Just received the Corcoran's extended show schedule. Next year includes the 2005 Biennial, which is being curated now by Dr. Jonathan Binstock. He is the Corcoran's Curator for Contemporary Art.

The Biennial used to be the only Biennial left in the country which was all about painting. This made it stand out; however, Binstock's predecessor was one of those who seemed to agree with the "painting is dead" crowd and "expanded" the Biennial to include everything else that goes for art these days. In my opinion, that vastly diluted the uniqueness of the Biennial.

Anyway, Binstock has already established a reputation as a curator who actually goes to gallery openings and visits artists' studios, etc. This is a great improvement over his predecessor.

He included one area artist in the last Corcoran Biennial (and the first that he curated), and we all certainly hope that he continues to expand on that. One of the biggest complaints that gallerists and area artists have, is the fact that historically a lot of our area museum curators have ignored their own back garden, something I discussed on air the last time I was a guest at the Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU.

Who would have thought that a painting exhibition by a DC area art professor would have out-controversied Damien Hirst when they both exhibited concurrently at Dartmouth University?

Read the story published in The Dartmouth here.

The controversy was started by this article written by a student guest columnist to The Dartmouth.

Another student then responded with this letter.

And this letter, also published in The Dartmouth, from the exhibition's curator, responding to the debate caused by the above two, can be read here.

A few postings ago, I was sort of kidding when I talked about Thomas Kinkade having an art show outside his kitschy mall stores and in a real art gallery or museum.

I'll be goddamned if "the painter of light" proved my joke posting right... read it and weep.

Kinkade's paintings are to be on exhibition at the Grand Central Art Center, California State University at Fullerton (CSUF) and that city's main art gallery.

Grand Central - CSUF's funky facility in Santa Ana's Artists Village - has "steadily built a reputation for hosting cutting-edge exhibits of outsider, noncommercial art. And the Main Art Gallery has showcased student and faculty work for years." And Richard Chang from The Orange County Register further writes:

"Mike McGee, CSUF gallery director and professor.... explained that the Kinkade show is being curated by Jeffrey Vallance, an internationally respected curator (and "cultural provocateur," McGee said) known for placing popular phenomena in a contemporary art context....

Vallance's plan is to create a life-size Kinkade chapel and fill it with the artist's Christian art. He also aims to build a Kinkade living room, dining room, bedroom and Bridge of Faith. Kinkade knickknacks will abound.

"There's no financial motivation for us to do this," McGee said. "It's for the sake of stirring things up, creating dialogue."

The scary part is that.... it will probably work, and whoever painted all those big-eyed kid paintings for Sears when I was a kid, or the dogs playing pool, or Elvis-on-velvet, better start contacting Vallance, as I think this may be the next big trend in art.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight....

C'mon Blake.... go to California and review this show for us... please!!!

Thanks to ArtsJournal.com...

Since the economy is booming, the art market is apparently very hot. The secondary art market that is!

A while back I had a rant about wealthy DC area people and their art collecting habits.... from my viewpoint (and generalizing).

Another case in point. Our recent Three Cuban Female Photographers show was a spectacular success. It received a couple of nice reviews in the press; it was one of our most visited shows ever, and it sold well.

All but one of the sales was to someone not from around here... New York, Great Britain, etc. Sales to private collectors and museums alike.

With the exception of one very sharp collector, and although the show was very heavily-attended by locals, only one photo was sold locally.

The price ranges were $600 to $1500, which for contemporary photography, by photographers in museum collections worldwide, is more than a fair price.

Blake Gopnik, writing all the way from London, delivers a superb review and an art lesson history with his review of the Donald Judd retrospective at the Tate.

Why isn't this show coming to America?

This paragraph from the review is how I've always seen Judd's work:

"Describe the [Judd] piece and it sounds terribly, even ridiculously simple. It can even sound like some conceptual-art trick meant to test precisely how little it takes to make an object count as art -- Judd's sculpture sometimes gets billed as working like Marcel Duchamp's urinal, only using objects even less inviting to the eye. But experience the work in person, and things get much more complex than that. "

An yet, by the time Gopnik finishes the review, he's actually convinced me that I've been looking at Judd's work completely wrong all these years!

I won't blow the ending... read the review here.

And in order to see how art criticism can differ, you should also the Adrian Searle review in The Guardian.

The retrospective was curated by Tate director Nicholas Serota, a Judd fan since 1970. Read his viewpoint from a fan's point of view, here.

On the flight back from San Diego I read Mi Moto Fidel, by Brit ex-pat Christopher P. Baker and published by the National Geographic. I found it boorish, vulgar and somewhat racist.

Let's not mince words. After reading this book my immediate reaction was one of distaste. Not just because of the constant sexual encounters with very young Cuban women that make up a large part of the book, or the extraordinary stereotyping of Cubans present throoughout the entire book, or the spectacular lack of knowledge of Cuban history shown by the writer (this book is supposed to be, I think, a travel guide of sorts).

It was mainly because I kept thinking that a lot of the dialogue between the author and the locals, seemed... well... made up and just not believable.

Baker starts as a Castro apologist with an interesting twist to his apologies. He recognizes somewhat the brutal yoke that the Cuban Revolution has become upon its people - but hey! it's OK, because Cubans are a fun, sexual, libertine people!

Towards the end of the book he has somewhat of an epiphany where he realizes that Castro has been "using" the embargo, helping to maintain it and making sure it sticks and stays on - as an excuse to always have an ever present excuse for the miseries of Cuban life and thus further abuse the Cuban people he has imperiously brutalized for over 40 years.

And when the 40something Baker tells a 14-year-old-Cuban girl that he finds sexually attractive: "I'll be back in two years" .... well, I think he means it. Perhaps his next "travel book" should be on Thailand.

Sandra Ramos in the news...

ArtNet has a piece on the Sandra Ramos' visa denial story. Read it here. Furthermore, the visa denial story has been picking up steam and Senator Mikulski's staff has now entered the fray.

The Latest Museum Acquisition in Town...

The Collectors Committee at the National Gallery of Art is the NGA's patrons' group, which has been financing some acquisitions there since the mid 1970's. They have decided to buy a 1962 sculpture by Lee Bontecou.

The National Gallery now will own an untitled 1962 work that will be the second Bonteccou sculpture in the collection.

"We only had a small sculpture in our collection," said Earl A. Powell III, the gallery's director.

Opening this Saturday...

Fusebox will have a new show opening this coming Saturday: Pop-Agenda: Siemon Allen and Dominic McGill in the main space and the Dumbacher Brothers in the project space.

Both exhibitions open Saturday, March 27 and run through May 8, 2004. A reception for the artists will be held Saturday, March 27, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm.

Don't miss it on March 29, 2004: Art Panel

Art Table Panel in Conjunction with Arts Advocacy Day on March 29 presents Taxes on the Table: A Win/Win Recipe for the Arts
Who: Bill Ivey, President of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, Panel Moderator Karen Carolan, Chief, Art Appraisal Services/Chair, Commissioner's IRS, Washington, DC. Linda Downs, Director of Davenport Museum of Art, Davenport, IA Ann Garfinkle, Whiteford, Taylor and Preston, Attorneys at Law, Washington, DC
When: Monday, March 29, 2004 4:15 - 5:30 p.m. FREE.
Where: Jury's Hotel, Doyle Room A, 1500 New Hampshire Ave NW; Washington, DC
The Issue: This lively panel discussion will make taxes palatable by focusing on the various ways that tax policy affects the arts, and why federal legislation on tax policy is important to the arts. The panel will provide a diverse menu of useful items to make tax laws work for both artists and contributors to the arts.

Topics will include: charitable giving; appreciated property; estate planning; inside the IRS; future legislation on the artist fair market value deduction bill and the IRA rollover.

For Photographers

Deadline: June 16, 2004.
The Camera Club of New York announces its 2004 National Photography Competition. The competition is open to all US residents 18 years or older except members of the Camera Club of New York or their families, and employees. Freestanding pieces will not be accepted. Phtographer Ralph Gibson is the Juror. An entry will consist of 6 slides with a fee of $30.00. Chosen artists will receive a one-person exhibition in the Alfred Lowenherz Gallery and a cash award of $250.00. Other finalists will participate in a group show. Send self addressed stamped envelope for prospectus to:
2004 National Photography Competition
Camera Club of New York
853 Broadway
New York, NY 10003

Or visit their website to download an entry form and view the complete rules and information about The Camera Club of New York.

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Grants for Artists

Open Deadline
The George Sugarman Foundation makes grants available for artists in need of financial assistance. Award amounts are open, but the artist must provide a budget for the amount requested. For information, contact the George Sugarman Foundation, 448 Ignacio Blvd., Novato, CA 94949; phone: 415/713-8167; email: ardensugarman@hotmail.com.

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Fellowships

Deadline May 4, 2004
Kala Artist Fellowship Award, Kala Art Institute in California. Eight Fellowship awards will be given to artists working in the realms of printmaking, book arts and digital media. Award includes studio residency for up to six months in Kala's expansive print studio and Electronic Media Center, a $2000. stipend and an exhibition at the Kala gallery. Award does not include housing. Application Date: May 4, 2004. See their website or contact Lauren Davies, Program Manager at lauren@kala.org.

Congratulations!

Loide Marwanga of Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville is the winner of the 23rd Annual Congressional Art Competition. Her entry, a colored pencil sketch entitled I Am Africa, will be on display in the United States Capitol, beginning in June, for one year.

Nothing to do with art or DC, but for some reason, some of you emailed me and wanted to know what I read on the flight to San Diego. It was Semper Fidel by Michael J. Mazarr, a somewhat academic book about US and Cuban relations from 1776-1988. Amazing how many times Cuba "almost" became a US state - in fact it seems that the main reason that it didn't was because Northerners did not want to add another slave-owning state to the Union and defeated the South's efforts through the years to annex or buy Cuba from Spain. Later many Cubans, including a woman disguised as a man in a weird Fidelio-like story, served in the Confederate Army.

By the way, we are still writing and calling and emailing everyone that we can think of to help reverse the visa denial to Cuban artist Sandra Ramos.

In the last few years (since completely by accident I walked into his first-ever exhibition in Edinburgh, Scotland) I've been following the debate in Britain about the art of Scottish miner turned artist Jack Vettriano. In fact I've even penned a few articles on the subject myself.

Now The Guardian delivers a great must read as the story asks: Why Pop Art but not Popular Art?

Is this a good question to ask our own elitist museums? Witness the debates caused by the hugely successful tour of Norman Rockwell's works - even though it eventually led to Rockwell being "discovered" as an "artist" - rather than an "illustrator" - in our label-crazy art world.

But even yours truly is not sure that I am ready for Thomas Kinkade anywhere else but our local neighborhood mall.

Update: Another Jack Vettriano story here.

Greetings from foggy San Diego... some opportunities below:
For Photographers...
Deadline: March 31, 2004

Photography Exhibit, "Multiple Exposures", June 4-27, 2004. All photographic medium. Entry deadline April 1, 2004. Juror: Tom Strider, Collections Manager, Jersey City Museum. 5 slides $35. Awards-exhibit opportunities. For a prospectus send a #10 SASE to: Makeready's Gallery, 214 ArtSpace, 214 Glenridge Av, Montclair NJ 07042 or visit their website here.

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For Video Artists...
Deadline: May 15, 2004

New Screen Broadcasting is a newly formed television station that was created to offer a unique opportunity for artists to showcase their film and video projects in an unprecedented way. They are currently accepting film and video submissions for our initial programming that will be broadcast on WRCF-TV Channel 29, Orlando. They are looking for works that explore a wide range of topics, from a wide range of applicants. In keeping with the goal of providing a venue that is open and accessible, all forms of video and film will be considered. Accepted works may also have a 30 to 60 second clip included in the SOLO Arts online video library. For more information contact New Screen Broadcasting here

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For Sculptors...
Deadline: March 31, 2004

The Sculpture Salmagundi VIII: Indoor/Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition. $7,800 in prizes and honorariums. Outdoor Juror: John M Weidman, internationally renowned sculptor and Director of the Andres Institute of Art. Visit Weidman's website for more information about the juror. Indoor works selected by Arts Center staff and will be by invitation only. Postmark deadline for slide entry is April 19, 2004. Outdoor Exhibition Dates: July 10, 2004 - June 10, 2005. Indoor Exhibition Dates: July 10, 2004 - August 29, 2004. Download a prospectus here (click Artists Opportunities). Or e-mail your street address to: Rockky Wigent. Rocky Mounts Arts Center is located in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and you can also call 252/972-1163.

I'm heading off to San Diego again for the rest of this week... seems like I've practically been living down there!

One of the best art reviews that I have ever read in the Washington Post is in today's Sunday Arts.

It is by Pulitzer prize winning writer Henry Allen and he does a masterful job of reviewing Jim Dine at the NGA.

Here's the sheer elegance in words of the first paragraph:

"The drawing of a line is one of the thrilling gestures in art, like a Charlie Parker solo in jazz or a Nureyev leap in ballet, full of surprise and inevitability at the same time, a miracle that had to happen. (Watching it done is like watching magic -- think about documentary footage of Picasso or R. Crumb, and their confidence as they pull rabbits out of a hat that's nothing more than a piece of paper.) "

By the way, I submit that if Jim Dine had to hide his technical virtuosity in the 60's --- that hasn't changed! Technical virtuosity, with a handful of very rare exceptions, is generally still something that has to be "hidden."

Theory - rather than technique or skill - is what schools want to teach (mostly because a lot of academics couldn't draw a line to save their lives).

And thus if we look at some of our own area schools, such as GMU, we find a school that once had an art department that included both theory pushers and also professors able to actually teach a student how to stretch watercolor paper and how to mix two colors to get a third one.

But now, as seen from afar, it appears that since Margarida Kendall retired from GMU, the theory pushers have slowly but surely re-directed that art school focus to the theory agenda of art professors who can neither paint nor draw.

GMU is lucky to have two of the best painters in the nation in its staff. They are Chawky Frenn (represented by us) and Erik Sandberg (represented by Conner Contemporary).

While Frenn (the last DC area artist in years to have been reviewed by the New York Times - at least in my memory) does teach some painting classes, one would assume that a painter of Sandberg's reputation and technical virtuosity would also be teaching painting.

But he is not, and I would bet money that Sandberg would just love to teach painting.

And because (with some rare exceptions) the theory pushers are teaching painting, and with Frenn's exception, dominate the curriculum, GMU art students are the losers. Visit their MFA exhibits and the proof is in the work.

Nobody asked me.... but my opinion nonetheless.

A new quarterly visual arts magazine will soon come out in our region. Expect the first issue of "In the Arts" to cover the visual arts of the Mid Atlantic region. It is edited by Bruce McNeill and designed by Ed Towles Graphic Design in Baltimore.

The magazine will be distributed free to galleries and other art venues. As soon as the first issue comes out, I'll let everyone know.

I almost forgot!

Freelancer Mark Jenkins, who writes (mostly about movies) for the Washington City Paper, is filling in and is suddenly writing art reviews for the Washington Post Weekend section while Michael O'Sullivan writes about movies for Weekend.

O'Sullivan is probably one of only two DC art critics who truly knows the DC art scene and who our artists and gallery dealers know (personally) and trust and who has the pulse of our art scene.

Are we all on the same page now?

Anyway.... Jenkins, who is a pretty good theater reviewer and a really good writer, delivers a third (or maybe fourth) Post-published review; this time in the "print-space-poor---that's-why-we-don't-do-more-galleries" Weekend section of the Post for the Quilt Show at the Corcoran.

C'mon guys (C'mon Joyce Jones - editor of Weekend) ... isn't three reviews of one show by one newspaper (that claims that lack of print space is the reason that they do not do more reviews) enough?

OK, OK, I reviewed it too because it is a damned good show and it is a show that teaches us lessons about art, political correctness, and how hypocritical art critics can be.... read my review here, which by the way, has been picked up by five Spanish language newspapers in the US and Latin America.

Gunk Foundation Grants
Deadline: April 30, 2004

Grants are provided for "works" of art (not, for example, art festivals, group exhibitions or general operating support for public art organizations).

Anyone can apply­­: individuals, groups, or organizations, and there is no need for a fiscal sponsor. International projects and artists are encouraged.

How to Apply: Grant proposals must include:
Application form, Resume(s) of the project participant(s)

Example of previous work done (preferably one slide sheet, 1-2 videos. No original work please!)

One or two page summary of the proposed project (This should be separate from the application form, and should be an elaboration upon the questions asked in the form, or should include any other relevant material not covered by the form.)

Budget and time line (predicted costs, source of other funds if needed, and when the project will be presented.

Call or write for Application:

The Gunk Foundation
P.O. Box 333
Gardiner, NY 12525
(845) 255-8252