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.
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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
Monday, November 10, 2003
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.
Sunday, November 09, 2003
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.
Saturday, November 08, 2003
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.
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.
Friday, November 07, 2003
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.
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.
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.
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.
Thursday, November 06, 2003
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.
Comments on Darin's thoughts welcomed.
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... "
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.
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.
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.
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!
Wednesday, November 05, 2003
PBS' American Experience is currently researching the background to do a segment on Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, and I think that they may use this piece that I wrote a few years ago.
Email from a Canadian reader claims that if we really want to see some fireworks between Gopnik and the Corcoran, then the Corcoran should bring a solo of Marcel Dzama to DC.
I have received about a dozen emails on this "Blake vs. Corcoran" subject so far, which to me shows that there is a lot of interest and two clear "camps" on this issue.
Regardless of how one feels about the writings of a critic, (any critic, not just Gopnik), the bottom line is that the critic has a right to express his or her opinion on their area of expertise. And the readers have a right to disagree with it - even if the reader is the Director of a Museum.
Gopnik is an intelligent and eloquent writer, and he also clearly has galvanized ideas and notions as to what constitutes good contemporary art. And he clearly also has people who agree with him, and many who disagree - that disagreement is good for art!
What do I think? My opinion is also very subjective, and colored by my own art prejudices, opinions and background. For the record: On J. Seward Johnson's "art" Gopnik and I generally agree. And yet as Ionarts points out and lists, there are some writers who actually liked this show. And if you want, you too can write your own review of the show in the Post's Website.
Blake Gopnik delivered his "Long Live Realism - Realism is Dead" lecture at the Corcoran (of all places) when he first arrived here from Canada. It was there that he first tipped his hand about his personal beliefs of what he considers "good art."
And my reaction to his lecture was that genres like painting, sculpture and photography are just not in his vocabulary for what is "good art." He has shown this many times since in his reviews.
I also understood that in Blake's view of the world, painting is dead, and sculpture is dead, and photography (except "manipulated photography") is also dead.
When someone in the audience asked him what should contemporary artists do, I recall that his response was "video and manipulated photography." A well-known curator who was sitting next to me in the Corcoran's Frances & Armand Hammer Auditorium noted sarcastically that "Blake doesn't like pictures."
And when forced by another audience member to pick a contemporary painter that he liked, he put up some slides of Lisa Yuskavage and we were all wondering if he was pulling our leg, especially since he had been (unfairly in my opinion) using slides of Science Fiction illustrator Boris Vallejo as a sample of all that is wrong with contemporary realism.
So knowing that, when I read Blake Gopnik, I do so with an understanding of how what he believes is "good art" colors everything that he writes -- just as what I believe is "good art" colors everything that I say and do about art, and what I believed 20 years ago is in some cases radically different from what I think now.
And that's OK, and in an ideal world, the Post would have a second critical voice to offer us another opinion (see my Oct 25 posting).
Did Blake go over the line in writing that the Corcoran "has tumbled all the way from nobody to laughingstock"? Probably.
And yet, in an odd way I think that it is healthy for a critic to take direct shots at a major museum, causing all this discussion and disagreements and dialogue as a result. Blake's attack on the Corcoran pales in comparison to what the New York press heaves at museums like the Whitney, and what the British press vomits upon practically every visual art museum in the UK.
And meanwhile, Seward's weird exhibition has doubled the Corcoran's attendance numbers. And Gopnik's review, which has been echoed worldwide, was the catalyst for much of this success.
David Levy should send Blake a thank you note and schedule Marcel Dzama the next time attendance begins to dip.
Next Friday is the first Friday of the month, and thus the usual gallery openings and extended hours by the Dupont Circle Galleries from 6-8 PM.
A Friday later, the second Friday of the month, is gallery openings and extended hours by the Bethesda Galleries from 6-10 PM. A free shuttle bus is part of the Artwalk.
A week later, but on Thursday, the third Thursday of every month, the Seventh Street Galleries have openings and extended hours from 6-8 PM.
And a day later, on the third Friday of every month, the Canal Square Galleries in Georgetown host their new show openings from 6-9 PM, catered by the Sea Catch Restaurant.
The "feud" between the Post's Blake Gopnik and the Corcoran goes national as ArtsJournal picks up the Washingtonian story discussed here yesterday.
Tuesday, November 04, 2003
Is there a personal "feud" between the Washington Post's chief art critic Blake Gopnik and the Corcoran?
Washingtonian magazine usually has very limited visual arts coverage, and it has always been a mystery to me why they do such a good job of reviewing books, music, restaurants and theatre and yet (with some rare exceptions) ignore our museums and galleries and artists.
However, the current November issue has a very interesting article by Henry Jaffe, who writes a column titled Post Watch.
This month's column is titled Too Much Poison in Art Critic’s Pen? and it's all about the "feud" between the Washington Post's chief art critic Blake Gopnik and the Corcoran.
Washingtonian doesn't archive their articles, so go buy the magazine or read it online, as it will be gone next month.
Jaffe writes that “A lot of people are concerned about the state of art criticism at the Post,” says one museum official, echoing the view of others. None would speak on the record. “He [Gopnik] seems to be very personal. It’s always about his perspective rather than a broader, critical look at the subject.”
And Corcoran director Davy Levy is quoted as calling "Gopnik’s review “unethical” and says the critic often displays “immodest immaturity” in his reviews."
Jaffee also writes that "Levy and the Corcoran were especially steamed that Gopnik ended his review with a dig at the museum, whose “reputation has slipped badly over the last few years.”
Says Levy: “A couple of people Blake talks to don’t appreciate what we do.”
Says Gopnik: “I could get 20 quotes off the record and five on from people who agree with me.” The Corcoran has exhibited “a pattern of terrible shows.”
I am curious as to what people think about this issue. Please email me with your thoughts on this subject.
I know it's silly, but it bugs me that this TV movie critic has a news segment titled Arch on the Arts, when it should really be called "Arch on the Movies" or perhaps "Arch on the Performing Arts."
Arch Campbell, whom I've met a couple of times, is a very nice guy and a terrific movie reviewer. But he certainly does not cover the "arts."
Wouldn't it be nice if one of our local TV stations news programs dedicated just thirty seconds a week on a gallery opening, or a museum show?
And don't even get me started on WETA's Around Town, which is by far the best (and really the only) DC-centric cultural TV show around. But AT also has a very strong focus on movies and theatre, and of all the critics on AT's Panel, the visual art critic (Bill Dunlap) certainly gets the least amount of air time.
Maybe the addition of Janis Goodman means that Around Town will attempt to expand its visual arts coverage.
In response to my Oct 31 entry complaining about the lack of visual arts coverage by WAMU's Metro Connection, I've received a very nice email from David Furst, who is the show's host, who promises that he'll "try to make sure our coverage of the arts is as wide ranging as possible in the future."
David also passes that Arts Editor Peter Fay is on the show this week and Fay will be talking about two visual arts events going on right now. Peter will be discussing The Himalayas at the Arthur M Sackler Gallery and Jim Sanborn's "Critical Assembly" at the Corcoran.
My thanks to David for his quick response and we'll be listening.
The Hirshhorn is the final venue for this internationally-touring exhibition organized by LA's Museum of Contemporary Art.
Here's a review of the LA show which gives us a preview of what's coming.
Selecting artwork for an American public collection is a fine art in itself, as the artwork has to avoid the appearance of remotely insulting anyone or making any sort of social statement that may be offensive to any segment of the public. Thus we usually end up with a lot of abstract, non representational art in most public venues, and nudity needs not apply - I have called it "airportism" in the past.
The Washington Convention Center will unveil its art collection to the public on 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.
And for artists who are interested in getting more involved in competing for public art commissions, the Washington Glass School is offering a seminar for artists titled: Public Art: Putting the Art in ARchiTecture - A Seminar for Artists, Architects & Design Professionals - DC and it will be offered on Wednesday, November 12, 2003, 7-9 pm.
This seminar will focus on successfully winning public commissions. Panelists include: Francoise Yohalem - Public Art Consultant and Curator of Eleven Eleven Sculpture Space, Sherry Schwechten -Art in Public Places Manager, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Jennifer Mange - Public Arts Coordinator of the Baltimore Office of Promotion of the Arts and Jennifer Riddell - Public Arts Curator / Arlington County, VA.
Cost: $25 donation in advance/$30 at the door. Where: Washington Glass School, 1338 Half Street SE, Washington, DC 20003 (1 1/2 blocks from Navy Yard Metro stop). Phone: 202-744-8222.
Creative Capital will award grants to individual artists in the fields of Visual Arts and Film/Video in 2004-05. Visual arts may include painting, sculpture, works on paper, installation, photo-based work, contemporary crafts, and interdisciplinary projects. Film/video arts are all forms of film and video, including experimental documentary, animation, experimental media, non-traditional narrative in all formats, and interdisciplinary projects. It;s very simple to apply online: To apply, artists must complete an online inquiry form, which will be available at www.creative-capital.org on February 16, 2004. The deadline for completed inquiry forms is March 15, 2004. Those invited to make a final application will be notified in June 2004.
Monday, November 03, 2003
Photo of the Week: The Washington City Paper's art critic Glenn Dixon posing in front of Olympia's boudoir.
And here is Dixon's review of "Beyond the Frame, Impressionism Revisited: The Sculptures of J. Seward Johnson, Jr.," at the Corcoran. This show has been trashed so much and so widely, that it has become sort of a cult must-see here in Washington.
A rehash of my Oct 27 posting: The show has been brutalized in the critical press practically everywhere, and yet as bad as the show is, there's a conceptual connection between Johnson's work (take a famous Impressionist painting and make it into a lifesized 3-D tableaux of sculptures) and the Turner Prize-nominated Chapman Brothers in Britain.
Jake and Dinos Chapman's early work was based on Goya's series of etchings, Disasters of War. Initially they used plastic figures to re-create Goya in a miniature three-dimensional form, and like Johnson (later on), one of these 83 scenes became a life-sized version using mannequins (Johnson is a multimillionaire and thus he creates bronze figures).
This sculpture, Great Deeds Against the Dead of two mutilated and castrated bodies, was shown at the famous "Sensation" show in London in 1997.
I suspect that no museum in America would dare to show Great Deeds Against the Dead, but it is remarkable that the connection between Johnson and the Chapman Brothers is so obvious and yet the critical reaction to their work so vastly different.
I also suspect that the sickly sweet overexposure of Impressionism as the subject of Johnson's works has something to do with the negative critical reaction to his work, while the macabre nature of Goya's etchings brought to a life size display, appeals to the gimmick of "shock" that has become the standard and Achilles heel of contemporary British art.
By the way, the Chapman Brothers have moved on, but continue to use mannequins in their artwork, which they say is about "producing things with zero culture value, to produce aesthetic inertia - a series of works of art to be consumed and then forgotten." To me that brings them even closer to J. Seward Johnson.
Sunday, November 02, 2003
George Mason University has a very strong visual arts program, and their 2003 Faculty Show is on exhibition now at GMU's Atrium Gallery until December 17, 2003.
GMU's College of Visual and Performing Arts also has one of the strongest reputations as an art school with a solid (and rare) representational painting focus. This was in part due to the many years that professors such as Margarida Kendall Hull (now retired) put into the effort.
GMU's art faculty now includes what I think are two of the best figurative painters in the nation: Chawky Frenn (who I think is probably the last DC-area artist in my memory to have received a huge review in the New York Times) and Erik Sandberg
The book is Landscape : Photographs of Time and Place and signed copies can be obtained from Hemphill Fine Arts.
Among the photographers included in the book are masters like Ansel Adams and Alfred Stieglitz, along with contemporary photographers, such as Richard Misrach and Sally Mann.
Saturday, November 01, 2003
Blake Gopnik is very impressed in his Sunday Arts review of a very interesting show by Jim Sanborn at the Corcoran (see my Oct 27 post).
Seems like Gopnik is going through some epiphanies lately, as just a few weeks ago he found the worst museum show he'd ever seen at the same place.
I found the review a little too "preachy" in a revisionist sort of way. Nonetheless, in my opinion, this exhibition is exceedingly interesting in that it blends together several genres of the stuff that museum exhibitions (not just "art" museums) are made from.
I'm not even sure that a visual arts critic alone can give an informed review of this groundbreaking Sanborn exhibition, and I hope that some history experts from academia will get a chance to voice their opinions in the Post. This is not just a visual art exhibition, but also somewhat of a history lesson - in fact, it could just as easily have been presented in one of the nearby Smithsonian museums along the Mall that deal with history.
Sanborn's photos of atomic matter and elements are beautiful - no debate about that. But his obsession with reconstructing - well ... in Blake's words: presentation of the Manhattan Project push the overall exhibition into a new realm - it's a well-crafted and re-constructed passion (much like the passion of collectors who collect Nazi or Stasi memorabilia).... but it walks away from just visual art and adds historical visual information and reconstruction - and it opens a new page in contemporary art dialogue - in this Gopnik and I agree (I think).
Why Gopnik recommends that President Bush visit this exhibition often is confusing to me.
The fact that either (a): The Chief Art Critic of the Washington Post apparently thinks that the President of the United States needs to be reminded of the horrors of nuclear devastation because he's a trigger happy person - if that is what Gopnik meant - seems infantile and out of place regardless of one's political leanings and diminishes the work of a serious artist by aligning a unwarranted (in an art review) revisionist view that conveniently forgets that in 1945 thousands of people were dying in order to end a Pacific war that had brutalized, enslaved and murdered hundreds of thousands of people all over Asia and was aligned with the fascist powers of Hitler and Mussolini, and that it took two atomic disasters to force the Japanese to surrender and save countless lives.
Or (b): Maybe I am misunderstanding Gopnik, and he just wants the President to "visit often" in order to realize that what was created at Los Alamos in 1945 (in a race versus Nazi scientists by the way), is still a very real threat to us today if it gets in the hands of terrorists and that Bush needs to devote more time and effort to prevent atomic terrorism?
Either way, I missed the reason for the Presidential call.
This exhibition should get national attention and it will be good for the Washington visual arts scene. It is also good that it is the Corcoran who hosts it, rather than a history museum down the road. My kudos to the artist and to Dr. Jonathan Binstock, the curator.
And when you visit the exhibition at the Corcoran, don't forget that Cheryl Numark Gallery has Jim Sanborn's "Penetrating Radiation" until December 20 and should be seen as well.
Our annual call for photographers is the Bethesda International Photography Competition, which in 2003 was curated by Philip Brookman, Photography Curator at the Corcoran.
The 2004 exhibition's deadline for entries is February 3, 2004 and information and entry forms can be obtained here. The Best of Show winner gets a cash prize as well as a solo show in 2005 at our Georgetown gallery.
Our annual call for artists is the Georgetown International Fine Arts Competition which in 2004 will be curated by Kristen Hileman, Assistant Curator for Contemporary Art at the Hirshhorn Museum. The deadline for submissions is June 1, 2004 and entry forms and details can be obtained here. The Best of Show winner here also gets a cash prize as well as a solo show in 2005 at our Georgetown gallery.
Some museum exhibition opportunities: The Palm Springs Museum in California has a call for artists for its 35th annual juried exhibition. The deadline for submissions is December 12, 2003. For info contact them via email at info@psmuseum.org or call them at (760) 325-7186.
The San Diego Art Institute's Museum of the Living Artist has a call for artists for its 47th International Award Exhibition. The deadline for submissions is January 9, 2004. You can get the entry forms online here.
For watercolor artists: the Societe Canadienne de l'Aquarelle has a call for watercolor artists (deadline March 1, 2004) for its next juried competition. Selected works will travel to 5-6 cities in the province of Quebec starting in May and ending in October. A full color catalog is produced and usually the shows are visited by around 20,000 people. For a prospectus contact them at 450/678-2234 or email them at info@aquarelle.ca.
The William and Mary Review, a literary and art magazine published by the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, is looking for artwork submissions for its 2004 edition. The deadline is February 1, 2004. For info send them an email to review@wm.edu to the attention of Selina Spinos.
The Department of State's Art in Embassies program is a way for artists to loan works to US embassies around the world. Althought artists do not get paid, there is a travel program associated with it that allows artists to travel to locales to give lectures, workshops and for studio visits. Interested artists should contact Mary Hollis Hughes at 202/647-5723 or visit the website here, as submissions can be made online from your digital files.
