Thursday, November 06, 2003

One of the things that I want to do with this BLOG is to encourage people who want to say something about our area's visual arts, our artists and everything else associated with that and the visual arts in general, to email me and I'll put it here (editing rights reserved) whenever possible.

And photographer and video artist Darin Boville (and also one of the nine finalists on this year's Trawick Prize) breaks the ice with some very interesting comments and thoughts fueled by the current issue of Art in America magazine. Darin's point is about substance in the current state of writing in these magazines. He notes that:

"[In the current issue] you can find an article on the work of [Mark] Lombardi which I might suggest was an Alan Sokal-style hoax if I wasn't convinced that it is impossible to pull off a Sokal-style hoax in the art world.

Art world writing is already so obviously void of substance that a hoax would be pointless.

In this case, we learn in a pull quote from the article that "With their large scale and epic cast of characters, Lombardi's drawings can call to mind the grand, turbulent history paintings of the 19th century."

Jaw dropping stupidity of a quote.

Even the editors where embarrassed by that one -- in the text itself that line does not appear but has been instead changed to "With their marriage of branching patterns and mechanical flowcharts, Lombardi's drawings call to mind a host of visual forms, including maps, mandalas, and genealogical charts."

Have artists figured out yet why no one outside the art world takes them seriously?

And then there are the grade school errors. The article says that Bush made "100% profit" on the sale of his stock which is another way of saying that he doubled his money. That certainly is the wrong number!

Then there is the art writer WAY out of her depth. While discussing the Bush work she seem oblivious of the fact that Bush was the CEO of Spectrum 7 when Harken bought it and when Bahrain granted the little company offshore drilling rights (during Daddy's presidency). It only takes five minutes on the Internet.

And then the faults in art scholarship. Here we have an artist who is interested in political and business scandals and who maps them out in semi-scientific charts linking the previously unseen participants together.

This artist came of age in the early 1970's and graduated with an MFA in 1974. It seems to me that Hans Haacke's pieces detailing the connections in the real estate market in NYC should have at least been mentioned, if not cited as the dominant art precedent and direct influence.

On and on and on.

Alas... "
Comments on Darin's thoughts welcomed.

A few days ago I complained that WETA's Around Town did not devote enough time to the visual arts in its skimpy 30 minutes.

And today I received a very nice email from Valerie Bampoe, WETA's Audience Services Coordinator, to let me know that she had brought up my concerns to the producers of AT.

She also welcomed additional concerns be sent directly to her at vbampoe@weta.com or call her at (703) 998-2615.

Perfect opportunity for those who agree with me to write or call WETA and tell them that "Around Town" should give the visual arts equal time with theatre and music and movies, and give Bill Dunlap a few more on-air minutes to talk about our visual artists and galleries and museums and have the panel spend less times on national movies that a dozen other TV shows are already discussing.


Touchstone Gallery, a very good artist co-op on 7th Street, will be jurying for new members on Nov. 19. Interested artists looking for gallery membership should call the Gallery for information at 202/347-2787.


Robert Hughes, truly one of the world's great art critics/historians, will be at the Lisner Auditorium on November 18 discussing his new book on Goya. Lecture starts at 6:30 and there will be a book signing at the end of the program.

I haven't read the book yet (but will) and wonder how it deals (if at all) with the issue of Goya's Black Paintings and the controversy over their authenticity brought about by Juan Jose Junquera, a professor of art history at Complutense University in Madrid.

Ionarts continues the "Gopnik and the Corcoran" discussion with some very good points.


Thusdays is galleries' day at the Post and today Jessica Dawson reviews "Civic Endurance" at Conner Contemporary Art - this is the same great show that was reviewed on Oct. 24 by Michael O'Sullivan and by Blake Gopnik on October 19. Leigh Conner emails me to let me know that this superb show has been extended until November 29, 2003. You can see the images online here. Today the show was also reviewed by Glenn Dixon in the Express and by Lou Jacobson in the Washington City Paper.

Jessica also reviews a group show of Italian artists at the new Capricorno Gallery. Both galleries are in the Dupont Circle area, which will have extended hours tomorrow from 6-8 PM.

Capricorno appears to be Washington's first international gallery, with branches in Capri, London and now DC. Welcome!