Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale has come under some criticism for some of their recent exhibitions. Having an exhibition of this historical significance is special. The museum’s display is elegantly set in muted tones and period style. The photos themselves were intended for print publication, hence the focus on fashion. Steichen’s early reputation as a serious artists of the photographic Pictorialist gave way to turn to commercial interests. Eventually he attempted to recover his artistic career and curatorial work culmination in the exhibition, “The Family of Man”, which ended up as a widely seen coffee table book. I remember seeing it often during its initial release. Steichen did however, invented modern fashion photography as a genre, and the concept of a highly paid glamorous magazine photographer. Condé Nast, his employer, changed his Pictorialist style, but he still brought his training and aesthetics to the work at hand.

Edward Steichen (1879-1973) is one of the most prolific, influential and controversial figures in the history of photography. An incessant innovator, he applied his talents to portraiture, the nude, landscape, cityscape, flowers, dance, theatre, fashion, advertising and war. Steichen’s contributions could fill a full chapter in the history of photography. From 1900 on he was recognized on both sides of the Atlantic as a leading figure in fine-art photography. Between the two world wars he revolutionized fashion photography while becoming known as “the most famous portrait photographer in the world”. In the post-war period, Steichen made his influence felt as a curator at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, most notably with the legendary exhibition “The Family of Man”.

Looking at this exhibition the first and primary thing one has to note about this exhibition is that neither the photography nor the fashion looks that dated because of how we continue to use these same modern techniques of lighting and staging to get the dramatic image we want. The clothing is high fashion and elegantly tailored, both suits and gowns. (Your author saw at least two suits that would be perfect in his closet).

Compared with his predecessors, Steichen accomplished a stylistic leap in fashion photography equal in magnitude to the transition from silent pictures to sound. He abandoned his artistic beginnings in photographic Impressionism, Art Nouveau and Symbolism in favour of a wholly original, Art Déco-inspired, thoroughly modern style perfectly adapted to the innovative fashions of the time. What strikes us today, some seventy-five years later, is the versatility of his approach. Steichen never fell back on formula, and constantly found new ways to show his sitters and their clothes to advantage. One admiring critic claimed that to be photographed by the master was to be “Steichenized”.

Edward Steichen: In High Fashion, is produced by the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography, Minneapolis, and the Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne. Curators of the exhibition: William A. Ewing, Todd Brandow and Nathalie Herschdorfer.

This exhibition has been generously supported by a gift from the David and Francie Horvitz Family Foundation, with additional support from LXR Luxury Resorts and Hotels and the Hyatt Regency Pier Sixty-Six, Ivonne de la Vega, and Funding Arts Broward.

Edward Steichen, Actor Gary Cooper, 1930
Courtesy Collection Matthieu Humery,
France © 1930 Condé Nast Publications

Edward Steichen, Actress Mary Heberden, 1935
Courtesy Condé Nast Archive,
New York © 1935 Condé Nast Publications

Edward Steichen, Actress Gloria Swanson, 1924
Courtesy Condé Nast Archive,
New York © 1930 Condé Nast Publications

The Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale
One E. Las Olas Boulevard at Andrews Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
(954) 525-5500

Money = Value

Do you live in a state that values the arts? If you do, chances are that you may have more artistic and design career opportunities. How can you know? With the data we have collected, you will be able to compare and contrast your state’s spending on the arts with other states. While how much money a state spends on the arts is not an exact way to judge how much it values the arts, you can get a pretty good idea. Remember the saying, “Put your money where your mouth is.”

ArtBistro has gathered and analyzed the state art funding budgets for 2009 and 2010. You may be surprised that in this economy many art budgets are increasing or staying the same. In contrast some states are slashing their arts funding budgets by as much as 81%. What does this mean for artists and designers?

Commentary

Jonathan Katz, Chief Executive Officer, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies gives his perspective on the 2010 budgets:

“When a state arts agency’s funding is cut, communities throughout the state feel the consequences,” says Jonathan Katz, NASAA CEO. “Cuts in funding diminish the benefits state arts agencies provide to strengthen education outcomes, promote civic vitality and ensure that all citizens have an opportunity to enrich their lives through participating in the arts. State leaders who recognize the exceptional value offered by their state arts agencies as partners in economic recovery work to maintain support for the arts despite financial difficulties because they understand the significant return on investment in terms of jobs, commerce and tax revenues, as well as quality of life.”

Change

As we compared 2009 and 2010 budgets we found the number of states that are narrowing their arts funding budgets is 37 or two-thirds. The number of states that are expanding their art budgets is 14 or one-quarter.

Note:

• We have included the territories of Puerto Rico and Washington DC in the categorization of states. Even though they are not states, it is interesting to compare their numbers against the state numbers.

We’ve heard the many arguments over and over about the importance of the arts, but we’ve also seen public funding cut for art, education and arts education. In today’s political climate of hostility there will be no easy solution or resolution.

Largest Budgets in Dollars:

Most of these states are the ones that you might expect to be spending the most on the arts. Many of these states traditionally value the arts and have a high population as well.

Largest Budget Cuts

Which are the states projected to cut art budgets the most for 2010? The top ten are listed below. Notice DC and Puerto Rico were in the top 10 for spending per capita on the arts in 2009. Florida, Illinois, and Arizona have been hit hard by the housing crisis which may be the reason for these steep cuts.

Lowest Spending States Per Capita 2010

What a state spends on the arts per capita is a much more telling number on how they value the arts rather than the amount of money they spend outright. You may be surprised to see how the states rank in comparison to one another. California spent $.12 per person in 2009 for arts and Texas spent $.41. See Below:

Conclusion

It is interesting to note that these states are not the obvious ones that come to mind when you think of spending on the arts. In fact, tropical locations such as Hawaii and Puerto Rico (typically thought of as beach destinations rather than art destinations) rank very high on the list of art spending per capita. Perhaps these state governments get additional dollars from high taxes on the tourist trade. This may allow them to allocate a greater portion of their budget to the arts.

Updated: 2/17/2010

(Via: Valerie Atkisson | ArtBistro)

Adam Weinberg addressing the troops

Tuesday, February 23, 2010. 7:00 PM. In his charming remarks earlier this afternoon during the press opening of the less than charming 2010 Whitney Biennial, co-curator Francesco Bonami (who wistfully regretted how difficult it was convincing artists half his age to dine with him) alluded to the intrinsic arbitrariness of all Biennial exhibitions. As an institution just turned 75 years old, and facilitated under the venerable aegis of the Whitney Museum, each particular Biennial, despite its essential claim to showcase the best and brightest art production of the past two years, is still dependent on the whims and prejudices of its organizers. Hence the unavoidable hit-or-miss possibilities of every succeeding exhibition.

There is no cumulative formula for success, as new curators tend to establish new priorities and then select new artists as the avatars of same. If the turnover seems particularly extreme this year, even educated observers of the art scene might feel confronted by a “Who Dat?” Biennial, an exhibition at least partly populated by a fickle and jejune cast of characters.

The continuing arbitrariness is of course a given. But since the Whitney in its wisdom also arbitrarily removed the possibility of my attending the opening night festivities this year, they created an opportunity for me to more immediately jot down my thoughts on the current exhibition: its successes, its failures, and most appropriately its penchant for the arbitrary. I want to thank the museum for the unexpected gift of these last three un-feted hours, without which I would never have been able to pen a review with such alacrity. As an exercise in parallel action, I plan to complete my text in exactly the same time it takes others to quaff the plonk and munch on the chicken satay.

Entering the Whitney this afternoon, several bits of conventional wisdom were already well established. The inclusion of “only” 55 artists, as opposed to previous outings with over 100 participants, defined this as the Recessional Biennial. By being named just for its year, 2010 also became identified as the “no-theme” Biennial. A majority of participating female artists this year, for the first time ever, thrilled certain tabulators obsessed by sexual parity. And the inclusion of an “historical” fifth floor and mezzanine, which includes a time line and a survey of art by previous Biennial artists drawn from the Whitney’s permanent collection, ostensibly lends the total exhibition a more “balanced” overview.

Thin and Thinner

The whittled down size of the current show is given a witty objective correlative in the work of David Adamo, whose canes, baseball bats and other wooden objects are systematically hacked into skeletal, vertically skewed versions of their former selves. The resulting wooden shavings and sawdust are allowed to accumulate at the base of each object. Axes, knives, sledgehammers and other implements are prominently displayed or impaled directly into the museum walls. An empty “violin case”, without its expected Mafia machine gun, heightens the implications of cartoonish violence. There is casual cruelty and a sense of arbitrary abuse associated with Adamo’s gesture, hints of an offstage performance that preceded the display of the work.

The “skeletal” impulse of Adamo continues in the same gallery with Baby by Thomas Houseago, a white figurative sculpture that is similarly rough and “unfinished”, revealing in its layered materiality the structural underpinnings of synthetic wallboard, wood, hemp, charcoal and steel rebar.

Completing this skeletal theme are photographs of folding chairs by Emily Roysdon, their colored circular seats and tubular legs delineating an airy, abstract structure.

Shared Themes

The best galleries at the Whitney create shared concerns among artists, an intimation of zeitgeist essential even in a “no-theme” Biennial. For example, the biomorphic, expressionistic, ungainly weirdness established in a central sculpture by Huma Bhabha in a second floor gallery is echoed in surrounding paintings by Verne Dawson, George Condo, Aurel Schmidt and the fiercely subversive graphic panels of comix iconoclast Robert Williams.

On the fourth floor, an interesting gallery combines the photo collages of Lorraine O’Grady, juxtaposing images of Michael Jackson and Charles Baudelaire and their countervailing creative biographies – the latter had a “secret” mulatto wife – with an installation by the Bruce High Quality Foundation collective that also examines discontinuities and contradictions of American identity. A white 1970s Cadillac ambulance (similar to the vehicle used by Joseph Beuys in his famous “I Like America and America Likes Me” performance with coyote at the Rene Block Gallery) forms the centerpiece; a video is screened on its windshield, combining images from newsreels, films, YouTube and TV commercials with a rambling, pensive, overdubbed text on “America passing out on the couch”. (More on the Bruces in a future article – their 2010 Brucennial invitational is opening in SoHo in just two days). This sort of conflation, a postmodern lecture on a social/aesthetic continuum, indicates a genuine potential for thoughtful curating.

Unfortunate Gigantisms

But such thematically organized rooms, offering compelling degrees of synergy and cross fertilization, are few and far between. Most work resounds with hollow, empty signification, vainly chasing after relevance. For example, there are gargantuan pieces right off the various elevator lobbies that scream “blockbuster”. On the fourth floor, a 40-foot-wide, monstrous cosmology of macrame anchored by a red (Polish?) blot of a planet by Piotr Uklanski. A similarly oversized, digitally realized, woven fantasy of smoke and mirrors by Pae White on three.

On the second floor, two somewhat smaller scaled and more aesthetically pleasing chromogenic prints by James Casebere, depicting tracts of houses viewed from above, but not in fact photographed from “real life” – rather from tabletop maquettes constructed by the artist.

The Casebere pieces, at least, find an unintentional rhyme in a room of small oil paintings on panel by Maureen Gallace depicting the peaceful, geometric forms of grouped beach houses, barns and sheds, suggesting the quiet discipline of still life as applied to landscape.

There is a huge gallery filled with Charles Ray flower ink prints on paper that – however much one might prate about deconstructing Warhol and exploring devolved generations of imagery – made me miss the genius of Ray’s conceptual sculptures.

The decision to place all video work on the third floor initially seems like an enlightened curatorial stance, but it actually results in architectural disaster, creating peepshow corridors with portals opening on “attractions” to the left and to the right: here a crisply contoured video by Josephine Meckseper, there a double screen projection by Kerry Tribe, and over yonder an installation of feminist images projected against a jerrybuilt wood/sheetrock corral by Sharon Hayes.

Angelheaded hipsters … looking for an angry fix

My predominant memory from this afternoon’s press opening was watching my fellow critics wander about in a collective daze, lulled into a dissatisfied stupor by the collective mediocrity, searching for something to fix on, “burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night”, as Allen Ginsberg might have put it, but instead finding revelation sorely lacking at the Whitney. They hopefully questioned each other – “Seen anything yet? Anything?” – and came up short.

I actually quite liked the big Robert Grosvenor installation, a bipartite sculpture with a red, arched, plush element fronted by a circular metal grid. The two forms define a charged space that is easily reinvigorated by subtly changing one’s position in the room.

But many of the critics I spoke with just couldn’t get behind it (or in front of it). Might it have worked better for them as an interactive piece, with skateboarders sliding through the arch and over the hump, energizing the proceedings?

The weight of history

Grosvenor had previously been included in the 1968 Biennial. (Actually back then it was called the “Whitney Annual”, focusing alternately on sculpture one year followed by painting the next.) Which brings us to the “historical” fifth floor. With strong sculpture by Eva Hesse, Ashley Bickerton, Richard Artschwager and David Hammons, photography by Richard Prince, Philip-Lorca di Corcia, Kenneth Anger and Larry Clark, a Paul Pfeiffer video, a 1950s Rauschenberg combine, and paintings by Rothko, Twombly, Guston and Ad Reinhardt, the permanent collection of work from many past Biennial artists made this year’s offerings seem that much more tepid by comparison.

If Less Could Only Be More

Despite this, I would like to single out several artists. Daniel McDonald’s constructions, using store bought dolls and figurines that he mischievously alters, enact subversive pop culture reveries. His diorama, on a pedestal, of Uncle Sam and Michael Jackson crossing the River Styx, is a welcome bit of trashy “agitpop”. (Yes, without the “r”.)

Martin Kersels. His awkwardly unbalanced, roomful sized installation of chairs, platforms, microphone stands and wires implies a strange, fractalized setting for performance that resets our fulcrum and twists us around in slapstick surrender.

Aki Sasamoto also has a performance oriented installation, a room where she improvises actions using donuts, square tables revolving into alchemical circumferences, freehand charcoal drawings of circles on the wall, and other mysterious ceremonies that defy conventional logic while advancing obscure mathematical progressions and routines.

Babette Mangolte’s fourth floor room of video and b/w photos, sequestered behind a double black curtain, is a thirty year history of dance and performance, with a wall mounted grid of snapshots of performers as well as other photos mounted in a long, horizontal glass covered vitrine. It resonates as a living document of the avant garde from the 1970s through to the present.

The installation of Theaster Gates, in the submerged Whitney moat, could only be seen from behind a locked glass door during the press opening. We could view it from a distance and also hear a chant that seemed to emanate from the piece, but it was impossible to fully access it. I assume the door was finally unlocked for the evening opening, but since I was not there I cannot swear to this.

I could undoubtedly say a lot more about 2010, invoking other artists and other themes. But time has run out. The bar is closed, the caterers have stopped serving, the security guards are ushering out the last stragglers. As the Whitney has delimited me, so have I returned the favor. Who knows what the future will bring? Bette Davis once said: “Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.” 10:00 PM

Steven Kaplan’s blog

Lesley Clark / The Miami Herald

January 25, 2010

Men walk past a mural of voodoo representations of death in Port-au-Prince,
Haiti, on Wednesday, January 20, 2010. CAROLYN COLE / MCT

Port-au-Prince, Haiti – The vibrant murals that once adorned the walls of the Cathedrale of Sainte Trinite – created in the 1950s by some of the giants of Haitian art – are now largely dust, part of the gray rubble that covers most everything in Port-au-Prince.

The earthquake two weeks ago buried hundreds of thousands and struck deep into Haiti’s vibrant arts community, erasing in seconds cultural touchstones like the murals that depicted Christ’s birth, crucifixion and ascension. Even as talk turns to rebuilding, artists struggle to account for the loss of thousands of expressions of artwork that shows themselves – and the world – a creativity that persists through years of political strife, turmoil and poverty.

“We’ll be knocking on every door possible to save whatever is left,” said Gerald Alexis, a Haitian-born curator and expert on Caribbean art who from his home in Quebec is trying to mobilize arts groups to find a way to preserve the portions of the mural that survive. “It is essential for future generations, for our identity.”

The losses on the cultural front are staggering. At the Centre d’Art – the successor home of the original movement that launched Haitian art – the front of the building has been torn off and reduced to rubble. Neighbors were able to salvage some pieces, Alexis said, though many are visible but out of reach on the second floor.

Private collections across the city, and at least one artist and several arts patrons, perished in the quake. The Haitian government has asked former Culture Minister Daniel Elie to conduct an inventory to determine what is lost.

“Fruit and Birds” Adam Leontus, Oil on Board, Collection of the Waterloo Center for the Arts

SIGNIFICANT COLLECTION

Among the biggest losses: one of the most significant private collections of early Haitian art – 15,000 pieces collected over the past 40 years by Georges Nader and housed at his home and museum, Musee D’Art Nader.

The pieces included works by Philome Obin and Hector Hyppolite, masters of Haitian art who painted at the Centre d’Art in the 1940s and have influenced generations of artists.

“They were the founders of Haitian art,” said Georges Nader’s son, also named Georges, who made four trips and spent hours combing through the rubble of the house to salvage what he could of the collection that his father so loved.

Among the 100 or so pieces he was able to rescue: several primitive landscapes and a playful self-portrait by Obin, who painted himself in the 1950s standing next to his “dedicated friend,” Georges Nader.

Several pieces by Hyppolite, considered Haiti’s leading artist, were pulled from the debris. Haitian art is alive with rich color, yet every piece that was rescued is coated with dust and grime. Several on cardboard were ripped in half or suffered gouges. The younger Nader hopes to find restoration experts in the United States or Canada, but he fears art restoration will not be a priority as the country struggles to feed and house the hundreds of thousands made homeless by the earthquake.

“My parents survived, that’s the important thing,” he said, noting that his parents – both 79 – had decided to retire to their bedroom for a nap when the quake struck. The bedroom was the only part of the house that survived.

The Nader Gallery in nearby Petionville, which carries some traditional work, but mostly contemporary Haitian art, survived the earthquake with hardly a single frame askew. A month ago, the multistory gallery was the site of an exhibit of the works of the old masters.

“They were all here and they might have made it,” Nader smiled ruefully, gesturing to the artwork that hangs brightly on the gallery walls. “We returned them to my dad’s just three weeks ago.”

“Coumbite” Josue Joseph, Oil on Board, Collection of the Waterloo Center for the Arts

RELIEF FUND

The Waterloo Center for the Arts in Iowa, which has the largest public collection of Haitian art in the United States, is setting up a relief fund and serving as a clearinghouse for information about the lost art and affected artists, said Cammie Scully, the museum’s executive director.

The museum has contacted some artists but believes at least one compound was hard hit.

“With unemployment at 85 percent, art has been one of the ways people have been able to make money,” Scully said. “A lot of people are taking care of extended families through the arts. It’s an unbelievably creative culture.”

Some artwork that hung in Haiti’s now collapsed presidential palace has been pulled from the rubble, but not the most significant piece – a painting by the French neoclassical painter Guillaume Guillon Lethiere. The painting had recently been rehung after being restored at the Louvre, Alexis said.

Haitian artist Phillipe Dodard’s Culture Creation Foundation, which promotes arts in the schools, lost its offices – and 18 years of work, Dodard said. But Dodard, whose work has met with international acclaim, said he was grieving the loss of the murals at the Episcopal cathedral, dozens of colonial-era gingerbread houses and the Nader collection.

“All those major artists, we don’t have them anymore,” he said of the old masters. “Haitian culture isn’t just buildings and art, it’s people. But this is like losing part of our memory.”

“Nap Pile” Hector Hyppolite, Oil on Board, Collection of the Waterloo Center for the Arts

LOST PATRON

Haitian artists also lost a leading arts patron and collector with the death of Carmel Delatour, 85. Her private collection – which included works by some of Haiti’s most significant artists – was lost in the earthquake, and son Lionel said he’s uncertain if any of her sons will continue her work.

Still, Delatour said, he believes artists, like the country, will rebound.

“I have no doubt the creativity of the Haitian people will not have been extinguished by this event,” he said.

Indeed, as soon as the dust settled – and international reporters and relief workers began landing in the country – street vendors were back at work, selling paintings, steel sculptures and vivid flags beaded with various Vodou spirits.

A THREAT TO DANCE

But Jeanguy Saintus, the founder and artistic director of a dance school, Artcho Danse, and a dance troupe, Cie Ayikodans, said he is running short on optimism.

The gingerbread house on a quiet tree-lined street in Petionville that houses his school and studio is still standing, but the back wall threatens to peel away. Parents are pulling students out of class to leave for the United States and Canada. Most of his troupe – six drummers and 10 dancers – lost their homes. His principal dancer, Linda Francois, is leaving shortly for the Dominican Republican to stay with a sister. She promises to return.

“The arts in Haiti, particularly dance, have always been like a catastrophe, chaos,” Saintus said, noting there is no government and little private support for dance. “People think you are crazy to do professional dance in Haiti.”

But over 22 years, Saintus has built a respected troupe of Haitian-born, Haitian-trained dancers. One dancer, Vitolio Jeune, was a recent contestant on the hit American TV show So You Think You Can Dance. Cie Ayikodans has performed around the world, proving to audiences in Amsterdam and at Carnegie Hall that Haiti is more than political turmoil and poverty. It is movement and heart and joy.

The scope of the damage to the school – and the uncertainty – threaten to sap Saintus’ resolve.

“I want to be positive, I want to be optimistic, but I can’t say everything is going to be all right, because I just don’t know,” he said, sitting on the porch steps, outside the studio. “No one knows.”

Miami Herald staff writer Jacqueline Charles contributed to this report.

(Via: ArtBistro)

“David and Lee Ann Lester, founders of International Fine Art Expositions (IFAE) have been the pioneers of the Florida art fair market, establishing Art Miami in January, 1991, The Palm Beach International Art & Antique Fair (now American International Fine Art Fair AIFAF) in 1997, and Art Palm Beach in 1998. They have organized more than 65 international art fairs worldwide in New York, Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Dallas and Hong Kong.

In 2009, the Lesters resumed ownership of the two Palm Beach fairs, acquired the historically favorable January art fair dates at the Miami Beach Convention Center, and in 2010 presented the first edition of MIA – Miami’s new January contemporary art fair. In 2009, IFAE entered into a joint venture with Clarion Events to serve as the partners and executive management of the Olympia International Art & Antiques Fair, now re-branded as the London International Fine Art Fair at Olympia. Most recently they have announced plans for the Naples International Art and Antique Fair and Art Naples in 2011.

In this conversation with Bettina Krogemann, David Lester talks about how he and his wife became art fair organizers, the history of the American International Fine Art Fair AIFAF, the London International Fine Art Fair at Olympia, their plans with the SeaFair, what makes a fair a successful one, and IFAE’s plans for the future. This video is an excerpt, the full-length version is available on our HD page.

Interview with David Lester at the VIP Lounge of the American International Fine Art Fair 2010. February 3, 2010.”

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Related Articles:

• American International Fine Art Fair Palm Beach 2010 / Highlights
• American International Fine Art Fair 2010 / Vernissage

(Via VernissageTV art tv.)

CONFUCIUS: His Life and Legacy in Art
February 11 – June 13, 2010
China Institute Gallery
125 East 65th Street, New York

Growing up, I didn’t have much time for Confucius. Among the prominent Asian philosophers, he took second place to Lao Tzu and Taosim, and for obvious reasons. Taoism seemed more laissez-faire, less involved with propriety and property. It embraced a certain ease and modesty, a harmonious accommodation with nature. There was a nonchalance that sat well with my hipster, slacker ideal of  “there’s a road we’re all on, man, but it really leads nowhere except right back to where we all started from, so don’t get me uptight, just chill and pass that j.”

My rebellious, reductivist streak left no room for the conventional wisdom of the Confucian status quo, for its apotheosis of family, for using the correct ritual and sacrifice on every occasion, for a strict legal code that could deaden spontaneity. I had dabbled in the Analects, and these dialogs were obviously “wise”, but my lingering suspicion was that they were wise in the wrong way.  There was no escaping their prim orientation towards duty and decorum. They did not just feel stodgy, they exuded a faint but stubborn whiff of “the Establishment”, a set of teachings that formed the basis of Chinese government over many dynasties and centuries, fostering a scholastic bureaucracy that could quote Confucius chapter and verse, much like the Talmudic scholars or the Jesuits in their respective domains. Confucianism was a state religion that provided an ideological underpinning for feudal dynasties, that spoke directly for power and enabled “The Man”. So it was by definition “uncool”.

But now that I’m older and might even be mistaken for The Man, some of the tame procedures and concerns of Confucius seem a bit less uncool. Devotion to the memory of one’s ancestors, wisdom through balance, respect for the past, commitment to study, acceptance of change, embrace of the golden rule – “Do not inflict on others what you yourself would not wish done to you.” – these now seem not such terrible ideas after all.

My growing acceptance of Confucius as I journey through middle age is paralleled by an interesting exhibition at the China Institute – CONFUCIUS: His Life and Legacy in Art. A few small, vitrine packed galleries contain a wealth of material never before seen in America, including hanging scrolls, album leaves, bronze vessels, stone carvings, jade ceremonial implements, wood-block prints and textiles. The works are on loan for the first time in the U.S. from the Shandong Provincial Museum in Jinan and the Confucius Museum in his hometown of Qufu.

The exhibition is well worth your attention. None of us will become Confucius experts on the basis of this show. But if you, like me, had previously written Confucius off as a quaint backwater, an historical oddity, then the broad sweep of his story and the story of his followers tells a compelling, 2500 year narrative of the spiritual and material progress of an entire people. Here, in no particular order, are things I have learned recently about the man and his legacy. After seeing the exhibition and perusing its excellent catalog, you will certainly be capable of making your own list.

* His family name was Kong, usually followed by the honorific “zi” (meaning Master). During his life he was generally known as “Kong-zi” (Master Kong) or more simply “Fuzi” (The Master). This was Latinized as “Confucius” by the Portuguese monks who first translated his teachings for the West.
* His years (551-479 BCE) place him in the so-called Spring and Autumn Period, just prior to the Warring States Period. The Eastern Zhou dynasty was starting to dissolve, as the vassal dukes who had been given large fiefdoms asserted their defacto independence even while pledging nominal allegiance to the emperor. It was a period of small conflicts escalating into larger wars, of general political upheaval mirrored by reforms in the social and economic spheres. A new world order was in the wings. Everything was up for grabs.
* During this turbulent era, educated Chinese noted great differences between the old traditions inherited from their ancestors and the diminished circumstances in which they themselves lived. This resulted in the advent of social consciousness, focusing on the study of humanity and the problems of society. It was a moment when “a hundred schools contended”. Many learned men preached and attracted schools of disciples.
* The advent of great spiritual/philosophical activity was apparent not just in China but all over the world. Gautama achieved enlightenment in India. Buddhism spread throughout South and East Asia. Greek civilization and philosophy (Socrates, Plato) flowered in the Mediterranean. There is no evidence of direct cross pollination, but something was certainly in the air.

* Lao Tzu was in fact a contemporary of Confucius, although somewhat older and more established. There is a silk scroll in the show depicting a famous encounter, in which the young Confucius was allowed an audience with Master Lao, hoping to learn protocols of sacrifice (of sheep, pigs and oxen) for particular ceremonial functions. In addition to founding Taoism, Master Lao was apparently a repository of such arcane details.
* When he died, Confucius left over 3000 disciples, although he considered only 72 to be worthy of fully understanding and executing according to his teachings.
* He was born to a military family. His father died when he was just three, his mother when he was 16. So his early life was hard. The young Confucius had to undertake many lowly jobs, including management of a warehouse and supervisor of animal reproduction. But he had decided early on to devote himself to studies and learning, and as he advanced up the civil service ladder – manager, magistrate, chief justice, minister, vice premier – members of the local Lu nobility became his pupils as well as his patrons.
* A pinnacle of his political influence came at the Jiagu Conference (c. 500 BCE), between the Duke of Lu and the more powerful Duke of Qi, during which Confucius, on the basis of legal precedent and the citing of certain ancient rites and protocols, was able to shame the Qi; they not only renounced their territorial claims, they even gave back land and tendered an apology. It was a great diplomatic triumph.
* Still, Confucius’ position was compromised some years later, and he was obliged to take to the road for 14 years, accompanied by his disciples, traveling through the neighboring states of Wei, Chen, Cao, Song, Zheng and Cai, spreading the gospel (as it were) and “seeking office” – attempting to secure an official position. Many of the silk scrolls depict famous incidents from this extended journey. In one, Confucius and his retinue are attacked by locals in a case of mistaken identity. Although generally received with all due protocol and respect by the local nobility, his campaign to achieve office was never rewarded. [Right click on the map below for a more legible view of the world of his travels.]

* At the age of 68, and at the invitation of the Duke of Lu, Confucius returned home, was honored as a “Grand Master of the State”, and spent his last years in study, teaching, and compilation of his many books of learning. This work continued after his death.
* As his posthumous reputation grew, Confucius’ descendants were repeatedly identified and honored by successive imperial governments with titles of nobility and official posts. The Kong family found it advantageous to trace their lineage assiduously. There are now over 76 Generations of the Dukes of Kong (no, not a doo-wop group) “for Perpetuating the Sage”, and several portraits in the exhibition are presented on painted silk scrolls that date from the Ming (1368-1644 AD) or Qing dynasty (1644-1911 AD) – in other words, two millennia after the death of Confucius.

* Perhaps my favorite piece in the exhibition is a wooden votive figure of Confucius from the Sung dynasty (960-1279 AD) that has miraculously survived, and just as miraculously (according to curator Julia K. Murray) been loaned to the show. It’s a bit over a foot tall, and is paired with the companion figure of his wife, Madame Qiguan (although the image below is just of Confucius). Somewhat the worse for wear, with all the original paint long worn off and certain areas reinforced with binding fabric, the piece was reportedly evacuated from Qufu and brought to the southern capital of Quzhou when the 48th generation Duke was fleeing an invading army (c. 1120 AD). The effigy has a funerary aspect, and was probably once used to legitimize the ancestral claims of the “Southern Kong” branch of the family.

* A good portion of the exhibition is devoted to ceremonial objects and household tools of the nobility – urns, flasks, wine vessels, food containers, trays, disks, a finial for a staff, bells, blades and ornaments – that give an inkling of the material reality of Confucius as he presided over sacrifices and other state rituals. Generally fashioned from stone and bronze, these objects have greater durability and often come from his own period or even earlier. The bronze food container pictured below dates from the Western Zhou (1100 – 771 BCE) and was excavated in 1978 from the tomb of the Earl of Lu in Qufu.

* From the ancient to the present. The People’s Republic of China has often maintained an antagonistic attitude to Confucianism for what was deemed its perpetuation of feudalism, its enabling the nobility, and its essential resistance to modernization. This was especially true during the Cultural Revolution, when many temples and antiquities were despoiled. Taiwan can probably lay claim to a “purer”, uninterrupted strain, as the Kuomintang never encouraged such rigorous chastisement. But more recently, even the mainland government has seen the wisdom of cultivating the cult of the Master, perhaps as much for the sake of cultural tourism as for national pride. Temples and historical sites have been reconstructed. Shrines have been reconsecrated, and no doubt augmented with audio tours and souvenir stands. The cultural arm of the government has even produced a biopic starring action superstar Chow Yun-Fat, made to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic and Confucius’ 2560th birthday.

Confucius the movie has not yet been released, but there’s a trailer on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch#v=YgiM1ubNCYc

As with any broadly drawn historical epic, the emphasis seems to be on battle sequences, a cast of thousands, choreographed spectacle, saccharine love scenes, blazing fires, swirling snow, sweeping camera movements and a reverently elegiac, emotive, “uplifting” score.

Does the film’s central casting reveal a potential problem? Will it be a bit jarring to find a face like Chow’s, familiar from contemporary gangster melodramas and John Woo shoot-em-ups, cast as the venerable old philosopher? Is there the danger of simplifying a contemplative type into an action hero? Of burying intellectual concerns under a shiny veneer of martial arts? If these contradictions seem to loom risibly, we should remember that film as a medium favors action, while thoughts often cannot be expressed without a certain degree of difficulty and ambiguity. So if the film re-imagines Confucius with a “Crouching Scholar, Hidden Wisdom”  treatment, as an hero of swordplay and sorcery, we can still bow apologetically towards him and offer a quotation from the Analects: “Kong-Fuzi. Honorable Sir. By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart.”

Steven Kaplan’s blog

A year after opening a stunning $20 million cultural center in Little Haiti, it is underfunded, underused and little-known.

BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI -
aviglucci@MiamiHerald.com

Yet, a year after its understated opening, the city-run Little Haiti Cultural Center is largely unheralded, severely underfunded and sorely underused.

Most days, there are no visitors in the gallery, which holds a first-rate show of contemporary art by Caribbean artists living across the globe. The kiln in the ceramics studio is rarely, if ever, fired up. The 270-seat theater is nearly always dark.

“They built it, but it really didn’t have a function,” laments renowned Haitian-born artist Edouard Duval-Carrie, whose private studio adjoins the center and who has volunteered to help city administrators devise programs for it, including the Global Caribbean art show he curated.

“It’s a wonderful space. It could become a place of international stature, but the city doesn’t know what to do with it.”

Though the facility is designed in part to offer art classes to neighborhood kids, its intended scope was far more ambitious: to serve as a showcase for Afro-Caribbean art, music, theater and dance.

“This is not a dinky little community center to teach finger painting to kids or a place to play dominoes,” said Duval-Carrie, who corralled French sponsors for the art show, brought collectors and dealers to the center during Art Basel/Miami Beach in December and continues giving tours to interested visitors, including a French group next week.

AMBITIOUS PROPOSAL

The center grew out of an ambitious proposal by former city Commissioner Arthur Teele for an extensive Little Haiti park. The plan was eventually scaled back, morphing into a soccer park and separate cultural center that would incorporate the landmark but long-shuttered Caribbean Marketplace, also owned by the city.

When Teele, who later committed suicide, was forced out of office by criminal indictment, the cultural center project had sufficient funding — from a voter-approved parks bond issue — and momentum to continue, though it was largely bereft of direction, public officials familiar with the process say.

Teele’s successor, Michelle Spence Jones, pushed it to completion before she, too, was forced out of office on corruption charges last year.

That the center — two buildings in a modern Caribbean idiom flanking a public plaza — turned out so well, Spring said, is largely a credit to the architect, Bernard Zyscovich. Spring said the architect listened to community wishes and “did something absolutely inspired without the benefit of a client with a vision.”

Parks officials, however, can’t even pinpoint the facility’s budget. The consultant recommended an operating budget of more than $500,000, funded in part by proceeds from fees, performances and rentals. Administrators say it’s likely less than that.

For his part, Duval-Carrie said he’s not giving up. With the University of Miami, he organized a forthcoming symposium on Caribbean contemporary art at the center. His French sponsors have committed to supporting annual art exhibits timed to Art Basel for four years.

“We try to use the space,” the artist said, referring to his foundation, the Haitian Cultural Arts Alliance. “But we cannot be the only ones. It is too good a facility not to be used.”

An Open Letter to the South Florida Jazz Community:

On February 28, 2010, the esteemed Dean of South Florida jazz radio, Len Pace will retire. WLRN has made the decision to replace him with a generic AUTOMATED jazz feed, with Ids inserted to make it seem that it is a local show, when in fact it is not. I feel that this is a very bad decision and I am asking for your help in dealing with this.

The Jazz community in South Florida is at a critical crossroads. It’s positive growth and general health can only be measured by such events as Larry Rosen’s second SOLD OUT season with his Jazz Roots programming, new jam sessions springing up at many places, and the whole new generation of jazz musicians and jazz appreciators coming out of the many great University Jazz programs that are coming out to these events. We need to foster this new found interest in every way possible and keeping live jazz on the air is paramount to our efforts.

The actual cost of the generic automated service is about $3000 a year (plus the cost of the expanded equipment needed to do this). The cost of a live Jazz Announcer, playing local music and doing local and national interviews FIVE nights a week is only $10,000 per year total, assuming Len’s shift would be filled by the less expensive part time programmers, as has been done before at WLRN on the Sounds of the Caribbean show. This is ONLY a difference of $7000 a YEAR in return for massive local cultural continuity! Many of you contribute quite a lot during our fund drives and it is not unreasonable for you to ask why are your pledge dollars not supporting such a small need as this that would have such a large reward in the end.

The reasons for keeping a real local announcer on the jazz shift are many and obvious: aside from playing all the locally produced music we play, we are constantly promoting local events, doing interviews with all the national artists that travel to South Florida, and we are always playing music that would be way too adventurous for a generic show to play, helping to expand our listeners tastes and expose them to vibrant new music. Add this to the dumbing down factor that a generic radio feed often provides (take Cox Communication’s efforts as a recent example), and the loss of the rich cultural edifice of jazz radio in our area – I am sure you will agree that this programming change needs to be rethought right away.

In other words, a generic automated jazz show on WLRN is not what Public Radio is all about. Please join me in expressing your opinions on this. You can best affect a change in this by sending your comments to the following people:

Dr. Solomon Stinson, Chair of the Dade Public School Board
305.995.1334 email: sstinson@dadeschools.net

Mr. John La Bonia, General Manager for WLRN
305.995.1000 email: jlabonia@wlrn.org

Mr. Rick Lewis, President of Friends of WLRN
305.350.7968 email: rlewis@friendsofwlrn.org

for
HAITIAN EARTHQUAKE RELIEF

ART AUCTION VENUE:
4141 NE 2nd Avenue
Miami, Florida 33137
[silent auction 10 am-to-6 pm]

Venue thanks to Miami Design District

ART DROPOFF:
Tue-Sat 11-6 pm prior to the auction
Miami Art Exchange at Artlab33 | Art Space
2051 NW 2nd Ave. Miami, FL.

LAST DAY TO DROP OFF ART: 19 Feb.

http://artlab33.com/
http://miamiartexchange.com/

Proceeds will go to Food for the Poor (501c3 non-profit) http://www.foodforthepoor.org