Since 2003... the 11th highest ranked art blog on the planet! And with over SIX million visitors, F. Lennox Campello's art news, information, gallery openings, commentary, criticism, happenings, opportunities, and everything associated with the global visual arts scene with a special focus on the Greater Washington, DC area.
Tomorrow the curious and creative will be conducting an
orchestra, making a collage with a living artist as a Muse, learning
iconic jazz dance moves, and creating music out of thin air.
Fall for the Arts, a unique celebration of the Arts at AU, will feature
an afternoon of dynamic classes and hands-on workshops capped off with
an elegant reception and live auction of works by prominent artists. The
afternoon classes span a wide-range of activities including creating
sound effects, acting Shakespeare, Hindustani tabla drumming, and stage
combat, to name just a few. Proceeds from the event will benefit the
Arts at AU.
There is also a very cool art auction with some excellent artworks up for auction at some very good starting prices, including an amazing Manon Cleary graphite drawing at a starting price of just $2K. Check out the artwork up for auction here or plaease browse below or use the links below to review available works—and see Artist Bios (PDF):
On September 15, 2012, the curious and creative will be conducting an
orchestra, making a collage with a living artist as a Muse, learning
iconic jazz dance moves, and creating music out of thin air.
Fall for the Arts, a unique celebration of the Arts at AU, will feature
an afternoon of dynamic classes and hands-on workshops capped off with
an elegant reception and live auction of works by prominent artists. The
afternoon classes span a wide-range of activities including creating
sound effects, acting Shakespeare, Hindustani tabla drumming, and stage
combat, to name just a few. Proceeds from the event will benefit the
Arts at AU.
There is also a very cool art auction with some excellent artworks up for auction at some very good starting prices, including an amazing Manon Cleary graphite drawing at a starting price of just $2K. Check out the artwork up for auction here or plaease browse below or use the links below to review available works—and see Artist Bios (PDF):
Paul Feinberg’s photographs and interviews, or “word portraits,” have
enlivened magazine articles, books, and exhibitions both locally and
nationally for decades. He has been particularly obsessed with
interviewing and photographing artists in our own community. This
AU Katzen Arts Center exhibition features early and late works of art by nine Washington
artists, together with Feinberg's photographs of the artists early and
late in their careers.
Artists in the exhibition include Lisa
Montag Brotman, Manon Cleary, Rebecca Davenport, Clark V. Fox, Sam
Gilliam, Tom Green, Fred Folsom, Margarida Kendall, and Joe White. Five of those artists are in the 100 Artists of Washington, DC book.
Opening reception:6:00 pm – 9:00 pm, Saturday, June 9 - Show is June 9–August 12, 2012.
Gallery talk:4:00PM– 5:00 PM, Saturday, July 7
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Tomorrow at Strathmore
For the last few months, together with DC area art uberstars Susana Raab and Tim Tate, I have been mentoring emerging Washington, DC area artists Minna Philips, Solomon Slyce, Wilmer Wilson IV and Brittany Sims, as part of the Strathmore Fine AIR program - a very cool program which offers local visual arts talent in the DC area a mentoring hand by pairing emerging artists with established professionals in the community.
I was absolutely blown away by the talent of these four young artists, and after all the meetings, discussions, reviews and talks, they conclude their residency experience by unveiling new works in the Strathmore Fine Artists in Residence Exhibition, which opens tomorrow and runs through August 20 at the gorgeous Strathmore Mansion on Rockville Pike.
According to the Strathmore release, in describing the four artists, we learn that Minna Philips “plays with perception by recontextualizing paradoxical objects, challenging the viewer to create original and unfettered interpretations of her work. She furthers this exploration by presenting an obscure and little-known Strathmore artifact, the grotto, in an equally obscure way. Minna distances the grotto from being identifiable by photographing it from a variety of angles and perspectives, scanning the images and, finally, meticulously sketching them on velum using pencil to recreate the look of black and white photography. The images are randomly mounted in a giant, gridded window in the Mansion, alluding to the exterior campus which inspired for the work. The final assemblage appears fragmented and abstract, further veiling the identity of a structure which is already out of context with the current use of the Mansion. Strathmore’s grotto was formerly a place of worship for the nuns of St. Mary’s Academy, who used the Mansion as a convent and school under the name St. Angela Hall. Minna will also present mixed media pieces that include glass prisms installed in shadow boxes. Using special lighting and mirrors, the glass prisms will reflect and distort drawn images.
Solomon Slyce creates a dialogue about sensitive and emotionally-charged social issues through satirical photography. Seemingly benign and disarming, even comical, upon further inspection Solomon’s work incorporates nuanced themes such as interracial marriage, immigration, financial corruption in religious institutions and other themes germane to his identity as an African American male, city dweller and urban schoolteacher. He exercises supreme artistic control over his photographs to create carefully-staged environments, overseeing every detail, from costume, props and actor selection to set design. The Fine Artists in Residence Exhibition will feature existing work from his portfolio, as well as new pieces in which he addresses social issues and stereotypes by creating digital photographs in the likeness of distinctive techniques by iconic artists such as Andy Warhol, Irving Sinclair and Grant Wood.
Installation artist Wilmer Wilson IV creates site-specific sculptural works using accessible consumer goods. By making use of everyday materials in his work, he transforms everyday experiences into aesthetic ones. In the Mansion he will use more than 1,000 inflated paper bags to create a room-filling organic form. The installation will explore the implications that one oft-overlooked and mundane object can have when amassed in one place. Also included in the exhibition are photographs of his previous works, depicting paper bags pervading all aspects of his life. The images serve as documents of his non-permanent installations and also as contemplative compositions in themselves.
Environmental catastrophes inform Brittany Sims’ ominous paintings. A student at Tulane University in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina decimated the city, Brittany felt a connectedness to the devastating tornado that ravaged Joplin, Missouri in May. She appropriates photographs from newspapers and from personal Flickr pages, recreating them with acrylic paint on shower curtains, an extension of her experimental painting on different canvas materials and shapes.”
Since I had been deeply involved with these artists for a few months, I thought that I knew what was coming to the exhibition, and yet I was completely blown away when I actually got a peek sneak at the show – while delivering my own work – did I mention that the show also features work by the three mentors?
What Wilson delivered by the intelligent use of the air from his lungs is beyond visual belief – this young man is a genius and you should all start following his work now. His marriage of the always slippery world of the great conceptual idea and the actual delivery of that idea is as close to perfection as I have ever seen in these minimalist artists who find their materials where the rest of us fail to see art – remember this name.
Slyce is a modern version of the photographer who sets up his scenes; he’s a marriage of the genius of Hollywood with the genius of such photog-stars as Cindy Sherman, etc. His images come in sets of two – his look at gambling looks at cool cheaters paired with symbols of gambling – humor, a sorely missing part of contemporary art, is part of his work, and it is Slyce’s brilliance which comes through in this difficult handshake.
Both Phillips and Sims surprise the viewer by taking the art out of the expected context – Phillips does it by her dexterous handling of vellum to almost make it seem like a photographic installation. Sims does it with an understated elegance that push what Sam Gilliam did decades ago to a new contemporary dialogue.
My kudos to both this great new program and to these four rising new stars. The opening is tomorrow from 7-9 PM.
"Sam Gilliam first took his paintings off their stretchers in 1965, using the liberated canvases to transform gallery walls into three-dimensional abstractions. He has continued to experiment with the practice of painting and the line between painting and sculpture. For this exhibition, Gilliam will transform the 8,000 square foot space of the third floor of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center into an exciting and colorful work of art."
April 2 to August 14, 2011.
Gilliam also broke my heart when he declined to be included in my 100 Washington, DC Artists book (in spite of a joint press front that included several artists who tried to convince Sam to join in the project). Anyway, do not miss this opening and exhibition of work by the DMV's leading artist and a true innovator.
"Sam Gilliam first took his paintings off their stretchers in 1965, using the liberated canvases to transform gallery walls into three-dimensional abstractions. He has continued to experiment with the practice of painting and the line between painting and sculpture. For this exhibition, Gilliam will transform the 8,000 square foot space of the third floor of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center into an exciting and colorful work of art."
April 2 to August 14, 2011.
Gilliam also broke my heart when he declined to be included in my 100 Washington, DC Artists book (in spite of a joint press front that included several artists who tried to convince Sam to join in the project). Anyway, do not miss this opening and exhibition of work by the DMV's leading artist and a true innovator.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday Funnies (ahem) Stamps
I know I'm gonna get killed for this, but here I discussed when I detected possible pornography in the American stamp issue of Sunday Funnies, and here I broke out one of the first two possibly sexualized panels (yay!) in our sexy nation's stamps history.
But as Tery Gilliam predicted in his groundbreaking film Brazil, all of you are too chicken to come forward (other than the dozen plus emails I've received... offline) to "see" the Onanist issue here.
Wait till tomorrow for me to tell you what Odie The Onanist is doing.
Saturday, February 05, 2011
"In Unison: 20 Washington, DC Artists", presently on view at the Kreeger Museum through February 26th has been getting a lot of attention in the scant art press around the DMV.
In Unison: 20 Washington, DC Artists, is an exhibition derived from a monoprint project initiated by DC artist Sam Gilliam.
Gilliam "invited 19 established and respected painters, sculptors, printmakers, digital media and installation artists working in different styles, to join him in creating several print portfolios. Each made a set of five monoprints, one of which was chosen for the show by Sam Gilliam, Judy A. Greenberg, Director of The Kreeger Museum, Marsha Mateyka of the Marsha Mateyka Gallery and Claudia Rousseau, art critic and art historian."
As stated by Rousseau, “Creating a group portfolio and exhibiting together express the ideas of unity and identity that are underlying motives of the project, and which are vital to sustaining a thriving artistic community.”
Millennium Arts Salon is the exclusive sponsor of this major exhibition at the Kreeger
As far as coverage, most recently, TV Station WETA - DC in their "Around Town" segment, highlighted a film clip about the show. The clip features commentary by Corcoran School of Art Professor Janis Goodman, and artist Bill Dunlap (both of whom are in my 100 Washington, DC Artists book).
Mel Hardy, Chairman of Millennium Arts Salon has written a response commentary on the article by Kriston Capps, so read Capps' review first before you read the below response:
Kriston: Yours is a remarkable recitation of context for what you observed as the production of this sampling of a body of works of art created at GMU. What you could not have observed was the origination of vision of a major artist in Sam Gilliam, and its interplay under the sponsorship of a local arts-advocacy and arts-community building organization in Millennium Arts Salon, the fiscal convener of the exhibition.
Your attribution of the "patronage" of Kandinsky and Klee is a wonderful gift from you as an established art critic to each of the "In Unison" artists hanging at the Kreeger. It is lost on no one that Judy Greenberg's willingness to accept this exhibition represents a major advance in the careers of many of the artists.
In this, perhaps you may have missed the point with your focus on "looking back" to the restrictions imposed on innovation and creativity by our local Washington artists, by a less-than-assertive Washington cultural infrastructure. Your highlighting the preponderance of African American artists in the exhibition dismisses completely the sponsor's and project team's structured framework for persons across the spectrum of cultural, ethnic, aesthetic, experience, gender, and age identities to experiment with artistic and aesthetic dialogue whilst in the process of creation of works.
You could not have known Sondra Arkin's frustration with running her typical encaustics through a press only to work with the master printmakers to innovate in finding process to present her beautiful details. You could not have known the truly vanguard applications of tools by Akili Ron Anderson in the creation of his works, and for which each of the five "small paintings" he created are tour de force works of art.
To what many observers of this important exhibition, perhaps like yourself, might immediately attach to recent historical reference, "looking back" in your parlance, you may miss the prospective references to our national need for modeling how Americans, regardless of station, cultural, or ethnic identity, can find ways to interact in the spirit of innovation, in the finding of new ways to re-calibrate our national dialogue for building a sense a national identity, an American culture.
The project team was lead by: Sam Gilliam in identifying the artists who would inspire a new Washington signature in collaborative creativity; Juanita Hardy of Millennium Arts Salon who initiated and funded the enterprise; Helen Frederick and Susan Goldman who "mastered" the printmaking and counseled many of the artists in innovation; Claudia Rousseau, who provided art historical and critical context; and Judy Greenberg, who housed this new vision of the American experiment with American inter-culturalism.
Of course, none of this is possible without the creatives themselves, and we are all grateful that the artists would lend themselves to this highly managed strategy. It is refreshing to read your review of the exhibition, Kriston, as your "backward looking" perspective provides that essential balance that fuels those of us in the creative classes to look forward to our leadership in the better America that is to come.
Monday, January 24, 2011
The Dynamics of the DC Art Scene
The Art Dealers Association of Greater Washington, in partnership with The Kreeger Museum, are putting together a panel discussion on how Art Dealers, Collectors, Curators and Museum Directors interact to support the visual arts in the DC area.
The Kreeger Museum, 2401 Foxhall Road NW Washington, DC 20007
Thursday, February 24, 2011 6:30pm - 9 pm
Tickets: $20 / The Kreeger Museum Members: $15 Includes a cheese and wine reception.
Preceding the panel discussion, guests will have an opportunity to view In Unison: 20 Washington, DC Artists, the culmination of a project initiated by artist Sam Gilliam, consisting of monoprints by 20 artists from the DC community, who typically work in different styles and mediums.
For reservations, call 202-338-3552.
Panelists include: - Juliette Bethea, Collector - Dr. Johnnetta Cole, Director, National Museum of African Art - Judy A. Greenberg, Director, The Kreeger Museum - Gisela Huberman, Collector (and proud owner of my work) - Jack Rasmussen, Director and Curator, American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center - and moderator Bill Dunlap, Artist and Art Critic and TV talking head, and one of the 100 in my book about DC artists.
Considering the focus of the panel, am I the only one who finds it odd that missing from the panel are any art dealers?
Saturday, January 15, 2011
The Dynamics of the DC Art Scene
The Art Dealers Association of Greater Washington, in partnership with The Kreeger Museum, are putting together a panel discussion on how Art Dealers, Collectors, Curators and Museum Directors interact to support the visual arts in the DC area.
The Kreeger Museum, 2401 Foxhall Road NW Washington, DC 20007
Thursday, February 24, 2011 6:30pm - 9 pm
Tickets: $20 / The Kreeger Museum Members: $15 Includes a cheese and wine reception.
Preceding the panel discussion, guests will have an opportunity to view In Unison: 20 Washington, DC Artists, the culmination of a project initiated by artist Sam Gilliam, consisting of monoprints by 20 artists from the DC community, who typically work in different styles and mediums.
For reservations, call 202-338-3552.
Panelists include: - Juliette Bethea, Collector - Dr. Johnnetta Cole, Director, National Museum of African Art - Judy A. Greenberg, Director, The Kreeger Museum - Gisela Huberman, Collector (and proud owner of my work) - Jack Rasmussen, Director and Curator, American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center - and moderator Bill Dunlap, Artist and Art Critic and TV talking head, and one of the 100 in my book about DC artists.
Considering the focus of the panel, am I the only one who finds it odd that missing from the panel are any art dealers?
Thursday, January 06, 2011
In Unison: 20 Washington, DC Artists
Next week the Kreeger Museum will open In Unison: 20 Washington, DC Artists, an exhibition derived from a monoprint project initiated by DC artist Sam Gilliam.
Gilliam "invited 19 established and respected painters, sculptors, printmakers, digital media and installation artists working in different styles, to join him in creating several print portfolios. Each made a set of five monoprints, one of which was chosen for the show by Sam Gilliam, Judy A. Greenberg, Director of The Kreeger Museum, Marsha Mateyka of the Marsha Mateyka Gallery and Claudia Rousseau, art critic and art historian."
As stated by Rousseau, “Creating a group portfolio and exhibiting together express the ideas of unity and identity that are underlying motives of the project, and which are vital to sustaining a thriving artistic community.”
The exhibition will be on view at The Kreeger Museum from January 15 – February 26, 2011. The invited artists are:
Millennium Arts Salon is the exclusive sponsor of this major exhibition at the Kreeger. Several well-known names in the list, plus quite a few that are new to me; I'm really looking forward to seeing this exhibition.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Just noticed
Yesterday I was strolling Little Junes through the quad at American University and we stopped to look at the "Seurat" elephant sculpture by Sam Gilliam which is one of the "Party Animals" public art projects that the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities did a few years ago. As you may recall, artists painted a couple of hundred donkeys and elephant statues which are now all over the city.
The Gilliam elephant is right in front of the School of History building at AU and the poor beast is falling apart. I don't know if this is happening to any of the other "party animals" sculptures (or the similar panda project), but the elephant is riddled with surface cracks, as it appears that the elements have won the battle with the finishing element of the fabrication and the sculpture is cracking all over the place.
A Connie Slack panda across the quad seems to be in good shape, although if I remember right, the "party animals" preceded the pandas. But now I wonder if any other of these outdoor pieces are showing the effects of the DMV's severe weather extremes.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
When facts get in the way
There are so many disturbing issues with Kriston Capps snarky report on my 100 Washington Artists book that I don't know where to start other than by thanking the CP for giving this book, which is yet to be published, some advance publicity. As Warhol once said, "publicity, even bad publicity is better than no publicity." You can read that article here.
If you follow the DMV art scene, then you know that Capps' past includes some journalistic issues, and so when he expressed interest in doing a piece for the CP, I was fully prepared for the worst. I knew in advance that the piece would try to find the negative angle to the story, the "what's my angle?" the "what's in it for Campello?." This is because unfortunately the formation of some people is so ethically flawed, that they suspect all those around them as being like them.
That I'm doing these series of books because I think it would be good for the DC art scene must be a lie. There's got to be something wrong here; if not they can try to make something up or selectively highlight some issues while ignoring the ones which damage the focus that they're trying to achieve: a negative portrayal.
The first hint is the title: The C List: Will Lenny Campello’s 100 Washington Artists Serve Its Subjects or Its Author? The seed has been planted for "there's something smelly here."
By paragraph four he's already referring to my "ethical tics." The second negative seed has been planted.
Later he lists artists with whom I've had/have a commercial relationship and used to show at the Fraser Gallery, in the process he gets one name wrong but drops an end of sentence that implies that many others in the 100 list are artists that we represented at Fraser. This is a spectacular stretch of his imagination, but designed to leave the impression that I've stacked the list with Fraser Gallery artists. Technically, as of today, there are three artists out of the 100 that are represented by the Fraser Gallery today.
But what is even more shoddy journalism is that Capps knew well that I had put some ethical safety valves in the book to cover the ethical angle of artists with whom I've had or have a commercial relationship. The key one is that every artist in the book who is represented by a gallery or dealer is referred back to that gallery or dealer. In the case of artists associated with me, every single contact points back to another dealer who represents that artist. Not a single artist in this book is associated in the book with me. In fact, if any "business" is to be derived from this book, I am sending the business to everyone but me. Capps knows this, but conveniently avoids discussing that. The reason is simple: it demolishes his implied undercurrent about my ethical transgressions in having artists in the book that I'm associated with.
Then he errs and makes up a quote that I never said in the context that he puts it in the article. The "I have zero commercial relationship with them" quote was in the context of zero commercial relationship with the Fraser Gallery and the artists that they represent or represented when I was a co-owner. I then qualified that by listing for Kriston the artists that I do currently have a commercial relationship with, but instead of Capps writing: "I have zero commercial relationship with them, except for..." he starts a new paragraph with: "That’s not wholly true" and details facts that I told him about my current dealer relationships and my online art dealer enterprise (Alida Anderson Art Projects, which I've discussed here many times), but he writes it as if he "discovered" this and has caught me in a lie.
He then writes that "Through Alida Anderson Art Projects, he has taken work by Janis and Tate to a number of art fairs." It was me who told him about the art fairs, but I also told him that the last time that I took those guys to an art fair under Alida Anderson Art Projects was in 2008 and explained my current business relationships with them and others. This of course, is never mentioned. It would destroy his argument.
He does shoot himself in the foot by later acknowledging that I did tell him that I have current commercial interests in some artists. So the issue here is a quote which put out of place, as he does, serves a purpose best suited to sickening Republican political blogs that publish out-of-context video scenes or some of the garbage-spewing misinformation talking heads of MSNBC. Whereas those extreme right and extreme left wingers are rabid junkyard dogs for their extreme political dogmas, and their goal is to divide us, I am not sure what the goal of this Capps article is, other than to try to make something that I hope will be good for the DC art scene into a smelly conspiracy for me to gain... what?
He strangles the truth once more when he refers to the artists that I write about and "admire" in this blog. He writes: "As much can be ascertained from his blog, D.C. Art News, where he has written for years about artists he admires (and represents)."
What's the condemnation you ask?
That all artists that I write about and admire are only those that I represent. That is of course, completely wrong, and in fact probably numerically the opposite of the truth. But don't let facts get in the way... even though people like Amy Lin and many others, of whom I have gushed about in the past in my blog (get it, my blog) are represented by other galleries and have never been represented by me. But that little poison pill is now also a seed dropped in the article: "In Campello's blog he only gushes about artists that he represents." A damned lie.
See what the undercurrent here is?
Words count and are chosen for a purpose. Capps writes that "Not every Washington-based artist jumped at the opportunity. Artists Jim Sanborn and Sam Gilliam refused to participate." When we discussed this, I told him that Gilliam and Sanborn had "declined" to be in the book, and explained the reasons given to me as to why they didn't want to be in the book - both have private commercial flavors of other issues - but Capps instead uses the word "refused" with the implication offering a harsher reason for them not being in the book.
He then takes a swipe at the publisher, picking some weird titles from a selection of 100s of art books that this respected publisher has offered in the 50-plus years that they've been publishing art books. You see? everyone gets a little dose of negativity here.
At the end he almost closes with: "For this unflagging fanboy of Capital City artists, the fight for visibility trumps profit, or interests, or ethics." Even the snarky choice of words (I'm now a "fanboy") are picked to diminish and reduce and put me into "my place" - how dare this crab try to take 100 crabs out of the basket?
As a man I am nobody's "boy" of anything, and in fact I find this adjective not only offensive and insulting, but also insensitive in this era when we're so well aware of the sins of the past. Because he has failed to find the facts to back up a flawed and dishonest argument questioning my ethics, he attempts to reduce me at the end to a "boy."
And in the end what comes out is a snarky, dishonest, pick-out-of-context art scribe best suited for political blog poison-writing than someone with a pulpit to write about the Washington, DC art scene for anyone, much less the same paper which let him go earlier for whatever reasons.
And I'm much more of an ethical man, not boy, than he'll ever be.
And now that I'm finished with volume one, time to start volume two.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Congrats!
Congratulations to the District of Columbia Arts Center, which will be celebrating its 20th anniversary with an evening of dance, poetry, performance art, sound installation and live music in Georgetown's gorgeous Halcyon House.
Born in 1989 with the mission of providing the “missing link” between emerging artists and the broader community, DCAC has maintained its place in DC as an organization that operates with the needs of artists in mind, rather than focusing on commercial demands. DCAC also recognizes the need to support ongoing projects, including our Curatorial Initiative, which nurtures upcoming curators and enriches audience engagement with our exhibits, and SPARKPLUG, a collective of local artists and curators who exhibit at DCAC each year.
In 1987, a group of artists, arts advocates and administrators came together to address their frustration with DC’s cultural climate. In order to bring local artists closer to the community, arts advocates Aaron Levine, Alice Denney, and Herb White, with the support of councilman William Lightfoot, established a center where local artists would become more visible to the community and receive the support that was largely unavailable. DCAC’s founding board includes artists Jack Rasmussen, Lynn McCary, Sam Gilliam, Greg Hannan, Kathy Keler, Rockne Krebs, Evangeline Montgomery, June Shadoan, and Paula Schumann, critic and curator Annie Gawlak, and arts activist Eden Rafshoon.
The gala will take place on May 29, 2009, from 6:30 to 10:30pm. The happenings get underway at 6:30 with cocktails and light fare in the gardens and ballroom of the Halcyon House Mansion. There will also be a special VIP reception from 6:30 to 7:30 for the founders, our board of directors, the invitation committee and special level donors. At 8:00, the Studio opens for dancing to the sultry and swining Jenn and the Tonics along with desserts and more cocktails. Throughout the evening there will be performances, exhibited art, video projectors, sound installation, dance and more.
Artists featured at the event include performance artists Katherine Cornelius and Quique Aviles, poets Silvana Straw and Buck Downs, Alberto Gaitán with sound installation and visual artists Gretchen Schemmerhorn, Jefferson Pinder, Jose Ruiz and David Hartwell.
Life has an interesting way of forcing us to sometimes either reversing what we once thought were final positions, and other times life offers us a chance of defending both sides of a position.
I have been generally against the segregation of artists by race (black, white, Asian or native American) or by ethnicity (Hispanic, Semitic, etc.), and yet sometimes a void or need is so egregious that the solution is very clear and may cross lines that we may have thought as cast in concrete.
When we all discovered a couple of years ago that 66% of all the artwork by black American artists currently in the White House art collection had been acquired by the Bushes, depending on what side of the political aisle you stand, this fact may either raise an eyebrow from right wing nuts or some sort of conspiracy theory from left wing nuts.
But when we also discovered the fact that only three works (out of an estimated 375 pieces) were by black Americans, both sides of the aisle should find that surprising... and maybe in need of attention by the Obamas.
A little recap and an update: In 2007 I reacted in my usual self-righteous, irate manner to having American artist Jacob Lawrence described as a great African-American artist, rather than just a great artist. And then the Washington City Paper in the process of policing that whole issue, came up with an interesting fact.
Jacob Lawrence, pen and ink, circa 1980 by F. Lennox Campello In an Private Collection
According to the City Paper, Betty Monkman, the curator of the White House, revealed that, "while Lawrence’s painting isn’t the sole piece by a black artist in the executive mansion, it’s close to it — there are only two others."
That's now three out of "an estimated 375 total in the White House’s art collection."
So let's take off the first century and a half of the White House's art acquisition process. During that time we can safely assume that they probably just focused on American artists from one of the four races, and somewhat let me reverse my stand on segregating artists by race, rather than just artistic merit, and let me take the uncomfortable side of trying to again ask the question, "Why aren't there more works by black artists in the White House art collection?"
Even if one ignores skin color, and just looks at the art and artistic achievement, there are plenty of great American artists, who happen to be black, whom I think would make a great update to the White House collection.
Some art greats, by artistic default, I would think, would have to be Black, or Asian, or Native American, not just Caucasian artists of all ethnicities - after all, all four races of mankind create art and all four and their many mixtures, live in America.
Back in the 1980's, Jacob Lawrence was awarded the National Medal of Arts from President George Bush The First. Why did it take 27 years for one of his paintings to become part of the White House's permanent collection?
The City Paper research identified the other two paintings: "Henry Ossawa Tanner’s Sand Dunes at Sunset, Atlantic City (1885), which hangs in the Green Room, its home since 1996, and an 1892 painting by one “Bannister” (possibly Ed Bannister) acquired in 2006 and which was then undergoing conservation.
So two of the three have been acquired by the Bushes, and before 1996 there wasn't a single work of art by any black artist in the President's home, in spite of the fact that artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Sam Gilliam, Martin Puryear, Alma Thomas, and others are all just great American artists, period, and have even broken the National Gallery of Art code, and should all probably have been acquired by the White House years, and years, and years ago.
But let's say that a traditional acquisition focus on painting were to remain, and thus we would immediately unfortunately eliminate a lot of good contemporary choices. After all, the White House is not an art museum, and the case could be made that it sort of "feels" that it should be an art collection where all things somewhat say "America" in a variety of traditional visual ways, and I submit that for that goal, painting is still first among equals. That still leaves Romare Bearden, Sam Gilliam, Alma Thomas and others I am sure.
So if the Obamas were to continue what President Bush started, and expand the White House's collection to be more representative of American artists and the American people, I would suggest that (in addition to perhaps more Lawrence), Romare Bearden, Sam Gilliam, Martin Puryear, and Alma Thomas would be a good start. And, if as Malber suggests, the Obamas should expand the White House collection to more than just paintings, then in addition to some Lawrence collages, I would suggest work by other blue chip artists such as Kara Walker, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons (who is not only a brilliantly accomplished artist, but also happens to be both Hispanic and Black) and Lorna Simpson.
But I don't know if the Obamas personally collect art, and even though I am one myself, I don't really buy the idea of a staff White House art adviser.
If the Obamas are like most people, they probably don't "really" collect art with a focus or intensity to say, the Podestas in DC or the Rubells in Miami (either one of whom, by the way, would make excellent unpaid volunteer art advisers to the White House, if having an adviser was the choice made to change the visual arts acquisition status quo).
So... since the odds are that they would be beginning collectors, then I would suggest the same thing that I do to all beginning collectors: start looking first at emerging artists, which generally can be acquired for much less money than a well-established artist from the upper crust of the rarified artmosphere. Do this until you establish your tastes, desires and somewhat of a focus, and then, if your financial status allows it, begin expanding into the big museum-level names.
And if the Obamas listen to Malber's excellent point of looking locally (as Clinton did in selecting Simmie Knox to do his Presidential portrait), then I would add one of the terrific works by Rikk Freeman to the White House.
A huge Freeman painting would do wonders for the White House collection and also do wonders for Freeman. Not only would it add a presence and feel to the collection that is missing right now and which is an integral part of American history, but it would also set a new, fresh change of venue of how artwork has been acquired in the past, and the kind of artists that get acquired.
Change.
Friday, April 25, 2008
A rarity coming up
Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist presents "the first nationally touring retrospective of Aaron Douglas (1899-1979), one of the most influential visual artists of the Harlem Renaissance. This exhibition brings together more than 80 rarely seen works by the artist, including paintings, prints, drawings and illustrations."
I really hate the segregation of art by race or ethnicity, but once in a while something stands out so grossly out of synch that it must be pointed out.
This coming show is also a rarity for the DC area museums: an exhibition by a black artist.
Example: As far as I know the National Gallery has only hosted one exhibition in its entire history by a black artist, in this case African American artist Romare Bearden.
The Corcoran has done a little better, most recently hosting Sam Gilliam's first retrospective. Jonathan Binstock, then the Corcoran curator, had done his thesis on Gilliam, so I am sure that this helped get this DC art star a long overdue museum show in his own city. And the Phillips Collection certainly has paid attention to my old professor Jacob Lawrence with a couple of traveling exhibitions.
But some black artists are way overdue for the kind of exposure that an NGA show can afford an artist. My first suggestion is Wifredo Lam.
Any others? Feel free to comment.
Monday, March 10, 2008
The Shaping of Color Field
by Rosetta DeBerardinis
I departed the island of Baltimore last week to attend the preview of “Color as Field: American Painting 1950-1975,” the new exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
After some lovely pastries and Dean and DeLuca coffee poured from boxes we ventured upstairs to its third floor gallery. Once you emerge from the elevator you become captivated by the large scale chroma-stained canvases which are so imposing that you feel child-like staring up at them. Signage on the walls with names we have all heard or seem before like: Frankenthaler, Louis, Olitski, Motherwell, Gottelib, Davis and Gilliam. But, this is not a block-buster exhibit for the masses intended to draw record numbers of crowds; it is a significant documentation of 39 works by the early pioneers of American art.
Due to limited government funding for museums and art institutions, there is now greater reliance upon garnering private donors to underwrite exhibits. This exhibit is organized by the American Federation of the Arts, the Henry Luce Foundation, Gene Davis Memorial Fund, Golden Artists Colors and several individual donors, and few of the works are from the Smithsonian’s own collection.
But, if this exhibit is an example of what can be done without the government, I say ‘thank-you’ now we can really have first-class art shows which are thought-provoking, scholarly and challenging. No, there is no audio-guide with snippets of history or narrative story-telling. This show is intended for those well-versed in the subject-matter, so if you are not, I suggest that you dust off an art history book or Google ‘ColorField’ to ensure that you won’t miss the importance of this historical exhibit.
And, if you negate the importance of the abstract expressionist and chant along with the masses “even my child could do this” then you need to purchase the easy reading color-illustrated exhibition catalogue, written by its guest curator Karen Willkin, a specialist in 20th century modernism.
The post-war Color Field painters abandoned the gestural strokes, the all-over painting and pouring inaugurated by Jackson Pollock and the abstract expressionists, and instead concentrated on color, spatial ambiguity and process. Their aim was to unify a colorful abstract image or shape on a large surface. This 1950s movement was more about color than form; however, both movements sought to reveal the unknown -not to report just on the visible.
Artist Helen Frankenthaler led the way by applying thinned oil pigment to stain the unprimed canvas. After visiting her studio in New York City in 1953, artists Kenneth Noland and Morris Louis (both then teaching in the District of Columbia) returned there to experiment with their newly found technique.
My favorite painting in the show is Frankenthaler’s large scale, ‘Off the White Square’ done in 1973 because it exemplifies the new power and presence of acrylic pigment -- which had just become available when she began using ten years earlier.
And, as they say "the rest is history," because America now had its second artistic movement, the Color Field school, which included Helen Frankenthaler, Kenneth Noland, Morris Louis, Walter Darby Bannard, Jack Bush, Gene Davis, Friedel Dzubus, Sam Francis, Jules Olitski and later Larry Poons, Frank Stella, Ronald Davis and Sam Gilliam. These are artists who elected to concentrate on pure contrasting hues of color rather than light versus dark. In the words of Frank Stella “what you see is what you see.” However the significance of this exhibit extends beyond what the viewer sees on these colorful canvases. It is a historical event documenting the difference, similarity and distinction between abstract expressionism and color field painting along with the progression of American art.
The exhibition is in three-parts: an introduction to the origins of Color Field painting, its pioneers, and its later practitioners who pushed its further. It begins with Rothko, and the Abstract Expressionists, then to Frankenthaler’s departure from Pollock and the color field artists who followed with a new abstract form based on expanses of radiant unmodulated hues by staining, painting and spraying. And it concludes with the later generation often linked to the influential art critic Clement Greenberg, who curated the 1964 exhibit “Post Painterly Abstraction” and is credited along with art historian Michael Fried for defining and establishing the framework for interpreting the art form known as field of color, later coined "Color Field."
This exhibition is the first major examination of color field painting, and the District of Columbia is the only East Coast city to host this landmark exhibition. After its debut there it will make its final stop at the First Center of Visual Arts in Nashville, Tenn. in June.
On exhibit thru May 26th, 2008 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Eighth and F Streets, N.W., Washington, D.C. Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily (202) 633-1000\ (202) 633-7970 (recorded museum information).
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Juno
For the man who thinks that Terry Gilliam's Brazil is one of the top ten films ever made, it is quite a surprise to reveal that I think that Juno is one of the best movies that I have seen in the last decade.
Starring Ellen Page, rapidly becoming one of the best young actresses on the planet, and who was the terrifying star of 2005's Hard Candy -- the movie most likely to make men cross their legs.
Seriously, Hard Candy was a brutal and intelligent movie, and there are scenes in the film where the character played by Page causes men to squirm and the audible rustle from legs being crossed throughout the theatre becomes a weird sensurround to the smartest revenge movie in ages.
But this is a review of Juno and not Hard Candy.
Get back on track Campello!
Juno is witty, funny, sarcastic, sometimes a little scary and definately has that magical cult ingredient like Napoleon Dynamite did.
Page plays the sarcastic, snappy and very pregnant Juno, a 16 year old kid with a razor-sharp mind and a huge belly. The movie is the story of how she deals with her pregnancy and it is full of surprises, turns and bends and very good acting on the part of Page and the supporting cast, especially by J.K. Simmons, who plays her dad.
The movie grows as it develops, and before Juno's snappy comebacks and one liners become tiresome, she suddenly becomes a scared little girl before our eyes and just as fast turns into a strong decision maker.
I liked this movie a lot and Page is a sure bet for the Oscar for best actress; go see Juno.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Wanna tour the DC City Hall Art Collection?
At 12 p.m. on Thursday, January 30, the public is invited to the Wilson Building for a guided tour through the City Hall public collection of art on permanent display on floors 1-5 of the Wilson building. The tour will be lead by the talented Ellyn Weiss, whose work is included in the collection.
This is a unique chance to meet with local artists featured in the collection and have a discussion on being an artist in the Nation's capital and to see a rich cross section of local artists (both established and emerging). This will be a bi-monthly occurrence. This is the richest and largest permanent exhibition of the work of local DC area artists in the city, featuring a broad range of work, from internationally known artists such as Jacob Kainen, Sam Gilliam, Tim Tate and William Christenberry, to work by most of the artists of significance working in the capital region area now.
The tour is free; however space is limited. Please RSVP to beth.baldwin@dc.gov with the number in your party. Meet at the Pennsylvania Avenue entrance — the building is located at 1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW. ID is required to enter the building.
Friday, September 28, 2007
New case openedCP scribe Kriston Capps polices the whole Jacob Lawrence squabble and in the process comes up with an excellent point.
According to Capps, "Betty Monkman, the curator of the White House, reveals that, while Lawrence’s painting isn’t the sole piece by a black artist in the executive mansion, it’s close to it — there are only two others."
That's now three out of "an estimated 375 total in the White House’s art collection."
Geez.
That implies that Simmie Knox's portrait of Pres. Clinton is not considered part of the White House’s art collection, which doesn't make sense. Knox is a DC area artist by the way, and a brilliant painter.
So let's take the first century and a half off the acquisition process, which probably just focused on American artists from one of the four races, and somewhat reverse my stand on segregating artists by race, rather than just artistic merit, and let me take the uncomfortable side of trying to ask the question "why aren't there more works by black artists in the White House collection?"
Even if one ignores color, and just looks at the art and artistic achievement, there are plenty of great American artists, who happen to be black, that one suspect should be in the White House collection.
Some art greats, by artistic default, I would think, would have to be Black, or Asian, or Native American, not just Caucasian artists - after all, all four races of mankind create art and all four and their many mixtures, live in America.
And let's say that the White House's collection is not exactly, ah... contemporary, which would eliminate a lot of good modern choices; and after all, the White House is not an art museum, but it sort of feels that it should be a classy arts conglomerate where all things say "America."
Back in the 1980's, the great Jacob Lawrence was awarded the National Medal of Arts from Pres. George Bush The First. Why did it take 27 years for one of his paintings to become part of the White House's permanent collection?
Capps identifies the other two paintings: "Henry Ossawa Tanner’s Sand Dunes at Sunset, Atlantic City (1885) also hangs in the Green Room, its home since 1996. And an 1892 painting by one “Bannister” (they likely mean Ed Bannister) acquired last year is currently undergoing conservation."
So two of the three have been acquired by the Bushes, and before 1996 there wasn't a single work of art by any black artist in the President's home, in spite of the fact that artists such as Lawrence, Bearden, Gilliam, Puryear, and others are all just great American artists, period, and have even broken the National Gallery of Art code.
