June 2003 Archives

7. Library

Our June 2003 Fresco Painting Workshop was exceptionally successful and proved to be a major event in contemporary fresco revival. Each student has completed a fresco that would challenge an artist with prior fresco experience, however for most of our class that was their first one. After over 3 years in operation "Nationwide Fresco Painting Workshop Program" has picked up speed and extended its class length from 2-days to 2-weeks of Buon Fresco Painting running bimonthly in Los Angeles along with workshops scheduled across the nation. During Los Angeles 2-week of Buon Fresco students can pick from several class offers, but our intensive 5-day Professional program is limited to 5-6 people per class. Our next class begins on August 7th (enroll here) and there is only one space left. There is a new highlight of Los Angeles Buon Fresco Weeks - lecture on fresco relocation/restoration Nathan Zakheim, a leading fresco restorer/conservator. iLia Anossov and Mr. Zakheim have joined forces to generate support for a major fresco painting project

The highlight of the June 2003 Professional Fresco Painting Workshop run by fresco artist iLia Anossov and his "Nationwide Fresco Painting Workshop Program" (http://FrescoSchool.com) was a lecture on fresco restoration by leading American Restorer/Conservator Nathan Zakheim. The lecture took place in Mr. Zakheim's studio in Marina Del Rey where 45ft long fresco by Alfred Ramos Martinez is just being delivered and installed for a year long restoration. Unlike many frescoes painted before WW2 which were destroyed or painted over by indifferent or little educated contemporaries this particular fresco was well kept in the high-end restaurant frequented by many celebrities including Marilyn Monroe, who was photographed dining in front of the fresco. However restaurant has suffered a major fire and fresco was damaged. It was decided that after the restoration fresco will be reinstalled in San Diego Public Library. Apparently the "good fortune" of R. Martinez's fresco was not over and it received a second chance in life when Mr. Zakheim took it under his wing and accepted the undertaking to restore and reinstall the masterpiece.

Fresco Workshop students learned from Mr. Zakheim details of restoration process and

Mexican artist Ramos Martinez (1872-1946) studied art at the San Carlos Academy in Mexico City, then spent 14 years in Paris. In 1913 he became director of the San Carlos Academy of Art (now called the National Academy of Fine Arts). He almost immediately founded the first of his Schools of Open Air Painting, which encouraged students to work outdoors in order to more closely observe nature. Muralist David Alfaro Siquieros was one of his first students. The serious bone disease of his only child brought Ramos Martinez and his family to Los Angeles in 1930 in search of specialized medical treatment. He exhibited his paintings in local museums and galleries, and received residential mural commissions from such Hollywood celebrities as screenwriter Jo Swerling, designer Edith Head, and director Alfred Hitchcock. In 1934 he did a set of murals for the chapel of Santa Barbara Cemetery. In 1937 he painted a fresco over the main portal of the Church of Mary, Star of the Sea in La Jolla (in San Diego County). The last project with which he was involved was a panel fresco at the Margaret Fowler Memorial Garden at Scripps College in Claremont, California. Only two of the nine panels were completed before Martinez died in 1946.