Shoppers find it all at 43rd annual Christmas bazaar; Naples-Vegas-Jackson Hole linked by sculpture

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

By Richard Anderson

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Christmas shopping shouldn’t be a solitary pursuit. It should be done in the company of others – great, loud, bustling crowds, preferably with a brass band on every other corner blaring holiday standards, the smells of peppermint, chocolate and roasted chestnuts wafting through the air, and a riot of red, white and green swirling all around.

The closest we come here in Jackson Hole – and it comes pretty darned close – is the Art Association’s Christmas Bazaar, the 43rd annual installment of which takes place 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. on Saturday in Snow King Center. Admission is $2.

Amy Fradley, the Art Association’s new art fair director, has more than 100 vendors lined up. Most are local and regional, with a few from as far off as Oregon. They run the gamut from folksy holiday crafts to fine arts – fused glass by local favorite Charlotte Potter, jewelry by Idahoan Annie Band, photography by bazaar newbie Rob Miles, glass worker Liz Peet, who was named best emerging artist at this summer’s art fairs, and tons more – “a lot of really wonderful artists as well as craftspeople who are not usually participants in fine arts fairs,” Fradley said.

Also present will be a number of nonprofits – Heifer International, Habitat for Humanity, a textile class from Jackson Hole High School selling crocheted hats, the Teton Literacy Program and Trailblazers Foundation, and of course the Teton Valley Humane Society, which over the years has found homes for probably hundreds of formerly stray cats and kittens.

In between bouts on the bazaar floor, harried holiday shoppers can unwind in the Mezzanine Café, where adults can sip hot toddies and peppermint schnapps while the kids make holiday cards or get decorated by henna artist Casey Carroll. Fradley has also promised music for the event, but she was still working on lining up acts.
Fradley said she has a few open booths left for any last minute artists or craftspeople. Call her at 733-6379 for details.

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Today at City National Bank, 10801 W. Charleston Blvd., Las Vegas, nearly two dozen bronze castings taken from original Italian and Roman masterpieces will be unveiled at the official launch of Chiurazzi Worldwide Inc.

You may wonder what that’s got to do with art in the Tetons. The answer is Gale Roberts, a Baggs, Wyo., -born good ’ol boy who did all right in business sometime ago, found himself with an opportunity to invest in a venture, and came to realize he had stumbled upon an invaluable treasure trove of art.

It’s a long, long story worth being told in full some day, but for now these facts will suffice: The Chiurazzi Foundry of Naples was one of Italy’s finest. Founded in 1840 by Gennaro Chiurazzi, it was one a select few authorized by the Italian government to make plaster moulds of thousands of antiquities from Pompeii and Herculaneum, Michelangelo’s “Moses,” the Venus di Milo, Winged Victory, and Bernini’s “Rape or Persephone” (a casting of which was on display on a flatbed truck on West Broadway for much of last winter), among hundreds of others.

At the end of the 19th century, it had a worldwide reputation for craftsmanship, and museums (the Getty, the Field) and private collectors (the Rockefellers, the Rothschilds) paid millions for their original castings.
Leading up to and during World War II, however, the foundry fell on hard times. Many off the skilled craftsmen who had mastered the lost-wax casting method on such large works were killed or fled Italy. While Chiurazzi never went out of business entirely, it did stop making and selling castings and lapsed into semi-obscurity.

Around 2000, the Italian government wanted to redevelop the 16,000-square-meter warehouse where the 100-plus-year-old moulds had been gathering dust. In a government auction, Clemente Setaro won the whole lot for 70,000 Euros, but he didn’t have the capital to actually resurrect the operation.

Enter Gale Robert. While helping to set up a Jackson Hole gallery for Italian sculptor Lorenzo Ghiglieri, he learned of the opportunity to be a silent investor in the mould collection. Roberts is no expert in classical art, but the idea of owning a collection of 120-year-old moulds taken directly from Italian masterpieces sounded a little fishy. Nevertheless, “upon confirming that the investment opportunity was as genuine as the moulds themselves, I made a significant investment,” he said.

Roberts traveled to Italy to inventory the collection and was quickly and “wholeheartedly” won over by the Setaro family’s quest to resurrect the Chiurazzi Foundry and resume production and sale of these masterworks. Long story short, the first couple dozen go on public display today at City National Bank, where they will remain on display through Dec. 31. Several more are on their way.

Roberts admitted to be disappointed and blown away to discover it can take nine to 12 months to make the larger of these original castings. But talking to him, you can hear the awe and wonder in his voice as he describes the works of art.

The process of discovery continues, as there are more than 200 moulds still waiting to be identified. In the meantime, if you should find yourself in Vegas before the end of the year, stop by the bank to glimpse these Italian wonders.

Courtesy
#137 Venere Anadiomene 49cm Bronze Original Las Vegas

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Shoppers find it all at 43rd annual Christmas bazaar; Naples-Vegas-Jackson Hole linked by sculpture | Planet JH News Article: Arts Beat

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