ART, WHATEVER IT TAKES

Since the early pandemic in 2020, Rome Art Program has conducted a series of interviews, “Art, Whatever It Takes.”
Artists, Art Critics, and Art Historians living in Italy, the U.S., and U.K., share their insights during these powerful times.

Interview with Frances Middendorf

Frances Middendorf is an artist who divides her time between Rome, Italy & Rhode Island, USA. 

She has a Master’s degree from SVA, New York and also studied with the NY painter Nicholas Carone in Todi, Italy & at the NY Studio School. Frances has had numerous shows in France, Italy and New York, teaches in the Rhode Island School of the Design museum, and serves on their fine arts committee.

Frances Middendorf is a member of the Rome Art Program Faculty.

RomeArtProgram: Where do you live, what is your background?

Frances Middendorf: I moved to Italy in 1997 but returned to Rhode Island in 2016 after the death of my mother to be with my 96 year old father. I have an apartment in Rome and an old farmhouse studio in Umbria and hope to return there soon. I have been teaching with the Rome Art Program since 2011 and since being back in Rhode Island, teach drawing in the RISD Museum and now zoom classes for the Providence Art Club.

RAP: In your opinion is there a creative method?

Frances: I like to rebel against methods. I create them for myself only to ‘rompere’ or break the rules with equal measure and pleasure.

RAP: The “lock down moment” can set you on the path of some important change(s) in your creativity and style…Has this happened to you?

Frances: Lockdown moment was more demanding on my time as I am helping to run the family farm. I was hoping for more not less time in my studio but my responsibilities helping others increased. Teaching drawing became my creative outlet and a way to connect with the outside world.

RAP: What normally inspires you? Which is the most important inspirational source you have found in Rome?

Frances: Italy has such a respect for the making of art and has for many centuries. It is easy for an artist to feel at home there with excellent company. The museums, architecture, ruins, churches and fountains are a constant reminder to get back in the studio and create a thing or two yourself.

RAP: Is there a difference in working in Rome for an artist? What art medium do you prefer to work in?

Frances: Yes Rome certainly has a respect for aesthetics that most other places have less of. I prefer my trusty pilot pen and a sketchbook as they are portable and ever-ready to capture a moment.

RAP: Specific events and historical conditions have a significant role in the creative process; how does this pandemic emergency affect the Arts?

Frances: It has been inspiring to see people over-ride the horror of the pandemic with innovative solutions.

RAP: How are you feeling at this difficult moment and what made you feel this way? Are you optimisticfor the future?

Frances: Yes optimistic for the future. I feel fortunate to live in a safe place and spent a lot of time outside with our 5 donkeys, one blind horse and a dog.

RAP: What can Art contribute to history? Will “Art save us”?

Frances: Creativity is certainly one of the best things in human nature.

RAP: What is your most ambitious dream? And the greatest sacrifice that you have made?

Frances: The making of Art continues to be the best aspect of my life. Time spent away from my studio is the sacrifice. With hope I will contribute work that will outlive me.

RAP: Recently, the artistic and cultural message of Italy and Rome was reemerging as a great “work in progress”,…is this your point of view?

Frances: Although Italy’s past is without peer, there is a growing dynamism in London and New York to be admired.

RAP: Which is your favorite Italian, or Roman, place(s) of art (Museum, Gallery, Monument)?

Frances: The Church of San Agostino is near my apartment in Rome. It is made from the stones of the Colosseum in the days the Colosseum served as a quarry. In Caravaggio’s time, it assisted local prostitutes and the destitute and its art provides succor I find especially for women. My friend Virginia Bonito, an art historian of note, piloted the project to restore the Raphael fresco there along with an Andrea Sansovino sculpture. During that time, I was able to go behind the scenes and really study the painting and sculpture. The Madonna of Loreto by Caravaggio always moves me as does the Madonna del Parto ( Our lady of Childbirth) by Jacopo Sansovino. Every day new ribbons and festoons are added to the sculpture celebrating a new birth. A little chapel in the front of the church dedicated to the ‘Assumption of the Virgin’ by Giovanni Lanfranco offers a feeling of flying and escape with its series of baroque frescoes.

RAP: Which period of Italian Art do you prefer? What is your favorite Italian work of art?

Frances: The fragments of a fountain for the thirsty in Perugia by Arnolfo di Cambio from the thirteenth century capture a moment when classical and roman art was re-interpreted and simplified to its most essential elements.

RAP: How has Rome personally influenced you as an artist and a person?

Frances: Italy has upped the ante certainly on what comprises a masterful work of art.

RAP: What’s your goal? What role does the artist have in society? Any final thoughts and advice?

Frances: Artists are so fortunate to have as their daily work a tool that deepens the act of seeing the world around them.

www.francesmiddendorf.com