Fine Arts

Would you like to own a painting by the next Mary Casatt or Thomas Eakins at today's discount prices? Join the knowledgeable collectors, art enthusiasts and dealers who will be flocking to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts tomorrow from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Sixty-six certificate candidates and twenty Master of Fine Arts graduates are exhibiting their work throughout the academy galleries immediately following the 3 p.m. graduation ceremonies -...

Beginning next week, successful bidders at Freeman/Fine Arts of Philadelphia Inc. can expect to pay more for their acquisitions. The auction house, established in 1805 and arguably the oldest in the country (though not under the same ownership), is raising its buyer's commission from 10 to 12 percent on bids up to $50,000. The 10 percent commission will continue to be paid on any amount over $50,000, according to an announcement distributed at the beginning of the week. Throw in the 7 percent sales tax private buyers must pay and the final price of an object now will be close to 20 percent more than the winning bid. Freeman/Fine Arts chairman Samuel "Beau" Freeman said the commission increase was in line with those charged by major houses in New York.

The Rembrandt Peale is now suspect, but next weekend's gallery sale at Freeman/Fine Arts has so many other attractions that bidders still could easily - and happily - spend thousands. Almost 1,000 lots of ivories, silver goods, porcelains, artworks and furniture will be offered during the two-day sale, the first to be held on a weekend since Fine Arts merged with Samuel T. Freeman & Co. this summer. Many are from prominent local estates and owners, including Grace Loeb, Sarah Groome and Reeves Wetherill.

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts stands in full support of Barbara Hall's Nov. 29 commentary regarding the vast need for arts education in Philadelphia ("The art of education must include the arts"). It is vital to the future of our city that cultural institutions provide opportunities for children and young adults that are sadly no longer available in our schools. The academy is committed to making a difference in this arena by offering high-quality programs for more than 7,000 students and teachers, and making them accessible regardless of economic means.

It is a grand achievement to be at the center of American art from the nation's founding until now. That status has led to another honor for the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Earlier this month, the Academy received the prestigious 2005 National Medal of Arts. Just as Philadelphia gave birth to a nation, the Academy - the oldest museum and school in the country - gave birth to a new nation's visual arts. It is the first museum to win the medal; most past honorees have been individuals.

To complement its current Paris: 1889 exhibition, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is screening The Phantom of the Opera (1943), the horror classic set in the catacombs beneath the Paris opera. While this talkie version isn't as visually satisfying as the 1925 silent starring Lon Chaney, it does boast a wonderful performance by Claude Rains and Hal Mohr's Oscar-winning cinematography shimmering with belle-epoque color. At 3 p.m. Sunday, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Broad and Cherry Sts. BLACK MARIA FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL Tue 8 p.m.: Selected films from annual festival, including I Heard a Fly Buzz, The Veil, Moon Blue Traces and Siren, all by the school's alumni and faculty.

The University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Fine Arts has mounted a large exhibition in honor of its centennial. The show, "100 for 100," is a tribute to a school that has at times been among the best of its kind in the world. But it is also tempting to see the exhibition as a demonstration of a lack of focus and a tolerance for mediocrity that help explain why it no longer enjoys so exalted a reputation. The exhibition, which runs through Nov. 4, and The Book of the School/100 Years, which accompanies it, are confusing, diffuse and at times perverse.

What would the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts have done without the alumni organization this oldest art school in America has - and vice versa? Rarely do the careers of a major art-teaching institution and the generations of living artists it has trained intersect in such a clear-cut way. This interdependence is always most visible during the fellowship's annual exhibit. The 98th exhibition is now on in West Chester. One of the fellowship's most striking attributes, aside from having a painter of the caliber of Thomas Eakins among its former members, is its supportive purchases of alumni artwork each year, mostly from this show.

Erik Dries literally flipped for the 13th annual Gloucester County Teen Arts Festival. The Deptford Junior High student was one of 25 teenagers who signed up for a workshop designed to help them learn the proper way to perform forward and back flips - without injury - in stage productions. The session in the fine art of purposeful falling, led by George Brown, a Glassboro State College student, a stage instructor and an actor, was one of more than 20 workshops conducted during the daylong event held at Gloucester County College last Wednesday.

Old-time sports fans remember the days when the poetry and drama of the game were sufficient to attract an audience. But sports are no longer just games - they're prime-time mass entertainment that has to be professionally marketed to cover its production costs. Looking at art museums in the 1980s, one could draw a comparison with professional sports. The poetry, drama and beauty of art were never enough to pack galleries day in and day out. But years ago, museums didn't particularly care whether they had lines around the block.