February 2010 Archive

Pre-order your book today

Well, that’s not really a command, but in the wild world of publishing and the internet, Murray’s new book is now listed at Amazon. The book, Tasting Freedom: Octavius Catto and the Battle for Equality in Civil War America, by Murray Dubin and Dan Biddle, doesn’t come out until September. But you can pre-order it today at a fabulous discount price of only $23.10, a 34 percent savings.  Never would $23.10 have been better invested, says I.

Words of wisdom from Annette Monnier

At One Review A Month, blogger Annette Monnier usually has something pretty smart and interesting to say. Here’s an excerpt from her latest post: I am reminded of being a young artist and saying something to a friend about this or that person “selling out” to which my wiser friend replied “you can’t tell me that you wouldn’t have done that had it been offered to you.” I never said it out loud but my friend was right. The truth is that some people make it big and others do not, just like some people are born ugly and some ... More » »

Shiny penny no more–Whitney Biennial takes on the new America

Quiet, a little sad, introspective, and not a lot of beauty. Those are how I’d sum up this year’s Whitney Biennial, now celebrating its 75th edition. After the ebullient excess of 2008, in which more than 80 artists exploded beyond the bounds of the museum, taking up residence in the nearby armory, and pock marking Central Park, a mere 55 artists certainly reflects a societal time of retrenchment and self-reassessment. It’s as if America is no longer the youthful shiny penny it used to be. Well, that would be right. It’s not. And this is the Whitney Biennial that reflects ... More » »

Tino Sehgal interviewed on Studio 360

Hear artist Tino Sehgal talk with Kurt Anderson on Studio 360. Sehgal’s ephemeral performance, “This Progress,” at the Guggenheim Museum in New York asks a visitor to climb the ramp and stop along the way for conversations about progress. Four conversations occur — with  a child, a young adult, an adult and a senior citizen. Sehgal says he walked the ramp himself and answered the question “What is progress” by talking about how in the Middle Ages there was no concept of progress.  You lived, you died and progress came after death not on earth. More on Sehgal. The work ... More » »

Prints have Impact at Bucks County Community College

Post by Kip Deeds Bucks County is known for its association with Pennsylvania Impressionism, a movement in which artists like Daniel Garber and Edward Redfield made paintings like the French. It has been difficult to see alternatives to this living tradition in part because history and lore have been intertwined. There are also few institutional venues in Bucks County that look to advance the art of the region in ways that reach beyond a connection to this recent past. The art gallery at Bucks County Community College is one of the few venues where this can happen. Diverse faculty members ... More » »

Big bang, small bang at Gallery Joe

The big shock in Gallery Joe‘s current show is what has happened to the space. The usual Joe m.o. is to hang the work in calmest presentation possible, neatly arrayed around the small gallery’s spaces.

Memoirs of an arty nature

We live at a time of unprecedented memoir-izing where people tell all, or as much as they want to reveal (often lots more than a reader wants to know).  Here are two memoirs that have either direct or indirect relationships with the art world.

Community Meeting at Little Berlin

In conjunction with “Works on Paper Rejects”, inspired by Arcadia’s “Works on Paper”, Little Berlin is holding a community meeting about the issue of juried art exhibitions.  We each apply to at least one juried show.  It may be on a regular basis or maybe hardly ever.  They are definitely in our minds.  What’s the benefit for showing in a juried exhibit?  Monetary reasons?  Exposure?  Is that really what making art is all about?  When you’re applying to juried show it’s a form of social networking, a social networking involved with an art institution, art gallery, art association — art ... More » »

Whitney Biennial today

Hi everybody, we’re off to New York today to the press preview of the Whitney Biennial.  50 artists (none from Philadelphia — boo!), everything all inside the one building (unlike last time when art was off site and temporary and if you missed it you missed it).  Sounds good on a rainy day.  We’ll take pictures and report soon.

College Art Association Annual Meeting in Chicago; random thoughts

The plane to Chicago for the College Art Association (CAA) Annual Meeting left from a concourse I rarely use so I saw different art than usual  as part of the airport’s Exhibition Program,  which certainly provides the best distraction I’ve found at Philadelphia International Airport.  Nick Kripal’s Swarm was a terra cotta landscape of an alternative, multi-culti character with forms cribbed from the kitchen cabinets; what looked like a Moorish dome turned out to have been cast from a pudding mold!  I’d love to see him do animations based on them.