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ARTICLES FOR THE MONTH OF JUNE 2010
Contributing Bloggers: John Harbinger Jr.and David Harbrenig

 

14th Annual “No Dead Artists” Juried Exhibition

The 14th Annual NO DEAD ARTISTS is a juried exhibition open to artists in the United States. Its purpose is to showcase American art today and give an insight on what’s happening in the creative contemporary art scene. The exhibition was created in 1995 to give a voice to emerging artists.

This year is the first year the exhibition’s call to artists is national.

The winner’s work will be on exhibit at the JONATHAN FERRARA Gallery, 400a Julia Street, in the New Orleans Arts District and selected jury winners will appear in a feature article on ArtDaily.org in early September. For the article, art critic D. Eric Bookhardt, (Art Papers and Gambit) will review the exhibition and select images for publication. 

All mediums are accepted including, but not limited to, painting, sculpture, glass, metal-work, photography, video, mixed media and installation art. In its 14th year, No Dead Artists has one of the most celebrated art exhibitions in the South. The exhibition takes place in New Orleans, which has become a hotspot for contemporary visual art that is frequented by national collectors, critics and curators alike.   Each year hundreds of artists apply and thousands attend the annual event. Several artists’ careers have taken off after being selected for NO DEAD ARTISTS and have led to gallery representation, museum acquisitions, national reviews and inclusion in biennials such as Prospect New Orleans.

JULY 8th, 2010 – DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION ***** AUGUST 18th, 2010 – Jury winners are notified.
SEPT 4th, 2010 – The 14th Annual No Dead Artists Opening.

SEPT 1st -25th - Exhibition on display at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery

***All work selected is for sale. All sales are subject to a standard gallery commission and artist pays for shipping of works.

All applications must be submitted via email to : nodeadartists@gmail.com

Visit their website at http://www.jonathanferraragallery.com

 

Van Goghs? Real or Fake?

A new book has just been published which gives some interesting insights into the nefarious dealings of the art world. “A Real Van Gogh – How the Art World Struggles With The Truth” by Henk Tromp, a cultural anthropologist working at Leiden University in the Netherlands tells us that not all van Goghs are van Goghs.

Vincent paintings and drawings sells for millions, and millions of people admire his work, but are those masterpieces we enjoy - all genuine? In his book, H. Tromp informs us that to this day, the international art world struggles to separate the real Van Goghs from the fake ones. The key subject dealt with in this book is what may happen to art experts when they publicly voice their opinions on a particular Van Gogh (or not).

The story starts with art expert J.B. de la Faille who, after publishing his catalogue of known Vincent works in 1928, discovered to his own bewilderment and alarm that he had included dozens of fakes in his scholarly work. He wanted to set the record straight, but met with strong resistance from art dealers, collectors, critics, politicians and others, marking the beginning of a fierce clash of interests that had seized the art world for many decades of the twentieth century. In his fascinating account of the struggle for the genuine Vincent van Gogh, Tromp shows the less attractive side of the art world. His reconstruction of many such confrontations yields a host of intriguing and sometimes bewildering insights into the fates of art experts when they bring unwelcome news.

 Well worth the read.

Blog June 24 2010

Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism program -2010

If you are an experienced writer, journalist or blogger you might like to apply for the 2010 USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Program which is funded by the Getty Foundation and is set for November 7-21, 2010. Six Fellowships will be awarded to mid-career editors, producers and writers etc. working in the arts, culture and entertainment either online, in print, on radio and television. Journalists who cover the visual and performing arts, architecture, literature, film and pop culture as generalists or specialists are welcome to apply. Staff journalists, affiliated freelancers and self-employed Web journalists are also encouraged.  The fellowship program is open to all (typically one to two of the Fellows come from outside the United States) but keep in mind that it is based in Los Angeles.

The Fellowship is a total immersion experience that includes attending as many as 23 performances, art exhibitions and architectural sites. Participants will visit artists’ private studios, rehearsal rooms, architectural firms and art schools. The deadline for applications is July 19, 2010 and winners will be notified of acceptance to the program by August 20, 2010.

Visit their website at http://annenberg.usc.edu/GettyArtsJourn.aspx 

Read the eligibility requirements, and complete the application if you fit the bill.

** The program covers most expenses, including: roundtrip travel to and from Los Angeles, hotel, most meals, reading materials, Internet access in hotel room and transportation within Los Angeles. Fellows are given a $300 stipend.

 

 

The fairy tale painter has a dark side to his character

Less than a week after his company filed for bankruptcy protection following law suits by disgruntled former business associates, California artist Thomas Kinkade has found himself in the news again –this time for alleged drunk driving. 52 year old Kinkade was stopped, given an alcohol test and then arrested in Carmel, CA last Friday evening. He spent the night in jail for code violations.

Thomas Kinkade, who began his career as a painter in the beginning of the 80’s, has been called “America’s most collected living artist” and the “painter of light.” His paintings emphasize simple pleasures and convey inspirational messages based on conservative Christian values. Kinkade has often declared himself a devout Christian and has said that he uses his artistic talent as a vehicle to communicate and spread the “life-affirming values” he finds in his faith.

Apparently this is not the first time that Kinkade has gotten into trouble for bad behavior under the influence. Four years ago, during a legal dispute with several former dealers who opened franchise galleries to sell his popular illumination-drenched paintings, he was accused of defrauding them and acting in disorderly ways while under the influence of drink

In 2006 the Los Angeles Times carried a report relating that Kinkade had at different moments heckled illusionists Siegfried and Roy while inebriated; cursed a former employee's wife who came to his side when he fell off a barstool; fondled a startled woman's breasts at a signing party; and urinated on a statue at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.

 

Get Art 3 –Supporting Project Angel Food

This coming Saturday June 19, 2010 at Siren Studios, 6063 West Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood CA 90028 emerging and established artists throughout the Los Angeles community will come together again to donate special works of art to be sold on a special evening to raise money for Project Angel Food. Most of the 200+ donated works will be priced from $250-$2500. GET ART 3 also serves as an inspiring platform for many to purchase and own original art. 100% of proceeds from GET ART 3 go to Project Angel Food. This event is the third highly-anticipated curated art sale produced by charity to support their mission of cooking and delivering free meals to people throughout Los Angeles struggling with life- threatening illnesses.

Saturday, June 19, 2010 (6:00-7:00 pm)   VIP Preview & Sale Admission: $100: Be among the first to choose your art piece. The General Art sale will take place between 7:00-11:00pm. Admission: $10 in advance/ $15 at door.

    (Hosted Cocktails, Food Available for Purchase, Valet & Street Parking)

HOW TO DONATE ART:

Please contact Kim Crabtree, Project Angel Food Special Events Manager at kcrabtree@angelfood.org or 323.845.1800 ext. 255. www.projectangelfood.org

ABOUT PROJECT ANGEL FOOD:

Project Angel Food’s mission is to nourish the body and spirit of men, women and children affected by HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other life-threatening illnesses. It is the only organization delivering freshly-cooked, nutritiously-appropriate meals, free-of-charge to men, women and children debilitated by life-threatening illnesses throughout all of Los Angeles County.

In 1989, Project Angel Food was conceived by a group of caring friends driven to action after witnessing their loved ones’ health deteriorate as a result of disease and the malnutrition that accompanies it. The first meals were cooked and delivered out of a donated church kitchen. 21 years later, Project Angel Food is a nationally-respected organization with an involved Board of Directors, a professional staff and more than 1,500 active volunteers. Today, Project Angel Food cooks and delivers more than 13,000 meals a week to 1,600 clients for whom a healthy meal, delivered with a warm smile, is truly life-saving.

 

Shock Art -What is left to say?

In pursuit of ‘concept’ and ‘shock’ contemporary artists have done just about everything imaginable to provoke and outrage the respectable in our civilized world. Their art has included physically maiming themselves, canning their own excrement and piling bricks or trash onto museum floors. They have presented us with raw decaying meat, covered mountains in fabric, preserved dead animals in formaldehyde and even faked the blowing up of a museum. The list is long, so long in fact that, the viewing public is increasingly becoming bored by their antics; we are now more or less “un-shock able.”

Little wonder audiences have grown increasingly shock-proof – and not just about art. After all what haven’t we yet seen on the evening news or in the latest special effects movies? There's little left that can rouse us from our comfortable numbness. At the end of the 19th century when modern art began to attack cultural conventions, the public was first outraged, then intrigued and provoked into examining those very conventions which were lambasted by artists.

As it turned out, the middle classes – the very people who were supposed to be shocked – quickly appreciated the new styles and gobbled up the works which were meant to repulse and offend. From Impressionism through to 1960’s Pop Art, each style found its way into the salons of middle class homes.

 But more than a hundred years has passed since Marcel Duchamp shocked the art world with his “anything is art urinal” and no-one is scandalized by anything anymore - except perhaps the Muslim world by depictions of the prophet.

21st century Art has become a joke –and the joke is no longer funny or interesting. Today, the only serious thing about contemporary art is its financial impact. As art in the context of art history, it has little lasting value. Its only value is an investment, a hedge against inflation or an alternative to the stock market.

Carl André, the American minimalist made a name for himself in the 1970s stacking ordinary clay bricks on museum floors. The artist and the museum directors told us that what turned them into art was the context, the gallery itself. Two feet outside the front door, they were nothing more than a heap of bricks but strewn on the museum floor they were transformed into ART. When the London's Tate Gallery purchased one such pile in 1972 for a huge sum at that time, Britons were intrigued and queued up to see the ART bricks. As they queued construction workers were brick-laying at an adjacent building totally un-noticed by the crowds who were waiting patiently to pay to see bricks inside.

But that was almost 40 years ago. Since then we have had to dutifully appreciate every imaginable bizarre concept within the confines of our museums and art galleries in the name of art. A whole generation has grown up with it as the norm; a generation which is now complacent, immune to provocation and by now totally bored with contemporary art. If it hasn’t already been done it does not matter, “shock and conceptual” can no longer achieve its purpose - our boredom is just too powerful to overcome.

Art, based on provoking an endlessly shock able public has run its course. Next wave – PLEASE!!

 

Tax Break for Artists in Mexico – Give a Painting to the local IRS instead of cash

Since 1957 the Mexican Ministry of Finance and Public Credit has allowed artists in that country to pay income taxes in a rather novel way – with artwork instead of money. Under the program the government has quietly amassed a modern art collection that would make most museum curators envious. "It's really an amazing concept," says the director of the program who adds that the purpose is "to help out national artists while building a cultural inheritance for the country."

The “tax” imposition is based on a sliding scale. Basically if an artist sells five artworks in a year, he/she must give the government one. If the artist sells 21 pieces, the government gets six. In order to deter tax fraud a 10-member panel of artists representing the authorities ensures that no one tries to unload unwanted ‘inferior’ work.

To date the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit is now the proud owner of about 4,500 paintings, sculptures, engravings and photographs by world renowned artists such as Diego Rivera and Rufino Tamayo who took advantage of the program to pay their taxes to the government.

The levied artworks are displayed in Mexican museums and government offices and are often loaned out for special exhibitions around the world. Many of these acquisitions are stored in a huge, climate-controlled warehouse in Mexico City.

Some of the art accepted for tax payments has been political, even poking fun at the tax authorities themselves. Artist Rafael Coronel's 1980 tax payment is a portrait called He Who Doesn't Pay Taxes. A painting by Fabian Ugalde ‘contributed’ in 2002 declares in huge letters, "The authorities have still not determined whether it was an act of aggression or just another piece of art."

The art program was the brainchild of two artists who proposed the idea to the director of tax collections in Mexico in 1957 in order avoid going to jail over tax debts. Soon the tax office was accepting original art on a regular basis. In 1975, the Payment in Kind Program became an official part of the tax code.

Unfortunately not every artist can pay his/her taxes with art. Participants must register with the national version of the IRS the Tax Administration Service. They must submit examples of their work to a jury and show they have a proven record of sales. About 700 artists are currently registered, though not all of them pay with art every year.

For the time being the program is only for traditional visual art although the administrators may soon accept performance art. Artists would have to submit videos, photographs or other artifacts of their performance that the government could store and display.

Many of the artworks paid in lieu of taxes have soared in value since the artists handed them over. A piece by Diego Rivera, valued for tax purposes at $50,000 in the late 1950s would be worth millions of dollars if it came up for sale on the open market today. However, by law, the government cannot sell any artworks from the collection since they become protected "cultural heritage objects."  There is also a more practical reason for not selling them: If the government made a profit, it would have to give the artists a tax refund.

Visitors to the Mexican tax office website at http://www.apartados.hacienda.gob.mx/index.html can see what each artist has given each year. Click on "Colecciones Pago en Especie."

 

Art 41 Basel

Art Basel, arguably the premier international art show for Modern and contemporary works, takes place next week from June 16- June 20 featuring  nearly 300 top galleries from North & South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Last year more than 60,000 people attended the show and more are expected this year to view and buy works by more than 2,500 artists. The participating galleries are offering pieces by some of the greatest masters of Modern art to works by latest generation of emerging stars. This year’s event is the 41st Art Basel but part of the show called “Art Statements” is only in its 11th year and is becoming one of the major attractions

“Art Statements” gives the opportunity to chosen artists to create a work especially for the occasion. The previous years have shown the event can promote the profiles of many of the young participants with curators, gallerists and collectors. After being discovered at Art Statements Basel some have been awarded major exhibitions and gone forward to commercial success. This year 26 artists, all born since 1966 will have the chance to express themselves. They were chosen from a list of 300 applicants. Good luck to them.

 

American Artists Idol –Visual Arts Elimination Show

Tune in next week to see the first episode of "Work of Art: The Next Great Artist", which debuts on cable channel Bravo on Wednesday, June 9. In this American Idol type show, where participants strut their stuff, are judged, praised or eliminated, 14 very different artists will go against each other in weekly challenges. The eventual winner will get a $100,000 prize and a solo exhibition.

The world of visual artists is the latest community getting the chance to share its creative process with a wider audience. "Work of Art" comes from the same production company that pitted up-coming designers against each in "Project Runway", and helped stir the pot and turn up the heat in the kitchen in "Top Chef."


What remains to be seen now is whether tastes in art can be quantified and judged like tastes in food or fashion.

The contestants, ranging from 23 to 62 years-old are randomly paired off in the first challenge and asked to produce a visual work that captures the essence of their partner
More than 2,000 people from oil painters to conceptual artists and silk-screen experimenters applied to take part when interviews were arranged in several US cities last year.

During the taping of the show contestants will be asked to create unique pieces in mediums such as painting, sculpture, photography, mixed media collage and industrial design.
The show’s producers have invited some well known artists, such as mixed-media artist Jon Kessler and photographer Andres Serrano to be among the guest judges. The weekly resident 3-person panel is made up of New York gallery owners Bill Powers and Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, and New York Magazine art critic Jerry Saltz. (Who’ll play the role of toughie judge/ hate-everybody Simon Cowell among them?) The judges will decide who has responded best to the challenge, who stays for another round and who will go home.

 
An interesting addition to the show is art auctioneer Simon de Pury who has been called, on occasion, “the Mick Jagger of art auctions” for his ability to attract top collectors to his sales. He will be giving professional guidance to the contestants about navigating through the commercial world of art. The series winner gets a prestigious solo show at the Brooklyn Museum, the second-largest art museum in New York City.

The 14 Artists with show hostess China Chow

Blog

 

New California Bill will allow graduation without arts education

The State assembly voted this week in favor of a bill that will allow California high school students to skip arts classes entirely and still earn a diploma. At the present time all graduating students must take at least a one year course in arts or a foreign language in order to qualify for the matriculation diploma.  Students applying to the University of California or the Cal State systems are required to have at least a year of high school arts.
If the bill passes the state Senate and is signed into law, students, from the 2011 school year onwards, will be able to substitute a “career technical education” course for arts or a language. The proposed change would be effective for five academic years until mid-2016 when it will be reviewed and reassessed.

The backers of the bill claim that by allowing students, who do not wish to go onto college, to take a technical course rather than arts or a language will better prepare them for the work place.

The California Alliance for Arts Educations has lobbied to prevent the bill from passing and has presented legislators with data showing “that skills learned in arts classes provide an important overlap for those skills required for many technical fields.”

When similar bill was proposed last year, it died in the Appropriations Committee. That bill was friendlier to arts education and foreign language instruction than the one now moving through the Legislature. Instead of opting for arts or a foreign language, students could add technical education to the mix of classes, making graduation requirements a little more stringent for all. The new proposed bill will loosen graduation standards students who perhaps would drop out because of lack of ability for the arts and languages.

 

The Collecting Methods of Norton Simon

The Norton Simon Museum of Art in Pasadena houses the collection of the Norton Simon Art Foundation set up by the California industrialist who made a fortune in canned goods and then invested his wealth in art. Norton Simon’s collection consists of an eclectic mix ranging from Old masters to Modern to ancient Indian sculpture. In 1975 the former Pasadena Art Museum was renovated, enlarged and renamed the Norton Simon Museum of Art and became the permanent home for his vast collection of more than 12,000 works. Mr. Simon died in 1993.

During the years when he was acquiring his collection Mr. Simon was known among the great auction houses and art dealers of the world for his desire to retain anonymity and for his convoluting and mysterious ways of bidding for works he desired to purchase.

“Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best”, written by Sara Campbell, senior curator of the Norton Simon Museum of Art will be published by Yale University Press in September. The book has some amusing anecdotes about Mr. Simon’s somewhat confusing bidding techniques, which in one instance almost cost him the opportunity to buy a work he had sought to purchase for quite some time.

In January 1965, Norton Simon learned that Rembrandt’s “Portrait of a Boy in Fancy Costume” would be coming up at auction.

Simon had been first interested in the painting since 1957, when its price was £120,000 (about $335,000). While he considered the work outstanding, he thought the amount was "rather high for this relatively small picture." In 1963 a London dealer offered it for sale for £550,000 ($1.54 million) and tried to interest Simon in the picture. The discussions went on for almost a year but in the end Simon decided not to buy the work. In early 1965 the painting was consigned to Christie’s London for sale at auction with an estimate of $1.5 million. Simon decided to attend the auction and bid for the painting.

Because Simon was determined to remain anonymous, Christie’s reserved a suite for him at Claridge’s Hotel under an assumed name and the head of the sale arranged a meeting with Simon to discuss with him his mode of bidding. To save guard his identity, Simon arranged what he conceived to be an inscrutable method. However it was so complicated, that Christie's director was obliged to make notes of the instructions. Norton Simon’s told him that

If “he is sitting down, he is bidding. If he bids openly when sitting down he is also bidding. When he stands up, he has stopped bidding. If he then sits down again he is not bidding until he raises his finger. Having raised his finger he is continuing to bid until he stands up again." All these machinations were designed to protect Simon’s identity during the auction.

As the bidding began, Simon confused the auctioneer by first bidding aloud, then remaining silent. The auctioneer was then convinced that although Simon was still seated, he had stopped bidding. The bid rose to $2.1 million and then remained unchallenged. Norton Simon remained seated and silent despite entreaties for another bid. When the hammer came down on the last bid which had been tendered by dealer Marlborough Fine Art (on behalf of Stavros Niarchos), Simon suddenly rose to his feet and made a loud verbal protest that he’d been overlooked.

In full view of the assembled public and the journalists covering the event, and in spite of objections from the winning bidder, the auctioneer was obliged to put the painting back on the block and reopen the bidding. Marlborough Fine Art did not bid again; Simon offered $2.2 million and the Rembrandt became his.

Although the debacle was within the rules and conditions of auction selling it caused a totally embarrassing situation which sparked headlines around the world. Members of Simon's staff in Fullerton, California, had worked for weeks to keep his interest in the picture—as well as his identity—a secret. Christie’s had also played their part to ensure anonymity. So much effort had gone into this clandestine operation that in the end nobody really understood whether Mr. Simon was bidding –or not bidding - until his outburst which put him squarely in the public spotlight.

That particular Rembrandt was not considered one of his greatest works, nor was the eventual sale price extraordinary. If there had not been the confusion stemming from the dire need to remain anonymous, the sale itself might have gone largely un-noticed in the media. The painting was good, the event interesting, but the real drama was something completely different.

 

June 2010 – Upcoming Juried Competitions in California

Brand 39, Annual National Juried Exhibition: The Associates of Brand Library and Art Center and the Glendale Public Library announce a call to artists for an exhibition to be held October 2 - November 5, 2010 at the Brand Library Art Galleries in Glendale, CA. $4000 in awards. Juror: Gloria Williams Sander, Curator at the Norton Simon Museum of Art in Pasadena, CA. Open to artists residing in the USA. Any work on paper: collages, drawings, paintings, photography, prints, watercolor, 3-dimensional work, etc. $20 for first image, $10 for each additional. Maximum 3 JPG images. Visit website for details, or send SASE to: Brand 39, 1601 West Mountain St., Glendale, CA 91201. Questions? Contact Irena Raulinaitis at irena.raul@gmail.com or 818-244-0654. DEADLINE: JUNE 16, 2010


The Sylvia White Gallery in Ventura, California announces a call to artists for the 2010 National Juried Exhibition. Awards: One solo exhibition and one group exhibition. Juror: Sylvia White. Open to all U.S./Canadian resident artists at least 18 years of age. Eligible entries include paintings, mixed media, works on paper, photography, sculpture, installation art and performance. There is a $40 entry fee. the gallery website for a prospectus, or send a SASE to: 1783 E. Main St. Ventura CA 93001. Contact Sylvia White at juriedshow@artadvice.com or call 805.643.8300. DEADLINE: JUNE 19, 2010.

TAG Gallery in Santa Monica, California announces a call to artists for the "2010 California Open Exhibition", August 17-September 3, 2010. Total Cash Awards $1,000. Juror: Karen Moss, Orange County Museum of Art. Open to all U.S. artists 18+ working in computer art, drawing, mixed media, painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture. Some size restrictions. $30/ 1-2 entries. $5 each additional. 6 maximum. Visit website for prospectus, or send a SASE to: 2525 Michigan Ave. #D3, Santa Monica, CA 90404. Questions? Please contact Karen Florek, Chairperson at taggallery@verizon.net or call 310/829-9556. DEADLINE: JUNE 26, 2010

LH Horton Jr Gallery in Stockton, California announces a call to artists for a juried exhibition,”2D/3D Color & Design Exhibition October 7 - November 4, 2010. Awards: $600 1st / $400 2nd / $300 3rd. Artists/designers working in any 2D and 3D media that demonstrates a strong emphasis in formal design concepts, such as the elements of shape, form, line, value, texture, and color, and/or the principles of repetition, rhythm, balance, proportion, and variety. While digital designs may be considered, works using non-digital mediums are desired. Entry fee: $25/3 until March 1st, $30/3 thereafter. http://www.deltacollege.edu Questions? Contact Jan Marlese, Gallery Director at jmarlese@deltacollege.edu  or call (209) 954-5507.DEADLINE: JUNE 30, 2010

Art Scholarships: The Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art in Van Nuys, California is awarding Three $6000.00 Scholarships for the Full-Time Program. All artists who are applying to the Full Time Program are invited to apply for this Scholarship. Submissions are limited to original artwork only, completed within one year of the entry date. No copies or digital work allowed, however we will accept class work as long as an instructor has not modified it. We are looking for work that displays a clear understanding of form, design, construction, and composition. We don't require any specific theme. Additional documents are required upon submission - visit website for details. No entry fee. Director of Admissions at scholarships@laafa.org or telephone 818 708-9232. DEADLINE: JULY 15, 2010