Haga Click

Essential differences

The Baltimore Sun's art critic is photographer Glenn McNatt, and he does a nice job in writing this piece on the Sondheim Prize and its latest prizewinner, Baltimore painter Tony Shore, who also came down last year to Bethesda to win the 2006 Bethesda Painting Awards.

In this Washington Post article, Michael O'Sullivan pointed out some key differences between Baltimore's Sondheim Prize and the DC region's Trawick Prize, focusing mainly on the exhibition venues for these two important prizes - the Sondheim is exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Trawick at the Creative Partners Gallery in Bethesda. O'Sullivan was correct in calling out this difference, but as the Sun's article points out, there are several other key differences.

For one, the Sondheim Prize is deeply interwoven and part of not only the city of Baltimore itself, but also of a major city wide art event: Artscape. The Trawick, which preceded the Sondheim by a few years, is run by the Bethesda Urban Partnership.

According to Baltimore's promotion office director Bill Gilmore, this year's Sondheim award was underwritten by the France-Merrick Foundation, a local philanthropy, and by gifts from local businesspeople. "The annual cost of the competition, including the award and the costs associated with paying jurors, mounting exhibitions and printing publications totals between $50,000 and $60,000, he said."

WOW!

The Trawick is totally underwritten by an annual endowment from Bethesda businesswoman Carol Trawick of $10,000. The total prizes total around $14,000 and the other funds are gathered from entry fees and from a $1,000 donation from Bethesda's Fraser Gallery for a "Young Artist Award." All costs associated with mounting the Trawick exhibition, including paying the three jurors, come from this pot, which I suspect is around $20,000 all together (I don't know the exact figures). Furthermore, although they have been approached, and called out here and in other places to add more funds to the Trawick, all the major businesses located and working out of Bethesda have essentially ignored the call as far as I know. I guess Lockheed Martin, and Comcast, and Marriott, and the Discovery Channel, and EuroMotorcars, and Chevy Chase Bank, etc. can't afford it.

Gilmore said this year's contributors included Walter D. Pinkard, a founder of the France-Merrick Foundation, and Amy Newhall. Bill Gilmore also stated that "Pinkard, Sandy Hillman and Nancy Roberts have also pledged to help raise an initial endowment of $500,000 to fund future prizes." And so the Baltimore people with the connections and the deep pockets to make the Sondheim Award become a yearly event have become involved.

As far as I know Ms. Trawick is the only backer of the Trawick Prize, although I suspect that the Bethesda area has more millionaires and multi-millionaires than all of the rest of Maryland added together. Where are they in pledging anything to the Trawick?

"We're certainly a lot closer to being an annual prize than we were a year ago," Gilmore said. "We kicked this off on a leap of faith last year and we have received some real support from people who have stepped up and said we want to help ensure the future of the prize."

That's the real difference: Baltimoreans have stepped up while Bethesdians (whose city for all intents and purposes is part of the Greater DC region) have not.

Elvis as a Nun

Below is one of my charcoal and conte drawings from a few years ago. It's a rather large drawing, about 40 inches by 30 inches. It is titled "Elvis and Buster Keaton, disguised as nuns, attend a Dan Flavin exhibition." It was sold many years ago.

"Elvis Presley and Buster Keaton, disguised as nuns, attend a Dan Flavin exhibition"
Charcoal and Conte on Paper by F. Lennox Campello

Tony Shore wins Sondheim Prize

Baltimore painter Tony Shore, a graduate of the Baltimore School for the Arts and the Maryland Institute College of Art, and the 2006 winner of the Bethesda Painting Awards, has won the $25,000 2007 Janet & Walter Sondheim Prize.

Shore is currently on the faculty of the Foundations Department at the Maryland Institute College of Art and is the founding Director of Access Art, a youth art center in Baltimore's Morrell Park neighborhood. He is represented in Baltimore by the C. Grimaldis Gallery and (as far as I know) unrepresented in the DC area region.

Shore was somewhat of a surprise winner of the 2006 Bethesda Painting Awards. He paints large works on black velvet, which have been described as straddling "the fence between high-class and lowbrow."

You can see the exhibition of works by the winner and all other finalists here.

Congratulations to Tony Shore!

What a great definition, she said

During our radio talk last Thursday, someone called in and wanted a definition of what makes good art. On the fly, Washington City Paper critic Jeffry Cudlin came up with a terrific answer, and when Kojo asked Gazette newspapers critic Dr. Claudia Rousseau for her definition, she exclaimed (referencing Jeffry's) "what a great definition, I love it!"

Someone later on emailed us asking for the definition, and Jeffry graciously enough regurgitated it as best he recalled. I have posted it below... this is not a manifesto or otherwise anything but a terrific off-the-cuff answer:

1) How apt is the choice of medium?

For Clement Greenberg, art was all about specialization. He wanted work in any given medium to refer to its own method of construction and the characteristics of its component materials: Painting was about free-flowing or staining pigment in a resolutely flat pictorial space; sculpture was about volume and movement through three-dimensional space; literature was really about words, rhythm, meter.

Of course, Greenberg's brand of formalism died out in the late '60s. Now that we live in a cross-disciplinary, multi-valent art world, contemporary artists tend less and less to be specialists, winnowing out their problem set to a few spare material issues. Instead, they're typically trained as generalists who work from project to
project, idiom to idiom.

But this can't mean that the choice of medium doesn't matter. Instead, that choice becomes terribly important: Why is this object a drawing, painting, photograph, or sculpture? Why was that choice appropriate, or not appropriate? What about the history or physical properties of the medium seems uniquely bound up in the content of this work?

2) Does the artist show enough material mastery?

Economy and clarity are virtues: No artist needs to show the viewer everything they're capable of in a work, lavishing their object/project with bells, whistles and flourishes.

If I go all the way back to John Ruskin--why not?--he stated that the artist should work until the idea has been made clear, and go no further; he warned against work in which the only evident merits were "patience and sandpaper".

And, again, if we're going to accept this idea that an artist might make a photograph, or a painting, or a video, then how skilled do they need to be in each? Skilled enough to demonstrate some empathy with the materials, and to achieve an appropriate level of fit and finish--one that doesn't distract from the content
of their work, but instead enhances it.

3) How does the artist position him or herself in relation to history?

Every artist is making claims about the relation of their work to both that of their immediately present peers and to the canon. Every artist essentially chooses their grandparents, cobbling together selective (possibly arbitrary) genealogies out of the
past few centuries of artistic production.

A contemporary painting is almost always an argument--for what painting ought to be generally, and for how we should position the artist within this imagined genealogy.

The task of the critic is to determine whether or not this positioning -- an argument made by the artist, and amplified, tweaked, or otherwise refined by the curator -- is valid.

Choice of medium, material mastery, historical positioning: my big three.

Jeffry Cudlin

I'd like to open a dialogue and invite comments to the above definition. Email me and I'll post them.

GlassWeekend ’07

Since 1985, GlassWeekend, a biennial event, has brought together to New Jersey the world’s leading glass artists, collectors, galleries, and museum curators for a three-day weekend of exhibitions, lectures, hands-on glassmaking, artists, demonstrations and social events.

GlassWeekend events are held at Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center, home of the Creative Glass Center of America and the Museum of American Glass.

WheatonArts is located in Millville, New Jersey, 45 minutes from both Philadelphia and Atlantic City, and less than three hours from New York and Washington, D.C.

I'll be checking it out this weekend.

Come On Irene Eileen

Yesterday at the Kojo Nnamdi show, someone named Irene called in with a question or comment, but by the time Kojo got to her phone call, she had hung up (we had tons of calls by the way, most of which Kojo could not get to because of time).

There was a second or two of dead radio silence, and then (trying to be funny) I sang into the mike: "Come On Irene," a-la-Dexys Midnight Runners style from their famous song.

For all you music geeks emailing me, yes, yes, I know it's Eileen and not Irene. I was trying to be funny!

Come On Eileen by the Dexys Midnight Runners.

(Come on Eileen!)
(Come on Eileen!)

Poor old Johnny Ray
Sounded sad upon the radio
He moved a million hearts in mono
Our mothers cried and sang along and who'd blame them?
Now you're grown, so grown, now I must say more than ever
Go toora loora toora loo rye aye
And we can sing just like our fathers ....

Come on Eileen! Well, I swear (what he means)
At this moment, you mean everything
With you in that dress, my thoughts I confess
Verge on dirty ......
Ah, come on Eileen!

(Come on Eileen!)
(Come on Eileen!)

These people round here wear beaten down eyes
Sunk in smoke dried faces
They're so resigned to what their fate is
But not us, no not us
We are far too young and clever
Go toora loora toora loo rye aye
Eileen, I'll sing this tune forever

Come on, Eileen! Well, I swear (what he means)
Ah come on, let's take off everything
That pretty red dress .... Eileen (tell him yes)
Ah, come on! Come on Eileen!!!

Come on Eileen! Well, I swear (what he means)
At this moment, you mean everything

Come on, Eileen, taloora aye
Come on, Eileen, taloora aye
Come on, Eileen, taloora aye
Come on, Eileen, taloora aye
Come on, Eileen, taloora aye
Come on, Eileen, taloora aye

Go toora loora toora loo rye aye

Come on Eileen! Well, I swear (what he means)
At this moment, you mean everything
With you in that dress, my thoughts I confess
Verge on dirty ......
Ah, come on Eileen!

Come on, Eileen! Well, I swear (what he means)
Ah come on, let's take off everything
That pretty red dress .... Eileen (tell him yes)
Ah, come on! Come on Eileen!!!

Come on Eileen! Well, I swear (what he means)
At this moment, you mean everything

Come on Eileen! Well, I swear (what he means)
At this moment, you mean everything

The video is one of the great armpit videos of all time. See it below

Bethesda Art Walk

Today, Friday, July the 13th, is the second Friday of the month and thus it's the Bethesda Art Walk with 13 participating art venues and with free guided tours.

From 6-9PM - go see some artwork!

Wanna go to nude body painting and drawing party in DC this Sunday?

July marks the 4th annual A Celebration of the Figure exhibition at MOCA DC and the 5th anniversary of the Figure Models Guild.

In addition to the regular figure drawing sessions at MOCA, there will be bodies painted several times during the show.

And there will be a body painting event on on Sunday, July 15 at 1PM led by DC's body painting goddess Adrianne Mills.

Bring your camera because an open photo session follows each painting.

Call them for details and times at 202.342.6230 or 202.361.3810. The event is free and open to the public.

Wanna go sketching on the Mall tomorrow?

"Quick Sketching People and Places on the Mall" is a four-session drawing instruction series presented by the Smithsonian Associates where students work with the media and subjects of their choice under the supervision of an experienced artist who is himself an avid sketcher. Dates are Sat., July 14—Aug. 4, 10 a.m., so hurry!

Details here.

Call for Art

The Third Annual Metamorphosis Art Show has a call for artists.

Details here.

Baltimore Studio Spaces

The Baltimore Sun tells us that

Artists seeking studio space in Baltimore will have a new option to consider this fall when the Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower opens for its first tenants.

Renovation work is nearing completion on a $1.25 million conversion of the landmark tower at 15 S. Eutaw St. from municipal offices to studios for painters, sculptors, photographers, graphic designers, writers and other artists. The first two floors will have a cafe and gallery space.

Read the article here. More information about the studios and the application process is available from the Office of Promotion & the Arts at 410-752-8632.

Trawick and Sondheim

Tomorrow the Washington Post's Michael O'Sullivan will have this excellent piece on the Sondheim Prize in Baltimore. And O'Sullivan makes a couple of key observations about the two major art prizes in the Mid Atlantic region:

The Trawick Prize better watch out. There's an upstart contemporary art award in town, and it stands to give the Bethesda-born competition -- which has been handing out $14,000 in prize money to artists from Maryland, Virginia and Washington since 2003 -- a run for its money.

Okay, so maybe the Baltimore-based Janet and Walter Sondheim Prize isn't exactly "in town." Now in its second year, the art contest, named for the late Baltimore public servant and civic leader and his late wife, is open to visual artists working in the Baltimore region. (This year that includes two D.C. artists.) Examples of work by the 2007 finalists are on view at the Baltimore Museum of Art. The winner of the Sondheim Prize's $25,000 purse, which unlike the Trawick does not get divided among first-, second- and third-place finishers, will be announced Friday at the museum.

There's another critical difference between the contests, beyond the disparity in the cash value of the prizes. It doesn't have to do with the caliber of the entrants either. (Baltimore sculptor Richard Cleaver, whose painted and bejeweled ceramic-and-wood figures are part of the BMA show of Sondheim finalists, took home the Trawick's $10,000 first prize in 2003. So there's a lot of cross-fertilization of the talent pools, which is good.) Rather, the edge that this year's Sondheim Prize exhibition has over any version of the Trawick competition I've ever seen is in the choice of venue. The art just looks better in the BMA's spacious galleries than anything ever will at the Creative Partners Gallery, the cramped storefront on the ground floor of a downtown Bethesda office building that has been the Trawick's unfortunate exhibition space of choice since its inception.

I agree with O'Sullivan about the Trawick's exhibition location, and in fact I have some strong indications that next year's Trawick may "upgrade" and move to a better location, mostly because (I am told) Creative Partners no longer wants to host the show. But it will probably be to one of Bethesda's top galleries (that leaves 2-3 choices).

But O'Sullivan's article says also something about the difference between the way Baltimore museums looks at Baltimore artists and events and the way the DC area museums do.

Bethesda doesn't have a museum. So the Trawick will just move to another gallery.

But DC has more museum space per person than any other city in the world. That is a mathematical fact.

And yet, while Baltimore's main museum is part of that area's main art prize, no DC area art museum is involved in exhibiting the Trawick Prize exhibition.

Let this be a call for the Hirshhorn or the Corcoran or the Phillips to work out a deal with the Trawick Prize to host the finalists of the DC area's main art prize in one of those museum's galleries.

If Baltimore can do it, so can DC. And I am also making a call to my fellow DC area art bloggers and writers to join me in this call - let's see if we can make something like this happen.

If you think that this is a bad idea, then ignore it; otherwise, please join me in calling for a museum venue for next year's Trawick Prize.

Audio files of the radio discussions

Unfortunately the online segment starts about 15 minutes into the show, but you can listen to the rest of today's highly animated Kojo Nnamdi show with Jeffry Cudlin, Dr. Claudia Rousseau and myself here.

It starts with us arguing about the Bethesda Painting Awards.

I think that this was the best show so far and I also think that Jeffry, Claudia and I make up a great radio argumentative team! Now all we need is a sponsor to talk to WAMU about sponsoring an "Art Talk" show once a month or so.

Call me

Around one o'clock today I'll be on the Kojo Nnamdi Show discussing the Greater Washington area visual arts and artists and art stories as I usually do once or twice a year. Tune in to WAMU 88.5 FM around one. I'll be there together with my good friends Jeffry Cudlin from the Washington City Paper and Dr. Claudia Rousseau from the Gazette newspapers.

You can call us during the show at (800) 433-8850 or you can email us questions to kojo@wamu.org.

Pool woes

When I was a kid in Brooklyn, our neighbors on Sackman Street (Paula and Augie) had one of those above ground pools. Because our backyard and theirs was only separated by a chain link fence, it was easy for me to climb it and use their pool at will, which was OK with Augie, but not OK with Paula, which was a weird thing, because she was always feeding me alongside her kids, as she was a stay-at-home-mom, while my Mom had a job as a seamstress at one of the nearby factories that used to exist in Brooklyn where people like my Mom would work and get paid by what was then called "piece work."

But Augie was the one always working and doing stuff all year round to keep the pool working for those really hot NY summers, although he really hated me dive-bombing into the pool from the second floor fire escape ladder... you had to be good, and sort of belly-flop the water entry (the pool was only around five feet deep), otherwise you'd break your legs or seriously pop your knee caps. But Augie loved kids enjoying his pool!

Anyway, when I was house-hunting last year, I quickly discovered that houses in Media, PA are a lot more affordable than Potomac, MD, so I ended up in a cool house. And yet I was reticent to sign up, because the house came with a pool.

Pools are money pits.

And we quickly discovered that this pool, like many other pools, an hour after the warranties expire, leak. It's hard to hold water in a concrete bubble.

First estimates to fix the pool came in around a ton of money... as time went by, and more and more crap was removed from the pool (apparently built somewhere in the 60s) the "this-is-what's-wrong" stuff kept piling up and now we're up to around two tons of money and I am one good drunk away from filling the fucking thing with soil and planting pachysandras in the hole.

Wanna go to a DC opening tomorrow?

Carolina Mayorga will be having her opening event at Transformer tomorrow at 6:30PM. And then Robert Parrish's opening will be a week from tomorrow at the same time, same place.

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities is on the move

On July 17, 2007, The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities will be moving uptown to a new location at 2901 14th Street NW, First Floor, Washington, DC 20010 and their phone is 202-724-5613.

Another Artomatic this year?

Blake Gopnik may have a fit, but I am told (as I mentioned before) that there's a pretty good chance of another AOM this year - this time in DC as usual.

Stay tuned!

PS - Sorry Blake... slammajamma two posts in a row; my bad.

Blake Gopnik got lost in Europe

If you think that DC area artsy writers, and DC area museum staffers, and DC area artists, and DC area gallerists, and Washingtonian magazinists, and DC area art collectors, and WaPo readers are the only ones almost always rolling their eyes over what and how Blake Gopnik writes about art, then you should read what Floridian Glenn Weiss, over at Aesthetic Grounds writes about the Gopnikmeister's recent European dispatches.