and businessmen. This is quintessential Rockwell.

            Spielberg a trustee of The Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, also owns 13 other Rockwell original paintings.

My Adventures as an Illustrator

            In his 1960 autobiography, “My Adventures as an Illustrator,” (Harry N. Abrams) Rockwell wrote: “The commonplaces of America are to me the richest subjects in art; boys batting flies on vacant lots, little girls playing jacks on the front steps, old men plodding home at twilight, umbrella in hand – all of these things arouse feeling in me. Commonplaces never become tiresome. It is we who become tired when we cease to be curious and appreciative.”

The Problem We All Live With

"The problem we all live with" — by Norman Rockwell , depicting an incident in the American Civil Rights struggle of the early 1960s, when Ruby Bridges entered first grade on the first day of court-ordered desegregation of New Orleans, Louisiana public schools (November 14, 1960). Originally published in Look Magazine.

The painting is currently displayed in the West Wing of the White House, just outside President Obama's Oval Office.

          Rockwell also loved the movies and illustrated several movie posters between 1942 and 1966, including “The Magnificent Ambersons,” “The Song of Bernadette,” “Along Came Jones,” “The Razor’s Edge,” “Cinderfella,” and the 1966 remake of the classic, “Stagecoach.” In his portraits of well-known actors, Rockwell infused his canvases with subtle nuances of the personality each actor sought to portray.

Workaholic Rockwell

            Norman Rockwell was a workaholic, who painted from dawn to dusk, seven days a week. Born in New York City on February 3, 1894, Rockwell’s greatest desire was to be an illustrator. He found success early, painting his first commission for Christmas cards before his 16^th birthday. While still in his teens, he was hired as art director for Boys Life Magazine.

Scout at Ship's Wheel, 1913
Illustration for Boy's Life Magazine

            Rockwell produced work for leading magazines such as Life, Literary Digest and Country Gentleman, and did his first cover for the Saturday Evening Post in 1916. Over the next 47 years, Rockwell created 321 more covers for the Post, including “The Four Freedoms,” which had been rejected by dozens of bureaucrats at the War Department in Washington, D. C. He presented the idea to editor Ben Hibbs, who urged him to create them for the Post.

Freedom of Speech from The Four Freedoms
by Norman Rockwell

            President Franklin Delano Roosevelt wrote a letter to Rockwell, stating: “I think you have done a superb job in bringing home to the plain, everyday citizen, the plain everyday truths behind the Four Freedoms – I congratulate you.” The paintings were made into war bond posters and went on a 16-city tour that brought in more than $132 million for the war bond effort.

The Golden Rule by Norman Rockwell

            In 1973, Rockwell established a trust to preserve his artistic legacy and placed it under the custodianship of The Normal Rockwell Museum at the Old Corner House in Stockbridge. Rockwell was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, the highest civilian honor for his vivid and affectionate portraits of America. He died at his Stockbridge home on November 8, 1978.

The Connoisseur
by Norman Rockwell

In 1961, Rockwell's studio was temporarily transformed into an abstract expressionist's workplace while he painted The Connoisseur. The purpose of this work was to show the relationship between conventional and modern art. Always fascinated by modern and abstract art, Rockwell designed a cover in which he could acknowledge his appreciation of the genre by emulating Jackson Pollock's style. By placing his back to us, he leaves the interpretation of the museum visitor’s reaction to the viewer.

Author's Note: Due to an injured hand, the author of this blog is having trouble typing her articles. Thanks to the kindness of Sophia Gevas, director of Sacred Heart's Gallery of Contemporary Art, Dr. Marek Bartelik, curator and author and Donna Callighan Photo Designs, Photographer of the artworks in the exhibit, I am able to bring news of this new exhibit to the art-loving public.

GALLERY OF CONTEMPORARY ART TO EXHIBIT 'VOICES IN THE STREETS' POLISH POSTERS from the Collection of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York,

Curated by Marek Bartelik

Introduction by Director Sophia Gevas

Through the images in these thirty-nine posters, we are fortunate to gain insight into the visuals that accompanied Polish street life in the 1970s and 80s. During this time these posters functioned as town criers as well as art works, informing the public about cultural events. They allowed artists an opportunity to express themselves in ways that were not as restrictive as the arts under Communism traditionally were. They flew under the radar. And did they fly!

Artists did not restrict themselves to what we might think of in the West as typical commercial advertising. Often more typical of painterly, expressive compositions than graphic art, these works redefined the poster.

Many of these powerful images—advertising films, plays, art exhibitions, musical performances and more—were created for a public that was walking through the city and played a huge part in energizing the streets­.

~Sophia Gevas, Director

Jerzy Czerniawski

Voices in the Streets, Polish Posters from the Collection of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, opened on Sunday, January 22.It is curated by Marek Bartelik.

The exhibit will include 39 works by artists belonging to the legendary Polish School of Poster, reaching back to the 1950s and focusing on the generation active in the 1970s and 1980s – prior to the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe. It will run until March 1 and is free and open to the public.

Henryk Tomaszewski

The show will feature the work of Tadeusz Trepkowski, Henryk Tomaszewski, Franciszek Starowieyski, Jan Mlodozeniec, Jerzy Czerniawski, Erol, Jan Sawka, and Stasys Eidrigevicius. These artists have been internationally praised for their innovative graphic language that blends sharp humor and wit with astute observation of life. The works are predominantly posters for foreign and domestic plays, films and other artistic events. They include Tomaszewski’s poster for Witold Gombrowicz’s History (An Operetta) and Franciszek Starowieyski’s poster for Molière’s Don Juan, both performed at the Teatr Nowy (New Theater) in Warsaw in 1983.

A Phantasmagoric Polish Poster
by Market Bartelik, Curator

The popularity of Polish poster art, which began in the 1950s and reached its peak in the 1970s, is a success story for the country that struggled to make its mark on the international art scene prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. After the emergence of the so-called “Polish School of Poster” in the 1950s, exhibitions organized around the world turned several local artists who specialized in poster design (in fact they blurred the boundaries between being an artist and a designer) into instant celebrities. Scholars and critics have scrutinized their achievements in numerous publications in a celebratory manner, creating a myth that presented those artists as local stars, who managed to beat all kinds of odds, political and economic included, and developed a highly unique Polish style in art.

With the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, the Polish School of Poster collapsed as well, turning its artistic production into an instant relic associated with an unpopular political past. In fact, with the rapid development of new political and economic systems the old artistic culture associated with street art (poster making included) vanished practically overnight. With the emergence of new forms of communication, such as the Internet and digital media, posters lost their special appeal to advertisers. Furthermore, globalization contributed to the uniformity of poster design, resulting in making most of the works produced in Poland look formulaic, many of them like ersatz versions of the works from the past.

Jan Sawka

As has been already extensively documented, due to the exceptional accomplishments of a small group of charismatic artists that included Tadeusz Gronowski, Eryk Lipinski, Henryk Tomaszewski and Tadeusz Trepkowski, poster art gained a prominent position among artistic expressions in Poland under Communism, despite the challenge to it from artists who aspired to embrace high values in art and opposed traditional representation associated with posters. For those opponents, the poster was neither too political nor political enough. In reality, because of its status as“street art,” posters did not have to communicate covert political messages to be considered “political” by the Polish authorities or public; using such a loophole, many of the best poster artists employed their talents to celebrate, above all, local and international culture and the arts. The medium was the message. This resulted in a peculiar transformation of the Polish School of Poster: instead of becoming more medium-specific as modern dogma demanded, it became increasingly painterly. With the widespread popularity of Pop Art, formal and technical distinctions between painting, prints and graphic design became programmatically blurred.

As Polish posters increasingly resembled paintings inscribed with a text, poster art becamea hybrid “metalanguage” in its own right.
The works in this show display the visual modality of the Polish School of Poster: hand-painted graphic forms, suggestive rather than descriptive, harmonized with succinct typography, and executed in bold, vivid colors. They are whimsical and fantastic, but can also be gloomy and disturbing. The first wave of poster designers, which emerged after World War II, often championed a humorous yet “aristocratic” asceticism of form and total synchronization of images and typography. To that language, subsequent artists added the more “plebeian,” cartoon-like, and collaged simplicity and flatness associated with Pop and folk art. Many Polish poster artists played with the verbal-visual conflation in an iconic fashion, which is a staple of the School.
In fact, the importance of humor in Polish posters should be stressed here, for both the censors (prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, all posters had to be approved by the censors before they could be printed) and the artists were aware of the Polish public’s ability to read between the lines. Humor – deliberate or unintended – often played a decisive role in determining the popularity of a film or play. But, more importantly for most Poles, the double-speak often conveyed in posters had a broader significance: It was a form of quiet dissent through laughter.

In the end, it was the poetic aspect of posters produced in Poland in the 1970s that took a specific visual representation beyond the temporal realities associated with an oppressive ideology and a given mobility of the street audience and brought it to the realm of unifying discourse with a universal appeal. Historically, communication with strong poetic components protected Polish culture in the country under occupation, and foreign domination, which lasted from the early 19th century until the late 1980s. Poetic speech personalized Pole’s experience, while assuring them that they shared a language despite their political differences. Thus they embraced the role of imagination, with its own pattern of logic and temporal links which, in fact, poster art helped foster and externalize in the otherwise rather gray reality of the Polish streets and the boredom it produced, without succumbing to pure escapism.

Dr. Bartelik is an art historian, art critic and poet specializing in 20th century art and theory of art. He arrived in the United States in 1985, has given lectures, since 1996, on modern and contemporary art at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art of New York and has taught art theory at MIT and Yale University. He is the president of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA). After accepting the presidential post, Dr. Bartelik declared a desire to strengthen the AICA as a vital platform in the expression of art ideas to strive for higher standards of excellence.

“Through the images in these posters, we are fortunate to gain insight into the visuals that accompanied Polish street life in the 1970s and 80s. During this time, these posters functioned as town criers as well as art works, informing the public about cultural events,” said Sophia Gevas, director of the Gallery. “Flying under the radar, they allowed artists an opportunity to express themselves in ways that were not as restrictive as the arts under Communism traditionally were. Artists did not restrict themselves to what we might think of in the West as typical commercial advertising. Often more typical of painterly, expressive compositions than graphic art, these works redefined the poster. These powerful images — advertising films, plays, art exhibitions, musical performances and more — were created for a public that was walking through the city and played a huge part in energizing the Polish streets.”

The Gallery of Contemporary Art at Sacred Heart University, 5151 Park Avenue, Fairfield, is open Monday – Thursday, 12–5 and Sundays, 12–4. Admission is free. For further information, please contact Sophia Gevas at 203-365-7650 or gevass@sacredheart.edu. Website: http://artgallery.sacredheart.edu.