{"id":4989,"date":"2016-11-21T19:26:29","date_gmt":"2016-11-22T00:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/?p=4989"},"modified":"2018-05-06T18:04:57","modified_gmt":"2018-05-06T22:04:57","slug":"bascha-mon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/bascha-mon\/","title":{"rendered":"Bascha Mon"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--powerpress_player--><div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_1775\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-4989-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interview\/BaschaMon.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interview\/BaschaMon.mp3\">http:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interview\/BaschaMon.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/interviews-by-brainard-carey\/id1468502583?mt=2&amp;ls=1\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_itunes\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe on Apple Podcasts\" rel=\"nofollow\">Apple Podcasts<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/5ZxsN79E1W6VJOjQF9GNuZ\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_spotify\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe on Spotify\" rel=\"nofollow\">Spotify<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/tunein.com\/radio\/Interviews-by-Brainard-Carey-p1236598\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_tunein\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe on TuneIn\" rel=\"nofollow\">TuneIn<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/feeds.podcastmirror.com\/interviews-by-brainard\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/goo.gl\/xSQrKY\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_more\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click here to  join mailing list\" rel=\"nofollow\">Click here to  join mailing list<\/a><\/p><p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5039 size-medium alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/IMG_3070-e1479733844484-225x300.jpg?resize=225%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"img_3070\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/IMG_3070-e1479733844484.jpg?resize=225%2C300&amp;ssl=1 225w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/IMG_3070-e1479733844484.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/IMG_3070-e1479733844484.jpg?resize=624%2C832&amp;ssl=1 624w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/IMG_3070-e1479733844484.jpg?w=1512&amp;ssl=1 1512w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/IMG_3070-e1479733844484.jpg?w=1392&amp;ssl=1 1392w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/baschamon.com\/\">Bascha Mon<\/a> was born Nov. 3<sup>rd<\/sup> 1932 in Newark, NJ.\u00a0 She was a lonely only child, a tomboy with dark hair and braids that boys loved to pull . She lived on High St. (now Martin Luther King Boulevard). From 5<sup>th<\/sup> grade on, she traveled by buses to schools on the other side of the city where she was not welcomed and had no friends.\u00a0 She lived in a part of the city that was not acceptable to the parents of her school- mates. This was her first experience of being segregated, not by her Jewishness, but by class.\u00a0 From a very early age she lived in her imagination and books.<\/p>\n<p>She never dreamed she would become an artist, but wanted to be an actress and live other lives on the stage.\u00a0 To that purpose, she attended dramatic classes in NYC.\u00a0 In High School she fell in love with the French language and decided that she would major in French and Spanish literature at Skidmore College.\u00a0 Bascha was scheduled to attend the Sorbonne in Paris during her Junior year.\u00a0 This never happened because she was a romantic who had fallen in love and eloped with her High School sweetheart at the age of 18.\u00a0 When 19, she had her first son. From that point on in her life all her efforts and accomplishments had to be realized in the context of a mother.\u00a0 Her early dreams were subverted by reality and she taught elementary school for 5 years. Although she found teaching stimulating, by the time her 2<sup>nd<\/sup> son (to another father) was born 10 years later, she realized that teaching elementary school was not the path she could follow for a lifetime.\u00a0 Thanks to the intervention of a loving neighbor, she was encouraged to follow a new dream \u2013 to learn how to use color and become a visual artist.\u00a0 Her parents provided financial assistance and her older son baby-sat his little brother so Bascha could begin to take painting classes locally with Adolf Konrad.\u00a0 After several years, he told her that she was too serious for the group he was teaching and that she should be in NY studying with other serious artists.\u00a0 She took some of the unusual feminist pieces she had created into the city for an interview at an art school.<\/p>\n<p>This proved to be her second major interaction with prejudice \u2013 this time because she was a woman, a mother, and lived in NJ.\u00a0 In spite of praise from Phillip Guston, she was refused entrance to the school on the grounds that no mother from NJ could possibly be a serious artist. Although she did not know this at the time, she was accumulating experiences that would eventually prepare her to understand the plights of many who for multiple reasons were found unacceptable to follow their bliss.\u00a0 Eventually, she found her way to the Art Students League where she finally met other artists, all younger and much more experienced and knowledgeable. This was a fraught experience combined with the intense friction and disapproval of her husband and many neighbors.\u00a0 In the late \u201860\u2019s her behavior was outside of the pale of suburbia. When the riots came to Newark, her parents lost their store and the ability to offer her financial help. She no longer recalls the names of all the artists who came to her aid, but rules against giving a scholarship to a married woman were set aside and she received one.\u00a0 After 4 1\/2 years of commuting and studio classes, her final teacher, Rudolf Baranik convinced her that she was ready to be a painter in her own studio.\u00a0 From 1971 onward, she slowly began to exhibit and become a real painter.\u00a0 She met others in the Women\u2019s Caucus for Art and became a strong feminist, but her work came from another place \u2013 at first an interior landscape based on feelings, touch and color.\u00a0 Her first sense of recognition as a woman who was an artist was provided by Lynn Miller in 1975. Ms Miller curated a series of exhibits of women artists at Douglass College in New Brunswick, NJ.\u00a0 In 1972, a move to the country had opened Bascha Mon to the deep beauty of nature.\u00a0 The open fields and pond viewed from her windows looked like bands of textured colors.\u00a0 These started as small works on paper using color pencils, oil pastels and wax and were the beginning of her professional exhibition career.\u00a0 A solo show at Lee Ault Gallery on 77<sup>th<\/sup> st and Madison Ave proved a launch pad for coverage by major art magazines and introductions to many artists.\u00a0 Unfortunately, Lee Ault closed his gallery within 2 years.<\/p>\n<p>Bascha had never understood the business side of the art world and assumed that other galleries would just pick her up.\u00a0 She did not follow through and never again was represented by a high quality gallery, though she continued all through her career to exhibit at museums and non-profit spaces.\u00a0 Her work ranged widely from paintings influenced by travel, such as the 15\u2019 wide painting based on a trip to France, now owned by the Newark Museum to the print that won an international award that took her to Japan in 1991.\u00a0 That Japanese trip changed her art life for many years as she began to create installations using sculpture, photographs and fabric before installations had become widely acceptable.\u00a0 She seemed to always be out of sync with the current market.\u00a0 This early work is not represented in her web site.\u00a0 You may view varied works made since <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baschamon.com\/\">by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The web site has not yet been updated with the 2016 work discussed in the Yale Radio interview: NEW LAND.\u00a0 In the interim these photos without their titles may be <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fineartsimaging.com\/newland\">viewed here<\/a>. The titles are a very important part of the project but the web site update is not yet ready.<\/p>\n<p>Since Bascha Mon speaks extensively in the radio interview about the NEW LAND project and the Flags for the New Land by invited artists: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BaschaMonFlags\/\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BaschaMonFlags\/<\/a>\u00a0 I will not discuss that project here.\u00a0 Except to add that Facebook has played a major role in the evolution of this ambiguous project. The link to Bascha\u2019s personal <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/baschamon\">Facebook page is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In the interview, Bascha neglected to explain that so many artists and flag makers interpret this work not only as a story of the disenfranchised migrants, but as personal commentaries on their own problems and lives.\u00a0 Many have shared with her intimate stories relating to themselves and their families and how her paintings provided a direct link to their lives.\u00a0 Some have even told her that the work gave them a way to return to painting themselves.\u00a0 Bascha Mon is very honored by the trust given to her and regrets that she omitted this from her interview.<\/p>\n<p>Ms Mon\u2019s\u00a0 CV is linked to her web site but there are some new honors not yet listed:\u00a0 Ann Landi wrote about the\u00a0 overturned boat: 500 MIGRANTS RESCUED\u2014DO THEY SURVIVE IN THE NEW LAND? Sunday June 5<sup>th<\/sup>. 2016 gouache on paper 8 1`\/2\u201d x 12\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Steve Gibson posted about Bascha Mon on <a href=\"http:\/\/mockingbirdthoughtz.blogspot.com\/bascha-mon.html\/2016\/08\/\">his blog here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Some of my past honors include many solo and group shows; a recent catalog from \u201cMountains, Barriers and Poppy Fields\u201d with an essay by Carl Hazlewood published by Wayne Paterson University \u2013 curator, Nancy Einreinhofer.<\/p>\n<p>Bascha Mon received 3 fellowships from the NJ State Council for the Arts in Drawing, Painting and Sculpture; a 2012 grant form the NY Foundation for the Arts; an invitation to be a resident at Brydcliff in Woodstock in 2012.\u00a0 Some museum collections in which her work resides are: Osaka Contemporary Art Center, Osaka Japan; Newark Museum; State Museum of NJ at Trenton, NJ; Artists\u2019 Library of the Victoria &amp; Albert Museum, London, England; Newark Public Library, Newark NJ (Artists Book Collection).\u00a0 There are also many reviews, articles, videos and interviews.\u00a0 Most of these are listed in her CV.<\/p>\n<p>In conclusion, Bascha has been teaching art to adults and late teens since 1995 and continues to this day. (21 years +)\u00a0\u00a0 Teaching is a very important extension of her artists\u2019 life.\u00a0 She loves the opportunity to receive inspiration from younger people and help them to stretch their imaginations and their perceptions of the possibilities of art.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5066\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5066\" style=\"width: 1022px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5066 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/500-MIGRANTS-RESCUED-DO-THEY-SURVIVE-IN-THE-NEW-LAND-1024x780-1.jpg?resize=696%2C484&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"500-migrants-rescued-do-they-survive-in-the-new-land-1024x780\" width=\"696\" height=\"484\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/500-MIGRANTS-RESCUED-DO-THEY-SURVIVE-IN-THE-NEW-LAND-1024x780-1.jpg?w=1022&amp;ssl=1 1022w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/500-MIGRANTS-RESCUED-DO-THEY-SURVIVE-IN-THE-NEW-LAND-1024x780-1.jpg?resize=300%2C209&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/500-MIGRANTS-RESCUED-DO-THEY-SURVIVE-IN-THE-NEW-LAND-1024x780-1.jpg?resize=768%2C534&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/500-MIGRANTS-RESCUED-DO-THEY-SURVIVE-IN-THE-NEW-LAND-1024x780-1.jpg?resize=624%2C434&amp;ssl=1 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5066\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">500 MIGRANTS RESCUED&#8211;DO THEY SURVIVE IN THE NEW LAND? 8 1\/2&#8243;x 12&#8243; gouache on paper. June 5. 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5067\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5067\" style=\"width: 1020px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5067 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/CROWDING-IN-THE-CAMP-IS-HORRID.-WILL-THERE-BE-MORE-ROOM-IN-THE-NEW-LAND-1024x781-1.jpg?resize=696%2C487&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"crowding-in-the-camp-is-horrid-will-there-be-more-room-in-the-new-land-1024x781\" width=\"696\" height=\"487\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/CROWDING-IN-THE-CAMP-IS-HORRID.-WILL-THERE-BE-MORE-ROOM-IN-THE-NEW-LAND-1024x781-1.jpg?w=1020&amp;ssl=1 1020w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/CROWDING-IN-THE-CAMP-IS-HORRID.-WILL-THERE-BE-MORE-ROOM-IN-THE-NEW-LAND-1024x781-1.jpg?resize=300%2C210&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/CROWDING-IN-THE-CAMP-IS-HORRID.-WILL-THERE-BE-MORE-ROOM-IN-THE-NEW-LAND-1024x781-1.jpg?resize=768%2C538&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/CROWDING-IN-THE-CAMP-IS-HORRID.-WILL-THERE-BE-MORE-ROOM-IN-THE-NEW-LAND-1024x781-1.jpg?resize=624%2C437&amp;ssl=1 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5067\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">CROWDING IN THE CAMP IS HORRID. WILL THERE BE MORE ROOM IN THE NEW LAND? 8 1\/2&#8243; x 12&#8243;. carbon pencil lead pencil. Gouache. Neon marking pen on paper. October 21. 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>http:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interview\/BaschaMon.mp3Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | TuneIn | RSS | Click here to join mailing listBascha Mon was born Nov. 3rd 1932 in Newark, NJ.\u00a0 She was a lonely only child, a tomboy with dark hair and braids that boys loved to pull . She lived on High St. (now Martin Luther King Boulevard). From [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5067,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[109,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-4989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artists","8":"tag-long-valley","9":"tag-us"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/CROWDING-IN-THE-CAMP-IS-HORRID.-WILL-THERE-BE-MORE-ROOM-IN-THE-NEW-LAND-1024x781-1.jpg?fit=1020%2C714&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p47FRq-1it","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4989"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5069,"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4989\/revisions\/5069"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}