Clearly a tribute to neighborhood arts

by Jacqueline Watts
editor@baltimoreguidecom

There are very few things that are as essential to the flavor of Baltimore as painted screens. Formstone comes to mind, and so do tire planters and lemon sticks—things that exemplify our city’s spirit of taking what you have and making it into something you can use. No matter how odd the finished product may be, it serves its unintended purpose.
Painted screens were developed in the nineteen-teens for two purposes, ventilation and privacy. In those days before air conditioning, and in most working class houses, electric fans, people left their windows open and their shades up to catch a breeze. The problem was, that meant any passerby could see into the house. But if you painted the screen, the sunlight hitting the screen would render it nearly opaque, and the residents could enjoy both a breeze and a small degree of privacy.
At night, though, best to pull the shades. When lit from behind, for instance by the lamps in the house, painted screens are almost perfectly transparent.

CLEARLY AN ART FORM-Elaine Eff poses with the painted screen door of a local business. The art of screen painting, as well as wood graining, will be showcased in “Rowhouse Rembrandts,” to be held this weekend at the American Visionary Art Museum.

Photo by Mary Helen Sprecher

A couple of uniquely Baltimore cultural institutions—the American Visionary Arts Museum and the Creative Alliance—are collaborating on “Rowhouse Rembrandts: Celebrating Screen Painters and Urban Arts in Baltimore” this weekend, a celebration of painted screens, the people who paint them, and the diehards who display them on their houses.
AVAM kicks off the weekend with “Party with the Screen Painters,” a with an auction of Wire Guys sculpture and polka music by Joy of Maryland. The party starts at 7 p.m. Friday, May 9, at the museum, 800 Key Highway.
On Saturday morning there is a Screen Paint-a-thon in Federal Hill, led by avant-garde screen painter Monica Broere. Broere has been painting screens for at least 15 years now, and her subject matter is untraditional—instead of the usual cottage with a red tiled roof and swans on the pond, she might do tap-dancing flamingoes, for instance.
From 10 a.m.-4 p.m., the action moves in and around the museum. Tom Lipka and Dee Herget, the old masters of traditional screen painting, will give classes. (The classes cost $20—sign up by calling 410-244-1900, ext. 238.)
Lipka and Herget are two of the subjects of Elaine Eff’s documentary “The Screen Painters,” released in 1988, and Herget is featured in “How to Paint a Baltimore Screen,” Eff’s companion piece to “The Screen Painters.” Herget and Lipka have given master classes at senior centers and libraries all over town in an attempt to keep the art alive in an era of air conditioning.
Also at the Visionary, there will be demonstrations of wood graining, tire planter-making, and other Baltimore arts, and conversations with neighborhood folk. To see the art of wood graining, stop by the circulation desk at the Southeast Anchor Library in Highlandtown—above the desk are four screen paintings by William Oktavec, hung in wood-grained frames.
The celebration shifts to the Creative Alliance in Highlandtown Saturday evening with a tribute to Johnny Eck and a screening of “Freaks,” a 1932 horror movie about sideshow performers that features him.
Eck was born in Baltimore in 1911 without the bottom half of his torso, and lived for nearly all his life with his twin brother Robert, who was not deformed. Eck was a screen painter, a sideshow performer, sidewalk preacher and actor, and, with Robert, part of a magician’s sawing-in-half trick. In “Freaks,” Eck plays the Half Boy.
Johnny Eck is also featured in “The Screen Painters. He died in 1991.
Tickets to the movie are $6; tickets to the exhibit and magic show are $11 CA members, $13 others. Call 410-276-1651 or visit www.creativealliance.org for tickets and info.
On Sunday, May 11, there will be a Rowhouse Rembrandts exhibit at the Captains Hotel, 1631 Aliceanna Street in Fells Point, sponsored by the Preservation Society as part of the Historic Harbor House Tour. Tickets to the tour are $15 advance/$18 day of the tour, and are available through the society at 410-675-6750 or www.preservationsociety.org.