GREAT ARTISTS IN MY LIFE: Both from PBS documentaries and in person. All noteworthy like Antonio Masini as well
in Century 21.
Gertrude Abercrombie
American Painter (1909–77)
Gertrude Abercrombie was an American painter based in Chicago. Called “the queen of the bohemian artists”, Abercrombie was involved in the Chicago jazz scene and was friends with musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Sarah Vaughan, whose music inspired her own creative work. Abercrombie’s motifs included owls, moonlit landscapes, and cats, as seen in her work The Courtship (1949), which she painted in a controlled palette of colors. “I am not interested in complicated things nor in the commonplace, I like to paint simple things that are a little strange.”
THE SCULPTURES OF GONZALO FONSECA — https://stateoftheartsnyc.wordpress.com › 2017 › 12 › 17. The Noguchi Museum presents a retrospective exhibition of the sculptural work of Gonzalo Fonseca (1922–97), a major figure in the development of modern Latin American art who created some of the most enchanting sculptures of his day.
The work here in marble evokes his mastery of form as he drew on ancient cultures in a modern form. Astonishing work.
Norman Treigle in NYCity Opera production of Carlisle Floyd’s SUSANNAH with Marilyn Niska in 1971 and below the 1958 premiere. Treigle scored his first significant success, as the tormented Reverend Olin Blitch, in the New York premiere of Floyd’s Susannah and at Brussels World’s Fair (1958).
Treigle became arguably one of the top bass-baritone of the Americas. His greatest triumph was in Arrigo Boito’s MEFISTOFELE which I saw numerous times bringing many friends and colleagues to see it as well. Treigle unfortunately died in 1975 at 47 at the cusp of his career.
My book was dedicated in his memory in 2007 and has a chapter about Opera here and abroad.
