More Congratulations...
To DC area artist Matt Sesow, who will be exhibiting in New York City as well. His work opens next week at the van der Plass Gallery (South Street Seaport, pier 17). The exhibition runs from January 12 thru February 28th, 2007.
Sesow is already having a spectacular 2007:
January: Group show at van der Plas Gallery in New York City. Group show in Bethesda at Creative Partners (part of the Artomatic show).
March: Solo show in San Diego (Oceanside) at D Gallery
April: Two-person show in Atlanta
May: Solo in Rockland Maine (coinciding with the Basquiat/Warhol/Wyeth)
June: Solo in Sacramento (Pamela Skinner Gallery)
July: 31 days in July..
August: Solo show in Denver, Colorado
September: Adams Morgan Day and Arts on Foot in DC
October: Show at Alcove in Atlanta
December: Possible self-taught group show in Miami (part of Art Basel extravanganza weekend).
Is that a hard-working artist or what?
Friday, January 05, 2007
Gross Clinic Goes on View
Thomas Eakins’1875 masterpiece, The Gross Clinic, goes on public view at 4 p.m. today at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and in early March will hang at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. It is on loan to the Museum from Thomas Jefferson University until it is sold later this month by the University to the Museum and the Academy, which have joined in an extraordinary ongoing fundraising effort and have managed to keep the painting in Philly.
Congratulations too...
To Tim Tate, whose work will be included in "The Next Tortured Genius" exhibition in Chelsea's MonkDogz Urban Art Gallery, which opened amid much hoopla last year at 547 West 27th Street in NYC.
Congratulations
To DC area artist Elena Maza, whose work graces the cover of this month's Art Calendar magazine.
Walt Whitman, a kosmos
The National Portrait Gallery is holding a conference on Walt Whitman to coincide with the exhibition “Walt Whitman, a kosmos” on January 26th from 9 to 12.
They will have a stellar array of speakers: Jorie Graham, Pulitzer Prize winning poet; Alexander Nemerov, Yale University Art Historian; Sean Wilentz, Princeton University Historian and winner of the Bancroft Prize in History; and Michael Schmidt, Professor of Poetry at the University of Glasgow and managing editor of Carcanet Press, the leading poetry publisher in the United Kingdom.
For further information on the conference go to this website and click on the Events and Program link.
Peter Panse Update
Remember the case of the High School art professor suspended for the nude model issue? (Read this if you don't).
According to this website:
The Hearing Officer's decision in the case of Pete Panse - the New York art teacher suspended more than a year ago for having suggested that his advanced students should be allowed to enter figure drawing classes - is "imminent."
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Selected Art-O-Matic
No Art-O-Matic this year? No problem! The Examiner's Robin Tierney writes a nice pre-opening salvo of the mini-AOM joint exhibition that several Bethesda, MD galleries, AOM organizers and Jesse Cohen's ArtDC are putting together.
Conservative anti-AOM critics have cited the lack of a curatorial hand as AOM's main flaw, as opposed to a more liberal and democratic view of it as an open show. It will be interesting to see what comes out of the picks by well established and successful art gallerists.
The gallerists selections will appear at Heineman-Myers, Fraser, Neptune, Washington School of Photography, Creative Partners and other Bethesda galleries with joint opening receptions on Friday, January 12, 2007 as part of the Bethesda Art Walk. Details, maps, etc. here.
Kim Ward's Top Shows of 2006
Kim Ward is the hard-working WPA/Corcoran Executive Director and she comes in with the following:
"One exhibition that was, as Mary Poppins would say, 'practically perfect in every way,' in 2006 was the Hiroshi Sugimoto show at the Hirshhorn.
Picking a non-profit/alternative group, I think that Ashley Kistler is doing fantastic curatorial work at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond, an example being the latest show 'Time for Design' which is a micro view of design in the greater Richmond area --- fashion, architecture, etc.
DCAC is creating some fabulous panels discussing art topics that are timely and in need of community feedback.
I have found stunning work at the Arlington Arts Center Spring and Fall solo shows and I applaud Molly Ruppert and Jack Rasmussen for their commitment to art that is politically charged and difficult. They consistently show political work and have been doing so for quite awhile.
Cuban Art
I'm in Florida for a few days, and of course Florida and all things Cuban are now tied together. Reading the Dec. 25, 2006 issue of Business Week. On page 116: "Art's New Frame of Reference," retired real estate investor, Howard Farber starting buying contemporary Chinese art a decade ago. Now, he recommends work by Indians, Russians, Polish, Cuban and Chinese artists. Here the Cuban part:
"These artists may get a boost from the expected opening of Cuba after Castro's demise... Cuban artists such as Armando Marino, 38 who lives in Spain have little auction history and sell for under 12K. To learn about this market, pick up a copy of Cuba: Avant-garde:Cuban Art from the Farber Collection (Harn Museum of Art, $29.95) coming out in March.... Pieces of his collection will be featured in a show at the University of Florida at Gainesville on May 29th.A few years ago I co-curated and helped to introduce contemporary Cuban art to the Greater DC area art region with an exhibition titled "De Aqui y de Alla" (From Here and From There). It was an exhibition of Cuban art by Cuban artists and artists of Cuban ancestry from around the world and not only did the exhibition sell out, but it also yielded several key shows by the gallery, which picked up representation of many important Cuban artists since then. Two of the hottest ones, Sandra Ramos and Aimee Garcia Marrero will be showing at Fraser this coming May.
Laura Roulet's Top 10
Independent curator Laura Roulet, who amongst many great accomplishments helped to curate the great Ana Mendieta retrospective at the Hirshhorn a few years ago, sends in her pick for the top 10 DC area art show of 2006; her list is not in any order of preference:
"Dada," National Gallery of Art
"Societie Anonyme," Phillips Collection
The Walters (Ok, it's Baltimore, but that's close enough. This was a brilliant i"Louise Bourgeois: Femme,"nstallation)
"Joseph Cornell," SAAM (the re-opening of the National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art was one of the top 10 noteworthy events in general)
"Hiroshi Sugimoto," joint installation at the Hirshhorn Museum and Freer/Sackler
"Oliver Herring, Task," One day performance at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
"Janet Cardiff, The Paradise Institute," Corcoran (not new, but the opportunity to experience it again was fabulous)
"Other Than Art," jointly held at Provisions, G Fine Art and the Curator's Room
And two group shows highlighting some of our best local artists:
"Conversions," WPA/Corcoran and Ellipse Art Center
"Phantom Floor," Catholic University Art Gallery
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
On the subject of contracts
My post on the subject of the unfortunate theft of Afrika Midnight Asha Abney’s work from a restaurant show, and the subsequent issue of who (if anyone) pays for the loss, and my mention of why it is important to have contracts when forming a business association with a gallery or dealer - or any exhibition venue, for that matter – brought an unexpected deluge of emails from artists (and one gallerist) asking why a contract is such a big deal.
Let me give you some examples:
1. Take Afrika’s case: An artist has a show and someone steals a piece of art. What happens next? With a signed contract, the artist would know ahead of time that either (a) the gallery has no insurance, in which case the theft is a full loss, or (b), the gallery has art insurance, in which case (a) the gallery puts a claim in with the insurance company, or (b) the artist deals directly with the insurance company. And, by the way, in the event that there’s insurance, don’t expect to get the full value of the stolen work, but in most cases (and policies) only the 50% commission that you’d have received in the event that the work had sold instead of being stolen.
2. Talking about commissions; how do you know, other than a handshake, what the gallery’s commission is? Let’s say that you are told that the commission is 50% (the general standard for independent commercial fine arts galleries around here). Is that 50% of the price of the piece or 50% of the final sales price? I know of at least one major DC area art gallery that has a record of really screwing artists by giving them 50% of an agreed price for a piece; however, the gallery also often sells the piece for a lot more money to its out of town collectors and keeps the difference. Here’s how it works. The artist agrees to sell the photographs for $500 each and thus expects a commission of $250. The unethical gallerist sells some for $500, and some to its out-of-town clientele for $1000, but gives the artist the same $250 commission on those sales.
3. But let’s say that you have approached a gallery, and show them the works, and discuss representation, and the gallerist agrees to hang some of your work in his next group show. You are not sure if you are “represented” in the sense of the word as you understand it, but shake on it and prepare for your first appearance in a well-known gallery and invite all of your family and friends. At the packed opening, your second cousin-once-removed is admiring one of your huge watercolors, which are tacked onto the wall in a really cool post-post-post-modernist style. He leans forward to admire your brushwork and accidentally spills his white wine onto your watercolor, immediately making your representational work of art into a messy abstraction. What happens next? Does insurance cover damage? Is there insurance? Is that the guy who spilled the wine making a dash for the door?
4. Having learned your lesson, at your next opening you resign yourself to getting your new work framed and spend a ton of money getting them framed at the most affordable (in other words cheapest) possible way, but still spend a considerable amount of shekels -- because as everyone knows, framing is very expensive (unless you attend the Boot camp for Artists Seminar and learn how to cut framing expenses by 80%). When you deliver the works to the gallery, the gallerist goes into fits about your gold leaf rococo frames from Target and silver acidic mats and refuses to hang the work. A good contract would have specified ahead of time all issues dealing with framing and presentation standards.
5. Having calmed down, the gallerist then offers to re-frame all the work for you. You accept with a sigh of relief, and at the opening your 20 newly framed watercolors look great in the 8-ply pH-balanced, acid free mat board, under UV glass and Nielsen mouldings and backed by half-inch, acid free, pH-balanced foam core. You sell four pieces and are happy that things worked out in the end. A few weeks later you get a huge bill in the mail from the gallery; it is what remains of the framing bill after the gallery applied all of your commission to the total framing bill. A good contract should also specify the economic who’s and what’s of any framing done by the gallery.
6. Your relationship with the gallery is now seriously on the rocks, but then you are told that a review in Art News will come out soon. Three months after your show has closed the review finally comes out in Art News and it’s a good one. A young computer geek in Bala Cynwood, Pennsylvania, who is waiting to see his doctor for his annual physical reads that Art News review while waiting in the doc’s office, sees the nice reproduction of your work and after he goes home, looks you up on the Internet and contacts you directly and tells you that he read the review of your gallery show in Art News and wants to buy the painting reproduced in the magazine. You sell him the painting and put all your money in the bank. Sixteen minutes after the painting is delivered to Bala Cynwood, the gallery gets a call from a collector in Spokane, Washington who has also read the Art News review and wants to buy that painting. The gallerist calls you and tells you the good news. You are ecstatic that two people want your painting, but then you tell the gallerist that someone else in Bala Cynwood read the review and that you sold the painting to that person. The gallerist congratulates you on the sale and then asks you to make sure that you send him the gallery’s commission. You are confused because you had no idea that you owed the gallery a commission.
7. Your review in Art News has opened a few doors for your artwork and you are invited by a non-profit art venue to have a solo show at their space in a year. You are pleased and tell everyone, including the gallerist, who informs you that because his gallery represents your work, you are not allowed to exhibit anywhere else in the city, or maybe the area, or maybe the state, or maybe the US, or maybe the world.
8. Then your Alma matter, impressed with your artistic prowess, invites you to a group show of alumni artwork in the school’s gallery. Since you attended art school in another state, you are pretty sure that it will be OK to show there, because after the last confusion, you discovered that the gallery had exclusive representation for your work only in DC, MD and VA, and your art school is in Brownsville, Texas. You tell your gallerist, and because he has never heard of Brownsville, Texas, looks it up on the Internet and then he informs you that if you exhibit your artwork in “certain places” it will bring the reputation of the gallery down and thus the gallerist doesn’t want you to exhibit in Brownsville, Texas – or anywhere in Texas, Arkansas and Nebraska for that matter.
9. You beg and plead because you really want to impress your ex-girlfriend in Texas, and the gallerist allows you to include one piece in that alumni show, but makes it clear that he needs to be consulted on any and all exhibitions of your work. And so you exhibit your best piece in Brownsville and a New York gallerist, who happens to be a Robert Ervin Howard admirer, visits Brownsville and decides to check the local yokels show at the art school. Because your immense watercolors are the largest works in the show, they catch his attention and he jots down your name. Weeks later his intern calls you and tells you that they want to show some of your work in their next group show. This is really hitting the big time, and you announce to your gallerist that a big shot New York gallerist is including you in his next group show. He congratulates you and reminds you that you owe him 10% of any sales made in New York, or in Brownsville, Texas, or anywhere for that matter. You rant and rave and ask why, and he tells you that the reasons for your recent success all lead back to the exposure that he has given you. You demand to know why none of this stuff was made clear from the beginning. The gallerist answers that “everyone knows this,” and that he “likes to operate on a handshake and without a contract.” You then realize that you have him by the balls, since you have no signed contract with him or his gallery, and tell him that you are leaving. He says some threatening stuff about verbal contracts, but you walk away anyway, wondering how you are going to get back the six paintings of yours that the gallerist still has in storage.
10. Nonetheless, New York is New York, and you go visit the big shot New York gallerist and meet with him, and over a handshake he agrees to put you in a group show and tells you that his commission is 60% - You are not sure if you are “represented” in the sense of the word as you understand it, but shake on it and prepare for your first appearance in a New York City gallery and invite all of your family and friends...
Monday, January 01, 2007
Happy 2007
Have a great 2007 from rainy eff-el-ay... soon it will be time for the top ten lists to appear. If you'd like to see your top ten art shows of the year published here, please email them to me.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Beatle Art News
"Police were called to the country estate of former Beatle Paul McCartney after his estranged wife reported the theft of paintings — including a Picasso and a Renoir — from the lodge they once shared, police said Friday.Looks like Paul "had taken the paintings and reprogrammed the estate's alarm codes, and informed her Thursday night by text message."
'We checked the premises, and spoke to Heather Mills (McCartney), and as a result it was found to be a civil matter between her and her husband,' Sussex Police spokesman Paddy Rea said. 'There's been no theft.'"
Read the whole mess here.
Kolakowski on Amy Lin
The WCP's Nick Kolakowski comes in with a good biographical review of Amy Lin's current solo show at the District of Columbia Arts Center. Read the review here.
I've been harping for a while now that this hard-working and talented artist is a "must buy" now for anyone with a contemporary collection of DC artists. Lin is already in the collection of several DC area ubercollectors, always a good thing for any emerging artist.
Friday, December 29, 2006
Sex and DC Blogs"Lurid testimony about spanking, handcuffs and prostitution aside, the Washingtonienne case could help establish whether people who keep online diaries are obligated to protect the privacy of the people they interact with offline."
The AP reports on the coming lawsuit involving the Washingtonienne releasing details of her sex life on her blog.
Details here.
Congratulations
To DC area arts patron Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, founder of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, who was recently awarded the National Medal of Art by President Bush.
DMV area artist Afrika Midnight Asha Abney posted the bad news in ArtDC.org about one of her works being stolen from a restaurant in Adams Morgan in DC, where they were being exhibited.
I responded to Afrika and passed to her my regrets that her art had been stolen, and also let her know that it has happened also to me in the past.
Let's examine this from both aspects:
First of all: stealing is a crime, so for someone to commit a crime over a work of art speaks something about how much they liked that art. When my work was stolen many years ago from an exhibition in Portsmouth, VA, I took a small breath of pride in knowing that artwork caused a person to risk getting caught and possibly going to jail. I know that it may have been a kleptomaniac, willing to steal anything, but I'd like to think that it was someone who wanted the art so badly, that they were willing to risk becoming a thief over it.
Now for the legal issues: Unless the artist has a signed contract with the exhibition venue (including galleries and museums) where it says that the venue is responsible in the event of damage or loss, then the artist eats the loss.
Warning: this can also happen in a "regular" art gallery - in fact most art galleries do not have insurance (or contracts for that matter), as art insurance is quite pricey.
You can also get (privately) what is called "event insurance" which insures your artwork just for that exhibition or event. There are several companies that advertise for event insurance in Sunshine Artist magazine.
