Tuesday, March 31, 2015

The Son Reflects the Father: Mario Torero talks about Guillermo Acevedo's Art at the San Diego Airport

It is not uncommon to find parents who were painters and their children likewise: N.C. Wyeth - Andrew Wyeth – Jamie Wyeth (U.S.); Orazio Gentileschi - Artemisia Gentileschi (Italian); Jean Cousin the Elder – Jean Cousin the Younger (French); George Ward – Henrietta Ward (British); Bjorn Egeli – Peter Egeli – Lisa Egeli (Norway to U.S.); and so on.
So, too, in San Diego, Mario Torero follows in the footsteps of his father, Guillermo Acevedo.
Guillermo Acevedo (1920-1988) moved to San Diego in 1959 from Arequipa, Peru. He became interested in San Diego’s Victorian homes, the waterfront, Balboa Park, Santa Fe Depot and its neighborhoods. His work influenced the interest in saving historic buildings and became involved in the forming of San Diego's Save Our Heritage Organisation.  Acevedo began promoting his work in Balboa Park art-marts and later opened his own art gallery in downtown San Diego, later moving it to the Mission Hills area. He is credited with being one of the first recognized Latin American artists in Southern California in the 1970s. Acevedo lent his support to the establishment of the Centro Cultural de la Raza (considered part of the radical protest movements of the 1960s) and inspiring the new generation of Chicano artists.  Among those new Chicano artists was his son Mario Torero.
Guillermo Acevedo / Historic buildings, San Diego
The San Diego Airport Authority has honored Acevedo’s work in its recent unveiling of its year-long rotation of artists in addition to its permanent collection.  Visitors to Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 will discover these works on the walls, on the ceilings, at various alcoves and even a meditation room.
The Airport Authority holds an open competition for siting new work.
Mario Torero, Acevedo’s son, and also a landmark painter in San Diego, decided to apply to memorialize his father’s work.
Joe Nalven: So how did this airport exhibit of your father's work happen? Were you surprised to hear back from them when you applied?
Mario Torero:  Everything was perfect timing. When I heard about the application, I was in the midst of researching my father's work for a book about his work with Marianne Peterson. Perhaps if I hadn't been working on the book, I might not have applied. His spirit is more alive at this moment, especially with his place in San Diego history with the Balboa Park Centennial.
I was surprised when I heard back from the airport and the interest in my dad's work. It took awhile but I know when things are right. Their curator, Lauren Lockhart, was very enthusiastic. She started coming over and said he would be in their gallery.
Guillermo Acevedo / Bending Electricity
Joe Nalven:  Do you see him in your work?
Mario Torero:  I sense that I am connected to him spiritually and thinking about what comes next; it will be a surprise. People might think I'm crazy. Mario used to be here; but now I'm Guillermo. He's living his life in me. His spirit is coming into my blood; a recycling is going on. I want to believe that. I'm thinking about the Getty, but it wouldn't be just me, it would be him too.
Terminal 1 Bridge / Looking down on cars, looking across at Guillermo Acevedo's illustrations
Terminal 1 Bridge / Looking up at window images about Balboa Park and Guillermo Acevedo's illustrations
Joe Nalven: What memories of your father would bring him to life for us?
Mario Torero:  As part of the Centennial, I want to recreate an image of him sitting on the bench drawing.  But looking back to my memories of him, it would always be a happy situation. When you knock on the door of his house and he opens the door, everyone who walks in, there's a feeling of happiness. Artists would come in, bring a guitar and wine. He would come back from Balboa Park with artists from other places, from Argentina, Romanian, Russian, wherever. The entire family. Some were gypsies; I thought we were gypsies.

Other artists would see him as a star. He's quoted in the paper and he's at the exhibits. The impact he gives, the way he dresses, he stands out. He always wore hats. Just like I do. And he would ask questions that would need to be asked - when others weren't asking them. For some it might have been embarrassing, but he was ready to dialogue.
Terminal 2 Exhibit Gallery / Art of Guillermo Acevedo

Mario Torero / Chatting in a Little Italy Café

Latin American Arts Festival Comes to San Diego

It is worth celebrating San Diego's First Latin American Art Festival, hosted at Liberty Station.

There have been other noteworthy exhibits of Latin American artists in San Diego; still, this framing of Latin American artists adds to continued cultural integration of artists in the north and south of our hemisphere.

Artists came from as far away as Chile. Carolina Ligouri, "It is an enriching experience, a great opportunity, not only to sell to the public, but also an opportunity to contact other artists and galleries." (quoted in VidaLatinaSD).

First Place Award Presentation to Hector Herrera
Hector Herrera / Illustrative sculptures of First Place Award / Heart in Resin (left). Face (right)
First Place Award / First Latin America Art Festival / Liberty Station 
Laura Urrea, Participating artist from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico


Aída Valencia y Gabriela Ávila DeMotta, socias de la galería Casa Valencia Galería Baja, están a la cabeza de este nuevo esfuerzo que tiene como objetivo promover el arte plástico al sur de California con piezas de pintura, fotografía, escultura e ilustración.

El jurado está conformado por Patricia Frischer presidenta del San Diego Visual Arts; Benito del Águila, organizador de festivales de arte en Baja California; Alessandra Moctezuma, directora de arte de La Mesa College; Ginger Shilick, directora de SDAI en San Diego; y Vianka Santana, directora de CEARTE en Tijuana, B.C.; además de Valencia, quien es originaria de Tijuana y cuenta con una exitosa carrera como mosaiquista y galerista.

Además de seleccionar a cien artistas que tendrán la oportunidad de exponer y vender su obra durante el festival, el jurado nombrará tres primeros lugares que ganarán 800, 500 y 200 dólares respectivamente. El primer lugar además se hará acreedor a una exhibición individual en Casa Valencia Gallery en el 2016. El segundo y tercer lugar participarán en una exhibición colectiva.

From the invitation at Vida Latina San Diego / December 2014




Monday, March 30, 2015

Rethinking Soviet Posters: Exhibit at San Diego City College Visual Arts Gallery

The Soviet Union? Yes, that was a country and one worth remembering.

The Soviet Poster Show at the San Diego City Art Gallery provides both answers and questions to why it is worth remembering the country that once was.

We read in the news about an emboldened Russia trying to aggrandize and rebuild the old Soviet Union with Vladimir Putin imagining himself as a reincarnated Josef Stalin. In the face of this new Russian reality, the hope for a re-energized dialogue appears to be the illusion of the relatively recent reset.

On a personal note, I was named after Josif Stalin and was imbued with an appreciation for Soviet movies, visiting dance troupes and sense of a utopia-in-the-making - yes, great propaganda. At the time I was named Joseph, the Soviet Union was an ally of the United States in World War II. However, not too long after that war ended, the Cold War set in and the illusions of a communist utopia slowly came to light. Several decades later, there was a capitulation to the West, partly under the pressure of President Ronald Reagan; Mikhail Gorbachev led a radical reform of the Soviet Union in 1986 - called perestroika. Gorbachev also initiated a new mindset of openness or glasnost.

Jennifer Hewitson / Freedom Flight
As Russia continues to support aggressive moves in Ukraine, I’m brought back to my years of editorial illustration in the late 80’s and 90’s during the cold war, and the Soviet Union break up. The fate of Ukraine has me concerned for all the Baltic States, and former Soviet Bloc countries. Represented in my piece by the doves, their fluttering forms emerge from the waves, freed as the water flows from the melting ice, a symbol of the old cold war. The Russian bear looms, aggressively reaching, and disturbing the peace of the doves. Their rising shapes create his form, then metamorphose and spread across the sky.Will they remain free, as bright stars? Or fall back into the red?
The Soviet Poster Show presents posters from the glasnost period as well as current look backs and a sense of hopefulness. The exhibit asks us to consider whether and how that brief period of openness, of glasnost, might be achieved. The exhibit is a testament to the hopes, fears, illusions and disillusions of the artists and peoples caught up in a mad world. The play by Nathan Englander, The Twenty-Seventh Man, illustrates how easy it is to disappear an entire culture in the early 1950s (Stalin's elimination of Yiddish culture leaders in the Soviet Union); the current period under Vladimir Putin brackets the period of glasnost with jailing and assassination of opposition leaders. 

Lebnov / Stalinism
Illustration of Stalin without eyes, wearing a modern-day suit. This suggests that Stalinism lives on even today, in the guise of a (non-military) business man. This is a warning that Stalinism can appear in other forms. Part of the new spirit of glasnost involves official acceptance of sharply revised estimates for the numbers of victims of Stalin’s repressive measures. Soviet historian Roy Medvedev recently estimated the total figure at “no fewer than 10 million people,” although he notes that there are no official statistics available. in 1989 a society in memorial of Stalin’s victims was formed and proposed a monument encompassing a museum, archive, and library.
Candice Lopez and Sean Bacon, faculty members in San Diego City College's Graphic Design Department organized this exhibit. The show catalog can be previewed online and is available for purchase.

Joe Nalven:  How many posters are there? 
Candice Lopez:  You can see the collection we put up for Dialogues at this link and they are broken down into political, social issues, the arts and the Dialogues show [new works]. I selected about 50 pieces for this show from the overall collection of 75 posters. 

Joe Nalven:  What time period do they cover? 
Candice Lopez:  They depict political themes, social issues and the arts in the period during Perestroika and Glasnost. The new works were created in January/February 2015.

Joe Nalven:  What led you to this theme for a show?
Candice Lopez:  I wanted to feature these important historical posters and connect them to contemporary times. Their strong design and powerful graphics were a mirror of the Soviet Union during a time of remarkable change. Posters need to connect to the masses, especially young people and it's interesting to me that these designers were influenced by Western popular arts. I reached out to some very talented, well known designers, artists and illustrators including the national President of the American Institute of Graphic Arts to create new works. The theme dialogues felt right as I hoped the contemporary works by American designers would converse with our Soviet counterparts from this period in history. The new works dealt with both historical themes and contemporary issues like the war in Ukraine.

Joe Nalven:  Do you plan on posters from other countries (China, Poland, Israel, Egypt, Mexico, France etc.)?  I can see a series of national perspectives -- each with a lively presentation from poster art.
Candice Lopez:  I was very fortunate to get access to these works through my friendship with the owner of the collection Ron Miriello. I had no funding and wanted this show to be open to the college and community without charge. I would love to bring a collection of posters from other regions of the world given the opportunity. I do have some connections to Mexican designers and this is a possibility I would certainly entertain. I teach design history and it is thrilling to share my passion for this profession with my students and others who have attended the show. 

Tbe Soviet Poster Show at the City College Visual Arts Gallery 

Soviet Poster Show
City Art Gallery:  San Diego City College / AH 314
1508 C Street, San Diego CA  92101
Gallery hours:  Monday to Thursday  1 to 4 pm
Through April 16, 2015
Free 
Contact:  Candice Lopez    Email:  calopez@sdccd.edu
From the show’s information:
DIALOGUES is a collection of commissioned contemporary posters done by American designers and artists in 2015. It is an attempt to reopen a dialogue that began in 1989, between Russia and the world. A dialogue of symbols, gestures and one-on-one encounters that have the potential to escalate into new and positive events. We saw it happen in San Diego in 1989, when American citizens wore lapel pins of a Russian President and shared toasts in salute of a new friend and fellow artists. Those friends and artist are still here and still making their art for change and to reopen a dialogue.


Savostiuk  /  1937   
A reminder of the black period under Stalin which many people were sent to Siberia and killed.

Rafael Lopez / Love/Evolve
The potential of the arts to promote peace and social change has always interested me. To craft a culture of peace you have to first imagine it. Artists around the world and throughout history have given voice to that ideal. A sharp pencil can be a powerful weapon to communicate the pathos of war. I’m greatly inspired by folk arts, many of which are living traditions. Birds are a common theme in Russian folklore and this region has a particular gift for storytelling. The folkloric pattern inside the bird represents a diverse patchwork of beliefs and opinions. The colors tip their hat to Russian Constructivism. When creating this poster, the recent peace agreement and conflict between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists was on my mind and in the news. The two leaves symbolize differing points of view with the pencil of the artist providing a stable perch for the idea of peace to take hold.

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Rethinking the Garden of Eden as a Dance Video: The Conversation between Eve and Lilith

As far back as we can trace our cultural memory, there has always been a question and a story. How did we get here? Why? A question and a story about the creation of man and woman. 

I was intrigued by this question and decided to reinvent the version played out, somewhat ambiguously, in Genesis. At first, I wrote a 5 minute play for a competition for short-, short plays. But, as a visual artist, I wanted to tell the story in video form and not my usual flat, 2D image that would be hung on the wall or seen at some internet site. 

Inspirational Points of Departure - The Dance and the Video
I was inspired by Jean Isaacs' Trolley Dances (onsite dances in and around the San Diego trolley stations) as well as dances at the White Box and UCSD Mandell Weiss Theater. I have multiple digital files on my computer that attest to my photographic fascination with these events. But photography is not quite videography.

Trolley Dances 2014 / City College / Ariana Siegel and Jedi Taylor
I had to acquire new capture, editing and presentation methodologies. Seeing movies is not the same as making a movie; making a home movie on a smartphone is not the same as organizing, filming and editing a movie for prime time. Some YouTube videos reach this point of perfection, most do not. Several of the Gotan Project videos reaffirmed my decision  to take this adventure:  La GloriaEpoca - Un Tango Sensual; Epoca - Igor StravinskyDiferente; and many others.

And, of course, there is Grace Jones' Corporate Cannibal.

The challenge was how to wed video and dance to the Garden of Eden - as an objet d'art, rather than a commercial song promo. While I enjoy watching song/dance videos like The Pussycat Dolls (with Timbaland) Wait a Minute, my mindset seeks a deeper engagement with the eternal love song.

Male/Female Creation Stories

The most familiar male/female creation story is likely the Garden of Eden. But, even here, there is a question of who the first woman was.

Genesis 27 reads as follows:
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
There is no name for this first woman. An interpretation, or midrash, suggests that this woman was Lilith.

Only later, after God fashions woman from Adam's rib, and after eating the apple and falling from a protected status in Eden, do we have a name - Eve. (Genesis 3:20 - Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.) 

This dual story line of two different women being created in the Garden of Eden raises a question about why Lilith, the first wife of Adam, would leave. Why was she discontented with Adam and left of her own accord, and in subsequent rabbinic literature, becoming something of a succubus demon?

Other male/female creation stories abound. One of my favorites is the Blackfoot tale of Old Coyote Man Meets Coyote Woman, each separately existing in the other half of the world until they encountered each other by accident.

Eve Meets Lilith in the Garden of Eden (video link)

you can also cut and paste this URL to your browser to stream the video:
http://online2.sdccd.edu/faculty/jnalven/nalven_compressed/nalven_compressed_player.html

A What-If Scenario
Instead of the common interpretations of Adam/Eve, Eve/Snake, God/Adam/Eve, God/Serpent, gods (among themselves), what if we focused on the conversation of Eve and Lilith? What if these two women overlapped each other in time? 

Here, two women in the Garden of Eden might be compared to Beckett's Waiting for Godot. Two vibrant women at the beginning of humanity rather than two older men bored with their absurd existence.

In the short play that I wrote, I presented the Eve and Lilith conversation; but, as a video of a dance, the text could be constraining. That would depend on the choreographer's approach to translating a text narrative into a choreographed narrative, or words versus movement; semantics versus kinesics.

Also, I was about to enter a learning curve - about dance, about wedding dance to a piece of music, about videography, about editing and the like - and all at one time. 

The Evolution of Humanity - Language, Communication, Meaniing and Even Bodily Form and Function

When we look through the prism of archaeology, paleoanthropology, evolutionary genetics and like-minded sciences, the search is for actual connections and processes that tie modern man to ancient forbears. Those points in time are measured in the millions of years, although more recent benchmarks are appealing for homo sapiens sapiens, especially with respect to human language, advanced toolmaking and the beginnings of agriculture. 

But when was the Garden of Eden? As a metaphor for human evolution, the actual years are unimportant. Instead, we think about those human benchmarks - like sin - that resulted from being sent out of the Garden.

Then wilt thou not be loth
To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess A Paradise within thee, happier far ...They hand in hand with wandering steps and slow Through Eden took their solitary way.
John Milton, Paradise Lost

So, how would one construct a conversation between Eve and Lilith - part metaphor and part evolutionary growth in human communication? 

For this video dramatization, I imagined a non-verbal conversation - a conversation that existed before language triumphed over the physicality of relationship.  Dance and music are especially good to imagine such a conversation between the first women. Harkening to a Schopenhauerian perspective, it is music - music without words, perhaps with barks and howls - that reaches deep into our connecting to the force of nature, before with idealize our representations in words. 

That became the framework of instructions to the dancers. Now you meet; now you hear Adam somewhere about in the Garden; now recognizing the fecundity of womanhood; now recognizing the taking leave (by Lilith).  Cues that called out non-verbal interaction.

So, part of the solution to my learning curve in making a dance video was to create a conceptual framework for the dancers to structure their movement, filming the same sequence in different ways - and once with painted faces akin to the way in which the Omo tribes of Ethiopia decorate themselves. 

Editing Towards Perfection
One quickly appreciates that having the elements of a video (or any object composed of pieces) requires imaginative editing. Cutting and pasting is much more than simply cutting and pasting. Aristotle was acutely aware that the difference between a bunch of bricks and a house (with the same size and number of bricks) was form. That is what an architect brings to the realization of plain versus beautiful buildings. The same with building a dance video. 

With the assistance of David Giberson at Miramar Community College, I worked towards learning the elements of a video editing program and while concurrently building the video. With my long-term working with Photoshop, I looked for ways to make a compelling visual flow that synced to a musical sentiment. Since there was little opportunity to delve into special effects, I opted for montaging the several filmed sequences together, slightly offset in timing to create a multiple and asymmetrical communication between Eve and Lilith.

What does that mean? That means watch the video and test its coherence and persuasiveness as a video objet d'art.

For the future:  Watch for a quite different approach to the conversation between Eve and Lilith, with a dash of Adam.  To be performed in Balboa Park as part of its centennial celebration and choreographed by Jean Isaacs.

Picturing a San Diego Dream: Exhibits at L Street Fine Art and the Oceanside Museum of Art

The danger of blissful dreams is that they invite others to dream those dreams as well.

And so, we have San Diego Dreaming at the L Street Fine Art  in downtown San Diego and a collaborative location at the Oceanside Museum of Art.

The artists in the San Diego Dreaming exhibits have compelling images that invoke what we believe is the magic of this community – from semi-arid desert lanscapes often disguised by the import of water; its cascading mountains of sandstone andsiltstone above the wondrous beaches; witnesses to the greenflash at sunset; native spirits in Vulcan Mountain; the mini flowers of the Anza-Borrego desert; and, of course, the Marine Corps Base at Camp Pendleton that separates us from Los Angeles and a suburbanizing coast.

As a point of reference, I came to San Diego from New York City for a two week stay. That was 45 years ago, trading in the place known as The Big Apple for the Southwestern-most-corner of the United States. 

Composing San Diego Dreams 

A persistent question:  Are the dreams of San Diego artists any different than those in London, Calcutta, Paris or New York? In many ways, the locale and its geography override the imagined mysteries of its residents; and, we would be quick to ask how different is San Diego from other Southern California surfing and beach communities or, as one moves inland, from other inland desert communities.

Several artists commentaries open the door for starting this conversation about how and what San Diego artists imagine (while allowing an open framework to connect with how and what artists dream elsewhere).

Ken Goldman (Totally Fried, below): 
Many places have fairs; each are unique to their own area. Here we get to see everything San Diego because it is a showcase for the best of so many local endeavors from art, to music, to flower growing, wood carving, rock hunting .  .   .  you name it. Even some of the fried food vendors are local.
I am not sure whether the idea of dropping off one's intellect at an entry gate to become a rube for a day is everyone’s idea of a dream day, but once a year, it's just so darn different and fun that its a dream-like day for me. Eating totally fried food that I would normally never touch, looking at livestock, chickens, rabbits, people watching and taking lots of photos of colorful people doing colorful things, especially during a warm side-lit golden California Sunset (as a basis for colorful paintings), just looking around, being away from the grind, is a California Dream. And then, at the end of the day, I always wonder where time went and leaving for home always seems a bit unreal. Yet each year we look forward to going back! 

Robert Pendleton (Window, below):
Window is an original digital image with colorized luminosity in the underexposed portion of the image.  It was taken from my bedroom window in a condo in Oceanside where I lived for a few years, and it represents the theme of San Diego Dreaming in several respects. I moved to La Jolla from Sacramento when I was 8-years old, which was just old enough for me to realize what an enchanted place I had come upon, and how fortunate I was to live only a few miles away from the beach.  I was immediately drawn to the beach, and learned to respect the ocean by nearly drowning on an occasion or two, but even so, I always cherished every trip there.  The beach was my playground; I used it to skim board, snorkel, boogey board, fish and eventually scuba dive.  I went there to watch the sunset, sit around a fire, play backgammon, and party, and my dream was to one day live in a house on the beach, drifting off to sleep each night with the sounds of the waves and the smell of the ocean air. Living on the beach is a broadly held dream, and in many ways, the defining element of the San Diego Dream. 

A few years ago I came close to realizing that dream when my ex-wife and I purchased a condo one-half block away from the beach in Oceanside.  Unfortunately I had to give the condo up when we divorced, so I spent the last few months there photographing every possible aspect of my view to the ocean, and the peculiar architecture of that building. Window was taken at sunset from my bedroom near the beach, and is a part of that series of images. Alteration of the diffracted light on the window’s edge to an unreal spectrum of color plays upon the notion of a dream as something man-made and artificial yet based on reality and possibilities.  The aspect ratio of Window and limitation of the ocean view to a narrow strip represents that narrow window (financial and practical) of my living within view of the beach, and the relative importance we place upon encasing ourselves in boxes of walls, that exclude even light, in our efforts to create a perfectly controlled synthetic environment in which to comfortably live.

Rosemary Valente (Earth, Wind and Fire, below):
Living in Carlsbad, my home has literally come close to being obliterated by fire several times. In the past 10 years there have been three threats of fire with strong winds looming within a mile of my home.  Last year in Carlsbad, I could see the fiery shapes and smell the intense fumes all too  close.  I aimed to convey this in Earth, Wind and Fire. This image portrays those horrific moments that could have brought tragedy to me and unfortunately did bring tragedy to many others. Firemen kept the fire away from our property and life goes on with our blue skies and warm waters in San Diego.

Mark Jesinoski (Emerging, below):
I moved to San Diego because I believed it was a place I could redefine myself.  My perspective of southern California, and San Diego specifically, was that it was a place where many peoples came together to form a unique culture, that was defined as much by its diversity as it was by its juxtaposition to the Pacific Ocean.  When I moved here I took a chance and completely redefined my work because I was not only inspired by the waters of the Pacific, but I had always since I was a boy in Minnesota reading Zoo Book magazine (I still have them all), been inspired by the idea of the waters of the Pacific; I perceived my relocation to San Diego to be my opportunity to define and express my identity as purely and simply as I could.  This came out artistically - because of this shift and because of the context of San Diego - in art that was inspired by water in both form and process. Water is my great metaphor for change. This is my San Diego dreaming story.  

Julianne B. Ricksecker (California Gold, below):
California Gold is an etching, a landscape view from the mountains -  driving on I-8 returning from the mountains in the late afternoon, with the golden sun illuminating San Diego Harbor, silhouetting the Point Loma land mass and Coronado and the Strand. For me, part of the San Diego dream is that I can enjoy the pleasures of nature at the beach, in the mountains, or on the desert - all within the space of a day!  Having grown up in Pittsburgh, where I dreamed about seeing the ocean someday, living in San Diego is a constant.  Of the three types of landscape, the only one I was personally exposed to as a child was mountains, and the vegetation on mountains in Pennsylvania, which are quite different from our Southern California mountains. And, I can choose to go visit snow, or not. I love the openness of the landscape and our strange and wonderful local native plants. As I am typing, just got a text from a friend that the desert is blooming, inquiring when can we head out that way?  Case in point! 


Robert Avon Lees (The Return, below):
Frank Lloyd Wright reportedly said, “All the loose marbles in the country rolled to the California Coast.” California is and has a history of migrating, expansive, open minded, searching, daring, spiritual, and beach loving individuals.

San Diego is inspiring to a dreaming visionary person. My art gravitates to the subject of science as well as to mystical and metaphysical insights. I see San Diego as a place to incubate and prosper and dream.  There is just something in the air that fosters this creative multi-disciplinary cross pollination.  The environment nurtures thoughts and visions.  My California dream painting is abstract with forms and colors as a metaphorical was of expressing different emotions, movements and qualities of life. 



The Return conveys particles moving in a unifying energy field.  The physical world, matter, unfolds out of and returns back into the deeper underlying source, spirit consciousness. 

RD Riccoboni (Shimmering Poolside, below):
San Diego, in the big city sense, is a good example of capturing moments of the elusive dream of forward thinking: I pick up on the positive sense of place in vibrations of color, contrast, perspective and spirit that surround our daily lives in the historic places and landscape that I have come to love. 

A Sampling of Images at L Street Fine Art (of a total of 70 images at L Street Fine Art and the Oceanside Museum of Art)
  

Robert Avon Lees / The Return
Ken Goldman / Totally Fried

Amber George / Otay 1


Julianne B. Ricksecker / California Gold


RD Riccoboni / Shimmering Poolside at the Lafayette 

Rita Shulak / California the Beautiful

Robert Pendleton / Window

Julie Ann Stricklin / Pacific Patriot

     Margaret Larlham / Mission Dam

Shuang Li / Tideland Park

Rosemary Valente / Earth, Wind and Fire
The artists exhibiting at L Street Fine Art are:  Rebecca Bauer, Bre Custodio, Paula Des Gardins, Richard Dowdy, Amber Foote, Helen Garcia-Shafer, Amber George, Ken Goldman, Jim Hornung, Mark Jesinoski, Kirby Kendrick, Margaret Larlham, Robert Avon Lees, Anita Lewis, Shuang Li, Chris Martino, Glen Maxion, Connie McCoy, Joe Nalven, Diane O'Connell, Robyn Oliver, Rob Pendleton, Robin Raznick, RD Riccoboni, Jullianne Ricksecker, Rita Shulak, Julie Ann Stricklin, Michael Taylor, and Rosemary Valente.

What's your dream? Is it about San Diego? Join the conversation and explore the San Diego Dreaming exhibits.


628 L Street, San Diego, CA 92101
director@lstreetfineart.com
Daily:  9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. daily and by appointment
Reception -- June 6, 2015  /  6 - 9pm
Exhibit dates: March 30- June 30, 2015


704 Pier View Way, Oceanside, CA 92054
(760)435-3720
Tuesday – Saturday:  10am - 4pm
Sunday:  1pm - 4pm

Exhibit dates:  February 28 - June 21, 2015

The artwork at L Street Fine Art was curated by Kay Colvin, while that at the Oceanside Museum of Art was curated by Malcolm Warner.

This article expands upon the article appearing in the Times of San Diego:   Local Artists Display their Varied Dreams of San Diego, March 10, 2015.

Joe Nalven's image, A Pueblo Tourist Visits the San Diego County Fair, is at L Street Fine Art. 



Sunday, March 1, 2015

Ever think about art law? How about mastering it?

Discussions about art and copyright infringement become the topic du jour from time to time. One often hears the rule of thumb, 'if you take less than 10% of another person's image, that's OK.' But is there really such a rule? The new book by Herbert Lazerow provides an opportunity to delve into the many facets of copyright infringement. 


Mastering Art Law is a useful path to understanding the connections between art and law.

Joe Nalven:  Since I am a visual artist, I feel compelled to ask: Are there any photographs in the book? Not only for the eye-candy, but also to see the way in which artists infringe on the works of others - or get away with it by successfully claiming 'fair use.' There was that surprise when Shepard Fairey finally admitted his copyright infringement of an AP photographer's image of Barack Obama in his Hope poster. Or maybe the 1998 case raised by Annie Leibovitz; her Vanity Fair image of the nude and pregnant Demi Moore was satirized by Paramount Pictures in its movie Naked Gun 33 1/3 with Leslie Nielsen posing. By the way, Leibovitz lost her case. (Read the Court's Opinion.)

Is Shepard Fairey's use of an AP photograph copyright infringement?  Answer:  Yes.

Artist Admits Using Other Photo for ‘Hope’ Poster by Liz Robbins, New York Times, 2009
Original AP photo (left); Shepard Fairey's Hope poster (right)
Herbert Lazerow:  Sorry. No pictures in the book. But I do talk about Annie’s case. I think it was correctly decided that the Nielsen use was fair use, but I part company with the proposition that fair use should be free use. Fair use should insulate you from copyright damages (and costs and lawyers’ fees), but as a policy matter I think you should have to pay the copyright holder a reasonable royalty. Such a change requires Congressional action and I do not see that in the near future. Jane Ginsburg at Columbia Law School has just published, Fair Use for Free, or Permitted-But-Paid?; her article is along those lines and may move the ball forward a bit.

Is the Paramount Poster advertisement a copyright infringement? Answer:  No.

Annie Leibovitz photograph of Demi Moore (left) / Paramount Pictures ad with Leslie Nielsen
The Court (right):  A Parody of a Pregnant Actress Stands Up in Court, New York Times, Linda Richardson, 1996
Joe Nalven:  As an aside, the Annie Leibovitz Opinion has an interesting footnote (fn. 1) in which the Court weighs in on the art history of pregnant women.
Not many would venture a definition of art, especially a lawyer. But maybe we need one in order to determine if there has been any unlawful copying?
Herbert Lazerow:  The book begins with definitions of art and the artist, some serious, some humorous. Marcel Duchamp defined art as “anything used or produced by the artist.” The Italian artist Piero Manzoni produced 90 small sealed cans, signed and dated, labeled “Merda d’Artista”, supposedly containing his own excrement, which he sold by weight at the then price of gold. Examining the legal definitions of art and artist for purposes of tariff, copyright, first amendment, housing and income tax law, one concludes that a level of creativity is required, but the rest of the definition depends on the underlying purpose for which the term is defined, so the definition varies considerably.

Joe Nalven:  Copyright and patent are important; after all, they are mentioned specifically in the U.S. Constitution. (Article I, Section 8, Clause 8)  Why?

Herbert Lazerow:  Patents are generally not important in art law even though the artist who wants to use a particular process may be bound by them and tied to a single supplier. Copyright is usually not important for the artist who creates unique works, but crucial for the artist who creates multiples. Most of the copyright disputes related to art concern photographs, and they are very difficult cases. The subject matter cannot be copyrighted, nor can an idea. What copyright protects would be a pose, the lighting, or the angle of the shot. Trademarks can also be useful. The Keith Haring Foundation owns the trademark and copyright for Haring’s work. It recently sued a person who was offering both actual and forged work of Haring for sale, and printed a catalogue of the items offered. The allegation was that the forged work was a violation of Haring’s trademark because they had not in fact been produced by Haring, and the printing of pictures of the genuine work in the catalogue violated the Foundation’s right to reproduce the work under its copyright.

Joe Nalven:  What was the most intriguing case for you? I am fascinated by the IRS case against Illeana Sonnebend:  She couldn't sell a Rauschenberg - Canyon - because it had a dead bald eagle as part of the art object. A $65 million art object that couldn't be sold to pay a $29 million tax bill.

Herbert Lazerow: I also liked that case because IRS was contending that even though the work could not legally be sold, it had an enormous value in the illegal market. I was sorry that it settled because I wanted to see what the court would do with it. From a societal viewpoint, the settlement was good, as the work will belong to a museum, enabling the public to see it regularly. The case resulted from a terrible failure of estate planning. Few people realize how important it is for artists and collectors to have excellent estate planners, both because of the high value of much art and because of the limited amount of art by a single artist that the market can absorb in any period of time.

Joe Nalven: How will Mastering Art Law be helpful?

Herbert Lazerow:  The book is an introduction to art law. It should be useful for law students and lawyers trying to orient themselves in a very large and diverse field. I tried to write it so that a person without any legal training, such as an artist, collector or gallery owner, would be able to get a grounding. Even someone with no professional artistic connection should be fascinated by the machinations of the Mark Rothko estate, the peculiarities of the law relating to underwater artifacts, or the efforts of countries to prevent the looting and export of their artistic heritage.

Joe Nalven: Many artists are appropriators. They like to collage or otherwise borrow the works of others. Musicians often sample and expand upon the music of others. Any cautionary tales or lessons you would mention?

Herbert Lazerow: No one creates art in a vacuum. Everyone builds on what earlier artists had done, even if that building constitutes complete rejection. It is said that no one looked harder at the work of Henri Matisse than Pablo Picasso. He may have borrowed ideas, but he did not borrow art. Today there are a number of appropriation artists, probably the most famous of whom is Jeff Koons. Koons has won some and lost some in the courts. At the moment, the field is shifting toward allowing more appropriation in the visual arts because of the minor changes that Richard Prince made in Patrick Cariou’s photographs that were still held to be fair use because he transformed the mood of them. I am not sure that applies to music appropriation because that is mostly copying one piece of music and juxtaposing it with another so they are perceived sequentially, whereas the new art piece is perceived all at once.

Joe Nalven: What moved you to write this book? I've always known the tax side of your work.

Herbert Lazerow: It is all my wife’s fault. Jane is a painter. That convinced me some years ago to take up art law. While there are several detailed treatises in the field and a brief nutshell, I thought a work of in-between depth was needed.

Joe Nalven: Is there another kind of art law book that should be written for international law and what we hear of piracy?

Herbert Lazerow: This book covers the subject. Art is small and portable, so many art controversies are international. The book has two chapters on international art movement problems - one on the safeguarding of art in time of war or occupation, and another on its movement in peacetime. The book also discusses the international in the context of stolen art. Typically, the art is stolen in one country, kept for a while in a second country, sold in a third country, then resold in a fourth country. Whose law applies to determine whether the art was originally stolen, or whether it continues to have the status of stolen art when it is sold to a good faith purchaser? An artwork can be forfeited to the federal government if the importer falsifies customs forms, or if the art is stolen. Sometimes it is necessary to take artwork to a foreign country to be authenticated because the world’s most respected expert on an artist lives there. In the last chapter I provide a primer on international litigation for the art lawyer. That chapter would not be easy reading for someone who has never attended law school.

Joe Nalven: We hear of archaeological artifacts being brought into the U.S. in violation of various countries' laws about their patrimony. Is there an art side to this issue as well? Or has the archaeological category subsumed any other concerns?

Herbert Lazerow: Archaeology is treated as though it were art for certain purposes, even though it may be an uncomfortable fit. This is one area that has changed in recent years. It used to be that people in the art world did not pose indiscreet questions about provenance. In 1970, UNESCO drafted a treaty to help reduce art looting and illegal export. More than a hundred countries, including most of the major art importing countries, have ratified that treaty. Today, artwork whose provenance cannot be traced back to 1970 and who do not have an export permit from the country of origin would be difficult to sell in the legitimate market, and museum accreditation standards call for museums to turn them down as gifts.

I would also like to add that one of the most interesting areas is the difficulty of restoring art taken during the Holocaust to the heirs of its original owners. Because U.S. law is clear on this point, one might wonder why there need be litigation. Today’s cases involve whether the art was stolen or sold, whether the owner’s heirs have slept on their rights too long, or whether some technical procedural doctrine interferes with the restoration.

Another area concerns whether collectors must pay the artist a portion of the sale price of a work. Currently, only California has such a statute, but the Copyright Register’s position has changed on the advisability of such a law. The United States may join 79 foreign countries in awarding the artist a resale royalty.

Herbert Lazerow is a professor of law at the University of San Diego and can be reached at  lazer@sandiego.edu 

Mastering Art Law (Carolina Academic Press 2015)

This book tracks all published Art Law casebooks. It begins by asking what art is, and why there should be special rules for it. 

There follows a section on the rights and responsibilities of artists and collectors in areas such as freedom of expression, defamation, the right of publicity, the rights of privacy, copyright, trademark, moral rights, resale royalties, and the tax consequences of common art-related transactions. The book then treats commercial dealings in art, such as problems of authentication or ownership of the work, and commercial relationships between artists, collectors, dealers, auction houses and financers of the art world. It deals with the law governing the organization and operation of museums, including employment law. The international treatment of art is discussed in terms of special rules for art in times of hostilities and occupation, as well as peacetime law governing the movement of art or artifacts across national boundaries, and national control of its artistic patrimony. A series of chapters detail the law on preservation of U.S. artistic heritage, such as historic preservation law, the ownership of artifacts found on land or under water, and special rules applicable to Native American remains and artifacts. 
The book concludes with a discussion of rules of international litigation frequently encountered in art law controversies, such as jurisdiction, foreign sovereign immunity, Act of State, forum non conveniens, choice of law, enforcing foreign law, and proving foreign law.