Epoch Arts 3-17-2017

C1 March 17–23, 2017

MILENE FERNANDEZ/EPOCH TIMES

Untitled, 2015,

by Will St. John.

This oil painting was displayed at the “Consecrated Reality” exhibit of The Florence Academy of Art–U.S. in 2016.

ROMANOVA EKATERINA/SHUTTERSTOCK ORNAMENT ZHU DIFENG/SHUTTERSTOCK SILK

A RESURGENCE OF ART Ateliers lead the art world toward exalting excellence in beauty

By Milene Fernandez | Epoch Times Staff

NEW YORK—There’s a group of artists who most of the general public has yet to know exist. These are highly skilled painters, sculptors, and draftsmen trained in ateliers or academies who are not embarrassed to utter the word “beautiful” at a time when that word is generally scorned by the contemporary art establishment. You’ll hardly ever see their works in major museums or at major galleries for longer than a short stint. Most of their works are whisked away by private collectors or are sitting in their studios, waiting to be discovered.

These artists value quality over quantity, sincerity over cynicism, intrinsic value over marketing hype, and the Western tradition of fine art over the avant garde fixation on newness.

In an ironic twist of history, these traditional artists are perhaps the most radical and marginalized group of artists living today. And yet

their numbers are growing.

Mostly awkward or humble when they try to describe their own work, they don’t fit into any radical stereotype. Suspicious of labels, they don’t know what to call themselves because they are too immersed in creating visual art to be able to think about words. They have decided to continue the Western tradition of art that has a reverence for mastery and skill and to learn the fundamentals of a visual language that developed over 700 years.

“I was looking at Titian and Velazquez because I was letting myself get pulled along by my own desire for excellence, for mastery, which is naturally a human thing,” said Jacob Collins, during an interview at his studio. He’s the founder of the Grand Central Atelier.

See Art on C2

Offer your voice February 3–May 8, 2017 In this interactive space learn about the sacred syllable OM, and then record your own in the soundbooth. Your voice will be mixed with thousands of others in a collective chant, and featured in our upcoming exhibition The World Is Sound. #OMLab THE RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART 150 WEST 17TH STREET NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10011 RUBINMUSEUM.ORG

This installation is made possible through the generosity of HARMAN. Additional support provided by contributors to the 2017 Exhibitions Fund.

C2

@EpochArts

March 17–23, 2017 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts COURTESY OF EDWARD MINOFF

“Lyudmer Seascape,” 2015, by Edward Minoff. Oil on linen on panel. 24 inches by 60 inches.

A RESURGENCE OF ART COURTESY OF AMAYA GURPIDE

Art continued from C1 This resurgence is happening now after more than one hundred years of deskilling that led to the deterioration of visual art standards, which started when all of the “-isms” arose, such as modernism, postmodernism, and so forth (see article by Michael Wing on C4).

Artists today who paint representationally, or realistically, are then put in the awkward position of having to distinguish themselves from those whose works need written explanations for people to understand them. They shouldn’t have to call themselves anything other than perhaps simply artists. “In Florence, one did not call oneself an artist, but a painter; and when one earned the respect of others, ... one was given the title ‘maestro.’ These things made us feel that painting was a noble profession, deeply rooted in craft, culture, and community,” wrote Daniel Graves, founder of The Florence Academy of Art. Beyond the Material “Much of contemporary culture has become very exploitative. Our culture has almost become embarrassed by the idea of the sacred—not in a religious sense, but in the sense that something can be meaningful, that the experiences we represent in works of art can be meaningful in a real way,” said Jordan Sokol, the artist and director of The Florence Academy of Art—U.S. in Jersey City, New Jersey.

These artists experience the world deeply.

When they represent the world visually, instead of allowing random impulses to overtake them, they create consciously. They observe nature acutely, exercise their imaginations, and fine-tune their visual perceptions. They represent their way of understanding our chaotic world in the most beautiful and sincere way they can—with a level of skill that we have not seen in decades.

You know you are looking at one of their pieces when you can’t take your eyes away from it. You are left feeling uplifted and awestruck. You are relieved and delighted because this feeling is what you expect to gain from art.

This art is not a distraction, but deepens our appreciation for simply being alive.

These artists are not only impressive because of their technical skill but because they are infused with a vitality that defies words. It’s the kind of art that does not need words to justify it.

“Ideally, if the artist invented a world and inhabited it, then the person looking at the painting might be able to go into that world and feel something. If there was a reverie in its invention, then conceivably there would be a reverie in your appreciation of it,” Collins said.

This is a radical approach to art today, expressing a yearning for beauty at a time when apparently anything—including extremely ugly things—can pass for contemporary art, once it is propped up and marketed as such.

SAMIRA BOUAOU/EPOCH TIMES

(Left) “Reverie”

by Amaya Gurpide.

Graphite, white chalk, black conte, gauche on hand toned paper.

(Right) Amaya Gurpide draws in her studio at The Florence Academy of Art–U.S. branch, on Aug. 1, 2016.

“It would be problematic for a very high-level curator of contemporary art to try to exhibit me,” said Collins, at the opening of a recent exhibition at Eleventh Street Arts gallery. “I think they would be essentially repudiating a hundred years of ideology. … They would have to be some kind of genius to be able to engage all of the flack that they would get. They would have to have brass balls.”

“There’s a stigma associated with the art that we do. Many people see what we are doing as not culturally significant,” said Sokol. He then pointed out that it is impossible for any artist to create outside of their time period, just as it would be impossible for anybody to jump out of their skin.

He was referring to the current exhibition, “Drawn to Life” at The Florence Academy of Art– U.S. gallery, showing 14 academic figure drawings from the 19th and 20th centuries (through May 5). The academy students have the opportunity to copy the works as part of their education.

“When I look back in time, I can tell the difference between a drawing that’s done in the 1950s, in the 1920s, in the 1890s, in the 1860s, and I don’t think that was necessarily intended by the artists,” Sokol said. “They weren’t saying to themselves, ‘We need to draw our time.’ There is a technical language among good representational painters now; you can tell right away that it’s contemporary.”

Just by the sheer fact that these artists are creating such highly skilled paintings with such rigor, infusing it with a sanctity and respect for life, says something about our time. No matter how marginalized they may be, what they choose to paint and how they paint it says something about our time. The increasing number of ateliers around the country and abroad, and the increasing number of technical books on drawing, painting, and studio practice being published in recent years (for example, by Juliette Aristides, Jon de Martin, and Robert Zeller), says something about our time.

We truly feel great art. It’s an experience that cannot be described— like falling in love.

Beauty holds the substance that allows us access to the nourishment we enjoy in the experience of art.

Daniel Graves, founder, The Florence Academy of Art

21st-Century Ateliers Certain people have always felt the need to visually represent what they see realistically. This

BENJAMIN CHASTEEN/EPOCH TIMES

See Art on C7 MILENE FERNANDEZ/EPOCH TIMES

It would be problematic for a very high level curator of contemporary art to try to exhibit me‥.

has remained true, since even before the Lascaux cave paintings were made 17,000 years ago. Despite the deskilling in art education and the contemporary art trends exalted by the art establishment in recent decades, some artists have longed to find someone who could teach them how to draw, paint, and sculpt as rigorously as the old masters did. Apart from some illustration schools, many fine art schools in colleges barely teach the fundamentals of drawing and painting—neglecting composition, perspective, rendering of lights and darks, and so forth.

“When I was 18, as far as I knew there wasn’t anywhere I could go where anyone could teach me what I really wanted to learn. So I had accepted a pretty widespread myth, which was that anyone who knew how to do this had evaporated at the same moment right after 1913, and that anyone who wanted to learn how to do it again was going to have to teach themselves. I had heard that a lot,” Collins said.

Collins did spend a long time teaching himself, copying drawings by the greats, like Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Rembrandt.

Eventually, he found two of his main teachers, Tony Ryder and Ted Seth Jacobs, who taught at The Art Students League of New York.

“There was a specific something that Ted and Tony were talking about in drawing and painting in a certain way. More than a method, it really became a lifeline in the sense of connecting with other people who were sharing those values,” Collins said. He had connected with a lineage, like a DNA chain.

Jacobs’s teacher was Frank Reilly, whose teacher was George Bridgman, who was taught

by Jean-Léon Gérôme, who can be traced back to J.A.D. Ingres and Jacques-Louis David, whose lineage could be roughly traced back to Andrea del Sarto, a contemporary of Michelangelo.

Collins taught classes at The New York Academy of Art, the National Academy, and later in his own atelier, housed first in his brownstone studio, later on Water Street, and is now at Grand Central Atelier in Queens.

SAMIRA BOUAOU/EPOCH TIMES

If you listen to the conversation, you hear a group of people who are making sacrifices to do something beautiful.

Jacob Collins, artist and founder of Grand Central Atelier, in Daniel Graves (C), founder of The Florence Academy of Art, Judith Kudlow, artist and director of the NYK Academy at with the director of the U.S. branch, Jordan Sokol (L), and Willow Avenue Atelier in the Bronx, on Feb. 23. his studio in New York in 2015. principal instructor Amaya Gurpide in 2016.

C3

@EpochArts

March 17–23, 2017 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts

The Gap in Art Education in Schools POZNYAKOV/SHUTTERSTOCK

By Sharon Kilarski | Epoch Times Staff Art collector and businessman Fred Ross had completed his master’s in art just a few years before when, in 1977, he stumbled across the painting “Nymphs and Satyr” by WilliamAdolphe Bouguereau—a moment that would change his life.

Ross was so taken with the painting he was “frozen in place, gawking with my mouth agape, cold chills careening up and down my spine,” as he wrote on the Art Renewal Center (ARC) website.

At this point, he needed to get his bearings. Who had painted this masterpiece? Why hadn’t he known this piece before? When he looked at the date, 1873, he couldn’t understand why he hadn’t been taught about this master artist in school.

Our Changing Views on Art Education In the last half-century, it seems that few attempts have been made to hold on to the classical methods of producing fine art, or even seeing it. According to Arthur Efland in his essay “Art Education in the Twentieth Century,” this may be due to the tendency in education to swing back and forth between focusing either on the arts or on the sciences.

Depending on the social issues of the time, we have focused on either the “objective detachment and precision” of science or the “affective engagement and participatory learning” through art.

In the 1960s, President John F. Kennedy’s administration began funding the Arts and Humanities program, which arose with the beginnings of the counterculture movement. By 1968, the United States saw a twofold increase in the number of art teachers graduating from college, according to Mary Ann Stankiewicz, professor of art education at Penn State.

Later, in the 1980s, when the United States struggled to maintain technological superiority to the Soviets and economic superiority to the Japanese, the pendulum moved to the other side, with a more analytical approach.

The J. Paul Getty Trust attempted to bring art education to all K-12 children, not just to those talented artistically. The center for the education in the arts focused not on artistic expression, but on art as means to enhance general education, asking that art criticism, history, and critical theory should be included in the curriculum.

Reeling from the idea that art education should be more intellectual in approach, some Florida and New York art teachers in the 1990s mounted a defense highlighting the social and cognitive benefits of hands-on creation, including enhanced empathy, crea-

PRESSMASTER/SHUTTERSTOCK

The role of arts education has changed over the decades, but one thing that has remained constant has been the absence of an emphasis on classical art, whether on appreciating it or on gaining the skills to create it. tivity, self-esteem, and analytic abilities. Art projects seeped into all subjects and were seen as a means of problem-solving, according to The New York Times.

Today, it’s hard to get a fix on what goes on in classrooms. The Department of Education released an updated report on art education in 2009–2010 that included data on how many schools offered visual arts education—whether the teachers were specialists or only classroom teachers, how often and how long they taught—but nothing on what was taught.

If we consider those who are awarded for their contributions to art education, we find some piecemeal evidence that the classics are no longer being taught.

In 2000, Kay Schempp won the Teacher of the Year award in Connecticut. In her acceptance speech, she emphasized that creativity is her driving force both in life and in teaching, and her tools included whatever governmental standards, “multicultural, interdisciplinary feminist, and postmodern” subject matter, were at hand.

Last April, the Louisiana educator Barbara Clover was named Art Educator of the Year by the National Art Education Association (NAEA). In her classroom, she introduced juniors and seniors to modern and postmodern works—not traditional art. So highly esteemed is this kind of art education that last May, Ms. Clover was honored for her achievements by President Barack Obama.

Opera Review

‘Idomeneo’

A New Movement The teaching of modern and postmodern art to the exclusion of classical art is what Ross discovered when he began to research Bouguereau. Ross found that not only had Bouguereau—the most famous painter of his era—been dismissed later by the world of modern art and by art educators in the 20th century, but so had all of Bouguereau’s colleagues, as well as traditional skills for drawing and painting.

Ross’s discovery eventually led him to found ARC, which caters to professional artists in an effort to both preserve and further the traditional high standards of excellence in the visual arts.

An offshoot of ARC is the Da Vinci Initiative (DVI), co-founded by Ross’s daughter Kara Ross and artist-educator Mandy Hallenius. The DVI offers teacher training at the K-12 level in traditional drawing and painting techniques.

In the past five years, Hallenius has personally introduced classical art training to over 1,000 teachers across the country. According

to Hallenius, who had previously taught art in public schools, art teachers didn’t even know these skills were still available.

“I’ve had teachers in tears because they didn’t even know they could learn to draw,” she told Epoch Times, in a previous interview.

“There’s a hunger in the art community for this knowledge. So they’re eager to pursue it.”

While ignorance may be the reason for not teaching these skills, for some teachers it may be that they see technical skills as being in opposition to inspiration and creativity.

In a 2003 study of elementary school teachers published in the journal Visual Arts Research, the results of the researchers’ questionnaire showed confusion in the minds of teachers. A high majority of teachers “agreed that it takes practice and effort to create works of art” and at the same time that inspiration “is more important than skill when creating works of art.”

These statements seem contradictory. If creating art requires skill, which we would assume would come through “practice and effort,” why would inspiration be more important?

According to Hallenius, the dichotomy between skill and inspiration/creativity is the very heart of the problem. These attributes are not opposites but are complementary.

Visual art skills are the means to give clear utterance to one’s inspiration, Hallenius says.

Imagine that we could compose music without ever taking a music lesson, she said. “No one thinks that we either play piano or we don’t. People realize we need to take piano lessons in order to learn to play.”

“Like teaching rhythm, tempo, and scales in music class so that a student has many tools to express themselves through music, so too is there a need for a skill-based education in the visual arts. By learning solid draftsmanship, color theory, paint handling skills, perspective, etc., students can expand their own toolbox for visual expression,” the DVI website states.

Hallenius believes that traditional, classical art training is gaining ground. This is certainly true at the professional level of schooling. According to Kara Ross, in 2000, her father could find only 14 schools around the world teaching this type of training, and now ARC has over 70 approved schools and programs. In addition, ARC has a formal relationship with 24 allied organizations dedicated to traditional art techniques. But she believes there are probably more than a 100 organizations around the country.

Gaining momentum at an unprecedented rate, the resurgence, Hallenius said, is the new “countercultural movement in visual arts training.”

MARTY SOHL/METROPOLITAN OPERA

A scene from Mozart’s “Idomeneo.”

Mozart’s opera returns to the Met with distinction

By Barry Bassis The key event that drives the plot in “Idomeneo” is a ruler making a promise that he is reluctant to fulfill, which leads to disaster. The situation sounds contemporary but the opera takes place shortly after the Trojan War. The Mozart opera, which premiered in 1781 when the composer was just 25 years old, is back at the Metropolitan Opera with a first-class cast and the venerable James Levine conducting.

The Plot The title character is the king of Crete, who has been fighting in support of the Greeks in the Trojan War. He has left his son Idamante to rule Crete in his absence and the young man is irresistible to the women around him: Ilia, the daughter of the Trojan king, Priam; and Elettra, Agamemnon’s daughter.

Aside from the fact that the two were on opposite sides in the war, both have problems. The first is a captive and the second is somewhat unhinged. She avenged the murder of her father by killing the responsible party, her mother.

When the opera begins, Idamante declares his love for Ilia and orders the Trojan prisoners released. An announcement is made that the victorious fleet sailing back to Crete has been shipwrecked and the king drowned. In fact, Idomeneo survived the disaster by rashly promising Neptune that he would sacrifice the first man he sees on land.

He is horrified when the first person he encounters turns out to be his son, Idamante.

The young man senses that his father is not especially happy to see him and wonders what has caused the rift between them.

The second act starts with Idomeneo and his advisor Arbace, in whom he has confided, trying to figure out how to save Idamante. They come up with the idea that they will send him out of the country by having him accompany Elettra back to her homeland. She welcomes the news, hoping that she will win over Idamante while her rival remains behind in Crete.

Before the ship departs, a storm descends and a sea monster wreaks havoc upon the inhabitants of Crete. Idomeneo realizes that he is responsible because he violated his pledge and offers himself as a sacrifice, but to no avail.

The high priest demands the identity of the person who is supposed to be put to death. Idomeneo reluctantly reveals that it is his own son. However, before the sacrifice can be performed, Idamante slays the monster. When he discovers the real reason for his father’s apparent coldness toward him, Idamante expresses his willingness to die in order to save his people. The lovelorn Ilia offers herself as a stand-in.

Before anyone else can offer their lives, the disembodied voice of Neptune offers this compromise: the sacrifice will be nullified if Idomeneo gives up his throne to his son. The offer is immediately accepted. Thus, Ilia and Idamante and the Cretans live happily ever after, except for the unbalanced Elettra.

The Production The director and designer Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s 1982 production of “Idomeneo” still looks impressive. Sometimes his immense sets overwhelm the action (as in his “The Marriage of Figaro” at the Met Opera) but here, with its heroes, gods, and monsters, it seems just right.

The 1982 production starred Luciano Pavarotti. Taking over the role, American tenor

The 1982 production starred Luciano Pavarotti.

‘Idomeneo’ The Metropolitan Opera 30 Lincoln Center Plaza Tickets 212-362-6000 or MetOpera.org Running Time 4 hours Closes March 25

Matthew Polenzani may not be as big of a star, but his singing is unfailingly refined with the proper dramatic fire. His renditions of the arias “Vedrommi intorno” and “Fuor del mar” were among the high points of the performance.

Nadine Sierra is a lovely Ilia, moving gracefully and delivering lovely singing, especially her “Padre, germani, addio.” Mezzo-soprano Alice Coote may not look especially boyish as Idamante but sang with taste. Elza van den Heever is a fiery Elettra, making a strong impression from her Act 1 aria “Tutte nel cor” to her mad scene in Act 3.

Baritone Alan Opie was scheduled as Arbace but he canceled for health reasons. Gregory Schmidt was a talented replacement, giving a fine rendition of the Act 2 aria, “Se il tuo duol.”

The off-stage voice of Neptune is supplied by the outstanding bass Eric Owens.

James Levine, who conducted the 1982 production, returned and, as expected, led with distinction. “Idomeneo” is not one of Mozart’s better known operas, but it is filled with beautiful music, and here it is performed by an impeccable cast.

Barry Bassis has been a music, theater, and travel writer for over a decade for various publications.

C4

@EpochArts

March 17–23, 2017 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts

Commentary

Of ‘-isms,’ Institutions, and Radicals

A commentary on the origins of modern art and the importance of tradition VIT KOVALCIK/SHUTTERSTOCK

By Michael Wing

F

or many centuries, classical Western art was transmitted from generation to generation. Masters passed down their skills to disciples, who eventually became masters themselves, and so it continued. Over many generations, their techniques were honed to a high level of perfection.

This tradition lasted up to the 20th century, when it ceased all at once and artistic inheritance was replaced quickly by one “-ism” after another—impressionism, post-impressionism, and cubism, to name a few. What caused this radical transformation, and why is art changing at such a rapid pace today?

As trends in modern art have changed like the wind, drifting further and further away from what most would consider “normal” art, it’s become increasingly hard to define what art is.

Painting doesn’t always involve painting.

Sculpture doesn’t always involve sculpting.

Some artists are calling a light flickering off and on “art,” while others put dead animals on display and call that “art.” Some say overturning moral boundaries is “progressive,” while some even say that acts like a person vomiting expands our idea of what “beauty” is, and on it goes. While these artists may come up with well-crafted explanations to support their work, I think these leave many people more puzzled than before.

Looking back through history to when all of these new art movements or “-isms” began, we find that they were conceived amid the radical political movements of the mid-19th century.

By 1848, there was a wave of change moving across Europe, and simultaneous rebellions swept across the continent. The rebellions were led by various groups, working in concert to oppose the conservative order, ranging in ideology from moderate revolutionaries (Liberalists and Nationalists) to extreme radicals (Communists).

On the other side, the conservatives believed the monarchy, which had been inherited from ancient times, was appointed by God, and they wanted to preserve this hereditary order. The moderates wanted to abolish the monarchy and establish constitutional governments, while the radicals wanted to eliminate all forms of government, allow workers to control industry, and redistribute the wealth among themselves.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote the “Communist Manifesto” that same year. In this book, they stated that the goal of communism was “the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions”—in other words, a bloody revolution and the destruction of traditional culture.

They believed that the working class, the proletariat, should then rule the world as an egalitarian dictatorship. All men would be “equal” and free of oppression from the state, they said.

It was an idea those hungry for change were quick to latch on to.

The revolts of 1848 were soon put down by conservative forces, yet revolution remained in the minds of groups across the continent. Two decades later, after the French were defeated in the Franco-Prussian war, radical groups took advantage of the chaos to besiege Paris and refused to accept the authority of the French government. Known as the Paris Commune, this radical occupation was later declared by Marx to be the first communist revolution.

Why do we love to visit places like Paris, Rome, and Florence, places filled with classical arts and architecture?

ROXANA BASHYROVA/SHUTTERSTOCK

Lungarno degli Acciaiuoli Street in Florence, Italy.

Movements One participant of this revolution was the realist painter Gustave Courbet. He organized a group of radical artists, the Federation of Artists, which included a number of famous painters such as Manet, Daumier, and Corot. As part of Courbet’s mandate, the Federation tore down a neo-classical monument called the Vendôme Column (which was later rebuilt) and also sought to abolish the leading French art academy, the École des Beaux-Arts—the center of the art world at the time.

Courbet was a realist painter who sought through his work to undermine the classical methods of painting. Classical painting aimed to express beauty through the human form by idealizing it. Established proportions and conventions for representing the human body were employed to bridge the gap between the transcendental world of ideas—goodness, beauty, and so forth—and the real world.

Like many realist painters of his day, Courbet depicted the world as it really was—sometimes ugly or mundane. “It is society at its best, its worst, its average,” he wrote of his realism in one letter.

And he did as such with revolution in mind, with an aim to undermine the classical tradition and liberate the arts. He wrote on more than one occasion that he studied art with-

From the time of the ancient Greeks and earlier, artists have sought to uplift humankind through their work.

out regard for any system, and that he did not want to copy the ancients but to discover his own individuality, to be original and contemporary. After all, Courbet had a penchant for marketing and was well known for his appetite for fame. “My success in Paris just at present is incredible. I shall soon be the only artist left,” he wrote in one letter.

His work was praised by contemporary and later radicals alike, including those who went on to emulate his work. His break from the academies and institutions and from realist philosophy made him “a pioneering figure in the history of modernism,” according to an essay by Kathryn Calley Galitz, an art historian with the Met Museum.

After the French government regained control of Paris, the political situation eventually stabilized. But during the last few decades of the 19th century, groups of artists began to feel the fever of revolution. Before long, defiant new art movements sprung up one after another. First came the Impressionists, then Post-Impressionists, then the Fauvists, then the Cubists, and so forth.

The first of these began when students of the École des Beaux-Arts decided one day to break with tradition by painting outdoors (painting was traditionally done indoors). They also had new ideas about painting objects subjectively, as the eye sees it—based on an impression— as opposed to the traditional way of painting objects objectively, based on established conventions and ideas; hence they were dubbed the Impressionists. Their techniques differed, too. Whereas the classical method required clean linear contours and the smooth blending of tones, the Impressionists painted objects without contours and in choppy, unblended brushstrokes.

Initially, the Impressionists were met with fierce hostility from the arts establishment, and their works were banned from the official exhibitions called the Salons. They were nevertheless granted the right to show their work at an alternate venue dubbed the Salon des Refusés or the “exhibition of rejects”—a rather unflattering title. Yet it is claimed that their exhibition drew more visitors than the official venue because of the newness of their painting. Indeed, as the years passed, people became more fascinated by the works of the Impressionists, and as their pictures became increasingly acceptable, it eventually became commonplace to see them in the official Salons alongside traditional works.

Although this break with tradition may seem like a minor rebellion by today’s standards, it snowballed from there. Impressionism was just the first of a multitude of “-isms” that would follow over the course of the next century. And just as the works of the Impressionists became accepted, so did those of other movements. The Post-Impressionists popped up, and they critiqued Impressionist paintings as being merely “pretty pictures.” They aimed to break through more boundaries. The Fauvists, or “Wild Beasts,” came next, dashing fierce colors onto the canvas.

Then came the Cubists, led by Picasso. A Cubist named Marcel Duchamp turned the art world on its head by presenting a ready-made object—in this case, an actual urinal—as his work for an exhibition in New York. Although this work was rejected at the time, the artists

The Intimate and Individualistic Personality of the Harpsichord

By Catherine Yang | Epoch Times Staff

COURTESY OF JOCELYN STEWART

upon the instrument as a piano student. What really captivated her once she ventured into harpsichord studies was the “very personal and emotional qualities of the music,” she said.

How, through the sensitive keyboard instrument and unique repertoire, she could create entire worlds through music and be as free as she liked.

T

he practice of music therapy in the modern Western world may well have begun during the age of Enlightenment, when medical practitioners, philosophers, and artists revived the ancient Greek ideas of the curative powers of music and firmly believed in the power of music to affect emotions, and thus our physiological states of being.

Richard Brocklesby, an 18th-century English physician, notably wrote how “the most violent passions of the mind produce the most apparent alterations on the body”; ailments of the mind were caused by an excess of grief, fear, anger, or even joy, but could be allayed by music.

“This is a time period when people really actively thought that music could move not just your emotions, but could change you physiologically and maybe even morally, and there were all these things written to that effect,” said baroque music specialist and harpsichordist Jocelyn Stewart. And thus, composers at the time “really made an effort to write music that would speak very directly from the heart.”

Stewart, like most harpsichordists, happened

Jocelyn Stewart, harpsichordist and baroque specialist.

Playing the Harpsichord The harpsichord is an intimate keyboard instrument in a physical sense in that it has more fingertip control—more of a sense of connection—than a piano, though players have less control on a harpsichord over the sound once the key is hit. It also differs in that the strings are not hit but plucked. In that regard, it can sound more like a lute or guitar, Stewart said.

It bears another similarity to stringed instruments in that players have to tune it every time they play—with the difference being that it has over a hundred strings.

Each harpsichord is a little different in its construction—there are different numbers of keys or even keyboards, different placements for the knobs, different sizes of the instrument—and players tend to be well acquainted

with the instrument’s maker and understand the mechanics themselves.

The harpsichord was an important instrument between the 15th and 18th centuries in Europe (the Enlightenment began around the late 17th century and lasted to the early 19th century), and it underwent many technical developments in the 16th century that varied widely by region.

By the late 18th century, the harpsichord had been replaced by the piano. It wasn’t until the 20th century that instrument makers took a renewed interest in the harpsichord and sought to rebuild the old instrument. The copies made in the first half-century or so were highly experimental, but by the second half of the century they had most of it figured out, and the instruments were pretty good, Stewart said. It was around that time that Americans became interested in early music—medieval, Renaissance, and baroque. The initial excitement has died down, but today the harpsichord, and early music, are considered staples of the mainstream classical music genre.

Music for the harpsichord requires a bit of detective work to really get it right.

Early music scores are sparse. The composers

C5

@EpochArts

March 17–23, 2017 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts PUBLIC DOMAIN

This painting by Henri Felix Emmanuel Philippoteaux (1815–1884) depicts Lamartine, a reformist, before the Hôtel de Ville in Paris, rejecting the Red Flag on Feb. 25, 1848. The red flag represents terror, blood, and a “party’s republic,” Lamartine told the crowd.

RUDY BALASKO/SHUTTERSTOCK

and art schools that came later deemed this as groundbreaking, thus foreshadowing the idea that anything can be called “art.”

And things continued in that direction from then on, leading to abstractionism, minimalism, pop art, postmodernism, and so on. These “-isms” eventually gained so much traction that they were able to essentially push out the classical arts from the academies where they once had their home. The traditional arts then were denounced and rejected as irrelevant to the modern world.

Asking Questions Now, to discover anything from this, we need to start asking questions. Each of these movements more or less saw the preceding one as somehow inadequate and aimed to surpass it by breaking through more boundaries. As this process continued, the new art movements pushed out the old ones.

Let us ask: What value did this radical new art have? Were they right to topple the establishment? What about the traditional works of art; is there any merit in them? I have a few thoughts on the matter and have also pulled some ideas from thinkers, past and present.

I have always felt that good artwork ought to be able to stand the test of time. The classical arts have lasted for over a millennium, while modern works, even those as late as the 1980s, are already considered outdated. The classical arts aimed to portray what is timeless, and these are still admired today. Is there perhaps more to them than meets the eye?

One 18th-century writer, Edmund Burke, known as the forefather of modern conservatism, discussed these issues at length. Regarding the test of time, he said that “we [the British] cherish [traditions, customs, and conventions] to a very considerable degree, … and the longer they have lasted and the more generally they have prevailed, the more we cherish them.” This seems to suggest that traditions have value by virtue of the fact that they have prevailed most widely among people for the longest time; that is, people in general pronounce that those traditions are good.

With regard to the attacks leveled against the established arts, Burke also argued that things

were not writing with a few hundred years into the future in mind. The musicians interpreting harpsichord music at the time had an understanding of what the style was, and what was expected beyond just the notes on the page.

“If you played it literally, it would make absolutely no sense—there are quite a few pieces like that,” Stewart said.

She remembers sitting down with a score with normal note values written on it, but instead of a tempo at the beginning of the piece, the composer had inscribed an instruction that reads “Play it with no sense of the time,” she said.

“In other words, you have to figure out the emotions within it. He put it down in a very skeletal way, but you have to figure out how to breathe life into it.”

Italian composer Girolamo Alessandro Frescobaldi (1583–1643), considered one of the most important keyboard composers whose work influenced many outside of Italy, including Henry Purcell, Johann Pachelbel, and Johann Sebastian Bach, wrote many virtuosic pieces for the keyboard. He mostly composed for the organ, but wrote lovely harpsichord pieces as well that really make the instrument sing, Stewart said. One of his famous inscriptions, from a particularly difficult toccata, a virtuoso piece, reads “Not without toil will you get to the end.” Another read “Understand me, [who can,] as long as I can understand myself.”

The Roman Forum during sunrise.

A portrait of Edmund Burke (1729–1797) by James Northcote (1746–1831).

A statesman and political thinker, Burke produced many works, including a study on history, a treatise on aesthetics, and his political commentary that was praised by both conservatives and liberals past his time.

may not be as they first appear when viewed in a broader context. Perceived flaws within traditions might, in fact, have valid reasons apparent in a broader societal context—one spanning generations and encompassing a diversity of social dispositions, ranks, professions, and ages—rather than from the confined views of the individual.

As Burke puts it: “The real effects of moral causes are not always immediate; but that which in the first instance is prejudicial may be excellent in its remoter operation, and its excellence may arise even from the ill effects it produces in the beginning.”

“The reverse also happens,” he added, “and very plausible schemes, with very pleasing commencements, have often shameful and lamentable conclusions.”

Based on this statement, I would say that the killings in the name of political revolution, as well as the ugly trampling of moral values in the arts today both qualify as “shameful and lamentable conclusions.”

Meanwhile, the perceived “flaws” in the traditional arts may not be as they first seem either: The classical traditions weren’t always the most fashionable of arts and may have even seemed stiff, unimportant, and contrived to the liberalminded people of the day. They nevertheless endure and still manage to captivate people in our society even today. Indeed, their perceived inadequacy was nonetheless “excellent in its remoter operation.”

To develop this idea further, I would say that

Luckily, during the Enlightenment, everyone sought to explain their craft through writing.

Comprehensive books on the history of Western music were written during the time, and skilled musicians wrote treatises on how to play various period instruments.

For the harpsichord, one of the most important documents is French composer François Couperin’s treatise “The Art of Playing the Harpsichord,” in which he details how the instrument should be played, from the physical position and the demeanor of the player, to exercises with fingerings.

Couperin (1668–1733), part of a famous musical dynasty, wrote pieces that expressed certain moods through harmonies and resolved dissonances that were ideal for the harpsichord. He titled his works with names like “The Mysterious Barricades,” “The Nightingale in Love,” and “Tender Languors.”

His techniques were influential during his time, and continued to be so when small instances of interest in old music sparked in the 19th century. Composers like Johannes Brahms made efforts to revive Couperin’s work and used similar forms and harmonic patterns in their own keyboard compositions.

Communicating Baroque Sensibilities During these studies, Stewart said it really hit her how much the performer becomes part of

[The composer] put it down in a very skeletal way, but you have to figure out how to breathe life into it.

Jocelyn Stewart, harpsichordist

no individual person or group can produce the sort of socially engendered knowledge that lends to tradition its longevity. To try to innovate something entirely new is profoundly risky (i.e. impossible), and this has already been substantiated by the fact that all of these “-isms” were found to have inadequacies. They turned out to be just puffs of smoke; or in the case of communism, something far worse: a killing machine like nothing the world had ever seen before, a false utopia, and a profound lesson for mankind.

Modern-day philosopher Roger Scruton, whose views are quite similar to Burke’s, sums it up quite nicely: “These things are important, these traditions, and institutions, because they contain inside themselves the knowledge that people need in order to live successfully, and peacefully, together. But it’s not a knowledge that can be translated into abstract principles. It lives in the institutions.”

It seems to me that modern art was radical in its inception, and is still radical today. From what we have discovered, the modern arts have their roots in communism, an ideology that eradicates all forms of culture. All the subsequent “-isms” adhered to that mandate right up to today, and its proponents would have us accept their testimony without further inquiry.

I wonder how our society might have turned out had it not been so. Just take a look at all the magnificent things that came from the ancient world. Why do we love to visit places like Paris, Rome, and Florence, places filled with classical arts and architecture? Imagine our world today if we had established more of those wonderful things in our lives.

From the time of the ancient Greeks and earlier, artists have sought to uplift humankind through their work. Although the world we live in today may seem ugly and unpleasant at times—one need only watch the global news to see what horrors go on in the world—that just makes the decent things in life all the more precious. The traditional arts aim to lift us out of this ugliness by expressing values such as goodness and beauty. Our ancient ancestors gave us a rather sophisticated vehicle for realizing such ideas: the traditional arts.

the artistic process and final product, and thus how much responsibility she had to the music.

Near the beginning of her studies, she remembers playing a piece she found very interesting, but the response from her listener had been, “Well, I didn’t understand that.”

“Music has to communicate. You can’t just say, ‘It’s interesting from a historical standpoint; you should like it.’ I had to make it likable,” Stewart said. And this is something she stresses in the classroom: “I tell my students, it’s not enough to be correct and please a teacher or to follow the rules. You simply have to make your audience understand it and enjoy listening to it.”

As important as it is to understand how much responsibility a harpsichordist carries as a performer, they have to also give themselves permission to perform in a personal way, Stewart said. “You have to put yourself into it, to take a risk. If you think this is what the piece means, or this is what the phrase means, then go for it.”

“You have to play in a way that is meaningful to you, that has your own identity,” Stewart said.

On March 21, coincidentally Bach’s birthday, Stewart will perform a harpsichord recital of works by Frescobaldi, Couperin, Froberger, Bach, and Scarlatti, at the Manhattan School of Music at 7:30 p.m.

C6

@EpochArts

March 17–23, 2017 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts AP PHOTO

Toscanini at 150

The Maestro Lives On March 28, 7:30 p.m.

Lincoln Center David Rubenstein Atrium

ONGOING IN MANHATTAN

Arturo Toscanini left an indelible mark on the New York Philharmonic, both musically and politically. Drawing on materials from the Philharmonic’s archives and collections of Toscanini’s letters, Toscanini expert Harvey Sachs will present a show and tell of the New York Philharmonic’s milestones that defined Toscanini at the height of his career. Free. LincolnCenter.org/atrium

THINGS TO DO GOOD FOR KIDS

NEW IN MANHATTAN Paper Engineering Workshop March 17, 7 p.m. (age 13+) March 19, 11 a.m. (age 5–10) Sunnyside Plays 43-09 48th Ave., Queens Discover how pop-up books are made and how ideas can be realized by using paper in creative ways. These workshops are taught by artist and author Sam Ita, creator of over 20 titles, specializing in movable books, origami and paper craft. $20. RSVP: sunnysideplays@gmail.com SunnysidePlays.com Irish Cultural Festival March 17–19 Children’s Museum of Manhattan 212 W. 83rd St. The Children’s Museum of

Manhattan will be celebrating Irish culture with a weekend of scavenger hunts, stories, and design workshops. For ages 5 and up. Requires sign-up for activities one hour before events. Free with admission.

CMOM.org Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Fallen Giant March 26, 3 p.m.

Merkin Concert Hall 129 W. 67th St. With a playful libretto by E.M. Lewis and mysterious score by Evan Meier, this opera mash-up honors the classic detective stories of Sherlock Holmes in a romp through a fairy tale world to solve a mystery unlike any Holmes and Watson have encountered before. $25.

KaufmanMusicCenter.org The Princess, the Emperor, and the Duck Through April 28 Swedish Cottage Marionette

Funerals & Cremation Made Simple

THE GANNON FUNERAL HOME

{

Call or visit our website for a FREE informational package

{

GannonFuneralHome.com

212-532-6579

Our family serving yours with love and compassion for over 91 years.

Classifieds

To advertise: 212-239-2808 classifieds@epochtimes.nyc

Restaurant Business for Sale/Lease.

For sale/ lease-Restaurant in Manhattan location near VA Hospital, Hunter, NYU HOSPITAL, Peter Cooper Village & Stuyvesant town apartment complex. Great opportunity for any food or franchise. Please call owner Nick @ 917 642-3207 for more information.

DEPRESSION

The Medical Research Network is conducting research study programs with investigational, fast-acting antidepressants for adults with Depression.

Study participation is free and confidential. Eligible participants may be compensated for study visits.

Call or TEXT: 212-595-5012 www.MedicalResearch Network.com

Rush Tax Resolution

RUSH Tax Resolution. You Could SAVE Thousands! Call for your FREE Tax Record 1- 800-814-6120

Page Publishing

Become a published author!

International distribution, print and digital formats. Books sold at major retailers. Contact Page Publishing for your FREE author submission kit.

CALL 1- 800-985-2501

Geeks on Site

Computer problems - viruses, lost data, hardware or software issues? Contact Geeks On Site!

24/7 Service. Friendly Repair Experts. Macs and PCs. Call for FREE diagnosis.

1-800-849-4182

Omaha Steaks

ENJOY 100% guaranteed, delivered to-the-door Omaha Steaks! SAVE 75% PLUS get 4 FREE Omaha Steaks Burgers.

Order The Family Gourmet Buffet - ONLY $49.99.

1-800-517-3910 mention offer elegant12 or www.OmahaSteaks. com/44240LZW

Advertise Today!

Call: 212-239-2808

Theatre in Central Park 79th Street & West Drive Set in Africa, China, and New York’s Central Park, “The Princess, the Emperor, and the Duck” retells storyteller Hans Christian Andersen’s worldfamous fairy tales. $8–$12. ept.ms/PrincessEmperorDuck Julius Caesar March 19–26 The New Victory Theater 209 W. 42nd St. In times of political unrest, must a man die for the greater good of the nation? New York’s The Acting Company pairs Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” with “X: or, Betty Shabazz V The Nation,” a new play by lauded playwright Marcus Gardley. Lasts 90 minutes with no intermission. For ages 13 and up. $16 and up.

NewVictory.org

ONGOING IN MANHATTAN The Way Back Home Through March 26 New 42nd Street Studios 229 W. 42nd St. When a boy discovers a single-propeller airplane in his bedroom, he does what any young adventurer would do—flies into outer space.

Intimate puppetry and original music from Denmark’s Teater Refleksion and Ireland’s Branar Teatar. Lasts 45 minutes with no intermission. For ages 3 to 5. $20 and up. NewVictory.org

ONGOING ELSEWHERE Bargemusic Presents: Music in Motion Through April 29 Saturdays, 4 p.m.

Fulton Ferry Landing, near the Brooklyn Bridge 1 Water St., Brooklyn A one-hour neighborhood family performance, including a Q&A session with the musicians. No intermission.

Free. BargeMusic.org/Calendar

TALKS NEW IN MANHATTAN Jewish Culture and the Legacy of the Classical World March 29, 7 p.m.

Yeshiva University Museum 15 W. 16th St. Join Dan Bahat, Steven Fine and Lawrence Schiffman for presentations and a lively discussion about Jewish culture and the legacy of the classical world. $8–$15. Free with NYU ID and for museum members. bit.ly/JewishCulture Hand Drawing for a House Design: Aspects of Process & Composition March 30, 6:30 p.m.

Eleventh Street Arts 46-06 11th St. This talk will explore how some architects have used handdrawing to develop general concepts into finished building

is presented on the Met Opera stage in Deborah Warner’s moving production, starring Anna Netrebko and Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Tatiana and Onegin. Alexey Dolgov sings the role of Lenski and Robin Ticciati conducts. From $32.

MetOpera.org/Season

designs, and one way their methods were applied to the design of an American country house.Free.

EleventhStreetArts.org/events

VISUAL ARTS NEW IN MANHATTAN New York Crystal Palace 1853 March 24–July 30 Bard Graduate Center Gallery 18 W. 86th St. Shedding light on a nearforgotten aspect of New York City’s cultural history, this exhibition will explore the history and material culture of the first world’s fair held in the United States. $7 suggested.

BGC.Bard.edu Design By the Book: Chinese Ritual Objects and the Sanli Tu March 24–July 30 Bard Graduate Center Gallery 18 W. 86th St. Completed in 961 by Nie Chongyi, “Sanli Tu” is the oldest extant illustrated study of classical Chinese artifacts from musical instruments, maps, and court insignia to sacrificial jades, ceremonial dress, and mourning and funerary paraphernalia. This exhibition explores the impact of the book on Chinese culture. $7 suggested. BGC.Bard.edu

ONGOING IN MANHATTAN Treasures From the Nationalmuseum of Sweden Through May 14 The Morgan Library & Museum 225 Madison Ave. Seventy-five masterpieces are on loan for a rare visit to New York, with works by artists including Albrecht Dürer, Raphael, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt van Rijn, Antoine Watteau, and François Boucher. $20. TheMorgan.org

PERFORMING ARTS NEW IN MANHATTAN Fidelio March 16–April 8 Metropolitan Opera Beethoven’s only opera— an ode to freedom, justice, and the human spirit— returns to the Met Opera with Adrianne Pieczonka as Leonore (who, disguised as Fidelio, courageously fights for the freedom of her husband, Florestan), Klaus Florian Vogt as Florestan, Greer Grimsley as Don Pizarro, and Falk Struckmann as Rocco.

Sebastian Weigle conducts.

From $27. MetOpera.org Eugene Onegin March 30–April 22 Metropolitan Opera Tchaikovsky’s setting of Pushkin’s timeless verse novel

La Traviata Through April 14 The Metropolitan Opera Sonya Yoncheva performs as one of opera’s most beloved heroines, the tragic courtesan Violetta, a role in which she triumphed on the Met stage in 2015, opposite Michael Fabiano as Violetta’s lover, Alfredo, and Thomas Hampson as Alfredo’s father, Germont. Carmen Giannattasio sings later performances of the title role opposite Atalla Ayan, with the great Plácido Domingo as Germont. Nicola Luisotti conducts. From $25.

MetOpera.org/Season Rigoletto Through April 27 The Metropolitan Opera Michael Mayer’s hit production of Rigoletto places the action in a neon-bedecked Las Vegas in 1960. Stephen Costello and Joseph Calleja alternate as the womanizing Duke of Mantua, Olga Peretyatko is the innocent Gilda, and Zeljko Lucic reprises his heartbreaking take on the tragic title role. Pier Giorgio Morandi conducts. From $25.

MetOpera.org/Season

NEW ELSEWHERE Otello Through March 27 LightSpace Studios 1115 Flushing Ave., Brooklyn Tenor Bernard Holcomb is featured in the title role together with soprano Cecilia López as Desdemona, tenor Thor Arbjornsson as Rodrigo, tenor Blake Friedman as Iago, bass-baritone Isaiah MusikAyala as Elmiro, mezzosoprano Toby Newman as Emilia, tenor John Ramseyer as Lucio/Gondolier, and tenor Lucas Levy as Doge, joined by a 27-piece orchestra and a 10-member chorus. $30.

LoftOpera.com

MUSIC NEW IN MANHATTAN Alisa Weilerstein & Orpheus Chamber Orchestra March 18, 7 p.m.

Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is joined by cellist and MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient Alisa Weilerstein for Schumann’s Cello Concerto—the product of a brilliant composer on the brink of insanity. Additionally, the program includes Mendelssohn’s Nocturno for Winds, Webern’s Five Movements for strings, and Schubert’s Symphony No. 6, his tribute to Rossini, Haydn, and Mozart. $12.50–$110.

CarnegieHall.org Cellist Harriet Krijgh & Pianist Magda Amara March 19, 11 a.m.

Lincoln Center Walter Reade Theater Cellist Harriet Krijgh and pianist Magda Amara will perform Schumann’s Three Romances and Rachmaninoff’s Sonata in G minor as part of Lincoln Center’s Sunday Morning Coffee Concerts series. $22.

LincolnCenter.org Debussy & Ravel March 19, 5 p.m.

Lincoln Center Alice Tully Hall This program, celebrating the zenith of French chamber music, gathers four works by composers Debussy

& Ravel, who have come to define, more than any others, the musical essence of their country. $78–$118.

ChamberMusicSociety.org Rediscovering Compère March 25,8 p.m.

Miller Theatre 150 W. 83rd St. The name Loyset Compère is not as familiar as Dufay or Josquin, but many—the Orlando Consort among them—believe that this FrancoFlemish composer deserves a place amongst the masters of the 15th century. His early Renaissance compositions combine a sophisticated technical mind with an ear for sheer beauty. $35–$50.

MillerTheatre.com Miracles in Miniature: Songs of Personal Devotion, 1500–1540 March 26, 1 p.m.

The Met Cloisters Anne Azéma, one of the best interpreters of medieval French music and text, and the renowned Boston Camerata will perform vocal and instrumental music of personal devotion from the early Renaissance. $40.

MetMuseum.org Pianist Rafał Blechacz March 26, 3 p.m.

92Y Pianist Rafał Blechacz makes his 92Y debut with interpretations of Bach, Beethoven, and Chopin.

From $25. 92y.org Bach’s St. John Passion March 28, 7:30 p.m.

St. Bart’s 325 Park Ave. The Choir of New College, Oxford, comes to the United States for the first time since the appointment of its new director, Robert Quinney.

A pre-concert talk will be given

by Michael Marissen at 6:45 pm in the chapel. $25–$100.

MMPAF.org Bach to the Future: The Legacy of the Fugue March 30, 7:30 p.m.

The Kosciuszko Foundation 15 E. 65th St. Johann Sebastian Bach’s music had fallen into obscurity until Felix Mendelssohn’s visionary 1829 revival of the St. Matthew Passion. Mendelssohn continued to honor Bach by embracing the “antiquated” fugue in his own works. The Diderot String Quartet will play Bach’s “Art of Fugue” and Mendelssohn’s Fugue in E-flat major and his fugue-filled String Quartet, Op. 13, No. 2. $30. bit.ly/DiderotBach

NEW ELSEWHERE Bargemusic Masterworks Series: Aviv Quartet March 18, 8 p.m.

Fulton Ferry Landing, near the Brooklyn Bridge 1 Water St., Brooklyn Aviv Quartet will perform Mozart’s String Quartet No. 21, Shotakovich’s String Quartet No. 10, and Ravel’s String Quartet in F major. $20–$40.

BargeMusic.org/Calendar Bargemusic Masterworks Series: Alaria Trio March 19, 2 p.m. & 4 p.m.

Fulton Ferry Landing, near the Brooklyn Bridge 1 Water St., Brooklyn Alaria Trio will perform Beethoven’s Allegretto for Piano Trio in B-flat major and his Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 8, and Schubert’s Piano Trio in B-flat major. $20–$40.

BargeMusic.org/Calendar

Dear Readers If you have an event to suggest, please send details to NYC_Arts@ EpochTimes.com in the format you see here.

C7

@EpochArts

March 17–23, 2017 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts

A RESURGENCE OF ART COURTESY OF JOSHUA LINER GALLERY

Art continued from C2 “I started to find a couple of people and then even more people. Then in one way and another it led to the world that I’m in now, where I’m surrounded by a lot of different friends and fellow artists and peers and students who are in the process of constituting an alternative art scene. It’s very small. It doesn’t have a lot of patronage, and it doesn’t have a lot of press, but it is something,” Collins said.

In parallel, in a somewhat similar fashion but on a larger scale, the founder of The Florence Academy of Art, Daniel Graves, went for many years searching for teachers, making many sacrifices, and scratching a living out of selling his etchings and paintings in Florence. Along with like-minded artists, he worked hard uncovering and piecing together a neglected tradition. They also created an ever-evolving curriculum rooted in the academic Beaux Arts Academy, but with a flexibility that gives students the freedom to find their own stylistic path.

His training has a direct path back to the French Academy from Richard F. Lack, who was “Oblivion,” 2015, by Tony Curanaj. Oil on linen. taught by R. H. Ives Gammell, who was taught 90 inches by 65 inches.

by William McGregor Paxton, who studied with Jean-Léon Gérôme, the leader of the Ecole des ing to gallery owners, talking about pricing, about them.

Baux-Arts in Paris in the late 1800s. packing her paintings for shipment, among Another concern is that the public is unaware of this art or Graves started teaching a handful of students other things. Besides learning from her lesin the gardens of the Corsini family estate in sons, they learn the business of art and how to lacks the sense of fine connoisseurship needed 1991 in Florence. Now The Florence Academy to demand high-quality work. deal with common trials and tribulations artof Art has three campuses (in Florence, Sweden, Collins places responsibility mostly on the ists usually face during their creative process. and the United States) with about 200 students “At my atelier, I take them from the very artists themselves. “I don’t think there are beginning, sharpening their pencils, all the enough artists doing this art really well, includfrom 40 countries.

Before ateliers like The Florence Academy, way through painting, making up their own ing myself; I’m not doing it well enough. I will compositions,” she said. She also gives students Grand Central Atelier, The Angel Academy, do what I think is my best.

Atelier Canova, and all of the others that mushthe option to continue in what she calls her roomed mostly in the United States and Europe, master’s program, providing students with a places like the National Academy of Design and studio space and helping them transition into The Art Students League had always provided becoming independent artists. an avenue for representational artists, including “When I was studying in Florence, teachers highly skilled artists, to teach a wide variety of had their studios inside the school too. That’s styles in an atelier-type setting. one of the most inspiring things to see: to have “I went to a pretty good school, they taught teachers who are in their 60s and 70s who still some drawing. It wasn’t completely lacking, show up in the morning, earlier than the but it certainly wasn’t to the degree that students do, and they are in their stuThe Florence Academy teaches,” said dios every day, painting,” Sokol said.

Judith Kudlow, an artist who runs The Art Renewal Staying True the NYK Academy at Willow AveCenter fosters Ateliers also commonly train their nue Atelier in the Bronx. She had excellence in the a career in government and polstudents not only to become artvisual arts. Visit: itics in Washington before finally ists but also to teach—not only to artrenewal.org pursuing her passion to become an supplement income, but also to artist when she moved to New York in ensure the tradition will continue.

1988. She studied with prominent teachTwo artists who studied with Collins, ers at most of the major art schools in the city, Tony Curanaj and Edward Minoff, ask all their including The Art Students League of New York, guest artists a standard question in their podthe National Academy of Design, and the New cast “Suggested Donation” that goes something like: How did you find a teacher with whom York Academy of Art. “Jacob Collins was the first teacher who taught you could really connect, and who could really me a step by step procedure. It was mind-blowteach you skills? The story repeats itself, with variations to a similar theme. Generally, the ing. I thought: ‘Why didn’t we have this before?

Every other discipline has a procedure,’” Kudlow older the artist, the harder it was for them to said. “Jacob Collins and Daniel Graves are like find a teacher. For example, Burton Silverman, 88, said he essentially had to teach himself by the founding fathers [of the atelier resurgence].

More than anyone else I can think about, I would studying old master paintings in museums. give those two most of the credit because they Younger artists today have a relatively easier journey to finding an atelier. did the work.”

Kudlow explained the simplicity of how the The Art Renewal Center (ARC), an umbrella ateliers worked so effectively, which started as nonprofit organization dedicated to promotfar back as the Middle Ages. A student would ing standards of excellence in the visual arts, either select or be selected by a teacher, a maeshas also been a great resource for representatro. It is like an apprenticeship in which the tional artists seeking atelier training. When it student would assist the teacher, for example, was founded in 2000, ARC had approved 14 mixing paint, cleaning the studio, or running ateliers, which has risen to 70 today, with 40 errands, and so on. more waiting approval (see article by Sharon Kilarski on C3).

Kudlow set up the common work area at Willow Avenue Atelier right in the center of the stuThere’s a general concern that while there are dio space. “When I am here, everybody sees what more highly skilled artists around now than, I am doing,” she said. For example, her students say, about 10 years ago, there are fewer galleries witness her preparing her work for a show, talkrepresenting them and not much press writing SAMIRA BOUAOU/EPOCH TIMES

Students at the Grand Central Atelier in Queens on March 6.

“Everybody will keep on trying, but there has to be a nexus between artists who want to do something real and a large culture that wants something real,” he said, “and until that patronage makes that bridge, it’s artists kind of just entertaining themselves selling a picture here and there. We are not going to get something marvelous until there is an expression of demand, and that’s what patronage does.”

Several galleries that showed realist art shut down after the economic downturn in 2008. In Chelsea, in the epicenter of art galleries in New York City, there is only one gallery that shows realist artwork exclusively, Gallery Henoch. The owner, George Henoch Shechtman, said he sells paintings in the range of $2,000 to $60,000.

In contrast, a top selling gallery like Gagosian that represents abstract artists sells works for $3 million to $10 million, he added. The difference is astounding.

“I have no resentment for any of those big galleries. They are works of art themselves, with their PR and show exhibitions and their collector base that they have. I admire them,” said Shechtman, who has been running Gallery Henoch for over 5o years.

Kudlow said she finds that difference in pricing between abstract and realist art in general hard to explain. “The answer is that somebody marketed the hell out of it,” she said, adding that she doesn’t see aggressive marketing as the

solution for ateliertrained artists.

“We wouldn’t buy into it, we wouldn’t. We talk about it and ask ourselves how far would we go, how close to that edge, and none of us comes up with any real answers. But if you just listen to the conversation, you hear a group of people who are making sacrifices to do something beautiful, and they don’t want to turn it into something ugly,” said Kudlow, speaking for a group of artists who exalt the beauty in this seemingly chaotic world.

C8

@EpochArts

March 17–23, 2017 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts ALL PHOTOS BY JOAN MARCUS; ILLUSTRATIONS BY MARY RO/SHUTTERSTOCK & BIGMOUS/SHUTTERSTOCK

Sweeney Todd’s daughter Johanna (Alex Finke) and her suitor, Anthony Hope (Matt Doyle), represent innocence amid the corruption of old London.

Harrington’s Pie and Mash Shop is recreated inside Barrow Street Theatre for the production of “Sweeney Todd.”

SWEENEY TODD

MRS. LOVETT

Sweeney Todd (Jeremy Secomb) and Mrs. Lovett (Siobhan McCarthy) in “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.”

The wonderfully laid out production is so small you can literally reach out and touch the characters.

Theater Review

Y E T O N E D E D W , S a M s h d n S a hop, e i P a and You

By Judd Hollander

N

EW YORK—Ghosts from the past return demanding vengeance in the 1979 Tony-Award winning musical “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” The current U.K. production, now at New York’s Barrow Street Theatre, allows the audience to get very up close and personal with the story. With meat pies hot and fresh and a scintillating production so small, you can literally reach out and touch the characters.

The entire musical is enhanced by its presentation as a wonderfully laid out, site-specific production. This particular revival begins at Harrington’s Pie and Mash Shop—established in 1908 and the oldest continually operating shop of its kind in London. Much of the audience sits on benches running the length of a series of long tables. This allows the actors to walk and sing atop them and indulge in several bits of audience interaction.

Escaping an Australian penal colony where he was unjustly sentenced 15 years earlier, Sweeney Todd (Jeremy Secomb), a former barber by trade, has returned to London to exact revenge on those who tore him from his wife and infant daughter.

The main subjects of his wrath are Judge Turpin (Duncan Smith), who had him sent away because he wanted Sweeney’s wife for himself, and Turpin’s accomplice, the constable Beadle Bamford (Brad Oscar).

Upon reaching his former home, Sweeney finds it occupied by a run-down pie shop.

According to the proprietor, the widowed Mrs. Lovett (Siobhan McCarthy), the shop makes “the worst pies in London”—a point she empha-

Jeremy Secomb gives an utterly brilliant performance.

‘Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street’ Barrow Street Theatre 27 Barrow St. Tickets SweeneyToddNYC.com Running Time 2 hours, 45 minutes (one intermission) Closes Dec. 31

sizes in song while Sweeney offers an absolutely priceless expression as he bites into one of them.

Recognizing Sweeney from the old days, Mrs. Lovett relates how his beloved wife took poison not long after he was sentenced and how his daughter Johanna (Alex Finke) is now the ward of Judge Turpin. This news destroys any remnants of humanity in Sweeney. He firmly establishes himself as one who “never forgets and never forgives.”

Using the tools of his old profession, Sweeney sets himself up as a barber of some renown, all the while planning for the day when those he most despises will visit his chair. However, when he is forced to kill to protect his secret, Mrs. Lovett proposes that instead of burying the body, they use it for meat pies. Sweeney gleefully agrees.

In almost no time thereafter, Mrs. Lovett’s shop becomes a great success, with the pies being devoured as fast as they come out of the oven. However, despite Mrs. Lovett’s pleas to Sweeney for caution, his desire for revenge continues to grow.

Matters gain urgency when the Judge decides to make Johanna his wife—despite the fact that the young girl has having fallen in love with a sailor named Anthony Hope (Matt Doyle).

With “Sweeney Todd,” book writer Hugh Wheeler and composer Stephen Sondheim have constructed a masterful morality tale, which warns of the dangers of blind vengeance. The theme is evident in Secomb’s utterly brilliant performance. His face is alive with the light of madness, his entire body on a continual hair trigger, and woe to anyone who gets in his way. Sweeney even thinks nothing of using his own daughter as a pawn to bring the judge

into his clutches.

McCarthy as the duplicitous Mrs. Lovett initially comes off as something of a flake, but her outward demeanor conceals a powerful determination for love and prosperity. She willingly uses everyone she meets in order to achieve her goals, including the trusting lad Tobias (Joseph Taylor). McCarthy does a wonderful job bringing out the different sides of this quite devious yet often endearing character.

Finke and Doyle are quite appealing as Johanna and Anthony. Their characters’ innocence offers a counterbalance to the evil surrounding them. And lending an intriguing presence is Betsy Morgan as a mysterious beggar woman.

Helping the show’s creators get their messages across is Sondheim’s thrilling score.

Though words do get lost at times, even with only a three-piece orchestra, most of the songs come through beautifully, particularly “A Little Priest.” Its lyrics gleefully swipe at the corrupt and privileged of the world. Also quite good is the haunting “Johanna” and the rather ominous opening number.

Greatly adding to the production’s overall impact is the excellent work of director Bill Buckhurst and choreographer Georgina Lamb, both making maximum use of the “less is more” axiom in this relatively small but supremely effective space.

A tale of vengeance wrapped in a morality lesson, this production of “Sweeney Todd” is an altogether satisfying meal.

Judd Hollander is a reviewer for Stagebuzz. com and a member of the Drama Desk and the Outer Critics Circle.