--Dan Cummins (Board President)
Iowa Foil Printing , , . Ready For A Big 2022?

Since launching in late 2021 the excitement about hot stamped foiling has been growing by leaps and bounds. We are holding a series of classes, kicked off work sessions for certified foilers and are facilitating an international work group of folks that share their experience. We have also received several generous donations of the special materials needed for foiling. 
 
But we need you, the local artists and art supporters of Johnson County, to support this growth and excitement. We need to purchase our own Iowa Foil Printer. This unique piece of equipment was invented locally by Virginia Myers and Dan Wenman to allow artist-printmakers to control and execute the entire process of creating hot stamped foil prints or other artworks from beginning to end. 

Together you can help us develop and spread this unique art form by donating now.
Please Donate to Foiled Again!
Discover Foiling
  • February 12 – 1 – 4 pm
    • Intro, samples, demo, questions …the basics
  • February 13 – 1-4 pm
    • Workshop….make it
The application possibilities for adding color, iridescence, and unimaginable effects to wood, metal, paper and fabric are endless!  The reflective properties of Hot Stamped Foil will add depth to your artwork. . . more
Register for Workshop
Life Drawing at the ArtiFactory
Was your resolution to do more art this year? Join us for life drawing in the lower level of Wesley House at 120 N. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA.

Phil Dorothy Drawing Studio
Jan. 20 - 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

Long Pose Studio Group
Jan. 23 - 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Art in the Afternoon | Robert Richardson
February 20 at 1 pm
Since his retirement he has been on the board of Arts Iowa City where he is the webmaster for their website. For many years he organized and facilitated the ArtiFactory’s life drawing sessions. Now, his primary media is watercolor although foiling has become a new interest. . . more 
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--Beppie Weiss | beppie.net

Dear Art Friends,
Art of the Christmas Tree

I hope your holiday season was a happy relaxing one. Here is our seasonal card to you depicting a pagan symbol of the winter solstice as imagined by artists through the years.

Our Northside Iowa City neighbor, Public Space One, has an exhibition called "Fuzzy Daydream: A Show About Boredom, Fashion, Death and Time" that runs through January 21. Stop by and take a look
The end of 2021 brought the sad news of the death of one of my favorite 20th century artists, Wayne Thiebaud. He was dubbed “father of pop art”, but now that is being reconsidered. His art was never a satirical comment on American life but more a nostalgic reminder of good and simpler times. His “painterly” style is also more in line with realism than pop. Check out this nice farewell piece and enjoy some images of his work.
Another interesting story has emerged in the art world. In 2016 a man purchased for $30 at an estate sale, a drawing of the Madonna and Child genre. It has the little A D emblem used as a trademark by Albrecht Durer. This little drawing resembles a later etching of the same subject by him. The experts in the art world believe it to be a 500 year old drawing worth millions!
As many of you know my big love is figurative art and portraiture, so my last suggestion for your enjoyment is to visit the Tate in London one cold January day. But don’t dilly dally. The show itself comes down soon, and I don’t know about the free audio tour they are presenting. It is a really wonderful retrospective of Lucien Freud’s 70 years making art, all done from life and of people he knew well. Powerful work!
That’s all from me this month.
Watch for news on new and exciting events at the ArtiFactory in this new (and better) year and please send any art related events or news that you would like to share in our next e-letter. Thanks for reading.
Beppie Weiss
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--John McGlinn | artshowjourney.com
David Hockney: Ways of Working – Virtual Tour of his Oeuvre
Portrait of Sir David Webster 1971

   Per Video comment author : “Thanks very much, this is a lovely video, very comprehensive, informative and beautifully presented and narrated.”
   David Hockney covers such a range of periods, techniques, and imagery that a quick survey like this is well worth the time. For me, given that my art passion has spanned his working life, this review shows so many of my favorites not easily seen. For the less acquainted, Hockney is just too good to be ignored.

10:13 minutes long.
Hockney Virtual Tour
Umbrellas in Galleries
Here a Tokyo art exhibition/gallery hands out umbrellas as social distancing measure.

1:45 minutes long
Umbrellas in Galleries
How Picasso Used Figurative Abstraction to Explore the Possibilities of Painting
Picasso
Girl Before a Mirror 1932

   Online video description: “This video explains why Pablo Picasso chose figurative abstraction over realistic art and why abstraction offers advantages over realism. European artists of the early 20th century pushed the boundaries of figurative painting to nearly unrecognizable levels. Picasso was one of the leaders of this avant-garde movement.”
   Seems like a critique of some significance for any art lover in 2022!

7:40 minutes
Picasso
23 Top Contemporary Female Artists
Yayoi Kusama
Yayoi Kusama
   Of these 23 female artists numbers 23 and 22 are two of my favorite artists: Agnes Martin and Bridget Riley. I own a large Riley silkscreen and saw an outstanding retrospective of Martin’s work at the Guggenheim in NY 5 years ago. Many of the others, as usual, I have not heard of, and some I am keenly aware of but not really a fan.
   Again this is a point of view based on the author’s criteria, but to assemble this ranking she/he must be in the art business because this is no easy task to create such a survey.
Worthy of viewing, if only to shake up your day! 

CAI Top Contemporary Female Artists
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--Phil Beck
What better way to start the new year than by singing “Happy Birthday” to nonagenarian Swedish-American sculptor Claes Oldenburg (born in Stockholm January 28, 1929), whose eccentric creations helped redefine notions of what sculpture is, or perhaps what sculpture can be about. Born in Sweden but raised in Chicago, where his father was Swedish consul general, Oldenburg took up residence in New York’s Greenwich Village in the 1950s and established himself as a sculptor of simple pieces made from everyday materials like cardboard, newspapers, and plaster-coated chicken wire. In the 1960s, he became associated with the Pop Art movement, eventually relocating to Los Angeles, where he began creating his signature large-scale replicas of mundane items like Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks (1969), Three-Way Plug (1970), and Clothespin (1976). Initially mocked, his work eventually found acceptance and won accolades. From the 1970s on, he’s worked mainly on commission. His second wife, Dutch artist Coosje van Bruggen, collaborated on many of his best-known pieces, including Dropped Cone (2001) and Shuttlecocks (2007).

Oldenburg’s association with film started early, when he began organizing and appearing with friends in performance art pieces, called “happenings” at the time. Several were turned into short films with provocative titles like Ironworks/Fotodeath (1961) and Scarface and Aphrodite (1963). Shot home-movie style in black and white, they showcase his irreverent humor and iconoclastic approach to art--as well as theater. In 1964, avant-garde icon Andy Warhol directed him and his first wife Patty in the comedy Tarzan and Jane Regained…Sort of. The cast included a young Dennis Hopper.

Tantalizing snippets of those films appear in director Michael Blackwood’s 1975 documentary, Claes Oldenburg: The Formative Years, an appreciative study of the artist at work (and play). The 52-minute film provides Oldenburg with a golden opportunity to diagram his process, from conception and design through installation. Narrated by Oldenburg himself, the film follows him as he visits his old Chicago neighborhood and supervises workers at his studio in an abandoned New York City factory while they put the finishing touches on Standing Mitt with Ball (1973). It also shows him shopping at his favorite Chicago dime store for knickknacks and collecting bits of rusty metal with interesting shapes at the Lake Michigan shore.

Throughout these wanderings, he discourses thoughtfully to the viewer on why small objects insignificant to the rest of us are a source of inspiration to him. His quiet, matter-of-fact delivery can’t hide a certain twinkle in his eye, however. His modest speech and serious approach to craftsmanship only partially disguise the lurking attraction to the absurd in modern life that motivates his search for grandeur in ordinariness. It’s an ironic kind of grandeur but one his work proves nevertheless to be real, and without his one-of-a-kind vision, the rest of the world would never see.

Oldenburg on Film:
Seen any of these films?  Tell us what you think of them, or suggest others not covered in the newsletter. Email us at “Artists in the Movies.”
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Graphic design by: Robert Richardson