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Heather Glenboski/DN
VLADIMIR SOBOLEV PAINTS Ralph Spangler, a member of the Noyes Gallery, on Saturday after
noon as part of the first of two portraiture demonstrations. The second demonstration will be
held Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Noyes Gallery, 119 S. Ninth St.
jT-CrL'lllSde la
Kremlin
Russian artist uses travel for creative impressions
By Diane Broderick
Staff writer
A paintbrush hits a blank canvas, and a face
and figure are outlined with decisive strokes.
As the minutes fly by, the artist adds detail after
detail: lights, shadows, folds in a cranberry-red
shirt At the same time, he chats amiably with the
subject sitting nearby.
Saturday at 1 p.m., Vladimir Sobolev held a
painting demonstration at the Noyes Gallery, 115
S. Ninth St., and within the space of an hour, he
had turned a white void into the form and f igure of
Ralph Spangler, an artist and member of the Noyes
Gallery.
The demonstration was the first of two; the
next will be Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the
Noyes.
Sobolev is a member of the Noyes Gallery, and
his paintings are displayed there year-round. But
the artist isn’t usually available to see the reception
his paintings receive.
Sobolev is visiting from Moscow where he
lives with his family. But he has been to the United
States four times for a total of about eight months,
and visiting here is of great importance to him, he
said.
Each visit offers him the opportunity to learn
new things he can apply to making his art better
and more experimental, he said.
Contrasts are vital to his work, which consists
of portraits, still-lifes and landscapes. Contrasts,
within each painting and between paintings, are
what make them interesting, Sobolev said.
Sobolev believes constant travel, including
frequent trips to Europe, makes these contrasts
u
(In the United States,)
every corner is
something new.
I try to take pictures
and sketches.”
Vladimir Sobolev
Noyes Gallery member
easier to produce.
“I see so many things here. I can show sky
scrapers in New York and the desert in Tucson
(Ariz.) and Mexico,” Sobolev said.
In his current exhibit at the Noyes Gallery,
these contrasts are apparent, Sobolev said while
explaining the differences between two scenes
from his homeland.
“Golden Evening” shows an ancient part of
Moscow as the first rays of spring’s light hit build
ings in the cityscape. Certain buildings glow with
a golden tint and others stand in a rosy, warm glow,
which Sobolev says seems so much warmer Mien
a hard winter has just passed.
Just adjacent to that painting is “Frosty
Morning,” another view of Moscow, which shows
an ornate church surrounded by a wintry sky and a
snowy landscape.
Please see ARTIST on 13
Barrymore brightens up dull film
■ Romantic-comedy can’t
pull through because of its
stupid, over-cliched plot.
By Sam McKewon
Senior editor
Give Drew Barrymore this: She
tried. She really, really tried.
She grinned and cooed and she
played cute and smart and laughed at
all the right times and cried at all the
right times, too. She let herself get hit
with doors, wear horrible clothes, have
pimples and braces put on her face and
basically allowed herself to look like
total frump.
And she damn near pulled it off,
too. Barrymore almost saved the
absolutely stupidest film of the year
(short of “Wing Commander”) in
“Never Been Kissed.” She drags you,
kicking and screaming, into this realm
of stupid comedy.
And you, for a second, will want to
go. Some will. And they will come out
of the theater a less intelligent person
on just about everything in life than
they were when they went in. All
thanks to Drew Barrymore. And if
that’s not star power, hell, what is?
For her newest film, Barrymore is
Josie Gellar, a 25-year-old copy editor
Courtesy Photo
DREW BARRYMORE stars as Josie, a undercover reporter sent back to high
school to uncover the “real” stories of teen life.
at the Chicago Sun-Times who was
dumped on in high school and is
dumped on at work. Desperate to be a
reporter, Josie is inexplicably given a
job to go undercover at South Glen
High School and do an investigative
piece on what’s happening with the
teens of today.
Josie was terrorized in high school
All the worst stuff you could imagine.
Please see KISSED on 13
Film Review
Tbe Facts
Title: "Never Been Kissed"
Stars: Drew Barrymore, David Arquette
Director: Raja Gosnell
Rating: PG-13 (adult language)
Grade: C
Five Words: "Never” stinks, but Barrymore
shines
Grossman piece
lacks substance
By Liza Holtmeier
Senior staff writer
A gimmick is a gimmick.
And while a gimmick can some
times entertain, it still needs substance
to back it up.
Friday night, the Danny Grossman
Dance Co. provided the audience at the
Lied Center for Performing Arts with
plenty of gimmicks - but little sub
stance.
The performance opened with
“Spiritusa piece reminiscent of early
modem dance with Greek myth over
tones.
With its sedate mood and classical
music, the piece seemed an odd open
ing choice, lacking the spirit and ener
gy needed to grab the audience’s atten
tion.
The dancers gave a satisfactory
performance, moving through the
piece’s rather ordinary choreography
with grace and ease. But the piece was
far from new, far from inventive - a
motif that would last the rest of the
evening.
Next came “Lynchtown,” choreo
graphed by Lincoln native Charles
Theater
Weidman in 1936. Weidman based the
piece on his experience of witnessing a
lynching in Omaha as a young man.
This piece was the highlight of the
evening. The women achieved the nec
essary intensity and focus, recreating
the vileness and fury of a blood-thirsty
mob.
Given the piece’s slouching anti
ballerina stances, one can only imagine
the surprise and wonder it must have
garnered when first performed.
However, the dancers failed to
build the piece to a climax. They kept
the energy level at a constant hum and
then abruptly ended.
The company then performed the
world premiere of “Chasing Bird,”
choreographed by Danny Grossman.
The piece, commissioned by the
Center for Great Plains Studies, used
the music of Kansas City, Mo., jazz
musician Charlie Parker.
In the performance, the dancers’
Please see DANCE on 13
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