Forrest Myers Sculpture now at Seligmann Center

Seligmann Center Collection Growing!

This painting and a selection of the recently donated prints and etchings will be on display
          within the next few months. Flavia Baccarella is selecting work.



A year ago, the family of a Chicago art dealer donated a large collection of Kurt Seligmann work:
 

Getting to Know (and remember) Kurt Seligmann

Quotes from his book on Magic

BIO

Seligmann Sculpture in October Show at
Blaindidonna Gallery, New York








There are still many people around who knew both Kurt Seligmann, who died in 1962 and his wife Arlette who died in 1992. 

We've begun collecting memories of them. Dr. Judith Kessler has kindly agreed to be The Convener of Memories:  She starts with her own as a art student with Kurt Seligmann in 1960 at Brooklyn College:

1) What was he like:     Imposing, serious, demanding, professional, engaged - qualities which stood out among a faculty of rather well known artists who were part of the NYC art scene but without the powerful presence in the classroom that KS was. He showed up as a real teacher who knew he was a master of his craft and expected you to work to your fullest to learn what you could. When you worked under his scrutiny, your level was raised. If you were cleaning the lithograph stone for example, he expected you to really scrub. And you did, willingly, to get it right and reach the high standards he set. I saw him as the "king" of his realm - the printmaking studio- and looked up to him as someone who took charge and looked after his
realm (everything had to be done with care and precision like taking care of the tools,cleaning the plates, handling the inks, etc. ) He exuded a sense of mastery, that was what I looked for at that stage in a teacher, even though printmaking was not my strongest interest.

2)  My most prominent memory:     His standing beside me, really looking at an etching I had made of Dostoyevsky, of which I was very proud and helping me to see details to make it better - like how
I could clean up the plate, heighten the contrast, etc., seeing me throught the process, and giving me the feeling like I had a real teacher, which was not how it was with the other faculty, who seemed to be simply there to give some instructions and leave you on your own (with the exception of Walter Rosenbloom).

3) Did he have an effect:   I took with me that art in any medium is a serious process, not just when sharp tools are involved, and that when motivated, as I was by him, I could produce works that endured because they meant something due to the energy and effort that went into them (like the Dostoyevsky engraving).
I have such a strong visual memory of him in the posture of a teacher - really know a teacher should be, fully engaged and present. (Of course this was in contrast with how some of the other faculty members did not seem very interested in teaching. He was/is a powerful reminder of how to be,
that is, an inspiration and role model of mastery, which I have tried to take with me into my own profession.

2013 Seligmann Center Events

 

November 8, 2013

JANET HAMILL & LOST CEILINGS

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 8PM

SELIGMANN CENTER FOR THE ARTS

Come enjoy the poetry, music, wine and nibbles

FREE (donations appreciated)

Sponsored by The Orange County Citizens Foundation (www.occf-ny.or/bebpages/Calendar/indes.aspx)

The Seligmann Center for the Arts (www.kurtseligmann.org)

and Poets & Writers (www.pw.org)

 23 White Oak Dr., Sugar Loaf, Ny  10981

(845) 469-9459

June through October, 2013

Re-Presentation of  the notorious NY Collection in Stockholm

In the early 1970s, the New York-based group Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), looked to put together a collection of some of the most important American art of the 1960s, with the aim of donating it to a public museum. They chose 30 works in a variety of media and selected the Moderna Museet in Stockholm as the recipient because of its strong history of support for American contemporary art. To help raise the funds necessary for these acquisitions, E.A.T. solicited each of the artists slated for the collection for a print as part of a portfolio, which was sold in an edition of 300. This exhibition includes the complete portfolio, which features works by the following artists: Lee Bontecou, Robert Breer, John Chamberlain, Walter de Maria, Jim Dine, Mark di Suvero, Öyvind Fahlström, Dan Flavin, Red Grooms, Hans Haacke, Alex Hay, Donald Judd, Ellsworth Kelly, Sol LeWitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Morris, Louise Nevelson, Kenneth Noland, Claes Oldenburg, Nam June Paik, Robert Rauschenberg, Larry Rivers, James Rosenquist, George Segal, Richard Serra, Keith Sonnier, Richard Stankiewicz, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol and Robert Whitman.

August 23, 2013        Surreal Cabaret in Sugar Loaf – One Night Only!

The third Surreal Cabaret featured a series of short performances by local artists.  Acts crossed genres, mixing poetry, drama, dance, and music while featuring conceptual play, experimentation, and improvisation.  
As food and drink were barred from the space during the remarkable New York Collection for Stockholm show, audience members were able only to mime sipping absinthe. 

The program opened with a benediction from Surrealist chaplain Lama Swine Toil. Producers of the performances to follow are Dan Adreana, Michael Sean Collins, Anne Hanson, Jennifer Kraus, Chloe Roe, Steve Roe, and William Seaton.  Musical interludes and a longer selection will be provided by John Korchuk’s Artcrime ensemble.

The event is part of an ongoing series of exhibits, readings, lectures, and workshops presented by the Seligmann Center for the Arts.  Kurt Seligmann was a Surrealist artist who lived in Sugar Loaf, and the Center offers a rare Hudson Valley venue for avant-garde painters, writers, and performers.

June 9, 2013      Eighteen Hour Performance of Satie's Vexations  

May 31, 2013

April 26, 2013      The films of Babette Mangolte   

March 22, 2013    The films of Peter Hutton 

Peter Hutton (born 1944 in Detroit, Michigan) is an experimental filmmaker, known primarily for his silent cinematic portraits of cities and landscapes around the world. He has also worked as a professional cinematographer, most notably for his former student Ken Burns. Hutton studied painting, sculpture and film at the San Francisco Art Institute. He has taught filmmaking at CalArts, Hampshire College, Harvard University, SUNY Purchase, and Bard College, where he has served as the director of the Film and Electronic Arts Program since 1989. Hutton's films are distributed by Canyon Cinema in San Francisco. In May 2008 the Museum of Modern Art in New ork held a full retrospective of Hutton's films 

March 14, 2013


February 22, 2013  

The films of Jack Smith
 

  




















January 25, 2013 
Picasso and Braque Go To The Movie
Seth Goldman will introduce and discuss.      NYT Comments

Article on Seligmann and Seligmann Center, December 2012

2012 October - December Seligmann Center Events

2012
December 
6        7 pm  Gallery Lecture on Chaim Gross.
Susan Fisher, Director of the Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation talked about the current exhibit of Chaim Gross'  "Fantasy Drawings"... pages from his private visual notebooks created over 40 years.  Ms. Fisher observed how contemporary the drawings seem, almost a old form of the comic story lines being created today and that the simplicity and directness of the work is still so fresh.

Artist/daughter Mimi Gross was there and enriched the presentation with her memories of her father. He would do these drawing each night after dinner, while sitting in the apartment's only comfortable chair.  He would begin with a line or curve and build a drawing from that.  Often, the images of TIME magazine might contribute to the personal diary quality of the work.  These have always been private materials.  There are over a thousand. They were shown once in the 1950s and now again.  They offer an insight and encouragement to the value of keeping some kind of crafted record of the observations, fleeting feelings, confused moments and sharp clarities we all experience in our daily lives.  To see Chaim Gross' version of this is inspiring. 
Daniel Mason  asked about the recurrence of certain motifs and images throughout the drawings, particularly piercing images and birds as extensions of females.  David Horton saw the piercing images more an expression of woundedness than aggression
The exhibit continues through January 1, 2013

November 

30    7:30     Films of David Molander












17     Jed Bark and Steve Washburn install one of Jed's Tree-Book Sculptures on the Path to the Bog Garden

10    1-3 pm      Painter Philip Pearlstein (b 1924) visits the Seligmann Center to discuss his work and answer questions. Pearlstein and Seligmann were in an exhibit together in 1960 and they each taught at Brooklyn College. 



October 
26     Film Festival.  For a year now, we have been offering a monthly program of films related to Surrealism. Artist Robert Whitman selects and produces these events with his colleague, Julie Martin.on the Last Friday of the Month
This month are the films of Robert Breer


September
29    Reading of works by New York School of Poets, Janet Hamill,  producer, with poets Adrianna Delgado, Michael Sean Collins, Florence Lenhard, Marina Mati, Glenn Werner

6    Kurt Seligmann at Home:  opens
      Fantasy Drawings of Chaim Gross
      Sculpture of Julius Medwin opens


August
22   Fantasy Drawings of Chaim Gross installed by Jonathan and Marsha Talbot

June
8    Films of George Kuchar, Felix Bernstein, guest

May
25  #2 Surreal Caberet. William Seaton, David Horton, producers
31  Talk by surrealist expert Stephen Robeson Miller

April
27   Film Festival, Films of Jacob Burckhardt, Burkhardt as guest

March
9     DADA Poetry reading by William Seaton
27   Homage to Kurt Seligmann. An international collage exhibit
        curated by Jonathan Talbot and Jessica Lawrence till June 15
27   Film Festival. Fat Feet. Mimi Gross as guest.
        Robert Whitman, Julie Martin producers

February
26    Film Festival. Last Clean Shirt. Several poets as guest readers
        of Frank O'Hara poems
Surrealist Garden started in bog on property, Jerome Spector

January
2        Graveside memorial ceremony on the 50th anniversary of Seligmann's accidental gunshot death 
24      Film Festival. Pull My Daisy. David Amram as guest. Several poets as guest readers with Amram on keyboard. Janet Hamill, producer
           Edition of Events Posters begins. David Horton, producer

Surrealist FRIENDS and LINX

Seligmann's History of Magic and Occult    
on-line pdf
buy hard copy

People, Groups, Galleries
The Centre for the Study of Surrealism and its Legacies
London Surrealist Group
Stuart Inman
Gallery of Surrealism (NYC)
Contemporary Surrealism Collective
Siobhan McClure
Eric Johansson

Book and Catalog Dealers
Anartist: Books on Art
Marc Chabot Fine Arts

Films
Surrealist film Un Chien Andalou
Documentary on late choreographer Pina Bausch

Exhibitions
Women Surrealists: Down the Rabbit HoleThe Colour of My Dreams: The Surrealist Revolution in Art

A 2011 exhibit created for the Vancouver Art Gallery revealed an unusual connection between the surrealists of 1920s Paris and the art of Northwest Coast Indians. Just the Seligmann images Alaska 1944

Historical Notes and New Leads

How does Vance Kirkland fit in here??

Sur-ruralism Richard Kirk

Derrière le Miroir (Behind the Mirror)(DLM) was an art magazine published between 1946 and 1982 by the French publisher and gallery owner Aimé Maeght. There were a total of 253 editions in 200 volumes. The magazine, itself designed as an art object presented in a large (11” x 15”) format, is illustrated with original lithographs as well as a number of reproductions. Poets and writers like Aragon, Beckett, Char, Eluard, Prévert, Queneau, Reverdy, Sartre, contributed with unpublished texts. Most of the major artists of the second half of the twentieth century created lithographs for DLM: Léger, Miro, Calder, Tapies, Chillida, Braque, Matisse, Giacometti, and above all Chagall.
To quote François Capon : "When the shores of our time will have receded too far for anyone to remember having lived them, there may well be young people to investigate the genesis of the art of the period with the same searching and sensitive look as our generation would have given Durand-Rule, Collard, Kahnweiller's log-book, if they had written one. In DLM they will find the chart of several decades, but along the border where art and poetry meet
Kurt Seligmann did the cover of Issue 19





The Imaginary Foundation

Mannequins
In 1938, the writer André Breton (1896-1966) and poet Paul Éluard (1895-1952) organized the Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme at the Galerie Beaux-Arts in Paris. Each of fifteen artists were given a dressmaker's mannequin as their canvas and encouraged to transform the figure in any way they desired. The artists included (in order of appearance in this video) Salvador Dalí, Óscar Dominguez, Marcel Duchamp, Léo Malet, André Masson, Joan Miró, Wolfgang Paalen, Kurt Seligmann, Yves Tanguy, Marcel Jean, Max Ernst, Espinoza, Maurice Henry, Sonia Mossé, and Man Ray. 

Man Ray organized the lighting and photographed the show. Twenty-eight years later, he printed and published a limited edition of these photographs, along with a descriptive text, under the title Résurrection des mannequins. Man Ray designed the binding and pursuaded the great surrealist printer Guy Lévis Mano to design and print the pages. Princeton's copy is inscribed by Man Ray to his friend William Copley (1919-1996). In 1947, Copley opened a Los Angeles gallery dedicated to the Surrealists and to Man Ray's work in particular. When nothing sold, he closed the gallery, purchasing much of the art for his own private collection. In 1979, Copley sold this collection for $6.7 million, at the time the highest auction sale of a single owner's collection in the United States.

video of mannequins at (seligmann supposedly #8 from beginning...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=lfdJvOFDxA8&NR=1

Music by Eno/Budd, 'Wind in Lonely Fences'.

wwar.com/masters/movements/surrealism.html

Other Surrealists

Duchamp's bullet hole in Seligmann's barn wall

Dorthea TanningTanning 2