Updated June 1, 2008
webmaster[at]theoldjailartcenter[dot]org
© Copyright The Old Jail Art Center
201 South 2nd Street
Albany, Texas 76430
Phone 325.762.2269 Fax: 325.762.2260
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
January 29, 2007 September 25, 2006 September 15, 2006 September 5, 2006 July 23, 2006 June 4, 2005 March
8, 2005 21
May 2004 February
28, – May 23, 2004 December
13– February 15, 2004
|
September 4, 2003 June, 2003 April
2, 2003 March
30, 2003 February
18, 2003 February
19, 2003 August
20, 2002 |
For Immediate Release: January 29, 2007
Re: Clay and Ash: New Work by Sandria Hu
Contact: Margaret Blagg, 325/ 762-2269 or director[at]theoldjailartcenter[dot]org
Digital images available on request.
On February 10 the Old Jail Art Center will open a new exhibition, Clay and Ash: New Work by Sandria Hu. The exhibition will remain on view in the museum’s Hooker Gallery and Jones Pavilion through May 13.
Organized by the El Paso Museum of Art, the exhibition presents new work by Ms. Hu, who is currently Professor of Art at the University of Houston, Clear Lake, where she has taught since 1975. The artist will not only be present at the members’ opening on February 10, where she will give a gallery talk, but she will also conduct a series of artist-in-residence printmaking demonstrations for Albany High School art students on February 9.
Sandria Hu was born, raised, and educated in California. After receiving a Master of Fine Arts degree from Stanford University in 1971, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship that allowed her to travel to Paris to study printmaking at Stanley William Hayter’s famed workshop, Atelier 17. Between 1986 and 2003, Hu received three Senior Fulbright Scholarships to teach and work in Czechoslovakia and Mexico.
Christian Gerstheimer , Curator, El Paso Museum of Art and curator of the exhibition, said, “Clearly, Sandria Hu’s ‘paintings’ are handmade constructions to which paint and other materials are applied that evoke the soil and climates where she has lived. ‘Clay’ refers to the clay the artist has seen in the many parts of the world that she has worked and ‘Ash’ refers to the covering of gray ash experienced after a forest fire near the town that the artist lived in Czechoslovakia.”
Hu explains the abstract imagery in her painted constructions this way: “The strong and vibrant movement in my paintings is motivated by the extreme weather and climate, by the soil movement, the wind and rain that changes the soil quickly and just as the weather stops, the soil movement stops.”
Galveston Center for the Arts Curator Clint Willour, who has followed Hu’s work for many years, commented in a catalogue essay, “Hu has managed to capture the feel of the effects of wind and rain, of sun and shadow, earth and sky, night and day, clay and ash. In doing so, she allows us to share her experience in a most fulfilling way.”
For Immediate Release: September 25, 2006
Re: The Old Jail Art Center Celebrates Rembrandt’s 400 th Birthday
Contact: Margaret Blagg 325/ 762-2269; director[at]theoldjailartcenter[dot]org
Digital images available on request.
The Old Jail Art Center celebrates the 400 th anniversary of Rembrandt’s birth by exhibiting an etching by the artist along with etchings by eight other artists from the 18 th to the 20 th centuries. All works are in the museum’s permanent collection. This small focus exhibition will appear in the Reilly Nail Gallery September 30 through December 31, 2006. Executive director Margaret Blagg commented, “Rembrandt would no doubt have been pleased that the medium he so enjoyed manipulating continues to engage the minds and talents of artists some four hundred years later.”
Following is label copy for the exhibition:
Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-1669) is a painter without peer in the history of art. He was also the artist responsible for experimenting with and perfecting the etching, a multiple-original fine art printing process that was fairly new in his time. In the 17 th century, etchings were seen as an alternative to engravings, which are made in an exacting process by cutting lines into a copper plate with a tool called a burin. Etchings are made by drawing with a pointed tool on a waxy ground that coats the plate, which is then put into an acid bath so that the acid “bites” into the plate where the lines have been drawn. In both cases, the plates are then inked and run through a press. Rembrandt’s etchings are masterful, contrasting areas of light and dark to reveal insights about his subjects, just as he did in painting.
Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, 1720-1778) was trained as an architect but quickly defected to the art of engraving and etching as soon as he came to Rome from his native Venice. There he produced some of the most incredible vedute to be found. These romanticized “views” were popular with the tourists on The Grand Tour.
Francisco Goya (Spanish, 1746-1828), also famed as a painter, produced four main suites of etchings, of which Tauromaquia, the bull fighting series, is one. A devoté of bullfighting, Goya began the series when he was 69, producing 33 etchings initially, then another seven. All are documentary in nature, though the veracity of the reporting in no way diminishes the dramatic visual effects Goya achieved through etching.
Artists have continued to experiment with the etching process, which though perhaps more forgiving than engraving is still a demanding art. For example, since the images are reversed when printed, any words drawn into the plate must be written backwards. John Sloan (American, 1871-1951) used the medium to record an historic occasion—the figure drawing class at the New York School of Art in which his former professor at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Thomas P. Anshutz, lectured on anatomy to the co-ed crowd. Etching allowed Sloan to obscure figures in the shadows and cast focused light on the main figures. Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973) used exactly the opposite approach a few years later, trailing his faultless line through the wax ground to create another studio view.
In the latter part of the 20 th century, Salvador Dali (Spanish, 1904-1989) experimented with different etching techniques to simulate painterly effects and the ink blots of pen drawing, all in service of the Surrealist content of his art. Mark Tobey (American, 1890-1976) introduced color into the process in a complicated printing method that allows the white of the paper to appear as drawn line.
Contemporary American artists Terry Winters (b. 1949) and Kiki Smith (b. 1954) take the medium further. Winters used successive printings to achieve contrast in the deep washes of ink central to his abstract image. Smith expertly overprinted with color, accenting some areas and removing color in others, to create an evocative emotional space for Emily B.
For Immediate Release: September 15, 2006
Re: German Expressionism Exhibition to Open September 30
Contact: Margaret Blagg, 325/ 762-2269, director[at]theoldjailartcenter[dot]org
Digital images available on request.
The Old Jail Art Center announces the opening of its fall exhibition, German Expressionism: Works on paper from the Kopriva Collection. Houston curator Gus Kopriva and his wife, artist Sharon Kopriva, have been collecting German Expressionist works for some time. Their collection includes pencil-signed etchings, lithographs, woodcuts, watercolors, and drawings by such artists as Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Marc Feininger, Franz Marc, George Grosz, Oskar Kokoschka, Käthe Kollwitz, Edvard Munch, and others. These strong images, packed with emotional, psychological, and political messages, are from the first few decades of the 20 th century.
“The Koprivas bring their own aesthetic sensibility to collecting,” explained Margaret Blagg, executive director. “They are interested in strong work. The prints and drawings from this highly charged period of artistic production compel dialogue—between viewer and image and among viewers.”
One of the movement’s most famous adherents, Oskar Kokoschka, wrote of expressionism when eulogizing Edvard Munch, “As in love, two individuals are necessary. Expressionism does not live in an ivory tower, it calls upon a fellow being whom it awakens.”
Drawn from the early decades of the 20 th century, this exhibition covers several movements and culminates in a famous exhibition mounted by the Nazis, Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art). The artists, from Germany and surrounding countries, reacted to the war years of both World War I and World War II and the political and social upheaval of the years between the wars with urgent visual messages.
heir words accompany their images in the Old Jail galleries. “To understand their anguish requires time on the part of the viewer,” added Blagg, “for these works speak as loudly as any written history of this tortured period in the world’s history.”
For Immediate Release: September 5, 2006
Re: The Old Jail Art Center Launches Capital Campaign
Contact: Margaret Blagg
325/ 762-2269
Digital images available on request.
At its August Board Meeting, the Trustees of the Old Jail Art Center launched the public phase of a major capital campaign for the museum. The Reilly Nail Legacy Campaign honors the founding director of the museum by aiming to add substantially to the institution’s endowment while refurbishing the physical plant.
OJAC Board Chairman Lynne Teinert stated, “With Reilly’s unexpected death in July, this is an even more important undertaking for the museum. There is no greater way to honor Reilly Nail than to help sustain his great love and legacy.”
With gifts and pledges to date, the Old Jail Art Center is at 54+% of its goal of $7,500,000. The Board has designated $500,000 for capital refurbishment of its aging facility, with the goal of adding $7,000,000 to its endowment. Executive Director Margaret Blagg explained, “Not only will the increased endowment stabilize the operating budget, it will increase our funding for education programs—enabling us to keep them free. It has been the philosophy and policy of the Board since the beginning that this museum would be free to the public. Many people in the area would or could not enjoy the museum if it had an admissions charge. Furthermore, our education programs are distributed free of charge to 43 school districts in 13 surrounding counties. As one of only 5% of museums accredited nationwide, we take our responsibility to our visitors and neighbors seriously. Our vision is to provide ‘art for all,’ which we sometimes translate into ‘el arte por todos’ and ‘art for y’all’—variations on our creed.”
Campaign chairman Jon Rex Jones, longtime OJAC Trustee Advisor and chairman of the museum’s two previous campaigns, commented, “ Albany has a wonderful opportunity to do something special. The Old Jail Art Center is celebrating its 25 th anniversary by endowing the Center, for surely it is one of the big reasons our little town is on the map.”
The public is being solicited now for gifts, with a December 31 deadline for completing the campaign. Anyone interested in learning more, or in making a gift, may contact the museum at 325/762-2269 or download our gift form.
The Old Jail Art Center in Albany, Texas, has grown considerably since its humble beginnings in 1980. Starting with the donation of four private collections, the permanent collection has expanded to include over 1,900 works that span important periods in Asian, European, American, and ancient art. Successful capital campaigns in 1984 and 1996 added an important education wing, as well as additional exhibition and operations space. The museum facilities now occupy over 14,000 square feet.
The collection is strong in a number of areas, with most works dating from the 20th Century. The collection includes pieces from well-known artists Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Amedeo Modigliani, Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Henry Moore, John Marin, Charles Demuth, and Alexander Calder. In addition the museum has strong representation of the Fort Worth Circle (active 1945-55), the regional Taos Modernists (active 1948-1979), a small, impressive Asian Collection, and the W. O. Gross, Jr. Collection of Pre-Columbian art. The outdoor sculpture collection is installed throughout the grounds, with key pieces placed inside the Marshall R. Young Courtyard, including Jesus Bautista Moroles’ granite Sun Symbol, Pericle Fazzini’s Conversation, and several other post-World War II Italian figurative bronze works.
The Old Jail Art Center is one of only 5% of the nation’s museums to be nationally accredited. With a focus on education, exhibitions and art programs are scheduled year-round to serve an audience of children, youth, adults, and visitors from around the globe. The museum serves 43 school districts in 13 surrounding counties with free programs. The Old Jail Art Center is located on Highway 6, two blocks east of Highway 180 in Albany, Texas. The museum is open to the public Tuesday-Saturday 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM and Sunday 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM. Admission is free. Please note: the museum is closed on Mondays and major holidays .
For Immediate Release: July 24, 2006
Re: Reilly Nail, Founding Director of the Old Jail Art Center, has died at 79.
Contact: Margaret Blagg
325/ 762-2269
Digital images available on request.
W. Reilly Nail, Jr., 79, of Albany, Texas died Sunday, July 23 in Abilene of natural causes. Best known in later years as the founding director of the acclaimed Old Jail Art Center in Albany, Mr. Nail was accomplished in many areas. As the scion of an Albany ranching family, he was raised in Albany and Fort Worth and graduated from the New Mexico Military Institute and Princeton University. For many years, he was a television producer in New York City, working among other projects on the famed series Gunsmoke. In later years, he wrote a book entitled Per Stirpes about his family’s experience in Texas.
One of Mr. Nail’s greatest joys was collecting art. While still in high school, he spent ten dollars on a work of art to start his very own collection—a drawing called Wood Gatherer by Fort Worth Circle artist Kelly Fearing. That began a lifelong pursuit that resulted in a multifaceted collection comprising European, American, and Asian art. He was particularly attracted to contemporary figurative art and he introduced the work of several 20 th-century British artists to this country.
When Mr. Nail’s “Uncle Bobby”—Robert E. Nail, Jr.—died suddenly of a heart attack in 1968, he inherited an old jailhouse building in Albany that his uncle, a playwright, had been using as a writing studio. Living in New York City at the time, Mr. Nail mulled over possible uses for the building for a decade, then began to persuade family members and friends to join him in refurbishing the building and creating an art museum. This was unheard of in a town of fewer than 2,000 people in rural West Texas, but that did not deter Mr. Nail.
In 1980, The Old Jail Art Foundation (later renamed the Old Jail Art Center) opened in the four rooms of the original jail of Shackelford County, which had been built in 1877. Reilly’s mother, and a cousin and his mother—art collectors all, joined him in contributing portions of their collections to comprise the permanent collection of the museum. Thus, the museum began with a serious collection of Asian art and European and American art. Soon people began to flock to the tiny West Texas town. Within a decade, the trustees greatly expanded the museum and the American Association of Museums accredited it.
All this was to the credit of Reilly Nail, who was most definitely in charge but who insisted upon being called Acting Director. He maintained that he did not know exactly how to go about creating an art museum, but that he intended to get the very best advice and to follow it scrupulously. That, he did. The museum has since been re-accredited and has won numerous honors and acclaim in the press and media—even garnering a spot on the CBS Sunday Morning Show.
After a few years on board in a daily capacity, Mr. Nail resigned his “acting” post after having hired the first professional director and staff. He took a spot on the board, where he served for many years. Three years ago, he was named Emeritus Trustee, a status that still afforded him involvement. Indeed, his opinion was highly sought by fellow trustees and staff alike. In 2002, the Texas Association of Museums named Mr. Nail Trustee of the Year, acknowledging his leadership statewide.
Although he still enjoyed his collection immensely, Mr. Nail began giving it to the Old Jail Art Center little by little years ago. Last fall, he made a large gift of most of the remainder of his collection, wishing to see it go to the museum that he created. In 2005, in celebration of the museum’s silver anniversary, the museum presented a special exhibition entitled The Founder’s Eye: Reilly Nail’s Influence on the Old Jail’s Collection. Co-curator and fellow trustee Jay Clack wrote in the essay for the gallery guide, “Reilly embodies my ideal, quintessential American, one who—like Walt Whitman through his verse—sees in the arts the path of robust, democratic affirmation of American life for which he is so fond . . . .Unquestionably, it is Reilly’s human interest that emerges from his collection. These works show a coterie of humanity at work, at play, at love; in reflection and in reverie; and adapting to the world at hand.”
Margaret Blagg, executive director of the Old Jail Art Center, said, “ Reilly Nail simply was the Old Jail—from day one until his passing. Although he would have given credit to many others, and rightly so, it was Reilly’s vision for the museum that created and shaped it. His legacy is huge and far-reaching, and he will remain our inspiration. We have all lost a great friend.”
Reilly Nail was an active supporter of all things Albany, including through many years the Fort Griffin Fandangle, Texas’s oldest outdoor production, created by his “Uncle Bobby.” When younger, he designed costumes and helped his uncle with production. He was also a devoted member of Trinity Episcopal Church of Albany.
In addition to being survived by members of the Nail family, Reilly Nail is survived by a host of good friends—both lifelong and more recent—and by the Board, staff, volunteers, and membership of the Old Jail Art Center.
Museum Background
The Old Jail Art Center in Albany, Texas, has grown considerably since its humble beginnings in 1980. Starting with the donation of four private collections, the permanent collection has expanded to include over 1,800 works that span important periods in Asian, European, American, and ancient art. Successful capital campaigns in 1984 and 1996 added an important education wing, as well as additional exhibition and operations space. The museum facilities now occupy over 14,000 square feet.
The collection is strong in a number of areas, with most works dating from the 20th Century. The collection includes pieces from well-known artists Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Amedeo Modigliani, Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Henry Moore, John Marin, Charles Demuth, and Alexander Calder. In addition the museum has strong representation of the Fort Worth Circle (active 1945-55), the regional Taos Modernists (active 1948-1979), a small, impressive Asian Collection, and the W. O. Gross, Jr. Collection of Pre-Columbian art. The outdoor sculpture collection is installed throughout the grounds, with key pieces placed inside the Marshall R. Young Courtyard, including Jesus Bautista Moroles’ granite Sun Symbol, Pericle Fazzini’s Conversation, and several other post-World War II Italian figurative bronze works.
The Old Jail Art Center is one of the few accredited fine art museums between Fort Worth and El Paso. With a focus on education, exhibitions and art programs are scheduled year-round to serve an audience of children, youth, adults, and visitors from around the globe. The Old Jail Art Center is located on Highway 6, two blocks east of Highway 180 in Albany, Texas. The museum is open to the public Tuesday-Saturday 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM and Sunday 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM. Admission is free. Please note: the museum is closed on Mondays and major holidays .
Polishing Our Silver: Treasures from Storage
Curated by Dr. Richard Brettell in honor of the museum’s 25 th anniversary
June 4 – October 30, 2005
Dr. Richard Brettell is the Margaret McDermott Professor of Art & Aesthetics and the Director of the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Museums at The University of Texas at Dallas. His museum career began in 1980 when he became Searle Curator of European Painting at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1988 he was named the McDermott Director of the Dallas Museum of Art, subsequently supervising the design, construction, and installation of the Hamon Building, an addition to the museum that opened in 1993. Dr. Brettell is an authority on Impressionism and French painting of the period 1830-1930. He also serves as adjunct senior curator of SMU’s Meadows Museum.
In March, Dr. Brettell was turned loose in the storage vault of the Old Jail, a museum he had never visited before, and in two days he had curated this upcoming exhibition. Here’s a teaser from the essay he has written for the gallery guide.
“Every curator dreams of being locked alone in a vast museum storage room with plenty of food and wine, a cot, a rudimentary toilet, and lots of time. The pleasure of sliding painting racks back and forth in differing light conditions, of taking heavy paintings down and looking at them propped up on felt pads, of moving them to look at the canvas or board on their back, of reading old labels, even of taking them out of their frames as if to mimic the artist who made them—these are pleasures that are almost unknowable to anyone who has never before worked in a museum.
When Margaret Blagg asked me to curate a small exhibition from the storage rooms of the Old Jail Art Center, I was able to imagine that my dream could come true—at least in part. I had heard of the Chinese figures and the pre-Columbian vessels, of the paintings by Renoir, Caillebotte, Modigilani, and others—all in the permanent collection of a museum without the word “museum” in its name in a town in Texas which, when saying it aloud, most of one’s friends think is in upstate New York! But, the lure of the unknown is very great indeed, and it was with this sense of adventure that my wife Carol and I started out for the Old Jail Art Center in Albany, Texas one beautiful day in March.
In my romp through storage, I saw many works of art by great artists I had never expected to find in Albany Texas: a superb drawing by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, wonderful nude studies by Eric Gill and Paul Cadmus, a bronze by Maillol, drawings by Andrew Dasburg, a group of serigraphs by the British artist Patrick Heron, an important early landscape by the Impressionist painter Gustav Caillebotte, and the list could go on for pages. But, it was, in the end, much more interesting and rewarding for me—a so-called expert in the history of Modern Art—to have to ask my colleagues, “Who did that wonderful drawing?” and to receive an answer that made me realize two things: 1) I had never heard of the artist, and 2) I still have a lot to learn! It was this experience of being in the mind of a collector I barely know and artists unknown to me that made me recognize just how large, diverse, fascinating, and truly rich the art world is.”
News
Release
For Immediate Release: March 8, 2005
Re: Museum Inaugurates Silver Anniversary Celebration with Exhibition Honoring Founder
The Founder's Eye: Reilly Nail's Influence on the Old Jail's Collection
March 19 - May 22, 2005
Contact: Margaret Blagg
325/ 762-2269
Digital images available on request.
"According to the Great Man theory of history, an individual can
have a pivotal influence on the course of history," said Margaret
Blagg, executive director of the Old Jail Art Center. She continued
to explain, saying, "That is borne out in the history and development
of the Old Jail Art Center by the influence of our founding director,
Reilly Nail. It was he who, upon inheriting the old jail building from
his uncle Bobby Nail, conceived the idea for establishing an art museum
in it. As one who had collected art since high school, Reilly's well-honed
collector's eye shaped our permanent collection from day one. This exhibition
explores his discerning 'eye' for art as we exhibit works of art he
donated to the museum and works that he influenced to come into the
collection-through the gift of others or by purchase."
Ms. Blagg also said, "In contradiction to the Great Man theory, some historians prefer to cite the more anonymous social, economic, religious, environmental etc. forces at work in the world as shapers of history. Reilly Nail would be the first to remind us that many, many people have contributed to the growth of the museum's collection, and that its artistic fortune has been built on the various tides of time. This is very true, but his founder's eye has nevertheless made a meaningful difference in what you see in our museum. We could not think of a more fitting way to inaugurate the celebration of the museum's 25th anniversary than by exploring the influence of our founding director."
Jay Clack, vice-chair
of the board of the museum and chair of the exhibitions committee; Shelly
Crittendon, registrar; and Ms. Blagg have co-curated the exhibition,
which contains 57 works of art and takes over the entire museum, sprawling
through ten galleries. Along with 24 works donated by Mr. Nail, the
exhibition also contains work by artists he befriended; gifts to the
museum from collectors whom he persuaded to take an interest in the
Old Jail; and purchases he influenced as acting director or, later,
as a member of the museum's Standards and Acquisitions Committee. Mr.
Nail is still involved in the museum as Trustee Emeritus.
Registrar Shelly Crittendon said, "Reilly believes that a work
of art must have an intrinsic quality-something about it that inspires.
The artworks in this exhibition not only inspire, but they also encompass
many different styles, schools, and genres of art, demonstrating the
quality and diversity found in the museum's permanent collection."
Jay Clack commented, "When I asked Reilly about his abiding interest in collecting figurative art and how that connects to what I see as his keen interest in humanity, typically, he steered his answer away from himself to focus on the artists. Through the years, he has brought the work of many emerging artists to the attention of the museum and the public. Moreover, that young visitors, especially school children, should be exposed to art as early as possible is another of Reilly's egalitarian beliefs-one that is embodied in the museum's very active education program."
Mr. Clack has written an essay for the exhibition's accompanying gallery guide and Ms. Crittendon has written a number of gallery labels that illuminate various works of art as well as the sections of the exhibition.
The Founder's Eye will be on exhibit at the Old Jail Art Center from March 19 through May 22. The other two special exhibitions in 2005 will also explore the museum's permanent collection and exhibition philosophy. Polishing Our Silver: Hidden Treasures from the Permanent Collection, curated by Dr. Richard Brettell, will open June 4 and be on view through October 30. Double Vision: Exhibiting Contemporary Texas Artists for 25 Years will open on November 12 in conjunction with the museum's gala celebration of its 25th anniversary.
Museum Background
The Old Jail Art Center in Albany, Texas, has grown considerably since
its humble beginnings in 1980. Starting with the donation of four private
collections, the permanent collection has expanded to include over 1,800
works that span important periods in Asian, European, American, and
ancient art. Successful capital campaigns in 1984 and 1996 added an
important education wing, as well as additional exhibition and operations
space. The museum facilities now occupy over 14,000 square feet.
The collection is strong in a number of areas, with most works dating from the 20th Century. The collection includes pieces from well-known artists Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Amedeo Modigliani, Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Henry Moore, John Marin, Charles Demuth, and Alexander Calder. In addition the museum has strong representation of the Fort Worth Circle (active 1945-55), the regional Taos Modernists (active 1948-1979), a small, impressive Asian Collection, and the W. O. Gross, Jr. Collection of Pre-Columbian art. The outdoor sculpture collection is installed throughout the grounds, with key pieces placed inside the Marshall R. Young Courtyard, including Jesus Bautista Moroles' granite Sun Symbol, Pericle Fazzini's Conversation, and several other post-World War II Italian figurative bronze works.
The Old Jail Art Center is one of the few accredited fine art museums between Fort Worth and El Paso. With a focus on education, exhibitions and art programs are scheduled year-round to serve an audience of children, youth, adults, and visitors from around the globe. The Old Jail Art Center is located on Highway 6, two blocks east of Highway 180 in Albany, Texas. The museum is open to the public Tuesday-Saturday 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM and Sunday 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM. Admission is free. Please note: the museum is closed on Mondays and major holidays.
Re:
Western Swing at the Old
Jail Art Center;
Saturday, 5 June 2004
Opening Reception for Summer Exhibitions, 6:00 p.m.
The Blagg Brothers: Diverse Journeys
Fandangle Photographs by Michael O'BrienGallery Talk by the Blagg Brothers, 6:30 p.m.
Western Swing Chuck wagon Dinner and Dance, 7:00 p.m.: Music by Cowjazz
Contact: Margaret Blagg 325/ 762-2269
Albany, Texas . . . The Old Jail Art Center’s ninth annual Western Swing party will open the summer season in Albany on June 5 with an opening reception for the summer exhibition, a gallery talk by the featured artists, a chuck wagon dinner, and a dance with music from one of the state’s hot Texas-music bands. The Old Jail invites you to don western wear and come for an evening of great activities!
Begin the evening by viewing the summer exhibitions: The Blagg Brothers: Diverse Journeys and Fandangle Photographs by Michael O’Brien. Woodrow, Dennis, Daniel, and Douglas Blagg will give a gallery talk about their work at
6:30 p.m. At 7:00 p.m., make your way to the big tent in the back lot, where Bill Cauble, Albany’s treasured Cowboy Chef, will serve an unbeatable chuck wagon rib-eye dinner. Cowjazz will play from 8-11 p.m. and you can dance the night away or sit back and enjoy the smoothest tunes to be found in these parts. During the evening, you can also try your luck at a variety of intriguing silent auction and raffle items. Western Swing tickets are $50 per person. The party is open to all adults, but reservations are required. For more information, please call 325/762-2269 no later than June 1.
Western Swing 2004 will benefit the Old Jail Art Center’s summer exhibitions and educational programs, including July for Kids and the high school art course My Dog Could Do That! Top Hand Sponsors are B L Designs/Boni Lee McCullar; EBAA Iron, Inc.; First National Bank Albany/Breckenridge; Rue and Ardon Judd/Bright Sky Press; Toby and Melissa Neugebauer; The People’s State Bank, Clyde—Moran Branch; Prairie Star; H. R. Stasney and Sons; Lynne and Cliff Teinert; and Jean and Bill Tucker. Community Pardner Sponsors are David and Monica Cleveland; Condley and Company, L.L.P.; Cotter, Neff and Co., CPA; C. E. Jacobs Company; Me & Mrs. Jones/K. C. and Pati Jones; Glenn and Brenda Picquet; and Bob and Pam Tidwell.
Gaye Davis and Tamberley Thomas are co-chairs of the Western Swing 2004 Committee, whose members are Cheryl Gardner, Leslie Little, Tami Masters, Boni McCullar; Laurie McCullar, Jacque McIver; Lynn Neff; Betsy Senter, Lynne Teinert, Margie Tidwell, and Susan Waller.
The Blagg Brothers: Diverse Journeys is generously sponsored by Jean and Bill Tucker. Woodrow, Daniel, Dennis, and Douglas are gifted draftsmen who hail from a family of ten children, many of whom are artistically gifted. Woodrow’s early drawings—often life-sized—of ranch life have evolved into a fascination with the American story seen in renderings of landscape and habitat. Dennis has long concentrated on images of Texas’ Big Bend country. His twin brother Daniel explores the gritty side of urban life. Douglas, who works in the film industry in California, keeps his hand in the family trade with watercolors picking out aspects of La-La Land. Collectively, the Blagg brothers’ work is a portrait of America.
Photographer Michael O’Brien is a freelance magazine photographer who began his career as a staff photographer for the Miami News, where he won multiple awards for his work. His photographs have appeared many times in Texas Monthly, often on the cover. Two years ago he began photographing participants in Albany’s annual Fandangle musical production in their costumes. A selection of this work will be shown in the museum’s Stasney Center for Education.
The two exhibitions will be on view through September 5, 2004
February 28 - May 23, 2004
This will be the first chance the public will have to view the 18 works of art from the Barrett Collection recently acquired through a generous gift of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. When Nona and Richard Barrett began collecting art, they envisioned furthering the study, promotion, and exhibition of contemporary Texas art and artists, and eventually they gave over 200 works from their collection to the MFA, Houston, recognizing the important role the Museum plays in the life of Texas art. In the spirit of the original vision of the Barretts, the MFA decided to share a large portion of the Barrett collection with other Texas institutions that actively collect and exhibit Texas art. Among the Old Jail's new acquisitions are works by Robert Levers, Jim Woodson, Denise Brown, Bill Haveron, Robert McAn, and Gail Siptak. A strong narrative thread runs through this eclectic collection. It will be fun for the viewers to invent their own stories about these works and to ponder their meaning in the place of contemporary art in Texas in the late 1980s and early 1990s when most of these works were created.
Whimsical is one word that comes to mind upon encountering Katherine C. Taylor's sculpture. Delight, surprise, and wonderment are others. Her work definitely provokes one's curiosity and tickles the funny bone. Ms. Taylor has created an alternate world in her body of work where large blown-glass ants crawl up walls and large soft-bodied creatures move among waves of sewn grasses. Her craftsmanship in blown glass and metal work, as well as in soft, sewn sculpture, is superb. She delights in transforming everyday objects into something else.
Ms. Taylor, a Midland native, is currently in graduate school at the University of Melbourne in Australia. A graduate of St. Paul's School in New Hampshire, where she was awarded the Art Prize, and Dartmouth College, she taught art primarily to children for five years at the Hotchkiss School (Connecticut), the Norman Rockwell Museum (Massachusetts), and the Telfair Museum (Georgia). While her exhibition is up, Ms. Taylor will be an Artist-in-Residence in the Albany schools.
News Release September 4, 2003
Re: Grit & Glory: Laura Wilson's Photographs of Six-Man Football
On Friday nights all over the Plains, football is the number one topic of conversation. People in towns large and small gather to watch a ritual that defines the region. Communities are galvanized by the struggle for victory. Spirit and pride are strong. The game itself is not only a struggle of the players to win, but it also becomes symbolic of the fans to recapture their own youth and aspirations. Six-man football is the exotic variant for those rural towns too sparsely populated to field an eleven‑man team. It is a wide-open, high-scoring game with lots of 140-pound hometown heroes.
Well-known photographer Laura Wilson captures the excitement and intensity of six-man football with her new images included in Grit and Glory. Running with the team on the field and turning her camera to the fans, she has produced iconic shots and found "decisive moments," to borrow Cartier-Bresson's famous phrase. Preferring series, she has worked since 1991 to produce this body of photographs, for which she has also contributed an essay explaining her personal fascination with the sport and her photographer's perspective.
The exhibition includes 37 large-scale black and white photographs taken in several small west Texas towns that actively participate in the Six-Man league. A handsome companion book, published by Bright Sky Press, accompanies the exhibition. The Old Jail Art Center has organized this exhibition, which will be available for exhibition in other museums following its debut in Albany.
Laura Wilson lives in Dallas, Texas. Her photographs have been featured in numerous nationally acclaimed publications such as The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, the Washington Post Magazine, TALK magazine and London's Sunday Times Magazine. She was Richard Avedon's assistant for six years on his project In the American West, and has just completed a new book of her photographs of Richard Avedon, entitled Avedon at Work. Her recent publications, Hutterites of Montana (Yale University Press, 2000) and Watt Matthews of Lambshead (Texas State Historical Association, 1989) have won numerous national awards.
Grit and Glory: Laura Wilson's Photographs of Six Man Football provides an insightful look at the world of six-man football in rural America.
Contact: Margaret Blagg, 325/ 762-2269, director[at]theoldjailartcenter[dot]org
Digital images available on request.
News
Release:
June, 2003
"WHY DO SO MANY
PEOPLE TREK TO ALBANY (population: 2,000)?
For starters, it has a serious art museum, an imposing courthouse, picturesque
storefronts, historic ranches--and every June it lets its hair down
with a Texas -size spectacular under the stars. Fandangle, anyone?"
Texas Monthly ,
June 2003 by Anne Dingus.
News
Release:
April 2, 2003
Re: Citizen of the Year
The Old Jail Art Center is pleased to announce that our very own Margaret Blagg, received the Citizen of the Year Award from the Albany, Texas Chamber of Commerce. Margaret has done an outstanding job as director of the Old Jail Art Center and, in a very short period of time, has distinguished herself as a model citizen of our community. Thanks for all that you do Margaret. Great job!
News Release: Star Telegram, Ft. Worth, Texas posted on Sun, Mar. 30, 2003 (link to full Article)
Small towns, big art
How some of the finest
art in Texas ended up in the tiniest of hamlets
Star-Telegram Staff Writer;Special to the Star-Telegram
Amble down Main Street in Small Town, Texas, and you might just find something unexpected: a polished museum of scope and ambition. In some small towns, a museum might be considered a frivolity. And then there are small towns in Texas.
"There is something very strong in Texas called 'Texas pride,' and the very visible manifestation of that pride in many small communities is their museum," says Jack Nokes, executive director of the Texas Association of Museums.
The result is a state with many museums that have established regional, and even national, reputations well beyond the small towns they inhabit. Many of these museums make their mark by focusing on some aspect of regional lore. McLean is home to the Devil's Rope Museum. The American Cotton Museum honors that cash crop's history in Greenville. Others, like the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, pick specific areas of art to pursue aggressively.
"The presence of these museums shows how much people care about where they live and the reputation of their towns, no matter what the size," says Rebecca Cohen, a journalist and author of the forthcoming Art Guide -- Texas, a guidebook to Texas art museums. "The museums also show that small towns value the arts as something that improves the quality of life and signals that a town is doing well."
So where are the best places to see this phenomenon up close and personal? We take you to four museums that typify the accessibility, sophistication and vision that uniquely make small Texas towns a great place to enjoy high culture.
The Old Jail Art Center, Albany
Take a tour of the Old Jail Art Center in Albany and the constant refrain reverberating through its corridors is "Not bad for a museum in a town of 2,000 people."
It would be "not bad" for a town of 200,000. The Old Jail has been called by Texas Monthly "the best small-town museum in the state -- and maybe in the nation," and for good reason. With its unadorned, rough-hewn limestone facade and discreetly mounted National Register of Historic Places plaque, the 23-year-old Old Jail Art Center does not trumpet its interior riches with Texas-sized bravado. Rather, the Old Jail relies on a quietly built reputation for showing art consistently broad in scope (it has accumulated close to 1,900 objects) and deep in quality.
"I frankly think this little boutique museum would be at home in any big city," says Margaret Blagg, the Old Jail's executive director.
Where in the late 1800s inmates languished in solitary confinement, now discreet galleries chart a serpentine art history course from pre-Columbian pottery to Chinese Han and T'ang Dynasty tomb figures through 20th-century art. You'll find obscure-yet-inspired pieces by Matisse, Miro and Picasso here, as well as American artists such as Arthur Dove, Thomas Hart Benton and Alexander Calder.
While most of the above eras and artists are represented with just a few items for each, the Old Jail is particularly strong in its collection of Bill Bomar, Dickson Reeder and Kelly Fearing, artists who were part of the small-yet-influential regional art movement known as the Fort Worth Circle. Indeed, the Old Jail's current exhibition, "The Mystical World of Kelly Fearing: Selections From a Sixty-Year Retrospective" (running through May 25), is proof that this museum doesn't shy away from the comprehensive show. It vividly traces Fearing's sprawling artistic metamorphosis from early spiritual and immaculately detailed works through whimsically abstract and surreal meditative pieces.
The oldest of the Old Jail's galleries, located at the front and retaining the lockup's original bars, shows off the museum's most ancient art. Mostly purchased through New York and Chicago dealers and galleries, 37 terra cotta tomb figures, dating from China's Han through T'ang Dynasties (202 B.C.-A.D. 906), stand vigil on shelves, many projecting pastel color schemes. The Asian collection broadens to encompass 17th- to 19th-century Japanese prints and silkscreens.
The Reilly Nail Gallery, named for one of the Old Jail's principal founders, houses some of the museum's must-not-miss gems of European art. A composed landscape by French realist and impressionist Gustave Caillebotte, paired with 19th-century French painter Henri Fantin-Latour's lyric still life, begin the artistic sojourn through the room. Renoir fills his Woman With Hat with a sanguinary blush while Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's Au Bal Masque -- Les Fetes Parisiennes flaunts the painter's love of Paris' tawdry cabaret scene. Finally, Amedeo Modigliani's Young Girl With Braids (famously purchased in the late 1940s for the then-steep price of $4,000) contains the elusive, portrait-as-totem quality of so many of the Italian artist's greatest works.
A truly surprising attribute of the Old Jail is its mother lode of pre-Columbian art. The sprawling collection of artifacts (jars, bowls, animals, vessels, ceremonial plates and votive figures), spanning from 1,000 B.C. through A.D. 1,500, serves as a geographic counterweight to the museum's more limited selection of Asian art dating from the same epoch.
The deceiving depth of the Old Jail's holdings is best revealed by what is not on display. Behind the museum's heavy vault door and waiting to be rotated into the galleries lie aisles of sliding dividers containing, among other things, a Matisse nude print, a miniature work by Andy Warhol, a Goya etching and extraordinarily meticulous nude drawings by Paul Cadmus. (link to Full Article)
For
Immediate Release: February 18, 2003
Re:
The Mystical World
of Kelly Fearing
Contact: Margaret Blagg
325/ 762-2269
The Mystical World of Kelly Fearing: Selections from A Sixty-Year Retrospective opens to the public on March 9. The exhibition brings together paintings, drawings, prints, and collages by the pioneering Texas artist and professor emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin, Kelly Fearing, who has served as Trustee Advisor to the Old Jail Art Center (OJAC) for over two decades.
The exhibition celebrates the prodigious career of one of the state's and the region's most admired artists and art educators. It is the most comprehensive survey of Fearing's work to date, presenting work in every medium and period of the artist's illustrious career from 1939 to the present.
Born in Arkansas in 1918, Kelly Fearing studied art at Louisiana Tech University and Columbia University, where he earned a master's degree in 1950. Fearing came to Fort Worth, Texas in 1943 and joined a group of artists active between 1945 and 1955 known as the "Fort Worth Circle." This group was responsible to a large extent for introducing modernist art and ideas to Texas.
Though not defined by a specific aesthetic, the Fort Worth Circle was important for moving beyond the realism and agrarian subject matter of American Regionalism, which dominated Texas art in the 1930s and 1940s. Fearing and his Fort Worth cohorts were the first artists in the state to respond in a significant way to European artists such as Picasso, Braque, Klee, Kandinsky, Modigliani, Ernst, Klee, Miro, and Dubuffet.
Over the years, Kelly Fearing developed a personal and highly subjective approach that integrates figuration and abstraction while experimenting with materials and processes. The mystical environments he creates in his paintings and graphic work reflect the artist's own meditative journeys and explorative artistic process.
After teaching from 1945-47 at Texas Wesleyan, Kelly Fearing assumed the Ashbel Smith Professorship of Art in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Austin, where he taught for forty years. A noted art educator, Fearing co-authored several multi-volume art education textbooks from 1960 through the 1980s. He is now retired Professor Emeritus.
Creative Research Laboratory (CRL) and the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Austin organized and originally presented the exhibition in Austin in the galleries of Flatbed Press. Inaugurated in November 2001 as a site dedicated to research and production in contemporary art and design, CRL offers a year-round schedule of exhibitions presenting the work of students and faculty in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Mark L. Smith, founding Co-Director of Flatbed Press, and Dr. Amy Freeman Lee, founder of the Texas Watercolor Society and a distinguished artist, philanthropist, and community leader based in San Antonio, curated the exhibition and wrote essays for the catalogue. Dr. Smith and OJAC Executive Director Margaret Blagg chose selections from the larger exhibition for this venue, which includes additional works from the Old Jail Art Center's permanent collection. A fully illustrated, 64-page color catalogue documents the original exhibition.
"The Old Jail Art Center has long collected Kelly Fearing's work," said Ms. Blagg, explaining that the museum now owns 30 of his paintings, drawings, collages, and prints. About one third of OJAC's holding of Fearing's work will be on display in the exhibition. She added, "Kelly Fearing's work ranges from deeply spiritual to delightfully playful. He is still working and still teaching Texas audiences about modern and contemporary art through his engaging and thought-provoking work. The chance to show our audience a larger selection of his work is a great opportunity."
News
Release
For Immediate Release: February 19, 2003
Re:
Sponsorship for Kelly
Fearing Exhibition
Contact: Margaret Blagg
325/ 762-2269
The Old Jail Art Center has announced that its spring exhibition, The Mystical World of Kelly Fearing, will be sponsored by the Dian Graves Owen Foundation, Dr. and Mrs. Edmund Pillsbury, and contributors to the museum's Exhibition Fund. The exhibition opens to the public on March 9 and will run through May 25. It will be on view during the regular hours the museum is open to the public, with the exception of Easter Sunday, when the museum will be closed.
Re: Latin American Lyricism: Selections from the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin
The Old Jail Art Center announces the opening on September 14 of its major fall exhibition, Latin American Lyricism: Selections from the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin. Drawn from the Latin American Collection of the Blanton Museum, the selection of 18 works documents the variety of responses to international modern art currents in nine Latin American countries in the 1960s and 1970s. Fernando Botero (Columbia), Maria Luisa Pacheco (Bolivia), Rafael Coronel (Mexico), Antonio Henrique Amaral (Brazil), Joaquín Torres-Garcia (Uruguay), Jesus Rafael Soto (Venezuela), Miguel Ocampo (Argentina), Armando Morales (Nicaragua), and Herman-Braun Vega (Peru) are among the artists whose work is featured. The exhibition will continue through December 1.
Barbara and John Duncan of New York City formed the core of the collection during many years of travel, work, and study and Central and South America beginning in 1955. In a catalogue documenting an earlier exhibition of the collection, Mrs. Duncan wrote:
We encountered, in our continual travels in Latin America, a remarkable number of artists who, despite their geographical isolation from the main centers of contemporary art and from each other, were relating themselves and their countries to the relatively new aesthetic of modern art. Many of the artists in our collection studied abroad and then returned to work and exercise leadership in their own countries.
"The exhibition's title refers to lyric poetry-a short form directly expressing the poet's own thoughts and sentiments," explained Margaret Blagg, executive director of the Old Jail Art Center. "Many Latin American artists in the politically turbulent 1960s and 1970s practiced a veiled lyricism, making art as personal and social commentary. Although cloaked in international styles of abstraction and new figural painting, their subjects are generally more politically charged than North American or European painting of the day."
Some, like Fernando Botero, made gentle spoofs with portraits of rotund sitters from all aspects of Columbian society. Others managed to create abstract landscapes to convey personal messages and observations about their native lands. Gunther Gerzso (Mexican) evoked Pre-Columbian structures, while Armando Morales made aggressive forms that echoed the political strife in Nicaragua. Sarah Grilo (Argentinean), who worked in New York City in the 1960s, made work that showed the grit and confusion of urban life-wherever lived in the late 20th century.
A number of Venezuelan artists in the 1960s were influenced by Kinetic Art-an international art style that incorporated actual or perceived movement into works of art. Manuel Merida's work depends on electricity to create ever-changing compositions. Carlos Cruz-Diez and Jesus Rafael Soto, on the other hand, constructed static works that appear to change as the viewer moves past them. All three artists rely on the viewer's direct observations to complete and extend the meaning of their work.
The exhibition features the work of one of the fathers of modern art in Latin America- Joaquín Torres-Garcia. Born in 1874, he spent many years in Europe, absorbing all the modernist movements from Cubism to Surrealism. Upon his return to Uruguay in 1934, he set up a workshop for artists and worked in other ways to spread an artistic revolution that he hoped would spark societal debate. His work influenced many South American artists, some of whom subscribed to his theory of Universal Constructivism, which used symbols arranged in a grid composition. Julio Alpuy (Uruguayan) and Marcelo Bonevardi (Argentinean) were two who employed symbolic images and forms meant to have universal meaning even in a non-representational context. Other artists went their own way but took Torres-Garcia's passion to create a new visual language for Latin American art as license to pursue cultural identity in their work-at a time when "cooler" art movements, such as Pop Art, Op Art, Kinetic Art, and Minimalism, were in vogue elsewhere in the world.
Blagg, who curated the exhibition, said, "Many Latin American nations saw political upheavals in the 1960s and 1970s. Autocratic regimes stifled political dissent and social discourse; but, art mirrors its times. Because it was literally dangerous for most Latin American artists to create work that openly criticized the conditions of the day during this period, they found other means to express their opinions and frustrations. It does not take much imagination to read the lyric messages presented in the Art as Politics section of the exhibition."
"For example," she continued, "instead of depicting political prisoners, Amaral (Brazilian) evoked a cell and bound a swollen, bruised banana in his painting entitled So ém en verde (Alone in Green), and rather than portray contemporary political figures, Antonio Sequí (Argentinean) used the New Figuration art style to lampoon Napoleon, a despot safely ensconced in another continent's history."
"Seen from a perspective of thirty to forty years," Blagg said, "the work in this show is vigorous, surprising, and provocative. I think our audience will be stimulated by the unexpected artistic responses to what were turbulent times in Latin America."
"Since the Blanton's opening in 1963, the Museum has been committed to the collection, interpretation, and teaching of modern and contemporary Latin American art," explained Jessie Otto Hite, director of the Blanton Museum. Blagg added, "With more than 1,600 works of art, the Blanton's collection is acknowledged as one of the finest publicly held collections of 20th-century Latin American art in the country-indeed in the world. We are fortunate to have a selection of this famed collection in Albany."
The Austin Chronicle Click to see article.
Texas-Best.com
Old Jail Art Center
Hwy. 6 South Albany, Texas 76430
325-762-2269
Permanent art exhibit of surprising quality, housed in an 1878 restored
county jail. Founded in 1977.
|
|
|
|
Updated June 1, 2008 © Copyright The Old Jail Art Center |
|
|
|