Thursday, August 23, 2012

Spanish fresco restoration botched by amateur - via BBC

Fresco before and after "restoration" by Cecilia Gimenez
23 August 2010
Article via BBC
An elderly parishioner has stunned Spanish cultural officials with an alarming and unauthorised attempt to restore a prized Jesus Christ fresco.
Ecce Homo (Behold the Man) by Elias Garcia Martinez has held pride of place in the Sanctuary of Mercy Church near Zaragoza for more than 100 years.
The woman took her brush to it after years of deterioration due to moisture.
Cultural officials said she had the best intentions and hoped it could be properly restored.
Donation 
Cecilia Gimenez, who is in her 80s, was reportedly upset at the way the fresco had deteriorated and took it on herself to "restore" the image.
She claimed to have had the permission of the priest to carry out the job.
"(The) priest knew it! He did! How could you do something like that without permission? He knew it!"
BBC Europe correspondent Christian Fraser says the delicate brush strokes of Elias Garcia Martinez have been buried under a haphazard splattering of paint.
The once-dignified portrait now resembles a crayon sketch of a very hairy monkey in an ill-fitting tunic, he says.
The woman appears to have realised she was out of her depth and contacted Juan Maria Ojeda, the city councillor in charge of cultural affairs.
Teresa Garcia, granddaughter of Elias Garcia Martinez, said the woman had painted the tunic before, but the fresco got disfigured when she painted Christ's head.
'Good intentions' 
Art historians are expected to meet at the church soon to discuss how to proceed.
Mr Ojeda said: "I think she had good intentions. Next week she will meet with a repairer and explain what kind of materials she used.
"If we can't fix it, we will probably cover the wall with a photo of the painting."
The fresco is not thought to be very valuable, but has a high sentimental value for local people.
Our correspondent says that to make matters worse, the local centre that works to preserve artworks had just received a donation from the painter's granddaughter which they had planned to use to restore the original fresco.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Bill Komodore, 1932-2012

Photograph by Teresa Rafidi

Bill Komodore, painter and teacher, has died. Bill was born in Athens, Greece and immigrated to the United States in his teens. He studied with Mark Rothko, George Rickey, David Smith, and Hans Hoffman, before moving to New York in the late 50's. He was in shows such as The Responsive Eye at MoMA in 1964 and the Whitney Annual in 1965 & '67. For the latter part of his life, he lived, painted and taught in Dallas, Texas, at Brookhaven College and then at Southern Methodist University. Because of his teaching and painting, he was one of the most influential figures in the Texas art scene for decades. He will be missed.

There will be a memorial service for Bill on Friday, August 31st, in Perkins Chapel at SMU in Dallas, Texas at 2:00 PM.



Your Lips are Cold (Salome), 2010, 66 x 80 in. (168 x 203 cm), Oil & Graphite on Canvas

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Bull and Ram - New Space Opening


Inaugural Show @ Bull and Ram's New Space:

Christian Sampson, Mira Dancy, Sascha Braunig

Opening: Saturday, September 8th, 2012 7-9pm

1717 Troutman Street
Suite #226
Ridgewood Queens, NY 


Bull and Ram is a migrating curatorial project run by artists Yevgeniya Baras and Eve Lateiner.