Recently The Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (AHCMC) Board of Directors announced awards totaling more than $51,000 for arts and humanities programs in Montgomery County for the second half of fiscal year 2004 that began on January 1, 2004. Awards were given to around 40 institutions and ranged from $475 to $3,450.

Video artist and photographer Darin Boville smartly picked up on a very interesting issue that I think AHCMC should really consider.

Boville says:

This is ludicrous. Just over $50K spread scattershot over nearly forty recipients? This isn't support for the arts. This is more like the micro-loan programs that international agencies run in third world countries.

In grants of $600, of $1,000, of $2,000 you have to take very seriously the notion of subtracting out the time it took to fill out the forms, making the calls, having the meetings to decide to pursue the grant and so on from the value of the grant. From a policy point of view you also have to account for those cost of all those who applied but did not win. You have the take into account what it costs to administer the grant program.

Surely the real cost of giving away this money is larger than the value of the money that is given away.

So here is an idea for your list of things to do to make the DC-area a center for art:

Take the $50,000 for the next six months and don't give it to artists. This is like giving starving people just enough food to stay alive but not enough to do anything but wait for the next hand-out cycle. Instead, use it to hire a professional fund-raiser/PR person for the area art scene. That will pay for itself and then some. Stop the arts community from letting itself bleed to death.

Today is the Third Friday of the month, as thus the Georgetown's Canal Square Galleries opening night.

The four galleries (MOCA, Parish, Alla Rogers and Fraser) are in the Canal Square in Georgetown located at 1054 31st Street off M Street, NW.

See ya there!

One of the paradoxes of the Washington, DC art scene is the fact that our area has the second highest concentration of millionaires in the world (after Silicone Valley area), and yet an almost invisible local collector base to help support our area galleries, artists and cultural tapestry.

From my tunnel vision perspective, this phenomenom only seems to apply to the visual arts: The money is here, the galleries are here, the artists are here, and yet the collectors are not here - at least not in the same scale as in Miami, LA or SF. No one can challenge NYC, but one would think that Washington could certainly develop a collector base on the par with those other cities.

Why is that? I have several theories, which I will be mulling and blogging over the next few days. I also have the actual data (from our perspective) of where our sales go to, and interestingly enough, over half of our gallery sales go to collectors outside of Washington!

When we were working with Sotheby's to sell Washington artists' artwork, of nearly 1,000 lots that we sold in the last few years, all but two were bought by collectors from all over the US, Europe and Asia - only two to Washington area collectors out of nearly 1,000 sales! Worldwide collectors were buying Washington artists' art and Washingtonians were ignoring them.

Two out of 1,000.

Where do Washington area collectors go to buy art?

There are some local collectors and they do exist. We started our first gallery without a single name on our invitation list and had not stolen the collectors database from another gallery, so over the years we had to develop our "own."

And we have certainly developed several good collectors over the last few years - not just in Washington, but also other cities and countries, and in DC there are a handful of legendary art collectors (none of which are "rich" by the way), that we (and nearly every gallery in DC sells to) whose vast art collections are so large that nearly every Washington artist of note is hanging (wall-to-wall) in their homes. In one case, the collector has so many works that even his entire ceiling is covered with paintings!

But DC area art collectors do not exist in the numbers that a demographic like Washington's can and should deliver. We should have a collectors base of thousands, not dozens.

Why?

Part of the answer will be coming up soon here, but a hint is in the fact that while this goes on in DC, Miami struggles with dilemmas like this one. I wish we had their "problems."

The much maligned art of portraiture painting seems to move along forward even in the lost art nation of Great Britain, where even portrait painters (sigh) become art stars.

For a truly descriptive and eloquent piece on the art of creating a portrait painting (in this case the portrait of London's National Portrait Gallery's director Charles Saumarez Smith by artist Tom Phillips and filmed by Bruno Wollheim), read this cool piece in The Guardian.

"Nobody ever likes the work in the Turner Prize. Conceptual installation art is worthless and people don't want it. Galleries are desperately trying to find young artists who can draw..."

Above quote by well-known British artist Sir Kyffin Williams, who also accuses modern artists of being more interested in fame than art and describes teaching in art schools as "disgraceful."

Read The BBC story here.

One of my favorite painters, Eric Fischl (who one day we hope to bring to a show here in DC) will be in town Thursday, March 11 at 7pm at the Hirshhorn's Ring Auditorium.

Fischl, whose painting The Funeral: A Band of Men (Two Women) Abandonment! was acquired by The Hirshhorn in 1990 and is one of my favorite pieces in the Hirshhorn permanent collection (it is currently on view by the way), will discuss his work and the current direction of figurative art, which according to a couple of our local art critics is dead and "has been done."

The Russian Cultural Centre of the Embassy of Russia has a showing of the same show by the International Artists Support Group Art Exhibition that took place in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The Cultural Centre is located at 1825 Phelps Place, NW, Washington, DC, Mon-Sat, 10am-6pm. Call for directions: 202-265-3840. The show comes down on January 30, 2004.

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Eve Hennessa opens this Friday, January 16 at Parish Gallery in Georgetown's Canal Square. All four Canal Square galleries (MOCA, Fraser, Parish and Alla Rogers) will have their January openings and have opening receptions from 6-9 PM.

My Pictish Nation drawings are on exhibit at Fraser. I usually do the January or December show because everything is dead, especially if the "S" word (snow) is mentioned. The show received a nice review by John Blee in The Georgetowner and a very nice review by Joanna Shaw-Eagle in The Washington Times. To learn more about Pictish culture, click here.

Deadline: January 30, 2004.
Pandamania 2004, DC Panda Sculpture Design
The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities is looking for Artists to submit designs for 150 Panda sculptures that are 5½ feet tall. Like the elephants and pandas that enlivened the city's streets nearly two years ago,these whimsical characters will be placed on the streets of Washington during the spring, summer, and fall of 2004. The deadline for artwork is January 30, 2004. Artist Stipend per Panda is: $1,500.00 To participate in Pandamania's Call to Artists obtain an application here or email alex.macmaster@dc.gov or call 202.724.5613.

Artists must mail or deliver all original art submissions no later than Friday, January 30, 2004 to the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Fifth Floor 410 8th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20004.

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Spring 2004: Entries for Bethesda Arts Festival
The Bethesda Arts and Entertainment District is accepting applications for the 2004 Bethesda Fine Arts Festival, an outdoor Fine Art and Fine Craft festival that will take place in the Woodmont Triangle area of Bethesda, Maryland. The festival will take place, rain or shine, on Saturday, May 15 and Sunday, May 16. 150 booth spaces are available, $275 for a 10' x 10' booth, $25 application fee. All original fine art and fine crafts are eligible, no mass produced or commercially manufactured products are allowed. $2,500 in prize money. Deadline for applications is March 1, 2004. To download an application form, visit here or send a SASE to Bethesda Urban Partnership, Bethesda Fine Arts Festival, 7700 Old Georgetown Road, Bethesda, MD 20814.

For more information contact the festival Director, Catriona Fraser, at (301) 718-9651.

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(s) of the local arts community, followed by a chance for audience members to show slides or samples of their work.

The next MUSE is Sunday, February 1, 7:30pm when the guests are Robert Lehrman, gallery owner George Hemphill, and Washington Post art critic Blake Gopnik. They will be joining MUSE this month to discuss collecting art, museum trusteeship and stewardship. For more info email Faith at salon@dcartscenter.org.

Massachusetts Co-op looking for new members.
Deadline Feb 14, 2004. Massachusetts Gallery seeks new members. 108 Gallery in Somerville is seeking submissions for inclusion in its new artists' co-op. The co-op will include 12 artists who are actively producing mature work. Submissions will be juried by a panel of artists and curators. Contact: Kate Ledogar, 108 Gallery, 108 Beacon St, Somerville MA 02143 or call 617- 441-3833 or email her at kateledogar@yahoo.com.

Deadline: March 31, 2004. The 7th L'Oreal Art and Science of Color Prize. The theme is "the meeting of science and art in color." The Gold Prize is presented to one person and carries with it an award of Euro 30,000. The Silver Prize is presented to one person and carries with it an award of Euro 20,000. The Bronze Prize is presented to one person and carries with it an award of Euro 10,000. Winners will be invited to the awarding ceremony to be held in autumn of 2004 in Tokyo. Send materials designated in their website to the Foundation in Japan via post mail or delivery services. No commission. For additional information contact: www.art-and-science.com or email lasf@gol.com.

2003 saw a lot of Cuban art shows in the Greater Washington area and I think 2004 will see an avalanche. As the travel restrictions to Cuba are tightened, I suspect that the interest in Cuban artists will rise, and then when Olga Viso's retrospective of Ana Mendieta opens at the Hirshhorn Museum from October 14, 2004 - January 2, 2005, it will be the shot that will really start a nationwide avalanche.

Next month we have our own Cuban exhibition at the Georgetown gallery, by three spectacular Cuban photographers: Marta Maria Perez Bravo, Cirenaica Moreira and Elsa Mora. The show opens (and there will be a reception for the artists) on Friday, February 8 from 6-9 pm.

Although the works of these photographers have been the subject of numerous museum exhibitions worldwide -- including shows at the Los Angeles County Art Museum, Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City, Bronx Museum in New York, Museo del Barrio in New York, St. Louis Art Museum, Fridericianum Museum in Germany, Telhai Museum in Israel, Museum of the Americas in Denver, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Pori Art Museum in Finland, Cuevas Museum in Mexico City, Alejandro Otero Museum in Venezuela, Fries Museum in Holland, Photography Museum in Colombia, Camilo Gil Museum in Mexico, Daros Museum in Switzerland, Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art in New York, Mucsamock Museum in Budapest, Lima Art Museum in Peru and the Monterrey Metropolitan Museum in Mexico -- this exhibition, (with the exception of Elsa Mora) will be their first ever exhibition in Washington, DC.

Marta Maria Perez Bravo was born in Havana, Cuba in 1959 and studied at the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts from which she graduated in 1979. She then studied and received her postgraduate education at the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) also in Havana, from which she graduated in 1984. Her work has been exhibited worldwide, including in several international biennials and she has had more than one hundred solo and group shows in museums and galleries around the world. She is considered by many to be the leading Cuban photographer of her generation. Her photographs, which nearly always employ her body as the model, focus on the secret rituals, dualities, images and stories of the secret “Santeria” religion of Cuba’s former slaves. She currently lives in Monterrey, Mexico, where she is on a teaching exchange program.

Cirenaica Moreira was born in Havana in 1969 and graduated from ISA in 1992. Formally trained as an actress, Moreira’s work begins with a complex and intelligent tableau that she builds around the center character of her own image. Coupled with Cuban proverbs and sayings, they deliver sharp, intelligent criticism that touches many taboo subjects of Cuban society, such as sex, racism, emigration and freedom as they freeze a moment where the actress becomes the subject of the photograph. She currently lives in Havana, Cuba.

Elsa Mora was born in Holguin, Cuba in 1972, where she attended the Vocational School of Art and graduated in 1986. She then attended the Professional School of Visual Arts in Camagüey, Cuba, from where she graduated in 1990. Mora has exhibited her work worldwide and has been a visiting artist and visiting faculty to many American Universities and Schools, including The Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Institute of Boston. Her work often uses her own image to deliver cutting commentary on issues such as loss of freedoms and racism. For this exhibition Mora will show her most recent work, which was part of the collateral exhibition at the recent VIII Havana Biennial. She currently lives in Los Angeles, California.

I am really excited about hosting this exhibition and hope that you can all come and see it.

Thanks to Artsjournal.com for this bit of interesting news:

The oldest figurative art in the world has been unearthed in Germany. It consists of three small ivory carvings, possibly more than 30,000 years old, already showing a high level of artistic skill.

Artsjournal.com has a second visual arts BLOG. It is by none other than Washington's first art BLOGger, Tyler Green.

Visit Tyler's Modern Art Notes at www.artsjournal.com/man.

Want your artwork to be in the permanent collection of WV Wesleyan College?

Deadline: January 31, 2004. Juried Mail Art Show. The theme is \"WALLS\". Taking original submissions through February 15th, 2004 by US mail and International mail only. All work submitted will become part of the permanent collection of Sleeth Gallery and will not be returned, but all artists submitting will be reciprocated with new mail art if a return address is included with your submission. No size restrictions. No entry fee. Any artist, any age, anywhere with a postal system is eligible. International
submissions highly encouraged. Deadline for entry is February 15,
2004. Opening February 24th, 2004 at 4:30 PM. For more information
check out their website. Send work to:
Sleeth Gallery
West Virginia Wesleyan College
59 College Ave
Buckhannon WV 26201

For Maryland Duck Artists:
Deadline March 18, 2004 – Artists must be residents of the State of Maryland. All entered designs must be the artist’s original work. May submit up to three entries, accompanied by $15 for one entry/ $20 for two/ $30 for 3. Species depicted on stamps may not be American Widgeon, Black Scoter, or Lesser Scaup. All media, black/white or color, are accepted. Designs must have a horizontal orientation and be 7” in height by 10” in width; each entry must arrive matted; mats should be white. Judging will take place on Saturday, March 27, 12 noon at Patuxent National Wildlife Visitor Center. For more information, call 1-877-620 8DNR ext. 8022. Or send an e-mail to: L. Wiley or visit website here.

And an art teaching job in Louisiana...
Deadline February 12 - Assistant Professor of Art- Art history/ Visual resource curator – LA. Generalist; teach 3 art history survey courses each term. Oversee Visual Resource Ctr & interns; committee work; preferred candidate to have familiarity with digital technologies, database management, image scanning, and web course design. Candidate should have experience and interest in grant writing, development of distance learning & travel course. Duties include teaching 3 lecture courses per term in art history/art appreciation. M.A., Art History, Ph.D. preferred. Salary: $30,000 - $40,000. Employment Type: Full. How to Apply: Applications should include letter of application with teaching philosophy, curriculum vitae, name, address, phone and e-mail of three current references the search committee may contact, SASE. Send to: Lewis Temple, Chair, Search Committee-Art History, Dept. of Visual Arts, Box 92295 MSU, Lake Charles, LA 70609. fax: 337-475-5927. email here and website here.

As some of you may know, there are several kinds or flavors of galleries.

For example, there are commercial fine arts galleries, which are privetely owned and for profit businesses. In our area, examples of that type of galleries include Fusebox, Numark, Conner, Parish, ours and many others. In order to pay the rent, utilities, advertising, staff, etc., these galleries must sell work as that's generally the only source of income for any business. Anything that you make after paying the artists and all the bills is a profit. Once you pay taxes on that profit, it's all yours to keep.

There are also cooperative galleries, which are also for profit businesses, but usually owned by a group of artists who share the expenses (and sometimes duties) of running the gallery. Some of those in our area are Spectrum, Gallery West, Creative Partners, Touchstone and others. They also have to sell artwork in order to pay bills. Artists usually pay a monthly fee or a small commission on sales and keep the bulk of their sales.

Then there are public art galleries, which are usually supported by a combination of public taxes and public and private grants. These are non-profit and usually directed by a board, which works with a paid director to make all the gallery decisions by committee. Some of those around our area include Mc Lean Center for the Arts, Ellipse, Rockville Arts Place, Target, and others. Additionally, public art galleries may also sell work and charge exhibiting artists a commission on sales. Some of these are good art jobs, for example, the paid director of the Ellipse Gallery has a salary of around $65,000.

There are also private non-profit art galleries, which also receive generous tax exemptions, and are eligible for public and private grants. These are also usually run by a director who must by law work together with a board and together, with the approval of the board, decide on shows, and major decisions concerning the gallery, etc. Samples of private non profit art galleries in our area include Transformer, DCAC, Flashpoint and a couple more. These private non-profits can also raise funds, in addition to grants, dues, etc. from the sales of artwork. Some of these are also very good paying jobs for its directors - usually for large, national non-profits - I know of at least two private non-profit art spaces in our area that pay its director above $80,000 a year.

Both of these last two type of institutions are known as 503 (c)'s under section 501(c)(3) of the tax code and are required by law to have a governing board - which is required by law to meet at least once a year -- and also to have all their paperwork always available to the public on request, as they receive tax exemption status from the IRS and most states require them to have three directors. This is to prevent any one individual's abuse of the tax exemption status. No profit is to be made and public records of all meetings and decisions are to be kept by law.

The current issue of the Washington City Paper has the second of Bob Lalasz's "Show & Tell" columns, all about the insider news scoops in the DC art scene. The WCP doesn't have an online version, so go and get a copy and read it.

And Lalasz has a muckraking bombshell of a piece with a spectacular admission amongst the three pieces in this article. A piece that confirms a rumor that has been going on around DC art circles for a couple of years and which is certain to get people to nod their heads and say "I knew it!"

Go read it.

Congratulations!

Area artist J. W. Carter recently won the Lorenzo Il Magnifico Prize in competition at the International Biennale of Contemporary Art of Florence.

The Florence Biennale in Italy, is one of the world's most comprehensive exhibitions of contemporary art, representing 891 artists from 72 countries. The international jury that awarded the Prize was made up of ten authoritative critics of modern and contemporary art and curators of leading contemporary art museums from the US, Spain, UK, Austria, Italy, and Mexico.

Carter has previously won several important international competitions, including the UNESCO award to create the American Peace Monument in Ravenna, Italy. In Florence, Carter presented three artworks of polychrome cast stone relief and glass mosaic: The Observer, Green Life Disc, and Pegasus.

Dr. John Spike, Director of the Biennale, said of Mr. Carter: “He could have been a physicist or astronomer. But he wishes to use the metaphor of art to deal with the issues of biosphere degradation and the future of life. His exhibit is like a scientific demonstration.”

Tomorrow is the second Friday of the month, which means that it is time for the Bethesda Art Walk. Several galleries and art establishments participate, light food and refreshments are provided, as well as a free shuttle bus to take visitors around the galleries.

More good stuff from Annie Adjchavanich...

For the last year, Trevor Young sent more than 500 embellished envelopes with images of urban landscapes, portraits, cartoons, all autobiographical over the course of a year to Annie Adjchavanich.

They will be on exhibition January 8 - 31, 2004 at Flashpoint in a show titled "Trevor Young has gone postal" which is Flashpoint's second gallery show. Trevor also scanned them before sending them and thus discovered that a couple of dozen envelopes are missing and were never received by Annie (and may be framed and adorning some postal employees homes?). Those images will be printed out and put in a "missing in action" section. The opening reception for the artist is tonite, Thursday, January 8, from 6 - 8pm.

The annual WPA/C Art Auction is online. The exhibition, which raises funds for the WPA/C, will open with a preview celebration on Thursday, January 22, 2004, at the Corcoran. This event, which is free of charge, allows guests to take an advance look at the artwork available, meet the artists, and hear the curators discuss their selections. The auction actually takes place on Saturday, January 31, 2004. See the details here.

This is a "curated" auction and the artwork then is contributed by area artists (although this year there are some very nice pieces from some very well known non Washington artists as well, such as Spencer Tunick and former porn star turned into a damned good artist Annie Sprinkle) who have been pre-selected by the curators, which this year are: Chan Chao, 2002 Whitney Biennial artist and Adjunct Professor of Photography at the Corcoran College of Art & Design (who also donated a piece); Andy Grundberg, Administrative Chair of Photography at the Corcoran College of Art & Design; Paul Roth, Associate Curator of Photography and Media Arts at the Corcoran Gallery of Art; Virginia Shore, Chief Curator of the Art in Embassies Program at the US Department of State; and Grady T. Turner, independent curator and critic.

A bit Corcoran-heavy in the curating department, but all for an excellent cause, as the WPA/C and its tireless leader, Annie Adjchavanich, is one of the cultural jewels of this area.

Some of the better known artists in this year's list are: Richard Misrach, Spencer Tunick, and William Christenberry. Some of the locals invited to donate a piece include: Graham Caldwell, Andres Tremols, Trawick Prize finalist James Huckenpahler, Judy Jashinsky, and Colby Caldwell.

My favorite piece in the auction is this very funny and sexy photo by Lucien Perkins.

In today's "Galleries" column Jessica Dawson destroys a couple of local shows, including one of the McLean Project for the Arts' shows that I briefly mentioned yesterday.

And some local shows that you may not hear about and which may be interesting not only for the art, but also because they are in venues usually out of the mainstream:

At Goodwin House West's Gallery West in Falls Church, which is managed by Allison Miner, herself a pretty good artist, Ira Tattleman has a solo show titled "Ruminations: Photography Rethought, Regrouped, and Imagined" and runs from January 15- March 1, 2004, with an Opening Reception: Thursday, January 15 from 7 - 9pm.

And Miriam Martinez Zapata has a solo titled Zapata's Portraits at Kramer's & Afterwords Café in the heart of the Dupont Circle area. Opening on Tuesday, February 17th, 2004 From 6:30-8:30pm. Light refreshments will be served and drinks will be at happy hour rates. The show will be up from February 9th-March 7th, 2004. Half of all personal profits will go to Mercy Corps which is providing immediate relief efforts to help the 100,000 people left homeless by the earthquake that hit southeastern Iran on December 26.

See more work by Miriam here.

McLean Project of the Arts has three interesting exhibitions that can be caught all at once in that very nice Virginia non-profit space. They are all there until Jan. 17.

First is the MPA/Corcoran Student Show at the Ramp Gallery and it features many of Barbara Januszkiewicz's students. Barbara is a one-woman tornado - she's an exceptional artist, a terrific teacher, an award winning television producer of an arts program and a key arts activist in our area.

At the Emerson Gallery they have "Plastic Memory," feauturing work by Greg Carbo, Susan Crowder, Craig Pleasants, Lynn Schmidt, Jeff Spaulding, M. Jordan Tierney and Rex Weil.

Weil is the person who often reviews DC shows for ArtNews magazine, although generally he seems to only review museums, while I've noticed that Louis Jacobson (who also reviews for the City Paper) does galleries. Weil is also an Adjunct Professor at the Corcoran School of Art where he has taught painting and theory.

At the Atrium Gallery is "Holding Places" by Marie Ringwald.

Roberta Flack, a graduate of Howard University and former DC Public School Music teacher received the Mayor’s Special Recognition Award last night at the nineteenth annual Mayor’s Arts Awards at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The award recognized her lifetime achievement in the world of music and commitment to music education.

“Artists and cultural institutions are the heart and soul of this great city," said Mayor Anthony A. Wiliams. “I am honored that so many talented artists have made DC their home.”

Mrs. Alma Powell, Vice Chairman of the Kennedy Center Board and Dana Gioia, Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, were also in attendance last night as Washington’s finest artists and arts organizations received accolades and applause from their peers and supporters.

Glass sculptor Tim Tate, who had a spectacular year in 2003, won the Outstanding Emerging Artist award. In 2003 Tate had his first solo show (with us), had his first major museum sale, opened the Washington Glass School and won the international design competition for the AIDS Monument in New Orleans. There are articles about Tate coming in 2004 in both a US and an European glass art magazine.

A complete list of all the categories and the individual and organizational winners are listed below:

Excellence in an Artistic Discipline
Winner: Joy Zinoman

Outstanding Contribution to Arts Education
Winner: DC Youth Orchestra

Outstanding Emerging Artist
Winners: CityDance Ensemble and Tim Tate

Excellence in Service to the Arts
Winners: Whitman Walker Clinic, Art for Life Program and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Board of Directors, Art in Transit Program and The Washington Sculptors Group

Innovation in the Arts
Winner: 48 Hour Film Project Inc.

Mayor’s Special Recognition
Roberta Flack

Special Recognition
Patton-Boggs LLP and Roland Celette, Director of La Maison Francaise

Linda Yablonsky, the Contributing Editor of ArtNews has a piece on nudity and art which is a bit revealing, a bit surprising and overall a good read.

It's revealing in the sense that it shows the writer's dependency on New York to anchor most of her issues, points and references. It's surprising to have her tell us that "with male nudes in full display, pornography a common source material, and explicit imagery the norm in galleries and museums, sex in art has become fun, disturbing, raunchy, even cerebral." Two standards of nudity exist: one for men and one for women.

She quotes artist Carroll Dunham, (in whose paintings the penis has been a recent motif, as he's better known as an abstract painter) as saying: "male sexuality has been one of the least represented things in our culture except in pornography. Historically, painters were men getting women to take off their clothes to paint them. But I see a phallus as part of who I am, and I have a right to make it as an image. Why weren't they interested in their own bodies?"

Dunham may be right, but in an art world obsessed with the trend of the new and who did what first, I have a nepotic and provincial bitch with the penis painting issue, as anyone who is anybody in Washington, DC knows that our own Manon Cleary has painted the male penis for many years, and even appeared on an HBO special about sex, painting the penis in her own unique neo-classical manner. Problem is that Manon shows in Washington, DC and since ArtNews magazine all but ignores the DC area, she would have never come within the radar of Ms. Yablonsky, although Manon's penis paintings received enough press and interest that they came to the attention of HBO!

And if the "new" issue of marrying pornography to art is raising eyebrows lately in Gotham, then they certainly raised them here as well, as this 1997 review in the Washington Post notes:

Fraser Gallery is showing charcoal drawings of nudes by F. Lennox Campello. The subjects are mostly women Campello found on X-rated Web sites. He then arranged to meet and draw them. The drawings are very dark and the artist's abundant use of shadow effects can be heavy-handed and irritating. But in a few of the works he manages to find a delicate balance between the black charcoal and cream-colored paper resulting in a grainy, film-noir effect, making his subjects, traffickers in mass-consumption prurience, seem tough but vulnerable, like a flowering plant in a sexual wasteland.

And more recently of course, was the whole flap caused by the Scott Hutchison nudes in Bethesda, which even merited a spot in our TV local news.

So Yablonsky is essentially right in isolating this trend, but what's "new" or "trendy" is sometimes a re-hash of what has been outside the tunnel vision of the writer. And just as I am tunnel-visioned to mostly what happens in the Washington, DC area visual arts, her vision and time is, as one would expect, focused upon NYC and art world superstars.

This could be partially solved if her magazine paid more attention to the rest of the nation's art scene(s), and became somewhat less NYC-focused, but that will never happen.

Opportunity for Native American Artists (from all over the Americas, not just US).
Deadline: Ongoing
The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian is looking for artists for its DC opening in September 2004. They are looking for Native American artists to participate in the museum's six day opening ceremonies.

To commemorate the opening of this new museum, the NMAI will present "Songs, Steps and Stories" - The Festival of Native American Music, Dance and Storytelling." The opening festival is designed to strengthen and celebrate the Native cultures of North, South and Central America.

The six day festival (September 21 - 26, 2004), will feature over 200 singers, dancers and storytellers, representing 30-40 American Indian communities from throughout the Western Hemisphere. An audience of one million people is expected. There is no official application form for groups and individuals that are interested in participating in the museum's opening events.

However, the museum is asking those who are interested to send a promotional kit that should include their biography and performance history. Some reviews and written endorsements from places they have performed would be useful. In the case of performing groups, especially dance groups, a performance video is very important. For musicians a compact disc or cassette is important, but video is also a good idea. Plans for the opening focus primarily on music, dance, and storytelling, but fine artisans whose work relates to music and dance (drum makers, etc.) are of interest as well.

The museum is also interested in radio personalities and comedians who might be interested in acting as host/emcees for the performance stages. Interested artists can send their promotional kits to:

Howard Bass
Public Programs Producer
National Museum of the American Indian
470 L'Enfant Plaza
Suite 7103
Washington, DC 20560-0934

Opportunity for Sculptors:
Deadline: January 15, 2004.
For renovated lobby of DC Courthouse - Theme: "Family" - Budget: $100,000. Eligible: Artists from Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia. To receive a detailed prospectus contact: Francoise Yohalem at 301 816-0518. Or by e-mail: Francyo@earthlink.net.

Opportunity for Press Photographers:
Deadline: 15 January 2004.
World Press Photo has their annual competition to select the world press photo of the year. Eligibile are press photographers and photojournalists throughout the world who can then participate in the 47th annual World Press Photo Contest.

This competition accepts press photographs taken during 2003 and intended for publication. There is no entry fee. Single pictures in all categories must have been taken in 2003. In the categories Spot News, General News, People in the News and Sports Action. All pictures in the stories must also have been shot in 2003. Picture stories/portfolios in the remaining categories must have been completed or first published in 2003.

The award carries a cash prize of EUR 10,000, and an invitation to Amsterdam to attend the awards ceremony in April 2004 (including one return flight ticket and hotel accommodation). At this ceremony the first exhibition of the season is officially opened. The winner of the World Press Photo of the Year 2003 Award is also offered an exhibition of his or her photojournalistic work, to be opened simultaneously in Amsterdam. There are also 1,500 EUR awards in each of the categories. Eligible photographers can download all the info here. See last year's winners here.

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For Ibero-Latin American Press Photographers.
Deadline: 28 February 2004.
Open to the American continent's and the Iberian peninsula of Europe's press photographers of Spanish or Portuguese language publications. Sponsored by the Fundacion Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano in Colombia. One $30,000 prize and several $25,000 prizes to the winning photographers. Entry rules and forms here.

Today's Washington Post has a story by Philip Kennicott that somewhat echoes what I discussed briefly in yesterday's posting.

As one looks at this desolate new photo of Mars, taken by the Spirit's Rover at the Mars landing site on Monday, I wonder what the first ever photos of the Red planet will fetch in vintage art auctions in a couple of hundred years (the vintage moonlanding photos already fetching quite a nice price).

I was also struck how the new photo of Mars looks a little like a Richard Misrach, but more brooding and less "landscapy" and "pretty."

Click on the photo above to visit the NASA website. It's a spectacular presentation of the Mars mission. Check out this breathtaking photograph of the Olympos Mons volcano - the largest in the solar system.

NASA is sort of re-inventing photography, as these images are not truly "photographs" but are created after processing thousands of laser altimeter elevation measurements taken by the Mars Global Surveyor. Then a computer back here puts it all together and creates a 3-D image - but this is definately art as the output of machines.

Finally ArtsJournal.com has a visual arts BLOG! It's Artopia - John Perreault's Art Diary.

John Perreault has been writing about art for many years, including art criticism for the Village Voice, ArtNews, Art in America magazines, and others.

He is currently an associate editor and writes regularly for both N. Y. Arts Magazine and American Ceramics; he is also on the editorial advisory board of Sculpture magazine and is a trustee of the Tiffany Foundation. He has also been president of the American Section of the International Association of Art Critics.

Perreault has also written a book for Abrams on the watercolors of Philip Pearlstein and is now editing a three-volume anthology of his collected writings. He has also been a museum curator, an arts administrator, and professor of art history and is thus superbly qualified to offer us a great insight via his BLOG/Art Diary into the visual arts in New York and elsewhere.

Bookmark Artopia - John Perreault's Art Diary and visit often.

The Art League will be having their 37th Annual Patron's Show, and tickets go on sale on January 15.

If you don't know what the Patron's Show is, then let me tell you.

If you are crazy enough to be hanging around Old Town Alexandria about 4 in the morning on January 17 you will notice people forming a long line in the cold outside the Torpedo Factory. They will be waiting for a chance to get original art for their collections - or even starting a collection.

"A line for art?" you must be asking, "who is crazy enough to freeze lining up at Oh-dark-thirty just to buy artwork?"

Hundreds!

They will be lining up for one of the great art deals of the year: the 37th Annual Patron's Show. It's very simple: artists donate original artwork to the Art League, who inspects it, selects it and often frames it.

It is generally good art to suit all tastes, ranging from huge abstracts to delicate pencil drawings. Usually about 600 pieces are donated and hung, salon style in the Art League's gallery on the first floor of the Factory.

Then raffle tickets go up for sale at 10 am on the 17th, and they usually disappear and are sold out within an hour or two, and each ticket is guaranteed a work of art.

The drawing is on Sunday, February 15, and about 1500 people crowd into the main floor of the Torpedo Factory. They bring picnic baskets, wine, beer and all kinds of foods and goodies. It's a really cool time, a unique art scene in the area - far more popular and vociferous than some of the more stuffy art raffles held at other places.

On Sunday, February 15, the tickets are drawn at random, and as they are called, ticket-holders select a piece of art from the work on display on the walls and take it with them. It is without a doubt, the most sought after art ticket in town, and often incredible acquisitions are made. If you are a budding collector, don't miss it!

Washington's own seminal art BLOGger, Tyler Green has a very interesting and eloquent article on artnet.com.

Green makes an interesting (and valid) point about the fact that video art demands, and sometimes steals time from the viewer, as opposed to the viewer deciding how long to look at a painting or print.

It's true! In fact, regardless of the fact that 99% of most of the "video art" that I've seen are essentially rather forgettable artsy home movies, even the worst of them seems to have an invisible ability to keep the viewer plugged in watching. Even in sleepers like most of Tacita Dean's videos, one keeps a vigil, perhaps hoping that something interesting will eventually happen. At the other extreme, in the classical pre-video ancestor of video art (known then as "movies") Un Chien Andalou Buñuel and Dali­ have disconnected scenes that make no sense and yet glue the viewer from beginning to end.

Example: a few years ago I recall seeing a video at a Corcoran exhibition; I think it was a student graduate show. In the video, two girls, wearing large goat masks were butting horns (like mountain goats do) over and over again. Even though it was a repetitive, and after a while boring motion, I recall spending more time than planned just viewing it. This experience has repeated itself many times (before and since) with video art.

Why?

Green gives us his opinions as to why. And they are good observations. I also think that the fact that we are very much a television-obsessed society, and (as Harlan Ellison noted in the 60s), the glass teat is above all adictive; we have no choice! It's on a TV screen or being projected as a movie and thus the mind goes on automatic: one must watch.

For people who love lists, The Guardian's eloquent art critic Adrian Searle picks some of the highlights of the year ahead in art in the UK.

Our own 2004 schedule is already booked and solid, and of all the shows that we have scheduled for Georgetown and for Bethesda, I think that this very young Cuban photographer is going to steal the year. Her name is Cirenaica Moreira, and she has never exhibited in Washington, DC before and her work is absolutely breathtaking in my prejudiced opinion.

My number one in a still non-existent list of my top ten shows for 2004 in the Washington area? Ana Mendieta's retrospective at the Hirshhorn. Watch and see an art star become a mega superstar because of this show.

Art Jobs:

Deadline Jan 12, 2004. Graphic Design Professor. Starts August 19, 2004. Assistant professor. Teach three courses per semester in all levels of graphic design. MFA required. Proficiency in Macintosh systems and other software. For complete application information contact:
Allen Sheets
Minnesota State University
Dept of Art and Design
1104 7th Av S
Moorhead MN 56563
Or call 218-477-2151 or fax 218-477-5039 or visit their website.

Deadline Jan 15, 2004. Photography professor needed to teach 15 student contact hours per week. MFA and teaching experience required. Knowledge in traditional black and white photography, alternative developing processes, use of 4x5 camera, and computer imaging. Send letter of application, resume, 3 letters of reference, brief statement of teaching philosophy, 20 slides each of own and student work, samples of student teaching evaluations, and SASE to:
Jim Leisentritt
Herron School of Art
Indiana University - Purdue University
1701 N Pennsylvania St
Indianapolis IN 46202

Deadline January 15, 2004. Starts August 2004. Assistant professor, tenure track. Primary subject area should be European art, 15th-18th centuries. Also must identify a secondary teaching area. Teach art history survey and upper level undergraduate courses, direct MA theses. PhD preferred. Send letter of application, CV, samples of published materials, 1 page statement of teaching philosophy, sample syllabi, and contact info of 3 references to:
Art Historian - European Art Search
Dept of Art and Art History
California State University
Chico CA 95929
Or call 530-898-5331 or fax 530-898-4171

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."

The University of Virginia is currently reviewing proposals for solo, group and curated visual arts exhibitions for 2004 for its "Artspace" gallery, which is run by students. For info call 434/924-3286 or send exhibition proposal, resume, slides and a SASE to:
Amanda Berlin
Newcomb Hall, Rm. 149
PO Box 400701
Charlottesville, VA 22904

Joanna Shaw-Eagle, the Chief Art critic for the Washington Times has an excellent review of Robert Longo: The Freud Cycle, Prints and Drawings" at David Adamson Gallery.

The show includes original drawings and gyclee reproductions of Longo's drawings centered around the artist's fascination with a book of photographs of Freud's apartment in Vienna.

Robert Longo has long been one of my favorite artists, although I suspect that his meticulous drawing style is not liked by many of our local art critics, suspicious as they are, of anything that implies technique and not art theory, or is not "new."

It is however, this meticulous technique, which really adapts well to the super-black pigments in which Adamson Editions has spectacularly reproduced them, is precisely what attracts me to his work, or to the work of the equally meticulous Vija Celmins.

Longo is a perfect example of what an artist, superbly confident in his technical vituosity, can accomplish when he marries his skill to interesting ideas and concepts, such as his fascination with the photographs about Freud's apartment. This show hangs until January 31st.

More opportunities for artists...

For Photographers:
Deadline: January 30, 2004. SNAP '04 National Juried Photography Exhibition - Slide entries must be received on or before January 30, 2004 at Runnels Gallery, Eastern New Mexico University. $25 entry fee for 3 slides, $5 for each additional slide. Cash prizes and certificates awarded. Exhibition dates: March 26 - April 9, 2004. Juror: Carol Squiers, curator, International Center of Photography in New York. For inquiries contact Dr. Haig David-West at this email address or (505) 562-2778. For prospectus go: here or send #10 SASE (4.25in x 9.5in only) to: SNAP '04, Runnels Gallery, Department of Art Station 19, Eastern New Mexico University, Portales NM 88130.

For All Artists:
Deadline January 31, 2004. 20" X 20" X 20": A National Compact Competition with $5000 in cash awards. Open to artists residing in the US. All media. $23 entry fee for three entries. Juror is Bill North, Senior Curator, Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas. For a prospectus send an SASE to: Gallery Assistant, LSU Union Art Gallery, Box 25123, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge LA 70894 or call (225) 578-5117 or fax (225)578-4329 or email unionartgallery@lsu.edu

For Printmakers:
Deadline: February 28, 2004. Sumei National Juried Print Exhibition. The juror is none other than David Kiehl, Curator of Prints at The Whitney Museum of Art. Open to all artists, original works created within the last three years, any print media. Giclee and digital media prints accepted in separate category. For prospectus send SASE to: Sumei Juried Print, 19 Liberty St, Newark NJ 07102 or download from sumei.org.

For All artists:
Montage Gallery is now accepting new artists in all mediums. Please send portfolios to Mitch M. Angel: Montage Gallery, 925 S. Charles, Baltimore, MD 21230, 410-752-1125.

For Sculptors:
Deadline January 15 – Slides due for renovated lobby of DC Courthouse - Theme: “Family” - Budget: $100,000. Eligible: Artists from Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia. To receive a detailed “Call to Artists,” contact Francoise Yohalem at 301 816-0518. Or email her.

For All 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, via email to LWHITE@NVCC.EDU.

North Carolina Public Art Call:
Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) is seeking professional artists for design collaborations and/or public art commissions for its Art-in Transit Program. Over the next few years, Charlotte is building a rapid transit system and will incorporate public art into its stations, park and rides, and maintenance facilities and has allocated $2.3 million for art. Design fees range from $5,000-$25,000: commissions from $25,000-$250,000. In preparation for Phase I and subsequent phases, artists are requested to submit their materials to a new slide registry that will be used to make selections of artists as the system is phased in. For more information and an on-line application visit their website and click on Art-in-Transit or call 704/432.0479.

Arizona Public Art Call:
Deadline January 16 - The Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture is requesting qualifications from professional artists for the Phoenix Civic Plaza Expansion Public Art Project. The project budget is $2,000,000. The Phoenix Civic Plaza selection panel is seeking the best possible artwork for this landmark building and has identified two primary goals for the artwork for the facility. First, the selection panel is seeking one to two signature works of art for integration into the building. Second, the Phoenix Civic Plaza is seeking a program of integrated works of art that showcase the diverse and vital artistic communities of Arizona. This opportunity is open to all professional artists with demonstrated artistic excellence. Visit the project website here, and click on the link for "Expansion & Highlights". For complete details about the project, including submission requirements, visit here or email Greg Esser

For Video Artists:
Deadline January 9, 2004. 11th Annual San Francisco Art Institute Film & Video Festival. Short films (max 30 minutes), any genre, completed any time. For entry forms, contact the San Francisco Art Institute at 415/771-7020 ext. 4816.

For Video artists:
Deadline February 1, 2004. Mt. San Jacinto College Fine Arts Gallery has an open call for NTSC video shorts. No fees. Send to:
Mt. San Jacinto College Fine Arts Gallery
1499 N. State Street
San Jacinto, CA 92583

Application Deadline: March 1, 2004
The inaugural Bethesda Fine Arts Festival will be held Saturday, May 15 and Sunday, May 16, 2004 in Bethesda's Woodmont Triangle. The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District is currently accepting artists's applications for this event. 150 booth spaces are available to artists who create original fine art and fine craft. Click on the image above for more info and to download the application. This is a great opportunity for artists to sell their work directly to the public.

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Application Deadline: January 30, 2004
The Bethesda Artist Market will continue in 2004 on Sunday, May 9; Sunday, June 13; and Sunday, July 11. Applications are being accepted for the 2004 Markets. The Bethesda Artist Market is sponsored by the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District. Local, regional and national artists can display and sell their work from 11am-6pm at the 2004 Bethesda Artist Markets, which take place in the Bethesda Place Plaza located at 7700 Wisconsin Avenue. See some photos of the last artists' market here.

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Application Deadline: January 27, 2004
The Northern Arizona University Art Museum has a call for printmakers for its Biennial Print Exhibit. Prints must have been completed in the last three years. Show is March 19 - May 7, 2004. For application, call (928) 523-3479 or send a SASE to:
Northern Arizona University Art Museum
PO Box 6021
Flagstaff, AZ 86011

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Application Deadline: February 14, 2004
FSU Museum of Fine Arts has a call for artists for its 19th annual Combined Talents, which will be juried by FSU's Visual Arts Faculty. The show will hang Aug 23 - Sept 26, 2004. There is no sales commission and a catalog will be printed. Call (850) 644-3906 for an application or download the form here.

Exchanged a couple of emails with video artist and photographer Darin Boville on the subject of art books. The number one spot in my top ten most influential books (on me) of all times has been occupied since 1977 by The Painted Word by Tom Wolfe.

I think that this book should be required reading for all art school freshmen across the nation, as it will prepare and armor them against all the bull that the art world will be about the heave at them. If you have not read it, please do.

Below is the text of a review of the book that I wrote for Amazon.com:

Can I start by saying that this book "saved my art life"?

Let me explain. In 1977 I started art school as a not so impressionable 21 year-old with a few years as a US Navy sailor under my belt. But in the world of art, there's a lot of moulding and impressions being made by a very galvanized world. And although I was a few years older than most in my class... I was probably as ready as any to swallow the whole line and sinker that the "modern art world" floats out there.

Then I read this book - it was given to me by Jacob Lawrence, a great painter and a great teacher --- although I didn't get along with him too well at the time. I read it (almost by accident and against my will --- it was a get-a-way "love weekend" with my then-girlfriend - it went sour). And this book OPENED my EYES!!! It was as if all of a sudden a "fog" had been listed about all the manure and fog that covers the whole art world.

I used it as a weapon.

I used it to defend how I wanted to paint and feel and write. And it allowed me to survive art school.

And then in 1991 - as I prepared to look around to start my own gallery - I found it again, in a gallery (of all places) in Alexandria, VA. I read it again, and to my surprise Wolfe was as topical and effervescent and eye-opening as ever!

Wolfe has a lot of bones to pick with the art world -- 25 years ago!!! He destroys the proliferation of art theory, and puts "art gods" like Harold Rosenberg, Clement Greenberg, and Leo Steinberg (who have ruined art criticism for all ages - by making critics think that they "lead" the arts rather than "follow the artists") into their proper place and perspective. He has a lot of fun, especially with Greenberg and the Washington Color School and their common stupidity about the flatness of the picture plane.

Here's my recommendation: If you are a young art student or a practicing artist: SAVE YOUR LIFE! Read this book!

This is what happens when you let government-sponsored venues run most of the fine arts in a nation, and when governments are driven by the unexcusable PC-correct desire to please everyone, everytime (or at least give the appearance that they are...).
The last paragraph in the story summarizes the pathos of a lost art nation.
P.S. By the way, this is what they plan to put on that empty plinth.

Photographer Danny Conant has an interesting comment and good point in regards to my posting of the first of ten steps to build the DC art "buzz" into a roar:

"Read with interest your university idea. I think would be a great step but I can see difficult to pull off with each place jealously guarding its little kingdom. What about a toe in the water first year if maybe 3 universities could agree to try something like this with local artists and if successful the next year others would want to join in."

The fun-to-read end of year's "top ten lists" are out from our local newspapers' art critics. This is always a difficult exercise for any writer.

First, please realize that an art critic must first start by visiting a dozen or more shows each month, culled from the hundreds of invitations to new shows that he/she receives. Why? because in order to make a good visual arts critic, the visual senses must be offered a lot of choice so that blinders and tunnel-vision can be defeated.

Thus to make an honest list, a reputable art critic in our area would personally have to see 120-200 gallery and museum shows a year, and then pick ten at the end of the year as his/her opinion of what he/she liked the best in that year. It's also fun to see where the different critics agree, and where they disagree, as art opinions are one of the most personal and subjective issues in writing. But even though some of them work for some of the top members of what I call the Fake News Industrial Complex (look up Eisenhower for the inspiration), these are all interesting reads:

Louis Jacobson, who reviews photography and other art shows (both museums and galleries) for the WCP (as well as some other national art magazines), has his Top Ten Photography Shows listed here.

The WCP's Glenn Dixon, who reviews mostly museum shows and a handful of gallery shows a year, as well as movies, music and books, and so on and so on, has his very interesting Top Ten List here.

And Michael O'Sullivan, who reviews both museums and galleries for the Washington Post each Friday in the Weekend section, has his Top Ten List here, with a little mix of out-of-town shows.

My top ten list of Washington shows (sans ours of course):

1. "Gerhard Richter: Forty Years of Painting" at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. A huge wake-up slap in the face to asleep-at-the-wheel critics and curators who keep trying to believe that painting is dead.

2. "Picasso: The Cubist Portraits of Fernande Olivier," at the National Gallery of Art. Artists will paint and draw whatever or whoever is around them. A spectacular view of one of "his" women by the greatest artist of modern times.

3. "Tobacco: Architectural Photographs by Maxwell MacKenzie," at the American Institute of Architects. MacKenzie's landscape photography is to the genre what Richter is to painting (disclaimer: Max also shows with us, no objectivity here).

4. "Census 03" at the Corcoran. This show had some holes, but it's important for the Corcoran to keep an eye on the local art scene. But for that to happen well, their curators must get out of their offices and visit studios and show up at some galleries to see some shows on a regular basis. How about a "Census 04" ?

5. "The 47th Corcoran Biennial" at the Corcoran. Jonathan Binstock's first Biennial was much maligned in the press, but I think that it accomplished a couple of important things: (a) it brought some well-known artists to Washington for the first time (and ahead of other museums), and (b) it included some local talent in it.

6. "Cuba Now!" at the Sumner School Museum and Archives. Although Washington, DC's own half-Cuban photographer Nestor Hernandez stole this show with his brilliant Cuban street photography, this show was nonetheless one of the best among a deluge of Cuba-related shows in our area in 2003.

7. "Yuriko Yamaguchi" at Numark Gallery. The minimalism of Yamaguchi's beautiful organic sculptures reflect what the true power of this abused term truly can be.

8. "Joseph Mills: Inner City," at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The obsessive photographic vision of a Washington, DC street photographer with an uncanny ability to deliver the unusual from the most common of subjects.

9. Mark Bennett at Conner Contemporary. According to the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1996, this stuff is not even supposed to be art, but they are wrong, and I found it unexplicably attractive and intelligent.

10. James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art. Presented for the first time ever as Whistler intended the art to be seen. A beautiful little show seen in a new (old) light.

Merry Xmas!
As promised, the first one of ten steps (in no particular order or ranking) to kindle the District/Maryland/Virginia (DMV) art "buzz" into a roar:
Number 10
The Universities
There are several important, major universities in and around the DMV area. In most cases each is working, as most universities do, their own, individual visual arts exhibition program, which is normally mix of exhibitions by their students, faculty and invited artists.
Almost without exception there is very little coordination between the different venues, which in some cases boast some of the nicest exhibition spaces in town. This is not unusual, as I imagine that in most cities this is also the same case, as the focus of the university gallery is in fact the university.
And here is where we can make a major change, and use the extraordinary resources afforded to our area by these venues, and their academic standing, to help Washington expand its worldwide visual art standing.
What we need to happen is for one of the local university art school chairs, or college deans, or even university gallery directors, to take the initiative to start coordinating a joint effort to create one annual combined, joint exhibition that synchronizes a focused exhibition that is spread throughout the Greater Washington area.
Imagine a national survey of art, with a good title and perhaps even a good, donated chunk of money as a prize. Say we call it “The Capital Art Prize” (OK, OK we’ll have to work on the title) and because good ideas sometimes attract funding, maybe we can convince a major local company like Lockheed Martin or AOL or Booze Allen and Hamilton, or (be still my beating heart), The Washington Post, to help fund it on an annual basis.
This synchronized event can be modeled somewhat on what the Whitney does, but better. The Whitney Biennial’s Achilles heel is its over-reliance on hired curators. Unless an artist lives and works in NYC, LA or SF or is already in the local radar of one of the curators for that particular year, chances are slim to none that the artist will come to the attention of those Biennial curators. Hence great art and potentially great artists may be ignored.
In addition to the use of invited curators, also imagine that this event puts forth a national call for artists, independent and museum curators, schools, art organizations and galleries to submit works for consideration. Send us your slides, CD ROMS and photographs (and a self addressed, stamped envelope for their return).
Anyone can submit and in a fair selection process, since art is truly in the eyes (and agenda) of the beholder, anyone can be selected to exhibit. A truly American concept for a national American art survey that will leave the Whitney and other continental Biennials in the dust.
And because the exhibition venues are spread around the capital area region, in galleries at Georgetown, George Mason, George Washington, American, Catholic, Howard, University of Maryland, Montgomery Community College, Northern Virginia Community College, and the many others I am sure to be forgetting momentarily, we could put up one of the largest, most diverse, and influential American art surveys in the nation.
This will take a lot of work to set up initially, as one key university person needs to take the lead and emerge from the pack of largely unknown, anonymous group of academics currently running our area’s university art programs. On the other hand, this could be an exhibition that can and will put names and faces on the international art world map, much like the Whitney Biennial sometimes elevates its curators a notch above the rest
Some universities will resist, as the easiest thing to do is to do things as they have always been done, and not really create “new” work. But given that a strong leader among our academic community emerges and takes the lead for this idea, then even if we start with a set of four or five venues, in a joint, coordinated effort, others will follow.
This will not be an easy job to do, and as it grows, so will the burocracy around it. But starting it up will be the hardest part, and as momentum grows, things will become easier. Whoever, if anyone, takes this idea and runs with it, will face many huge obstacles and many negative people. He or she will need to convince other university/college gallery directors to participate. They in turn, will have to convince their superiors, who will, in turn have to approve (and perhaps help kick-start the funding) the joint project.
This leader will also have to coordinate the approach to get a local giant to fund this effort, but I suspect that once he has aligned a few colleges and universities, this may become easier (it’s never easy) as the “buzz” and need for the event develops.
This is all a lot of work, and initially, until a burocracy is established around the annual event, many, many volunteers will be needed. I hope that some of these can be drawn from the school’s student body, alumni who are artists, and other local artists, much like Art-O-Matic draws from the collective muscle of our area’s significant artist population.
Our area universities and colleges already have significant media resources at their disposal, to help spread the word. They run school newspapers, radio stations, etc. and also provide a constant flow of new blood to our major mainstream media.
The goal (or perhaps “the dream”) would be a national level survey of art, which may look, review and/or jury the work of maybe 50,000 artists around the nation, and select perhaps 100 each year, showcase their work around a dozen academic galleries, and award a $100,000 cash award as the Capital Art Prize, plus various other awards (Emerging Artist, Young Artist, etc.). Art of a nature and scale that will attract visitors to the university galleries, attention to our area, piss some people off, excite others, create interest, discussion and buzz around Washington and our art scene.
There’s nothing more empowering than an idea whose time has come.

Tomorrow I will post the first of my ten step plan to help make the Washington art "buzz" into a roar. Suggestions and ideas are still being welcomed.

Opportunity for Photographers:

Deadline Jan. 12, 2004 - "Regional Juried Photography Exhibition" - Open to all residents of MD, DC, DE, PA, VA, & WV. All photographic work accepted, including digital and alternative processes. $25/4 slides, $5/each additional slide. Washington Gallery of Photography. Show February 13-March 7, 2004. Acceptance notification by January 15, 2004. All photographs judged from slides. Cash prizes and exhibition opportunities for first, second and third place winners. For entry form, see www.wsp-photo.com, or send SASE to Washington Gallery of Photography, 4850 Rugby Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20814. Tel: 301.654.1998. E-mail: wspinfo@aol.com

and also...

William F. Stapp, who served as the National Portrait Gallery's first curator of photographs (1976-1991) and is now an independent curator and consultant will jury the 2004 Bethesda International Photography Competition. Most recently he curated the traveling exhibition "Portrait of the Art World: A Century of ARTnews Photographs."

The Bethesda International Photography Competition is our worldwide annual call for photographers. Nearly $1500 is cash prizes are awarded as well as a solo exhibition in our Georgetown gallery for the Best of Show winner. The exhibition will take place in our Bethesda Gallery from March 12 through April 7, 2004.

The 2003 juror was Philip Brookman, Curator of Photography and Media Arts at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The 2003 Best of Show winner was Bay Area photographer Hugh Shurley, who will have a solo exhibit in our Georgetown space in 2004.

According to the Guardian, who is a member in good standing of what I call the "Fake News Industrial Complex", the exhibition of Victorian art from the collection of Andrew Lloyd-Webber at the Royal Academy has been one of the most successful in the past decade, and yet it has been "disemboweled" by the critics. One wrote: "Really useless. Why can't the man keep his private collection of saccharine Victorian art private?"

I used to think that Victorian art was saccharine until I read this incredible, eye-opening book by Bram Dijkstra. It is titled Idols of Perversity: Fantasies of Feminine Evil in Fin-De-Siecle Culture and it offers a provocative analysis of the unprecedented eruption of misogyny at the turn of the 20th century in the works of the key artists of the age, including most Victorians. Never again will one see most Victorian paintings as "saccharine" once you read this book.

Not much time today - between Xmas shopping, plus a newspaper deadline for a column, plus two magazine deadlines that have passed (but editors keep coming back with "add-ons") I have been super-busy.

Don't miss Blake Gopnik's interesting and touching article on the subject of Christmas.

I know that we tend to put Blake under the microscope for everything that he writes, and this is a warm and fuzzy piece - and yet I find these lines in the article quite interesting:

"My Christmas-crazy family refuses to play carols written after 1900; our favorites predate the Enlightenment."

And on Friday, Michael O'Sullivan had an excellent review of Ledelle Moe's room-size "Thrust" sculpture in the Gallery at Flashpoint at 916 G St. NW. That show goes through January 3, 2004.

The Guardian has its second Best of British BLOGs annual award. The winners are listed here.

Rob Gardiner at nyclondon.com won for best use of photography. The best written award went to a London call girl.

The current issue of the Washington City Paper has a piece on page 48 by Dave Jamieson titled "Photo Opportunity" that raises (at least in my mind) some uncomfortable issues about copyright and art and more importantly, the lack of clarity in the law as to what constitutes copyright infringement in the visual arts.

The piece discusses "a controversial painting method" employed by artist Barbara Beatty, currently on exhibit at Foundry Gallery in the Dupont Circle area. Beatty paints from photographs, which is neither controversial or new.

But according to the article, Beatty "pores over the Washington Post and the Washington Times each morning" essentially searching for photos that she then uses as the basis to create paintings. I don't know enough about the law to figure out if this would be or could be interpreted as walking on copyright's thin ice, as the variables are too many, but it does bring up the point that artists should always be aware of what copyright means in the visual arts.

There is also a great article on the subject in the current December issue of Art Calendar Magazine. This monthly publication is a great resource for visual artists, as it focuses on the business of the arts, rather than art itself.

Anyway, on page 29 there's a great article by Attorney Elizabeth Russell on the subject of Art Law.

According to Ms. Russell, the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (or USC 106A) is an amendment to the US Copyright Act designed to protect artists' "moral rights," which are the artists' personal (as opposed to economic) interests in a visual work of art.

But the most interesting issue addressed by VARA (at least to me) is that since 1990 the law has defined what constitutes a "work of visual art." And the following are legally defined as not being "visual art": "poster, map, globe, chart, technical drawing, diagram, model, applied art, motion picture or other audiovisual work, book, magazine, newspaper, periodical, data base, electronic information service, electronic publication or similar publication."

And equally eye-opening is the fact that the law defines (17 USC 101) a "work of visual art" as follows:

(1) A painting, drawing, print or sculpture, existing in a single copy, in a limited edition of 200 copies or fewer that are signed and consecutively numbered by the author, or, in the case of a sculpture, in multiple cast, carved, or fabricated sculptures of 200 or fewer that are consecutively numbered by the author and bear the signature or other identifying mark of the author; or

(2) A still photographic image produced for exhibition purposes only, existing in a single copy that is signed by the author, or in a limited edition of 200 copies or fewer that are signed and consecutively numbered by the author.
A work of art does not include --
(A) (i) any poster, map, globe, chart, technical drawing, diagram, model, applied art, motion picture or other audiovisual work, book, magazine, newspaper, periodical, data base, electronic information service, electronic publication or similar publication;

(ii) any merchandising item or advertising, promotional, descriptive, covering, or packaging material or container;

(iii) any portion or part of any item described in clause (i) or (ii);

(B) any work made for hire; or

(C) any work not subject to copyright protection under this title.

Is this eye-opening or what?

For the last several years I have been attending the Annual Mayor's Arts Awards, which this year will be hosted at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Now in its 19th year, this is one of the best nights of the year for any art enthusiast in our area, and yet I am always shocked to find that amongst the many hundreds of people who attend the awards, I see precious few recognizable faces from what one would equate with our area's "art scene."

It's almost as if there are two, separate (and unequal) art scenes around here. And it's a shame, because this Art awards night is a lot of fun and full of an incredible artistic energy that is rarely seen (or read about) elsewhere.

The awards night show (which is free and open to the public) is always showcased by a spectacular performance show, which usually includes music of all kinds (opera, pop, blues, salsa, etc.) by different groups, dance (from classical to tap, etc.), poetry (traditional to slam) and a variety of other entertainment acts offered in between the awards.

The event is alwasy fun and always well-catered (so the "grubs" are always there), and I guess about 800-1200 people generally attend it.

Awards are presented in the following categories:

Excellence in an Artistic Discipline - To an individual artist or an organization that has demonstrated a substantial history of extraordinary achievement in an artistic discipline.

Outstanding Emerging Artist - To a promising individual artist or group of artists that have demonstrated artistic excellence and achieved distinction in an artistic discipline.

Excellence in Service to the Arts - To an individual or a private, public, or government organization that has demonstrated a substantial history of exemplary leadership, financial support, or other services vital to the development of the arts in the District of Columbia.

Outstanding Contribution to Arts Education - To an individual or organization that has demonstrated outstanding efforts to evoke interest and understanding of the arts.

Innovation in the Arts - To an individual or organization that has demonstrated ingenious use of skills or resources to produce art, art programs, or services.

See past winners here.

On behalf of The Honorable Mayor Anthony A. Williams and the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, I'd like to invite all of you to the 19th Mayor's Arts Awards at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts "The Concert Hall" located at 2700 F Street, NW Washington, DC. The awards will be on Monday, January 5, 2004 (ceremony begins at 6:00 pm). First come, first seated and come early, as the place usually gets packed.

To get there, take Metro to Foggy Bottom and a free shuttle bus is available every 15 minutes between Foggy Bottom Metro and the Kennedy Center.

Joanna Shaw-Eagle, the Washington Times' Chief Art critic has an interesting review of what sounds like an even more interesting show at Fondo del Sol on R Street.

The show, organized by Marc Zuver, who directs Fondo del Sol, seeks to establish a ancestral connection between the Basque people of Spain and France with the Georgian people of the Black Sea and the eventual distilling to art influences in Latin America.

As Shaw-Eagle notes: "Whether visitors can follow Mr. Zuver's complex, and sometimes, puzzling, connecting of ancient Iberian influences on New World art is questionable, but most of the art is definitely first-rate and challenging."

My good friend Marc Zuver runs Fondo del Sol, one of the very first museums of its kind in the United States, with very little funding and help, and with extraordinary hard work and dedication on his part. He is one of the most animated, talkative gallery directors on the planet, and if you go visit him, be ready to spend a dozen hours discussing Iberia and Georgia and genetics and art.

Robert Lalasz, who is the Senior Arts Writer at the Washington City Paper debuts a new column in the current issue of the WCP. It's called "Show and Tell" and according to the column's banner, it will be a monthly column on "Money, Politics, Issues, Controversy. Just another week in the D.C. arts scene."

This is a great addition to the WCP's arts coverage and we'll keep an eye on it to discuss it, as unfortunately the WCP doesn't archive stories online, therefore I can't link to it, so go get a copy and read it.

Lead story in this week's column: Why the convention center public art isn't public. And Lalasz does a great job in bringing forth the incredible fact that Washington's largest "public" art collection is essentially not open to the public.

Also in this week's Washington City Paper, Louis Jacobson writes about Lydia Ann Douglas' exhibition of Cuban photographs at Teaism. Jacobson's shrewd insight into the DC art scene is revealed when he writes that some of the photos echo the work of Washington area photographer Nestor Hernandez, who has been photographing Cuba (while re-discovering his Cuban father's family) since the 1970's.

Nestor Hernandez's massive documentation of his Cuban family and Cuba not only predates the flood of photographers who have invaded Cuba drawn by its exotic forbidden lure, but certainly deserves to be reviewed and considered for a good museum showing, especially now that Cuban art is so hot around the world and interest in all things Cuban has risen due to the clamp-down on travel to the island prison.

Let me be the first one to suggest that Philip Brookman or Paul Roth at the Corcoran should consider scheduling Nestor for a show.

Eric Fischl will be in DC next March at the Hirshhorn and will discuss his work and the current direction of figurative art. Mark your calendars now: Thursday, March 11, at 7 p.m at the Hirshhorn Museum's Ring Auditorium.

Here is a pen and ink sketch that I did in 1985 at a disco in NYC - my best friend Frank (from High School) was a NYC cop and he moonlighted doing security at this disco that was always full of artsy people, actors, actresses and wanna-be's... super hard to get into, but I got in with Frank.

These two really pushed figurative art didn't they!