OPEN CALL FOR ARTIST SUBMISSIONS

Utopia and Wallpaper: the Real and the Ideal in the Pursuit of Social Democracy

This show will open at the CAS Arts Center in Livingston Manor, NY from October 16 – November 21, 2010.

ABOUT
The Catskill Art Society is planning a theme-based, curated group exhibition entitled Utopia and Wallpaper: the Real and the Ideal in the Pursuit of Social Democracy. This exhibition takes inspiration from the fact that the Livingston Manor Central School houses several amazing 19th century panels (including New York Bay pictured above) from the famous Zuber et Cie wallpaper company, which depict idealized visions of what America was or might become.

With the celebration of the Hudson River’s Quadricentennial, CAS's exhibit plans to connect these images, which were also installed at the White House (purchased by Jacqueline Kennedy), and the history that these events ideally depict.

These panoramic wallpapers were extremely popular in France where there was intense interest in the possibilities of the “New World.” However, artist Jean-Jacques Deltil’s murals of America are absolutely naïve because he never traveled to the New World himself. His fantasy and inspiration for the panels came from second hand experience.

The construction of the school and the installation of the wallpapers correlate directly with the beginnings of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) created by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930’s, which brought a new vision and hope of renewal to America. Although the Vues d’Amerique du Nord panels were created a century before the radical beginnings of the WPA, the optimism and the playing out of dreams of and for America that they both embody speaks resoundingly to the role that art can play as a catalyst for social change.

Although Utopianism contains elements of idealism and romanticism, it is specifically these traits that are essential to envision a different future. Without them, pragmatic change is unlikely. From the French vision of idealized American Life circa 1830’s all the way to the present day – the central theme of the exhibition addresses the confluence of reality, fantasy, Utopianism and the renewing power of the potential of change. Artists submitting to this open call will be asked to respond directly to these wallpaper images and to the implications they embody for the possibility of social democracy, then and now.

This exhibition offers artists the same freedoms and liberties that Deltil assumed, to depict their own views of North America, thus creating a bridge to the future.

HOW TO APPLY
Please submit the following by May 1, 2010 (this is a postmark deadline):

• a description of the project, no more than one page -- a brief resume
• up to 10 JPGs of the proposed project on CD (low resolution images);
• up to 5 JPGs of previous work
• an image list with descriptions

Submissions will not be returned.

Please send submissions to:
CAS Arts Center, c/o Utopia & Wallpaper,
PO Box 991,
Livingston Manor, NY 12758

Email questions to Executive Director, Kathryn Tufano at Kathryn@catskillartsociety.org. Please put “Utopia & Wallpaper” in the subject heading. For more information on the Zuber et Cie wallpaper company, please click on this link, www.zuber.fr
NO PHONE CALLS OR EMAIL SUBMISSIONS PLEASE.

The six Zuber wallpaper murals at Livingston Manor Central School
Click on thumb nails to enlarge the image

Left & Center Panels: Boston Harbor
Right Panel: Natural Bridge, Virginia

Natural Bridge, Virginia

New York Bay (Left Panel)

New York Bay (Right Panel)

Boston Harbor (Left Panel)