Art advice for the White House tenants

Life has an interesting way of forcing us to sometimes either reversing what we once thought were final positions, and other times life offers us a chance of defending both sides of a position.

I have been generally against the segregation of artists by race (black, white, Asian or native American) or by ethnicity (Hispanic, Semitic, etc.), and yet sometimes a void or need is so egregious that the solution is very clear and may cross lines that we may have thought as cast in concrete.

When we all discovered a couple of years ago that 66% of all the artwork by black American artists currently in the White House art collection had been acquired by the Bushes, depending on what side of the political aisle you stand, this fact may either raise an eyebrow from right wing nuts or some sort of conspiracy theory from left wing nuts.

But when we also discovered the fact that only three works (out of an estimated 375 pieces) were by black Americans, both sides of the aisle should find that surprising... and maybe in need of attention by the Obamas.

A little recap and an update: In 2007 I reacted in my usual self-righteous, irate manner to having American artist Jacob Lawrence described as a great African-American artist, rather than just a great artist. And then the Washington City Paper in the process of policing that whole issue, came up with an interesting fact.

Jacob Lawrence, pen and ink, circa 1980 by F. Lennox Campello
In an Private Collection
According to the City Paper, Betty Monkman, the curator of the White House, revealed that, "while Lawrence’s painting isn’t the sole piece by a black artist in the executive mansion, it’s close to it — there are only two others."

That's now three out of "an estimated 375 total in the White House’s art collection."

Geez.

That implies that Simmie Knox's portrait of President Clinton is not considered part of the White House’s art collection, which doesn't make sense. Knox is a DC area artist by the way, and a brilliant painter.

So let's take off the first century and a half of the White House's art acquisition process. During that time we can safely assume that they probably just focused on American artists from one of the four races, and somewhat let me reverse my stand on segregating artists by race, rather than just artistic merit, and let me take the uncomfortable side of trying to again ask the question, "Why aren't there more works by black artists in the White House art collection?"

Even if one ignores skin color, and just looks at the art and artistic achievement, there are plenty of great American artists, who happen to be black, whom I think would make a great update to the White House collection.

Some art greats, by artistic default, I would think, would have to be Black, or Asian, or Native American, not just Caucasian artists of all ethnicities - after all, all four races of mankind create art and all four and their many mixtures, live in America.

Back in the 1980's, Jacob Lawrence was awarded the National Medal of Arts from President George Bush The First. Why did it take 27 years for one of his paintings to become part of the White House's permanent collection?

The City Paper research identified the other two paintings: "Henry Ossawa Tanner’s Sand Dunes at Sunset, Atlantic City (1885), which hangs in the Green Room, its home since 1996, and an 1892 painting by one “Bannister” (possibly Ed Bannister) acquired in 2006 and which was then undergoing conservation.

So two of the three have been acquired by the Bushes, and before 1996 there wasn't a single work of art by any black artist in the President's home, in spite of the fact that artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Sam Gilliam, Martin Puryear, Alma Thomas, and others are all just great American artists, period, and have even broken the National Gallery of Art code, and should all probably have been acquired by the White House years, and years, and years ago.

Makes my head hurt.

And let's agree, as Jonathan Melber notes in the HuffPost, that the White House's collection is not exactly, ah... contemporary.

But let's say that a traditional acquisition focus on painting were to remain, and thus we would immediately unfortunately eliminate a lot of good contemporary choices. After all, the White House is not an art museum, and the case could be made that it sort of "feels" that it should be an art collection where all things somewhat say "America" in a variety of traditional visual ways, and I submit that for that goal, painting is still first among equals. That still leaves Romare Bearden, Sam Gilliam, Alma Thomas and others I am sure.

So if the Obamas were to continue what President Bush started, and expand the White House's collection to be more representative of American artists and the American people, I would suggest that (in addition to perhaps more Lawrence), Romare Bearden, Sam Gilliam, Martin Puryear, and Alma Thomas would be a good start.

And, if as Malber suggests, the Obamas should expand the White House collection to more than just paintings, then in addition to some Lawrence collages, I would suggest work by other blue chip artists such as Kara Walker, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons (who is not only a brilliantly accomplished artist, but also happens to be both Hispanic and Black) and Lorna Simpson.

But I don't know if the Obamas personally collect art, and even though I am one myself, I don't really buy the idea of a staff White House art adviser.

If the Obamas are like most people, they probably don't "really" collect art with a focus or intensity to say, the Podestas in DC or the Rubells in Miami (either one of whom, by the way, would make excellent unpaid volunteer art advisers to the White House, if having an adviser was the choice made to change the visual arts acquisition status quo).

So... since the odds are that they would be beginning collectors, then I would suggest the same thing that I do to all beginning collectors: start looking first at emerging artists, which generally can be acquired for much less money than a well-established artist from the upper crust of the rarified artmosphere. Do this until you establish your tastes, desires and somewhat of a focus, and then, if your financial status allows it, begin expanding into the big museum-level names.

And if the Obamas listen to Malber's excellent point of looking locally (as Clinton did in selecting Simmie Knox to do his Presidential portrait), then I would add one of the terrific works by Rikk Freeman to the White House.

A huge Freeman painting would do wonders for the White House collection and also do wonders for Freeman. Not only would it add a presence and feel to the collection that is missing right now and which is an integral part of American history, but it would also set a new, fresh change of venue of how artwork has been acquired in the past, and the kind of artists that get acquired.

Change.

Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet

Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet Gonzalez is a Cuban physician, imprisoned in Cuba since 2003, for his work for democracy and freedom for that unfortunate island.

“I am of the opinion that as long as a Castro-communist dictatorship exists in Cuba, we, Cubans, will not be able to live in freedom and democracy and that the violations of human rights will continue. I ask the democratic governments of the world and the individuals who love justice and freedom to support the Cuban people and not the government of the island which usurped power, betrayed the people, by sullying them. The conquest of liberty for Cuba is the present priority and will require a struggle that is detailed in its organization and persevering. My steps are headed towards the conquest of that priority. Hear, oh God, my cry, listen to my prayer fulfilling my vows day by day. Free me and free the Cuban people.”

Click on the image for more details...

On the road...

Heading back up North today.

Charity Auction

Habatat Galleries in Tyson's Corner, Virginia is sponsoring a special art auction for charity. Already many prominent artists have donated works of art with 100% of the proceeds going to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
The artists will display their art work for silent bidding in an exhibition titled "Habatat for Healing."

Lindsey Scott, President of Habatat Galleries was nominated by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for their Man and Women of the Year contest. Ms. Scott has conceived "Habatat for Healing", a special exhibition and auction of exceptional works of art in support of LLS.

Artists such as Jon Kuhn, Mark T. Smith, Bennett Bean, Tim Tate, Tanija & Graham Carr (Australia) and Petr Hora (Czech Republic) to name a few, have already generously donated art works ranging from the $100s into the $1,000s for this wonderful event.

The exhibition opens on March 5th for display and the start of silent bidding. The exhibition will continue through the evening of April 7th when several key-pieces will be auctioned live and winning silent bids will be announced.

I plan to donate to this charity, and in the event that some of you are interested in donating a work of art for the auction (deadline is end of February), please contact:

Lindsey Scott
8020 Towers Crescent Drive
Tysons Corner (Vienna), VA 22182
703-989-7110
lindsey@habatatgalleries.com

Southerning

I'm down South all this week... y'all keep coming back y'heah.

Opportunity for Photographers

Deadline: March 15, 2009

The FotObamaWeek Photography Contest is a team effort by FotoWeek DC and The Newseum: an international photography contest celebrating the Presidential campaign and the Inauguration of Barack Obama.

- Top 100 winning images, selected by The Newseum's judges, will be exhibited at The Newseum.

- All 100 winning images will be published in a limited edition book sponsored by FotoWeek DC.

- Grand prize winners will be announced at a reception at The Newseum.
Cash prizes totaling $5,000.

- All images submitted will be on display at FotoWeek DC's on-line gallery, along with People's Choice winners.

All except Minnesota absentee ballot voters can vote here.

This museum is hiring

Check it out here.

Artistic Work Force

...there are two million trained, entrepreneurial working artists across the country who are assets to their communities. Representing 1.4 percent of the U.S. labor force, artists constitute a sizeable class of workers -- only slightly smaller than the total number of active-duty and reserve personnel in the U.S. military (2.2 million).

More info here.

Connie Imboden at DCCA

The Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts current exhibition Reflections, is an exhibition of black-and-white and color photography by Baltimore's own Connie Imboden.

For twenty-five years, Imboden has been photographing nudes, in the process creating some of the most unique interpretations of this traditional subject in the history of contemporary art. The exhibition runs through April 12, 2009.

Tape as Art

He created a makeshift apartment in the parking garage of the Providence Place mall, where he and fellow artists lived off-and-on for more than three years until the stunt was squelched by security guards. He has designed art projects using everything from chain-link fence to snow.

Now he's trying to take his primary artistic love – tape – to the masses.

Townsend, 38, has for 15 years used colorful painter's tape to construct murals and spice up drab walls with quirky images including giant teddy bears and aliens. Now he is working on a book that he hopes will document the history of tape art and encourage schools to incorporate the off-beat medium into their curricula.

Read the AP story about Rhode Island artist Michael Townsend here.

My own favorite tape artist is DC's own Mark Jenkins.

New Art Fair Model?

A group of 20 Old Master paintings dealers are joining forces with Christie’s and Sotheby’s to launch London’s inaugural Master Paintings Week with a series of gallery openings from 4-10 July.

The week coincides with the auctions of Old Master Paintings and Master Drawings, and will provide an alternative to art and antique fairs.

Is this a new model? I guess, but we pretty much proposed the same thing last year. Read the article in the Art Newspaper here.

Goodbye Book World

In another sign that literary criticism is losing its profile in newspapers, The Washington Post has decided to shutter the print version of Book World, its Sunday stand-alone book review section, and shift reviews to space inside two other sections of the paper.

Where will they shift the book reviews and articles and discussions to?

“I think it’s going to be a great disappointment to a lot of readers,” said Marie Arana, who edited Book World for a decade before taking a buy-out from The Washington Post in December. “I just hope that there’s enough coverage and emphasis and attention given on the pages where Book World will now appear in print in Outlook and Style and Arts to satisfy those readers.”

Good luck with that Ms. Arana; it has been clear to the most casual observer that those sections of the WaPo are not really interested too much on "satisfying" their readers; at least those readers with niche interests such as book, visual arts, etc.

Think more celebrity focus and you've got the Style section. A few years ago the decay of the Style section's coverage of the visual arts in the Post started under then Style's editor Eugene Robinson, and this blog is a historical record of the decay of that section in covering the arts, as well as some outright lies by its editors over the years about some of the issues raised over the years.

In 2004 the Style section used to have one column a week to review DC area art galleries. 52 articles a year to review from a potential field of over 1,500 or so gallery shows. But 52 is better than nothing. The columns were shared by freelancers Jessica Dawson and Glenn Dixon, both ex-Washington City Paper writers. Then Dixon quit over some dispute with the Post and the art review column was reduced to twice a month.

But we were told on Monday, December 27, 2004 that the Post had "decided to hire a second freelance writer to augment Jessica Dawson's 'Galleries' reviews."

We're still waiting for that second additional freelance art critic. Instead, since then the Post has reduced its galleries' coverage even further. And it's not like we don't understand the economical reasons for this. With newspapers all over the nation slowly bleeding away readers each month, the end of the line is near for these major, once dominant moribund giants of the printed media. But what fires me up is when they still try to tell us that nothing will change and that they still "get it" as the Post's annoying radio ads proclaim.

In a phone interview with the NYT, Marcus Brauchli, executive editor of The Post said that “Our intention is to have nearly as many reviews as we’ve had in the past, though clearly there will be somewhat less room.”

Goodbye Book World.

Today in Chadds Ford

The family of Andrew Wyeth and the Brandywine River Museum invite the public to a celebration of the life and work of Andrew Wyeth, who died on January 16. This special event will be held Saturday, January 31, from 9:30 to 4:30 p.m. Complementary admission will be offered to all visitors today.

Andrew Wyeth's most famous painting, the iconic Christina's World, will be on view at the Museum for the celebration.* On loan from The Museum of Modern Art in New York, this is the first time the painting has been on view in the region. It is rarely seen outside New York City. The Brandywine River Museum currently displays 38 other paintings and watercolors by the artist.

In addition to Christina's World, Wyeth's last painting, titled Goodbye, will be also on exhibition. The painting depicts a friendship sloop sailing out of the picture past an island with a single white frame building reflected in the ocean and in the wake of the boat. The painting was completed by Andrew Wyeth in Maine in 2008.

"Andrew Wyeth once told an interviewer that 'Painting has been my one interest, nothing else but art,'" recalled Jim Duff, Director of the Brandywine River Museum. "The finest way to honor him is to enjoy the art he created."

The documentary film, Self Portrait: Snow Hill, produced by Betsy James Wyeth and narrated by Stacy Keach, will be shown in the Museum's Lecture Room every hour on the hour starting at 10 a.m. Incorporating many of Andrew Wyeth's works of art along with family photographs, home movies, personal letters and footage of Andrew Wyeth, this moving program provides insight into his private world.

In addition, memory books in which visitors can leave their thoughts will be located in the museum.

Exhibiting American art in a 19th-century grist mill, the Brandywine River Museum is internationally known for its unparalleled collection of works by three generations of Wyeths and its fine collection of American illustration, still life and landscape painting.

The Brandywine River Museum is located on U.S. Route 1 in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. The museum is open daily, except Christmas Day, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Visit the museum's website here.

February’s Phillips after 5

DC's Phillips Collection is teaming with the American Poetry Museum to present a panel about poetry and hip hop. It should be really great. Here are all the details…

Phillips after 5
Feb. 5
5–8:30 p.m.
Admission: By donation
Cash bar
Music: DJ Adrian Loving will spin hip-hop tunes in the Music Room. 5–8 p.m.
Discussion: Poetic Voices: Hip Hop Here and Now at 6:30 p.m.

African-American music and poetry have become a soundtrack for a migrating global audience searching for its character. Artist Fred Joiner moderates a panel of poet-scholars in a discussion of hip hop as a force that blends cultural identities with the realities of modern life. In collaboration with the American Poetry Museum.

Gallery Talk: Once upon a Picture — Lawrence as Storyteller - 6 & 7 p.m.

Explore how Jacob Lawrence’s use of patterns and bold colors tells the story of the Great Migration of African Americans to the North in the early 20th century.

Free Podcast Tonight at 7PM

I'm going to be doing a free radio podcast tonight at 7PM talking about some of the issues from the Artists' Boot Camp Webminars and answering questions. Click on the image below for details and to sign up for the free webminars.

Obara-rama at Projects Gallery Not unlike the groundswell of support during our recent national election, what began as the bubbling excitement of a few artists has swelled into a tsunami of artistic pro Obama output. Through word of mouth and passing conversations, a wide range of artistic talent and media has enthusiastically embraced the idea of celebrating the historic Presidential event. Perhaps as no other elected official in history, Obama is a canvas on which is projected the hopes and fears of a nation.

  “Obama-rama” brings together many prominent Philadelphia area artists, as well as others, united in the celebration and critique of our nation's new commander in chief, including Elizabeth Bisbing, Jim Brossy, James Dupree, Roberta Fallon, Cheryl Harper, Frank Hyder, Tom Judd, Alex Queral, Libby Rosof, Shelley Spector, Ira Upin and others, including yours truly (I have a couple of drawings of Obama as well as several lithos and etchings done in 2007 and 2008).

 Projects Gallery is located at 629 N 2nd St Philadelphia, PA 19123. Gallery hours are Wednesday & Thursday 4 - 7 p.m. and Friday & Saturday noon to 7 p.m. The show opens with a First Friday's opening reception for the artists on Friday, February 6 from 6-9PM, and continues through February 28th, 2009.

Tax Dollars for the Arts

Singers, actors and dancers can stimulate audiences, but can they stimulate the economy? The authors of the current stimulus package seem to think so — they have included $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts and $150 million for infrastructure repairs at the Smithsonian.

NPR story by Elizabeth Blair here.

Free Podcast Tonight

I'm going to be doing a free radio podcast tonight at 7PM talking about some of the issues from the Artists' Boot Camp Webminars and answering questions. Click on the image below for details and to sign up for the free webminars.

Rosenbaum on Comforti

In early June, when Michael Conforti became president of the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), no one could have anticipated the challenges that he and his colleagues would face just a few months into his two-year term.

Read Lee Rosenbaum on the WSJ here.

Manslaughter

The creator of an inflatable artwork ignored safety concerns and blocked its evacuation shortly before the walk-in structure broke free of its moorings and soared into the sky with catastrophic consequences, a court heard today.

Two women fell to their deaths and others were injured when the giant PVC sculpture, hit by a gust of wind, became airborne as members of the public relaxed on a hot summer’s afternoon at a popular park in Chester-le-Street, County Durham.

Maurice Agis, the 77-year-old artist who designed and supervised the multi-coloured Dreamspace installation, is accused of manslaughter by gross negligence over an alleged litany of safety failings.

Read the article by Andrew Norfolk in the Times here.