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DETAILOF CAROLINA, 2006, OILONCANVAS, 22 X 20 IN.

THISISAREPRINTOFTHEARTICLETHATAPPEAREDINTHE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER2006 ISSUEOFFINE ARTCONNOISSEUR (P. 64-69).


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64 FINE ART CONNOISSEUR.COM | September/October 2006


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NEW YORK

Jacob CollinsA Classical Realist Who Thinks Ahead

By RACHEL WOLF

I have been occupied or some time past with a workwhich is o immeasurable greatness. I cannot tell todaywhether I shall bring it to a close. It has the appearance

o a gigantic dream... Teodor Herzl, 1895

September/October 2006 | FINE ART CONNOISSEUR.COM 6

JACOB COLLINS COULD BE SAID O BE as much o animpossible dreamer as Teodor Herzl (1860-1904) was the yearbeore he published his 1896 treatise outlining his vision torestore a Jewish state in the ancient homeland. Collins desiresnothing less than to revive a classical art culture in our time. Heis working with artists o every disciplinein his own words,going back to fnd the larger organizational principles o art.Te critic Gregory J. Peterson has described Collins as beingat the oreront o the contemporary realism, and many in the

art world today agree.

1

Te respect that Collins has won in hisnative New York and beyond is demonstrated by the high priceshis modestly scaled works command. His 2004 exhibitionat Hirschl & Adler Modern on the Upper East Side sold outquickly, and an upcoming show o recent works there (October5-November 4) has generated an unusual degree o anticipationin his urbane city.Born in 1964 and raised in Manhattan, Collins developed anartistic vision very early. As a child he sketched pictures bysuch Old Masters as Vermeer, Velazquez, and Rembrandt inthe Metropolitan Museum o Art under the watchul eye o hisgrandmother, Alma Binion Cahn Schapiro, who trained as an

artist in Paris. His love or, and skill in, classicism was nourishedby his amily (his great-uncle was the renowned art historianand critic Meyer Schapiro), yet his set o concerns did not seemto have much currency in Collinss own generation. Undaunted,he pursued his passion, attending the New York Studio Schooland Columbia College in New York. In 1987, he enrolled in theNew York Academy o Art to learn Old Master techniques, thenmoved to LEcole Albert Deois in France.Collinss frst solo show took place in 1990 at the Union Leaguein New York and since then he has presented approximately 20solo shows and numerous group exhibitions at galleries in the


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U.S., Europe, and Canada. He has been commissioned topaint portraits o such personalities as J. Paul Getty Ir.,George H.W. Bush, and Chie Justice Warren Burger, andhi s work is already in the collections o several American

museums and institutions.Te show opening this October at Hirschl & Adlerconstitutes a new gauntlet that Collins has thrown downor himsel. As a traditional painter, I would always tryto paint all the traditional subjects such as portraits,landscapes, and stilllies, with the occasional interiorscene [as seen in the 2004 show]. But aer the last show,it seemed that it would be a challenge to do a show thatwas entirely one genre, and particularly challenging andgratiying to do the hardest onethe fgure. So I threwmysel into this show. In the past, I had a little eelingthat I always had an outletthat is, to work on dierent

things, to break it up. Tis time I had to really ocus in.Collins thought that having a thematic center would carrythe show, and would make it more riveting, more deeplyinvolving, and add an intensity to the visitors experience.Ive been thinking in the last couple years, he says, thatthe classical tradition is all about the fgure aer al1.

As oen happens, Collins did not pursue success, butsuccess ound him as he pursued both his personalpassion and a passion or a greater cause. Tat cause rightnow is to create, working alongside others, an institutional

center or this movement that eels very vigorous andrea1. Looking to classical Greek art culture, as well as toother academic periods such as the Renaissance and the19th century, Collins understands that in the classical wayo thinking there is a dynamic interrelationship amongthe arts. Oen the same person was both an architectand a sculptor. During the Renaissance, paintings werenot merely independent decorations on walls; they weremade to ft into the architecture.In this spirit, Collins has been involved in ounding twoschoolsthe frst ormal initiatives toward his vision o arenewed art culture. His Water Street Atelier is no longer

on Water Street in Brooklyn, but rather on the Upper EastSide, where Collins continues to teach approximately 12young artists in a studio attached to his home. Tis modeo instruction derives rom the long tradition in whichstudents learned in the studio o a particular painter,where they would ully grasp that painters cra and

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ideas beore developing their own. Trough Water Street,Collins has taught such talented and productive artistsas Juliette Aristides, Nora Daniel, Edward Mino andNicholas Raynolds.Te latest project, Te Grand Central Academy o Art,is a venture that Collins and a group o like-minded

ellow artists have started in close cooperation with theInstitute o Classical Architecture & Classical America.Te academy centers on a rigorous program that startswith students drawing rom a superb collection o plastercasts donated to the institute recently by the MetropolitanMuseum o Art, then onward to fgure drawing andpainting, including classes in technical perspective,anatomy, and art history. Te academy will oer its frstcourses in September.New York is already a place o many artists, as well asamateurs, collectors, dealers, and writers who have similarideals. Tere only needs to be a nexus or these people to

coalesce, says Collins. (See the sidebar or more on theacademy.) By contrast, Collins regards the contemporaryart world almost as i its practitioners, isolated rom eachother, are wandering in a sort o cultural diaspora. He eelsthat the art culture o today has been impoverished by therejection o an ideal o beauty, an interest in appearancesto the exclusion o orm, and a pursuit o the mundane.He is, thereore, dedicated to changing the culture o theart world in undamental and enduring ways.Teodor Herzls impossible dream came to ruition in amere 50 years. With time and dedication, Jacob Collinsmay very well achieve his dream. In the meantime, heoers a signifcant voice, broadening and enriching theart scene in New York and beyond.

RACHEL WOLF is contributing writer forFine Art Connoisseur.

Galleries: Represented exclusively by Hirschl & Adler Modern,New York, with a proessional relationship with John PenceGallery, San Francisco.Website:jacobcollinspaintings.com

1 Gregory J. Peterson at www.artcritical.com/peterson/GPCollins.htm (July 2004).

Looking to the FutureThe Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America(ICA&CA) has just launched The Grand Central Academy ofArt, a program of progressive instruction in painting and drawing

conceived by exhibiting artists to enliven the institutes mission ofadvancing the classical tradition in architecture, urbanism, and theallied arts. Academy students work in a 2,700-squarefoot suiteof studios on the skylit sixth floor of the institutes headquartersin the landmark General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmenbuilding (20 West 44th Street in midtown Manhattan).Faculty member Michael Grimaldi says that the curriculumcenters on the three-year, full-time Intensive Program, in whichstudents gain an objective understanding of visual phenomenaand the classical principles of form, design, and practice. Eveningand weekend classes are offered for artists of varying skill, asare public symposia and lectures on the humanistic impulses

that have always enlivened classicism.ICA&CA President Paul Gunther notes, In the middle of the 20thcentury, the classical tradition in art was at a low ebb. Today,interest in realist art among students and in the marketplaceis resurgent across a broad spectrum of media and thematiccontent. Academy co-founder Jacob Collins observes thatThere are many practitioners today across the country andin Europe who have been attempting this revival of classicaltraining. Yet the major American institutions of art have notparticipated in this change. There are also growing numbersof commercial art galleries devoted to the careers of classicalrealists. ICA&CA Education Director Victor Deupi adds that

The board, staff, and growing national constituency of theinstitute gratefully acknowledge the Morris and Alma SchapiroFund for making possible this auspicious new cornerstone of theinstitutes academic program.In addition, ICA&CA recently announced the establishmentof the Alma Schapiro Prize, a fellowship at the AmericanAcademy in Rome (AAR) for a distinguished American studentor professional with demonstrable commitment to the classicaltradition and its contemporary practice in painting and sculpture.Starting in autumn 2007, it will be offered in years alternatingwith the institutes RiegerGraham Prize, which sent its firstarchitect fellow, Tiffany Abernathy, to the AAR this September.

Applications must be received by November 15, 2006. Theendowment supporting the prize is made possible by a grantfrom the Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund. Fund President LindaS. Collins observes that Alma Schapiro would be happy thisprize has been instituted in part because she herself was sentto Paris, instead of college, by her art-loving mother to study atthe Acadmie de la Grande Chaumire and the Acadmie Julianwhen she was scarcely 20 years old. She worked in Paris fora year and a half and made a trip to Belle le and another toItaly. She often spoke of her first glimpses of Michelangelo, FraAngelico, and Piero della Francesca.

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