Cult of the Machine features over 100 masterworks of American Precisionism by such artists as Charles Sheeler, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Charles Demuth. Precisionism emerged in the 1910s and flourished in the United States during the next two decades. Artists associated with the style typically produced highly structured, geometric compositions with smooth surfaces and lucid forms to create a streamlined, “machined” aesthetic, with themes ranging from the urban and industrial to the pastoral. Reconciling realist imagery with abstracted forms, Precisionism married the influence of avant-garde European art styles such as Purism, Cubism, and Futurism with American subject matter.
The majority of Precisionist works were created during the tumultuous period between the World Wars, decades when the country’s new technologies and industries were met with multiple and contrary responses in the arts, literature, and popular culture. There was a general excitement in the United States about technology’s capacity to engender opportunity and improve the conditions of daily life. Yet these attitudes co-existed—particularly as the Great Depression took root—with widespread fears that it would supplant human labor and deaden the natural rhythms of life. Precisionist artists reflected such contradictions and complexities in their work, capturing a sense of the beauty and the coldness, the sublimity and the strangeness, of the mechanistic society in which they lived. Today, these works can hold up a mirror to our own complicated and sometimes ambivalent positions on the legacies of industrialization and technological progress as we continue to navigate our relationships with the ever-multiplying devices that surround us and shape our daily existence.
Casanova: The Seduction of Europe explores 18th-century Europe through the eyes of one of its most colorful characters, Giacomo Casanova (Italian, 1725–1798). Renowned today as a seducer and an adventurer, Casanova was known to his contemporaries as a charming and witty conversationalist, an expert on many topics, and an international man of letters. He was also a gambler, a spy, and one of history’s greatest travelers.
The exhibition, at the Legion of Honor from February 10, 2018 – May 28, 2018, features approximately 90 works—including paintings by Canaletto, Pietro Longhi, William Hogarth, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, and François Boucher; sculptures by Jean-Antoine Houdon; works on paper by Giovanni Battista Piranesi; period furnishings, delicate porcelains, silver, and period costumes. Casanova will bring the famed author’s world to life. Of special note are three tableaux, illustrating, respectively, a visit to a convent in Venice, a morning toilette in Paris, and a dissipated night of cards in London—scenes composed of mannequins in 18th-century costumes amid period furniture. Thematic threads running through the exhibition include travel; courtship and seduction; theater and identity; and the pleasures of dining.
A Matter of Balance: Managing Concerns About Falls
A Matter of Balance is an 8-week structured group intervention that emphasizes practical strategies to reduce fear of falling and increase activity levels.
Friday, January 19, 26, February 2, 9, 16, 23, March 2, 9 from 2:00 – 4:00 pm.
Learn Fall Prevention Tips!
Falls are a serious concern. Marin General Hospital, in collaboration with A Matter of Balance, the award-winning fall prevention program for senior adults, is offering a free eight session course for seniors whose fear of falling limits their social and physical activity.
Participants will be taught:
Safe and simple exercises to promote strength, flexibility, and balance
Problem solving strategies to address habits and behaviors
Lifestyle changes to promote safety
Ways to create a safer home environment…and more!
Each of the eight sessions is two hours. Class size is limited to 15 participants.
Please commit to attending all eight sessions and register by calling the library reference desk at 415-485-3321
Many are intimidated at the thought of doing their own pruning. Come learn the basic principles that will afford you the confidence to prune anything in your garden from roses to redwoods.
Gary Bartl, a UC Marin Master Gardener since 2001, has over 25-years of gardening experience. Trained in counseling psychology, Gary, known as an ‘edu-tainer’, has combined his passion for gardening, particularly succulents, with his professional work with severely emotionally disturbed youth. Gary was lead designer in the development of the succulent garden at the Falkirk Cultural Center in San Rafael that is now managed and maintained by UC Marin Master Gardeners.
Succulents are attractive easy-care, low-water plants that come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Come and learn how to incorporate these versatile plants into mini-gardens, using common household objects like teacups and cookie tins as containers.
Join UC Marin Master Gardener Diane Lynch, contributor to Tiburon Peninsula’s The Ark and the weekly Master Gardener column in the Marin Independent Journal.
The Strength of Texture – An Overview of the Process
Artist in Residence at Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Melissa Shanley will demonstrate use of a specialized camera as a tool for an investigation of overlooked historic details of decorative arts and subsequent printing on silk.
Melissa Shanley – Artist’s Statement
Detail of texture has always been the most important aspect in the artwork of Melissa Shanley. Whatever tool or medium she uses, it is in the service of expressing texture, and ultimately to express the silence underneath it. Abstraction is necessary in order to loose the overall story from which the detail comes. She hunts line transforming composition into abstraction and line which draws the viewer in closer than they would consider venturing alone. Dramatically altered perception is what she strives for: a translated understanding of a subject not previously acknowledged.
As the Artist in Residence at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, she has created two new series. The first, an interactive, outdoor installation on silk. Melissa traveled to Europe for over a year in the process of capturing detailed abstractions of paper used throughout the last 6 centuries. The image of texture from each example is printed onto silk columns, creating an abstracted “forest” environment. Each “species” of “tree” thus invites the viewer to contemplate paper, where it comes from and what it becomes, while exploring the texture of line on the surface of each column. The trees are placed in a manner to encourage walking among them. The details on each column span in time from written declarations of 16th Century Western France to decorated paper folders of 17th Century Amsterdam to stacked work papers of 19th Century Paris to 21st Century industrial corrugated cardboard.
The second series being creating for the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art involves detailed abstractions of the aging female body, focusing on the depth of line, in order to ponder: “how much is safe to reveal, are we safe to be seen, how honest can we be…” as women. Each abstracted images of her own skin will be printed on 16” x 20” paper and hung, without frame or glass, on the wall. The identical image will be printed on a long translucent 8′ length of silk hanging to the floor, approximately 6″ in front of the original image. The effect will be to ask the viewer what women must ask themselves, consciously or unconsciously, everyday: what is their own and what is to be revealed within the current cultural and political climate, in the United States, and around the world.
In most subjects, Melissa becomes acutely aware of the damage from use and warping from time. She sees the world as beauty in imperfection. She pursues the simplicity of line and is led to detailed abstractions. Subjects open their stories to her and invite her to share them in a way not often seen or respected.
Can you grow nuts in Marin? Some think nuts are tough to crack.
Come learn about the dos and don’ts of growing these nutritious, delicious snacks in our area. Learn about the six most popular nuts, their attributes and how to grow and store them. We’re nuts about nuts!
Join Marin Master Gardeners Jenine Stilson, life-long gardener of almonds and other edibles, and Keri Pon, contributing writer for Backyard to Belly. Both have been instrumental in the Indian Valley Organic Farm & Garden.
Join artist Travis Meinolf for a weaving workshop! Travis will demonstrate his beautiful craft, and guide participants through creating textiles of their own. All materials will be provided, but feel free to bring additional yarn if you wish!
This program is for middle school aged youth in grades 6-8. Space is limited; please register at the Children’s Reference Desk or by calling us at (415) 485-3322.
Docent Speaker: Rita Dunlay
A Matter of Balance: Managing Concerns About Falls
Join artist Travis Meinolf for a weaving workshop! Travis will demonstrate his beautiful craft, and guide participants through creating textiles of their own. All materials will be provided, but feel free to bring additional yarn if you wish!
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