Anne d’Harnoncourt, Director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, died on Sunday. d’Harnoncourt was important in the art world not only for her scholarship and impressive long list of acheivements, but also as the second woman to serve as director of a major American art museum (the first was her predecessor, Jean Sutherland Boggs).

Easthampton-based photographer James Gerht left a comment on our post about Local Historical Museums, where we’d mentioned that the Skinner Museum in South Hadley is one of our favorite small museums. It’s filled with so many weird and wonderful things.

Gerht commented that the Skinner Museum is one of his favorite places to photograph, and he’s posted an online gallery with some lovely black & white photos, like the one below:

Be sure to visit Gerht’s website; his photography work is beautiful - we especially like his large format photographs.

image credit & copyright: James Gerht

We had posted about this a few months back, when the winner of the Easthampton City Arts mural competition was announced. Tom Pappalardo and friends completed the mural in two days, and it looks fantastic. It’s located on the side of Whiskerz Pub, next to the public parking lot. Pappalardo has posted photos of the mural from conception to completion on Flickr (the photo below is from that Flicker set).

We think it’s a great addition to Cottage Street, and love to see so much public art happening in this once-sleepy old mill town.

There are plans for an official “unveiling” of the mural on June 20th, according to the Easthampton City Arts’ blog.

Robert Rauschenberg died last night. One of the great 20th-century artists. A huge loss for art.

Gothamist ended their news story about his death with this great quote:

[Rauschenberg] once said, “I think you’re born an artist or not. I couldn’t have learned it. And I hope I never do because knowing more only encourages your limitations.”
 

Locally, he exhibited a huge piece at MassMoCA, in 1999, 2 Furlong Piece (shown above), an enormous quarter-mile long work-in-progress that lined the walls of MassMoCA’s largest gallery.

Anonymous art has found its way to Easthampton!   While we were wandering the streets checking out Art Walk Easthampton last night, we came across this.  It reminded us of the famous tree sweater in Seattle,  but tailored for warmer weather.  We were really excited to discover this little display, among a lot of other really cool art on Art Walk. 

 It’s in front of Mt. Tom’s Homemade Ice Cream on Cottage Street.

UPDATE:  5/13/08 — we are pleased to report that the tree bikini is still there….neither molested nor vandalized.  We thought for sure it would be stuffed with kleenex or something…

There was a bit of spontaneous performance art in downtown Northampton yesterday recorded by fab local blogger, In the Valley. Happenings like this are one of the reasons we love this area so much.

Anyone have any idea who the performers are?

It was a perfect day for Lynn Latimer’s opening reception on April 13th, at the Grubbs Gallery on the campus of The Williston Northampton School, and we weren’t going to miss it.   The sky was cloudless and the sun was intense, creating an ideal atmosphere for looking at Lynn’s work. 

If you don’t know Lynn Latimer, an Easthampton artist working from her studio in Cottage Street Studios, we highly recommend you see her exhibit of fused glass panels, running at the Grubbs Gallery until April 30th.  She creates amazing works of art using glass and cites Paul Klee and Pierre Bonnard as some of her influences.  We marvelled at the brilliant and often transient nature of looking at these pieces, and how they are influenced by every aspect of the environment in which they are displayed.  Whether it was a person walking behind a panel and creating a mottled reflection within the glass, or a change in the sunlight streaming through the high windows of the gallery, we were engaged by the constantly changing quality of each piece. 

We’d like to note that one of the most exciting aspects of this show is that the artist displays working drawings on the walls around the gallery.  They are so beautiful in their own right, we didn’t feel that the exhibit would have been the same without them.  On first inspection a viewer might think that this work is easy, because of the fluidity of the colors melting together, it looks easy.  The delicate and intricate drawings helped to illustrate just how difficult and not easy Latimer’s process is. 

To find out more about Lynn Latimer’s process and work visit her website or better yet, visit her personally during Cottage Street Studios Spring Open Studios event on the weekend of June 7 & 8, 2008. 

The Williston Northampton School in Easthampton has a series of lectures with prominent photographers in April. They are free and open to the public:

April 3: John Willis
April 10: Lori Grinker
April 15: Sean Kernan

Williston frequently has free lectures by prominent artists and writers. Last year we attended the talk by Augusten Burroughs, which was part of their 2007 Writers’ Workshop Series.

Williston is also home to the excellent Grubbs Gallery, which recently hosted a lecture by artist Cat Chow, which was webcast live. The webcast is still available for download (best to right-click on this link & save to your desktop, it’s a very large file - the lecture is about an hour long).

We just learned about this upcoming event in this morning’s Arts Newsletter Experiment:

We are pleased to announce the first annual Easthampton “Paint Out” to be held May 8 – 10, 2008. The event is sponsored by Easthampton Savings Bank, Nashawannuck Gallery and Art Walk Easthampton

The two-day event that culminates in a gallery show and judging at Nashawannuck Gallery during the popular Art Walk. Oils, acrylic, watercolor and mixed media/painting works are accepted. Participating artists must paint within the city limits of Easthampton from May 8-10, at an outdoor location and not from a photograph.

And there will be a grand prize, and reception:

The exhibition will include a grand prize selection by the show juror as well as a “people’s choice” award where Art Walk attendees vote for a favorite work. Winners will be announced at 7:30 PM during the opening reception. The grand prize winner and the People Choice award winners have their painting purchased by Easthampton Savings Bank for $300 each.

We are really excited about this city-wide art event in Easthampton. More information is available at www.ArtWalkEasthampton.org (and sign up for their excellent weekly arts newsletter while you’re there).

We heard this morning on NPR about the plight of The Mount in Lenox. This beautiful, historic and important property is due to be foreclosed on April 24th. They are trying to raise money so that does not happen, and are taking contribution pledges.

From the website:

The Mount has secured a pledge of matching funds, which will be made available to supplement funds raised under Save The Mount, if The Mount is able to reach a successful restructuring with its principal creditors. Your contribution today will bring us closer to survival and success.

All donations will be processed only if The Mount meets its fundraising goal. In the event that the campaign is unsuccessful, The Mount will destroy all checks and credit card forms and post a notice thereof on this website.

Time is short, but a dramatic show of support will keep Edith Wharton’s house and gardens open. We urge you to make a generous donation without delay. Thank you.

The Mount was the home of writer and socialite Edith Wharton (1862-1937). She designed and built the house in 1902 as a summer home and writer’s retreat.

It is historically important and a beautiful place with majestic views of the Berkshires. It is also, according the the website, “…one of the mere 5% of National Historic Landmarks dedicated to women.”  Wharton is such an important figure in American literature (e.g. she was the first woman to win the Pulitzer prize), and The Mount is part of her legacy, for us to learn from and enjoy, and an architectural gem in western Massachusetts.

After Wharton’s death, the house had a succession of owners, and eventually fell into a terrible state of disrepair. In the 1980’s a group formed as The Edith Wharton Restoration purchased the property and has been preserving and restoring it since. It is open to the public May to December.

Please donate whatever amount you can to help save The Mount at their Emergency Campaign page. More information can also be found on the blog, “Help Save The Mount!“