Read this!

If you are a painter who routinely gets brow-beaten by critics, writers and artists telling you that "painting is dead," then please read this.

The LA Times erudite art critic Christopher Knight nails the final nail in the coffin burying the "painting is dead" crowd, a couple of which seem to write for several mid Atlantic newspapers.

"Lingering animus toward painting is so end-of-the-20th century. Painting hasn't been the black sheep of the art family for a couple of decades now, except in academic backwaters of provincial thought."

Dios Mio!

Leigh Conner's Fave Artwork

Leigh Conner is the hardworking owner and Director of DC's Conner Contemporary Art and she responds to my request for readers' favorite artworks. Leigh writes:

My favorite artwork in a public collection – that is currently on view – is Mary Coble’s “Note to Self” at the Hirshhorn. If that were not on view …. Gerard David’s "Rest on the Flight to Egypt” would be the pick at the NGA or, close second, the Dan Flavin works in the East Wing.

Mary Coble, Note to Self


Mary Coble, Note to Self


The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, c. 1510 by Gerard David, Netherlandish, c. 1460 - 1523

Lisa Egeli's Fave Artwork

Lisa Egeli is a gifted Maryland painter and she responds to my request for readers' favorite artworks. Egeli writes:

It's a tie between Rosa Bonheur's "The Horse Fair" and Frederic Church's "Niagara" -- power, beauty, and energy both sublime and overwhelming.

The Horse Fair, 1853–55 by Rosa Bonheur (French, 1822–1899)


Niagara, 1857 by Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826 -1900)

Bailey's Fave Artwork

James W. Bailey is the rabblerousing mad blogger at Black Cat Bone as well as a talented DC area photographer and he responds to my request for readers' favorite artworks. Bailey writes:

The one work of art that I have found myself mysteriously drawn to over the years is the bronze sculpture of a woman knocking at the door of the former crypt of one of the most famous madames of New Orleans, Josie Arlington.

This beautiful and haunting sculpture has become even more important to me since the tragic events of Katrina. I see the hope of resurrection for my beloved New Orleans when I visit the site of this moving work of art, a hope that is tempered by the bitter unimaginable realities of death and decay that have enveloped New Orleans since Katrina. None of us from New Orleans knows what is to be found on the other side of the door to our future, a door that we continue to struggle to push open. The Woman at the Tomb calmly approaches the door to her fate. She provides inspiration for me to do the same.

From Haunted New Orleans by Troy Taylor:

One of the city’s most fascinating tales comes from this graveyard and involves the ghost of Mrs. Josie Deubler, also known as Josie Arlington, the most colorful and infamous madam of New Orleans.

From 1897 to 1917, New Orleans was the site of America’s largest district of prostitution. The city officials always realized they could not get rid of prostitution, so they decided to segregate it instead. Based on a plan created by an alderman named Sidney Story a district was created which would control and license the prostitutes. Much to the alderman’s chagrin, it was dubbed “Storyville” in his honor.

It was here where Josie Arlington operated her house of ill repute and became very rich. The house was known as the finest bordello in the district, stocked with beautiful women; fine liquor; wonderful food; and exotic drugs. The women were all dressed in expensive French lingerie and entertained the cream of New Orleans society. Many of the men who came to Josie’s were politicians, judges, lawyers, bankers, doctors and even city officials. She had the friendship of some of the most influential men in the city, but was denied the one thing she really wanted... social acceptance.

She was shunned by the families of the city and even publicly ignored by the men she knew so well. Her money and charm meant nothing to the society circles of the city. But what Josie could not have in life, she would have in death. She got her revenge on the society snobs by electing to be buried in the most fashionable cemetery in New Orleans... Metairie Cemetery.

She purchased a plot on a small hill and had erected a red marble tomb, topped by two blazing pillars. On the steps of the tomb was placed a bronze statue which ascended the staircase with a bouquet of roses in the crook of her arm. The tomb was an amazing piece of funerary art, designed by an eminent architect named Albert Weiblen, and cost Josie a small fortune. Although from the scandal it created, it was well worth it in her eyes.

Tongues wagged all over the city and people, mostly women, complained that Josie should not be allowed to be buried in Metairie. But New Orleans is a city normally lacking of discrimination and nothing was ever said to her about it.

No sooner had the tomb been finished in 1911, than a strange story began making the rounds. Some curiosity-seekers had gone out to see the tomb and upon their arrival one evening, were greeted with a sight that sent them running. The tomb seemed to burst into flames before their very eyes! The smooth red marble shimmered with fire, and the tendrils of flame appeared to snake over the surface like shiny phantoms. The word quickly spread and people came in droves to witness the bizarre sight. The cemetery was overrun with people every evening which shocked the cemetery caretakers and the families of those buried on the grounds. Scandal followed Josie even to her death.

Josie passed away in 1914 and was interred in the “flaming tomb”, as it was often referred to. Soon, an alarming number of sightseers began to report another weird event, in addition to the glowing tomb. Many swore they had actually seen the statue on the front steps move. Even two of the cemetery gravediggers, a Mr. Todkins and a Mr. Anthony, swore they had witnessed the statue leaving her post and moving around the tombs. They claimed to follow her one night, only to see her suddenly disappear.

The tradition of the flaming tomb has been kept alive for many years, although most claim the phenomena was created by a nearby streetlight which would sway in the wind.

Regardless, no one has ever been able to provide an explanation for the eyewitness accounts of the “living” statue.

Perhaps Josie was never accepted in life... but she is certainly still on the minds of many in New Orleans long after her death!

A history of Josie Arlington’s famous bordello, The Arlington, can be read online here.

“Woman at the Tomb” by The Right Reverend James W. Bailey - Photographed at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans

Borf's Dad?

Seen yesterday at W.34th and 9th Avenue in NYC:



Seen in DC everywhere a while back:

Kim Ward's Fave Artwork

Kim Ward is the hardworking Executive Director of DC's amazing Washington Project for the Arts and she responds to my request for readers' favorite artworks. Kim writes:

I have many local favorites, but if asked to pick one --- I am a huge fan of Louise Bourgeois' Spider in the NGA Sculpture Garden for several reasons; viewing it is free, it is a fabulous piece that you can see from many vantage points, it is appropriate in scale and placement---appearing as though some gigantic spider has crawled across the mall, yet mostly because it looks like it is advancing on the Archives building and will be walking across the street at any moment.

Louise Bourgeois - Spider, 1996, cast 1997
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Gift of The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation

Ashley Peel Pinkham's Fave Artwork

Ashley Peel Pinkham is the Asst. Director at Philly's acclaimed Print Center and she responds to my request for readers' favorite artworks. Ashley writes:

My pick would be Philadelphia artist Matthew Suib’s video Heston, 2004, from his solo exhibition, ReVisionist Cinema/Triple Feature that was on view at the Philadelphia Art Alliance from May 18 to August 8, 2004. Suib spliced video from the Hollywood Bible epic The Ten Commandments and created an awkwardly non-verbal, anti-climatic video of Moses parting the Red Sea. It kept you on the edge of your seat waiting for something to happen in some kind of oddly looped dimension.

Here’s the official blurb on the piece with installation image:

Heston, Matthew Suib, 2004 (from the ReVisionist Cinema series) Color video w/ Dolby Digital 5.1 surround audio on DVD for projection Running time: 11:00

Comprised of silent, interstitial moments from Demille’s The Ten Commandments (1956)--extended through subtle looping and matting--Heston critiques Judeo-Christian mythology’s claim of divine origin/inspiration. Building on concepts from Thomas Paine’s infamous 1794 tract The Age of Reason: Being an Investigation of Both True and Fabulous Theology, both “the words” and “The Word” have been excised from Demille’s epic, stranding American icon Charleston Heston (Moses) amidst the grandiose artifice of theology and Hollywood splendor. The awkward tension of these altered scenes makes mockery of the inherent profanity of theological portrayals and the conceit of the self-righteous.

Installation view of Matthew Suib’s exhibition ReVisionist Cinema/Triple Feature

Major International Fine Arts Glass Show Coming to DC in 2008

You saw it here first... and it needs a little background first...

First and foremost: There's an important International Fine Arts Glass Show coming to the DMV. This event's start is a bit complex, so pay attention!

The British sister city to Washington, DC is Sunderland.

Why Sunderland and not London? After all, most other sister cities to DC are the capitals of other countries - but Sunderland is George Washington's ancestral hometown, so that's why!

Sunderland is also where the United Kingdom has their National Glass Centre and, by the way, glass has been made in Sunderland for around 1,500 years.

George Koch is one of the District's true art icons: he's a talented painter, the founder of A. Salon, Ltd., a board member of the Cultural Development Corporation, a founding board member of the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington, a Commissioner of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, board member of Hamiltonian Artists, and the Board Chair of Artomatic.

They don't get much bigger, influential, or harder working for the District's artists and arts organizations than George Koch.

And George has been working very hard to get the British to bring the United Kingdom's premier glass artists to an exhibition in the US, while at the same time bring some attention to the many and talented glass artists working around the Greater DC region.

So Koch has been orchestrating the process to bring the Brits to DC in a major show, somehow tie it to the Artomatic organization, use it to showcase Washington area glass artists, and also tie the whole effort into a nascent Toledo, Ohio Artomatic-type organization.

If you paid attention in art school, then you know that Toledo, Ohio is also historically one of the glass centers of the colonies, and an important placeholder in art history.

In 1962, Harvey Littleton, Professor of Art at the University of Wisconsin, (and DC gallerist Maurine Littleton's father) and Dominick Labino (a glass scientist with the Johns-Manville Fiber Glass Corporation), presented a glass workshop in conjunction with the Toledo Museum of Art.

These men are recognized internationally as the "fathers" of the American Studio Glass Movement and certainly the first two to take the seminal steps to bring glass from the high end crafts to the fine arts world.

Convinced that it was finally possible for an individual artist to undertake glass art by working entirely alone - as compared to being part of a glass factory, Littleton and Labino provided information on furnace construction, glass formulas, tools, techniques, etc. They sowed the seeds that eventually sprouted thousands of individual kilns, furnaces and glass studios and schools around the United States and the world.

The Toledo workshop was the beginning of the American Studio Glass Movement. Since then, American glass artists are acknowledged worldwide as the undisputed leaders in creativity and originality and the continuing battle to bring glass to the fine arts dialogue.

The final key player in this showcase of three glass centers is the Washington Glass School, bringing to the show about 15 area glass artists who are instructors of the now nation wide famous content-driven art glass facility.

Bottom line: a historic event is about to take place in Washington, DC. Three educational leaders in today's Contemporary Art Glass movement are joining forces to present a representative survey of the exciting artists and techniques surfacing at these three facilities. Two of these institutions, the Toledo Glass Pavilion and Sunderland Glass School represent hundreds of years of a rich glass-making tradition while the Washington Glass School has emerged as a new and vibrant player on this field.

The show will take place at Georgetown Park Mall in Washington, DC from February 21, 2008 to March 16th, 2008 and this "International Glass Invitational" will be presented as a partnership with Art-O-Matic, the Sister City Program, etc. The opening date is set to coincide with the birthday of George Washington.

Mark your calendars for this one.

Tapedude in the news

The talented and ubiquitous Mark Jenkins is interviewed in the current issue of Juxtapoz Magazine.

Check out some of Mark's amazing videos of his street art and what they do to people... here.

Frank Warren's Favorite Work of Art

They don't get much bigger on this planet than Frank Warren's PostSecret and in response to my call for favorite artwork, Frank writes:

I have been captivated by James Hampton's "The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millenium General Assembly" at the Smithsonian American Art Museum for about a decade. I think partly because it was closed-off for so long and I began to miss seeing it.

It was the first piece of Folk or Visionary Art that I fell in love with. I like art that expands how we define it, and challenges who can create it. I like how the piece is so unselfconscious and at the same time ambitious. I like how it uses what some might see as trash to express a high spiritual calling. And I like how seeing it in a museum makes me think, "hey, maybe my stuff it good enough to be here too."

The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millenium General Assembly by James Hampton

Sidney Lawrence's Fave Artwork

Art critic and artist Sidney Lawrence responds to my request for readers' favorite artworks. Sidney's favorite work of art:

Bellini's St Francis of Assisi in the Desert at The Frick Collection‏.

Cindy Ann Coldiron's Fave Artwork

Attorney and glass artist Cindy Ann Coldiron responds to my request for readers' favorite artworks. Cindy writes:

My favorite works of art in general are anything by Gustav Klimpt. But my favorite is below. It reminds me of little bits of glittering falling glass. I guess I am biased there.

The Kiss by Gustav Klimpt

Shauna Lee Lange's Fave Artwork

Arts writer, critic, coach, and consultant Shauna Lee Lange responds to my request for readers' favorite artworks. Shauna writes:

Without a doubt, hands down, and also in the NGA, is Picasso's "The Tragedy."

If I ever show up on the news as "missing" - you can claim the big "finder's reward" as now you know I'll really be sitting in front of this one!

Do you agree that sincerity is not to be found outside the realm of grief?

Ha - Saddish thought for such a festive season, no?

I'm always surprised at the oddity of the hands and feet, and at different times have waivered between aligning my perspective with each character. Hard to believe 1901 - 1903 - over 100 years ago, and still so completely timeless.

"The Tragedy" by Pablo Picasso

Zoe Strauss' Fave Artwork(s)

Philly's brilliant photographer Zoe Strauss responds to my request for readers' favorite artworks.

The Large Glass by Marcel DuChamp


Nude Descending a Staircase (No.2)/Nu descendant un Escalier. No.2. 1912, Marcel Duchamp


Nigredo by Anselm Kiefer, c.1984

No one asked me...

Nobody asked me, but Michael O'Sullivan's "Conversation Pieces" in today's WaPo lists some A-list folks' favorite art in the Greater DC area.

My favorite?


Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copley at the National Gallery of Art. It seeks to depict an event that took place in Havana, Cuba, in 1749.

The naked guy in the water is fourteen-year-old Brook Watson, who was attacked by a shark while swimming alone in Havana harbor. Lucky for Watson, some of his mates were already at sea waiting to escort their captain ashore, and were able to fight the shark and rescue Watson, although the shark bit one of his legs off. On his return to England, he got his fifteen minutes of fame and Copley painted this work.

If you study the painting carefully, you will realize that Copley probably had never seen a shark in his life, and his depiction of the great white in Havana harbour yields one of the most ungainly and ugliest non-sharks fish things ever painted.

I love to sit in front of this painting and watch people as they walk by and get mesmerized by the brutal event taking place and kids making fun of the shark.

What is your favorite work of art? Not just DC, but from wherever you [reader] hail from? Email me your favorite and I'll post it!

Wanna go to an Alexandria opening this Saturday?

At the beautiful Athenaeum in Old Town Alexandria, VA: "Wild Imagination - Works of Six Self-Taught Artists from the American South," curated by Ginger Young and featuring work by Howard Finster, James Harold Jennings, Nellie Mae Rowe, James Arthur Snipes, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, and Mose Tolliver.

The show goes through January 27, 2008 and the Opening Reception is Saturday, December 15th, from 6 - 8 pm with a gallery talk by Ginger Young at 7pm.

The Shape of Things to Come

The WaPo's art critic Michael O'Sullivan shows and tells us not only about a few of his favorite art objects and places in the Greater DC area, but also the shape of things to come in art reporting and writing with this beautiful multimedia piece in the Washingtonpost.com.

A well done to whoever came up with this idea!

WPA Registry

The Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) has announced the recent public launch of the WPA ArtFile Online, an interactive web-based image registry of WPA members’ artwork, accessible 24 hours a day through the WPA’s website.

As I recall, back in the 1900s, Jack Rasmussen, then the spry young Assistant Director of the Washington Project for the Arts established the original ArtFile Slide and Media Registry, conceived as a centrally located repository containing slides of local artists’s work.

For many decades the original ArtFile has served as a go-to resource for curators, gallerists, collectors, artists, and members of the general public to see a cross-section of the artwork being produced in and around Washington DC.

In 2005 I used it to review about 20,000 slides (twice) in order to select the artists for the "Seven" show that I curated for the then WPA/C.

Funded by a grant from the Philip L. Graham Fund and developed by database firm ClearDev, the new WPA ArtFile Online contains over 3,800 images from more than 400 artists -- numbers that are growing daily. Visitors to the ArtFile Online can:

- browse alphabetically by artist’s last name
- search for artists by name or keyword
- sort artists by media (drawing, painting, etc.)
- sort artists by style (abstract, conceptual, etc.), or
- view artists by geographic location.

Visitors also have the option of registering -- free of charge -- as a Curator, allowing them to maintain a “Lightbox” -- a saved folder of their favorite artists’ portfolios.

Portfolio pages in the WPA ArtFile Online are one of the membership benefits given to WPA member artists, who are able to log in at any time from any computer with an internet connection to update their images, image captions, artist statement, resume, contact information, and the style and media keywords that best describe their artwork. Each artist’s portfolio page displays up to 12 images, and allows the artist to provide a link to their own external website where more images and information can be found.

Direct link to the WPA ArtFile Online: artfile.wpadc.org.

For additional information, please contact David William at dwilliam@wpadc.org

Photos of Miami Beach Art Fairs

The Cappster has many photographs of the various art fairs from ABMB; see them all here.

Baltimore struggles over public art

The Baltimore Sun, has a fascinating insight into what happens behind the scenes when someone wants to add a work of public art to a city.

In a nutshell, a group wants to honor former mayor and governor William Donald Schaefer by commissioning and putting a 9 foot statue of him on a prominent corner in Baltimore's Inner Harbor? This is all at no cost to the tax payers, other than perhaps as a eye sore to people who didn't like Schaefer.

Sculptor Rodney Carroll rough proposal concept sketches for the Schaefer statue
But seriously, it seems that every time that these issues on public art become, ah... public, the following happens:

(a) if the proposed honoring statue is an abstract work of art, someone complains because it doesn't really reflect clearly enough the intent or focus of the honoree.

(b) if the proposed honoring statue is a representational work of art, and actually looks like the person being honored, then someone complains that it is too traditional.

To that effect, Darsie Alexander, a sculptor on the panel, apparently took course (b) and stated one of the most traditional of lines and one of the dumbest arguments consistently taken by the boring "representational versus abstract" soldiers (note that I did not say "traditional," as it is clear to the most casual student of art history that abstract art, because of its age and proliferation in academia and public art these days, is as "traditional" as representational art).

According to the article Darsie Alexander said that:

"she saw a disconnect between the groundbreaking nature of the Inner Harbor redevelopment and the 'old-fashioned' quality of Carroll's sculpture. She warned that putting a traditional statue along the refurbished shoreline isn't likely to help put Baltimore on the map as a destination for cutting-edge art - and therefore she feels Carroll's piece may be inconsistent with what the Inner Harbor is all about."

Please... an interesting art destination, even a "cutting edge art" destination, is a tapestry of many colors and textures, not just one kind of artwork or style or genre; whatever happened to diversity?

And now let me take the other side.

Say that Mayor Sheila Dixon and the Baltimore city fathers all nod their head to Darsie Alexander's traditional opinion on this issue. Then I hope that Alexander's influences and opinions are educated enough to go past the "if we put an abstract work on the Inner Harbor and a plate that says it's William Donald Schaefer so that people actually know what it's all about" notion.

How about some really cutting edge art?

No, not a just a video piece of Hizzoner... that's also traditional stuff by now; it has been around for over half a century - let's get modernized folks!

Let's maybe explore some robotics, some motion sensors, some audio and video combos... I envision a moving statue of William Donald Schaefer; either a solid robotic one or a holographic one, with some sophisticated software and robotics properties (the art geeks from Dorkbot DC can design this part), which interacts with people as they pass by.

To really make it realistic, and consistent with Schaeffer's past actions, the statue could be equipped with some visual recognition algorithms to recognize attractive young women and issue a cat call every time that a pretty girl walks by.