From the editorial board of Ville Giardini –
The Angel Academy of Art, the academy that collects the legacy of the great artists of the past in the heart of Florence, opens its doors to the city from 26 to 28 May 2023 . For the first time in a long time, the art academy, founded by Michael John Angel , a pupil of Pietro Annigoni , is once again exhibiting the works created by his students to the public, in a collective exhibition which will be inaugurated on Friday 26 May from 18.30 to 20.30. The exhibition will also remain open on Saturday 27 from 10 to 17 and Sunday 28 from 10 to 14. Admission is free.
The students of the Angel Academy of Art, including some young students who have recently graduated, present the results of their academic career, divided into a three-year program. Coming from many countries including the United States, India, Saudi Arabia, Jamaica, Finland, Germany, China, the Philippines, Australia, Mexico and many states of the USA, including Hawaii, these young artists exhibit works worthy of the ancient art academies: still life and oil paintings that recreate a perfect illusion of reality, studies and drawings made from three-dimensional plaster casts, portraits born from the observation of live models, in pencil and charcoal, as well as copies of famous works. Works created with traditional and secular artistic techniques, but capable of best expressing the contemporary.
Yushan Zhu, cast drawing on Roma paper
Kirk Liu, color cast painting
In the darkened rooms of the academy, which recall in all respects those of the artist’s studios of the past, the students work every day to train at a professional level in the field of figurative painting, learning the same methods that were used in the workshops of the Renaissance and in the ateliers until the 19th century. The Angel Academy of Art is in fact one of the most important academies between Europe and North America to teach them. It was founded in 1997 by Lynne Barton and Michael John Angel, an internationally renowned artist whose paintings and portraits are exhibited in public and private collections throughout the United States of America and around the world.
Xianbo Wei, Bargue drawing: the Belvedere torso
Chris Arnol, Seneca, Charcoal on roma paper
Born in England in 1946, Angel moved first to Canada, then permanently to Italy, and at the end of the 1960s he was a pupil of Pietro Annigoni, precisely during the period in which the latter was busy making portraits of the Shah of Persia, of Farah Diba and the second portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery in London. Studying under Annigoni’s wing, Michael John Angel learns how the methods with which figurative painting had been taught and handed down for centuries had almost disappeared, supplanted in the twentieth century by abstractionism and conceptual art. For forty-five years, therefore, he devoted himself to extensive research, until he was able to rigorously reconstruct these methods. Now, The Angel Academy of Art teaches them to a great many young people every year.
Stephanie Honrado, St. Gerome, Oil on canvas
Venkat Subramanian, Portrait copy after V. Fusconi, Charcoal on Roma paper
After more than a century of decline, also thanks to the Florentine academy founded by Lynne Barton and Michael John Angel, classical painting is once again taking on a prominent role on the world art scene.
Shaoli Huang, Master Copy of Josep M. Tamburini, oil on linen
Cameron Copley-Heissig, Commander Cruz, Oil on canvas
The artists featured in the exhibition are Adam Maguire, Aiko Narissara Yeung, Alejandra
Calatayud, Cameron Copley-Heissig, Cameron Hughes, Chris Arnol, Ding Bei, Dylan Frusher, Elin Nguyen, Guanghui Hou, Ibrahim Al Harbi, Jered Woznicki, Joseph Swanek, Juri Renko, Kaylie Marceca, Kirk Liu, Krasimir Marinov, Maanyaa Hathiwala, Malia Barreras-Float, Mansueta D’Souza, Mei Mei Zhou, Paul Farquharson, Petar Kovachev, Robert Bazi, Saiqun Liu, Salvatore Fichera, Sam Walker, Samuel Hegetschweiler, Shaoli Huang, Stanley Szewczyk, Stephanie Honrado, Terje Eriksen, Valerio Testa, Venkat Subramanian, Xianbo Wei, Xiao Jun Lin, Yushan Zhu.
Above: Kaylie Ames Marceca, Home For Tea, oil on canvas
Left: Valerio Testa, Green vase and plums, Oil on canvas
Exhibition times (free admission)
Friday 26 May from 18.30 to 20.30
Saturday 27 May from 10 to 17
Sunday 28 May from 10 to 14
Angel Academy of Art
Via Nardo di Cione 10
Florence 50121, Italy
Tel./Fax: +39 055 2466737
email: info @AngelAcademyofArt.com
www.angelacademyofart.com
