[Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research] Hope McMath, photography Israel, 10 year old artist, Partho Bhowmick, Benodebehari Mukherjee

[Lisa Yayla]

Hi,
The latest edition of TacNews is out. Excellent edition. If you aren't 
subscribed contact Ann Gardiner at anngardiner at btinternet.com. Also 
available online at http://www.surrey.ac.uk/~pss1su/intact/index.html

Link to article/photos to Disney on Ice production, photo exhibit in 
Israel, a young painter, article about Partha Chatterjee and from 
another list information about Seeing in the Dark: Photography by the 
Visually Impaired Centre for Photography as an Art-Form and article 
about Hope McMath and The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens.
Best,
Lisa

Visually impaired children from the Green Bay area visit with skaters, 
cast and crew members from Disney On Ice - Mickey & Minnie's Magical 
Journey inside the Resch Center in Ashwaubenon on Thursday, Feb. 15, 
2007. Photo by Evan Siegle/Press-Gazette

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=U0&Date=20070215&Category=GPG01&ArtNo=702150802&Ref=PH&Params=Itemnr=1
article

Blind photographers turn to cameras to share their world

Thursday, February 8, 2007
TEL AVIV, Israel: Reaching above her dark glasses, Riki Fritsh held a 
compact camera to her forehead and snapped away at a group of passengers 
boarding a bus.

Most of the travelers were caught off guard by the camera's flash. But 
they were even more surprised to learn that Fritsh is blind.

Fritsh is one of nine blind photographers featured in an exhibition at 
the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

"When people see the photos, they are proud of me," said Fritsh, 50, who 
has been completely blind since birth. "They can't believe that I took 
these pictures."

Organizers said one of their goals is to let visitors see what it's like 
to be blind.

"When we follow the things that they decide to shoot, it reveals their 
world to us," said Iris Shinar, one of the group's instructors.

Some of the photos in the exhibit are out of focus. Some don't show the 
subjects' faces, but all provide candid glimpses into the lives of the 
photographers.

One photo shows a darkened apartment and another shows the blurry image 
of the artist in an ornate mirror. A sultry woman — the girlfriend of 
one of the photographers — lounges on a couch. A 90-year-old grandmother 
takes a nap in the afternoon sun.

An annual exhibit of blind photographers in Tokyo inspired Shinar and 
fellow photographer Kfir Sivan to start their own program in Israel. 
They hope similar programs will start in other countries as well.

Several groups exist worldwide for partially blind and otherwise 
disabled photographers, but completely blind photography is still quite 
rare, said Shirley Britton of the Disabled Photographers Society in the 
United Kingdom.

"There seems to be a lot of people who are partially sighted," Britton 
said. "But I don't know if a completely blind person could really do 
photography."

Shinar and Sivan weren't sure how it would work either. Before the class 
started, they experimented by blindfolding themselves and taking 
pictures to see what would work. They discovered that holding the camera 
to the forehead, like a third eye, was the best way to stabilize and aim 
the camera.

They found volunteer participants from the Herzliya Center for the 
Blind, near Tel Aviv, and started teaching. Since last March, they have 
been teaching the group on a volunteer basis, providing the students 
with cameras, film and other supplies. The classes covered composition, 
fundamentals, and a history of photography, among other subjects. The 
results impressed even the instructors.

"Every week Riki brings me a roll and in every roll there are winning 
shots," Shinar said.

Since she started photographing people on her bus route Fritsh, 50, has 
become well-known and several people call out to her by name as they 
board. One bus passenger even asked her to be the official photographer 
for a party at local nursing home.

"At first, it was a bit odd," said Shira Yehzkia, an 18-year-old 
passenger whose grandfather is also blind. "But I get really excited to 
see blind people do things that are not regular for them."

While some might be skeptical that a blind person can create visual art, 
professor Gerald Pryor, head of the photography department at New York 
University, said the concept makes sense.

"They see the world with their bodies," Pryor said. "They sense the 
world in a different way, and they can manifest that world in a photograph."

The art, however, doesn't just share the artists' world, Shinar said, it 
also helps the artists themselves connect to the people around them.

Shinar said some students like to document their travels and activities 
for their grandchildren. One woman photographed her Passover feast 
preparations for more than 30 family members.

The exhibit closed on Tuesday after a three-week run that attracted 
crowds of more than 400 people. Shinar said the class will continue.

"We can't stop now," she said. "We are like family."
__

On the Net:

The photos can still be viewed online at 
http://www.theblindphotographer.com.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/09/africa/ME-GEN-Israel-Blind-Photographers.php
article


  Artistic touch


    Blind student doesn't let disability affect painting

Skyler Murphy feels the colors he paints with. He likes shades of orange 
and red, blues and browns.

At first glance, the 10-year-old Rogers student seems to be just another 
student who enjoys-painting.

But this award-winning artist doesn't see the canvas he's-painting.

Blind since the age of 4, the result of an automobile accident, Murphy 
doesn't let the disability affect his zest for life -- or art.

"I like to paint and color with crayons at home," he said.

Murphy recently learned he'd won the grand prize in the statewide Helen 
Keller Art Show.

He competed against other visually impaired and blind students from 
across the state.

He named his painting "Braille," explaining that the multi-colored 
acrylic painting had lots of texture, which he formed by using various 
brushes.

His painting hosts an added dimension of a second brightly colored 
canvas attached to the larger one.

"It has depth and color, and I'm sure it was one of the more unusual 
pieces in the contest," said his art teacher, Sonya Skipworth.

Murphy placed first last week with a different painting in his school 
district's art competition.

Through the Helen Keller Art Show, 20 works of art are selected for a 
year long traveling art display around the state. Murphy's "Braille" was 
among them. His painting went on to win the Patty Johnson grand prize award.

Murphy will be featured in the Helen Keller Parade in June and in 
various venues throughout the festival week.

Lisa Moses, Skyler's former vision teacher who now works for the 
University of Alabama in-Birmingham as a research assistant professor in 
the school of optometry, says Murphy's painting will become a part of 
the permanent art collection at Ivy Green in Tuscumbia.

Moses described Murphy as a hard worker who "loves school more than any 
student I've ever taught."

"He's a people person, and he has visual memories that come-out in his 
artwork," Moses said. "Art is truly his favorite mode of expression."

Murphy holds the edge of his canvas as he paints in order to keep his 
place with his brush.

Skipworth said Murphy's enjoyment while painting is obvious.

"You can see it on his face that he absolutely loves to paint," 
Skipworth said. "You can tell that art makes him happy."
http://www.timesdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070207/NEWS/702070336/-1/COMMUNITIES


article
from another list

Seeing in the Dark: Photography by the Visually Impaired Centre for 
Photography as an Art-Form, Piramal Gallery Sat. 17th to Sun. 25th – 
11.00 am to 7.00 pm (except on public holidays) ‘Seeing in the Dark’ is 
an exhibition of photographs taken by photographers with varying degrees 
of visual impairment, ranging from partial to total blindness. Various 
tactile, audio clues, visual memories of sight, the warmth of light, 
cognitive skills and intuitive abilities are used by the visually 
impaired to create mental images before they decide to take a picture. 
The exhibition is the culmination of photographs created at the 
workshops of photography for the blind initiated by Partho Bhowmick in 
association with the Victoria Memorial School for the Blind, Mumbai. The 
first exhibition of its kind in India, ‘Seeing in the Dark’ celebrates 
the human spirit of self-expression and redefines the common notion that 
“to see is to photograph and to photograph is to see”. Visually impaired 
visitors to the exhibition can access the photographs using a 
combination of touchable raised photos, Braille notes, visual aids and 
descriptive tour.

article

The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens is presenting Temples and Tombs: 
Treasures of Egyptian Art from The British Museum, on view until March 
18, 2007. The Cummer is one of only five stops in the United States for 
this exhibition, which is organized by the American Federation of Arts 
and The British Museum. Temples and Tombs is made possible, in part, by 
the Philip and Janice Levin Foundation Fund for Collection-Based 
Exhibitions at the American Federation of Arts.

The exhibition comprises nearly 85 pieces from shortly before the Third 
Dynasty, about 2686 B.C., to the Roman occupation of the fourth century 
A.D. The collection explores four aspects of ancient Egypt: the king and 
the temple, which represents the divine in everyday Egyptian life; 
objects preserved from the lives of artists and nobles; statuary from 
temples and tombs; and finally the tomb and the significance of death 
and the afterlife in ancient Egypt. This stunning collection showcases a 
variety of items, including sculpture, relief, papyri, ostraca, jewelry, 
and an assortment of funerary items.

The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, located on the St. Johns River in 
the Riverside Avondale historic district in Jacksonville, FL, is the 
second largest art museum in Florida and is noted for its collection of 
more than 6000 masterworks of American and European paintings, beautiful 
historic gardens in the European style and an outstanding collection of 
Meissen porcelain. Art Connections is the museum’s nationally renowned 
interactive learning center where visitors experience art through all 
senses.

Hope McMath is Director of Education at the Cummer Museum of Art & 
Gardens and has 11 years of experience in museum education. During her 
time at the Cummer, she has designed and implemented programs that bring 
arts opportunities to over 50,000 students and adults annually. She is 
the Site Director for the local VSA Arts affiliate. In this role she has 
been responsible for creating a nationally recognized art festival for 
over 2000 students with profound disabilities and Women of Vision, a 
program bringing art making and literacy to a group of women who are 
blind and visually impaired.

Hope has written successful grants to support programs in arts infusion, 
school partnerships, youth and family initiatives, arts in healthcare, 
and disability projects. Due to her efforts, the Cummer was awarded the 
first Disability Access award from the city of Jacksonville, and has 
been recognized by the Council for Exceptional Children. She was named 
Museum Educator of the Year for the state of Florida in 2003 by the 
Florida Art Education Association and the Art Educator of the Year by 
the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville in 2005. In addition, she 
was recognized with the National Community Service Award by VSA Arts in 
2005.

Most recently Hope received the national Art Education for the Blind 
Community Service award for her efforts in making art accessible to 
children and adults who are blind and by Arts for a Complete Education 
as the Doris Leeper art educator of the year. She is also a working 
artist whose relief prints, etchings, and monotypes are exhibited and 
collected throughout the Southeast.
http://www.artscapemedia.com/podcasts/archives/2007/02/hope_mcmath_dir.html


article

Versatile genius

PARTHA CHATTERJEE

Benodebehari Mukherjee's art came out of a grand detachment and an 
awareness of nature's cycle.

Benodebehari Mukherjee.

PROFUSE use of superlatives is usually considered immature journalism. 
Exceptions, however, need to be made occasionally, as in the case of the 
massive, awe-inspiring retrospective of the works of Benodebehari 
Mukherjee (1906-1980) held from December last week to February 11, 
curated by Professor Gulam Mohammad Sheikh and P. Siva Kumar, at the 
National Gallery of Modern Art, Jaipur House, in New Delhi.

Benodebehari and Ramkinkar Baij were two pupils of Acharya Nandlal Bose 
who rose to greatness. A nationalist artist and teacher, Bose had an 
uncanny eye for talent. When he headed the Kala Bhawan at Shantiniketan, 
the pastoral university founded by Rabindranath Tagore in rural Birbhum 
in West Bengal, he realised immediately that his most `problematic' 
students were also the ones who were highly likely to make a mark.



PICTURES: S. SUBRAMANIUM

Nature study, of flower and grass, 1921, with red as the dominant colour.

Benodebehari Mukherjee came from a large family that valued learning. He 
was highly myopic in one eye and blind in the other. When he was 15 a 
doctor pronounced him fit enough to draw and paint and his guardians 
admitted him to Kala Bhawan, Shantiniketan, far from the bustle of 
Calcutta (now Kolkata) where the family resided. A fellow-student, the 
eccentric Ram Kinkar Baij, impecunious and a barber by caste, discovered 
by Ramanand Chatterjee, editor of Modern Review, was destined to become 
a painter-sculptor of international reckoning.

In the retrospective, two works done in 1921 signal Benodebehari's 
burgeoning gift: one a vertical nature's study of flower and grass with 
red as the dominant colour and the other an austere, black-and-white 
ink-and-brush landscape on buff paper, of the huge, undulating landscape 
known as the Khowai. There was, even at the tender age of 15, an "inner 
eye" that was privy to the secrets of nature and drew a fine but clear 
distinction between the truly beautiful and the pretty, which on the 
surface was more attractive. His art had been invested with high 
seriousness even before he was 30.




This Five-foot-by 60-foot mural was done on the outer wall of Kala 
Bhawan at Shantiniketan in 1972 after he lost his only good eye in a 
botched cataract operation. With the help of a couple of assistants he 
completed the mammoth assignment using touch with a prescience not 
always allowed by sight.

A tempera on paper of an old bridge in a rural setting, seen from below, 
is one of his earliest memorable images. Amongst the most enduring ones 
is a vertical tempera called "The Tree Lover", stylised, even trying, 
but ultimately beautiful. There is a distinctly oriental flavour to his 
work. He had learned much from Japanese and Chinese art. Tagore had 
invited to Shantiniketan Count Okakura Kommura, the aesthete who wanted 
to build an artistic bridge between Japan, China and India. Benodebehari 
benefited the most from his presence and visited Japan in 1937 at the 
Count's initiative.

Benodebehari had also learnt much from his own artistic inheritance - 
the sculptures and frescoes of ancient India, Mughal and Rajput 
miniatures, not to forget the rich folk traditions of his native Bengal. 
His knowledge of Western art, and indeed world art, was truly 
impressive. Some of it can be seen and heard in his conversation with an 
off-camera Satyajit Ray in the documentary "The Inner Eye", when details 
from the fresco in Hindi Bhawan, Shantiniketan, on the lives of medieval 
Indian saints are shown and discussed. "The Inner Eye", made in 1972 for 
Films Division, is the only documentary on Benodebehari.



picture text 'Seated mother and here children,' in temperea on cloth. 
Natured is the well-spring of Benodebehari's creativity even in his 
figurative works.

Indian artists, mostly from Bengal, were attached to nature and thus 
amply rewarded. Benodebehari, his teacher Nandlal Bose, Sailoz Mukerjea 
and Gopal Ghosh made superb landscapes, both with and without people. 
Nature is the well-spring of Benodebehari's creativity even in his 
figurative works; an example, amongst very many, is that of a mother, 
who is seated, and her children, in tempera on cloth. His feminine 
figures, mostly in tempera on paper, cloth and board, appear to be like 
flowers in bloom.



The ghats of Benaras, an ink-and-brush work. His black-and-white colour 
tempera works on Benaras, usually as seen from a top angle, probably for 
reason of convenience, reveal a compelling design sense, a grasp of the 
inner dynamics of a place.
Cubism as pioneered by Paul Cezanne and perfected by Pablo Picasso, 
Georges Braque and Juan Gris was the product of a heavily 
industrialised, materialist society where war, mass destruction and 
conquest were a part of an economic agenda. In the Orient, war and 
pestilence were seen as a part of nature's cycle. Hence, despite untold 
suffering in China, Japan and India, there were no art works like 
Picasso's "Guernica" and Juan Miro's "The Reaper", now sadly lost. This 
is not a critical observation but a droll one.



picture text:"Watercolour on Napelese Paper''. His exquisite flower 
studies in watercolour and pen and ink revealed a mastery of cadence and 
harmony, a visual expression of ideas musical.

Benodebehari's art came out of a grand detachment and an awareness of 
nature's cycle of sukha-dukha-chaitanya-moksha. The subtle 
transformations and manifestations of nature's moods can be seen in all 
his works - figurative landscapes and city views such as the ghats of 
Benaras. There is also a sophistication of vision that is indeed rare in 
20th century art, Eastern or Western. His black-and-white and colour 
temperas of Benaras, usually seen from a top angle probably for reason 
of convenience, reveal a compelling design sense, a grasp of the inner 
dynamics of a place.

Although he did faces, even portraits, including a few of himself, he 
was without vanity in his treatment, in contrast to most Western artists 
doing the same kind of work. The face, or even the figure, for him was 
the mirror of the inner being of a person, but with one proviso: he 
understood the need to maintain a safe distance from his subject in 
order to understand. A black-and-white crayon drawing of a male face 
highlights this idea, similarly a three-quarter pen-and-ink female 
figure in profile.


picture text:Tempera on paper of an old bridge in a rural setting seen 
from below, one of his earliest memorable images.

He left Shantiniketan in 1948 for Kathmandu, where he became the 
director of the National Museum. A profusion of watercolours and 
sketches followed. In terms of details, variety in technique and 
observation of the land and its people they were invaluable, at once 
traditional and modern in sensibility and approach. His Nepalese 
experience was to find its finest expression in a fresco done in 
Vanasthali Vidyapeeth, Rajasthan, in 1950. In terms of colour and figure 
grouping, it had both grandness and simplicity.

On his return from Nepal and his subsequent Rajasthan fresco, he went to 
Mussoorie, a hill station overlooking the Doon Valley. He set up an art 
school there and pursued his theories of an ideal art education, which 
as a matter of course embraced the crafts. This approach then was 
considered revolutionary as there was a schism between what was regarded 
as `art' and that which was practised supposedly for utilitarian 
reasons, `craft'. Lack of financial support led to the closure of his 
school, but not before he had painted some haunting pictures of the 
mist-draped mountain country. His pen-and-ink drawings, too, were 
telling in terms of mood and technique.



picture text An Austere, black-and-white ink-and-brush landscape on buff 
paper of the huge undulating landscape in Shantiniketan known as the 
Khowai.

His experience of Japan in 1937-38, where he met artists such as Toba 
Sojo, Sesshu and Sotastsu, all of whom he admired, and his own 
exhibition on Tokyo bore fruit, and how, in his Mussoorie productions. 
There was an inner fire in them. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, 
there were also exquisite flower studies in water colour and pen and ink 
that revealed a mastery of cadence and harmony, a visual expression of 
ideas musical.

He created, occasionally, striking images in oil, either on cloth or on 
Masonite board. He preferred matt finish to the natural gloss of the 
medium. His sunflowers stay in memory, as do his village celebrations in 
the folk style of the Garhwal Hills. Oil was never the favoured medium 
in Swadeshi Kala Bhawan and an acquaintance with it was supposed to 
round off one's art education! Only Ram Kinkar worked in oils at some 
length in Shantiniketan.



picture text His pen-and-ink drawings were telling in terms of mood and 
technique.

Benodebehari's range and versatility was immense. He did some really 
witty collages with coloured paper, found objects and newspaper 
clippings. They were proof of his ability to appreciate life's 
absurdities with a laugh. That there was so much mischief in so quite, 
even so austere, a person always came as a surprise. Another example of 
it is his 1942 fresco depicting life on the campus in Cheena (China) 
Bhawan, where observations and wry wit merge seamlessly. His sense of 
composition and colour and effortless placement of people in a given 
space make the work a joy to behold. When, in 1957, a botched cataract 
operation lost him his only good eye, he was only 53. Undeterred by 
blindness, he went on being an artist doing drawings, paper cut-outs, 
small clay figurines and, in 1972, a five-foot-by-60-foot mural on one 
of the outer walls of Kala Bhawan in coloured tiles, depicting vignettes 
of people at play and work. He had laid out the grand plan through 
cut-outs and then ordered tiles of the right shape and colour, and with 
the help of a couple of assistants completed the mammoth assignment, 
using touch with a prescience not always allowed by sight.


picture text An ink-and-brush work. His experience of Japan in 1937-38 
and his own exhibition on Tokyo bore fruit in his Mussoorie productions.

Benodebehari Mukherjee's approach to life until the end was celebratory. 
His panoramic scrolls on paper, silk and cloth, his revelatory murals 
and landscapes, and drawings and paintings of people were a great source 
of pleasure and his approach to the human face or figure or landscape 
was the same. He was not interested in photographic resemblance. His 
quest was an inner harmony in people, objects and spaces.


picture text An oil-on-Masonite-board work of village celebrations in 
the folk style of the Garhwal Hills. He preferred the matt finish to the 
natural gloss of the medium.

His frescos and mural are in a state of utter neglect in Shantiniketan 
and need to be looked after urgently. His heritage is too precious to be 
lost. Gulam Mohammad Sheikh and P. Siva Kumar deserve the gratitude of 
the entire nation for putting together this exhibition.


http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=20070223000106500.htm&date=fl2403/&prd=fline&