Pamela J. White speaks about the painting like it's a pet.

"It doesn't like to travel," she said.

She's talking about Ad Reinhardt's Abstract Painting, which is the work most likely to get blank stares in the Figge Art Museum exhibit A Legacy for Iowa: Pollock's Mural & Modern Masterworks from the University of Iowa Museum of Art.

Sam Gilliam - 'Red April'Abstract Painting doesn't like to travel because it's the most fragile work in the University of Iowa Museum of Art's collection, said White, the museum's interim director. When you get close to the piece, you can see that the paint in the corners is cracked. And because of the nature of the work, there's no obvious way to restore or conserve it.

It initially looks like a black square. On closer inspection, it reveals itself as nine black-ish squares.

Figge Executive Director Sean O'Harrow explained the painting this way: "It's about the nature of color, the nature of squares. It's about texture. It's about a general feeling that you get from the work."

But just as important for this exhibit, Abstract Painting represents the challenges of modern art; this is the sort of theoretical work that baffles and frustrates many people -- in a My kid could do that way. "Whether or not you understand it, for people it's modern art," O'Harrow said. "And people recognize that this is what modern art looks like."

Max Beckmann - 'Karneval'Don't run away. Even if you dislike modern art (or think you dislike modern art), A Legacy for Iowa -- which technically opens April 19 even though the paintings can be viewed by the public now -- is a great opportunity to acquaint (or reacquaint) yourself with the Figge: It's an ideal match of modern work and modern venue, facilitated by last year's flood in Iowa City.

Following the departure of the Left Bank Art League from Gallery West in the District of Rock Island, MidCoast Fine Arts plans to launch a new artist-staffed sales gallery at the site next month.

MidCoast Fine Arts has hosted exhibits at its Gallery West location at 1629 Second Avenue for nearly seven years, with assistance from an operational partner staffing the space and taking on utility costs - originally the ArtFX gallery, and most recently the Left Bank Art League. But Left Bank vacated the space at the end of December, ending a partnership that began in 2005.

Sound and Vision's control roomSound & Vision began as a group of guys searching for a place to practice with and record their bands. Located at 1316 Fourth Avenue in downtown Moline, it now features a recording studio, an art gallery, screen-printing, recording workshops, DJ-ing, and custom speaker cabinets.

"It really started in my dad's basement," said Ray Malone, one of eight contributors, in an interview at the studio. Between then and the current situation, the men rented four different spaces, the last being a two-bedroom house in Davenport. "When we were in a house, the control room was set up on the second floor," Malone said. "We did all of the recording downstairs. There was a lot of going up and down stairs to move a mic an inch."

Big Notgnirray Butterfly Some collectors purchase artworks to accentuate a room. The pieces in Delores De Wilde Bina's current exhibition at the Bucktown Center for the Arts, however, are the room.

"Okay, so you hang one on the wall in your studio, and it's seven and a half feet tall," the Davenport artist recalls telling someone at the exhibit's opening. "That's almost floor-to-ceiling. And then the wingspan is eight-foot, and ... .

"Oops!" she exclaims with a laugh. "We've just filled this whole wall!"

ceramics by Liz Robertson On her Web site, Liz Robertson explains the circumstances that inspired her to pursue ceramics as a career: "From my early childhood I seemed to understand that clay, when put to fire, makes a permanent thing. My father was a bricklayer. Our backyard was good red clay. Our coal furnace, with its handy ledge, was where we placed our crude pinch pots to bake."

But necessity made her switch from throwing pots on a wheel to the hand-building technique she primarily uses today.

Reader issue #694 The River Cities' Reader's second Annual Manual for the Arts features more than 250 listings covering art, theatre, music, dance, and the literary arts, from places to see an art exhibit or live music to organizations that offer classes to major festivals in and around the Quad Cities.

Whether you're an artist, an aspiring artist, or simply an arts patron, we hope you find the Annual Manual for the Arts useful - a resource to keep year-round. It's the only publication in the Quad Cities that comprehensively lists arts venues and organizations, and it includes street addresses, Web addresses, phone numbers, and other useful information. A pdf of the Annual Manual for the Arts can be downloaded by clicking here .

We've updated and added to our listings, and our aim is to be as comprehensive and accurate as possible. If there's something incorrect, or if you'd like to be included in next year's Annual Manual for the Arts, please e-mail (jeff@rcreader.com) with the words "Annual Manual" in the subject line.

We're always looking for ways to improve the Annual Manual, too, so if you have ideas for making it better, send a note to the e-mail address above.

 

Jamie Elizabeth Hudrlik - Grow UpSince the Quad Cities version of Venus Envy began in 2005, it has celebrated women's artistic expression in the visual and performing arts.

Now it aims to let them embarrass themselves.

Walking with Dinosaurs The irony might be a little obvious, but extinct dinosaurs have helped stave off extinction for another animal: the creator of animatronic creatures.

Animatronics is "one of those arts that's probably dying out," said Sonny Tilders, the creature designer and builder for Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience, coming to the i wireless center March 5 through 9.

Mayor Mark Schwiebert and Ruth Evelyn Katz Over the past 19 years, the Riverssance Festival of Fine Art has bestowed the Harley Award (named after the event's harlequin logo) in recognition of "an individual or organization that has demonstrated a lasting commitment to the promotion and the advancement of the visual arts and artists in the Quad Cities area." And certainly, that description applies to 2007's Harley Award recipient, Ruth Evelyn Katz.

by Yossi Lemel, Israel From August 31 through September 27, the Quad Cities will host the touring exhibition Coexistence: The Art of Living Together, and there'll be practically no way to miss it.

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