Blake Gopnik is very impressed in his Sunday Arts review of a very interesting show by Jim Sanborn at the Corcoran (see my Oct 27 post).
Seems like Gopnik is going through some epiphanies lately, as just a few weeks ago he found the worst museum show he'd ever seen at the same place.
I found the review a little too "preachy" in a revisionist sort of way. Nonetheless, in my opinion, this exhibition is exceedingly interesting in that it blends together several genres of the stuff that museum exhibitions (not just "art" museums) are made from.
I'm not even sure that a visual arts critic alone can give an informed review of this groundbreaking Sanborn exhibition, and I hope that some history experts from academia will get a chance to voice their opinions in the Post. This is not just a visual art exhibition, but also somewhat of a history lesson - in fact, it could just as easily have been presented in one of the nearby Smithsonian museums along the Mall that deal with history.
Sanborn's photos of atomic matter and elements are beautiful - no debate about that. But his obsession with reconstructing - well ... in Blake's words: presentation of the Manhattan Project push the overall exhibition into a new realm - it's a well-crafted and re-constructed passion (much like the passion of collectors who collect Nazi or Stasi memorabilia).... but it walks away from just visual art and adds historical visual information and reconstruction - and it opens a new page in contemporary art dialogue - in this Gopnik and I agree (I think).
Why Gopnik recommends that President Bush visit this exhibition often is confusing to me.
The fact that either (a): The Chief Art Critic of the Washington Post apparently thinks that the President of the United States needs to be reminded of the horrors of nuclear devastation because he's a trigger happy person - if that is what Gopnik meant - seems infantile and out of place regardless of one's political leanings and diminishes the work of a serious artist by aligning a unwarranted (in an art review) revisionist view that conveniently forgets that in 1945 thousands of people were dying in order to end a Pacific war that had brutalized, enslaved and murdered hundreds of thousands of people all over Asia and was aligned with the fascist powers of Hitler and Mussolini, and that it took two atomic disasters to force the Japanese to surrender and save countless lives.
Or (b): Maybe I am misunderstanding Gopnik, and he just wants the President to "visit often" in order to realize that what was created at Los Alamos in 1945 (in a race versus Nazi scientists by the way), is still a very real threat to us today if it gets in the hands of terrorists and that Bush needs to devote more time and effort to prevent atomic terrorism?
Either way, I missed the reason for the Presidential call.
This exhibition should get national attention and it will be good for the Washington visual arts scene. It is also good that it is the Corcoran who hosts it, rather than a history museum down the road. My kudos to the artist and to Dr. Jonathan Binstock, the curator.
And when you visit the exhibition at the Corcoran, don't forget that Cheryl Numark Gallery has Jim Sanborn's "Penetrating Radiation" until December 20 and should be seen as well.
Saturday, November 01, 2003
Our annual call for photographers is the Bethesda International Photography Competition, which in 2003 was curated by Philip Brookman, Photography Curator at the Corcoran.
The 2004 exhibition's deadline for entries is February 3, 2004 and information and entry forms can be obtained here. The Best of Show winner gets a cash prize as well as a solo show in 2005 at our Georgetown gallery.
Our annual call for artists is the Georgetown International Fine Arts Competition which in 2004 will be curated by Kristen Hileman, Assistant Curator for Contemporary Art at the Hirshhorn Museum. The deadline for submissions is June 1, 2004 and entry forms and details can be obtained here. The Best of Show winner here also gets a cash prize as well as a solo show in 2005 at our Georgetown gallery.
Some museum exhibition opportunities: The Palm Springs Museum in California has a call for artists for its 35th annual juried exhibition. The deadline for submissions is December 12, 2003. For info contact them via email at info@psmuseum.org or call them at (760) 325-7186.
The San Diego Art Institute's Museum of the Living Artist has a call for artists for its 47th International Award Exhibition. The deadline for submissions is January 9, 2004. You can get the entry forms online here.
For watercolor artists: the Societe Canadienne de l'Aquarelle has a call for watercolor artists (deadline March 1, 2004) for its next juried competition. Selected works will travel to 5-6 cities in the province of Quebec starting in May and ending in October. A full color catalog is produced and usually the shows are visited by around 20,000 people. For a prospectus contact them at 450/678-2234 or email them at info@aquarelle.ca.
The William and Mary Review, a literary and art magazine published by the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, is looking for artwork submissions for its 2004 edition. The deadline is February 1, 2004. For info send them an email to review@wm.edu to the attention of Selina Spinos.
The Department of State's Art in Embassies program is a way for artists to loan works to US embassies around the world. Althought artists do not get paid, there is a travel program associated with it that allows artists to travel to locales to give lectures, workshops and for studio visits. Interested artists should contact Mary Hollis Hughes at 202/647-5723 or visit the website here, as submissions can be made online from your digital files.
