MARINE ART NEWS Dutch Masters Land in California The Ventura Cou nty Maritime Museum will be recognizing l 7 thcentury Durch masters in an exhibit opening this October. Considered by many to be the fathers of marine art, the artists of the day actively captured sea battles, maritime voyages and the work of local craft for merchants, seam en, shipowners, naval officers, and governments. Many of the artists of that era had seagoing "Fishing Boats in an Estuary, "mid-1800s, experience themselves and painted oil on canvas, by Abraham Hulk with such accuracy chat they are studied by historians for insights on maritime history, ship design and maritime activity. Paintings in the exhibit are from the Nelson Maritime Arts Foundation and sources in Europe, offering a rare opportunity to view these works on the West Coast. "Durch Masterpieces from the 1600s: T reasures from the ALMAR Collection of Marine Art" runs from 7 October 2000 to 31 January2001. ,t VCMM, 273 1 South Victoria Avenue, Oxnard CA 93035; 808 984-6260
'/! Dutch Naval Action including the Flagship Zwolle and Barbary Corsairs," 1645, oil on panel, by Bonaventure Peeters
Carl G. Evers, 1907-2000 "The fervor of his life is embodied in his art, which is luminous, challenging, utterly unique, as though hours, years of study had produced a kind of freedom to do in paint what can hardly be painted : the coldness of the sea, the integrity of design of ship, the play through everything of a sea wind which you can smell in his paintings." Thus artist Charles Lundgren celebrated Carl G. Evers's work in the Sea H istory article accompanying the National Maritime Historical Society's 1977 exhibit "Marine Art Lives! " And in commemorating his life, the American Society of Marine Artists' newsletter 0 uly 2000) calls him the "Dean of American Marine Artists." A 40-yea r career in marine art began after a childhood in Germany-the son of a British father and German mother, who was an artist herselfhonors at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, a few years in Germany as a marine and civi l engineer, and 16 years as a commercial artist in Sweden, where he was known for his automotive illustrations. His move to the US in 1947 was motivated, so he said, by a desire to have people hang prints of his wo rks on the wall. In pursuit of this goal, many of his paintings were produced as prints through the US Naval Insciture's marine Carl G. Evers print program. A stroke in 1993 left him unable to draw and paint, but his body of wo rk leaves admirers with a legacy of marine images that reveal his dedication "to getting at the truth of a ship, a scene, a situation." ,t Excerptedfrom "Marine Art Lives!" by Charles Lundgren (Sea History 6 (Winter 1977)) and '1n Memoriam: Carl G. Evers," by James Mitcheff (ASMA News (!ufy 2000))
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CALENDAR • Farnsworth Art Museum and Wyeth Center: 25 June-15 October 2000, "On Island: A Century of Co ntinui ty and Change," 100 years of pain ring on Maine islands (356 Mai n Street, PO Box 466, Rockland ME 04841-0466) •Freeman's: 6 October 2000, Maritime Arr and Antiques Auction (1808 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia PA 19103; 215 563-9275; fax: 2 15 563-8236; WWW .freemansauction.com) • The Mariners' Museum: from 28 October 2000 , "Reflections on the Bay": The Photography of A. Aubrey Bodin e (100 M useum Drive, Newport News VA 23606-3759; 757 596-2222; web site: www.mariner.org) • Maritime Gallery at Mystic Seaport: 23 September-5 November 2000, 2 1st Annual Internatio nal Marine Art Exhibition (47 GreenmanvilleAvenue, PO Box 6000, Mystic CT 06355-0990 ; 860 5725388) •The Noble Maritime Collection: from 4 November 2000, "Thomas Randall and the Early Days of Sailors' Snug Harbor," "In the Shadow of W ichita Bill," "American Masters from the Firm of George C. Miller and Son" (1000 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island NY 10301; 7 18 4476490; web site: www.noblemaricime.org) •Ohio State University William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library: 6 September-15 December 2000, "Echoes in the Ice: Collages of Explorers to the Amarctic" by Rik van Glintenkamp with materials from the Richard E. Byrd archives (1858 Nei l Avenue Mall, Columbus OH 43210; 614 292-3387) • Society of Model Shipwrights: from 7 October 2000, Biennial Exhibition of Ship Models and Marine Paintings (c/o Peter Rogers, 5 Lodge Crescent, Orpington, Kent BR6 OQE, UK) • South Street Seaport Museum: from 25 June 2000, "The Alan Villiers Collection: T he Last of the Tall Ships" (207 Front Street, New York NY 10038; 2 12 748-8600; www.sourhsrseaport.org) •Ventura County Maritime Museum at Channel Islands Harbor: 2 October 2000-5 Jan uary 200 1, Durch Masterpieces from the 1600s: Treasures from the ALMAR Collection of Marine Arr (273] South Victoria Avenue, Oxnard CA 93035; 805 984-6260) SEA HISTORY 94, AUTUMN 2000