Denis Kitchen at entry to Eisner exhibit - photo by Stacey Kitchen
Last week, CAPE partner Denis Kitchen and the Brazilian filmmaker Marisa Furtado co-curated an exhibition called The Living Spirit of Will Eisner. The show was on display at Rio Comicon (Rio de Janerio) for 4 days, it will reopen in mid-November at the Centro Cultural São Paulo (November 15 to December 18, 2011). It features 107 works by Will Eisner, plus a unique bronze sculpture of The Spirit, sketchbooks, publications and other materials related to Eisner's life and long career. At this link, you can see many photos of the exhibit, http://www.cape-comicart.com/exhibitions/eisner_in_rio_de_janeiro
Earlier this week, I attended the Beyond Dynamic Adaptability conference, the second in a series of free events, aimed at helping artists and arts institutions deal with the rapidly changing cultural & economic environment in the US. The conference was sponsored by The San Francisco Foundation, The Wallace Foundation, the San Francisco Arts Commission and Grants for the Arts (The San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund). It was held at the Marine’s Memorial Club/Hotel on Sutter Street, a classic 1920’s Beaux-Arts hotel that was originally dedicated as a “living memorial” to the U.S. Marines who served in the Pacific during World War II. I was relieved to see that they had refurbished the theatre since the last time I was there, although the leg room in the balcony still reminds me of flying coach (and not in a good way).
Anyway, the theme of this year’s event was adapting to on-line social networking. Museums, symphonies, creators, theatres, small arts organizations, and nearly everyone else involved in the arts is trying to get a handle on how contemporary, plugged in audiences want to participate in the arts, and how they can best communicate with this audience. Financial survival is a big issue, as artists and arts organizations find themselves in a squeeze between reduced arts funding in general, and an audience that isn’t stimulated by the traditional formats arts institutions have relied on for decades. One of the conference participants told the story of talking to a representative of a government grant-giving entity, who said (paraphrase) “You want people to participate in the arts? People are doing everything for themselves now, painting, dancing, singing on street corners. You people should declare victory and go home.” Not a great message if you’ve dedicated your life to your craft and want to make a living at it. What to do? This theme of inclusion, the expectation of audience participation on some level, has been the theme of almost every arts conference I’ve attended in last three years. This event was particularly interesting because audiences in the SF Bay Area must be about the most plugged in and culturally active community in the country aside from New York.
Although there were many points of interest, I found the opening panel to be the most entertaining and informative. John Killacky (Exec Director, Flynn Center) moderated a panel that included Ben Cameron (Doris Duke Charitable Foundation), Dante Di Loreto (Exec Producer of Glee and American Horror Story), Josephine Ramirez (Program Director, Irvine Foundation), and Nina Simon (Exec Director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History &; author of Museum 2.0).
Cameron (see his TED session on YouTube, above), really encompassed the goals and challenges discussed throughout the entire event ) asked, “what if the current arts environment is comparable to the religious reformation that happened in the 16th century”? Technological advances like the printing press allowed more people to learn and communicate, and they began to question whether they actually needed a mediated religious experience, many decided that it was possible to talk to God without the Church as a middleman. Cameron sees contemporary arts institutions in the position of the Church, trying to keep their footing as they figure out how best to work with an audience that has endless other options for learning, cultural participation and entertainment.
Di Loreto, probably one of the most sought after producers in Hollywood, commented that he was humbled by his co-presenters, and wasn’t sure why he was invited to participate. He had a good story to tell though, as a huge part of the stupendous success of Glee is driven by fans participating in social media. He told us that when the pilot of Glee aired, no one involved in the production had any idea that fans would begin to post their own videos mimicking the performances and choreography. Glee was a success, the moderator commented, because the producers decided not to enforce copyright infringement instead of zealous protecting their brand and image, allowing the community to form organically. Apparently, Say a Little Prayer for You was a fan favorite, and Di Loreto showed a fan video by “The Chunky Hunks,” as an example. He said he was blown away by the enthusiasm of the fans, and hoped that his quirky new show, American Horror Story, could generate the same kind of energy.
He was followed by Ramirez, who was Vice President of Programming and Planning for the Music Center in Los Angeles before coming to the Irvine Foundation. She presented research the IF had undertaken to understand audience involvement and expectations, from the receptive (spectator) to complete participation (audience as artist) and several variations in-between. Her chart is really worth a thousand words, you can see it here on the Irvine Foundation site.
The last panelist was Nina Simon, a force of nature that took over the non-descript Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History and made it a model of artist/visitor collaboration. Her advice was both funny and practical. “Tell your staff to get furniture off the street, when your trustees see it, they’ll gasp and give you better furniture” (this information was tweeted by about 20 attendees). Post-it notes were one of the stars of this conference, as the audience input mechanism of choice. Simon used post-its to get visitor commentary on exhibits, suggestions on improvements, and to find potential volunteers. I haven’t been to this museum in years, I’m going to have to go back there now, and check it out.
The conference included several arts performances. The one that most sticks in my mind was a short playlet by Liz Duffy Adams presented by the Crowded Fire Theatre Company, Talkback, A Play about Talkbacks, in which several actors posing as critical audience members give post-performance feedback to an actor, actress, playwright, director and dramaturge sitting onstage. After a few comments, it becomes clear that the play being discussed is Hamlet. “The cast is too big. It’s too long. Who the Hell is Yorick”? By the end, the critics were demanding a complete rewrite, which the playwright ultimately refused. “He’s not going anywhere with THAT attitude,” the “Director” commented. Another piece that really exemplified the theme of the day was Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir, 2052 people singing separately yet together through YouTube. I missed “The Art Bar” which had a whole afternoon of performances.
I finished the morning with three short sessions by Alan Brown & Rebecca Ratzkin (WolfBrown); Linda Ronstadt & Eugene Rodriguez (Los Cenzontles); and Jessica Lustig (Artistic Director, YouTube Symphony). Brown and Ratzkin were commissioned to create a report for this event, exploring the bell curve of audience participation from the initial decision to buy a ticket, through the performance and resulting post-performance response. Lustig spoke about how she began the YouTube symphony, the audition process, and the 2011 Grand Finale concert with Michael Tilson Thomas at the Sydney Opera House (embedded below). Ronstadt and Rodriguez spoke about their long collaboration and the importance of passing on cultural traditions.
After lunch (Café de la Presse, yay!), there were breakout panels. I choose one about how to invite audiences into active collaboration. This one was moderated by Nina Simon, and included Rudolf Frieling (SFMoMA); Rene de Guzman (Oakland Museum of California); Jessica Lustig; Sabrina Merlo (Maker Faire); Sean San Jose (Intersection for the Arts/Campo Santo); and Lise Swenson (filmmaker). The thing that was fascinating here was listening to the experiences of such a diverse range of cultural producers with very different problems and solutions. As an arts professional, and as a web designer that specializes in usability, I was intrigued by the issues raised in this conference, loved to hear the war stories of the participants, and most of all, was happy to be exposed to works and artists I was unaware of that are using the new technologies with great results.
I hope this post will mark my return to more frequent blogging. I’ve been distracted with other things, and got behind both on writing, and all the art that is on view in San Francisco’s galleries and museums. In an effort to get back on track, I recently visited three downtown galleries: Modernism, the Cartoon Art Museum, and Crown Point Press.
The front gallery at Modernism featured large black & white photos from Michael Dweck’s Habana Libre series, a look at the exclusive world of the privileged class in Cuba. While these were really spectacular, I must admit that the number one thing that always attracts my attention is the gallery director’s office, which is a maze of stacked art books that happens to have a desk in the middle. I’m a book loving art historian, and I just know that there are treasures to be found in there. But alas, rooting around in stranger’s offices while they aren’t around could get you arrested, so I view it much like another work on display.
Le Corbusier, Coeur Sur La Main (1948)
Pulling myself away from this visual eavesdropping, I found myself promptly sucked into an extensive selection of works by Le Corbusier (part of the Modern Masters: Works from the 1910s to 1960s), particularly, his Coeur Sur La Main (1948), a smallish piece with a split personality. Is it about opposites, male & female? A man exploring his feminine side? Even the head/face seem androgynous. I was fascinated with the cool/warm contrast and the paint splotches in the white area on the left. When you see the piece in real life, the orange spatters look very much like blood. I also spent a lot of time looking at Fernand Leger’s Troncs D’Arbre (1928). The organic forms and strong verticals gave it a dominating presence, even though it is not a large piece.
A couple of blocks away, the Cartoon Art Museum had several exhibits of interest. 70 Years of Archie, Green Lantern, Last Stop Troubletown, and Cartoonists Remember: September 11, 2001 – 2011. I’m sorry to tell the Archie fans among my readers that I wasn’t blown away by this exhibit. I have great nostalgia for the Archie comics of my childhood, and recognize the importance of Archie as a social and cultural mirror. As an art exhibition, the drawings, all done in the standard Archie style, didn’t show a lot of variation. They were all well-drawn, with a good choice of stories, but the differences between the artist’s interpretations of the characters was very nuanced.
Lloyd Dangle's last Troubletown Cartoon, 2011
This contrast (or lack of) was made clear to me when I walked into the Green Lantern exhibit in the next gallery. This long running character has been endlessly reinterpreted, yet is somehow always Green Lantern. Beginning with a 1944 Martin Nodell page from All-American Comics, the exhibit took me on a journey through the evolution of the character though the work of such artists as Gil Kane, Mike Mignola, Bill Sienkiewicz and Brian Bolland, with recent works by Alex Ross, Mike Grell and animation model sheets by Darwyn Cooke and Glenn Wong. I was surprised not to see work by Neil Adams, who had one of the most memorable runs on the title. He was mentioned in the press release, so some complication must have happened. On the whole, it was still a good exploration of the character.
Mutts 9/11 tribute panel by Patrick McDonnell
It was very interesting to see Cartoonists Remember, the collection of 9/11 tribute strips while seeing many of them in print in the Sunday newspaper was still fresh in my mind. I found that I was drawn to strips that commented on the complex emotions we all felt about that day without directly referencing the image of the Towers themselves. Mutts seemed like a visual haiku in its pure simplicity. The blue sky and open space allows its message, “heal” room to breathe, and soothe our anxiety. Several of the works were from strips I’ve always liked that aren’t published in the SF Chronicle, or strips I’d never seen before. I appreciated the chance to see them, and to see 20 or so of these strips all together on one wall.
I also enjoyed (and have always enjoyed) seeing Lloyd Dangle’s work on Troubletown. Dangle retired his quirky, opinionated strip after a 22 year run, and I will miss seeing it. I also remember his passion for artist’s rights and the Graphic Artist’s Guild. This retrospective did him proud, showing his evolution artistically and politically.
Wayne Thiebaud, Mountain Smoke, 2011
Over the years, I have seen many exhibitions of the work of Wayne Thiebaud. Large museum or small gallery, his work never disappoints. Wayne Thiebaud: Mountains, a series of 5 drypoint etchings, is the latest output from his decades long working relationship with Crown Point Press. Even at this small scale, his humor and skewed perspective are clear. There is a companion group exhibition of landscapes ranging from Robert Bechtle’s photorealistic works to a color field print by Anne Appleby. I especially liked Ed Ruscha’s Van Ness, Santa Monica, Vine, Melrose (1999), a map-like view of these famous LA intersections that really captures LA in its grand grittiness.
I had a great time at the San Jose Museum of Art yesterday talking about the evolution of Robert Crumb's career and the Genesis Illustrated. I was surprised by the great turnout for a lunchtime lecture, and people had interesting and insightful questions and comments about the Genesis project.
Thanks again to Lucy and Paulina in the Education Dept. of the museum for inviting me. This is the last US show scheduled for the tour. I've heard that it's making a stop in London, and then will be featured in a major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris in April. Genesis will be in San Jose until Sept 25th. I hope everyone will take advantage of this last chance to see Crumb's Genesis in its entirety.
Here's a short announcement about my lunchtime talk at the San Jose Museum of Art in conjunction with the Crumb Genesis show 9/7 at noon. I saw Crumb speak about this work last Halloween at the SF JCC, and posted about it here.
R. Crumb The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb, 2009 (Chapter 1, page 1)
Pen and ink on paper; 14 3⁄4 × 11 1⁄2 inches
Courtesy the artist, Paul Morris, and David Zwirner, New York
Photo: Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. From the web site
for the Genesis Illustrated exhibition, San Jose Museum of Art.
Given the issues we experienced with controversial images on our Comix Classics iPhone app, I was happy to see that Apple has loosen up a bit on LGBT-themed comics that seemed to have nothing objectionable going on. As reported by the Comics Beat, Teleny and Camille, Glamazonia: The Uncanny Super-Tranny, and Rainy Day Recess: The Complete Steven’s Comics were finally approved after a year of wrangling. As you can see at the link and in the screen shot below, these are pretty tame.
A page of colorable valentine's cards from Rainy Day Recess: The Complete Steven's Comics.
Underground comix have always been controversial, as they often depicted sex, violence and outrageous jokes in order to provoke a response from the reader. Apple's choices in what was ok or rejected was maddeningly inconsistent. I can understand that violent and sexual imagery like S. Clay Wilson's Head First might not be to everyone's taste. But some of the images rejected were very PG, such as Will Elder's cover for Snarf #10, based on Theodore Gericault’s famous painting The Raft of the Medusa or a Frank Stack page with a very subtle nude. Yet Joel Beck's One Dong's Family, a parody of a stereotypical Leave it to Beaver type family featuring anthropomorphic genitalia as the main characters was ok?
Today Imprint (the on-line version of Print Magazine) posted an interview with me about the problems we ran into getting approval for the iPhone version of our Comix Classics app due the sexualized content featured in underground comix. It's quite a story, and there are some good graphics. If you aren't squeamish about seeing body parts, check it out. http://imprint.printmag.com/graphic/iphone-app-censored/
The screen shot on the left depicts Crumb's artist gallery from the Android version of the app. In the iPhone version Home Grown Funnies was cut, along with 16 other images.
