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Before there was television news, there were newsreels. They were short films shown in movie theaters between shows, ranging in length from five to ten minutes.

Newsreels provided American audiences with motion picture accounts of the important news of the day. Many of the events of the twentieth century etched in the minds of Americans came from newsreels. These include the takeoff of Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic in 1927, the explosion of the German dirigible Hindenburg, and the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

The newsreels were shot on film made of nitrocellulose, the same material Thomas Edison and others used when first developing motion pictures in the 1890s. The film burned easily. Nitrate was sensitive to the slightest heat, even the heat of the film projector lamp. In the USC collection there are eleven million feet of film, seven million on nitrate and four million on more stable acetate. With support from NEH, the USC film library is transferring the nitrate film to modern polyester to retain the quality of the original stock. "Using this process we can retain as much of the original as possible," says Singleton. "It will last hundreds of years if kept cool.

By 1929, Movietone--the name Fox created for its sound reels--had cameramen and representatives operating around the world, and its newsreels were available in twenty-two languages. Thomas Doherty notes in his book, Pre-Code Hollywood, that the newsreels were popular enough to sustain a dozen all-newsreel theaters in large cities. One of them, the Embassy Newsreel Theater, was a fixture on Broadway from 1929 until 1949. Using newsreels from Fox Movietone News and Hearst Metrotone News, the Embassy played a forty-five to fifty-minute program with fourteen showings daily. The theater was an immediate success, notes Doherty.

CASVA also announced the appointment of six senior and four visiting senior fellows, the Edmond J. Safra Guest Scholar for spring 2008, two postdoctoral fellows, 18 predoctoral fellows, and four predoctoral fellowships for historians of American art to travel abroad.

CASVA was founded 28 years ago to promote the study of the history, theory, and criticism of art, architecture, and urbanism through the formation of a community of scholars. A variety of private sources supports the program of fellowships, and the appointments are ratified by the Gallery’s Board of Trustees.

The position of Samuel H. Kress Professor was created in 1965. It is reserved for a distinguished art historian who, as the senior member of CASVA, pursues scholarly work and counsels predoctoral fellows in residence.

Rudolf Preimesberger is professor emeritus at the Freie Universität Berlin. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Vienna in 1962. Professor Preimesberger has been a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences since 1992, and the Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft zu Berlin since 1983. He has held fellowships at the University of Jena, Getty Research Institute, and University of Basel.

The position of Andrew W. Mellon Professor was created in 1994 for distinguished academic and museum professionals. Mellon professors serve two consecutive years and pursue independent research at CASVA while collaborating in scholarly exchanges with the Mellon senior curator and Mellon head of scientific research.

Elizabeth Hill Boone serves as professor and Martha and Donald Robertson Chair in Latin American Art at Tulane University. An expert in Latin American art, Professor Boone has earned numerous honors and fellowships, including the Order of the Aztec Eagle from the United States of Mexico and the Avery Prize for best book on Latin American art from the Association for Latin American Art in 2001. Her most recent book, Cycles of Time and Meaning in the Mexican Books of Fate (2007), explores how pre-contact Mesoamericans used pictographic calendars to guide their decisions in life. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas in 1977.

In June 1921, Gerald and Sara Murphy and their three children sailed to France. They planned a tour of European gardens related to Gerald's study of landscape architecture. But in Europe, instead of grand gardens, the couple found fecund ground for personal reinvention.

In Paris, Gerald became captivated by cubism. " was a shock of recognition which put me into an entirely new orbit," he said after visiting avant-garde art galleries. He rapidly gained fame as a distinctly American cubist painter, developing in seven years a small body of paintings now regarded as major works of American modernism.

At the same time, he and Sara enthralled their new artist friends with their genius for transforming daily life into art. Fernand Léger's watercolors chronicled their summers on the Cote d'Azur. Pablo Picasso celebrated their seaside idylls with drawings that rendered Sara and her companions as classical figures.

On both sides of the Atlantic, the Murphys' gift for friendships encouraged artistic breakthroughs and inspired major literary works by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Archibald MacLeish, and John Dos Passos. "Many of their friends remembered their time with the Murphys as the best years of their lives," says Deborah Rothschild, senior curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Williams College Museum of Art.

Rothschild has created the first exhibition to explore the pivotal contribution of the Murphys to the emergence of modernism, "aking It New: The Art and Style of Sara and Gerald Murphy." The NEH-funded exhibition opens July 8 at the Williams College Museum of Art in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and later will travel to the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven and the Dallas Museum of Art.

The exhibition juxtaposes more than eighty artworks with approximately two hundred pieces of memorabilia. Amid paintings by Gerald, Picasso, Leger, Juan Gris, Le Corbusier, and others are manuscripts, letters, home movies, and photographs of family and friends.

Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman today issued a Final Determination to decline acknowledgment of the Federal Acknowledgment Process petitioner known as the Steilacoom Tribe of Indians (STI), located in Steilacoom, Wash., as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal law. The petitioner has 612 members.

Under 25 CFR Part 83, the regulations that govern the Federal Acknowledgment Process, failure by a petitioning group to meet seven mandatory criteria will result in the group not being acknowledged as an Indian tribe. The available evidence demonstrates that this petitioner does not meet four of the seven mandatory criteria as set forth in 25 CFR Part 83.7.

The STI claims to have descended as a group from the historical Steilacoom Indian tribe that occupied territory in the western part of Washington State. The STI claims its ancestors signed the Medicine Creek Treaty in 1854 and that its ancestors resided briefly on the reservations created by the treaty. The STI further contends that some of these Indians left the reservations, settled in "community pockets" in their traditional homelands, and formed an unbroken line of leadership and a continuous community existence to the present. The available evidence does not support these claims showing only that three of the STI members descend from individuals identified in historical documents as Steilacoom Indians. The evidence also did not demonstrate that the STI maintained a distinct community from historical times to the present, or that there was such a group that maintained political influence over its members.

The four criteria the petitioner does not meet are criteria 83.7(a), 83.7(b), 83.7(c) and 83.7(e).

Criterion 83.7(a) requires that external observers have identified the petitioner as an American Indian entity on a substantially continuous basis since 1900. The available evidence demonstrates that external observers identified the petitioner as an American Indian entity on a substantially continuous basis only since 1974.

Criterion 83.7(b) requires that a predominant portion of the petitioning group has comprised a distinct community since historical times. The available evidence does not demonstrate this.

Criterion 83.7(c) requires that the petitioning group has maintained political influence over its members as an autonomous entity since historical times. The available evidence does not demonstrate this.

Criterion 83.7(e) requires that a petitioner's members descend from a historical Indian tribe. Over 90 percent of the STI's 612 members documented that they are Indian descendants, but only three of them document descent from persons described as Steilacoom Indians in 19th and early 20th century documents. Most of the STI members descend from other Indians in the Pacific Northwest or from Métis people from the Red River Valley in Manitoba, Canada.

The three criteria the petitioner does meet are criteria 83.7(d), 83.7(f) and 83.7(g). Criterion 83.7(d) requires that the petitioner provide a copy of its governing document. Criterion 83.7(f) requires that the petitioner's membership be composed principally of persons who are not members of another Federally recognized tribe. Criterion 83.7(g) requires that the petitioner not be subject to legislation forbidding the Federal relationship.

This Final Determination follows a review of petitioner and public comments on the Department's Proposed Finding issued on January 14, 2000. The Final Determination will become effective 90 days after its publication as a notice in the Federal Register unless any interested party requests reconsideration with the Interior Board of Indian Appeals (IBIA).

In the past one hundred years, Irish painting has changed from a British-influenced lyrical tradition to an art that evokes the ruggedness and roots of an Irish Celtic past. Along this journey, it absorbed elements from European painting to become an art that draws strength from ancient Celtic myths to confront the deep political and social divisions and violence in Ireland today.

When Time Began to Rant and Rage: Figurative Painting from Twentieth-Century Ireland, a new exhibition opening at the Berkeley Art Museum at the University of California, examines the complicated evolution of modern Irish painting.

Irish painting today grew directly out of the movement that gripped Ireland's writers, artists, and intellectuals at the end of the nineteenth century as Ireland's nationalist heart began to beat. The movement had its beginnings in the cultural veneration of Celtic Ireland, which provided the greatest sense of contrast to English culture.

It was in a climate of cultural resurgence and the desire for nationhood that distinct threads emerged in Irish painting at the turn of the century. Before 1900 there was little that was truly Irish in Irish painting. But after 1900, as nationalist energies began to coalesce and gather strength, the revived interest in the Irish language and in Irish culture led to a revival in the Irish visual arts.

Painting and coating workers typically work indoors and may be exposed to dangerous fumes from paint and coating solutions, although in general, workers’ exposure to hazardous chemicals has decreased because of regulations limiting emissions of volatile organic compounds and other hazardous air pollutants. Painting usually is done in special ventilated booths with workers typically wearing masks or respirators that cover their noses and mouths. More sophisticated paint booths and fresh-air systems are increasingly used to provide a safer work environment.

Operators have to stand for long periods, and when using a spray gun, they may have to bend, stoop, or crouch in uncomfortable positions to reach different parts of the article. Some painters work suspended from ropes to reach high places.

Most painting and coating workers work a normal 40-hour week, but automotive painters in repair shops can work more than 50 hours a week, depending on the number of vehicles that need repainting.

The visual arts are art forms that focus on the formation of works which are primarily visual in nature, such as painting, photography, printmaking, and filmmaking. Those that involve three-dimensional objects, such as statue and architecture, are called plastic arts. Many artistic disciplines involve aspect of the visual arts as well as other types, so these definitions are not strict.

The current usage of the term visual arts includes fine arts as well as crafts, but this was not forever the case. Before the Arts and Crafts movement in Britain and elsewhere at the turn of the 20th century, visual artist referred to a human being working in the fine arts and not the handicraft, craft, or applied art disciplines. The distinction was emphasized by artists of the Arts and Crafts movement who valued vernacular art forms as much as high forms. The movement contrast with modernists who sought to withhold the high arts from the masses by keeping them esoteric. Art schools made a distinction among the fine arts and the crafts in such a way that a craftsperson could not be considered a practitioner of art.

Drawing is a visual art which makes utilize of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoals, chalk, pastels, markers, stylus, or various metals like silverpoint. An artist who practices or mechanism in drawing may be referred to as a draftsman or draughtsman.

A small amount of material is unrestricted onto the two dimensional medium which leaves a visible mark - the process is similar to that of painting. The most common maintain for drawing is paper, although other materials such as cardboard, plastic, leather, canvas and board, may be used. Temporary drawings may be made on a blackboard or whiteboard, or indeed roughly anything. The medium has also become popular as a means of public phrase via graffiti art, because of the easy availability of permanent markers.

With plenty of artwork is available online today, art lover's use this newfound market to protected masterpieces and home decor art at incredible prices. If you love to buy art, the Internet can be a valuable resource, saving you time and money. But first, learn to shop for art online sensibly and be careful when choosing artwork. Use these tips to locate quality artwork while keeping spending to a minimum.

Discover New Artists

The Internet offers a great opportunity to find out artwork and discover new artists. Use the power of search to find hundreds of artists. Then surf through their available paintings to find the styles that application to you. Ask questions about the artists by email or phone. Keep in mind that there are thousands of new artists who are very brilliant Some original paintings by new artists can increase in value tremendously over time, as the artist becomes superior known in the art world. Use search engines to find art by certain keywords such as: artist name, type of art (landscapes, people, antiques, flowers, children, animals), date or time period of artwork, and medium (watercolor, acrylic, oil).

Online Tools to See the Scale of the Painting

Use Web tools that enable you to see the actual size and scale of a painting and how it would look in a room on a wall. Some websites provide these tools to help art buyers see how the artwork would look on their wall. They can choose different wall colors, frames, matting, and a variety of sizes to get a feel for how the art would complement their own home.


Authentication - Is It Important?

Buying art online is similar to buying jewelry or any other high-ticket retail item. Whether authentication is important or not is actually up to you as the buyer. A good rule of thumb is if you plan to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a piece of art for investment purposes, then you'll want to be certain it's authentic. Use an authenticity service that you feel comfortable with and make sure the painting is not a reproduction or digital reproduction.

Visit Local Galleries

You can also find great new artists and ideas by visiting your limited art galleries. Take pen and paper with you to write down artists or the names of paintings that grasp your eye. Then go online to search for these artists to see their other paintings. Always check out online art retailers through the Better Business Bureau (BBB) Online to be sure the companies are responsible.

Painting taken factually is the practice of applying color balanced in a vehicle and a binding agent to a surface such as paper, canvas, wood panel or a wall. On the other hand, when used in an inspired sense it means the use of this activity in combination with drawing, composition and extra artistic considerations in order to manifest the expressive and conceptual meaning of the practitioner. Painting is also used to state sacred motifs and ideas.

Colour is the essence of painting as noise is of music. Colour is highly subjective, but has apparent emotional effects, although these can differ from one civilization to the next. Black is associated with grief in the West, but elsewhere white may be. Some painters, theoreticians, writers and scientists, including Goethe, Kandinsky, Newton, have written their own colour theory. Furthermore the use of language is only a generalisation for a colour equivalent. The word red, for example, can cover a wide range of variations on the unadulterated red of the spectrum. There is not a formalised register of different colours in the way that there is conformity on unusual notes in music, such as C or C#, although the Pantone system is widely used in the printing.

Some modern painters incorporate unusual materials such as sand, cement, straw or wood for their texture. Modern and contemporary art has moved away from the historic value of craft in favour of thought; this has led some to say that painting, as a serious art form, is dead, although this has not deterred the greater part of artists from continuing to practice it either as whole or part of their shirt.

Traditional African arts are often unusual and abstract. Sculptures of human figures may have out of proportion elements such as an over-sized head coupled with a tiny body form. To understand the art, it must be remembered that the majority was made for sacred purposes. The artist was not interested in the beauty of the subject in a Western European sense but instead the work would have a deeper meaning that was based on a religious belief.

Most African tribal religions are based on one all-powerful God and ancestor worship being a major key part of the belief. As God could not be represented in an artistic work then statues and carvings were made of ancestors. Realism was not an important factor or even a consideration. The most important aspect to the work would be the artists ability to bring a life-force into the sculpture that came direct from God. In this way the spirits of the ancestors could occupy the statues and only then would the artist have created a successful sculpture.

In addition to the ancestral figure sculptures another important African art form is the mask. Again, the mask was carved for religious purposes and usually destroyed after use. This is one of the reasons why so little ancient African art has survived. Of course another reason is due to the nature of the materials that were used in the sculptures. Clay and wood were the most common and unlikely to live on over a long period of time.

The earliest known African sculptures come from Nigeria. Between the years 1100 AD and 1300AD Nigerian civilization flourished and many beautiful terrocotta sculptures have been discovered and are suprisingly lifelike. African Arts had a considerable influence on Western Art. Most notable would be the work of Picasso. The inspiration of African masks and sculptures and the shapes partly inspired cubism and other abstact art forms.