Antonio Masi Talks About His Work

Posted on October 18th, 2012
by FUPress

During a recent exhibition at the New York City Transit Museum, Antonio Masi was interviewed about his painting approach and ideas. Here is a link to the interview and a brief painting demo. Video Link

New York Golden Age of Bridges
Paintings by Antonio Masi
Essays by Joan Marans Dim

Visit www.antoniomasi.com to read more about Antonio Masi and his work.

During a recent exhibition at the New York City Transit Museum, Antonio Masi was interviewed about his painting approach and ideas. Here is a link to the interview and a brief painting demo. Video Link Visit www.antoniomasi.com to read more about … Full Story →

Transit Museum Opens New Exhibit of Antonio Masi Watercolors

Posted on May 17th, 2012
by FUPress

MTA President, Bridges & Tunnels, James Ferrara

Earlier this week, the NY Transit Museum, celebrated the opening of their latest exhibition, titled “New York’s Golden Age of Bridges: Paintings by Antonio Masi.” The exhibit officially opened on May 12th and will run through September 30th. The exhibit features 18 massive paintings of nine city bridges.

Masi’s paintings are often distinguished by his anomalous use of watercolor, generally considered a light and airy medium. “I discovered that watercolor can also be used in a thick manner,” he explains, “and it can express the heaviest subjects imaginable. With watercolor, I contrast the mass, power and delicacy of my subjects.”

In 2011, the critically acclaimed book New York’s Golden Age of Bridges was published by Fordham University Press, combining Masi’s paintings with insightful essays by author and New York City historian Joan Marans Dim. The book describes an age that was a testament to human ingenuity, where architectural innovation, consummate determination and daring vision came together in uniting the five boroughs.

The exhibition at the New York Transit Museum features eighteen of Masi’s paintings – two of each of his subjects: the Brooklyn, Williamsburg, Queensboro, Manhattan, George Washington, Triborough, Bronx-Whitestone, Throgs-Neck and Verrazano-Narrows Bridges. The accompanying exhibition text, written by Joan Dim, provides a concise history of these masterpieces of engineering.

Masi’s works serve to celebrate an era of achievement – from the Brooklyn Bridge in 1886 to the Verrazano-Narrows in 1964 – which has provided the foundation for the modern age of transit. A gallery talk and book signing with the artist and author is planned.

Funding for New York’s Golden Age of Bridges: Paintings by Antonio Masi is provided, in part, by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts.

James Johnston at Claymont Court Mansion

Posted on December 15th, 2011
by FUPress

Author James H. Johnston spoke at Claymont Court Mansion this past weekend. Claymont is one of a number of Washington family homes around Charles Town, WV. Johnston joined Walter Washington and Betsy Wells (Washington’s descendants) as part of an effort to educate and inform people of the rich history in Jefferson Country, West Virginia.

While Walter and Betsy highlighted the family history of the Washingtons in the area, Jim Johnston took a slightly different approach.

Betsy Washington Wells

Jim spoke about the Bealls, a prominent family in the area. The Beall family owned Yarrow Mamout, a slave that is the subject of Jim’s forthcoming book From Slave Ship to Harvard: Yarrow Mamout and the History of an African American Family.

Through this historical account, Jim has reconstructed a unique narrative of black struggle and achievement from paintings, photographs, books, diaries, court records, legal documents, and oral histories. From Slave Ship to Harvard traces the family from the colonial period and the American Revolution through the Civil War to Harvard and finally today.

Walter Washington

Yarrow Mamout, the first of the family in America, was an educated Muslim from Guinea. He was brought to Maryland on the slave ship Elijah and gained his freedom forty-four years later. By then, Yarrow had become so well known in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C., that he attracted the attention of the eminent American portrait painter Charles Willson Peale, who captured Yarrow’s visage in one of his paintings.

Recently, the portrait of Yarrow Mamout has been sold by the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, showing the continual impact that the past is continually brought into the present. The era of the Washingtons, Bealls, and Mamouts continues to stay with us.

For more information on the seminar, please click here.

As Seen in Martha Stewart Living, December 2011 Gift Guide

Posted on November 7th, 2011
by FUPress

Martha Stewart Living has featured New York’s Golden Age of Bridges, Paintings by Antonio Masi, Essays by Joan Marans Dim in the magazine’s Gift Guide for December 2011. The magazine hits stands today!

Gay Talese, author of A Writer’s Life says, “This book pays artistic tribute to the existence of great bridges—a wonderful achievement.”

We may be biased, but we’re certain this beautiful book is on everyone’s holiday wish list!

Martha Stewart Living has featured New York’s Golden Age of Bridges, Paintings by Antonio Masi, Essays by Joan Marans Dim in the magazine’s Gift Guide for December 2011. The magazine hits stands today! Gay Talese, author of A Writer’s Life … Full Story →

Portrait of Yarrow Mamout Finds New Home

Posted on October 26th, 2011
by FUPress

To follow up on the news of the sale of Charles Willson Peale’s portrait of Yarrow Mamout, our author, James H. Johnston talked to the Philadelphia Museum of Art about the acquisition. The painting is already on display, just inside and to the left of the front entrance. Fittingly, it is joined by Peale’s Self-Portrait in the Museum. The latter was a precursor to the artist’s larger work, The Artist in His Museum, which is owned by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and currently on display in a special exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in Washington DC.

By the time he painted Yarrow, Peale was more than just a portrait painter. He was also a businessman, operating a combination natural history museum and art gallery in Philadelphia. In it were copies of Peale’s portraits of the first four presidents, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison. In 1818, the artist went in Washington, D.C. to get a painting of James Monroe to add to the presidential gallery in the museum. That is when he heard about Yarrow. Thus, Peale returned to Philadelphia with paintings of both president and former slave.

James H. Johnston’s book, From Slave Ship to Harvard: Yarrow Mamout and the History of an African American Family is forthcoming in May 2012. It will provide a great deal more about Yarrow and Peale and the friendship that developed between the two, which the Philadelphia Museum of Art suggests in its new exhibit. Johnston is also giving a talk December 4, 2011 on the Beall Family who owned Yarrow. It will be given at Claymont Court, Claymont Society, 667 Huyett Road, Charles Town, WV 25414.