{"id":24114,"date":"2023-11-27T12:30:04","date_gmt":"2023-11-27T17:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=24114"},"modified":"2024-03-10T20:08:55","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T00:08:55","slug":"crenca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2023\/11\/27\/crenca\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Divine Providence\u2019: Bert Crenca\u2019s Love Affair With The City In All Its Beautiful Messiness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Over the years, Bert Crenca<\/a> has made lots of art\u2014music and performances, sculptures and wild paintings of people and things warped and stretched and mutated, like visions out of strange dreams. But those following his social media on Feb. 17, 2020, saw him announce a new direction with a post showing a realist painting of plastic garbage cans lined up in a city backyard. He captioned it: \u201cFirst of a new series ‘Divine providence, north end.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crenca had retired from being a full-time staff member at AS220 in 2016, but he had continued an active relationship as an advisor to the uncensored, unjuried community art center, the premiere organization of art-makers in Providence, which he\u2019d co-founded in 1985. As its longtime artistic director, Crenca had come to embody AS220, its living symbol, a brawny artist with his signature swagger, bald dome and flowing goatee, walking down the city\u2019s streets, expanding creative opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, to justify to himself how much time he was putting into AS220, Crenca says, \u201cI had to look at it as this large work of art,\u201d a wide-ranging creative project, rooted in his values, that fueled thousands of artists over the years, as well as himself. But like any amazing giant project, it consumed oodles of time and energy that he could have spent in his own studio, on his own art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now around the start of 2020, he was actually, really moving on from AS220. At his home in Providence\u2019s North End\u2014a former Italian America Club turned into a 4,000-square-foot residence, woodshop, work-out space, art studio, music rehearsal space, and gallery for Crenca and his wife Susan Clausen\u2014he was fully devoting himself to his own art-making. \u201cI\u2019m in my studio every day,\u201d Crenca told me the other day. \u201c\u2026Now I wake up thinking about painting, I wake up thinking about music. I feel so blessed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Umberto
Umberto Crenca, “Divine Providence,” #1.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Crenca shared the next painting in the \u201cDivine Providence\u201d series on social media on March 4, 2020\u2014a view of a driveway between buildings. The third depicted rooftops that seemed stacked one atop the other. The next: a tight view through yards and between buildings, chain link fences and lined up trash cans, one of those quintessential city views of Providence where things are glimpsed framed between the houses and buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crenca saw himself as returning to a series of paintings he\u2019d made of Providence\u2019s Federal Hill and sold back around 1983, but had kept no visual record of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the covid lockdowns began. \u201cThen it all made even more sense\u2014of being out in and thinking about neighborhoods and where you are. The whole series is intended to be a pedestrian perspective, and the geometry, the architecture, and the vernacular. And the commonplace,\u201d Crenca says. \u201c\u2026The paintings are about putting the viewer in that place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Umberto
Umberto Crenca in his studio, 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Umberto Crenca was born in Providence\u2014baptized, he notes, at Holy Ghost Church on Federal Hill. When he was 2, his family moved to Lymansville in North Providence, about four and a half miles northwest of where AS220 now is, but he returned to Providence regularly to visit extended family, relatives who\u2019d moved to the city from Italy. At age 19, Crenca rented a home in Providence, then moved back to Lymansville upon his first marriage, before returning to Providence again, where he\u2019s now lived for nearly 50 years. In other words, he\u2019s always lived in or near the city, he identifies deeply with it, he\u2019s devoted his life to it. Crenca says, \u201cAS220 was a 30-year, almost 40-year love affair with the city. This is me doing the same, but coming out of my studio.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Crenca celebrated his 73 birthday on Nov. 17, 2023, he\u2019d painted 265 \u201cDivine Providence\u201d canvases. (He exhibited 226 of them at Providence\u2019s WaterFire Arts Center<\/a> from Oct. 12 to Nov. 12.) \u201cI would be extraordinarily depressed if I wasn\u2019t being productive in this way,\u201d Crenca says. \u201c\u2026I can\u2019t watch life go by. I have to participate, and I have to participate in a creative way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crenca has sold dozens of the paintings, and the series has led to painting commissions\u2014of homes or a certain park bench or other places special to people. \u201cI didn\u2019t have no pension plan or nothing from AS220,\u201d Crenca says. \u201c\u2026My income is social security, which ain\u2019t much because I never made much. Making some money from my art has been a godsend.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Umberto
Umberto Crenca, “Divine Providence,” commission, 2021.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Crenca roams Providence on foot, photographing scenes that might become paintings. (\u201cI\u2019m a terrible photographer,\u201d he notes.) \u201cI take more photographs that I\u2019m likely to paint. I come back and pick and choose.\u201d He projects the photos onto canvases\u2014either 11×14, 16×20 or 30×36 inches, vertical, intentionally like a social media post\u2014\u201cand do a kind of minimal line drawing and then I paint into it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a matter of appreciating and focusing,\u201d Crenca says. \u201c\u2026When you walk you see textures. Providence has a lot of houses with a house in the back of the same lot. Things that I think are unique to this city.\u201d He paints parking lots, a row of mannequins outside a boutique, power lines, trash cans, trees, old brick factories, Victorian houses, gas stations, laundromats, bridges, business signs, everything pressed up close together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The paintings often feel like you\u2019re there alone, but Crenca tells me, \u201cThere\u2019s quite a few that have people.\u201d Buildings burned by fire and boarded up. \u201cYou wonder what happened. Did anybody get hurt?\u201d The lives lived in these buildings, immigrants who passed through. \u201cTransitions. Neighborhoods going down and coming back.\u201d A beat-up chair in a corner. An overgrown area. \u201cThe detritus.\u201d Construction workers at night. \u201cThe difference between home-ownership and rentals. They all have a vibe. They all tell a story.\u201d Graffitied signs and bridge supports and buildings. \u201cI know all these neighborhoods. I\u2019ve lived in all of them. I know the signage, the texture. \u2026 A lot of times, it\u2019s found poetry, three or four signs piled up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The acrylic paintings are about a love for Providence\u2014\u201cDivine Providence\u201d\u2014his holy place in all its beautiful grit and messiness. \u201cWe take our surroundings for granted,\u201d Crenca tells me. “We don\u2019t necessarily appreciate what we see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, occasional newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2023 or the respective creators.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Umberto
Umberto Crenca at reception for “Divine Providence” at Providence\u2019s WaterFire Arts Center, October 2023.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""Divine
“Divine Providence” at Providence\u2019s WaterFire Arts Center, October 2023.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Umberto
Umberto Crenca, self-portrait, 2022.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""Divine
“Divine Providence” at Providence\u2019s WaterFire Arts Center, October 2023.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Umberto
Umberto Crenca, “Divine Providence,” #19.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Umberto
Umberto Crenca, “Divine Providence,” #32.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Umberto
Umberto Crenca, “Divine Providence,” #88.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Umberto
Umberto Crenca, “Divine Providence,” #90.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Umberto
Umberto Crenca, “Divine Providence,” #103.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Umberto
Umberto Crenca, “Divine Providence,” #104.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Umberto
Umberto Crenca, “Divine Providence,” #113.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Umberto
Umberto Crenca, “Divine Providence,” #138.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Umberto
Umberto Crenca, “Divine Providence,” #142.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Umberto
Umberto Crenca, “Divine Providence,” #166.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Umberto
Umberto Crenca, “Divine Providence,” #178.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Umberto
Umberto Crenca, “Divine Providence,” #186.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Umberto
Umberto Crenca, “Divine Providence,” #194.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Umberto
Umberto Crenca, “Divine Providence,” #195.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Umberto
Umberto Crenca, “Divine Providence,” #213.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the years, Bert Crenca has made lots of art\u2014music and performances, sculptures and wild paintings of people and things warped and stretched and mutated, like visions out of strange dreams. But those following his social media on Feb. 17, 2020, saw him announce a new direction with a post showing a realist painting of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[251,1209,72,1210],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24114"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24114"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24511,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24114\/revisions\/24511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}