What the $#%& Happened at the Corcoran?

By Rosetta DeBerardinis

Participating artists and ticket-holders to the Corcoran’s “Art Anonymous” exhibit and fund-raiser were asking that last week when the museum sent out an e-blast canceling the fundraising gala. But, the questions didn’t stop there; the preview for the artists and the sale were just as confusing.

Some events in the art world are more priceless than the art. And, this event had all the ingredients of an art reality show. The high-point of the evening was standing behind Martin Irvine, owner of Irvine Contemporary, whose layered blonde hair swung across the collar of his black jacket as he banged on the massive black Beaux-Arts doors of the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

Priceless, I tell you! Mr. Irvine had volunteered to assist with the event but like the bewildered artists and ticket-holders but found himself locked out.

The Corcoran’s second email to the artists who had donated work for its fundraiser to benefit the College of Art consisted of another apology and a second bite at spin-control. That email invited artists to attend a reception and sneak-preview two hours prior on the day of the sale from 4-5 p.m. on Saturday.

And, I was told that the spin on the other-side was that tickets had suddenly become available for purchase a few hours prior to the sale. Rumor has it that it sold 175 tickets within that time so things were back on track again.

Well, not exactly.

The ticket holders were now entitled to one free painting, instead of paying $100 for it, in lieu of the advertised gala with food and dancing. Should they wish an additional work of art it was available for $100 each.

Upon entering the small gallery adjacent to the school across from the Hammer auditorium one quickly realized that it would have been impossible to hold any gala in there with dancing even if the guests were intimate. The small works with a size limitation of 5” x 7” or 7” x 5” were hung in three tiers around the walls of the white- cube. Since the artists were not identified one could only speculate on its creator. Some were easier to identify than others; although I couldn’t tell Tim Tates’ from Michael Janis, however, I felt certain it was one of them. Many of Washington’s top artists donated their work to be sold for $100. But, they expected to attend a gala and mingle with the patrons and sip wine with each other too. Not happening!

At 5 p.m. artists were politely asked to leave the gallery in preparation for the sale an hour later and not allowed be attend the sale. Outside there was lots of speculation about what happened, but no answers offered. Attendees soon began to arrive forming a line down the marble staircase on New York Avenue and along the sidewalk. Martin Irvine rightfully was at the head of the line continuing to bang on the doors and taking breaks to dial his assistant Laura on his cell phone who was inside the gallery, hoping she would grant him entry.

“The cell phone is in her purse and the purse is not with her,” he repeated several times. Local collector, Veronica Jackson, dashed up the stairs with the hope that Mr. Irvine had some answers. But, he responded by shrugging his shoulders and citing his personal dilemma then started to dial and bang again.

The doors parted at exactly six o’clock. We all insisted that poor Mr. Irvine be the first to enter. A woman stood at the entrance with a printed list of names to avoid the chance of “walk-ins.” Inside there were velvet theatre ropes along the walls.

This must be what they needed time to do. And, they had added Pellegrino to
a clothed table which only had wine an hour ago. Entry was only granted to about ten people at time and they had the confused look of the day. Corcoran staff sat at a table in the center of the floor with forms and Laura stood next to it holding a cordless microphone. Runners were stationed in all four corners holding pages of red dots.

This is what happened. At the start of the exhibit there was a pedestal with a form and pencils. One was to run between the ropes as quickly as possible hastily jotting down their picks. Then you hurried to submit your picks at the table and if it was still available Laura belted out the number and a red dot landed next to it. The room soon began to fill because some people’s choice were scooped-up and they had to quickly run to make another decision then run back to the table for submission. The patrons who were not accustomed to running and rushing around created a bottle-neck at the door spinning around bewildered.

All in all it was a good night. Where else could you get a piece of original art at those prices?

Bethesda Painting Awards Finalists

The 2008 Bethesda Painting Awards finalists have been announced and they are:

Amy Chan, Richmond, VA
Suzanna Fields, Richmond, VA
Janis Goodman, Washington, D.C.
Tom Green, Cabin John, MD
Lillian Bayley Hoover, Baltimore, MD
Sangram Majumdar, Baltimore, MD
Katherine Mann, Baltimore, MD
B.G. Muhn, North Potomac, MD
Bill Schmidt, Baltimore, MD

The jurors are Timothy App, who teaches at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA); Dr. Anne Collins Goodyear who is assistant curator of Prints and Drawings at the National Portrait Gallery and serves on the Board of Directors of the College Art Association; and Reni Gower, who is a Professor in the Painting and Printmaking Department at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The exhibition will be at the Fraser Gallery in Bethesda from June 4 - July 5, 2008 and the award winners will be announced on the opening night Friday, June 13 from 6pm - 9pm.

Art Talk: DC

On Tuesday, May 20, the Jackson Art Center will host ART/TALK, a free community event with noted DC art collector and arts activist Philip Barlow. Doors open at 6:15PM, talk/discussion at 6:30PM. Refreshments served. 3048 1/2 R Street, NW (across from Montrose Park in Georgetown, in DC).

Investing in art

There's no question that the upside of art investing can be way, way up. An untitled Jean-Michel Basquiat painting — purchased by New York collectors Barbara and Eugene Schwartz in 1981 for $3,150 — sold at Sotheby's last year for $14.6 million to benefit a museum. If that original amount had instead appreciated in step with the S&P 500, its value would have been about $36,000 in 2007. But for every Basquiat with breathtaking returns, there are thousands—millions?—of paintings sitting bashfully in attics or boastfully on walls, worth even less than some admiring buyer paid for them years earlier. So is it foolishness for the average boomer with some savings and a little spare time to try to buy beauty with the parallel goal of building wealth for retirement?

Not if you ask Walter Manninen, a 53-year-old collector and former executive who now is a senior business adviser in the small-business-development center at Salem State College in Massachusetts. Manninen grew up in the nearby artists' magnet of Cape Ann and began buying art with his grocery money in his early 20s. "I grew up with art in my backyard, but I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth," he says. His purchases—each, in the beginning, no more than $2,000 to $3,000 — now are one of his most valuable assets. As investments, his collection has "really outperformed everything," he says, stocks, bonds, and real estate included.

Read the USNWR article here.

WGS Open Studios

The Washington Glass School is having their big annual open house and 7th Anniversary Party this coming Saturday. Tons of glass sculptures and bowls for sale as well as music, food, and class specials. This annual event is always a load of fun and a great way to grab some real fine art as well as some decorative bargains! Over two dozen artists in the area will be participating... so you don't want to miss this one - pencil it in now.

Saturday, May 17th from 12noon to 5pm. Details here.

AOM

Heather over at DCist has a terrific overview of Artomatic and one that gets it: it's not just about the art. Read it here.

It will take several visits to digest this massive show, but I am already hearing the usual mix of kudos and complaints about the show.

It is also easy to predict what the press and writers think: if you never liked AOM because it was free, open, unjuried and democratic, then you won't like it this time or 100 times from now, regardless of what the actual art or artists do. This is called being "close minded" and it is an integral part of being a human being. Some people prefer controlled, juried or curated exhibitions only, and that's OK, even though sometimes -- often times -- they can yield silly shows like the most recent Whitney Biennials. Others are OK with both environments.

Having been to and seen every single AOM since it started, for me the fun part -- other that breathing in all the artistic good karma and energy that it releases upon the Greater DC area -- is trying to figure out who the emerging new art stars will be.

The past AOMs have yielded artistic finds such as the Dumbacher brothers, Tim Tate, Frank Warren, Kelly Towles, Kathryn Cornelius, Laurel Lukaszewski and many others.

I look forward to visiting AOM and this year I will focus strictly on artists who are new to me.

More later...

On the other side of the coin

The Washington Post's chief art critic is dead on when he bashes the whole issue of:

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the few undoubtedly, undilutedly great figures of the 20th century. Here's a radical idea for truly doing justice to the greatness of his memory: Give him a monument that might go down in history as an equally great work of art.

According to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, the 28-foot-tall statue of King now being prepared on a work site in China, for eventual placement in a memorial on the Mall, doesn't fill that bill. As reported yesterday, the commission, which has final say in all such projects, recently concluded that the latest model for the sculpture evokes the socialist realist art of Stalin's Russia and Mao's China -- "a genre of political sculpture that has recently been pulled down in other countries," as the commission's chairman put it in a letter to the foundation raising funds for the memorial.

Of course giving King, or anyone for that matter "a monument that might go down in history as an equally great work of art" is not an easy assignment, as the only judge and jury there is time, not contemporary artists, critics or intelligentsia.


Gopnik makes it clear that "for the record, I'm not on board with those who complain that the King monument is being made by a foreigner. Americans have a great tradition of bringing in the best art from abroad and (eventually) making it their own: The Statue of Liberty was designed, engineered and financed by Frenchmen."

That is 98% correct, although a little research into how his example's seminal idea, construction and delivery was initially received by the American press and public does yield a few similarities with the King issue. With the passage of time, though, Gopnik's example eventually becomes a good one. But it's also not a good example in the sense that Liberty was a gift from the people of France, designed, built and paid by the French.

He's also disregarding the huge controversies and arguments raised at the time over his second example, the Viet Nam War Memorial.

In fact, it seems like the first thing that happens when a public memorial, any memorial, gets planned and discussed, is that huge chasms erupt as the various agendas, ideologies and issues arise.

Historically, huge differences of opinion and artistic controversy seems to be part of the process. It was for Lady Liberty, it was for Maya Lin's elegant wall, it was for the recent WWII Memorial, and it will be for Dr. King's statue.

Gopnik takes a stab at what would work and then backs out before making a striking observation:

What would a monument to King look like that was as forward-looking, as change-inspired as the man himself? I've no clear idea. It would probably be figurative, like most of today's best art. Abstraction has lost the power it once had to make us think in terms of big ideas; it's mostly come to have the feel of lobby decoration.

Insight into Gopnik: "figurative, like most of today's best art" - that was news to me, somewhat of a Gopnikphile... although I already knew that he thought that "Abstraction has lost the power it once had to make us think in terms of big ideas."

It will be a difficult process to select a statue for Dr. King; that much we already know, but the current Maoist-Stalinist piece of merde being constructed inside the Chinese BORG is not the answer.

Bravo Gopnik! Read the article here.

PS - What's with that "look" in King's face in the Lei Yixin statue anyway? And what's with the arms crossed and one hand holding a pen? (is it a pen?) - it's like Lei Yixin took Bob Dole's body and put a King head on it, where MLK is staring at the sun and squinting in discomfort?

Tonite in DC: Scott Brooks

Scott Brooks' "Under the Skin" - opens tonight at the Long View Gallery in DC. For a sneak peek of the work click here. Opening is 5-8PM. Buy Scott Brooks now.

Bilbao Guggenheim fires CFO in embezzlement case

Spain's Guggenheim Museum says it has fired its chief financial officer for allegedly embezzling some €500,000 (US$800,000).

The Bilbao museum says it began legal proceedings Wednesday after firing Roberto Cearsolo Barrenetxea. Cearsolo has been financial director since 1997.

The museum opened an internal

Read the article here.

Tonite: Artomatic

Artomatic opens tonight. This is the place to be in DC tonight. Bethesdeans should do their 6-9PM art walk and then head on to AOM.

From past experience, there will be dozens of parties going on throughout the spaces. This is the DC art event tonight.

Highlights of Artomatic’s opening weekend include:

• Unveiling of nine floors of 2-D and 3-D visual arts presentations by more than 700 local and regional artists.

• Flights of Fire – a fire dancing performance to be held outside at 9 p.m., Friday, May 9.

• “Electro-acoustic psychedelic world dance music” by Baltimore’s Telesma at 9 p.m., Friday, May 9.

• A Latin dance workshop with professional dance instructor Ibis Villegas, featuring salsa, merengue, samba, and other styles at 2 p.m., Saturday, May 10.

• Progressive rock by Guardians of Iridescence at 8 p.m., Saturday, May 10.

• “The Road to Success,” performance art by Carolina Mayorga in the form of a new TV game show at 8 p.m., Saturday, May 10.

• New wave/indie rock by Plastiq Passion, an all-girl band from Union City, New Jersey at 11 p.m., Saturday, May 10.

• An expressive drawing workshop with Giliah Litwack at 1 p.m., Sunday, May 11.

• "In-your-face" jazz/jam music "with a touch of funk" by Bethesda, JD-based Bassment Breaks at 4 p.m., Sunday, May 11.

A full schedule of events is available at www.artomatic.org/event.

Held regularly since 1999, Artomatic transforms an unfinished indoor space into an exciting and diverse arts event that is free and open to the public. In addition to displays and sales by hundreds of artists, the event features free films, educational presentations and children’s activities, as well as musical, dance, poetry, theater and other performances.

Who will be this year's AOM emerging star? Let's get those "Top 10" lists going!

May 9–June 15 at Capitol Plaza 1
1200 First Street, N.E., (Corner of First and M Streets)
Washington, D.C. 20002
(New York Avenue Metro station: Red line)
Free, but donations accepted

Directions- here.

Senior Art Show at Moore

Because I am currently curating an undergraduate student show, which I have titled "Early Look," I have been visiting a ton of art schools along the mid Atlantic.

I recently visited Moore College of Art & Design in Philly and will soon review their "Senior Art Exhibition" here.

Meanwhile, see a quick walkthrough of the show below...

International Art Affair in DC

The International Art Affair will take place in Washington, DC May 15-18!

Details, agenda, party dates, artwork and stuff here.

Expect Multimedia, Traditional Media, Video, Art Clips, Skate Board Art, Skating Demonstration, Parties, More Video, Brazilian Art, Indian Art, Chinese Art, Slovakian Art, Austrian Photography, Australian Sculpture, Washington DC Graffiti, People with People, and more parties.

This weekend: 5th Annual Bethesda Fine Arts Festival

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District will present the 5th annual Bethesda Fine Arts Festival, a two-day fine arts event highlighting 140 contemporary artists who will sell their original fine art and fine craft on the streets of Bethesda, Maryland. The festival is scheduled for Saturday, May 10 from 10am-6pm and Sunday, May 11, 2008 from 10am-5pm.

The festival will take place in downtown Bethesda’s Woodmont Triangle along Norfolk and Auburn Avenues, located six blocks from the Bethesda Metro Station. Free parking is available adjacent to the event in the parking garage located on Auburn Avenue.

With over 20,000 attendees over the two day period, the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival has become one of the top art events in the Greater DC region and a must see for those who think that good art is only available in gallery or museum walls.

Directions here and a list of details here.

Go buy some artwork!

Baltimore screen painting

Kitsch or folk art, screen painting is undeniably Baltimore...

A dwindling breed tries to preserve a quintessential Baltimore art form, which will be celebrated this weekend

Details here.

Viva Regina

Seattle's Regina Hackett is my new art critic heroine.

She tackles the WaPo's Blake Gopnik jaw-dropping Takashi Murakami review and his WTF? comparison of Murakami's cartoony artwork to Goya.

Unless the Blakester actually comes from the planet Quintumnia, I think that the seed for this asinine comparison is deeply rooted in Blake's Anglocentric education in Britain, and a harmonic echo as a way of dealing with England's arch enemy through the centuries: the Kingdom of Spain.



My pop psychology thinks that the Gopnikmeister is simply channelling the British desire to diminish all things not English -- note that I said "not English" and not "not British."

What better way to bring the great Goya a notch or two than a silly comparison to a cartoony contemporary artist?

And if Gopnik wants to see "caustic" I second Hackett's call for the WaPo to send Blake to Madrid and have Gopnik take one look at Goya's painting of the Spanish Royal Family and take a close look at the Queen's face and then smell the scent of "caustic" in the air.

From the archives: Blake blows it with El Greco as well.

Bethesda Art Walk tomorrow

Friday is the Bethesda Art Walk with openings and late hours and a free walking tour to over a dozen Bethesda art galleries and art venues in artsy Bethesda, Maryland, part of the Sovier Socialist Republic of Montgomery.

My picks?

Beauty and the Beast, Ceramic Vessels and Sculpture by Liz Lescault and new work by gallery artists at Waverly Street Gallery. The Reception is Friday, May 9, 6-9PM.


And Lisa Montag Brotman at Neptune!

Go buy some artwork.

Wanna go to a DC opening tonight?

Make at trip to the Pepco Edison Gallery at 9th and G in DC for the Illustrators Club of DC: 14th Juried Exhibition.

Opening Reception: Thursday, May 8, 6:00 to 8:30 pm. The Exhibition goes through June 27. The gallery is at 702 8th Street, NW, Washington, DC Phone: 202.872.3396 (between G and H Streets at Gallery Place Metro).

Corcoran cancels party

Dear Art Anonymous Participants,

Thank you so much for helping the Corcoran College of Art + Design with Art Anonymous. Each of your amazing pieces has been installed in Gallery 31 and the space looks absolutely fantastic. If you haven’t had the opportunity to come by and see the Gallery, please make certain you do. We cannot tell you how much we appreciate your donations and your generosity.

As you know, we had planned to hold a party after the Art Anonymous sale on May 10. Unfortunately unforeseen circumstances mean we have had to cancel the party and are now holding the sale only. The event has been switched and will be open to current ticket holders only from 6 to 8 p.m. on Saturday night. Proceeds from the sale will still be dedicated to the College’s BFA Scholarship Fund.

Again, please know how grateful we are for your support of Art Anonymous. As a token of our thanks, we do hope that you will join us for the Exhibition Preview Evening for Richard Avedon: Portraits of Power, to be held on Wednesday, September 10. Please accept our apologies for canceling the party at the last moment. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us at (202) 639-1753.

Thank you again for your support of the Corcoran College of Art + Design.

Best regards,

Corcoran Membership

Update: The Corcoran follows up with this email:

Dear Art Anonymous Participants,

We would like to take this chance to explain the situation further and extend a special invitation to all of you (in addition to the Avedon preview) for all of your dedication and support of the Corcoran during Art Anonymous.

Please understand that since the party after the Art Anonymous sale has now been canceled, we no longer have the space to hold participants other than the already registered ticket holders. We do understand that we offered all participating artists complimentary entry into this event. However, we had an overwhelming response to this offer, and without the extra room, Gallery 31 is too small to hold all potential attendees.

What we would like to offer all artists however, is the chance to join us from 4pm – 5pm sharp in Gallery 31 to mingle with each other, share some wine, and get a preview of the show before the works go on sale (these works are also up now, and can be viewed in our Gallery 31 until 9pm tonight, and from 10am – 5pm tomorrow and Saturday).

We look forward to hosting all of you at 4pm this Saturday in our Gallery 31 (please remember to use the New York Avenue entrance). If you had a guest accompanying you to the 6pm sale, they may still come to the sale, or we can refund their ticket and they may join you from 4pm – 5pm this Saturday. Just have them call (202) 639-1753 to get their refund. Please also note that the registration for the sale from 6pm – 8pm is now closed, and no walk-ins will be allowed.

Thank you again for your support of the Corcoran College of Art + Design, and please accept our invitation for the artist-only sneak preview.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us at (202) 639-1753.

With much appreciation,

Corcoran Membership

Step two

A while back I told you about my new commercial ventures in the Philly area and my ideas about how to proceed.

That "venture" was nothing but a website back then... but thanks to a great 2007 as far as sales of my own artwork, step two is now ready for implementation and I will now participate in some art fairs and try to sell some of the art by the artists whose work I believe in and try to really promote here...

Wondrous people like Tim Tate, Marienela de la Hoz, Sandra Ramos (and a huge assortment of other Cubans) and all the good folks here.

Using the "war chest" of Samolians from sales of my own work, I have saved enough work to pay for the exhorbitant fees for three major art fairs, plus insurance, plus shipping, plus hotels, etc.

Plus pushing them to collectors on this blog! Thank God that my instincts have been dead on! Not just focused on "my" artists but all others on my "buy now list," most of which I don't represent.

But... I should have bought more Tim Tate and more Marienela, and more Amy Lin, and more Scott Brooks!

Anyway... here's my next art venture in its present form.

Step three: Enough $$$ to pay rent for a year in advance and open a new Philly space!

Comments invited!

MFA Show in Philly

Rebekah Templeton Contemporary Art in Philly will have Dirt Made My Lunch, a group exhibition guest curated by Todd Keyser. The exhibition highlights the work of Philadelphia’s first year Master of Fine Arts students featuring Erin M. Riley, Kurt Freyer, Michael Treffehn, and Robert Scobey.

Robert Scobey, Miss February, 2008
Dirt Made My Lunch opens on Thursday, May 8, 2008 with an opening reception from 6-9 pm. The exhibition includes video, textile weaving, photography, sculpture and installation. The show closes on Saturday, June 21, 2008.