Tag: artists

God Hates Renoir

I had to laugh when I read this article in the Independent.  The story is about the group calling themselves Renoir Sucks protesting in front of Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. Renoir Sucks’ main tenant is, well, that Renoir sucks. The group maintains that they are tired of the ‘irredeemable treacle of Pierre-Auguste Renoir diluting the collection.’ They are…

Review: Truppe Fledermaus and the Carnival at the End of the World

The collaborative team of Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick recently filled the Galleries at  Cleveland State U. with posters, postcards, and photos from their magical world of speculative fiction and false history–Truppe Fledermaus and the Carnival at the End of the World. While Kahn and Selesnick’s magic realism reminds me of artists like Magritte, or…

Review: Augusto Bordelois at CSU

The Cuban-born, Cleveland-based artist Augusto Bordelois is showing some striking works at Cleveland State U. The exhibition, titled “Based on a True Story,” is filled with large-format paintings full of bold colors and simple shapes that burst their frames and overflow the shallow space, as in the accompanying photo. The designs are strong although simple;…

Robert Smith

Robert Smith was an American artist who died in 1985.  When I knew him, he already was an elderly man.  He lived with his teenage son in Kettering, Ohio in a French chateau-type building that seemed the height of romance to a high school kid, which was what I was when we met. Smith was…