Gary T. Erbe- Cubist Influence and Levitational Realism

As I walked through Gary Erbe: Magical World at the Butler Institute of American Art, it was immediately evident that his major influence is Pablo Picasso, emulating many of the modern master’s compositions in several paintings included in the exhibition. Yet nowhere in Gary T. Erbe’s biography or in prior exhibition reviews do the artist or scholars acknowledge Picasso, despite […]

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Frances Benjamin Johnson: Redefining “First Lady”

When you hear the words First Lady and White House, images of elegance and history arise. Jackie, Birdie, Eleanor, Michelle… women whose lives were shaped by marriage and the roles they assumed beside their husbands. Frances Benjamin Johnson was a different kind of “first lady”, however, who arrived at the White House on her own terms and made history as […]

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