Jessica goes yard again

Good review in the WaPo by Jessica Dawson - read it here.

The shiny flecks distract from a twisted little canvas called "Judith," which is a tightly cropped homage to Artemisia Gentileschi's signature canvas, "Judith Slaying Holofernes." Rieck zoomed in on Judith's hand grasping the knife hilt and came up with a picture that evokes a phallus or pudenda almost at the same time. I love the bizarreness of this painting, but mica isn't adding to its success.

Reading levels

Three years ago I ran some art bloggers and art critics' writing to an evaluation tool that deciphered to what reader level they were writing to.

Just for fun, today I ran some art critics, bloggers and writers through it and they're listed below in order of easier readability (from requiring less education to read to requiring more education according to the Fog Index). For some odd reason, it resisted reading the Washington City Paper's online pages, so I couldn't do a score on Jeffry Cudlin or Jessica Gould, so instead I used Cudlin's blog.

My blog received a Fog Index of 13.8. That means that you'd need almost a college sophomore education to read and understand my obtuse writing - that's up from a 12 in 2004).

The Fog index has been developed by Robert Gunning and its numeric value is a school grade. The author claims that a lower Fog index is actually a better score, as then it is easier for readers to comprehend the writing. For example, the average New York Times article is written to a reading level of 8.9 years or just about High School freshman level.

The scores, from best to worst, according to Gunning:

Tyler Green - 9.9

B'more Art - 10.0

Rex Weil - 10.1

Thinking About Art - 10.5

Regina Hackett - 10.5

Edward Winkleman - 11.0

Grammar Police - 11.1

Dangerous Chunky - 11.6

Richard Lacayo - 12.3

Walter Robinson - 12.4

Blake Gopnik - 12.8

Charlie Finch - 13.1

Jessica Dawson - 13.3

Peter Dobrin - 13.3

CultureGrrl - 13.6

Michael O'Sullivan - 14.1

Black Cat Bone - 14.3

Robin Rice - 14.6

Fallon and Rosof - 14.7

Glenn McNatt - 14.9

Edward J. Sozanski - 15.7

Jerry Saltz - 16.6

Donald Kuspit 17.6

Jessica Picks Adam

Who is this guy who was born Adam Griffiths but goes by Adam Dwight? He doesn't cotton to artistic branding, so his nom d'art isn't much of a concern. He'll likely adopt a new alias soon, so don't get attached to this one.

Jessica Dawson scores another goal in picking Adam Griffiths for the Real Art D.C. series she's doing for the WaPo and it's a brilliant pick. Check out the article here.

Kristina Bilonick

Jessica Dawson of the WaPo goes yard with her 10th and final selection for Real Art D.C.

Read Jessica's piece, which will be in tomorrow's Post, here.

Jessica Picks Steven Silberg as the 7th one

Jessica Dawson's Real D.C. series may completely (OK, OK, partially restore) my faith in the WaPo and the local area's visual art scene. Her 7th pick is Steven Silberg and so far she's seven for seven with me in her picks.

Whodda thunk it?

Check out all seven picks so far here. All picks will be invited by me for the next volume of 100 More Washington Artists.

Waiting to Exhale Sigh

As I mentioned before, the massive collection of artwork by DC area artists which has been assembled for the permanent collection of the District and which is on view at the Wilson Building, is the closest that the capital city of the United States has ever been to having a "DC Artists Collection," since unlike all other major American cities, Washington does not have a physical "Washington Art Museum" and most area museum curators tend to look at their buildings as "national" museums and thus generally tend to ignore DC area artists.

I say that I am waiting to exhale, because I am holding my breath to see what the local DC area art critics write about this collection. I am told that over 1,000 RSVPs have been received for the opening, which is October 31, 2006 from 5-7PM, so this is clearly a major and important art event in the capital.

The collection has already received massive press and television coverage -- for Washington, DC that is -- such as a great piece by Jessica Gould in the WCP on Oct. 19, a piece in Intowner's October issue, an article coming in the first November issue of the Current newspapers, and article coming soon in the Express, maybe an article this coming week featuring the opening in the Wash Post Metro section, and next Thursday, maybe the District Extra cover. Additionally both Channel 4 News (on Oct. 25) and Channel 8 News (also on Oct. 25 and 26) have had features on the collection.

And I can predict (and maybe breathe now), that because it is a collection of DC area artists, and because it is a very large collection, and because it is a public (and apparently already popular) collection, they'll have either nothing to write about it (and by their apathy continue to show the District's arts media anemic insight into the District's dynamic art scene), or...

I hope that they'll prove me wrong, and do write extensively about the Wilson Building Art Collection, but I predict that:

- Blake Gopnik, the intelligent and erudite Chief Art Critic of the Washington Post will (a) ignore it, or (b) write about it and dismiss it, or use it to continue to preach his dated Greenbergian agenda.

- Joanna Shaw-Eagle, the elderly and experienced Chief Art Critic of the Washington Times will cover it, and offer us a detailed description of the collection.

- Michael O'Sullivan, the savvy Washington Post's Weekend section Chief Art Critic (and the only WaPo critic in "tune" with the DC area art scene), will probably cover it and offer the only true insight into this important collection.

- Jessica Dawson, the young freelance writer who pens the "Galleries" column for the Style section of the Washington Post will either (a) ignore it, or (b) cover it in a small dismissive little mini-review.

- Jeffry Cudlin, the award-winning Chief Art Critic for the Washington City Paper, may cover it (if his packed schedule as an Associate Adjunct Professor at Maryland allows it), and offer us an intelligent review, but will probably highlight the weaknesses that exist in any massive public art endeavor.

Let's see over the next few weeks if I've nailed this.

Sigh...

Gopnik on Buster

Blake Gopnik checks in with one of his once a year area gallery reviews and has a rare review of Kendall Buster at Fusebox. It's a good review of a superb show.

Fusebox, easily one of the best galleries in our area, sort of gets "screwed" by the WaPo on a general basis, as the regular "Galleries" column has never covered them, as Jessica Dawson has recused herself from covering Fusebox shows due to private reasons.

The only one time that "Galleries" covered Fusebox was when Glenn Dixon shared the column with Jessica for a little while, before he had a dispute with the WaPo and quit.

This could easily be solved if the WaPo just honored their earlier promises to hire another freelancer and return "Galleries" to a weekly column on Thursdays.

Meanwhile Fusebox gets screwed because they're never covered in "Galleries," and Blake gets screwed because he's forced to make up for that by actually having to write about a "local artist" (his words), and the rest of the galleries get screwed because the Chief Art Critic of the world's second most influential newspaper rarely writes about them/us.

This could all easily be solved by having the WaPo simply hire another independent freelancer to cover the two weeks of the month currently without gallery reviews.

The Thursday Reviews

The WaPo's Jacqueline Trescott usually writes about museum news and issues. Today she has a piece that covers some museum going-ons dealing with special exhibits around Dubya's inauguration.

Jessica Dawson does something that rarely happens in the WaPo: She reviews an artist who was already reviewed last week! No doubt that Kelly Towles is hot! The review is (as usual) all over the place, sometimes doling out the feeling that it is a good review, other times throwing a bucket of cold water all over the reader. She also covers and offers a description of Time and Materials at Irvine Contemporary Art.

I'd like to see the WaPo's first threepeat and hereby call for Blake Gopnik to also review this show. Maybe a second visit to a single and talented Art-O-Matic artist will cause a shift in Blake's rootcanalization of AOM?

In the WCP, Louis Jacobson reviews "The Staged Body: Contemporary Photography," (which Jessica reviewed December 16) at Andrea Pollan's Curator's Office.

Jeffry Cudlin Goes Yard

That's new baseball talk (new to me) for hitting a home run. The current issue of the Washington City Paper has Cudlin's review of the area's visual arts year gone by.

And I'll be damned if Cudlin doesn't just hit a very readable homer, but also throws a couple of tight fastballs (awright, awright... enough with the baseball talk).

On Blake Gopnik:

"Ostensibly, Blake Gopnik is the Washington Post’s art critic of note. But his coverage of the art scene this year has seemed less concerned with Washington than with a certain city to the north: He wrote a travelogue on the galleries of Chelsea, and he recently began conducting studio visits with artists living and working in Brooklyn. Still, certain D.C. events were on Gopnik’s mind, if not on his itinerary. We could count on him to draw attention to anything confirming his worst suspicions about his occasional hometown — say, those PandaMania bears, or, yes, the redundant controversy of Artomatic (in which I participated)."

That was very good, and it takes cojones to say it; and there's more. Cudlin praises Dixon, references a well-known BLOG and slams Jessica:

"Meanwhile, thoughtful freelance critic Glenn Dixon — the only area reviewer to write on a 19.3 grade level, according to one local art blog — bailed on the Washington City Paper and made an auspicious debut in the Post’s Galleries column. Then he promptly thought better of it and bailed once more —which leaves column readers again with Jessica Dawson and only the blandest publicizing imaginable. But now only twice a month."

Ouch! I do disagree with Cudlin's broad characterization of cooperative galleries when he writes that "Numark [Gallery] stands out in a ’hood that’s home to craftsy emporiums such as Zenith Gallery and — even more dubious — pay-to-show member galleries such as Touchstone."

I disagree 1000% with his characterization of artist-run cooperative galleries.

Cooperative galleries such as Touchstone are not "dubious" and in fact cooperative galleries in this town are some of the oldest galleries in our area, surviving the demise of many private galleris, and have been a breeding ground for many, many artists, who now show in other galleries - including now showing in most of the independent, private commercial fine art galleries mentioned in Cudlin's article.

In fact, I am told that at least one of those "other" galleries mentioned elsewhere in Cudlin's article is one that unfortunately has charged artists to exhibit. This is called a "vanity gallery" and it is much different than a cooperative of artists all sharing the costs of running a gallery space. Being a true "vanity gallery" is unethical especially when the gallery pretends to be a "regular" gallery and in private charges artists a fee to exhibit in their spaces. Very unethical.

Otherwise a superb round-up! Read Cudlin's entire article here.

Bravo Cudlin!

Thursdays, according to the mid page banner on page two of the Washington Post's Style section, is supposed to focus on Art Galleries and Art News.

Over the last three years or so, the third Thursday of the month has seen the "Galleries" column do a set of mini-reviews, while the "Arts Beat" column, which used to come out every Thursday, has all but disappeared and now comes out every two weeks. I like the mini-review format once a month, but I regret the loss of the weekly "Arts Beat" column.

In today's "Galleries" column Jessica Dawson delivers a set of mini-reviews and reveals that Signal 66, one of her favorite galleries over the years, is closing at the end of the month.

However, much like the cosa nostra kiss she gave the Troyer Gallery when that gallery closed earlier this year, she sends Signal 66 away with:

"After nearly six years mounting some of the city's grittiest art shows, Signal 66 shutters its doors at month's end. More whimper than bang, the final show collects a trio of artists working in the most traditional of all media: paint."

Most commercial galleries close within a year or two; it's a tough business that is best approached realizing that if you decide to open a gallery, then expect to lose money.

Signal 66's folding is somewhat of a surprise though. It had established a good, strong footprint in our area's art scene, and being a cooperative type, artist-run gallery, it had the gallery formula that has allowed this area's longest running commercial art galleries to survive.

In fact, other than Zenith and Kathleen Ewing, I can't think of any commercial art galleries in our area that has been around for 25 years or longer that is NOT a cooperative, artist-run gallery!

Anyway, I will miss Signal 66 and the terrific contribution that they made over the last five years to our area's cultural tapestry.

P.S. By the way there are also three music and one theatre review in today's "Galleries focus" day at the Style section. They actually have more print space than Jessica's review. Does anyone understand why we keep insisting that the Post visual arts coverage sucks? You can complain to Gene Robinson, the Style section editor.

Today's Washington Post has a really.... uh... odd Roxanne-Roberts-type article by "Galleries" critic Jessica Dawson about "Tony and Heather Podesta [being] a Study in Power Collecting."

"But the Podestas' stock of artists know well the benefits of securing such politically connected patronage. Uniquely capable of advocating for their artists using the lobbying skills of their day jobs, Tony and Heather can secure access, lend advice and connect artists to curators and coveted museum shows. It's backing more valuable, at times, than dollars.

...To keep themselves in pictures, Tony and Heather jet to art fairs and biennials from Sao Paolo to San Sebastian -- often just for the weekend. Theirs is a life led breathlessly, moving from airport to dinner party. The art is an extravagance that occasionally gives Heather pause.

... During last year's Venice Biennale, they threw parties night after night, renting out their favorite restaurant and packing it with artists and a gallerist or two. Here in Washington, they've hosted art parties with Patricia Puccini, Cathy de Monchaux, Anna Gaskell, Frank Thiel, Annee Olofsson, Nikki Lee and others. Curators from the Hirshhorn Museum and Corcoran Gallery of Art, top Washington collectors and the city's best dealers regularly show up. Podesta parties are where connections are made."

So that's where those Hirshhorn and Corcoran curators are hanging out!

Anyway... inside the Style section, Jessica then delivers a surprisingly bland[ish] review of Avish Khebrehzadeh's show at Conner Contemporary Art, calling it "sweet and bracingly sentimental" with a weird tie-in to her Podesta article.

The review left me thoroughly confused. I've seen this show and to me it simply reflects the sudden discovery by the upper crust "high art" world of world-class artists that can actually draw.

Curators and critics here seem to be still trying to catch up to the fact that drawing is hot!

Jessica Dawson's "Galleries" column in today's Post "scraps the art criticism and talks religion instead."

Jessica reviews Lane Twitchell at G Fine Art, in Georgetown (Annie, please update your website!).

She asks: "After all, religion and art can't occupy the same conversational space, can they?"

Catriona pointed out to me: How about America's best selling "artist"? Now that Thomas Kinkade is having a solo at a "real" art gallery, we've all faced with the question of the legitimacy of America's best-selling painter as an artist. And isn't Kinkade's huge success because of his marriage of art and religion?

I do not like it, will never like it and don't understand people who amass Kinkade's "art," but now that the "artworld" has cracked the door open for him, the ensuing dialogue (and food fight) that will follow, will be both interesting and good for art.

In fact, if any gallerist in Washington (not us, thank you) wants to really make the national headlines, they should contact Kinkade and offer him his first solo in a commercial fine arts space. Then we'd let Blake and Dixon loose on him, and the rest would be great publicity and probably a sell-out show.

Hey! Maybe that's what those missing DC art collectors are buying?

Jessica Dawson has a really good piece in today's Galleries column in the Post.

She eloquently discusses the Maryland Institute College of Art's "Comics on the Verge" exhibition, although I would disagree with her that by presenting this exhibition, "the university makes a radical statement" and thus "contends that cartoonists are in a league with fine artists;" statements that she writes in her review opening lines.

As Jessica mentions later in the article, comic book art and artists have been finding their way to galleries and museums for years now, and although there's still somewhat of a mental segregation in the minds of "high art" segregationists, I think that the battle has been fought and won, especially now that anything and everything is art.

Thus, although this sounds indeed like a terrific exhibition, and I will go and see it (and comment on it later), my first reaction is to disagree with it being a "radical statement."

One of the very first pieces of artwork that I ever bought was a pen and ink drawing by Robert Crumb when I was living in Southern California in 1976. Back then I used to collect what we then called underground comic books, and I must admit that I was amazed when Bay area galleries started showing Crumb and other underground cartoon artists' works as art. By the middle 80's Crumb was an international cult artist, and even appeared in Newsweek and other magazines. In 1990 the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City, included his work in an exhibit called "High and Low" which also featured work by other cartoonists; this was the crowning (14 years ago) of comic book art as "high art."

Another cartoon (and later book cover) artist that I purchased back then was Frank Frazetta, who was my childhood art hero and without a doubt the most influential illustrators (on other illustrators) from the 50's to the present. At one point Frazetta's book covers could guarantee so many sales, that book publishers would bid for his paintings and then hire a writer to create a story around the painting! His Death Dealer (shown to the left) is the best selling poster in US history and has been reproduced endlessly on paper, canvas, action figures and sculptures. This is all of course, very "low brow" art to most people - except Sotheby's and Christie's and art collectors, as Frazetta's originals now auction at incredible prices for a "low brow artist."

Jessica Dawson reviews Rembrandt etchings on display at St. John's College in Annapolis in her "Galleries" column in the Post today.

And in a rare two-visual-arts-day at the Post, Linton Weeks has a very large review of Winston Churchill photographs at the Library of Congress. Weeks (as far as I know) is not an "art critic" but he does a readable job in mostly describing the exhibition and give us a bit of historical background, which is what most hi-fallutin' art critics would have done anyway.

Woudn't it be nice to see (more often) a couple of different journalists write about the visual arts on the Post's "Galleries" day? All the time...

Of course, today "the galleries" were ignored, as Jessica went out-of-town and Weeks reviewed a museum show.

Maybe next week...

Right...

Happy New Year's! I hope 2004 brings all of you lots of good things.

At the Post's "Galleries" column, Jessica Dawson opens the year with a review of a graffiti show at MOCA DC and a review of The Out-of-Towners at Transformer Gallery. The latter features work by Laura Amussen, Lily Cox-Richard, Harrison Haynes, George Jenne, and Michele Kong.

Not sure from reading the reviews if Jessica liked or disliked either of the two shows.

This is the second or third graffiti show that MOCA DC has hosted in the last couple of years, although one of the first graffiti gallery shows held in our area (that I can remember) was "Painting with Air: Graffiti Inspired Art," at the Target Gallery in Alexandria in 1996. I recall that they got in trouble with the City of Alexandria (who funds the gallery) for staging a graffiti show just as the city was spending a lot more money than they give Target, to clean up graffiti from Alexandria's walls.

Under the able leadership of Jayme McLellan and Victoria Reis, Transformer Gallery has enjoyed spectacular success in 2003, and is a shining example of what a non profit arts space can accomplish with hard work and a vision. My kudos to Jayme and Victoria and we all wish you an even better 2004!

Also, in last Sunday's Post Blake Gopnik had his opinion of the visual arts in 2003, where "an absence, not a presence, was the most striking thing about art in 2003."

Thusdays is galleries' day at the Post and today Jessica Dawson reviews "Civic Endurance" at Conner Contemporary Art - this is the same great show that was reviewed on Oct. 24 by Michael O'Sullivan and by Blake Gopnik on October 19. Leigh Conner emails me to let me know that this superb show has been extended until November 29, 2003. You can see the images online here. Today the show was also reviewed by Glenn Dixon in the Express and by Lou Jacobson in the Washington City Paper.

Jessica also reviews a group show of Italian artists at the new Capricorno Gallery. Both galleries are in the Dupont Circle area, which will have extended hours tomorrow from 6-8 PM.

Capricorno appears to be Washington's first international gallery, with branches in Capri, London and now DC. Welcome!

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Thursdays is "Galleries" column day in the Post and today Jessica Dawson reviews a library art show.

Jessica reviews Where We Come From - an exhibit of work by Emily Jacir at Provisions Library (formerly the Resource Center for Activism and Arts) in Dupont Circle area.

And a few of days ago, the Washington Times' Joanna Shaw-Eagle reviewed "Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure" at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

And on Artnet Magazine, former Hirshhorn Museum Press Officer and sometimes curator (and quite an accomplished artist as well) Sidney Lawrence reviews "Beyond the Frame, Impressionism Revisited: The Sculptures of J. Seward Johnson, Jr.," at the Corcoran and offers a slightly different perspective. For my take on this weird show, see my Oct. 24 entry.

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WaPo is seeking works by local artists

"Jessica Dawson is hitting the studios to uncover Washington talent.
It's all part of Real Art D.C., the Washington Post's exciting new platform for contemporary art in the Washington region. There's also a related competition open to all area artists.

What is Real Art D.C.? An online virtual gallery of works by local artists that will allow Post readers to discover and connect with Washington's newest talents. Artists themselves will post their own work -- and so will dealers and teachers on their behalf -- and anyone can click through and see the spectrum of local creativity."

Read all about this interesting new venture by the WaPo here.

As part of the effort, Dawson will select "a new artist-finalist every few weeks and visit the artist's studio, reporting about what she finds on the Real Art D.C. site."

I like it!

Here is where you upload your images to be considered.

Before you do that, I recommend that you read the Terms and Conditions and pay very careful attention to rule number 8 which states:

8. Submitted Entry Materials will be posted on WashingtonPost.com, and may be included in both print and online features and promotions. In addition, by entering you grant Sponsor a license to publish, reproduce, use, transfer, and otherwise display your Entry Materials in any medium and for any purpose in Sponsor's sole discretion.

I'm having a little trouble digesting that condition, which essentially all but gives the copyright of the image to the Washington Post and I am not sure why the WaPo would want to "use" the artists' entry in "any medium and for any purpose", unless they're planning to put some images on T-shirts and sell them at the next Crafty Bastards fair (not a book though, as rule 20 clarifies).

I want you readers to comment on that condition (number 8) and let me know what you think.

Dawson on Hernandez

The WaPo's freelance galleries' critic, Jessica Dawson, checks in with a small review of my good friend Nestor Hernandez's show at International Visions Gallery in DC.

One of a handful of Cuban-Americans in the DC area, a brilliant street photographer and a soft-spoken, amazing human being, Nestor passed away unexpectedly last year.

We all miss you Nestor.

Dawson on local shows

Jessica Dawson has some good mini-reviews of some top DC area shows here.