Happy Blogaversary

Today marks the 6th anniversary of this blog!

Here's the first entry ever... back in 2003.

And now, over two million page views later, while many other DC area art blogs that were hot and new in those early days of the artblogsphere seem to have lost steam and blogapathy has infected many of them, the thrice re-named DC Art News is still moving forward and the blog is still getting new readers each month.

Hirst's spectacular painting failure

This week we may have witnessed one of the pivotal moments in the history of art. Not only has Damien Hirst, arguably the richest and most powerful artist in history, received the critical pasting of his life, but there's a sense that our whole perception of what art is, or should be, may have subtly – or not so subtly – shifted.

What's this? What's this? Is this a major, international art critic saying this?

In case you've been miles from the media over the past week, Hirst, the man who became famous by putting sharks and sheep in formaldehyde, who summed up the 21st century confluence of art and shameless materialism with a £50 million diamond-encrusted skull – none of which he actually made himself – decided to exhibit paintings executed with his own hand in one of Britain's most august art institutions, the Wallace Collection.

Here, Hirst's daubs have been hung on walls newly lined in blue silk at a cost of £250,000, close to, if not actually alongside works by Titian, Rembrandt, Velasquez and Poussin. The result has been one of the most unanimously negative responses to any exhibition in living memory. Sarah Crompton, writing in this paper, was one of the kinder critics, finding the paintings merely "thin and one note". "Deadly dull, amateurish", wrote the Guardian's critic. "Not worth looking at", said the Independent. "Dreadful", pronounced The Times.

Awright then....

Tom Lubbock, writing in the Independent, felt the need to preface his particularly acerbic remarks by reiterating – in an almost apologetic manner – one of the great mantras of contemporary art, that "skills needn't matter". Yet perhaps the great lesson of today's responses to Hirst's paintings is that skills most definitely do, should and always will matter.

And what's most significant is that the people behind today's apparent backlash aren't the "a-child-of-four-could-do-that" brigade, but people who really know their stuff: writers with an understanding of the art of all eras who have had to pander to every kind of money-inflated idiocy in order to appear relevant in our ever more uncertain cultural market place – in order, simply, to keep their jobs. But now the critical worm has turned.

Obviously we all need to read Mark Hudson writing in The Telegraph here.

Meanwhile Hirst laughs all the way to the bank; after all, he (like Koons) is a brilliant marketeer who has (until now) fooled post modernist art critics into thinking that everything is art and technique doesn't matter.

Not the first time that art critics have been way off; it's a good thing that their/our deadliest enemy is art history and time (mostly time).

Yay Rockwell!

Wanna go to an artist's talk tomorrow?

Civilian Art Projects is moving soon, and they currently have Cara Ober and Nikki Painter on exhibition. Tomorrow, October 17, from 6-8, at Civilian Art Projects, they will host an artist talk which will be the last event in their old location.

Go check out the artwork and the art talk as well.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: October 26, 2009

If you read this blog then you know that I've been always very impressed with the BlackRock Center for the Arts gallery's 1500 square feet of exquisite gallery space. With its high white walls and beautiful windows strategically placed, this gorgeous gallery allows in just the right amount of natural light. BlackRock Center for the Arts is located at 12901 Town Commons Drive Germantown, MD in upper Montgomery County, about 20 minutes from the Capital Beltway (495).

They currently have a call to artists and the call is open to all artists residing in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC over the age of 18.

Original artwork only. All work must be ready for sale and to be presented in a professional manner to the public at the time of delivery.

This call will cover exhibits in the gallery from September 2010 through August 2011. An exhibit may include one applicant or a combination of applicants, based on the judgment of jurors (i.e., 1 or 2 wall artists may be combined with a pedestal artist). A jury will select the artists and create eight exhibits to be included in the exhibit year. The jury panel is comprised of my good friend and gallerist Elyse Harrison, Jodi Walsh, and yours truly.

Jurying: First Week of December
Notification: Early January
Exhibit Year: Sept. 2010 – Aug. 2011

How to apply: All correspondence will be done by e-mail, so contact Kimberly Onley, the Gallery Coordinator at konley@blackrockcenter.org and ask her to email you a prospectus.

Don't wait to the last minute! Get the prospectus now!

Postsecret's fifth book out

My good friend and DC artist Frank Warren is the brilliant mind behind's the planet's most successful art project ever: PostSecret.

And now a new PostSecret book: PostSecret Confessions on Life, Death and God, the fifth in a series of best-sellers, has been released.

And check out Frank on the Today show below:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

More about the book below:



And on Sunday, October 25, Warren will be at the American Visionary Art Museum, in Baltimore, MD where he will share the inspirational and funny stories behind some of the quarter million secrets that he has received on postcards. He will also project images of the secrets that were banned from the four previous PostSecret books.

Sequestered

Super hard-working DC artist Dana Ellyn has been in the news a lot lately for her irreverent paintings at a recent art exhibit in Washington that marked the first-ever International Blasphemy Day (Sept. 30) at the Center for Inquiry DC near Capitol Hill.... on CNN, then on USA Today, earlier on Religion News Service (that story received more comments than any other article in the history of their news service).

To see more about the show, read all of the articles and get links to additional stories, please visit Ellyn's website here.

One comment on the focus of the artwork (having done a few blasphemous drawings in my own lifetime): it's easy (and safe) to be blasphemous versus the Judeo-Christian religions, but where are the blasphemy paintings versus the Islamic religion? versus Hinduism? where's fat, bald Buddha in all of this? versus whatever it is that the Druze believe in? Why just pick on the two "safe" religions? Let's open up the whole can of artistic whup'ass on the opiate of the masses in all its versions.

Dana has a lot of stuff happening next:

* This Friday October 16: "Sequestered" solo show opening Reception at R. Coury Gallery in Savage, MD.

* Next Thursday Oct. 22: "P'arty" grand opening show at Long View Gallery in DC.

* December 5th: "Divinely Irreverent" solo show opening reception at Evolve Urban Arts Project.

* February 5th: "Til Death Do Us Part" two person show and wedding with Matt Sesow at DC's Long View Gallery.

* Larz from Mars - TV appearance.

Congrats to Dana and Matt!

Scotland calling

I used to go to Scotland once a year or so, and lived there from 1989-1992. I feel it calling me...

The Road to the Isles

A far croonin' is pullin' me away
As take I wi' my cromak to the road.
The far Coolins are puttin' love on me,
As step I wi' the sunlight for my load.

Chorus:
Sure, by Tummel and Loch Rannoch
And Lochaber I will go,
By heather tracks wi' heaven in their wiles;
If it's thinkin' in your inner heart
Braggart's in my step,
You've never smelt the tangle o' the Isles.
Oh, the far Coolins are puttin' love on me,
As step I wi' my cromak to the Isles.

It's by 'Sheil water the track is to the west,
By Aillort and by Morar to the sea,
The cool cresses I am thinkin' o' for pluck,
And bracken for a wink on Mother's knee.

It's the blue Islands are pullin' me away,
Their laughter puts the leap upon the lame,
The blue Islands from the Skerries to the Lews,
Wi' heather honey taste upon each name.