Smithsonian InstitutionTraveling Exhibition Service

Project Title:

"GREAT ICONS OF THE 20th & 21st CENTURIES" by Sidney Randolph Maurer

Project Description:

Mr. Maurer has painted over 325 portraits of the men and women of his timewho, each in their own way, has had a profound impact on the lives of countless others. Scientists, statesmen, actors, artists, musicians, singers and sports figures all experienced some measure of celebrity in their lifetimes, yet all too many have been forgotten, though their influence on our lives is still being felt. How many remember what it was exactly that Madame Curie discovered and what it still means to us today? You may change or add icons as long as the original is still available.

Arts education faces serious challenges nationwide: according to The Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network, budget constraints put arts education programs at risk of being reduced or eliminated-- despite countless programs and research that demonstrate the value of arts learning. The Center for Education Policy reported in 2006 that 22 percent of school districts surveyed had reduced instructional time using the arts. Sadly, as school systems across the country face funding challenges and budget cuts, learning programs of this nature are among the first to be axed. Faced with this disturbing national trend, alternative venues must be offered to develop critical alternative art links to enhance students academic and social development.

Presenting the iconic personalities of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in museum settings is an ideal opportunity to address this issue. Not only will it befriend an entire new audience to the wonders of the museum world, it will enhance students academic and social development in an informal setting by introducing them to the iconic figures who shaped their culture, history and environment. Museums are places of signs, symbols, culturally significant artifacts, tools and activities. What better place to engage students with the powerful and strategic messages crafted by the subjects that artist Sidney Maurer so skillfully has portrayed?

Here are the images that we believe many museums would be proud to exhibit for their constituents in each city. 85% of them are 20 x 30 inches in size. All but 3 are painted on plywood; the others are backed foam core. Three of them are 24 x 36 and one is 25 x 40.5. 12 pieces are nicely framed in simple 2 black frames.

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Winston Churchill Franklin D. Roosevelt Mohandas Gandhi Martin Luther King

Nelson Mandella Golda Meir

Ronald Reagan

Charlie Chaplin

Dalai Lama Dwight D. Eisenhower Chang Kai-shek

Charles de Gaulle

Charles LindberghAmelia Earhart

Christiaan Barnard,MD Edward R. Murrow

2

Louis ArmstrongPaul Robeson

Albert Einstein Ted Turner

Alexander Graham Bell Madame Marie Curie Sigmund FreudThomas Edison

The Wright BrothersTony Bennett Leonard Bernstein Vladimir Horowitz

George Bernard ShawTennessee Williams

Alfred Hitchcock Claude Rains

3

Woody Allen Steven Spielberg Cecil B. DeMille

The Beatles

Audrey HepburnDolly Parton Diana Ross

Jascha Heifetz

Quincy JonesJohnny Cash

Mick JaggerMichael Jackson

Neil Diamond

Stevie Wonder Arthur Rubinstein Bette Davis

4

Greta Garbo

Clark Gable & Vivien Leigh

Marilyn Monroe

Elizabeth Taylor

Eleonora Duse

Gregory Peck Tony CurtisHumphrey Bogart

Judy Garland

Marcel MarceauMaria Callas Milton Berle

Marlene DietrichMarlon Brando

Katherine HepburnKirk Douglas

5

Laurel & Hardy

Orson Wells Rudolph Valentino

Sophia Loren

Shirley TempleSteve McQueen W.C. Fields

The Marx Brothers

Sidney Potier

Billy Holiday Edith Piaf

Benny Goodman

Elvis Presley

Ella Fitzgerald

Dizzy Gillespie George Gershwin

6

Jerry Garcia

John Lennon Jimi Hendrix

Michael Jackson

Babe Ruth Arnold Palmer

Billie Jean King

Muhammad Ali

Johnny Weissmuller

John Elway

Michael JordanSandy Koufax

Joe Louis

Ted Williams

Willie Mays Satchel Paige

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Salvador Dali Ernest Hemingway Pablo Picasso

Georgia OKeeffe

Johnny Depp

Leonardo DiCaprio Angelina Jolie Al Pacino

Denzel WashingtonChristopher Plummer Morgan Freeman

Robert Redford & Paul Newman

Mikhail Baryshnikov

Peter OToole

Robert De Niro

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Mr. Maurer worked alongside Andy Warhol they both designed and created album covers for RCA Records in the early 1960s. They both used a photographic technique. Andy transferred the B&W images on to silk screens and then added inks to the screens creating various colors and producing colored silk screens. Mr. Maurer, being an easel painter did the following. (I will be paraphrasing Mr. Maurers description to me.) He first blew up the photo to the size of the plywood on which he would gesso as for an oil painting. He then applied powerful glue to thedried gesso, and glued the blown up photo onto the glued plywood permanently setting the paper upon the wood that would last longer and stronger than any oil painting on canvas. Finally, hed then bombard the image completely and change the B&W photo into a unique, original work of art using acrylics, inks, crayons, andany color media he could find to reach the finished quality he wanted.

At a Music Icon exhibit ofMr. Maurers paintings atCalifornia State University,Northridge in September, 2010,very few of the students knew orheard of Leonard Bernstein,Vladimir Horowitz, Maria Callas,etc. And at the Screen ActorsGuild Foundation in November,2010, many young actors inattendance did not recognize theportraits of great comedians andperformers like Buster Keaton,W.C. Fields, Edward G. Robinson,or Gregory Peck.

What we are proposing is atravelling museum exhibition of115 Sidney Maurer originalpaintings of great figures of the 20thand 21st Centuries, eachaccompanied by a single-sheetthumbnail biography acombination of beautifullyrendered art and the historical context in which to view that art. Narrated DVDs covering all the icons will also be produced that can run on a continuous loop at the exhibition and be sold to patrons by the participating museums as well.

Thematically, the use of great art as an educational tool is extremely powerful. The very act of painting a portrait is an effort on the part of the artist to

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memorialize the subject forever, to freeze that subject in a moment in time -- the moment, and the person, in a very real way, live on as long as the painting itself exists.

Is it important for people today to know the history of their own times? Indeed it is, for that knowledge makes life fuller and more interesting.

The paintings themselves are the main attraction beautifully rendered, the portraits are full of color and verve, and the painters deep feelings for each subject.Mr. Maurer began this project in 1997, almost by accident, when he realized that a number of portraits of famous baseball players could be expanded into a body of work memorializing great figures of our times in all walks of life. Years into the project, Maurer faced the tragedy of his own lifetime his eldest son was diagnosed as untreatable, and spent two years dying of pancreatic cancer. It was a period of intense emotional turmoil for the artist grief and rage and sadness. He painted hisson during this time, and he used his own broken heart as the stimulus for creating more and more portraits of others whom he deeply respected for their contribution to our lives.

Economic Opportunities:

One of the major opportunities to benefit the museums is the ancillary income that might result in poster sales. There are many possibilities to benefit the museums while exhibiting exciting portraits of special people.

Timeframe and Budget:

Allan Rich is the point man for this project, and having already experienced with SITES an extremely successful partnership on an exhibition of the works of George Hurrell, he expects hell have the same terrific working relationship with theorganization on this exhibition of the works of Sidney Maurer. Mr. Rich to this datehas raised $15,000.00 to assist in providing some of SITESs budgetary needs in the event this proposal is accepted.

Market:

Anyone from eight to eighty-eight, rich or poor, simple or sophisticated, will be drawn to this exhibition, nationally or internationally. Parents and grandparentswill proudly explain to their children and grandchildren all about their favorite icons of the 20th Century and the kids will happily tell the old folks about their favorites of the contemporary stars of their times. All in all it will be a wonderful family event in each venue.

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