Arts Talk

By MARY ANN MARGER, JOHN FLEMING and GINA VIVINETTO

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 25, 2001

Works in local collection travel to Met

Two works from the collection of Dr. Gordon and Adele Gilbert -- Hendrick van Vliet's Interior of the New Church, Delft, 1662, and Leonart Bramer's Christ Among the Doctors, ca. 1640 -- are on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in a show titled "Vermeer and the Delft School," March 5 through May 27. In a letter requesting loan of the Van Vliet, Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, states: "The curators of the exhibition consider this canvas one of Van Vliet's finest church interiors."

The show, of 85 works by Vermeer, Pieter de Hooch and other artists who painted in and around Delft, is considered a major exhibition even by Met standards. In the planning since 1992, it was postponed in order to support the Vermeer exhibit in Washington, D.C., in 1995-96. It will have one other venue, the National Gallery in London, later this year.

The Gilberts, avid collectors of 17th century Netherlandish art, are exhibiting Abraham Bloemaert's painting Cain Slaying Abel in a show of Bloemaert's work at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg. They exhibited a significant portion of their collection there in 1991.

Gordon Gilbert is a neurologist; his wife is a semiretired therapist. They live in St. Petersburg.

Composers celebrated

The Tampa Bay Composers' Forum Festival of Living Music is being held this week, with seven events taking place from Wednesday through Saturday at the Palladium Theater in St. Petersburg and the new Music Center at St. Petersburg Junior College. In a nationwide competition, four works were awarded the forum's prize for excellence in chamber music composition.

First prize: Star Crossing for mixed ensemble by Robert Paterson; second prize: Quatre Apercus for mezzo-soprano, clarinet and piano by Gregory Mertl; third prize: Six Degrees of Separation for mixed ensemble by Brooke Joyce; honorable mention: three pieces for flute and guitar by Garrett Byrnes.

Prize winners will be performed in the festival finale at 8 p.m. Saturday at the SPJC Music Center. Tickets: $3 and $5. A pass for all festival events is $20. CallVernon Taranto Jr. at (727) 341-4678; or e-mail tarantov@spjc.edu.

Local music on the dial

Soft rock radio station WBBY-FM 107.3 will broadcast local music from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sundays in its "Sunday Acoustic Brunch" program. Local artists are invited to send compact discs of acoustic music to Annie Sommers, program director, 107.3 the Bay, 11300 Fourth St. N, #318, St. Petersburg, FL 33716.

Fame game

Tampa watercolorist Taylor Ikin will present a solo show, "Antigua Revisited," at Island Arts Gallery in Antigua through March 23. Ikin lived there for 18 years. Works on view will depict the island's past. ... Tampa photographer Rebecca Sexton Larson is exhibiting in "Why Pinhole?" at the Visual Studies Workshop, an internationally recognized center for media studies, in Rochester, N.Y., through April 2. ... University of Tampa professor Gil DeMeza won best of show in an exhibit of 40 faculty artists from Florida private colleges and universities. The show is at Melvin Art Gallery, Florida Southern College, Lakeland. ... Josette Urso of Tampa and New York is exhibiting in a one-person show at Museo de las Americas in San Juan, Puerto Rico, through March 11.

Competition for artists

First Night St. Petersburg seeks proposals by Florida artists for "Street Furniture," temporary installations based on the idea of a public bench, either for the event, Dec. 31, or as an activity culminating on New Year's Eve. Project is funded by a grant from the Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs. Deadline for proposals is June 1. Information: (727) 823-8906.

Art beyond Tampa Bay

"Degas & America: The Early Collectors," High Museum of Art, March 3 through May 27. Works acquired by American collectors as an early response to the French impressionist's work. (404) 733-4400.

- By Times art critic Mary Ann Marger, performing arts critic John Fleming and pop music critic Gina Vivinetto

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