Maryland Symposium

Online Registration is now open for the upcoming symposium co-sponsored by the David C. Driskell Center and the University of Maryland University College

Autobiography/Performance/Identity: A Symposium on African American and African Diasporan Women in the Visual Arts - March 5 and 6, 20010

Featuring a keynote address by Lorraine O'Grady, and a performance by my good friend and Boston Cuban-American artist Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons and more.

See the program online here and register for the symposium online here.

For more information contact
David C. Driskell Center
1214 Cole Student Activities Building
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
TEL 301-314-2615
FAX 301-314-0679

Warhol at the Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery

This has all the characteristics of a terrific re-exhibition:

In 1980, iconic American artist Andy Warhol created a series of silkscreen prints titled “Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century,” which depicted such luminaries as Albert Einstein, George Gershwin and Golda Meir. Warhol was on hand when an exhibition of the works debuted in the Washington area at that time. According to The New York Times, “Critics were appalled and denounced the series as crassly exploitative.” Audiences across the country, however, responded far more favorably.

Thirty years later, the exhibition returns to the nation’s capital along with a new one-man show, Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews? based on the series.

The exhibit, “Andy Warhol’s Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century in Retrospect,” will be on view in the Washington DC Jewish Community Center’s Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery from February 25 through May 2. An opening reception will be held February 25 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. The event is free and open to the public.

The production, written and directed by DC favorite Josh Kornbluth, will be presented by Theater J March 6-21 in the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater at the Washington DCJCC. A humorous and penetrating take on Warhol’s Jewish portraits, Kornbluth’s show wrestles with the artist’s motives and techniques as well as the spiritual dimensions of his work while, at the same time, revealing Kornbluth’s own suppressed religious identity. A comedic autobiographical monologist based in the San Francisco area, Kornbluth performed his hit show Citizen Josh at Arena Stage in 2008. Tickets to Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews? are available at theaterj.org or 800-494-TIXS.

Looking back from a 30-year vantage point, Susan W. Morgenstein (who curated both the original and current exhibitions) says “‘Ten Portraits’ addresses several important questions: Why is Warhol and his work still popular today, and why do these 10 portraits continue to intrigue viewers?”

History of Exhibition

The 1980 exhibition grew out of discussions among New York and Israeli art dealers and Washington area curators who narrowed down lists of dozens if not hundreds of Jewish figures representing great achievements in the arts, sciences, philosophy, law and politics. Ultimately, they encouraged Warhol to portray:

* Sarah Bernhardt, celebrated French actress
* Louis Brandeis, the first Jewish Justice of the United States Supreme Court
* Martin Buber, renowned philosopher and educator
* Albert Einstein, the great theoretical physicist
* Sigmund Freud, founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology
* Marx Brothers Groucho, Chico and Harpo, vaudeville, stage and film comedians
* Golda Meir, Israel’s fourth Prime Minister and one of the founders of the State of Israel
* George Gershwin, distinguished American composer
* Franz Kafka, eminent novelist
* Gertrude Stein, avant-garde American writer, poet and playwright

The suite of ten prints represented a departure for the famous artist. For instance, it was the first time he had done a series that included portraits of different people (rather than multiple images of the same person). It was also the first time he depicted historical figures.

In addition to the 40 x 32 inch prints, the current exhibition features reproductions of the photographs on which Warhol based his artworks, media coverage of the original exhibition, and copies of the lists from which the final figures were selected.

Programs

On April 7 at 7 p.m., the Gallery hosts Richard Meyer, author of the catalog, “Warhol’s Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered,” in conversation with Susan W. Morgenstein. An associate professor of art history at the University of Southern California, Meyer examines the exhibition’s controversial premiere, whether or not our views of it have changed since its first showing and why the images continue to provoke books, films, plays and museum exhibitions. Visit washingtondcjcc.org/gallery for more information.

Catalog

“Warhol’s Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered,” a 64-page book featuring color and black-and-white illustrations, is available in the Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery and Abramson Family Foundation Judaica Gift and Bookstore; it sells for $15.

Information

The Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery, a program of Washington DCJCC’s Morris Cafritz Center for the Arts, is open Sunday through Thursday from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm and Fridays from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm (Note that the gallery will be closed on March 30 and 31 and April 5 and 6 for Jewish holidays.) Admission is free.

Theater J is a professional theater company founded to present works that “celebrate the distinctive urban voice and social vision that are part of the Jewish cultural legacy.” A program of the Washington DCJCC, Theater J has been hailed by The New York Times as “The Premier Theater for Premieres.”

The Washington DCJCC, located in the nation’s capital and serving residents of the metropolitan area, is located at 16th and Q Streets, NW, four blocks east of the Dupont North Metro station. For information, contact (202) 518-9400 or washingtondcjcc.org.

Congrats

The my good bud and one of the District's uberartists, Tim Tate, who just got picked up by London's Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

The whole thing started in one of the art fairs in Miami last December. Corbett was showing in Miami, walked through several of the fairs in the city, chatted with Philadelphia's Projects Gallery (which also represents Tate), and that gallery's hardworking owner Helen Meyrick introduced Corbett to Tate's work.

Meyrick then took Corbett over to by Norfolk's Mayer Fine Arts, which also represents Tate's work, and there Meyrick and MFA's also hard-working owner Sheila Giolitti showed Corbett more of Tate's video work and she liked them a lot.

And just recently they closed the deal and now Corbett will represent Tate internationally (she does most of the American and European power art fairs). This is a huge step forward for Tim Tate.

Lesson here? This is why it is important for galleries to do some art fairs, and why it is important for artists to support their galleries' as much as they can. The art fairs are a huge financial risk for the art galleries, but the pay off opportunities, both for the galleries and for the artists whom they take there are huge.

Murmur DC on Antognoli

In today’s digital world, we lose touch of the basic elements of every day life. Photographers like Erin Antognoli bring back us back to earth, with a craft that focuses on the simple life. Her work is formed with a cheap Holga camera, and a heightened sense of her surrounding environments. Instead of choosing to become engulfed with the many features carried with today’s digital cameras, she chooses to become engulfed with the many features in her subjects.

Beautiful post on DC area photographer Erin Antognoli in Murmur DC here.

Dawson on Conner

Freelancer Jessica Dawson has a gorgeous article in the WaPo on the District's powerhouse and uber hardworking dealer Leigh Conner.

Word of advice: Art dealer Leigh Conner is many things -- well-connected, a powerhouse, the District's top gallerist -- but one thing she isn't is laid-back. Never, ever cross her. Trust me, I know.

Read Dawson's really good piece here.

Mellema on new DC gallery?

We've been sitting on an interesting D.C. art scene story, waiting for the situation to develop enough that the telling of it won't ruin it. The situation is still in a state of flux, and still a few weeks shy of full disclosure, but solidifies by the day. We can tell you some of it now.

Speculation at the Daily Campello Art News (www.dcartnews.blogspot.com) has been that someone was looking to sign a short term lease for the much lauded, but still vacant old Numark Gallery space downtown. The educated conclusion being drawn was that a temporary gallery might be going into that space. We can confirm the rumors as being true, as far as they go. The lease was, in fact, signed on Tuesday of this week, so now it's full speed ahead.

Read the very interesting story by Kevin Mellema in the Falls Church News-Press here.

Missing Andy Warhol Link?


Check it out here.