artPark

Worldwide Art Market Trends

I was asked by The Art Market Poll Center to participate in this year's art market survey – sponsored by Artfinding.  The results of the poll estimate worldwide buying intentions according to specialties, expertise levels, country of origin, genders, and age of the markets’ protagonists.

The 2010 results show that collecting of Contemporary European and American art is tops.  At the bottom is the collecting of weapons, coins and stamps (I didn't know anyone still actively collected stamps).  I am pleased to see that Contemporary Sculpture comes in third.   But I'm disappointed to see Contemporary Ceramics and Glassware stuck in the middle of the pack.

Take a look at the complete results here.

Airport Art

During this season of traveling, I thought this was a relevant bit of art news - airport art.  I'm not talking about the art of airports (i.e. the architectural wonders of airports like Washington Dulles or Raleigh Durham's new Terminal 2), rather the art in airports.  CNN dropped this little article highlighting 5 airports across the country that have remarkable art collections for the weary traveler's pleasure.  In order, we have:

1. Denver International Airport
2. Sacramento International Airport
3. Miami International Airport
4. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
5. Philadelphia International Airport

MSN.com/Travel created a similar list.  Check it out here.

From my travels, I would also like to add the Detroit Metropolitan Airport.  It may not be the best art, but the unexpected delight of seeing something interesting while whizzing through Detroit of all places ranks it high in my opinion.

What are some of your favorite airports with art?  Or notable pieces of art in airports?

[Images:  Top, Impulse by Ralph Helmich and Stuart Schechter in Philadelphia Intl Airport (temporary); Bottom, Animated Water Fountain in Detroit Metro Airport.]

The Studio Visit

‘Tis the season for giving, right?  Well, I just got a nice gift from my friend Stacey Evans.  She introduced me to an artist website called The Studio Visit.  Now I get to re-gift it to you.

Started in 2008 as a virtual public access forum by Isabel Manalo, The Studio Visit (TSV) introduces professional artists at work in their studios speaking directly to their work through a dialogue with the writer. This intimate first-person view into artistic process cultivates familiarity and appreciation of the intellectual and technical processes of contemporary art making.

Bottom line: I have always been intrigued by the many ways an artist thinks.  Sometimes it's linear (like me), and sometimes it is terribly abstract.  Other times it cannot be defined.  Regardless, the best way to experience an artist work is to hear about it straight from the artist.  That's what makes, TSV such a gem...  It goes straight to the artist.  We don't have to read a curator's long winded description of the work.

I'm a little biased, but one of my favorite “visits” is with Virginia artist, Ashley Williams.  We had the good fortune to show some of Ashley's work at Migration while she was still an undergraduate at University of Virginia.  She has since moved to Colorado to get her MFA.

Read Ashley’s interview with Deborah McCleod here.  Learn more about Ashley’s hyperborean fauna and beasts.  See what stimulates her imagination.  In the video (below), we get a glimpse of the marginally real worlds Ashley has created in her imagination and the beasts that inhabit them.  No one can describe it better than the artist herself.

[Image:  Mother and Child, oil on mylar, 70"x92"]

Focusing on the big picture

Yesterday, I reported on the censorship mess at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery.  Throughout the day, the story grew.  Naturally, those who called for the exclusion of David Wojnaroicz's video titled "A Fire In My Belly" (due to an 11 second segment that showed ants crawling on a crucifix) said things that made them look much more foolish than they did just a day earlier. And, the scholars who actually know a thing or two about the artwork itself, said things that were intelligent and made perfect sense.

The conservatives (Catholic League, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, etc.) who claim to be offended by the imagery simply can not see the forrest for the trees.  They are not even trying to put things into context (most likely because none of them have been to the exhibit or even seen the video in its entirety).  This is why it's important to rely on the scholarly knowledge of the curators who selected and designed the exhibit.

One of the best quotes I have read comes from Wendy Olsoff, owner of P.P.O.W. Gallery in NY which represents the estate of Wojnarowicz:

"David puts ants over coins, dollar bills, toy guns, toy soldiers, eyes - he used ants and animal imagery all the time... David believed the imagery of ants' society was a parallel to human society.  He was trying to change our mythologies about capitalism and institutionalized religion. and trying to make a comparison to animals.  It was not about Christ.  it was just about institutionalized religion."

Politicians really should think (or at least listen) before they talk.

In the meantime...  The staff of the National Portrait Gallery has been working on filling the Wojnarowicz void left in the exhibit, Hide/Seek (an exploration of gender identity), by installing a video piece that I'm sure Rep. Boehner will find much more to his liking:  a seven minute cut from "Pink Narcissus," aboutthe fantasies of a young male prostitute, directed in 1971 by James Bidgood.

Score: 
  Crazy Conservative Politicians = 0
  Curators = 1

Hide/Seek. Boo/Hiss

Once again, I have been amazed how ignorant and misplaced certain people’s “outrage” can be.

If you haven’t heard, The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery (one of my don’t-miss-when-you-are-in-DC museums) has bowed to the “outcry” from the Catholic League and Republican congressman John Boehner’s office over a short segment of a video installation by the deceased artist David Wojnarowicz (he died of AIDS at 37 in 1992) in its newest exhibit, Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture.  In the video, for a total of 11 seconds, a small wooden crucifix is shown with ants crawling on it.  These 11 seconds have been deemed “hate speech” by a handful of vociferous morons.

Hide/Seek is the first survey at a national museum to examine same-sex portraits and intimacy. Artists represented include contemporary names such as Andy Warhol and Annie Leibovitz as well as works from 19th-century artists including Thomas Eakins.

Announced yesterday, Smithsonian Director, Martin E. Sullivan, pulled Wojnarowicz’s entire piece from the exhibit and reasoned his decision by saying, "The decision wasn't caving in. We don't want to shy away from anything that is controversial, but we want to focus on the museum's and this show's strengths."  Seriously, Mr. Sullivan?  Succumbing to the call for censorship is caving in.

In this situation, I am as disgusted by the shortsightedness and ignorance of the ultra-conservatives behind the demand for censorship as much as I am disgusted by the spineless response of Sullivan.  Museums are one of the last bastions of intellectual experimentation.  If a smattering of offensive material initiates debate, I’m all for it.  Without it, museum doors should be closed, locked and the collections never changed.

What I find entirely ironic is that the Catholic League and Boehner isolated an 11 second segment of a video that was part of an exhibit focused on same-sex portraits and intimacy.  If I understand the Catholic League’s and Boehner supporter’s position regarding homosexuality correctly, I would think there would be an greater outcry over the exhibit in its entirety.  Instead, they focus on an 11 second segment of a 4 minute video where a crucifix is shown covered in ants.

And… I thought we were beyond the “waste of tax payer’s money” argument.  The reality is, Hide/Seek is funded by individual donors and foundations.  The public funds used by the Smithsonian are for operational expenses, not the funding of specific exhibits.  Boehner should know this; and I find it hard to believe Boehner can even keep a straight face when discussing the misuse of tax payer’s money.

Oh… by the way…. Hide/Seek has been open to the public since October 30.  Did it really take some dimwit a month to become outraged?  Com-on, man!  Let’s get real.

To my personal amusement, what is resulting is a greater exposure of the intolerance of certain people and the weakness of others.  I believe the real winner in this mess is the exhibit itself.  Thanks to the censorship of the depiction of a crucifix, an intelligent examination and acceptance of same-sex relationships and sexual identity is brought to the forefront.