Annette Polan, Associate Professor at the Corcoran College of Art and a well known portrait painter is gathering together a group of artists to pay tribute to the American soldiers, sailors, aircrews and Marines who have died in Iraq since the beginning of the war.

Inspired by "Faces of the Fallen," photographs of U.S. casualties published periodically in the Washington Post, Annette passes that she wants a meaningful memorial to the sons, daughters, husbands and wives lost in this war.

As a veteran, I also believe that this is a touching way to honor those who have offered the ultimate sacrifice in the service of our nation.

These faces of America will be portrayed by a group of 100 artists – some well known, others still students. Each artist will contribute about 10 portraits. The finished work, drawings, paintings and collages on 6"x 8" canvasses will be exhibited in Washington in late October. The images have been assigned randomly to the artists according to the day on which the casualty occurred.

A website is currently being established so that families of these heroes can post stories and also view finished portraits.

For more info contact Annette Polan at apolan@starpower.net or 202.537.2908

Heading back home today.... will resume posting upon return.

I'm still in San Diego, but don't forget that this coming Friday is the Dupont Circle Galleries extended hours, with most galleries open from 6-8 PM and most artists present as well. Go support our galleries and artists!

Arrived in San Diego extraordinarily late, due to weather issues at Philadelpia. On the flights here I read Thomas Cahill's most excellent book How The Irish Saved Civilization.

I'm heading to California tomorrow... will post from the Left Coast as I am bringing the faithful laptop.

No excuse for this.

The Post's chief art critic, Blake Gopnik delivers his veredict on the DC pandas public art projects as "art."

Regardless of whatever opinion one may have about this project (which by the way nearly every American city now has a version (New York has apples, Los Angeles has angels, Norfolk has mermaids, Baltimore has fish - or it is crabs?) being "art" (in the hi-fallutin' sense of the word - after all I thought that these days everything is art) -- but after all these years I am still amazed by how true the trite saying "art is in the eyes of the beholder" truly is.

Of interest to me, Blake makes the statement:

"The finished sculptures are coloring-book art, too, only blown up in 3-D.

It would take a really skilled contemporary artist to turn a coloring book into something worth an art lover's time. There probably aren't more than a half-dozen artists in this city who could do it. But even those six don't seem to have made it onto the project's 150 artist list. On the long roster of panda decorators, there wasn't anyone whom the city's art aficionados would be likely to count as a top local talent."

This is interesting food for thought.

It's a message to the 150 people on the list: not only does the Chief Art Critic of the Washington Post think your are not a top local talent, but neither do "the city's art aficionados," by his account.

Ouch!

Blake also writes: "There were barely a handful of artists whose names I even recognized at all from any of my visits to studios or galleries or art schools in the region."

I certainly consider myself an "art aficionado," but I have neither been asked nor have I seen the list until now. And after having gone through it, I agree with Blake, as I do not recognize most names, although I did find a few artists that I did recognize, plus a DC gallery owner, plus a well-known national muralist, plus someone with the unfortunate same name as a world famous model (I bet she gets great tables at restaurants).

There were also a large number of schools participating in teams, which I think is a positive effect of this project, and pushes it more toward the "public art" effort that Gopnik objects to.

On the positive side, some his words are good news, because until that statement I was not aware that Mr. Gopnik regularly visited studios or galleries, or art schools around here on a regular basis. I stand corrected and I applaud Gopnik for doing that.

This eloquent man also writes: "For a city its size, it [Washington, DC] also has a surprisingly large and vibrant community of contemporary artists, dealers, collectors and curators who keep things humming on the local scene, and have been steadily pushing its standards up."

It would also be good if he'd help with getting that "large and vibrant community" not be such a surprise by starting to write also about "local" artists and "local" galleries more often so that we'd all realize that he's "in tune" with our "local" art scene.

The proof is in the pudding, I mean writing.

Joanna Shaw-Eagle, the Washington Times Chief Art Critic has a great review of the Sandra Ramos gallery debut show currently on exhibition in Georgetown.

Blake Gopnik is not going to like this:

Carol Strickland, writing in the Christian Science Monitor makes the case that "painting is back."

"In the past two decades, cutting-edge galleries and museums have focused on everything but painting. The halls were chockablock with installations, photo-based work, conceptual art, new media, and digital and video art.

But a fundamental shift has taken place. For a survey exhibition of contemporary work at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Charlotta Kotik and her co-curator looked at thousands of works by emerging artists...

"The taste of the art world is changing," Ms. Kotik says. "Suddenly painting is allowed to exist again."

Read the whole article here, then print it and mail it to every museum curator, museum director and art critic that you know.

The rest of us already knew that no matter what gets written, and no matter what gets exhibited in museums, what truly makes an impact here in the trenches is and has been, and will continue to be painting.

(Thanks to ArtsJournal for the lead.)

Thanks to ArtsJournal for this:

A new for-profit company has formed in New York that will create a first-of-its-kind pension fund for artists. The fund, called the Artist Pension Trust, is designed to offer some retirement security for up-and-coming visual artists who are now in their 20s and 30s.

Instead of contributing money to the fund, the selected artists will contribute their own artwork to a trust. The artwork will be held for a number of years, then sold, with the proceeds going into the trust, from which artists will then draw their pensions.

But at issue is how does one guess who (in the 20s) will be a sellable artist in their 60s. Nonetheless, it is a novel and interesting idea.

There will be regional trusts in New York and Los Angeles. Each trust will have 250 artists. The artists will be chosen by a "prominent" group of artists, art professors and gallery owners in each region. Eventually, this outfit plans to have trusts in London, Berlin, Tokyo, Shanghai or Beijing, and possibly Miami.

Read the whole story here.

It may be fun to come up with a list of, say 25 DC area artists in their 20s and 30s, that we'd nominate for this Artist Pension Trust.... that is, if our area is considered for a trust fund.

Ned Rifkin, director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden passes that J. Tomilson Hill has been elected as the Chairman of the Hirshhorn's Board of Trustees.

Pretty fast move up the chain for Hill, who joined the Board in 1998 and served as Vice Chair two years later. Congratulations!

Some new shows...

Andrea Rowe Kraus has paintings and prints at Studio Gallery at Dupont Circle until June 13.

Paintings and sculpture by Korean artist Nong are on exhibit at Dega Gallery in McLean until July 3.

Richard Whiteley has new landscape paintings at Gallery West in Alexandria.

Mobiles by David Yano and abstract paintings by Marsha Hall share the gallery at Creative Partners in Bethesda.

Addison/Ripley in Georgetown has new work by Dan Treado until June 19.

Wayne Trapp has an Introspective on exhibition at Zenith Gallery downtown until June 6.

Nancy Sausser reviews "Expanding Realities", in today's Post. The show is curated by Sarah Tanguy and is currently on exhibition at the American Center for Physics.

God as an art critic?

As most of you probably know by now, the cream of the Saatchi YBA art collection, not including Chris Ofili's infamous dungwork The Holy Virgin Mary, which survives in the Saatchi Gallery, was destroyed a few days ago in a fire in London.

You can see most of the destroyed collection here.

The destruction of any artwork, no matter one's opinion of the "art" itself, is always to be lamented. However, in the case of the YBA's art lost in this fire, I wonder if it will have an "Elvis" effect on that work, and leave a sort of legendary (if ethereal) footprint on the pages of art history.

I submit that it will, and in fact it may be a brilliant (if unintended) act of marketing!

Since some of the British art world's leading prognosticators think that figurative art may be the "next big thing in art," I wouldn't be surprised to see this master marketeer make an 180 and start a "new" collection of figurative art.

I can hear the howling already...

---

In the Post today, Jessica Dawson reviews Leo Villareal at Conner Contemporary and Joe White at Edison Place Gallery.

My posting on galleryphobia has been getting responses from gallerists as far as Canada, Uruguay and the UK!

But best is this one from photographer James W. Bailey from the Greater Reston Arts Center in Reston, Virginia:

I wanted to recognize your scientific identification of galleryphobia. I believe that I have identified a sub-species at the Greater Reston Arts Center.

It just so happens that the most popular cigarette break spot at Reston Town Center is right in front of our largest window. There’s a concrete planter that sits facing our window and the smokers congregate for their isolationist rituals 6 to 8 times a day.

During the course of their smokes breaks, especially when their thin conversations have worn thinner, many of them will walk right up to the glass, plaster their faces against the glass, raise their hands above their heads to block the light so they can see better and stare through the glass while puffing away on their cancer sticks.

But they never come in! There’s this one girl whom I’ve been watching for 2 ½ years through the damn glass! She’s never stepped foot in the gallery.

Yet, everyday she’ll stare inside. I’ve tried opening the door, stepping outside and asking people to come in and take a look and even offered wine to them.

They are terrified of actually walking into the gallery. If you have no objection, I’m naming this sub-species, galleryphobia smokerterrifiedicus.

Funny!!!

By the way, a $38,000 life size statute was brazenly stolen this last weekend from an artist's booth, in front of thousands of art lovers at the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival.

Art & Antiques Magazine has an update on Sandra Ramos and her visa denial to attend her current U.S. solo gallery debut at our Georgetown gallery.

City Arts Projects

Deadline: May 27, 2004.

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH) City Arts Projects offers funds to encourage the growth of quality arts activities throughout the city, support local artists, and make arts experiences accessible to DC residents.

Projects must provide exposure to the arts and arts experiences to the broader community or to persons traditionally underserved or separated from the cultural mainstream due to geographic location, economic constraints, or disability.

Eligible projects include, but are not limited to: festivals, concerts, visual arts exhibitions, literary readings, and salary support to enhance cultural diversity among the staffs of arts organizations in DC.

Eligible applicants include arts and community organizations that have their principal place of business in DC and have both Federal (IRS) and DC tax exemptions for at least one year prior to the deadline date.

The deadline for applications is May 27, 2004. Grants between $1,000-$15,000 are available. Funds must be matched dollar for dollar. For further information, contact DCCAH at (202) 724-5613; or go to this website.

Pilfered from ArtsJournal: A Chicago art dealer has been charged with attempting to sell fake Picassos in Milwaukee.

I don't know of any DC area art dealer selling fake Picassos, but there are many, many "galleries" that do have a Picasso scam going on - not just in our area, but since many of these "galleries" are actually chain or franchise stores passing as art galleries, the scam goes on all over the country.

You know the type of "gallery" that I am talking about: They sell a lot of "pretty" decorative art, loads of gyclees on canvas by mass production, decorative artists with European-sounding names and "art" by famous people who are not artists or art by Hollywood actors. You can find these "galleries" in expensive rent areas (where a reputable gallery couldn't afford a space) such as M Street in Georgetown, most of La Jolla in California, in malls, and around Bethesda.

The scam is probably not illegal, but it is certainly unethical.

Here's how it works:

Many of Picasso's etching plates are apparently owned by some of his children, and they continue to use the plates to print their father's work ad nauseum. Then, the Picasso offspring sign the work with their last name, which conveniently is also "Picasso."

The sales pitch for the print then describes it as "this is a Picasso etching made from the original plate and it is signed."

They never (unless one asks) tell you that the Picasso signature that you see on the piece is NOT Pablo Picasso's signature but a Picasso son or daughter's signature (which of course now looks a lot like their father's)

So hapless buyers think that they are buying a print signed by the world's greatest artist, when in fact they are acquiring a print from his plate, but signed by one of his children.

Not illegal perhaps - but unethical.

Blake Gopnik finds a weakness in the new WWII Memorial.

I am posting from the Bethesda gallery, where I am observing galleryphobia in full action. There must be three dozen people in the plaza waiting to be called to the Original Pancake House, and nearly all of them are floating back and forth around the gallery's glass walls, peeking in and trying to see Tim Tate's extraordinary show - and yet not one brave soul dares to come in, although I have the gallery's front doors propped open and thus wasting precious air conditioning.

I am here on Sunday (rather than at home mowing my lawn amid the cicada invasion), because I am waiting for a Canadian film maker who is coming to do some filming as he's working on a documentary for Canadian television on the life of legendary photographer Lida Moser, who lives in retirement in Rockville and whose work we represent.

We are in the exhausting process of cataloguing all of Lida's remaining vintage photographs, some of which date back to the 1930s.