Insane

"A legal battle rages over the rights to works given away by a Mexican artist confined in US asylums...

A row has erupted over the legacy of one of the most celebrated exponents of "outsider art", more than 40 years after his death.

During his deeply troubled lifetime, Martín Ramírez's paintings were ignored by the art establishment. A poor Mexican immigrant to the United States, Ramírez painted in near obscurity for more than 30 years while incarcerated in Californian mental hospitals until his death in 1963.

But Ramírez's artistic reputation has undergone an extraordinary re-evaluation in the last few years, with his paintings now fetching hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction. Now a multi-million dollar legal battle has begun over the ownership of his paintings, hundreds of which he simply gave away in the hospital ward. An auction of 17 paintings at Sotheby's was recently halted when lawyers for the Ramírez family claimed them."

Read the story from the Guardian here.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: December 12, 2008.

The Athens Area Arts Council of Athens, Georgia, in partnership with the Athens Transit System and the Unified Government of Athens Clarke County, announces its second Art Bus Shelter Design Competition. This year's theme, Art Rocks! asks designers to pay artistic tribute to the musical talent of Athens. Eight bus shelters will be installed along two major arteries near downtown Athens. Winning designs will receive an award of $5,000 per shelter. Bus shelter fabrication, materials and shipping budget limited to $9,160 per shelter. This is a nationwide competition open to all artists, architects, students and designers. Deadline for submissions is December 12, 2008 (extended from November 30). Details are available on the Arts Council website at www.athensarts.org.

Art Sales

Not surprisingly, last week's Impressionist and modern art sales in New York were unable to live up to the price estimates set months ago, when the full scale of the credit crisis had yet to affect the upper end of the art market. In the summer it seemed possible these sales would make at least $800 million (£508 million) - the same amount as this time last year. But by the time the art had been hung, billions of dollars had been lost in financial markets worldwide. As Marc Porter, president of Christie's America, put it before the sales: "Prices of assets have fallen - stocks, gold, oil, real estate - and it would be unrealistic to expect art to be immune to the market's pressures."

The extent of the downturn, from $800 million to a final count of $470 million by Friday night, looked bad. Seven lots estimated to fetch more than $10 million each did not sell, and the total accumulated was the equivalent to the amount fetched in New York two and a half years ago.

Read the Telegraph story here.

Veterans Day

I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o' beer,
The publican 'e up an' sez, "We serve no red-coats here."
The girls be'ind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an' to myself sez I:

O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, go away";
But it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play.

I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but 'adn't none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-'alls,
But when it comes to fightin', Lord! they'll shove me in the stalls!

For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, wait outside";
But it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide,
The troopship's on the tide, my boys, the troopship's on the tide,
O it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide.

Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;
An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.

Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow's yer soul?"
But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll.

We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;

While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind",
But it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind,
There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind,
O it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind.

You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all:
We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.

For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -- you bet that Tommy sees!

-- Rudyard Kipling

Matchmaker Finds Patrons for Artists’ Work

They also represent a small success story for a new arts fellowship program, United States Artists, a nonprofit group in Los Angeles that has developed a knack for bringing patrons and artists together. Ms. Early discovered Mr. Millepied’s work just over a year ago, not onstage but in the Los Angeles boardroom of United States Artists, where she agreed to provide a $50,000 fellowship for him.

Such relationships are “bridge builders,” said Katharine DeShaw, executive director of United States Artists. “It’s a great thing for artists to find someone who cares deeply about the arts, who might introduce them to others who care deeply about arts, who might support other projects of theirs, who could really open doors.”

Read the NYT story here.

Los Cubanos

Video of the work at "Aqui Estamos" (Here We Are) at H&F Fine Arts.

The show is on exhibit through November 30, 2008. Go buy some artwork.

Sidney Lawrence at DFA

I hear that Sidney Lawrence is a pretty good jazz vocalist, but Lawrence has visual arts in his genes and this coming Nov. 15, from 5-8PM he opens his second solo show with DC's District Fine Arts gallery in Georgetown.

Tribe, 2008 by Sidney Lawrence.
Oil and modeling paste on paper canvas and compressed board, 17 3/4 x 22

This show of oil portraits, including a small painting of Martin Luther King Jr., an island wall relief, a dog head, ink drawings of cities, and an illustrated travel diary is Lawrence's first solo exhibition at DFA since 2005.

One of DC's key arts presences, Lawrence is also a writer, curator and art-PR specialist. He served as the Hirshhorn Museum's press officer from 1975 to 2003 and as an occasional curator there, and more recently organized "Roger Brown: Southern Exposure," for the Jule Collins Smith Museum at Auburn University, Alabama.

For over two decades he exhibited at Gallery K (until that venerable gallery closed when both owners suddenly died) and other DC venues and has also exhibited work in Massachusetts and California. Lawrence's self-revealing, funky style draws from influences as diverse as Red Grooms, JMW Turner, Lucian Freud and Edward Koren.

Sidney Lawrence, Recent Works, through January 17, 2009 at DFA, with an opening reception, on Saturday, November 15, 5 - 8 pm and an Artist Talk, 5:30 - 6 pm and a Book Signing, Ink Cities on Saturday, December 13, 4-6 pm.