Tony Berlant

Last updated
Tony Berlant
Born
Anthony Hanna Berlant

1941 (age 8283)
New York City, U.S.
Education University of California, Los Angeles (BA, MA, MFA)
OccupationArtist
Years active1970–present
Spouse
Helen Méndez
(m. 1985)
Children Kate Berlant
Baba's Door by Tony Berlant, Spalding House, Honolulu, collaged metal, 1988 'Baba's Door', side door of Spalding House by Tony Berlant, 1988.jpg
Baba's Door by Tony Berlant, Spalding House, Honolulu, collaged metal, 1988

Anthony Hanna Berlant (born 1941) is an American artist who was born in New York City. He attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where he received a BA (1961) and MA (1962) in painting and an MFA (1963) in sculpture. He has a large collection of Southwestern Native American art, especially Mimbres pottery and Navajo rugs. [1] He lives and works in Santa Monica, California.

Contents

Work

Berlant became known for his collages of found metal objects. More recently, he has used tin of his own manufacture, gaining control over the color. [1]

Mimbres pottery collection

Berlant was a founding member of the Mimbres Foundation, a Los Angeles-based archaeological conservancy attempting to protect vulnerable Mimbres sites. [2] The Mimbres Foundation also assembled the first photographic archive of all known Mimbres figurative pottery. This archive is currently maintained by the University of New Mexico. [3] Parts of the archive are available online. [4]

Berlant worked with archaeologist Steven A. LeBlanc and others in attempts to attribute Mimbres painted pottery to specific (but still anonymous) Native artists. Berlant and LeBlanc found that (in their opinions) a relatively small number of Mimbres artists made the majority of the ancient pottery, perhaps as few as 2 or 3 artists per village at any given time. [3] Berlant identified one prolific artist he called the "Rabbit Master," who painted rabbits in Figure-ground reversal. Examples are given in a later paper by Russell and Hegmon, which gives examples and photos of other ancient Mimbreño artists' work. [5]

Collections

Personal life

He met performer, Helen Méndez, in a party in Detroit, in the 1970s, ten years later they met again in Los Angeles, and he recognized her immediately, the two married in 1985. [11] Their daughter is Kate Berlant. [12]

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References

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 Honolulu Museum of Art, Spalding House: Self-guided Tour, Sculpture Garden, 2014, p. 2.
  2. J. J. Brody, Mimbres painted pottery. 1977, Santa fe, School of American Research. ISBN   0826304524
  3. 1 2 Stephen A. LeBlanc, Painted by a Distant Hand: Mimbres Pottery from the American Southwest, Peabody Museum Collection Series, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University. 2004
  4. Mimbres Pottery Images Digital Database
  5. Russell, Will G.; Hegmon, Michelle Advances in Archaeological Practice, Volume 3, Number 4, November 2015, pp. 358-377.(20) Publisher: Society for American Archaeology. Full text copy (including photos): [ dead link ]
  6. "Tony Berlant".
  7. "Homage to Lenny | LACMA Collections".
  8. "Tony Berlant".
  9. "Philadelphia Museum of Art - Collections Object: Venus".
  10. "Tony Berlant".
  11. Swann, Jennifer (September 20, 2018). "Artist Tony Berlant and Daughter, Comedian Kate Berlant, Get Personal". LA Magazine.
  12. "Kate Berlant and John Early's Escape from Comic Realism". The New Yorker .