Wise Up!
Art
By David Bruce
Athens NEWS Contributor
April 7, 2008
• Husband-and-wife children’s book author/illustrator team Martin and Alice Provensen created such picture-books as the Caldecott Medal-winning “The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Blériot.” This book is about the first man to fly solo across the English Channel, a feat he accomplished in 1909. One of their copies of the book has an inscription written in French. Translated, it says, “For the Provensens — Alice and Martin — with my sincere good wishes, Louis Blériot.” No, the famous French aviator, who died in 1936, did not write the inscription — Mr. Provensen forged it. Inscriptions are not the only things he forged. Before his death in 1987, he frequently forged masterworks by such artists as Picasso and Rembrandt. He hung the forgeries in his and his wife’s home, and he enjoyed watching the faces of their visitors as they tried to figure out how the Provensens could afford to own such masterpieces.
• A young man named Bernhard Gillam wanted to be an artist, so he obtained a photograph of Henry Ward Beecher, then painted Mr. Beecher’s likeness. Visiting Mr. Beecher’s house, he presented him with the painting. Mr. Beecher liked the painting so much that he did the very good deed of having it exhibited in the show window of a popular store in Brooklyn. Other people saw the painting and asked Mr. Gillam to paint their portraits. Because of the great amount of business, Mr. Gillam kept raising his price from $15 to $25 to $50 to $75 per portrait — very good money in the nineteenth century. Eventually, Mr. Gillam became a famous cartoonist for newspapers and magazines.
• Country comedian Archie Campbell started out as an artist, and his talent came in handy. While serving in the United States Navy during World War II, he doodled while on duty, drawing several pictures of Donald Duck when he should have been working. His boss caught him in the act, but instead of bawling him out, he asked, “Can you do other things like that?” Mr. Campbell replied that he could, so his boss showed the doodles to a Lieutenant, and Mr. Campbell was put to work illustrating pamphlets for the Bureau of Personnel. In this job, he drew such things as Donald Duck pulling the wrong switch and getting an electrical shock.
• Movie director Billy Wilder was friends with chef Wolfgang Puck, and whenever Mr. Wilder went to Mr. Puck’s restaurant, the two usually spoke German together. One day, as the two were talking, actor Tony Curtis came in with some of his paintings to hang in an exhibition at the restaurant. Mr. Wilder knew art, and his own collection included works by Picasso and Matisse. He looked at a few of Mr. Curtis’ paintings, then said to Mr. Puck, “Lousy actor; lousy painter.” Mr. Curtis looked shocked, and Mr. Wilder immediately apologized: “I’m sorry. I thought I was speaking German.”
• After publishing his children’s book, “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” Dr. Seuss presented a program for 300 third-graders at Higbee’s Department Store in Cleveland. As part of the presentation, he drew several pictures. Unfortunately, the children did not respond to the drawings. Dr. Seuss asked, “Don’t you like my drawing?” The children honestly replied, “No — Gus can draw better.” Dr. Seuss invited Gus onto the stage to draw a picture — and yes, Gus did draw better than Dr. Seuss.
• When Navajo artist R.C. Gorman was in the United States Navy as a young man, he needed extra money. Many of the sailors had calendars featuring drawings of beautiful women by an artist named George Petty, so Mr. Gorman spread the word that he would use photographs of the girlfriends and wives of the sailors and draw their heads on top of a beautiful body similar to those drawn by Mr. Petty. He charged enlisted men $2 for a drawing — officers paid $7. Business was brisk.
• By the 1970s, African-American folk artist Clementine Hunter had become famous, although she had not started to paint until she was 53 years old. President Jimmy Carter sent her an invitation to attend an exhibition of her work in Washington, D.C., but Ms. Hunter had been born in 1886 and she did not like to travel. She said, “If Jimmy Carter wants to see me, he knows where I am. He can come here.”
• Movie director Peter Bogdanovich’s father was an artist who would not sign a painting until after it was sold. He once went to the home of a person who had bought a painting and brought a palette so that he could sign it. Half an hour later, the art collector looked in the room where the painting was and discovered the artist busily repainting the work of art.
• When Amy Schwartz illustrates children’s books, she will often include favorite belongings. For example, in her book titled “Oma and Bobo,” a painting is hanging on the kitchen wall. The painting is titled “Rainstorm,” and she created it when she was in the fifth grade. In real life, the painting hangs in her mother’s kitchen.
• Aliki Brandenberg, author/illustrator of such children’s books as “Mummies Made in Egypt” and “How a Book is Made,” used to practice drawing her toes. Why? It was too hard to practice drawing her fingers, because she was using them.
• As a young man, Ludwig Bemelmans, an author and illustrator of such children’s books as the “Madeline” series, lived in a sparsely furnished apartment. To brighten up the apartment, he painted scenic views on the window shades and elegant pieces of furniture on the walls.
• American Impressionist Mary Cassatt did not want to accept prizes for her paintings, believing as she did in “no jury, no medals, no awards.” Her 1902 painting, “The Caress,” was given a prize by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, but she declined to accept it.
• Trevor Mark Sage-EL has a white mother and a black father. He is very creative, and when his teacher asked him to draw a self-portrait at school, he drew a yin yang symbol, which is half-black and half-white.
• “Mr. Whistler has always spelt Art with a capital I.” — Oscar Wilde.
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