Waiting to Exhale Sigh
As I mentioned before, the massive collection of artwork by DC area artists which has been assembled for the permanent collection of the District and which is on view at the Wilson Building, is the closest that the capital city of the United States has ever been to having a "DC Artists Collection," since unlike all other major American cities, Washington does not have a physical "Washington Art Museum" and most area museum curators tend to look at their buildings as "national" museums and thus generally tend to ignore DC area artists.
I say that I am waiting to exhale, because I am holding my breath to see what the local DC area art critics write about this collection. I am told that over 1,000 RSVPs have been received for the opening, which is October 31, 2006 from 5-7PM, so this is clearly a major and important art event in the capital.
The collection has already received massive press and television coverage -- for Washington, DC that is -- such as a great piece by Jessica Gould in the WCP on Oct. 19, a piece in Intowner's October issue, an article coming in the first November issue of the Current newspapers, and article coming soon in the Express, maybe an article this coming week featuring the opening in the Wash Post Metro section, and next Thursday, maybe the District Extra cover. Additionally both Channel 4 News (on Oct. 25) and Channel 8 News (also on Oct. 25 and 26) have had features on the collection.
And I can predict (and maybe breathe now), that because it is a collection of DC area artists, and because it is a very large collection, and because it is a public (and apparently already popular) collection, they'll have either nothing to write about it (and by their apathy continue to show the District's arts media anemic insight into the District's dynamic art scene), or...
I hope that they'll prove me wrong, and do write extensively about the Wilson Building Art Collection, but I predict that:
- Blake Gopnik, the intelligent and erudite Chief Art Critic of the Washington Post will (a) ignore it, or (b) write about it and dismiss it, or use it to continue to preach his dated Greenbergian agenda.
- Joanna Shaw-Eagle, the elderly and experienced Chief Art Critic of the Washington Times will cover it, and offer us a detailed description of the collection.
- Michael O'Sullivan, the savvy Washington Post's Weekend section Chief Art Critic (and the only WaPo critic in "tune" with the DC area art scene), will probably cover it and offer the only true insight into this important collection.
- Jessica Dawson, the young freelance writer who pens the "Galleries" column for the Style section of the Washington Post will either (a) ignore it, or (b) cover it in a small dismissive little mini-review.
- Jeffry Cudlin, the award-winning Chief Art Critic for the Washington City Paper, may cover it (if his packed schedule as an Associate Adjunct Professor at Maryland allows it), and offer us an intelligent review, but will probably highlight the weaknesses that exist in any massive public art endeavor.
Let's see over the next few weeks if I've nailed this.
Sigh...
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Friday, October 27, 2006
Athenaeum
One of my absolutely favorite buildings in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia is the Athenaeum.
Built as a bank in 1851 in a Greek Revival style (and now a registered Virginia Landmark and a National Historic Site), this beautiful building stands out from the city's otherwise Federalist architecture with its high coved ceilings and large windows looking out onto cobblestones and 18th-century houses, and it is a splendid venue for an art exhibition, which is what the the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association uses it for.
About ten years ago I curated a massive exhibition there, titled "A Survey of Washington Area Realists" which accommodated a few hundred artists hung salon-style in this beautiful building and was a huge success.
"Peace Pieces," all new works by area artist Marta Sewall, opens on Sunday, November 5, 2006, at the Athenaeum. According to the news release, "the works abstractly depict patterns taken from the earth and various global cultures. The mixed media pieces personify the natural and manmade occurrences of global decay and rebirth. Ms. Sewall's works are inspired by fabrics, diverse world societal traditions and architecture details."
The opening reception is from 4:00 pm 6:00 pm on Sunday, November 5, 2006. The show will run through December 17, 2006.
"An Impressionist Sensibility" at SAAM
The Smithsonian American Art Museum will have "An Impressionist Sensibility: The Halff Collection," on view from Nov. 3 through Feb. 4, 2007.
According to the news release, the exhibition "presents iconic works by some of America's most talented and cherished artists. These selected paintings are from Marie and Hugh Halff's collection, one of the finest private collections of late 19th- and early 20th-century American art."
This exhibition is the first time this remarkable private collection has been on display in Washington, D.C.
"An Impressionist Sensibility" features 26 paintings by William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent and John Twachtman, among other internationally known artists.
Marie and Hugh Halff (who live in San Antonio, Texas) acquired these works during the past 20 years, and on Saturday, Nov. 4 at 4 p.m., Eleanor Harvey (curator for nineteenth and early twentieth century art, landscape painting, southwestern and Texas art) will lead a discussion about collecting with the Halffs.
They will be joined by the fair Barbara Guggenheim, who not only has a cool art name, but is also a well-known consultant who advises private collectors, including the Halffs, and corporations about building art collections. Ms. Guggenheim's book "Decorating on eBay : Fast & Stylish on a Budget" was published a year ago.
This free public program will take place in the museum's new McEvoy Auditorium.
Wanna go to a DC opening tonight?
First make a beeline for The Gallery at Flashpoint, which will be showing A. B. Miner, Ian Jehle, Nekisha Durrett: Me, You & Those Other Folks and the opening reception is from 5-7 pm. Listen to me and bring your sheckels and buy Miner now, I say again: "Buy Miner Now!" Last week Capps wrote about Miner's work for the WCP here and there are lots of other earlier reviews here.
"going... #1" by A.B. Miner
Then tomorrow haul ass to say farewell to Cheryl Numark, who will be closing her gorgeous award-winning space after this show. That opening is on Saturday from 6:30 to 8PM.
Open Studios in DC area
Mid City Artists, is a prominent group of diverse Washington, DC area artists in the U St./Dupont/Logan neighborhoods (talented artists such as Anne Marchand, Robert Cole, Craig Kraft, Sondra Arkin, Colin Winterbottom and others) and they will all unveil new work during their semi-annual Open Studios events coming Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 11-12, from 12pm - 5pm.
This two-day event will feature new and varied collections of sculpture, painting, photography and other media. A detailed downloadable map is available on their website at www.midcityartists.com.
Also hosting open studios are the Reeb Hall Studio artists in Arlington, VA. Their Annual Open Studio day will be held on Saturday, November 4 from 2 to 5 p.m. The 13 visual artists currently working at the studio are: Shahla Arbabi, Carlo P. Biggio, Jr., Jane Buckman, Beverly Donnenfeld-Chello, Carol Lopatin, Phillip Loiterstein, Anne McGurk, Kebedech Tekleab, Lee Vaughan, Rick Weaver, Alice Whealin, Linn Woloshin and Cynthia Young.
Details here.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Holocaust Survivor wants her paintings removed from Auschwitz
While I was in Santa Fe I read this story in the local newspaper.
Artist Dina Babbitt was once forced to make a deal with Dr. Josef Mengele (the brutal Nazi doctor who subjected concentration-camp prisoners to ghastly medical experiments). Mengele "needed someone to illustrate his perverse racial theories with portraits of Auschwitz's Gypsy prisoners, an inferior group according to Nazi ideology. A trained artist, she agreed to do the work as the price of saving her mother, as well as herself, from the concentration camp's gas chamber."
In 1973 she discovered that seven of her paintings wound up in a museum at Auschwitz dedicated to preserving a historical record of the Holocaust.
And she wants them back. Read both sides of the story here.
Openings
New
Two DC galleries add to their online presence.
Nevin Kelly Gallery has a new online blog, as far as I know the only DC area commercial gallery to have one. Visit their new blog here.
Conner Contemporary Art has just launched a new website. The new site offers the ability to view video and listen to audio excerpts from their artists. They also offer audio downloads of gallery events and lectures with artists, art historians, curators and other experts in the field. Visit the new website here.
Wanna go to an opening in DC tonight?
New ceramic pieces by Howard graduate Tricia Bishop - this will be her first show in her old neighborhood! - And new works by DC area painter Sandra Warren Gobar (who is a faculty member of both the Smithsonian Institution and the Corcoran College of Art & Design) opens tonight at the new Longview Gallery in DC. The artists' reception is on Thursday, October 26, from 5-8pm.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Monday, October 23, 2006
Factory Work: Warhol, Wyeth and Basquiat
The Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, by virtue of its gorgeous countryside location, is worlds apart from the typical urban setting where we expect to find a fine arts museum, and exists in an almost make-believe part of America that has been made famous by the Wyeth family of artists for the last three generations.
Currently on exhibition through November 19, 2006 is Factory Work: Warhol, Wyeth and Basquiat, an eye-opening exhibition that should cement firmly the artistic footprint of the youngest of the two active Wyeth artists: Jamie Wyeth.
Jamie Wyeth (born 1946) and Jean-Michel Basquiat (born 1960 and died 1988) were both young, successful artists with substantial reputations of their own, when Warhol invited them (Wyeth in the 70s and Basquiat in the 80s) to join him in New York and paint with Warhol’s at the Factory, Warhol’s famous New York studio.
Jamie Wyeth is the son of realist painter and American art icon Andrew Wyeth, and the grandson of illustrator N.C. Wyeth (and all three of the Wyeth’s share other salons in the museum). But while Andrew Wyeth and his father are well-known names in the iconography of American art, Jamie has somewhat been unfairly dismissed by the postmodernists and the usual town criers always screaming about the "death of painting," and Jamie Wyeth, above it all, is a painter in the most powerful and solid of all painting traditions.
The current exhibition at the Brandywine River Museum showcases and documents the results of Wyeth’s long and fruitful association with Warhol and also Warhol’s subsequent and similar association with Basquiat.
The Wyeth-Warhol relationship was a close one. The two shopped for antiques and taxidermy specimens together, attended art exhibition and gallery openings, and exchanged ideas and traded influences. Warhol also visited Wyeth's farm in Chadds Ford, several times and in fact documented one of these visits in his published diaries.
Furthermore, and perhaps the most interesting part of the exhibition, Warhol and Wyeth painted each other's portraits, as later did Basquiat and Warhol. It is in these portraits that we discover a close, even intimate (in a friendship way) relationship between these artists.
When I was visiting the museum, I was lucky to run into the fair Victoria Wyeth, grandaughter of Andrew and niece to Jamie. Through her, as she walked through the museum and talked about her talented family, some intimate insights into her uncle's relationship and influence from and to Andy Warhol was revealed.
30 years ago, a journalist referred to the 1976 exhibition of the Wyeth and Warhol portraits at the Coe Kerr Gallery in New York City as "The Patriarch of Pop Paints the Prince of Realism." Famed art critic Hilton Kramer referred to these same portraits as "an all male version of Beauty and the Beast."
Wyeth has said about this portrait that Warhol’s "whole thing of absorbing everything, of recording – turning yourself into a sort of tape recorder – that appealed to me... Our work was diametrically opposite. But I loved the idea that he was a recorder. And I styled myself after it... And then I selfishly wanted to record him and paint every pimple that he had on his face. And he let me."
While I was at the museum, it was this portrait of Warhol that attracted the most attention, even from a visiting self-proclaimed Warholite, who told me that she had come to the exhibition just to see it (the painting is owned by the Cheekwood Museum of Art in Nashville).
It captures the illusion of Warhol as only a master portrait artist can, somewhat dazed and fragile, looking much as if Warhol had aimed his famed 16mm camera onto himself. This is Wyeth at his most spectacular, in full control of unbelievable genetic technical skills that were evident at a tender age (he had his first New York gallery show at the age of 20). 
They depict Wyeth as a dreamy-eyed, handsome male prototype, a depiction that Warhol would revisit years later with Basquiat. In the drawings, Wyeth's lips are visited often by Warhol's pencil, delineating every line and crevice. "Jamie is just as cute in New York as he is in Chadds Ford," said Warhol in 1976, "and what I hope to reveal in the portrait is Jamie’s cuteness."
If Jamie Wyeth’s artwork was "diametrically opposite" to that of Warhol, it exists on another art history universe from that of art school icon Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Basquiat was a determined and ambitious teenager who was a product of the 80’s and who sought out Warhol (according to the museum's press release), "not so much to learn about painting, but to learn how to become a celebrity."
According to art historian Robert Rosenblum, Basquiat was a "crazy kid from Brooklyn who... began his meteoric career by raucously embracing a counter-cultural life, living in public parks, selling painted T-shirts on the street, spraying graffiti on city walls, succumbing to cocaine and heroin, and using a garbage-can lid as his painter's palette."
Warhol and Basquiat, like Warhol and Wyeth a decade earlier, painted each other's portraits and collaborated on a series of paintings that were exhibited in 1985.
Basquiat tried Warhol's silk-screen techniques, and Warhol created an "oxidation" (copper metal powder, Liquitex acrylics, and urine) portrait of Basquiat. In this process, Warhol mix copper pigment with water and gesso and apply it to canvas. He would then pee onto this wet paint, and the urine would react with the copper to make it change colors. Once dried, Warhol would silkscreen the image onto the oxidized canvas.
Still a developing artist (his painting career only spanned seven years), Basquiat died of a drug overdose a year after Warhol's unexpected death in 1987. According to Paige Powell, Warhol’s assistant who dated Basquiat, "Warhol provided fatherly advice" and Basquiat learned "how to be a professional artist, how to be a business person, how to schmooze the collectors and hold the line with the dealers."
In Basquiat’s "Sketch of Andy Warhol" (1983-84), he captures a shocking view of Warhol, exposing him – in a completely different visual representation, but identical artistic insight – much like Wyeth had done in 1976. Robert Rosenblum notes in the exhibition’s catalog essay that "Warhol must also have been attracted, in a masochistic way, to the shocking candor of both Wyeth’s and Basquiat’s portraits of him."
In addition to the artwork, the exhibition is rich in peripheral materials (photographs, magazines, videos, and even Basquiat’s famed garbage-can lid palette) supporting the relationship between Warhol and the younger artists.
While both Warhol and Basquiat met unfortunate and early deaths, Jamie Wyeth continues to create works saluting his relationship with Warhol. Wyeth's The Wind (1999) is a modern interpretation of a post-Pre-Raphaelite painting owned by Warhol. Factory Lunch (2004) depicts Warhol at the Factory, and Fred Hughes (2005) captures Warhol with his ever-present tape recorder and his business manager.
The exhibition was curated by Dr. Joyce Hill Stoner, who is an art historian, paintings conservator and Director of the Preservation Studies Doctoral Program at the University of Delaware. It runs through Nov. 19 and then it will travel to the Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas, from January 16 to April 8, 2007, and the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, from May 6 to August 26, 2007. Unfortunately it is currently not scheduled for any Greater DC area museum, where I think it would be a resounding success and open some curious minds to react on the association of these three creative artists. In fact, I think that this exhibition, with its important documentation of two significant artistic crossroads, should be picked up by museums and venues at all of our major art markets. It would not only be a good thing for our art students, but also for our public, and even for our penny-pinching museum administrators looking for an important exhibition that is also of interest to the general public and to American art historians.
Located on U.S. Route 1 in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, the Brandywine River Museum is open daily, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., except Christmas Day. Admission is $8 for adults; $5 for seniors ages 65 and over, students with I.D., and children; and free for children under six and Brandywine Conservancy members. For more information, call 610-388-2700 or visit the museum's website at www.brandywinemuseum.org.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Another Great Santa Fe Gallery Discovery
Strolled into the Lew Allen Contemporary gallery in Old Town Santa Fe and was pleasantly surprised not only to find the kind of artwork that is seeting Santa Fe apart as a key spot on the world art scene, but also an amazing and beautiful space.
The gallery is set on two levels, each one of which could swallow most of the Mid Atlantic's largest galleries.
On exhibition on the ground floor gallery was work by Jean Arnold, Ben Aronson, Daniel Morper in a really tight show entitled "Arnold/Aronson/Morper: Cities Different" and because it offered three distinctly different visions and takes of urban landscapes, it immediately appealed to me.
These three artists each has a singularly distinctive approach to depicting the urban settings that attracts their attention, and they have been placed together in a very strong show that manages to sew together their visions into a memorable tapestry of urban art.
Lew Allen Contemporary has so far impressed me the most in this short visit, but more later!
SITE Santa Fe
Today I'll be exploring SITE Santa Fe's Sixth International Biennial: Still Points of the Turning World curated by Klaus Ottmann.
Santa Fe
In my first visit to Santa Fe, New Mexico, a couple of quick impressions (lots more to follow later):
- At around 70,000 people, Santa Fe is a lot smaller that I imagined.
- It is a charming and beautiful place, and Gerald Peters deserves a lot, in fact most of the credit, for turning this amazing place from a little town full of "cayote" art spaces into the third largest art market in the world.
- There are a lot of art galleries here, at least 500% more that I had imagined.
- There are a lot of art galleries here that still deal in "coyote" art, but I am told by a couple of local art dealers that met with me yesterday that there's an equal huge number of galleries that offer good contemporary art in all the other genres.
- One of the good ones that I discovered yesterday was Chiaroscuro. More on them later.
- Loads of good restaurants as well. Last night had exceptional nopal leaves and carnitas and great live music at Los Mayas.
Friday, October 20, 2006
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Gould makes her CP debut and Rousseau nails FeBland
I am in New Mexico... but back in the DC area:
Jessica Gould makes her WCP debut with a really nice piece on the new Wilson Building Art Collection, in Washington, DC making an excellent subtle point on the lack of nudity in American (not just the Wilson's) public art. Read her colum here.
DC's other large public art collection (at the Washington Convention Center), as far as I recall, does not have a single nude in its roster, and precious few figurative works.
This new collection at the Wilson Building is the closest that we now have to a "DC Artists Collection" and curator Sondra Arkin deserves a lot of kudos for her hard work in putting it together.
In the Gazette (which is owned by the Washington Post), Dr. Claudia Rousseau reviews David FeBland's fourth solo at Fraser Gallery.
FeBland's is Fraser's best-selling artist, but that success has not come without a lot of hardwork from FeBland himself. Not only from an enviable work ethic, but also from a very savvy approach to the artworld.
Path of Escape by David FeBland
Gehry for Philly
The Philadelphia Museum of Art today announced its selection of Frank O. Gehry as architect for a 10-year master plan to "dramatically expand the Museum."
According to the news release, "In a departure from the sculptural buildings for which the architect is best known, Gehrys challenge at the Philadelphia Museum of Art will be to create dynamic new spaces for art and visitors alike without disturbing the classic exterior of a building that is already a defining landmark in Philadelphia. The project will add expansive new galleries for contemporary art and special exhibitions by excavating under the Museums east terrace on the hill of Fairmount, and will renovate the Museums existing interiors to create additional space for the display of its renowned collections. A total of 80,000 square feet of new public spacea 60 % increase is anticipated."
At the Board of Trustees meeting today, H. F. "Gerry" Lenfest, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, stated: "We have asked one of the world’s most respected architects to expand this world-class museum, and we look forward to working with Frank and his talented staff to realize a project that began as a dream and that today, in partnership with the city and the state, can begin to move full steam ahead."
A warning note to Anne d’Harnoncourt, Director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art: Corcoran.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
What Gives?
I read somewhere the other day that in the last year, the US economy grew at such a healthy pace that its growth alone was like creating a brand new economy the size of China's entire economy. And every day I hear about how the stock market is setting new records. And everyday I hear about how the unemployment rate is the lowest that it has been in ages.
And yet, I've managed to pick the worst time in recent history to try to sell my house in Potomac, MD.
So, I have now reduced it in price by over $175,000 from its initial price and its "comp" value and by almost $200,000 from what HouseValues.com says that it is worth.
Buy the house here.
