Today's Sunday Arts section in the Washington Post brings unexpected and rare multiple pieces on the visual arts.

There's an eye-catching and attractive large piece by Jessica Dawson on Joseph Cornell's art boxes with the unfortunate headline of Art's Box Launch. The piece is actually on the very interesting book "Joseph Cornell: Shadowplay . . . Eterniday," which comes with the DVD set The Magical Worlds of Joseph Cornell.

Not related to the book, but interesting nonetheless, is this international mail art exhibition about Cornell being held in California.

Paul Richard, who retired as the chief art for the Post a while back and is now a contract writer for the Post, has an excellent piece on Frank Bruno's painting exhibition at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. This is another exhibition that I would love to have read a second review by Richard's replacement, Blake Gopnik, in order to read Blake's perspective on Bruno's work. And as the Arts Editor of the New York Times points out, it's healthy for critics to disagree and Rockwell has the courage to write: "I trust my own subjective taste."

The bold is added for anyone who thinks that art critics (or any critic) are objective - especially for art editors and the critics themselves.

And the Post's music critic, Richard Harrington, as he does sometimes, used his print space to do a terrific review of "Between Midnight and Day: The Last Unpublished Blues Archive - Photographs by Dick Waterman " at Georgetown's Govinda Gallery, which as Harrington points out, for many years "has been has long been at the forefront of music-related exhibitions."

The Post once tried to demote Harrington, (who is a very good writer in my opinion) allegedly (according to Harrington) because he was too old to write about contemporary music. According to the City Paper, after six months of "searching" for a qualified replacement, then they allegedly tried to replace Harrington with another Post writer whose previous experience had been in the business section of the paper.

And finally, reader William Woodhouse scolds Blake in a Letter to the Arts Editor, for "being misled" about the importance of Toledo in El Greco's Spain as described in Gopnik's review of El Greco now drawing huge crowds to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

In his review Blake anchors much of El Greco's unusual success with his odd realism upon the fact that El Greco was working in the "in the safe isolation of a provincial Spanish town" and essentially the locals didn't know any better. But William Woodhouse corrects Gopnik's perception of Toledo by pointing out that "it is a mistake, however, to characterize the ambiance of 16th-century Toledo as "the safe isolation of a provincial Spanish town" vs. the court of Philip II in Madrid."

It sort of puts a big hole in the review's central theory.

No slack in these leagues.

In Blake's defense, most people in the US and Britain get a very one-sided, British-centric view of European history and events. When I lived in Spain in the early 80's, it was very interesting to read the Spanish version of the wars with England, and Spain's place in European history. I even recall reading that more people were put to the torch, quartered and hung in England during Elizabeth's reign, than in the entire 500-year run of the Inquisition.

It could be a case of the Spanish trying to demonize their (then) arch enemies, much like the English have tried to demonize Philip II, who's usually presented in history as the "bad guy" of Europe.

A while back I read Henry Kamen's Philip of Spain and it certainly became an engrossing educational adventure for me, and I highly recommend it.

Last night Kate and I went gallery hopping to the Dupont Circle galleries first Friday extended hours.

Found out that Troyer Gallery now shares its space with a new gallery, Irvine Contemporary Art, which was having its grand opening last night. Troyer Gallery is now in the small room in the rear and according to them, the gallery has "modified its space and direction," with an "increased focus on fine art ceramics."

The new gallery sharing Troyer's space is focused on what they describe as "contemporary art with an international view" and so far represent the work of six artists, while also exhibiting and keeping an inventory of work by twenty other well-known artists.

Kathleen Ewing, which is easily Washington's top photography gallery, has recently renovated its spaces and doubled in size. Ewing is expanding the gallery's focus past photography and they now have on display the paintings of Bethesda artist Michael Gross, who they now represent.

The current show is the artist's first solo show and it has done exceedingly well, as there were quite a few red dots on his paintings.

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The December issue of Art News magazine will have a city focus on Washington, DC.

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The House-Senate 2004 Interior Appropriations conference committee has agreed to increase the budget of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) -- raising the budget for the nation's leading annual funder of the arts to $122.5 million.

Current grant deadlines have passed, but artists can apply for the next cycle of grants here.

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The inaugural issue of artUS, a new national art magazine is currently in distribution.

According to an email from Paul Foss, the magazine's publisher, (who also publishes artext magazine) "artUS offers the unique opportunity to obtain the most current and exhaustive information regarding the U.S. exhibition scene, including commercial galleries, museums, and nonprofit spaces and events. No other arts publication in the U.S. today regularly offers such an extensive range of reviews and listings in the context of groundbreaking critical debate from some of the country's most influential writers, artists, and art critics."

I've asked them who will be covering DC area galleries. See my listing of DC area art critics here.

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The Washington Printmakers Gallery, founded in 1985 and located at 1732 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, is in the process of reviewing portfolios for membership.

Founded in 1985, the gallery includes 35 member artists working in all printmaking media, including etching, lithography, collagraph, screenprint, woodcut, linocut, monotype, monoprint and mixed media. Dues are $85 a month, with an initial non-refundable fee of $250. Artists hang a framed piece each month, have 12 works in the bins and 17 in flatfiles at all times.

Each artist has the opportunity of a solo show every 2-1/2 to 3 years. Portfolios are reviewed every other month and should include one framed print, 6 unmatted unframed works, a resume and artist statement (optional). Call Director Jen Watson at 202.332.7757 for more information.

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Over 25,000 photographers, including 36 Pulitzer Prize winners, submitted digital images for this project.