Prelude by Margaret Shore |
Museum News
Timothy F. Potts, director of the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, will succeed Edmund P. Pillsbury as director of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, TX. The National Gallery of Victoria has the oldest and largest public collection in Australia. During his tenure Potts made admission free for the first time in 30 years and supervised a major renovation project. Pillsbury steps down after 17 1/2 years at the Kimbell.
Anna Marie and Juan Hamilton, who inherited Georgia O’Keeffe’s personal property in 1987, have donated the objects to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe. The donation includes studio materials such as brushes, easels, and watercolors, as well as found objects such as bones and shells.
In Memorium
California painter and writer Bjorn Rye died August 18 at the age of 56. Born in Los Angeles and raised in Utah, he traveled widely, living in San Francisco, New York City, Athens, Munich, and London. After studying art history and creative writing at Columbia University, he published two novels and wrote art criticism for Artforum magazine.
In 1989 Rye returned to the Santa Barbara area and began to paint landscapes so successfully that he had sell-out shows at galleries in New York, San Francisco, and Santa Barbara during the past two years. His last paintings are on exhibit at Sarah Morthland Gallery in New York City through November 28, and a selection of works on paper is included in a group show at Easton Gallery, Santa Barbara, through November 29.
Nationally acclaimed artist Paul Strisik died July 22 at the age of 80. The Rockport, MA, artist was born in Brooklyn, NY, and after serving in the Navy during World War II, studied at the Art Students League in New York City and with Frank Vincent Dumond. In 1953 he moved to Rockport, where he was active in the Rockport Art Association and other local civic organizations.
Strisik was a member of the National Academy of Western Art, the American Watercolor Society, and the Oil Painters of America. His paintings are in the collections of museums across the country. He and his wife maintained a home in Santa Fe for 12 years, and he was honored as Artist of the Year by the Santa Fe Rotary Club in 1996. Massachusetts Governor Paul Cellucci has proclaimed April 21, the artist’s birthday, as Paul Strisik Day.
Serenity by Aleksander Titovets |
Recognition
Leading the West: One Hundred Contem-porary Painters and Sculptors [1997 Northland Publishing] by Don Hagerty won First Place in the 1998 Small Press Book Awards Special
Review Edition, which recognizes excellence in independent publishing.
After just three months as a member of the prestigious Salmagundi Club of New York City, painter Margret Short of Milwaukie, OR, won the Salmagundi Club Award at the club’s Member Summer Exhibit for her painting Prelude.
Elizabeth Brandon has been selected as the newest member of the American Academy of Women Artists for 1998.
Painter Dale TerBush donated A Last Breath of Twilight for a charity raffle at Danela Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ. The event raised more than $2,050 for the Christmas House Foundation, a nonprofit organi-zation that fosters musical enrichment for underprivileged youth in Phoenix.
At the Artists of America show in Denver, CO, in September, Curt Walters won the People’s Choice Award, and Aleksander Titovets won the Artists’ Choice Award.