On Fridays, the Post publishes the Weekend section, and today Michael O'Sullivan looks at Colby Caldwell's photography exhibition currently at Georgetown's Hemphill Fine Arts gallery.
Since I first saw his work several years ago, I have followed Caldwell's development as a photographer who is not only interested in just photography, but also in being an innovator of the genre - both a "technical" and "creative" innovator.
In my opinion this combination of skills is what makes Caldwell's work important and fun to follow. Don't get me wrong, it's not just: What is he going to do next? How is he going to surprise us? - that would be gimmick rather than skill and talent - but it is the pleasurable event of seeing what can almost be described as banal images, elevated to a level of beauty and interest beyond their initial creation.
Note to the future curators of the next Whitney Biennial: Colby Caldwell.
Friday, November 07, 2003
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.
Comments on Darin's thoughts welcomed.
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... "
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.
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.
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!
Wednesday, November 05, 2003
PBS' American Experience is currently researching the background to do a segment on Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, and I think that they may use this piece that I wrote a few years ago.
Email from a Canadian reader claims that if we really want to see some fireworks between Gopnik and the Corcoran, then the Corcoran should bring a solo of Marcel Dzama to DC.
I have received about a dozen emails on this "Blake vs. Corcoran" subject so far, which to me shows that there is a lot of interest and two clear "camps" on this issue.
Regardless of how one feels about the writings of a critic, (any critic, not just Gopnik), the bottom line is that the critic has a right to express his or her opinion on their area of expertise. And the readers have a right to disagree with it - even if the reader is the Director of a Museum.
Gopnik is an intelligent and eloquent writer, and he also clearly has galvanized ideas and notions as to what constitutes good contemporary art. And he clearly also has people who agree with him, and many who disagree - that disagreement is good for art!
What do I think? My opinion is also very subjective, and colored by my own art prejudices, opinions and background. For the record: On J. Seward Johnson's "art" Gopnik and I generally agree. And yet as Ionarts points out and lists, there are some writers who actually liked this show. And if you want, you too can write your own review of the show in the Post's Website.
Blake Gopnik delivered his "Long Live Realism - Realism is Dead" lecture at the Corcoran (of all places) when he first arrived here from Canada. It was there that he first tipped his hand about his personal beliefs of what he considers "good art."
And my reaction to his lecture was that genres like painting, sculpture and photography are just not in his vocabulary for what is "good art." He has shown this many times since in his reviews.
I also understood that in Blake's view of the world, painting is dead, and sculpture is dead, and photography (except "manipulated photography") is also dead.
When someone in the audience asked him what should contemporary artists do, I recall that his response was "video and manipulated photography." A well-known curator who was sitting next to me in the Corcoran's Frances & Armand Hammer Auditorium noted sarcastically that "Blake doesn't like pictures."
And when forced by another audience member to pick a contemporary painter that he liked, he put up some slides of Lisa Yuskavage and we were all wondering if he was pulling our leg, especially since he had been (unfairly in my opinion) using slides of Science Fiction illustrator Boris Vallejo as a sample of all that is wrong with contemporary realism.
So knowing that, when I read Blake Gopnik, I do so with an understanding of how what he believes is "good art" colors everything that he writes -- just as what I believe is "good art" colors everything that I say and do about art, and what I believed 20 years ago is in some cases radically different from what I think now.
And that's OK, and in an ideal world, the Post would have a second critical voice to offer us another opinion (see my Oct 25 posting).
Did Blake go over the line in writing that the Corcoran "has tumbled all the way from nobody to laughingstock"? Probably.
And yet, in an odd way I think that it is healthy for a critic to take direct shots at a major museum, causing all this discussion and disagreements and dialogue as a result. Blake's attack on the Corcoran pales in comparison to what the New York press heaves at museums like the Whitney, and what the British press vomits upon practically every visual art museum in the UK.
And meanwhile, Seward's weird exhibition has doubled the Corcoran's attendance numbers. And Gopnik's review, which has been echoed worldwide, was the catalyst for much of this success.
David Levy should send Blake a thank you note and schedule Marcel Dzama the next time attendance begins to dip.
Next Friday is the first Friday of the month, and thus the usual gallery openings and extended hours by the Dupont Circle Galleries from 6-8 PM.
A Friday later, the second Friday of the month, is gallery openings and extended hours by the Bethesda Galleries from 6-10 PM. A free shuttle bus is part of the Artwalk.
A week later, but on Thursday, the third Thursday of every month, the Seventh Street Galleries have openings and extended hours from 6-8 PM.
And a day later, on the third Friday of every month, the Canal Square Galleries in Georgetown host their new show openings from 6-9 PM, catered by the Sea Catch Restaurant.
The "feud" between the Post's Blake Gopnik and the Corcoran goes national as ArtsJournal picks up the Washingtonian story discussed here yesterday.
Tuesday, November 04, 2003
Is there a personal "feud" between the Washington Post's chief art critic Blake Gopnik and the Corcoran?
Washingtonian magazine usually has very limited visual arts coverage, and it has always been a mystery to me why they do such a good job of reviewing books, music, restaurants and theatre and yet (with some rare exceptions) ignore our museums and galleries and artists.
However, the current November issue has a very interesting article by Henry Jaffe, who writes a column titled Post Watch.
This month's column is titled Too Much Poison in Art Critic’s Pen? and it's all about the "feud" between the Washington Post's chief art critic Blake Gopnik and the Corcoran.
Washingtonian doesn't archive their articles, so go buy the magazine or read it online, as it will be gone next month.
Jaffe writes that “A lot of people are concerned about the state of art criticism at the Post,” says one museum official, echoing the view of others. None would speak on the record. “He [Gopnik] seems to be very personal. It’s always about his perspective rather than a broader, critical look at the subject.”
And Corcoran director Davy Levy is quoted as calling "Gopnik’s review “unethical” and says the critic often displays “immodest immaturity” in his reviews."
Jaffee also writes that "Levy and the Corcoran were especially steamed that Gopnik ended his review with a dig at the museum, whose “reputation has slipped badly over the last few years.”
Says Levy: “A couple of people Blake talks to don’t appreciate what we do.”
Says Gopnik: “I could get 20 quotes off the record and five on from people who agree with me.” The Corcoran has exhibited “a pattern of terrible shows.”
I am curious as to what people think about this issue. Please email me with your thoughts on this subject.
I know it's silly, but it bugs me that this TV movie critic has a news segment titled Arch on the Arts, when it should really be called "Arch on the Movies" or perhaps "Arch on the Performing Arts."
Arch Campbell, whom I've met a couple of times, is a very nice guy and a terrific movie reviewer. But he certainly does not cover the "arts."
Wouldn't it be nice if one of our local TV stations news programs dedicated just thirty seconds a week on a gallery opening, or a museum show?
And don't even get me started on WETA's Around Town, which is by far the best (and really the only) DC-centric cultural TV show around. But AT also has a very strong focus on movies and theatre, and of all the critics on AT's Panel, the visual art critic (Bill Dunlap) certainly gets the least amount of air time.
Maybe the addition of Janis Goodman means that Around Town will attempt to expand its visual arts coverage.
In response to my Oct 31 entry complaining about the lack of visual arts coverage by WAMU's Metro Connection, I've received a very nice email from David Furst, who is the show's host, who promises that he'll "try to make sure our coverage of the arts is as wide ranging as possible in the future."
David also passes that Arts Editor Peter Fay is on the show this week and Fay will be talking about two visual arts events going on right now. Peter will be discussing The Himalayas at the Arthur M Sackler Gallery and Jim Sanborn's "Critical Assembly" at the Corcoran.
My thanks to David for his quick response and we'll be listening.
The Hirshhorn is the final venue for this internationally-touring exhibition organized by LA's Museum of Contemporary Art.
Here's a review of the LA show which gives us a preview of what's coming.
Selecting artwork for an American public collection is a fine art in itself, as the artwork has to avoid the appearance of remotely insulting anyone or making any sort of social statement that may be offensive to any segment of the public. Thus we usually end up with a lot of abstract, non representational art in most public venues, and nudity needs not apply - I have called it "airportism" in the past.
The Washington Convention Center will unveil its art collection to the public on Monday, November 10, from 6:00 - 8:00 pm. They will introduce the largest public art collection in Washington, DC. Over 120 works of art, sculpture, paintings, photography, graphics and mixed media. They spent around four million dollars, of which half was allocated to DC area artists.
Location: 801 Mount Vernon Place, NW, Washington, DC. Please use Mount Vernon Place entrance. The Washington Convention Center is accessible by the Mount Vernon Place/7th Street - Convention Center or Gallery Place/Chinatown Metro Stations. Parking is limited in the surrounding areas. R.S.V.P. 202-249-3449.
And for artists who are interested in getting more involved in competing for public art commissions, the Washington Glass School is offering a seminar for artists titled: Public Art: Putting the Art in ARchiTecture - A Seminar for Artists, Architects & Design Professionals - DC and it will be offered on Wednesday, November 12, 2003, 7-9 pm.
This seminar will focus on successfully winning public commissions. Panelists include: Francoise Yohalem - Public Art Consultant and Curator of Eleven Eleven Sculpture Space, Sherry Schwechten -Art in Public Places Manager, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Jennifer Mange - Public Arts Coordinator of the Baltimore Office of Promotion of the Arts and Jennifer Riddell - Public Arts Curator / Arlington County, VA.
Cost: $25 donation in advance/$30 at the door. Where: Washington Glass School, 1338 Half Street SE, Washington, DC 20003 (1 1/2 blocks from Navy Yard Metro stop). Phone: 202-744-8222.
Creative Capital will award grants to individual artists in the fields of Visual Arts and Film/Video in 2004-05. Visual arts may include painting, sculpture, works on paper, installation, photo-based work, contemporary crafts, and interdisciplinary projects. Film/video arts are all forms of film and video, including experimental documentary, animation, experimental media, non-traditional narrative in all formats, and interdisciplinary projects. It;s very simple to apply online: To apply, artists must complete an online inquiry form, which will be available at www.creative-capital.org on February 16, 2004. The deadline for completed inquiry forms is March 15, 2004. Those invited to make a final application will be notified in June 2004.
Monday, November 03, 2003
Photo of the Week: The Washington City Paper's art critic Glenn Dixon posing in front of Olympia's boudoir.
And here is Dixon's review of "Beyond the Frame, Impressionism Revisited: The Sculptures of J. Seward Johnson, Jr.," at the Corcoran. This show has been trashed so much and so widely, that it has become sort of a cult must-see here in Washington.
A rehash of my Oct 27 posting: The show has been brutalized in the critical press practically everywhere, and yet as bad as the show is, there's a conceptual connection between Johnson's work (take a famous Impressionist painting and make it into a lifesized 3-D tableaux of sculptures) and the Turner Prize-nominated Chapman Brothers in Britain.
Jake and Dinos Chapman's early work was based on Goya's series of etchings, Disasters of War. Initially they used plastic figures to re-create Goya in a miniature three-dimensional form, and like Johnson (later on), one of these 83 scenes became a life-sized version using mannequins (Johnson is a multimillionaire and thus he creates bronze figures).
This sculpture, Great Deeds Against the Dead of two mutilated and castrated bodies, was shown at the famous "Sensation" show in London in 1997.
I suspect that no museum in America would dare to show Great Deeds Against the Dead, but it is remarkable that the connection between Johnson and the Chapman Brothers is so obvious and yet the critical reaction to their work so vastly different.
I also suspect that the sickly sweet overexposure of Impressionism as the subject of Johnson's works has something to do with the negative critical reaction to his work, while the macabre nature of Goya's etchings brought to a life size display, appeals to the gimmick of "shock" that has become the standard and Achilles heel of contemporary British art.
By the way, the Chapman Brothers have moved on, but continue to use mannequins in their artwork, which they say is about "producing things with zero culture value, to produce aesthetic inertia - a series of works of art to be consumed and then forgotten." To me that brings them even closer to J. Seward Johnson.
Sunday, November 02, 2003
George Mason University has a very strong visual arts program, and their 2003 Faculty Show is on exhibition now at GMU's Atrium Gallery until December 17, 2003.
GMU's College of Visual and Performing Arts also has one of the strongest reputations as an art school with a solid (and rare) representational painting focus. This was in part due to the many years that professors such as Margarida Kendall Hull (now retired) put into the effort.
GMU's art faculty now includes what I think are two of the best figurative painters in the nation: Chawky Frenn (who I think is probably the last DC-area artist in my memory to have received a huge review in the New York Times) and Erik Sandberg
The book is Landscape : Photographs of Time and Place and signed copies can be obtained from Hemphill Fine Arts.
Among the photographers included in the book are masters like Ansel Adams and Alfred Stieglitz, along with contemporary photographers, such as Richard Misrach and Sally Mann.
Saturday, November 01, 2003
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.
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.
Friday, October 31, 2003
Susan Clampitt, executive director at public radio station WAMU, has been fired by American University President Benjamin Ladner.
My favorite WAMU show is the daily talk show by the unflappable Kojo Nmandi. Kojo is one of the rare radio talk show hosts that once in a while actually dedicates air time to our area's art scene. Kojo had me on the air last March discussing DC area art galleries and events, and he's also had the Post's Blake Gopnik a couple of times. Actually, Blake makes a couple of interesting personal observations about his impression on the quality of DC art and artists - listen to it here.
The most disappointing (from a visual arts perspective) WAMU show is Metro Connection, which is well "connected" to music, performance and theatre and loads of DC-centric events, but generally ignores the strong visual arts component of our area's art scene. In fact, so far in 2003 they've done only three shows with some sort of visual art focus. In an ideal world, one would hope that Metro Connection could find air time to do at least one monthly show on a museum show or a gallery show or highlight a DC area visual artist --- in other words, much alike to what they already do for all the other various genres of the arts.
Faith Flanagan organizes MUSE, which is a monthly art salon at DCAC. Each session is an opportunity to talk about contemporary art at a monthly get-together. Each salon features a discussion with a member of the local District, Maryland & Virginia (DMV) arts community, followed by a chance for audience members to show slides or samples of their work.
MUSE's guests for November will be Sarah Tanguy, independent curator and writer and Glenn Harper, editor, Sculpture Magazine. December's guest will be Anne Corbett, Executive Director, Cultural Development Corporation.
Next dates are Sunday, November 2, and Sunday, December 7, 2003 at 7:30 P.M. and the first Sunday of each following month. For more info email Faith at salon@dcartscenter.org.
Michael O'Sullivan, in the Post's Weekend section reviews a very interesting show (I saw it a few days ago) of mechanical constructions by Andy Holtin at Old Town Alexandria's Target Gallery, located on the ground floor of the Torpedo Factory.
While I was around Old Town I realized how much damage Isabel had done. Apparently Gallery West, which is one of the Greater Washington area's oldest artist-run galleries, had sixteen inches of river water inside the gallery at one point and is now being repaired.
Thursday, October 30, 2003
Gil Perez, the doorman at Christie's in New York, is apparently so influential with potential buyers that he has a position on the company's board and reportedly earns $100,000 a year and is now the 50th person in Art Review's annual 100 most powerful figures in the art world.
According to the list, American billionaire Ronald Lauder is the most powerful figure in the art world. I think that he's Estée Lauder's chairman.
Number 100 is a funny surprise.
UPI reports that Mary Boone, the owner of New York's Mary Boone Gallery is suing photographer Annie Leibovitz because 12 years ago Boone apparently paid Annie Leibovitz $197,000 to have Annie take Boone's photograph and 12 years later she's still waiting.
The BBC says that "No modern artist, not even the likes of Damien Hirst or Tracey Emin, divides opinion like Jack Vettriano."
This Scottish painter has sold out every single exhibition that he's ever had, apparently all of them within an hour, and has a waiting list for his next painting of several hundred names, and famous people and celebrities all crave his work. Sounds like the typical British formula for success.
And yet the British critics hate his work and success.
Call for Artists: The Margaret W. and Joseph L. Fisher Gallery in the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center has an open call for artists. The Schlesinger Center is located on the Alexandria Campus of Northern Virginia Community College. To receive an application to exhibit, please provide your name and complete mailing address to Dr. Leslie White, Managing Director at LWHITE@NVCC.EDU or write to:
Dr. Leslie White, Managing Director
3001 N. Beauregard Street
Alexandria, VA 22311-5097
t: 703.845.6229 or f: 703.845.6154 or lwhite@nvcc.edu
I am sure that it has already happened somewhere, but I am waiting for someone to make a big deal of someone's exhibition of photographs taken with the new photo capable cell phones.
Thursdays is "Galleries" column day in the Post and today Jessica Dawson reviews a library art show.
Jessica reviews Where We Come From - an exhibit of work by Emily Jacir at Provisions Library (formerly the Resource Center for Activism and Arts) in Dupont Circle area.
And a few of days ago, the Washington Times' Joanna Shaw-Eagle reviewed "Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure" at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
And on Artnet Magazine, former Hirshhorn Museum Press Officer and sometimes curator (and quite an accomplished artist as well) Sidney Lawrence reviews "Beyond the Frame, Impressionism Revisited: The Sculptures of J. Seward Johnson, Jr.," at the Corcoran and offers a slightly different perspective. For my take on this weird show, see my Oct. 24 entry.
The most misused word in the world of art is the word "print," as used in definiting work as "limited edition print," etc.
In the narrow, but true art definition of what an original art print is, a print is a work of art produced from an image worked by the artist on another material, usually a metal, plexiglass, wood, linoleum, plastic plate, etc.
Everything else is a reproduction.
And lawsuits will happen if suddenly a collector discovers that their "print" or "original" is in fact a reproduction.
So if an artist paints or draws an image on any medium, and then has multiple images made from that original by an electro-mechanical or mechanical process using photographic or digital images (such as Iris or Gyclee), those images are reproductions - not prints.
However, because it would really be hard to market an artist's work as "limited edition, signed and numbered reproductions," the word "print" has been kidnapped by the marketeers of art to apply to any set of multiple images - regardless of how they came to be, or what part the artist played in its creation.
It gets a bit murky when it comes to digital art - that is artwork that is created from scratch through the use of a computer or a photograph taken with a digital camera.
Once the file is done and finished and saved, then one can say that the image that comes out of the printer is the "print" in the true sense of the narrow art definition - much like the negative in traditional photography produces the photographic print.
However, a photograph that is taken, developed, printed in the darkroom and then scanned so that Giclees or Iris "prints" can be made from the photographic image means that those are reproductions made from the original photograph. But a photograph taken with a digital camera and then has Iris/Giclees or any other digital prints made from the digital image in the memory card is a "real" print!
So a digital medium like Giclee/Iris can be either a reproduction or a real print - it all depends on what the original source of the image is!
Printmakers are especially sensitive to the misuse of the work "print" to market reproductions of artwork. One of the best places in town to buy true prints from very talented printmakers is the Washington Printmakers Gallery in the Dupont Circle area.
Just back from a visit to Penn State. While there I visited the Palmer Museum and saw a small but very interesting exhibition: Through the Looking Glass: Women and Self-Representation in Contemporary Art. Also saw the faculty exhibition at the Zoller Gallery.
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
Isla Torturada
When I was a student at the University of Washington in lovely Seattle, I was going for a double degree. One was in Mathematics (Numerical Analysis) and the other in Art. Both degrees were part of the College of Arts and Sciences - so together they shared a lot of common courses.
Because of the heavy load, I often did art projects which could be used in two separate classes (drawing with sculptural elements, etc.) In 1980 I did 100 lithographs - mostly fairly small... around 5x7 inches - they all had the island of Cuba as the central focus, and each was an individually hand-colored and done differently - so each one was unique.
I sold most of them at the Pike Place Market in Seattle, and a to one fellow student (the only other Cuban American whom I knew at the UW). She must have bought 20 of them!
Here's one:
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| Cuba: Isla Torturada 1980 mixed media monoprint by F. Lennox Campello |
Monday, October 27, 2003
It's circa 1961 and was acquired by the present owner in 1976... of course we all wonder how much he/she paid for it.
There's also this nice Kenneth Noland on the left... 45 by 45 inches - circa 1962 and acquired by the present owner in 1963!
This was an art collector with an early Greenbergian eye for the Washington Color School... the Noland is expected to go for $100-$150,000 which is surprisingly low - one would think.
And even more surprising: This Rothko is expected to beat Van Gogh.
OK, OK it's a huge Rothko oil versus a small Van Gogh watercolor....
There are also 128 Whistlers on the auction block (mostly prints).
The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund invites visual artists (excluding filmmakers, video artists, and performance artists) to apply for grants to enable recipients to develop their talent and concentrate on their art. Artists must be 40 years or older, and must live within 150 miles of Washington, D.C.
Two grants will be awarded in December 2003, one for $25,000, the other for $20,000. Applications must be postmarked no later than November 28, 2003. To obtain a current application form, visit the Fund's website, www.baderfund.org, or write to the Fund at 5505 Connecticut Avenue, NW #268, Washington, D.C. 20015. Send email inquiries to grants@baderfund.org. Telephone: 202-288-4608 and Fax: 202-364-3453
For those a little younger, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities's Young Artists Grant Program has a deadline of December 1, 2003. For District residents between the ages of 18 and 30. They can apply for up to $3,500 for community service projects or $2,500 for independent art projects. For more information or to obtain an application form visit the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities or call 202-724-5613.
Less than a year ago Dega Gallery, a new gallery and framing space opened in McLean and they have been putting together some pretty good shows. Dega is Korean for "master." They have a group show opening next November 7 which includes several well-known area artists and may be a good excuse to visit this new area gallery. Among the artists in the show are McLean-based printmaker Betty MacDonald and DC artist Kathleen Shafer. Hint for new gallery: Get a website!
Congratulations to DC area photographer Wayne Guenther, who received an Honorable Mention in the 2003 Camera Club of NY National Photography Competition, juried by the great Joyce Tenneson - a "local" who moved to NYC in the 1980s and became a photography superstar. Last year, Tenneson's book Wise Women became the best-selling photography book in the world for 2002. It was her 8th book I believe.
Cheryl Numark Gallery has Jim Sanborn's "Penetrating Radiation" until December 20. The show is focused on work that Sanborn has been preparing since 1998 and it has been scheduled to run alongside (for a while) with Sanborn's associated show at the Corcoran titled "Atomic Time: Pure Science and Seduction."
The show has been curated by Dr. Jonathan Binstock, the Corcoran's Curator for Contemporary Art. While the exhibition is on view at the Corcoran, Jim Sanborn will be a visiting artist at the Corcoran’s College of Art and Design. Several educational programs will be organized to coincide with the exhibition, including a slide talk and gallery tour with Sanborn, a panel discussion addressing issues related to the exhibition and visits by the artist to students’ studios. The Corcoran is planning a two year tour of this exhibition - no other venues so far identified.
Sunday, October 26, 2003
Blake Gopnik has a very readable description and biographical article on El Greco as he writes about the El Greco's show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Gopnik has some excellent points on how El Greco's works were designed to be viewed a particular way, barely lit, often high above and viewed from below, and thus why they seem so unusual to us today in well-lit museum viewings.
As I recall, even during his time he was brought in front of the Inquisition to explain the peculiar elongations of some of his Christ paintings. He must have convinced them, as they didn't fry him for breaking some Inquisition rule about how Christ should be depicted (as the largest figure in any canvas, as I recall).
El Greco is one of my favorite artists of all times, and I also like his commercial acumen. His depiction of Christ Cleasing the Temple was so popular that he copied himself several times and practically every museum in Europe has a version of it - some of which are of dubious pedigree. Here's the NGA's version and the London's National gallery has this one, and the Institute of Arts in Minneapolis has this version and, the Frick has this one and I don't know who owns this one.
In art school, we had a class where we had to copy a master's work, and I painted a huge lifesized copy of The Annunciation, which strangely enough, I sold years later to someone in Spain when I lived there in the mid 80s.
This is one master who would have loved the digital revolution and the ability to make loads of reproductions from your originals!
Photoworks is another great artist's resource. I've been using them since they used to be Seattle Filmworks and I was in art school back in Seattle from 1977-1981.
As far as I know, Photoworks is the only place around that you can send any roll of film (any type or kind or brand) and get (if so selected) prints, slides, negatives, a CD ROM of the images and a private webpage where all your images reside and you can email them around.
This is a great archiving method for artist's works - you have the CD ROM to stash away, the slides to send around for competitions, reviews, etc., the prints for the album, negs for reprints and a web site to keep records of your images in case you lose all the other stuff.
And it's all done at a really reasonable price - in fact a lot less than if you take them to your local place to get just prints and negs.
Saturday, October 25, 2003
Artnotes has one of the funniest posts (see her Oct 22 post) ever on the subject of ...John Currin, Bea Arthur, and gigantic nipples.
For anyone who thinks that art critics and museum curators are subjective and look at every show that they review or select with a clear, subjective eye, free from agendas and prejudices: Wake up!
Case in point. Today's Post has a rare Saturday visual arts review by Paul Richard, who retired a while back as that paper's Chief Art Critic.
Richard writes a very good, elegant and informative review of Mississippi artist Walter Anderson (1903-1965) from Anderson's show: "Walter Inglis Anderson: Everything I See Is New and Strange" at the Smithsonian Institution's Arts and Industries Building, on the Mall next to the Castle.
Richard was "amazed" by Anderson's work and writes that "the makers of great American watercolors -- Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, John Marin, Charles Demuth -- are a select few. Anderson is worthy of inclusion in that company."
And this brings me to the point of my first paragraph about critics and curators.
First curators: Richard informs the reader that "The Hirshhorn, the Phillips and the Corcoran glanced at the idea of exhibiting the Andersons sent on tour this year by the Walter Anderson Museum in Ocean Springs, but nothing came of it. Their mistake."
My opinion: With the exception of maybe (a looooong maybe) the Phillips, I don't think any dead American artist with Anderson's background and subject matter would ever get a microsecond of interest from the Hirshhorn or the Corcoran, unless there were a lot of other sundry variables in the offer. It's just not where these curators' interest and focus are aimed at the moment.
About critics....
Richard's replacement at the Post as the new Chief Art Critic was Blake Gopnik, who came to the Post from the Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail.
And Gopnik's background, education, training and formation - and thus his subjectivity, agendas and likes and dislikes - are radically different from Richard. This gives us two men who held and now hold the same powerful pulpit with two very different views of what is good art.
I think that the chances that Gopnik would be "amazed" by Anderson's art are about the same as the chances that Laura Bush will elope with Osama Bin Laden. In fact I think that in Gopnik's books, the Anderson show may just beat the J. Seward Johnson show at the Corcoran that Gopnik brutalized a few weeks ago when he wrote: "This is the worst museum exhibition I've ever seen."
And this is where it could be fun (I've rambled too long).
Wouldn't it be fun if the Post sent both Richard and Gopnik to review the same show and then publish the former and current Chief Art Critic's views and points and words about the exact same show? And to make it more interesting - don't let them in on the idea.
It would not only be a great service to readers to see two points of view (like the Editorial page is sometimes supposed to do) applied to the fragile world of art criticism, but also a lesson to all who'll then discover that art critics, like wine critics, are a product of their own tastes, and not arbiters of what is good or bad in art.
Friday, October 24, 2003
Only a year to go for the exhibition I wish was already here: Ana Mendieta's retrospective at the Hirshhorn. Here's something I wrote about Mendieta and "Latino art" a while back.
The Corcoran's "Beyond the Frame: Impressionism Revisited, the Sculptures of J. Seward Johnson, Jr." has been brutalized in the critical press practically everywhere, and yet as bad as the show is, there's a conceptual connection between Johnson's work (take a famous Impressionist painting and make it into a lifesized 3-D tableaux of statues) and the Turner Prize-nominated Chapman Brothers in Britain.
Jake and Dinos Chapman's early work was based on Goya's series of etchings, Disasters of War. Initially they used plastic figures to re-create Goya in a miniature three-dimensional form, and like Johnson (later on), one of these 83 scenes became a life-sized version using mannequins (Johnson is a multimillionaire and thus he creates bronze statues).
This sculpture, Great Deeds Against the Dead of two mutilated and castrated bodies, was shown at the famous "Sensation" show in London in 1997.
I suspect that no museum in America would dare to show Great Deeds Against the Dead, but it is remarkable that the connection between Johnson and the Chapman Brothers is so obvious and yet the critical reaction to their work so vastly different.
I also suspect that the sickly sweet overexposure of Impressionism as the subject of Johnson's works has something to do with the negative critical reaction to his work, while the macabre nature of Goya's etchings brought to a life size display, appeals to the gimmick of "shock" that has become the standard and Achilles heel of contemporary British art.
By the way, the Chapman Brothers have moved on, but continue to use mannequins in their artwork, which they say is about "producing things with zero culture value, to produce aesthetic inertia - a series of works of art to be consumed and then forgotten." To me that brings them even closer to J. Seward Johnson.
On Fridays, Weekend section art critic Michael O'Sullivan reviews area galleries and/or museums for the Post. Today he reviews "Civic Endurance" at Conner Contemporary Art (in my opinion one of area's best art galleries) in Dupont Circle area as well as "African American Quilts From the Robert and Helen Cargo Collection" at the Textile Museum also in Dupont Circle area.
Busy night in the DC artscene last night with the Colby Caldwell opening at Hemphill Fine Arts, the BLANC opening at the Mexican Cultural Institute and the Whitman-Walker Clinic "Art for Life" charity auction held at the very beautiful OAS building on 17th Street. I was very pleased to see that most pieces of artwork donated auctioned off very nicely, raising much needed funds for the Clinic's Latino services.
Whitman-Walker Clinic is a non-profit community-based health organization serving the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region. Established by and for the gay and lesbian community, the Clinic is comprised of volunteers and staff who provide or facilitate the delivery of high quality, comprehensive, accessible health care and community services, especially committed to ending the suffering of all those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.
You can donate to the clinic online here.
Thursday, October 23, 2003
Email received asked me if I could provide the artist with a list of local art critics, and I thought that this list would be a good resource for artists trying to get a review or bring their work or show to a critic's attention. Artists should mail their press releases and info to the critic's name in care of the newspaper or magazine that they write for. Of note, the national magazines such as ARTNews or Art in America rarely review area galleries, and when they do so, it is often under the guidance and direction of their New York Reviews editor. Often the "local reviews" in these national magazines are focused on the DC area museum shows. By the way, ARTNews will have a Washington DC City Focus in their December issue. Anyway here's my list of area art critics who are regularly published, if I am missing anyone, please email me:
Washington Post
Jessica Dawson - "Galleries" art critic
Michael O'Sullivan - Weekend section art critic
Blake Gopnik - Chief Art Critic (rarely reviews area galleries and focuses instead on museums)
Paul Richard - Retired former Chief Art Critic (still does a few museum reviews a year)
Nicole Miller - Covers the visual arts for Sunday Source
Jonathan Padget - Arts Beat column - not really criticism, more like news
Maura McCarthy - Visual Arts Editor and Critic for washingtonpost.com
Washington Times
Joanna Shaw-Eagle
Washington City Paper
Louis Jacobson (also writes for ArtNews and Art on Paper magazines)
Glenn Dixon (articles often re-published in Artnet.com)
Robert Lalasz (WCP's new Senior Arts Writer)
Georgetowner
Gary Tischler (museums only)
John Blee (galleries)
Gazette
Dr. Claudia Rousseau
Baltimore Sun
Glenn McNatt
ARTNews
Louis Jacobson
Rex Weil
others ad hoc...
Art in America
J.W. Mahoney
Joe Shannon
others ad hoc...
Art on Paper
Louis Jacobson
WETA "Around Town"
Bill Dunlap
Artnet.com Magazine
Sidney Lawrence
Tyler Green
Glenn Dixon
ArtlinePlus
Dr. John Haslem
Crier Newspapers
Me
DC One Magazine
Me
Artists just trying to get in print somewhere should not just limit themselves to trying to get one of the above very busy critics - in addition to them you should also send the news release of your solo show, etc. to your college newspaper, as well as to any of the many neighborhood newspapers published all around the metro area. In other words, if you live in Bowie and are having a show in DC, there's a pretty good chance that the Bowie Blade will do an article or review for you. Also don't forget that the Post publishes several separate community sections such as Montgomery Extra, Prince William Extra, etc. Those writers and editors may be interested in doing a story on an artist from their community.
Thusdays is supposed to focus on "Galleries/Art News" in the Post's Style section, and today's "Galleries" column by Jessica Dawson has a couple of reviews as well as some interesting words and comments on the longevity of color photographs.
The archival nature of artwork is an important issue, often ignored by artists and by gallery owners, but more and more of interest to art collectors. The advent of Iris digital reproductions (also called Gyclee) brought many new choices for artists and photographers, and in the early days the issue of color longevitiy was ignored. Several lawsuits later, there are archival inks and pigments now available to the reproduction industry, but it is a complicated matrix of what ink or pigment gives you what longevity on what kind or brand of paper.
The absolute last word on these issues is always held by Wilhelm Imaging Research. They conduct research on the stability and preservation of traditional and digital color photographs and motion pictures. The company publishes brand name-specific permanence data for desktop and large-format inkjet printers and other digital printing devices. Wilhelm Imaging Research also provides consulting services to museums, archives, and commercial collections on sub-zero cold storage for the very long term preservation of still photographs and motion pictures.
DC area painter Elena Maza emails me about my Oct. 20, 2003 rant about the idea for a new Latino Museum and adds: "I couldn't agree more with you about the "new" Latino Museum idea -- ridiculous. Besides, if we continue to build museums to honor every hyphenated American and cause, soon there will not be a square inch of space left on the Mall or anywhere else in the D.C. area!"
November 10 is the date that the art collection of the new Washington Convention Center is unveiled with a press walk-through. The Center spent $4 million to create the largest public arts program in a U.S. convention center history. The program was overseen by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities with advice from the National Gallery of Art and the Corcoran Gallery. There are around 85-100 works of art distributed throughout the Center and about 50% of the artists are from the Washington area.
I was always sort of curious as to what in the hell does the National Gallery of Art know about Washington area artists? It's not like their curators are scouring Washington area galleries looking for the latest hot artist.
Anyway, as with most public art, I am willing to bet that there will not be a single nude in the entire collection, as it has become that standard of American public art that nudes (or any stuff that can be remotely "offensive" to anyone) is never part of the collection. Nonetheless there are some very good area artists represented in this collection and I am looking forward to seeing the work in place.
Talking about the DC Arts Commission, the call for nominees for the 19th Annual Mayor's Arts Awards is out. Anyone can nominate a candidate and the deadline for receipt of nominations is November 3, 2003. Nomination forms are here.
Wednesday, October 22, 2003
One of the most beautiful gallery spaces in our area is the Mexican Cultural Institute and until November 20, 2003 they have a great group show titled BLANC.
BLANC is comprised of a group of Hispanic/Latino/Latin American/Spaniards artists of various nationalities, ethnicities and different generations, including Carlos Ancalmo (El Salvador), Margarita Cabrera (Mexico), Alejandro Cesarco (Uruguay), Asdrubal Colmenarez (Venezuela), Christian Curiel (Puerto Rico), Gretel Garcia (USA/Cuba), Marcela Gomez (Argentina), Joan Ill (Spain), Berta Kolteniuk (Mexico), Yucef Merhi (Venezuela), Gean Moreno (USA/Colombia), Yoshua Okon (Mexico), El Perro (Spain), Luis Romero (Venezuela), Irene Szabadics (Venezuela), Odalis Valdivieso (Venezuela) and Eugenia Vargas (Chile).
The exhibition, curated by Odalis Valdivieso, has been "structured as an open invitation for this diverse group of artist to create works of an experimental and/or conceptual nature that reflect, respond, interrogate or explore white and its almost endless array of associations."
The works on exhibition ranges from paintings to a most annoying (and successful) piece of net-art by Yucef Merhi that (if you visit the project website) takes you to a blank screen that changes randomly every seven seconds, and each screen contains a different meaning of the word white.
Problem is that it does turn your computer screen to white and I couldn't figure out how to get out of it and had to re-boot the browser to get back to a normal screen... almost like virus art???
Like any group show, the approaches are as diverse in success and interest as the participants themselves. This is a very good exhibition at one of our best contemporary art spaces.
The show will travel to the other Mexican Institutes of Culture in Houston, Los Angeles, and New York.
Plug for our gallery: Dr. Claudia Rousseau teaches art history and also writes art criticism for the Gazette newspapers and before that she lived in Latin America for many years where she was the Chief Art critic for several major Latin American newspapers. She's written a very good review of our current John Winslow show in Bethesda.
DC area photographer Danny Conant is hot! She's recently had a great solo at the Ralls Collection in Georgetown, then a book about her Tibet photographs published and now has a new solo show opening at Touchstone Gallery on November 14, 2003 and a second solo show currently on exhibit at the Mark Palmer Gallery in Kentucky until November 1st.
Danny Conant’s new works are scrolls that are layered pieces comprised of archival digital prints on fabric multicoated with acrylic paint and hung with bamboo pieces. Some of the images are realistic and others are vignettes composited of multiple sites. The photographs are gathered from her many trips to Asia over the last fifteen years. The exhibition runs until December 7. Last year one of her photographs sold for $2600 at Sotheby's.
Just found this great resource for artists. It is Slides.com and they can make slides from digital files! Most museums reviews and art competitions still require slides, but if you are like me, I'm always losing them, but have plenty of digital files around. It's a good resource for an emergency.
And if you need a postcard made in a hurry from your slides or digital files, we use Modern Postcard. Hard to beat their prices and stellar service.
By the way, artists looking for competitions, local opportunities, essays on the arts and the business of art, etc. should be familiar with both Art Deadlines and locally with Malik Lloyd's FIND ART information Bank. FIND ART distributes free weekly announcements to the arts community from clients that either need the services of artists or offer beneficial services to artists. To get on the email distribution for it, send Malik an email to FINDARTinfobank@aol.com.
Oct 25 will be the 112th anniversary of Pablo Picasso 's birth (October 25, 1881 - October 25, 2003), in my opinion the most influential and recognized artist in the history of art. Locally "Picasso: The Cubist Portraits of Fernande Olivier" runs until January 18, 2004 at the National Gallery of Art.
Tuesday, October 21, 2003
In art news, the Washington Sculpture Center (WSC) is a newly formed non-profit organization that aims to promote the teaching of sculpture for beginners and advanced students. It is the first public access educational program in the District of Columbia that will offer sculpture classes at all levels, using glass, metal, and stone. The WSC has been formed by Patricia Ghiglino and sculptor Reinaldo Lopez.
Reinaldo is well known in the DC arts community for his contributions in the restoration of the Taft Memorial Bridge Lions. He also made the new bronze lions that guard the main entrance of the Smithsonian National Zoo, the monumental granite sculpture at the entrance of the Patriot Center at George Mason University and many others.
Ms. Ghiglino recently retired from Professional Restoration, Inc.
She was responsible for the restoration of the Smithsonian Castle, Freer Gallery of Art, Fort McHenry, and Jackson Place among many other historic sites. She wants to dedicate her 16,000 sq. ft. warehouse to the teaching of sculpture in the DC area.
Her idea was not only to make the teaching of sculpture more accessible to our community, artists and public in general, but also to provide studio space for a few artists who are willing to teach.
The WSC is located at 1338 Half Street SE Washington DC, a block and a half from the Navy Yard Metro Station (Green Line). The first occupant in the WSC building is the Washington Glass School, formed by glass artists Tim Tate and Erwin Timmers.
The Washington Glass School offers classes in glass fusing, glass casting with and emphasis on sculptural and architectural work combined with many other media.
The Washington Sculpture Center will have a permanent glass flamework studio and is bringing artist Elizabeth Ryland Mears, to teach flamework for all levels. Starting in 2004 we will offer classes in metal arts, glass blowing, bronze casting and stone carving. For more information please contact Patricia Ghiglino, WSC 1338 Half Street SE, Washington DC 20003. Tel: (202)479-6730, fax (202)479-1070, E-mail: WashSculpture@aol.com
Monday, October 20, 2003
There was a story in the Post a few days ago about a Latino Museum on the National Mall.
Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) introduced the bill to set up a commission to study the idea's feasibility. The museum would be based in Washington, around the National Mall and "might be under the umbrella of the Smithsonian Institution."
According to the story by Jacqueline Trescott, "This is one issue that unites our community," said Raul Yzaguirre, the president of the National Council of La Raza.
Let me be the first one to disagree and state for the record that this is one of the worst, most divisive ideas to have come out of anyone's minds in years.
Why have a separate, segregated museum for Latinos? Why not get more Latinos in the national museums, period.
I note also, the use of the word "Latino" as opposed to the now almost not PC term - "Hispanic." Otherwise we'd have to take all the Picassos, and Dalis, and Miros, and Goyas and Velazquezs out of the mainstream museums and put them in a "Hispanic" museum.... thank God for that.
As it is now, we'll have to take all the Wifredo Lams, Roberto Mattas, Frida Kahlos, etc. out of the other museums and put them in the "Latino Museum."
But ooops! the Frida Kahlo in the DC area is already in a segregated museum - in this case segregated by sex.
The semantic/ethnic/racial debate about Latino or Hispanic is a good, if somewhat silly one.
Anyway... Latino is (I think) now associated with people of Latin American ancestry... it apparently includes the millions of Central and South Americans of pure Native American blood (many of who do not even speak Spanish), and the millions of South Americans of Italian, German, Jewish, Middle Eastern and Japanese ancestry. It also includes the millions of Latin Americans of African ancestry.
It doesn't include Spaniards and Portuguese people.... you Europeans are out!
According to the Post, "Felix Sanchez, the chairman of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, said, "The museum is really a long-overdue concept. There is a void of presenting in one location a more in-depth representation of the culture and its presence in the mainstream of American consciousness."
Mr. Sanchez: There is no such thing as a single "Latino culture." In fact, I submit that there are twenty-something different "Latino" cultures in Latin America - none of which is the same as the various Latino mini-cultures in the US.
As an example, anyone who thinks that Mexico's rich and sometimes proud Indian heritage is similar to Argentina's cultural heritage is simply ignorant at best. In fact Argentina purposefully nearly wiped out its own indigenous population in an effort (according to the war rallies of the times) "not to become another Mexico."
And the cultural heritage of the Dominican Republic is as different from that of Bolivia and Peru as two/three countries that technically share a same language can be.
And for example, Mexican-Americans' tastes in food, music, and politics, etc. are wildly different from Cuban-Americans and Dominican-Americans, etc.
Would anyone ever group Swedes, Danes, Germans and Norwegians and create a "Nordic-American Museum"? Or how about French, Spaniards, Rumanians and Italians for a "Latin-European-American Museum" - hang on - that doesn't fit or does it? Makes my head hurt.
For the record, I don't believe in segregating artists according to ethnicity, race or religion. How about letting the art itself decide inclusion in a museum. And if not enough African American, or Native American, or Latino/Hispanic or "fill-in-the-blank"-American artists are in the mainstream museums, then let's fight that fight and not just take the easy/hard route of having "our own" museum.
Sunday, October 19, 2003
Nancy Sansom Reynolds, a very talented area sculptor, opened this last Sunday at Addison/Ripley in Georgetown. I've reviewed her work a couple of times in the past, when she used to exhibit at the now defunct Anton Gallery, and have always been impressed by the manner in which she extracts "form" from wood through a most intricate and fragile process. Her exhibition goes on until November 22, 2003.
Also in Georgetown, Annie Gawlak's G Fine Art has "Lost and Found" by Jeff Spaulding opening next Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2003. The show goes until Nov. 29.
Maryland artist Anne Cook is going through an exhibition blietzkrieg. Her new series of paintings titled "Freedom of Speech" were included last month in the Torpedo Factory's "Layers" show in Alexandria, and then at the A. Salon Artists Group Show in Silver Spring and now will be included in Arlington's Museum of Modern ARF "Breaking the Silence: Questioning Authority" show that opens on Oct. 24 and hangs until Nov. 22, 2003.
Saturday, October 18, 2003
The Bethesda Row Arts Festival, featuring over 250 fine artists and crafts people from all over the US is going on today and tomorrow around Woodmont and Elm in Bethesda.
Friday, October 17, 2003
Colby Caldwell, one of my favorite and also one of the most innovative photographers around, opens at Hemphill Fine Arts on October 23 and his exhibition runs until November 29.
Today is the Third Friday of the month, and thus it is gallery opening night at the four Canal Square Galleries in Georgetown: Alla Rogers, Fraser, Parish and MOCA
Openings go generally from 6-9 PM and are catered by the Sea Catch Restaurant.
The Hirshhorn Museum recently announced that its Contemporary Art curator Olga Viso had been promoted to Deputy Director. This is good not only for the museum, but also for Washington area artists, as Viso has been one of the rare few DC area museum curators to show any interest in her own backyard when looking for artists. She will have Dan Steinhilber's first museum show. Steinhilber is without a doubt one of our most talented and hottest artists right now.
Kristen Hileman has also been appointed as the Hirshhorn's new Assistant Curator for Contemporary Art.
Thursday, October 16, 2003
Today I was reading the Washington Post, and even though that their own Style Section banner on page C5 announces that Thursdays are supposed to be focused on "Arts News/Galleries," there was no "Arts News" anywhere to be found.
In fact, other than Jessica Dawson's Galleries column, which is published regularly every Thursday, there's rarely any "art news" - certainly little of the visual arts genre, published anywhere in either of our two major newspapers.
So, time permitting I hereby enter the world of online BLOGing in the hope that I will have time to use this BLOG to post art news, gallery openings, events, etc. as I receive and/or discover them.
And there's a LOT to pick from. In co-owning two galleries in the Greater DC area with my wife, plus 20-plus years of freelance art writing and criticism, plus creating and exhibiting my own art, puts me in a place where I get a lot of news releases, insights and notices about our area's art scene.
In fact the Washington art scene is very active, it is just being ignored,
I hope to use this venue to share them with anyone interested in promoting the Greater Washington, DC visual art scene. Please email me at lennycampello@hotmail.com with comments, suggestions, criticism, etc. Anonymous nasty emails will be ignored, but the senders will be tracked down and their asses kicked.
