Tyler Professor Emeritus Stanley Whitney was recently named the first recipient of the $25,000 Robert De Niro, Sr. Prize, given to an outstanding mid-career American painter.  Mr. Whitney served as chair of the painting department until he retired in 2009.  He also taught several semesters at the Temple Rome campus. He earned his BFA at the Kansas City Art Institute and came to New York in 1968 to attend the Studio School. He was encouraged by painter Rob Reid to attend Yale University, where he earned his MFA and studied under painter Al Held. An abstract Modernist painter, he was also awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1996, a Pollock-Krasner Grant in 2002, and an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2010. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums across The U.S. as well as internationally.

“Stanley’s work and the way he practices his craft both show what this prize is all about—honoring a person with great passion for and lifelong commitment to art,” said the namesake artist’s son, actor/producer Robert De Niro. “I am so proud to pay tribute to my father through this inaugural prize in his name, and to recognize and support an artist who has achieved so much throughout his career.” The jury added: “For the recipient of the first Robert De Niro Sr. Prize, we have selected a painter who represents the spirit of commitment, independence, and invention that marked De Niro’s own work as an artist. Stanley Whitney proves that you can be a traditionalist without being a conservative. His concerns are those of painters from the Venetians through Delacroix to the Abstract Expressionists: color, light, and a sense of movement communicated through visual rhythm—but his painting is a continual adventure in these realms that he shows to be without limit. For many years he has worked with a consistent set of structuring devices but has used them as a basis for more than just variations on a theme, for the true structural basis of Whitney’s art is color, not shape, and he rediscovers it anew each time.”

You can read more about the prize and Robert De Niro, Sr. at the estate’s website.

2 Tyler Senior Graphic Design students, Theresa Decker and Kelly Thorn, and recent graduate Christine McMahon, had their work featured in the last several weeks on DesignWorkLife, a creative blog that features a different graphic design work each day. The blog was estab­lished to cat­a­log and share design-centric inspiration. Design­WorkLife is a part of Seamless Creative, a New York City-based design stu­dio. You can see the posts here:

Tyler Art History PhD candidate and singer-songwriter Brian Seymour released his fourth album last week.  This is his first album in 6 years, but he has not been just sitting around writing songs.  He also serves as the Chair of the Art Department of the Community College of Philadelphia, and has earned his MA in Art History at Tyler.  You can read more about his album release at The Key.com or you can read more about him and listen to some sample songs on his website at www.brianseymour.com.

On September 30, 2011, an international virtual exchange, Contemporary Issues in Art Education: Practice and Theory Colloquium, occurred between Graduate students at Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, USA and Doctoral students at ELTE University, Budapest, Hungary. Four presenters from each University presented their research study. Prior to the virtual seminar, students exchanged their powerpoint presentations, abstracts and references. At the time of presentations, Skype was used to broadcast the seminar internationally. The colloquium was facilitated by Dr. Lisa Kay and Dr. Andrea Karpati. More information can be found at www.tylerarteducation.blogspot.com.

Dr. Lisa Kay is an Assistant Professor in  Art/Art Education/Visual Studies at Temple University/Tyler School of Art and a Fulbright Scholar to Hungary, 2011-2012.  Dr. Andrea Karpati is a Professor at the Centre for Science Communication/UNESCO Chair for Multimedia in Education, ELTE and Fulbright Scholar to the USA, 2009-2010.  Photo above is of Dr. Lisa Kay and the Temple University, Tyler School of Art MEd Graduate Student Presenters: Jasmeen Rekhi (Teaching Multiculturalism through Photoshop Layers: An Intersection of Technology and Art Education), Lindsay Sparagana (Collaborative Learning in an Arts-based Community/University Partnership), Kelly Steinlage (Is silence golden? Talking about Controversial Topics with Early Adolescents in the Art Room) and Courtney Todd (Characteristics of a Rich Art Program for children with Autism in a Museum Setting).

Daniel Roman is an MFA candidate at Tyler in painting.  His alter ego, Bernardo da Bicci, had a solo show in Rome this past summer, which was recently reviewed by Mike Watson in Frieze Magazine, a prestigious international art journal.  You can read the full review here, but here’s a taste:

Da Bicci presents an interesting constellation between art, politics and mysticism, a feat which can only be all-consuming for the artist himself. Indeed, one cannot be sure quite where the artist – who was born in Chicago to Mexican immigrant parents – is heading, such are the diverse ranges of references within his work and his enigmatic nature. Yet the boldness of the installation at extraspazio heralds the emergence of a talent for whom the resolution of various disparate elements may contribute a social significance which goes far beyond the evident personal psychical development of the artist.

Erica Prince, an MFA Candidate in Painting, is participating in a major juried show of MFA Candidates at various regional institutions which explores the role of art education while asking the question: What does it mean to have an MFA?  You can see the Exhibit at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts in Wilmington, Delaware from this Friday, October 7 through February 5, 2012.  Admission to the center is free.

From the official description of the exhibit: In contrast to an exhibition that seeks to find the next Art Star, Masters of the Visual Universe explores the constellation of artistic mediums, concepts, and practices rotating around 2011. Drawing upon themes of mastery in art, Masters of the Visual Universe probes the notion of art education, aesthetics and display. Conventionally, Masters of Fine Arts programs train graduate students to gain control of a particular medium such as painting or sculpture, and monumental thesis exhibitions like biennials strive to showcase the “best” examples of art under a particular theme. Such traditions in art have long been critiqued through a postmodern lens, yet these practices still persist in the art world and academia. Masters of the Visual Universe questions whether educational mastery in and of art is still a fact or a science fiction relic in the eyes of many young artists today. The exhibition also queries if an MFA Biennial can adequately reflect an awareness of all of the art being made in MFA programs in this geographic region. The viewer is asked to form his or her own opinion of educational traditions and museological practice today. Masters of the Visual Universe explores how recent graduate students and MFA candidates approach aesthetic traditions in ways that go beyond the creation of precious objects to mine the gallery of ideas as a free and galactic space.

Mollie, a curatorial intern at the DCCA, interviewed Erica about her work, and posted it on the DCCA blog.  Here’s an excerpt from the blog:

Q: tell me a little bit about the ideas behind your work and what you hope to convey to your audience. How would you describe your art to someone who had never seen it?

EP:A lot of the ideas behind my work are focused around the idea of the utopian society. I think it’s important for art to be able to explore utopian ideals because that’s the only place they can exist. The primary piece that I am showing, Permission Granted, has 35 images in a grid installation. It contains imagery of architecture, landscape, invention, monument, celestial bodies, alchemical devices, etc. …..

Q: How has the MFA influenced your development as an artist and as a person?

EP:I’m still in the midst of it so it’s hard to have a completely clear perspective. It’s given me the opportunity to focus on my work without having a billion distractions. It has allowed me to figure out what I’m truly interested in, and I’ve started pursuing these things more intensely. I’ve developed a lot of respect for different types of work that I was never interested in before. When I came to Tyler I thought I knew what I liked and what I didn’t like, what was good and what was bad. But now, I am more curious about the wiggly line between “good” and “bad”. I’ve discovered that what I like and don’t like might be a little less concrete than I thought.

Print Magazine has selected the Surface Deposit Exhibition Identity as a winner in their 2011 Regional Design Annual! This identity program was created to support last year’s Surface Deposit exhibit at Temple Gallery by Lead Pencil Studio’s Annie Han and Daniel Mihalyo. The identity program was created by Tyler’s Publications and Design Director, Kelli Cavanaugh (Tyler BFA ’94) along with her student assistant Nina Reck (Tyler MFA ’11) working with former Temple Gallery Acting Director Shayna McConville.

Print Magazine is one of the most respected magazines about graphic communication and visual culture in America, and an authoritative inspiration for designers everywhere. The Regional Design Annual is one of the most comprehensive survey of graphic design in the United States—and one of the biggest magazine issues to hit the graphic design industry every year. It’s the only design competition organized by region of the country, from New York City to San Diego, Miami to Seattle.

Students from the Tyler School of Art Living Learning Community in Peabody Hall visited the Philadelphia City Hall last Friday to meet with Tu Huynh, City Hall Exhibitions Manager in the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy.  Mr. Huynh talked to the students about the Art in City Hall program, which presents exhibitions that showcase contemporary artwork by professional and emerging Philadelphia visual artists. Then Mr. Huynh generously guided students through the current exhibitions at City Hall, Score! a juried exhibition of local art inspired by sports and Arts and Aging, a collaboration with the Department of Recreation, a juried exhibition of art by seniors from a network of senior centers throughout Philadelphia.  While touring City Hall, students were given a bit of a “behind the scenes tour” and allowed to visit some of the grand meeting rooms, including the Mayor’s Reception Room and the City Council Chamber.  The highlight of the trip was probably visiting Conversation Hall, which has a balcony leading to the North Portal of City Hall and two grand stairways, which are normally open only for special functions.  We got to go out to the balcony and see the historical Ceremonial and Legislative Entrance to the building, which faces north towards Temple University.

A special thank you to Tu Huynh, who was extremely generous with his time in showing us all the interesting architecture and taking us to some really special places in City Hall!