american society of contemporary artists

NUMBER 52 MARA DE ECHEVARRA SEEKS SUBLIMITY IN NATURE WINTER-2013-2014

FRANK MANN: OCULUS

By Dorothy Friedman

J. Sanders Eaton, Gallery and Studio

urated by Frank DeGregorie for The Interchurch Center, Impressions from Nature, Mara de Echevarra s sixteenth solo exhibition, features the most recent oil and acrylic paintings of an artist whose work is constantly evolving. Impressions is the key word here, for over the years, the compositions of this gifted Argentinean born painter, who has made her home in the United States since 1969, have progressed from atmospheric metaphysical landscapes to a more abstract style in which the impression, as well as the inspiration, of nature is still very much present. In conversation with a Source #2 writer, Willem de Kooning Acrylic and oil on canvas once said that all abstract painting begins from landscape, and while that blanket statement may not be true of some of the more geometric styles of abstraction, it is certainly true of de Echevarras present show. In fact, some of the paintings still retain more than a mere impression or suggestion of natural elements, as seen in the work that the artist calls Lyrical Landscape, where a line of trees is set against a backdrop of blue green mountains under a vibrant golden orange, red, and yellow sky, in which the forms of the hills are mirrored in the slightly lighter blue hue of a passing cloud. Here, the landscape shapes are as clearly defined as those in a canvas by Matisse or his main American disciple Milton Avery; they are suffused by a luminosity that owes more of its glow to nature than to Fauvism. Summer Storm is another of de Echevarras more literal images, with its dramatic definition of light and shadow on moody clouds in a vibrant cerulean blue sky. Here the artists masterful use of chiaroscuro is combined with a strong, almost sculptural, sense of form to create one of the most literal transcriptions of a natural phenomenon in the exhibition. Her less specifically allusive pictures, however, are no less evocative, even when they combine the composi
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A FUSION OF ABSTRACT AND REPRESENTATIONAL ART DEPICTS THE CIRCULARITY OF LIFE n Oculus, a series of paintings, Frank Mann explores the act of seeing and depicts the circularity of life. He expands the boundaries between abstract and representational art, using a style that art critic Franklin Sirmans described as a kind of Oculus #1 stretching. It fuses Oil on Canvas outer of configurations 28x34 of shapes and inner psychic states and is part of an architectural format that Mann builds on and continues to evolve. Loose circular orb-like structures depict lifes flow. By doing so he creates leaps of consciousness and the new architectonics of form. Post-modernist John Ashbery does this in poetry in works such as Can You Hear Bird? and Flowchart. Previously Mann derived his content from dream imagery, a subject also rich in allusions. In Oculus the subject is vision itself and these muscular paintings show the outer and inner eye at work. These vibrant palette elocutions allow the viewer to fill them with his or her own interpretations. Thereby, the paintings evoke open fields of possibility, such as planets rushing across the Milky Way. He uses primary colors such as bright reds, blues and yellows, and Oculus #14 other rich chromatic Oil on Canvas hues, such as orange 30x34 and magenta, which he loosens and frees utilizing brushes and branches and

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ASCAS 96TH ANNUAL EXHIBIT

Marie R. Pagano,Gallery and Studio

iverse Impressions, The 96th Annual Exhibition Of the American Society of Contemporary Artists, lives up to its name. Although the ASCA was originally called The Brooklyn Society of Artists and limited to artists from that borough when it was founded in 1917, in 1963 its members voted to change its name to the current one, extending its membership and, consequently it stylistic variety. Now comprising close to a hundred members, its group exhibitions are huge affairs, next to impossible to do full justice in the space allotted her. Rather than turning this review into an exhaustive as well as exhausting! List of names, it is preferable to suggest the show s quality and diversity by selecting a few works to describe and reproducing images of others, and the hope that the reader will be inspiring viewers to visit the exhibition and discover otherworldly works and artists as well. Marilyn A. Weisss mixed-media assemblage, a lifesize dress fashion from fabric, and gauze on a wooden hanger, as in effect at once nostalgic and eerie. For although it is formal in design, it is made from raw strips of denim and gauze, and as its title, Denim Dahlin suggests a poignant Cinderella story by a writer like Stephen King with perhaps gruesome outcome. Could this, by any chance, even address Carrie or to her high school prom, transfigured by time? Or an attempt to fit in with a posher set of teenagers by Loretta Lynns Coal Miners Daughter? Like Claes Oldenburg, Marilyn Weiss has an aesthetic alchemists ability to transform incongruous materials into poignant and, in their own way, elegant artistic statements. Anita Adelman takes a more realistic view, in her watercolor Abandoned Store, and atmospheric rendering of an isolated country business gone to seed. The artists sparkling approach to transparent aquarelle elevates a simple subject, bringing the contrast between the weathered surface of the ramshackled structure and the eternal freshness of the surrounding landscape to vibrate life by virtue of her luminous evocation of light and subtle sense of color, lending the painting a Hopperesque dignity. Lea Weinberg makes the rigid industrial material of wire mesh, set against backdrop of black Plexiglas, slowly drifting smoke, forming vaguely anthropomorphic abstract permutations, is a relief sculpture Entwined. Weinbergs sensually fluid shapes take on a paradoxical quality that can only be compared to Katsuyo Aokias intricately interwoven porcelain pieces, in which configured shapes invariably suggests melting wax skulls. For light that esteemed Japanese contemporary sculptor, Leo Weinberg is a skillful exponent of the Neo-Baroque. Mara Szalajda, on the other hand, translate specifice)

lements of nature into a private language of shapes and signs in her work in gouache on paper, Clouds to Trees in the Storm. Through just the slightest, most subtle, and gradual chromatic and total variations, as the viewers gaze moves down an intricate hard-edged composition made up of tiny yellow, pink, blue, and green rectangular and triangular shapes, Szalajda evokes to settle atmospheric changes of light, color, and mood (if not the literal subject), that the title describes. Neva Setlow takes a more decorative approach, akin to the cut paper series of Matisses Jazz, in her colorful and upbeat collage Summer Garden. Setting semi abstract floral-influence shapes in yellow, red, blue, and green forms of float on a solid deep pink ground, Setlow creates her own graceful visual music perhaps more in tune with Ravel then Louis Armstrong for its lively evocation of nature transforms. Hank Rondinas composition and acrylic and cut mat board, Monk Dream, however, seemed less evocative of a Zen monk than of the great jazz pianist Thelonious Monk. For not only does the title echo that of one of the musicians best-known record albums, but the forms, at once sprightly and architectonic, in the matter of imaginary hieroglyphics, suggest Monks rhythmic approach. Rondinas intimate formal inventiveness, and the modernist tradition but refreshingly contemporary, makes him seem a kindred spirit of Kandinsky and Klee. Linda Butti walks a fine line between realism and abstraction, in her oil Cherry Tree, the subject takes on a fiery energy with gestural brushstrokes that carry the energy of Expressionism and a light-evoking pallet apparently inspired by ImpressionYeahism. It makes for a happy marriage in his composition, where both the trunk of the tree and the leads above writhe rhythmically, as the yellow grass below in the body of water: like mirrors filled with sunlight. Then there is Roberta Millman-Ides meticulous oil, Ide Destiny, in which a delicate, graceful female figure emerges from the center of a large flower with sinuous petals in nocturnal blues, greens and other hues that gleam like stained glass. With its central image surrounded by a lunar orb, lined by life, and set against the dark blue ground, this painting positions Millman as a latterday Symbolist. Georgiana Cray Bart is represented by a classical still -life composition in pastel, title, Arrangement with Napkins and Pairs. While Barts style is realistic, with surfaces modeled by light and shadow in the folds and classical draperies and shadows faithfully delineated, her highlighted, near Fauvist, color sense, lines are picture and almost metaphysical intensity. Here, the vibrant blue napkin and red cloth that extends from the paler blue wall create your perfect chromatic backdrop for the brown liquor bottle, the transparent wineglasses, and above all, the brilliant green and yellows of the pairs. All too often sculptor gets short shrift in many group show; but not here, with several innovative approaches to three-dimensional art comes boldly to the forefront: in
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(ASCA, Continued from Page 2))

Marcia Bernsteins black-and-white mixed-media piece Unlimited 40, several tubular protrusions, white on the outside, black on the inside, jut up from a pure white bass like a growth phallic mushrooms. Sachie Hayashis flowing form in aqua resin Spirit, does indeed possess a unique grace, suggesting an ethereal being in flight, albeit in a solid material that lends it and interestingly contradictory tension between the tactile and the visual. Bonnie Rothchilds piece in terra-cotta with a gold and jade green patina suggest an archaeological symbol, perhaps a religious amulet or other sacred object from a lost culture. Raymond Shanfelds sculpture in white marble veined with delicate pink, Pink Lady, melds a gracefully simplified classical profile with a freestanding abstract form inharmonious synthesis. Sally Pitts piece in bronze and steel, Arc Dejoueurs, presents a delicate aerobic balance act between two exquisitely simplify female and male figures that suggests both the delicate physical and psychologi-

ASCAS 96TH ANNUAL EXHIBIT MEMBER AWARDS

1. Harriet FeBland Tower Irwin and Florence Zlowe ASCA Memorial Award 2013 2. Nikolai Buglaj House Roy Moyer ASCA Memorial Award 2013 3. Annette Lieblein Counter RhythmsRose Heart Betensky ASCA Memorial Award 2013 4. Sally Pitt Kinked Orbits Barbara Browner Schiller Award for Sculpture 5. Frank Mann Fast Prayer Elaine Alibrandi ASCA Art Award for Mixed-Media 2013 6. Leanne Martinson Homage to John Chamberlain Gerda Roze ASCA Art Award for Painting 2013 7. Minna Myar Mountain Spirit Alan Simpson ASCA Award for Painting 2013 8. Gabe Turow Stretched Flute Raymond Weinstein ASCA Award for Sculpture 2013 9. Mihai Caranica Homage to Punchet Raymond Weinstein Memorial ASCA Award for Sculpture 2013 10. Eleanor Goldstein View from Roosevelt Island American Society of Contemporary Artists Arts Award 2013 11. Dominick Botticelli Alice Global Warning ASCA Hon. Mention Award for Painting 2013 12. Lubomir Tomaszewski space Who Says You Have To Be Serious? ASCA Hon. Mention Award for Sculpture 2013 13. Jo-anna Melrose Repose ASCA Hon. Mention Award for Works on Paper 2013 The Jurors : Sarah Humphreyville, Assistant Curator, Whitney Museum Frank DiGregorie, Curator and Director Of the Interchurch Center Mari Lyons, Noted Painter found in 100 private, Museum, and corporate collections.

EXHIBITION OPPORTUNITY FROM MARCIA BERNSTEIN

EXHIBITION OPPORTUNITY
The International Peace Museum - Dayton Ohio The International Peace Museum is a possible venue for artists who do work relating to war, peace, and social activism. It is a small museum but active in outreach to the community and hosts events which bring in visitors. The museum has galleries to exhibit art. I was in a two person show in their smaller "Missing Peace Art Space" exhibiting anti-war assemblages, in May 2013. Unfortunately, I was not able to get to the show, so cannot report from personal experience. Work is shipped at the artist's expense, they will hang and they send out email announcements to their lists. They were careful about repacking, my bulky pieces came back in perfect shape. Check it out, and if interested contact Gabriela Pickett, Gallery Director. Proposal and images can be sent to: gabrielapickett@yahoo.com. The Dayton International Peace Museum is a nonprofit, all volunteer organization and one of the few community-based institutions with a focus on peace in the United States. Our educational programs and exhibits are non-partisan and feature themes of nonviolent conflict resolution, social justice issues, international relations and peace. We honor Dayton's history as the center for the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords and maintain this strong civic pride in all of our programming.

e need volunteers to help continue the survival of our ASCA Newsletter. We welcome art-related articles, reviews of exhibitions and your upcoming shows. Send your material to: Hank Rondina 209 Lincoln Place, Eastchester, New York 10709; Telephone (914) 793-1376; or email it to artist@hankrondina.com

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tional reductiveness of Minimalism and the heightened chromatic intensity of Color Field painting, as seen in her numbered series of Field paintings. In Fields #7, for example, a sense of a very particular landscape location is conjured up with a mere three color areas of color: a luminous blue expanse interrupted by just a wisp of white strokes at the top of the composition are all the artist requires to evoke a vibrant summer sky. A mass of golden ocher interpolated with subtle hints of red and yellow at the center of the composition conjures up a vast wheat field as tangible, if less delineated, than one in a van Gogh landscape. And an irregular stripe of green along the bottom of the canvas adds foliage in the foreground to complete the composition. Then there is Fields #14,in which only a blurrily defined whitish horizontal line separates a large expanse of an olive green (actually quite unlike any sky one has ever gazed upon!) from an even larger area, saturated with a rusty red hue, covering the entire lower part of the composition. Yet through some peculiar coloristic alchemy known only to the artist, these three simple components suffice to make the composition cohere as a concrete representation of light glowing on the horizon in an arid, perhaps southwestern landscape, such as that of New Mexico, where de Echevarra keeps a studio. Here, the painter appears to transcend optical actuality to trigger a kind of chromatic synesthesia in the viewer, an almost unsettling cognitive state in which totally dissimilar colors approximate the effect of the more expected ones! Along with the inspiration of nature, de Echevarra has always acknowledged the spiritual inspiration in her work, culminating in Toward Another Dimension her solo at the Consulate General of Argentina Art Gallery in 2004, when she included spectral figures in some of her most ethereal landscapes to date. In the present exhibition, however, the suggestion of the metaphysical forces and essences underlying the lay of the land take more subtle form in paintings such as one titled Source #2. In this large (60" by 48") work in oil and acrylic on canvas, the only metaphysically suggestive element is a large deep orange rectangular shape suspended like an enormous monolithic gold bar against an area of lighter orange near the top of the composition. From there down (although incongruously colored in graduating shades of green), the horizontal divisions below can be read as strata of sky, descending logically to a more loosely brushed blue-green strip of cloud-cover hovering over the horizon of a deeper blue body of water near the bottom of the composition. For all its imagistic and coloristic inventiveness, however, The Source #2 is a masterful panoramic evocation of natural beauty as convincing in its own manner as the Hudson River School painter Frederick Edwin Churchs monumental 1860 canvas Twilight in the Wilderness. For like that group of painters and their successors in the Luminist movement, Mara de Echevarra is an artist forever in search of sublimity. For her, as for them, the sublime

most often manifests most clearly in observing and apprehending what the great Englishman Turner termed light as color; which is to say: trapping one of natures most ethereal and elusive elements in the contradictory materiality of pigment. For all the liberties that she takes with both form and color as a quintessentially postmodern artist interested in achieving the perfect balance between the representational and abstract elements in her work, Echevarra obviously has made a close study of how light creates color and how color can create the illusion of light. In this regard, she may well be one of the few contemporary painters working today who still, in her own unique manner, heeds John Ruskins axiom To observe nature closely is to follow the finger of God.
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applying the paint in a spontaneous manner. The inner process of the eye is externalized, so that what the artist presents is open ended. Starting with the light of the eyes, the images are transformed into the back of the retina and then interpreted in the visual cortex in the back of the brain. By visualizing this process, Mann conveys a variety of images related to stages of seeing and provides a richness of experience in ambiguity, imagery, and color. Painting from experience and projecting it forth, he provides a three-dimensional inner trip and return to the surface. The plasticity of the surface gives them this threedimensional look or one that charts shifts between two and three-dimensionality. Therefore, Oculus is an inner vision of the body in which the tensions, a disjunctiveness between two and three dimensions is always there. These open images, which follow the journey of the eye, are the result of a disciplined technique combined with an artful chaos that reveals to the viewer the greater possibilities of the physical and spiritual world. Manns demanding style suggests that he is a significant painter, one who creates an autonomous system for the arrangement and perception of things. Sunlight emanates from the windows of his studio on E. 34th St., where he creates these luminous works. Thus Manns process and his engagement with paint becomes a poetic language for the energy of light made visible. The paintings are surrealistic but still specific to his vision, one that creates an inner space in which objects have an anatomical reality, like the elements inside an atom. To achieve this he references the internal processes of the eye and states of mind somewhat like those of the chained prisoners in Platos Allegory of the Cave, who when freed and brought out of darkness, visualize vision. Similarly, the imaginative rendering of the process of seeing is consistent in his work. Therefore, Mann creates a dialogue with the viewer and an awareness of how to see something that opens the viewer up and creates discourse. He wants the viewers to be more aware of how they look at art and to be conscious of the process of seeing what is there. The emphasis is on personal invention. He thankfully leaves it up to the viewer to discover this for him or herself. 4

TWICE NAMED ONE HEART

By Estelle Levy One given, the other chosen yet a twice named man with one heart whose life lives on in the annals of history! Are the acts honoring his life decades later done merely as a tribute or could it be to rattle us with awe and disbelief or is it perhaps to inform and teach usmaybe even to make us humble. Surely a universal answer is not possible. 1878 is the year an agnostic was born to a Jewish family in Warsaw. Before he was a teenager, his life was disrupted; his father died; the family had to move to less spacious quarters. After school it is said he worked as a tutor. However it is also said he often sat at a window and watched the Street Urchinsthe poor, unclean, unschooled street kids playing freely on the streets below. Wanting to yet not permitted to join them, one can imagine the depth of his boyhood wish. Goldszmit studied literature and used JANUSZ KORCZAK as a pseudonym when he entered writing contests. The name JANUSZ KORCZAK came from a book: JANASZ KORCZAK AND THE PRETTY SWORDSWEEPER LADY. He took that name for himself. Korczak became a Pediatrician; he wrote CHILD OF THE DRAWING ROOM; when in Berlin, Korczak worked for the Orphans Society. It is in Warsaw that Korczak designed and built an orphanage for Jewish children. Named the Dom Sierot Orphanage, it was where he worked and where he lived in an attic room of the very building he designed. Korczaks love and respect for the children became widely evident. He made it possible for the Dom Sierot children to begin a newspaper of their own. Their Little Review became a weekly addition to the daily Polish-Jewish Newspaper: Our Review. While engaged in all this, Korczak also had his own radio program which he used as a way to foster Childrens Rights. Korczak was awarded the Silver Cross of the Polonia Restituta; he traveled to Mandate Palestine, went to its kibbutzim causing him to become estranged from the non-Jewish orphanage he also worked for. His volunteering for duty when World War II began was rejected by the Polish Army because of his age. Korczak witnessed the Nazi takeover of Warsaw and the creation of the Warsaw Ghetto. The Nazis forced the children of Dom Sierot to leave their home and move into the Ghetto. Korczak moved into the Ghetto with them. There he continued to work with the children and had them put on Tagores play: THE POST OFFICE. In the meantime, the terror of the Holocaust moved closer and closer to Korczaks 196 children. Eventually the word came; the Nazis were coming for the children! Korczak was offered a chance to flee to safety. This man with two names simply said he could not abandon his children. Offered sanctuary a second time, Korczak said he would go with the children. Korczak worked hard to

stave off the childrens realization of what was in store for them. It is said the children were dressed in their best each carrying a knapsack and a favorite book or toy. Even as Korczak went with the children to the trains destined for Treblinka, he was offered sanctuary by Nazis who knew of him. Korczak continued to refuse. Wladyslaw Szpilman, the Pianist wrote: He told the orphans they were going out in to the country, so they ought to be cheerful. At last they would be able to exchange the horrible suffocating city walls for meadows of flowers, Streams where they could bathe, woods full of berries and mushrooms. He told them to wear their best clothes, and so they came out into the yard, two by two, nicely dressed and in a happy mood. The little column was led by an SS man Joshua Perle of the Holocaust Chronicles wrote: Korczak was also marching, his head bent forward, holding the hand of a child, without a hat, a leather belt around his waist and wearing high boots. Janusz Korczak once wrote: I am not here to be loved and admired but to act and love. It is not the duty of people to help me. But it is my duty to look after the world and the people in it. I was invited to be in a traveling exhibition held to honor Janusz Korczak. I did not know of him nor anything about him. I said YESwhy not! The research shook me emotionally. It was not, for me, only a matter of: THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD GO I It was seeing the children in my imagination marching to trains that only went to Treblinka. It was imagining his efforts to protect the children from knowing about their fate for as long as it was humanly possible while he knew about his own. It was imagining him going with the childrenrefusing all chances to save his own life. It was struggling to understand his profound and expansive sense of duty and love that grew in him over time. During the research, I was struggling to grasp Janusz Korczaks humanity and his need to protect all these children for as long as he was able to. Quite a while elapsed before I was able to create a work. I created a summary of his life. It is a collage. From their home base in Krakow, Poland, Artist Teresa Zebrowscy and her gallery owner husband Leszek Zebrowscy assumed the extensive responsibilities involved in bringing about this memorial traveling exhibition honoring Janusz Korczak. Teresa and Leszek Zebrowscy used their talents and devotion to make this Exhibition a reality. I had the good fortune to meet the Zebrowscys here in New York. They flew in from Krakow for the Exhibitions American opening held in Greenpoint, N.Y. at the Polish Cultural Center. Fifty-two artists from Denmark, Poland, Slovania, Sweden and the USA submitted work. American artists Atanaska Tassart and Mira Satryan were my American links to this Exhibition.

WOMEN ARTISTS IN THE RENAISSANCE

by Clara Eerskine Second in a series. omen in the Fine Arts From the Seventh Century B.C. To The 20th Century A.D., written by Clara Eerskine Clement and published in 1904. Here is one you may or may not have heard of. Anguisciola, Sofonisba. Born in Cremona, about 1539. Daughter of the patrician, Amilcare Anguisciola, whose only fame rests on the fact that he was the father of six daughters, all of whom were distinguished by unusual talents in music and painting. Dear old Vasari was so charmed by his visit to their palace that he pronounced it "the very home of painting and of all other accomplishments." Sofonisba was the second daughter. The actual date of Game of Chess, 1555 her birth is unknown, but from various other dates that we have concerning her, that given above is generally adopted. She was educated with great care and began her study of drawing and painting when but seven years old, under the care of Bernardino Campi, the best artist of the five Campi of Cremona. Later she was a pupil of Bernardino Gatti, "il Sojaro," and in turn she superintended the artistic studies of her sisters. Sofonisba excelled in portraits, and when twenty-four years old was known all over Italy as a good artist. Her extraordinary proficiency at an early age is proved by a picture in the Yarborough collection, Londona portrait of a man, signed, and dated 1551, when she was not more than twelve years old. When presented at the court of Milan, then under Spanish rule, Sofonisba was brought to the notice of Philip II., who, through his ambassador, invited her to fill the office of court painter at Madrid. Flattering as this invitation must have been to the artist and her family, it is not surprising that she hesitated and required time for consideration of this honorable proposal. The reputation of the ceremonious Spanish court, under its gloomy and exacting sovereign, was not attractive to a young woman already surrounded by devoted admirers, to one of whom she had given her heart. The separation from her family, too, and the long, fatiguing journey to Spain, were objections not easily overcome,

and her final acceptance of the proposal was a proof of her energy and strength of purpose. Her journey was made in 1560 and was conducted with all possible care for her comfort. She was attended by two noble ladies as maids of honor, two chamberlains, and six servants in liveryin truth, her mode of travelling differed but little from that of the young ladies of the royal family. As she entered Madrid she was received by the king and queen, and by them conducted to the royal palace. We can imagine Sofonisba's pleasure in painting the portrait of the lovely Isabella, and her pictures of Philip and his family soon raised her to the very summit of popularity. All the grandees of Madrid desired to have their portraits from her hand, and rich jewels and large sums of money were showered upon her. Gratifying as was her artistic success, the affection of the queen, which she speedily won, was more precious to her. She was soon made a lady-in-waiting to her Majesty, and a little later was promoted to the distinguished position of governess to the Infanta Clara Eugenia. That Sofonisba fully appreciated her gentle mistress is shown in her letter to Pope Pius IV., who had requested her to send him a portrait of the queen. She wrote that no picture could worthily figure the royal lady, and added: "If it were possible to represent to your Holiness the beauty of the Queen's soul, you could behold nothing more wonderful." The Pope bestowed rich gifts on Sofonisba, among which were sacred relics, set with gems. He also wrote an autograph letter, still in existence, in which he assured her that much as he admired her skill in painting, he had been led to believe this the least of her many gifts. Sofonisba soon gained the approval of the serious and solemn King, for while Philip was jealous of the French ladies of the court and desired Isabella to be wholly under Spanish influence, he proposed to the artist a marriage with one of his nobles, by which means she would remain permanently in the Queen's household. When Philip learned that Sofonisba was already betrothed to Don Fabrizio de Monadaa Sicilian noblemanin spite of his disappointment he joined Isabella in giving her a dowry of twelve thousand crowns and a pension of one thousand. It would seem that one who could so soften the heart and manners of Philip II. as did Queen Isabella, must have had a charm of person and character that no ordinary mortal could resist. One is compelled to a kindly feeling for this much-hated man, who daily visited the Queen when she was suffering from smallpox. In her many illnesses he was tenderly devoted to her, and when we remember the miseries of royal ladies whose children are girls, we almost love Philip for comforting

Isabella when her first baby was not a son. Philip declared himself better pleased that she had given him a daughter, and made the declaration good by devotion to this child so long as he lived. Isabella, in a letter to her mother, wrote: "But for the happiness I have of seeing the King every day I should find this court the dullest in the world. I assure you, however, madame, that I have so kind a husband that Self Portrait 1550 even did I deem this place a hundredfold more wearisome I should not complain." While Sofonisba was overwhelmed with commissions in Spain, her sisters were far from idle in Cremona. Europa sent pictures to Madrid which were purchased for private collections, and a picture by Lucia is now in the Gallery of the Queen at Madrid. When the time for Sofonisba's marriage came she was sorry to leave her "second home," as she called Madrid, and as Don Fabrizio lived but a short time, the King urged her return to Spain; but her desire to be once more with her family impelled her to return to Italy. The ship on which she sailed from Sicily was commanded by one of the Lomellini, a noble family The Sacred Family of Genoa, with whom Sofonisba fell so desperately in love that she offered him her handwhich, says her biographer, "he accepted like a generous man." Does this mean that she had been ungenerous in depriving him of the privilege of asking for what she so freely bestowed? In Genoa she devotedly pursued her art and won new honors, while she was not forgotten in Madrid. Presents were sent her on her second marriage, and later the Infanta Clara Eugenia and other Spaniards of exalted rank visited her in Genoa. Her palace became a centre of attraction to Genoese artists and men of letters, while many strangers of note sought her acquaintance. She contributed largely to the restoration of art and literature to the importance that had been accorded them in the most brilliant days of Genoese power.

We have not space to recount all the honors conferred on Sofonisba, both as a woman and an artist. She lived to an extreme old age, and, although she lost her sight, her intellect was undimmed by time or blindness. Vandyck, who was frequently her guest, more than once declared that he "was more benefited by the counsels of the blind Sofonisba than by all his studies of the masters of his art!" From a pupil of Rubens this was praise indeed! The chief characteristics of Sofonisba's painting were grace and spirit. Her portrait of herself when at her best is in possession of the Lomellini. A second is the splendid picture at Althorpe, in which she is represented as playing the harpsichord. One can scarcely imagine a place in which a portrait would be more severely tested than in the gallery of the Earl of Spencer, beside portraits of lovely women and famous men, painted by master artists. Yet this work of Sofonisba's is praised by discerning critics and connoisseurs. Of the other portraits of herself, that in the Uffizi is signed by her as "of Cremona," which suggests that it was painted before she went to Spain. That in the Vienna Gallery is dated 1551, and inscribed Sophonisba Anguissola. Virgo. Sc. Ipsam Fecit. Still another, in which a man stands beside her, is in the Sienna Gallery. He holds a brush in his hand, and is probably one of her masters. Her portrait of her sisters playing chess, while an old duenna looks on, was in the collection of Lucien Bonaparte and is said to be now in a private gallery in England. Her religious pictures are rare; a "Marriage of St. Catherine" is in the gallery at Wilton House. She painted several pictures of three of her sisters on one canvas; one is in the National Museum of Berlin, and a second, formerly in the Leuchtenberg Gallery, is in the Hermitage at Petersburg. A small Holy Family, signed and dated 1559, belonged to the art critic and author, Morelli. One regrets that so remarkable a woman left no record of her unusual experiences. How valuable would be the story of Don Carlos from so disinterested a person. How interesting had she told us of the bal masqu, given by Isabella in the fashion of her own country, when Philip condescended to open the ball with the Queen; or of the sylvan ftes at Aranjuez, and of the gardens made under the direction of Isabella. Of all this she has told us nothing. We glean the story of her life from the works of various authors, while her fame rests securely on her superiority in the art to which she was devoted

ASCA annual exhibit

Gerda Roze 17 18 Acrylic on Board 29x19 Isabel Shaw Confused Bronze and Plexiglas box

Dario Puccini Crying (Africa) Mixed-media

Lisa Collado Were in This Together

Marilyn Weiss Denim-Dah-lin Fabric mixed-media

Roberta Millman-Ida Beyond Ourselves oil

Minna Myar Mountain Spirit acrylic

e need volunteers to help continue the survival of our ASCA Newsletter. We welcome art-related articles, reviews of exhibitions and your upcoming shows. Send your material to: Hank Rondina 209 Lincoln Place, Eastchester, New York 10709; Telephone (914) 793-1376; or email it to artist@hankrondina.com

Uri Shulevitz Biblical Prophet Acrylic on would

Esther Ibsich Falling Acrylic-collage

Esther Berman Inspiration Mixed-media

Kashiwagi Fumiko Kitada Untitled oil

Salvador Tagliarino Transformation oil

Marcia Bernstein Unnamed #39 Mixed-media

Eleanor Goldstein View From Roosevelt Island Charcoal Raymond Weinstein Embrace Coated stone Hortense Kassoy Dark Foliage batik Sonja Stark Flight Oil-pastel

Basha Maryanska Kingdom

Santina Semadar Panetta The Dream oil Rose-Marie Cherundolo World Competition Mixed-media

Raymond Shanfeld Pink Lady marble

Sondra Gold Blue Dancer Steel

Olivia Koopalethes Blossoms Colored pencil

Harriet FeBland Tower Construction sculpture

First Prize "Erwin and Florence Zlowe 96th Annual ASCA Memorial Award"

Dominick Botticelli Queen of Cups acrylic

Maria De Echevarria Night at the City oil

Rose Sigal-Ibsen untitled Watercolor rice paper

Mihai Caranica Homage to Ponchet alabaster

Georgina Cray Bart Arrangement with Napkin and Pairs pastel

Anita Adelman Grasses of Summer watercolor Jo-Anna Melrose Out Of the Forest oil

Alan Simpson Across Central Park oil

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Estelle Leedy Golden Views Stoneware with gold

Sally Pitt Kinked Orbits Driftwood, bronze, steel

Janet Indick Darth Vader steel

Libomir Tomaszewski Who Says You Have To Be Serious? Wet bronze

Gabe Turow Stretched Flute ceramic, steel, iron, leather

Neva Setlow Quilt collage

Nikolai Bujlaj White Street Paper and pencil

Lea Weinberg Entwined Wire mesh on black Plexiglas

Hedy OBeil A Quiet Rhythm acrylic

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MEMBERSHIP NEWS
Elaine Alibrandi Exhibiting Compass: Navigating the Journey to Self-Identity"Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, 117 N Sycamore St., Santa Ana, CA Oct. 5-Nov. 16, 2013 Jeremy Comins Solo Exhibit, Carved & Constructed Sculpture at Denise Bibro Fine Art Gallery Feb.13th-Mar. 29th,529 W. 20th Street 4W NYC Harriet FeBlandBERKLEY COLLEGE EXHIBIT "Metaphors" Exhibit 1 wall-relief painting/construction "Passage" Oct 1, 2013 - Jan. 8 2014 ALSO International works, Lessedra Gallery, Bulgaria will exhibit 2 2013- Jan 2014ALSO Valdosta State University "Valdosta National 2014" Fine Arts Gallery, Val. Georgia Juried exhibition, 1 wall-relief painting/ construction "Zen" Jan. 21 -Feb 8, 2014ALSO selected to be included in NAWA's 125 Anniversary at the Morris Museum in Morristown N.J.20 - July 21, 2014.A select group of artists were chosen for this show by the Curator Jeffrey Weschler.ALSOHub-Robeson Galleries University Park, PA. Juried exhibition NAWA Exhibition "Visions Of The Mind" Feb.21-Apr.20, 2014 1 wall-relief construction/painting "Cityscape" ALSO Morris Museum, Morristown, N.J. Selected artists chosen by Curator Jeffrey Weschler 1 totem "Stargazer" Mar. 20 - July1, 2014N.ALSO EW MUSEUM: NYC. To view the XFR STN Moving Image Project, the 1/2 hr film "Harriet FeBland" produced by the Agnes K. Haverly Foundation in 1986, and now included and sponsored in the New Museum Moving Image Archives: For easiest and immediate access: Go to AOL OR Google Search: go to Harriet FeBland page, and follow down to find John Haverly, Free download & Streaming. It will take you to the film and correct Museum address which some have been unable to reach. https://archive.org/details/XFR_2013-09-08_1B_05 Basha MaryanskaExhibited in Awakening at New Century Artist Gallery, Jan. 7-25ALSOSolo Exhibit at Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences, 230 E. 30th St., NYC Jan. 21-Feb.18. Hedy O'Beil Has been awarded a $20,000 grant (painting) from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation!! Lea Weinberg Seen and Unseen The New York Society of Woman Artists Exhibition Brother Kenneth Chapman Gallery Iona College Council on the Arts, 715 North Ave., New Rochelle, NY Feb.24 - Apr. 3, 2014 Rec. Sun., Mar. 2, 1.00 3.00pmALSOMar.8- Apr.27, 2014 Exhibition with Art related to HOLOCAUST Sponsored by the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center, NY Curated by Arle Sklar- Weinstein Arts Westchester 9th floor Gallery, 31 Mamaroneck Ave., White Plains, NY 10601 Rec. with ARTISTS Walk & Talk, Saturday March 8, 2.00-4.00pm Rec. with Yorzeit ceremony, Sun., Apr. 27, 2.00-4.30pmALSOSolo Exhibit Six Series Art Installation MotherSurvivor (of the Holocaust)

In memory of my mother and many others Mar. 29 May 3, 2014ALSO The Kanner-Kurzon Museum Beth El Synagogue Center, 1324 North Ave. New Rochelle, NY 10804 Rec. Sun., Mar. 30, 2.00 - 4.30pm

ASCA OFFICERS President Barbara Schiller President-Emeritus Harriet FeBland Vice-President Estelle Levy Vice-President Raymond Shanfeld Vice-President Frank Mann Vice-President Richard Karp Exhibitions Treasurer Mara Szalajda Recording Secretary Corresponding Secretary Lisa Robbins Social Secretary Olga Kitt Historian Frank Mann Board of Directors: Hank Rondina, Fred Terna ASCA NEWSLETTER Publication Director Hank Rondina CONTRIBUTING WRITERS J. Sanders Eaton & Marie R. Pagano, Gallery and Studio Magazine, Dorothy Friedman, Estelle Levy Hank Rondina CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Hank Rondina, COPY DEADLINE FOR THE NEXT ISSUE MARCH 15, 2013 Send your material to: Hank Rondina, 209 Lincoln Place, Eastchester, New York 10709; Telephone (914) 793-1376; or email it to artist@hankrondina.com
ASCA Newsletter is published 4 times a year. Copyright 2013 by ASCA Permission is required to reprint any portion of this newsletter.

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