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Christian Thomas Lee Shares Art Monday, March 24, 2008 |
Pieces by Faberge and Picasso drew oohs and ahhs as Wayland High School studentsviewed them in an unlikely setting: their classroom. "I don't think I'll ever look at art the same way," said senior art student Mandee Richardson. "It was so cool and so inspiring." Christian Thomas Lee, an accomplished concert classical guitarist and collector of art from Las Vegas, shared a few pieces from his collection as part of an "Art In School" program he started in 1996. |
"I do it because a little boy asked me to one time," he said. "Now I travel around the country sharing art with thousands of kids every year.Most of these students will never have the chance to experience great art in their lifetime. I want to bring that world to them and let them appreciate it." Lee, who also performed on his guitar, told the students that there's more to art than just looking at a picture on a wall. "You don't just look at a piece of art - you read it," he said. "Sometimes things are not quite what they seem." |
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Holding up Pablo Picasso's 1954 "Pour Bernard" painting, Lee said it looks, at first glance, like something a child might draw. "But read it," he told students. "If you look at this, you can see where Picasso drew so fast that his pen actually skipped across the this area and the it's done mostly in one single line - without lifting his pen." Showing students an intricate teaspoon, Lee told students that it took Peter Carl Faberge more than 200 hours in 1908 to craft it for Czar Nicholas of Russia. It was made during a time of extreme poverty in Russia, but Nicholas probably used the spoon one time and threw it away. "Do you understand why the people hated him so much?" Lee asked. He let students touch a white mask. "Do you realize that in all your life, you'll probably never hold something like this in your hands again?" Lee asked as students examined the death mask of Scottish poet and novelist Sir Walter Scott. |
From a cornhusk pipe of King Edward VIII and a Faberge necklace, Giovanni Battista Pasqualini's 1624 engraving of "Christ Delivering the Keys to Heaven to Peter," and Clyde Leon Keller's "Hills of Lavender," Lee offered stories about each piece. "I didn't think we were going to get a history lesson," said student Kendra Evers. "But now I know why." "I can't believe he brought all this to share with us - I mean here in Wayland," said Heather Harrington. "It's great. I feel really lucky." |
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