Susan Clampitt, executive director at public radio station WAMU, has been fired by American University President Benjamin Ladner.
My favorite WAMU show is the daily talk show by the unflappable Kojo Nmandi. Kojo is one of the rare radio talk show hosts that once in a while actually dedicates air time to our area's art scene. Kojo had me on the air last March discussing DC area art galleries and events, and he's also had the Post's Blake Gopnik a couple of times. Actually, Blake makes a couple of interesting personal observations about his impression on the quality of DC art and artists - listen to it here.
The most disappointing (from a visual arts perspective) WAMU show is Metro Connection, which is well "connected" to music, performance and theatre and loads of DC-centric events, but generally ignores the strong visual arts component of our area's art scene. In fact, so far in 2003 they've done only three shows with some sort of visual art focus. In an ideal world, one would hope that Metro Connection could find air time to do at least one monthly show on a museum show or a gallery show or highlight a DC area visual artist --- in other words, much alike to what they already do for all the other various genres of the arts.
Friday, October 31, 2003
Faith Flanagan organizes MUSE, which is a monthly art salon at DCAC. Each session is an opportunity to talk about contemporary art at a monthly get-together. Each salon features a discussion with a member of the local District, Maryland & Virginia (DMV) arts community, followed by a chance for audience members to show slides or samples of their work.
MUSE's guests for November will be Sarah Tanguy, independent curator and writer and Glenn Harper, editor, Sculpture Magazine. December's guest will be Anne Corbett, Executive Director, Cultural Development Corporation.
Next dates are Sunday, November 2, and Sunday, December 7, 2003 at 7:30 P.M. and the first Sunday of each following month. For more info email Faith at salon@dcartscenter.org.
Michael O'Sullivan, in the Post's Weekend section reviews a very interesting show (I saw it a few days ago) of mechanical constructions by Andy Holtin at Old Town Alexandria's Target Gallery, located on the ground floor of the Torpedo Factory.
While I was around Old Town I realized how much damage Isabel had done. Apparently Gallery West, which is one of the Greater Washington area's oldest artist-run galleries, had sixteen inches of river water inside the gallery at one point and is now being repaired.
Thursday, October 30, 2003
Gil Perez, the doorman at Christie's in New York, is apparently so influential with potential buyers that he has a position on the company's board and reportedly earns $100,000 a year and is now the 50th person in Art Review's annual 100 most powerful figures in the art world.
According to the list, American billionaire Ronald Lauder is the most powerful figure in the art world. I think that he's Estée Lauder's chairman.
Number 100 is a funny surprise.
UPI reports that Mary Boone, the owner of New York's Mary Boone Gallery is suing photographer Annie Leibovitz because 12 years ago Boone apparently paid Annie Leibovitz $197,000 to have Annie take Boone's photograph and 12 years later she's still waiting.
The BBC says that "No modern artist, not even the likes of Damien Hirst or Tracey Emin, divides opinion like Jack Vettriano."
This Scottish painter has sold out every single exhibition that he's ever had, apparently all of them within an hour, and has a waiting list for his next painting of several hundred names, and famous people and celebrities all crave his work. Sounds like the typical British formula for success.
And yet the British critics hate his work and success.
Call for Artists: The Margaret W. and Joseph L. Fisher Gallery in the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center has an open call for artists. The Schlesinger Center is located on the Alexandria Campus of Northern Virginia Community College. To receive an application to exhibit, please provide your name and complete mailing address to Dr. Leslie White, Managing Director at LWHITE@NVCC.EDU or write to:
Dr. Leslie White, Managing Director
3001 N. Beauregard Street
Alexandria, VA 22311-5097
t: 703.845.6229 or f: 703.845.6154 or lwhite@nvcc.edu
I am sure that it has already happened somewhere, but I am waiting for someone to make a big deal of someone's exhibition of photographs taken with the new photo capable cell phones.
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.
The most misused word in the world of art is the word "print," as used in definiting work as "limited edition print," etc.
In the narrow, but true art definition of what an original art print is, a print is a work of art produced from an image worked by the artist on another material, usually a metal, plexiglass, wood, linoleum, plastic plate, etc.
Everything else is a reproduction.
And lawsuits will happen if suddenly a collector discovers that their "print" or "original" is in fact a reproduction.
So if an artist paints or draws an image on any medium, and then has multiple images made from that original by an electro-mechanical or mechanical process using photographic or digital images (such as Iris or Gyclee), those images are reproductions - not prints.
However, because it would really be hard to market an artist's work as "limited edition, signed and numbered reproductions," the word "print" has been kidnapped by the marketeers of art to apply to any set of multiple images - regardless of how they came to be, or what part the artist played in its creation.
It gets a bit murky when it comes to digital art - that is artwork that is created from scratch through the use of a computer or a photograph taken with a digital camera.
Once the file is done and finished and saved, then one can say that the image that comes out of the printer is the "print" in the true sense of the narrow art definition - much like the negative in traditional photography produces the photographic print.
However, a photograph that is taken, developed, printed in the darkroom and then scanned so that Giclees or Iris "prints" can be made from the photographic image means that those are reproductions made from the original photograph. But a photograph taken with a digital camera and then has Iris/Giclees or any other digital prints made from the digital image in the memory card is a "real" print!
So a digital medium like Giclee/Iris can be either a reproduction or a real print - it all depends on what the original source of the image is!
Printmakers are especially sensitive to the misuse of the work "print" to market reproductions of artwork. One of the best places in town to buy true prints from very talented printmakers is the Washington Printmakers Gallery in the Dupont Circle area.
Just back from a visit to Penn State. While there I visited the Palmer Museum and saw a small but very interesting exhibition: Through the Looking Glass: Women and Self-Representation in Contemporary Art. Also saw the faculty exhibition at the Zoller Gallery.
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
Isla Torturada
When I was a student at the University of Washington in lovely Seattle, I was going for a double degree. One was in Mathematics (Numerical Analysis) and the other in Art. Both degrees were part of the College of Arts and Sciences - so together they shared a lot of common courses.
Because of the heavy load, I often did art projects which could be used in two separate classes (drawing with sculptural elements, etc.) In 1980 I did 100 lithographs - mostly fairly small... around 5x7 inches - they all had the island of Cuba as the central focus, and each was an individually hand-colored and done differently - so each one was unique.
I sold most of them at the Pike Place Market in Seattle, and a to one fellow student (the only other Cuban American whom I knew at the UW). She must have bought 20 of them!
Here's one:
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| Cuba: Isla Torturada 1980 mixed media monoprint by F. Lennox Campello |
Monday, October 27, 2003
It's circa 1961 and was acquired by the present owner in 1976... of course we all wonder how much he/she paid for it.
There's also this nice Kenneth Noland on the left... 45 by 45 inches - circa 1962 and acquired by the present owner in 1963!
This was an art collector with an early Greenbergian eye for the Washington Color School... the Noland is expected to go for $100-$150,000 which is surprisingly low - one would think.
And even more surprising: This Rothko is expected to beat Van Gogh.
OK, OK it's a huge Rothko oil versus a small Van Gogh watercolor....
There are also 128 Whistlers on the auction block (mostly prints).
The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund invites visual artists (excluding filmmakers, video artists, and performance artists) to apply for grants to enable recipients to develop their talent and concentrate on their art. Artists must be 40 years or older, and must live within 150 miles of Washington, D.C.
Two grants will be awarded in December 2003, one for $25,000, the other for $20,000. Applications must be postmarked no later than November 28, 2003. To obtain a current application form, visit the Fund's website, www.baderfund.org, or write to the Fund at 5505 Connecticut Avenue, NW #268, Washington, D.C. 20015. Send email inquiries to grants@baderfund.org. Telephone: 202-288-4608 and Fax: 202-364-3453
For those a little younger, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities's Young Artists Grant Program has a deadline of December 1, 2003. For District residents between the ages of 18 and 30. They can apply for up to $3,500 for community service projects or $2,500 for independent art projects. For more information or to obtain an application form visit the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities or call 202-724-5613.
Less than a year ago Dega Gallery, a new gallery and framing space opened in McLean and they have been putting together some pretty good shows. Dega is Korean for "master." They have a group show opening next November 7 which includes several well-known area artists and may be a good excuse to visit this new area gallery. Among the artists in the show are McLean-based printmaker Betty MacDonald and DC artist Kathleen Shafer. Hint for new gallery: Get a website!
Congratulations to DC area photographer Wayne Guenther, who received an Honorable Mention in the 2003 Camera Club of NY National Photography Competition, juried by the great Joyce Tenneson - a "local" who moved to NYC in the 1980s and became a photography superstar. Last year, Tenneson's book Wise Women became the best-selling photography book in the world for 2002. It was her 8th book I believe.
Cheryl Numark Gallery has Jim Sanborn's "Penetrating Radiation" until December 20. The show is focused on work that Sanborn has been preparing since 1998 and it has been scheduled to run alongside (for a while) with Sanborn's associated show at the Corcoran titled "Atomic Time: Pure Science and Seduction."
The show has been curated by Dr. Jonathan Binstock, the Corcoran's Curator for Contemporary Art. While the exhibition is on view at the Corcoran, Jim Sanborn will be a visiting artist at the Corcoran’s College of Art and Design. Several educational programs will be organized to coincide with the exhibition, including a slide talk and gallery tour with Sanborn, a panel discussion addressing issues related to the exhibition and visits by the artist to students’ studios. The Corcoran is planning a two year tour of this exhibition - no other venues so far identified.
Sunday, October 26, 2003
Blake Gopnik has a very readable description and biographical article on El Greco as he writes about the El Greco's show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Gopnik has some excellent points on how El Greco's works were designed to be viewed a particular way, barely lit, often high above and viewed from below, and thus why they seem so unusual to us today in well-lit museum viewings.
As I recall, even during his time he was brought in front of the Inquisition to explain the peculiar elongations of some of his Christ paintings. He must have convinced them, as they didn't fry him for breaking some Inquisition rule about how Christ should be depicted (as the largest figure in any canvas, as I recall).
El Greco is one of my favorite artists of all times, and I also like his commercial acumen. His depiction of Christ Cleasing the Temple was so popular that he copied himself several times and practically every museum in Europe has a version of it - some of which are of dubious pedigree. Here's the NGA's version and the London's National gallery has this one, and the Institute of Arts in Minneapolis has this version and, the Frick has this one and I don't know who owns this one.
In art school, we had a class where we had to copy a master's work, and I painted a huge lifesized copy of The Annunciation, which strangely enough, I sold years later to someone in Spain when I lived there in the mid 80s.
This is one master who would have loved the digital revolution and the ability to make loads of reproductions from your originals!
Photoworks is another great artist's resource. I've been using them since they used to be Seattle Filmworks and I was in art school back in Seattle from 1977-1981.
As far as I know, Photoworks is the only place around that you can send any roll of film (any type or kind or brand) and get (if so selected) prints, slides, negatives, a CD ROM of the images and a private webpage where all your images reside and you can email them around.
This is a great archiving method for artist's works - you have the CD ROM to stash away, the slides to send around for competitions, reviews, etc., the prints for the album, negs for reprints and a web site to keep records of your images in case you lose all the other stuff.
And it's all done at a really reasonable price - in fact a lot less than if you take them to your local place to get just prints and negs.
Saturday, October 25, 2003
Artnotes has one of the funniest posts (see her Oct 22 post) ever on the subject of ...John Currin, Bea Arthur, and gigantic nipples.
For anyone who thinks that art critics and museum curators are subjective and look at every show that they review or select with a clear, subjective eye, free from agendas and prejudices: Wake up!
Case in point. Today's Post has a rare Saturday visual arts review by Paul Richard, who retired a while back as that paper's Chief Art Critic.
Richard writes a very good, elegant and informative review of Mississippi artist Walter Anderson (1903-1965) from Anderson's show: "Walter Inglis Anderson: Everything I See Is New and Strange" at the Smithsonian Institution's Arts and Industries Building, on the Mall next to the Castle.
Richard was "amazed" by Anderson's work and writes that "the makers of great American watercolors -- Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, John Marin, Charles Demuth -- are a select few. Anderson is worthy of inclusion in that company."
And this brings me to the point of my first paragraph about critics and curators.
First curators: Richard informs the reader that "The Hirshhorn, the Phillips and the Corcoran glanced at the idea of exhibiting the Andersons sent on tour this year by the Walter Anderson Museum in Ocean Springs, but nothing came of it. Their mistake."
My opinion: With the exception of maybe (a looooong maybe) the Phillips, I don't think any dead American artist with Anderson's background and subject matter would ever get a microsecond of interest from the Hirshhorn or the Corcoran, unless there were a lot of other sundry variables in the offer. It's just not where these curators' interest and focus are aimed at the moment.
About critics....
Richard's replacement at the Post as the new Chief Art Critic was Blake Gopnik, who came to the Post from the Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail.
And Gopnik's background, education, training and formation - and thus his subjectivity, agendas and likes and dislikes - are radically different from Richard. This gives us two men who held and now hold the same powerful pulpit with two very different views of what is good art.
I think that the chances that Gopnik would be "amazed" by Anderson's art are about the same as the chances that Laura Bush will elope with Osama Bin Laden. In fact I think that in Gopnik's books, the Anderson show may just beat the J. Seward Johnson show at the Corcoran that Gopnik brutalized a few weeks ago when he wrote: "This is the worst museum exhibition I've ever seen."
And this is where it could be fun (I've rambled too long).
Wouldn't it be fun if the Post sent both Richard and Gopnik to review the same show and then publish the former and current Chief Art Critic's views and points and words about the exact same show? And to make it more interesting - don't let them in on the idea.
It would not only be a great service to readers to see two points of view (like the Editorial page is sometimes supposed to do) applied to the fragile world of art criticism, but also a lesson to all who'll then discover that art critics, like wine critics, are a product of their own tastes, and not arbiters of what is good or bad in art.
Friday, October 24, 2003
Only a year to go for the exhibition I wish was already here: Ana Mendieta's retrospective at the Hirshhorn. Here's something I wrote about Mendieta and "Latino art" a while back.
