Turquoise and Rose - In Memory of Deah Barakat and Yusor & Razan Abu-Salha

Gregg Chadwick 
Turquoise and Rose 
6"x6" oil on panel 2015

There is a vigil tonight at 7pm to honor Deah Barakat and Yusor & Razan Abu-Salha, the Muslim students murdered by a ruthless gunman in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Most Common Type of American Terrorist Is a White Man With a Weapon and a Grudge http://thenat.in/1AYnY3a  @thenation

 

The three Muslim students tragically killed in the #ChapelHillShooting lived to help others http://on.mash.to/1ChAwOu 

 

The Hill ‏@thehill  2m2 minutes ago

Father of Muslim students killed in #ChapelHillShooting: "This was a hate crime." http://ow.ly/IU36v 

Aristotle With The Bust of Homer - A Memoriam to Walter Liedtke

Rembrandt van Rijn
Aristotle With The Bust of Homer
56 1/2" x 53 3/4" oil on canvas 1653
Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 

With the sad news that Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Walter Liedtke was killed in this week's horrible rail crash in New York, posting his powerfully narrated web episode of 82nd & 5th: "The Choice", for me, helps keep this wonderful man's passion for Rembrandt alive. Below is the  Metropolitan Museum of Art's label text for Aristotle With The Bust of Homer:

Aristotle (384–322 B.C.) rests his hand reflectively on a bust of Homer, the blind epic poet of the Iliad and the Odyssey. A medallion representing Alexander the Great, whom Aristotle tutored, hangs from the heavy gold chain. The philosopher contemplates material rewards as opposed to spiritual values, with the play of light and shadow on his features suggesting the motions of his mind. Painted for the great Sicilian collector Antonio Ruffo, the picture also refers to Aristotle's comparison of touch and sight as a means of acquiring knowledge.

The Observer posted a link to Metropolitan Museum of Art director Thomas P. Campbell's statement on  Instagram, with an image of Rembrandt’s Aristotle With The Bust of Homer that was featured in an episode of the museum’s web series “82nd and Fifth,” narrated by Liedtke:

"Walter Liedtke, killed last night in the train crash at Valhalla. Walter was one of the preeminent scholars of Dutch and Flemish painting, whose contribution to the field lives on in a range of scholarly and popular publications. Here, a still from Rembrandt’s “Aristotle with the Bust of Homer” about which Walter memorably spoke in his recent “82nd and Fifth” webisode."

Walter Liedtke, Curator, Department of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Photo Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Titus Kaphar's "The Jerome Project" at The Studio Museum In Harlem

The contemporary artist Titus Kaphar searched for his father’s prison records in 2011. On the web, Titus found arrest photographs of dozens who shared his father’s name. 

Horrified and spurred to artistic action, Titus created a series of paintings which comment on the United States' biased prison-industrial complex. The recent events spanning the US from Ferguson, Missouri, to Los Angeles, California, to New York City point out the inherent prejudices in the policing and imprisonment culture current in the United States. 

Titus created portraits of men who shared his father's name.

Echoing the loss of voice inherent in those imprisoned, Titus dips his paintings into hot tar - rendering his subjects mute.  

Titus Kaphar

Jerome I, 2014

Oil, gold leaf and tar on wood panel

7 × 10 ½ in.

Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

©Titus Kaphar

Titus Kaphar

Jerome III, 2014

Oil, gold leaf and tar on wood panel

7 × 10 ½ in.

Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

©Titus Kaphar

Titus Kaphar

Jerome IV, 2014

Oil, gold leaf and tar on wood panel

7 × 10 ½ in.

Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

©Titus Kaphar

Titus Kaphar

Jerome V, 2014

Oil, gold leaf and tar on wood panel

7 × 10 ½ in.

Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

©Titus Kaphar