Continuing Article Round Up

Thursday, September 29, 2005

This Sunday, the Register Guard ran a review of the Mayor's Art Show along with a review of the Salon, written by Bob Keefer:

[in reference to Rosalie Juhl's "Living in Creative Process"] But this is the first time the mayor's show - an annual Eugene rite occasionally accused of stuffiness - has incorporated a live human being as an artwork.


The Eugene Weekly has an excellent View Point written by fellow juror Mike E. Walsh.

What we still need, desperately, is a stronger sense of our own artistic history as a city. We need a sense that art made in Lane County can emerge from the sphere of private lives (whether those of artist, collector, or their friends) and take on a meaningfully public, historical dimension. What this means is a commitment to the ongoing preservation and re-examination of art exhibitions, particularly those in the non-profit sector, to mount analytical and critical historical exhibits. Finally, we must encourage the publication of exhibition catalogs, books and articles that document and examine the work presented.


Last week's Eugene Weekly featured Sylvie Pederson's more ample review of the Salon.

Interestingly she picks up on a point that cause some discussion among us jurors, the role of giclee prints and computer printing in the art world:

Under the label photography, snapshots abound, some of them poor inkjet prints, others digitally enhanced to look like paintings, a trend I fear will only grow. Sometimes the word photograph refers to a digital collage of found images — a definite misnomer. Painters, sculptors and professional photographers provide us with a precise indication of the media and methods they use. To be taken seriously, providers of digital images need to follow suit.

Giclée prints of original works are becoming popular, but I feel cheated where I expect an original, as with Annette Gurdjian's Two Women Kissing, which is a reproduction of a very strong painting over a photograph. Gurdjian says the original was sold, but she likes the painting so much she made a copy, which is also more affordable for many people.