Newswire

YouTube announced a new subscription service Thursday, opening the door to a whole new way to pay for content on the popular video sharing site, and possibly changing the game for over-the-internet video delivery. A pilot program allows users to subscribe for a 99¢- $2.99 per month to thirty channels, and will test whether users who will watch through 30 second ads to get the videos they want will pay up front. Stay tuned!

Bill FitzGibbons, Executive Director for the Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum for more than 10 years, will resign that post effective June 15th. FitzGibbons will remain as director of special projects on a reduced-hours basis.

“We will miss Bill as Executive Director, but look forward to his continued involvement with our special projects and supporting our mission,” said Ed Valdespino, Blue Star’s board chair. “Under his leadership, Blue Star has tripled its budget, developed a thriving high school art program (MOSAIC), shown hundreds of local, regional and international artists, initiated a residency program in Germany for San Antonio artists and returned over $500,000 to San Antonio artists through its fundraisers.”

FitzGibbons’ step-away coincides with a spate of new commissions for the prolific public artist. According to Valdespino, FitzGibbons has “18 months to 2 years of work lined up,” with one major project in Birmingham, Alabama and “he can only be in one place at a time.”

The Board has named a committee to begin the search for a new executive director, which may take 3-6 months.

Canyon, 1959, Robert Rauschenberg

In the United States, the first-sale doctrine prevents artists from profiting from resales of their work, but Europeans have granted droit de suite (French for “right to follow”) to artists for more than a hundred years, partly out of sympathy for starving artists and partly out of respect for intellectual property, notions not so highly regarded by the American legal system.

A couple of weeks ago, Congressman Jerrold Nadler of New York vowed to re-introduce his stalled house bill, which he said addressed a “serious lack of equity [in] the distribution of revenue generated by sales and resales of works of art.” The U.S. Copyright Office is expected to issue a report soon and it is likely that the bill, which “would set aside a royalty rate of 7% for resales over $10,000 at large auction houses, half of which would go to the artists, and half to nonprofit art museums,” will be reintroduced this session.

This should be an interesting one to follow. For full details on the bill, there’s an in-depth Art in America article by Tracy Zwick, at the end of which she recounts a famous outburst by Texas artist Robert Rauschenberg. When one of his pieces, which he originally sold for $900, sold at auction fifteen years later for $85,000, he yelled at the seller, “I’ve been working my ass off for you to make that profit!”

P.S. Rauschenberg was no stranger to debt-related ruckuses:  During the 1998 exhibition Robert Rauschenberg: A Retrospective,  fifteen works were confiscated from the Menil Collection for a week over unpaid storage fees. In an even more surreal money fight, heirs to Rauschenberg’s Canyon were sent a $29 million tax bill by the IRS just last year. The 1959 combine includes a stuffed bald eagle (and is, therefore, prohibited by federal law from resale), so the heirs claimed it had zero value. That makes perfect sense and gives a very real meaning to the word “priceless,” but they gave up the fight and ended up donating the work to the MoMA.

According to Eater Houston editor Eric Sandler, hip hop legend Bun B will collaborate with one of his favorite Houston restaurateurs to create a “performance art breakfast” in conjunction with this summer’s Free Press Summer Fest. An addition to the Blaffer Museum’s Feast: A Dinner Series, the plan is that Uchi chefs will work with artists on meals inspired by specific artworks. While Sandler tracks down more details and confirmations, local artists/foodies are already fantasizing about the possibilities.

The National Endowment for the Arts has announced it’s Art Works Grants, and 31 Texas nonprofits have benefited, to the tune of $788,500, total. Among the many organizations presenting primarily performance and music, many visual arts orgs shared a $382,000 slice of the payola.

Houston and Dallas, of course, scored the most NEA cash:

Big Thought (formerly Young Audiences of Greater Dallas) will get $37,000 to support professional development for teaching artists.

The Nasher Sculpture Center gets $60,000 to support Nasher XChange: 10 Years, 10 Artists, 10 Sites: Bringing Dallas Together, a public art installation. The project, designed to commemorate the center’s tenth anniversary, will feature temporary projects at locations throughout Dallas by artists such as Vicki Meek, Rick Lowe, Liz Larner, Alfredo Jaar, Ruben Ochoa, the Good Bad Art Collective, and others.

Houston Arts Alliance gets $55,000 to support the Houston Folklife and Traditional Arts Program, which will identify and present folk arts of the
city.

Spacetaker/Fresh Arts will get $15,000 to support professional development workshops for artists and arts organizations in Texas.

The University of Houston will get $50,000 to support artist projects by the likes of Michael Rakowitz, Mary Ellen Carroll, Theaster Gates, Tom Marioni and others in conjunction with  their exhibition Feast: Radical Hospitality in Contemporary Art.

Rice University gets $25,000 to support Cite, Rice Design Alliance’s architecture and design magazine.

Houston’s DiverseWorks ArtSpace will get $35,000 to support the DiverseDialogue Series. Artists including BodyCartography Project, Karen Sherman, Wu Tsang, and Heather & Ivan Morrison, will create and present works while in residence.

Followed by a respectable grab by grant-savvy Austin:

Austin’s AMOA/Arthouse gets $20,000 to support the Young Artists and Advanced Young Artists studio based arts education programs for high school students. Through weekly studio sessions, professional artists will mentor teens and guide them in the process of art making and portfolio development.

Women & Their Work in Austin will get $20,000 to support the Art Alive Project. Project activities include the completion of an online archive documenting the organization’s 35 year history, including more than 3,000 images, biographical information, video footage, and critical writing.

Austin’s Fusebox Festival will get $20,000 to present new works.

Elsewhere around the state, UT of the Permian Basin in Odessa will get $15,000 to support Pots ‘n’ Prints, a mobile ceramic and printmaking workshop for teachers, students, and rural artists, and Blue Star Contemporary Art Center in San Antonio will get $30,000 to support the exhibition Texas Tough. The exhibition will feature works in a variety of media by contemporary Texas women artists.

According to the NEA’s website, the grant program “supports the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and the strengthening of communities through the arts.

The complete list of NEA Art Works Grants for Spring is here.

On Saturday, May 11, The McKinney Avenue Contemporary is holding a night of Middle Eastern music, food and film around the last screening of artist Wael Shawky’s Cabaret Crusades: Horror Show File and Cabaret Crusades: The Path to Cairo. The Egyptian artist retells the story of the crusades with marionettes.

Acclaimed Hand Drummer Jamal Mohamed joins clarinetist Jonathan Jones for ancient rhythms and futuristic improvisations from 6-7pm, the screenings from 7-8:30pm, with discussion afterwards with Heather Hunt, Medieval Studies and Arabic language specialist from 8:30-9:00pm.

Inversion, 2005, Houston

Dean Ruck and Dan Havel’s popular 2005 architectural intervention, Inversion, has been pirated by admakers for Honda, according to a lawsuit the Houston artists filed last week. The ad, titled “Leap” shows a man driving a new Honda CR-V thorugh a magical portal that opens in a wooden house, inspired by the artist’s transformation of the Houston Art League’s old buildings on Montrose Blvd. Although the ad’s producers, UK-based Rogue Productions, cleared the project with the Houston artists last year, Havel and Ruck, seeing the literalness of the ad’s reproduction of their idea, are suing for more compensation.

Let’s hope Patrick Renner, the sculptor currently building “Funnel Tunnel”, an Inversion-inspired public art piece near the site of the original, has got his permissions in writing!

photo by Ralph Lauer

Fort Worth artist Marshall Harris has won the $50,000 Hunting Art Prize 2013 with “Round Up: B.F. Smith & Son Saddlery Circa 1940-1942″ a life sized, highly detailed graphite drawing of a vintage saddle. The prize was announced at an evening awards gala on Saturday, May 4, at the Friedkin Companies Campus, Gulf States Toyota, in Houston. Round Up was chosen from among 1600 entries in this year’s competition by a panel of three jurors: Karlota Contreras-Koterbay, Curator at Slocumb Galleries in Johnson City, Tennessee; Jeanne Klein, Collector and Advisory Council Member of the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas; and Margaret Winslow, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington.

Better start getting ready- the opening of the new Renzo Piano addition to Louis Kahn’s already perfect, but not quite large enough Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth has a DATE! The new respectful echo/unthinkable desecration (depending) begins either echoing or desecrating in earnest on November 27, 2013, complete with Piano’s signature light filtering scrims and louvers, 450-foot-deep geothermal wells to help with the air conditioning, and specially designed lightweight soil that covers the Museum’s underground parking structure while still growing large trees.

Most importantly, the new building will encourage visitors to the Kimbell to use the front door, designed by a less-than-practical Kahn to face the green lawn, not the parking lot, which has effectively made the underground back entrance the museum’s main access point for years.

The Kimbell’s press release goes on for hundreds of words describing the addition, but here’s a picture:

Every other spring, graphic novelist Mat Johnson teaches a graphic novel workshop at the University of Houston, a collaborative offering of UH’s esteemed Creative Writing Program and almost as esteemed Mitchell Center. Since everyone dreams of fame as a graphic novelist, if they haven’t achieved it already, the course is attractive.

This evening, they’re celebrating the release of the first printed anthology of students’ class projects- Tier One, from “Cougar Comics,” which will be available 6 – 8 p.m., May 6 at Alabama Song (2521 Oakdale St.). The first 100 attendees will receive a free copy of the book. Authors and artists will be on hand to sign copies.

Student writers included in the anthology include Olga Feliciano, Will Wilkinson, Dickson Lam, Zachary Martin, Thomas Frey, Laura Fletcher, Diego Vicent, Sebastian Montes, and Bryan Owens, in collaboration with artists Alex Riegel, Maria-Elisa Heg, AnnaMaria Bryant, Ted Closson, Jarrod Perez, and Brett Owens.

What do you get when you cram dozens of “creatives” into a Michael Hsu-renovated warehouse complex? Canopy! Austin’s newest creative complex on Springdale road. The project anchored by nonprofit org Big Medium, will include studios, galleries, outdoor meeting spaces, and eventually, a cafe. It’s all done, and they’re holding “First Look” an artists’ studio tour on May 11-12 to show off.

JulieSpeed, photo by Rino Pizzi

Marfa artist Julie Speed has been named the State Two-dimensional artist for 2014, and Ken Little of San Antonio has been given the honor in the three-dimensional category.

Speed, known for her narrative paintings and prints, was born in Chicago and arrived in Texas in 1978 and is the subject of two monographs by the UT Press: Julie Speed: Paintings, Constructions, and Works on Paper (2004), and SPEED ART:2003-2009 (2009).

Ken Little and friends

Little, who does a little of everything, was born in Canyon, Texas in 1947, received an MFA from the University of Utah in 1972, and has taught at UTSA since 1988. He also has two monographs: Ken Dawson Little: A Catalog of Works, and Ken Dawson Little: A Bestiary of Damaged Goods.

Texas State Artists don’t have to have two monographs to be selected;  they are chosen by a committee of the state legislature, from a pool of nominees supplies by the Texas Comission on the Arts. Here’s some fun facts about the program from the TCA website:

Q: What do Texas State Artists do?
A: Texas State Artists serve one-year terms and represent the state’s artistic legacy.

Q: What is the benefit of being named a Texas State Artist?
A: State artists receive statewide recognition, and the designation provides a unique marketing opportunity.

Q: Who can nominate?
A: Citizens of Texas may submit nominations in any of the four categories, and self-nominations are encouraged.

Jeffrey Grove, the DMA’s Senior Curator of Contemporary Art has been re-purposed; his new title is Museum’s Senior Curator of Special Projects & Research, a new position described as involving “increased attention to research initiatives and the development of collaborations with living artists.”

DMA Director Maxwell Anderson called the move an “expansion of our leadership team:” Grove’s sideways promotion is effective immediately, and the museum is launching a national search to fill his old job.

Grove is currently working on projects with contemporary artists Jim Hodges, scheduled to open on October 6, 2014; Isa Genken, set for September 14, 2014, and Michaël Borremans in March 2015.

This past week, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, was recognized with two honors: in London, the exhibition catalogue WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath won the “Best Photography Book Award” at the 2013 Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards and, in Austin, Glassell School of Art director Joseph Havel was appointed a State Three Dimensional Artist by the Texas State Legislature, just so you know.

Jim Woodson, not associated with the Museum of Fine arts, was named 2013 Texas State 2-Dimensional artist. There’s a whole other set of artists picked out for 2014, but that’s another post!

“500X in a Box,” box of a single work by every member of 500X in 1989. Charles Dee Mitchell Collection.

CentralTrak, the UT Dallas artist residency program is hosting yet another panel discussion on the health and future of the Dallas art scene tonight, Thursday, May 2, at 7 p.m.

Panelists this time around include Peter Doroshenko, Executive Director at the Dallas Contemporary; Kevin Ruben Jacobs is the owner of Oliver Francis Gallery; Artist Lucy Kirkman, a  member of Socialized Contemporary Artists Bureau Collective (S.C.A.B), and conspirator in DTFU, an alternative gallery space in Dallas; and Richard Patterson, YBA, an artist currently based in Dallas, Texas.

The moderator will be Leigh Arnold, who ought to know-she’s  coordinating the Dallas Museum of Art’s Dallasites: Charting Contemporary Art, 1963 to Present project. The talk is just another gem in CentralTrak’s NEXT TOPIC lecture series.

The San Antonio Art League & Museum has given Claire Golden the this year’s Ethel T. Drought Founders Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts. The award will be presented on Wednesday, May 15 at a cocktail reception at the Argyle from 5-7 p.m.

Mrs. Golden grew up in a house on E. Magnolia St. near St. Mary’s Street and attended Harding Black’s ceramics classes for children in a streetcar set up behind the Witte Museum, and later attended the University of Texas where she majored in violin. She played with the UT orchestra, the Austin Symphony, and was one of two violins in Fess Parker’s dance band, before Parker went on to fame as Davy Crockett in 1954. While at UT, Mrs. Golden was involved with the Paul Baker Theater and, when she had children of her own, became active in organizing children’s theater in San Antonio.

Her brother was Howard Nevelow who, after attending the Art Students League of New York, became the renowned visual director for Delman Shoes, whose flagship store was located within Bergdorf Goodman. “The window displays were always related to shoes,” explains Mrs. Golden, “but the shoes were secondary to the artistic whole.” Mrs. Golden has many of the pieces Nevelow created for Delman’s three main windows on Fifth Avenue, as well as a gift he received from Andy Warhol of his drawings for a children’s coloring book that now hang in her home. Nevelow’s work is featured in numerous publications, including The American Store Window and Fashion and Surrealism. When the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened the Landmark Shoe Collection, Nevelow was invited to design the displays for the permanent installation.

Her husband, J. Y. Golden, was an art collector and a member of the board of the San Antonio Museum of Art. “He and Marion Oettinger had a great rapport,” says Mrs. Golden, referring to SAMA’s former director and current curator of Latin American Art. Mr. and Mrs. Golden travelled extensively throughout Latin America to bring back textiles, ethnic jewelry and art, and other handcrafted items for SAMA’s Latin American Art department’s annual fundraiser Bazar Sabado, which helped pay for speakers, exhibitions and important acquisitions.

For many years, Mrs. Golden has worked with the San Antonio Conservation Society, where she currently heads the committee of Properties Accession, Deaccession and Inventory. She meticulously restored a 1919 Alamo Heights home, the gardens of which were showcased in the first San Antonio Garden Conservancy Open Days tour in 2008. The gardens feature a series of cascading ponds engineered by San Antonio architect Don McDonald and faux bois concrete pieces by Carlos Cortés.

Fred Baldwin and Wendy Watriss in Krasnodar. photo: Dmitry Fisenko

“After 26 years creating and developing FotoFest, it is time for new leadership,” say FotoFest Co-founders Wendy Watriss and Fred Baldwin. “As part of FotoFest’s Board of Directors, we are inviting nominations and applications for the position of Executive Director of FotoFest.”

Fotofest is Watriss and Baldwin’s baby: they have led the development of the organization since its founding in 1983, growing it from a citywide Month of Photography in 1986, into an organization that sponsors four to six new photographic exhibitions and events in Houston each year, traveling exhibitions, the literacy through photography program, and its headliner, the sprawling Fotofest biennial, with an average annual budget of $1.7 million+ for the Biennial years and $800,000 for non-Biennial years.

The new Director will have four big shoes to fill, leading and overseeing the org’s future growth. The application deadline for the job is July 1, 2013

Indígenas de Ixtlahuaca, México, n.d., a rare Kahlo image of people

San Antonio collector Susan Toomey Frost has gifted Texas State U’s Witliff Collection with 120 photographs, postcards, booklets, and books documenting the life and work of guillermo Kahlo, Frida’s father, a Mexico city architectural photographer.

It’s Frost’s third gift to the Witliff, previous gift include a collection of works by photographer Hugo Brehme, and a significant archive of materials by photographer Luis Márquez, and a table inlaid with San Jose tiles celebrating the 1936 Texas Centennial. She’s is the author of Timeless Mexico: The Photographs of Hugo Brehme, published by the Wittliff (2011),  and Colors on Clay from Trinity University Press (2009).

Frost’s donation includes rarities such as Indígenas de Ixtlahuaca, one of the few Kahlo images of people, a sleeved booklet of ten views titled Recuerdo de la Ciudad de México, and a bifold panoramic postcard of a street scene with the Church of Santo Domingo. There are also 14 silver gelatin architectural prints of churches and buildings in Cholula, Metepec, Mexico City, Puebla, San Miguel de Allende, Tepotzotlán, and Tlaxcala.

Carl Wilhelm Kahlo was born October 26, 1872, in Baden-Baden, Germany. At 19, he traveled to Veracruz and subsequently moved to Mexico City where he became known as Guillermo Kahlo. He started as an apprentice to the photographer Antonio Calderón and opened his own studio in 1901, garnering commissions from the periodicals El mundo ilustrado and Semanario ilustrado. Beginning in 1904, he received government commissions to inventory the nation’s monuments, including churches near the capitol building and the former presidential residence in Chapultepec Park. Kahlo suffered throughout his life with epilepsy and died peacefully in his sleep in April 1941.

The Amon Carter Museum has proudly announced the acquisition of “The Caves,” a painting by prominent 19th century African-American artist Robert Seldon Duncanson (1821–1872), from the family of Cincinnati abolitionist Richard Sutton Rust (1815–1906). Duncanson was a self-taught, black artist from Cincinnati and a leading landscape painter of his time, influenced by Thomas Cole and the Hudson River School.

Michael Henderson, has been selected as the new chair of the Sam Houston State University Art Department, after the departure of longtime chair Tony Shipp, who stepped down in the fall 2012 amid an ongoing sexual harassment scandal. The university is in the middle of the delicate process of seeking accreditation from the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. Henderson, who has been teaching at SHSU since 2001 and developed the school’s popular degree program in Computer Animation,  is a founding member of BOX13 Art Space in Houston. He will begin his new position in the fall.