Projects Gallery

Adding to my list of Mid Atlantic area art galleries and private dealers heading to Miami next month, Philadelphia's Projects Gallery will be at Bridge Art Fair Miami at the Catalina Hotel & Beach Club - Room 212.

They will be featuring artists Steve Cope, Peter Gourfain, Tom Judd, Frank Hyder, Florence Putterman and others.

Projects Gallery also has "surprising and unusual works by big-name artists" in an exhibition titled "little secrets." First Friday reception on Friday, December 1st, 2006 5 - 9 PM and running through December 1st - 22nd, 2006. The exhibition includes works by Chuck Close, Sidney Goodman, Peter Gourfain, James Havard and James McGarrell.

The Rise of Gaming

Interesting editorial in the WaPo today.

"The Rise of Gaming - The 21st century's oil painting?" offers the suggestion that "Social observers are beginning to deem video game design an emerging art form, especially as companies ratchet up production values."

Fair enough, but the 21st century still has oil painting... and acrylic painting, and encaustic painting, and spray painting, etc.

Nowhere in the editorial is the practice of painting mentioned. But the fact that it is in the subtitle greatly indicates what the WaPo's management thinks about the function of the fine arts in our society today.

And I keep hearing through the grapevine that the coming changes in the WaPo, including the fact that "work is underway to create a new Sunday Style and Arts section," will actually mean less fine arts coverage by the newspaper.

This is not good.

Caroline Altmann Story

"Reflecting on My Retrospective" by Caroline Altmann is presented below, and it is without a doubt one of the most interesting introductions (by the artist) to the exhibition space's "official" news releases that I've read in a long time.

Caroline Altmann on Becoming An Artist

What is a portfolio manager doing twisting, turning and shaking around cacti, hydrangeas, and hostas? Five years ago, I left Wall Street to raise my children near their grandparents. (They live in Mount Vernon.) I then sat down to meditate, something I was too busy to do while managing $2 billion in assets for Bankers Trust. Every time I sat down, complete art ideas rushed into my mind. It was as if a door to a creative bank vault had burst opened. So, out went the notion of starting a new career at the World Bank and in came the idea of becoming an artist.

This change was in fact a bridge to an earlier phase in my life. My parents were collectors of baroque sculpture. Art was the fabric of my Brazilian birthplace’s culture. A family move to England brought new sensibilities – rawness of punk aesthetics and classical sophistication of European capitals. Museum outings to the Prado, for example, were highlights. Then at Tufts University, late nights increasingly devoted to the darkroom rather than early mornings to US diplomatic history precipitated a change in majors -- from international relations to art history. I studied photography at the joint program with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Thereafter, I found work in local galleries and interned at the museum. But that didn’t bring me enough satisfaction. I continued to photograph but I wanted to collect. Gallery pay was low during those recession years. So getting an MBA seemed a good idea. But it came at a cost. No more time for making art. And, after living in Japan with no possessions, I lost the urge to collect. Fifteen exciting years were marked by the Tokyo Stock market crash, the 90’s Bull Market, a new fabulous husband. With a 9 month-old baby in my belly, I move away from New York to Virginia where grandparents and a new career awaited. After we were settled, I attempted to leap from managing money to making art.

That change was as overwhelming as blank canvas can be. How do I become an artist? Do I deserve to become an artist? Shouldn’t I have known from an early age that this was the only thing I could do? And then, struggled for years? Artistic myths, hmm. But the voice of the budding artist tentatively suggested, “Roy Lichtenstein only turned to fine arts in his late thirties. And, how about Philip Johnson? He only got his architecture degree later on in life.”

I called Ingo Günther in New York. He is a successful international artist and dear friend. "Ingo, I am going to be an artist. Do not discourage me. Tell me how to do it." I blurted. I ordered the book, "The Artist’s Way," joined a couple of art groups, Secondsight, for women photographers and WCA-DC, recommended by a neighbor for women artists. The closest I have come before to joining groups was adding my name to business directories. And then I got lucky.

The woman who founded Secondsight, Catriona Fraser, also sponsored a seminar, "Success As An Artist." The all day event was a neatly organized agenda of all the lessons she and Lenny Campello (of "dcartews" blog fame) learnt over 20 years, plus a fabulous packet of resources. I started sculpture and then dove back into photography – a passion at college. Then I got lucky again.

Late for a lunch in Georgetown, stopping too quickly at a stop sign, a police officer gave me a moving violation. To boot, my lunch date called, postponing by an hour. I felt so foolish and mad at myself that I was determined to make something good of it. So I went into several high-end furniture showrooms with perfect walls to sell my multi-piece compositions. Two places said, “Yes!” One space is so large that I will have over 50 pieces in it. A showing of that size is unique. So after a few years of struggling, I’ve got my first solo show and it’s a retrospective!

What is an ex-portfolio manager doing twisting, turning and shaking around cacti, hydrangeas, and hostas? Come see the work – it is a unique portrait of nature moved, turned and swayed. There are also examples of my studio work where movement comes from posed dried flowers. The opening is on December 7th at Poltrona Frau at 1010 Wisconsin Avenue at 6:00PM. Please rsvp to info@frauwashington.com or call 202 333-1166. My work can also be seen on www.altmann.us

Where: Poltrona Frau Washington 1010 Wisconsin Avenue, NW in Georgetown

When: From December 8, 2006 to March 8, 2007

Contact: 202 333 1166 or info@frauwashington.com

Artist: Caroline Altmann

Exhibit Title: “Undercurrents of Pure Joy”

Hirshhorn Museum Acquires 24 Contemporary Works of Art

From the Hirshhorn news release:

The Hirshhorn Museum has acquired 24 new works of art—many of which complement current holdings and reinforce the Hirshhorn's commitment to collecting key artists' work in depth, as the Museum’s founder, Joseph H. Hirshhorn did. Several of the works were included in recent exhibitions at the museum. Most notable among these acquisitions are 13 photographs from the "Seascape" series by Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto, which were installed in one long dramatically lit gallery last winter as part of the acclaimed "Hiroshi Sugimoto" exhibition. These large-format photographs are the gift of The Glenstone Foundation, founded by Mitchell P. Rales. One photograph, "Caribbean Sea, Jamaica," (1980) was given in honor of Kerry Brougher, chief curator and director of art and programs at the Hirshhorn, who organized the Sugimoto exhibition.

"We are immensely grateful to The Glenstone Foundation for this generous gift. These works will be a highlight of the Hirshhorn's growing contemporary collection—and because Glenstone has given the entire seascape room from the exhibition, we will have the opportunity in the future to recreate the original installation in addition to presenting the photographs in other contexts," Brougher said.

Two of the new acquisitions are purchases from "The Uncertainty of Objects and Ideas: Recent Sculpture," the exhibition currently on view at the Hirshhorn: Rachel Harrison's "Pretty Discreet" (2004) and Isa Genzken's "Untitled" (2006). Works by Jim Lambie, whose recent site-specific "Directions" project transformed the museum's lobby into a lively, interactive space, were also acquired: "Male Stripper" (2003), a black-and-white striped floor installation, and "Boobaliscious" (2004), a sculpture made from glitter, PVC pipes and sequined tube tops.

A brightly painted and sculpted canvas by Washington artist Sam Gilliam, "Ruby Light" (1972), a museum purchase and partial gift of the artist and Marsha Mateyka, and a stacked and cut paper installation by Uruguayan artist Marco Maggi, "Hotbed (DC)" (2006), the gift of the artist, will increase the Hirshhorn's holdings of these artists, giving visitors a deeper understanding of the breadth and scope of their artistic production.

Several purchases by the museum bring artists into the collection for the first time, including three photographic works by Christopher Williams, a triptych by Troy Brauntuch and a framed collage by Al Hansen.

The Glenstone Foundation, was established by DC area ubercollector Mitchell P. Rales, who also happens to be on the Hirshhorn’s board.

Heading to Miami Beach

Many Mid Atlantic area art galleries and dealers are heading to the December Floridian arts extravaganza centered around Art Basel Miami Beach.

Here are some; email me if you want a shout out here for your gallery's booth.

Philly's Pentimenti Gallery will be at Bridge Art Fair Miami, Booth #206. Also from Philly, Ashley Gallery will be there (and in SCOPE).

Potomac, Maryland's hard-working (and world travelling) dealer Rody Douzoglou will be at SCOPE Miami, where you will also find Richmond's ADA Gallery, Philly's Ashley Gallery, the District's Curator's Office, as well as Conner Contemporary's new "gogo art projects." Scope Miami seems to be overloaded with NYC and German galleries.

Update: Conner Contemporary will also be at Pulse Miami

Artist Websites

Artists are always emailing me and asking me at various forums questions about website design for their art.

The KISS rule really applies here: Keep It Simple Stupid.

Avoid cute little buttons; have your contact info on every page; keep the site clean and minimalist and professional; and offer (not force) info. Above all, avoid cute little musical backgrounds and annoying flash loaders.

In the 21st century, the digital footprint is as important as a telephone and a business card, so everyone who is serious about their artwork should and must have an online presence.

DC area artist Rosetta DeBerardinis, a proud Vassar alumni (I discovered that in her website), has a new website and it is a perfect example of good and easy design that offers all the visual info needed for an artist website.

According to the website itself, it was designed by www.websiteforartists.com, so consider this an unrequested plug for them.

Visit her new website here.

Notes, Icons, and Symbols

Remember the Rockville Arts Place (RAP)? Well, they are now called VisArts and opening with a reception from 3 to 5 on Sunday, November 19 (the exhibit runs through December 16, 2006), they have what sounds like a very interesting show.

The exibit is "Notes, Icons, and Symbols," and as his contribution to the exibit, the very talented John Borstel will be presenting a new installation titled "Closet Opera" which has been described as a "grand romantic and Fairy opera in 40 fragments."

According to John, "the piece features a series of photo-based images in which the artist himself portrays nine characters, altering his appearance through the use of simple props, accessories and a single costume manipulated into various distinctive configurations."

Notes, Icons, and Symbols also features work by Sharon Murray and Carien Quiroga. A panel discussion with the artists, titled “A Question of Identity” takes place on Sunday December 3 at 3pm.

VisArts is located at 9300 Gaither Road, Gaithersburg, MD. Further information is available at www.visartscenter.org or by calling 301-869-8623.

City Hall Collection in the WaPo again

The WaPo's District Extra section has a nice review of the new City Hall Art Collection curated by Sondra Arkin. So far the collection is getting very positive reviews from all sort of unexpected sources.

Read the piece by Paul Schwartzman here.

Recently I walked the collection with Kristen Hileman and Anne Ellegood (curators from the Hirshhorn) and Dr. Jonathan Binstock and Sarah Newman (curators from the Corcoran), as we were taken around by Sondra.

I will offer my impressions of the visit soon.

A Phenomenon of Nature

Curated by the vastly talented Dr. Claudia Rousseau, A Phenomenon of Nature, opens tomorrow (Nov. 18) with a reception from 5 - 7 pm at the unexpectedly huge and gorgeous BlackRock Center for the Arts in Germantown, Maryland.

The exhibition includes work by Syl Mathis, Michael Janis and Tim Tate, and also features a retrospective of photographs by Mark Evan Thomas.

If you haven't seen this massive arts venue yet, this is a perfect opportunity for a Saturday drive. The BlackRock Center for the Arts is at 12901 Town Commons Drive, Germantown, MD 20874, Phone: 301.528.2260

Veni, Vidi... Volo In Domum Redire

I've been to DC most days this week, but yesterday (when I planned some 3rd Thursday gallery stuff) was an absolute traffic and weather nightmare! More later.

Girl with Roaches
Remember this post where I discussed gallery-goers' reactions to Scott Lassman's photograph "Girl with Roaches"?

"Girl with Roaches," has been published in Black & White Magazine, one of the premier national magazines dedicated to black and white photography.

The photograph was selected as part of the magazine's 2007 Single Image Contest Awards and is published in their B&W Special Issue, which is available in bookstores and newsstands now.

Congrats to Lassman and it's on page 167. Check it out!

Congratulations



To my good friend Bill Dunlap, whose monograph will be published by the University Press of Mississippi later this month. And on December 4, 2006, at the Corcoran, there will be a book signing and also Dr. J. Richard Gruber, director of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, and Julia Reed, senior writer at Vogue and contributing editor at Newsweek will "discuss and deconstruct" the book. Details here.

The Paradise Institute at the Corcoran

By Katie Tuss

Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller’s highly lauded installation The Paradise Institute has returned to the Corcoran Gallery of Art to join other ground-breaking modern and contemporary works of art as part of the Corcoran’s museum-wide exhibition redefined: Modern and Contemporary Art from the Collection.

On the outside The Paradise Institute is little more than a shed with stairs, but inside the set up is far from plebeian. Upon entering, the maximum audience of sixteen people has a choice of the first or second row in a balcony of a perfectly modeled, technically astounding miniature theater. Cardiff and Miller succeeded in fitting a full-scale classic movie house, complete with architectural molding, red velveteen seats, and a big screen into a one-room gallery space. But the illusion has only just begun.

Viewers don headphones and a thirteen minute film noir mystery starts rolling. Within ten seconds of starting, a latecomer scoots noisily along the back aisle. This disturbance is followed by a couple’s unsolicited commentary, popcorn crunching, and a requisite cell phone ring shrill in your left ear.

As the movie unfolds, the plot grows murkier and the separation between the action on the screen and the activities of the audience blurs. The rankling sense of inescapable narrative immersion is more palpable than the dark story told by the film projector.

For those who have experienced any of Cardiff’s acclaimed sound walks, including Words Drawn in Water, which was commissioned by the Hirshhorn Museum last fall, the female whisper in your ear may sound familiar. But it may also feel distinctly different. Both use binaural audio soundtracks to capture the texture of surround sound. Whereas Words Drawn in Water seemed to be an intimate stroll amongst friends, The Paradise Institute is an unnatural, sometimes disconcerting expansion of the viewer’s understanding of narrative.

Cardiff and Miller are married and work both independently and as a team. Their multimedia pieces are internationally recognized, but none more highly than The Paradise Institute, which rightly won the prestigious Benesse Prize at the 2001 Venice Biennale.
_______________________________________________________________

The Corcoran Gallery of Art is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm, and until 9:00 pm on Thursdays. The Paradise Institute every half hour daily, starting at 10:30 am with the last viewing beginning at 4:30 pm and at 8:30 pm on Thursday nights.

Washington Post reorganizes

Memo from Leonard Downie, Jr., the WaPo's executive editor:

Phil and I met yesterday with the newsroom's senior editors to discuss proposals and make decisions as we continue to transform our newsroom, the newspaper and our relationship with washingtonpost.com. We have much more to do to maximize readership of the printed newspaper, build audience on the Web site and further reduce costs in the newsroom.

As you have noticed from developments at other newspapers, readership and economic challenges remain daunting. Our goal is to be the one newsroom that does this right. We must produce high quality, compelling journalism and carry out our public service mission while adjusting our cost structure to shifting advertising revenues.

We are not just cutting costs. We believe that everything we are doing will make the newspaper stronger and increase readership of the printed paper and washingtonpost.com.

We are re-directing newsroom staff and resources to our highest priority journalism in print and on the Web. In form, our priorities include original reporting, scoops, analysis, investigations and criticism. In content, they include politics, government accountability, economic policy and what our readers need to know about the world plus local government, schools, transportation, public safety, development, immigrant communities, health care, sports, arts and entertainment.

We are moving reporters and editors within and among staffs to accomplish this. In particular, we are moving a number of reporters from general assignment positions to more specific assignments and beats. We also are centralizing reporting and editing of some core subjects across staff lines. Metro now has responsibility for all education coverage. We will build on the model of Sandy Sugawara's cross-staff coordination of immigration coverage to do something similar for that and other core subjects. This may lead to the movement of more reporters and editors around the newsroom.

In the process, we will continue to shrink the newsroom staff through attrition, as low-priority positions become vacant. We also are tightening up the paper's news hole, beginning with the reconfiguration of the financial market tables in today's Business section, which saves two pages of newsprint each day. Other newshole reductions will be scattered throughout the newspaper, so readers will not lose significant content.

We are continuing to renovate sections of the paper to make them more attractive to readers. The re-launches of the Health, Food and Home sections are scheduled for early next year. Work is also well underway on creating a new Style and Arts section in the Sunday paper. The revamped Outlook section is an example of the improvements we are seeking.

We will make more progress in presenting our coverage more effectively in news sections. We will take a new approach to story length, which remains an important challenge, despite the progress already made in some parts of the paper. We will soon publish story length guidelines for the staff, along with ways to adhere to them. Our goal is for the newspaper to be filled with stories of different sizes and forms, and to provide both reporters and editors the tools to better edit for length. Our philosophy will be that every story must earn its length, so readers will want to read and finish more stories.

As part of this approach, we will better coordinate the preparation of related stories, photographs and graphical elements, and the design of pages on which they will appear. Visual journalism will be given still more importance in the printed paper.

We also are working on ways to expand and increase the impact of our journalism on washingtonpost.com. The re-launches of Health, Food and Home will be accompanied by the launch of a related section of the Web site. Our plans for coverage of the two-year 2008 campaign, which is beginning now, will include both re-direction of newsroom resources for expanded political coverage in the printed newspaper and significant initiatives on washingtonpost.com. In her new role as editor of washingtonpost.com, Liz Spayd will help us think first about the Web site for all of our best journalism.

The senior editors will meet again early next month to take more steps to re-direct resources to provide high quality journalism on key strategic subjects that matter most in print and stand out on the Web. We will have another newsroom staff meeting on Thursday, December 14 to tell you more about what we are doing and answer your questions.

This remains a challenging time, but also one of great opportunity, the opportunity to transform journalism for a new era in The Washington Post and on washingtonpost.com. Even as we reduce newsroom staff and costs, we will have amply sufficient staff and talent to make this transformation.

It is the most important change that I will lead as executive editor. It reminds me of my early days in the newsroom, when Ben Bradlee began boldly transforming the paper during the 1960s and 1970s. The newsroom was well less than half the size it is now, and we were underdogs. But we found our edge, produced original journalism and had fun creating The Washington Post all of you joined. Now, we're taking the next step.

I'm excited about the re-invention of the Arts section, and as far as the online version of the paper, I wish Liz Spayd and Downie would read this.

At the Katzen

I have just received the Katzen Arts Center at AU coming schedule and let me tell you, there's a ton of terrific shows coming up soon.

Jack Rassmusen, the energetic director of the Katzen, seems to have broken the code that has elluded most DC area museum directors and curators: DC museums can offer a mix of national, international and DC area art and artists and still be at the leading edge of an important and diverse exhibition program.

Here's what'coming:

Opening November 14, 2006
Carlos Saura: Flamenco
November 14 — January 21, 2007
Spain’s most talented, best known Flamenco performers and musicians over the past several decades are caught in these photographs by the eminent film director, Carlos Saura. Together the photographs reveal the dazzling talent of Saura, not only an authentic artist of film but of photography as well. Organized by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain (which by the way is a jaw-dropping building that managed to marry an existing Georgetown structure with a super-modern addition).

Gifts from the Katherine Dreier Estate
November 14 — January 21, 2007
This AU Museum holding, part of the Watkins Collection, was donated by the Katherine Dreier estate in 1952 through the efforts of collector-patron Duncan Phillips. The exhibition features nine modernist works by Paul Klee, Marc Chagall, Kurt Schwitters and others. Katherine Dreier’s much-studied Société Anonyme, a loose knit group that included Marcel Duchamp and other progressive artists working in Paris and New York, helped launch the 20th century’s first trans-Atlantic avant-garde.

William H. Calfee and the Washington Modernists
November 14 — January 21, 2007
Calfee was chair of the American University art department from 1945 to 1954 and a central figure in the development of post-war art in the Washington area. This exhibit concentrates on Calfee’s cast bronze sculptures and features works by other artists working in Washington during the 1940s and 50s including Law Watkins, Robert Gates, Sarah Baker, Karl Knaths, and others. Calfee and the other Washington modernists played an important role in mid-century Washington art and through their work at the Phillips Gallery Art School, Studio House, American University, and Jefferson Place Gallery and they helped to establish a contemporary dialogue for art in Washington, D.C.

Mark Cameron Boyd: Logocentric Playground
November 14 — December 15, 2007
Washington area artist Mark Cameron Boyd has been exploring “text as a language for painting” through the use of his original text transcription process since 2003 (disclaimer: I love Mark's work and have curated him into two "Text" exhibitions myself). In Logocentric Playground, the artist seeks to engage visitors in the making of art, to invite their interaction and consideration of the possibilities of communication through art and language. The installation also incorporates reading and interpreting texts.

Opening November 21, 2006
High Times, Hard Times: New York Painting 1967-1975
November 21 — January 21, 2007
This comprehensive traveling exhibition by Independent Curators International — in Washington for its only mid-Atlantic showing — tracks an under-recognized but fecund period in New York painting. Artists such as Lynda Benglis, Yayoi Kusama, Blinky Palermo, Elizabeth Murray, and Richard Tuttle moved paint onto floors, built eccentric canvas structures, used their own bodies to create compositions, and incorporated traces of reality to deepen the power of the image.

Twenty-first Century Ibero-American Art
November 21 — January 21, 2007
Ibero-American Art Salon 2006 presents an exhibition of approximately 40 paintings and mixed-media pieces that reveal the diversity of contemporary art in the Spanish and Portuguese speaking worlds of Europe and the Americas. The exhibition, drawn from a pool of 20 artists from Central and South America, Spain and Portugal, is presented in conjunction with the Association of Ibero-American Cultural Attachés and juried by museum director/curator Jack Rasmussen.

Talia Greene: Entropy Filigree
November 21 — January 21, 2007
Building on her continuing exploration of our control of nature and the body, Philadelphia artist Talia Greene transforms the detritus she finds around her into an intricately woven filigree of hair, dried flora, and bug parts. Her work questions dichotomies surrounding aesthetics and the body by drawing them closer together, finding sensuality in abjection, decoration in waste, and design in entropy.

Guy Dill: A Decade
November 21 — January 28, 2007
A new series of dramatically curved sculptures in bronze by this internationally known, Los Angeles-based artist will be exhibited in the museum’s sculpture garden. This body of work by Guy Dill, composed from a similar ‘palette of shapes,’ emphasizes in distilled forms, architectural conflict, movement, and an unlikely grace from decisive geometric components. Certain works in the exhibition may at first glance appear incidentally figurative, but only enough to evoke a physical relationship with the viewer.

All I have to say is WOW!

O'Sullivan on "Me, You & Those Other Folks"

Michael O'Sullivan checks in with an intelligent review of "Me, You & Those Other Folks" at the Gallery at Flashpoint.

He discusses the work of all three artists in the exhibition: the highly talented Ian Jehle, Nekisha Durrett and Al (nee Allison) B. Miner.

I'll say it again: Buy Al Miner now, buy Al Miner now.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: January 15, 2007

The Hoyt Institute of Fine Arts in New Castle, Pennsylvania is currently seeking artists to fill its 2008-2009 Exhibition Schedule. Artists living in the Mid Atlantic region (PA, OH, MD, NY, NJ, VA, DE, WVA and Washington DC) over 21 years of age are invited to apply. Review fee (this is a fancy word for entry fee): $25.00.

Visit www.hoytartcenter.org for prospectus or call 724-652-2882. Questions? Contact Patricia McLatchy at hoytexhibits@hoytartcenter.org.

Art for Life

The 14th annual cocktail reception and live auction benefiting Whitman-Walker Clinic's Latino Services event will take place on Friday, November 17, 2006 at the beautiful Organization of American States, one of the capital city’s premier venues.

If you've never been inside this beautiful building, this is your chance to explore a gorgeous setting and also enjoy some good food and terrific art for a good cause.

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 their guests engaged in the auction throughout the night. Look for the mayor elect to make an appearance.

This is one of my favorite art auctions and a major fundraiser for the Whitman-Walker Clinic. As I have for the past several years, I have donated an original drawing for the auction. See all the donated artwork online here.

For details and info call Martha N. Miers , Associate Director of Special Events
Whitman-Walker Clinic, 202.797.3529 or visit www.wwc.org

Gopnik on Morris Louis

I agree with JT and also think that Blake Gopnik has written a superb piece in yesterday's WaPo of the Morris Louis retrospective at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.

And also like JT, this review has sort of thrown me for a loop, because it appears to reverse some "set-in-concrete" Gopnikisms that often re-appear in most of his writing, as Gopnik defends Louis' reputation in the art world.

He writes:

By the 1980s and '90s, there came to be a sense that Louis's work was just fiddling around with pretty paint. It was billed as self-indulgent, disengaged from things that really matter in the world or in art. It was simple-minded and content-free -- all looks and no brains. The art world equivalent of the hunky jock or dumb blonde.

I wish he would have quoted some evidence for these statements, which are the heart of his defense argument. I was in Israel for a while in the 1980s and seem to recall a big Louis exhibition there in the 80s. Also Louis' Catalogue Raisonné was published in the 80s.

It's also interesting in the sense that Gopnik is essentially saying that "they" were wrong in judging that "Louis's work was just fiddling around with pretty paint," when in fact Gopnik routinely writes pretty much the same thing about any contemporary painter today, as he preaches from his WaPo pulpit the "painting is dead" slogan.

Anyway - it's a minor point.

There are things that interest me on a local level about Louis (who studied art at MICA and then worked on WPA murals in Baltimore public schools), but another Gopnik point raised my interest as well.

Gopnik points out that "he [Louis] often started his paintings by pouring on pleasant veils of color, to make something like the spillings of a watercolorist. These echo the passages of pastel color in the "stain" paintings of Helen Frankenthaler, which Louis saw on a rare, career-changing visit to New York in 1953. (That was when his Washington colleague Kenneth Noland introduced him to the painter and her new techniques, as well as to Clement Greenberg, her lover and the most influential critic of that time. He became Louis's great champion.)"

Mmm... although it is clear in an art historical sense that Louis' visit to Frankenthaler was indeed very influential on Louis's future, I think it was more so in the meeting of Greenberg, who later became the inventor and father of the Washington Color School and indeed their great champion.

It's hard to imagine where Morris Louis' standing in the rarified upper crust of the art world would be today had it not been for Clement Greenberg. In Tom Wolfe's "The Painted Word," Wolfe describes (and makes fun of) the meeting of Greenberg and Louis and pokes fun at Greenberg:

Greenberg in particular radiated a sense of absolute authority... Likewise his prose style, he would veer from the most skull-crushing Gottingen scholar tautologies, "essenses" and "purities" and "opticalities" and "formal factors" and "logics of readjustment" and God knows what else.

According to Wolfe, when Greenberg described painting as "flat" to Louis, a light-bulb went on in Louis' head, and the rest is art history (see page 49 of Wolfe's book).

Anyway, Gopnik elevates this visit to NYC as a "rare" event, which I find peculiar, since Louis had actually lived in New York for four years (1936-1940) while he was in his mid-20s, and while there attended the workshops of Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros.

I find it peculiar, because I had always understood that Louis' began to develop a sense of abstract style in his painting upon his return to Washington, DC in the 1950s, in somewhat of a personal response to the New York School of abstract painters, many of which he may have known personally and met while a young twenty-something living in NYC.

While it was indeed the exposure to the Frankenthaler "stain" paintings that kick-started the Louisian mature "response" (both Kenneth Noland and Morris Louis have cited their exposure to Frankenthaler's work as a catalyst to the formation of their own mature style), and it was indeed the enlisting of Clement Greenberg, the world's most powerful art critic (at the time), that sealed Louis' future as an modern art icon, I'm not sure if the visit to NYC was such a "rarity."

I know, I know... but I'm a Virgo.

AU looking for an Associate Dean for the Arts

Deadline: January 5, 2007

American University's College of Arts and Sciences is seeking applicants for a tenured position at the rank of Associate Professor or Professor to administer the arts programs at the university, beginning in Fall 2007.

Details here.