out-of-round X, 1999, Paintstick on handmade Hiromi paper, Collection of the artist, Richard Serra © 2010 Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Rob McKeever (left)
Untitled, 1971, Charcoal on paper, Private Collection, Richard Serra © 2010 Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo: Savage (center)
September, 2001, Paintstick on handmade paper, Collection of the artist, Richard Serra © 2010 Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York, Photo: Rob McKeever (right)

SPIKE JONZE
By RON BARBAGALLO I

FILM REVIEW
Where the Wild Things Are
By Ron Barbagallo - October 26, 2009

At first glance, Where the Wild Things Are might not strike you as what you were expecting but in this case, that's a good thing. We've been pre-programmed to slapstick humor, exaggerated facial expressions and topical gags from our kids' films. While Where the Wild Things Are is reverend to both the 338 words of Maurice Sendak's book of the same name and the look of the characters he created, David Eggers and Spike Jonze have updated this film genre with a twist by imbuing character traits, personalities and even neurosis to Sendak's furry, dysfunctional family.

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ARTICLE
A BLADE OF GRASS
By Ron Barbagallo - 2003

Featuring background paintings from Steamboat Willie, Flowers and Trees, Mickey\'s Mellerdrammer, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Bambi, this article is an aesthetic tour of the evolution that took place within 2D background painting at the Disney Studio from 1928 through 1942. It shows how one can make an impact on an entire genre by thinking outside the box, even if that impact starts with something as small as A Blade of Grass.
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EXHIBITION
JOE SORREN
GRAND CENTRAL ART CENTER,
Santa Ana, California
COCONINO CENTER FOR THE ARTS,
Flagstaff, Arizona

Interruption
November 6, 2010 - February 25, 2011
In every art movement, there are followers - and there are innovators: artists whose use of aesthetics change what was accepted and seemingly overnight create a new genre of their own. Joe Sorren is one of those artists. Quick to emerge from the sometimes forced 90s style-factory that was/is LA's La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Joe Sorren's emotional mindscape paintings pulse with Odilon Redon bursts of color and Willem de Kooning painterly inventions. Sometimes somber, sometimes containing small comical details melded into a larger narrative or poem, Sorren's work always makes his audience reflect. However, it is Sorren's ability at abstracting color into sentiment that sets him apart from his contemporaries. The Grand Central Art Center (GCAC) at California State University Fullerton in southern California has organized Joe Sorren's first museum retrospective. The exhibition is called Interruption and opens on Nov. 6, 2010 and runs through Jan. 8, 2011. Afterwards it travels to Flagstaff, Arizona for a Jan. 22 through Feb. 25, 2011 viewing. For more information about these exhibitions, please check this link:
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EXHIBITION
ALFRED STIEGLITZ, EDWARD STEICHEN
and PAUL STRAND
AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
New York, New York

Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen and Paul Strand
November 10, 2010 - April 10, 2011
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is showcasing three giants of 20th-century American photography — Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen and Paul Strand in an exhibtion that runs from November 10, 2010 through April 10, 2011. The stories of these three giants of early twentieth-century photography are interwoven. At the center is Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946), a photographer who made icons of his subjects and one of America’s greatest champions of the era’s most advanced examples of artistic photography, Parisian avant-garde art and American painting. Edward Steichen (1879-1973) and Paul Strand (1890-1976) are, in a sense, bookends marking the beginning and end of Stieglitz’s influential role as artistic impresario during the period of the Photo-Secession, a name given to the loose-knit group of photographers Stieglitz exhibited, published and promoted between 1902 and 1917. For more information about this exhibition, please check this link:
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EXHIBITION
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISTS
AT THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
New York, New York

Abstract Expressionist New York: The Big Picture
October 3, 2010 - April 25, 2011
Drawn entirely from the vast holding of the Museum of Modern Art, Abstract Expressionist New York underscores the achievements of a geneartion of artists that catapulted New York City to the center of the international art world during the 1950s. Its legacy yielded some of the twentieth century's greatest masterpieces. For more information about this exhibition, please check this link:
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EXHIBITION
VASILY KANDINSKY
AT THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM
New York, New York

Kandinsky at the Bauhaus
Ongoing
In 1922, Vasily Kandinsky accepted a teaching position at the Bauhaus: the state-sponsored Weimar school of art and applied design founded in 1919 by architect Walter Gropius. The school's curriculum was based on the principle that the crafts were equal to the traditional arts and was organized according to a medieval-style guild system of training where a young artist was apprenticed to experienced masters. Geometric shapes played a dominant role in Kandinsky's pictorial vocabulary at the Bauhaus. As an artist during this phase of his career, he was interested in uncovering a universal aesthetic language and increased his use of overlapping, flat planes and clearly delineated forms. Drawn from the Guggenheim's permanent collection, this intimate presentation features paintings and works on paper from a prolific period of Kandinsky's career. For more information about this exhibition, please check this link:
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CONSERVATION NEWS
JOSE ORRACA - Obituary
September 19, 2009

Jose Orraca passed away on September 19, 2009. Forthright and direct, Orraca blazed a path that others followed; he was a pioneer in the field of Photographic Conservation. During his lifetime, others extrapolated from his body of work and now in his passing are finding a way to acknowledge his generosity and contribution. For more information about Jose Orraca, please check this link:
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