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Nymphs and Satyr, by William Bouguereau (Detail)
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ELCOME. You have just entered the largest on-line Museum on the internet. A work in progress, steadily expanding with thousands of high quality images of the greatest paintings and sculpture in history, the Art Renewal Center is building an encyclopedic collection of essays, biographies and articles by top scholars in the field.

ARC is the Eye of the Storm, at the core, hub and center of a major cultural shift in the art world. With a growing body of experts, we are setting standards to become ARC Approved™ for artists, art schools, systems of training, museum exhibitions and historical scholarship, to bring guidance, direction, goals and reality to an art establishment that has been sailing rudderless for nearly a hundred years.

Additionally, the Art Renewal Center is a non-profit educational organization committed to reviving standards of craftsmanship and excellence. Only by gaining a full command of the skills of the past masters can we create the masters of tomorrow. This is a step forward for our culture. Experimentation and creativity can only succeed and prosper when built on a solid foundation of past accomplishments, with the tools which empower artists to realize their visions.

Nothing has been more restricting and debilitating than the theories of modernism, which eliminated these tools, along with the skills to employ them. We are providing a forum for artists, scholars, collectors and the public to appreciate great art, and to recognize that they're not alone in their suspicions about the emptiness of modern and postmodern art. These suspicions are fully justified by the overwhelming body of evidence and historical facts.



"Nobody who has invested much time down
a blind alley likes the messenger who shines
a light at the brick wall up ahead."

The ARC Philosophy
TABLE of CONTENTS




Students Receive $30,000 in Scholarships and Five Purchase Awards

The Art Renewal Center® is very pleased to announce the winners of the 2009 Annual Scholarship Competition. Now in its ninth year, the ARC Scholarship program has helped students from all over the world continue their studies at ARC Approved™ Ateliers and Schools. With this year's scholarships of $30,000 and over $150,000 awarded to date, the Art Renewal Center® strives to ensure that current and future generations of artists receive proper instruction in the traditional and classical methods of representational art.


Dancer
by Amelia Landes Taylor
2nd Place Winner
Click here for the 2009 ARC Scholarship Winners.
Visit the ARC Approved™ Atelier Galleries and Worldwide ARC Atelier Map

Guess the Artist Competition Has a Winner!

The winner of our $1,000 competition is Joshua LaRock a former winner of an ARC Scholarship and a past student of the Water Street Atelier, an ARC Approved Atelier school. He happened to have noticed this very painting being advertized for sale on the website of Rehs Gallery and was the first of 3 people who got it right out of a few hundred who tried.

Orientale a La Grenade by William Bouguereau detail of Orientale a La Grenade by William Bouguereau

CLICK HERE for more information and to read the full article by ARC Chairman, Fred Ross

A Shot in the Arm

Your site is AWESOME! Such a shot in the arm for those of us who are excited to see the resurgence of Classical Realism.

Thanks!

Joan Landes

http://joanlandes.wordpress.com/

posted at Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Painting Identification Contest with $1000 Prize

Who can identify the artist who painted this Impressionist work?

The painting on the right was created at the dawn of the Impressionist movement in 1875. Is it French, English, American, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, or something else? Feel free to write in and share your thoughts and take a wild guess or if you’re good at guessing authorship in fine art, take an educated guess. Identify the artist and win the $1,000 prize.


Conditions: ARC Staff members and anyone who owns or has owned the painting or has discussed it with any of us in the past few months are disqualified. One entry per person. The first to send the correct answer wins! The contest will end at midnight on November 15 if nobody guesses correctly. Send your answers to contest@artrenewal.org



Identify this painting and win $1,000!

posted at Wednesday, October 28, 2009

ARC Salon™ Catalogues Available as a Set

ARC Salon Competition

All four ARC Salon™ Catalogues are now available as a set.
Click here to take advantage of this opportunity to purchase these beautiful full-color exhibition books of all the Winners and Finalists from the 2008-09, 2007, 2006 and 2005 International ARC Salon™ Competitions.

posted at Monday, October 19, 2009

New Article: 'Classical Realism' by Stephen Gjertson

ARC Living Master™ Stephen Gjertson defines the term and origins of Classical Realism, a movement which continues today.


Click Here to read the article:
Classical Realism

by Stephen Gjertson


Click Here to Order
the Richard Lack biography by Stephen Gjertson

posted at Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Richard Lack Public Memorial

Public Tribute, Memorial Service and Exhibition:

Sunday, November 1, 2009
2:00 to 5:00 p.m.
The Landscape Arboretum
3675 Arboretum Drive
Chaska, Minnesota 55318
952-443-1400

"Richard F. Lack is one of the most significant artists of the second half of the 20th century. While the non-traditional artistic endeavors of his contemporaries drew attention from the artistic and public press, Lack passionately pursued his career within the great tradition of Western art. His work exhibits to a high degree those qualities that characterize notable works of the past: sensitive rendering of the phenomena of the visible world, balanced and harmonious composition and skillful craftsmanship. Lack spent his lifetime endeavoring to achieve these qualities in his work. In the process he created an art of immense richness and beauty.

Richard Lack was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on March 26, 1928..."
Click here to read the rest of this tribute to Richard F. Lack by Stephen Gjertson, author of: Richard F. Lack: An American Master.

posted at Tuesday, October 06, 2009

ARC Living Masters Ted Seth Jacobs and Dan Thompson at BACAA

Ted Seth Jacobs at BACAA
Danae by Ted Seth Jacobs
Restructured Realism with ARC Living Master™ Ted Seth Jacobs
ARC Approved™ Atelier: BAACA 30 minutes south of San Francisco
November 9–December 18, 2009   January 4-Feb 12. 2010
Click here to sign up for: Two Six week or One 3 Month program.
ARC Living Master™Dan Thompson Figure Drawing Workshop
October 26 - October30, 2009   Click here to sign up.

posted at Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Max Ginsburg Workshop at Salmagundi Club

Max Ginsburg, a finalist and winner of the Chairman's Choice award in the 2008-09 ARC Salon for his Tire Swing will be holding a workshop at the Salmagundi Club this month.
"Painting a Head From Life" Workshop with Max Ginsburg
October 24-25     9:30 - 4:00
Salmagundi Club  47 5th Avenue  NYC
212-255-7740
Max Ginsburg

posted at Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Technical Column by ARC Master™ Virgil Elliott

ARC Master Virgil Elliot has updated his Technical Column on ARC.
" Since I wrote my previous technical column, several important discoveries have been made that serious oil painters should know about. "
Click here for this new information.

Virgil Elliott is author of:
Traditional Oil Painting
Advanced Techniques and Concepts from the Renaissance to the Present

Traditional Oil Painting by Virgil Elliot
"Traditional Oil Painting"
by Virgil Elliot
Click Here to order yours now.

posted at Monday, October 05, 2009

Richard F. Lack Has Passed Away

Thoughts on Richard Lack

I'm so very sad to hear this.

Richard more than any other single artist and teacher picked up the torch when Ives Gammell passed away in 1981.

I know the entire community of traditional and classically trained artists will mourn his passing.

It's so ironic that only a few days before Richard Lack passed away, (Lack was Ives Gammell's most influential student), I just discovered the letter Ives Gammell sent to me in 1981 in which he demonstrated his support for the programs and projects we were working on that lead to the Art Renewal Center®.
- ARC Chairman, Fred Ross

Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness regarding the legacy of Richard Lack. Lack along with R H Ives Gammell gave themselves so totally to the cause of reestablishing the very high standards of painting that today we are seeing the results of this huge undertaking. They trained only a handfull of students at a time for several years and began from the very beginning with the study of antique casts to figure drawing and still life, never to rush ahead, until each were mastered sufficiently. They never compromised in the wake of contemporary critics with modernist viewpoints where discipline or standards mattered little.

His leadership cannot be overstated. Even as students would leave and move along in their own careers Lack once again took up the challenge of organizing the artists into a cohesive body
and eventually coigned the tag 'Classical Realism'. His personal charm and dedication molded the group for years to follow, bringing together talented people of many other areas to organize museum and gallery shows and publish written material in newsletters and books. He took great pride in the accomplishments of his many students and the mutual respect of the artists that today enjoy the benefits of his labors.

Lastly, along with these important efforts by Richard Lack and R H Ives Gammell, it took the business savvy of Fred Ross and his own tireless efforts, as a collector and champion of bringing back
recognition of academic painting, to help reshape a renewed interest in these high standards of painting. His own personal interest in making sure art of such great painters like Bouguereau, Gerome, Lefebvre and many others of the 19th century never go unnoticed again. To this end Fred Ross has given much needed support and encouragement through ARC. where several of Richard Lack's former pupils shine as artists within a legacy.

Richard Lack will be greatly missed. His legacy and example will be an inspiration for all of us.

Allan

(ARC Living Master, Allan Banks)

About Richard Lack:

Richard Lack was a man of courage willing to stand up and be counted during the height of academic and critical pressures condemning realism. He created the name Classical Realism. This name has been gratefully taken up and proudly carried forth by those of us trying to keep the flame of realism ever brighter. Richard Lack gathered up almost dying embers so that we had access to blowing our creativity upon them and nurturing them back into accessible brilliance. Thank you, Richard Lack.

David Hardy

(ARC Living Master)

posted at Monday, October 05, 2009

Painting Identification Contest with $1,000 Prize

Who can identify the artist who painted this Impressionist work?

The painting on the right was created at the dawn of the Impressionist movement in 1875. Is it French, English, American, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, or something else? Feel free to write in and share your thoughts and take a wild guess or if you’re good at guessing authorship in fine art, take an educated guess. Identify the artist and win the $1,000 prize.


Conditions: ARC Staff members and anyone who owns or has owned the painting or has discussed it with any of us in the past few months are disqualified. One entry per person. The first to send the correct answer wins! The contest will end at midnight on November 15 if nobody guesses correctly. Send your answers to contest@artrenewal.org



Identify this painting and win $1,000!

posted at Saturday, October 03, 2009

Richard Lack Biography by Stephen Gjertson


Richard F. Lack passed away on September 22, 2009. The Art Renewal Center® has decided to make the Richard Lack biography by ARC Master Stephen Gjertson available through the ARC Store for those who would like to know more about this highly influencial artist/teacher.

Click Here to Order

posted at Thursday, October 01, 2009

Lost Ives Gammell Letter Found

"It’s so ironic that only a few days before Richard Lack passed away, (Lack was Ives Gammell’s most influential student), I just discovered the letter Ives Gammell sent to me in 1981 in which he demonstrated his support for the programs and projects we were working on that lead to the Art Renewal center."

--Fred Ross from his article about the rediscovery of the lost letter from Ives Gammell

Click here to read the rest of the article and see the letter.

posted at Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Richard Lack Obituary

Richard Lack founded Classical Realist style
MARY ABBE, Star Tribune

Twin Cities artist Richard F. Lack, who launched a national renaissance in traditional drawing and painting, died Tuesday at Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park from complications due to pneumonia. He was 81 and lived in Minnetonka.

The death was announced Wednesday by family members.

Known for his warm, dignified portraits, floral still lifes and landscapes, Lack was a champion of old-school artistic values -- illusionistic perspective, accurate modeling and naturalistic color -- at a time when avant-garde iconoclasm dominated the art world.

His portrait commissions included six members of the Kennedy family, Minnesota governors Wendell Anderson and Albert Quie, as well as prominent Minneapolis businessmen and educators. One of his most enjoyable commissions came in 1989 from the future Earl of Wilmot, an Englishman who provided Lack and his wife, Katherine, with a chauffeur and lodging for two months in the Wilmots' London townhouse while Lack painted Diana, the earl's young wife.

"At first I was a little uneasy," Lack told his biographer, because Wilmot ancestors had been painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds and Sir Godfrey Kneller, two of the greatest portraitists of the 18th century. But the portrait was a success and "we were quite pampered," he said.

In the Twin Cities, he is best known as the founder of Atelier Lack, a studio-school he ran in the Hennepin-Lake neighborhood from 1969 until his retirement in 1992. Modeled on 19th-century French academic principles combined with Boston-style impressionism, the school offers a four-year program of day and evening classes in figure studies, portraiture, color theory and anatomy. It is now run by two former pupils who renamed it the Atelier and moved it to northeast Minneapolis.

"He was a fantastic teacher who gave us the eyes to see and the knowledge, tools and skills to be professional artists," said Stephen Gjertson, a former pupil who taught at Atelier Lack for 16 years and wrote Lack's 2001 biography.

Born March 26, 1928, in Minneapolis, Lack graduated from Roosevelt High School. He studied briefly at the Minneapolis School of Art, now the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, before heading to New York and then Boston in search of more traditional instruction. From 1950 to 1956 he studied with R. H. Ives Gammell, a legendary Boston art educator. During that period he also spent two years in the U.S. Army and met his future wife, Katherine Vietorisz, a Hungarian-born graphic designer and jewelry maker.

Lack exhibited widely throughout the United States, including at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in 1990 and the Maryhill Museum of Art in Goldendale, Wash., which staged a retrospective in 1988. A prolific writer of reviews and instructional essays, he coined the term "Classical Realism" in 1982 to differentiate his approach from other styles, and helped found the American Society of Classical Realism to further the cause.

His last exhibition, at the Bloomington Art Center in January, included a series of monumental imaginative paintings on Jungian themes that he had worked on for more than 20 years. "He was a seminal force in the revival of interest in academic art, and his paintings have such personal meaning that they will have a lasting influence for years to come," said Gabe Weisberg, a University of Minnesota art history professor.

Besides his wife and daughter, Lack is survived by sons Michael and Peter. Memorial service arrangements are pending.

posted at Monday, September 28, 2009

Grand Central Academy Fall Classes


Visit grandcentralacademy.classicist.org/
For Details of Fall Classes at
ARC Approved Grand Central Academy in NYC.

posted at Monday, September 28, 2009

LAAFA Registration: Classes Start January 4, 2010

ARC Approved LAAFA is now accepting applications for their Winter Atelier Program
Classes start January 4th, 2010. Application deadline is October 23rd, 2009.
LAAFA offers a realist diploma program to Atelier students.
Now, in addition to the complete linear progression of classes provided in the regular curriculum for Atelier students, all Atelier students also have unlimited access to all LAAFA sessions classes and workshops.
The student may customize the program to his/her own interests and artistic goals.
Visit the LAAFA Website: www.laafa.org

LAAFA curriculum

posted at Monday, September 28, 2009

Music Renewal?

Dear Mr Ross,

I wanted to write to thank you for your website, Art Renewal Center. I have long been disappointed in much contemporary art, and have always been attracted to the beauty of the old masters (and now, through your website, learned of living ones!). I am not a visual artist, however, but a musical one. Reading your articles, I felt very much at home as, similarly, much contemporary 'classical' music has been a let-down, to say the least. Indeed, as a composer, I have felt continual pressure not to write tonal music, but to go the atonal route of modern composers. While I do not discount all this music, and have come to see more value in it than I did, say, 10 years ago as an undergraduate student, my masters will always be Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart, and many others; craftsmen in their field: not simply pseudo-artists trying to do something weird or new for weirdness or newness' sake.

Your site has encouraged me to continue to compose as I see fit, and has reminded me that it is perfectly OK to love beautiful art and beautiful music.

Sincerely,

Stephen Pompa

posted at Sunday, August 16, 2009

The Committee to Write the Catalogue Raisonne on William Bouguereau has finished its work.

Catalogue Raisonne Update: The Committee to Write the Catalogue Raisonne on William Bouguereau 1825-1905 has completed its work; the committee will accept no further additions to the publication.

This Herculean effort spanning 30 years was undertaken by a determined team of 19th Century Art experts, set to fill the void of information on Bouguereau, one of history’s greatest masters.

The contents are now in the publisher's hands. The Antique Collector's Club will be giving us the release date as soon as possible. The announcement will be forthcoming.

The Catalogue Raisonne which is due to be jointly published by Art Renewal Center® and the Antique Collectors Club, includes information on all of William Bouguereau's 826 known paintings, as well as the entire 600 page biography written by Damien Bartoli, along with an introduction by Fred Ross, ARC Chairman and President of the Bouguereau Committee.

You may still pre order a Bouguereau Catalogue Raisonne or pay the balance on your deposit at ARC Store, the e-commerce site for Art Renewal Center, a 501c3 Educational Foundation.
Click here for articles and more information on William Bouguereau.

posted at Monday, July 27, 2009

ARC Approved BACAA Drawing and Painting Workshop

ARC Approved Atelier™ Bay Area Classical Artist Atelier is very proud to announce:
Jon deMartin: Life drawing from the figure and the head
August 31-September 4, 2009
Application for Jon deMartin Life Drawing Workshop
Application for Michael Grimaldi Figure Painting Workshop 8/17-28/09
Click here for more information about BACAA.

BACAA Workshop
Julie Reclining
by Jon deMartin

posted at Monday, July 27, 2009

New Joaquin Sorolla y Batista Exhibition Catalog

Joaquin Sorolla y Batista Exhibition Catalog
A new 536 - page hardcover catalog has been published and printed in Spain for the opening of the Sorolla Exhibition at the Prado May 26, 2009.

This new volume is rendered with the highest quality materials in both printing and binding. The English edition, 9 1/2" x 12" also includes 300 images in full color. Sorolla's daughter Maria graces the dust jacket.

The price is $119, plus USA shipping.

Click here to order.


posted at Monday, July 27, 2009

Call for Entries: International 2009/2010 ARC Salon 6th Annual Competition

Call for Entries
The Art Renewal Center's
International 2009/2010 ARC Salon™

Win International Recognition Overnight
Have your work seen by 5.5 Million Yearly Visitors

More than $48,000 in Awards
Now with more Awards and the newly added Category of Animal Art
Award Winners and Finalists will be featured on the
Art Renewal Center website and in our full color catalogue.

Awards

Best in Show: $10,000 cash award plus gallery space in the Museum section of the ARC’s website. Gallery space will include the artist’s biographical information accompanied by 1 to 5 web pages of the artist’s finest works. The winner will also gain automatic acceptance as an ARC Approved Artist with exemption from the application process and $150 application fee..

The William Bouguereau Award - Emotion, Theme, and the Figure: $3,000

6 First Place Awards: $2,500 awarded in each category
6 Second Place Awards: $1,000 awarded in each category
6 Third Place Awards: $500 awarded in each category

Chairman's Choice Award: 2 Awarded at $500 each

ARC Staff Award: 4 Awarded at $100 each

Minimum of $10,000 in Purchase Awards
Works do not have to be for sale to be eligible for the competition. Purchase awards will be chosen from the finalists by our four judges and awarded at the sole discretion of the ARC's Chairman, Fred Ross.

30 Honorable Mentions: Award winners will receive an Award Certificate and have their winning artwork accompanied by their name displayed on the ARC website.

Top 100 Finalists will have their entry accompanied by their name displayed on the ARC website and will also be featured in the 2009/2010 ARC Salon™ Catalog.

You can download entry forms in either PDF or Microsoft Word format.

For more details click here for the ARC Salon Prospectus section.

Entry Deadline: Entries must be postmarked no later than October 31, 2009

posted at Thursday, July 23, 2009





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The Birth of Venus by William Bouguereau

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Click here  to read the first chapter of 'Pictorial Composition'
by ARC Master™
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Director,Angel Academy of Art,Florence




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11/11/2009: 1 new work of art
Frederick Morgan [1]

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10/28/2009: New ARChive messages
Additions to Letters to ARC forum:
   Painting Identification Contest by Michael Toumazou.
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