Ariel Rios Murals
A few days ago I posted about a memo by Luis A. Luna, Assistant Administrator, Office of Administration and Resources Management, who announced a decision to install a temporary screen in two days. The screen will cover up five historical murals (out of 25 in the building) on the 5th floor of the Ariel Rios building in Washington, DC. These murals were created under a 1934 U.S. Treasury art commissioning program.
The six murals which will be covered up, and which have titles such as "French Explorers and Indians," "Torture by Stake," "The Red Man Takes the Mochila," etc. depict a diverse set of panoramas ranging from spectacular scenes of the often violent interaction between the American West’s native nations and the new settlers, to artistic recreation of historical meetings between European explorers and native Americans.
While it is perhaps understandable that the imagery on some of these murals may be objectionable to some workers or visitors -- perhaps embarrassing to some due to the nudity in some of the murals, and perhaps offensive to others due to its depiction of native Americans, and maybe even more objectionable due to the violence depicted in many of them -- in my opinion it would be even more objectionable to a majority of us to have these historical murals covered up or destroyed.
A nation that chooses to ignore or whitewash its past, is a nation without a historical memory and without a cultural footprint.
Nearly the entire world was aghast when the Taliban destroyed the gigantic Buddha sculptures that were offensive to that repressive regime, and we all condemned the demolition as a vile and barbaric act of cultural ignorance and artistic destruction. And yet here we are almost ready to do the same to an integral, if not proud, part of our historical and artistic past.
Art is perhaps the only vehicle that we have left that crosses all cultural barriers and creates bridges and memories for mankind. Visual art, especially representational historical visual art, has created for our nation an important cultural footprint and a significant record of our past. As such it cannot and must not be now censored or destroyed, lest we forget it.
I have had many opportunities to sit on the advisory board of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and in that process I have help to fund many of the contemporary murals that now adorn our nation’s capital. In that position, I have no doubt in my mind that there is no arts commission or city in our nation that would remotely consider funding these 1930s murals in 2006, much less in a public building. That is just the nature of where we were in 1930 as a people and where we are now.
But it is my hope that decades from now, if someone finds any of the murals that we have funded in the last few years for our nation’s capital objectionable, that our future Americans will have more conviction and more common sense and more guts to stand fast rather than to immediately take the politically-correct and knee-jerk reaction to "cover" them up, or consider removing them.
Keep the murals as they are.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Congrats!
To Min Jung Kim from Chantilly High School, who is The League of Reston Artists (LRA) award recipient of its 2006 Art Scholarship Award in the amount of $1,000.
Conversions
The Ellipse Arts Center and the Washington Project for the Arts\Corcoran have teamed up to present "Conversions," which is an exhibition "exploring spatial interpretations juried from three distinct points of view."
The opening reception is tomorrow, July 19, 7 – 9 pm and the show runs through September 29, 2006. It was curated by artist Sam Gilliam, Dennis O’Neil (director of the Hand Print Workshop and printmaking professor at the Corcoran College of Art + Design), and Ubercollectors Heather & Tony Podesta.
They selected works by Renee Butler, Kathryn Cornelius, Susan Eder/Craig Dennis, M. Sedestrom Guthrie, Lisa Kellner, Michelle Kong, Tomas Rivas, Tai Hwa Goh, Joan Sarah Wexler, Ami Martin Wilber and Amy Glengary Yang.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Art Enables
Art Enables is a not-for-profit arts studio for persons with developmental and/or mental disabilities. They work with artists from throughout the region - DC, MD, and VA.
On July 22nd, they are hosting their first-ever regional art event, a one day juried exhibition of outsider/folk/visionary artwork produced in 14 programs located in DC, Baltimore, and the region.
The exhibition features the work of over 60 artists, most of whom have not been exhibited before.
Although Art Enables is the host for the exibition, the show includes work created by outsider artists through a diverse group os organizations, such as Miriam’s Kitchen, Prisons Foundation, Smith Farm for the Healing Arts, Create! For Seniors, Anchor Mental Health, Art for the People, Studio Downstairs, Mitch Snyder Arts and Education Center, Life Skills, Arc of Baltimore, St. Luke’s House, ARTiculate of WVSA arts connection, and Arts for the Aging.
The juried show, on July 22, 2006, is at MOCA DC in the heart of Georgetown. It is a one-day event, 11 am to 8 pm (reception from 6 pm to 8 pm). The exhibit and gala are free and open to the public.
Phantom Floor
Phantom Floor is a new exhibition opening this coming Thursday, July 20, 2006 from 6-9pm (show runs through August 11, 2006) at Salve Regina Gallery, Catholic University, 620 Michigan Ave. NE, Dept. of Art, Salve Regina Hall. Red Line Metro, Brookland/CUA stop.
The exhibition is curated by Lea-Ann Bigelow, and according to the news release, the exhibition explores the following:
"In the shifting territory between the real and the (imag)ined, the material and the ephemeral, the defined and the unbounded, the self and the other – there dwells the phantom.
For their existence, phantoms draw deeply on individuals’ desire to conjure, project and believe-in alternate and ofttimes contested truths based on their singular, personal experiences.
With Phantom Floor, guest curator Lea-Ann Bigelow brings together the bold new work of three young Washington-area artists – Phoebe Esmon, Tomás Rivas and Karen Joan Topping – in a collective engagement with the liminal and powerfully evocative notion of the phantom.
Through site-specific installations, sculpture and mixed media compositions, the artists excavate, (re)interpret and unleash a host of histories and memories - of places, of people, of things – in a strategic haunting of the gallery, and in so doing remind us of the willful defiance of established truths that fuels artistic creation itself."
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Who's he calling an idiot?
Jackie Trescott has an interesting interview and profile with the Corcoran's new director: Paul Greenhalgh.
Pronounced Green-halggg, or maybe Green-HA-elgg; no wait: Green-halsh! In what language does "halg" sound like "halsh" anyway... silly Brits.
Anyway, it sounds like Greenhalgh is taking the Corcoran by the horns and doing a superb job so far - this appears to be a man who knows that he needs to clean up house, fix it up and then re-establish it as one of America's great art venues. So far it seems like his hiring was the right thing and the right choice.
And I like Greenhalgh's firmness in his words and beliefs.
And I wonder if he is responding to the Blake Gopnik recommendation that the Corcoran become a museum of photography when he says:
"The idea that you would brand yourself with one message is, of course, the idiot's approach to museums," he says. "Museums are complicated places. There is no reason we can't be the edgiest institution and the most experimental over a period of years."Now, that's what I call a response... if he's responding... ehr.. to the photography idea... that is.
Last night
Great opening at my last show with Fraser Gallery. Thanks to all of you who came by to say "goodbye" and "hello" in my new incarnation sans Fraser.
NBC 4 was there filming the opening and discussing my next moves and the history of DC Art News, etc. They also interviewed the fair Katie Tuss, who will be one of the writers helping me expand DC Art News.
There were also a couple of newspaper writers, a few gallerists (I finally met face to face with Nevin Kelly), some curators, a museum director and tons of artists and friends. Thanks to all of you for coming.
Brisk sales, including both pieces by Amy Lin, who is very hot right now - my advice: Buy Lin now before she skyrockets. Lin is currently in at least two more shows around town and selling well everywhere. And she should sign up with a gallery soon.
Best in show winner was a new artist (new to me anyway): Taryn Wells from Medfield, Mass. Powerful, powerful skilled drawings that convey not only exceptional techical skill but also that immensely hard ability to deliver a powerful message via a visual image.
Both of Wells' pieces also sold as soon as the show opened, and I see bright things in the future of this artist.
Award winners:
Best in Show: Taryn Wells
First Place: Andrew Decaen
Second Place: Joseph Hamilton
Third Place: Jenny Davis
Hon. Mention: Anna Conti
Hon Mention: Roland Delcol
Hon. Mention: Angela Grey
Friday, July 14, 2006
This is the kind of lunacy that makes me wanna...
From: Luis A. LunaThis will be the subject of a rant from me later on... below is "The Red Man Takes the Mochila."
Assistant Administrator, Office of Administration and Resources Management
To: All EPA Employees
As you may know, on March 15, 2005, GSA initiated the Section 106 consultation process, under the National Historic Preservation Act, regarding the current setting of the historic murals in the headquarters Ariel Rios North and South buildings. GSA established a consulting group and developed a Web site to solicit comments from interested parties: www.gsa.gov/arielriosmurals.
An executive summary of these comments is now posted on the Web site.
The next steps of this process include GSA identifying a panel of experts that will meet in mid-October to provide them with a higher level of information and input on the murals. EPA employees, members of the Native American community and other interested parties will be invited to participate. At the completion of the forum, the recorded dialogue will be made available to the general public and a final round of public comments will be taken. Based on the information derived by the forum and the public comments, GSA is expected to make its final determination regarding the murals by January 31, 2007.
In the meantime, GSA has completed the design of a temporary screen that will be placed in front of the murals on the 5th floor of the Ariel Rios building. The screen is expected to be ready for installation no later than July 21, 2006.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
DCist Love
She's cute, she's very funny on her own personal blog and she's developed really quickly into a damned good art writer and critic as well, and Heather Goss sends DC Art News some Internet love and some really good advice on an area that has really been the subject of a lot of thinking for me: Keeping my focus on the Greater DC area constant and prevent it from thinning when I start sniffing around Philly and Baltimore and all that's between.
Read it here.
Then come by tomorrow to the Fraser Gallery between 6-9PM and say hello, goodbye and hello again.
Corcoran Opening
Packed house last night at the Corcoran's private opening for "redefined: Modern and Contemporary Art from the Collection."
Ran into the legendary Lida Moser and we had a nice walk-though of the exhibit, which provides an opportunity to see many of the museum’s most important works from the 1950s to the present.
If I have time I will return and do a better (and slower) walkthrough of the show, but on a first look, I think that this massive Ida Applebroog steals the exhibitions, and the Cornell boxes are always amazing (as usual).
I was also taken by this large oil by Kim Dingle, which reminded me of the recent work of local painter Rachel Waldron (who was at the Corcoran last night).
Art for Life
They will feature the live/silent auction format again this year allowing them to accommodate a larger number of works of art from artists, as well as keep our guests engaged in the auction throughout the night.
This is one of my favorite art auctions and a major fundraiser for the Whitman-Walker Clinic.
I really encourage artists to donate work to this auction.
Hurry! The deadline to register is today!
To donate art for the auction go here or contact:
Martha N. Miers
Associate Director of Special Events
Whitman-Walker Clinic
1407 S Street NW
Washington, DC 20009
202.797.3529 (o)
202.797.3560 (f)
www.wwc.org
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Artwork for Dulles
The airport is looking for some proposals to add artwork to some of the Dulles Metrorail stations.
Deadline is August 4, 2006 and the prospectus can be downloaded here.
Chalk4Peace
Chalk4Peace is a young person's global art project planned for Sept. 16-17, 2006 with the goal to have one million young artists of all ages using sidewalk chalk to create their visions and messages of Peace.
To create a Chalk4Peace event in your neighborhood. Contact: John Aaron, Director or visit www.chalk4peace.org, or call 703-528-4800 to find out more about how you and your community can be part of the project.
The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund
Deadline: September 15, 2006
The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund welcomes applications from visual artists aged 40 years or older, who live within 150 miles of Washington, D.C. and can demonstrate that they have the potential to benefit as artists from a grant.
The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund does not, however, accept applications from filmmakers, video artists, and performance artists. In 2005 the Franz and Virginia Bader Fund awarded three grants of $15,000 each.
The deadline for applications is September 15, 2006. Application forms may be downloaded from the fund's web site: www.baderfund.org or may be requested by sending an email to grants@baderfund.org or by calling 202-288-4608.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
This will be my last one
As a result of several personal decisions, the show that will open next Friday, July 14, 2006,(and which I juried) at the Fraser Gallery will be my last one associated with the gallery.
When Catriona and I opened the first Fraser Gallery in Georgetown in 1996, we did so with a well-defined focus and backed by the financial empire of Mr. Visa and Mrs. MasterCard. We also did it without stealing another gallery's mailing list to start with (in fact we did not have a mailing list at all!) and with a working list of what to do - number one on that list was (and is): "pay the artist first."
In spite of the tremendous apathy that our local media shows all art galleries, and the dreadful state of art collecting and support to local artists exhibited by our general public, the gallery did very well over the years, and in 2002 we opened a second, larger gallery in Bethesda. For the next four years we operated two art galleries concurrently, in a whirlwind of work and exhibitions. Earlier this year we closed the original gallery in Georgetown and concentrated our efforts on the Bethesda location.
The gallery continues to do well, and this year has so far been our best year ever, already surpassing comparisons with 2005, which has been our best year to date. Fraser Gallery remains one of the key independently owned commercial visual art galleries in our region and will be so for many years to come.
The show which opens Friday, and which I juried, is our annual juried competition, the first of which I also juried in 1996. Following this exhibition, I will no longer be associated personally or legally with the gallery, which will be continued to be directed (and now solely owned) by the talented and hardworking Catriona Fraser.
I am making this decision as a result of several key personal items, one of which is the fact that within the next couple of months I will commence a major shift in location, which will see me partially re-locate to the area in or around Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, a couple of hours north of here.
I am NOT "leaving" the DC area. In fact my tentative plans call for me working physically (and living) in the DC area most weekdays, and spending weekends and some weeks in Swarthmore.
This will leave me with some much needed time in my hands to do a couple of projects, one of which should be of interest to all readers of DC Art News.
(a) As some of you know, I have been receiving a handful of offers for the DC Art News "concept" to go national in the sense of associating the blog with a national entity and expand its coverage and concept to a national audience. I have resisted doing this for obvious reasons: lack of time.
And while I will not transform DC Art News into a national "art news" blog, with the help of two additional writers, who will help me add more content to the blog (content that I will edit and they will do the work to make it bloggable), I will expand DC Art News to cover more of the geographical area that I will be "living" in, and thus sometime soon I will start covering and calling it "Mid-Atlantic Art News."
More on this later.
(b) I will spend the next year investigating and deciding on how to re-invent myself as a private art dealer. This may end up with a new physical gallery space somewhere yet to be decided, but certainly will soon definately include both an online presence and a private presence representing several artists in art fairs around the nation and perhaps Europe along the Douz & Mille model and/or the Curator's Office model.
(c) I will finally (hopefully) have to some time in my hands to finish a couple of long-delayed book projects. The first is a guide to DC area art galleries and museums, for which I have been under contract to produce for now over a year. Tentatively titled "Art Around the Capital," the guide will list all visual art spaces around the DC area as well as details about the space, its artists, etc. More on that later as well. The second is my long-delayed art history book on the art of the Pictish Nations of pre-Celtic Scotland.
(d) I will also devote more time and effort to my own artwork.
And thus this Friday's opening will be my farewell show at Fraser Gallery, and I hope to see as many of you there as possible. The opening will feature the work of the following artists:
Collin Asmus, Boston, MA
Marina Bare, Salisbury, NC
Lisa Brotman, Bethesda, MD
Robert Cantor, Annandale, VA
Mary Chiaramonte, Broadway, VA
Anna Conti, San Francisco, CA
Jenny Davis, Hughesville, MD
Andrew Decaen, Orlando, FL
Roland Delcol, Knokke, Belgium
Linda Frost, Santa Monica, CA
Angela Grey, Cleveland, OH
James Halloran, Arlington, VA
Joseph Hamilton, Landover, MD
Amy Lin, Fairfax, VA
Gabrielle Mayer, Louisville, KY
Sharon Moody, McLean, VA
Nancy Reinke, Alexandria, VA
Peter Van Riper, Washington, DC
Paul Ryan, Baltimore, MD
Hannah Ueno-Olsen, Hammonton, NJ
Taryn Wells, Medfield, MA
The opening is this coming Friday from 6-9PM and will (of course) have loads of sangria and the terrific art of the above artists. Come by and say hello and farewell and hello again.
See ya there!
New Art Space
Opening on July 14, 2006 from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm, Hillyer Art Space presents Scratching the Surface: a Survey of Artists in the Washington Region, the first show in their series of Washington Region Programs.
It will remain on view through August 24, 2006 and aims to bring recognition to a variety of artists living and working in the Washington region. The exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Kevin MacDonald, a well-known and much loved artist who worked in the DC area and who died recently.
The new art venue assembled a committee of some of the most prominent visual artists in the region to identify colleagues and other lesser exposed artists working in a variety of medium such as sculpture, screen prints, ceramics, painting, ink on paper, mixed media etc. for inclusion in the show. Scratching the Surface will feature works by Jiha Moon, Erin Root, Jody Bergstresser, Dan Dudrow, Zachary Jackson, Amy Lin, Mai Kojima, Jeffrey Meizlik, Conrad Meyers II, John Trevino, and Steven F. Kijek
The panel responsible for the selection of these artists is made up of some of the region’s most celebrated and respected artists, including: Bill Christenberry, Manon Cleary, John Dreyfuss, David Driskell, Bill Dunlap, Helen Frederick, Carol Brown Goldberg, Pat Goslee, Rebecca Kamen, Quentin Mosley, Dennis O’Neil, Wendy Ross, John Ruppert, Foon Sham, Renee Stout, Lou Stovall, Duncan Tebow, Mindy Weisel, and Frank Wright.
