Jungle Island Hosts Rare Art Collection
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Dec. 1, 2008 — Art history is being made this year during Art Basel with the first-ever showing of Croatian Naive Art. Jungle Island has agreed to host a wonderful display of rare imported paintings from the collection of InvestmentArt.com, doing business as the Croatian Naive Art Gallery & Museum Collection, that come from, for the main part, peasant farmer artists in the northern part of Croatia along the Hungarian border. The Croatian Naive Art Gallery & Museum Collection has been recognized by the Croatian Embassy in Washington, D.C. as “the largest gallery in the world and the only one in the entire Western Hemisphere selling Croatian Naive reverse glass paintings exclusively.” Until recently the Gallery had operated exclusively in St. Petersburg, but now is looking for 3 galleries in different parts of the country to be exclusive representatives of this art. The Miami display will have 30 paintings at Jungle Island from Thursday to noon Sunday, Dec. 4-7, some from their Museum Collection, but all for sale and considered museum quality because of their rarity. Prices in the exhibit will range from approximately $600-$5,000.
Former communist suppression has kept this art form a European phenomenon until now. Most Croatian Naive Artists have been painting for 35-50 years and are internationally recognized as having taken this art form to the highest level. Painting with oils on the reverse side of a normal piece of glass, the artist must sign his signature backwards first so that when you view the finished work from the front it reads properly. Details and foreground are also done before anything else. Once dry, the artist can proceed to the middle ground and when that is completely dry, the background. Every step of the process is the exact reverse from traditional painting on canvas: painting backwards, in reverse, on the back side of a common pane of glass! … on display only during Art Basel and only at Jungle Island: Like Nowhere Else on Earth! Admission is FREE.
Contact:
James A. Nannen
Director, Croatian Naive Art Gallery & Museum Collection
St. Petersburg, FL
Ph: 727-420-5804
Web site: http://www.CroatianNaiveArt.com
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