Visual Art League of Lewisville

JoAnn Vincent: Oct. 2004

October 1st, 2004

A presentation by JoAnn Vincent on the works of the Russian Impressionist, Sergei Bongart. We invite you to join us for this presentation on October 5 at 7 p.m. Sergei Bongart is considered one of the most influential artists and teachers of the 20th century. His legendary painting workshops were attended by the elite of artists currently working in America today. His work has the emotional quality of Russian Realism tempered by the light and brilliance of Impressionism. He has been described as “flamboyant, colorful, an ardent spirit, a poet, now sensual, now spiritual.” His work is in prominent museums, and has received many awards, including a Golf Medal from the national Cowboy Hall of Fame.

Sergei Bongart (1918-1985) was born in the Ukraine, and studied art in his native city of Kiev, as well as in Prague, Vienna and Munich. In 1948, he emigrated to the U. S. and spent much time painting in California. In addition to a slide presentation, a photo album of his work will be shown so everyone will leave feeling like they know the artist. Also, information is available about the new release of a book written about the artist by Mary Balcomb, for those who are interested in learning more. It has gotten rave reviews.

JoAnn Vincent, VAL member will be giving the presentation on Sergei Bongart. JoAnn has been interested in art all of her life it seems. She started working with oils in high school and began selling paintings in 1975. JoAnn attended 3 colleges for art classes, including the Valdes School of Art in Santa Fe and has attended several week-long workshops at such places as the Hill Country Arts Foundation. She has studied with internationally known artists Kevin McPherson and Joe Anna Arnett, also Ann Templeton, Lee Rommel, and several others. JoAnn’s introduction to Sergei Bongart came from a friend and artist, Marilyn Yates, in Santa Fe. She studied with artist and teacher, Van Waldron, in California for 7 yrs. Van was slated to become a teacher in Sergei’s schools of art in Idaho and Santa Monica, CA.

He took lots and lots of slides and photos of Sergei’s work to study his methods. He sent some of them to Marilyn and she in turn sent me (duplicates). JoAnn remembers, “One day I said to Marilyn, I think I have enough information to do a demo on Sergei.” and her friend sent her even more information plus two tapes on him. “Now I could hear him speak with his Russian accent and felt like I knew him better. He was a great teacher and a fascinating man and I feel he deserves to be remembered. It’s been an intriguing walk through his life with all of this information on him. I hope our members and friends will enjoy the journey from Russia to America as much as I have.”

Featured on the top-left are two of Sergei Bongart’s works: “Girl with Red Shawl” and “In the Galleries”. The image on the top is a detail of “Russian Shawls”.

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