Christie's Shakeup

Christie’s International will announce a “reorganization” in January as the financial crisis continues to damp demand for art.

Read the Bloomberg story here.

Colors of War to Come reviewed in Richmond

My current show in Richmond's Red Door Gallery is reviewed in the Richmond Style Weekly by Amy Biegelsen.

Read it here.

And I think that she hit it right on the head when she ends the piece by saying that the "project started as an attempt to defend painting’s honor. It’s grown into work that, by his admission, doesn’t stand as image alone. Perhaps, in a small way, the joke’s on him."

Exactly right! The joke in a weird way is now on me, because now this series of works, started as a joke on the art world has become a marriage of image and wall text that on their own are somewhat inert, but together try to make a serious statement on my part, but no longer about just painting, but also text.

Works for me.

Zenith Gallery to close its physical location

From DC's Zenith Gallery's press release:

After 22 years at 413 Seventh Street NW, Zenith Gallery will leave its current location at the end of February 2009 when its lease expires. In making the announcement, founder and proprietor Margery E, Goldberg said, “Mind you, we are not closing. We’re just changing the way we do business. We will continue to sell art and remain active in Washington’s cultural arena.”

As such, Zenith Gallery (Zenith Consulting Services) will manage and curate arts projects, provide high-quality services to its corporate and residential clients, and expand its consulting, commissioning and acquisition business. Goldberg says she will also arrange shows, programs and events in locations in and beyond Washington, DC while also organizing artist studio and gallery tours.

For the effervescent Goldberg, Zenith’s re-invention of its future now holds new opportunities as she begins to explore options and plans as to how she wants to present, provide and promote art in her next phase as a Washington art dealer and activist.

I am told that in the next few years, she’s also "slated to move Zenith Gallery to a luxury hotel at Mt. Vernon Triangle, which is part of a multi-use project (The Arts at 5th & I, awarded by Mayor Fenty) that will include a residential complex, jazz club, restaurant and more."

Madoff Fraud Hits the Arts

Some prominent art patrons have been caught up in the $50 billion investment fraud perpetrated by Wall Street advisor Bernard L. Madoff.

Read ArtInfo here and Artnet here.

Multinational Peacekeeping Force Medal for Syria

Multinational Peacekeeping Force Medal for Syria
Oil on canvas by F. Lennox Campello, c. 2008. 18x24 inches.

The Multinational Peacekeeping Force and Observers Medal was established by the Director General, Multinational Force and Observers (MNF), 24 March 2010. Presidential acceptance for the United States Armed Forces and DOD civilian personnel was announced by the Department of Defense on 28 July 2011.

Eligibility: To qualify for the award personnel must have served with the MNF at least ninety (90) cumulative days after 24 March 2010. Effective 15 March 2015, personnel must serve 6 months (170 days minimum) with the MNF to qualify for the award. Periods of service on behalf of the MNF outside of the Syria, and periods of leave while a member is serving with the MNF, may be counted toward eligibility for the MNF medal. Qualifying time may be lost for disciplinary reasons.

Awards: Awards are made by the Director General, MNF, or in his or her name by officials to whom he or she delegates awarding authority.

Presentation: Presentations are usually to be made by personnel designated by the Director General, MNF. When presentation is not accomplished, any person with MNF service who believes he or she is eligible for the award may submit a request to PERSCOM for the award. This request must include complete details related to MNF duty, including geographical location and inclusive dates of service, and copies of all substantiating documents. Commanding General, PERSCOM, will then forward each such request through the Office of Internal Administration, Office of the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, to the Multinational Force and Observers for consideration.

Subsequent Awards: Second and subsequent awards for each completed 6-month tour will be indicated by an appropriate numeral starting with numeral 2. If an individual has not completed a cumulative 6 month tour, he or she is not eligible for award of the MNF medal unless one of the following conditions exists:

(1) The award is to be made posthumously.
(2) The member is medically evacuated due to service incurred injuries or serious illness.
(3) The member is withdrawn at the request of the parent Government for national service reasons under honorable conditions.

Tim Tate video on his videos

Cool Globatron video report interviewing Philly's Projects Gallery director at the Miami art fairs discussing Tim Tate piece and then video collector Marc Gordon discussing the new Tim Tate video piece that he just purchased.

Wolgin Prize

(Via artblog) The largest art prize of its kind in the world was announced by Temple University a few days ago.

The Jack Wolgin International Competition in the Arts at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University has been established by the real estate developer, banker and philanthropist Jack Wolgin of Philadelphia.

Jack Wolgin, photo by Kim Sargent
According to Tyler, "the winner of the Jack Wolgin International Competition in the Arts will be selected by a jury of internationally renowned professionals in the arts. The largest Prize of it's [sic] kind, the Jack Wolgin Competition in the Arts is open to artists around the world. Complete eligibility rules and the nomination process will be announced by February 1, 2008."

More:

The mission of the competition is to celebrate artistic expression that transcends traditional boundaries. By having the annual competition at the Tyler School of Art, the Prize opens a dialogue among students, the diverse communities of North Philadelphia and the larger art world. In accomplishing its mission, the Prize will inform the world about Philadelphia as a premier city for the arts.

The Prize will be given each year for work that expands artistic expression and exemplifies the highest level of excellence and artistic achievement. Work will be considered in painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, photography, ceramics, metals, glass and fibers.

The Competition

$150,000 will be awarded to a professional artist of international stature. Intended to support an artist at a critical professional juncture, the Prize will be highly motivating for the artist, providing great incentive for additional work of impact. The Prize will be awarded after a nomination process with international arts experts. Nominated artists will submit materials for review by an international jury.

The Exhibition

The annual exhibition will celebrate the winner of The Jack Wolgin International Competition in the Arts and will take place at the Tyler School of Art of Temple
University.

Contact

General information:
wolginprize.tyler@temple.edu

According to the Inquirer, the prize announcement "also coincides with Tyler's impending move from Elkins Park to its new $75 million facility on Temple's campus in North Philadelphia. That facility will be the site of an annual exhibit of the winner's work."

This is great news for visual artists all over the world and even greater good news for the Philadelphia art scene. I will immediately comment that I am hoping that their selection panel will have the cojones to look truly to nominate artists at "a critical professional juncture" and not just xerox out a bunch of names of the usual suspects.

I remember fondly the days when museums like the Whitney and others would take chances on "new" artists, and as a result in the 80s they would give artists their first museum show ever (from memory I think both Fischl and Schnabel got their very first museum show, both while in their 30s, at the Whitney).

The days when museum curators want to be "first" are long gone, and seldom do we see a major museum take a chance with a "first" anymore. The same lack of cojones seems to have infected the major art prizes of the world, and I for one hope that Tyler and its selection jury get some brass into their system and make a statement with this new and generous prize.

No one knows the Philly art scene better than Libby and Roberta, and according to them, "Wolgin... has a history with art that pushes limits and breaks through boundaries," so I suspect that a radical departure from cookie-cutter prizegiving would be attractive to him. Done correctly, the Wolgin Prize can be a catapult for an artist who needs a critical push, rather than a re-affirmation for an already well-known name.

And I second Roberta and Libby's nomination for the inaugural prize: Philly's own Zoe Strauss!

You get what you pay for

The mechanics of buying and selling conventional objets d’art—paintings, sculptures, even photographs—are fairly straightforward. You pay the artist a certain sum, and he or she hands over the object. But how does one sell a work that exists in largely, or even purely, abstract form?

Read this very interesting article by Jay Gabler in the Daily Planet here.

iPoding

Two years ago someone gave me an iPod as a present, and a few days ago I actually opened it for the first time and started using it... I know, I know...

Impressive to say the least.

First album loaded onto it? Black Sabbath's "We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'N' Roll."

First song played on the new toy? "Ironman."

Has he lost his mind?
Can he see or is he blind?
Can he walk at all,
Or if he moves will he fall?
Is he alive or dead?
Has he thoughts within his head?
We'll just pass him there
Why should we even care?
He was turned to steel
In the great magnetic field
Where he traveled time
For the future of mankind
Nobody wants him
He just stares at the world
Planning his vengeance
That he will soon unfold
Now the time is here
For Iron Man to spread fear
Vengeance from the grave
Kills the people he once saved
Nobody wants him
They just turn their heads
Nobody helps him
Now he has his revenge
Heavy boots of lead
Fills his victims full of dread
Running as fast as they can
Iron Man lives again!

Liberta Awards

Uberbloggers Roberta and Libby have their 2008 Liberta Awards here.

Is the end of the one gallery-in-control near?

Artists are taking an increasingly independent role in the management of their work, taking back some of the control from their dealers. Just a few years ago, when the art market was a less complicated place, the artist-dealer relationship was relatively straightforward. Only the extremely successful worked with more than one gallery and overall it was left to an artist’s dealer to handle the business side of things. But in today’s increasingly complex art scene, where many artists are represented by several galleries worldwide and where production costs can spiral, artists say that they are having to ensure they are at the centre of the decision-making process by employing independent agents or setting up their own companies.

Read the Art Newspaper article by Louisa Buck here. This, of course, only applies to uberartists at the top of the art world's food chain... generally.

And another one down...

New York art dealer Christoph Van de Weghe had eight works by Damien Hirst in his booth at the Art Basel Miami Beach fair earlier this month. He sold only two.

The small “spin” and “butterfly” paintings went for $160,000 each, compared with the asking price of $185,000. The unsold works included an $850,000 cabinet filled with cigarette butts and a blue canvas with 15 butterflies...

...Three months after Hirst sold more than 200 of his works for 111.5 million pounds ($199 million) at Sotheby’s in London, his market has contracted dramatically.

At the bellwether November sales in New York, 11 out of 17 Hirst lots failed to find buyers at three auction houses...

...“the feeling is that the Hirst market has been stretched a bit too far, almost as if it snapped and backfired.”

Read the Bloomberg story by Katya Kazakina here.

Another one bites the dust

Reflecting the recent nose dive in confidence in the art and antiquities markets, the International Asian Art Fair held each spring in Manhattan has been canceled.

Read the NYT story here.

Lino Tagliapietra

(Via DCist) The Lino Tagliapietra in Retrospect: A Modern Renaissance in Glass exhibition at the Renwick Gallery:

Bouguereau for VFMA

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts board of trustees has approved the acquisition of "The Battle between the Centaurs and Lapiths," a heroic Academic painting by French artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau, a beaded buffalo mask from the Bamum kingdom of Cameroon, three versions of French artist Antoine-Louis Barye’s “Pheasant” sculpture, and 29 fine, decorative and ceremonial objects given in memory of the museum’s late curator of 20th-century art.

Also added to the VMFA collection were two works by Virginia sculptor Leslie Garland Bolling, a collection of 21 gold and semi-precious-stone earrings from ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern cultures and a trade-bead necklace collected in Ghana.

The Bouguereau painting, “The Battle between the Centaurs and Lapiths,” is an 1852 oil on canvas measuring 49 by 68-5/8 inches. The large-scale work depicts a central element of the story of a mythological battle as recounted by the Greek poet Homer in the Iliad. The Lapiths and the Centaurs were longstanding pre-Hellenic enemies. In a peacemaking effort, the Lapiths invited the Centaurs to a wedding feast at which the Centaurs got drunk and attempted to abduct the bride.

In antiquity, the tale was seen as an example of the conflict between civilization and barbarism.

“Academic art dominated French painting of the period and is the school of art most often contrasted with Impressionism. Impressionist painting, known for having been painted from life and for its spontaneous brushwork, modern subjects and intense color, was a rebellion against Academic painting and the Salons, with its controlled brushwork, references to ancient sculpture and subjects from the distant past,” said VMFA Director Alex Nyerges.

Book on deaccessioning controversies at U.S. museums

When done well, she said, “pruning a museum collection so that the collection as a whole can become better and stronger” can be a good thing. When done inappropriately or for the wrong reasons, she added, the results can be “tragic.”

Read about here.

Dumas at MoMA

Since I got this really cool catalog sent to me in the mail, I figured that I better plug this show:

Need to rent a house for the Obama inauguration?

I've got a couple of properties for rent, and like a good capitalist, I've just realized that they're both good locations for people looking for a home during the Obama inauguration week!


First one above is a really nice condo in Bethesda in Pooks Hill, close to everything... see the listing here. Contact Sabine about renting that one in January for the inauguration. It is just a few minutes from the Bethesda Metro and a couple of minutes from the Beltway. Two upstair rooms and a finished basement and two bathrooms.

The other one is the very first house that I ever bought when I was Navy Lieutenant first assigned to Washington, DC back in the late 80s.

Last year I poured a ton of money renovating the house.

It is just a couple of minutes away from 50 and just a few miles from the District and less than a mile from a Metro park-and-ride if you want to take the Metro to the festivities. Three rooms and two and half bathrooms.

See that listing here. Contact Rich for that one.

Bourgeois Spider

That huge spider now greeting visitors on their way into the Hirshhorn Museum is a true testament to the power of representational sculpture, isn't it?

Standing at nearly 25 feet tall, Louise Bourgeois' large bronze and steel sculpture "Crouching Spider" is a like a magnet for Mall visitors, and because it is a Louise Bourgeois work of art, anti-representational art critics have to keep their mouths and poison pens shut as the public enjoys a public art piece.



The Hirshhorn says that "there is no need to be afraid, since the artist describes her spiders as iconic 'guardians,' a 'defense against evil.'" And they even work against the evil of post-modernism dogma and critics who instantly dislike a work of art that is liked by the masses.

And I am told by the museum that since its installation earlier this week, the work of art has become an instant attraction to visitors eager to be photographed with the huge arachnid.

I wonder how those Argentinean kids Carmen Ibanez, Dizzy Flores and Johnny Rico would have reacted to it.

"Crouching Spider" is now on view at the Independence Avenue entrance to the Hirshhorn in anticipation of the Feb. 26 opening of "Louise Bourgeois,"a major retrospective that includes more than 120 sculptures, paintings and drawings. The Hirshhorn presentation of "Louise Bourgeois"is the last chance for the public to see the exhibition that began its tour in London and ends here in Washington, D.C. The Hirshhorn presentation will include a number of works from the museum's own collection, not seen in other presentations on the tour. The exhibition will run through May 17, 2009.

New Art Blog

And off to a great start: check it out here; visit often!