Thursday, September 13, 2007

Greg Manchess, Pirate

For those in the Cincinnati area, the National Geographic sponsored exhibition "Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah From Slave Ship to Pirate Ship” features eleven murals by Gregory Manchess. The exhibit is held at the Cincinnati Museum Center through January 2, 2008, and then travels to Philadelphia, Phoenix, and fifteen other cities. An interesting Wall Street Journal article states, “the large and dramatic murals painted by Greg Manchess illustrating incidents from Bellamy's cruise, including the pirates swarming aboard a French merchantman off Cuba, provide just the right sort of Boys-Own-Adventure atmosphere à la Howard Pyle or N.C. Wyeth.”

From Greg:

"There's no fantasy here, this is the real stuff. We had to stay
as accurate to history as possible. Through eyewitness accounts
and trial transcripts we were able to capture many details of pirate
life: clothing, hair, weapons, lifestyle. Even the pirate flag in one
of the murals is from a description at trial.

Opening in Cincinnati was special for me since I'm from the area. The Museum Center is the old Union Terminal train station, a classic example of Art Deco architecture. It houses fine, large WPA tile murals by Winold Reiss. I thought how wonderful it would be to have murals in that building, and now, I virtually do."


Currently Greg is working on another set of paintings for National Geographic (the magazine this time) about the reign of the Nubian pharaoh Taharqa over Egypt.

7 comments:

Tracy Flynn Art said...

WOW!

This is really exicting and only an hour away! Love pirates.....love Gregs work and now the combo platter.

Thanks for the info Irene

Harley-Rebel said...

hate to be a copy cat, but...

WOW!

Now if I can just find out if it's coming to Seattle.

David Palumbo said...

Oh man, I can't wait until this gets to Philly!

Irene Gallo said...

Hey Dave - we'll make a party of it!

Harley - They are not saying where it's going after Phoenix. Hopefully it will be in Seattle. Greg has a bunch of friends up there and would love to see it with them.

Anonymous said...

This show is a wonderful way to introduce kids,and adults, to art and its importance in bringing a story to life. It has everything; amazing work, color, spectical, adventure, history and an interesting tale to tell...I hope all the schools in the target areas are busy scheduling field trips.

Great work, Greg. Can't wait to see it in Philly!

Anonymous said...

Thanks, All! They're still finessing the exhibit, constantly trying to get it to be the best it can be.

I'm very proud to be a part of this. It was a brutal deadline, but I feel that the pressure helped me produce some of my best work.

Denver, Chicago, LA, Seattle, and Atlanta are being scheduled...15 cities over 5 years. I'll try to let everyone know as it moves along.

Anonymous said...

Hi Greg-
I hate you - you're too good.