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Artist Statement:
All moments in art, as well as
time, converge in my
conceptual realm of
creativity. Paintings are mere
hues of random energies upon
which we impose our vague
sense of form and design; an
expression of linear scheme of
timeless events in an
arrangement of color,
textures, and visual
densities.
...
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Artist Exhibitions:
McClanahan has just been
selected to exhibit three
paintings for the Arts in
Embassy Program at the
American Embassy at Yaounde,
Republic of Cameroon. The
painting will be on exhibit in
the US Embassy from 2010
through 2013.
Arts in Embassy Program select
three works by McClanahan to
be on ...
Further Information
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Artist Galleries:
Galeria Atenea,
Jesus < 2
San Miguel de Allende,
Gto.; Mexico 37700
Tel: 01 (415) 2-07-85
Fax: 01 (415) 2-26-47
Heights Gallery
5801 Kavanaugh Blvd.
Little Rock,
Arkansas 72207
Tel: 501-664-2772...
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Collections:
Twin City Bank, N.Little Rock,
Arkansas, USA
USS Arkansas CGN41, Nuclear
Cruiser, USA
Arkansas Cardiology Clinic,
Little Rock, Arkansas, USA
First National Bank, Little
Rock, Arkansas, USA
Carrier Corporation, USA
Rebsamen Insurance, USA
Simpson Press, USA
Actress July Furlong, Mexico
City, Mexico
Mr. Isaac Uribe Romo, San
Miguel de ...
Further Information
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Commissions:
Coming Soon!
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Reviews for William M. Mcclanahan:
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Article printed in ATENCION paper, San Miguel de Allende, Gto, Mexico,Friday, July 3, 2009:
William McClanahan: a visual diplomat
by Janice Zimolzak
Original works of art created by US citizens are on display in a global museum that extends throughout the public rooms of more than 180 US diplomatic residences worldwide. The art, on loan from galleries, museums, corporate and private collections, and individual artists, is intended to "deliver a sense of the quality, scope and diversity of American art and culture to international audiences." The initiative, "ART in Embassies," officially began in 1964 under the auspices of the US State Department.
The State Department and Ambassador Alan Eastham recently selected the work of former San Miguel resident William (Mack) McClanahan to represent American art in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo. Three of McClanahan's paintings will be displayed in the Brazzaville embassy throughout Ambassador Eastham's two-year term, which began in August 2008. McClanahan was awarded the additional privilege of having one of the paintings selected for the cover of the ART in Embassies 2009 brochure.
McClanahan received his master's of fine arts degree at Instituto Allende in the sixties whereby he taught art for 20 years. He is a signature member of the National Watercolor Society and has won several top awards exhibiting in the US and Mexico. He began as an oil painter, then went on to develop skills in acrylics, watercolors and gouache.
He also has to his credit the production of a series of etchings, copper enameling and sculpture. His work has been published in Art in America, Southwest Art, Viaje, and Arkansas Gazette and the Mexico City News.
In 1960, the International Council of MoMA (Museum of Modern Art, NYC) and the Woodward Foundation, established by Stanley Woodward, the former Ambassador to Canada, began a program that circulated 240 works to 19 embassy residences. Woodward reportedly purchased artworks by Rothko, Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein, Hofmann and Motherwell, among others, at prices between US$100 and $50,000.
At the same, the US Information Agency, abranch of the State Department, was developing its own cultural program. Its, initial goal was to have the US represented at the VIII Biennial de Sao Paulo, Brazil. The event cost nearly a half million dollars, a substantial amount of money in the sixties. According to Walter Hopps, the well-known avant-guarde art activist who organized the 1965 exhibition, Lyndon Johnson's administration made huge amounts of funding available for participation in several biennials, including Venice and Sao Paulo.
By 1963, MoMA, the Woodward Foundation and the State Department joined forces to create the ART in Embasssies program. Mrs. Estes Kefauver, an advisor to the government on fine arts, dubbed the program "cultural diplomacy". In 1964, The New York Times reported, "....thousands of Soviet citizens calling at Spaso House, the Moscow residence of Ambassador Foy D. Kohler, to see works by such artists as George Bellows, Jasper Johns and Willem de Kooning".
In New Delhi, paintings by Edward Hopper, Ralston Crawford and Ed Reinhardt drew crowds. Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder and Larry Rivers were among the artists on display at the American Embassy in Madrid. Nearly 40 other embassies worldwide were participants in the program.
ART in Embassies found its legs and now continues to be a driving force in cultural diplomacy, sharing the finest of American Artist Abroad program in 2002, whereby art exhibits are extended beyond the embassies into spaces in the local communities the embassies serve. Participating artists also travel to the countries where their art is exhibited to contribute to public cultural activities through art talks and demonstrations.
McClanahan, along with his partner, artist Elizabeth Bogard, was an annual visitor to San Miguel throughout the 1970's and 1980's, taking up full-time residency in 1987. From that time, McClanahan's work has been represented exclusively by Atenea Gallery. When the pair returned to their native Arkansas in 2005, Atenea Gallery began to share representation with the Heights Gallery in Little Rock. A retrospective of his work will be exhibited at Atenea Gallery,Jesus 2, through July. Gallery hours are 10am-2pm and 4-8pm daily, and 10am-2pm on Thursdays and Sunday.
Punto de VISTA, San Miguel de Allende, MEXICO, June, 2004, Cover, pages 5, 6, and 7........Viewing the works of William McClanahan, even the most casual of observers can't help but immediately be aware that he is a very accomplished painter and that his interestingly diverse subject matter is developed from a broad perspective and unique perception of the world. He draws from the two cultures he lives within to create complex composition which he then skillfully executes in watercolor, acrylic, or oil. Ranging from lush vegetation to landscape, from portraiture to Mayan motif and from realism to abstract.......Janice Zimolzak, Editor.
"Reforma" National News Paper, Mexico City, November 26, 2000.....Page61
Cover, This Month Viaje Magazine, Mexico, April 1998
"San Miguel de Allende Thrives as Art Center" by John Maxim Mexico City The News.........January 23, 1985...Page 16
.......His compositionally complex works are characterized by homogeneous figures embellished by baroque and filigreed forms and objects........McClanahan's works are imaginatively conceived and well executed."
Southwest Art, October 1985.....Page 35
Art in America, March 1984......Page 183
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