Walls of Color: The Murals of Hans Hofmann at the Bruce Museum

This spring and summer the Bruce Museum located on One Museum Drive in Greenwich will be awash in the vibrant hues of
Abstract Expressionist Hans Hofmann.  

Walls of Color: The Murals of Hans Hofmann, is the first ever exhibition to focus on the artist's varied and under-appreciated public mural projects that will be on view at the Bruce Museum through September 6.  The show will then travel to The Patricia
and Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University, Miami, FL (October 10, 2015 to January 3, 2016), and to the Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (January 22 to April 10, 2016).

Awakening
Hans Hofmann (1880-1966)

Awakening, 1947

Oil on canvas, 59 ¼  x 40 ¼ in.

Private Collection

Photograph by Paul Mutino
Works by Hans Hofmann used with permission of the Renate, Hans and Maria Hofmann Trust

A towing figure among the New York School painters and one of the most important teachers and theoretician of the Abstract
Expressionist movement, Hans Hoffman is well known for his dynamic approach to color. The centerpiece of Walls of Color: The Murals of Hans Hofmann will be nine oil studies by Hofmann,each seven feet tall, for the redesign of the Peruvian city of Chimbote. This was Hofmann's extraordinary collaboration, in 1950, with Catalan architect José Luis Sert – the man who designed the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris World's Fair in 1937, for which Picasso's great mural Guernica was conceived. Although never realized, this visionary project was to include a huge mosaic wall – a freestanding bell tower in the town center – designed by Hofmann, which would incorporate not only his own highly evolved notions of Abstract Expressionist visual dynamics, but also forms symbolic of traditional Peruvian culture, religion and history.

Lonely Journey

Hans Hofmann (1880-1966)

Lonely Journey, 1965

Oil on canvas, 50 x 40 ⅛ in.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (1989.397),
Gift of Renate Hofmann, 1989

Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Image source: Art Resource, NY

Works by Hans Hofmann used with permission of the Renate, Hans and Maria Hofmann Trust

Although now nearly forgotten, Hofmann also created two huge public murals in Manhattan. In 1956, for the developer William Kaufman, and in collaboration with the noted pioneer modernist architect William Lescaze, Hofmann created an astonishing, brilliantly colored mosaic mural, wrapped around the elevator bank in the main entrance hall of the office building at 711 Third Avenue. Two years later, in 1958, commissioned by the New York City Board of Education, Hofmann created a 64-foot long and
11-foot tall mosaic-tile mural for the High School of Printing (now the High School of Graphic Arts Communication) on West 49th Street.

These large scale stunning works will be brought back to life at the Bruce Museum via varied painted studies, mosaic maquettes, photos, and ephemera – as well as studies for a mural for an unrealized New York apartment house of the same period – which will show Hofmann's working methods. 

Mural II
Hans Hofmann (1880-1966)

Chimbote Mural Fragment of Part II, 1950

Oil on board, 84 ¼ x 36 ¼ in.

Renate, Hans and Maria Hofmann Trust

Photograph by Doug Young

Works by Hans Hofmann used with permission of the Renate, Hans and Maria Hofmann Trust

A scholarly catalogue has been created for the exhibition, with a foreword from the Renate, Hans and Maria Hofmann Trust, and essays by Curator Kenneth Silver and Mary McLeod, Professor at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University. Public programming planned for the exhibition includes the 2015 Bob and Pam Goergen Lecture Series, with lectures by Curator Kenneth E. Silver on Tuesday, May 5; Stacey Gershon, principal at Stacey Gershon Fine Art/MLG Art Advisory on Thursday, June 11; and Mary McLeod, Professor at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation, Columbia University, on Thursday, June 25. All lectures will be held at the Museum and will begin at 7:30 p.m.

Apartment Sketch

Hans Hofmann (1880-1966)

Mosaic for Apartment House Sketch No. 14, 1956

Gouache and collage on cardboard, 39 x 22 ⅝ in.

Collection of Deborah Goodman Davis
Photograph by Thomas Quigley

Works by Hans Hofmann used with permission of the Renate, Hans and Maria Hofmann Trust

About the Bruce Museum
The Bruce Museum is a museum of art and science and is located at One Museum Drive in Greenwich, Connecticut. The Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm; closed Mondays and major holidays. Admission is $7 for adults, $6 for students up to 22 years, $6 for seniors and free for members and children less than five years. Individual admission is free on Tuesday. Free on-site parking is available and the Museum is accessible to individuals with disabilities. For additional information, call the Bruce Museum at (203) 869-0376 or visit the website at http://brucemuseum.org

Madagascar: Ghosts of the Past at the Bruce Museum

The Bruce Museum located on One Museum Drive in Greenwich Connecticut has a show through November 8  titled  Madagascar: Ghosts of the Past, that only hints at the intrigue waiting for visitors to the Bruce Museum's science gallery.  Isolated for the last 88 million years, Madagascar is populated by hundreds of remarkable species that are found nowhere else on Earth.

Dinosaur Skull

Cast skull of the Malagasy dinosaur Majungasaurus.

Bruce Museum Collection

Photograph by Paul Mutino.  

Visitors will explore three major phases of Malagasy history and encounter a variety of living and extinct species. The exhibition includes casts of a carnivorous theropod dinosaur suspected of cannibalism and a snub-nosed plant-eating crocodilian.

Visitors will encounter giant lemurs, pygmy hippos and the elephant bird, a giant flightless species with an egg holding the volume of 150 chicken eggs!

_Lemur

Crowned lemur, Eulemur coronatus
Specimen courtesy Duke Lemur Center
Bruce Museum Collection
Photograph by Paul Mutino

The exhibition concludes by touching on the present, following the rapid extinction of many species as humans arrive on Madagascar.

There is a science lecture on June 2 at 7 pm and explores the bizarre and marvelous dinosaurs and other vertebrates of Madagascar. Dr. David Krause is the lecturer. To reserve call 203-413-6757.  There is a 6:30 p.m. reception for both events.

Masiakasaurus

Masiakasaurus knopfleri, a small predatory dinosaur with unusual teeth

Model created by Sean Murtha

Photograph by Paul Mutino

On August 16 from 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. there is a Madagascar Family Day that will feature fun family activities for all ages and a performance by Erik's Reptile Edventures. See live reptiles and amphibians from Madagascar and learn about their adaptations and the role they play in rainforest ecology and Malagasy culture. 

For more information about the Bruce Museum https://brucemuseum.org

2015 Memorial Day Weekend: HATS,PAINTINGS And POTTERY

Cornwall Bridge Pottery Store located on 415 Sharon Goshen Turnpike in the heart of Cornwall Bridge, just up the street from the historic covered bridge that spans the Housatonic River has once again announced it's annual lamp sale on May 23 and May 24 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Cornwall Bridge Pottery began making lamps back in 1976 for for Bloomingdale's as they hosted an American Craft Celebration
in honor of the nations 200th Anniversary. Since then, 40 years later, Cornwall Bridge Pottery has become world renown for their elegant and stylish designs. They are are now featured in the Shaker Workshops catalog and have even sold lamps to Green Mountain Coffee Roasters! They have customers using their lamps in the Caribbean,Europe and all across the United States.

So, you might say they are in a celebratory mood and this years selection of high quality lamps demonstrate their continued commitment to function, quality, and price. Some lamps will be discounted as much as 75%. But those go quickly so make sure you get there early.

Additionally, Cornwall Bridge Pottery will be formally introducing our partnership with a company called WaterCheck.Biz. This joint-venture is named Terra Water Pottery. There are few things that share a closer relationship than
clay and water. Put together, they not only produce the magnificence, beauty and practicality of ceramics, they also account for the vast majority of the makeup of the Earth's surface. But now, the two are coming together in a different manner. 

As an added incentive there will be a discount of 10% on all sales of Shaker furniture transacted during this Memorial Day Weekend period (good for ordered furniture as well as items from showroom floor). The pottery will also have ongoing
demonstrations of wheel-throwing as well as discussions and in-depth videos of the making and firing process.

In addition to this fabulous sale, there is a new Spring Art Exhibition in the gallery on the second floor. This year the Pottery is featuring painter John Thompson and a first-time-ever viewing of his latest series of Central Park paintings. Alongside of John's work they will exhibit fashion-driven hats designed and handmade by his daughter, milliner Ryan Wilde. There will be an OPENING RECEPTION Sunday, May 24, 2015 from 12 noon thru 3 p.m. Wine and cheese and crackers will be served.

John's works for this show FIFTH AVENUE are from a series he calls CENTRAL PARK. Oils, and giclee prints from watercolor sketchbooks will be on display reflecting the northeast corner of the park, specifically the sites of the Conservatory Garden and the Harlem Meer.

Ryan Wilde is presently employed as the millinery director of JJ Hat Center on Fifth Avenue in New York City,which at 104 years is the oldest hat store in New York. Thru JJ Hat, Ryan crafts for all heads. In particular celebrities such as Donald Trump, Lady Gaga, LL Cool J, Spike Lee and the Metropolitan Opera have sought her counsel, fashion sense and old-world
skills to create head adornment.

For more information about Cornwall Bridge Pottery visit http://www.cbpots.com.  For area information www.litchfieldhills.com

Family Feeding Time at the Maritime

 Families can help feed breakfast to the animals, while budding biologists dive into the worlds of turtles and sharks, through fun new public program on Sunday May 31 at The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk.

In the "Feeding Time" program, families enjoy a buffet breakfast at the Aquarium and then – prior to the Aquarium's opening for the day – join the marine biologists on key stops of their morning rounds. Feeding time takes place from 8 a.m. - 10 a.m.

Participants take a turn feeding the diamondback terrapins, horseshoe crabs and rays, and attend a private feeding of the seals. Best of all, they go behind-the-scenes to watch the feeding of the Aquarium's large sharks.

Cost is $45 per adult and $25 per child 12 & under ($40 & $20 for Aquarium members). Advance registration is required for public programs. Call (203) 852-0700, ext. 2206, or register online at www.maritimeaquarium.org under the "Fun & Learning" tab.

Food Glorious Food Juried Art Show at the Sharon Historical Society

The Sharon Historical Society located on 18 Main Street in Sharon Connecticut in the Litchfield Hills is hosting a juried exhibition and sale of artworks devoted to the subject of food, running through July 10, 2015 at The Gallery @the SHS. The Opening Reception will be May 16, 2015 from 5:00-7:00 PM. Drinks and light refreshments will be served.

Judges who will be selecting the entries and judging the artwork for cash prizes of $100, $75, and $50 are Dana Cowin, John Lund and Bowie Zunino.

Dana Cowin, a part-time Amenia resident, has been described as "the first lady of food." Throughout her career she has focused on the intersection of food, style, design, and innovation. As editor in chief of Food & Wine for over twenty years, she has worked with the world's most influential superstar chefs and tastemakers and helped launch the careers of countless rising talents. A self-described "pathologically positive" person with an acclaimed critical eye, Cowin is author of the recent book Mastering My Mistakes in the Kitchen.

Master printmaker John Lund, a native of Minnesota who now lives in Sharon, was trained in lithography and intaglio printing while in college at St. Olaf College and the University of Minnesota. Engaged in the field ever since his graduation, Lund spent the first half of his career at renowned fine art print publisher ULAE where he worked with many celebrated artists including Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Jim Dine, Claus Oldenberg as well as then-emerging artists Terry Winters, Elizabeth Murray, Carroll Dunham and Susan Rothenberg. He met and began working with iconic American artist Jasper Johns in the early 1970's and has been Johns' exclusive intaglio printer since 1996. Together, Lund and Johns have a established a notable collaboration resulting in over 70 editions. Lund's technical expertise as a printmaker has been credited with assisting Johns to achieve his creative vision.

Wassaic resident Bowie Zunino is a co-founder and co-executive director of The Wassaic Project, the arts organization based in the hamlet of Wassaic (Amenia), which provides a context for art making through inspiration, promotion and creation of contemporary visual and performing art, advancing the philosophy that art should foster and build community. She has a background in community-based art and education and has worked for a number of non-profits including Creative Time. Zunino has an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in sculpture and holds two degrees from Williams College in psychology and fine art. She has exhibited nationally.

The Gallery is open Wed. - Fri. from noon to 4 p.m. and on Sat. from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Wine Train - Ride the Naugatuck Railroad

The Naugatuck Railroad and Haigh-Brown Vineyard have teamed up on Sunday, May 24 at 2 p.m. for a scenic ride along the Naugatuck River with a stop at Haight-Brown Vineyard in Litchfield. This unique experience includes a scenic train ride, full wine tasting, food and winery tour.  This train ride is for adults only and the cost is $75 per person. For tickets https://www.dynamicticketsolutions.com/rmne/index.cfm

Participants will spend the afternoon in old-time luxury! Meet at the Railroad Museum of New England's Thomaston train station located on 242 East Main Street just off of Rte. 8, 20 to 30 minutes prior to the 2 pm train time before boarding a 1920s era vintage railroad car.

Guests on the train will enjoy a scenic New England train ride while sipping a glass or two of wine and light appetizers from Haight Brown Vineyard. Upon returning to the train station, ticket holders will return to their vehicles and travel 8 miles to Haight-Brown Vineyard via scenic Route 254, a 10 minute trip.

Upon arrival at the vineyard, participants will continue their wine tasting, paired with generous small plate delights! This special excursion is hosted by staff from the Vineyard and by the volunteers of the Railroad Museum of New England. For more information on the Naugatuck Railroad http://rmne.org.

New at the Vineyard is a new wine that was released on Mothers Day which is called Strawberry Bliss that is a riesling strawberry wine.  For more information about Haight-Brown Vineyard http://www.haightvineyards.com.