Art from the New Britain Public & Parochial Schools
May 23–June 2, 2013
Opening Reception
Thursday, May 23, 2013, 6:30-8 p.m.

For the 23rd year, the creative output of our youngest artists will be celebrated in Art from the New Britain Public & Parochial Schools. This popular exhibition will feature some 250 artists from kindergarten through high school. The artwork ranges in medium, and will include pastels, markers, collage, crayon, pencil, watercolor, oil paints, tempera, charcoal, clay, ink, and acrylics. A panel of NBMAA docents select the award winners.

Presented By:

Louis Comfort Tiffany, Port of Piraeus, Greece, detail, n.d., Oil on canvas, 8 x 14 in., Nassau County Museum of Art.

Louis Comfort Tiffany, Silver-Mounted Favrile Glass Vase, ca. 1900, Sterling silver, gold, favrile glass, 7 3/4 in x 3 1/2 in. (diameter), Tiffany & Co. Archives, B2011.27

The Brilliance of Louis Comfort Tiffany: Painter and Craftsman
May 24–Sept. 29, 2013
Opening Reception
5:30-7 p.m., Thursday, May 30, 2013
Remarks at 6 p.m.

The Brilliance of Louis Comfort Tiffany: Painter and Craftsman is a major exploration of the paintings of Louis C. Tiffany (1848–1933) within the wider context of his creative genius. A celebrated glass and jewelry designer, Tiffany was first and always a painter, studying under George Inness and Samuel Colman at the start of his career. While Tiffany’s paintings are not widely known, they reveal a profound sensitivity to light and color. Ultimately, these interests drove Tiffany’s refinement of glass, a medium in which he concentrated so much of his creative energies. Furthermore, the subjects of Tiffany’s painting, particularly the Orientalist scenes captured during the artist’s travels in North Africa and the Middle East, informed his design aesthetic, which was known not only for its nature-inspired forms but also its exotic motifs from Morocco, India, Turkey and the Far East.

At the core of the exhibition are approximately 100 highlights from the Nassau County Museum’s collection of Louis Comfort Tiffany paintings, the best and largest of its kind. To demonstrate the indubitable link between Tiffany’s painting and design, the paintings will be thematically grouped alongside a treasure-trove of approximately 40 examples of large stained glass windows, furniture, lamps, vases and other decorative art objects. These objects come from the extensive holdings of the Mark Twain House & Museum, whose interior was designed by Tiffany’s firm, Associated Artists, as well as from private collections. Examples of exquisite jewelry designed or co-designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany are on loan from the premier holdings of Tiffany & Co. Archives.

This exhibition is supported by The David T. Langrock Foundation and The Edward C. & Ann T. Roberts Foundation.

Opening Reception Dinner
Plated dinner in Stanley Works Center.

Appetizer
Prosciutto & melon carpaccio, basil mascarpone cream, basil aioli

Entree
Pecan crusted atlantic salmon, mandarin orange & pomegranate glaze, haricot vert w/ mint & lemon, basmati rice w/ caramelized onions & lentils

Vegetarian Option
Open lasagna with summer vegetables and roasted red pepper coulis

Dessert
Tiffany Blue Cup Cake

Soft drinks will be available and cash wine and beer bar. $50 per person. Dinner seats at 7 p.m., reservations required, contact the Front Desk at (860) 229-0257, ext. 0.

Skylar Hughes, Hem and Leaf and Branch and Bone, Oil on canvas, 14 x 14 in., 2012, Collection of the artist

Skylar Hughes, Untitled Collage (1), Collage on postcard, 3H x 5H in., 2012, Collection of the artist

NEW/NOW: Skylar Hughes One Big Gust of Wind
June 15–Sept. 15, 2013
OPENING RECEPTION
3-4:30 p.m., Sunday, June 16, 2013
Remarks at 3:30 p.m.

Skylar Hughes investigates relationships, associations, and the artistic process in the paintings and collages on display in One Big Gust of Wind. The works hover on the edge between abstraction and representation, the familiar and the unrecognizable, and conscious and unconscious painterly gesture.

Rooted in the exploration of the artistic process, Hughes’ works also search for understanding of oneself and of the passage of time. As Hughes explains, “I’ve always considered my work as a kind of placeholder for a period of time in my life, something to put down not just to show for, but in order to understand and move on from.” Skylar Hughes is a Connecticut-born artist living and working in Los Angeles, California. He earned a B.F.A. from the Hartford Art School in 2009. One Big Gust of Wind is his first solo exhibition.

Jane Bunker, Illumination, detail, 2012, Oil on canvas, 72 x 60 in., Collection of the artist.

Jane Bunker: Illuminations
June 8–Aug. 18, 2013
Opening Reception
3-4:30 p.m., Saturday, June 15, 2013
Remarks at 3:30 p.m.

Because of undiagnosed childhood myopia, Jane Bunker saw the world as blurry and light-filled for many years and had no idea that others perceived it differently. Although her vision was eventually diagnosed and corrected, she uses this blurred perspective to investigate meaning. As she explains, “Beneath the appearance of apparent separate objects lies a deeper truth of interconnectedness—a oneness that is at the heart of all we perceive of as real. The lack of sharp boundaries between trees, flowers, sky and grass in my paintings is my way of attempting to paint that deeper truth.”

Born in Boston and raised on Cape Cod, Bunker studied art as a child at the Farnsworth School of Art in North Truro and went on to earn her B.A. in Art at Stamford University. She ultimately changed course and spent the middle years of her life practicing psychology. In 1993, she returned to painting full time, though psychology and intersection continue to inform her work. Her painting is also influenced by photography; in fact, each canvas begins from a landscape photograph or a close-up of a floral form taken by the artist in a moment of instant recognition and close connection to the subject.