Hall says that he has discovered a signed painting worth millions of dollars at a local flea market. He blames corruption within the art world for the fact that art galleries familiar with the work of the artist, Martin Johnson Heade, refuse to authenticate the find. He has submitted the painting to a well-known art restoration and conservation center in Atlanta which confirmed that it is an original oil painting and that several features of the work are consistent with works known to have been created by Heade.
Hall said, "The painting is the epitome of pre-Raphael works and shows the influence of John Ruskin throughout. It is unquestionably a masterpiece with direct historical connections to John J. Audubon's, The Seaside Finch." Hall says that this may be the greatest of all Heade's works, as it is stunning and "the essence of who this great artist was. The work is of iconic importance to American art history, yet it is stagnated by a fickle authentication system that disregards the forensic science that supports its authenticity. The work is signed, and there is a comparative signature circa 1900 available."
Hall said that a prominent art dealer in New York City did contact him with an offer of a huge amount of money but nowhere close to the true value, which was puzzling as to such a proposal in light of stagnation. "I have been researching and reading about the art market for many years now and have come to a conclusion that it is a place of great corruption, filled dogmatic elites that dominate it as despots do in contradiction with American values," stated Hall.
"I have also come to believe that this great work by Martin Johnson Heade may cause problems for the art markets in his hummingbird line as it is the only known work of the great American-only Dusky Seaside Sparrow and trumps all others intellectually and in beauty, thus problematic and at the sacrifice of true American art history," added Hall. "This is an American disgrace and certainly not the American way. There was a time in this country when virtue was better than gold, but it now appears to be about egos and greed."
Hall said, "There is much to be learned in accepting forensic science as the main focus in authenticating art as we should not be remiss in our recognition of a new book on forgeries that is on the market that provides examples of Heade's work which have been successfully forged!"
Hall plans to continue publishing articles and keeping the press informed about the status of this Martin Johnson Heade masterpiece, possibly his greatest work of a now extinct species that now seems to be caught in market that it intimidates.
Hall, as well as many he has spoken with on this oil painting reproduction, have come to realize that federal regulatory is a must in order to save national treasures from being exploited and caught up in a place where second markets are pervasive at the denial of history. "This painting will one day find its way into the great American halls of art and justice."
"I know that the painting was upside down, so I did the upside-down dance," Nina said. "The grass is upside down."Nina was among those taking part recently in the first week of Lively Spaces, an art, poetry and dance camp for children at Colby's museum. The dance portion of the camp is conducted this year in front of two large paintings by Alex Katz in the museum's Schupf Wing.One of the oil-on-canvas paintings, "Black Brook," was completed in 1995 and is a gift to the museum by the artist.
After viewing the painting, Nina proceeded to demonstrate her dance -- an inverted, arms akimbo, twist that goes in several directions at once to the finale.The dance instructor is Jeni Frazee, a Waterville elementary school teacher.Lauren Lessing, Colby's Mirken curator of education, said Nina's observation was right.
"The image is reversed by the fact that it's reflected," Lessing said. "She's perceiving something there about orientation that I think is really central about this composition. It's exactly what we're hoping that kids learn from this program."Lessing said children are learning to look and see and to understand art by responding creatively to what they see.She said this kind of learning, which is slowly being eliminated in public schools as funding to the arts is cut, is crucial to creativity, problem solving and language skills.
"We're hoping with programs like this we can come in and supplement what the schools are losing," Lessing said.Matt Timme, Mirken education and public program coordinator at the museum, said the summer camp for youngsters in second to fifth grades was started by Lessing seven years ago. He said it was cobbled together with discretionary funding the first couple of years, then began to take shape in its third year with a partnership grant from the Maine Arts Commission.
For the past three years, the summer camp has been funded by Karen and Jeff Packman, both members of the Colby Museum Board of Governors. The camp runs five days a week on about $12,000, which includes staff, art supplies and busing for children at the childcare program at the George J. Mitchell school.
There is room for about 30 students for the three-week camp, which closes with a big performance for family and friends Friday, Aug. 2, at the museum. Enrollment is first-come, first-served."Everything is free," Timme said. "All our educational programs are completely free, including this camp."
He said the 30 students split into small groups for poetry, dance and drawing so every student can receive attention.The drawing class concentrated on a scattered pile of summer shoes and the children were asked to draw the outline of the pile without taking their colored pens off the paper. The poetry class was based on objects the children observed in sculptures they saw at the museum.Frazee said the dance program this year is based on the two Katz paintings, "Black Brook" -- the one that appears to be upside down -- and "Tan Woods."
"They had amazing ideas about them; they were noticing patterns," Frazee said. "They were noticing words like straight, curved, square, reflections, so they are going to use those words in their dance. I'm guiding their ideas."
Read the full products at http://www.artsunlight.com/.
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