The Asian art collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art may be in storage, but this past Saturday, April 7th, Clevelanders had an exciting opportunity to learn about ancient and contemporary Chinese Art and a leading scholar's recent work in that area through the eighteenth annual Harvey Buchanan Lecture in Art History and the Humanities.

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"Absence as Presence: Exploring a Fundamental Representational Mode in Chinese art and Visual Culture"
Wu Hung, distinguished professor of art history, University of Chicago, and associate curator, Smart Gallery, presents the 18th annual Harvey Buchanan Lecture in Art History and the Humanities in the CMA lecture hall. Free and open to the public.  Sponsored by the Department of Art History and Art, Case Western Reserve University.

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Claude Monet. Poplars, Pink Effect, 1891
36 7/8 x 29 1/8, Private Collection

Wednesday night I attended a lecture at the Cleveland Museum of Art, part of the Monet Lecture Series that accompanies the exhibition Monet in Normandy. So far I have attend all but the first in this eight lecture series. I found the previous lectures all to be very entertaining and enlightening. I feel I know a lot about Monet now -- I read the exhibition catalog and gallery labels and I have listened to the audio tour, but I am finding that Claude Monet is a truly fascinating figure and it seems there is always something more to learn about him. Paul Tucker is a  professor at the University of Massachusetts and a renowned scholar on Monet and Impressionist painting. His lecture was titled "Monet, Modernism, Normandy, and La France" -- a title I believe was meant to cover all the bases. What I found most interesting about Professor Tucker's hour long lecture was his insights on some of Monet's late works that become narrow and vertically oriented (such as Poplars, Pink Effect 1891) and the role of religion in Monet's life and work. 

I received an informative email this afternoon from Richard McDougald Enty, Planning Team Leader, Programming & Planning Department, Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, about some of their Transit Oriented Development initiatives and vision. It is very exciting to see this as an active subject for discussion and planning here. I am a strong supporter of Transit Oriented Development and consider it the core foundation on which we should rebuild the City of Cleveland and surrounding suburbs.  Here is the vision from RTA:

This week's edition of Dee Perry's arts & culture television program Applause!, on WVIZ, features a segment on REALNEO... so I'd like to invite all the friends of realneo to join us for a screening party for the first broadcast of the program, Thusday, March 29, from 7:30 - 8:00 PM, at the great A.J. Rocco's Cafe, at 816 Huron Road, by East 9th Street. As a special treat, I was pleased to learn that A.J. Rocco's had already planned a very cool and complimentary event for that evening - Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman will be the guest bartender from 6-8 PM.

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There are not many opportunities to see African art in Cleveland -- especially while the Cleveland Museum of Art is under renovation. Fortunately, there are some generous collectors with outstanding African collections in Cleveland. Art: Trilogy, Anonymity, and Eclecticism, 100 pieces of African Art and African American Art is an exhibition going on now through May 15th 2007 at the Cleveland Public Library, Main Library Building, 2nd Floor Exhibit Corridor, which taps into the collectors' and creators' spirits.

The Church at Varengeville, Morning Effect is the most powerful work Monet created while on a painting campaign in Varengeville in 1882. The church of Saint-Valery is a Romanesque medieval church, built in the 12th-century, perched dramatically near the edge of  a towering cliff. It has long been a mariners' church and many generations of local fisherman are buried in the cemetery.

Carl Topilow conducts works by Dvorak and Stravinsky, with cellist Chia-Ling Chen. Don't miss hearing some of the best young musicians in the United States, many of whom will soon be playing with the world's great symphonies. Free, tickets will be distributed 30 minutes before the concert.

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Stephen Marley (son of reggae legend Bob Marley) play the House of Blues.
Visit Stephen Marley's website to hear his music and learn more.

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Majorie Williams, Director of Education, The Cleveland Museum of Art, lectures at the CMA as part of the Monet Lectures series accompanying the exhibition "Monet in Normandy". This lecture is free, open to the public and in the Recital Hall.

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John House, Professor, Courtauld Institute of Art, lectures at the CMA as part of the Monet Lectures series accompanying the exhibition "Monet in Normandy". This lecture is free and held in the Recital Hall.

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Hollis Clayson, Professor, Northwestern University, lectures at the CMA as part of the Monet Lectures series accompanying the exhibition "Monet in Normandy". This lecture is free and held in the Recital Hall.

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A film not to be missed by Stanley Kubrick fans: COLOR ME KUBRICK: A TRUE...ISH STORY (Britain/France, 2005, Brian W. Cook) This amusing new movie tells the incredible true story of Alan Conway, a small-time British con man who passed himself off as the famously reclusive filmmaker in 1990s London. As played by John Malkovich, Conway is a gay man of many accents and an eyebrow-raising wardrobe who scored lots of drinks, dinners, cash, and companions with his extended ruse. The movie's witty allusions to Clockwork Orange and 2001 are attributable to the fact that both the writer and the director worked for Kubrick for many years. "A sly, enormously entertaining romp." -Variety. Cleveland theatrical premiere. 35mm. 86 min. www.magpictures.com

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Beach at Sainte-Adresse, 1867

Renowned Impressionist and Monet scholar, and professor at the University of Massachusetts,  Paul Tucker lectures at the CMA as part of the Monet Lectures series accompanying the exhibition "Monet in Normandy". Paul Tucker has written many scholarly books on Monet and has curated several Monet exhibitions.

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The Case Western Reserve Department of Art History and Art will feature Maurizio Seracini, an art diagnostician who has spent the past 30 years using scientific techniques that incorporate new space technologies and medical/surgical advances to study works of art in non-invasive fashion.

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Untitled (from the Silueta Series, August 1978,

Photograph, 8 x 9 15/16"

Wednesday, March 28 there will be a free screening of short films by Ana Mendieta that document her performances from the 1970s and 1980s, notably her earthwork/body art siluetas.

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I was quite honored to be contacted, a few weeks ago, by the producer of one of my favorite television programs, Dee Perry's "Applause", asking for information about REALNEO. Seems he was doing research on the spectacular Convivium 33 Gallery, which we have featured extensively on REALNEO, covering Christopher Pekoc here and Clarence Van Duzer here (photos from which were featured in Cleveland Magazine), so REALNEO came up in search results. The producer saw REALNEO as in interesting source of insight on arts and culture in NEO and suggested to his staff doing a segment on Applause about REALNEO. Even though we scheduled the interview, this seemed very abstract until I just saw a promotion on WVIZ for the show, featuring a scrolling view of the REALNEO home page.

3rd Annual Art Fur Animals Benefit & Auction, all proceeds go directly to the care of animals at the City of Cleveland Kennel.
I went to this even last year and it was a lot of fun. Various artists painted about 30 ceramic dogs that were sold by auction. There were other types of art (prints, photos) being auctioned too. The low admission price brought in a fun crowd. There were free appetizers and a cash wine bar. I liked how the whole event was done at a very low cost allowing most of the money to go to the animals. But, what I enjoyed most was seeing all that creativity. I bought a dog with scenes of the Mediterranean painted on serveral areas of his anatomy. This year should be no less interesting!

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