Exhibitions 2003 at the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art

PLEASE NOTE: All exhibition descriptions are excerpts from Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art's quarterly newsletter, L'Artiste.	Past Exhibition Highlights
	2007 2006	2005 2004	2003 2002
2003 January 19 - March 9 David Anderson (American, 1926-1996) The Family Portrait: Beat the Drum Slowly, 1973 Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 in. Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art Gift of Robert Pope and Lawrence Konrad David Anderson (American, 1926-1996) Artist in Search of Imagery, 1989 Acrylic on canvas, 22 1/2 x 28 3/4 in. Collection of Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art Gift of Elizabeth Wallace	North Gallery **David Anderson: Images and Reflections** “ … People have but a fragmentary knowledge of the discipline to which they belong, and that moreover, for most, it is a sometime thing, put away, or compartmentalized for safekeeping, but ignored until time of trouble whereupon, they rummage about in the old drawers of their minds looking for help. “ David Anderson, The Spirit Considered Featured artist David Anderson moved to the Tampa Bay area in 1952 from his native state of Pennsylvania. His recognition as an artist is well documented regionally, but he was also elected a fellow in the Royal Society for the Preservation of Arts and Sciences in London, England and included in the “Who’s Who in American Art” publication from 1973. Although he had little formal training in art, he studied under the internationally known portrait artist Christopher Clark and developed an interest in theatrical subjects. In the 1960s, Anderson was commissioned to do a series of paintings depicting opera themes and he complemented these with portraits of leading opera stars in their various roles. Always demonstrating a theatrical flair, Anderson’s paintings in the 1970s and 1980s evolved into a style of “magic realism” that expressed a concern for the human spirit. These works are often set within dramatic settings and beautifully painted in rich, vibrant, yet subdued colors, applied in a layered approach. Anderson’s recognition as an artist is well documented regionally, but he was also elected a fellow in the Royal Society for the Preservation of Arts and Sciences in London, England and included in the “Who’s Who in American Art” publication from 1973. In addition to Anderson’s contributions as an artist, for twenty years he and his patron Estelle Marsh ran the Anderson-Marsh Gallery in St. Petersburg. When it closed in 1992, the gallery was considered a cultural beacon and credited with nurturing awareness of contemporary art and artists on the west cost of Florida. In remembrance of their friend, The David Anderson Scholarship for Artists was founded shortly after Anderson’s death in 1996 by Stan and Estelle Marsh. The scholarship is now in its fifth year and has helped more than a dozen students explore and expand their own artistic gifts. It is available to Pinellas County residents studying art on a full-time basis at St. Petersburg College who show financial need.
April 27 - June 15 Sandy Skoglund (American, b. 1946) *Germs are Everywhere* Dye destruction print (Cibachrome), (ed. 20/20) 27 1/4 x 32 3/4 in. On loan from the Tampa Museum of Art Bequest of Edward W. Lowman by exchange Victor Burgin (English, b. 1941) The Bridge – Midire ed.3, 1984 Gelatin silver print On loan from the Tampa Museum of Art Bequest of Edward W. Lowman by exchange	North Gallery Liberated Image: Fabricated Photography since 1975 Circulated from the collection of the Tampa Museum of Art Liberated Image: Fabricated Photography since 1975 is an exhibition of photographic images by noted artists such as William Wegman, Cindy Sherman and John Baldessari. The 17 images in this exhibition represent recent directions in contemporary photography including conceptual, appropriation, manipulation and media-responsive images. The images were selected from the Tampa Museum of Art’s extensive photography collection. Since its discovery about 1839, photography has significantly changed the way in which the world is viewed. The photographic image has proliferated in newspapers, magazines and books and it has become so much a part of daily life that it is taken for granted. It is hard to imagine a time before photographic reproduction affected people’s perceptions of places and things. In photography’s infancy it was equated with scientific research and it was argued that the camera was merely a mechanical device that recorded scenes from life. Today the practice of photography is open-ended and there are no boundaries when it comes to viable subject matter or imagery. The photographer may draw from various sources appropriating images in order to create a new context and meaning. The results are hybrid – an amalgamation of genres – from conceptual and performance art to documentation, abstraction and socio-political commentary. With the idea of photography as a fine art object , photography’s cultural significance is acknowledged and its endless possibilities as a liberated image continues to redefine itself.

June 29 - August 24

Sam Gilliam (American, b. 1933)
Bay to Bay, 1994
Screenprint, 34” x 28 3/4”
On loan from the Dorothy Mitchell Collection

Roberto Juarez (American, b. 1952)
Tampa Alley, 1996
H/C Screenprint, 50” x 38”
On loan from the Dorothy Mitchell Collection

North and South Galleries
Expanding Expressions: Contemporary Prints from the Dorothy Mitchell Collection

Expanding Expressions: Contemporary Prints from the Dorothy Mitchell Collection is an exhibition of unique and innovative screenprints by seven internationally known contemporary artists – Brad Davis, Frank Faulkner, Sam Gilliam, Roberto Juarez, Miriam Schapiro, George Sugarman and Robert Rahway Zakanitch. Berghoff-Cowden Editions Studio in Tampa, now the Berghoff Fine Art Editions of New Port Richey, published the prints. Each invited artist pursued different directions and expanded their creative energies by exploring the new possibilities of using acrylic inks in the screenprint process. Some of the artists used hand painting, exotic papers and fabrics while others chose to collage, flock, cut and stitch or fold and construct.

This exhibition first opened at the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland, Florida in 1997. It has traveled to venues throughout the United Stated including California State University, Bakersfield Museum of Art, Boston College Museum of Art, Northern Arizona University, St. Louis University Art Gallery and Edison Community College.

It is through Dorothy Mitchell’s generous support of these master print projects that this exhibition was made possible. Her insight, generosity and commitment to art and education is much appreciated.

September 7 - November 2

James Spiroff (Deltona, Florida)
Indented Bowl Form
Clay, 10 x 12 in.

Bryan Hively (Miami, Florida)
Yellow Crest
Ceramic, 41 x 21 x 21 in.

North and South Galleries
Florida Craftsmen: 50^th Anniversary Exhibition

Florida Craftsmen, Inc., based in St. Petersburg, Florida, is a statewide non-profit service organization founded in 1952. Its mission is to broaden the public’s understanding and appreciation of fine art craft and to encourage professionalism and high aesthetic standards among Florida’s craft artists. It was founded fifty years ago in a classroom at Stetson University by visionaries who saw the necessity to elevate “handicraft” to state of the art and believed in the power of the handmade object.

Craft has been defined as “an art viewed that requires developed skills”. The definition of a craftsman is “an artist with respect to the technical side of his art” or “a skilled worker practicing a particular craft”. Craft, like art, becomes a visual language that crosses over cultures and continents transcending verbal definitions. It speaks about tradition, beauty, exploration, tactile senses and the human spirit and has as much to do with aesthetics as it does with feeling and substance.

Included in Florida Craftsmen: 50^th Anniversary Exhibition are 73 contemporary craft pieces by seventy Florida artists – 364 pieces from almost 150 artists were considered. The exhibition was juried by Robert Ebendorf, who was a member of Florida Craftsmen in the 1960’s during his tenure as Professor of Art at Stetson University. He is an internationally recognized master metalsmith, mentor and teacher and currently works as a Distinguished Professor of Art at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. The Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art is the only Tampa Bay venue to host the exhibition during the two years that it will travel.

November 16 - January 11, 2004

Herb Snitzer (American, b. 1932)
Carscape
Gelatin silver print, 16 x 20 in.

Herb Snitzer (American, b. 1932)
Duke Ellington in Rehearsal, 1961
Gelatin silver print, 16 x 20 in.

North and South Galleries
In the Moment: Photography by Herb Snitzer

Herb Snitzer, a documentary and fine art photographer, has enjoyed a career covering more than 45 years of image-making and writing including the publication of six books and thousands of images. He graduated from the Philadelphia College of Art in 1957 and worked for Life, Look, The Saturday Evening Post, Time, Fortune, The New York Times and Herald Tribune.

As Photography and Associate Editor of American’s leading Jazz magazine, Metronome, from 1958 – 1961, Snitzer met, photographed and became friends with many of the great jazz musicians of the era. The focus of this exhibition is on images of the urban environment, portraits, political images and abstractions.

Snitzer’s work is in many museum collections throughout the country including the Museum of Modern Art, Museum of the City of New York, Tampa Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution as well as in the private collections of Bill Cosby, Elton John and former President Bill Clinton, among others. Two photographs – Carscape, 1959 and Freedom Now, 1959 - have been donated to the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art. Carscape is included in the exhibition; Freedom Now will be displayed at a later date.

Jazz: A Visual Journey, Snitzer’s most recent book, is on sale now in the Museum Store along with a catalog written specifically for this exhibition and published by the Museum, In the Moment: Photography by Herb Sniitzer.

Excerpt from the Herb Snitzer:
In the Moment catalog . . .
My search began a long time ago when I moved to New York City, determined to be part of the nerve of my generation. I was determined to find my way in the small world of photography. There were no photographic galleries then; we exhibited our work on the walls of coffeehouses. We met at small cafés in Greenwich Village and talked about art, music, literature, dance and theater. New York City in the mid-to-late fifties was bursting with creative and highly original people.