Gallery Economics, Part II
by Daniel Brown
The loss of financial resources in and for our arts institutions opens up channels of creativity within the staffs of these venues which, paradoxically, may flourish while the economy rights itself. Just as attendance at the movies soared during The Great Depression, museums and arts centers could see an attendance boom: they provide an entire day's entertainment, education and stimulation, usually free or for less money than a movie or a cheap dinner out.
Either the Contemporary Arts Center and/or The Cincinnati Art Museum should immediately begin to plan the revival of the regional Biennial. These juried exhibitions of artworks by artists who live and work here are popular, inexpensive, and long overdue: in the mid-1980's, the CAC mounted three: landscape, object and figure. Computer maturity can allow international jurying, and various 'new media' categories can be added. Following the original idea and leadership of the late sculptor and educator Patricia Renick, all of the museums, non-profits and commercial galleries might band together to examine a single theme or topic (hers was 'Women's Sculpture'). By the time Renick's original series was ready, thousands came from around the nation for the shows and the concurrent Women's Sculpture Conference. The Chamber of Commerce might be amenable to help with the funding and marketing, perhaps with the assistance of the various Young Professional organizations which are proliferating and eager for creative leadership. As the city attempts to brand itself as a graphic design/packaging hub, perhaps an exhibition on these newer art forms could enlist their support and creativity. Our institutions might break though to an elusive younger audience at the same time. We have strengths here which are undertapped and/or have not been linked together before.
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In spite of what many construe as an ever widening conceptual abyss between contemporary art's development and conventional society since the middle of the twentieth century, the lives and passions of two people spring to mind that suggest otherwise. These would be Dorothy and Herbert Vogel, an unassuming couple that began an exceptional art collection in the 1960s that is now the object of a national gift program in which packets of fifty works will be distributed to museum collections across the United States. One such recipient is the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky. Up through May 17, 2009, the museum presents 'The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States,' which shows off artworks from the Vogel collection recently gifted to the museum in relation to a second gallery of related works already held by the Speed. Sculpture by Sol LeWitt and lithographs by Ellsworth Kelly for instance can be compared to recent acquisitions from the likes of Richard Tuttle, Pat Steir, Lynda Benglis, Peter Halley, Jene Highstein, and many others. The gifted Vogel pieces are fine examples of mostly Minimal, Conceptual, and Postminimal art, with a noticeable devotion to the emergence of drawing as a practice and as an end unto itself that gave rise during the period in which the Vogels collected.
Some of the best shows in the city take place in a space only marginally hospitable to art, the Weston Art Gallery in the Aronoff Center for the Arts, 650 Walnut Street. Despite space challenges, the exhibitions are inviting and handsomely installed. Artists showing there often say how pleased they are with the way their work looks in the Weston space, and how good it is to collaborate with director Dennis Harrington and his staff. As a frequent viewer, I've noticed again and again how well the artists play off each other. Recently, I asked Harrington how he does it.
