Art Collection

Like so many skeletons of Baltimore's industrial past, the brick and steel bones of sturdy buildings — devoid of innards — are found all along the harbor. Or maybe it should be said they were found along the harbor, since more and more of these previous eyesores have been redeveloped into unique opportunities for city living. Such is the case at the eastern end of the Inner Harbor, in Little Italy. The Canal Street Malt House, a large condominium complex, is so named as a nod to its previous existence, when, in 1866, it was filled with malt, a vital ingredient to the city's burgeoning brewing industry.

When Johns Hopkins Hospital officially opens its new, $1.1 billion building Tuesday, sick children will find a cobalt cow with legs the color of grass and a butter-colored head floating above their heads, poised to jump over a fanciful "moon. " The new hospital won't just provide state-of-the-art health care. It will also provide state-of-the-art art. The 500 original paintings, sculptures and murals, created by more than 70 artists from around the U.S., are on display throughout both the children and adult towers in the new facility.

The Maryland Institute, College of Art shocked Baltimore's cultural community yesterday by announcing plans to sell a major art collection now on loan to the city's two largest museums.Robert Shelton, chairman of the institute's board of trustees, said that after years of study the college had reluctantly decided it must boost its "modest" endowment by selling the collection, which includes a group of 19th-century French prints considered among the finest in the United States."We believe it is our fiduciary responsibility to use this -- and every other asset -- to further the educational mission of the institute," he said.

Two former area high school teachers were among 14 current and former Baltimore County Public Schools art teachers honored in statewide exhibition, Duane Sabiston, who taught at Catonsville High School from fall of 1969 to fall of 1971 and at Lansdowne High School from fall of 1987 to fall of 1989, and Bruno Baran, who taught at Lansdowne from fall of 89 to spring of 1998, were among the six retired teachers who took part in the...

When Johns Hopkins Hospital officially opens its new, $1.1 billion building Tuesday, sick children will find a cobalt cow with legs the color of grass and a butter-colored head floating above their heads, poised to jump over a fanciful "moon. " The new hospital won't just provide state-of-the-art health care. It will also provide state-of-the-art art. The 500 original paintings, sculptures and murals, created by more than 70 artists from around the U.S., are on display throughout both the children and adult towers in the new facility.

NEW YORK -- To get a handle on the extraordinary story of Dorothy and Herbert Vogel, let's begin with a list.It appeared in the January 1994 issue of a respected magazine called ARTnews and is, to be precise, a list of the world's 200 top art collectors. Not surprisingly, the list contains names like Rothschild, Getty, Mellon, Rockefeller and Baltimore's own Robert and Jane Meyerhoff; names associated with fortunes made in banking and industry and, quite often, inherited wealth.But the "ARTnews 200" list also includes two names that rank among the world's most unlikely candidates: Herbert and Dorothy Vogel.

At Haussner's, art is the house specialty.So it's an understatement to say that Frances Wilkes Haussner is happy to have one of her 19th century paintings from the restaurant on display at the Walters Art Gallery."

Open the front door of this traditional brick house in Ruxton, and the interior will come as a total surprise. When the owners moved from Pennsylvania they bought the house for the location and the space (it has six bedrooms), but they knew they wanted to redo it from top to bottom."It's as interesting for what's been removed as for what's here," says the interior designer, Robert Berman of Johnson-Berman. Mr. Berman worked with the architects, Schamu, Machowski, Doo and Associates, almost from the beginning, as they took down walls, replaced the curving staircase and balcony railing in the foyer and removed moldings, chair rails, window mullions, chandeliers and fireplace surrounds.

NEW YORK -- Dealers and collectors gobbled up sculptures, busts of Roman emperors and porcelains yesterday on the second day of the Haussner's restaurant auction, pushing the receipts from the sale to more than $11 million.Two hours of vigorous bidding at Sotheby's auction rooms netted $1.2 million for the 114 lots sold -- on top of $10.1 million spent Tuesday for paintings from the landmark Highlandtown restaurant.Pre-sale estimates had placed the value of the collection at around $7 million.

Renee and Don Gorman are prolific collectors of pop art. They own everything from airbrushed poster portraits, to ceramics, to folksy African-inspired clay masks. There is even a full-size female mannequin in formal wear gracing a corner of their great room. Fifteen years ago, Don Gorman's father gave the couple a plot of land next door to the house where his son grew up. They decided to build a home of temple-like proportions to adequately display their vast art collection. Nestled in a Pikesville neighborhood of Colonials, two-story bungalows and ranchers, the Gorman home is decidedly contemporary.

The Towson Arts Collective will present its Spring Arts in the Park festival Saturday, May 21, and Sunday, May 22, at Cromwell Valley Park, rain or shine. The celebration features artwork by local and regional artisans, plein air painters at work, poetry readings, performances by local musicians and prose readings by the Baltimore Chapter of the Baltimore Writers Association. In addition, the event will feature the belly dancing troupe, Aubergine, offering demonstrations on both days, as well as a display of classic cars.

Like so many skeletons of Baltimore's industrial past, the brick and steel bones of sturdy buildings — devoid of innards — are found all along the harbor. Or maybe it should be said they were found along the harbor, since more and more of these previous eyesores have been redeveloped into unique opportunities for city living. Such is the case at the eastern end of the Inner Harbor, in Little Italy. The Canal Street Malt House, a large condominium complex, is so named as a nod to its previous existence, when, in 1866, it was filled with malt, a vital ingredient to the city's burgeoning brewing industry.

It wasn't the art heist of the century — "someone came in and took some artwork off the wall and left with it," the vice president of the Towson ARTS Collective said. But it was a big deal for the small nonprofit that promotes local artists and runs classes to teach others how to paint. And so the people who run the collective are trying to turn a discouraging crime into a positive event with a fundraiser to help repay the artists whose work remains missing and improve security at its basement building on York Road.

On a chilly Friday night in New York City, Jana Hunter sang a dreamy ballad over a persistent bass line, her quivering voice cradled by the atomic guitar work of her bandmates in Lower Dens. Though it was impossible to tell from their tight set at Rockwood Music Hall, the Baltimore band was exhausted from its marathon of gigs for the CMJ Music Festival, indie music's Schwab's Pharmacy. Every October, musicians from across the globe come to New York to play there, performing at venues across the city before industry cool kids and music critics with hopes of landing a record deal, an agent, a jingle, whatever might snatch them from anonymity.

A widow now for three years, Joanne Adleberg continues to find sanctuary in the Pikesville condominium she and her husband purchased in 2004. When their house and three acres of land off Greenspring Avenue became too much to keep up, they were the first to move into the new condominium complex of Stevenson Commons, and as time went by, both found the building to be very people-friendly. The couple purchased the building's largest unit — 2,750 square feet — at a cost of $475,000.

Will American art-house moviegoers finally catch up to Chekhov? They didn't turn out in huge numbers even for Louis Malle's glorious Vanya on 42nd Street. Let's hope they show up in force for the Chekhovian comedy-drama Summer Hours. Writer-director Olivier Assayas' buoyant film about a French family in flux is based on an original script that's a cousin to Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard. It may play better now than when it hit the festival circuit a year ago. Since we've gone from a period of rage and euphoria to one of wait and see, audiences may feel closer to the people in this film.

In "Ode to a Grecian Urn," the 19th-century Romantic poet John Keats described a pair of lovers on the side of an ancient vase who exist in a timeless realm forever removed from the onrushing tide of history. Keats' idea of a timeless, ideal realm of art was the conventional wisdom of his era. But as the century wore on, it became more and more tenuous as a guide for creative artists. The 19th century was an age of unprecedented, rapid change. The invention of railroads, the telegraph and industrial mass production, the rise of universal literacy and a popular press, the expansion of cities and the huge accumulations of capital in business all served to shrink space and time.

In Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting, Mona Lisa gazes off into the distance, smiling faintly and, some say, mysteriously. But on the walls of a West Annapolis art supply store, Mona Lisa stands behind prison bars, sports a nose ring and hawks everything from eclairs to sushi. She grimaces, smokes a cigarette and grins to reveal a mouthful of oversized teeth. For two decades, customers and staff have brought renderings of that image to Art Things on Annapolis Street. More than 500 versions of her face decorate the walls and windows of the shop.