Style Spotlight: Public Art Touchdown

November 2009 | BY Christine Kloostra | Issue 70, Winter 2009-2010 | NO COMMENTS

Terry Haggerty’s “Two Minds” measures 21×126 feet, and adorns the main concourse of Cowboys Stadium. Credit: Dallas Cowboys / © Wharton Photography

This may be the world’s first comparison of a football stadium to an art museum, but fans of either will be satisfied with a visit to the new Cowboys Stadium in Dallas.

Team owners Gene and Jerry Jones conceived and funded the Dallas Cowboys Art Program, launched at the $1.15 billion stadium’s opening this fall with 14 artworks by contemporary artists adorning the walls, stairways and pedestrian ramps.

The owners gathered an Art Council of collectors and curators to help select artists for the commissions. Large-scale site-specific works by Franz Ackermann, Olafur Eliasson, Annette Lawrence, Terry Haggerty, Matthew Ritchie and others are now on display.

The program will also fund an art education program, offering tours and community initiatives. For more information, visit http://stadium.dallascowboys.com.

Style Spotlight: Art Heads Sworn In

November 2009 | BY Christine Kloostra | Issue 70, Winter 2009-2010 | NO COMMENTS

With a new administration comes new leadership at government art agencies.

Late this summer, Rocco Landesman was sworn in as the new chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Landesman is a theater producer who has brought plays and musicals such as “Angels in America” and “The Producers” to Broadway. He holds a doctorate from Yale, and formerly ran an investment fund.

Taking over at the National Endowment for the Humanities is former Iowa Republican Congressman Jim Leach. He was sworn into office in August.

Editor’s Note: More Craft Art, Mr. President

November 2009 | BY Hope Daniels | Issue 70, Winter 2009-2010 | NO COMMENTS

Dyed and knotted nylon “Indian Summer” basket by Joh Ricci.

Oh, if only the Obamas had gone for more cutting-edge craft artists in decking out the White House with works borrowed from Washington, D.C., museums and galleries. Just think what a statement a John Garrett wall hanging would make in the West Wing. A KeKe Cribbs piece in the Oval Office. A massive Niki de Saint Phalle sculpture in the Rose Garden.

Granted, the works of four Native American potters do show up on the official list released in early October by the White House. And we like all four William H. Johnsons. But really, couldn’t they have mixed it up a little bit more? Swap out some of the dozen sleepy old George Catlins for a John Cederquist and a Richard Marquis? Or one of the Morandi still lifes (did they really need two?) for a more playfully ambitious work by Therman Statom?

An even better idea: add a few show-stopping fiber works from the artists we’ve rounded up for our special section on baskets in this issue of AmericanStyle. It would give a tremendous boost to the fiber arts community, and put the names of a lot of unsung contemporary craft artists on the map.

Although we definitely want the Obamas to take more risks with art in the White House, we’re opting for a more conservative approach to trying times here at AmericanStyle. Beginning with this issue, we’ll be publishing on a quarterly schedule in Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. You won’t see us in your mailboxes quite as often as you used to, but we’re working to make each edition bigger in size and filled with all the same exciting features and special sections you’ve come to expect from us. You have our guarantee.

Hope Daniels
Editor-in-Chief

Sky High and Bursting with Art

November 2009 | BY Lynda McDaniel | Issue 70, Winter 2009-2010 | NO COMMENTS

Jerry Slipman and Chet Robachinski’s wraparound balcony offers views of downtown Seattle, accented by Mike Moran’s “Wanderer” and Julie Speidel’s bronze “Harmony.” Credit: Benjamin Benschneider

Walk into most penthouses, and the view draws you like a gambler to Vegas. Not here. Sure, Jerry Slipman and Chet Robachinski enjoy expansive views of Puget Sound, downtown Seattle, Mount Rainier and the snow-capped Cascade and Olympic mountains. But that’s all just beautiful backdrop to what’s inside: Pablo Picasso ceramics and Joan Miró works on paper, Michael Lucero ceramic sculptures and KeKe Cribbs glass work. The list goes on, with not only big names but emerging artists, too. Everyone is welcome in this collection—under one condition.

“Each piece needs to have its own story,” Robachinski explains. “We appreciate the individual. It doesn’t matter if the artists are famous. We look for autobiographical works that address personal and intellectual development.”

Each piece needs to have its own story.
- Chet Robachinski

Slipman agrees and points out Wanxin Zhang’s work—an inspired nod to the artist’s native China and his adopted home, San Francisco. And Beverly McIver, who shares on canvas her life experiences as the daughter of a poor black domestic worker from North Carolina in the 1960s. Just two examples of the art that covers almost every surface in this 2,800-square-foot home (and its wraparound balcony).

It would be easy to assume the abundance of art is the result of their move from a 7,000-square-foot home five years ago. But Slipman and Robachinski don’t acquire art to fit a certain space; they love it and live with it as comfortably as with the leather sofa and well-worn slippers tucked beneath.

“As we built our collection, we didn’t think, We have a hole, let’s fill it,’ ” Slipman explains. “All the work has an energy that comes from it. As we bought piece after piece and placed the work, it all fit. That’s the way to build a collection—each piece takes its natural place with the other work because it’s coming from the same concept.”

For more of “Sky High and Bursting with Art,” pick up the Winter 2009/2010 issue of AmericanStyle today! Subscribe now and never miss an article!

Moving Outside the Lines

November 2009 | BY Marilyn Millstone | Issue 70, Winter 2009-2010 | NO COMMENTS

A detailed look at “Twilight Cicada” by Boulder, Colo., basket maker Jill Powers.
Credit: Russell McDougal

From the sweetgrass Carolina low country to the pine forests of the Pacific Northwest, generations of American basket makers have created objects that are not only functional but also beautiful. In recent decades, more adventurous artists have blurred the boundaries of basketry, using nontraditional materials and innovative techniques to fashion pieces of all shapes, sizes and colors. Functionality, in many cases, has vanished; contemporary baskets are often works designed solely to engage the senses.

So just how are baskets defined nowadays? There are as many answers as there are artists. “It’s a vessel that can breathe, that’s filled with space,” says Michael Davis, a North Carolina artist whose basketry is collected by national institutions including the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery. Santa Fe, N.M., gallery owner Jane Sauer, herself a widely collected fiber artist, considers it “a form that’s moving toward the sculptural.” Sara Lieberman, a collector in Scottsdale, Ariz., quotes New York artist John McQueen, who called one of his baskets “a container not for things, but for ideas.”

It’s a vessel that can breathe, that’s filled with space

What unifies the field, perhaps, is the passion artists bring to the time-consuming process of gathering and preparing materials, then shaping them into objects of personal expression, using techniques ranging from traditional weaving and coiling to knotting, knitting, embroidering and stitching.

For more of “Moving Outside the Lines,” pick up the Winter 2009/2010 issue of AmericanStyle today! Subscribe now and never miss an article!

Jiro Yonezawa

November 2009 | BY Sara Baker | Issue 70, Winter 2009-2010 | NO COMMENTS

Portland, Ore., artist Jiro Yonezawa combines traditional weaving techniques from his native Japan to create his inventive baskets. Symmetrical, tightly woven forms are combined with the looser, irregular weaves found in Japanese fishing baskets in Yonezawa’s pieces, ranging from 8 inches to 7 feet high. “Missionary” combines bamboo, cane, cedar root, wood and urushi lacquer. Yonezawa’s work, retailing from $1,800-$18,000, is available at Cervini Haas Fine Art in Scottsdale, Ariz., and Traver Gallery in Seattle and Tacoma, Wash.

Don Weeke

November 2009 | BY Sara Baker | Issue 70, Winter 2009-2010 | NO COMMENTS

Form comes first for Don Weeke; texture is a close second. Gourds often provide the natural forms for his baskets, while coiling, weaving and knotless netting help him achieve the desired textures. And he isn’t afraid to employ an “invented” technique if the project demands it. “Banded Arch” is made of painted gourd and palm frond. The Julian, Calif., artist, whose work retails for $100-$3.000, is represented by del Mano Gallery in Los Angeles.