A rarity coming up

Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist presents "the first nationally touring retrospective of Aaron Douglas (1899-1979), one of the most influential visual artists of the Harlem Renaissance. This exhibition brings together more than 80 rarely seen works by the artist, including paintings, prints, drawings and illustrations."

The show opens at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in DC on May 9, and runs through August 3, 2008.

I really hate the segregation of art by race or ethnicity, but once in a while something stands out so grossly out of synch that it must be pointed out.

This coming show is also a rarity for the DC area museums: an exhibition by a black artist.

Example: As far as I know the National Gallery has only hosted one exhibition in its entire history by a black artist, in this case African American artist Romare Bearden.

The Corcoran has done a little better, most recently hosting Sam Gilliam's first retrospective. Jonathan Binstock, then the Corcoran curator, had done his thesis on Gilliam, so I am sure that this helped get this DC art star a long overdue museum show in his own city. And the Phillips Collection certainly has paid attention to my old professor Jacob Lawrence with a couple of traveling exhibitions.

But some black artists are way overdue for the kind of exposure that an NGA show can afford an artist. My first suggestion is Wifredo Lam.

Any others? Feel free to comment.

Wanna go to a DC opening tomorrow?

DC's Studio Gallery has an opening Saturday night April 26 from 5-7PM. They are featuring the work of Roberta Thole in the upstairs gallery. Her works "allude to classicism and the environment and are mixed media with paint, copper and emulsion."

Downstairs gallery has two emerging artists who "use paint in a very bold, abstract way." Katya Kronick "draws her inspiration from nature directly" and Andrew Acquadro "abstracts everyday images in a very bold and dynamic way."

Artists' talk: Alexandria, VA

Amy Lin will be discussing her work at the Art League Gallery in Old Town Alexandria on Saturday, April 26 @ 3:30pm.

Buy Amy Lin now.

Seeing double

One of the below invite cards is from the Corcoran's new "Anonymous" fundraising exhibition, the other is from the Washington Project for the Arts' own series of "Anonymous" fundraising shows...

Eakins update

The Philadelphia Museum of Art announced today that it has completed the funding of its share in the joint acquisition of Thomas Eakins’s heroic 1875 masterpiece, The Gross Clinic, through deaccessioning Eakins’s Cowboy Singing, which has been jointly acquired by the Denver Art Museum and the Denver-based Anschutz Collection, as well as two oil sketches for Eakins’s Cowboys in the Badlands, which have been acquired by the Denver Art Museum. The Museum acquired The Gross Clinic early last year with the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from Thomas Jefferson University, amidst a spirited campaign to keep the painting in Philadelphia.

Above from the press release from a few days ago; details here.

Five ways to get sued for using people in your Art

Beth Russell is a musician and attorney admitted to practice law in New York, Connecticut and Wisconsin. She is the author of the book Art Law Conversations perhaps the key legal book for artists. Buy it here.

And Beth pens Five Ways to Get Sued for Using People in Your Art for Art Calendar magazine - which by the way is a must subscribe-to magazine if you're an artist looking for a great opportunites and business magazine for artists (disclosure: I've written tons of articles for Art Calendar over the years).

It's a great article; read it here.

Opportunity for Sculptors

Accepting Entries: May 2 to September 5 (received deadline)

The Washington Sculptors Group has a call out for "Aquifer," a sculpture exhibition to be held at the Edison Place Gallery (701 8th Street, NW Washington, DC 20001) and co-curated by my good friends Deborah McLeod and J.W. Mahoney.

The exhibition is open to members of Washington Project for the Arts and Washington Sculptors Group. Artists who are not current members may join either or both organizations. New members may request a membership form by contacting WPA at www.wpadc.org or WSG at www.washingtonsculptors.org.

For more info or details visit the The Washington Sculptors Group website.