This is Illumination's TypePad Profile.
Join TypePad and start following Illumination's activity
Illumination
Recent Activity
The dramatic staging that is visible through the gallery's doorways is such a tease! I can't wait to see this show on my next visit.
-Mel Ahlborn, This Artist's Life, http://thisartistslife.wordpress.com
Commented Sep 8, 2010 on New Exhibition: “Americans Now” at National Portrait Gallery | Face to Face blog
New Exhibition: “Americans Now”
“Americans Now,” drawn from the National Portrait Gallery’s collection, features portraits of outstanding individuals in the realms of science, business, government and the arts. The exhibition will be on view through June 19, 2011. The show includes such familiar names as Erykah Badu, Chris...
My thanks go to Brandon Brame Fortune for his note about Jo Davidson using a French foundry. It makes sense given Davidson's personal history (and residence) in France. Even so, with the advances in American craftsmanship, my patriotic self hopes that contemporary bronzes are today cast in American foundries. ("In 1968, this particular bust was cast in bronze for the National Portrait Gallery, using a plaster that had remained in the Davidson family. It was cast by the Valsuani foundry in France, the foundry Davidson used during his lifetime....")
-Mel Ahlborn, This Artist's Life, http://thisartistslife.wordpress.com
Commented Aug 3, 2010 on Portrait of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney by Jo Davidson at National Portrait Gallery | Face to Face blog
Portrait of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney by Jo Davidson
On view in the exhibition "Jo Davidson: Biographer in Bronze" The National Portrait Gallery owns more than sixty of Jo Davidson’s portraits in bronze, marble, terra-cotta, and plaster, acquired over a number of years. Born in New York to Russian immigrant parents, Davidson struggled financia...
Illumination is now following National Portrait Gallery
Jul 9, 2010
Rose Frantzen's work is best seen in person, up close, where the immediacy of her observations can be seen. She leaves me asking
- What would I learn about my neighbors if I could sit with each of them for a portrait sitting? and what would they learn about me?
- What would happen if we had American artists in American cities painting community, one person at a time?
-Mel Ahlborn, This Artist's Life, http://thisartistslife.wordpress.com
Commented Jul 7, 2010 on Artist Rose Frantzen in “Portraiture Now: Communities” at National Portrait Gallery | Face to Face blog
Artist Rose Frantzen in “Portraiture Now: Communities”
“Portraiture Now: Communities” closes Monday, July 5. The exhibition features works by Rose Frantzen, Jim Torok, and Rebecca Westcott. Born and raised in Maquoketa, Iowa, Rose Frantzen studied representational painting at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, the Lyme Academy of Fine Art...
Question: What two things do these twelve people have in common: Zachary Taylor, Michael Jackson, William Henry Harrison, Joe DiMaggio, Parson Mason Locke Weems, Francis Marion, Davy Crockett, Walt Disney, Johnny Cash, Magic Johnson, John Wooden, and Stonewall Jackson?
Answer: First, they are all featured as portraits here on Face-to-Face; and second, they are all men.
Request: How about some portraits of strong American women? -Mel Ahlborn, This Artist's Life, http://thisartistslife.wordpress.com
Commented Jul 1, 2010 on Zachary Taylor, 1784-1850 at National Portrait Gallery | Face to Face blog
Zachary Taylor, 1784-1850
This article is written by Amanda Walli, a recent graduate in history and art history from the University of Maryland; she is interning at the National Portrait Gallery. She writes about H. Bucholzer’s 1848 portrait of Zachary Taylor, a lithograph that belongs to the National Portrait Gallery. ...
Lena Horne was an electrifying performer and a powerful woman. Biberman's portrait of Lena Horne, not so much. -Mel Ahlborn, This Artist's Life, http://thisartistslife.wordpress.com
Commented Jun 30, 2010 on Portrait of Lena Horne by Edward Biberman at National Portrait Gallery | Face to Face blog
Portrait of Lena Horne by Edward Biberman
Singer and actress Lena Horne helped break the color barrier in mainstream popular culture in the mid-twentieth century, beginning her stage career in the chorus at Harlem's Cotton Club in 1933, where Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway mentored her. In 1942 Hollywood beckoned, but her roles were...
Loved Reaves'insights into the personalities of sculptor Davidson and sitter Stein as ' social beings'and how they 'collected people.' (When downloading the podcast it will appear in the 'iTunes U' section of iTunes - not in the 'Podcasts' section.) -Mel Ahlborn, This Artist's Life, http://thisartistslife.wordpress.com
Commented Jun 28, 2010 on Portrait of Gertrude Stein by Jo Davidson at National Portrait Gallery | Face to Face blog
Portrait of Gertrude Stein by Jo Davidson
American expatriate writer Gertrude Stein was a high priestess of early-twentieth-century modernism for the many who visited her fabled Paris apartment. She collected and promoted the art of the avant-garde, including that of Picasso and Matisse, and her own abstract, repetitive prose inspired...
Illumination is now following The Typepad Team
Jun 28, 2010
Subscribe to Illumination’s Recent Activity
