Colonial Williamsburg Collaborates with Benjamin Moore
Up to now, Enfilade has reported on The Met’s relationship with Farrow & Ball and The Cleveland Museum of Art’s relationship with Glidden. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has just launched an alliance in the other direction with Benjamin Moore. My hunch is that color consultant Patrick Baty (interviewed for Enfilade in 2011 by Courtney Barnes), will see the range as emphatically leaning toward ‘trend’ rather than ‘tradition’. And yet, there are some lovely drab hues with charming names. -CH
Press release (16 May 2013) from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation . . .
Benjamin Moore, one of North America’s most respected paint manufacturers and color authorities, has joined with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s Williamsburg brand to launch the Williamsburg® Color Collection by Benjamin Moore – an assortment of paint colors authentically rooted in the history of our nation and its founding. The new, 144-color palette represents a unique intersection of history, science and design that reflects actual colors that existed in the 18th and 19th century, brought to customers through the most advanced paint technology in the industry from Benjamin Moore.
“This work showcases the close collaboration between two firms steeped in a rich heritage, both having passion for bringing history into the home,” said Carl Minchew, Benjamin Moore’s vice president of color innovation and design. “The Williamsburg® Color Collection by Benjamin Moore offers our customers beautiful shades in a palette of amazing, accurate colors that are as stylish today as they were 250 years ago.”
Colonial Williamsburg’s unparalleled research team of historians and conservators examined period documents, paint samples, wallpaper and architectural fragments that led to fresh and unexpected color findings. The Benjamin Moore team then carefully studied pigment compositions in order to precisely match these colors using the latest scientific methods to ensure the highest degree of authenticity to the original hues. As a result, the Williamsburg® Color Collection by Benjamin Moore presents vibrant yet complex shades as they appeared more than 250 years ago that can be effortlessly incorporated into the modern home.
“It has been very exciting to work with Benjamin Moore developing a paint palette based on historic precedent,” said Matthew Webster, director of the Grainger Department of Historic Architectural Resources for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. “Together we developed the colors using almost 90 years of paint research and an understanding of historic production methods creating a palette that embodies the Williamsburg ‘trend meets tradition’ theme. It’s personally satisfying to see research become reality with a palette that is consistent with colors that would have been found in the 18th century.”
Workshop | Synergies: The Role of Collectors, Critics, Curators
From the The University of York:
Synergies: The Role of Collectors, Critics, and Curators in Artistic Practice, c. 1780-1914
Humanities Research Centre, The University of York, 26 June 2013
In May 1884 the art critic Marion Harry Spielmann wrote in defence of the often criticised profession of art criticism: ‘The critic – (I am not now referring to the mere notice writer of daily journalism) – spends his life in devotion not only to art but to artists: and, so far as public recognition is concerned, he reaps his reward in sneers and ‘chaff’: sneers from painters, thoughtless and irresponsible, like Mr Whistler; indifference from others less splenetic and querulous’. Spielmann, a prolific author, editor and arts administrator, was an advocate for and close friend of numerous contemporary artists. Along with the collectors and curators whom he frequently worked with and wrote about, he was an active and influential participant in contemporary art practice in late-Victorian London.
Relationships between artists, collectors, critics and curators are often considered in isolation but rarely in tandem. Drawing upon a diverse range of case studies, covering a variety of local and global contexts, this afternoon workshop aims to unpick consistencies, changes and crossovers in the sometimes fraught but often productive relationships between artists, collectors, critics and curators in the long nineteenth century. By bringing together students, early-career researchers and established academics and curators, we hope to provide an informal but stimulating forum for conversation, debate and interdisciplinary exchange about the nineteenth-century art world and its constituents.
Admission is free, but places are limited. Please email collectorscriticscurators2013@gmail.com to register.
Conference | Sensing the Sacred: Religion and the Senses
From The University of York:
Sensing the Sacred: Religion and the Senses, 1300–1800
The University of York, 21-22 June 2013
Keynote addresses from Chris Woolgar (University of Southampton), Nicky Hallett (University of Sheffield), and Matthew Milner (McGill University)
Religion has always been characterised as much by embodied experience as by abstract theological dispute. From the sounds of the adhān (the Islamic call to prayer), to the smell of incense in the Hindu Pūjā (a ritual offering to the deities), the visual emblem of the cross in the Christian tradition, and the ascetic practices of Theravada Buddhism, sensation is integral to a range of devotional practices. At the same time, the history of many faiths is characterised by an intense suspicion of the senses and the pleasures they offer.
This international, interdisciplinary conference, to be held at the University of York will bring together scholars working on the role played by the senses in the experience and expression of religion and faith in the pre-modern world. The full conference opens on Friday 21st June, but there will be an opportunity to register early on Thursday evening, plus some informal events,
including a Workshop for Postgraduates and a walking tour of
York; see the programme for details.
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