re:view E-Newsletter Fall 2008

re:view

The Newsletter of Jersey City Museum • Volume 14 • Fall 2008

Dear Friends,

Welcome to Fall 2008 edition of re:view, the museum’s online newsletter. Fall is a season of transition, and as the trees change their leaves and the days grow shorter, here at Jersey City Museum, we change each of our nine galleries and fill them with new exhibitions.

Be sure to see the long awaited retrospective, “Deliverance” THE ART OF BEN JONES 1970 – 2008, which spans Jones's career as an artist, professor, mentor and community activist, and be sure to check out the beautiful hardcover exhibition catalog as well as an in-depth documentary DVD. Both were created exclusively for “Deliverance” and are available for purchase at the museum store. Ben Jones is a dear friend of the museum and we are proud to present this monumental exhibition in celebration of his achievements.

collection. We remain grateful to Bank of America for their generous support of A Community Collects.

We are also delighted to inaugurate the museum ninth exhibition space: The García Gallery. Thanks to a generous gift from Trustee, Ofelia García, the space was transformed from an underused reading room to a gallery devoted to the exhibition of works on paper. Currently on view is The Gift, which features a small selection of works donated to the museum by Ms. García.

In the Project Gallery, you’ll find RoCa: Jersey Style, by the wonderful New Jersey artist Rodriguez Calero, whose cast of collaged characters are made from a variety of borrowed images that move, challenge and disturb. And be sure to check out our new 1x1s, whose diverse works can be spotted throughout the museum.

Please visit us soon to take in these exciting changes for yourself!

Marion Grzesiak Executive Director

Also on view is A Community Collects, an exhibition featuring artworks loaned by art collectors from throughout New Jersey. A highlight of the exhibition the masterwork, Still Life with Fruit, by the noted American still-life painter, Severin Roesen. The painting was brought to the museum’s attention in early 2008 by a New Jersey collector, who was unaware of the work’s importance. After being conserved and cleaned, it is now, for the very first time, being publicly displayed in our galleries. Be sure to visit, The Boudoir, a fanciful recreation of an early twentieth century bedroom as it might have appeared in a Jersey City home, which features objects from the museum’s Severin Roesen, Still Life with Fruit, c. 1860s, (before and after restoration) Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in., Private collection

This anxiously awaited major retrospective of the work of Ben Jones features a complete survey of the artist’s work, dating from the mid 1970s through his most recent projects. “Deliverance” explores various aspects of the artist’s body of work, and delves further into its close relationship to religions of the African Diaspora and the marriage of the both political and spiritual. Many of the artist's key works are in the exhibition, including the iconic Black Face and Arm Unit, from 1971 (State Museum, Trenton) and his more recent, never before exhibited Washed in Blood Series.

Organized by independent curator Edward Spriggs, whose relationship with Mr. Jones dates back to the early 1970s, when Spriggs was director at the Studio Museum in Harlem and Ben Jones was exhibiting his work there, this survey is an unprecedented examination of this important American artist’s work.

Born and raised in Paterson, New Jersey and a Jersey City resident for over 40 years, Ben Jones has been a mentor, teacher and artist to many. Jones helped bring black culture to the front of American popular culture as a member of the Black Arts Movement (BAM) in the late 1960s and early 1970s. His professional art career began in 1967 when he was appointed Professor of Art at Jersey City State College (now New Jersey City University).

Jersey City Museum is proud to present this very important exhibition which documents the career of one of our most beloved artists and gives people throughout the region the opportunity to experience his powerful works for themselves.

The exhibition catalog for “Deliverance” is available for purchase at the museum’s Gift Shop or online at www.jerseycitymuseum. org/theshop.

“Deliverance” is made possible by a lead grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional funding provided by The Joan Mitchell Foundation, Inc., the Lucius and Eva Eastman Fund, The Puffin Foundation, Ltd., and other generous individual donors.

roca: jersey style This season, Rodriguez Calero-or RoCafills the museum’s Project Gallery with her colorful cast of characters that include dancers, children, fashion models, and pop culture icons. Born in Puerto Rico, raised in New York, and for the past 15 years working and residing in New Jersey, the artist fills her inimitable, impulsive collages with images inspired by the local urban landscape. Each figure is made up from a variety of borrowed images, all gathered together from a

selection of disparate sources, mostly contemporary urban magazines. Drawing on the history of collage-making, and particularly on collages from the Cubist and Dada movements, the artist creates a postmodern, hip-hop version of these early twentieth century models.

Most of these collage works have never been shown publicly, making it the first opportunity to see a large selection of RoCa’s trademark works.

Image credits (top): Ben Jones, High Priestess of Soul, 1972, Mixed media on board, 40 x 30 in., Collection of Newark Museum (bottom from left): RoCa, Natural, 2007, Collage, 10 1/4 x 7 1/4 in, Courtesy of the artist; Barrio Boogie Movement, 2007, Collage, 14 x 18 in, Courtesy of the artist; Slam Master, 2007, Collage, 11 1/4 x 8 1/2 in, Courtesy of the artist (next page): Severin Roesen, Still Life with Fruit, c1860s, Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in., Private collection Ogoni tribe, Eastern Nigeria, Mask, early 20th century, Wood and pigment, Collection of Professor Marshall and Caroline Mount Installation of The Boudoir, Jersey City Museum Collection Installation of The Gift, Jersey City Museum Collection

garca gallery: the gift

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his year Jersey City Museum has given its Collection Galleries over to a selection of brilliant collectors from our area for A Community Collects. The idea for this exhibition was born when an important painting from a private collection came to light. A rich, sumptuous still life by the well-known nineteenth century American painter Severin Roesen, this work is a prime example of the artist's oeuvre. The impressive painting has been conserved and restored specially for the exhibition. Among the collectors whose works are included are Nathan and Nancy Sambul, Selma Spivak, Benjamin J. Dineen and Dennis Hull, City Council Chairperson Mariano Vega and Sonia Vega, Ofelia García, Mariano Molina and his wife Alina, James Koback, Jr. and Carol Johnson, and Congressman Frank Guarini, from the collection of Caroline L. Guarini.

tury America and contemporary art. Adding to the international dimension of the exhibition, Mr. Sambul has loaned eight woodblock prints from a series of 100 prints by Yoshitoshi, the nineteenth century Japanese master of Ukiyoe, or woodblock printing.

In addition, Professor Marshall Mount and his wife Caroline have loaned a selection of five masks from Mali, Nigeria, and Côte d’Ivoire to A Community Collects.

The museum is extremely grateful to all of the lenders in the exhibition for their generosity, and their love for objects of beauty.

Highlights from this exhibition include works from Africa, Japan, nineteenth cenGet an insider’s take at an online gallery for A Community Collects at www.jerseycitymuseum.org/jcmedia.

A Community Collects is presented by Bank of America.

also on view:

the boudoir

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ike its early twentieth century precursor, The Parlor, Jersey City Museum presents a new installation of a period room with The Boudoir. This re-creation of a how a bedroom in an early twentieth century Jersey City home might have appeared, features a nineteenth century sleigh bed, a lovely marble-topped dresser and a painting by August Will that was recently conserved and framed.

Jersey City Museum is proud to inaugurate a new second-floor exhibition space, the García Gallery. Devoted to the exhibition of works on paper — prints, drawings, photographs and works in mixed media, the creation of this gallery has been made possible through a generous gift from Ofelia García, a longtime Trustee of the museum’s Board and Chairperson Emerita. Over the last decade, she has donated numerous gifts of art to the museum’s collection. This gift establishes the museum’s ninth gallery space.

The García Gallery’s first exhibition, The Gift, features a representative selection of Ms. García’s gifts of art, which have helped to enlarge the museum’s holdings in this increasingly popular and important discipline. With The Gift, we are pleased to honor Ms. García’s generosity, her passionate support of art and her commitment to the Jersey City Museum.

1 x 1 projects & mediaworks This fall season, Jersey City Museum invites its audiences to enjoy a host of new 1 x 1 mediaworks and 1 x 1 projects in the museum’s various spaces. Perhaps most significant is a solo video retrospective for the conceptual and performance artist Papo Colo. The founder of New York City’s widely respected Exit Art, Papo Colo is deeply involved in the production of his avant-garde theater project, Trickster Theater. Prior to this, however, the artist had a long and varied career as a performance artist. This exhibition will feature performance/video works that range in date from 1971 to 2008. The other mediaworks project is by Jersey City sound and performance artist Damien Catera. On the faculty at Rutgers University, Mr. Catera has been creating avant-garde sound works for many years.

His work was also featured this fall in the

Current 1 x 1 projects also feature new work by Nyugen Smith and the Agitators Collective, a group of artists who aim to engage the Jersey City community as a creative asset. Nyugen Smith’s project is titled Bundle House Worldwide (Soon Come) and is made from found objects installed atop a map of the globe. Each of the seven continents is represented with the artist’s signature “Bundle Houses” crowding each one. In the museums front window, the Agitators Collective present Be Wary (The Evil Eye), a colorful installation which plays on superstition.

Image credits (above): Nyugen Smith, Bundle House Worldwide (Soon Come), 2008, Mixed media, Dimensions variable, Courtesy of the artist; Papo Colo, Documentation of performance Performeos, Courtesy of the artist

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museum’s contribution to the 2008 Jersey City Artists Studio Tour, in his project titled Soundwalk, organized in conjunction with the Friends of Van Vorst Park.

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JCMedia is a recent addition to Jersey City Museum’s website where you will find museum related podcasts, videos and photos so that you can experience a bit of what what’s going on at JCM from home. Here you can watch and listen to select audio and video straight from the internet or you can subscribe to an RSS feed. This option will allow you to be automatically updated when something new is added to JCMedia, as well as have the option to listen or watch on-the-go with your media player of choice.

Be sure to check it out at www.jerseycitymuseum.org/jcmedia.

Current JCMedia Highlights: Go on a video tour of the exhibition SPRAWL with Jersey City Museum Curator Rocio Aranda-Alvarado and artist Leslie Sheryll. The video was produced by Jersey City Museum Summer 2008 intern, Natalie McKeever, who recently graduated with a BFA in Visual Arts from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University.

View photographs of the exhibition, “Deliverance” THE ART OF BEN JONES 1970 –2008, including some behind the scenes photos of the artist at work in the museum’s galleries.

Listen to a clip of 1x1 artist Damien Catera’s experimental sound piece titled The End of History V. 3.

an update from the education department Just what does the education department do, you might ask?

Well, this month we are gearing up for a very active winter season.

Noaa Stoler, our very efficient Manager of School Programs is busy designing tours and workshops for school groups of all ages that both align with New Jersey Core Curriculum Standards and are exceptionally fun and rewarding experiences for young tour goers. Check the education section of our website for in depth descriptions of group tours and workshops.

Noaa is a graduate of Harvard Graduate School of Education as well as an artist. As both an educator and an art practitioner, she shares her enthusiasm for interpreting

museum exhibitions with her young students. Adults can also benefit from Noaa’s expertise when we embark on our ambitious and much needed Docent Program. If you have ever wanted to make a difference in the artistic life of young people and you are available during school days, please contact Noaa about Docent Training. Look for notice of new training sessions beginning in 2009. As the leading cultural institution for contemporary art in our region and the repository for many things New Jersey, we have countless ways to broaden and deepen your volunteer experience.

The education department is also responsible for all the public programs the museum presents throughout the year.

Programs that interpret our collections and exhibitions or that explore issues in contemporary American art are at the core of our planning for adult audiences. Thanks to the efforts of artist and Program Coordinator extraordinaire, Brendan Carroll, we have a well-deserved reputation for presenting stimulating programs that make the most of our close relationships with area artists. Watch your inbox for new programs like Get Your Art On: Conversations with Contemporary Artists.

This new speaker series features the diverse contemporary American voices of both established and emerging artists, some of whom are represented in the collection of Jersey City Museum. Funded by the Joan Mitchell Foundation it brings Jersey City audiences in contact with internationally known American artists like Pepon Osorio, in conversation with emerging local talent!

We continue to welcome seniors, families, and children to the museum for programs designed especially for them. Afternoon Delight is in its third season of monthly Friday afternoon programs in which we aim to please and appeal to the wise and worldly. Four times a year we host Seasonal Family Celebrations with crafts and performances geared for every age group.

And once again Victory Arts Projects: Art for Kids produces high quality Saturday afternoon art classes for children. Last but not least, we are hard at work planning meaningful professional development workshops for artists and teachers. Check our website frequently for these not to be missed events.

Our website makes keeping up to date easy---visit it, and us, frequently.

Noaa Stoler works on an art project with students from the Jersey City Recreation Department.

a note from collections In addition to recent scholars’ visits and requests for Rights and Reproduction of pieces from Jersey City Museum’s Permanent Collection, the museum is currently being represented by a loan at Drumthwacket. Drumthwacket is a historic house museum and the New Jersey Governor’s residence. The museum lent an oil on canvas painting by August Will entitled Three Cities — View from Montgomery St., Jersey City Heights. The impressive painting hangs among other loans from New Jersey Museums such as the Montclair Art Museum, the Newark Museum and Princeton University Art Museum. August Will is in the company of artists such as Charles Wilson Peale, Benjamin West, Asher B. Durand and many more wonderful artists relating the story of New Jersey. Tours can be arranged to view the mansion every Wednesday. Please visit their website for more information at www.drumthwacket.org.

August Will (Germany, 1834–United States, 1910), Three Cities—View from Montgomery St., Jersey City Heights, 1870, Oil on canvas, 10 x 24 in., Museum purchase, 1923

e m o c e B o t u o Y s e t i v n I M C J ! y a d o t r e a Me m b

Families and individuals alike benefit from being a member at the Jersey City Museum.

Whether it be attending a family project day with the whole bunch or enjoying art and conversation at one of our art talks or openings, JCM members gain a sense of belonging in the museum as well in the community. Most importantly, becoming a member of the Jersey City Museum supports the museum’s mission and greatly contributes to the cultural life of our area.

Basic Membership Benefits include free museum admission; a subscription to re:view, JCM’s e-newsletter; invitations to member events; advanced notice of special events; 10% discount in the Museum Store & members-only discounts during special shopping days; and a complimentary subscription to MutualArt.com.

membership levels

To become a member or for more information, contact Nancy Shannon at 201-413-0303, ext 103, or nshannon@jerseycitymuseum.org.

Or purchase your membership today online at www.jerseycitymuseum.org/theshop!

(Visit www.jerseycitymuseum.org/membership for more info.)

friend $50 friends & family $80 patron $125

contemporary $250 benefactor $500 august will circle $1,000

NARM is the North American Reciprocal Museum Program, with privileges that entitle JCM members, who join us at the Patron Level or higher, to receive equal benefits from the over 200 museums in the NARM network. Simply present your JCM membership card, with a NARM sticker affixed, to receive free admission and other valuable benefits at participating museums.

the jcm gift shop: news from the store front An exciting new arrival in the museum Gift Shop is the brand-new exhibition catalog for “Deliverance” THE ART OF BEN JONES 1970-2008. This lush exhibition catalog features full color reproductions—many which have never before been published—of the artist’s most significant works.

With essays by Edward Spriggs, Kellie Jones, Ph.D., Associate Professor of African American, African Diaspora, and Latin American art at Columbia University; and a dialogue with the artist by Alejandro Anreus, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Art History and Latin American Studies at William Paterson University, this publication is a substantial and scholarly catalogue that serves as a document of, and create access to, Ben Jones’s significant body of work. Price: $50 Stop by the Gift Shop or visit www.jerseycitymuseum.org/theshop to order your copy.

NEW! The Shop is online.

Now you can browse and shop for items from the museum’s Gift Shop online and from home at www.jerseycitymuseum.org/theshop.

NEW SUPPORT We thank the National Endowment for the Arts, The Joan Mitchell Foundation, Inc., the Lucius and Eva Eastman Fund, The Puffin Foundation, Ltd., and other generous individual donors for supporting the exhibition “Deliverance” THE ART OF BEN JONES 1970-2008. The museum also thanks Bank of America for making possible the exhibition A Community Collects.

CONTINUED THANKS Jersey City Museum remains grateful to the City of Jersey City, Mayor Jerramiah Healy, the Municipal Council, and Council President Mariano Vega, Jr. for their continuing support.

JCM also receives major funding for its exhibitions and programs from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/ Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, which recognizes the museum with designation as a Major Arts Institution, and the Hudson County Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs, Thomas A. DeGise, County Executive, and the Board of Chosen Freeholders.

We also offer thanks to our major corporate and foundation supporters: the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation for their ongoing support, which helps us provide programs and services in the coming year, and JPMorgan Chase for a capacity-building award that helps us develop and implement new programs, sustain existing programs, and train the next generation of museum professionals.

Additional thanks to Hartz Mountain, Fidelity Investments, Goldman, Sachs & Co., Johnson & Johnson, Liz Claiborne, Merrill Lynch, Panepinto Properties, Pershing, Roosevelt & Cross, Sims Metal, the Sovereign Endowment Fund at the Independence Community Foundation, Target, UBS and Wachovia for their continuing support.

Our education programs are generously funded by Jersey City’s Division of Community Development through a Community Development Block Grant, New Jersey State Council for the Arts/ Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, through an Arts Education Special Initiative

award, The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, JPMorgan Chase, and Jersey City Board of Education. Additional funding is provided by the Bank of America Foundation, County of Hudson, County Executive, Thomas A. De Gise, the Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs, and the Board of Chosen Freeholders, Turrell Fund, Goldman, Sachs & Co., the Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, the Prudential Foundation and the Wachovia Foundation.

We are also grateful for the support of our many other generous corporate, foundation and individual donors, and our museum members.

artist spotlight: mel leipzig This year Jersey City Museum staff members were pleased to be painted from life by renowned New Jersey artist Mel Leipzig. The large-scale piece was done as part of his series of paintings of public art exhibition sites throughout the state. As he does with much of his work, Mel worked directly from life and used only a reduced palette of four colors: blue, red, yellow and white.

Mel Leipzig, born in Brooklyn in 1935, resides in Trenton, NJ, where he is a professor, teaching painting and art history at Mercer County Community College. Graduating with a B.F.A from

Yale and an M.F.A from Pratt Institute of design, Mel has had over 40 oneman shows including a retrospective at the New Jersey State Museum. His work is in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum, the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, Montclair Art Museum and Jersey City Museum, to name a few. He has recently been elected to the National Academy in New York and is currently represented by Gallery Henoch, N.Y.C. In early 2008, Leipzig’s painting, Jersey City Museum, will be on view as part of his

solo exhibition at Villanova University, Pennsylvania. In addition, Leipzig’s’ oil on canvas titled Zara at Long Branch is currently on view in Jersey City Museum’s new exhibition, A Community Collects.

Jersey City Museum is proud to have Leipzig’s work in their Permanent Collection-and with this new series-be a small part of his impressive and ever growing body of work.

JCM’s new gallery hours: Wednesday 11am–5pm Thursday 11am–5pm Friday 11am–5pm Saturday 12pm–5pm

Board of Trustees Nathan J. Sambul, Chair James B. Kobak, Jr., Vice Chair Amy Kauffman Sweeney, Secretary Mark S. Rodrick, Treasurer John J. Bell Dudley Benoit Judith K. Brodsky Benjamin J. Dineen III Ofelia García Marion Grzesiak, ex-officio Lynn M. McCormick Thomas J. McDonnell Mariano D. Molina Stephanie Panepinto Eugene T. Paolino Ronald E. Schwarz Jack Tiemann

check out...

JCM @ is a section of the Jersey City Museum website which features artworks and exhibitions curated by the museum and on view throughout the community as well as museum recommended art events going on in Jersey City and beyond.

Visit JCM @ at www.jerseycitymuseum.org/exhibitions.