‘Love at First Sight’ Inspired This African Art Collection

THE NEW YORK TIMES
Show Us Your Walls
By Audrey Hoffer

Olusanya Ojikutu at his house in Bowie, Md., with, left, a detail of one of his own paintings, “Labyrinth of Imagination” (2015), and right, a painting on a wood pallet by Dapo Ojoade. Emma Howells for The New York Times.

BOWIE, Md. — The white living room in Olusanya Ojikutu’s home, with its soaring cathedral ceiling, is a temple to his traditional and contemporary African art. Sculptures bookend the sofa, paintings and prints decorate the walls and the overall atmosphere is one of beauty, historic grandeur and repose. Most of Ojikutu’s sculptures are at least a century old, created for performances or rituals. “They served as intermediaries between the local people and their ancestors’ spirits to make their lives better and protect them from evil forces in this world and beyond,” he said. "I try to show that expanse of art forms and visual cultures in my collection.”[More]

Memory fuels art and activism in Mark Bradford's 'Tomorrow Is Another Day'

NPR | MORNING EDITION
By Susan Stamberg

Mark Bradford says he wanted his Spoiled Foot installation to make the viewer feel "as if the center of the room was no longer available." Joshua White/Courtesy Mark Bradford, Hauser & Wirth

Mark Bradford is an activist and abstract artist who tends to get described with a lot of adjectives — tall (he's 6'8"), black and gay; he's been both a hairdresser and a MacArthur Fellow. "What's most important to me is that I'm an artist," Bradford says. In 2017 Bradford represented the U.S. at the Venice Biennale. Now his work is on view at The Baltimore Museum of Art. It's a beautiful, uncomfortable and haunting work of art inspired by real-life horrors — "the mold that you saw permeating New Orleans after Katrina, or the skin disease that was one of the first signs of the AIDS crisis," Siegel explains. His exhibit Tomorrow Is Another Day will be on view at the Baltimore Museum of Art through March. [More]

Baltimore artist's Jesus crosses the water, but its the Delaware

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Ernest Disney-Britton

Scott Brooks's "Jesus Crossing the Delaware" (unfinished work)

In 1871, George Caleb Bingham painted "Washington Crossing the Delaware." It commemorates General George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River with the Continental Army on the night of December 25–26, 1776, during the American Revolutionary War. Historians report that this first move and surprise attack against the German mercenary forces at Trenton, New Jersey on the morning of December 26, changed the perceptions of American forces. Currently, Baltimore artist Scott Brooks is painting "Jesus Crossing the Delaware." In contrast to Bringham's painting, Brooks figured form an inverted pyramid with Jesus as the lower point between two watchful female figures. It's a work in progress, and we'll report on it more when it's finished. [Instagram]

Tear down the Confederate monuments—but what next? 12 art historians on the way forward

ARTNET NEWS

Virginia State Police in riot gear stand in front of the statue of General Robert E. Lee before forcing white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the "alt-right" out of Emancipation Park after the "Unite the Right" rally was declared an unlawful gathering August 12, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Across the United States, the debate about Confederate memorials and other monuments to a racist past has entered a critical phase. In the wake of the horrifying events of Charlottesville, city governments from Baltimore, Maryland, to Madison, Wisconsin, have been moved to act. Yet important questions about how to act remain. What is the most effective way to deal with such historically loaded material? Once removed, what is to be done with the disputed monuments? We asked 12 art historians and experts, who have dedicated their work to exploring the finer points of such matters, for their insight on the debate currently gripping the country. Above all, should Confederate monuments be removed, and if so, how? [More]

American Visionary Art Museum's new one-man show puts spotlight Rev. Albert Lee Wagner

RAW MAGAZINE

Reverend Albert Lee Wagner, detail: Flee From Egypt-Moses Parting The Red Sea, gift of Pat Handal

BALTIMORE---Opening on July 1 at the American Visionary Art Museum is the exhibition "Reverend Albert Lee Wagner: Miracle at Midnight." Curated from over 50 masterpieces by Reverend Albert Lee Wagner that have been recently gifted to the American Visionary Art Museum by Gene and Linda Kangas. The exhibition will also include two of Reverend Wagner’s largest works, donated to AVAM’s permanent collection ten years ago by Pat Handal. "Visionary art" as defined for the purposes of the American Visionary Art Museum refers to art produced by self-taught individuals, usually without formal training, whose works arise from an innate personal vision that revels foremost in the creative act itself. [More]

Dionysios Bouloubassis Adorns Maryland Church With Art, Theology

THE BALTIMORE SUN
By Jonathan Pitts

Iconographer Dionysios Bouloubassis, is painting a cherub that will be part ofthe dome at the St. Mary Antiochian Orthodox Church. Bouloubassis is working on a multi-year mural-sized icons project at the church.

MARYLAND---As Dionysios Bouloubassis picks up his paint brush at Saint Mary Antiochian Orthodox Church early one morning, the large canvas before him is blank but for the outlines of an angel he has sketched in pencil. If all goes as planned, Bouloubassis will leave the interior of the year-old church covered in icons — mural-sized renderings of Christ, the saints, angels and other religious images that have been part of the Orthodox Christian worship tradition for more than 1,200 years. [link]

In 1838, Jesuits Sold 272 Slaves to Save Georgetown University

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Rachel L. Swarns

The grave of Cornelius Hawkins, one of 272 slaves sold by the Jesuits in 1838 to help keep what is now Georgetown University afloat. Credit William Widmer for The New York Times

WASHINGTON, D.C.---The human cargo was loaded on ships at a bustling wharf in the nation’s capital, destined for the plantations of the Deep South. Some slaves pleaded for rosaries as they were rounded up, praying for deliverance. But on this day, in the fall of 1838, no one was spared. But this was no ordinary slave sale. The enslaved African-Americans had belonged to the nation’s most prominent Jesuit priests. And they were sold, along with scores of others, to help secure the future of the premier Catholic institution of higher learning at the time, known today as Georgetown University. [link]

Baltimore art museum looks at religious differences shaping Islamic art

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By Vanessa H. Larson

Largely formed nearly a century ago by the museum's founder, Henry Walters (1848–1931), the Islamic collection now features more than 1,200 wide-ranging objects that date from the 7th century onward

MARYLAND---With “Pearls on a String: Artists, Patrons, and Poets at the Great Islamic Courts,” the Baltimore-based Walters joins several museums in smaller U.S. art markets that have featured Islamic art in recent years. The exhibit reveals the interactions between different religious and ethnic groups and the travel of people and ideas across geographies, dispelling the notion that these Islamic empires were homogenous or self-contained. [link]

Paul Rucker is taking back the racist symbols of America's Christian past

THE HUFFINGTON POST
By Katherine Brooks

Symbols of the Christian extremist group known as the Ku Klux Klan have been recontextualized by artist Paul Rucker

MARYLAND—Step inside the Baltimore Museum of Art this fall and you could find yourself face-to-face with a crowd of seven-foot mannequins dressed head to toe in Ku Klux Klan robes. Of course, they are not your average white hoods. The robes are made from patterns like Kente cloth and camouflage fabric, turning the ghost-like memory of a KKK uniform into a chilling, anachronistic image. For Rucker, the ultimate goal of "Rewind" is to "create a starting point for an informed discussion," one that connects our past to our present. Specifically, one that connects the current reality of incarceration with the former practice of slavery. [link]

Baltimore Art Museum: "Baker Artist Awards" (Ends November 15, 2015); 10 Art Museum Dr, Baltimore, MD; (443) 573-1700; artbma.org

Bill Viola's 'The Dreamers' Under the Surface

DELMARVA
By Ursula Ehrhardt

MARYLAND---"The Dreamers," a video and sound installation by Bill Viola, an internationally renowned artist and pioneer of video art, will be on view at the Academy Art Museum in Easton through March 1. The installation consists of seven videos that are shown simultaneously, each on its own plasma display panel, on three walls of a darkened gallery. They depict three men and three women of different ages, ethnicities and races, plus the young girl seen in the detail. All have their eyes shut, are fully clothed and submerged in water, whose flowing sound fills the space. One also hears what may be human heartbeats, breathing and other body sounds. [link]

El Greco Anniversary Celebrated at National Gallery of Art With Rare Loans From Washington Area

ARTDAILY

El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos) Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata, 1585-1590. Oil on canvas. Overall: 102.08 x 97 cm (40 3/16 x 38 3/16 in.) The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, 37.424.

WASHINGTON, DC.---The 400th anniversary of El Greco's death is being remembered at the National Gallery of Art with an exhibition of 11 paintings from the Gallery, Dumbarton Oaks, and the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, and from the Walters Art Museum, in Baltimore. On view in the West Building, gallery M-28 from November 2, 2014 through February 16, 2015, "El Greco in the National Gallery of Art and Washington-Area Collections: A 400th Anniversary Celebration"  includes some of the artist's most beloved paintings, renowned for compositions of bold colors and subjects with dramatic expression. [link]

In Seven States, Atheists Push to End Largely Forgotten Ban

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Laurie Goodstein

A bookkeeper named Roy Torcaso, who happened to be an atheist, refused to declare that he believed in God in order to serve as a notary public in Maryland. His case went all the way to the Supreme Court, and in 1961 the court ruled unanimously for Mr. Torcaso, saying states could not have a “religious test” for public office. But 53 years later, Maryland and six other states still have articles in their constitutions saying people who do not believe in God are not eligible to hold public office. [link]

Walters Art Museum Awarded $913K in Grants

THE BALTIMORE SUN
By Mary Carole McCauley

A haughty sheik stands at the entrance to his harem.

MARYLAND---The Walters Art Museum announced Monday that it's been awarded $913,000 in grants to support renovations and exhibitions at the museum, including a special show on Islamic art scheduled to open next year. That sum is made up of six individual donations — four from government agencies and two from private foundations — Walters spokeswoman Mona Rock said in a news release. The bulk of the money, $500,000 will be used to support "Pearls on a String: Art and Relationship in the Islamic World," which is scheduled to open in the fall of 2015. [link]

When Religious Art is Displayed, Secular Museums May Become Sacred Spaces

DESERT NEWS
By Menachem Wecker

MARYLAND---Even on the opening day of the Baltimore-based Walters Art Museum’s 1988 exhibit of Greek icons and frescoes, museum staff quickly realized that they had a kissing problem on their hands. When visitors reached the end of the show, which culminated in a masterpiece from the museum’s permanent collection, many viewers kissed the Plexiglas over the work — the 1585-1590 painting “Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata” by Domenikos Theotokopoulos (“El Greco”). Not only had the El Greco painting been prominently displayed before without being orally venerated, but the subject matter ― even in its fresh context ― was an unusual choice for Orthodox reverence. [link]

Art Collector Mera Rubell Tours Studios, Searching to Create New Exhibition

THE BALTIMORE SUN
By Mary Carole McCauley,

MARYLAND---[T]he Rubells. Mera, her husband, Don, and their two grown children have put together what they describe as one of the largest private holdings of contemporary art in the world. The couple began purchasing art in the mid-1960s when Mera was a Head Start teacher and Don was in medical school. They allocated 25 percent of Mera's then-weekly salary of $100 to buy original art — and still spend roughly the same proportion of their income on contemporary paintings and sculptures. They were among the earliest collectors of such future superstars as Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman and Richard Prince. Now the Rubell Family Collection is housed in a 45,000-square-foot museum in Miami, and the couple divide their time between Florida and New York. [link]

Annapolis Artist, Greg Harlin Has Exhibit of Religious Paintings

CAPITAL GAZETTE
By THERESA WINSLOW

Constantine spots something in the sky. Was it a cross or another symbol? 

MARYLAND---Like all artists, Greg Harlin delves deep into his work. But the paintings in his new exhibit were truly a religious experience. Most of the 22 pieces on display at The Annapolis Collection Gallery depict scenes from Christian and Jewish history. Everything from Constantine’s battle at Milvian Bridge to the Maccabees are depicted in vivid color. One painting is a fanciful depiction of George Washington meeting with a rabbi. The exhibit opened Saturday and runs through Dec. 14. An artist’s reception is scheduled for 1:30 to 4 p.m. Sunday. [link]

Byzantine Icons in ‘Heaven and Earth,’ at the National Gallery

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Holland Cotter

A processional sweep through Byzantine iconography, with about 170 items for many centuries.

WASHINGTON, D.C.---After arriving with no particular buzz, then being kept on ice by the government shutdown, “Heaven and Earth: Art of Byzantium From Greek Collections” has finally opened at the National Gallery of Art here, and it’s ambushingly resplendent, like a somber cloud with a fire inside. Like many government-sponsored treasure shows, this one — organized by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports in Athens, in collaboration with the Benaki Museum there — has a promotional angle: It would love to get us to go to Greece and spend some tourist dollars, especially given that country’s recent fiscal woes. I’m out the door, based on some of what’s here. [link]

National Gallery of Art: “Heaven and Earth: Art of Byzantium From Greek Collections” (October 6, 2013, through March 2, 2014); 2000B South Club Drive, Landover, MD; (202) 842-6353; nga.gov

Artists and Churchgoers Collaborate on Exhibit at College of Art

THE BALTIMORE SUN
By Mary Carole McCauley

"Everything that ought to have remained" (2011) by Leigh Davis at NYC church, now on display at MICA

MARYLAND---The old arched red wooden door to the Seventh Metro Church is less that two blocks from the modern glass-and-steel panel that floats in front of the Maryland Institute College of Art's newest exhibition space. They bring to mind two different eras and seem designed to be used by two dissimilar groups of people: spiky-haired artists and church ladies wearing fancy hats. But when a white art student in her 20s met a middle-aged African-American pastor, they discovered that both doors opened into sacred spaces where people look for answers to the same big questions. One of the nicest surprises is that the project brought into contact the leaders and members of all five churches. Though they were located just a few blocks from one another, most had never met. [link]

Maryland Institute College of Art: "Congregate art + faith + community" (Ends Sept. 25), 131 W. North Ave, Baltimore, MD; (410) 669-9200, congregatebaltimore.com

Living by the Book: Monks, Nuns and Their Manuscripts at Walters Art Museum

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

MARYLAND---The just opened exhibition, "Living by the Book: Monks, Nuns and Their Manuscripts" at Walters Art Museum includes approximately 20 books. Through these treasured books, visitors will explore the medieval monastic Christian communities. Unlike today, when the works are viewed as untouchable works of art, during the medieval period they were created, used, cherished, glossed, worn down and palimpsested by those who lived there over the centuries.

The Walters Art Museum: "Living by the Book: Monks, Nuns and The Manuscripts" (Ends Sept. 29), 600 N. Charles Street Baltimore, MD | 410-547-9000 or thewalters.org

Mormon Artist, Rose Datoc Dall's "Jesus Once Was a Little Child" Opening in DC

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

Detail of "Flight" by Rose Datoc Dall, oil on canvas, 54" x 54," 2008.

WASHINGTON, DC---Rose Datoc Dall's "Jesus Once Was a Little Child" exhibition opens from June 15 thru October 31 at the Washington, DC Temple Visitors Center of the Church of Latter Day Saints. On Dall's website she invites visitors to attend: "Dear all, if you happen to be in the DC area sometime between mid June and October, please come to my art exhibition at the Washington, DC Temple Visitors Center from June 15 thru Oct 31st. On display will be 20+ original oil paintings from my series on the Early Years of the Savior, the subject of which I have been painting for about 10 years, drawing for over 20. There will also be a video documentary about the series at the exhibition so please come and enjoy."Visitor's Center, 9900 Stoneybrook Drive, Kensington, Maryland.