Liz Goldner, Editor

ART JOURNALISM

Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight wrote on August 17: "Today is the deadline for submissions to the National Arts Journalism Program's 'National Summit on Arts Journalism,' a competition that hopes to produce five arts journalism projects that can be presented before a live audience.

"The project's goal -- to find new models for art journalism," Knight continued, "is admirable: Art journalism is disappearing from American newspapers, alt-weeklies and magazines. I'd guesstimate that in recent years 60-75 percent of arts journalists have been downsized from the commercial media."

As these words were published online, I was completing my own submission to the National Arts Journalism Program submitting my new art website, as an example of art journalism.

TWO DAYS BRAINSTORMING

I had spent the previous two days brainstorming with my web developer, Mike Jones, about what to write in the submission.

Concluding that submission, I wrote, "Contemporary Art Dialogue represents a new paradigm in arts journalism. It combines basic economic principles with high-quality writing, impeccable research, fact checking and thought-provoking dialogues…The website also reaches out to others to create an online art venue and community. In addition, we plan to invite museum, gallery and art school directors and artists to write web pages…Contemporary Art Dialogue is about the people interviewed and its readers – not about the writer..."

ABOUT US PAGE

A week after we submitted the application, Mike suggested that I rewrite our website's "About Us" page. I spent three days re-writing the page. But this time, it was based on our 'National Summit on Arts Journalism' submission. For this newly-written page, I wrote, "This site will become a high-traffic venue for artists and art enthusiasts - for dialoguing and expressing their philosophical viewpoints. Artists benefit by exposure of their works, and by the opportunity to express their ideas about art and life. Visitors benefit by discovering quality content that precisely matches their search terms and – on a deeper level – their quests to know more about specific art movements, topics and people. I benefit by creating an enduring art journalism project."

While the dog days of summer are seeming to affect the visual art world, "The National Summit on Arts Journalism," had 108 entries. Nearly each entry is a website, and many are eagerly awaiting the judges’ decisions – hopefully coming later this week.

ICELANDIC ART

Perhaps the cooler weather in Iceland is helping the art scene there heat up. A review in "Iceland Review Online," reporting on an exhibition at the Ásmundur Sveinsson Sculpture Museum, says, "To my delight, the curators Ólöf Sigurdardóttir and Sigrídur Melrós Ólafsdóttir had provided the crying need for an upgrade. Contemporary artworks stand beside Sveinsson's original sculptures, inspired by the same themes as his but reflecting today's viewpoints.

"I instantly loved Davíd Örn Halldórsson's graffiti-like wall installation, which colors warm up and refresh the sterile white walls. Eyrún Sigurdardóttir's photographic 'Self-portrait' (2006) reminded me of my own experience of giving birth—a more naturalistic female perspective, while Sara Riel's diagrammatic work 'Secret' (2008) inside the dome made me aware of the special acoustics there.

BREAKING DOWN OF BOUNDARIES

"I wondered whether Ásmundur Sveinsson (1893-1982) himself would have approved of the exhibition, if he were alive today," the article continues. "Would he have been shocked by Halldórsson's graffiti and repelled by Sigurdardóttir's un-idealized self? Would he have hated that our generation is devoid of romantic ideals? Or would he have admired postmodernism’s breaking-down of boundaries? In the exhibition's brochure, I read that in the 1960s, Sveinsson experimented with empty space in a more abstract way. In the introduction, it also says that: "Ásmundur Sveinsson (1893-1982) realized that art was ever-changing and that changing times shaped artists' attitudes and works."

Graffiti Art, that presumably got its start in the USA, has finally reached Iceland.

HIGH PRICED WORKS IN DECLINE

Meanwhile, the sale of high-priced artworks here and in Europe is in gradual decline. Bloomberg.com reported, that the international art auction house, Christie’s, has scrapped plans to start an art-investment fund and a lending division, saying, "The move is another sign that the global economic slump is hurting the once-booming art market. At least seven employees working on Christie's financial projects have been fired or have left the London-based auction house since December, the people said…Christie's worldwide sales of contemporary art plunged 69 percent during the first half of 2009, while its New York auction sales fell 51 percent during the same period. In May, Sotheby's contemporary art auction in New York was down 87 percent from the previous year."

INSTALLATION ART

Very large art shows, often called installations, are continuing to be popular. The Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego is holding a show, "Attempt to Raise Hell" that features an immense sleeping Buddha, 50,000 nickels; and a crashing plane, among other things, housed in the museum's Jacobs Building—the old baggage building of the Santa Fe train depot. One work is Chris Burden's 1979 installation made from 50,000 nickels placed on the floor, each with a single matchstick on top, called, "The Reason for the Neutron Bomb."

The show will run through September 27th, 2009, 858-454-3541.

For another article about a giant work of installation art, check out my web page on a 636-foot long photo mural.

SEA BEAST

"On Labor Day, floating artwork heads to the high seas! Built out of recycled and reused materials, the Sea Beast is a new art piece that removes itself from the gallery setting and takes on the very real challenges of the Pacific Ocean," says artist/creator of the work, Patrick Williams. "Equal parts boat, cardboard, installation, and performance art, The Sea Beast will launch in the placid waters of Long Beach Harbor, CA, and progress south down the coast of Orange County. I wanted to open a dialogue with beach goers and tourists, reminding them of the mysterious and alien world that exists just beyond the waves they are frolicking in."

As he launches the 13-foot long dragon-like-beast, at the corner of Ocean Blvd. and 55th place, he hopes it will remind people of a time when the seas were a place of terror and tragedy, when giant sea creatures lurked beneath the waves, waiting to snack on an unfortunate sailor. "Parallel to that," Williams explains, "the Sea Beast also poses some difficult questions about human animal conflicts, the constant disappearance of species, and loss of true wilderness as earth's wild places as become catalogued, marginalized and managed spaces." (562.208.4104)