Chianciano Art Museum
Critical Analysis Artist: Marjorie Schlossman Art Critic: Karen Lappon
ICAC
International Confederation of Art Critics
Critical Analysis Artist: Marjorie Schlossman Art Critic: Karen Lappon
The Museum The Museum of Art of Chianciano hosts a series of collections ranging from Neolithic and Asiatic to Contemporary art. There are approximately a thousand works on display. Visitors are able to view paintings and sculptures by artists such as Tom Nash, Salvador Dali, Sir Henry Moore, Frances Turner, Mario Schifano, Damien Hirst, Brian Willsher and Albert Louden, drawings by the likes of Magritte, Guttuso and Munch; historical works from Royal Collections and original etchings by masters such as Dürer and Rembrandt. The museum is known for organising annual international events, including the Chianciano International Art Award and the Biennale of Chianciano.
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) “Joachim and the Angel” Original woodcut, circa 1504
Sir Henry Moore (1898-1986) “Head” Bronze Sculpture
ICAC
International Confederation of Art Critics
The Critic
Karen Lappon, born in Santander, Spain, is an Italian art critic and essay writer that operates in London, UK. Although an expert on the Italian Renaissance period, Lappon is also great admirer of contemporary art. Karen studied at the “I Liceo Artistico in Via Ripetta” and at the “La Sapienza” University in Rome. A book of great interest curated by Karen is the “2nd Millenium”, the publication of an important exhibition at the Lord Leighton Museum, in which the talent and art of the prominent painter, Frances Turner - selected 5 times in a row for the BP Award at the National Portrait Gallery in London - is highlighted. This artist has been spotted and appreciated by another great critic, Normal Searle, that wrote an article in the Evening Standard on one of Frances’ paintings. “Vita e Opere di Antonio Sbrana” is a publication in which Lappon ties the activity of Sbrana and his influences on the “Macchiaioli” of the 19th century, like Natali and Fattori. A publication that illustrates the continuity of this movement and how it is still present in Italy today. Besides being a consultant for the Chianciano Museum of Art, Karen Lappon is part of the Board that selects artists for the Biennale, a difficult task that she has undertaken since 2009, along with other curators, to choose 100 artists out of 2000 applicants that will be part of the Chianciano Biennale. Karen is part of the jury of the London Biennale where 120 artists, selected from 40 different countries participate, and has been chosen by the organisers to accompany the Mayor of Kensington and Chelsea during the opening of the biennale.
Acrylic on canvas by Marjorie Schlossman
The Artist Marjorie Schlossman is a painter, musician and mother of seven children. Born in California and raised in Fargo, N.D., Marjorie graduated from Northwestern University, Evanston, with a degree in literature. She married and moved to La Jolla and then to the Palo Alto area, where she studied art with Richard Bowman, an instructor at the Chicago Art Institute and Stanford University; and Kenneth Washburn, a retired Columbia University professor. While in California, her work was exhibited at the Stanford University Faculty Club and at Stanford’s Hoover House (the president’s residence). She won Best of Show at the Palo Alto Art Club Annual Exhibition in 1979. During this time she also played violin with many ensembles in the San Francisco Bay area. Today she is a performing member of the FargoMoorhead Symphony and plays regularly in a violin-piano duet. Marjorie returned to Fargo with her family in 1992. She served on numerous community boards of directors, including that of the Plains Art Museum. She served as board chair as the museum opened its new building, and had served on the architecture committee during the building’s planning and renovation phase. She obtained a Master of Liberal Arts degree from Minnesota State University Moorhead in 2003. Her paintings have been exhibited at the North Dakota Museum of Art in Grand Forks and the Minnesota State University Moorhead gallery. In 2002, she opened the Roberts Street Chapel in downtown Fargo. Three long walls of this “ecumenical meditation or art chapel” contain Marjorie’s vibrant canvases. The artist has compared the three walls to the movements of a symphony, thereby linking her three passions – art, music and architecture – through the creation of this beautiful space, open to the public and free of charge. The completion and success of the Roberts Street Chapel compelled Marjorie to create more structures with the same purpose –sacred spaces, open to the public, open to people of all religious and secular belief systems, free of charge, and full of art. The chaplets were unveiled in August 2006 at the North Dakota Museum of Art in Grand Forks, and again at West Acres Mall in Fargo in September 2006. Her acrylic painting, “While the Cat’s Away,” was juried into the London Biennale, held in January 2015 in Chelsea Old Town Hall.
“Hangout� watercolor, pen, and ink on paper by Marjorie Schlossman
The Critique
If there were one word to describe Marjorie Schlossman, it would be: creative. Her creativity follows her in all aspects of life. She is a mother of 7 children, she is an accomplished violinist and an incredibly talented abstract expressionist painter. Extraordinary is the way in which she expresses this innate fecundity through the many means she has at her disposal. Her paintings are a symphony of colours and forms, structured as if on a musical staff. Crescendo, allegro, andante, diminuendo, all harmoniously and perfectly executed to give the viewer an extraordinary experience. Lines defined by colours, overlapping formal elements that have and amazing 3D effect. Articulate and rich compositions full of movement and rhythm. Beautifully inspired pieces of art, each with a different motif, a different tempo. The artist herself tells us the way she begins a painting: she starts by painting lines without any idea of the outcome, instinctively, developing a conscious dialogue with the canvas. Then suddenly something happens, a moment, a glimpse into her subconscious maybe that she begins to “explore, pursue and ponder” until the painting is accomplished. At this point she sets it free to be enjoyed and shared by the world. Just like giving birth and growing a child, Marjorie’s paintings are like her children. With no subject matter to disturb the visual purity of the group of different forms and colours, Marjorie’s abstract works have a lyrical quality and can be seen as a sensual meditation that enthralls the viewer and leads him to explore dream-like images of inner worlds. Her works remind us of Frank Stella, Hans Hofmann and Helen Frankethaler, exponents of American Abstract Expressionism and of Patrick Heron and Peter Lanyon of the St. Ives Group. Marjorie Schlossman is a truly precious gift to today’s contemporary art scene.
Karen Lappon International Confederation of Art Critics
Acrylic on canvas by Marjorie Schlossman
“While the Cat’s Away” - acrylic on canvas by Marjorie Schlossman
International Confederation of Art Critics www.international-confederation-art-critics.org