Setauket Artist Show

Thursday, November 12, 7-8:30PM

Ned Puchner will focus on the African American artist Horace Pippin (1888-1946) and his 1943 painting Mr. Prejudice. It will consider this painting against Pippin’s life, the history of the African American press, and the changing Social Gospel approach of the African American church. It asks why Pippin portrayed Mr. Prejudice with emblems of America’s cultural racism and those of its military racism, and links this work to others within Pippin’s oeuvre. 

This case study of Horace Pippin also examines the role of the black press and its new tone of confidence during World War II as well. Looking to the wartime press, it considers, in particular, the significance of the Double V campaign from 1943; a rhetoric calling for victory over racism at home and for victory in the war abroad. I demonstrate how it became a racial symbol with spiritual implications, and point to its appearance in one of Pippin’s paintings, arguing that it also provided a model for Mr. Prejudice. 

Ned's talk will highlight Mr. Prejudice to argue that Horace Pippin understood issues of prejudice, equality, and racial patriotism in religious terms based on the details of his faith, his background, his self-professed divine inspiration, the wartime press, and the increased activity of the Social Gospel within the African American church.

Edward (Ned) Puchner is the Executive Director for Gallery North, a not-for-profit fine art gallery in Setauket, New York. An arts advocate and scholar, prior to joining the staff at Gallery North, Puchner worked at a variety of museums, galleries, and cultural non-profits, including the Greenville Museum of Art (NC), the McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina, National Gallery of Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, earning a doctorate in Art History from Indiana University in 2012. He has received fellowships from the Frederick Douglass Institute at the University of Rochester, the Luce Foundation and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and has published articles and reviews for Raw Vision magazine and served as a contributor to a number of exhibition catalogs. His research interests include African American art, American modernism, contemporary art, folk/self-taught/outsider art, and the material culture of American religions.

SEE VIDEO BELOW

Thursday, October 29, 6-7:30PM

Nancy Puchner will take you back in time, in 1874, Winslow Homer sketched a portrait of Montaukett Chief David Pharaoh in watercolor and pencil. This Long Island portrait is one of Homer’s only known depictions of Indian subject matter. In his time, Homer was routinely lauded as a genuine artist who “painted what he saw.” Although Homer’s drawing of Pharaoh suggests this characteristic truthfulness, it also constructs a stereotype of Pharaoh as the “last” remaining member of the Montaukett nation, even as this nation was nowhere near extinction at that time. This talk will explore Homer’s portrait, namely the tension between the artist’s characteristic faithfulness to what he painted and the tendency of artists of his time to manipulate the identity of Indian subjects. 

She currently works as an advisor in the University Scholars Program at Stony Brook University. Nancy has also been a professor of Art History for the past ten years, teaching courses on American art, contemporary art, and Indigenous art. Her most recent research and scholarship focuses on modern and contemporary Native art, the representation of Indigenous Americans in U.S. cultural production, and teaching Native Art in a postcolonial world. Her forthcoming essay in Art History Pedagogy and Practice explores the voice of Native students in the art history classroom. And a forthcoming book co-edited by Puchner, Aesthetics of Intervention: Federal Governments and Native Art across North America, contains a series of essays that explore the intersection of Native art and federal policy in twentieth-century Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. 

Image of Winslow Homer.

SEE VIDEO LECTURE BELOW

Thursday, October 15, 7-9PM

Antonio Masi is president of the American Watercolor Society and an Internationally renowned painter.

The goal of this demonstration is to show the untapped power of water-based mediums.  The focus will be on approaching the mediums from a contemporary point of view that produces powerful, emotional and delicate paintings. 

Learn how attention to detail and unusual perspective make for poetic, moody works, with strong textural qualities.  

Antonio will demonstrate land, marine and cityscapes and explain the fundamentals that make a painting successful. 

 His approach is easy to understand and helpful for any individual interested in painting, artist or admirer.  

SEE DEMO VIDEO BELOW

Date TBD

The Atelier at Flowerfield is proud to welcome Natasha Kuzmanovic, an art historian/conservator, and the author of Tropical Light: The Art of A.E. Backus to Atelier Hall. 

She will be discussing her book and the history of A.E. Backus, the renowned Florida painter know for his vivid Florida landscapes.  

This event is free and open to the public with a suggested donation of $10.00 to support out scholarship fund for students in need.

Atelier art instructor Bill Graf will provide a master copy demonstration of John Singer Sargent's Gondeliers Siesta illustrating his painting techniques. During the demonstration, Bill will talk about Sargent's life and his transition from painting primarily in oils to watercolor, later in his career.

Bill Graf is an art instructor for The Atelier at Flowerfield teaching oil and watercolor classes in studio and online. He studied at the Arts Student League in NYC and the Cecil Graves Academy, Florence, Italy. He works as a fine artist and an illustrator.

SEE VIDEO BELOW