Cleveland Museum of Art Sends 32 Paintings to the Auction Block

In three sessions over two days starting Jan. 27, the Cleveland Museum of Art will offer more than two dozen European old master paintings in the largest sell-off from its collection in more than a half-century. The 30 lots from Cleveland, with 32 works overall, will be part of an auction of "Important Old Master Paintings" at Sotheby's in New York.

"These are pictures that probably don't have a place in the Cleveland Museum of Art context, but could have a happy life elsewhere," C. Griffith Mann, the museum's chief curator, said of the works to be sold.

Some of the hottest recent controversies in the art world have involved cash-strapped institutions selling artworks to pay operating or other expenses. But the Cleveland sale is unlikely to cause a ruckus. Most of the individual works to be sold are by minor masters; few have been exhibited in recent years.

Sotheby's estimates the total value of the Cleveland works to range from $706,000 to $1,022,000. The auction could attract bargain hunters; out of the 30 lots, 21 are priced with low-end estimates of $10,000 or less.

For more about the this sale and the CMA collection, see The Plain Dealer.

Who Sees (Portraits of) Homelessness?

There is no doubt that art allows us to address societal issues by providing a perspective that is often overlooked or simply ignored. Isolation & Togetherness at the Carnegie Arts Center is one such exhibition. The show includes a number of beautifully shot photographs, portraits of homeless individuals throughout Greater Cincinnati. The programming accompanying this exhibition include artwork by local artists dealing with definitions of home, awareness and advocacy for the homeless, and collecting non-perishables for Be Concerned. While events like this one are admirable ones, I wonder if such portrait exhibitions really work to draw the attention the artists hope.

In order to address my questions of social value of such exhibitions rather than aesthetics, I’ve asked Gregory Flannery to participate in a discussion with me. Here, I am less an art critic than a cultural or social theorist interested in learning more about how we look or don’t look at our communities and define our notions of home and homelessness.

Gregory Flannery has worked in local journalism in Greater Cincinnati for 30 years. He is the former news editor at CityBeat and the former editor of Streetvibes, published by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. His work exposed illegal wiretapping by the Cincinnati Police Department and led to the successful prosecution of three Catholic priests for sexually abusing children. Among the awards he has received is "Best Feature Story," from the International Network of Street Papers in 2009.

1. Greg, first I want to thank you for engaging in this conversation with me. I wanted to start by saying the portraits are very nice. They add monumentality to each of the individuals and even a dignity that is not often associated with homelessness. Each photograph captures well the individuality of the subject, the person. As such, the photos avoid presenting homelessness as a simple or single definition. These photographs and those like them reveal a various images of homelessness. Would you agree this is the ultimate goal of such exhibitions?

Capturing the individuality of the subjects and avoiding presenting homelessness as a monolith are goals that I support. It’s also worth noting that the opening reception was a benefit for the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, and visitors were encouraged to donate food.
This matter of dignity is interesting to me in that homeless people live such undignified lives, exposed to public view, denied privacy, prosecuted for doing in public things that people do everyday indoors (drinking alcohol, evacuating bodily waste, sleeping). Is dignity inherent in humanity, or is it a cultural construct? Should one be embarrassed (i.e., feel undignified) for sleeping on a park bench? Should one feel proud for being able to endure? Do mental illness and addiction, which often attend homelessness, diminish dignity?


2. There are a number of local art events like this one that devote time to the subject of homelessness. Do you see the visual arts being particularly effective in drawing attention to homelessness? Are there events or projects you would like to see sponsored here? Are there programs in other cities you see working or healthier dialogs we could engage in here?

I am working on a project that involves documenting conditions in homeless camps in Cincinnati over the course of a year. The project is somewhat controversial among social workers who serve homeless people because they fear that our work will either ennoble homelessness, lead to hate crimes against people living outdoors or lead well-meaning persons to provide assistance (food, water, blankets) to people living outdoors, thereby enabling them to stay outside longer, instead of accepting help in obtaining treatment and housing.
I think the visual arts are effective in drawing attention to the issue of homelessness; but the larger issue is how accurately the photographs capture the essence of homelessness, which is, of course, a complex and multi-faceted phenomenon. The goal of imputing dignity, for example, runs the risk of prettying up a condition rife with hazard, disease, isolation and deprivation.


3. While visiting the show and recognizing the beauty of the each of the photographs, I was still concerned as to how this helps the viewer rethink homelessness? In other words, while the photographs are beautiful, how does this show or help us to be aware of see homelessness?

I don’t think the photographs by themselves can accomplish either of these things. Beauty has no place in the daily lives of most homeless people, whose daily routine is defined at best by the struggle for sustenance and at worst by the desire to escape through substance abuse.


4. One of my favorite film quotes comes from Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King. The scene takes place in New York’s Grand Central Station. The character played by Jeff Bridges is speaking with a homeless Vietnam Veteran when someone in the crowd tosses a quarter only to miss the homeless man’s cup. Jeff Bridges’ character says, “He didn’t even look at you.” The homeless veteran responds, “He pays so he doesn’t have to look.”

Do photo exhibitions like the one at The Carnegie really bridge this disconnect or simply accept this tendency to ignore the issue as an ill of humanity hoping to capture a single moment or attract at least one more advocate for the homeless?

We tend to fear that which we don’t know. I think there is value in capturing the individuality of homeless people but I’m skeptical that this does much to change other people’s behavior toward them. If some of the homeless people whose portraits are in the exhibit were present to tell their stories to visitors, that would more likely humanize them to the public at large and perhaps motivate people to interact with them in meaningful ways.


5. One would think the visual arts would be a perfect medium to draw attention to our homeless population. Though while the photographs are beautiful, I cannot help but to recognize the gallery as a safe place to address images of homelessness. In the gallery, visitors can view the photographs while enjoying a glass of wine, food, music, friends, and then maybe stop somewhere for dinner before heading home. I suppose my greatest concern is the possibility these exhibitions permit us NOT to see homelessness. Do these photographs shield our eyes? Do they permit us to look so we don’t have to see?

I think you nicely summarize the limitations of this kind of exhibit. The artist’s stated purpose is telling: “The purpose behind making these images was to illustrate the humanity of these individuals, as well as to provide an opportunity for the observer to gaze upon those who are often rendered invisible in plain sight.”
The problem, of course, is that homeless people aren’t invisible at all; the opportunity to “gaze upon” them is manifold, but we are unwilling. We avert our eyes precisely because what we see is not beautiful, not dignified. Homeless people are poorly dressed, have unpleasant odors, are gap-toothed, ask us for money and often display the disturbing effects of mental illness: These are not the kinds of characteristics that make “normal” people want to engage with them. Yes, putting their photos in a gallery makes it safe to look and perhaps to feel compassion from a distance. At best, that makes the viewer feel a certain self-satisfaction, but it does nothing to help the people who are the subjects of the exhibit. If the subjects were cancer or AIDS patients, would viewers be inclined to go out and do something to help? Unlikely. If the subjects were children orphaned by war, would viewers rally to cut the defense budget? I think instead what this exhibition does is make people feel a kind of detached sympathy that ultimately produces no practical change in their behavior.
Art for its own sake is a worthwhile pursuit but it isn’t usually a tool for changes in public policy.

Cincinnati Art Snob Featured Art Tours

Cincinnati Art Snob will now make available a selection of featured tours. Unlike the tour series, these tours are generally a single-venue events lasting 2 hours or less. Of course you are welcome to pair them up to create your own tour series package.

You can make reservations right now for either The Art of Love in February or Art for the Foodie in March and April.

See the Cincinnati Art Snob website for descriptions, times and dates for each of these tours.

Taft Show Again Draws Intense Emotion, Wonder

The last two times I was moved to near tears in a gallery, I was at the Taft. This is a good feeling that lasts well after the visit, well after the exhibition closes.

Since finally seeing Francisco Goya: Los Caprichos at the Taft Museums of Art, I've been haunted by the challenging subjects illustrated in the show. Critical of the ruling class as well as common societal practices that victimize women, children, and the working class resulted in a series of images that are either horrific (Todos caerán)or in some cases comical (Asta su abuelo). While walking through the gallery I found myself either turning away in knowing disgust, looking more closely (the gallery provides guests with magnifying glasses to better look at the detailed prints), or uncomfortably laughing at Goya's commentary.

I shouldn't be surprised by the mixture of emotion this series draws. I've seen many of these and taught about Goya and his struggles late in his career over the realization many of his earlier paintings celebrated the very class he grew to dislike. But Goya's questioning of humanity itself is most jarring. Ironically, even the most cynical person walking through the gallery recognizing similar societal ills as part of contemporary American culture would be moved to wonder and perhaps hope things are better now.

Even with the threat of the Inquisition, Goya faced truth, even if privately, and continued with his account of the atrocities of war with his Disasters of War series. This viewer's hope is that cynicism does not bar today's artists from an honesty that may even draw tears.

New Art Tour Packages at Cincinnati Art Snob

With the new year I've included a list of art tour packages I will offer throughout the year. While I am still happy to custom design tours to your particular interest, these packages are ready and available to reserve for your group immediately. Tour descriptions are here.

Cincinnati Art Snob will also feature specially designed tours beginning next month. Watch for February art tour offerings soon.

Architectural Drawing Contest

The Architectural Foundation of Cincinnati has issued a call for entries in an architectural drawing exhibition. The juried competition is open to architects, architectural students, landscape architects, interior designers, and individuals associated with the architectural discipline in the Cincinnati region. Students must be currently enrolled.

Selected works will be shown in an exhibition at the AFC Race Street Gallery, which opens with a reception and awards ceremony February 23, 5 p.m. until 7 p.m.

AIA, Cincinnati Chapter, joins AFC in sponsoring the competition. Prizes include best in show, $500; best student work, $250; and best professional work, $250. Entry fees ($15, student, $40 professional) include admission to the reception.

Competition rules and entry materials are available here. Entries must be delivered to AFC headquarters, 811 Race Street, on February 9 or 10, 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.

Reservations for the February 23 reception ($50 patron, $10 regular) may be made on the Web site, by email to reserve@architecturecincy.org. or by telephone (513) 421-4469.

If the CAC Doesn't Want to Listen to Me, Perhaps They'll Listen to ArtNews

Robin Cembalest's letter, Between a Cross and a Hard Place in the current edition of ArtNews recounts the controversy surrounding the removal of David Wojnarowicz from Hide/Seek and calls on art professionals to be more proactive in this debate:

"But arts professionals need to be proactive now if they want to forestall a new culture war. Anti-censorship statements on websites are fine—the AAMD released one condemning "unwarranted and uninformed censorship from politicians and other public figures"—but does the general public read such statements? So far, the opponents of "Hide/Seek" are getting most of the media attention. While bloggers and newspaper cultural critics have kept the story alive online, why aren't museum directors showing up on op-ed pages and talk-show stages? After all, Ellen DeGeneres herself is a protagonist in the controversy. If museum advocates want to change the public conversation, they have to become part of it." (my emphasis)

Art also Separates These Two Speakers

A comparison in the Enquirer between two speakers from Cincinnati, John Boehner and Nicholas Longworth is clearly meant to paint Boehner in the wonderful light of the common man. Unlike Longworth who was "as elite as they come," Boehner "toiled as a janitor among other things..." to work his way up.

Though as may be expected from the Enquirer today (which devoted 6 pages to Longworth's life when he died) the story neglects to mention the other difference between the two speakers. Nicholas Longworth is from a family of Cincinnati's greatest patrons of the arts. His grandfather's (also named Nicholas) support of the arts helped propel Robert Duncanson and Hiram Powers to international success. Frankly, strong patronage to the arts by the Longworth family is the foundation of the arts in Greater Cincinnati. John Boehner, on the other hand celebrates a series of actions meant to undercut the arts. Most recently was his call to pull the work of David Wojnarowicz from the National Portrait Gallery.

So while the Enquirer does what it does to celebrate its conservative golden boy, a man who works against the arts is not a man of the people.

Happy New Year: Women and Their Food

As I begin designing new tours to offer this year that include topics like female bodies, love, and food, I see this set of stock photos of Women Laughing Alone with Salad.

I guess salad is funny....or fun.

What's more, pictures of women with candy usually show women eating candy as we see here.

Good luck with your New Year's Resolutions.

I'm laughing my way off to the gym.

Who is Politicizing Identity?.

Recently, Edward Rothstein of the New York Times looked at the challenges museums have exploring "other" histories. His critique of an exhibition of the role of Muslims in science history, which opened at the New York Hall of Science in Queens and the unveiling of the President's House in Philadelphia points to identity politics as the cause of a growing practice of distorting historical facts in order to provide testament to a particular group's story. I agree, these identity exhibitions appear to rest on historical slants. Rothstein also makes an excellent point about how such simple and slanted presentations do not allow for the nuances each group can claim as dynamic moments in their histories. But to focus on these two examples seems to implicate the cultural groups' eagerness to present "their stories." Weak scholarship, or more likely, ignoring scholarship results in poor exhibitions and museums no matter the topic. The politics played here is not those of cultural identity, but of museum identity.

As someone who devoted her own academic scholarship to cultural identity theory in art history, I can tell you historians are not prone to omit historical nuance. In fact, we excitedly look for it. It's these dynamics or twists in which we rest our stories. This is after all, the variety of varying perspectives of history. Identity politics doesn't generally happen at the scholarship level. True, like all scholars, we begin with a premise or a question that may seem slanted, but the goal is in the search for problems, twists, complicated dynamics in history particular to cultural identity theory.

Today, presenting historical nuances rests with the museums and their boards of directors. As cultural institutions continue to be managed by business professionals, such as development officers and public relations firms, nuance (i.e. historical facts, scholarship) risks being abandoned for the ease of the sell. (I refuse to believe an uncomplicated history line will secure large audiences, but I'm not in the business of sales). It is this brand of identity politics that that dictates the parameters of exhibitions. Rothstein does in fact mention the National Museum of American Jewish History as an example of how museums successfully present nuance. I will add El Museum del Barrio as another. These two institutions established themselves about 40 years ago, a time when "curator" meant scholar, not aggregator of information.

While Rothstein's critique seems to lay the blame on these cultural groups' desire to claim their history, the weakness of these exhibitions and others like them point instead to the fact that these stories are are not "their own stories." Instead, they are examples of branding for the business of museum identity. Forty years after cultural groups were offered the mic to tell their stories, have we returned to a place when our identity is someone else's merchandise?

Find Your Center: A Link to Your Arts Community and Others

Since inviting you to consider directly supporting the arts in Greater Cincinnati, my friend Shannan Boyer from the Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center pointed me to Find Your Center Now. This is a directory of the neighborhood arts centers throughout the area.

I've included most of these to my links banner above, but expect this directory link may be a better resource that will be updated more timely than my own list. Because this directory does not include the major museums, it shines a better spotlight on the individual communities of which we may not have known.

Please check out these places and again consider supporting them by purchasing a membership or enrolling in any of the classes or attending an event.

Support Local Artists and Arts Organizations for a Happy New Year

My regular readers know I am an advocate for direct support of our artists and art organizations. As you rush to finish your holiday shopping, remember museum stores, concert tickets, and memberships to specific art organizations or neighborhood art centers are great gifts.

If you are a parent like me, once the holidays are over, you'll soon be wondering how to best plan your children's summer. Summer in Cincinnati is filled with art classes and camps. A membership now will put you in line for a spot in any of these classes that will fill up quickly. Purchasing a membership for a family on your list will also secure discounts on events for the family (adults and children) throughout the year.

Not only are these gifts tax-deductible, but since you are reading this, you simply have to scroll to the top of this page and click on any of the links above to begin shopping.

Make it a wonderful new year for your friends and family as well as the local artists and art organizations by filling their stockings with a year of art.

Happiest Holidays from the Cincinnati Art Snob.

But 20 Years Ago, Cincinnati Invested in Art's Dialog

The past couple of weeks have proven to be a challenge as I try to engage the local art community in some of the biggest news in the arts this season. I've spent this time trying to understand why despite "our vibrant art community," no one in Greater Cincinnati wants to participate in this discussion. As stressed in my previous post, the CAC has enjoyed a history of supporting the arts and artists through bold exhibitions and conversations. Yet today they fail to join other museums in standing up against censorship.

I know Cincinnati is conservative. Though I also know of many local artists and art patrons who are not. So why is it that everyone in Cincinnati seems to be shying away from this debate? A recent blog post on ArtsWave seems to shed light on the silence. "Everyone Wants to Live in a Special Place" is about finding and adopting the best message that will attract support for the arts. ArtsWave in fact criticizes discussions that include challenging topics like censorship in the arts saying:

"Reporters and bloggers love to shine a spotlight on fights like the one that erupted in recent days over a privately-funded exhibit at the publicly-funded Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. And opponents of broad support for the arts know they can undermine that support by tagging art as elitist for the few. We’ve seen it happen time and again.

Debates like this make even our friends and supporters leery of publicly backing the arts -- whether with money or advocacy."

Let me get this straight, ArtsWave is accusing art writers of undermining support for the arts?

Boldness in the arts including debates like this one have proven that support increases for the arts. In fact, despite the notion that uncomfortable debates damage support for the arts, the CAC continues to tap the Mapplethorpe controversy 20 years later.

To those of you who read my blog, you know this last point is what frustrates me most about the silence. So I finally looked to see what the atmosphere was really like here 20 years ago? In 1990, Cincinnati Magazine wrote an excellent review on the legal and artistic ramifications of the Mapplethorpe debate called Mapplethorpe: The Aftershock.

The cover story presents an incredibly dynamic discussion between community leaders both for and against censorship of the exhibition, and how this event was shaped by and shapes Greater Cincinnati. The details and perspectives included in the story are very interesting and I encourage you to read it. Reading it will give you an idea of the kind of comprehensive discussions you could find in the local mainstream (even conservative) media 20 years ago.

Unfortunately, the conversation is one we in Cincinnati seem to be afraid to have today. Even in this time of social networking when conversations should be occurring frequently and debates permitting insight provided by various voices, Cincinnati's art communities are silent to the crimes of censorship for which they once fought so hard.

Has ArtsWave's work to find the strongest message to support the local arts effectively held any arts discussion in 2010 hostage?

Where is the CAC?

Since the pulling of the David Wojnarowicz video, A Fire in My Belly, from the Smithsonian last week, art critics are not the only ones angry about their cowering to the demands of the Catholic League and John Boehner. Museums and galleries are now joining the protests. You can find the best coverage of this story on Tyler Green's blog at Artinfo.

First to lead in the move to support the artist's work was the Transformer Gallery in DC, which responded by installing the video. New York's New Museum has announce it too would install A Fire in My Belly.

Nearby museums are also stepping up their support for Wojnarowicz. The Indianapolis Museum of Art will show his Untitled (One day in this kid....) and Ohio's own Wexner Center just announced they will join other museums by hosting a screening of A Fire in My Belly tomorrow at 4:30.

So where is the CAC?

Since this video was pulled, a few people have recalled the Mapplethorpe controversy about 20 years ago. Some comments have compared the CAC's willingness to stand up for artists as opposed to the NPG's response. I've contacted the CAC for a statement of support for David Wojnarowicz. This is what Molly O'Toole, Director of Communication and Community Engagement sent to me:

"First of all, it needs to be said that we strongly stand behind the statement made through the AAMD. It is in direct alignment with our unique institutional (obviously) perspective on issues of censorship and political pressure on the arts. Specifically, I’d like to underscore the section that reads:
'freedom of expression is essential to the health and welfare of our communities and our nation. In this case, that takes the form of the rights and opportunities of art museums to present works of art that express different points of view. Discouraging the exchange of ideas undermines the principles of freedom of expression, plurality and tolerance on which our nation was founded. This includes the forcible withdrawal of a work of art from within an exhibition—and the threatening of an institution’s funding sources.'
It is alarming to be confronted with another example of the arts’ vulnerability to this kind of attack. Just as we saw 20 years ago, this public debate can shed light on that. And if there is something that history has shown, it’s that public support can change the dynamic. It’s possible, we’ve seen it happen.
The arts play an invaluable role in creating community and public dialogue and—in the end—the more we can show that, the more successful we will be at neutralizing this kind of attack in the long run."

This is not really the support for the artist I had hoped to get from an institution that stood firm with Mapplethorpe and in the 20 years since recalls their historic stand with the opening of nearly every exhibition since. This failure to openly and aggressively stand up against attacks and support artists is exactly what led to the decision to pull the video from Hide/Seek.

The CAC statement does shed light on an inherent problem with the arts in Cincinnati. The language of public support ($$) and arts creating a public dialogue to "neutralize this kind of attack" illustrates how much of Cincinnati sees the arts.

As I mentioned to Ms. O'Toole, our city suffers from a conversation in the arts that is upside down. As local arts organizations continue to work by first asking the public what they define as art, institutions like the CAC fail to take the lead in art's discourse. Yes, the arts may create a community and a public dialogue, but the public looks to the CAC, the CAM and the Taft as well as the number of private galleries to take the lead in the discussion. Especially with the current story, of any of Cincinnati's art organizations, the public should be able to comfortably defer to the CAC.

The CAC is preparing to open Keith Haring soon. I expect their press release will again mention Mapplethorpe, AIDS, street art, homosexuality and other seemingly controversial topics in art. But until they are willing to openly engage in discussion and actively support artists including David Wojnarowicz, the CAC will continue to permit the following lesson to be re-learned: silence leads to self-censorship.

Vote for National History Day in Ohio

National History Day in Ohio was accepted to compete for a $50,000 Pepsi Refresh Project Grant.

To win, we need to have as many people as possible vote for this project during the month of December. The grant will go for scholarships to low-income students, program materials, field trips to historic sites and teacher training to help increase National History Day participation in urban and rural schools.


Vote Daily
Please go to Pepsi Refresh at www.refresheverything.com/ohiohistoryday and vote for National History Day in Ohio. Once you register, you can vote once-a-day, every day in December. It’s simple and easy to do.

In addition to voting, you can ask your friends and family to vote for National History Day in Ohio, too! Just forward this e-mail to your mailing list. The more people to vote for us, the better our chances to win $50,000.

About National History Day
National History Day in Ohio is a year-long educational program where students in grades 4-12 do explore topics that interest them related to a specific theme. In the 2010-2011, it’s Debate and Diplomacy in History: Successes, Consequences, Failures. Students do research and present their work through exhibits, performances, documentaries, research papers or websites at regional and state and national competitions. Learn how National History Day in Ohio helps students excel by watching the Pepsi Refresh Video.

About Pepsi Refresh Project
In 2010, the Pepsi Refresh Project will give away more than $20 million to refresh the world, one idea at a time. Each month, Pepsi will award up to $1.3 million in grants to the ideas with the most votes. Pepsi accepts up to 1,000 new ideas every month and the public decides who wins.

What Does the NPG Really Learn from the CAC?

A little over 20 years after Dennis Barrie and the Contemporary Arts Center was acquitted of the charge of pandering obscenity with the Robert Mapplethorpe exhibit, our own John Boehner with Eric Cantor has successfully threatened the National Portrait Gallery into removing a work by David Wojnarowicz from its Hide/Seek exhibition. But this is not all. Boehner is seeking to remove the whole show, which the Smithsonian describes as "the first major exhibition to focus on sexual difference in the making of modern American portraiture."

With its acquittal in 1990, the CAC has rightfully taken pride in its place in American art history. With Barrie as director it refused to bow to the pressure of Jesse Helms and Citizens for Community Values. So why, 20 years later, are we witnessing such weakness at the Smithsonian? And if the CAC did effectively draw a line in the sand against art censorship, how does Greater Cincinnati's golden boy Boehner come out on top? Should the CAC step up to defend or condemn the NPG?

Citizens for Community Values, founded in 1983, believes they did not lose the Mapplethorpe battle. Citizens quite accurately noted the case proved "that not everything is protected by the first amendment." While the CAC was acquitted, the message was clear, Citizens for Community Values continues to watch them. This message was made much louder when the Cincinnati Institute of Fine Arts, now ArtsWave, temporarily cut their funding in the midst of the uproar. Now the ArtsWave and CAC walk hand in hand as they develop programming for the CAC and fundraising opportunities for ArtsWave, while tagging themselves with Mapplethorpe's name at every marketing turn of their respective campaigns.

For at least the last couple of years, controversy and entertainment have been the adopted exhibition strategy at the CAC. At the cost of art history, constructive dialogue, and education, the CAC and ArtsWave see Mapplethorpe as a marketing tool. (The upcoming Keith Haring 1978-1982 looks to be a perfect storm.) It should be no surprise then John Boehner, backed by Citizens for Community Values, feels he is on the right side of this debate. Like the Mapplethorpe show in 1990, Hide/Seek has become a noisemaker for politicians.

Unfortunately recent news indicates that along with the the CAC, the NPG has not learned in the last 20 years how to stand up for artists. Rather than holding in trust American art, these institutions have shamefully allowed others to interpret art for their own political or monetary gains.

Removing Artist David Wojnarowicz on World AIDS Day 2010

The National Portrait Gallery recently opened Hide/Seek to rave reviews. But after pressure from the Catholic League and conservatives, the NPG has pulled the work of David Wojnarowicz.

See the story and the artist's video clip , Ant-covered Jesus, that was removed from the exhibit here.

Has nothing changed since Mapplethorpe?

Coming up: Cincinnati's role to answer this question.

CAM Matthew Leininger Has an Eye for Fakes

The Art Newspaper is reporting US art museums are being approached by an art forger attempting to donate a number of forged works. While a registrar at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Matthew Leininger, now Director of Museum Services at the Cincinnati Art Museum made a list of these attempted donations over the past 20 years.

So far Leininger found 30 museums have been approached by a man named "Mark Landis," including the Art Institute of Chicago and the National Portrait Gallery in DC. The Cincinnati Art Museum has not been approached. Though it sounds as though he would enjoy meeting the forger again. Leininger says, “My dream would be to get all these works from all the different museums, host an exhibition in his name and invite him as the guest of honour. Then he’d really have heart problems.”

Cincinnati Art Museum Curator, James Crump's Book on Walker Evans makes Top 10

For the very first time, Library Journal announces its top ten best books list reflecting fiction and nonfiction titles that stood out as the very best in 2010. The list—compiled with the input of librarians and LJ's stable of book reviewers—represents an assortment of books appropriate for a broad reading audience.

Walker Evans Decade by Decade by James Crump made the list.

You can find the complete list here.

Is Cincinnati's Public Art Only Temporary?

With the LA Times story of Rodia's Watts Towers, I've been thinking about the state of permanence of urban art. With the popularity of street art, particularly graffiti and temporary murals, and "impromptu" performances, where is the investment in permanent art in urban spaces? Millions of dollars have been dropped on private or commercial real estate in the past decade. Are many these buildings and homes, which stand empty or unfinished, our new public art investment or just junk?

Watts Towers is a monument to the arts of found objects or "junk art." As such, it is the focus of a conversation on preservation through reused items. As an architectural sculpture of found object in an urban space, Watts Towers straddles many worlds and genres. Ironically, lending itself to various conversations on art and preservation Watts Towers risked flattening out and finally destruction. When a work art resists categorization, it risks being ignored. Fortunately Watts Towers was designated a National Landmark in 1990 so is itself protected.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, Cincinnati's MuralWorks program is a successful one that celebrates local communities and puts artists to work. It is a very popular program with mural unveilings occurring countless times in the year recognizing community and the arts. Unfortunately, the city has adopted it as a business plan to exploit. We are now in the middle of year two of street art programs. As Shepard Fairey's temporary murals and Paint the Street evolve into the city's most prominently choreographed eyesores, plans are being made for the next round of street art events. With the upcoming Keith Haring exhibit, I loathe to expect something with chalk to promote the streetcar. Whatever the plan, popularity rather than permanence is the likely focus.

Despite all of the city planning involving a streetcar and casinos requiring literal ground breaking resulting in permanent changes in the urban core, there is no hint of a commitment to the arts in these plans. As new buildings go up redefining the commercial landscape of the city, there seems to be no effort to make a sincere commitment to permanent outdoor sculpture in our city.

Of course an honest and successful public arts program in Cincinnati requires those currently in power cede their influence to those who can actually judge art. The current trend towards the temporary permit "safe" decisions requiring no knowledge of the arts. There are a number of local artists and art professionals who can be hired as part of a panel to commission public art for the city. A panel of art professionals rather than business professionals would insure the city's landscape with a sincere commitment to and knowledge of the arts and culture.

Rodia's Watts Towers is a powerful statement for street art made at a time when the arts was about preservation and permanence of culture. Not a temporary public display.