Hirshhorn Looking for new boss

Email from the Hirshhonistas:

I am pleased to announce the formation of an eight-member committee to assist in the search for a new director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. The search is being conducted by the Office of the Under Secretary for Art.

The members of the search committee, in alphabetical order, are:

• Neal Benezra — director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art since 2002. He previously served as deputy director and curator of modern and contemporary art at the Art Institute of Chicago. Previously, he spent eight years at HMSG, where he was assistant director for art and public programs and chief curator.

• Constance Caplan — art collector and trustee of HMSG. She also serves on the board of the John Hopkins University College of Medicine and has served as the chair of the board of trustees of the Baltimore Museum of Art.

• Ann Hamilton — the first artist to serve as a trustee of HMSG. She is an award-winning visual artist who specializes in installation work and has participated in more than 60 solo and group exhibitions. She is a professor of art at Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

• J. Tomilson Hill — collector of modern and contemporary art and chairman of the board of trustees of HMSG. He is vice chairman of The Blackstone Group in New York.

• Susan Lake — collections manager and chief conservator at HMSG, where she has worked for more than 25 years.

• Mitchell P. Rales — collector and vice chair of the board of trustees of HMSG. He is the founder and director of The Glenstone Foundation. He also is founder, director and chairman of the executive committee of Danaher Corporation, headquartered in Washington, D.C.

• Ned Rifkin — Under Secretary for Art at the Smithsonian since 2002.

• John W. Smith — director of the Archives of American Art since 2006. He was formerly assistant director for collections, exhibitions and research at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh from 2000 to 2006.

The new director will succeed Olga Viso, who is scheduled to leave at the end of the year to become director of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

Sincerely,

Cristián Samper
Acting Secretary

I have some thoughts on who should be hired to run the Hirshhorn... more on that later.

Anderson on Roth

John James Anderson has a really insightful interview with the Corcoran's Paul Roth (the Corcoran's Curator of Photography and Media Arts).

Read it here.

Rand on Timmers

I've been meaning to link to this really interesting interview by DCist Kelly Rand with DC sculptor Erwin Timmers, who is slowly but surely becoming the DC area's leader of the "green art" movement.

Read the interview here.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: March 1, 2008

The Innovators Combating Substance Abuse Program has issued a Call to Artists whose original art will be selected to appear in a forthcoming book on art and addiction to be published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. The Innovators Program, supported by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is a national program based in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.

The purpose of the proposed book is to provide a stimulus to change the way America views addiction by using the visual arts to put a human face on addiction and recovery. Creativity and artistic expression play a significant role both in recovery and in raising awareness of the personal toll caused by substance abuse and addiction. The proposed book on addiction art is intended to complement and serve as the companion volume to the editors’ book on addiction science, Addiction Treatment: Science and Policy for the Twenty-First Century (JE Henningfield, PB Santora, WK Bickel (eds), Johns Hopkins Press, October 2007).

They invite all artists to submit original artwork on the theme of drug addiction and recovery (drugs include alcohol, tobacco, illegal, or prescription drugs). A distinguished panel of jurors, composed of prominent members from both the art and addiction science communities, will select the art for the book. Finalists will receive an honorarium of $200, with the top five finalists receiving an additional honorarium of $500; a copy of the book, and will be included in exhibitions in Maryland (May 2008) and at the annual meeting of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence in Puerto Rico (June 14-19, 2008). Other exhibition possibilities are pending at this time.

Works submitted may be in any media, including video. Works included in the book will not be limited to size, but extreme size may limit works for inclusion in the exhibitions.

For additional information and entry forms, please contact the Innovators Program at (443) 287-3915 or visit their website at www.innovatorsawards.org.

Eligibility:
- Works in all media including video will be accepted.
- Works may be any size.
- Works may have been completed in any year.

Entry:
- Artists may submit up to 3 artworks in slide or digital format.

For Slides: Label each slide with your name and title of work on the front of the slide. Please indicate the top of the slide. Place slides in an “8 ½ x 11” clear vinyl slide sheet holder. Write your name on the holder.

For CDs: Label each file with your name and title of work. Write your name on the CD holder. Submit images in .jpeg format, resolution 72dpi; file size should not exceed 1mb.

For Digital Images Submitted by E-Mail: Label each image with your name and title of work. Submit images in .jpeg format, resolution 72dpi; file size should not exceed 1mb. Email digital submissions to: innovatorsawards@jhmi.edu.

Artists must submit a 100-200 word Artist Statement which addresses the relationship between the artist / the work and the “Drug Addiction and Recovery” theme. Artists must also complete and submit the Submission Form.

Send submissions to:

Innovators Combating Substance Abuse Program
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
600 N. Wolfe Street
Meyer Building 3-142
Baltimore, MD 21287

Job in the Arts

The Nevin Kelly Gallery, a fine art gallery located in Washington, DC's U Street Corridor, is searching for a new part-time gallery assistant.

Experience Required: BA in arts-related field and one year relevant work experience preferred. The candidate MUST have excellent writing and computer skills and the ability to work independently and self-motivate. A desire and ability to take initiative in developing projects is also a plus.

How to Apply: Please submit cover letter, resume and three references to info@nevinkellygallery.com or fax to 202-232-3465. No phone calls please.

Tate on VoA

DC uberartist Tim Tate was in the Voice of America airwaves today. Transcript here.

Photo Reference at Photo West Gallery in Philly

Photo Reference, with works by DC area's own Denee Barr, Matteo Colaizzo, Jeff Dentz, Emily Erb, Luis el Estudiante, Brendan Gavin, Bill Kelly, Eva Preston, Sheila Ruen, and Harry Sefarbi opens with an opening reception on the 12th of October from 5-10pm at Photo West Gallery. The exhibition goes through Oct. 22, 2007.

WaPo Chief Art Critic Online

The Washington Post's chief art critic, Blake Gopnik, will be online today at 2PM to answer questions.

Details here.

New gallery in Philadelphia

"Rebekah Templeton Contemporary Art is the newest face in the thriving Philadelphia art scene. Scheduled to open November 11, 2007, Rebekah Templeton will be exhibiting cutting edge contemporary art in all media.

Rebekah Templeton Contemporary Art is the brainchild of independent curators and artists Sarah Eberle and Ben Will. Eberle and Will have worked together on a number of underground curatorial projects. Sarah Eberle has an extensive background in visual art. After graduating from University of California at Berkeley, she worked for Worth Ryder Gallery and Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, CA. Upon arriving in Philadelphia in 2002, she worked as the Gallery Store Manager for The Print Center and played a major role in the founding of Falling Cow Gallery as the inaugural Director. Ben Will has worked as an independent curator in London and Philadelphia, as well as working for a variety of arts organizations including Artistsspace in New York City.

The two met while co-curating an exhibition, “Squat,” displayed at Tower Investments in Northern Liberties, now known as Tower Gallery. Discovering a mutual love for contemporary art, they decided to open a gallery together. They bought a run down Row Home on the corner of Girard Ave. and Second St. in South Kensington, the heart of Philadelphia’s newest art neighborhood. After almost two years of renovations and a grant from the American Street Financial Services Center, Rebekah Templeton Contemporary Art is ready to open.

The inaugural exhibition will feature work from New York City artist Sara Gates and will include video and wall paper in addition to paintings and prints. The opening reception will be held on November 8, 2007 from 6-9 pm in conjunction with the neighborhood’s newly thriving Second Thursdays, modeled after Old City’s First Fridays."

Manon Cleary at DCAC

Were I ever to rank the District of Columbia's top ten artists of all time, Manon Cleary would easily make the list and challenge for the top three spots.



And although she has been in very frail health for many years now, Cleary continues to paint and draw and re-invent herself over and over, as all great artists do. Whether her subject matter focus is penises, rats, men in bags, flowers, or her own rape.

And next Friday, Cleary debuts yet another focus for her work with a series of new sky paintings at the District of Columbia Arts Center. From the news release:

Manon Catherine Cleary – by any earthly measure – is a luminary among Washington DC artists. Globally exhibited and collected, Cleary has enjoyed a forty-year career as an artist and teacher, and is principally acclaimed for her virtuosic and conceptually provocative enlistment of oil paint and graphite to photo-realist ends. It is with great honor, then, that DC Arts Center will showcase the artist’s very newest “skyscapes” in its Gallery during the month of October – works rendered and mounted in remembrance of Cleary’s dear friend and DCAC founder and patron Herb White, in whose company she spent countless contented hours “chasing clouds.”

The show runs from Friday, October 12th – Sunday, November 4th and the opening reception is this Friday, October 12th, from 7 – 9 pm.

Art Happening in DC this Friday


Date: Saturday, October 13
Time: 7 p.m. to 12 a.m.
Location: Lee Jensen Brake Service
1333 14th Street, NW
(between N Street and Rhode Island Ave.)
Washington, DC

Music by eightyeight

Featured Artists: Steven M. Cummings, Daniel Davidson, Drew Ernst, Kate Hardy, Ju$t Another Rich Kid, Geoffrey Mann, Gregory McLellan, Ted Noten, Cory Oberndorfer, Painted Lady Performance Project, Chris Tousimis, René Treviño, and Trevor Young.

Philly critic's Arts blog

Philadelphia Inquirer classical music and art critic Peter Dobrin has an excellent art blog (new to me) here.

He has this interesting quote from the Inquirer's art critic Ed Sozanski: "Museums are the place of last resort for art."

Visit Dobrin often.

WaPo Muscle

The Washington Post had an amazing museum section yesterday.

So far I think that my favorite piece was Paul Richard's 1967, the Year the Pieces Began to Come Together, which reminisces about the DC art world of 1967. Richard is the retired WaPo chief art critic.

His successor, Blake Gopnik, will be online on Tuesday, October 9 at 2PM to answer questions. Details here.

The blogger show

John Morris from Digging Pitt Gallery in Pittsburgh, PA has been working on a groundbreaking joint effort with Agni Gallery (New York, NY) and Panza Gallery (Millvale, PA) to present The Blogger Show. The exhibits showcase the work of over thirty artists (including yours truly) whose common interest is in clarifying artistic discourse through their blogs. All of the exhibits will take place between November 10, 2007 and January 12, 2008.

All of the exhibits will take place between November 3, 2007 and January 12, 2008.

Per Bill Gusky, "arts bloggers are using this technology to redefine the role of arts in American culture. The interactive aspect of blogging has encouraged the growth of artistic discourse in unexpected ways, with a shift in who and how art is discussed. One of the most significant contributions of artist bloggers to this dialog is an honest appraisal of process and theory. Using the platform of the internet to express these thoughts has included a multitude of elements. Many artists load images onto their blogs. Another aspect of the online community that has yet to make its impact felt is in the arena of regional arts that makes an exhibit in Detroit as accessible as one in New York.

The artists in the exhibits at Agni, Digging Pitt and Panza Galleries represent a range of visual disciplines and aesthetics. The one commonality is active blogging. Some use blogging as a platform for discussing issues facing visual artists while others treat the blog as a public journal. Whatever approach or combination of approaches, all have brought a level of clarity to artistic discourse. These exhibits are a reflection, in physical space, of the ephemeral blogosphere. And by its very nature, an extension of the guiding philosophy behind Digging Pitt's flat file archive.

This exhibition focuses on the work of artists who are active art blog writers. The work you see here emerged in the studio in near-simultaneity with the artist's written expressions. These twin efforts -- art making and blog writing -- sometimes appear to flow together and intertwine beautifully, and at other times almost seem to be in diametric opposition.

The relationship between written word and the created artwork suggests the erratic flow of a culture in which propaganda freely mingles with news journalism and science is polluted with articles of faith. It seems at times that the only appropriate response to the apparent untrustworthiness of all our societal and cultural expressions is a schizophrenic call-and-response in which everyone probes for even the merest scintilla of truth using tools of decidedly mixed sincerity.

The questions that emerge and the answers that may or may not accompany them will hopefully provide valuable insights into ongoing cultural developments that are incredibly difficult to discern amid the maelstrom of media that beset us all, but that must ultimately be discerned if we are to gain an understanding of where we're headed as a culture."

Here's the breakdown of venues, artists and dates:

Digging Pitt Gallery
4417 Butler Street
Pittsburgh PA 15201
November 10, 2007 - January 12, 2008
Public Reception: December 8, 6-9PM

• Martin Bromirski (Richmond VA) - Anaba
• Sharon Butler (Mystic, CT) - Two Coats of Paint
• Lisa Call (Parker, CO) - New Work and Inspiration
• F. Lennox Campello (Washington, DC and Media, PA) - Mid Atlantic Art News
• Rose Clancy (Pittsburgh, PA) - paperWorks
• Kevin Clancy (Boston MA and Pittsburgh PA) - soft soft pink pulls through the ivory void
• Warren Craghead (Charlottesville, VA) - drawer
• Roberta Fallon (Philadelphia PA) - Fallon and Rosof's Artblog
• Ann Gordon (Detroit MI) - Detroitarts
• Cable Griffith (Seattle WA) - Cable Griffith
• Tracy Helgeson - Works by Tracy Helgeson
• Stephanie Lee Jackson (Brooklyn NY) - Pretty Lady
• JT Kirkland (Washington, D.C.) - Thinking About Art
• Mary Klein (Minneapolis, MN) - stillifes
• Eva Lake (Portland, OR) - Eva Lake
• Steven LaRose (Ashland OR) - Steven LaRose
• Michael Lease (Richmond VA) - Annabelle's Aspirin
• John Morris (Pittsburgh, PA) - Digging Pittsburgh Arts
• Elizabeth Perry (Pittsburgh, PA) - Woolgathering
• Libby Rosof (Philadelphia PA) Fallon and Rosof's Artblog
• Marc Snyder (Pittsburgh, PA) - Fiji Island Mermaid Press

Digging Pitt Too
45th & Plummer Streets
Pittsburgh PA 15201
November 10, 2007 - January 12, 2008
Public Reception: December 8, 6-9PM

• Susan Constanse (Pittsburgh, PA) - - Oranje
• Bill Gusky (Canton, CT) Artblog Comments

Panza Gallery
115 Sedgwick Street
Millvale PA 15209
November 10, 2007 - January 12, 2008
Public Reception: December 15, 6-9PM

• Kevin Clancy (Boston MA and Pittsburgh PA) - soft soft pink pulls through the ivory void
• Christiane D (Pittsburgh PA) - Christiane D
• David Grim (Pittsburgh, PA) - Serendipity
• John Morris (Pittsburgh, PA) - Digging Pittsburgh Arts
• David Pohl (Pittsburgh, PA) - find the time to rhyme

Agni Gallery
170 East 2nd Street, Storefront #3
New York NY 10009
November 3 - 30, 2007
Public Reception: November 3, 6-9PM

• Nancy Baker (Raleigh, NC) - Tire Shop
• Martin Bromirski (Richmond VA) Anaba
• Sharon Butler (Mystic, CT) Two Coats of Paint
• Lisa Call (Parker, CO) - New Work and Inspiration
• F. Lennox Campello (Media, PA and Washington, DC) Mid Atlantic Art News
• Rose Clancy (Pittsburgh, PA) paperWorks
• Kevin Clancy (Boston MA and Pittsburgh PA) - soft soft pink pulls through the ivory void
• Susan Constanse (Pittsburgh, PA) - Oranje
• Warren Craghead ( Charlottesville, VA)drawer
• Mark Creegan (Jacksonville Florida) - JaxCal.org
• Christiane D (Pittsburgh PA) - Christiane D
• Roberta Fallon (Philadelphia PA) Fallon and Rosof's Artblog
• Ann Gordon (Detroit MI) - Detroitarts
• Cable Griffith (Seattle WA) - Cable Griffith
• David Grim (Pittsburgh, PA) - Serendipity
• Bill Gusky (Canton, CT) - Artblog Comments
• Tracy Helgeson - Works by Tracy Helgeson
• Stephanie Lee Jackson (Brooklyn NY) - Pretty Lady
• JT Kirkland (Washington, D.C.) - Thinking About Art
• Mary Klein (Minneapolis, MN) - stillifes
• Eva Lake (Portland, OR) -Eva Lake
• Steven LaRose - (Ashland OR) Steven LaRose
• Michael Lease (Richmond VA) - Annabelle's Aspirin
• Joanne Mattera (New York NY) Joanne Mattera Art Blog
• Rob Matthews (Philadelphia PA) - Matthews The Younger
• John Morris (Pittsburgh, PA) - Digging Pittsburgh Arts
• Loren Munk (Brooklyn NY) - James Kalm
• Elizabeth Perry (Pittsburgh, PA) - Woolgathering
• David Pohl (Pittsburgh, PA) - find the time to rhyme
• Libby Rosof (Philadelphia PA) Fallon and Rosof's Artblog
• Chris Rywalt - (Wood Ridge NJ) NYC Art
• Marc Snyder (Pittsburgh, PA) - Fiji Island Mermaid Press

New PostSecret book coming

I just got through the new PostSecret book, which is titled A Lifetime of Secrets. And just like its predecessors, Frank Warren continues to tap into the inexhaustible well of worldwide secrets to deliver an exceptionally interesting book again - both as a read and as an art book. The new book goes on sale next week and it is already ranked at #105 on Amazon (as a pre-order). You can pre-order it here. Frank's book tour starts next week and he will be on the Today Show talking about PostSecret on October 11th.

There is also a new PostSecret video on YouTube (it is ranked 47th most viewed for the day and climbing).

Lastly, over 300 spiritually related postcards are on exhibit in the latest show at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore.

Moon & Hopper

Cudlin has a really excellent review of The National Gallery’s current exhibition on Edward Hopper.

And in this review is where we see where a trained painter can sometimes deliver an insight into a painter's work than an ordinary critic sometimes can't; Cudlin notices that:

There are many subjects that didn’t suit Hopper’s approach to color and form. He was hopeless, for example, with seascapes. His 1922 etching The Cat Boat and a later oil painting, Ground Swell (1939), are half-baked attempts to represent water. In the former, a few thin lines like cramped cursive—little cartoon peaks, really—lamely indicate waves. In the latter, the sea appears to be made of some viscous blue-green substance; the stuff lies in thick furrows, holding both a buoy and a sailboat completely immobile. Only the boat in each picture seems like a decent compilation of specific shapes. Hopper clearly liked that boat but didn’t have many ideas about where to put it...

... His figures, too, were often vague and half-invented. The female nude in Morning in a City (1944) gazes out at a sharply rendered city. But she herself looks like a lumpy troll, as if she wandered out of a painting by modern primitive Henri Rousseau. Hopper typically made studies for his figures but often relied on memory while painting, and proportions could get lost in the shuffle. This woman’s nakedness lacks eroticism, and as a result seems alien, disturbing—as nondescript as Hopper’s trees and waves.

Lumpy troll... that's hilarious!

Elsewhere in the CP, Capps reviews Jiha Moon at Curator's Office. Moon is on my "Buy Now" List.

Wanna go to a C'ville opening tonight?

Charlottesville's Migration: A Gallery has Edwin White's metal sculpture and mobiles opening tonight in a show titled “Line to Volume.”

The exhibition goes through November 2, 2007 and the opening is from 5:30 – 8pm as part of C'ville's own First Friday openings.

New WPA website

The new WPA website is now online and their new online artfile, which will be ready for prime time on October 29, 2007 rocks!

New editor at WaPo

Tracy Grant is the new editor for the Washington Post's Weekend section.

Our congratulations to Grant on the new job!

The WaPo's Weekend section has its own separate presence from the rest of the paper, and as far as the visual arts, in my opinion Michael O'Sullivan has the best presence, connectivity and corporate knowledge on the Greater DC area's region visual art scene in the entire newspaper. By far...

O'Sullivan does a great job for the readers of the Post, who are usually proportionally shortchanged in the visual arts (and have been for years, but accelerated by the disastrous Style editorship of Eugene Robinson and perpetuated by the current editor) by the paper's newish Arts section.

But I hope that Tracy Grant has an open mind, because the Weekend section can use a lot of refurbishing and modernizing and parts of it need to realize that it's 2007 and not 1977.

I am not an objective critic, not by far, but here are some suggestions for Tracy Grant, and I sincerely hope that Grant will take them as constructive suggestions rather than burying her head in the sand like her predecessor.

1. The Listings: No section of Weekend is a bigger waste of newsprint than the 80% static listings - especially the museum listings. But, let us assume that some people still refer solely to a printed paper, rather than the Internet, to find out what's showing where. The way that listings are managed, the way that they must be submitted, and the way that they are updated is a joke in 2007. Example: while I understand that in 1977 a reader may want a constant reference of what's on exhibit at the Navy Museum - a static permanent installation museum - why is that listing (and dozens like it) there Friday after Friday for years and years? The listings need to be more dynamic, like the Washington City Paper's listings are, where galleries and museums, etc. can email their listings in (or mail it or fax them). Suggestion one: Provide an online entry point where galleries and museums can electronically submit listings. And for the readers' sake, reduce the space allotted to static listings that never change and use the newsprint space to list more gallery listings, which do change on a monthly basis!

2. The Mini Reviews: The Weekend section used to employ an small army of freelance writers and critics to provide mini reviews of movies, theatre, performance, etc. These voices augmented their regular writers and critics and really made the Weekend section a must read for anyone interested in the arts. They never did that for the visual arts. Why did Weekend do this for all genres of the arts except the visual arts? Suggestion two: Budget for 2-3 freelance writers to submit a few mini DC area gallery reviews each Friday - just like you once did for the other art genres.

3. The Big Review: More please; O'Sullivan does a great job, but the hungry visual art masses want more! Here's an idea (unless it is an union thing that forbids this from happening): The WaPo owns a couple of other printed newspapers out there... such as the Gazette. Why not augment O'Sullivan once in a while with one of the art critics who already writes for one of those newspapers, already is on the WaPo's payroll database, and easy to tap into, to supplement and augment O'Sullivan's voice (or replace him when he's away on vacation or recuperating from a medical issue as he is now) when he's gone. Suggestion Three: Augment Michael O'Sullivan's visual art criticism with Dr. Claudia Rousseau's art criticism - she's the art critic for the Gazette newspapers - owned by the Post.

Wanna go for a pretty drive?

If you are a fan of children's illustrations and a really beautiful countryside setting, then this weekend you should take a drive to the Brandywine River Museum in beautiful Chadds Ford, PA and check our their current "Flights into Fantasy: The Kendra and Allan Daniel Collection of Children's Illustration" on display through November 18, 2007.

On exhibit you'll discover fantasy in children's illustrations by some of the most famous illustrators of the 19th and 20th centuries such as Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, Kay Neilsen, Jessie Willcox Smith, W.W. Denslow, Ernest Shepard, Ludwig Bemelmans, Dorothy Lathrop and E. Boyd Smith. Nearly 100 superb works selected from the remarkable collection of Kendra and Allan Daniel.