[ Dozens of people packed Avenue 50 Studio for a slide show and lecture on the subject of art, religion, and politics ] It was a standing room only crowd at the Artist’s Forum on Art & Politics, held at L.A.’s Avenue 50 Studio. Part of its Don’t Talk About Religion or Politics exhibit, the event took place on January…
[ Opening night at Ave 50 Studio – “Don’t Talk About Religion or Politics” ] The January 7th Los Angeles opening of the Don’t Talk About Religion or Politics exhibit was a resounding success, with hundreds of interested people attending. Held at the much beloved Ave 50 Studio in the Highland Park area of L.A., the show attracted individuals from…
The federal government has decided to eliminate funding for the Museum of the Plains Indian in Browning, Montana. Opened to the public in 1941, the museum not only houses a major collection of historic artifacts from America’s plains tribes, it hosts frequent exhibitions by contemporary American Indian artists. The Daily Inter Lake of Montana reports that the museum’s annual budget…
For those who still regard art as being above politics consider the following. The Central Intelligence Agency financed, organized, and assured the success of the American abstract expressionist movement, using artists like Jackson Pollock, Sam Francis, Willem de Kooning, Barnett Newman, Robert Motherwell, and Mark Rothko, as weapons in the struggle against the Soviet Union. Frances Stonor Saunders has presented…
RUSSIA! a massive exhibition covering 900 years of Russian history, is now running at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City until January 11th, 2006. While the show includes everything from 13th-century religious icons to the most current artistic expressions coming out of the country, what I personally find most interesting are those paintings and artistic expressions that were kept from…
The Art Renewal Center promises a renaissance in contemporary painting but otherwise seems determined to return to the past. Founded by millionaire, Fred Ross, the ARC maintains a sprawling website that houses over 58,000 images created by European master artists. The online collection includes everyone from Italian High Renaissance painters like Raphael, to English 19th Century academic painters like Lawrence…
I’m very excited to be curating an exhibition titled Don’t Talk About Religion or Politics. Scheduled to open in January 2006 at Avenue 50 Studio in Los Angeles, the show will present paintings by Sergio Hernandez, Gwyneth Leech, Poli Marichal, John Paul Thornton, and myself. I wrote the exhibit’s mission statement, which should give you a better idea of what…
Larry Beinhart, author of Wag the Dog, just published an interesting essay titled, Abdication of the Artists. In his piece Beinhart bemoans the complacency of contemporary artists, using the annual exhibit produced by the Woodstock Guild of Artists as an example of the apathy he detests. Beinhart writes: “This year there were 152 pieces. Some were very clever. Some amusing….
