Artists Review Artists Project @Thinking About Art

Back in December, I posted the review of my work on Thinking About Art's Artists Review Artists project. Well, the second part of JT Kirkland's project has been posted, where I review another artist's work.

It was interesting to work on. I received one anonymous image; title, size and medium were the only information that I had to go on. What was really interesting about the process was reviewing the work without any context. No information about the artist's body of work, or a context provided by a group show. Anyway, the artist I reviewed is Alexandra Silverthorne. The work above is from a series in progress.

This has been a really great project, not only to participate in but to read. If you haven't checked out the project, haul on over to Thinking About Art and check it out.

Taking photographs at museums

Museums have consistently disallowed photography on their premises by the general public. Some art galleries do too. (Borelli Edwards in Pittsburgh is one of them.) I have found that, for the most part, public institutions welcome inquires for press passes from bloggers. The Carnegie Museum and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts will allow bloggers press passes. All of the non-profit galleries downtown allow photography even witout a press pass; I have posted images from SPACE and Future Tenant. But Thomas Hawk, of San Francisco, ran into a very specific problem at SFMOMA --

After purchasing my family membership and visiting the museum today I was forcibly thrown out of the museum by two museum security guards at the direction of the Director of Visitor Relations Simon Blint.

My crime? Taking a photograph from the second floor stairs in the SFMOMA's atrium (an area where the SF MOMA's own website explicitly says photography is allowed). Read the post

Now, even the Carnegie won't allow photographs without a press pass. But if the institution has publicized a policy of opening their facility to photography by the general public, they should make absolutely sure that EVERYONE on staff gets the memo. I don't know what I would have done in Mr. Hawk's situation. But really, the threat of ejecting somebody physically from the facility would have been intimidating.

Artists Review Artists Project @Thinking About Art

JT Kirkland is always thinking. This time he is thinking about what constitutes a review in the current dialog about art and artists. From his new project --

... I am no longer sure what an art "review" is today. Is it a re-hashing of the gallery's press release? Is it a description of artwork in a show? Is it a blog post of images? Is it a thorough critical analysis of the exhibition, work and artist? Is it something else entirely?

JT Kirkland has conducted similar online projects in the past. His Artists Interview Artists project was at times very thought-provoking. This current project promises to be the same.

The impetus for the project is the lack of dialog in the traditional press for all of the arts. Currently, it is more likely for a paper to review a television show than it is for them to publish a review of an art exhibit or a new dance presentation. While I understand and agree with this premise, it also seems to me that this project could serve as arallying point for artists to have a direct and significant impact on the art dialog, which has for decades been the provenance of critics and historians. So, go and submit your work for participation in Artists Review Artists. Detailcan be found here.

Disaster? what disaster?

If an artist creates work that nobody sees, does it have an effect? Probably not, huh?

Why the art world is a disaster - by Roger Kimball

You can read the entire article yourself. I found a lot of merit in what Roger Kimball says in his article. What I didn't see was a solution or a perceived direction. He isn't the first to say what he has about the current directions in the arts. But this is a very succinct statement, clearly argued.

If there is a solution, it certainly isn't addressed in this article. But it looks like I'm a little late to the table with this one. Edward Winkleman has a post up with a note to look at the discussion on Artblog.net. Happy reading.