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