The Thursday Reviews

The Washington Post has nothing.

The Washington City Paper has Louis Jacobson on Max Hirshfeld at Hemphill Fine Arts and Jeffry Cudlin is back with an excellent take of "The Drawings of Ed Ruscha" at the National Gallery of Art.

The Georgetowner has a new critic (Robin Kohlman Fried) who looks at Seth Rosenberg at District Fine Arts, Andrea Way at Marsha Mateyka and Max Hirshfeld at Hemphill.

Thinking About Art has Joe Ovelman at Conner and yesterday Kirkland had Andrea Way at Mateyka.

Art Bloggers Making News

Philly art bloggers Roberta Fallon and Libby Rosof making news in their hometown.

Read their BLOG here.

Hypertemporality: A Discussion of Internet Art

On Tuesday, March 15th, 2005, the University of Richmond Museums will host a panel discussion titled "Hypertemporality: A Discussion of Internet Art" to accompany their hypertemporality exhibition.

The panel discussion will be webcast live, then archived for later viewing. The address to watch the webcast is here.

The panelists will be Whitney Museum of American Art curator Christiane Paul and hypertemporality artists Peter Baldes and Alexander Stewart.

Heading North

I'm driving back to DC on Thursday night... more later. Loads of great openings this coming Friday in Bethesda (see DCist).

If you are a photography fan, then you'll enjoy the 27 photographers selected by Connie Imboden, who curated the 2005 Bethesda International Photography Competition. Imboden selected about 40 photographs from over 1,000 submitted for her review.

The opening reception starts at 6PM at Fraser Bethesda, and Imboden will discuss the selected works and award the prizes at 7PM. Join us this coming Friday!

Opening Tomorrow

Wanna go to an opening tomorrow? Over/Under presented by Carolina Sardi and curated by Rody Douzoglou. Opening Reception: Thursday, March 10 at Gallery at Flashpoint, 916 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20001. Nearest metro: Gallery Place/Metro Center. Tel: 202.315.1310.

Correction

Kim Ward will be the Interim WPA/C Director when Annie Adj. leaves at the end of this month.

Advise to fellow gallerists

Kriston, over at grammar.police notes in a recent posting that "tell a gallerist in the know that you're a blogger and more often than not she will visibly recoil. God in His Seat in Heaven forbid that you mention you're there to review a show, at which point the scornful glances are likely to make a greater impression than the art on display."

For a gallerist to react like that to a blogger (or for that matter to anyone else trying to get some publicity for an art show, even a High School newspaper editor), is both ignorant and shows lack of understanding of how the media has been revolutionized in the last handful of years.

As Art and other general BLOGs mature and develop, and make mistakes, and get scoops, and generally spread the word and gain readership, I believe that they/us/we stand at the brink of becoming (actually have become) a powerful new voice, adding diversity and volume, to our art scene.

And some gallerists do get it; last Friday as DCist Arts Editor Cyndi Spain and I made our rounds of the Dupont Circle area galleries, for the most part she was warmly received in all but one gallery, where usually anyone can see their own breath anyway.

In one gallery, the director actually pulled out a stack of color copies of the DCist's Arts Agenda from a couple of Tuesday's ago and gratefully thanked Spain for mentioning the gallery and the artist online. "Where can I send you news releases?" she then asked.

I think DCist is getting around 10,000 visitors a day and growing, and sites like this one and grammar.police, and J.T. Kirkland's Thinking About Art and Tyler Green's MAN and Jesse Cohen's Art DC have a loyal readership of hundreds of daily visitors interested in art.

And so, any smart gallerist worth his or her salt should not have to be advised or cajoled into treating a blogger with any less courtesy and interest than any other potential source of publicity, opinion and most important: a digital fooprint.

New Interim WPA/C Director

Congrats to Kim Ward, who has been selected to replace Annie Adj as Interim Executive Director of the WPA/C.

Ward is currently listed as Membership and Finance Director for the WPA/C.

DCist looking for arts contributors

DCist is looking for contributors to augment its coverage of the visual arts. Email Mike Grass if you are interested.

The more voices we get discussing our area's art scene, the better for all of us.

Meanwhile, check out the Tuesday Arts Agenda here.

We hear that there may be a job opening at the WPA/C soon.

Update: I have a second, independent confirmation and I am told that Annie Adj, Executive Director of the WPA/C will be departing at the end of the month for a new job in the Left Coast.

We wish her the best of luck!

Kirkland Looks at Springfield

Thinking About Art has a review of Molly Springfield's debut at JET Artworks.

I'm working on a multi-review of several Dupont Circle galleries at once; it will be published soon. Meanwhile read JT's thoughts on Springfield here.

On the Road Again

I'm driving down to the Tidewater area today and will be there for the rest of the week for a couple of panels and lectures.

Keep coming back; there will be hotel-based late night posting!

And since I'll be passing through Richmond, a cyberspace wave to ANABA's Martin Bromirski, who lately has been trading posts and comments in a BLOGoversy created by his post on painter Alison Fox and her one-woman show at the East Village’s ATM gallery that sold out before opening night, and Martin's opinion that it sold out because of her husband's (gallerist Zach Feuer) hidden influence.

Zach Feuer has courageously come to the defense of his wife, and so far 38 comments (and a second posting) have been traded back and forth as this has developed into a BLOGoversy. Read it here and here.

New Gallery in the District

DC Art News welcomes a new gallery in the District: Shigeko Bork MU Project, which is dedicated to contemporary Asian art.

And the new gallery has a reception for Hiroshi Kobayashi next Tuesday, March 8 from 6-8PM. The new gallery is at 1521 Wisconsin Avenue, NW #2 in Georgetown and can be reached at 202/277-2731. Hours are Tues-Sat from 11-5PM.

Welcome! Get a website soon!

The New Factory Artists

Once a year, the Torpedo Factory in Old Town Alexandria puts out a call for artists who wish to be considered for a studio space in Alexandria's most famous and popular artists warren.

This year 72 applicants entered the annual jury process, and of those, seven were accepted. The jurors for the 2D work were Jeffrey Allison (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts), Walter Kravitz (George Mason University Prof. of Art) and Lee Newman, a superb printmaker and a member of the Fine Arts Faculty at the Holton Arms School.

The 3D jurors were Bruce Hoffman (Director, Snyderman Gallery in Philadelphia), Lenore Miller, (Director of the GWU Galleries), and Winifred Owens-Hart, a Prof. of Art from Howard University.

Joining the wait list for a studio space at the Torpedo Factory in 2005 are Xiao Sheng Bi (Ceramics), Christine Cardellino (Painting), Judith Coady (Printmaking), Rebecca Cross (Ceramics), Janae Michelle (Fiber), Kathy Udell (Photography) and Donald Viehman (Enameling). A representative sample of their work is currently on exhibit at the Target Gallery, on the ground floor of the Torpedo Factory.

Of these seven new Factorists, two immediately stand out: Rebecca Cross, who is already one of the best known multi-talented (not just ceramics) artists in Washington, with a long string of succesful exhibitions at Addison-Ripley Gallery and the Ralls Collection most recently, and her work is in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery; and a newcomer (at least to me), Christine Cardellino.

Rebecca Cross' work needs little introduction; she's a painter who has mastered her skills and conquered a second genre by being one of the region's premier ceramicists for the last 25 years. The three pieces on exhibit are samples of Cross' platters and shaped ceramic objects.

A couldn't find a website for Christine Cardellino (tsk, tsk...), but the work that I saw on display immediately tells me that Cardellino may be the keystone to the "future" of the Torpedo Factory "artist." In her paintings I saw elements of what I would commonly associate with a "more modern" flavor to the king of the fine arts genres.

I mean that in the super positive sense of a painter, clearly at ease with her genre, superbly trained, with a good eye for the sensuality of the paint and its direct associative qualities with the brushwork plus a clever eye for marrying representation and abstraction to deliver fresh new offerings to the dialogue of painting.

Geez... was that art babble or what? My kingdom for an image!

Suffice it to say that I hope Ms. Cardellino gets a studio space at the Factory within the next hundred years; with all due respect to many of the present Factorists whose work I superbly admire, they could still use some new blood.

New Art BLOG

Matt Hollis has a BLOG!

Visit Enough for All often.

For Matt: You better start posting more!

The Shape of (Some) Things to Come

The Art League Gallery is currently (until Monday) having their annual Student/Faculty show, which is a perfect opportunity to look at the work of art students of all levels, ages and backgrounds in one of the area's largest galleries, and certainly one of the more popular art schools.

I decided to focus on the work of the students, at the expense of not discussing the work of superbly talented teachers such as Danni Dawson, Jacqueline Saunders, Scott Hutchison (represented by us) and many others.

Instead, I turned my eye for quite a while to the students, hung salon-style on all three of the The Art League Galleries on the ground floor of the Torpedo Factory.

The first piece that stood out was a small, superbly painted self portrait by Marjorie Forgues (taught by Danni Dawson). I don't know Forgues' formal background, but in this small elegant piece she shows brushwork and technical skills that will revive feelings of envy from painters of all levels of expertise and experience. It is a delicate and yet vigorous application (and understanding) of paint, and light, which makes Ms. Forgues small self portrait jump out from a sea of 2D work.

Two drawings caught my attention next: An untitled pencil drawing of a difficult subject (a seated, clothed bearded man) by Leslie Chekin (taught by Priscilla Treacy) and an elegant female nude charcoal by Linda Wharton titled "Horizontal," from a class taught by Robert Liberace. They both show remarkable understanding of that most diverse of subjects: the human figure.

A small, delicate painting titled "Pear Pairs" by Cathy Messina (taught by Joe Kabriel), a watercolor titled "Evening Colors" by Meg MacKenzie (taught by one of my favorite area watercolorists: Susan Herron) and an amazing chalk drawing by Laura Kipple titled "Claire," (taught by Liberace again), completed my selections as the best from a very good crop of student artwork.

Prices are incredibly low for the most part, starting at $60 for a framed original watercolor!

Monday is the last day of this show... hurry!

Wanna Go to an Opening Tonight?

Gallery West is having an opening reception tonight from 6-9PM. On exhibit is Elsa Gebreyesus' "Meditations," a solo show of mixed-media paintings by Gebreyesus, whose work combines modern materials and techniques with universal themes and ancient African symbols.

Gallery West is located at 205 South Union Street, in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. Tel:703-549-7359.

See ya there!

Bethesda Magazine

The new glossy Bethesda Magazine has a multi-page spread on the gallery scene now developing in Bethesda. Written by Virginia Myers Kelly, it is armed with interesting observations such as "Bethesda is home to more than a dozen galleries - but fewer art buyers than you might expect."

There's a large panoramic photo of one of our openings which captures some of the Art-O-Matic artists that we had a couple of months ago, including a great shot of one of Chris Edmunds' sculptures and background images of Mark Jenkins "Pubic Hair Tapestries," John Bata's landscape of New York City and a Michal Hunter painting.

On page 103 of the same issue there's a terrific profile (by Dr. Claudia Rousseau) of legendary photographer Lida Moser, now in her late 80s and retired in Rockville, and whose first ever DC area solo show will be our next Georgetown show, opening on March 18.

Gallery visits

Yesterday I dropped by the Art League Gallery in Alexandria to look at their Student Show, and then to the Target Gallery to see their crop of new Torpedo Factory artists, and finally Factory Photoworks (now re-named Multiple Exposures) to see their current membership show.

Later that night, Cyndi Spain, Arts Editor for DCist, and I visited most of the Dupont Circle Galleries, which were having their extended First Friday hours; several terrific surprises there!

More on both later today.

The Usual WaPo Bashing

Today's Style section has a large and bright article by WaPo fashion critic Robin Givhan.

It's one of nearly 100 fashion reviews a year that Givhan produces for the Style section. Usually brightly accompanied by a color image of some gaunt, sour faced woman, wearing funny-looking clothes and walking oddly.

And yet, this same Style section, in the world's second most powerful newspaper, deems it acceptable to only offer their readers about 25 gallery review columns a year. That's from a potential pool of around 1,000 visual art gallery exhibitions that occur per year in the Greater Washington, DC region.

If you don't get it, you don't get it.

I sincerely hope that the new Style editor gets it. Her name is Deborah Heard, and her email is heardd@washpost.com.

And the Rare WaPo Praise

An editor who does get it for the most part, is Joyce Jones, who is the editor of the Weekend section of the WaPo.

In fact, I submit that Weekend now offers a much better view of the area art scene than Style. And Michael O'Sullivan certainly is the only WaPo art critic who is actively involved and an integral and knowledgeable part of our area's art scene. By the way, read his excellent take on "Modigliani: Beyond the Myth" at the Phillips here.

Although... Weekend... ehr... could be better. I mean, they do capsule mini reviews for theater, and for movies; why not visual art shows?

Why not?

First Fridays

Tonight is the Dupont Circle Gallery Crawl, with extended hours from 6-8PM.

See ya there!

Donation Well Worth It!

MAP’s annual free hung benefit exhibition and auction returns. It is titled "Out of Order" (OOD) and it is open to all area artists, who are invited to hang one piece of artwork during a 24-hour installation period. Artwork will be available for sale (50%/50% split with MAP) in a silent auction during the gala.

Exhibition Dates: April 6-8, 2005

Hanging Dates: 9 am, April 6 through 9 am, April 7, 2005.

Gala Event and Party: Friday April 8, 8 pm-1am at Maryland Art Place (party time or what! At 8 Market Place, Suite 100 in Baltimore)

Visit www.mdartplace.org for more information about tickets and information for exhibiting artists.

Gossage on the Cover

Denise Wolff points out that the current issue of Photo-Eye, in addition to her superb interview with Chan Chao, also features a cover by DC area photographer John Gossage, and there's a nice "About the Cover" piece by Jim Stone here.

It discusses Gossage's new book Berlin in the Time of the Wall.

The Thursday Reviews

The WCP's Louis Jacobson reviews our current Mary Lang show in Georgetown and makes some excellent points on Lang's tranquil photography.

Over at the Gazette, Dr. Claudia Rousseau delivers a superb review of Metro Clay at the Rockville Arts Place, and lauds Margaret Boozer, whose show at Strand on Volta last year was one of my Top Ten Shows of the Year. Dr. Rousseau writes:

Among the 57 pieces by 13 artists who live and work in the metro area (hence the exhibit title "Metro Clay"), Boozer's work is probably the most dynamic. "Out of the Fire" is set into a large wooden box frame hanging on the central wall of the gallery, its dark brown color easily dominating the space. The piece is part of a larger series of clay wall works entitled "Land/Marks." These show the results of a working process that deals as directly as possible with the medium's essential nature. Boozer begins by spreading mounds of clay on the floor, then stomping, tearing, carving and otherwise pounding it. Buckets of slip are then splashed onto the broken surface. Thus set into motion, the natural processes inherent in clay take over. As the medium dries, it warps and cracks, taking on the appearance of earth as geologic material.

It is a fascinating idea, with unforeseeable outcomes. When the artist moves these pieces from the floor to the wall, they project the process they record, emphasizing the idea of the persistence of the earth and a sense of memory. There is, as Boozer herself has said, a visceral appeal to these works, connecting directly to the viewer's own identification with clay as earth.

For the exhibit, Boozer has launched another of these works in the gallery space. "In Process Porcelain Landscape" is a thick slab of creamy white porcelain clay, carved and manipulated, and set on a low base. Over it, the artist has poured slip of the same medium that collects in a pool on top and drips onto the floor. It is cool and moist to the touch at this writing, but by the end of the exhibit, will have changed into a craggy moonscape of dried clay.

Over at the WaPo, Jessica Dawson has an excellent review of Mexican Report at the Cultural Institute of Mexico. Miss Dawson prefers the video artists, but also makes an excellent point on the issue of the adjective "Mexican." This is sort of the same arguement that I have been making for years now about art and ethnicity, specifically the so-called "Hispanic" ethnicity, which I submit is a cultural and not an ethnic or racial term.

In her penultimate paragraph, it's apparent that Dawson has missed the memo that painting is hot again when she slams the "predominantly retrograde cache of paintings and drawings [that] hangs at Meridian International Center" and states that their the "predictable and anachronistic work that results is particularly forgettable."

Overall an excellent review of a show that I still have to go see and is in my "must see" list.

Bravo Dawson!

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By the way, tonight The Cultural Institute of Mexico will hold a roundtable discussion on trends in contemporary Mexican art starting at 6:30. Participants include exhibition curator Santiago Espinosa de los Monteros, art critic Anthony Harvey, Hirshhorn programs manager Milena Kalinovska and Curator's Office director Andrea Pollan. The Cultural Institute of Mexico is at 2829 16th St. NW, in DC. I wish I could make it tonight, but I have karate class on Thursdays!

The deadline for the inaugural Bethesda Painting Awards is rapidly approaching, and painters from the DC, Maryland and Virginia region have until Friday, March 11, 2005 to submit their applications. With $14,000 in cash prizes, this is one of the largest painting awards in the country, thanks to the incredible generosity of Ms. Carol Trawick, who also sponsors The Trawick Prize (that deadline is April 8, 2005).

Once the jurors have selected the finalists, we will exhibit them in our Bethesda gallery, where the final four will be awarded $14,000 in cash prizes based on the actual work. $10,000 will be awarded to the top prize winner, $2,000 to the second place winner, $1,000 to the third place winner. Additionally, a "Young Artist" award of $1,000 (artists born after March 11, 1975) will also be given.

Elsie Hull at Spectrum

By John Anderson

M Street in Georgetown is a noisy place, bustling, and energetic. There are many bars and boutiques to duck into, if one wants to escape the hysteria. Another choice is Spectrum Gallery, around the corner on 29th street, where a very quiet exhibition of photographs by Elsie Hull are currently on display. The space is small and serene, and perhaps the perfect setting for these black and white images.

"Photography has always been my first love," Hull declares enthusiastically. Trained as a painter at the Corcoran, where she earned her BFA, Hull did not fully engage photography until beginning her MFA in film and video production at American University. "I took a photography class at the Corcoran, but I thought it was too easy... I didn’t fully engage it then," she admitted.

The body of work is easy on the eyes and inviting. The title of the show, Portals, lends nicely to the imagery. Each image appears as a window into another environment, partially from the quiet activity within each image, and also through the physicality imposed by the camera. Hull uses a Holga camera, a simple, inexpensive, medium format camera sometimes used by schools to introduce photography to students. The final image is circular, something uncommon with most forms of photography. "You never know what you are going to get; you might end up with double exposures or artifacts."

Through constant use, Hull’s familiarity with how the camera functioned gave her an educated guess as to the final product, but the lack of total control has kept the process fun for her.

But there is a dichotomy found within her process. Hull approaches her subject from behind digital cameras and Hasselblad medium format cameras. All three cameras share the same generic wide angle lens, impulsively purchased from a New York photo store. Through careful dissection of several Holga cameras, Hull was able to find a way to attach the lens to that camera, and eventually to all the cameras she uses in her work. All her images are later scanned into a digital format and manipulated in Photoshop. "I use very basic Photoshop stuff, dark room techniques. Photoshop allows you to be very specific whereas a darkroom doesn’t unless you are doing large prints." Beyond that, Hull prefers not to do any further manipulation beyond canceling out the black "vignette-ing" that occurs through the process of exposing medium format film.

Because the final image is circular, Hull has addressed each image with a unique presentation. Mounted on matte-board and Velcroed to multiple, small, primed canvases, Hull is able to arrange the framing of each piece in such an articulate manner that it neither distracts from the image nor questions specifically what is the correct way to frame a circular photograph; it is simply interesting.

The supports alternate, sometimes depending on the subject of the photograph, sometimes related to a series of pieces. One wall possesses a rhythm of large and small support compositions that pull the viewer along the wall to examine each piece. Some arrangements address specific aspects of the form within the photograph. In the corner a man dives off a cliff into a pool below. In free fall, his body is erect, his arms hang casually against his sides, and his toes point straight outward. The canvases intend to enhance the verticality of the male subject, alluding to his descent into the water below. In one instance the support is a bit cliché, a cruciform supporting an image of a cemetery. "I don’t see a problem with that. Photographs of cemeteries are sort of cliché too." Such a comment suggests the artist willfully intended a bit of subtle wit.

The images Hull has chosen for her show are elegant, ranging from somber landscapes to playful images of children and dogs playing. Her body of work has been influenced by the work of French photographer Henri Lartigue (1894-1986), who spent his career photographing friends and family. "They’re full of life and exuberant," Hull adds.

Having studied some of his photographs through her painting earlier in her career, Hull draws similar influence through subject matter - capturing places she has been and images of friends. They are sensitive, not sentimental. They possess a sense of place that defies a sense of time. As a body of work, they allude to a sensation, a common story without beginning or end that all can relate to. "I don’t necessarily have a specific story in mind when I’m putting together a show; it’s more of an intuitive response to indicate a mood."

Elsie Hull’s Portals is on display through March 13, 2005 at Spectrum Gallery, 1132 29th Street NW. The gallery is open Tuesday–Saturday 12-6, Sunday 12-5.

Chan Chao Profiled in Photo-Eye

Denise Wolff has a terrific discussion and interview with Chan Chao in the current issue of Photo-Eye.

Wolff discusses Chao's recent show at Numark Gallery, and almost right away makes an important point in placing Chao's elegant nudes within the always odd context of nudity in Washington, DC; Wolff goes as far as to describe Washington as a "town generally squeamish with nudity."

And (in my opinion) made even worse by a WaPo critic who is also "squeamish with nudity."

Among Wolff's many interesting questions to Chao (which revealed a few somewhat surprising facts - at least to me), I found this one particularly telling:

DW: As I looked at this work, I made a mental list of words that came to mind about the images. But I noticed later that my list didn't include the word erotic. Do you intend these photos to be erotic?

CC: No. I did not want these images to be erotic. I think it's too easy to create erotic photos. However, since they are nudes, the undertone is always there. And so even though I don't intend for them to be erotic, I do want to create some tension with it, or maybe even discomfort...

This is important, because I think that what makes Chao's display of the female nude stand out hinges on his ability to achieve precisely what Wolff identifies with this question: An ability to take an inherently sensual subject, present it in a manner that doesn't shout erotica, but retains a certain, unavoidable scent of eroticism; it can't be helped.

The first time that I saw these photos at Numark, I did not see them as erotic at all. And yet, a second visit to them left behind a slight footprint of eroticism in my mind; perhaps the direct gaze of the women - who knows? It's not important as to "why" but that it happened.

This Photo-Eye piece by Wolff leaves us watering at the mouth for more pieces (on national level magazines such as this one is) about some of our area artists; it a great start with one of our own art stars... but more please!

Bravo Wolff!

Olive Ayhens at Watkins Gallery

By John Anderson

Olive Ayhens was born in Oakland and studied at the San Francisco Art Institute during the tenure of Richard Diebenkorn, shortly after the reign of Rothko and Still influenced the department with their teachings of Abstract Expressionism. "I know abstraction well," she mentioned. "It’s all throughout my background."

Despite not using it directly in her work, she is aware that it has influenced her sense of plain, space and color. She recalled the climate of that period. "Berkley wasn’t hiring women at the time... until the Women’s Movement. When I was emerging I was in a lot of women shows." She pointed out how neither then nor now would one find a show entitled Eight Male Artists.

The sexism in the art world wasn't the only hurdle to overcome. Early in her career Ayhens also faced the challenge of racing two children as a single mother. Through various artist-in-residency positions throughout the Bay Area, other parts of California, Utah, Montana and Texas, Ayhens was able to manage artistic and familial obligations. Altering her medium to watercolor when her children were in their infancy forced Ayhens to approach her technique differently.

"I approached watercolor like an oil painter, moving the paint around opaquely. Eventually my technique loosened up." As a result, upon returning to oils, the paintings developed like watercolors, vibrant and juicy, nearly acidic in areas. Layers were constructed through thin washes in places, with thick impastos appearing intermitently. "I just love the paint, like my abstract teachers did. They reached me on that, and I hope that shows. They wanted me to give up my images as a young girl, and just move the paint around. But the images take me places."

In her current exhibition at Watkins Gallery, that place is New York City. "I’ve been in New York for nine years and I haven’t finished my work there." With both children attending college, Ayhens made the move to New York in 1996 after receiving the Marie Walsh Sharpe studio space grant - which afforded her a studio in Manhattan. Though she didn’t think she would stay in New York beyond that grant, she began experiencing modest successes, showing in galleries and having her work appear in Time Out and the New York Times. This was followed in successive years by a Gotlieb, her first Pollock/Krasner, and the World Views Residency through the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council on the 91st floor of the Trade Towers in 1999.

Missing Pentagon Art

Last July I wrote a posting on alleged missing Pentagon art and challenged local newshounds to follow the scent of the story. Although the story was picked up nationally by Arts Journal, no one has (to my knowledge) researched this story any further than what was posted here.

Because readers of DC Art News have more than quadrupled since last July, I am re-posting that story below in the hope that some enterprising soul will begin digging into the concerns raised herein:

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This article in the Washington Post discusses how "a multimillion-dollar treasure trove of 19th- and 20th-century art has been discovered in basements, boiler rooms, closets and hallways in Philadelphia's cash-strapped public schools."

While the chances of DC area art schools having a hidden art trove is slim to none, let me tell you where I think there's a hidden treasure of artwork - not from the 19th century, but nearly all from 20th century (especially WPA period, and 50s and 60's): The storage buildings where the military's art collection (from the various services and mostly from closed bases all over the world) is "stored."

Not the significant and important art collection on display at the Pentagon, but the stored collection of thousands of works of art that a few years ago were stored in a couple of buildings at Andrews Air Force base. As I recall, there was some sort of investigation that discovered that the Department of Defense had little or no accountability or inventory for many of these works.

Sounds bad, but it is understandable. In fact I would submit impossible to have an inventory of artwork commissioned, donated, gifted, etc. to potentially thousands of U.S. military presences all around the globe in the last two hundred years.

As bases close, often things like artwork find their way back to this area, and they are/were stored at Andrews (at least ten years ago they were... not sure if they are still there). Sometimes they find their way to DLA and the various places where the public can buy anything being disposed of by the DoD (there used to be such as site around Fort Belvoir, Virginia).

But in any event, a DoD employee is/was resposible for maintaining accountability for this art collection, and in the mid 90s she was apparently fired/quit in part because a military Inspector General's team discovered that the works were generally unaccounted for and in many cases improperly stored (leaky buildings, rain, moisture, etc.).

All of these issues I am recalling from memory (I read the story initally in one of those air line magazines), but some things stuck in my head: the number of artworks mentioned in the story as being stored at Andrews (in the 100s of thousands) and the fact that there were many WPA pieces in the storage area, as well as possibly up to six unaccounted Norman Rockwell paintings.

Sounds like a good story for an enterprising Washington City Paper or Washington Post reporter to follow up on, uh? Maybe Teresa Wiltz? or Chris Shott?

I suspect that the accountability problem still exists. In fact I submit that the various services' art curators (each service has an art curator for its own art collection and they all have offices at the Pentagon) do not even have an accurate inventory of the artwork on display at the Pentagon today!

My suspicions were kindled when this story in Art News discussed the fact that US Army curator Renee Klish discussed the fact that four important paintings had been destroyed by the 9/11 attack, but says that eleven other artworks "may have been destroyed."

I am willing to bet that if the Andrews Air Force base artwork storage building still exists, that there are works in there worth hundreds of millions of dollars and maybe still being stored away in improper conditions. I hope I am wrong about the latter.

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Update! An alert DCARTNEWS reader also recalls the story I mentioned (published in an air lines magazine in mid 90s) and she even recalled the name of the fired/dismissed/she-quit DoD Art Curator. I have it and will pass it to any enterprising reporters who want to follow up this story - in fact I even have contact info, since I recognized the name as someone still associated with the business of the arts in our area.

Today's Must Read Story

Joe Barbaccia sent me a link to this article in New York Metro and it is absolutely jaw-dropping. Read it here.

Is the child prodigy... a prodigy?

Remember 4-year-old Marla Olmstead, who is being touted as a painting prodigy, and who has gathered a lot of international attention, and whose large abstract paintings are selling as fast as she can finish them -- for as much as $24,000?

Well, it seems that 60 Minutes came a-calling and some issues and questions about this child have been raised.

In this report we find that Ellen Winner, who is a psychologist who has studied gifted children and specializes in visual arts was shown several of Marla’s works and was highly impressed, but noted that she had never seen such a young child working in an abstract manner. Her enthusiasm apparently turned to concern and suspicion when she was shown a videotape of the child painting:

"I saw no evidence that she was a child prodigy in painting. I saw a normal, charming, adorable child painting the way preschool children paint, except that she had a coach that kept her going."

Marla is currently having her first West Coast gallery show. It includes the painting captured on hidden camera by 60 Minutes, which has already been sold for $9,000.

Opportunities for Artists

2005 Photography Annual Competition
Deadline: March 15, 2005.

Sponsored by Communication Arts Magazine, is open to works first printed, produced, or aired for the first time between March 15, 2004 and March 15, 2005. The competition categories include: Advertising, Books, Editorial, For Sale, Institutional, Self-Promotion, and Unpublished. Winning entries will be published in the August 2005 Photography Annual. Entry fees range from $25-$40. For more information, contact:
2005 Photography Annual
Communication Arts
110 Constitution Dr.
Menlo Park, CA 94025

Phone: (650) 326-6040; Fax: (650) 326-1648; or email: shows@commarts.com. Complete guidelines also available online here.

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Produce Gallery's "First Year Out"
Deadline: April 15, 2005.

Produce Gallery is currently reviewing work by artists in their first post-graduation year from college, for a group show entitled: "First Year Out," to be held in the Fall of 2005. All submissions should be from artists who have graduated from school in 2003 or 2004. Please send Slides, Resume and SASE, or Web site info to:
Produce Gallery
Tyler Exhibitions
7725 Penrose Avenue
Elkins Park, PA 19027

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Woman Made Gallery's "Got Quirk?"
Deadline: March 16, 2005

A juried exhibition sponsored by Woman Made Gallery. Open to all artists, women and men. Seeking representational art works that is expressed in unusual, odd, peculiar, fantastic, grotesque, whimsical, or wacky ways. All media accepted. Entries must have been completed within the last 2 years. Cash awards available. Exhibition scheduled June 24-July 21, 2005. Entry fee: $20 for up to 3 slides. For details, contact:
Woman Made Gallery
2418 W. Bloomingdale Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647
Phone: (773) 489-8900; Fax: (773) 489-3600
email: gallery@womanmade.org or visit their website

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Radius 250
Deadline: April 30, 2005

Thanks to ANABA for this one. Radius250 is a juried competition that will feature artists working within a 250-mile radius of Richmond. The juror is John Ravenal. You can enter the show via slides or online here. There's a $25 entry fee and $2500 in prizes.

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9th Annual Georgetown International Fine Arts Competition
Deadline: June 3, 2005

An opportunity to exhibit in one of the most established DC area fine arts competitions and hosted by our Georgetown gallery. This competition has served in the past as the springboard for many area artists and national artists. Details and prospectus can be downloaded online here or send a SASE to:
Fraser Gallery
1054 31st Street, NW
Washington, DC 20007

NEA Accepting Nominations

The National Endowment for the Arts is accepting nominations of exemplary artists and arts patrons. Deadline is April 11, 2005.

The National Endowment for the Arts is now accepting nominations from the public of exemplary artists and arts patrons for the 2005 National Medal of Arts. To nominate, please go to this website and complete the form.

The deadline for public nominations is April 11, 2005.

Copycat

This is what happens when an artist-wannabe copies someone else's artwork, and then (years later) because of something else they do, they become infamous, and their copyright violation comes to light.

Like Richard Burton said... (sightly modified): "An [ass]hole, is an [ass]hole, is an [ass]hole."

Tks JWB.

Grounded

I was supposed to fly back to San Diego today, but after wasting half a day sitting in Dulles, the whole trip has been cancelled and I've made my way back home in a messy snow day here in the DC area.

View from my Second Floor Window

Bad news is that my most precious asset is time, and I've wasted a lot of it today; the good news is that now I can make the First Friday Gallery Crawl around Dupont Circle! And this is good, because I am really looking forward to seeing Molly Springfield's show at JET Artworks, which really needs to get off their ass and get their website going.


View from my Bedroom Window

Lida Moser is Coming

Opening on March 18, 2005 and through April 13, 2005, our Fraser Gallery in Georgetown will be hosting the first ever Washington, DC solo exhibition of legendary American photographer Lida Moser, who now lives in retirement in nearby Rockville, Maryland.

This 85-year-old photographer is not only one of the most respected American photographers of the 20th century, but also a pioneer in the field of photojournalism. Her photography is currently in the middle of a revival and rediscovery, and has sold as high as $4,000 in recent Christie's auctions and continues to be collected by both museums and private collectors worldwide. In a career spanning nearly 60 years, Moser has produced a body of works consisting of thousands of photographs and photographic assemblages that defy categorization and genre or label assignment.

Additionally, Canadian television is currently in the process of filming a documentary about her life; the second in the last few years, and Moser’s work is now in the collection of many museums worldwide.

A well-known figure in the New York art scene of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s,a portrait of Lida Moser by American painter Alice Neel hangs in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. Neel painted a total of four Moser portraits over her lifetime, and I believe that one of them will be included in the National Museum of Women in the Arts' "Alice Neel's Women" coming to Washington, DC this October.

Lida Moser's photographic career started as a student and studio assistant in 1947 in Berenice Abbott's studio in New York City, where she became an active member of the New York Photo League. She then worked for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Look and many other magazines throughout the next few decades, and traveled extensively throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.

In 1950 Vogue, and (and subsequently Look magazine) assigned Lida Moser to carry out an illustrated report on Canada, from one ocean to another. When she arrived at the Windsor station in Montreal, in June of that same year, she met by chance, Paul Gouin, then a Cultural Advisor to Duplessis government. This chance meeting led Moser to change her all-Canada assignment for one centered around Quebec.

Armed with her camera and guided by the research done by the Abbot Felix-Antoine Savard, the folklorist Luc Lacourcière and accompanied by Paul Gouin, Lida Moser then discovers and photographs a traditional Quebec, which was still little touched by modern civilization and the coming urbanization of the region. Decades later, a major exhibition of those photographs at the McCord Museum of Canadian History became the museum’s most popular exhibit ever.

She has also authored and been part of many books and publications on and about photography. She also wrote a series of "Camera View" articles on photography for The New York Times between 1974-81. Her work has been exhibited in many museums worldwide and is in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London, the National Archives, Ottawa, the National Galleries of Scotland, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC, the Library of Congress, Les Archives Nationales du Quebec, Corcoran Gallery, Phillips Collection and many others. Moser was an active member of the Photo League and the New York School.

The Photo League was the seminal birth of American documentary photography. It was a group that was at times at school, an association and even a social club. Disbanded in 1951, the League promoted photojournalism with an aesthetic consciousness that reaches street photography to this day.

This will be her first solo exhibition in Washington, DC and it will run from March 18 through April 13, 2005.

An opening reception for Ms. Moser will be held on Friday, March 18, 2005 from 6-9PM as part of the third Friday openings in Georgetown. The reception is free and open to the public.

Feedback

Yesterday we finished our Success as an Artist seminar to about 50 or so artists and arts professionals. Herewith some feedback:

"Thank you so much for an incredible amount of valuable information. Having worked commercially for 25 years, I thought I might hear repetitive things. The fact is, I'm somewhat overwhelmed by the amount I have yet to learn based on your seminar. Thanks for the jump-start in this new segment of the art industry. Look forward to visiting the gallery again." -- Sally Wern Comport

"This seminar was better than a four year college education. I learned more about what I need to do to have a career as an artist here." -- John Bata

"Tremendous amount of information shared that was constructive, practical and well focused. This was the best investment I could make in understanding the wide range of business issues that artists face and gave me lots of ideas regarding successful strategies." -- Judy Bayer

"This seminar more than met my needs. This was like four years of college packed into 7 hours." -- Jonathan

"It was excellent - Very informative, hands-on, action oriented guidance to promote myself as an artist. Fun, fast moving, and spell-binding for me - I wrote 24 pages of notes!" -- Sue Holland

"So much specific, reality-based info, communicated succintly and understandibly. Amazing!" -- Leslie Albin

"Wonderful, exciting, and thoroughly penetrating info!" -- Rochleigh X. Wholfe

Artwork by Committee

The National Endowment for the Arts and the State Department have agreed to reinstate an advisory committee to recommend artists to represent the United States at international exhibitions like the various Biennials.

"We are going back to the traditional way the N.E.A. helped manage exhibitions," said Dana Gioia, the endowment's chairman. "It's important that this process be open, transparent and well understood."

And may I add: "And that it doesn't have a New York only filter."

Read the story here, and thanks AJ.

Elsie Hull at Sprectrum

By Rosetta DeBerardinis

The Elsie Hull exhibition at Spectrum Gallery is a subtle display of black and white photographic oval jewels. The show, "Portals" is an array of prints mounted on white canvases of various sizes creating a two or three dimensional installation.

This show is a fine exhibit at a cooperative gallery with a most innovative installation. And the back walls, with works of its gallery member artists, offers some interesting works as well.

But, if you care about quality photography at prices that are indeed affordable, this show is worth a visit. It has captivating black and white images of cats, cows, etc. And the staff is friendly and helpful.

Elise Hull, "Portals." Open from February 25 until March 13th at Spectrum Gallery, 1132 29th Street, N.W.; 202-333-0954.

Modigliani: Beyond the Myth

By Rosetta DeBerardinis

Modigliani: Beyond the Myth opening Saturday, February 26th at the Phillips Collection is worth the price of admission. The show originated at the Jewish Museum in New York; however, the Phillips added twenty-five works to its show. It features about 100 paintings, drawings and sculptures by the artist.

The third floor of the new renovated annex has been transformed from a sterile museum atmosphere into a lovely warm gallery with soft colored walls, arches and columns. The five galleries have interesting lighting and the installation is excellent.

Now, I am not a fan of Modigliani, but I could not resist embracing his work during this exhibition. It includes much more than his women with the skinny necks. In the first gallery there are beautiful sculptures lined up on a platform and lots of crayon and pencil sketches. In galleries three and four are his controversial nudes and the last gallery has a powerful presentation of his famous signature paintings of women with the skinny necks.

The Phillips Collection, 1600 21St., N.W. $14 for general admission, $12 for seniors and students, no charge for persons under eighteen. Show runs through May 29th. (202)387-2151.

And at the WaPo' new Entertainment BLOG, Maura McCarthy has a second mini review of the Modigliani show, which includes a link to great images of the show.

Boot Camp for Artists

Tomorrow we will be doing the "Success as an Artist" seminar that was postponed from last week.

Pics

Just back from San Diego, just for the weekend and then fly back there on Monday. There has been a lot of rain in SoCal and everything around is either sliding or very green.

View from my hotel room's window

Anyway, when I arrived on Tuesday night, it was still raining here, and the next morning there was still rain and some rare skies around there (clouds).


San Diego Wednesday Morning Clouds

But by noon, the ocean that Balboa discovered was once again spectacular. The below photo was taken from around the area where that Spaniard is believed to have stood when he focused the first set of Caucasian eyes to see the ocean that he then named Pacific.


The Pacific Ocean on Wednesday afternoon

And by the time the sun was sinking down later that day, one of the great joys of living next to the ocean was about to happen: the green flash. The pic below is a few minutes before the sun sinks into the horizon and Nature takes your breath away with the color green.


The Ocean a few minutes before the green flash

On the flight back I had a plane change in San Francisco, and I discovered this almost representational version of Airportism (which is what I dubbed a few years ago the sort of artwork that gets selected for exhibition as "public art" in American airports).

Below is a huge William Wiley piece near gate 85 at the airport. Typical airportism...


Void by William Wiley

Airborne today

I am flying back today as I have to get back to DC to help with the Success as an Artist seminar that was postponed last Sunday because of the threat of snow. Then I have to fly back to San Diego to finish my business here.

While in San Diego I met with a couple of TV-type dudes, as I now have two television programs floating around and in the works, with pilots out, and both thanks to the interest in DC area visual arts generated by this savory BLOG; is that cool or what?

Talking about savory, last night I went to Ortega's for my poblano mole fix. And Sr. Ortega came out and although I've only been here a few times, he came and thanked me for mentioning his savory restaurant in DC Art News.

To say that I was dumbfounded is an understatement. I guess that I didn't expect this brilliant Mexican country cook to gather enough input and feedback to deduce and put together all the facts that grouped together equals me + DC Art News + Ortega's.

So I asked him, and he told me that over the last few weeks he's had DC area visitors who have told him that they went to Ortega's because of DC Art News. And since he knew my name (we usually talk quite a bit when I come to visit, and once he even showed me how he mixes his mole sauce), he put two and two together and.... there you have it!

Is that COOL or what!

Ahhhhhh! The power of the web.

Anyway... on the way back I have two books to read: The Family of Pascual Duarte by Camilo Jose Cela and then The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon.

The Thursday Reviews

It appears more and more that the WaPo has essentially turned its corporate back, under its new Style editor, on area galleries, and we will just have to live with a couple dozen reviews a year.

Today there are several theatre reviews, and several music reviews, and a nice profile on a New York City ballet choreographer, but other than this nice review of the "Asian Games: The Art of Contest," which will open Saturday on the Mall at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, there's zip once again on the day facetiously dedicated by the Style section to "Galleries and Arts News."

Thanks to the Web Gods that now other venues exist to write intelligent words about art and artists besides a reluctant newspaper that probably wishes that it could drop visual arts coverage all together. And stepping up to the plate is Kriston over at grammar.police with a super review of Robert Olsen's "Elements, Particular" show at G Fine Art and this BLOG cop does another superb job.

And at Thinking About Art Kirkland comes through again with an early look at the WPA/C Auction; super job JT.

Which reminds me... in the past I've offered, and now I renew my offer: Please email me your reviews and impressions of any visual art shows that you have visited and I will publish them here; nothing anon please, lest I be accused of being flavorless by easily bruised egos.

P.S. WCP what happened this week? No reviews? But I gotta give big props for the piece on Frank Warren and his Art Secrets.

Sunny and pleasant

Here.

I understand that DC is under the white stuff; I suppose that means that all that's scheduled around the city today, such as this panel has been cancelled.

Wanna see some new artwork?

"Elegant Violence" (who picked that title?) runs until the 27th, and features the work of the BFA Senior Thesis artists exhibiting at the Hemicycle at the Corcoran and thus the shape of things to come (Fabian apologies to H.G. Wells).

This is one of the best venues to see and experience what the new crop of artists are creating... As I am in sunny (yep right!) California, I would love for someone to go and see this show and then email me a review or impression for publication in DC ART NEWS.

"The principle which gives support to a work of art is not necessarily contemporary with it. It is quite capable of slipping back into the past or forward into the future. The artist inhabits a time which is by no means necessarily the history of his own time."

Henri Focillon (1881-1943), French art historian.

I bet that Focillon is not in Oxford's art history curricullum.

Underwear

Life has a subtle way of putting one's arrogance back into place every once in a while. It's now almost 7AM Pacific Time and this "seasoned traveler" has just discovered that he forgot to pack all his undershirts and thus (at least today) will have to "freestyle" his dress shirts.

Oh well... everyone in Europe does it.

Oh God!

Raining in San Diego

Not an usual thing to happen here, but raining nonetheless when I arrived tonite. The flight here was a small miracle: a direct, non stop flight from DC to San Diego. Sweet! But when I checked in, I noticed that my seats had been changed, and instead of my usual aisle seat, I'm in the middle!

And since the plane was sold out, it was time to pour the charm to get the seating arrangement re-done. The trick? They usually leave the row with the emergency exits open to the last minute, so that the agent can eyeball the person and decide that he/she can physically take that small door off and allow the passangers to escape via that row (as if).

So I smiled, and said to the jaded airline lady: "I will gladly sit in the exit row, and can physically do the task, if needed." She eyeballed me carefully, realizing that she was dealing with a seasoned traveler. I blinded her with a smile and to make a long story short I ended in the sweet, extra space exit row.

Time permitting, I will try to keep up with the posting.

And I was able to re-discover Emily Dickinson on the flight here. I think that I last read her in college, and I had forgotten how sensually surprising she could be:

Wild nights! Wild nights!
Were I with thee,
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!

Futile the winds
To a heart in port,—
Done with the compass,
Done with the chart.

Rowing in Eden!
Ah! the sea!
Might I but moor
To-night in thee!

Synergy Deadline Extended

Evolving Perceptions has extended the deadline for their Call for Art for SYNERGY until March 15, 2005.

Per the hardworking organizers: "SYNERGY is a new movement in creative energy. The artists of the Washington D.C. metropolitan area are engaging in a project that is bringing the artistic community together in a powerfully innovative way. Evolving Perceptions (EP) is making SYNERGY their gift to the aesthetic energy of our Nation’s Capital. Through the synergy of the artists, community, supporters and media, the SYNERGY project will empower, articulate and educate the communities of the Metropolitan Washington D.C. area about the arts with a totally new paradigm. We are forming 6 teams of 3-4 artists in collaboration to create works that will be exhibited, voted on by the public and auctioned. There is a $3,000 stipend per artist. Visit EP's website for details on the call and to download an entry form.

For more questions please email Marsha Stein, SYNERGY COORDINATOR, marshasart@aol.com or call at 301-564-0707.

Tuesday Arts Agenda

DCist's Tuesday Arts Agenda is packed full of great visual arts stuff going on this week in DC.

The opening and show not to miss this week is Mexican Report: Contemporary Mexican Art, opening Thursday, Feb. 24 at the Cultural Institute of Mexico and two other local venues. The opening at the Cultural Institute of Mexico starts at 6:30PM.

If you haven't been to this beautiful building and gallery space, be prepared for one of DC's best-kept secrets: It is both a marvel of architecture and visual arts all rolled into one, and under Alejandro Negrin's leadership has really taken off as one of the key art venues in our city that truly adds a powerful international footprint to our art scene!

While there, visit Marta Maria Perez Bravo's huge digital photographs One Soul I and One Soul II.

Marta Maria is Cuban, but currently resides in Mexico, and we represent her work locally.

Exhibition details here. As I am heading to San Diego, I will miss the opening (bummer).

Airborne today

Last night's opening of Drawing II was very pleasant!

Today I am airborne and heading to the Left Coast again and returning on Friday. I am on a poetry reading mood, so on the way there I'm going to re-read The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson and also mix it up with some Yeats.

Talking about Yeats, herewith my favorite Yeats' poem of all time:

"Her Triumph"

I did the dragon's will until you came
Because I had fancied love a casual
Improvisation, or a settled game
That followed if I let the kerchief fall:
Those deeds were best that gave the minute wings
And heavenly music if they gave it wit;
And then you stood among the dragon-rings.
I mocked, being crazy, but you mastered it
And broke the chain and set my ankles free,
Saint George or else a pagan Perseus;
And now we stare astonished at the sea,
And a miraculous strange bird shrieks at us.

Mary Lang

J.T. Kirkland at Thinking About Art has an interesting review of Mary Lang's debut show in our Georgetown gallery.

More images by Lang here.

Tour de Clay

Geographically centered around the Greater Baltimore area, but featuring 878 artists, with 160 exhibits in 122 venues around the world, Tour de Clay is probably the largest visual arts multi-everything event ever held in the country, and it focuses and celebrates all forms of art in clay through a collaboration of artists from 47 states and Norway, Switzerland, Korea, Africa, Japan, Taiwan and Scotland, as well as participation by area galleries with exhibitions at more than 100 venues throughout the region, including DCAC and these other locations locally: Target Gallery, Ellipse Art Center, Scope Gallery and The 340 Space.

See all area locations here.

The exhibitions opened a couple of days ago and run through April 3, 2005.

Opening Today

Prof. Sarah Stecher of Montgomery College has curated Drawing National II at Montgomery College and selected 41 artists, and the opening reception for the show is today, Monday, February 21, 6-8PM. Directions to the campus are here.

In addition to yours truly, the following artists will be exhibiting in this show: Kelly Adams, Lila Oliver Asher, Alastair Bolton, Scott Brooks, Warren Craghead III, Elli Crocker, Pamela DeLaura, Haig Demarjian, Jan Dove, Laura Evans, Sondra B. Gair, Javier Gil, Mikhail Gubin, Sharon Harper, Jeffrey Haupt, Candace Keegan, Richard Keen, Ronald Keeney, Kathleen King, J.T. Kirkland, Mary Kate Maher, Allison Miner, Sarah Oldenburg, Mary Ott, Sky Pape, Susan Due Pearcy, Mark Pomilio, Selena Reames, Mari Richards, Jacqueline Saunders, Terri Schmidt, John P. Semple, Marc Snyder, Caroline Thorington, Adrienne Trager, Michael Voors, Yida Wang, Maya Weber, and Alice Whealin.

Lions and Tigers and Bears

Oh God!

From the Himalayan Times (thanks AJ):

Eight elephants in northern Thailand have painted their way into the Guinness Book of World Records after an art lover living in the United States shelled out a jumbo 1.5 million baht ($39,000) for their canvas creation — the highest price ever paid for elephant art.

Art lover?

Where did I leave that sharp knife?

Another Noguchi Review

And now it is two differing from the one.

Read Michael O'Sullivan's excellent take on Isamu Noguchi at the Hirshhorn, published yesterday in the WaPo.

O'Sullivan correctly points out Noguchi's innovative track record and writes:

"Solar's inclusion is notable for two reasons. Yes, it's a fine piece, characterized by the kind of dynamic stillness found in Noguchi's best, most Zen-flavored work, but it also serves Fletcher's thesis that Noguchi was probably more innovative than people generally give him credit for. Is there the influence of Constantin Brancusi (for whom Noguchi briefly worked as a studio assistant while in Paris) in some of Noguchi's earliest pieces? Certainly, and the biomorphic iconography of the surrealists makes more than one appearance in Noguchi's later art as well.

But art isn't a horse race, or at least it shouldn't be. What Noguchi did well he did very well. Whether works represent his fascination with the pure refinement of form, as in the gestural simplicity of 1970's "The Bow," or express the gut-punch racial politics of 1934's "Death (Lynched Figure)," or whether they lie somewhere in between, as in the phallic squishes and fleshy plops of his work of the 1940s, Noguchi's most powerful sculptures beg for extended viewing.

Yep! Art isn't a horse race, and it doesn't have to be "new" to be good.

Case slammed shut!

Seminar Postponed

Because of the threat of snow tomorrow, the Success as an Artist seminar scheduled for tomorrow has been postponed until next Sunday, February 27, 2005, starting promptly at noon.

Carib Nation

Next Monday, Feb. 28 at 6PM, do not miss the Carib Nation program on WHUT Howard University Television. It will feature a profile of DC area photographer Nestor Hernandez.

Tic Toc

Home from the Georgetown opening of Mary Lang.

Opening was a little slow, mostly due to the cold and the hint of the S-word in the air (snow), but there was some good company, JT from Thinking About Art was making the gallery rounds, there was a nice artist's talk by Lang, and photography was purchased!

At closing time I quite forgot all about my usual Friday need to rush home and watch Battlestar Galactica (yes, yes geeky, I know...) and I damned near forgot about Galactica (it starts in five minutes)... but I made it... sigh.

Next Tuesday I head out to California again, and thus I wanted to let all of you know before that of the fact that Prof. Sarah Stecher has curated Drawing National II at Montgomery College and selected 41 artists, and the opening reception for the show is Monday, February 21, 6-8PM.

See ya there Monday!

Third Friday Openings

Today is the third Friday of the month and thus the Canal Square Galleries (31st Street NW and M Street in Georgetown) will have their monthly openings.

We will have the photography of New England photographer Mary Lang in her Washington, DC solo debut.

Our gallery neighbors in Canal Square in Georgetown (MOCA, Anne C. Fisher, Parish and Alla Rogers) all will have new shows or extended hours.

Come join us for a glass of Washington's best Sangria to welcome Lang to Washington.

See ya there!

Television

Tonight my interview with Valerie Fletcher, Curator of the Isamu Noguchi Exhibition at the Hirshhorn aired on three different local TV stations, maybe some of you saw it.

I missed it because on Thursdays I have martial arts classes from 8-9:30PM and the show runs on MHz TV at 8:30 in my area.

The Thursday Reviews

In the WaPo, Jessica Dawson has her set of third Thursday mini reviews here. This will be all that we get in the Style section for two weeks.... Sigh.

In the WCP... Jeffry where are you?

A new critic (new to me) named Hetty Lipscomb, writes about "Rembrandt’s Late Religious Portraits" at the National Gallery of Art.

In the Georgetowner, John Blee reviews Nathan Richardson, Joan Cox, and Marcia Dullum at Results Gallery (at Results Gym, 315 G Street SE, 202/669.4226) while Gary Tischler does Andre Kertesz at the National Gallery of Art.

Congratulations!

To the following photographers, who have been selected by juror Connie Imboden to exhibit in the Annual Bethesda International Photography Competition:

Tim Castine
Don Bensman
John Borstel
Gabriela Bulisova
Mei Mei Chang
Kathy Cudlin
John Davis
Sharon Lee Hart
Herbert Hoover
Stephen Komp
Lynda Lester-Slack
Rita Maas
Jocelyn Matthews
Bruce McKaig
Benjamin Montague
Meredith Montague
Leah Oates
Steve Ozone
Alexi Pechnikov
Carol Samour
Tal Schneider
Gregory Scott
Bert Shankman
Judy Silverstein
Elena Volkov
Cara Lee Wade
April Wilkins

Thursday, Thursday...

I'm on the road most of the day on Thursday, but there are lots of good things happening around DC for visual arts lovers. Check out some openings and venues at DCist.

Olive Ayhens' opening at the Watkins Gallery at AU seems specially interesting. Ayhens is a visiting Professor in the University's Department of Art for the 2004-05 academic year. Her most recent one-person shows were at Gary Tatintsian Gallery in NYC in 2004 and 2002.

And because her opening is from 5-7PM, if you are a really skilled gallery opening hog, then you can probably hit her opening and then head out to 7th Street for the 3rd Thursday Openings, which go from 6-8PM.

Interesting Panel Next Week

Meeting Places: Cross-Disciplinary Thinking in Contemporary Artmaking Practices

Date: Thursday, Feb. 24, 2005

Time: 5 - 6:30PM

Location: Prince George's room, Stamp Student Union

Featuring: Billy Colbert, artist and co-owner of Cubicle 10, a contemporary art gallery in Baltimore (sorry, I initially couldn't find a gallery web site - but a placeholder is here); Patrick Craig, painter, professor and graduate director of the UM Department of Art; Tyler Green, art critic for Bloomberg News and blogger at Modern Art Notes; Greg Metcalf, artist and UM adjunct professor for the Departments of English and Art History and Archaeology (could't find a website either).

3rd Thursdays

Tomorrow is the third Thursday of the month and all the galleries and art venues around the 7th street corridor will be having their openings and extended hours.

See the participating galleries and art venues here.

And also tomorrow, at Watkins Gallery at AU, from 5-7PM there will be a reception for artist Olive Ayhens.

For directions to the Watkins Gallery, click here.

My kingdom for a sharp knife

Read this

Somebody please slit my throat now...
_____________________________
Update: AAAAARGH!!!.... click here.

Opportunities for Artists

Deadline: April 1, 2005

FOCUS: PHOTOGRAPHY TECHNIQUES & TRENDS Juror: Sarah Kennel, Assistant Curator, Department of Photographs, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. This exhibition is open to artists working in all photographic processes. Artists are encouraged to expand parameters and traditional definitions. Award amounts up to $500. Exhibition dates: June 9 to July 17, 2005. Submission fee: $25 for images of 3 works. Deadline: Friday, April 1, 2005. For prospectus, e-mail: targetgallery@torpedofactory.org or send SASE to:
Target Gallery
105 North Union St
Alexandria VA 22314

Boot Camp for Artists

Next Sunday we will host another version of our highly successful "Success as an Artist" Seminar." The next seminar will be hosted at Fraser Gallery Bethesda on Sunday, February 20, 2004 from 12-7 PM.

The seven hour seminar, which has been taken by over 2,000 artists and arts professionals from all over the Mid Atlantic is designed to deliver information, data and proven tactics to allow artists to develop and sustain a career in the fine arts. The seminar costs $80 and is limited to around 50 people. For more details please visit this website. For this seminar, sometimes called "Boot Camp for Artists" by the attendees, people as far as Arizona, New York and South Carolina are attending.

In its seven hour format, the seminar covers a wide range of structured issues including:

1. Materials
Buying materials – strategies for lowering your costs, where and how to get it, etc.

2. Presentation – How to properly present your artwork including Conservation issues, Archival Matting and Framing, Longevity of materials, a discussion on Limited editions, signing and numbering, Prints vs. Reproduction, discussion on Iris Prints (Pros and Cons).

3. Creating a resume - Strategy for building your art resume, including how to write one, what should be in it, presentation, etc.

4. Juried Shows – An Insider's view and strategy to get in the competitions.

5. How to take slides and photographs of your artwork

6. Selling your art – A variety of avenues to actually selling your artwork, including fine arts festivals, corporate acquisitions, galleries, public arts, etc.

7. Creating a Body of Works

8. How to write a news release

9. Publicity – How to get in newspapers, magazines, etc. Plus handouts on email and addresses of newspaper critics, writers, etc.

10. Galleries – Discussion on area galleries including Vanity Galleries, Co-Operatives, Commercial Galleries, Non-profit Art spaces, etc.

11. How to approach a gallery – Realities of the business, Contracts, Gallery/Artist Relationship, Agents.

12. Outdoor Art Festivals – Discussion and advice on how to sell outwork at fine arts festivals, which to do, which to avoid, etc.

13. Resources - Display systems and tents, best juried shows and ones to avoid.

14. Accepting Credit cards – How to set up your art business.

15. Grants – Discussion on how to get grants in DC, Regional and National, including handouts on who and where and when.

16. Alternative Marketing - Cable TV, Local media

17. Internet – How to build your website at no cost, how to establish a wide and diverse Internet presence.

The seminar has been a spectacular success, and the feedback from artists can be read online at here and we continue to receive tremendous positive feedback on the practical success that this seminar has meant for those who have taken it.

Fraser Gallery Bethesda is located at 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite E, Bethesda, MD 20814, one block north of the Bethesda Metro Stop. You can contact the gallery at 301/718-9651 or via email at info@thefrasergallery.com.

Aware at Last?

I may be just imagining this, but it seems to me that all of a sudden, galleries are selling work all over the place. Have DC area residents finally realized that there's great art for sale in our area galleries?

Last Friday, I saw a lot of red dots in the two galleries I visited, and Kriston reports good sales for Ian Whitmore, and Scott Treleven also did superbly at Conner Contemporary.

In 2004, two of of Georgetown shows were a sell-out/near sell-out. Both were by Cuban artists (Sandra Ramos and Aimee Garcia Marrero). And two of our Bethesda shows were also sold out/near sell out: Tim Tate and David FeBland.

So far 2005 has started out like gangbusters, and the Tim Tate avalanche shows no sign of slowing down, and even the current Contemporary Drawing show sold very well on opening night. By the way, the image to the left shows Adam Bradley's spectacular three dimensional drawing assemblage titled "Return of Turu." Behind it you can see Richard Dana's large wall installation charcoal "Option Trader."

If this observation holds, then all I can say is about time!