The Arts Company Press
Announces the Arrival of

Brother Mel:  A Lifetime of Making Art

a new book on the life and artwork of Brother Mel Meyer, S.M.

with a book-signing with Brother Mel

Thursday, December 3, 2009, 5-8 pm

 at

 

The Arts Company

 

215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North

www.theartscompany.com

Find us on Facebook, Twitter and The Arts Company Blog

click here to preview the Brother Mel book and
hear him talk about it

 

Nashville, TN—The Arts Company Press, a new publishing company initiated by The Arts Company, will host a book-signing with Brother Mel Meyer, S.M., whose life and artwork are the subject of their inaugural publication--Brother Mel:  A Lifetime of Making Art, on Thursday, December 3, 5-8 pm, at The Arts Company, 215 Fifth Avenue, North.  The book-signing begins at 5:00 pm.  At 6:00 pm, there will be a conversation with Brother Mel and guests about his life and work. A reception and more book-signing will follow at 6:30.

Developed and written by Anne Brown, whose Arts Company has represented Brother Mel’s artwork in Nashville for 12 years, the new 236-page, fully-illustrated monograph covers over 50 years of Brother Mel’s life as an artist and as a Catholic brother in the Marianist community.  This prolific artist began producing artwork from frescoes, watercolor, and canvas paintings to sculpture in steel, wood, and stone during his time as a graduate student in fine art at the University of Notre Dame in the late 1950s, where he studied with master fresco painter Jean Charlot, an associate of Diego Rivera, and master sculptor Ivan Mestrovic, a protégé of Rodin.  He works at art six days a week, 52 weeks a year, and has documented well over 10,000 pieces of art since then, not counting special commissions and 28 years of summer painting trips.  

Brother Mel was commissioned to create 250 original book sconces for this new book, each one to be accompanied by a signed and numbered book.  Brother Mel’s annual exhibitions over the past 11 years at The Arts Company have generated a large following eager to see each year what recent new work he continues daily to produce. 

For additional information, contact The Arts Company at 254-2040 or check the website at www.theartscompany.com.  

With a Preview & Reception
for Bob Schatz during Art After Hours
Thursday, October 1
5-8 pm

 

www.theartscompany.com
Find us on Facebook, Twitter and The Arts Company Blog

Nashville, TN –The Arts Company offers a preview exhibition of Bob Schatz’ new photographic series, By Design: Nashville’s Architectural Treasures, opening during FirstArtSaturday, October 3, 6-9 pm, at 215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North, and continuing through October 31.  Bob Schatz will be available to discuss the photographs and a forthcoming new book on the subject during Art After Hours, Thursday, October 1, 5-8 pm.  For information,  phone 615-254-2040, and through Twitter and Facebook updates.

The Arts Company will also present Charles Keiger, an Atlanta-based artist, in his fourth showcase of new paintings at the downtown gallery during FirstArtSaturday, October 3, 2009, 6-9pm, and continuing through October,  31 at 215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North. Charles Keiger will attend the First Saturday opening.

About the Artists / Bob Schatz
Bob Schatz, a native Nashvillian, is no stranger to producing books of his photographs capturing selected cities and locations in the south.   Since 2005, he has published books on Tennessee landscapes (with an introduction by Tipper Gore), Nashville, Asheville, N.C., Memphis, and now a very specific part of Nashville’s history—the architectural treasures of the city.  This latest book will be available in late October.  This exhibit presents a selection of large-scale photographs highlighting the grandeur of familiar and some forgotten architectural treasures in the city.

About the Artists / Charles Keiger
Charles Keiger is an accomplished painter who combines technical prowess with a figurative style mixed with surprising details to suggest narratives about how particular moments feel in very particular situations.  Keiger is an Atlanta-based artist known for his work representing southern gothic and magical realism. Featured in Art & Antiques magazine as an artist emerging on the national scene, Keiger has shown his work in a series of one-man and group shows presented throughout the southeast, as well as New York City. His work has been collected in 200 private and corporate collections.  Keiger holds a BFA from the University of South Carolina, Columbia, and an MFA from the University of Georgia in Athens.

A Salon Preview during Art After Hours
during Art After Hours
Thursday, October 1, 2009, 5-8 pm

Bob Schatz will join guests at 5-8 pm during Art After Hours for a conversation about his new photographs and his forthcoming book on the subject of Nashville’s architectural treasures.  Art After Hours is an initiative of the Nashville Association of Art Dealers designed to invite the public to galleries throughout the city to engage in special conversations with and about art and artists. 

The Arts Company

FirstArtSaturday
Presents

 “September Showcase”

featuring

Paintings by Bill Johnson

Photographs of San Miguel by Suzanne Elmer

 

Opening Saturday, September 5, 2009

Reception 6:00pm-9:00pm 

With a Salon Preview

During Art After Hours

Thursday, September 3

5-8 pm

A conversation with the artists begins at 6 pm

www.theartscompany.com

Find us on Facebook, Twitter and The Arts Company Blog

 

Nashville, TN – The Arts Company “September Showcase” presents new work by two artists—paintings by Bill Johnson and photographs of San Miguel by Suzanne Elmer, scheduled to open September 5, 6-9 pm during the popular First Saturday Art Crawl at 215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North. 

About the September Exhibit

The Arts Company celebrates Labor Day, the last holiday of summer, with two new series of artwork—Bill Johnson’s paintings and Suzanne Elmer’s photographs.  They will both headline the exhibit, but the gallery will also showcase other artists whose work will be coming soon to the gallery. 

About the Artists

Bill Johnson, painter

Bill Johnson already had a successful career as an art director with Rolling Stone magazine and subsequently with CBS Records in NYC in the 1970s and 1980s before he moved to Nashville in the 1990s to become the V.P. for Creative Services for CBS (now Sony-BMG) Records.  His iconic award-winning album covers for Sony have captured, among other accolades, two Grammy awards.  After his retirement, he began his own work as an artist in a clean and precise style that suited him.  This is the second series of new paintings he has presented at The Arts Company, the first over two years ago.  The new series is titled New Paintings.  New Palette, and shows a very different palette from his earlier work.

Suzanne Elmer, photographer

Suzanne Elmer also began in the music business--as a professional drummer--but shifted to real estate a few years ago because she got caught up in rehabbing old houses.  That love of houses and real estate trumped her drumming career and led her into paying attention to photography related to buildings, especially the ones in San Miguel, Mexico, one of her favorite cities in the world.  She has sense developed a small series of selected photographs printed in large format designed as contemplative decoration for a home or office environment.

A Salon Preview during Art After Hours
during Art After Hours

Thursday, September 3, 2009, 6-9 pm
Bill Johnson and Suzanne Elmer will join guests at 6 pm during Art After Hours for a conversation about their new work.  Art After Hours is an initiative of the Nashville Association of Art Dealers designed to invite the public to galleries throughout the city to engage in special conversations with and about art and artists. 

The Arts Company

Presents

“The Art of Music, Flags, and Flowers”

Artwork selected to refresh your summer  

Opening Saturday, July 11, 2009

6:00pm-9:00pm

&

The annual Brother Mel exhibit continues

10:00am-5:00 pm, Tuesday-Saturday

215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North

Nashville, TN – The Arts Company has joined forces with other galleries downtown to shift the First Saturday Downtown Art Crawl from July 4 to the following Saturday, July 11,  same time, same galleries on Fifth Avenue and same free shuttle service provided by the Nashville Downtown Partnership between galleries.  This change of date has been made in July because the July 4^th holiday falls on the First Saturday. 

 

Therefore, The Arts Company announces “The Art of Music, Flags, and Flowers,” an exhibit planned specifically for summertime viewing, scheduled to open Saturday, July 11, 6-9 pm, along with exhibits by neighboring downtown galleries also participating in the monthly First Saturday Downtown Art Crawl.  The exhibit will continue through July 24, along with the annual Brother Mel exhibit, during regular gallery hours, 10-5pm Tuesday-Saturday at the downtown gallery location at 215 Fifth Avenue, North. 

 

About the Exhibit

The art of music includes classic music portraits by Sorrento and painted musical instruments with painted canvas counterparts by Michael Bush; the art of flowers features Daniel Phill and Nicole Katano.   Five artists—Brother Mel, Myles Maillie, Bob McGill, Norris Hall, and Jorge Arrieta—have been commissioned by the gallery to create special artist flags.  An added attraction is that the annual Brother Mel exhibit will continue through July 24.  To preview the exhibits and more, check the gallery website at www.theartscompany.com and click on Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr at the top of the home page.

 

The Art of Books

Hundreds of selected art books in The Arts Company collection will be offered at a 40% discount during the July exhibit.  This reduction in art book inventory is designed to make room for new book inventories in the fall.

The Arts Company
presents
“The Art of Flags”
during
Art After Hours
A monthly series of city-wide gallery events

Sponsored by the Nashville Association of Art Dealers

 Thursday, July 2, 5-8 pm

Featuring five original artist flags commissioned by the gallery:

Brother Mel, Myles Maillie, Norris Hall, Bob McGill, and Jorge Arrieta

 

The Arts Company invites guests to stop by on their way home during Art After Hours on Thursday, July 2. The Arts Company has commissioned five artists—Brother Mel, Jorge Arrieta, Myles Maillie, Norris Hall, and Bob McGill—to create limited-edition artist flags to feature during Art After Hours at their downtown gallery at 215  Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North, on Thursday, July 2, 5-8 pm.  Art After Hours is a monthly city-wide series of art gallery events sponsored by the Nashville Association of Art Dealers to acquaint Nashvillians and visitors with the variety and quality of art galleries and resources available in the Nashville area.

Guests are invited to The Arts Company to meet and greet some of the artists commissioned to create flags for the occasion and to enjoy very cool refreshments and very fresh art.  The annual Brother Mel exhibit will continue.  To preview The Arts Company events, check the website and related online sources:  www.theartscompany.com, Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr.

Two other galleries on Fifth Avenue in the same block with The Arts Company—Tinney Contemporary and The Rymer Gallery—will also offer something special in their galleries during Art After Hours.  For a complete list of participating galleries for the July Art After Hours, contact www.nashvilleartdealers.org. 

The Arts Company

Presents 

“What’s New with Brother Mel This Year?”

Opening First Saturday, June 6, 2009

6:00pm-9:00pm

A Preview Reception with Brother Mel

is scheduled for First Thursday, June 4, 5-7 pm

at The Arts Company

Nashville, TN – The Arts Company welcomes Brother Mel for his 11^th annual Nashville exhibition, “What’s New with Brother Mel This Year?” opening officially on First Saturday, June 6, during a reception for the artist, 6-9 pm.  The exhibit will continue through July 18.  This year, Brother Mel has been experimenting sculpturally with wagon wheels, rusted tools, bicycles and M&M shapes, as well as with large bold abstract watercolors, and other pieces that defy description.  Brother Mel, in attendance for the exhibit opening, will also be previewing his upcoming book, Brother Mel:  A Lifetime of Making Art, to be released this fall.

 

ART AFTER HOURS / A Special Preview with Brother Mel

The Arts Company will offer a special advance preview reception for Brother Mel and the forthcoming book during Art After Hours, June 4, from 5-7 pm at the gallery.  Art After Hours is a new initiative inviting the public to tour citywide art galleries after hours on the First Thursday of every month.  The event is sponsored by the Nashville Association of Art Dealers, an alliance of art galleries dedicated to raising awareness of the visual arts in Middle Tennessee. Visit www.nashvilleartdealers.net for a list of participating galleries. 

 

About the Exhibit / “What’s New with Brother Mel This Year?”

 

Brother Mel’s annual June exhibition at The Arts Company is always a highly anticipated event because he is here in person to discuss his most recent work, and his work always has a surprise element.  It takes a very large truck to bring his exhibits to the gallery, and hours of photographing, documenting and preparing them for exhibition.  He is a widely popular gallery favorite, partly because of the unpredictable nature of his artwork, which will be par for the course this year as well.  His annual Nashville exhibits are special because he celebrates his June birthday here each year.  This year marks his 81^st birthday, and it is also the year a new book on his life and work is being completed by The Arts Company.  The book will be previewed during this year’s exhibit.

 

About the Artist / Brother Mel

 

Brother Mel has been a full-time artist for over 50 years and a brother in the Marianist community, a Catholic brotherhood, for over 60 years.  Brother Mel received an undergraduate degree in English and History from Dayton University in 1951, and a master’s degree in fine art from the University of Notre Dame in 1960, studying with Jean Charlot, one of the Mexican Renaissance muralists alongside Diego Rivera, and Ivan Mestrovic, the sculptor whom Rodin described as “a phenomenon among sculptors.”  In 1957-58, he studied with two European masters of stained glass—Jacques le Chevallier in Paris and Yoki Abescher in Fribourg—as part of a year of intense study, making art, and traveling on a motor scooter over 14,000 miles during that year. 

 

In the late 1960s, Brother Mel became the first Marianist brother to take on the vocation of artist as his full-time work as a Marianist.  He was encouraged to form his own studio, and he began his lifetime of making art, first with glass, frescoes and icons for churches and chapels, and later extending to outfitting 25 Adams Mark Hotels with paintings and sculpture, and other large buildings.  Since the late 1960s, he has produced over 10,000 documented works of art, plus public and private commissions and the paintings and watercolors from a period of 28 years of annual painting trips.  His artistic mentors include Van Gogh, Picasso, Calder, and David Smith, among others, artists to whom he is attracted by their endless creativity and inventiveness, both traits that apply to his work as well.

 

The Art of Books / About the Brother Mel Book

 

Brother Mel:  A Lifetime of Making Art is a 200-page study of Brother Mel’s dual life as an artist and as a Marianist brother in a Catholic community.  The first part of the book addresses his life from his family, his spiritual commitment, his distinguished artistic education, his decades of travel, his influences, the development of his studio, and his commitment to making art 6 days a week, 52 weeks a year, since the 1960s.

 

The second part of the book is a portfolio of selected images from the thousands of works of art he has produced over a 50-year period.  The images are presented in various sections of his special interests and productivity—from his early days of glass, chapels, frescoes, and icons to sculpture, paintings, handmade paper—and his recent work since 2000, which is all over the board.

The Arts Company

Presents

FRESH ART 

Introducing

David Benson

“Contemporary Southern Narratives”

A new style of painting

 

And

Welcoming back

David Swanagin

“The Colors of Middle Tennessee”

New oil paintings

 

Opening May 2, 2009

6:00pm-9:00pm

Preview reception for both artists at 5:00 pm

 

Plus a special exhibition of new artists and new artwork in a

“Fresh Art Showcase”

An artists’ showcase upstairs at The Arts Company 

All exhibits continue through May 22

Nashville, TN – The Arts Company presents FRESH ART, featuring two one-man exhibitions—“Contemporary Southern Narratives,” a new style of painting by David Benson, and  new oil paintings by David Swanagin—opening during FirstArtSaturday, May 2, 6-9 pm, with a special artist preview at 5 pm in the downtown gallery at 215 Fifth Avenue, North.    An additional showcase exhibition of new work and new artists will be presented in a Fresh Art Showcase, upstairs at The Arts Company.  All exhibits will continue through May 22 during regular gallery hours, 10-5pm, Tuesday-Saturday.  Preview all exhibits at www.theartscompany.com. 

About the Exhibits

Two one-man exhibittions will present two painters who work in totally different styles.  Each artist has just completed new work specifically for their exhibits, addressing subjects of interest to Nashvillians—from music to neighborhoods to landscapes to the visual journey of an Ugly Duckling.  The Fresh Art Showcase, which opens upstairs at The Arts Company at the same time, introduces four new painters to the gallery and welcomes new work from four gallery artists.

The Arts Company welcomes David Benson, a South Carolina-based artist who has just completed an extraordinary new series of paintings specifically for this Nashville gallery. Benson employs canvas, paper, drawing, painting, and many other artistic surprises in his work.  He has developed his own distinctive style and technique for presenting elements of southern culture in new ways, bringing to his work the sophistication of an accomplished artist. 

David Swanagin, a Nashville-based artist, continues as a favorite gallery artist who continues his passion of making paintings of familiar Tennessee landscapes. Just completed in time for the exhibit, his new work will focus on the strong colors familiar in Middle Tennessee.

The Fresh Art Showcase introduces four new painters to the gallery, and new work by continuing four continuing gallery artists

About the Artist / David Benson

David Benson’s off-the-charts different idea of painting makes a preview with the artist particularly exciting to people interested in how he makes his art.  Though recently retired from teaching for thirty years, his own artwork which he presents in museums and in galleries is anything but academic.  Benson has grown up in the south, and often addresses difficult southern narratives, typically in the straightforward manner of the nature of the subject matter, but also with a sense of whimsy in outlook and materials.

About his work, Benson says “My interest in Robert Rauschenberg, Jim Dine, Max Ernst, Andy Warhol, and a few impressionist painters are at times clearly evident in my compositions.  I use little color, opting for a more achromatic result.  I have always felt that the more bizarre the media, the more opportunity exists for discovery and expression.”  His goal, he says, is to give the observer an experience that is both spiritual and intimate, claiming that aesthetics “are not essential to the themes of my work,” preferring to make the narrative of his southern culture primary..  This work is meant to be seen up close and personal.  It is rich and rewarding.

About the Artist / David Swanagin

David Swanagin claims two home bases—Nashville and Augusta, Georgia.  Originally from the Low Country in South Carolina, he comes by his passion for painting landscapes quite honestly.  He has produced numerous paintings of landscapes, including the golf courses of Augusta, the Low Country, Tennessee landscapes.  He has also been on client-sponsored painting trips to Ireland, Italy, and France.  

Swanagin, a self-taught artist, has established his own contemporary version of traditional landscapes.   As a real Renaissance man, Swanagin is also a very successful Nashville-based drummer who tours constantly and uses photographs from his road trips for paintings in his studio later.   

About the Fresh Art Showcase

The artist showcase upstairs at The Arts Company introduces new gallery painters Curt Ginther, Daniel Phill, Carl Plansky, and Steven Walker; and will showcase new work by continuing gallery artists Kimiko, Bernice Davidson, and Andy Todd; and special new  felt portraits by Jeff Hand.  Preview the Fresh Art Showcase at www.theartscompany.com.

The Arts Company

Presents 

JOHN BAEDER’S AMERICAN ROADSIDE: 

EARLY PHOTOGRAPHS

 

The third of three consecutive exhibitions of Baeder photographs,

 a series of selected images of 20^th century American roadside icons 

by legendary photorealist painter JOHN BAEDER

Opening April 4, 2009

6:00pm-9:00pm

Preview with John Baeder at 5:00 pm

FirstArtSaturday

at

The Arts Company

 

Exhibit continues through May 22

10:00am-5:00 pm, Tuesday-Saturday

215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North

 

Nashville, TN – The opening of “JOHN BAEDER’S AMERICAN ROADSIDE:  EARLY PHOTOGRAPHS” at The Arts Company, April 4, marks the final exhibition of three consecutive one-man exhibits of John Baeder’s photographs.  This landmark exhibition of the photographs of legendary photorealist painter John Baeder opens 6-9 pm at 215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North.  An artist preview reception with John Baeder is scheduled in advance at 5:00 pm.  The exhibit will continue through May 22, during regular gallery hours, 10-5 pm, Tuesday-Saturday along with selections from the two earlier exhibits of his vintage photographs.  Additional information is available at www.theartscompany.com or at 615-254-2040. 

About the Exhibit

The Arts Company’s April exhibit of John Baeder’s photographs features early photographs from the 1970s in a series of C Prints on Kodak Endura Paper in a limited edition of 10.  The exhibit is presented in cooperation with the Thomas Paul Fine Art Gallery in Los Angeles.  The photographs are iconic 20^th century images, most of them printed for the first time.  In the 1960s, John Baeder began pursuing his passion for the American roadside—diners, signs, gas stations, and other urban icons—with a camera.  He has continued making photographs ever since, but he used them mostly as references for the photorealist paintings he produced beginning in the 1970s.  This year is the first time his photographs have been singled out as important in their own right as photographs, and this exhibit presents the first selection of 27 images chosen for this inaugural exhibit series.

In addition to the photography exhibit, one of Baeder’s iconic photographic images of a drive-in theatre—“Star Vue”—will be featured in a limited edition of 40 posters to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the Nashville Film Festival.  During the April 4^th opening, The Arts Company will be hosting the Third Annual Nashville Film Festival Preview, celebrating the 40^th anniversary of the prestigious film festival.  This is the second time a John Baeder image has been selected by the festival as their official poster. 

 

About the Painter and His Photographs / John Baeder

Throughout his college years at Auburn University, John Baeder was enamored unconsciously by the pre-interstate back road, Highway 29, between his home town of Atlanta and Auburn University in Alabama—the eateries, the motels, gas stations, and hand-painted road signs.  At age 21, back in Atlanta, he became an ad agency art director for a NY-based ad agency, and at the same time began taking black and white photographs with his Kodak Brownie—the storefronts, signs, cars, and people on the street—documenting the old city that was becoming the new city of Atlanta.

Once he moved to New York City in 1964, Baeder amassed hundreds of photographs of his own, and continued to document the people and places around him in NYC and environs, especially old diners, which he envisioned as “temples from a lost civilization.”  When he was discovered by the legendary art dealer Ivan Karp and began painting diners in 1974 for Karp’s O.K. Harris Gallery, Baeder’s career as a painter became paramount.  However, his photographs continued to be important to him in their own right, as well as references for his canvases and watercolors. He has realized only recently the affinity between his photographs and those of the documentary photographers of the WPA and FSA in the 1930s and 40s, including Ben Shahn, Bernice Abbott, and Walker Evans. 

The photographs included in this exhibit are 20” x 30” c-prints in an exclusive edition of 10, printed by the Thomas Paul Fine Art Gallery in Los Angeles, in cooperation with John Baeder and The Arts Company. 

John Baeder, An American Original

Other artists have been interested in using the image of the once ubiquitous American diner, but John Baeder is credited with making the diner image into an American icon through capturing hundreds of diners across the United States with his camera.  His photographs of 20^th century American roadside icons are just now being discovered as having their own distinctive artistic merit—as photographs.  Though he has been presented in two or three occasional shows of his photographs, it is just now that the photographs are being noted and presented for their own merit.  The paintings based on his photographs are the paintings that have lifted Baeder to the top echelon of photorealist painters of the 20^th century, for which he has long been acclaimed.

 

The Art of Books

The Art of Books is a signature series at The Arts Company, presenting a range of books related to art and artists of interest to the gallery.  John Baeder is known as an accomplished writer as well as an artist.  During this exhibit series, all of Baeder’s books—including Diners; Sign Language: Street Signs as Folk Art ; Pleasant Journeys and Good Eats Along the Way;  Gas, Food, and Lodging; and Pleasant Journeys and Good Eats Along the Way (the catalog accompanying a traveling museum show of his work)  will be available.  In addition, a new film on John Baeder the artist, recently completed by Nashvillian Curt Hahn’s Film House, will be available.  A special catalog of this exhibit will be available during the exhibit.

 

The Arts Company

Presents

John Baeder Photographs: 

“Street Signs as Folk Art”

and

“Nashville: The Early 80s”

by legendary photorealist painter John Baeder

 

The second of three consecutive exhibitions of Baeder photographs at the gallery

Showcasing images from the 1970s and 80s

Opening March 7, 2009

6:00pm-9:00pm

FirstArtSaturday

at

The Arts Company

 

Exhibit continues through March 27

Nashville, TN  -  “John Baeder Photographs:  Street Signs as Folk Art  and Nashville: The Early 80s” opens at The Arts Company March 7, 2009, 6-9 pm during FirstArtSaturday, featuring photographs of hand-painted folk art signs from the 70s and Nashville in the early 80s by John Baeder, legendary photorealist artist and Nashville resident.  The Arts Company is celebrating the photography of John Baeder with three consecutive one-man exhibits in February, March, and April.  This second exhibit will continue through March 27, during regular gallery hours, 10:00am-5:00 pm, Tuesday-Saturday, at 215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North.  For information:  254-2040 or www.theartscompany.com.

 

About the Exhibit

 

The March exhibit of John Baeder’s photographs—the second show in a series of three consecutive one-man shows—features hand-painted folk art signs photographed by Baeder in the 1970s; and selected images remaining from his early 1980s series on Nashville.  Since the 1960s, Baeder has been making photographs out of his lifelong passion for the American roadside—diners, signs, and other urban icons.  Since the 1970s, Baeder has been considered one of the top American photorealist painters.  The hundreds of slides were not always intended as part of his paintings, though he produced work prints for his paintings and wrote books about many of the subjects of his photographs. The Nashville images are particularly interesting because of the places that captured his attention when he first moved to Nashville in the early 1980s.

 

About the Painter and His Photographs / John Baeder

Throughout his college years at Auburn University, John Baeder was enamored unconsciously by the pre-interstate back road, Highway 29, between his home town of Atlanta and Auburn University in Alabama—the eateries, the motels, gas stations, and hand-painted road signs.  At age 21, back in Atlanta, he became an ad agency art director for a NY-based ad agency, and at the same time began taking black and white photographs with his Kodak Brownie—the storefronts, signs, cars, and people on the street—documenting the old city that was becoming the new city of Atlanta

 

Once he moved to New York City in 1964, Baeder amassed hundreds of photographs of his own, and continued to document the people and places around him in NYC and environs, especially old diners, which he envisioned as “temples from a lost civilization.”  When he was discovered by the legendary art dealer Ivan Karp and began painting diners in 1974 for Karp’s O.K. Harris Gallery, Baeder’s career as a painter became paramount.  However, his photographs continued to be important to him in their own right, as well as references for his canvases and watercolors. He has realized only recently the affinity between his photographs and those of the documentary photographers of the WPA and FSA in the 1930s and 40s, including Ben Shahn, Bernice Abbott, and Walker Evans. 

 

The photographs included in this exhibit are 8 x 10 c-prints that were the subject of one of his books, Sign Language:  Street Signs as Folk Art, published n 1996.  The remaining prints from the making of that book are included in this exhibit.

 

John Baeder, An American Original and a Distinctive Nashvillian

 

Other artists have been interested in using the image of the once ubiquitous American diner, but John Baeder is credited with making the diner image into an American icon through capturing hundreds of diners across the United States with his camera.  The paintings based on those photographic images are the paintings that have lifted Baeder to the top echelon of photorealist painters of the 20^th century, for which he has long been acclaimed.

 

His photographs are just now being discovered as having their own distinctive artistic merit—as photographs.  Though he has been presented in two or three occasional shows of his photographs, it is just now that the photographs are being noted and presented for their own merit. 

 

In a 1977 introduction to Baeder’s Diners, Vincent Scully, Yale University Sterling Emeritus Professor of History of Art in Architecture, characterized Baeder’s version of the American experience as “youthful, hopeful, a painter-poet who makes us see the beauty of common things—not how funny they are, or how disgusting, or how powerfully expressive even, or how frightening, or just how big—but how lovely, how seen with love.”  Scully added: “Baeder writes the same way.”

 

John Baeder is painter, poet, and photographer—a consummate American original artist, and a consummate original Nashvillian.  For him, Nashville was love at first sight.  He came to visit a friend in Nashville in 1980, and quickly decided to move here and set up a working studio.  He had already made many of the sign photographs, and was compelled immediately to photograph subjects of interest to him in Nashville.  That’s what this exhibit is about—Baeder’s passion for places and people.  Nashville is a significant part of that passion in his work as in his life.

 

The Art of Books

The Art of Books is a signature series at The Arts Company, presenting a range of books related to art and artists of interest to the gallery.  John Baeder is known as an accomplished writer as well as an artist.  During this exhibit series, all of Baeder’s books—including Diners; Sign Language: Street Signs as Folk Art ; Pleasant Journeys and Good Eats Along the Way;  Gas, Food, and Lodging; and Pleasant Journeys and Good Eats Along the Way (the catalog accompanying a traveling museum show of his work)  will be available.  In addition, a new film on John Baeder the artist, recently completed by Nashvillian Curt Hahn’s Film House, will be available.

The Arts Company

Presents

“John Baeder Photographs:  Work Prints”

Featuring the Reference Prints

For Baeder’s Photorealism Paintings

The First of Three Consecutive Baeder Exhibitions at the Gallery 

Showcasing One-Of-a-Kind Large-Scale Color Work Prints

Opening February 7, 2009

6:00pm-9:00pm

FirstArtSaturday

at

The Arts Company

A preview reception for the artist

5-6 pm

Exhibit continues through February 27

 

Nashville, TN  - “John Baeder Photographs: Work Prints” opens at The Arts Company February 7, 2009, 6-9 pm during FirstArtSaturday, featuring one-of-a-kind large-scale color prints used as references for paintings by John Baeder, legendary photorealist artist and Nashville resident.  John Baeder will be in the gallery from 5:00-6:00 to preview the exhibit ahead of the opening.  The Arts Company celebrates the photography of John Baeder with three consecutive one-man exhibits in February, March, and April.  This initial exhibit will continue through February 27, during regular gallery hours, 10:00am-5:00 pm, Tuesday-Saturday, at 215 Fifth Avenue of the Arts, North.  For information:  254-2040 or www.theartscompany.com.

About the Exhibit
The February exhibit of John Baeder’s photographs will present for the first time one-of-a-kind work prints used as references for selected paintings in “Pleasant Journeys and Good Eats Along the Way,” the catalog that accompanies a traveling retrospective exhibition of master paintings by John Baeder.  The reference prints featured in the Arts Company exhibit are the ones used for many of the paintings in the museum exhibit, especially those such as Tootsies, Big Boy, Candyland, Brown’s Diner, and other Nashville sites included in that exhibit, currently showing at the Tennessee State Museum through February 15.  On Saturday, February 7, the State Museum will host an afternoon premier film screening with Baeder (for information, www.tnmuseum.org), followed by appearances of Baeder at the museum and at The Arts Company (5-6 pm)—located just one block from each other—during the FirstArtSaturday event scheduled for 6-9 pm that evening.

About the Painter and His Photographs / John Baeder
Throughout his college years at Auburn University, John Baeder was enamoured unconsciously by the pre-interstate back road, Highway 29, between his home town of Atlanta and Auburn University in Alabama—the eateries, the motels, gas stations, and hand-painted road signs.  At age 21, back in Atlanta, he became an ad agency art director for a NY-based ad agency, and at the same time began taking black and white photographs with his Kodak Brownie—the storefronts, signs, cars, and people on the street—documenting the old city that was becoming the new city of Atlanta

Once he moved to New York City in 1964, Baeder amassed hundreds of photographs of his own, and continued to document the people and places around him in NYC and environs, especially old diners, which he envisioned as “temples from a lost civilization.”  When he was discovered by the legendary art dealer Ivan Karp and began painting diners in 1974 for Karp’s O.K. Harris Gallery, Baeder’s career as a painter became paramount.  However, his photographs continued to be important to him in their own right, as well as references for his canvases and watercolors. He has realized only recently the affinity between his photographs and those of the documentary photographers of the WPA and FSA in the 1930s and 40s, including Ben Shahn, Bernice Abbott, and Walker Evans. 

Over the years, the work prints, which were used as reference for his paintings, were stacked in a corner of his studio.  The idea of an exhibit focusing on those vintage work prints emerged—resulting in this first gallery showing of his vintage work prints.  Exhibiting these photographs is intended to offer insight into how an artist using one medium can often rely heavily on another, and beyond that, how each artistic medium can hold its own.

John Baeder, An American Original

John Baeder was known first for developing the diner image into an American icon, according to a commentary by Virginia Anne Bonito, art historian and Yale professor of Italian Renaissance painting, adding that “with tenacity and consistency he has made pilgrimage after pilgrimage to capture, lovingly, with his camera images of hundreds of diners across the United States.”  He translated those images into paintings that are filled with discipline, rigor, and passion.  In addition, his paintings have covered many other subjects of the American urban and roadside culture of mid-century America.

Bonito notes “Baeder belongs to the tradition of 19th and 20th Century realists and regionalist painters and pictorial journalists, who explored with contagious humanity the character of ordinary Americans as they imprinted themselves upon the American landscape.”  For Nashvillians, an important part of that landscape has included Nashville. 

Vincent  Scully, Yale University Sterling Emeritus Professor of History of Art in Architecture, , in a 1977 introduction to Baeder’s Diners characterized Baeder’s  version of the American experience as “youthful, hopeful, a painter-poet who makes us see the beauty of common things—not how funny they are, or how disgusting, or how powerfully expressive even, or how frightening, or just how big—but how lovely, how seen with love.”  Scully added: “Baeder writes the same way.”

John Baeder is painter, poet, and photographer—a consummate American original artist.

The Art of Books
The Art of Books is a signature series at The Arts Company, presenting a range of books related to art and artists of interest to the gallery.  John Baeder is known as an accomplished writer as well as an artist.  During this exhibit series, all of Baeder’s books—including Diners; Sign Language: Street Signs as Folk Art ; Pleasant Journeys and Good Eats Along the Way; and Gas, Food, and Lodging will be available.  In addition, a new film on John Baeder the artist, recently completed by Nashvillian Curt Hahn’s Film House, will be available.

For February 2009 

John Baeder Photographs

at The Arts Company 

A Series of Three Consecutive One-Man Exhibits

FEBRUARY – MARCH – APRIL

February 7

 “John Baeder Photographs:  Work Prints”

Work prints used as references for photorealist paintings

March 7

“John Baeder Photographs:  Vintage Hand-Painted Signs and Nashville, the Early 80s”

Photographs of anonymous hand-painted signs from a series started in 1963; and Nashville in the early 80s. 

April 4

“John Baeder’s American Roadside”

Limited-edition master prints of selected Baeder images from the 1970s-80s, presented in cooperation with Thomas Paul Fine Art Gallery in Los Angeles.

The Arts Company

Welcomes 2009

A new year of fresh, original, affordable artwork

“The Best is Yet to Come”

The Annual January Artist Preview Celebrating the Gallery’s 13^th Year And all the good changes to come

Opening During FirstArtSaturday January 3, 6-9 pm

Nashville, TN – The Arts Company presents “The Best is Yet to Come,” the theme of the first FirstArtSaturday of the New Year.  Opening January 3, 6-9 pm, this annual gallery artist preview marks the beginning of a baker’s dozen of years for this cornerstone gallery located at 215 Fifth Avenue, North, in downtown Nashville.  The artist showcase this year will include new work by gallery artists, including Brother Mel, John Nikolai, and David Swanagin, among others.   New artists and upcoming exhibits to be previewed include work print photographs by legendary photorealist painter and Nashville resident John Baeder, wall sculpture by Richard Taylor, and paintings by Dolores Justus and Curt Ginther, while also opening an ongoing showcase of fine art photography in an upstairs studio gallery. 

About “The Best is Yet to Come”

Every January, The Arts Company welcomes the New Year with new artwork, new artists, new ideas, and new events.  This year, the gallery begins its thirteenth year in business—a baker’s dozen of years:  twelve years completed and a New Year beginning.   The January artist showcase will feature old friends—Brother Mel and his “Super Bowls” for the Super Bowl, and new exquisite original photographs by John Nikolai.  New artists and artwork feature Richard Taylor’s sculpture, and unknown photographs from the 60s, 70s, 80s by John Baeder, renowned photorealist painter.

About the January Exhibitions

The January showcase at The Arts Company will feature new work and classics from gallery artists, in spaces upstairs and down.  The extensive collection of photography at the gallery will be featured in new gallery space upstairs dedicated to fine art photography.  Downstairs will focus on new work by various gallery artists—painters, photographers and sculptors, as well as introducing some new artists.  The December exhibit—“Wood, Canvas, Clay”—will continue through January 9