A New York Experience - A Constant Affair

New York is the place where all the aspirations of the western world converge. This presentation, in concert with an illuminating lecture, offers a visual survey of America's greatest city. You will enjoy the artists who devoted their talents to depicting the streets, parks, bridges, skyscrapers, as well as the daily escapades of the people.

Works by Childa Hassam, Robert Henri, George Bellows, Max Weber, Joseph Stella, Reginald Marsh, Ben Shahn, Jacob Lawrence, Francis Criss, Edward Hopper, and many others. 

You will journey through New York between 1800 AND 1950………

New York struggled into modernity…….

The city passed through the epochs of progress, through periods of reflection, culminating in exciting new vistas.

See New York, America's ever vibrant cultural capital.

Painted Lady: Muse or Mistress

Artists through the centuries have succeeded in adding to our imaginative vocabulary of female beauty – the richly colored paintings of the muse has its own glamour, a direct experience for the senses – but at times – with hints of scandal and eroticism as an obvious aspect of the experience.  

This slideshow with lecture will be a non-stop sequence of lovers and models in art whose musedom was either immortal or tragic.

View works by: Picasso, Modigliani, Rossetti, Von Dongen, Man Ray, Klimt, Warhol, Matisse, Sargent, Katz, Freud and more…

The Mystery of Johannes Vermeer

Atmosphere, distinctive light, perspective, a sense of calm – the extravagant use of lead-tin yellow and ultramarine – all characteristics of the authentic works of the most mysterious of all the Dutch Masters of the 17th century – Johannes Vermeer.  

Johannes Vermeer’s works are timeless – remain as wondrous today as to viewers in 17th century delft – the meanings of his works are forever shrouded in mystery.

This illustrated art lecture will highlight the true artistic genius of Vermeer – the relentless inner pulse of Dutch life and thought viewed from a discreet distance.

Art Infiltrates World War II

Nothing could light up the face of a pilot, a sailor, more readily than a beautiful girl back home. In the dangerous world of the military man, the Pin-Up Girls promised a better life awaiting them state-side.  

Pin-Ups are a significant and rich part of our nation’s art, society and culture of the 20th century – Pin-Up Art was essential to the war effort.

The sweetly sexy images were proving that if you really wanted to give something to the boys – send in the girls.

This illustrated lecture will bring to light the pretty, shapely girls reminiscent of the sweethearts the GIs left behind, the images of the men painted on the sides of their aircraft – images that carried the American popular culture onto foreign shores.

Berthe Morisot: "First Female Impressionist”

Berthe Morisot broke with the boundries of convention: the first woman to exhibit with a group of six men in 1874 whose works both shocked and seduced the public; they would be come to be called “impressionists”.  

Berthe Morisot triumphed. A devoted wife, mother and sister, she carved out a place for her art. She constructed her artistic stature.

In this slideshow/lecture we will meet Berthe Morisot, the French 19th century woman painter – a central figure in the roster of woman artists – held by her contemporaries to be the “quintessential impressionist”.

Egon Schiele: Bad Boy of Art

Egon Schiele laced his drawings and paintings with fierce expressionism of sexuality or death. His art expresses the melancholy and anguish of living that murmured within him – art from the depths of his fevered soul.  

Egon Schiele combines flesh, bones, muscles and tendons in a distinctive symbolism of desire and physical abandonment. Repulsion and attraction sound the keynote of this artist’s oeuvre.

Egon Schiele died tragically at the age of 28 limiting our assessment of his art to ten years. Initially in Vienna, Schiele was viewed as a trinity of Klimt, Kokoschka and Schiele. Today he is regarded as a separate figure – a master of Austrian Expressionism.

Frida Kahlo: Her Life – Her Work

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo Calderon, born in the Blue House in the Coyoacan district of Mexico City of a Jewish Hungarian father and a Mexican mother – it is 1907. Frida Kahlo fascinates – her art is exotic, intriguing, potent, eerie; they burst their frames.

Frida Kahlo’s fierce candor enabled her to place on canvas the inside and outside of herself. She was “the first artist in history to depart from the male principle.” Humor, pain and turmoil are the leitmotiv of her thematic paintings.

The self-portrait is her instrument. With extreme vividness we experience the solitude of female thought.

This slideshow and lecture is a visual journey tracing Frida Kahlo’s artistic personality from her art as an ambitious beginner to the excruciating, provocative art at the close of her life at47 years of age.

Andre Breton called her art “a ribbon around a bomb.”

Fruits, Flowers and Herbs of the Bible In Art

This slideshow/lecture will present the fruits, flowers and herbs of the Bible in art. See the apricot that brought “The Fall of Man” – the “Rod of Aaron” that yielded almonds overnight – the rose of Ecclesiastics 39 that is thought to be oleander – the Madonna Lily that was probably an anemone.  

Plants are mentioned hundreds of times in the passages of the Bible. Moses said God was leading his people to “A land of wheat, barley, figs and pomegranate”. John the Baptist probably savored the pods of the locust tree that tasted like chocolate.

This show is unique and thought-provoking. All the organisms of the passages will be presented in beautifully detailed paintings, etchings and engravings. A fascinating, detailed commentary will link plethora of art with the Biblical tales.

Georgia O’Keeffe: Flower Power

The New York Times described her as “the undisputed doyenne of American painting” in 1986 when she died at the age of 98.  

Georgia O’Keeffe’s first memories were of light sitting on a patchwork quilt and the feeling of warm, soft ridges of earth made by the wheels of buggies – Georgia O’Keeffe at an early age had a sense of colour and shape.

Generations have been stunned, awed and confused by her work asking the same questions and coming to the same incorrect conclusions.

This slideshow / lecture will focus on the fearless, modest woman and her own highly refined, slightly removed art.

“ I am a Painter. I am not a woman Painter.”

The Grand Dames: Women of the Bible in Art II

The second slide presentation continues the foray into the lives of the biblical females as seen through the eyes of the artists who immortalize them. The lecturer adds anecdotes and thumbnail sketches that bring the characters to life.  

View powerful art works of Sarah, the Mother of Nations, Hagar, the Concubine of Abraham, Dina, the Violated Daughter of Leah, Rebekah, the Courageous Mother of Twins, Ruth, the Loveable Loyal Daughter-in-law of Naomi, the resolute, unshrinking Jael, Susanna, a graceful victim defended by Daniel, Mary of Magdala, the first witness at the tomb…

The women are independent, beautiful and distinguished. The women are wives, daughters, mothers, queens, concubines, deacons, double-agents, warriors, creators and destroyers. The art is lush and richly intense – at times disturbing. The Biblical Grand Dames are dramatic and unforgettable.

Gustav Klimt: The Good, The Bad and The Beautiful

Gustav Klimt- a turn of the 20th century Viennese painter trumpeted as a “Painter of Women”. He recorded the female – the linear flow of the pelvis, the gentle line of the hip, the roundness of the shoulder and breast – all with the frozen sensuality.  

Gustav Klimt painted The Good, The Bad and The Beautiful Women from the wealthy section of Viennese society – Most women were Jewish Austrians and Hungarians. The women were his lovers, models, muses and cherished companions and confidantes.

Gustav Klimt portraits were enveloped in glowing, luminous hues, in opulent gold decorations, in richly patterned costumes, in sensual, carnal desire. He is hailed for developing an individual style of Viennese art nouveau that progressed to expressionism.

This lecture will bring you face to face with Gustav Klimt and his “women”

Itzchak Tarkay

Itzchak Tarkay of Israel – an artist of daring colour, flowering lines and the female form – female faces lacking detail – all recognizable thumbprints.  

Itzchak Tarkay depicts the teeming street life of Tel Aviv, the market places of Jaffa, the sidewalk café’s of Paris. Tarkey’s subjects are sorrowful, watchful and apprehensive – they gossip, pass a secret, and share a quiet moment. Tarkay’s art is concerned with joy, sorrow, contentment and the means to make them tangible.

Itzchak Tarkay has been compared to Matisse, Gauguin, Degas, Lautrec and early Picasso.

Itzchak Tarkay has lived through dangerous times from a childhood spent at Mauthausen concentration camp to the bombings of Tel Aviv. This past has imbued his art with a freedom and spirit that is powerful. Itzchak Tarkay exhibits a love of humanity and a lust for life in his work.

This slideshow with lecture will highlight selected, fascinating works of the artist Itzchak Tarkay

Jack Vettriano: Admired and Ignored

Loved by the public – spurned by the critics  

Scotland’s most successful and controversial, contemporary artist, his paintings are a gateway to an alluring yet sinister world of idyllic beaches, nourish bars, intimate bedrooms, raceways and clubs. Scholars disdain his art, the national galleries ignore it. Yet, art patrons around the world aggressively collect his work.

This art slideshow with narrative will allow the viewer to gauge the strength of Jack Vettriano’s paintings. Is it repetitive, soulless and unchallenging; or alluring, restless, melancholic and romantic?

His paintings are the opening verse for a corpus of short stories, Jack Vettriano “The People’s Painter.”

The Art and Architecture of the Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC honors our sixteenth president. The cornerstone of the massive marble structure was laid on February 12, 1915.  

The building stands on a high terrace that is reached by an imposing flight of steps. The congressional committee selected an artist Daniel Chester French to sculpt the statue and Henry Bacon to the architect.

Abraham Lincoln’s face is at once sad, bemused, craggy and animated. His iconic image has inspired millions of visitors to our nation’s capital. Abraham Lincoln’s legacy is alive in a shrine that is a symbol of our continuous search for freedom, equality and opportunity.

This slideshow/lecture will present the art and architecture of this national structure where the memory of Lincoln is enshrined forever.

Mary in Art

Mary of Nazareth stands out in history. Mary the mother of one son. A prophet foretold the birth of her male child. She has been given titles of “Queen of Heaven” and “Mother of Sorrows”.  

Mary was born to humble Jewish parents. She lived in obscurity over twenty centuries ago.

Mary probably never entered a magnificent building or historic landmark, but her image has adorned cathedrals, churches, museums down through the centuries.

This slideshow / lecture features paintings by noted artists; frescoes, oils, temperas and gold-leaf focusing on the events of Mary’s life.

Meet Me at the Musee d’Orsay in Paris

Out of a grand ruin a great museum arose – a silenced train station was transformed into a bustling museum.  

The Musee d’Orsay is a world renowned museum – home to the most beautiful and important art collection.

You are standing in a spectacular setting, the center of Paris, on the banks of the Siene, opposite the Tuilleries Gardens and steps from the Louvre Museum.

Please Join our group and begin your tour of Orsey’s collections, canvases by Monet and the impressionists, works by Degas, Cezanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin.

What more perfect place to contemplate beauty – to enjoy the art of the era in all its profusion and diversity

Musée-dOrsay

On The Wing: Angels in Art

Angels are seemingly everywhere – on greeting cards, on postage stamps, on television, at the cinema and in the decorative arts. Popular imagination has held fast to its fascination with them. At the dawn of the twenty-first century angels have gained a foothold in the popular culture. Our ideas about what angels are, how they look, how they dress, their character, have been largely formed by artistic vignettes, by artist’s renderings.  

This engaging slideshow and lecture spotlights angels drawn from centuries of art. Gain an understanding of angels while observing alluring art. Delve into the artistic and scholarly aspect of each artist’s work. View Byzantine angels – medieval angels – renaissance angels – contemporary angels – musical angels – angels as messengers, warriors and frolicking childlike angels.

“May an angel watch over you and always light your way.”

Painting the American Aspect

Created in the heart of the Great Depression the WPA supported thousands of artists thus some of the best scenes of the nation were created – some noble, some absurd – portraying the spirit of the 1930’s.  

Artists rediscovered their heritage – social history and creative genius in touch – the artists crossed the country painting the ravages of the depression, the dust bowl landscapes, the simple barns, the New York Bowery, industrial complexes, crowded ghettoes; all the art – human, native and alive.

In this slideshow with lecture, you will observe the works of the Regionalists and the social realists; Thomas Hart Benton, Ben Shahn, John Steuart Curry, Reginald Marsh, Raphael Soyer, Philip Evergood…

Picturing America

In this era Americans have come to appreciate more and more our heritage of American art.  

In the past 100 years American art has been second only to France and has assumed the role of world leadership.

This illustrated art lecture “Picturing America” will explore American art from the early limners of the 18th century – followed by the geniuses of the 19th century – to the masters of the 20th century. Each art work has immeasurable energies – each art work characterizes the focus of American ideals in spotlighting: Democracy, Freedom, Creativity, Leadership, Courage and Landscapes.

You will experience the works of artists such as; J.S. Copley, Gilbert Stuart, Emanuel Leutze, N. Rockwell, Childe Hassam, N.C. Wyeth…

Tamara De Lempicka

Tamara De Lempicka labeled an “Art Deco Painter” … an “Icon of the Jazz Age” … a “Perverse Ingre”  

Tamara De Lempicka was a 20th century portrait painter – she painted the rich, renowned, the refugees, and famous New Yorkers. We can identify the skyscrapers of New York in her paintings.

This slideshow and lecture will present the Art of the 20th century female artist with a mysterious Slavic name and a radiant beauty approaching the pre-eminence of Garbo. Tamara De Lempicka subjected the sensuality of the human body to a geometric approach. Her art is a fusion of sculptural hyperrealism and classic painting. She aimed at sharp precision, simplicity and a startling contrast of tone and haunting shadows.

Tamara De Lempicka surprises and provokes. Lempicka defined an era with her vibrantly colored paintings. View the polished nature of her portraits eloquently revealed… the paintings of an era she made glamourous… the paintings collected by Barbara Streisand, Jack Nicholson, and Madonna.