Semipainting

Michael O'Sullivan has the right take on the Bethesda Painting Awards. The jury's decision to recognize Matthew Klos with first prize is unfortunate for everyone involved, even Klos, who hasn't yet had time enough away from school to develop his work. And the jury's reasoning for occluding Fiona Ross is bizarre:

According to gallery director Catriona Fraser, who serves as the non-voting chairwoman of the awards, that Ross's works are on paper rather than traditional canvas, linen or wood panel (along with her use of ink instead of acrylic or oils) caused the jury to question whether they were, properly speaking, paintings.

This doesn't hold up. Cara Ober, second-place prize-winner, paints on paper. Maggie Michael, third prize (an eyebrow-raising third prize, as she was easily the front-runner) paints using spray-paint/aerosol delivery in recent work. I'm sure there are other examples among the semifinalists of artists who break the prescriptive norms but it hardly matters since presumably the jurors saw Ross's work when they chose her from among 200 or so artists to move on to the semifinalist round.

Posted by Kriston at June 15, 2007 5:13 PM