Category: Massachusetts

Attleboro Arts Museum Exhibition

11/20/2021

I'm pleased to share that my artwork will be exhibited at the Attleboro Arts Museum from December 11, 2021-January 28, 2022.

Eddie Bruckner's three paintings that will be on exhibit are: "Marilyn Monroe", "Robert Indiana's 1966 LOVE", and "Hello Kitty: Hi! I'm Hello Kitty!" Join us at the Opening Reception: Saturday December 11, 2021; 1-4 pm.

Attleboro Arts Museum is located at 86 Park St., Attleboro, MA. 02703.

Hello Kitty: Hi! I'm Hello Kitty by Eddie Bruckner

Robert Indiana's 1966 LOVE by Eddie Bruckner

Marilyn Monroe by Eddie Bruckner

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Blogging About Painting Electrical Boxes in Boston

9/25/2020

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I love Public Art because it's Art for Everyone. It's art that you often didn't plan to see or experience. It just happens. You're walking along the street and all of a sudden you see something that makes you smile, perhaps take a photo of it, or even a selfie with a post to Instagram.

My latest Public Art Project, The Greenway PaintBox At Atlantic Avenue & State Street was completed in September 2020 and is located along the Rose Kennedy Greenway, just steps away from Boston's New England Aquarium at the corner of Atlantic Avenue & State Street. Here are some photos of the final design...

I painted this box during an interesting and unusual time in history, during the Covid-19 Pandemic. At the time I started painting at the end of August, restaurants had re-opened with mostly outdoor seating. The electrical box was situated in front of the restaurant Provisions, so there were a lot of people enjoying the summer weather eating outside, while they watched me paint. Many people stopped to ask what I was painting, or to tell me "good job!" Some people asked to take photos with me and the in-progress box! Boston Ducktours even posted about it on their twitter and other social media accounts.

Commissioned by the City of Boston and the Boston Art Commission, the public artwork features images of the spectacular and unique architecture of the New England Aquarium, the MBTA Aquarium Train Station Entrance, and one of the famous Boston Duckboats.

The artwork highlights my signature style of bright colors, bold lines, and the illusion of mosaic tile, with the goal of making people happy when they see it as they walk through Boston. The painted electrical box took over 65 Hours to paint from start to finish from August 30th through September 12th, 2020.

To see more photos of this project and read more about it, CLICK HERE.

A video highlighting the making of the PaintBox is available and posted below in this Blog post as well as on Eddie Bruckner's YouTube Channel. You should subscribe to the Eddie Bruckner Fine Art YouTube Channel and follow Eddie on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date!

In 2017, I was commissioned by the City of Boston’s Public Art Commission to paint an electrical box near Fenway Park. I’ve also completed a second electrical box with a Boston Marathon Theme along the Marathon route in Natick, MA. "Music, Love & Rock 'N' Roll" for the GuitARTS! Public Art Project was commissioned by Music Drives Us and The Boch Family Foundation. #JumpNatick was commissioned by the Town of Natick, Natick Center Associates the the Natick Center Cultural District with support from the American Planning Association (APA), Americans for the Arts (AFTA), and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

You can check out all my Public Art Projects by CLICKING HERE.

I’m excited about the actual process of creating public art and/or installing the artwork on location with observers and participants. My artwork is about having fun, bringing a smile to people’s faces, and at the same time, providing a unique way of experiencing some of our most familiar objects, places, or people. I view my artwork as a visual representation of happiness, love, and the beautification of physical space and I love how Public Art achieves this goal and reaches so many people. My hope is that the public will personally connect to my art and enjoy the experience.

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The Harvard Art Museums

5/20/2018

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I recently had the pleasure of visiting the Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge, MA. I highly recommend you check it out as they have a wonderful and varied collection of artwork from earliest times to the present.

The Harvard Art Museums are actually comprised of three art collections; The Fogg, the Busch-Reisinger, and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum. The three were combined in a beautiful space designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop. The Museum's literature stated that it is their hope that their collections and unique spaces inspire new ways of looking and thinking about art for all visitors.

I started out off the main atrium to explore the European Art of the 19th and 20th Century and the Modern and Contemporary Art galleries.

I came across this painting to the right by Paul Cezanne called, "Study of Trees." It is oil on canvas and is from the early 20th Century. When I think of Cezanne, I often think of impressionism, delightful landscapes, or beautiful bowls of fruit! This painting demonstrated Cezanne's role in connecting 19th Century Impressionism to 20th Century Cubism. I love how the trees are represented here because he was able to depict depth using diagonal shapes and brushstrokes that hint at movement and depth. There are dashed lines that define the tree trunks on both sides of a country road. It's no wonder why Harvard has this painting as part of its collection; Although it's not as well-known as Van Gogh's "Starry Night" or Monet's "Waterlilies," it's one of the most important paintings from this time period and the history of abstract painting.

Pablo Picasso's "Still Life with Inkwell" Oil on Canvas, c. 1911-1912. Picasso applied cubism to the traditional still life.

Pablo Picasso's "The Pomegranate" Oil on Canvas, 1911-1912.

Here is Willem de Kooning's 1937-1938 Oil on Masonite painting titled, "Untitled (The Cow Jumps Over The Moon). I learned that de Kooning was trained as a commercial artist and his artistic styles move back and forth between abstract and figurative methods. This painting below is one of his earlier works, which reminds me of Joan Miro's work to some degree. His later artwork, for which he is more well-known, is more gestural and epitomizes the abstract expressionism movement.

Georgia O'Keefe, "Red and Pink" Oil on Canvas, 1925. Perhaps an abstraction of flower petals.

Vincent Van Gogh's "The Blind Man" Watercolor on paper mounted on canvas, 1903.

Joan Miro in his painting to the right titled, "Mural" made in 1935 plays with the idea of surrealism. Animal-like figures are seen here on an oddly shaped background with areas of pure, flat color.

If you haven't seen my blog on Barcelona Art, there is a ton I included on my visit to the Joan Miro Museum. Click Here to read my blog on Barcelona Art!

You wouldn't know it based on the type of artwork he became famous for, but the painting below is by the artist, Roy Lichtenstein. "The Capture of Roanoke Island" was painted in 1953, well before he developed his pop art comic-book style of art.

I came across several sculptures by the artist David Smith. For those of you who read my blog about the Downtown Art Scene in Los Angeles, I included a David Smith sculpture. You can read it HERE!

I learned that due to a generous donor, the Harvard Art Museums have the largest and most complete collection of David Smith's artwork than any other museum in the world. David Smith lived in Indiana and Vermont and although he began his career as a painter, he created many many sculptures. In the photo to the right, Smith's sculpture, "Flight" that was created in 1951 and depicts birds in flight. What's interesting is his use of both welding steel and casting bronze, and his process to paint the former and patina-ting the latter.

David Smith's "Detroit Queen" Bronze, 1957.

David Smith's "Doorway on Wheels" Steel with Paint, 1960.

Three Untitled works of art by David Smith created in 1959.

David Smith's "Birthday" 1954, "Books and Apple" 1957, and "Bird" 1957. All Sterling Silver.

I stared at this painting below "Grazing Horses IV (The Red Horses), painted in 1911 by Franz Marc for quite a long time. Not because I love horses, but rather it struck me as fascinating. Franz Marc painted horses a lot, and was known for his preoccupation with animals. I learned that this particular painting was actually his first work of art to enter a museum's collection, the same year it was made. What struck me was his use of unnatural colors in a very natural scene. It's hard to see in the photo, but I was intrigued with the use of bright red in only one or two spots on the horses.

Here to the right is one of my favorites... Piet Mondrian's "Composition with Blue, Black, Yellow, and Red," painted in 1922. Many people have commented that much of my own artwork reminds them of Mondrian's artwork. In this blog article from the Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, I discuss this in greater length. CLICK HERE to read that blog article!

Claude Monet's "Red Boats, Argenteuil" Oil on Canvas, 1875. This painting is notable because x-rays of this painting show that Monet reworked this painting a few times.

Georges Pierre Seurat, "Seated Figures, Study for A Sunday Afternoon On The Island of La Grande Jatte" Oil on Panel. 1884-1885. This is one of about 30 oil studies made in preparation for his masterpiece.

Henri Matisse, "Geraniums" Oil on Canvas, 1910.

Max Beckman's self-portrait in 1927, "Self-Portrait in Tuxedo" Oil on Canvas.

Gustav Klimt's "Pear Tree, 1903, later reworked by the artist. Interesting to note that Klimt chose to use a square canvas, which at the time was not typically used for landscapes.

In the Foreground, Alexander Calder's "Little Blue Under Red" c. 1950 Painted Steel.

Three Sculptures: "Head of a Woman" by Aristide Maillol; Degas' "Grande Arabesque, Third Time, modeled c 1885-90, cast after 1920; and Charles Despiau's "Seated Man, Statue for the Monument to Emile Mayrisch" c. 1930.

To the Right:
Jackson Pollock's "No. 2" mixed Media on Canvas, 1950.

No 2 is an example of Pollock's fully developed paint-pouring/splatter-painting/dripping techniques.

He put raw, un-stretched canvas on the floor and worked from above, pouring, dripping, flicking, and spraying paint onto the surface of the canvas. The movement shown here is a record of his bodily movements as he produced the painting.

Franz Kline's "High Street" Oil on Canvas, 1950. It's made with House-painters' brushes and inexpensive enamel house-paint.

Mark Rothko's "Untitled" Oil on Canvas, 1947. A precursor to his well-known, iconic style, of two or three tiers of brightly colored rectangles.

Below is Jasper johns' "The Dutch Wives", encaustic on canvas, created in 1975. If you haven't read my blog article on the Jasper johns retrospective exhibition at The Broad Museum in Los Angeles, you can find it HERE.

Josef Albers' work here below shows his thought process of how art is a type of research. With the same format of squares within squares, he tested a vast array of color combinations; He took all this research and theoretical findings to publish his book in 1963, "Interaction of Color," which is an essential resource for art and design students to this day.

Josef Albers: "Homage to the Square: Against Deep Blue" 1955 and "Homage to the Square: Four Greens" 1964. Both Oil on Masonite.

Auguste Rodin's "the Walking Man" Bronze, created around 1899-1900.

Above is Richard Serra's "Untitled (Corner Prop Piece) created in 1969. It's a sculpture comprised of a lead plate and pole and an example of minimalism and the use of industrial materials in fine art. Serra makes use of the room's architecture including the walls and floor, essential to the sculpture.

Claude Monet's "Red Mullets" Oil on Canvas, painted around 1870. I love this painting as it's so different from a typical Monet landscape, or waterlilies painting.

Here are three painting studies by John Singleton Copley, all painted in 1787. I learned that the city of London commissioned the artist to create a large painting commemorating Britain's victory over the Spanish and French at the Siege of Gibraltar in 1782. These portraits are character studies and experiments of his in composition. Looking at this from a contemporary art perspective, I love how the portraits are "unfinished."

Below is a wonderful painting from a German artist that I was unfamiliar with named Corinne Wasmuht. It is titled, "50 U Heinrich-Heine-Str." oil on wood and created in 2009. The painting is a portrayal of Berlin's Heinrich Heine Street subway station and its surrounding neighborhood. It's hard to tell scale from photographs, but this is a huge painting and it's scale immerses the viewer, but the paintings various perspective points and different scales of objects also disorient the viewer. It's really a magnificent painting and I can see why it was gifted to Harvard's Busch-Reisinger Museum.

Ai Weiwei's "258 Fake" created in 2011 features 12 monitors that show 7,677 photographs taken between 2003 and 2011

Below are some fascinating samples taken from the Forbes Pigment Collection. Edward Forbes was the director of the Harvard Art Museums from 1909 to 1944. During his tenure, he traveled the world, collecting a large number of pigments for the library. Today, the Pigment Collection contains more than 2,500 samples that are beautifully displayed in cabinets on the 4th floor and are used to this day to help identify pigments used in historical artworks.

I came across this wonderful, short video on the Forbes Pigment Collection that was created about 2 years ago. Check it out!

Inventur--Art in Germany, 1943-55

The special exhibition at the Harvard Art Museums was titled, "Inventur--Art in Germany, 1943-55" and focuses on modern-period artists who remained in Germany during World War II and the Holocaust. The exhibit runs through June 3, 2018 on the 3rd Floor of the Museum.

The artwork in the exhibition is in some way, a representation of the individual artist's response to Nazi censure, which prevented artists from exhibiting and/or selling their artwork. I found it fascinating that the exhibition was called Inventur, meaning inventory, because it is a collection of the artist experience for over 50 artists.

With Hitler's rise to power, there was a major government-driven effort to align individuals and organizations with the doctrine of the Nazi State. Many teaching artists lost their jobs. The well-known art school, The Bauhaus School of Art and Design, was closed under Nazi Rule. Artwork that was not approved of by the Nazi State was coined "Degenerate Artwork." If artists chose not to leave Germany or were not permitted to leave Germany, they had no choice but to create art privately.

Hans Uhlmann's "Male Head" Steel sheet, 1942.

Ernst Wilhelm Nay's "Embers" Oil on Canvas, 1951.

Thomas Grochowiak's "Technical District I, Blue" Oil on Canvas, 1951.

Jeanne Mammen's "Falling Facades (Berlin Ruins), oil on cardboard, 1945-1946.

Konrad Klapheck's "Typewriter" Oil on Canvas, 1955.

Fritz Winter's, "Figuration in Front of Blue" Oil on Canvas, 1953.

Willi Baumeister's "Large Montaru" Oil with synthetic resin on board, 1953.

Willi Baumeister's "Growth of the Crystals II" Oil with resin and putty on board, 1947/1952.

For more information about The Harvard Art Museums, please visit their website: www.harvardartmuseums.org. I definitely recommend visiting the Museum as you're in for a wonderful experience!

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Boston Voyager Magazine: Flashes & Strokes

3/17/2018

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This past week I learned that I was being featured in Boston Voyager Magazine in their article titled, "Flashes & Strokes: A Tale of Two Mediums." The article celebrates artists working in both traditional and digital mediums. You can view the article HERE!

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Boston Movie Premiere of Blood Circus

1/28/2018

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A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of being invited to the movie premiere of the film, "Blood Circus." It was a wonderful evening which featured a red carpet reception, celebrities, interviews, and a screening of the new film. I really enjoyed the movie! It's a gritty fight action film featuring Tom Sizemore, Jamie Nocher, Kevin Nash, and Vincent Pastore.

For the Boston Premiere of Blood Circus, which will be held on February 8, 2018, the red carpet event will also feature a silent auction with signed movie posters and more! A portion of the proceeds will be donated to a wonderful charity called Donated Dental Services (DDS). DDS provides free, comprehensive dental services to vulnerable populations, including the disabled, the elderly, and those who cannot get public aid. This program operates through a volunteer network of over 15,000 dentists and since its inception in 1985, DDS has surpassed $330 Million in donated dental therapies and has impacted the lives of 117,000 people nationwide.

For the Boston Premiere, I created a new original acrylic painting for the silent auction. The painting is 24" x 36" and was created specifically for this event. The painting features the name and tagline of the movie in the same styling as on the official movie poster. A photo of the movie poster is included here to the right.

The public is invited to attend the Boston Premiere of "Blood Circus" but seating is very limited and tickets need to be purchased in advance online. CLICK HERE for more details about the event as well as to purchase tickets. I hope to see you there and bid on my painting for a good cause!

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2017 Needham Winter Arts Festival

12/9/2017

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This weekend, I participated in a wonderful juried art festival in Needham, Massachusetts. The 2017 Needham Winter Arts Festival was held at Town Hall and featured over 30 local artists exhibiting their work. It was wonderful to be a part of this event which attracted hundreds of people (despite the first snowfall of the season) and featured musicians and singers performing holiday tunes onstage. The event was made possible through support from the Town of Needham and the Massachusetts Cultural Council Festival Grant Program.

I decided to post this blog article because two paintings of mine found a new home! The paintings, shown here, "Honey, I'm Home" and "Love Shines #2" were both sold and is now part of a private collection, bringing smiles to people residing in Wellesley, Massachusetts. The "Honey, I'm Home!" painting is acrylic paint on canvas and is 18" x 24". I was inspired to paint the house upon being invited to exhibit in a group show with the theme, "House." Before being sold, the "Honey, I'm Home!" painting was exhibited at the Morse Public Library, in Natick, MA in October 2016. It was also exhibited at the Attleboro Arts Museum December 9, 2016-February 2, 2017. I love this painting because of all the mosaic illusion elements, the representation of bushes, and how I used a broken line to indicate the front doorway.

The second painting sold, "Love Shines #2" is a 10" x 10" acrylic on board painting with resin and ground glass. "Love Shines #2" was one of my most recent paintings completed within the past month! This was one of my first few paintings that features my use of acrylic paint and ground glass with multiple layers of resin. I love using hearts in my artwork to convey the emotion of love, passion, romance, and fun! I really do feel that love does shine, and in the case of my artwork, it does too through the use of ground glass that reflects the sparkling light!

The accompanying painting, "Love Shines #1" is still available, and I'm glad that it received a lot of positive praise at the Arts Festival. I'm currently working on another series of 10 paintings, all 10" x 10" with acrylic paint, ground glass, and resin. So stay tuned for more information on those paintings once I'm done with them in my studio. They are going to be awesome and a LOT of FUN! OMG!

I also sold out all my puzzles and blankets featuring my artwork as well as sold a lot of greeting cards, coasters, candles, limited edition prints, and notepads too! The 2017 Needham Winter Arts Festival was a great and successful event! I'm looking forward to participating in it again next year!

I'm thrilled that these paintings sold to folks who absolutely loved them and I hope that they will enjoy their original paintings for many years to come!

To see the painting sold last weekend and read the blog article: CLICK HERE!

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Woof Woof! Gotta Get My Bone

12/4/2017

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This past weekend, I was a visiting artist exhibiting my artwork at Gorse Mill Open Studios. Gorse Mill Studios is located in a historic old mill building in Needham, MA, a suburb of Boston. The building houses dozens of artists who create all types of artwork; from paintings to pottery, stained glass to mosaics, ceramics, jewelry, photography, illustration, encaustic, glass, performing arts, graphic design, and more! Gorse Mill Studios hosts openings, gallery shows, and art education programs throughout the year. It was wonderful to be a part of their event.

I decided to post this blog article because one of my favorite paintings found a new home! The painting, shown here, "Woof Woof! Gotta Get My Bone" was sold and is now bringing smiles to a new family! The painting is acrylic paint on canvas and is 10" x 20". I love this painting because of it's unusual size, the movement portrayed by the vertical lines of varying width, and how I incorporated mini-dog bones within the mosaic illusion part of the painting. It always makes me laugh!

Before being sold, this painting was exhibited at the Wellesley Community Center for the Wellesley Society of Artists Fall Show from September 2016-April 2017. This is the painting that I used for the cover of my new 2018 Calendar that features the birthdays of dozens of famous artists. I also created a coffee mug of this painting too! I'm thrilled that this painting sold to someone who shared with me how much he loved it and I know he and his family will enjoy it for many years to come!

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Natick Pride & The Boston Marathon

10/23/2017

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It was such an incredible opportunity to paint one of Natick’s electrical boxes and add to the beauty and charm of the town of Natick. My goal was to capture the spirit of the Town of Natick and the incredible pride people have in Natick’s stretch of the Boston Marathon Route.

Video showing the making of Artist Eddie Bruckner's Public Art Installation of "Natick Pride & The Boston Marathon." Commissioned by the Natick Center Cultural District and the Public Art Committee and supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Completed in September 2017, the painted electrical box is located in Natick, MA, along the Boston Marathon Route.

What I loved about painting the Marathon-Themed Box in Natick was that painting it on-site allowed me to interact with people walking by, take photos together, and share my artistic process with them.

As I began to think about the project, I created several sketches that included a lot of ideas related to the town of Natick, the Boston Marathon, as well as how best to integrate my artistic style to create something visually appealing. I wanted to make it uniquely “Natick” by incorporating things like the Gazebo, the church, Natick’s zip code, etc. I like to include the American flag because Natick, I feel, is really an all-American type of town. Diverse, patriotic, down-to-earth, democratic, and inclusive.

And as I began to think about the Marathon component, I wanted to include visuals like the beautiful Boston Marathon Medal, the Marathon Runner Number, the Trophy, and the amazing runners racing toward the finish line. I also wanted to demonstrate the inclusive nature of the Natick community and the marathon itself by including a competitor in a wheelchair. I also gave a lot of thought to how the colors of the Boston Marathon (Blue and Yellow) would integrate into my overall design. And while most people won't be able to see the top of the box, I’ve painted “Boston Strong” on the top of the box.

Many of my paintings all use a similar color palette of primary colors, white, black, and neutral greys.
All my work focuses on lines, shapes, vibrant colors, and the integration of an illusion of mosaic tile.
This illusion of mosaic tile provides cohesion to my body of work and serves to provide balance, repetition, movement, and other elements of strong artistic design and composition.
I often think about the mosaic element as confetti, to further my goal of conveying fun, exhilaration, and happiness; the mosaic patterns add life and positive energy into my work.

I’m excited about the actual process of creating public art and/or installing the artwork on location with observers and participants.

There were a few funny stories of things that happened while I was on-site painting. It was the first day on-site at the electrical box. One of the first things I needed to do was make sure the box was clean of dirt, bugs, cobwebs, etc. before I could start painting. So imagine people walking by seeing a guy on a stepstool washing by hand an electrical utility box!
As people walked by, I could tell people were a bit confused or thought I was out of my mind.

As you saw in the video, I began by painting a solid black color on the entire box, and then place lines of tape, to be uncovered later. When I started with the spray paint, painting it all black, again, some people were trying to figure out what was going on, if I was vandalizing the box, or why it was all black. Maybe they preferred it grey?

But as I continued with my painting, people began to stop, ask what I was doing, ask me what it was going to look like, etc. It was a great opportunity to share with people the great things the Natick Center Cultural District has done around town to enhance life for everyone in Natick.

I painted the box over 2 weeks, almost every day, so I got to see a few people on a number of occasions on their daily walk, and it was great to stop and chat with them and hear their reactions as they saw the progress over time.

In Boston, the box I painted is on Boylston Street, a very busy city street so most of my interactions were with pedestrians on their lunch break or people heading to a Red Sox game. But in Natick, I can’t tell you how many people honked their horns and smiled at me while I painted.
People even rolled down their windows and shouted things like “Great Job!, I love that! & That’s so cool!”

I’m so pleased that in all my interactions on site, people were really happy to see my artwork.
One woman said to me, “That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in Natick. And that;s very cool.”

And it was great to see all the wonderful comments on all the Facebook and Instagram posts!
I love watching the first time a passerby sees my artwork on their evening jog, their walk home from work, or pushing a baby stroller on their way to Dunkin Donuts.

These are all inspiring reminders of the transformative impact a piece of public art can have on the overall look of physical space and the pleasure it gives people.

Video featuring the
Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for
Artist Eddie Bruckner's
Public Art Installation of
"Natick Pride &
The Boston Marathon"
on Sunday, October 22, 2017.
Features remarks by
Athena Pandolf,
Executive Director
of the
Natick Center Cultural District
& Eddie Bruckner.

The Dedication on Sunday, October 22nd was a wonderful event. It was a beautiful, sunny and warm day. I'd like to thank everyone who came out to the Ribbon Cutting, especially my wife, kids, my in-laws, and cousins! It really meant to much to celebrate this special community event with family and friends. I've posted a video to YouTube, which you can watch here below of the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony.

I'd like to also take this opportunity to thank the Natick Center Cultural District and the Public Arts Committee for the opportunity to participate in this wonderful public art project.

I hope everyone in the area will join me to watch the Boston Marathon at the site of the electrical box on Patriots’ Day 2018.

Here are some photos from the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony: