Last night was the grand opening of the Washington Convention Center's public art collection. The center introduced the largest public art collection in Washington, DC. Over 120 works of art, sculpture, paintings, photography, graphics and mixed media. They spent around four million dollars, of which half was allocated to DC area artists.

And the Washington Convention Center art selection committee, and its art advisory program, and the ad hoc community art program committee and all the other many groups, committees or people who had a say, word, vote or check into what gets acquired for a public art collection of this magnitude have done a surprisingly outstanding job. I counted almost sixty names somehow associated with what art was selected for the collection.

Also strange is the fact that apparently, due to security concerns, this public art collection is apparently not open to the public. That is, future convention attendees, official visitors and the people who work there have access to it, but the general public does not. I am trying to confirm this, but if true, some sort of remedy (such as "by appointment tours") should be institutionalized.

But in spite of that, this is overall an excellent collection of art, which manages to showcase some major new pieces by blue chip artists, as well as to provide many of our own well-known and emerging area artists with an opportunity to flex their artistic muscles. Because this is Washington, DC, it also manages (as expected) to avoid displaying a nude figure anywhere in the building, although this will change for two days in August of 2004, when Room 146 of the Center hosts the International Nude Art Expo 2004 from 21-22 August 2004.

In fact, the major problem that I have with the Washington Convention Center is that if they spent four million dollars to acquire the art, then they need to start figuring out how to get a few more million dollars, because this beautiful space is so vast, and the number of huge, empty walls so many, that the current number of artworks adorning the Center is but a minute - I would say 5% - of what truly needs to be there to have the art make the visual impact that I think it must make.

When Kate and I arrived, we ran into Guy Mondo, who had already been there for a couple of hours and knew where everything was located. So with Guy as a guide (no pun intended) we did a couple of miles worth of walking in seeing the collection.

And after all is said and done, I think that my favorite piece is Jim Sanborn's Lingua, which is perfectly located in the Grand Lobby of the center. Sanborn has delivered two sixteen foot columns, like modern standing stones, that flank the visitor as one enters the center. The columns are etched through in eight different languages (with parts of historical texts recalling gatherings (conventions)) and lit from the inside. This projects the words onto the walls, ceilings and people as one walks through. Sanborn has reacted with a very powerful answer to this call for public art for a convention center. The ability of Lingua to marry a modern view of an ancient ritual, in my eyes makes it the most successful piece in the collection.

However, I am a Virgo, and there's one small, but bothersome issue that I must point out, as I suspect that Sanborn may not be aware of it. The eight languages cut through the columns are French, Ethiopian, Greek, Latin, Chinese, Russian, Ononandaga and Spanish. And it is with the Spanish orthography used in the columns that I (and I suspect anyone who can read Spanish) have a nagging issue.

The Spanish paragraph cut through at the top of the left column describes Columbus' triumphant reception in Barcelona. But whoever cut the words through used a generic alphabet to create the words, rather than a Spanish alphabet. Initially, the differences, letter for letter, are small. But once you start assembling words together, Spanish, like all Romance languages, uses a complex set of accents to indicate the correct pronunciation and spelling of a word.

And the column's Spanish text is missing all the accents, and thus is full of misspellings and gibberish. For example, the word "bajo" could mean "short" as in "he was a short man" but if you add an accent to the "o" at the end, as in "bajó," it can translate as "came down" as in "he came down the ladder." I suspect that the French text suffers from the same type of errors.

As I've noted, the placement of Sanborn's Lingua is perfect, and so is the spectacular location of Pat Steir's Red on Blue Waterfall, located on Level 2 at the L Street Bridge. And in fact, nearly all the work is placed in very good locations.

And yet, considering all the empty space all around the center, there are some questionable placements that come to mind. For example, I don't understand why so many photographs have been grouped together in a rather isolated area on Level Two. I do realize that whoever selected the locations thought that by grouping seventeen photographs into a small corridor ("small" is relative in the convention center sense) they were creating a "photo gallery."

It doesn't work. In fact, it doesn't make sense at all considering (at the risk of repeating myself too often) all the great empty locations all around the center. What is does, is to create a feeling of being cramped in, rather than the sense of a gallery wall.

There are two great Maxwell MacKenzie photographs in this area, and knowing that MacKenzie produces these photos in a huge 96-inch length, I found it odd that the center decided two acquire two of his smaller images, when one or two of the vast, mural-sized photos would have had a more spectacular effect on the overall open atmosphere of the center.

But the work that gets my vote as worst placement is the lovely long piece by Rebecca Cross (Variations on the Pear), located at the very end of the Food Court, inexplicably located where it is hard to see it, especially when there's a huge empty wall facing towards the food court, just a dozen footsteps from it.

But enough bitching about location and placement. As I noted, with a few exceptions, most of the artwork has been well placed, and hopefully the Convention Center will consider a few key adjustments as input such as this comes in.

There are a lot of superb sculptures in this collection and well deserved kudos to the selection process for not forgetting sculptors.

Kendall Buster's piece, titled Parabiosis II, is one of my favorite works in the entire collection, and is one of those works that is not only located in a perfect spot, but also responded well to the specific call for art. This was a commissioned piece, and it hangs from the underside of the main escalator, so that viewers walk under it and can truly enjoy Buster's ability to take a steel frame, put a skin on it, and make it into an organic, almost living entity.

Many other excellent 3-D pieces included Wendy Ross' sculpture Millefiore Volvox I and one of the best pieces in the entire collection: Yuriko Yamaguchi's "Politics/Power = Human Nature, Metamorphoses #102-103" (from where are these sculptors coming up with these titles?). The Yamaguchi piece was one of the largest ones that I've seen by this talented artist and it works well and shows that her minimalist simplicity can also work in a larger scale.

And Donald Lipski also came through to the challenge for a commissioned work with "Five Easy Pieces" (hint to Yamaguchi and Ross about titling). Lispski has put together a collection of giant shapes made from common objects. A giant circle made of guitars, a Swiss-cross made of tennis-rackets (and my vote for the first piece that some idiot will bitch about because it's a cross) and other hanging pieces made from kayaks, bar stools and bicycles.

In my opinion, the weak link in an otherwise strong collection of sculptures in the Center is Capital Stars by Larry Kirkland, which was also a commissioned piece. In Kirkland's defense, he apparently had a tall order, as he has produced a hanging star within two spoked circles that tries to combine history, politics and geography into what ends up looking like a giant Christmas decoration. Kirkland, who now lives in DC, tries valiantly to express via this piece the idea of a stateless DC (at the center of the star) surrounded by the "real" states with a star where their capitals are. It's a noble idea, but delivered in a heavy handed manner.

But the true overall dud in this otherwise very good public art collection is Ivan Chermayeff's "Sky, Land, Sea," which also has a powerful location on the main backwall of the street level. His piece betrays the fact that Chermayeff is a very successful graphic designer and ad man, but this venture into fine art smells of Madison Avenue. In fact "Sky, Land, Sea" (which must have cost a bundle to produce and install) is not much different in visual appeal and presentation to one of those lit Metro ads that nearly all the underground train stations around the world now have. All that differentiated "Sky, Land, Sea," from an ad was some lettering advertising Allegra or some other allergy medicine.

Other works that stand out in my notes as being exceptional in a collection full of good works are John Winslow's "What Rooms Reveal" and Al Smith's "Crossings" as well as Chul-Hyun Ahn's "Emptiness" a clever piece that bends perspective through the use of lights.

And (to me) the surprise of the collection (as in "I've never heard of this guy" surprise) was a very good painting by Trevor Young, who is apparently from the DC area titled "Slanted Dark."

The surprise of all surprises (as in "WOW, look who is in this collection" surprise) was a great piece by David Opdyke from his "Taste Test" series which use Coca-Cola imagery on US maps to deliver smart works of art that also require thinking and opinions. It could easily be the hidden jewel in this collection. In fact, I was told that the Corcoran would soon be borrowing it for some future show.

A richly deserved Well Done! to the Convention Center for its public art collection effort and also a very strong recommendation that they must (a) start thinking of convening a yearly committee to continue to acquire more art to augment this strong nucleus and cover up some of those empty walls and (b) figure out a way to let this public art collection be accessible to the public.

Don't miss today's posting in Ionarts

Art Basel Miami 2003 will take place next month in Miami Beach. Although there are no Washington area galleries (in no small part due to the huge cost of exhibiting) in the list of exhibiting galleries, it's noteworthy to point out that Washington's Fusebox Gallery will be participating in Art Positions, where many other galleries have the opportunity to exhibit art in renovated ships' containers transformed into mobile exhibition spaces on the beach.

This is hard work from a very hard working gallery, and Fusebox, already one of our best galleries, will hopefully get some well-deserved attention for the Washington area artists that they represent from the Miami media (and our own).

Thanks to Arts Journal: The Society for the Appreciation of the Female Nude (SAFN) in praise of the traditional female nude in art has established a new art prize in Britain: The Venus Prize.

It will be presented annually to an artist who "expresses the beauty of a woman wholly at ease with her own body while communicating a female sensuality openly but non-provocatively".

Ulla Plougmand-Turner, a self-taught Danish-born artist, will be the first recipient of the award, being presented by the Marquess of Bath in London tonite.

The Society for the Arts in Healthcare is a non-profit organization, advocating on a national and international level for the integration of the arts into healthcare settings. Their 2004 Annual Conference will be held April 21-24 in Alexandria, Virginia with site visits and events throughout the Washington, DC area. Among the keynote speakers will be Lawrence Rinder, Curator of Contemporary Art, Whitney Museum.

Reminder: The Washington Convention Center will unveil its art collection to the public today - Monday, November 10, from 6:00 - 8:00 pm. They will introduce the largest public art collection in Washington, DC. Over 120 works of art, sculpture, paintings, photography, graphics and mixed media. They spent around four million dollars, of which half was allocated to DC area artists.

Location: 801 Mount Vernon Place, NW, Washington, DC. Please use Mount Vernon Place entrance. The Washington Convention Center is accessible by the Mount Vernon Place/7th Street - Convention Center or Gallery Place/Chinatown Metro Stations. Parking is limited in the surrounding areas. R.S.V.P. 202-249-3449.

Today's Sunday Arts section in the Washington Post brings unexpected and rare multiple pieces on the visual arts.

There's an eye-catching and attractive large piece by Jessica Dawson on Joseph Cornell's art boxes with the unfortunate headline of Art's Box Launch. The piece is actually on the very interesting book "Joseph Cornell: Shadowplay . . . Eterniday," which comes with the DVD set The Magical Worlds of Joseph Cornell.

Not related to the book, but interesting nonetheless, is this international mail art exhibition about Cornell being held in California.

Paul Richard, who retired as the chief art for the Post a while back and is now a contract writer for the Post, has an excellent piece on Frank Bruno's painting exhibition at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. This is another exhibition that I would love to have read a second review by Richard's replacement, Blake Gopnik, in order to read Blake's perspective on Bruno's work. And as the Arts Editor of the New York Times points out, it's healthy for critics to disagree and Rockwell has the courage to write: "I trust my own subjective taste."

The bold is added for anyone who thinks that art critics (or any critic) are objective - especially for art editors and the critics themselves.

And the Post's music critic, Richard Harrington, as he does sometimes, used his print space to do a terrific review of "Between Midnight and Day: The Last Unpublished Blues Archive - Photographs by Dick Waterman " at Georgetown's Govinda Gallery, which as Harrington points out, for many years "has been has long been at the forefront of music-related exhibitions."

The Post once tried to demote Harrington, (who is a very good writer in my opinion) allegedly (according to Harrington) because he was too old to write about contemporary music. According to the City Paper, after six months of "searching" for a qualified replacement, then they allegedly tried to replace Harrington with another Post writer whose previous experience had been in the business section of the paper.

And finally, reader William Woodhouse scolds Blake in a Letter to the Arts Editor, for "being misled" about the importance of Toledo in El Greco's Spain as described in Gopnik's review of El Greco now drawing huge crowds to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

In his review Blake anchors much of El Greco's unusual success with his odd realism upon the fact that El Greco was working in the "in the safe isolation of a provincial Spanish town" and essentially the locals didn't know any better. But William Woodhouse corrects Gopnik's perception of Toledo by pointing out that "it is a mistake, however, to characterize the ambiance of 16th-century Toledo as "the safe isolation of a provincial Spanish town" vs. the court of Philip II in Madrid."

It sort of puts a big hole in the review's central theory.

No slack in these leagues.

In Blake's defense, most people in the US and Britain get a very one-sided, British-centric view of European history and events. When I lived in Spain in the early 80's, it was very interesting to read the Spanish version of the wars with England, and Spain's place in European history. I even recall reading that more people were put to the torch, quartered and hung in England during Elizabeth's reign, than in the entire 500-year run of the Inquisition.

It could be a case of the Spanish trying to demonize their (then) arch enemies, much like the English have tried to demonize Philip II, who's usually presented in history as the "bad guy" of Europe.

A while back I read Henry Kamen's Philip of Spain and it certainly became an engrossing educational adventure for me, and I highly recommend it.

Last night Kate and I went gallery hopping to the Dupont Circle galleries first Friday extended hours.

Found out that Troyer Gallery now shares its space with a new gallery, Irvine Contemporary Art, which was having its grand opening last night. Troyer Gallery is now in the small room in the rear and according to them, the gallery has "modified its space and direction," with an "increased focus on fine art ceramics."

The new gallery sharing Troyer's space is focused on what they describe as "contemporary art with an international view" and so far represent the work of six artists, while also exhibiting and keeping an inventory of work by twenty other well-known artists.

Kathleen Ewing, which is easily Washington's top photography gallery, has recently renovated its spaces and doubled in size. Ewing is expanding the gallery's focus past photography and they now have on display the paintings of Bethesda artist Michael Gross, who they now represent.

The current show is the artist's first solo show and it has done exceedingly well, as there were quite a few red dots on his paintings.

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The December issue of Art News magazine will have a city focus on Washington, DC.

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The House-Senate 2004 Interior Appropriations conference committee has agreed to increase the budget of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) -- raising the budget for the nation's leading annual funder of the arts to $122.5 million.

Current grant deadlines have passed, but artists can apply for the next cycle of grants here.

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The inaugural issue of artUS, a new national art magazine is currently in distribution.

According to an email from Paul Foss, the magazine's publisher, (who also publishes artext magazine) "artUS offers the unique opportunity to obtain the most current and exhaustive information regarding the U.S. exhibition scene, including commercial galleries, museums, and nonprofit spaces and events. No other arts publication in the U.S. today regularly offers such an extensive range of reviews and listings in the context of groundbreaking critical debate from some of the country's most influential writers, artists, and art critics."

I've asked them who will be covering DC area galleries. See my listing of DC area art critics here.

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The Washington Printmakers Gallery, founded in 1985 and located at 1732 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, is in the process of reviewing portfolios for membership.

Founded in 1985, the gallery includes 35 member artists working in all printmaking media, including etching, lithography, collagraph, screenprint, woodcut, linocut, monotype, monoprint and mixed media. Dues are $85 a month, with an initial non-refundable fee of $250. Artists hang a framed piece each month, have 12 works in the bins and 17 in flatfiles at all times.

Each artist has the opportunity of a solo show every 2-1/2 to 3 years. Portfolios are reviewed every other month and should include one framed print, 6 unmatted unframed works, a resume and artist statement (optional). Call Director Jen Watson at 202.332.7757 for more information.

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Over 25,000 photographers, including 36 Pulitzer Prize winners, submitted digital images for this project.

On Fridays, the Post publishes the Weekend section, and today Michael O'Sullivan looks at Colby Caldwell's photography exhibition currently at Georgetown's Hemphill Fine Arts gallery.

Since I first saw his work several years ago, I have followed Caldwell's development as a photographer who is not only interested in just photography, but also in being an innovator of the genre - both a "technical" and "creative" innovator.

In my opinion this combination of skills is what makes Caldwell's work important and fun to follow. Don't get me wrong, it's not just: What is he going to do next? How is he going to surprise us? - that would be gimmick rather than skill and talent - but it is the pleasurable event of seeing what can almost be described as banal images, elevated to a level of beauty and interest beyond their initial creation.

Note to the future curators of the next Whitney Biennial: Colby Caldwell.

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One of the things that I want to do with this BLOG is to encourage people who want to say something about our area's visual arts, our artists and everything else associated with that and the visual arts in general, to email me and I'll put it here (editing rights reserved) whenever possible.

And photographer and video artist Darin Boville (and also one of the nine finalists on this year's Trawick Prize) breaks the ice with some very interesting comments and thoughts fueled by the current issue of Art in America magazine. Darin's point is about substance in the current state of writing in these magazines. He notes that:

"[In the current issue] you can find an article on the work of [Mark] Lombardi which I might suggest was an Alan Sokal-style hoax if I wasn't convinced that it is impossible to pull off a Sokal-style hoax in the art world.

Art world writing is already so obviously void of substance that a hoax would be pointless.

In this case, we learn in a pull quote from the article that "With their large scale and epic cast of characters, Lombardi's drawings can call to mind the grand, turbulent history paintings of the 19th century."

Jaw dropping stupidity of a quote.

Even the editors where embarrassed by that one -- in the text itself that line does not appear but has been instead changed to "With their marriage of branching patterns and mechanical flowcharts, Lombardi's drawings call to mind a host of visual forms, including maps, mandalas, and genealogical charts."

Have artists figured out yet why no one outside the art world takes them seriously?

And then there are the grade school errors. The article says that Bush made "100% profit" on the sale of his stock which is another way of saying that he doubled his money. That certainly is the wrong number!

Then there is the art writer WAY out of her depth. While discussing the Bush work she seem oblivious of the fact that Bush was the CEO of Spectrum 7 when Harken bought it and when Bahrain granted the little company offshore drilling rights (during Daddy's presidency). It only takes five minutes on the Internet.

And then the faults in art scholarship. Here we have an artist who is interested in political and business scandals and who maps them out in semi-scientific charts linking the previously unseen participants together.

This artist came of age in the early 1970's and graduated with an MFA in 1974. It seems to me that Hans Haacke's pieces detailing the connections in the real estate market in NYC should have at least been mentioned, if not cited as the dominant art precedent and direct influence.

On and on and on.

Alas... "

Comments on Darin's thoughts welcomed.

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A few days ago I complained that WETA's Around Town did not devote enough time to the visual arts in its skimpy 30 minutes.

And today I received a very nice email from Valerie Bampoe, WETA's Audience Services Coordinator, to let me know that she had brought up my concerns to the producers of AT.

She also welcomed additional concerns be sent directly to her at vbampoe@weta.com or call her at (703) 998-2615.

Perfect opportunity for those who agree with me to write or call WETA and tell them that "Around Town" should give the visual arts equal time with theatre and music and movies, and give Bill Dunlap a few more on-air minutes to talk about our visual artists and galleries and museums and have the panel spend less times on national movies that a dozen other TV shows are already discussing.

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Touchstone Gallery, a very good artist co-op on 7th Street, will be jurying for new members on Nov. 19. Interested artists looking for gallery membership should call the Gallery for information at 202/347-2787.

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Robert Hughes, truly one of the world's great art critics/historians, will be at the Lisner Auditorium on November 18 discussing his new book on Goya. Lecture starts at 6:30 and there will be a book signing at the end of the program.

I haven't read the book yet (but will) and wonder how it deals (if at all) with the issue of Goya's Black Paintings and the controversy over their authenticity brought about by Juan Jose Junquera, a professor of art history at Complutense University in Madrid.

Ionarts continues the "Gopnik and the Corcoran" discussion with some very good points.

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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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