What Makes an Artist?
Tuesday 27 November, 2012
6:30pm, $0
New York University, Deutsches Haus
42 Washington Mews
In the case of Brechthold Streeruwitz, the expressionist painter and poet, it was a friendship across disciplines between a painter in New York and a writer in Vienna. The painter, Mark Beard, wanted to create large and threatening expressionist canvases with scenes from the Habsburg Monarchy and World War 1. At the same time, the writer, Marlene Streeruwitz, wanted to have an artist in the family. So, on a lazy summer morning in 2000 in Vienna, Brechthold Streeruwitz was invented. He was given a body of work and a collection of poems by Mark Beard in New York. In Vienna, Marlene Streeruwitz crafted a beautifully involved family tree and wrote a novel about Brechthold's descendants in London and Vienna.
On November 27th we are celebrating the making of art via the invention of an artist and a family member in a truly interdisciplinary collaboration between art, literature, and music. This will be a presentation of postmodernism at its lightest and, at the same time, most profound. Not only will one discover how to establish an artistic aura, but one will also learn how to become one's own great aunt and how to turn your friend into a cousin, three generations back, to whom you were married, but whom you, after a short stay in Paris, divorced.
Since his invention, Brechthold Streeruwitz has formed a constant in both the works of Mark Beard and Marlene Streeruwitz. Gerald Busby recently joined this truly interdisciplinary team by putting some of Brechthold's poems into music. These are poems that Mark Beard wrote in English and Marlene Streeruwitz translated into expressionist German. The story of Brechthold Streeruwitz, painter, poet, and product of art, literature, and music will come to life on November 27 at 6:30 pm. Brechthold Streeruwitz' song willl be performed by the pianist Adam Tendler and the mezzo-soprano singer Melissa Collom.
Marlene Streeruwitz
Author, playwright, director. Lives in Vienna.
Mark Beard was born in 1956 in Salt Lake City, Utah. His portraits, nudes, bronzes, handcrafted books, and set designs have been shown worldwide. His works are in museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. He is represented by ClampArt in New York City, where he resides. In 1995, Beard began a series of portraits of athletes. Being from a family of artists, he imagined that they had been actually painted by a great uncle who lived in England, Bruce Sargeant. Beard went on to create a circle surrounding Great Uncle Bruce including Sargeant’s teacher, colleagues, and their influence. It was a delightful and entertaining side-product that some observers were fooled into believing that Great Uncle Bruce’s legacy is real. And in some ways, perhaps it is. The success of the Bruce Sargeant paintings has led to commissions of large scale oil-on-canvas works as well as bronze sculptures for the flagship stores of the retailer Abercrombie and Fitch. More recently an exhibition at ClampART examined the appeal of dictatorships and deals with how they are able to be popular in spite of their oppressive nature. The show called “Gracious Dictator†included home furnishings to show how attractive such terrible regimes can be made to appear. He most recently was part of a photographic exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Naked Before the Cameraâ€.
Gerald Busby, composer, a native of Texas, graduate of Yale, protégé of Virgil Thomson, and longtime resident of the Chelsea Hotel — is best known for his film score for Robert Altman’s 3 WOMEN, his dance score for Paul Taylor’s RUNES, and his opera with Craig Lucas, ORPHEUS IN LOVE. Gerald has written over 300 compositions in all genres including 13 string quartets and more than 100 songs performed by such distinguished artists as Thomas Hampson and Joyce Castle. Commissions have come from The Joffrey Ballet, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, Speculum Musicae, and The West Texas State University Concert Band among many others. Gerald has been honored with grants, awards, and artist residencies from The National Endowment for the Arts, The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Virgil Thomson Foundation, The Aaron Copland Foundation, The AE Ventures Foundation, Bellagio (Italy), Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, and Dartington International Summer School (UK) where he was composer in residence in 2008. On screen Gerald appeared in Robert Altman’s A WEDDING, in Cliff Robertson’s THE PILOT, and in Abel Ferrara’s CHELSEA ON THE ROCKS. A documentary feature film of Gerald’s life directed by Jessica Robinson is in production.
Adam Tendler, pianist, is “an exuberantly expressive pianist†who “vividly displays his enthusiasm for every phrase†(Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times), a “modern-music evangelist†(Time Out New York) who “has managed to get behind and underneath the notes . . . living inside the music and making poetic sense of it all. If they give medals for musical bravery, dexterity and perseverance, Adam Tendler would earn them all.†(Tim Smith Baltiore Sun). Nominated for the American Pianists Association Classical Fellowship Award, Adam Tendler first made headlines with America 88x50, an independent recital tour that brought free concerts of modern American music to underserved communities in all fifty states. He has gone on to perform internationally, direct classical music initiatives across the country, and serve as an announcer and contemporary music liaison for NPR and Pacifica stations nationwide. While balancing a performance schedule that spans Symphony Space to the Stonewall Inn, Tendler maintains an active teaching schedule, serves as the founding director of a nightly music series at Soho House New York, and this winter will publish a memoir about coming out and coming-of-age during the America 88x50 tour. More at adamtendler.com.
Melissa Collom, mezzo-soprano, has appeared on some of the United States’ most celebrated stages. Favorite performances include Dorabella in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte (Seattle Opera), Hermia in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Central City Opera), Pitti-Sing in The Mikado (New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players), and Julia Child in Lee Hoiby’s Bon Appetit! (Greensburg American Opera). Melissa was seen in the chorus of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2011-12 production of Boris Godunov and spent four seasons singing in the chorus of the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center, including a solo appearance there as Ein Sklave in Salome. She is a former soloist and section leader of the Washington National Cathedral. Her interest in new music has led to a recital of contemporary American songwriters as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Steinway Series, a studio recording of new works for chamber ensemble with New York’s Anti-Social Music composer’s group, and debut performances with American Opera Projects. Melissa is a native of Washington D.C. and a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University.
On November 27th we are celebrating the making of art via the invention of an artist and a family member in a truly interdisciplinary collaboration between art, literature, and music. This will be a presentation of postmodernism at its lightest and, at the same time, most profound. Not only will one discover how to establish an artistic aura, but one will also learn how to become one's own great aunt and how to turn your friend into a cousin, three generations back, to whom you were married, but whom you, after a short stay in Paris, divorced.
Since his invention, Brechthold Streeruwitz has formed a constant in both the works of Mark Beard and Marlene Streeruwitz. Gerald Busby recently joined this truly interdisciplinary team by putting some of Brechthold's poems into music. These are poems that Mark Beard wrote in English and Marlene Streeruwitz translated into expressionist German. The story of Brechthold Streeruwitz, painter, poet, and product of art, literature, and music will come to life on November 27 at 6:30 pm. Brechthold Streeruwitz' song willl be performed by the pianist Adam Tendler and the mezzo-soprano singer Melissa Collom.
Marlene Streeruwitz
Author, playwright, director. Lives in Vienna.
Mark Beard was born in 1956 in Salt Lake City, Utah. His portraits, nudes, bronzes, handcrafted books, and set designs have been shown worldwide. His works are in museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. He is represented by ClampArt in New York City, where he resides. In 1995, Beard began a series of portraits of athletes. Being from a family of artists, he imagined that they had been actually painted by a great uncle who lived in England, Bruce Sargeant. Beard went on to create a circle surrounding Great Uncle Bruce including Sargeant’s teacher, colleagues, and their influence. It was a delightful and entertaining side-product that some observers were fooled into believing that Great Uncle Bruce’s legacy is real. And in some ways, perhaps it is. The success of the Bruce Sargeant paintings has led to commissions of large scale oil-on-canvas works as well as bronze sculptures for the flagship stores of the retailer Abercrombie and Fitch. More recently an exhibition at ClampART examined the appeal of dictatorships and deals with how they are able to be popular in spite of their oppressive nature. The show called “Gracious Dictator†included home furnishings to show how attractive such terrible regimes can be made to appear. He most recently was part of a photographic exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Naked Before the Cameraâ€.
Gerald Busby, composer, a native of Texas, graduate of Yale, protégé of Virgil Thomson, and longtime resident of the Chelsea Hotel — is best known for his film score for Robert Altman’s 3 WOMEN, his dance score for Paul Taylor’s RUNES, and his opera with Craig Lucas, ORPHEUS IN LOVE. Gerald has written over 300 compositions in all genres including 13 string quartets and more than 100 songs performed by such distinguished artists as Thomas Hampson and Joyce Castle. Commissions have come from The Joffrey Ballet, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, Speculum Musicae, and The West Texas State University Concert Band among many others. Gerald has been honored with grants, awards, and artist residencies from The National Endowment for the Arts, The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Virgil Thomson Foundation, The Aaron Copland Foundation, The AE Ventures Foundation, Bellagio (Italy), Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, and Dartington International Summer School (UK) where he was composer in residence in 2008. On screen Gerald appeared in Robert Altman’s A WEDDING, in Cliff Robertson’s THE PILOT, and in Abel Ferrara’s CHELSEA ON THE ROCKS. A documentary feature film of Gerald’s life directed by Jessica Robinson is in production.
Adam Tendler, pianist, is “an exuberantly expressive pianist†who “vividly displays his enthusiasm for every phrase†(Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times), a “modern-music evangelist†(Time Out New York) who “has managed to get behind and underneath the notes . . . living inside the music and making poetic sense of it all. If they give medals for musical bravery, dexterity and perseverance, Adam Tendler would earn them all.†(Tim Smith Baltiore Sun). Nominated for the American Pianists Association Classical Fellowship Award, Adam Tendler first made headlines with America 88x50, an independent recital tour that brought free concerts of modern American music to underserved communities in all fifty states. He has gone on to perform internationally, direct classical music initiatives across the country, and serve as an announcer and contemporary music liaison for NPR and Pacifica stations nationwide. While balancing a performance schedule that spans Symphony Space to the Stonewall Inn, Tendler maintains an active teaching schedule, serves as the founding director of a nightly music series at Soho House New York, and this winter will publish a memoir about coming out and coming-of-age during the America 88x50 tour. More at adamtendler.com.
Melissa Collom, mezzo-soprano, has appeared on some of the United States’ most celebrated stages. Favorite performances include Dorabella in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte (Seattle Opera), Hermia in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Central City Opera), Pitti-Sing in The Mikado (New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players), and Julia Child in Lee Hoiby’s Bon Appetit! (Greensburg American Opera). Melissa was seen in the chorus of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2011-12 production of Boris Godunov and spent four seasons singing in the chorus of the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center, including a solo appearance there as Ein Sklave in Salome. She is a former soloist and section leader of the Washington National Cathedral. Her interest in new music has led to a recital of contemporary American songwriters as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Steinway Series, a studio recording of new works for chamber ensemble with New York’s Anti-Social Music composer’s group, and debut performances with American Opera Projects. Melissa is a native of Washington D.C. and a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University.