People are always leaving things in the entryway of my apartment building. Many New York City residents can relate and some of us consider ourselves to be the lucky recipients of a ‘hallway benefactor.’ One day a couple of years ago, I found an unused children’s coloring book, Art Masterpieces, on the radiator. My immediate impulse was to send it to as many creative friends as possible to see how they’d interpret the 60 famous paintings on the pages. I’m from West Texas, so naturally my first impulse was to ask Terry Allen, the region’s iconic artist and songwriter, if he’d have a go at it. |
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Gilbert Stuart’s George Washington as interpreted by Terry Allen, 2012. Courtesy of the artist.
People are always leaving things in the entryway of my apartment building. Many New York City residents can relate and some of us consider ourselves to be the lucky recipients of a ‘hallway benefactor.’ One day a couple of years ago, I found an unused children’s coloring book, Art Masterpieces, on the radiator. My immediate impulse was to send it to as many creative friends as possible to see how they’d interpret the 60 famous paintings on the pages. I’m from West Texas, so naturally my first impulse was to ask Terry Allen, the region’s iconic artist and songwriter, if he’d have a go at it. He was game and kindly sent back a rendition of Gilbert Stuart’s George Washington as a dog and that got the ball rolling. From there, with the assistance of another good friend, Emily Burnell Petrou, an expat living in Germany, we stretched the project across the world from New York to Europe, Australia, Nebraska, Provincetown and beyond.
The result is a crazy patchwork quilt of highly polished work by both professional artists and ‘amateurs,’ working in a vast array of mediums. It’s been a lot of fun matching the pages with the artists, and more than once the project has felt touched by serendipity. Toward the end, for example, we needed someone to take on Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Lady Lilith. I’d also been wanting to include in the book a black and white print given to me years ago by George Pickow, noted photographer of the jazz, folk and pop music scenes of midcentury America. This photo depicted the famed stripper Lili St. Cyr in her dressing room. On a whim, I held it up against Lady Lilith’s page and was shocked to find that the composition almost perfectly mirrored that of the painting. George sadly died two years ago, about the time this project got started, and this felt like such a meaningful fit. That’s the way the entire book, as well as the setting for this one-night show, feels to me.
It was important to me to exhibit the book first at ABC No Rio, since it is such an important cultural institution in my neighborhood, the Lower East Side. The future of the building, a long-time center for art and activism, is in flux. The building is used for a variety of purposes,
including a hard core matinee on Saturdays, so we will be taking our pages off the wall right after our one-night-only show to make way for the matinee the next day and other events to follow in the near future.
Art Masterpieces’ table of contents:
“Cover Page” Mona Lisa by Kaitlin Martin
1. Sleeping Gypsy: Emily Burnell Petrou
2. The Syndics of the Drapers Guild: Lloyd Maines
3. The Dancing Class: Guenveur Burnell
4. Maidservant Pouring Milk: Jill Seale
5. Liberty Leading The People: Eric Norris
6. Starry Night: David C. Barnett
7. Vision After The Sermon: Terri Hendrix
8. Henry VIII: John Woods
9. Luncheon On The Grass: Steve Waugh
10. The Burial of Count Orgaz: Connie Champagne
11. Jane Avril: Doug Wakefield
12. Third Class Carriage: Rich Brown
13. Mona Lisa: Claudia Alvarez
14. Saint-Lazare Train Station: Elsa Hiltner
15. I and the Village: Ericka Wellman James
16. The Washerwoman: Brent Riley
17. Don Manuel Osorio de Zuniga: Rick Hall
18. Adam and Eve: Maddy Walker
19. Sunflowers: Terry Rosenberg
20. The Wedding Dance: Colleen Fogarty
21. Dürer Self Portrait: Andie Beahn
22. Moulin Rouge: Gyda Gash
23. Birth of Venus: Katina Petrou
24. George Washington: Terry Allen
25. The Battle of Constantine: Terri Marlowe
26. The Loge: Elizabeth Lefmann Blair
27. Ship of Fools: Bob Groke
28. Bathers At Asnieres: Tommy Glazner
29. The Blue Boy: Peter Ketchum
30. We Hail Thee, Mary: Debora Parks
31. The Scream: Kick Cates
32. Rubens and His First Wife: Curtis Cates
33. A Bar at Folies-Bergere: Richard Baker
34. Luncheon of the Boating Party: Addie Cheges
35. Madonna of the Goldfinch: Sally Randall Brunger
36. Maids of Honor: Joe Culley
37. Whistler’s Mother: Susan Quinn-Waugh
38. The Card Players: Rick Rodine
39. The Artist In His Studio: Thomas Eller
40. The Merry Drinker: Nicole Bufanio
41. Dancer With Bouquet, Curtsying: Joy Brown
42. Girl Arranging Her Hair: Dianna Hedren
43. The Ancient of Days: Kelly Lamb
44. Hunters In The Snow: Mikel Campbell
45. The Oath of the Horatii: Chris Cates
46. Mlle. Charlotte du Val d’Ognes by Samoa Moriki
47. Lady Lilith: George Pickow
48. The Queen Of Sheba: Kurt Walters
49. Back From The Market: Siobhan Meow
50. Erasmus of Rotterdam: Elke Claus
51. Gypsy Woman With Baby: Jennifer Carpenter
52. Nude Descending A Staircase, No. 2: Mark Miller & Jansky Michaelson, PhD.
53. The Shrimp Girl: William Wickline
54. Giovanni Arnolfini And His Bride: Kelli Smith
55. La Grande Odalisque: Howie Pyro & Michael Kortez
56. Still Life With Apples: Rosemary Fogarty
57. Jacob Blessing The Sons of Joseph: Dawn Behzadi
58. Madame Boursier and Her Daughter: Kembra Pfahler
59. Snowy Heron: David Bjerklie
60. Sunday Afternoon On The Island of La Grande Jatte: Richard Kern