Emvergeoning

There’s an amazingly long winded Opinion piece by weirdie documentary filmmaker Errol Morris in today’s NYTimes. Morris fixates on a pair of famous photographs taken by Roger Fenton during the Crimean War. The salted paper prints are currently housed in the Harry Ransom Center at UT Austin. The entire article hinges on the ostensible staging of two photos in the “Valley of the Shadow of Death.” After reading a presumptuous Susan Sontag reference to these photos, Morris hopped on a plane to Crimea to investigate. The end result is an absurd conversation, with people measuring shadows and counting cannonballs along a roadside ravine in Crimea. I plucked this Fenton photo [circa 1855] from the Library of Congress’ Prints and Photographs archive, it is entitled “The Sanitary Commission.” *Note the cannonball in the foreground.

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Seems like Bruce Nauman’s Square Depression is the darling of the mega trifecta of biennials in Europe right now. Glasstire also seemed drawn to this image. Perhaps it is the longevity of the work at the hands of American artist Bruce Nauman that keeps his creations piquant. Nauman originally designed this “negative pyramid” in 1977. Abraham Orden at Artnet gives a vivid, succinct observation of this city block-sized sculpture. Somehow the pictures don’t convey the convex element of the work. Has anyone seen photos from the center of this piece?

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Today was the grand opening for the Mexican American Cultural Center in Austin. Read more about the show in the Chronicle. Just a year after the festivites for the University of Texas’ Blanton Museum of Art, there hasn’t been too much coverage or puffery like the ballons desai before the big blowout for the Alameda Smithsonian and aforementioned Blanton. The latest installation of Young Latino Artists, YLA #12, coincided with the Grand Opening of the MACC today. This year’s show, “Embracing Chaos,” features Gerald Lopez [ Corpus Christi], Jesus de la Rosa [McAllen, TX], Chuy Benitez [Houston], Anna Pilhoefer [El Paso], Lucilla Flores [Austin] and San Antonio’s own Enrique Martinez.

The Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin initiated this annual YLA exhibition to support emvergeoning artists. The YLA show has evolved into a career checkpoint for most young Mexican American artists in Texas. We’ll post a review later this month.

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I really didn’t start this blog to write about local politics, but I’ve been in contact with some staff members at the Alameda National Center for Latino Arts and Culture, and some of the things they are telling me need to come out. Rumors have been swirling around the Alameda for months; director Ruth Medellin was apparently forced out back in June, shortly after Laura Esparza left. At lease one board member has been forced out. According to sources, management showed the door to many of Medellin’s friends within weeks of her departure. From what I understand, the entire staff had to reapply for their jobs, and many were let go. Now, this is the kind of thing that happens at nonprofits, and from the outside, it’s hard to tell whether the purge was actually good or bad for the organization.

However, if this string of firings and resignations was the result of a decision to clean up the Alameda, you wouldn’t expect to see Founding Chairman Henry Muñoz III use Alameda staff to set up his personal parties, or his Clinton fundraiser tonight. And you wouldn’t expect him to call Alameda staff in the middle of the night to clean up after these parties at his home. Surely this would be seen as an ethical lapse? I’m hearing from sources at the Alameda that this kind of behavior is typical. I’m hearing that Alameda maintenance staff are often sent to Muñoz’ house to make repairs or do landscaping.
One source, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, believes that the Museo Alameda itself is being “offered” for parties thrown by Muñoz’ business associates and potential donors. At these late night soirées, sometimes with hundreds of attendees, alcohol and food is served in the exhibit spaces. And of course, Alameda staff are pulled away from their jobs to set up and clean up the parties. I have not been able to confirm that these parties are thrown at no cost; if the space is being rented for a fair price, many of the ethical concerns over the use of the space vanish.

There are there are also worries about cronyism. Eliseo Rios was recently hired as the director of administration and is a member of the management committee which is charged with running the Alameda temporarily while also searching for Medellin’s replacement. Rios apparently has no experience or qualifications in the art world or the museum world (beyond his work at Alameda); until recently he worked at Cartel Creativo, which handles Latino-targeted advertising for Labatt. He majored in finance and marketing.

Now I think the Alameda is a great thing for San Antonio; I’ve seen some really good contemporary art shows there (e.g. Seis Who), and I think it has fantastic potential to develop a rich narrative or dialectic of Latino culture that embraces the historical and the contemporary. But those who have put in long hours trying to make the Alameda what it is are saddened to see its resources squandered for personal gain. In the wake of the Lawrence Small scandal, we should all be wary of this behavior. As one source says, “We are not Henry Muñoz III, and contrary to popular belief we are NOT HIS museum.”

At the very least the Alameda needs to conduct an internal investigation into Muñoz’ use of Alameda resources for private (non-fund raising) functions. The Alameda receives public funds as well, and this may be a situation in which the city needs to conduct its own investigation. I’d also like to see the Express-News and the Current dig deeper into this story. They have skirted around the issue, but I think we need to get to the heart of it and look at the actions of Henry Muñoz.

Please leave clarifications or any other information you want to share in comments.

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The Artist Foundation just posted the application for the 2008 grant period on their web site. All applications must be submitted through the web site this year (don’t worry, they’ve gone a long way toward making the site usable).

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the grant, it offers up to $5,000 for professional Bexar County artists to create original works of art in the areas of literary arts, visual arts, media arts, and performing arts, as well as new awards in the areas of classical singing, set design, and costume design. (Their definition of “professional” is somewhat loose, but you have to demonstrate that you’ve spent some real time and energy focused on producing new work). The deadline is September 14.

Although this is basically the same deal as last year, there are a few changes. Rather than awarding one grant per category, the Foundation plans to dole out 15 grants across the 7 categories. In addition, all 15 grant recipients will automatically be considered for an additional $7,500 award for artistic excellence.

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Speaking of money, the Arts Writers Grant Program, funded by Creative Capital and the Andy Warhol Foundation, is now accepting applications for their 2007 cycle (deadline is September 12). Categories include books, articles, short-form writing (1,000 words or less), and “new and alternative media”. But if you’re thinking about applying, keep this mind:

Though nearly every project given in the last round of this grant project is legitimate and deserving, the grantees are hardly an undistinguished bunch. Every single one has a university affiliation (except for the director of the Drawing Center), a quarter of them are editors at Artforum, and though I can’t be positive, I don’t think a single one is under 30, most over 40.

Tyler Green, linking to that post at The Expanded Field also comments: “Last year the foundation asked me to encourage writers who blog to apply. This year? I’d say don’t bother. After seeing who the grantees (and the panelists) were last year, I’m not.”

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A few days ago a friend sent me this article reporting that stock in Sotheby’s dropped in value by over 11% in two days due to concerns that the super-duper rich are now only super rich, and won’t be buying as much art. That is to say, market performance in general  impacts on the art market specifically. Now Todd Gibson, Tyler Green’s stand-in at Modern Art Notes, points out that the art market has been growing too quickly, and was due for a realignment anyway.

This is probably true, but in my opinion, the art market will continue on a long-term upward trend. As China becomes more liberalized, we will see its economy grow substantially, and a new upper-class elite, participating economically and culturally with the Western world, will start buying up more and more art. Similar trends could emerge in India and other countries as well.

But I’m also interested in what the economic situation does to the actual art. There has been concern lately that the overheated art market is leading us to a point where the art follows the money, rather than the other way around. The importance of critics and curators is ebbing as value is determined more by major private collectors than major art institutions. So if these concerns are valid, then perhaps a cooling of the market will lead to more meaningful work as the artists try to create markets rather than following them. It’ll be interesting to watch, in any case.

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Everybody has their own story about who won this year, Please post yours in the comments below.

All of these photos (and bunches more with labels) are located here.

click on the link below for more action!

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… but for those of you foolish enough to indoctrinate your youngins (ages 7-10) early, SAMA’s offering a Summer Youth Program that’ll help your kids “begin to understand how the museum collection can serve as a learning tool while encouraging the exploration of new ideas and concepts. In addition, students will learn to develop a sense of life-long experimentation, enhancing their abilities to think critically.” Yikes! Well, at least it’ll get ‘em outta the house…. The program runs from July 23 – 27, 10am to 3pm. The instructor is Sabra Booth, longtime San Antonio artist and teacher.

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Last month the Express-News reported that Ruth Medellin, executive director of the Alameda National Center for Latino Arts and Culture, will be leaving the organization. This comes on the heals of Laura Esparza’s departure from the directorship of Museo Alameda (which is run by the Alameda Center). However, this hardly the whole story.

According to Emvergeoning’s sources, virtually the entire Alameda staff will have to reapply to their jobs if they want to stay with the organization, while the Alameda conducts a national search to replace not just the executive director, but her staff as well. There were many problems with the launch of the Museo Alameda, and the organization had to make moves to address these problems. The exhibitions lacked vision; the wall text was riddled with errors; at least one commissioned artist wasn’t even reimbursed for out-of-pocket expenses in the tens of thousands of dollars, and had to hire a collector.  However, despite problems with the opening of the museum (documented in part by the New York Times), I have to wonder if this purge is the wisest course of action at this juncture.

Now I don’t have an MBA, and I certainly don’t know about the internal politics of the Alameda, but to me it would seem much more reasonable to allow the incoming director to replace staff as needed, rather than throwing the entire organization into turmoil.

In the Express-News piece, founding chairman Henry Muñoz III says, “We’ve got senior-level people both at the museum and the Alameda, and they’re going to see us through this transition.” Are they going to remain committed to the Alameda during this time, not knowing who they will be working for or with at the end of the transition? Maybe it would be worthwhile for a full-time reporter to follow up on this purge, so we could learn more about the underlying causes and potential repercussions of the move.

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