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Saturday, May 17, 2003

Government and creches

 


Libby, your post about Philadelphia's religious murals got me thinking about the role of government in art and about state-sponsored religious art in particular -- like the pyramids, cathedrals, mosques, etc. which were built to uplift and to put people in their places (on their knees, preferably, thinking about the hereafter).

Of course in America we have the church-state separation doctrine and the government doesn't build churches or commission work with angels in it, although it has produced some grand architecture for the people; and in more enlightened times, through the old Works Projects Administration (WPA), it commissioned lots of useful, beautiful secular art including posters like this one by Martin Weitzman.

Nowadays, government-funded public art tends to be boring, non-controversial and probably something you can sit on -- although it's still not religious, per se. Look at all the mediocre public art being produced in Philadelphia -- bus kiosks on Chestnut Street, Vito Acconci benches at the airport. The murals, which are (mostly) not mediocre but which are (some of them) religious, seem to be the only public art that's getting better instead of worse.

Here's the question.
With faith-based initiatives and school prayer sanctioned by a born-again White House are the church-state borders blurring? Is religious art the new wave in America? Maybe the Mural Arts Program is ahead of the trend, and we'll soon be seeing pictures of Jesus on the wall behind the president when he gives his next speech. Maybe the next NEA grants will be for Nativity creches. If the choice is state-sponsored religious art or state-sponsored boring art, I'd just as soon the state got out of the art business altogether.
permanent link  roberta 7:53 AM
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Friday, May 16, 2003

Paint and prayer

 
So once Roberta started talking about irony and voice, I've been thinking about irony, and that religious art is irony free. Irony is the province of post modernism and the world of galleries, of all-black-clad artists and cool. But religion is not cool, nor is religious art (vis a vis my previous blog posting, the Caratini show, which, while not necessarily about the artist's religion, is clearly about the artist's sympathy with the religion, its African roots, and the people who believe).

Furthermore, it seems to me that religious art is alive and well in Philadelphia in the city's murals. The Mural Arts Program's director, Jane Golden, is a missionary who believes that art has the power to transform lives--a religious view, a magical view. And the paintings that are going up reflect that belief. Take at look at the ethereal illumination of the young ballplayer in Don Gensler's "Songs of Hope" (above, right) at 34th and Haverford. Or the angel Gabriel blowing his horn in the guise of a Salvation Army member in John Lewis' "The Harvest Field," (detail, left) Broad and Brown. Even the mural of Julius Erving, taller than life, seems to me to quite like the medieval paintings of the holy family or the saints, its power in the larger-than-life promise of a better life to come.
permanent link  libby 6:15 PM
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Thursday, May 15, 2003

Transformations of the spirit

 
Speaking of art with a message (see Roberta's May 11 post)--or maybe just lack of irony--the exhibition of two bodies of work at Taller Puertorriqueno by Hector Mendez Caratini show Latino life influenced by African heritage. The images of Puerto Rico and South America largely show people participating in ceremonies and rites, but if you're thinking something churchy and bloodless, you're on the wrong track. The vision is of a world where magic transforms the everyday into a world pulsing with spirituality. Five-and-dime store pre-made bows become fabulous crowns, small plastic-framed mirrors and beads transform cheap clothes into ritual splendor, and tschotchkes and gewgaws become Christian saints or homages to ancient African gods. The people, who look nothing like your Hollywood bland beauties, radiate dignity, sincerity, passion. And the photographs ("Viva Santiago!," right, is from the Loiza, Puerto Rico, images), filled with details aplenty behind their main focus, are not to be missed. The show runs until Aug. 2. Call Taller Puertorriqueno before you go to make sure they are open.
permanent link  libby 12:47 PM
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River show paddles into town tonight

 

While the upstairs show at the Philadelphia Art Alliance--a local show of installations sizzling with Latino style and good citizenship (see Roberta's May 11 post for more info)--is sure to get the lion's share of local media attention (I don't mean to imply it doesn't deserve it, because it does), the downstairs show, "The American River," might get overlooked, and that would be a shame. The images, in a variety of traditional and not-so-traditional media, take up the landscape tradition with some surprising twists, in one beautiful image after another. My favorite may have been Stephen Hannock's "The Oxbow..." (not shown), which harks to paintings by Church and Cole of the same locale but then takes the painting and the vision somewhere else entirely. Tom Leaver's "Water Dissolved" (left), oil on wood, was one great spot of color that I thought would look swell on the computer (it still looked better in person, however). The show was organized by the Great River Arts Institute in New Hampshire. The Art Alliance's four summer shows open tonight, May 15, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.and run to Aug. 31.
permanent link  libby 12:09 PM
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Monday, May 12, 2003

Mural celebration not to be missed

 
A grand block party celebrating the completion of our buddy Ann Northrup's enormous mural (detail right) -- in excess of 7,260 square feet -- on the side of the William Way Community Center will be held Saturday, May 17, 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at 1315 Spruce Street. Admission is free, and the entertainment includes mucho music and dance, plus a performance by one of her painter-assistants, Brian Sanders, who will scale the mural. The painting is a wow, if you haven't stopped by to see it yet (and even if you have, it's still a wow). William Way provides services to the sexual and gender minority community.
permanent link  libby 1:21 PM
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Artist Anne Seidman dissents on Manna

 

[re: our post 5/4/03 on the Manna fundraiser]
Every year the art community is solicited for art donations to be auctioned for this worthy cause. For many years I donated works until I realized this is bad for artists because the public can purchase work at rock bottom prices and it is bad for the galleries for the same reason. At that time I decided to work at Manna instead of donating which I did every other Saturday for a year and a half delivering food. This event victimizes some very needy folks. Currently Manna offers to return 10 percent to the artist. My recommendation for this event is for Manna to offer 50 percent. If they did this the artist would be more likely to donate a work and possibly a more viable work. -- Anne Seidman


permanent link  roberta 12:39 PM
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Sunday, May 11, 2003

Voice over

 


I like a little irony in my art. But every so often I need something more full throttle. Right now I’m reading “The Art of Adolf Wolfli,” the catalog for the current exhibit of work by the Swiss outsider artist (at the American Folk Art Museum in New York until May 18). Spending time with Wolfli’s churning world of no-holds-barred art --even in book form--makes you wonder about artists' voices. All artists have them, so why are some voices clear and others masked? Is a mask a voice? Is a technique or style a voice (e.g. Alex Katz, Giacometti)? Does a voice change over time? Can you have more than one? Do you have to be crazy to have one?

Voice doesn’t equate with message, although it seems that artists with the clearest voices have a message -- like Wolfli with his autobiographical song of the self -- or the activist artists in the upcoming “Urban Sanctuaries” project in North Philadelphia. "Sanctuaries," with work by Pepon Osorio and Iris Brown, Doris Noriega-Rogers and Jonas dos Santos will reclaim vacant lots and transform them into zones for community and for contemplation. (Sponsored by Philadelphia Art Alliance and Taller Puertorriqueno, an "Indoor "Sanctuaries" exhibit by the same artists opens Thursday, May 15, at the PAA.) I'm afraid I'll miss that Wolfli exhibit in New York but I'm not going to miss those Sanctuary voices.
permanent link  roberta 2:16 PM
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