Sunday, March 27, 2016
Saturday, March 26, 2016
John Kelly on Mark Felner
Mark didn’t want to read Fitzgerald’s classic tale, even though he gathered 50 copies. Like many of us, he read it in high school. Rather, he wanted to shred the books, soak them in water, grind them into a gray slurry and turn that slurry into a large, rectangular piece of thick, deckle-edged handmade paper.
Read the piece here.
The Second Annual Athenaeum Invitational
Friday, March 25, 2016
The virulent case of Communist Cuba's racism
In his article Cuba Begins to Answer Its Race Question, Robinson, a clearly very extreme left-wing oriented writer, tried hard to find excuses for the dictatorship, but nonetheless admits that:
Academics say that black Cubans are failing to earn university degrees in proportion to their numbers--a situation to which Castro has alluded publicly. The upper echelons of the government remain disproportionately white, despite the emergence of several rising black stars. And while perceptions are difficult to quantify, much less prove true or false, many black Cubans are convinced that they are much less likely than whites to land good jobs--and much more likely to be hassled by police on the street, like Cano's husband, in a Cuban version of "racial profiling."But how about some Cubans inside Cuba discussing the subject?
In primary [Cuban] education, skin color is not mentioned," ... If we are still living in a society where white people have the power, and we don't mention color in education, we are in practice educating [Cuban] children to be white.A lot of hopes have been pinned by many people (who know little about Cuba and the repressive nature of its government) on President Obama's recent monumental decision to re-establish diplomatic relations with the unfortunate Caribbean island prison of Cuba; but first another Cuban quote:
Cuban history as we teach it is a disgrace, because it is predominantly white history, and explaining the role of black people and mulattoes in building this society and its culture is not given its due importance.
Esteban Morales
University of Havana
Centre for the Study of the Hemisphere and the United States
...to carry on "hiding" the issue [of racism in Cuba] would lead black people to think that "they belong to another country, and that there are two Cuba’s as there were in the 19th century, a black Cuba and a white one."And thus, it is curious to me that in re-establishing diplomatic ties, our socially conscious President (and his cadre of advisors) appear to know little or nothing about the way that Afro-Cuban citizens are treated in their own country.
Roberto Zurbano
Director
Casa de las Américas publishing house
Havana
In reference to the President's visit, Odette Casamayor-Cisneros, an associate professor of Latin American and Caribbean literatures and cultures at the University of Connecticut and a scholar at Harvard University notes that
“The images of the meetings, the agreements, they’re all shameful for many black Cubans — I’m including myself in this — because it’s difficult to feel represented.”
Will the expected flow of American tourists help? Zurbano writes in his 2013 New York Times article that:
Most remittances from abroad — mainly the Miami area, the nerve center of the mostly white exile community — go to white Cubans. They tend to live in more upscale houses, which can easily be converted into restaurants or bed-and-breakfasts — the most common kind of private business in Cuba. Black Cubans have less property and money, and also have to contend with pervasive racism. Not long ago it was common for hotel managers, for example, to hire only white staff members, so as not to offend the supposed sensibilities of their European clientele.That "not long ago" is still the case, as anyone who has been to Cuba recently can testify to - it is very rare to see a black face in any of Havana's "tourist only" hotels and nearby beaches. Discussing those lucrative jobs, Yusimí Rodríguez López, an Afro-Cuban independent journalist, said in a 2016 New York Times article that there were job listings on Revolico — sometimes called Cuba’s underground Craigslist — “where they say they only want whites.”
In the same NYT article we read:
One would hope that our President's dealings with a nation with one of the world's worst human rights records, where Amnesty International has been denied access to (except to that bit of Cuba where the Guantanamo Naval Base is located); a nation where gay people were once given lobotomies to "cure" them; and where HIV+ Cubans were detained and segregated in guarded colonies away from the general public, could at least receive a little attention on the status of blacks in their nation.“They talk a lot here about discrimination against blacks in the United States. What about here?” said Manuel Valier Figueroa, 50, an actor, who was in the park on Monday. “If there’s a dance competition, they’re going to choose the woman who is fair-skinned with light, good hair. If there’s a tourism job, the same.”He added: “Why are there no blacks managing hotels? You don’t see any blacks working as chefs in hotels, but you see them as janitors and porters. They get the inferior jobs.”
Fact: Twice as many African slaves were brought to Cuba than to the United States... twice!
And what really bugs me, in my own pedantic hell, is how a bunch of historically and socially clueless American negotiators orchestrate deals with the leaders and the government of one of the world's most racist dictatorships (a government which talks a talk of equality while walking a walk of institutionalized racism against its own black population) without even mentioning the issue of racism.
Cuba has a long and agonizing history of racial issues, starting with its long bloody history of slavery, which didn't end on the island until 1886, and continuing through its freedom from Spain, birth of the Republic, and the triumph of the Castro Revolution in 1959. It continues to this day.
Cuba even had its own race war.
General Antonio Maceo, known as "the Bronze Titan." He was the true warrior leader of the Cuban Wars of Liberation. His father was white of French ancestry; his mother was black, of Dominican ancestry. After the first Cuban Liberation War ended in a truce with Spain, some say that Maceo was so disillusioned with the realities of life in Cuba as a black man, that he left Cuba and lived in Panama, until he was called back to lead the Cuban rebels in a new rebellion in 1895. He returned to Cuba and was killed in battle against the Spanish Army in 1896.
In 1912, black Cubans in Oriente province had enough of the new Cuban government's racist practices and the degrading treatment of Cuban black veterans, who had been the bulk of the Cuban rebels in the wars of independence against Spain. The Cuban government moved on a path of genocide and eventually the United States had to send in troops to end the war between the white Cuban government and the black rebels in Oriente.
As I recall from the CIA Factbook of 1959, on that year the island was about 70% white, about 20% black and mixed, and the rest Chinese, Jewish and other. The Cuban Diaspora which started a few months after the Castro takeover and continues to this day, with the exception of the Mariel boat lift of the 1980s, saw a mass exodus of mostly white Cubans, and as a result the island's racial balance shifted dramatically that although 65% of Cubans self-identified as white in the last census, many experts estimate that today the island is about 60% black or biracial.
But Cuba's black population has not seen a proportionate share of the power and a quick review of the governing Politburo/Parliament reveals few black faces in the crowd. In fact, "the Cuban cultural journal Temas published studies by the governmental Anthropology Centre in 2006 that showed that on average, the black population has worse housing, receives less money in remittances from abroad and has less access to jobs in emerging economic sectors like tourism, in which blacks represent barely five percent of managers and professionals, than the white population."
"I think silence is worse. The longer nothing is said, the more the racism fermenting underground is rotting the entire nation..."While the Cuban constitution of the 1940s (since then abolished by the Communist government) outlawed segregation and racism, and the current Cuban Constitution guarantees black Cubans the right to stay in any hotel and be served at any public establishment, as it has been documented by many foreign journalists, black Cubans will tell you in private that those rights exist only on paper.
Gerardo Alfonso
singer/songwriter
Havana
The harsh Cuban reality today, they claim, is that "black Cubans won't be served" and that Cubans, regardless of race are in general barred from places frequented by tourists.
Unfortunately, these things [disparities in the treatment of blacks and whites] are very common in Cuba.Do these Cuban voices from within Cuba itself sound like the subjects of a government whose murdering tyrants' atrocities should be dealt in silence?, especially in view of our nation's own racial history? Would we be silent in dealing today with the criminal government leaders of the apartheid South Africa of the 20th century?
Ricardo Alarcón Quesada
President of the National Assembly of People's Power
Cuban Parliament
We have practically apartheid in this country sometimes... racism is deeply rooted in Cuba's history and will not disappear overnight.Human rights and racism should be at the top of the agenda (if there's one) in our diplomatic discussions with the Havana tyrants.
Rogelio Polanco Fuentes
Director
Cuban Communist Party-owned Juventud Rebelde newspaper.
What will this "change" bring to the "permanent and shameful police harassment of young Cubans of African descent in our streets..." - Leonardo Calvo Cardenas, Cuban National Vice-Coordinador of the Citizens' Committee for Racial Integration (Comité Ciudadanos por la Integración Racial (CIR))?
Fellowship
Details here.
Thursday, March 24, 2016
Fact Checking the President's Cuba Speech
The Prez said in his speech: "We share a national past time, la pelota, and later today our players will compete on the same Havana field that Jackie Robinson played on before he made his major league debut."
That's actually incorrect.
While Robinson did his 1946 spring training in Cuba while he was with the Montreal Royals, it was not at the same stadium where the Prez and the dictator Raul sat together (back then named El Gran Estadio de La Habana and now called Estadio Latinoamericano). I believe that Robinson's spring training was at another stadium, perhaps the one known back then as El Cerro?
Later on, after the Dodgers bought his contract from Montreal, Branch Rickey toured the Dodgers and Robinson through some Latin American countries and had Robinson play. However, when they arrived in Havana, as it was the case back then, most Cuban hotels were segregated, and the Dodgers stayed in one hotel and Robinson stayed in a separate one, a blacks only hotel in Havana.
He got food poisoning at his hotel and wasn't able to play in Cuba - as a Dodger - before his MLB debut in 1947.
It is ironic that today many Cuban hotels (all of which are owned by the Cuban military - including part ownership in all the foreign corporation hotels from Spain, Canada, France, etc. as the Cuban military own all of Cuba's tourist income) are still segregated - not by race, but now by "Tourists Only" hotels where Cubans are not allowed to stay... in their own country.
Another brutal "benefit" of the Castro Brothers' Workers Paradise.
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
NEXT Thesis Exhibition
April 20, 6:30pm – 9pm
Wednesdays: 10am - 9pm Thursdays - Sundays: 10am - 5pm
The George Washington University
500 Seventeenth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Say what?
- Papa Mousekewitz, c. 1986
"in Iran, there are no homosexuals..."
- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, September 24, 2007
"in Cuba, there are no political prisoners..."
- Raul Castro, March 21, 2016
Affordable Art Fair New York
We'll be in booth 1.54 on the first floor; if you'd like some free passes to the fair, please send me a note.
Selvedge Lauren Levato Coyne 22x18 inches, Pencil on Watercolor Paper, c. 2015 |
Turning Seven Rory Coyne 36x36 inches, Oil on canvas, c. 2013 |
Wall of Small Squares Lori Katz Ceramics, c. 2015 |
Monday, March 21, 2016
Cuban by ancestry...
As I usually do, I've used the "cracks" on the background wall to (employing the Navy's Falcon Codes) double encrypt a background message... more on the show later...
"Cuban by Ancestry, But American by the Grace of God." Charcoal and Conte and Embedded Video. 18x24 inches, circa 2016. |
"Cuban by Ancestry, But American by the Grace of God." Charcoal and Conte and Embedded Video. 18x24 inches, circa 2016. |
"Cuban by Ancestry, But American by the Grace of God." Charcoal and Conte and Embedded Video. 18x24 inches, circa 2016. |
"Cuban by Ancestry, But American by the Grace of God." Charcoal and Conte and Embedded Video. 18x24 inches, circa 2016. |
Sunday, March 20, 2016
Another example of WaPo suckosity...
Wanna another example of how the Washington Post really feels about the DMV visual art scene?
Looking for a chance to hone your figure drawing skills?
The fee for each three-hour session is $10 for DRA members and $12 for non-members. Two-hour sessions are $8 for members and $10 for non-members.
Gesture Sessions (two hours)These two-hour sessions are composed primarily of dynamic 1 to 5 minute poses.Short/Long Pose Sessions (three hours)The three-hour short/long pose sessions start with some short 1 to 5 minute warm-up poses and progressively move into longer poses lasting 10 to 45 minutes.Long Pose Sessions (three hours)These sessions are generally composed of two long poses with perhaps a few warm-ups at the start.
- Sunday, March 20, 9:30-11:30am, Gesture
- Wednesday, March April 23, 2:00-5:00pm, Short/Long
- Wednesday, March April 23, 6:30-9:30pm, Long
- Wednesday, April 6, 2:00-5:00pm, Short/Long
- Wednesday, April 6, 6:30-9:30pm, Long
- Wednesday, April 13, 6:30-9:30pm, Long
- Sunday, April 17, 9:30-11:30am, Gesture (clothed)
- Wednesday, April 20, 2:00-5:00pm, Short/Long (clothed) - The April 20th session will be FREE! Come early to get a spot!
- Wednesday, May 11, 2:00-5:00pm, Short/Long
- Wednesday, May 11, 6:30-9:30pm, Long
- Sunday, May 22, 9:30-11:30am, Gesture
- Wednesday, May 25, 2:00-5:00pm, Short/Long
- Wednesday, May 25, 6:30-9:30pm, Long
- Wednesday, June 8, 2:00-5:00pm, Short/Long
- Wednesday, June 8, 6:30-9:30pm, Long
- Sunday, June 19, 9:30-11:30am, Gesture (clothed)
- Wednesday, June 22, 2:00-5:00pm, Short/Long (clothed)
- Wednesday, June 22, 6:30-9:30pm, Long
Saturday, March 19, 2016
A letter from the new WPA Director
Friday, March 18, 2016
Tonight: Colon, and Isabel, and Judy
We dreamed of having this painting, "Columbus and Isabella in the Mosque in Cordoba", in the exhibition. But sold years ago, we couldn't find it. Judy went to great lengths to locate it and even worked with a private investigator to try to track it down.
On Friday we learned that the owner had passed away and it was going up at auction in VA the very next day! What are the odds? And today, it was delivered to the gallery!!! It is 84" x 96" and, because it wouldn't fit through the doors, was stretched on site. Welcome home painting! Thanks to Margaret Rubino! For finding it. And Bill Hill and HMB for bringing it to us in almost perfect shape!More on the show here.
On View at Caos on F: March 15 - April 19, 2016
Opening Reception: Friday, March 18, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m
Artist Talk: Saturday, April 16 at 6:00 p.m
Location: 923 F St NW, Washington, DC 20004
Thursday, March 17, 2016
To date or not to date
Many of you who have been following me will know that I discourage artists from including dates on their artwork. Recently, I received the following email from the curator of a museum: Dear Jason, As a Museum Director, I vehemently disagree with not putting the date created on pieces of work in a portfolio. Why do you suggest that? It appears that the artist is hiding something. Sincerely, D.R. I responded: Dear D, Thank you for the email and the question. I come at the question from a marketing and sales standpoint, and from my perspective on the front lines of helping artists sell their work, I have only seen the dating of work as a negative.I have plenty of empirical evidence to prove the opposite; many different instances, but the bottom line is this: for your 99% of the artists on the planet, it is the artwork, not anything else, that first hooks a potential collector. After that comes the perennial: it better be signed. Seldom does the date make a difference (for most artists' artwork encounter with a potential buyer) for an artist.
But, and this is a giant but, there are collectors that - once they have begun collecting an artist - are profoundly interested in early work, vintage, early work, even art school work. The "whys" are diverse, but they exist... and a date is a key validator in this case.
Case closed... read the piece here.
MFA first year and thesis exhibitions at AU
Wanna get a peek at what the next generation of DMV artists may look like?
When: April 2-20 and April 30-May 29
Where: American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center
AU’s Department of Art presents the work of current Master of Fine Art candidates. The multidisciplinary Studio Art program showcases an exciting range of emerging artist’s works in painting, sculpture, collage and material studies, photography and new media.The First Year MFA exhibition will run from April 2-20 and feature the work of Mills Brown, Aaron Eckstein, Yaroslav Koporulin, Jean Jinho Kim, Sarah Ellen Norman, Sarah O’Donoghue, Jen Noone, and Zarina Zuparkhodjaeva.
The MFA Thesis exhibition will run from April 30-May 29 featuring Sara Caporaletti, Sarah Dale, Carey Francis, Jihee Kang, Jean Kim, Zack McGhin, Calli Moore, J. Moukarim, Samantha Sethi, and Katelyn Wood.
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Can an art critic fairly review an artist friend’s work?
There’s no upside for an artist to be friends with an art critic. The personal connection means the critic must pass on reviewing the artist’s work, and while the loss of critical wisdom may be negligible, the loss of exposure is a nuisance for the artist.Read this very interesting and insightful piece by the WaPo's Philip Kennicott here.
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Dr. Fred to get Alice Denney Award
Frederick P. Ognibene is a Washington, DC-based collector of contemporary art who for decades has has been an avid supporter of artists and arts organizations in the District. He is respected and loved by many for his unflappable loyalty to causes he believes in, his optimism, his kindness and compassion, and his extraordinary knowledge of the history of local contemporary art."Fred's encyclopedic knowledge of the people and events involved in the DC contemporary arts scene is testament to his dedication to that community, for decades now."
-Jim Ritter, WPA ChairWhen he stepped down from the Washington Project for the Arts' (WPA) Board of Directors last summer, Fred was its longest serving member. He first joined the Board of Directors in 1995-just prior to the organization's merger with the Corcoran Gallery of Art. He co-chaired the annual WPA/Corcoran's art auction for three consecutive years (1997-99). From 2011 to 2013, he served as the WPA's Chair. Though no longer on the Board of Directors, he remains committed to the WPA, as evidenced by his serving as a co-chair of this year's WPA Auction Gala."Fred is a pillar of the DC contemporary arts community and we are lucky to have had his energy, time, and commitment for the last almost twenty years."
-Kim Ward, past WPA ChairFred began collecting contemporary art in 1984 and is an avid supporter of emerging and mid-career artists. Today, his collection includes nearly 350 works by local, national, and international artists. He takes much pride in getting to know the artists whose work he owns."Do you know the simultaneous thrill and comfort of being in Fred Ognibene's presence? I do, and I am proud to be one of the many artists he has known and supported for more than a decade. May we all lead lives as visionary, vibrant, and hard fought as Fred's and Alice Denney's."-Maggie Michael, artist, Washington, DCIn addition to his service to WPA and his collecting, Fred Ognibene has supported Washington, DC's art community in other ways. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the Cultural Development Corporation of DC as well as on its Arts Incubator ("Flashpoint") Committee. He is a past member of the Hirshhorn Contemporary Acquisitions Council and its Curators' Circle. He has served on the Host Committee of (e)merge Art Fair in Washington, DC and was recently asked to become a member of the inaugural Host Committee for Untitled Art, San Francisco, in 2017. Many works in his collection have been loaned to museums and other arts organizations for their exhibitions and he has donated works to the permanent collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden."Fred's collection is both profound and critical. And he has inspired others to become more courageous in what they collect."
-Jason Gubbiotti, artist, Paris, FranceFred Ognibene resides in Washington, DC. He works at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, where he is the NIH Clinical Center's Deputy Director for Educational Affairs and Strategic Partnerships. He holds a MD degree from Cornell University Medical College and a BA in Biology magna cum laude from the University of Rochester.
"Dr. Fred rocks!"
-Lenny Campello, Jack of all trades, Master of All, Potomac, MD
ABOUT THE ALICE DENNEY AWARDInitiated a decade ago, the Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) Alice Denney Award for Support of Contemporary Art is named for Alice Denney, the founder of the WPA, and is presented annually to honor an individual who supported the organization for many years and has made a sustained commitment to the greater DC arts community.Past recipients*:Molly Rupert (2012)
William Christenberry (2011)
James F. Fitzpatrick (2010)
Jack Rasmussen (2009)
William Paley (2008)
Robert Lehrman (2007)
Kevin MacDonald (2006)
Susan and Dixon Butler (2005)*Note: The award was not given from 2013-2015
Touchstone Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Artists
WHAT is it?
www.touchstonefoundationdc.org
Monday, March 14, 2016
Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards
The 2016 jurors are:
- Stéphane Aquin, Chief Curator, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
- Hasan Elahi, Associate Professor, Department of Art at the University of Maryland
- Rebecca Schoenthal, Curator of Exhibitions at The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia
Sunday, March 13, 2016
A letter to President Obama
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce sent a letter to President Obama regarding his upcoming trip to Cuba.
Below is the full text of the letter:
March 11, 2016
The President
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President:
I am deeply concerned your upcoming visit to Cuba will send the wrong message to Cubans fighting for democracy and human rights.
Just a few months ago, you declared you would not visit Cuba unless you could confidently determine that “we’re seeing some progress in the liberty and freedom and possibilities of ordinary Cubans.” Respectfully, what changed?
Since your Administration announced normalized relations with Havana, the regime’s repression of basic human rights has gone from bad to worse. In the first two months of 2016 alone, the Cuban Commission for Human Rights has documented a staggering 2,588 political arrests. In spite of this, reports suggest that you will soon announce further measures to ease travel and trade restrictions on Cuba – seemingly yet more one-sided concessions that will serve to shore up the communist Castro regime.
Mr. President, if you nevertheless do travel to Cuba, I implore you to meaningfully engage with the country’s leading human rights activists. I urge you to meet with U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, along with journalist Guillermo Farinas, activist Rosa Maria Payá, and the current leadership and members of “The Ladies in White.” All of these individuals are internationally recognized dissidents or recipients of the European Union’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
Meeting with these high-level, internationally acclaimed dissidents -- and not government-picked “activists”-- will assure the Cuban people that America has not forgotten them. Frankly, these meetings should have been solidified well before the White House announced your upcoming visit. Fortunately, you still hold leverage – and could postpone your trip to the island until such arrangements have been confirmed and real progress for the Cuban people has been achieved.
Thank you for considering my views on the best way to advance the fundamental human rights of the Cuban people. I think you will agree that the U.S.-Cuba relationship cannot attain its considerable potential until these rights are respected by their government.
Sincerely,
Ed Royce
Chairman