Date: Fri 27-Mar-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Milton-Bond-reverse-glass-art

Full Text:

MILTON BOND'S MAGNIFICENT ARTWORK: `REFINED FOLK ART' (A&A edition -- more

details)

(with cuts & dropquote)

BY SHANNON HICKS

BRIDGEPORT, CONN. -- It isn't difficult to figure out where the artist Milton

Bond gets much of the inspiration for his paintings. Bond lives in Stratford

on a piece of property right on Long Island Sound, the same waterway upon

which generations of his family before him made their livelihood.

Bond only has to look out the windows of his home to see the water that shows

up in so many of his works. Bond is a painter of reverse images on glass. Many

call him a master painter.

At the end of the road where Milton Bond lives is Stratford Marina, where

boats of all sizes are docked. The masts of some of the marina's largest

yachts peek out over the top of the marina's offices, like the masts of the

majestic clipper ships Bond puts into a number of his paintings.

Paintings also include views of street scenes and country scenes. A selection

of Bond's dynamic work is being featured until April 4 at The Discovery Museum

in Bridgeport in an exhibition entitled "Americana."

"The exhibition," wrote Discovery curator Ben Ortiz in the exhibition's

catalogue, "is a small glimpse into his world. I have tried to select works

that capture and celebrate what America means to him." Indeed, a very American

subject -- Old Glory -- also makes appearances in a large majority of Bond's

works.

"We felt it was important to recognize his accomplishments," Ortiz said last

week. "His work has captivated so many people; he has captured a lot of

peoples' hearts with his work."

The Bridgeport museum held an opening reception for "Americana" on March 5,

the same day the artist turned 80 years old. Nearly 150 friends, family and

admirers, including Bond's son James ("My father has a great sense of humor,"

the young Bond tells people), turned out to pay tribute and celebrate the

milestone birthday party with an artist who still possesses a sharp eye, and

an even sharper wit.

While his works are considered "folk art" by many, such a label is very

misleading. The details that show up in Bond's works belie the naive, rougher

images often associated with the genre called folk art.

"I think my work can pass for folk art or refined art," Bond said last week,

in the living room of his home overlooking the Sound. "It's not really crude

like some of the stuff they call `folk art,' though. Some of those things can

look like children made them.

"I like to call it `refined folk art.' It doesn't bother me," he chuckled. "As

long as they sell, they can call it anything they like."

A Master Of His Craft

A prolific painter, Milton Bond has produced over 1,500 paintings in 40 years,

an amazing feat made even more so considering the artist began his career in

middle age.

Bond began painting just over 30 years ago. Primarily self-taught, he used to

paint as a hobby. Today painting is how Bond makes his livelihood.

"My older sister was doing this [reverse painting on glass]," he recalled. "I

sort of liked what she was doing, but she was doing bowls of fruits and

flowers."

So at age 50, the lifelong Connecticut resident tried something new. The

result is an amazing collection of art that depicts America, its citizens and

their surroundings in an idealized world. The works are set in previous

decades, generally dating from the 1920s to 1940s.

Reverse painting on glass is a technique practiced by only a very few masters

today. "It's a form of art that is being revised," the artist says. "It was

done over 100 years ago, but then it lost its popularity."

According to Marco Pelletier, the director of Gallerie Je Reviens, the

Westport gallery that represents Bond, the art form has been re-created in the

United States by the Connecticut artist.

"Milton really created this technique, which was way back done by the

Yugoslavians and Chinese," Pelletier said. "I think Milton Bond is the only

contemporary American artist alive who has mastered this technique." Gallerie

Je Reviens has represented Bond since its opening two years ago.

Pelletier and Bond have had a longstanding relationship, which began nearly

two decades ago. Pelletier was 17 when he first saw Bond's reverse paintings

in an exhibition in Switzerland. When Pelletier moved to Fairfield a few years

ago, he discovered Bond was one of his neighbors. The two have since become

friend, well above the artist/representing gallery business partnership.

"He's a very impressive man. I love him because he's like a grandfather to me.

He's a very sweet man," Pelletier confessed. After the artist suffered a major

heart attack and underwent bypass surgery last year, Pelletier, as a friend,

was one of the people who was at Bond's side during his recovery period.

"I was enchanted with it the first time I [saw Milton's work]," remarked

Pelletier, who still possesses a charming European accent. Today he also

possesses a very special piece of work, a depiction of the Brooklyn Bridge

which was the first painting Bond produced after the heart attack and

subsequent recovery. Pelletier formed, he says, an instant emotional

attachment to the painting, which he keeps at his home as part of his private

collection. "There's a lot of soul in Milton's painting. There's a lot of

feeling in it."

Although Pelletier had made a professional life representing European artists,

he made the decision to add American artists to his repertoire when he opened

Gallerie Je Reviens. The director credits Bond with being one of the largest

influences in his decision to open the Westport gallery.

A Life On The Sound

Milton Bond was born in Bridgeport in 1918. He comes from a long line of New

England oystermen and sailors, and is a proud descendant of Sir William Bond.

In the 1500s, Sir William built the then-largest ship afloat for Henry VIII, a

260-gun flagship named Great Harry . Bond's ancestors were among the early

settlers of what is now Bridgeport and Stamford.

Bond's father, Captain Ashabel Bond, owned the Bond & Currier Oyster Company

of Bridgeport, which included four commercial sailing and three steam vessels.

Bond himself was owner and master of one of the last commercial vessels on

Long Island Sound.

Today the closed-in porch on his house overlooks the same waters his family

has sailed for generations. His love of the sea and a deep understanding of

the vessels that float upon its waters are reflected in many of his works. In

addition to the clipper and similar ships that are seen in many of his works,

a number also incorporate lighthouses or seaside communities.

Unlike works of art done that use different techniques, Milton Bond has a good

idea of what each work is going to look like right from the start. With

reverse painting on glass, the smallest details show up first; the background

is painted last.

Bond took a walk through "Americana" before the exhibition's reception began

earlier this month. He was thrilled, he said, to see so many of his pieces

collected together again. "I enjoyed seeing them," he said. "You very seldom

get to see so many together at one time."

Many of the 24 works in the Discovery show are privately owned; three were

loaned from Gallerie Je Reviens; and one, "New York Harbor, July 4, 1976," is

in the museum's permanent collection. One of the privately-owned pieces was

donated by the artist last fall for an auction the museum held. The owners of

the work, entitled "Tall Ships Fireworks, Statue of Liberty Celebration," have

since decided to donate the painting to the museum's permanent collection.

One of the most extraordinary pieces in the current exhibition is "Empire

State Building, 1931." At 28 inches wide by 36 inches high, the painting

attracts long, thorough viewings. The first glance attracts a viewer's

attention; second and third return viewings are the result of amazed wonder at

the amount of steady concentration that went into the piece on the artist's

behalf.

"Everyone loves the Empire State Building piece," agrees Ortiz. "That's the

one that really captures everyone's attention."

Every one of the hundreds of tiny windows that are seen in the landmark New

York City building, as well as the skyscrapers that surround the building for

blocks, were drawn onto the glass first, before any acrylic was laid down.

Bond admitted that for such near-microscopic details to come through clearly,

rather than depend on a fine-pointed paintbrush he sometimes relies on a

fine-tipped pen to create the images on the glass.

"This way of painting, you get more detail," he pointed out. "You get more

clarity." When painting on glass, an artist is able to produce precise lines,

he explained. When working on canvas, once a viewer starts looking closely at

the canvas, there are always tiny bumps and lines in an image. "You never get

a perfectly straight line on a canvas," he pointed out.

"I like this one probably the best of all of them," Bond said during the

reception, referring to his Empire State Building painting. "It has a relaxed

feeling to it, even though something like that takes forever to paint. All the

detail! Those windows..."

At the base of the Empire State Building, the streets are populated with cars

of the era and people walking across the crosswalks. "Many of these images I

made up," the artist confessed during the opening. The views evoke an America

-- and a Connecticut, in other works -- of decades past. In "Americana,"

images include "Woman's High Wheel Bike Race, Central Park, 1885," "I Remember

Lake Compounce, 1926," "Little League Baseball Game: Lycoming Field,

Stratford" and "P.T. Barnum Parade."

The final section of the show -- in addition to the New York scenes and the

Connecticut scenes -- is a collection of nautically-themed works. "This was a

perfect way to end the exhibit," said Ben Ortiz, curator of The Discovery

Museum. The nauticals are among the most recent works Bond has been creating.

"It reminds us that he's still painting, and especially at 80 he still has a

focus. All of these works jar people's memories from the past."

The Connecticut works in particular are favored by Ortiz. "The Remington Arms

tower, which is still standing, he definitely captured the essence of it.

These are images from when I was growing up in Bridgeport that I remember;

that was pretty much the neighborhood I grew up in."

All of the works are charming and delightful. They are also spectacular and

magnificent in their depictions, something that has been noticed by fellow

artists, art lovers, and jurors and curators for years.

"It's all very nostalgic," said Ortiz.

Among the visitors to the reception at the Discovery museum was Dorothy

Justinius. A retired antiques dealer and show manager, Justinius had heard of

Bond's work but had not previously seen examples of it.

"This stuff interests me," Justinius said while viewing "Empire State

Building." "I'm used to seeing small, antique-style paintings. You usually

hear of or see reverse paintings much smaller, on the bottom of clocks, but

nothing like this!

"I had no idea how fine his work was, how tiny the details are!" she said.

"This is a breathtaking piece of work."

The Discovery exhibition is far from the first time Bond's works have been

presented in a museum setting. His exhibition career began in the mid-1960s,

when he had his first exhibition at the Stonington Gallery. During that show

alone, Bond sold 16 of his paintings.

The mayors of New Haven and Bridgeport have commissioned images from Bond to

be used for their Christmas cards. He also created Chrysler chairman Lee

Iacocca's Christmas card in 1983, the year the country began celebrating the

Statue of Liberty's centennial. Iacocca was chairman of the celebration

committee, and hand-picked Bond to design his Christmas card.

Bond's work is in the permanent collections of the Corning Museum of Glass,

Corning, N.Y.; New York State Historical Association; the President Reagan

Museum Collection; John Judkyn Memorial American Museum, Bath, England; and

The Grand Palais, Paris.

His artworks have been displayed and purchased by collectors around the world.

He has had solo and group exhibitions, was presented with a special invitation

to become a Lifetime Member of the Henri Rousseau Society, and has been

presented with countless medals, awards and even the Key to the City of

Bridgeport.

On his birthday earlier this month, Bond was presented with proclamations from

Joseph P. Ganim, the mayor of Bridgeport, and Connecticut Governor John G.

Rowland. Gov Rowland's declaration praised Bond as "a true master of his craft

... undoubtedly one of the most successful reverse-glass painters of all

time." It also called Bond "a true folk artist whose work will continue to be

an influence and inspiration to people everywhere."

Milton Bond accepted both honors humbly. He thanked those who were at the

museum that afternoon, including a group of friends who were in the same class

at Trumbull schools with Mr Bond. He thanked the museum for presenting his

work so beautifully, and then he had some birthday cake.

The artist continues to work in his studio at home, watching the waters that

have inspired his family for generations. He lives comfortably in his home,

and paints when he can. He does not need awards to remind him of how talented

he is. He continues to paint because he enjoys it.

In his artist's statement for "Americana," Bond wrote, "In 1965, ...I decided

to see what I could do with [this] form of art. I liked the results with the

detail and colors... People liked the results and it helped sell some

paintings.

"I have met many fine people with my artwork. I would say I have more of a

social life.

"It gives me a reason to keep on painting."

Milton Bond's "Americana" remains at The Discovery Museum until April 4. For

details, call 203/372-3521.