May 13
With a bit of industry and luck, this will be the Artsrambler’s only article, first and last.
This space is for artists, critics, gallery owners, curators, art students, readers of art history, and all of us interested in the actual “seeing” of art. Seeing of art. Those of us who see art comprise a narrow slice of the world, don’t we? Yet what a gift we have and what a gift we can give–letting the “lookers” in on the secret of being a “seer.”
Art critics understand this to be their mission. In a perfect art critic world, hundreds of thousands of well-informed citizens would pick up their weekend feature section and dive into the regularly-published-every-week-without-fail article on a local show, museum acquisition, or visit to an artist’s studio. Discussion would roll throughout the community; and small talk with hairdressers and plumbers would include the newest public art proposal.
Deconstructing Ms. Critic’s perfect world, we can throw out entire continents, one by one. Well-informed Patronage. In the past ten years, the newspapers have been fighting an uphill battle for subscriptions and readership. People don’t seem to want to pick up paper of any sort and read it. Time and quiet for deep, thorough thinking is interrupted by a million kinds of stimuli. The media-consuming public is turning into a hyperactive, attention deficit disorderly child, unable to sit still long enough to hear more than soundbites and look at art for longer than 1.6 seconds. (Art is in trouble, yes, but the voting process emits death rattles.)
The regularly-published-every-week-without-fail article is in peril. The News and Observer very recently has shown more of a commitment to space at least. If I go to the library, I can still read the Durham Herald Sun’s art criticism, but they’ve made access to this impossible on their site. Try finding Blue Greenberg’s name. She is an Error 404. The Independent deigns to publish an art essay every great once in a while. What a shame. Their critic of yesteryear, Kate Dobbs Ariail was an eloquent, seeing, art-loving, opinionated writer . Blue Greenberg comes from a world of teaching and, as such, strives to endow her readers with an expanded understanding and appreciation. And the N&O has a long list of writers who no longer write, from the irascible Steven Litt to the kindly and studious Chuck Twardy; from the popular culture commentator Geoff Edgers to the knowledgeable and literate Max Halperen.
What is the N&O’s current arts reporting policy? This is a Grand Secret, apparently, as neither they nor the Independent nor the Durham Herald Sun would acquiesce to answering a few softball questions like this. So the Artsrambler is left with personal experience as a careful reader with one hand holding a bagful of questions and the other holding another bag of speculation.
The Friday articles, when they appear, are milquetoast descriptions–veritable gold stars on the manila paper. The Sunday May 7 article on Nancy Baker, “In Her Own World” was heartening at least. The reporter, Ellen Sung, addressed the “what, when, where and hows” of Baker’s exhibition in New York, complete with slices of revelation into her personality and history.
But where are the “whys?” Where is the discussion into the concepts and processes that lead to the painting they so prominently featured (to their credit.) Where is the criticism? Ms. Sung quoted liberally from blog critics who did review Baker’s show in New York’s Plus Ultra gallery. Apparently the N&O would prefer the insight to come from other sources, instead of taking the opportunity to achieve a hallmark of a first-rate paper, informed criticism. Their Arts policy is to merely feature. I am thankful for the features, but they do not answer all the questions their readership bring to the subject.
We, as artists, hope the art lookers to be seers, to internalize the work and think it through. The art consumer–stressed from popular culture’s extreme stimuli, intellectually closed up by a failing educational system, virtually asleep to the immense activity in the arena of Art, at best gently shaken by a impotent attempt of the local media to be made aware– does the opposite. He glances, reacts and goes on. The discussion with the hairdresser is not about public art. Awareness is closed.
Artsramble.com will try to address some solutions. This is less a blog and more an arts magazine of the Triangle. We will have features and discussions that will spotlight artists, or issues, or personal accounts of being a creator or curator. We invite written contributions to be sent to artsrambler@artsramble.com. Write of your experiences as an art-maker or curator. Invite a fellow art lover over for a parlor brandy; discuss the Great Ideas; and tape it. Have a salon, a group critique and write it up. It would be the basis for a wonderful article. Send your 250-1000 word piece to me, as well as accompanying jpegs of what you are discussing. They will have their turn on the website/blog and discussion will ensue.
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One Response to “We’ve Arrived”
1. Spanders Says:
May 15th, 2006 at 12:33 pm e
I was happy to be part of this and look forward to lively and interesting comments from our arts community.
