Paradigms of Darkness at the Willis Gallery: Blaise Siwula -see page 12

Minority Arts Conference: Gripe Session

by Dwight Smith

National Conference of Artists

Surviving as an artist is not easy; just ask any artist in any of the creative disciplines. He or she will tell you it’s really tough.

Many artists depend on other sources of income to support their artistic development and gain recognition for many years of hard work. This country’s non-white artist's struggles to obtain a place in the mainstream of the art world seem insurmountable when the person must reckon with institutional racism, economic disadvantages and the lack of community and institutional support.

Granted, all artists have problems. But the problems of minority artists are magnified considerably. The established World of Art has done little to make minority artists a part of the mainstream art world or to aid in developing the support systems needed to maintain artists’ careers. The plight of minority artists in this country is no less than a horror story. But horror stories can change and the Michigan Council for the Arts (MCA) made an attempt to effect such a change by sponsoring its first Minority Arts Conference, “Organization: Key to Survival." The conference was held on November 14, 1981 at the Art and Architecture Building on the University of Michigan's north campus. Approximately 260 people each paid a $6.50 registration

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Woody Miller Gere Baskin Karen Roth Tom Bloomer Edward Fella Peter Manschot Denise Dawson Joe Banish Pete Halsey Tom Fernstrum Dan Acosta Sandy Berninger Vince Carducci Kathy Constantinides Denise Dawson Rose DeSloover Lynn Farnsworth Jim Hart James Kirchner Lucille Nawara Dwight Smith Joe Wesner Rob Johnson Midtown Associates

Detroit Focus Gallery

743 Beaubien Detroit, Ml 48226 962-9025 Wed.-Sat. 12-6

Editorial

As of late the air has been thick with stories of terror and woe regarding local arts funding. Tales of lost opportunities, fiscal death and silence from the promised land (remember that we were told of how the private sector was supposed to pick up the ball?) hang heavy over the meetings of local arts groups. Nervous gatherings of artists and arts bureaucrats intensify their fund-seeking efforts as the ground shakes from the floods of red ink in which they may be swept away. To put the situation most innocuously, 1982 doesn’t look like a boom year in arts funding. Nor does Detroit look like a boom town. Enter, within this context, the Detroit Focus Quarterly.

This is the only occasion at which we will take the opportunity to so blatantly wave our own flag in the Editorial column. While we appeal to everyone to support the arts in Michigan as much and as often as possible, right now we are most concerned about the survival of this publication.

Do you remember the Michigan Arts Journal or the Artist’s Monthly (formerly the Detroit Artist’s Monthly—they dropped the Detroit because ol lack of city Arts Council support)? They were two local arts publications that folded for lack of financial support. This local history, coupled with current local and national financial dread, has us wondering how far we’ll make it. We’re both hopeful and enthused, but that is not enough. We need the reality of a cash inflow, in a time when those words are more often used to describe dreams than realities.

We put this first issue together using money from advertisements and with seed money from New Detroit, Inc. The bulk ol the money came Irom the latter. As you may know, seed money comes once. Then you’re on your own.

We intend for this publication to be a tool, and as such have tried to make it as available as possible. That—at least for now—means that we distribute it for free. This condition puts further limitations on our income. At the same time, it puts the publication into more hands, and the way it's supposed to work is that the more people that read it, the more response we will get in the way of articles, letters and general local dialog re: the Arts in Michigan.

So we’d like to take this time to ask for your help/involvement, to make this work. We are a non-profit, tax-exempt entity, and we need financial help in the way of subscriptions, contributions and advertisements. Also, we need input and ideas from the community, so that we may best determine what kind of job we’re doing in these pages. We are also in need for more volunteer labor (everyone, except ad salespeople, works gratis).

Please send all contributions and/or correspondence to the Detroit Focus Quarterly, c/o Detroit Focus Gallery, 743 Beaubien, Detroit, Mi. 48226. We wish to thank you in advance for any consideration you give our requests, and ask that you keep local history in mind along with the idea that local history is not something we want to become a part of before our time. To ensure us a lengthy stay, and yourself a forum for dialog on the arts in Michigan, please give generously (it’s tax deductible). We need it, as we believe Michigan needs the Detroit Focus Quarterly.□

—The Editors

In the next issue we would like to print a letters column which is, of course, contingent upon our receiving letters. Send us your feedback on the publication and individual articles therein. Address all correspondence to LETTERS: Detroit Focus Quarterly, c/o Detroit Focus Gallery, 743 Beaubien (second floor) Detroit, Ml 48226.

Detroit Focus was formulated in 1978 by a group of artists whose primary goal was to create a support system for Michigan visual artists by providing a forum for the exchange of ideas and information. The establishment of a gallery offering open juried exhibitions became a reality and has made a significant contribution to the public awareness and understanding of contemporary visual art.

The publication of Detroit Focus Quarterly, under the auspices of Detroit Focus, is an extension of the above goals and denotes a further recognition of the importance of remaining as a cultural asset incorporated in the fabric of city life. The Detroit Focus Quarterly is an attempt to move from a monthly hermetic newsletter for dues paying members of the organization to a large community circulation with a voice representing visual artists working in all mediums. This broader version encompasses coverage and documentation of a variety of exhibitions and events not usually covered by local area newspapers, and an analysis of public issues as they relate to the arts.

Continued from page 1

fee which covered the costs of a cafeteria style lunch and a materials packets well worth $10.00.

A welcome from Alfred F. Hinton, chairman of the Minority Arts Conference Committee and a MCA member, opened the conference at 9 a.m. He introduced Walter G. Borie, MCA chairman; Winston E. Lang, MCA Minority Arts Task Force chairman; and E. Ray Scott, MCA executive director. Scott was the keynote speaker and the keynot address was delivered by Gordon Braithwaite, arts consultant to the National Endowment to the Arts (NEA).

Braithwaite’s speech set the tone for the conference. It dealt with the realities of what is happening in the art world, government funding cuts as well as the struggles and inequities of the federal government’s fund allocations to groups and organizations. Braithwaite also spoke of the need for minority organizations to tap into the resources of the community and to use the government as a catalyst rather than a resting place for survival.

After the keynote address, the main body of participants broke into two groups for concurrent morning workshops. Each group discussed two topics:

(1) “Problem Sharing,’’ facilitated by Dr. Chen-Oi Hsieh, executive director of the Chinese American Education and Cultural Center (CAECC) in Ann Arbor, and by Spencer Lower, Art Committee chairperson, CAECC Detroit, and

(2) “Problem Solving" facilitated by John Bailey, president of Resource and Development Technical Assistance and Training, a Lansing firm, and Ray Owens, director of Management Consulting Services, Jack Martin and Company, Detroit.

The topics “Problem Sharing" and “Problem Solving” dealt with issues such as lack of funding and community and membership participation. The discussion became a gripe session. It appeared that many of the participants were looking for answers and solutions to problems that could not be solved in two half-hour sessions which switched facilitators at what seemed to be “mid-stream." A random poll of attendees showed most people felt the morning session was basically a sounding board for venting anger on minority arts problems and that time was wasted and not much was accomplished.

New Detroit, Inc., the urban coalition of citizens for a better Detroit, has recognized the need for this type of publication, particularly with regard to providing another avenue of professional growth for minority artists in the city. Acting on the recommendation of the Arts Committee, New Detroit, Inc. has provided the seed money to begin the Detroit Focus Quarterly. This trust and confidence has been the catalyst needed to encourage artists to seek an alternative to the present insufficient coverage of the arts spectrum-video, performance, painting, sculpture, experimental, fibers, clay, glass, photography, conceptual art, etc.

A vibrant artistic community already exists in this remarkable city; our job is to provide the exposure for its growth and to augment the lives of our citizens through a mutual commitment to the creative Renaissance spirit and the artistic soul.a

Gere Baskin Woody Miller

The afternoon wrap-up sessions convened at about 1:30 p.m. That the sessions were wrap-ups of the morning discussions was confusing for anyone who arrived late. It was also a disadvantage to the facilitators who were attempting to wrap-up the ideas discussed in the morning with a somewhat different group of individuals than those with whom they had begun the discussion.

Gordon Braithwaite (NEA) facilitated the “Resources" panel and Josephine Love, co-director of Detroit’s Your Heritage House, in a final discussion, spoke about the need for minority art organizations to develop and also maintain their resources. She commented that many important artifacts, written works and art materials created by minorities have been lost forever due to improper planning and caring for those works.

The Closing Plenary session presented workshop reports from Carolina Ramon, chairperson Nuestra Artes De Michigan, Detroit. These reports gave a general capsule review of the days activities. The conference summary was presented by Winston E. Lang and the wrap-up by Alfred E. Hinton. During the wrap-up some conference participants called for a motion from the floor to have the Minority Arts Task Force developed as a permanent part of MCA. This proposal was pretty much dismissed since the conference participants lacked administrative power to enact such a motion. The participants did promise to continue their support for the Minority Arts Task Force by sending letters of support of MCA. A few more conferences added to this to continue or build a kind of network among minorities would be invaluable. Many different minority groups were represented and all found they share the same concerns. Maybe there was some comfort in finding out that everyone is getting the same short end of the stick. It is hoped that MCA will work harder to expand the next conference to include showcase performances from the various groups. One of the major problems with the conference was that the room was full of minorities but no one could easily identify the other's creative area. Everyone was just “a minority." A conference of this type must span a two or three day period if any kind of meaningful exchange is to take place. It takes one day just to get to know who is in attendance. MCA has made a start. Now it should put some guts into it.□

Barbara Rose, noted art historian and critic, has published her writings on 20th century American art and artists in numerous periodicals, including Artforum, Art in American and Vogue magazine Her history, American Art Since 1900, is considered a standard text on that subject by many universities and art institutions. She is currently curator of exhibitions and collections at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.

This interview was conducted by Rose DeSloover and Vincent Carducci on December 8, 1981, shortly before Ms. Rose was to deliver a lecture at the Detroit Institute of Arts entitled: American Sculpture of the 1960's: The Major Issues.

Carducci:

What is the necessity of a publication in any community?

Rose:

Houston, like Detroit, is a place where there are a lot of artists—a lot of good artists. There is a big and very vital artists community, but the problem is that they don't have any outlet in terms of criticism or publishing their images In order for artists to grow they need feedback. They need critical feedback and they need to see each other's images and to be aware of each other. That's how an artists community really takes off. For example the story of Artforum is a real strange story. I was one of the original editors. Artforum started as a local San Francisco magazine which was printed in a garage. John Coplans made it up one day. And then he moved it to Irving Bloom’s bathroom in L A. Phil Lieder became the editor. Phil hired Max Kozloff and me while the magazine was still published in L.A.

Finally, he moved the magazine to New York. Artforum did sustain a certain group of artists for a period of time. It was a partisan magazine—I think magazines tend to be partisan, but I don't think that's bad if there are enough of them. I think its good if you know what a magazine represents or that there is some kind of internal dialogue going on. In a local situation you desperately need it Being in Houston I realized one of our big problems is the lack of a magazine where we could develop art critics. I mean, you can't depend on the newspapers. I don’t know about your newspaper critics, but the big problem is that if you have no alternative for the newspaper, the newspaper is too powerful. Also people who write for newspapers tend to be journalists and not critics. Their formation is neither artist or art historian. The only people who have any business writing art criticism are people, educated people, who are either artists or art historians. Nobody else has any business writing art criticism—they don’t know enough about it.

DeSloover:

Someone was talking to me the other day about 'managing artists".

Rose:

Aren't you talking about rock groups⁷ This is the problem. The mentality of rock groups has gotten into the art world. There has been a cross-over and its very very bad. It's very destructive to values in the art world. It's weird and frightening; it's scary. There's been a kind of blurring of the distinction between art and other kinds of commercial activities. It has been very destructive to the quality

and values in arts. Because art used to be something not a lot of people were interested in and that didn’t have any commercial value—no one would’ve had that idea (managing artists) twenty years ago. DeSloover:

What about the need to develop more collectors? How do you separate the need to develop collectors and collecting from the idea of promoting? They're not going to be completely exclusive.

Rose:

Personally, I don't care if there are any collectors—only to the extent that I would like to see collections because I would like to see them go to the museums. But, I think from the point of view of the artist—the artist needs that support. It is a problem for the contemporary artist because if they don't have people to buy their stuff and put it up—where is the point of making it? I think that the collector has a distinct function in terms of taking care of works before they go into museums. Developing collectors?—I don’t know. I think dealers do that. But then they tend to develop collectors for jusl the artist they show. I think people should be encouraged to collect art. I think it gives people pleasure and gives the artist something to live on. DeSloover:

What do you think about “developing” an art community?

Rose:

I don't put things that way. I believe that things arise organically. I don't think that you can decide to develop collectors or to develop an art community. I believe that these things evolve organically. Obviously something happened in Detroit that created an art community. Something happened in Houston that created an art community, something happened in Washington D.C., in Philadelphia and many of our large cities. But these grow organically and you can’t force them. Just the way I think there will be an art magazine in Houston at the point at which it’s needed. At the point that it is needed enough people will do it.

Carducci:

What do think happened to create these communities?

Rose:

I think the Endowment had a lot to do with it.

DeSloover:

What do you think will happen now that that kind of thing is winding down?

Rose:

I think that the weak people will drop out. I think the commercial people will become commercial artists and I think the people who are really artists will keep on doing what they do. We'll just have more artists in America spread out geographically across the country much more than they ever have been. And in that respect the Endowment did something. I would say that is the most concrete thing accomplished by the Endowment—to spread art across the country. DeSloover:

You don’t think we need to sustain that?

Rose:

No. I think we have too many artists. I personally would be very happy if the Endowment went away. I don't think it has a raison d’entre anymore. I think that a program like the WPA is a much more important idea right now because the problem is employment. And the problem is also that people make things. Why do they make things?—for the trash heap? The point is that you need a program which employs artists in a dignified way. One that gives them enough money to live on, but also does something with their work. So that you don't just keep making this stuff for nothing.

DeSloover:

Do you see something like the WPA coming back?

Rose:

Do you see something like the depression coming back? The CETA program was modeled more on the WPA though they didn’t place work. It was a work program and the artist had to work. Which I think is very good for everybody to have to work. I don’t think people should be getting money for doing nothing. It all goes into real estate and drugs. So that’s why in many ways I don't think the Endowment was so wonderful. But I think the CETA program was great! One should be critical about how government money has been spent on art and think about it hard and not make a lot of the mistakes that have been made. There was lot of irresponsibility. The reason we have Ronald Reagan as President is because of the unbelievable waste and boondoggling and irresponsibility and fraudulence of the last 20 years. And when the time comes to reconstruct social programs which Reagan is in the process of dismanfling, the problem will be to look critically at what has been done in the past and try do to it properly—instead of creating the same mess again. I studied the WPA. Now there’s got to be a reason that almost all the artists we think of as some of the greatest artists this country has produced—the New York School—were able to become artists in the WPA. What does that mean? The WPA gave equal opportunity to everybody with one given—you had to have skills. You had to have artists'skills, had to be a professional, had to prove you could draw—you had to prove you’d been to art school—and you had to prove that you were a professional artist. Now the Endowment had none of those requirements. Moreover, you didn't have to produce work; moreover that work didn't have to go anywhere. I think in that sense the WPA, because it had standards and it was about skills and it was about using art for a function, was a much more productive program and it gave more people a chance, strangely enough. CETA really did work. I don't think people have seen how much better it worked than the Endowment. The Endowment was a give-away. Carducci:

I seem to get the sense from listening to you talk that you are a big advocate of the artist in the market place. Do you think that the artists who will survive will be those that can survive from selling work?

Rose:

No, not at all. That’s why I was saying the WPA was so great—no one had to sell their work. It gave people time to do it. It gave people a time to mature. The work was placed, they had jobs, they decorated public buildings, school rooms, hospitals. They had actual jobs. They were responsible for making things. But it was not about selling and it was not about the market at all. No, I don't think the market place is a good indication of anything at all except publicity. It doesn’t mean anything. No, I think the artists who last are those who do good work—who continue to do good work. I've spent a lot of my life doing that. I wrote a book on an artist who killed himself in 1936 and was completely unknown and had his first one man show at the M.O.M.A. 40 years after he knocked himself off.

DeSloover:

I read a statement where you said that we've got to stop downgrading “elitism." What did you mean by elitism?

Rose:

I mean quality. I think the worst idea when applied to art is democracy. Art is not a democratic activity, We are not all born equally talented, we are not all born equally gifted. We are not all born equally visual. Some people really are inspired. Some people really are gifted and most people really aren't. And the fact that nobody wanted to admit this for the last twenty years has brought the level of art and taste down considerably so we have a greater quantity of work of art being produced at a lower quality.□

DeSloover:

We were both interested in your ideas on Conceptual art and Performance. Don't you think that a "conceptual period” in an artist’s life could allow for a more substantial art to develop?

Rose:

That has happened in a few cases. For example Mel Bochner—has a conceptual period and he paints now. In Germany, Gilbert Roth, Jeffery Rue. A number of people who were conceptual artists are now painting. So, yes that was obviously for them a necessary pause in order to find themselves as artists. That doesn’t mean that I’m interested in their pausing. That's night school esthetics... that's amateur hour. It’s a necessary part of the artists growth and educational process. But I don’t know why someone like myself should be interested in someone else’s education. I’m not. I’m perfectly interested in Mel Bochner’s paintings but his process of educating himself I'm not, although he is a fairly good writer.

DeSloover:

Don't you think though that contemporary artists, by the very fact that they are contemporary, are going to get caught in the position of learning something at the same time someone is looking at them? Rose:

Listen, I don't exhibit my research. I don’t see why anyone else should. I takes me a long time to write a book—many drafts. I don’t publish it until it's in a form that communicates with the public. I would ask only that of an artist. I don’t want to see that process. When it’s finished and it’s done and these persons have criticized themselves to the point that they are doing something of public interest—them it’s time to present it to the public. But to ask M.O.M.A. to look at you everytime you do “ka-ka"—i think is wrong. It’s infantile. It’s all about mama and ka-ka. "Mama look at baby make ka-ka." That's all it is. It was a massive regression. I think the entire drug phenomenon was a regressive, primitivistic phenomenon to a lower level of thinking and of culture. There is an attempt now on the part of some people to pull themselves out of what was an extremely regressed kind of infantile narcissism and to behave, and make art, to work on a more adult and more critical and therefore and infinitely more difficult and demanding level. Whenever I see that attempt made I am heartened.

Carducci:

I would like to know what you believe the values of western art should be? You talk of quality and excellence. I’m finding it hard to nail down exactly what it is that you mean?

Rose:

I could give you my art history course—but that would take a while. I think that art has moral quality, essentially. I think the core of art is moral quality and I think it addresses itself to higher values. I don’t think it’s about decoration. I don't think it's about masturbation. I don’t think it's about exhibitionism. I don’t think it's about calling attention to the self. I don’t think it's about most of the things that it seems to have been about for quite awhile. I don’t think it’s about messing up the art gallery. I don’t think it's about protest—not the kind of superficial protest that we've seen. There is a deeper existential protest which is going on in some artists today, which I think is very profound and important. Philip Guston, Basilwitz, Susan Rothenberg, Philip Jenson, Jerry Steffin—a group of artists who are diverse but whose work has for me a moral core and a sense of an existential protest against perhaps the human condition or against a situation of spiritual closure that many artists are feeling. I don't think art is about many of the things that it is purported to be about. And I certainly don’t think it’s about Andy Warhol or any of the things that Andy Warhol thinks it’s about! □

Installation Show at WSU: Narrative and Constructive

by Vincent A. Carducci

The exhibition of installations at the WSU Community Arts Building is a presentation of divergent styles. The show's diversity is mainly due to its having been juried from WSU’s general art student population. This jurying process is also responsible for the show's lack of curatorial demarcation. Being an open competition rather than a survey, work is included not by virtue of its adherence to any dis-cernable style or current trend, that is in order to illuminate a critical point of view, but for its having met a certain, arbitrary jurist's criteria, (This is not a total detriment in that the perception of the work and the milieu from which it comes is not colored, as in "the (now) familiar Detroit style ") In addition and contrary to the opinion of others, the work, with few exceptions, remains the work of students, albeit accomplished, and therefore is characterized by proficient technique coupled with a lack of strong underlying ideas. Be that as it may, upon reflection, tendencies are uncovered within the scope of the exhibition that warrant discussion.

At its core, the exhibition of installations may be seen to encompass two general sensibilities: the narrative and the constructive. Generically, the narrative works are theatrical in their intent, that is, the focus of the piece is in the meaning of the "scene" depicted. By comparison, the constructive works are typified by literalism. Their statement centers around structure and environment. While making up more than half of the exhibition, the narrative works are less successful than the constructive. This is due in part to the inability of these artists to encode meaning in their work beyond the superficial.

An example of this is Mastaba Implantation by Steve Finley and Emily Phillips. Mastaba Implantation is a looming construction outwardly shaped like a pyramid, the interior of which reveals a macabre chamber of horrors grouping of truncated plaster cast corpse-figures impaled on foot-long spikes covering the walls and ceiling. Bodies, decomposing one imagines, are also strewn about the midst of a thick layer of dust on the floor. The scene, illuminated by a strobing black light, looks to be an imaginary setting for the Disco In-

quisition or an outtake from Raiders of the Lost Ark In any event, the end result of titilation and fatuousness is hardly what one would ascribe to great art.

Finley and Phillips are not alone in their failure to rise above the artifice of mise-en-scene. The work of Katy Colby, Steven Lambers, and Deborah McClellan also cannot hold interest because it gets bogged down in a first order reality of 3-D storytelling, pop-up book style. In The Court, Steven Lambers constructs a specially lit room in which to house an abstract sculpture, similar in style to that of David Smith. The viewer then enters this throne-chamber to give hommage before a would-be metal king. As sculpture, the king may be a fine work, but by relegating it into service as an actor in his frozen set piece, Lambers debases it.

The piece of narrative art that manages to elude the pitfalls of the others is Dream of Morality by Jan Sutherland. In this work theatricality is transcended by allegory. The previously discussed pieces employ artifice in order to depict a quasi-real situation, in the Dream, reality, through the use ot actual objects: leaves, trees, branches, blank paper; is used to evoke the metaphysical. The tableau is composed in groupings of threes, representing life stages. A line stretched between three trees is traversed by a cherub. (Sutherland on her life/journey.) A map is nailed to one of the trees, the nail marking a locality of significance to the artist; on the other is tied a feather. These are fragile artifacts of passing life. Most interesting, is the backdrop that is comprised simply of three sheets of blank drawing paper in a row. One sheet is tacked down at the bottom left corner, the next sheet at the bottom of the middle, and the last on the right. These represent the mysterious descent into oblivion. Although an intuited illumination for Sutherland, this metaphor was used by C.S. Lewis some forty years ago in a radio talk entitled Beyond Personality as follows:

"If you picture Time as a straight line along which we have to

travel, then you must picture God as the whole page in which

the line is drawn. We come to the parts of the line one by one: we have to leave A behind before we get to B and cannot reach C until we leave B behind. God from above or outside or all around, contains the whole line.

It is the musing upon the cessation of existence, its acceptance without remorse, and this testament to it (confront and conquer) that gives Dream of Mortality the depth of expression other works in this show lack.

The works in the constructive vein, while more engaging than most the narrative pieces in that they make better use of gallery space, also have shortcomings. Inundated Crenation by Mike Zimmerman suffers because of faulty execution and Sandra Newton's Fairytails, while it is quite a lovely piece, does not seem to confront any issues in regard to installation.

The Oblique by John Roberts and Deborah Kurech’s Space Pretense share an illusionist bent. Robert’s piece is constructed so as to appear to be a stacked column of open cubes that undulates in and out of the plane of the window it is diagonally mounted on. In this manner, space inside and out of the gallery becomes linked. The Kurech is a large wedge whose interior is vibrantly colored so as to skew perception of parallax (pure retinal delight) and is studded with hundreds of spiked cilia that are not so much ominous as they are modern. One senses high technology and science in this work. It is ironic, then, to discover upon closer inspection that this effect is achieved with plastic baggie ties. In each case, the viewer is led into a confusion of perceptual boundaries. Of the two, the Kurech possesses a greater facility both in terms of the craft involved in the execution and in its ability to sustain an interesting viewing situation.

Far and away the most cogent of the constructive works, and with the Sutherland the strongest piece in the show, is Time, Space, Movement, Entropy by M.C Riley. In this work Riley succeeds in charging his allotment of space to the greatest degree while employing the barest of means. Three photographs mounted on the wall show the stages in which chalk lines are laid on the floor to demarcate the domain of the work and determine the cross point at which two doors are erected. This creates volumes of space within the boundaries of the resultant planes. The finished work, the process of construction, the specific site, and its possibilities are all discovered in a moment that may be defined as satori. By following the lines on the floor one is able to apprehend the angles bisected, formed by the actual gallery walls, which determine the particular X and Y coordinates whose meeting point is marked by the standing doors. This same procedure, employing the same elements, may be used to delineate any space it is placed in. In this way, it is akin to a wall drawing by Sol LeWitt or Daniel Buren's stripes. Its constancy is the control set by which we may measure our awareness of any environment or the experience of any space in which Space, Time, Movement, Entropy is encountered

Of the two basic foundations, neither the narrative nor the constructive can be seen as possessing a more inherently significant methodology. As stated earlier, the narrative fails in this show not because it is deficient as a form but rather in that its practitioners are unable to infuse it with a signification beyond the obvious. (A result more of youthful inexperience, than lack of talent.) If the constructive pieces fare better, it is a factor of their lesser ambitions than any greater authenticity. Both Jan Sutherland and M.C. Riley stand as examples of what may be garnered from each.a

NOTE: The work Proposal #1 (Lunch Break) by Robert Johnson was omitted from this discussion in that being a performance piece that was not witnessed by the author, no justly informed commentary could be given.

1. Lewis. C.S. Mere Christianity (McMillan & Co. New York, 1960) p. 147

Criticism: A Vanishing Art?

A Commentary by Lynn Farnsworth

The following article has been edited by the staff. The complete text is available through the Detroit Focus Gallery.

Western critical thinking and writing about art per se probably begins with Aristotle. While there are of course examples of critical thinking that existed before Aristotle, he at least tried to systematize his thinking on this matter into a Poetics. Aristotle’s purpose in setting down a system of criticism was both cultural/historical and aesthetic-cultural/historical in that he felt that thinking individuals had a responsibility to make the "rational” system behind their opinions clear, and aesthetic in that he felt that the aesthetic function of human nature was too important to be left to mere opinion. Aristotle’s "dream,” implicitly put, was to create a "science” that would account for artistic endeavor, account for the cultural/historical perception of the products of artistic endeavor, and place the products of art and its audience within a context that was legible. Art was one of the primary ways that people at a certain time, in a certain juncture of a culture, understood that culture and understood themselves. It was the critic’s task, simply put, to make that understanding of art complete, to make that understanding mean something in terms of the audience. In short, it was the critic’s task to complete the work of art, both intrinsicly and extrinsicly.

On November 19, 1981, at the Detroit Focus Gallery, Detroit, Michigan, "A Round Table Discussion” was held that included: Barry Kahn, Michigan editor for The New Art Examiner; Ruth Ratt-ner, free lance writer who published in Art in America and Art Forum; Corinne Abatt representing The Observer Eccentric; Julia Flenshaw, Michigan editor for The New Art Examiner; and Marsha Miro, representing The Detroit Free Press.

What follows attempts to, in digest form, capsulize the indivdual critics perspective. Each perspective, taken from a transcription of the preceedings, is one that is hopefully accurate in terms of the presentations. It is the author’s contentions that the real issues pertinent to the visual arts in the metro-Detroit area, were not touched upon until the last part of the discussion: Is there real criticism in the Metro-Detroit area?

For a variety of reasons each of the panelists did agree, on one level or another, that criticism as it has been historically understood, does not, (cannot?) exist in Detroit. Criticism is not practiced here.

Given the bias of this commentary, which Dennis Nawrocki’s introductory premise seems to strengthen, each panelist proceeded to articulate the difficulties (personal and technical) within the context of the specifics of translating the Aristotelian “dream" into practical application.

“.. .(criticism) is (a) full, considered, deliberated view of an individual’s work or of a group of artists. That it discusses the full context of the work, both its social and aesthetic context; that one should consider comparing it to other tendencies or currents in culture; that the work should be evaluated, interpreted; that some of the work should be specifically discussed and analyzed and that one should grapple with how important and how significant that work is. And it takes a heap of words to, I think, thoroughly, completely and in depth, insightfully consider work in or from the critical vantage point. ...”

Barry Kahn ".. .That sounds absolutely legitimate to me what you just described... ”

"... I want to use up what I know about (a) person’s work. If we call that criticism I certainly don’t think there’s any of it around....”

"... I don’t read much of the stuff that you might be describing as criticism, and one of the problems even when I find it, one of the

problems I have experienced is that an awful lot of it is not very readable. There seems also to be a kind of gap; that people who write critically write with either a language or a structure, a language structure which makes it very difficult for me to read. And people who write in ways that are readily readable for me very often tend to have nothing to say that’s of interest to me."

",. .I’ll tell you, I’ll read John Berger at great lengths... .” "... It’s a question of whether they (reviewers) have the background to make their criticism worth reading.”

".. .I don’t read many things past the first three sentences.” “It’s got to do with money. .. .Fie (Neal Gabler, Monthly Detroit) can write about movies from New York, because movies are spread around nationally. If art travelled in that kind of way, there would be a lot more interest in any given body of work. That would mean there would be a much larger audience likely to see this particular art package, and therefore, there's be a lot more money to support writing about that particular package.”

".. .Why is putting the work into.. .the context of its day, why is that and reviewing necessarily mutually exclusive.

Ruth Rattner " ... we don’t have criticism in Detroit. ... Do we want criticism in Detroit or do we want promotions?.

" .. .And perhaps we’re intimidated."

"... I’m not sure, .. .how much criticism there is in the country at this time that’s really valid criticism. This is a vanishing art."

".. .We fail to examine I think in our reviews or criticism, in our criticism that doesn’t exist, social, political status of where society is, how relevent the art is to that society.”

"Art as we all know is a continuing dialogue with past art and with current art, and I see very few reviews at least locally that consider that, and I think that’s very important... ”

".. .We don't have it, (criticism) and the question is, is there a public to support it?.. . ”

"... I think we have a good time being critical, but I don't know if we’re always writing criticism. That’s a distinction.

Julia Henshaw "... I agree. I think there is very little criticism going on in Detroit of the sort we would all like to see...”

"I think Ruth is being too modest when she says the catalogue essays she wrote for the D.I.A. Works in Progress shows are not criticism, because I think they are... but there’s so little of that now... And the commitment apparently of the museum at the moment is not towards supporting any kind of critical essays of contemporary art in Detroit...”

",. .And I agree that I don’t find very much great criticism to read. I mostly, I must say, read Art in America and keep it by my bed, and I go to sleep with it alone.

“... I don’t find the articles about the fine arts in the New York Times so interesting, and I honestly think that has something to do with the quality of art in the world today.

"... It’s because the movies and the books are more relevant, interesting.

“By definition a review seems to be rather short, rather quickly generated, more or less evaluative, and not concerned with fitting a particular show, a particular piece of work into a bigger picture.” “And I think it’s the bigger picture people are interested in.” "... Everybody likes... a mention of their work and what it’s like .. .But I do think that in terms of giving a real rich basis to the art community you do need the criticism.”

Marsha Miro “.. .after a while I think that we find that maybe why we don’t read the longwinded criticism in some of those art magazines is because it’s too many words... ”

".. .maybe we’ve come to do more and more reviews, not just

because of nobody wanting to pay for a long thing or all those other things, but maybe it’s just that we enjoy reading reviews and we get a lot out of them because there's so much out there...”

"... And to read longwinded things about everything. . would be impossible for almost everybody, so that we.. .evolved into this style of doing reviews. without having to be tremendously didactic.”

” And I think that maybe criticism on that other scale belongs in the university on an historical level.

Corinne Abatt “Well I think we’re into a situation . we’re competing with television and people are simply not going to read past three or four paragraphs except in rare instances. And if it’s troublesome they don’t go past three. And this has been proven time and time again on every survey you do on the written word that comes out in the newspaper. Unless you catch them in the first two sentences so you’ve got this business with the lead sentence that’s got to be zappy.”

“So that if criticism is going to come, it’s either going to have to come in a situation that is more like this, or in a journal of some kind or through the D.I.A. things, and people are going to have to.. .have to build an audience for it.”

” , And they’re going to have to demand it. Because it’s not going to come from the papers themselves. They simply are not going to do it.”

The above quotes indicate a problem in critical thinking/critical writing. With each quote, and implicitly in Dennis Nawrocki’s contemporary interpretation of Aristotle's imperative, each participant is faced with the pragmatic dealings, with the problems of public forms of communication There are, however, some serious questions that should be asked about the feasibility of an historical format of the visual arts if the critical mind ceases to “systemtize” a larger context for artistic endeavor. The industrialization of culture threatens the publication of critical writing in its insistance on compartmentalization of culture, but is its breadth and scope encompassing enough to impose its limitations on the critical thinkers/critical writers within an individual context? In other words, the above quotes indicate the importance but at the same time the impossibility of critical thinking/writing within the current cultural, socio-economic context. In other words, they find that they are unable for whatever reason to engage in critical thought.

This reviewer wonders.

The eight major categories for this inability to engage in critical thinking are as follows: Money/time and personal finances; too many words, criticism when found is often unreadable; Competition from other forms of media, particularly T.V.; The newspaper business and its format; A fast, complicated way of life; Criticism, if at all possible, belongs elsewhere than in a public format, i.e. universities or journals; Other artistic forms are seemingly more paripatetic hence larger audiences hence more demand for criticism; It has something to do with the quality of art, other forms are more interesting.

Given the aforementioned categories; given the seeming validity of their arguments about the difficulties (1 through 8) of writing in a public way, somehow critical thinking about art does take place. Surely at least one of these panelists must have a longish critical monograph tucked away in a bureau drawer. Surely at least one of these panelists has felt that critical thinking and writing is important at this historical juncture precisely because of the industrializing/ compartmentalizing restraints that alt of us live under. Surely at least one of these panelists has understood that the “politics” of whole ways of thinking is necessary if the past is to be rescued from reif-fication, and the present rescued from crippling fragmentation. Surely at least one of these panelists must realize the human responsibility explicit in Aristotle’s legacy.

Critical thinking is necessary for the existence of good reviews.□

Interview with George N’Namdi at Jazzonia

by Karen Roth

“There is no such thing as Black art. There are Black artists. That’s an important distinction,” explains psychologist George N’Namdi, who along with attorney Rosalind Reed is co-owner of the newly opened Jazzonia, an art gallery located downtown in Harmony Park dedicated to exhibiting national, local and international Black artists.

N’Namdi, who began purchasing art as a private collector, often used his knowledge to assist friends with art buying decisions. He and Reed opened Jazzonia to provide quality space for local, national, and international artists.

Roth:

Are Black artists resentful about being in a separatist Black gallery/White gallery situation?

N’Namdi:

That is sometimes how people deal with it. Our gallery is here, though^ to dispel a myth. No one really knows the definition of Black art. There are only Black artists working in all types of mediums, producing a variety of images, both abstract and figurative, in a wide range of styles. We want to expose that range. The way to do this is to install exhibitions, such as the current clay and fiber show, displaying the work of Black artists in a beautiful gallery setting and providing the possibility for national exposure.

Roth:

Which Black artists are you showing?

N’Namdi:

A large number from Washington, D.C., New York, Cincinnati and other cities. We consider ourselves a national gallery. This is the only way we can give wide exposure to all artists. In the current show we have two Detroit artists. Our goal is to be recognized nationally and to refer artists to different parts of the country.

Roth:

In what condition is the Detroit Black art scene?

Initiation, a ceramic sculpture by Winnie

N’Namdi:

It's been laying dormant because it doesn't have the attention which it needs. Our purpose, our intention, is to change this condition by showing more Black artists and by educating the public to art and art collecting.

Roth:

How does this education take place?

N’Namdi:

By having a variety of exhibits that don’t fit the stereotype of “Black art." For instance, our first show included abstract art which was unexpected by many viewers because it wasn’t their idea of traditional figurative Black art. People were surprised. This was an educational event.

I believe it’s important to develop an appreciation for your own art before you move on to art in general. This happens with everyone regardless of race. People begin with the familiar and then become knowledgeable of a variety of art forms. They start to take risks.

In most cases collectors who buy work by Black artists are first very familiar with non-Black artists. They are art appreciators, art lovers who learn to break down distinctions and who are looking for good art by a variety of artists.

Roth:

You're in Washington, D.C. a lot. Tell us about the art environment in that city.

N’Namdi:

It's wonderful, exciting. There are about 100 galleries of which twenty are Black. And there is a strong artist's community with a lot of activity and numerous large exhibits. The Mayor is very supportive to the arts and sponsors many of his own exhibits and events. It's really fun, very cosmopolitan. And again, it helps people develop an appreciation for art because there is so much of it.

In Washington the Black population tends to go to galleries that represent Black artists much more readily. To get into art you have to get into it on a whole cultural level.

Roth:

How does Detroit compare to Washington, D.C.?

N’Namdi:

We need more galleries and we need to support existing art activity in both performance and visual arts. I like Detroit. There are a lot of cultural opportunities here but we have to work at it.

Roth:

Why did you name the gallery Jazzonia?

N’Namdi:

We took the name from a poem by Langston Hughes in which Hughes was expressing his reverence for the music of his time during the Harlem Renaissance. This connection to the Detroit Renaissance was appropriate as is the relationship between the visual arts and music.

Roth:

What are your future plans?

N'Namdi:

We're having a workshop in fiber arts and would like to continue offering a variety of learning experience in all media We want to have more receptions for prominent Black people, such as the recent gathering at the gallery for author James Baldwin. We re continually looking for work by local, national and international Black artists. And we consider ourselves able to discuss art with interested viewers. □

Karen Roth

The Eyes

We’re looking at some delicious things the months ahead have to offer! Example: Eyes recently scanned a press release announcing that Brenda Goodman will be showing at the Feigenson Gallery from February 12 (opening runs from 4:00 to 7:00) til March 13. From our point of view, this show’s a MUST for the season Take Off Those Lens Caps and Live A Little!!: Artworlds in Ann Arbor will hold a Free Photography Seminar on Wed., March 3 at 7:00. For information, call 994-8400. Also For The Sophisticated Shutterbug: Betty Smith and Other Women Photographers, now until March 20 at Birmingham's Halsted Gallery. Also, Festival Women: Blues and Jazz Shouters and Waiters, an exhibition of photographs by Barbara Weinberg, at the Detroit Public Library until March 20. All Along The Blue Chip Line It looks like a big season for commodity fetishism in the Metro Detroit area. Alex Katz is at Susanne Hilberry’s gallery in January (but We’re really excited about the group show there in March). Some Downtown Mentionables are Work by Chris Foster, Norman Kobylarz and M. Sherry Peysson at the CADE Gallery from Feb 7 til March 5 See Jim Pallas define himself three different ways at Detroit Focus' ‘Self Portraits' show, running til Feb. 6 Speaking of Caid Eyes wishes the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit group the best of luck in recent efforts at fund-raising and organization of their next exhibition... During the holidays Eyes misted over at the Rosa Parks Art Center’s Christmas Sing. The center, known as the Inner City In-terlochen by some, held a truly beautiful display of student art, music, and topped the day off with an African play, complete with drummers and dancers. Scott Bower is looking for video works in the following areas: Experimental, Drama, Documentary. What does he have in mind⁷ Call and find out! (872-3118). The metalwork of Taty Rybak at the Schweyer-Galdo Galleries until Feb. 18; Collages by Christian Julia and ceramics by Gordon Orear at the Sheldon Ross Gallery til Feb. 6. Guts, an exhibition of Detroit artists at Herron Gallery at Indiana University; Dine, Estes, Kushner and Nevelson at Cantor Lemberg; Bruce Scharfenberg at Xochipilli until Feb 12; Stephen Goodfellow opens next on Feb. 13; the paintings and constructions of Conrad Marca-Relli at GMB Gallery in February, followed by paintings of Richard Bogart in March

Mary Sobiechowski Gallery Renaissance 400 Renaissance Center Detroit

At the Sixth Street Gallery in Royal Oak, opening on the 23rd of January; printmaker Warrington Colescotte, opening Feb. 20.□

Wing of an Insect (From That Area), Mary Sobiechowski, 49 "x 25", Plaster, acrylic paint, epopyresin.

By now, the Detroit art saga is slightly dog-earred: artists living in a gritty, decaying industrial town produce art that’s a swaggering scrapper—vital and challenging.

If it sounds like a hackneyed plot, it's only because it’s so often been true. But what happens when you give a Detroit artist a passport out of town? Mary Sobiechowski came back with a visa stamped with jungle vistas and scenes of tropical marine life. Her latest group of plaster reliefs are delightful, strong, energetic, shaped pieces which employ more color and a more definable imagery.

Sobiechowski uses very thin layers of plaster which she covers with acrylic resins, then mounts on clear pastic. The result is much like a shiny 20th century sham-painted gray they have the heavy presence of metal sculpture but a fillip gives the sound of a finger percussing plastic. The more colorful pieces are similarly playful with the texture. They look like cracked, natural glazes you’d find on ceramics, but of course they're plastics.

Half of Sobiechowski's reliefs are scuba-mask views of fish, shells and seaweed. These underwater scenes are colorful and engaging, but never seem to get out of the shallows. Only one of them, “One of the Gang,” really works and that's because it’s acutely cute rather than kinda cute. "Gang” is a whole school of identical fish and they're all dressed in the same blue and green J.C.-Penny-polyesters. It’s a fun comment about us fish in the sea.

Sobiechowski’s other reliefs are neither fish nor fowl and are better for it. These monochromatic forms trade amiability for a more serious disposition. But they are not somber. "Reversal” may be the best due to its harmony of forms, and interplay of color and surface relief. It’s mainly gray but the wrinkles are punctuated with hot pink and a bright yellow-green. The hint of color sparks a crackling kind of energy like a Jacob’s ladder that you'd find at a high school science fair.

Now if Zug-lsland gray is responsible for that kind of energy, well then... □

Dan Acosta

Ruth Goldfaden

1536 Broadway Detroit

It’s usually a rather involved proposition for an artist to secure a building short-term for exhibition purposes. In most cases these neglected quarters require considerable toil to prepare. By some miracle, Ruth Goldfaden found a space flawlessly suited to her work. Immaculately white? Nope. Airy and spacious? Nope. It used to house one of those cramped boutiques which bear names like “Tanya’s Records and Hair Products.” At first I thought Goldfaden had altered it for her own purposes. Its black headshop interior embraced her manic, day-glo works as if they were its long lost children.

When Goldfaden began doing her energetic constructions, they weren’t as energetic as she wanted. She’d been making them of wood which for her ends was rather cumbersome. A switch to cheap corrugated cardboard and staples allowed much more spontaneity. The result is action sculpture covered with searingly colorful action painting. Some pieces hang from the ceiling solemnly still despite their wild, freeform execution. Others dance and radiate as if the floor under them had been ignited. With an artist’s characteristic economy, Goldfaden uses the cardboard refuse from her larger pieces and uses them to form small replica-like constructions. In glass cases that once housed “head” items, these miniatures appeared to race around like “funny cars” or frightened chickens. A few sat like cute knick-knacks gone radioactive. All in all there was a tremendous amount of movement implied for a show

comprised only of static objects.

Ruth Goldfaden takes risks, not the least of which is her valiant rescue of flourescent color from bondage to its hippie past. She is also a very prolific artist. Given her motivation to produce and exhibit independently, there should be no shortage of opportunities for the public to view the progress of her work, o

James Kirchner

Stage People, Russell Keeter, Oil on Canvas

Russell Keeter

Cade Gallery 8025 Agnes Detroit

“A lot of people come in here and all they get out of it is severed limbs.”

—Joe Fugate, Director, CADE Gallery

No, no! It's perfectly safe to visit the CADE Gallery. Joe Fugate isn’t dangerous either. His comment, in the opening quote, refers to the fact that too few gallery visitors expend the energy to get past the superficials of Russell Keeter’s work. That’s too bad. In his latest work, Keeter has removed most of the visual non-essentials. This makes his imagery more powerful. Because he is an impeccable technician, his paintings and drawings have an immediate sensual appeal. However, his images can be disquieting. These two factors simultaneously attract and repel the viewer in exciting fashion.

Most of the works in Keeter’s present exhibition deal with the theme ‘‘Stage People.” Distorted, contorted figures often display exaggerated muscle contractions visually analogous to unbearable performance anxiety. Rows of mannequin-like heads sit on shelves like alternate identities requiring connection to equally anonymous bodies in order to be activated.

Keeter's images are most engaging when figures interact with each other or with the viewer. Some look like backstage scenes where performers assert a self-conscious individuality. Meanwhile, many of their comrades display a woodenness found latent in any group where people feel responsible to be unique.

Keeter has not been written up enough so that the average person can approach his art with familiar ease. So spend a while with his work. Take time to peel it. It’s not as quickly consumed as some of Detroit’s more popular art (most of which the galleries and critics have partially digested for us). Russell Keeter does mature, complex work worth savoring alertly, and at leisure. □

James Kirchner

Blaise Siwula:

Paradigms of Darkness

Willis Gallery 422 West Willis Detroit

Blaise Siwula is a painter’s painter. His enigmatic, black oil paintings and drawings on paper at a recent Willis Gallery Show deal with the force and face of darkness. They are also about the artist’s struggle to find form and meaning in a huge abyss.

Paradigms of Darkness is about the fear, excitement and sense of awe experienced in that moment of confrontation with the dark. Black, a bold color evoking primitive and mysterious images, covers the entire canvas in thin expressionistic washes and acts as a metaphor expressing the feeling of being in a dark interior or exterior place. The paintings are elusive, veiled, glimmering specimens functioning as object and subject.

''Paradigm means an example or pattern and these are examples, archetypes, for my own personal experience with the dark,” states Siwula. ‘‘I became entranced with darkness, with its spiritual sense of strength and its essence of being.” The titles, Dark Horse, The Cathedral Dusk, Mystic Delirium, and The Lakes Night Light are clues to hidden images which pulsate and push through the rich black oil washes.

These images work on the sublime side of consciousness. The viewer, pulled towards the painting, inspects the active surface and is then pushed back to examine the whole. As this motion occurs one begins to perceive the underlying, loosely geometric structure. Chalk marks emerge and fade as evidence of the artist’s search for these forms.

Siwula, who began as an abstract artist, is deeply concerned with the content of his work. Realistic images, beginning with the idea of a duck, answered the need for a recognizable object. “I let it (the duck) evolve and it came to me as a perfect image. It is enclosed with a sense of grace, sensual shape, nice motion, no jagged edges, it’s fluid and is the first irregular shape after the circle or square,” relates Siwula. The artist sublimely incorporated this object into the oil washes which he was developing as a graduate student at Wayne State University. At that time his admiration for the Abstract Expressionists and the painter Mark Rothko, whose cloud-like atmospheric paintings served as inspiration, influenced Siwula’s work. However, he continues, ‘‘The image can be the total site of the painting or it can be an image inside the painting. In my case I became tired of the Rothko kind of site image philosophy and began to develop my own personal iconography with the duck as a starting point.”

The struggle to find the right image is a growth journey taken as part of the evolve-ment from student to mature artist. Some find the road pitted with terror and dead ends. Others such as Siwula find themselves on a steadier course paved with persistence and conviction. ‘‘For a long time I found myself wading deeper into thinking and not doing,” says Siwula. “I realized that I was trying too hard to control what was happening so I decided to let the painting take its own direction and not try to be too judgmental. This was a good decision because it allowed my subconscious some space for play. I found myself using black because it has such a strong presence.”

What was Siwula going to do with black paintings? Where was the idea leading? In darkness came the answer. In darkness one experiences the setting sun, the stars, fears in a shadowed room. In darkness, like the + black washes of the canvas, one senses mystery, euphoria and strength.

It is the blackness which also makes Siwula’s paintings difficult for many to accept. The imagery is not easy to decipher. The blackness evokes a feeling of depression and fear in some. On the other side of the dark coin, however, lies power and mystery. The paintings are compelling objects which force themselves on the subconscious without blatantly stating the subject matter. This dual nature, the synthesis and integration of subject and object, creates a strong body of work that is both lyrical and subdued, dark and luminous, sensuous and controlled. □

Karen Roth

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Your Support Needed to Ensure Passage of 1 % for Art Ordinance!

The Committee for One Percent for the Arts/Detroit, co-sponsored by Detroit Focus Gallery and the Michigan Chapter Artists Equity Association, Inc., and with the support of the New Detroit Arts Committee is currently introducing a 1 % for Art Ordinance to Mayor Coleman Young.

This proposed ordinance would call for the creation of a Detroit Public Arts Commission—an autonomous, volunteer group comprised of a program director, two artists (one nominated by the Detroit Institute of Arts, one by New Detroit, Inc., two architects, a city planner, a D.C.A. representative, a curator from the Detroit Institute of Arts, an Art Historian (again, selected by New Detroit) and a citizen representative. This commission will publicize public art competitions, maintain list and slide registry of interested artists, and set up funding priorities for public art. Its purpose will be to select and jury art for public sites in Detroit with the highest aesthetic and non-political means possible.

The ordinance requires the creation of a Detroit Municipal Arts Fund to finance the artwork selected, as well as administrative costs of the ordinance. It will provide that an amount not less than one per cent of the cost of all City of Detroit construction and renovation projects such as civic buildings, structures, parks, utilities or mass transit facilities shall be appropriated for public artwork.

This ordinance could have a tremendous impact on Detroit-area artists. Two-thirds of arts projects would be granted to Michigan artists. Miami and San Francisco, which have ‘Percent for Art’ ordinances, have in the past budgeted over a million dollars a year for art in public places. Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, Boston, Seattle, and Cambridge are among the 40 American cities which have ongoing ‘Percent for Arts’ programs.

In view of Detroit’s economic crunch and limited federal support at this time, the Committee for One Percent for the Arts/Detroit, 743 Beaubien, Detroit, Ml 48226, requests that you write this week a letter stating your support of the proposed ordinance. Even a sentence or two would help. Thanks! □

Lucille P. Nawara,

Chairman

Ephemeral Arts

Statements On Tape (a touring exhibition of artists' video) continues a recent trend by artists to reach the public by placing art in public spaces outside of the usual gallery/ museum situation. The exhibit first opened last summer at the Oak Park Library. Statements On Tape will move to the Southfield Public Library on Monday, March 1, until Friday, March 12. A lecture discussing the video art in Statements On Tape will be given Saturday, March 6, at 2 p.m.

Shortly following the Southfield exhibit, Statements On Tape will be presented at the main branch of the Detroit Public Library Monday, March 15 until Wednesday, March 31. On Saturday, March 27 at the Friends Auditorium a lecture will be given on the video art in this exhibit.

Both Statements On Tape exhibitions will run during library hours. For more information call the Southfield Public Library at 354-9100, the Detroit Public Library at 833-4043, or call 891-5096.□