Congrats!

To Philly's wonderphotog Zoe Strauss, who tells us that The Philadelphia Eagles will be purchasing a vinyl print of her photo "Mattress Flip" for display in the "Red Zone" at Lincoln Financial Field.

So what's cooler, being selected for the last Whitney Biennial or being selected by an NFL powerhouse?

Time for the 'skins to step up and ante up some artwork for their stadium.

Mary Coble



Mary Coble will be performing "Marker DC" this Saturday, July 28th, 2-5pm at the entrance to the U Street / Cardozo Metro Station (green line) 13th and U Street, in Washington,DC.

In Marker, performance artist Mary Coble "expands the focus of her previous performances, Note to Self 2005 (on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered persons murdered in hate crimes) and Aversion 2007 (shock aversion therapy). The artist now invites viewers to emulate the physical + verbal assaults marginalized groups have endured by penning hate-inspired epithets such as 'dyke', 'spic' or 'nigger' on her body."

Marker (DC) is a part of the WPA/C's SiteProject DC events curated by Welmoed Laanstra. Coble is represented by Conner Contemporary.

Renoir at the PMA

The Philadelphia Museum of Art will be the only U.S. venue for the first exhibition to explore the inventiveness and importance of the landscape painting of Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) during the first 30 years of the artist’s career.

“We are delighted to collaborate with our colleagues in London and Ottawa on this major exhibition from public and private collections around the world to explore a little studied aspect of Renoir’s genius that is so central to his overall vision,” said Anne d’Harnoncourt, Director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. “It will be especially gratifying to see the exhibition in the context of our own collections, which are renowned for their representation of Impressionism and particularly rich in figure paintings by Renoir. It will be a great pleasure to welcome visitors from throughout the United States and beyond to Philadelphia.”

Renoir Landscapes is organized by the National Gallery, London, The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The exhibition was seen in London and is currently on view in Ottawa through September 9, 2007.

Hard Questions

David Genovesi has an interesting list of 22 art questions that he hopes he is never asked in an interview:

- What is art?

- Does art have a purpose, if so, what is it?

- Who determines whether an artist is an artist?

- Why do you create?

- Does the art you create have any particular meaning?

- Does the art you create have any social implications?

- Does the art you create pay the rent?

- What effect is the digital revolution having on art?

- Who has the final authority for determining the “validity” of contemporary art?

- Would you advise a young person to become an artist?

- Must art be beautiful?

- Is there such a thing as "good art" or "bad art", if so, what's the difference?

- Is there such a thing as "a good artist" or "a bad artist", if so, what's the difference?

- Is painting still a valid art form?

- Is a print of a painting art?

- To what extent must an artist consider his audience?

- What’s the most important asset an artist needs to survive today?

- Why buy art?

- Is buying art a good investment?

- Who is the best living artist?

- Is a painting by Jackson Pollock worth 140 million dollars?

- If you’re such a good artist, why aren’t you rich and famous?

WCP Sold

The Washington City Paper has been sold. Details here.

If it wasn't for the CP's visual arts coverage, all that we'd have in the nation's capital is the voice of a freelancer writing 20 odd columns a year for the WaPo's Style section and O'Sullivan's weekly column in the Weekend section.

Let's hope that the new ownership continues the CP's tradition of leading the visual arts coverage in the printed media in DC.

Wanna go to a DC opening tomorrow?

Rebecca C. Adams: Compulsory Figures and ∞ at Transformer.

Using sound and large street drawings to interpret an archaic division of figure skating, this indoor and outdoor installation captures the sonic environment of practicing compulsory figures on ice, while visually striving to reproduce similar exercises on pavement. Opening : July 26, 6:30 - 8 PM.

Coming to the Corcoran

The Corcoran's fall season will feature two photography exhibitions, Ansel Adams, opening September 15, and Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life, 1990-2005, opening October 13.

Yes, another Annie Leibovitz exhibition at the Corcoran.

When I got the news release, I sent the Corcoran's director, Paul Greenhalgh (who by the way, has been doing a really decent job since taking over the reigns of the Corcoran) a couple of suggestions for future photography shows. One idea "augments" the Ansel Adams exhibition, which will hopefully add a new dimension to yet another Adams photo show.

To start, I will admit that "Moonrise Over Hernandez" is a great photograph and people will oooh and aaah over it, as they have done for the dozens and dozens of previous Adams' exhibitions over the years.


Here's my idea: The Library of Congress has a HUGE collection of Ansel Adams negatives that are the property of the people of the United States.

It is my impression that anyone can (for a nominal fee) get the Library of Congress to print them photos from the Adams' negatives (or any other negative in the public domain I suppose). Already the LofC has even worked out a deal with Zazzle.com to buy a lot of LofC repros/stuff online. In fact, here's an Ansel Adams photo that you can buy from them.

Here's the novel idea: Why not set up an electronic online booth(s) at the Ansel Adams Corcoran exhibition where Corcoran visitors can also preview the hundreds (if not thousands) of other negatives that the LofC owns the copyright to, and provide an easy way for visitors to the Corcoran exhibition to order Adams' photos?

Probably much rarer Adams' photos that seldom see the light of day, much less the moonriselight.

Ahead of time the Corcoran can set up a deal where a percentage of the costs of the Adams' photos would be donated to the Corcoran as a "pass-through-fee."

And then this is a win-win situation for all, as visitors come away with an Adams' photograph, the LofC gets some money out of it, and the Corcoran also gets some additional funds out of it.

The technology is the easy part; getting two separate institutions to cooperate is the hard part.

Nothing heard back from anyone yet.