Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of The WAH Center: Yuko Nii Retrospective

Dunes

Yuko Nii

Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of

The WAH Center

Saturday, November 5th, 2016, 4-8 PM

The Yuko Nii Retrospective

A Special Exhibition

Curated

By

Terrance R. Lindall

Yuko and Terrance

are

currently raising funds

for restoration

of their

landmarked building,

the home of the WAH,

which continues to need extensive repairs.

See:

Press Release, Tickets, and How To Help

As one who has benefited from the generosity of Yuko and Terrance over the past decade or so, I urge you to respond generously in helping them to continue the repair work on this historical landmark that houses the WAH.

Replicas of Gislebertus Alabasters of Adam and Eve at WAH Center

Adam and Eve

Yuko Nii and Terrance Lindall have some wonderful events going on at the WAH Center, partly because they've got the only remaining replica of the Gislebertus Adam, as is noted below:

The Yuko Nii Foundation alabaster is likely the only surviving replica of this Gislebertus Adam, which makes it highly significant. It is "the completion of a great masterpiece!" What the Adam looked like was unknown to the art world until NOW . . . at the WAH Center!

"The (Yuko Nii Foundation) alabasters (of Adam and Eve), especially the Adam one, promise to be of great importance to the history of Romanesque art." Jeff Rider, Professor of French and Medieval Studies, Wesleyan University

"These are fascinating pieces (your alabasters of Adam and Eve) . . ." Robert A. Maxwell, Associate Professor, Institute of Fine Arts, The James B. Duke House, NYU

“Eve has a seductive quality that no other 12th century artist has equaled. If the other block (Adam) had survived, we would most certainly have had in it the completion of a great masterpiece” T. S. R. Boase, President of Magdalen College, Oxford.

On Display FOR THREE HOURS ONLY at The WAH Center's DINNER WITH DEVIL October 8, 2016, event description and Tickets here.

Yuko and Terrance are artists and curators who will only grow in stature in both areas, so visit the WAH Center, online or off, if you have an opportunity.

Portrait of the Artists as a Young Couple!

Yuko and Terrance

Terrance Lindall sent this photo of Yuko Nii and him cavorting with a tractor on Terrance's family farm in Minnesota way back in 1968! Impressed with the apparent old age of that contraption, I wrote:

Great Photo! But did that old thing actually run? Was it a steam-powered tractor or diesel?

Terrance replied:

It ran!! My father was a great mechanic! Gasoline or diesel.

But not steam-powered, so Terrance was no steam punk . . . though the photo has a certain steampunkish aspect.

WAH Center Needs Repairs . . . and Donations!

Yuko Nii and Terrance Lindall are making an appeal for contributions toward repairs on the WAH Center's building, a New York City Landmark listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Here is their letter of appeal:

Dear Friends:

It has been a very expensive year for the WAH Center. Major repairs on our cornice have taken most of the year and we are just coming to the end of that. We need everyone to help a little bit. We have always been there for you as a great place to present, and now we need you to help a little more with a donation. Some of our friends have already given, but we need all of you to help out, if you are able. Some can only afford a little, but some of you can give more. You can see donation levels on our web-site here.

We made it easier this year to give a little and get something back too. We put up a little overview of our first 19 years on Kindle and you can buy the book below. When you buy it for $2.99 we get income.

Also on Amazon, when you shop at Smile Amazon, you'll find the exact same low prices, vast selection and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to your favorite charitable organization: Smile Amazon.

Another way to donate a little more is to buy our printed books, e.g., Women Forward or Friends and Mentors.

We highly encourage you to buy books, postcards t-shirts or giclee prints of the WAH Center this year to give as gifts! Or, if you sell on Ebay you can indicate a percentage of your sales to the WAH Center where we are listed as a charity!

Please help us this year!

Peace and Love, Yuko and Terry

Free to read on ISSUU, about "the greatest small museum in Brooklyn."

This is a very good institution to support. My wife and I have contributed 500 dollars, a sizable sum for our budget, but Terrance has been very generous to me in illustrating my novella for free, and Yuko graciously allowed him the time to do so.

I therefore hope that everyone will contribute a donation, too.

Mototaka Takano Exhibit in the WAH Center, March 21st - April 19th (2015)

A Seaside Village
Mototaka Takano

I received a notice from my friend Terrance Lindall that the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center will be exhibiting 23 of Mototaka Takano's paintings from March 21st to April 19th:

Known as a "Japanese Vlaminck," painter Mototaka Takano exhibits a collection of his large scale oil paintings at the not-for-profit WAH Center (Williamsburg Art and Historical Center), entitled "Painting Northern Snow Scenes for 35 Years." Supported by the Consulate General of Japan in New York and New York Seikatsu Press, Mototaka Takano's paintings depict the ocean shores, fishing villages, and markets in Northern Japan, primarily in Tohoku and Hokkaido. His technique reminds viewers of the oeuvre of Maurice de Vlaminck, who was one of the principal figures of the Fauve Movement. Formed in the early 20th century in France, the Fauvists were concerned with vibrant compositions, using bold colors and loose brushwork to create dynamic, expressionistic scenes. In this exhibition, 23 of Takano's paintings are displayed. His powerful work embodies the bleak, somber nature of the hard life in Northern Japan.

I think that Ms. Yuko Nii is the driving force in arranging this exhibition - but Terrance can correct me if I'm wrong - for the notice puts the exhibition in the context of Ms. Yuko Nii's "Bridge Concept":

In late October 1996, Yuko Nii founded the not-for-profit WAH Center (Williamsburg Art and Historical Center) based upon her Bridge Concept. That concept envisions a multifaceted, multicultural art center whose mission is to coalesce the diverse artistic community, and create a bridge between local, national and international artists, emerging and established artists, and artists of all disciplines. Thus, through the international language of art we come to understand each other to create a more peaceful and integrated world. The WAH Center is a force for peace and understanding and its concept is incorporated in its acronym: "WAH" in Japanese means "peace" or "harmony" or "unity."

Ms. Yuko Nii's WAH Center has definitely served as a bridge for me because I've crossed over to a new relationship with art through Terrance's friendship and generosity. Without Terrance's illustrations, my novella The Bottomless Bottle of Beer would be less colorful.

And he did it for free!

Yuko Nii: Artist, Renovator, and Director of the WAH

Beauty of Artifacts
Click Link to View Gallery 
Photo by Amy Finkel/Gothamist

Shayla Love, writing for the Gothamist in her article "Inside Williamsburg's Hidden Time Capsule: Kings County Savings Bank," introduces to a woman most of us here at Gypsy Scholar know only through our contact with Terrance Lindall. That woman is Yuko Nii, an artist who came to the States 50 years ago:

Nii moved to the United States in 1963 from Tokyo, transferring from a Tokyo university to come to Berkeley, California where her father's friend was a professor. She had $200 in her pocket when she arrived. She immediately wanted to experience the American counterculture she had heard about, and visited San Francisco. She then transferred to Macalester College in St. Paul, MN, and majored in fine arts. To stay in the US, she had to continue her education, and in 1966, she moved to Clinton Hill, Brooklyn to attend Pratt.

Nii needed a way to earn money, but didn't want a job that would take time away from her painting. She started to buy run-down buildings; the first was in Ironwood, Michigan. She liked to buy in northern states, where she would escape the heat of Brooklyn summers. After she bought a building, she would renovate it with her own hands.

She said that when she was seven years old, her parents renovated their house in Tokyo. She already had an interest in art and in sculpture - carpentry seemed to her like a form of both.

"They treated me like a little assistant," she said. "Instead of going to school, I always waited for the workers to come. And then they taught me how to use particular Japanese saws and then hammers and so on. Ever since, I'm fascinated by the things which are behind the wall."

Each time she renovated a building, she would create a studio on the first floor for herself. With her artist's sensibilities, the renovations transformed the places she bought. She would rent out the houses, and live off the rent.

"I even changed the windows, can you imagine?" she said. "Amazing what you can do when you are young. Especially artists. We are obsessed."

The rest of the article tells the story of this remarkable woman, so go read it! And should you choose to support the  WAH, click here.

Terrance Lindall's "Dinner with the Devil" a Success!

Book Display

My art friend Terrance Lindall sent some photos yesterday from last Friday evening's Dinner with the Devil - at the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center (WAH Center) - in honor of The Satanic Verses of Bones Banez, as recounted to Lindall.

First, speaking here is Yuko Nii - well-known artist and founder of the WAH Center - while Lindall sits nearby, manning the sound system and perhaps being introduced prior to reading from The Satanic Verses:

Here's Lindall, reading aloud from the text:

Finally, here's Bien playing the piano with Peter Dizozza:

I wish I could have been there . . . and in some way, I was, for if you look closely at the first photo above, you'll see the yellowish-looking hard copy of my novella - The Bottomless Bottle of Beer - just below the third painting from the right. That was the first edition, and it had a lot of mistakes due to my poor editing - even a missing paragraph from the beginning - so anyone interested in reading the complete and perfected text will have to go for the ebook version, at Amazon.

Congratulations to Yuko Nii

Artist and Philanthropist Yuko Nii (Left Center)
with
Pratt Institute President Tom Schutte (Right Center)
and
Artist and Curator Terrance Lindall (Left)

Ms. Yuko Nii, who has a Master's in Fine Arts (1968) from the Pratt Institute, was recently awarded a 2013 Pratt Institute Alumni Achievement Award for Community Commitment due to her work at the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center (WAH Center), as the Pratt website explains:

In late 1996 Nii purchased the Kings County Savings Bank building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (a New York City landmark) as the home for a not-for-profit Williamsburg Art and Historical Center (WAH Center). The WAH Center serves as a multicultural art center that aims to bridge local, national, and international artists, emerging as well as established artists of all disciplines to create a more peaceful and integrated world.

The WAH Center has produced over 200 fine art exhibitions with more than 3,000 artist participants, and over 150 performance programs with more than 1000 performers.

I learned of Ms. Nii's honor from Terrance Lindall a couple of days ago and obtained clearance to blog about the award and show Terrance's photographs. Here, for instance, is a photo from the University Club in Manhattan, where the award was presented:

Terrance writes of the location and the event:

Today at a luncheon at the prestigious University Club in Manhattan, Yuko was presented with the Pratt Alumni Achievement Award along with five other outstanding individuals. Pratt is perhaps the country's foremost school of architecture and design. The club has hosted US presidents, and dignitaries from around the world. Honorees are those who, after graduation, have transformed or benefited the world in some significant way.

Terrance refers to the library above as "one of the great libraries of the world." Here's a photo of some of those assembled:

Of this photograph, Terrance notes:

Yes, looking at you on the left is our friend and master surrealist Bienvenido Bones Banez.

Good to see Bien there, looking handsome in his suit and tie. Terrance stands in the background, also well dressed. But if you look back up at Yuko, you'll see that her style outshines the two of them. Speaking of Terrance and Yuko, here they are -- or were -- outside:

We here take leave of the two, a nice-looking pair, each with excellent taste in clothes, as one might expect of artists, and an aesthetic sphere I've come to take more seriously over the past few years.

And lastly, full disclosure (as journalists say), Yuko Nii founded the WAH Center, which sponsors the Williamsburg Circle of International Arts and Letters, which published my novella, The Bottomless Bottle of Beer (preview here, purchase here).

Williamsburg Circle of International Arts and Letters: Public Relations Release

Williamsburg Circle Logo

Yesterday, I received from the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center its official public relations release on the Williamsburg Circle of International Arts and Letters, whose logo you see above, and since I'm a member of this circle, I feel that I should pass along the release:

THE WILLIAMSBURG CIRCLE OF INTERNATIONAL ARTS AND LETTERS

For Immediate Release

February 1, 2012

In January 2012 the WAH Center created a new program called the Williamsburg Circle of International Arts and Letters. It is composed of twelve outstanding scholars, publishers, collectors, artists and innovators (see complete member list).

We believe that a strong education in the classical humanities is a fundamental prerequisite for good citizenship in every country in the world today. What is Classical Humanities? It is nothing less than the spiritual, ethical and intellectual foundation for Western culture. Classics is a vibrant, interdisciplinary field that lies at the heart of the liberal arts. It is the lack of a common heritage and common values that gives rise to basic conflicts among peoples. A broad education in the classical humanities can bring about a common understanding and a common set of values.

As many of you know, the WAH Center's motto is "Peace, Harmony and Unity," as Yuko Nii, the Founder, has written in the Bridge Concept upon which she founded the institution.

INVITATION: We also welcome you to the very first of Our Events on April 14th, 2012 where you can meet our chairman Dr. Robert J. Wickenheiser, 19th President of St. Bonaventure University, and learn more about our goals and projects.

If you would like to contribute to our worthy goals, we would very much appreciate your support at our inception. If you are a scholar or artist and contribute $50 yearly as a supporting member, we will list your name with your discipline and contact information (and web-site, if you have one) on a special supporting member page. Click here for benefits:

Supporting Professional Scholars, Writers and Artists

We would very much like to get your feedback on our project! Terrance Lindall and Yuko Nii

Williamsburg Art and Historical Center, Brooklyn, New York

Those who are interested in being supporting members can click on the link provided (or here), and those who simply wish to know more can click here.

I should perhaps note a couple of points. First, I won't be able to make a New York trip for the Our Events program scheduled for April 14th, which I'm sure is very disappointing to all my readers, but work and finances constrain me. Second, I'd like to note that while our international circle of members are primarily in the Western tradition, as is the fundamental focus on the Classical Humanities (Classics in Humanities?), our interests encompass more than that (cf Yuko Nii's Bridge Concept). Personally, I sense that a world civilization is emerging, one powerfully influenced by the West but drawing from various civilizations. This process will take a while, however, and not everyone is pleased by these developments, as we know from many of my blog posts.

Mutual understanding based on a common system of values drawn from a common heritage will therefore take some time to develop, but perhaps the Williamsburg Circle of International Arts and Letters can play a small part in that very large, long-term process.

"Revolutionary Birthday Party for Goodness to all Mankind"

'Birthday Babies'

Terrance Lindall (66) and Yuko Nii (68)

Photo by Tasneem Shazad

(Image Supplied by Terrance Lindall)

Extravatantly good news from the revolutionary world of art: Terrance Lindall has recently had a birthday, as has also Yuko Nii. Both are pictured above in a photograph that Mr. Lindall personally sent to me. Admittedly, he probably sent the same photo in an email circular to several hundred other individuals, but that doesn't negate the fact that he also sent it to me . . .

In addition to the above photograph, the email circular also offered a few words of wit:

Our "Revolutionary Birthday Party for Goodness to all Mankind" was held Saturday!! Will be covered in the Philippines Press. Very International with guests from Pakistan, Nepal, Philippines, Japan, Denmark and probably more . . . .

A signed copy of the requiem that Terrance commissioned from the foremost Lutheran hymn writer Amanda Husberg was presented to him. It is being performed for the first time by a major chorale in Kentucky later in the year.

PS: Terrance is not dead yet, but many people are hoping to hear this masterpiece soon.

Hmmm . . . well, let's interpret that postscript generously, as meaning that people want to hear Mr. Lindall's requiem before he dies. I hope that he and Ms. Nii both enjoy many more artistically productive years of health blessed by wealth.

I privately wished both of them a happy birthday, and received this reply:

Thanks Jeffery. There are a lot more photos coming. To that list of internationals you can add Korea (she sang for Yuko & me), and Thailand. Terrance

I suppose that 'Korea' here is synecdoche for a Korean woman who offered a birthday song to them, perhaps the Korean happy birthday tune. I wish that I'd made the party, for that cake looks delicious, and I could do with a glass of wine from either of those two bottles about now.

For those readers interested in the art of Mr. Lindall and Ms. Nii, click here for the former and here for the latter. And be sure to visit the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center (full disclosure: I'm on the Advisory Committee).

"You knew I was a snake when you took me in..."

Asp Biting Cleopatra

Steel Engraving, 19th C. Book of Shakespeare

Collection of the Yuko Nii Foundation

Williamsburg Art & Historical Center

In a recent email from either Terrance Lindall or Yuko Nii, I received a notice about an upcoming talk on John Milton by Dr. Robert Wickenheiser at the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center on May 10, 2009.

Dr. Wickenheiser is famous among Milton scholars for his Wickenheiser Collection, which he has built up over a thirty-five year period and which has more than 6,000 volumes, including more than 60 early editions of Milton's writings as well as other 17th-century Miltoniana, as the email informs me (else I wouldn't recall the numbers).

These details and more about the Wickenheiser Collection can be found at the University of South Carolina's Rare Books and Special Collections website.

Lindall and Nii's interest in this collection probably derives from the fact that the Wickenheiser Collection focuses especially on illustrated editions. As artists and curators themselves, they also collect illustrated books. Thus, as the email explains, on display will be not only many Miltonian items from Wickenheiser's personal collection but also a number of famous illustrated books from the Yuko Nii Foundation's collection.

One of the books from the collection of the Yuko Nii Foundation is the 19th-century Shakespeare edition shown above, which is opened to a page revealing an asp biting Cleopatra's breast. Not especially clear due to the image's small size is the asp's apparent aim -- the nipple of Cleopatra's right breast.

I call attention to this not for prurient reasons but because it reminds me of the traditional belief that serpents suck on teats for milk . . . though usually the teats of animals. Milton alludes to this belief in a Paradise Lost passage in which Satan, speaking through the serpent, tempts Eve by comparing the fruit that he claims to have eaten with milk directly from teats:

When from the boughes a savorie odour blow'n,
Grateful to appetite, more pleas'd my sense,
Then smell of sweetest Fenel or the Teats
Of Ewe or Goat dropping with Milk at Eevn,
Unsuckt of Lamb or Kid, that tend thir play. (PL 9.579-583)

[Thomas H. Luxon, ed. The Milton Reading Room, January, 2009]

The belief that serpents suck on teats of animals has been traced back to at least the first-century A.D. author Pliny the Elder, who refers to the "boa" of Italy, serpents that "are nourished, in the first instance, with the milk of the cow." The remark can be found in Book 8 of Pliny's Natural History. John Bostock's 1855 edition, from which I have borrowed, can be found online at Perseus.

Whether or not the illustration above is itself alluding to this tradition about serpents and teats, I do not know, but perhaps some kind and knowledgeable reader will have the relevant information.

While we're waiting for that expert kindness, here's an Oscar Brown Jr. morality tale about nursing a serpent in one's bosom, performed by Al Wilson.