Naked Roman

Did you know that some of the centurions guarding DC's Union Station are nekkid beneath their shields?

The story starts in 1907.

Apparently when the sculptor, Augustus Saint Gaudens -- who was a pretty popular public art and monument sculptor at the turn of the century -- received the commission for the centurions, he asked if he was to make the Roman soldiers historically accurate.

He was told yes.

When Saint Gaudens delivered the models for the sculptures, Washingtonians on the arts panel were a little shocked to discover that some of the centurion maquettes were fully nude in uncircumsized splendor for all to see.

And so a hundred years ago Saint Gaudens was told to cover them up. In the arguments that I am sure followed, the solution came in the form of shields (which to me look historically inaccurate by the way), which would cover the Italians' willies. They remain naked beneath them.

At the time it was built in 1908, Union Station covered more ground than any other building in the United States and was the largest train station in the world. The building itself is patterned after the Baths of Diocletian in Rome.

Interesting that a century later, we still probably can't put up a work of public art in Washington, DC showing a man's penis.

Reuben Breslar at the Athenaeum

I'm hearing good things about the current exhibition at Alexandria's Athenaeum Gallery featuring the paintings, collages and an installation by Reuben Breslar. The show runs through March 16, 2008.

There's also an upcoming gallery talk that they are having on Saturday, February 23 at 4:30PM followed by some good food and wines. A special feature of the talk is the participation of two important Washington arts presences: Mark Cameron Boyd and Dorothea Dietrich - both of whom made a strong impression on Reuben when he was at the Corcoran.

Closer

I am hearing and reading good things about "Closer" at Gallery Neptune in Bethesda, MD.

Read about it here.

Chalk4Peace

By Shauna Lee Lange

Many in the Washington DC arts community may know Dr. John Aaron, a prior award winning Director and Curator for the Museum of Modern Arf in Arlington, VA.

John's gone on out to California and is now busily spearheading a global non-profit organization called CHALK4PEACE, recently featured in the Chronicle of Philanthropy (9/14/06). Since 2006, John's efforts have contributed to over 12 - 14 football fields worth of original, intergenerational, and inspirational temporary art for the sake of peace.

This year, Shauna Lee Lange Arts Advisory is honored to announce we will be working in conjunction with Dr. Aaron and Ms. Marielle Mariano of Woodlawn Elementary School to promote a concentrated Washington DC effort. Our goal is to help expand the work being conducted by CHALK4PEACE. There is simply no better time (prior to elections) and no better location (the Nation's Capital) to educate, communicate, participate, and enjoy this great activity.

Shauna Lee Lange Arts Advisory is seeking collaborative partnerships (at no cost) from metropolitan DC area arts organizations, art galleries, artists, and public/non-profit spaces. If you or your organization can offer a physical forum for chalk activities, we need to hear from you. CHALK4PEACE is an event to be held September 19 - 21, 2008 and is best described from the organization's website text (copied in its entirety below).

More information about CHALK4PEACE is at www.chalk4peace.org or www.chalk4peace.blogspot.com. Information about Dr. Aaron can be found at www.modernarf.smugmug.com and he can be reached at chalk4peace@gmail.com. Shauna Lee Lange Arts Advisory is at www.shaunaleelange.com or shaunaleelange@gmail.com.

From its beginnings in 2003 in Arlington, VA, as a Sunday sidewalk chalk project for children to its recognition by the Arlington Arts Commission, the DC Commission for the Arts and Humanities, the DC Mayor's Office, the Humanities Project of Arlington and Whole Foods Markets, CHALK4PEACE has grown through the efforts of hundreds of events organizers, teachers, parents, community outreach coordinators, libraries, arts centers and other peace minded individuals and organizations.

The campaign to make CHALK4PEACE worldwide began on July 16, 2005, the day after the first CHALK4PEACE event at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, DC. John Aaron, the Global Project Founder of CHALK4PEACE and chalk events coordinator, began a print and email campaign, sending out more than 5,000 personalized emails and 6,000 full color brochures about CHALK4PEACE for 2005-6. You may have received one or two along the way...

The global campaign spread coast to coast across the United States, to Cape Town, South Africa and in places in Europe. Last year, more than one hundred individually organized sites with authorized clearances chalked out their messages and visions for a more peaceful planet.

CHALK4PEACE is not encouraged as an anti-war demonstration; rather, it is a creative presentation for young artists of all ages utilizing the theme of Peace.

This year, we expect CHALK4PEACE to grow even larger than last year, as it is now happening on four continents and most of the sites from last year have enlisted others to join in and/or create their own sites. Mr. Aaron is a long time artist, sculptor, painter, educator and events coordinator who is internationally recognized for his contributions to his artforms and for creating the atmosphere conducive to make CHALK4PEACE a global event.

On the air on Monday

On Monday, February 18, 2008 I'll be on the Kojo Nnamdi Show discussing the Greater Washington area visual arts and artists and art stories as I usually do several times a year.

Tune in to WAMU 88.5 FM around noon.

If you have any questions or art issues, you can call Kojo during the show at (800) 433-8850 or you can email him questions to kojo@wamu.org.

After the show I will post here all the websites and information that we discuss on the air.

Images of Children at Widener University

"A Photographic Treasury: Images of Children by Master Photographers from the Reader's Digest Collection," currently at Widener University Art Gallery in Chester, PA (through March 1, 2008), is not only a very focused exhibition on the thematic subject of the title, but also an exhibition that really merits the use of the word "Master Photographers" in its title.

Disclaimer: My wife teaches at Widener, and I often eat at the school cafeteria, which makes really good cookies and has a top notch salad bar. I also own a Widener coffee mug.

Curated by Nancy Miller Batty, this 105-work survey includes many classic and familiar vintage photographs of children by major American, Latin American and European photographers from the late 19th century to the present.

The works are arranged thematically to present views about childhood that have existed over the last century or so. It begins with a romantic view of childhood, and then progresses to the relationships between children and adults.

This is definitely a Who's Who in world photography, and there are pre-WWI early works by Edward Sheriff Curtis, Alfred Stieglitz, Heinrich Kuehn and others. Post WWI photographers are also full of all the major names, such as Andre Kertesz, Imogen Cunningham, Henri Carrier-Bresson, Dorothea Lange, Aaron Siskind, Weegee, Paul Strand and many others.

The post WWI and contemporaries are equally well-represented by the likes of Sally Mann, Adam Fuss, Ilse Bing, Gary Winograd, Irving Penn, Diane Arbus, Nicholas Nixon, Robert Mapplethorpe, Carry Mae Weems, Sebastian Salgado and many others.

Adam Fuss' blank untitled photogram of a child in profile is one of the few failures in an otherwise show full of jewels in every frame. The minimalist white photogram, comes across like a collegiate art school assignment when surrounded by the works of the other masters; it just fails visually from the first glance and through the second and third opportunity for redemption.

Across from it is one of the reasons for its failure: the gorgeous "Pamela" (Plate 23) from Joel Meyerowitz's odd and highly successful series on redheads. The subject is radiant and full of color, smiles and the essence of happy childhood - it casts a bright and bold set of sunrays all over the room, essentially eclipsing Fuss' blank experiment.

It's tough to pick the brightest diamond when you are surrounded by the best photographic gems of the last 125 years, but some works stood out even among giants.

One such piece was Frederick Sommer's "Livia," a 1948 sensitive treatment of a very pretty child, where the girl's luminous blue eyes are like magnets not only to the camera but also to us. It delivers the sort of hypnotic quality that recent digitally enhanced shots sometimes offer.

I also like Robert Mapplethorpe's "Bruno Bischofberger's Daughter," a cousin photograph to Sommer's earlier work and a work that shows the occasional pornographer's talent as a portraitist of all ranges and types.

I was less interested in Tina Barney's claustrophobic "Marina's Room." Maybe there is some compositional success in delivering a photograph with fear of empty space.

But neither scale (48 x 40 inches), nor its horror vaccuii saves this piece from being a little puerile.

Marina's Room by Tina Barney

Carrie Mae Weems' untitled triptych depicting a tense mother-daughter-homework scene, whether posed or true, is powerful as a narrative piece can be - full of tension and questions. On the polar opposite of this internal spectrum is Sally Mann's "Virginia Asleep," from 1988.

On the way out I was dragged back in by Seydou Keita "Untitled (Man with Baby)" from 1949, in which a giant of a man tenderly holds a baby. The man sits massive and Earth-like like a male African version of Michelangelo's Pieta.

His enormous circumference dwarfs the world and threatens to overfill the camera's lenses. It is a photograph heavy with fatherhood, happiness and presence.

Overall this is a very strong show and definitely worth a stop for anyone traveling through the I-95 corridor, as Widener is just a couple of minutes off exit 6 on I-95.

Wanna go to a Baltimore opening tomorrow?

Eureka: Happy Accidents & Exquisite Failures; a group exhibition curated by Suzannah Gerber at Load of Fun gallery in Baltimore. Featuring works by the following artists:

Liz Albertson, Julia Arredondo, Jordan Faye Block, Tom Brown, Ryan Emge, Rachel Faller, Andrew Farkas, Karly Hansen, J. Gavin Heck, Michelle Herman, Juliet Hinely, Katherine Mann, Greg McLemore, Katherine Nammacher, Michael Northrup, Christine Ricks, Reed Sayre, Kayla Shea, Brady Starr, Daniel Stuelpnagel, Vanessa Viruet, Jessica Wang, Todd Welsh, Monica Wuedel-Lubinski and more.