Curious

The Philly Inquirer's art critic Edward J. Sozanski has a curious statement in his recent review of "Kiefer, Polke, Richter" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Sozanski writes:

"One doesn't hear much about Kiefer these days, or Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, A.R. Penck, Georg Baselitz, Jorge Immendorf, or any of the other so-called neo-expressionists. While their moment dominated a good portion of the 1980s, an especially vigorous decade for new art, it's long past."

Mmmm... that's news to me.

Sunday Morning Coming Down

By Kris Kristofferson

Well, I woke up Sunday morning
With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt.
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad,
So I had one more for dessert.
Then I fumbled in my closet through my clothes
And found my cleanest dirty shirt.
Then I washed my face and combed my hair
And stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.

I'd smoked my mind the night before
With cigarettes and songs I'd been picking.
But I lit my first and watched a small kid
Playing with a can that he was kicking.
Then I walked across the street
And caught the Sunday smell of someone frying chicken.
And Lord, it took me back to something that I'd lost
Somewhere, somehow along the way.

On a Sunday morning sidewalk,
I'm wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
'Cause there's something in a Sunday
That makes a body feel alone.
And there's nothing short a' dying
That's half as lonesome as the sound
Of the sleeping city sidewalk
And Sunday morning coming down.

In the park I saw a daddy
With a laughing little girl that he was swinging.
And I stopped beside a Sunday school
And listened to the songs they were singing.
Then I headed down the street,
And somewhere far away a lonely bell was ringing,
And it echoed through the canyon
Like the disappearing dreams of yesterday.

On a Sunday morning sidewalk,
I'm wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
'Cause there's something in a Sunday
That makes a body feel alone.
And there's nothing short a' dying
That's half as lonesome as the sound
Of the sleeping city sidewalk
And Sunday morning coming down.

Senior Artists Initiative

Via artblog I've learned about the Senior Artists Initiative (SAI).

The purpose of the Senior Artists Initiative (SAI) is to assist senior artists in understanding the need for, and process involved in, organizing their life's work, and to develop programs that provide recognition for senior artists.

Details here.

Oz

When this opportunity presented itself, I dug around for some doodles that I had done in the late 70s from a series that I titled "Unknown Events in the Wizard of Oz saga," back when all that I really wanted to be was a cartoonist.

"The last thing that the Wicked Witch of the West said was 'Aw... shit!'"

"How Dorothy Gale really killed the Wicked Witch of the East"
Just for fun I'm going to enter them in the competition, although I doubt that they'll get in - not sure how Ozfreaks' sense of humor is...

Trashball

As I mentioned quite a while back, Chris Goodwin started a blog called Trashball! that documents some of the stuff that he finds (much of it in his PT job driving a dump truck).

He's got some really cool stuff online now. Check it out at Trashball!

Pool Woes II

I told you before about our pool woes, and your lack of feeling sorry has been duly noted (yeah, yeah, Campello, I feel bad for your pool problems as I bake in my apartment, buddy...).

Maybe these pics, which are directly proportional to the state of my savings account, will make you feel my pain.

Washington Glass at Touchet Gallery

Last night we attended the opening for "Moving Beyond Craft: Artists of the Washington Glass School," at the one-year-old Patricia Touchet Gallery in Baltimore.

Tim Tate and Rosetta DeBerardinis
The gallery itself is a very nice two level space on a corner building in the Fells Point neighborhood of Baltimore, so it has a very good location; always an important factor in a gallery's presence. The gallerist, the fair Patricia Touchet, was also very nice and I enjoyed finally meeting her.

The show itself looked really good, several sales took place, and it certainly looks like the Washington Glass School faculty made a really good debut in Baltimore.


I was most impressed by the new work of Alison Sigethy who had a gorgeous balanced piece that looked immensely fragile and yet needed to be touched to get it dancing back and forth. Also impressed by the new work of Cheryl Derricotte, whose work is certainly looking like it's joining the whole new "green art" movement.


Tim Tate and Cheryl Derricotte
The exhibition runs through Sept. 8, 2007.

Power of the Web

A while back I told you about Jackie Hoysted and her art project.

Jackie writes: "I just want to say a big thank you for posting information about my blog AshesToAshes on your blog. Joe Eaton from the Washington City Paper contacted me after you posted that info and published a feature yesterday on my project."

Viva Paglia!

When Sexual Personae first came out, once I got past the first couple of chapters, I began the process of being hypnotized and seduced by the eloquence and logic and intelligence of Camille Paglia.

By the end of the book, I was a Camille Paglia fan. And Sexual Personae remains one of my Top 10 books of all time and a must-read for all artists.

Since then, almost every thing that this tiny, brilliant and incendiary lady has published or talked about can be counted upon to make you think, make some of us mad, some of us happy, and almost always make all of us a little smarter.

Writing in Arion (thanks AJ), Paglia lobs another word bomb which is surely to piss off both right wing and left wing nuts. She writes:

"A primary arena for the conservative-liberal wars has been the arts. While leading conservative voices defend the traditional Anglo-American literary canon, which has been under challenge and in flux for forty years, American conservatives on the whole, outside of the New Criterion magazine, have shown little interest in the arts, except to promulgate a didactic theory of art as moral improvement that was discarded with the Victorian era at the birth of modernism. Liberals, on the other hand, have been too content with the high visibility of the arts in metropolitan centers, which comprise only a fraction of America. Furthermore, liberals have been complacent about the viability of secular humanism as a sustaining creed for the young. And liberals have done little to reverse the scandalous decline in urban public education or to protest the crazed system of our grotesquely overpriced, cafeteria-style higher education, which for thirty years was infested by sterile and now fading poststructuralism and postmodernism."

I don't want to spoil the article, and its surprising offering and recommendation, but here's another bomb:

"The automatic defense of the Brooklyn Museum during the “Sensation” imbroglio sometimes betrayed a dismaying snobbery by liberal middle-class professionals who were openly disdainful of the religious values of the working class whom liberals always claim to protect. Supporters of the arts who gleefully cheer when a religious symbol is maltreated act as if that response authenticates their avant-garde credentials. But here's the bad news: the avant-garde is dead. It was killed over forty years ago by Pop Art and by one of my heroes, Andy Warhol, a decadent Catholic. The era of vigorous oppositional art inaugurated two hundred years ago by Romanticism is long gone. The controversies over Andres Serrano, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Chris Ofili were just fading sparks of an old cause. It is presumptuous and even delusional to imagine that goading a squawk out of the Catholic League permits anyone to borrow the glory of the great avant-garde rebels of the past, whose transgressions were personally costly. It's time to move on.

For the fine arts to revive, they must recover their spiritual center. Profaning the iconography of other people's faiths is boring and adolescent."

Ouch! And all of this from "a professed atheist and a pro-choice libertarian Democrat." Read the whole article here.

Tonight

If you are in Baltimore tonight, swing by the new Patricia Touchet Gallery, which will be opening "Moving Beyond Craft: Artists of the Washington Glass School," from 6-9PM.

Come by and say hi.

See ya there!

Art Whino

Looks like the Greater DC area will get a massive new arts presence in a couple of months.

I'm referring to Art Whino, which will be opening a new art space in Alexandria: 22,000 square feet, of which 7,000 feet will be a new gallery and the rest available as artists' studios.

This will be by far the largest commercial fine arts gallery in the Greater DC region, and we wish them loads of success.

Dawson on Hernandez

The WaPo's freelance galleries' critic, Jessica Dawson, checks in with a small review of my good friend Nestor Hernandez's show at International Visions Gallery in DC.

One of a handful of Cuban-Americans in the DC area, a brilliant street photographer and a soft-spoken, amazing human being, Nestor passed away unexpectedly last year.

We all miss you Nestor.

New Painting

It only took me about six months of taping and painting, but below is a new oil painting from my "Digitalism" series.

It's about six feet long, and joins these guys from the late 1990s. Read the story as to how these paintings and concept came along here.



This painting is already sold (and set a new Campello record!).

Now we know where

Jessica Gould of the CP has the scoop on the imminent move by the Warehouse Galleries and Theatre complex. Read it here.

More on some other gallery moves later...

Correction: Paul Ruppert from Warehouse tells me that they "aren't moving the theater and gallery to that location. Just the music venue - if I can negotiate the lease. Still looking for a theater/gallery space."

Sesow on YouTube

One of DC's hardest working artists is Matt Sesow; he's got a cool interview below.

A great Friday for art lovers

This is going to be a fun Friday for art lovers along the Mid Atlantic. Some tough decisions will have to be made!

In Baltimore, the new Patricia Touchet Gallery opens "Moving Beyond Craft: Artists of the Washington Glass School," one of three multi-city gallery shows which focus some attention at the movement that I have dubbed "The Washington Glass School School," and which is dragging glass away from craft and putting it firmly in the fine arts camp. Opening is 6-9PM and runs through Sept. 3, 2007. Work by Michael Janis, Erwin Timmers, Tim Tate, Deborah Conti, Cheryl Derricotte, Sean Hennessey, Syl Mathis, Betsy Mead, Evan Morgan and Alison Sigethy. By the way, last Friday WETA TV had a segment on the Washington Glass School - see it here.

In DC, there's a really strong group show opening at Gallery Myrtis, one of DC's newest galleries. Look for the work of Elsa Gebreyesus to stand out in this show. Also Washington Printmakers has its National Small Works 2007 Exhibition, Juried by Greg Jecmen, from the National Galley of Art, as some of the Dupont Circle area galleries will be open for First Fridays.

In Frederick, MD, the Artists' Gallery has a 23-artist group show opening on Friday, although the opening reception is on Saturday, August 4 as part of Frederick's First Saturday Gallery Walk. Work by Palma Allen, Janet Belich, Joy Boudreaux, Steven Dobbin, Nina Chung Dwyer, Lesa Cook, James Germaux, Christine Hahn, Linda Agar-Hendrix, Phyllis Jacobs, Regina Kaiktsian, Jan McIntyre Lamb, Craig Leonardi, Johan Lowie, Christina Lund, Nancy McLoughlin, Joanna Morison, Doug Moulden, Diane Santarella, Robert Sibbison, Irina Smulevitch, Shelley Stevens, Christine Stovall, Washington White.

In Philly it's time for First Fridays and time to wonder around Old City's 40-plus galleries, most of them open from 5 until 9 p.m.

Longhairs

I was looking through Osvaldo and Roberto Salas' brilliant photography book "Fidel's Cuba: A Revolution in Pictures" the other day, when a conversation that I had a few years ago with Irv Toefsky, a very well-known DC photography collector, who is unfortunately no longer with us, came to mind.

I don't know which Salas took the above photo, which depicts Comandante Camilo Cienfuegos on the left, and an unidentified guerrilla, both posing in front of the Lincoln Monument in DC during a visit to DC in 1959.

Popular history anchors the growing of long hair by American youths in the early 60s, and eventually a symbol of rebellion, mainly to the Beatles and their longish haircuts.

But according to this savvy Washingtonian, when the Cubans showed up in DC in 1959 with their long hair, ponytails and huge beards, it caused a sensation in crew-cut America, and especially in Washington, DC.

"We had never seen young people with such long hair," he said to me. "And there was something romantic about the Cubans; their youth, their Revolution and their hair. So we started growing our hair."

Soon afterwards the Cuban Revolution started to go sour and like all revolutions, began devouring its own heroes. Cienfuegos was one of the heroes of the Revolution, and he disappeared at sea in the early 60s. Many claim that he was killed under the direct orders of Raul Castro.

But Salas' beautiful photo remains, as evidence of another revolution, a hair revolution, possibly started by these valiant young men.

2007 Lucelia Artist Award Nominees Announced

The Smithsonian American Art Museum announced yesterday the nominees for the museum's 2007 Lucelia Artist Award.

The 13 nominees are Cory Arcangel, Bernadette Corporation, Tom Friedman, Gajin Fujita, Rachel Harrison, Glenn Ligon, Fabian Marcaccio, Josiah McElheny, Dave Muller, Laura Owens, Jessica Stockholder, Catherine Sullivan and Sarah Sze.

The Lucelia Artist Award is part of the museum's ongoing commitment to contemporary art and artists through annual exhibitions, acquisitions and public programs.

"The artists nominated this year for the museum's Lucelia Artist Award show a sustained commitment to distinctive work that challenges conventional thinking and expectations about the nature of art," said Elizabeth Broun, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

The Lucelia Artist Award, established in 2001, annually recognizes an American artist under the age of 50 who has produced a significant body of work and consistently demonstrates exceptional creativity.

SiteProjects DC on TV

I am told that SiteProjectsDC artist Tom Greaves was on the NBC Today show this morning at 8 AM. Tom was interviewed about his piece The Compliment Machine.

It's a good thing that this accomplished artist and the WPA/C project is getting national attention. See it here.

By the way, am I the only one that sees a very strong similarity between "The Compliment Machine" and Thomas Edwards' "Sycophant"?

I don't know which machine came first, but they essentially do the same thing based on the same idea, although Edwards' robot head, once its motion sensor detects you, actually follows you down a rail as it showers you with compliments.

It looks like another case of what I have called in the past "Remarkable Confluence." This is when two people, completely independent of each other, toil away and produce remarkably similar products.

Here's another example of "Remarkable Confluence."

Anyway, read the AP story on Greaves' machine here, it has been picked up worldwide! Also read the WaPo story by Joshua Zumbrun here.

Job in the Arts

Deadline: May 7, 2008

An established international art gallery located on New York's Upper East Side, specializing in museum quality Impressionist and Modern art, is seeking a director.

Starting salary is $50, - 60,000 (plus private healthcare), depending on qualifications and salary history.

The candidate must be able to work closely with the owner and will be responsible in overseeing all gallery activities including sales, administration and exhibition preparation.

He / she should have at least five years solid experience in the international art business. The ability to appropriately handle a high level clientele and knowledge of 19th and 20th century art are essential. We are looking for someone with excellent communication and organizational skills. Foreign languages abilities are favorable. An interest in long-term commitment would be favored.

Send C.V. with short covering letter to:

Caitlin Miller
The Art Newspaper
594 Broadway, Suite 406
New York, NY 10012

Or email: c.miller@theartnewspaper.com