 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
| |
| As you walk past 4770 North Lincoln, a bronze plaque that reads "The Renaissance Project" is the only sign of what's to come at the top of the stairs. What looks like an ordinary office door opens into a scene straight from a 19th century artist's salon. It's really part museum, part studio: objects of beauty, rich tapestries and Persian rugs fill the luxuriant space, along with a plethora of art subjects ranging from busts of famous artists to three dimensional plaster casts of human anatomy. Works in progress fill the studio, such as a classic still life, a number of figure drawings and studies for future portraits. The fact that the space resembles a 19th century studio is no accident, either—when artists Lothar Speer and Matt Almy spent months creating their workspace, every aesthetic choice they made was filled with meaning. It's in this space that Lothar and Matt create art according to the same techniques used by Europe's Renaissance painters hundreds of years ago. |
| |
 |
| |
| The Renaissance Project's primary goal is to celebrate and encourage the survival of traditional arts such as drawing and painting using the same materials and processes as the great masters. The studio's founders, Lothar Speer and Matt Almy believe in the value to artists of first learning and mastering the origins of art. "We stress drawing and painting from life as a necessary foundation for excellence in art," says Lothar. You can tell from his surroundings and from his level of passion that Lothar has a reverence for antiquities, which inspire his quest to preserve aspects of our culture that are in danger of being lost forever. He is a man dedicated to his ideals and to the sense of humanity that only art can bring to society. |
| |
| Lothar traces the need for movements like The Renaissance Project back to the dawn of modern art. Until then, all artists first learned basic techniques according to traditions dating back hundreds of years. As modern art emerged, "painters like Picasso mastered the traditional techniques, then threw them out," says Lothar. "Now no one even knows the traditions." What Lothar and his colleagues create in his studio is on the fringes of today's post-modern art world. Using traditional techniques means that it can take an artist as many as 500 hours to create one painting. Lothar admits that the clients who buy such paintings are those who are connoisseurs of craftsmanship and who understand how to evaluate the incredible skill it takes to render a subject that well. |
| |
 Every drawing or painting that comes from The Renaissance Project studio is created with love, skill and craftsmanship. Nearly every aspect of the artistic process is done by hand, from stretching the canvases to mixing paints. The back room of the studio looks like a cross between a kitchen and a 19th century scientist's lab. There's a sink layered in color, rows of jars filled with mysterious powders and a giant marble slab to grind the powdered pigments used in the process of making paint. Most of the pigments come from Europe and Italy, "exactly where the old masters mined their paint from," says Lothar. To learn how to recreate the paints, he sought out old formulas in historic books. Briefly, the pigments are mixed with linseed oil and ground together with large glass pestles on the marble slab. The whole process takes about six weeks to complete for just one color. But there's also a great deal of art and instinct involved. "Traditional painting is like cooking all the way," Lothar laughs. |
| |
| Painting and drawing as the masters did involves much more than just using the same materials. Lothar believes that the 19th century French academy curriculum is the most outstanding method for teaching art, since it is based on 1,500 years of art history. He offers classes taught according to these traditional methods—which explains all the plaster body parts such as ears, noses, skeletons and hands found throughout the studio. "A good figurative artist needs to know anatomy really well," emphasizes Lothar. "An art connoisseur will know the difference between what looks like a sausage and a finger." Students use the many anatomical subjects in the studio as inspiration and practice depicting them again and again. Lothar teaches them to fine-tune their drawing techniques, focusing on values, edges and the subtleties of line and form to help them develop a sense of aesthetics. |
| |
| In addition to working with students, both Matt and Lothar are prolific artists. Matt will soon be leaving the studio for three years, journeying to Florence, Italy to study painting. Originally one of Lothar's most talented students, Matt went on to become a teacher and partner in The Renaissance Project. Lothar's works fill the studio, including "The Annunciation," a charcoal drawing that took him three months to complete. "I try to create thought-provoking images for our time while adhering to the rules and the beauty of the old masters," says Lothar about his work. Like the masters, Lothar often focuses on religious subjects as a rich source of inspiration. He's currently working on some sizable commissions for his patrons, including two still lifes for a family in Winnetka, a mural inside Garcia's Mexican Restaurant (4760 North Lincoln), a portrait of a gentleman with his dog, as well as planning a high-profile community mural. |
| |
 Born in Stuttgart, Germany, Lothar credits his initial inspiration to his artistically talented father and his connection with Chicago to his mother. He recalls, "my dad put a crayon in my hand when I was six and said, 'Draw!'" Lothar's father, Walter Speer, is a university-educated architect who became very successful building homes in post-war Germany. Both his mother, Edith, and his father were Germans born in the former Yugoslavia who were forced to flee to Germany because of political upheaval. In 1951, Edith moved with her family to Chicago. "I grew up in a home where my mother always talked about Chicago and we had pictures of Chicago everywhere," says Lothar. Although Edith loved the American city, she still couldn't let go of her connections with Europe. She flew back every summer until she met Walter Speer, then married him in 1961.
Lothar was raised in a romantic village outside Stuttgart that was permeated with a sense of history as tangible as the 14th century fort wall that surrounded it. While his friends were outside playing soccer, Lothar spent his days inside drawing. He received his first commissions at the age of 16 and 17—one was for a series of posters and the other was to paint a temporary construction fence inside a church, which some residents of the town talk about to this day. After leaving his hometown, Lothar went on to art school, first in Vienna and then Basel, where he received prestigious awards and medals for his work. In 1986, destiny brought him to Chicago, his mother's former home, where he got his BFA at Loyola's Mundelein College. For many years, Lothar had a studio at Devon and Western. He taught for five years at the American Academy of Fine Art as a full-time faculty member, which was where he met Matt. In 1999, Lothar relocated his studio to Lincoln Square, which he felt was its most appropriate home. |
| |
| If you've traveled through Lincoln Square, you've most likely seen Lothar's work. Lothar was the artist responsible for the Lincoln Square Mural on the Northern Home Furnishings Building at Lincoln and Leland, completed in 1991 and then restored in 1999. He wanted to create a professional-quality mural that would celebrate Lincoln Square's German history. When he presented his sketches to Alderman Schulter, the alderman got excited about the idea and encouraged Lothar to make it happen. Northern Home Furnishings offered to donate the wall space and the German Day Association, the Lincoln Square Chamber of Commerce and a number of other organizations helped fund the project. Lothar visited local high schools and assembled a team of the best senior-level art students to assist him. Now, the mural is a designated stop on tours of the neighborhood and for the many visitors who come by bus to shop the neighborhood. Lothar currently has plans for another mural project in the Lincoln Square neighborhood in the works. |
| |
|
|
 |
The Renaissance Project studio provides an unusual venue and opportunity to study art. All classes follow the 19th century French curriculum, which builds students' skills by requiring them to learn to draw from plaster casts and to copy master drawings. Lothar firmly believes that drawing can be taught to anyone. "Talent helps," he says, "but it really is a learned discipline." In the technology driven post-modern art world, Lothar feels that many artists lack the drawing skills that they need to excel. His classes stress the artist's process of learning how to see things, which he feels is a selective, active and psychological process. Students not only learn, but experience The Renaissance Project philosophy first-hand. "This becomes a sacrosanct space," says Lothar. "Time falls away here when students are encouraged to literally spend two months on one drawing." Lothar provides his students with keys to the studio, so they can come in to work anytime, using its baroque atmosphere as inspiration. Plans are also in the works to develop a gallery space appropriate for art openings, so that those who appreciate art can visit the studio and experience what goes on behind its doors. |
|
| |
| Classes are available at The Renaissance Project at $300 for 10 weeks, and include three hours a week of one-on-one teaching time. Call 773.334.5054 for details. A brochure will be available soon detailing the class offerings. Art collectors and enthusiasts can contact the studio if they are interested in acquiring works of art or in commissioning a piece. |
| |
| |
|
| |
| Read more profiles in the Member of the Month Archives |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
