L
T
T
fo' "The Issue <>t Criticism
Thu kind of pr. dung digit die u sure to improve the
Itst of fivminr in the an »»•> <riu. < \p<. laih at lists
Tht piece Is the I -livers in Artist the Scsv ConI-
p.ro Mar. ’ r-, Mike Nicholson was almost startling
to v.v m pmu This'indictment may seem a little
prtMWf rwi rtb'Wjhlil hut naked truth often has that
ipiMQh' Hcfw cm a teacher who has moved in a
straight Une from hg*h school to undergraduate pro
gram to Master of' fine Arts degree and straight into
teaching in university studios have the authority to
.4 real practicing artist is forged by a dogged
eticounter with life in and out of his j her studio, and is
n i II me h > develop a tenuous set ofsurvival patterns in
order to save his j her art. Yet this practicing artist is
often given short shrift by the critic/historian-
museum-gallery complex, because he is not as visible
as the university artist who has a built in P. R. system.
The. real problem lies with altitudes of university
artists who would leave the impression that they are
at the heart beat of art making.
The serious artist, in or out of the university, will
continue an honest search for enlightenment and
originality through his work, hoping that the art
public will have the wisdom to know the real ones.
The entire issue was stimulating and thought-
provoking.
Ruth Laxson
Atlanta, Ga.
A Salute to an Enlightened Business...
Our lead article in this issue deals with the Construct
exhibition, which was funded in full by the Gilman
Paper Company, known internationally for its
corporate art collection and widespread support for
the arts. With its regional headquarters in Atlanta
and its main plant in St. Mary’s, Georgia, the Gilman
Paper Company, by sponsoring this exhibition at the
Arts Festival of Atlanta, demonstrates enlightened
corporate responsibility to the community. This act
also sets a high standard, which other corporations in
the area are challenged to match.
. . .and a state legislature which boosts the arts
7franks to the efforts of Florida Secretary of State
George Firestone, the Florida Legislature has
appropriated S2 million to create a Salvador Dali
Research Museum in St. Petersburg. The new facility
will receive the Reynolds Morse collection of Dali art
and manuscripts. This project was supported by the
City of St. Petersburg and the State University
System.
And now the bad news. ..
Three recent events in the art world of the
Southeast say as much about the status of art in the
region as anything. First, in Dallas, city hall officials
removed a nude sculpture of Adam and Eve from an
exhibit sponsored by the Texas Fine Arts Assn,
because the work was “anatomically accurate” and
might offend viewers. The table-top work, entitled
Early Morning, by Martin Delabano, shows Eve
wading in a pool and Adam emerging from a
television set. Outraged when he learned his sculpture
had been removed from the exhibit, Delabano
demanded to know why. “On any show we do, we
have the right to reject what’s pertinent in regard to
the community standards,” responded Steve Rosen,
manager of special events at City Hall. “I personally
don’t have any problem with your work. This is not a
censorship measure. But it’s pretty graphic. There’s
nothing abstract.”
In Miami, Burdines department store, which has
had a good reputation for supporting the arts,
censored a work by local artist Leslie Klein. The
drawing, of three pairs of bare feet inside a Kotex
dispenser, caught the eye of Burdines president John
Burden, who ordered it out of an exhibition in one
Dadcland store. When Miami Herald art critic Ellen
Edwards tried to ask Mr. Burden what prompted his
decision, his office was short: “There will be no
comment from Burdines.” (We’ll resist saying more as
well.)
Finally, in Atlanta, when workers were completing
the Richard B. Russell Building, a federally lunded
artwork called Three Variances, by Sam Gilliam,
narrowly missed being thrown away by workmen
who thought the $50,000 multi-colored canvas was a
painter’s dropcloth. When the accident was averted
by an alert subcontractor who told the workers that it
was valuable art, the Atlanta Constitution reported
that “Everybody on the floor—maybe 20 or 30
guys—just roared laughing.” Gilliam, who was in the
building at the time, was not amused. We are also
disturbed by the flip manner in which the press
reported the incident. The Constitution's story began:
“But is it art?”
On photography
Have you ever thought about a world without
photography? There would be no movies such as
“Days of Heaven" to feast the eyes on, or even
popular culture TV shows such as “Real People,”
much less photo exhibits such as the Henri Cartier-
Bresson show currently touring this region. The
validity of tills fantasy is silly when you consider that
photographs are as common today as trees. Photo
graphy has certainly had a lot to do with the
contemporary image of human beings. Consider, for
instance, in this issue’s special section on photo
graphy, how the propagandists images of the Farm
Security Administration gave everyone impressions
about the South during the depression. Or consider
how photographic techniques have altered the way
most of us view the world. We accept lens distortion
and grainy prints because the camera has become the
ultimate creative toy in a technological society and
playing with illusion is part of the process of being
creative.
Also in this issue, we explore the subject of
Southern realism and, through the photorealistic
works of Davis Cone (on the cover), how the camera
is no longer considered a threat to the livelihoods of
painters. It’s a case of cooperation, not competition.
Mail Art and Performance Art also get editorial
coverage in this boffo, big issue, specially designed by
CA/SE creative director John Marcum.
