How readable is art writing?

Thanks to Terry Teachout: Golden Rule Jones has run 17 arts blogs through an on-line tool that tests Web sites or WORD documents for "readability."

According to the creator of the tool in question, "The Fog index has been developed by Robert Gunning. Its value is a school grade. The "ideal" Fog Index level is 7 or 8. A level above 12 indicates the writing sample is too hard for most people to read."

DCARTNEWS received a Fog Index of 12. That means that you'd need at least a high school education to read and understand my writing. Just for fun I ran some other area art critics and writers through it and in order of easier readability (from requiring less education to read to requiring more education according to the Fog Index):

Tyler Green in Modern Art Notes: 9.7

Joe Shannon, Art in America DC critic: 9.9

Jessica Dawson's review today: 11.3

Ferdinand Protzman in the Post: 11.9

Michael O'Sullivan review in the Post: 12.2

Paul Richard in the Post: 12.5

Mark Jenkins in the Post Weekend: 13.6

Blake Gopnik's last review in the Post: 13.7

Sidney Lawrence in Artnet.com: 13.7

Louis Jacobson in the City Paper: 14

Claudia Rousseau in the Gazette: 14.3

Joanna Shaw-Eagle in the Washington Times: 14.5

J.W. Mahoney, Art in America DC critic: 15.2

And at a whoopingly unreadable 19.3:

A Glenn Dixon review in the City Paper: 19.3

The Gazette newspaper (which is owned by the Washington Post) has an article on the subject of the tremendous success of the Bethesda Art Walk.

We're described as showing "bold and sometimes bawdy work." Can't recall the last time I've seen a gallery described as "bawdy."

I do share Elyse Harrison's concerns that one problem with the Bethesda Art Walk is that there are a few too many decorative, chain galleries on the "walk" - the type of galleries that sell decorative art and also do exorbitant framing to tack onto their "gyclees on canvas" reproductions of artists well-worth their owner's desperate resell attempts at Ebay.

The next Artwalk is tomorrow, Friday April 9, from 6-9 PM. See you there.

In the Post, Jessica Dawson takes off her gloves and puts artist Leith Eaton in her place. Eaton claims that her work is a new kind of "ism" and Jessica doesn't buy it - I agree with Dawson. This is a very good review that shows that art criticism can and should have teeth - and when intelligently applied, as in this review, it shows passion and opinion! Leith Eaton is at Foxhall Gallery through April 17, 2004.

Dawson also reviews one of my favorite DC area painters: Sheep Jones at Target Gallery. Jones' work at Target Gallery is a significant, if not huge, departure and new direction for Jones, whose work had previously concentrated in giving the viewer a sort of subterranean look at vegetables and roots. The new work opens a new path for this talented painter as we enter a dark and interesting door in her artistic discourse. I also agree with Dawson in Jessica's recommendation that Sheep lose the verbiage in her paintings.

Sheep Jones, is the Friends of the Torpedo Factory 2003 Artist of the Year. Washington printmaker Lou Stovall selected Jones as recipient of the award.

File this one in the "Stupid Things People Do" category.

Why do these Hellboy movie stills remind me so much of (OMIGOD has he already been forgotten?) Matthew Barney's stuff?

Volunteer Opportunity

The Bethesda Fine Arts Festival is currently looking for volunteers to help assist artists and patrons at this year's inaugural festival.

The event, with over 120 artists from all over the country, is expected to attract thousands of art lovers to downtown Bethesda, and will be held on Saturday May 15 from 10am - 6pm and Sunday May 16 from 10am - 5pm. For more information, contact festival Director, Catriona Fraser at CFraser@Bethesda.org or call 301/718-9651.

Washington Post photography critic Frank Van Riper has a good essay on the rekindling of his own art by his teaching of a photography course.

I've always noted that the best way to get your creative juices flowing is by being around artists, in fact art students are often the most fearless and enthusiastic, and enthusiasm and passsion about the arts is contagious.

Call For Erotic Artists...
Deadline: May 1, 2004

Juried show: Art @ Large, a New York City Erotic/Figurative Art Gallery, has a call for erotic artists. Juror: Grady T. Turner, New York based art critic, curator and author of "NYC Sex: How New York City Transformed Sex in America." All media and orientations in Erotic Art, Nudes, Sexuality - demure to explicit. Best of Show to receive solo exhibition in 2005. Send SASE for Prospectus to:

Art @ Large
630 Ninth Ave #707
New York NY 10036

Or download via web: www.artatlarge.com

When everything becomes art...

Cory Arcangel is a New York-based artist who hacks Nintendo game cartridges and then changes their images and sounds under the name BEIGE. His piece Super Mario Clouds v2k3 (2003) is in the 2004 Whitney Biennial. Arcangel kept a diary for NYFA Current detailing the periods just before and just after the opening of the Whitney Biennial on March 9, 2004. Read it here.

Another new art venue in town...

Celebration of Women: Vision and Movement, curated by Gerald Malitz opens Thursday, April 8, 2004, with a reception from 6:00 - 9:00 pm at the new Pepco Art Center: Edison Place Gallery. This new space has been in operation since November 2002 and this exhibit will help launch it as another great addition the DC arts scene.

For more details, visit the exhibition website here. The show includes 81 pieces by 23 area artists. Included in the show are Susanne Carmack, Gloria Cesal, Victor Ekpuk, Patsy Fleming, Elsa Gebreyesus, Mina Hanig, Ahmed Kachmar, Barbara Kerne, Sofia Kifle, Sharon Killian, Lu Lan, Stephanie Lane, Susan Makara, Ruth Marcus, Andrea P. McCluskey, Leslie Oberdorfer, Muatasim Omer, Anna Otchin, Dot Procter, Anastasia R. Simes, Lida Stifel, Patricia Underwood and Helen Zughaib.

This coming Friday, April 9th is the second Friday of the month and thus the Bethesda Art Walk from 6-9 pm featuring 14 downtown Bethesda galleries and studios: paintings, sculpture, photography, pottery, jewelry and mixed media. Participating galleries showcase artwork created locally, nationally and internationally. Enjoy free refreshments. Art Walk attendees may walk throughout downtown Bethesda’s streets or take the free shuttle that will stop at each individual gallery. For more information, please visit www.bethesda.org or call (301) 215-6660.

We will have a group show of contemporary realism, featuring work by New York painters David FeBland, John Jacobsmeyer and Laurel Wells, plus work by our own area's John Winslow, Chawky Frenn, Heather Neill and others. We'll also have European artist Zigymantas Augustinas, a prizewinner in the 2002 BP Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Among the many excuses that the Washington Post has given me in the past for not having more extensive gallery coverage in our area is lack of printspace.

Today, their Chief Art Critic, who seldom writes about DC area art galleries' shows, gives us a review of a lamp show in London.

The 2004 Pulitzer Prize winners - Congratulations to all the winners!

Whitney Biennial Curator Lawrence Rinder will be in DC on Friday, April 23 to participate in a Hirshhorn Museum forum that "explores the artists' role in creating healing images and their power to influence a community. A process that starts with the artists' self-expression - continues with the individual viewers' response - and finally has the potential to inspire healing in a community."

The forum is on Friday, April 23,2004 at 2:00pm at the Hirshhorn (3rd Floor). In addition to Mr. Rinder, the forum also includes sculptor Tim Tate, Director of the Washington Glass School (and whose solo opens May 14 at Fraser Gallery Bethesda), and Curator Ken Trapp, former Curator of the Renwick Gallery.

This forum is part of a conference by the Society for Arts in Healthcare taking place in DC on April 21 - 24, 2004.

Exhibition Proposals Wanted...
Deadline: May 1, 2004

The Hoyt Institute of Fine Arts is reviewing exhibition proposals for 2005-2006. Solo and Collaborative Exhibitions. All Media. Open to US residents 21+ in Mid-Atlantic States including PA, OH, NY, NJ, MD, DE, and Washinton,DC.

$25.00 review fee. 30% Commission. Insurance. Send SASE for a prospectus to:

Bob Karstadt
The Hoyt Institute of Fine Arts
124 E Leasure Av
New Castle PA 16101

Or call 724-652-2882 or visit their website.

Washington, DC sculptor Robert Cole, whose piece "Madre DellaPace" (Mother of Peace) was exhibited at the 2003 Florence Biennale, and won the Lorenzo di Medici Gold Medal there, is having an open studio to allow people to view the 16 foot sculpture and other work. The sculpture will then be moved to Merriweather Post Pavillion, where it will be on exhibit along with several other pieces by Cole.

The Open Studio is April 17 and 18 , 2004 from 12-6 PM. The Cole studio is located at 1714 15th St., (rear) NW. See a map and more details on his website.

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For Photographers...

Deadline: April 15, 2004
The Center for Fine Art Photography is hosting its International Fine Art Photography Exhibition that is open to professional and amateur photographers, for all forms of fine art photography created in black and white or color, using traditional or digital methods or elements of both processes. Total awards over $6,200. The Exhibition is from June 29 through August 21 in Fort Collins, CO. View and download the prospectus at this website and visit the Center's web site here.

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Deadline: April 30, 2004

9th Annual Photographic Competition Exhibition. Title: Visual Proof, Juror: Roy L Flukinger, Senior Curator of Film & Photography, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, Univ. of Texas at Austin. Open to all photographers, all photographic processes and all themes.

Entry Fee: $25 (for first three slides), $5 for each thereafter-up to ten slides total. Awards: $1000, $500, $250. Exhibition in Seattle at PCNW July 16 - Aug 29.

Visit their website for submission guidelines and entry form or send a 6 x 9 SASE to:

Photographic Center Northwest
Attn - 9th Annual Contest
900 12th Avenue
Seattle WA 98122

Questions? Contact Gallery Director: Ann Pallesen, email her at gallery@pcnw.org or call her at 206-720-7222x102

The artist that I'd like to highlight today is photographer Colby Caldwell, represented locally by Hemphill Fine Arts.

I first came across Caldwell's work back in the early 90's, when I wrote this review for Visions Magazine for the Arts. Since then, I've reviewed him a few more times, although I've never met Mr. Caldwell in person yet.

Meanwhile, Caldwell has continued to push the frontier of photography, and he can almost no longer be classified as just a "photographer," as he has accomplished an extraordinary variety of methods to deliver visual art that, although connected to photography in some sense, is still novel in both concept and presentation.

In his most recent showings, Caldwell re-discovery of old super 8 movies became the catalyst for photographs derived from those old movies.

And as noted in Washingtonian Magazine's 100 People to Watch:

Colby Caldwell was 15 credits away from a history degree when his buddies started a band. Lacking musical ability, Caldwell took a photograph that became the band's poster and decided he wanted to be a photographer, not a history teacher. Caldwell transferred to the Corcoran art school and had his first show at the Kathleen Ewing gallery. Twenty-three shows later, Caldwell, 34, teaches photography and fine arts at his alma mater.

Colby has already done nearly all that he can do in Washington. He has exhibited in the best galleries in this city, and he has exhibited in many of the non-profit venues, and he has exhibited in his alma mater, and every art critic in town has copiously praised Caldwell's work. It is well deserved as this is one of Washington's top talents.

This is a visual artist that I feel would truly benefit now by having a foot print in New York and Los Angeles and more exposure in those cities - more exposure outside of Washington - would be the next logical step for this talented and intelligent artist.

I am NOT saying by any means that Caldwell should move or leave Washington, as Blake Gopnik once recommended that a young DC artist do, but I am thinking out loud about an artist at the top of his form, whose work should be on the radar range of influential curators and collectors. Colby is one of the talents that "our local" curators should be discussing with their fellow curators in other cities at their curator get-togethers...

You get my point?
PS - Colby Caldwell also really needs to get a stronger footprint on the Internet - After I Googled him all I could come up with was this image. Get some photos out there!

The saying goes that if you "want to make a million dollars in the art market, then start with five."

Later tonight I'll be going to the grand opening of Light Street Gallery in Baltimore, which is being opened by my good friends Steve and Linda Krensky.

The Krenskys have (by far) the largest private art collection that I have ever seen in anyone's home in all my life. In fact, the Krensky house is so full of original artwork by DC area artists and artists from all over the world, so that nearly every inch of their ceilings are also covered in paintings, as they've long ago ran out of wall space!

Light Street Gallery will be a great addition to Baltimore's cultural tapestry and to our region. The gallery is located at 1448 Light Street in Baltimore, and can be reached at 410/254-0047 or on the web at www.lightstreetgallery.com.

The love of art by collectors often leads to them opening art galleries, such as Cheryl Numark and Numark Gallery, and now the Krenskys with Light Street Gallery. This is all good news to our art scene.

Starting today, I will try to highlight one DC area artist every few days or so, and discuss his or her work, and tell you why I like or dislike their work, and put up an image of their work (and maybe of them if I can find one or get one) here.

Check later today for my first pick to start the roll call of the Washington area's visual artists that have made an impression on me and why.

Opportunity for artists...
Deadline: 1 June 2004

The 2004 Eight Annual Georgetown International Art Competition is an opportunity for artists to exhibit two dimensional art in our Georgetown space.

We have had tremendous success with the previous juried exhibitions, which were widely reviewed in various local art magazines and local and national newspapers. See some of our reviews here. This exhibition has in several cases also opened up additional exhibition opportunites for artists in the DC area, and we've also picked up several artists to represent from the work submitted.

The 2004 juror is Kristen Hileman, Assistant Curator for Contemporary Art at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Gardens.

Read the prospectus and download the entry from here.

Another beauty in the "someone shoot me now" category.

My message to Dan Castellaneta (Homer), Nancy Cartwright (Bart), Yeardley Smith (sister Lisa), Julie Kavner (family matriarch Marge), Hank Azaria (bartender Moe and Apu the convenience store clerk) and Harry Shearer (Homer’s tyrannical boss, Mr. Burns and Bible-toting neighbor Ned Flanders)......

Oh forget it... I guess you do deserve $8 million a season to do voice overs for cartoons....

Someone shoot me now...

I'll be goddamned if this is not what I've been bitching about for the last 11 years that I've been living in the Washington, DC area!!!!

"The failure to challenge is a fundamental flaw in US arts journalism..... And how did this happen? Because there are few cities with multiple critical voices."

I've been frothing at the mouth about having more than one writer reviewing all 200-plus art galleries, non-profit art spaces, embassies and alternative art venues in our area - and a freelancer at that! -- it's not fair to Jessica Dawson, and it's not fair to Washington Post readers, and it's not fair to artists, and it's not fair to gallerists! (I ignore the Washington Times because Joanna Shaw-Eagle is seldom allowed to review local area artists - although I do thank the Times (and bite the hand that reviewed the dog) because they gave me a great review in my last art show).

But --- the point is that we need more than one point of view when it comes to galleries criticism - why don't our Art Editors (in both the Post and Times) get that when it comes to the (galleries) visual arts criticism/reviews?

There's several movie critics, several music critics, several visual art museum critics, several dance critics, a whole pride, bevy, ton, tribe... of theatre critics.... why only one gallery critic? The Post has many talented and qualified writers already: Wiltz, Trescott, Frey, Lewis,... plus freelancers like Protzman, Jacobson, Shannon, Mahoney. There's no lack of qualified art critics! It's ironic that the only paper that article author Norman Lebrecht praises is the Washington Post - but then, from a music perspective, the Post does offer superb critical coverage of music.

And yes - I do realize that once in a blue moon Blake Gopnik, or Michael O'Sullivan (or his freelance replacement on Weekend), is "allowed" to review a local gallery - but the bottom line is that we need more than ONE point of view.

Nobody asked me, but my opinion nonetheless...

We don't have a Artes Mundi Prize equivalent around here, but we do have the $14,000 Trawick Art Prize, and all Virginia, Maryland and DC area artists are eligible to apply for it. Visit this website for details. The deadline is May 21, 2004. Hurry!

The 2003 winners were Richard Cleaver, a sculptor from Baltimore, MD, who was awarded the top honor with $10,000; James Huckenpahler who was named second place and was given $2,000; Linn Meyers of Washington, DC who was bestowed third place and received $1,000 and the “Young Artist” award of $1,000 (and sponsored by us) was given to Jose Ruiz of Washington, D.C.

The 2004 jury members for the Trawick Prize are Jeffrey W. Allison, The Paul Mellon Collection Educator at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Peter Dubeau, Associate Dean of Continuing Studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art and Kristen Hileman, Assistant Curator at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

Anyone wishing to add funds to this regional art prize structure should contact Stephanie Coppula at (301) 215-6660. Time for some of our area's megacompanies to step up.

Why most modern art sucks:

The winner of the first £40,000 Artes Mundi Prize is a message written in dust. Martin Gaylord, writing in The Telegraph wonders "What has art become? It's hard to answer that question, except to say, "Very weird."

And Ben Issario, writing in the NY Times discusses the fact that "Internet Art" is dead and has reached digital exhaustion. Yet it wasn't that long ago that curators and critics - enamoured of what's new rather than what's good - were labeling Internet Art projects as the "new king of art."

This is what happens when novelty (sometimes coupled with shock or gimmick) is allowed to rule exclusively.

Both above links thanks to ArtsJournal.com.

Jessica Dawson's "Galleries" column in today's Post "scraps the art criticism and talks religion instead."

Jessica reviews Lane Twitchell at G Fine Art, in Georgetown (Annie, please update your website!).

She asks: "After all, religion and art can't occupy the same conversational space, can they?"

Catriona pointed out to me: How about America's best selling "artist"? Now that Thomas Kinkade is having a solo at a "real" art gallery, we've all faced with the question of the legitimacy of America's best-selling painter as an artist. And isn't Kinkade's huge success because of his marriage of art and religion?

I do not like it, will never like it and don't understand people who amass Kinkade's "art," but now that the "artworld" has cracked the door open for him, the ensuing dialogue (and food fight) that will follow, will be both interesting and good for art.

In fact, if any gallerist in Washington (not us, thank you) wants to really make the national headlines, they should contact Kinkade and offer him his first solo in a commercial fine arts space. Then we'd let Blake and Dixon loose on him, and the rest would be great publicity and probably a sell-out show.

Hey! Maybe that's what those missing DC art collectors are buying?