Maxfield's Neighborhood

Comments (0) By Jason Budjinski Thursday, Jan 20 2005

Beware of loose dragons

Maxfield Parrish made dreamy paintings.

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SAT 1/22 A hundred years ago -- back when people read for entertainment -- the art of magazine illustration was in what is now considered its golden age. Leading the way were artists like Maxfield Parrish, whose luminous skies and fantastic imagery graced the pages of magazines like Harper's and Hearst, decked the walls of office buildings and hotels, and helped bring life to children's books by authors like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edith Wharton. If none of this rings a bell, perhaps you should take a trip over to the Society of the Four Arts (2 Four Arts Plz., Palm Beach) and check out the exhibit "Maxfield Parrish: Master of Make-Believe."

The 70-plus-piece exhibit spans the artist's varied career, ranging from fanciful landscapes to leisurely scenes of robed and nude figures and including Parrish's more notable paintings like Daybreak and Lute Players(pictured). Both paintings, while rife with classical imagery and ideal, classicist stylings, reveal distinctly American traits in the facial features (ever seen such smiles in a Michelangelo?). However, the bulk of Parrish's make-believe-isms lies in his gnome- and dragon-filled children's-book illustrations. He was like a turn-of-the-century Mister Rogers creating his own Neighborhood of Make-Believe. Without the puppets, of course. The exhibit opens Saturday and runs through February 20. Call 561-655-7226, or visit www.fourarts.org. -- Jason Budjinski

Whodunit?

Uh... that guy!

FRI 1/21

Detectives from the Broward County Sheriff's Office want to take your fingerprints. Don't worry, though; they're not asking where you were last Friday (we'd rather not know that). Instead, dicks from the BSO's Crime Scene Investigation Unit and FIU's International Forensic Research Institute are stopping by the Museum of Discovery and Science (401 SW Second St., Fort Lauderdale) Saturday and Sunday as part of the interactive exhibit "Whodunit? Museum Mystery." The exhibit opens Friday with museum "detectives" asking for help with a murder case. After you solve that (it was Colonel Mustard!), try your hand at some fingerprint art, make a chromatography butterfly, or study some animal intestines. The exhibit takes place Friday through Sunday and again on February 5 and 26. Call 954-467-6637. -- Jason Budjinski