DETROIT FOCUS QUARTERLY Volume 2 Number 2 J u n e 1 9 8 3 A Visual Arts Publication A photograph Davidby Griffith from the Michigan Friends of Photography exhibition at Meadow Brook Gallery. See page 11. Judging the Jury System: jury system. Do you believe this is a valid way of selecting shows? P lag en s: An Interview with Peter Plagens I think a juried exhibition admits at the outset either that it is a by Dolores S. Slowinski regional show seeking judgment from a major urban art center or from a person from a major urban art center, or that it is something a little Peter Plagens is an artist and the author of The Sunshine Muse. He less professional, such as a juried show of student work. I don’t has written extensively for Art in America and Artforum and is Chair­ know of any serious, professional artist with any semblance of a man of the art department at the University of North Carolina at career in a major urban art center who submits to jurying, except in Chapel Hill. Mr. Plagens was interviewed on February 14, 1983, the most exceptional circumstances. Likewise, I don't submit to when he served as juror for the exhibition “ Peter Picks Paintings" at juries, but not as a matter of principle I submit to juries for such the Detroit Focus Gallery. The interview has been abridged. things as NEA artists fellowships, and I would submit to a jury if S lo w in s k i: there were a competition for a large work to go on a site I operate The Exhibition Committee wonders if there is any validity left to throughthe dealers, mainly three, one in New York, one in L A., and Continued next page Continued from cover Detroit Focus Quarterly Detroit Focus one in Chicago. I figure that they’re supposed to representA se­ me. A Visual Arts Publication 743 Beaubien cond thing is that at a certain point,e x p o su re for its own sake Detroit, Ml 48226 doesn't count any more. I’ve been a professional artist for about 20 S taff 962-9025 years now, and I’m interested in selling pictures to good homes. I'm Publishers Woody Miller Wed.-Sat. 12-6 interested in making as much of my livelihood as I can off being what Gere Baskin I’m supposed to be, which is an artist. I'm interested in making that Editor Paul Edson livelihood ash o n o rab ly as I can; In other words, putting my paintings Design Editor Edward Fella where they will do the most good or be seen in the best light, with a Photography Editor Peter Manschot good chance of being purchased. I can’t get that out of juried shows Sales Manager Pete Halsey because, generally, the time and effort involved, weighed against the Bookkeeper Rose B row n possible rewards, are simply not worth it. Distribution Rob Johnson S lo w in ski: Production Skidmore Sahratian, Inc Do you think juried shows should be media specific or wide open? Typesetting & PrintingMidtown Associates P lagens: I’ve participated in them on both sides. I have probably done too much jurying and too much art writing in my lifetime. It is often assumed that a critic has an overview. I must have juried a dozen to E rratu m : On page 10 of the March, 1983, issue, the photographs of 15 shows in my career. And that’s too many. I’ve done them as the work by Carole Alter and Marilyn Schechter were reversed. The sole juror and as a member of a panel; with all media being in there Detroit Focus Quarterlydeeply regrets this error and extends its and with the show limited to painting. From the point of view of the apologies to the artists. juror, it's a lot easier when you deal with the things that are most familiar to you. I see serious contemporary sculpture just by virtue of Detroit Focus Quarterlyis published four times per year (January, being a citizen of the art world. So I wouldn’t think that I’m abso­ March, June, and September) byDetroit Focus,743 Beaubien, Detroit, lutely unqualified to pass judgment on it, although I wouldn’t want to Michigan 48226. Copyright 1982. Contents in whole or part may notsit on an NEA panel that dealt with giving fellowships to sculptors. On be reproduced without written permission. The opinions expressedthe other hand, I don’t know anything when it comes to the crafts: are those of the writers and not necessarily those of the gallery. Ad­weaving or the so-called fiber arts, ceramics when it's basically dress all correspondenceDetroit to Focus Quarterly,c/o Detroit Focus vessels that have that semi-utilitarian veneer to them, or jewelry, Gallery, 743 Beaubien (second floor), Detroit, Mi. 48226. Manuscripts metalsmithing, anything to be worn as body adornment. I don’t think must be typed and double spaced and accompanied by a stamped, what we might call “ the crafts” has a whole hell of a lot to do with self addressed envelope. Ad salespeople receive 20% commission.the philosophical development of 20th century art. (I can hear the Photo: Peter Manschot 2 howls from the crafts people already!) If somebody wants to comewith in a pall over a lot of it in spite of this kind of raucous imagery that and do something that happens to be woven and call it sculpture,a lot ofI people go for. I don’t want to jump to any cheap, sociological think, “ Fine!” Then we’re talking about an art object in the generalconclusions, either, about Detroit being an automobile and steel sense. But if somebody were to ask me to be a juror for a ceramicscenter, or and therefore everybody is out there doing big, heavy, welded fiber show, I’m simply not qualified to do it. sculpture which is more germane to the place. S lo w in s k i: S lo w in s k i: If you are unfamiliar with the contemporary art in a given region,Having served as Chairman of the Board of the Los Angeles Insti­ do you have a tendency to let in work of uneven quality? tute of Contemporary Art (LAICA) for two years, do you think alterna­ P lag en s: tive spaces have changed in the last five or ten years? Such ill-advised leniency is a danger in jurying. One’s immediateP lag en s: inclination, if one doesn’t watch out, is to let it all in, rather than toAn alternative space, as I understand it, is a space that exists for throw it all out, becauseall it seems different and amusing. the exhibition of art which has neither the backing of a commercial S lo w in s k i: gallery, intrinsic salability, nor the authentication of a museum. The Do you have a predetermined set of standards that must be metpremise in when they first came into being was that there was a lot of order for a work to be accepted, or do you simply select the bestwork out there that was just morphologically not salable or ownable. work from what has been submitted? Alternative spaces aimed to show work that galleries and museums couldn’t or wouldn’t. P lagens: In LAICA there were interior debates, as there always are, over I try to do the former and end up doing a little bit of the latter. Now, whether what we were supposed to show omeant nly the kind of immediately somebody will raise hell about predetermined sets of work that was not exhibitable in the standard sense, or whether it standards. It’s not that rigid. You don’t have a little clipboard with a meant showing work that just doesn’th a p p en to get shown in gal­ check list on it: color, check; iconography, check; surface handling, leries or museums, and a lot of entry level work. The latter is one of check; design, check; scale, check; trendiness, check. It’s not as my bigger bugaboos with the whole thing. I think there is a dif­ objective as biting on a silver dollar to see if it’s real or not. But you ference between saying, “ There’s a lot of good work around and it have some general idea of quality floating in your mind. just isn’t getting shown, so we should show it,” and saying, “ There S lo w in s k i: are a lot of deserving young artists who, if they were given a break, What is your reaction when you see student work that is deriva­might do something four, five, or ten years down the line, and we tive? Do you reject it entirely, or do you make allowances for it? ought to have a ‘debut gallery’ . ” I never agreed with that latter pur­ P lagens: pose. I’m not sympathetic to cheerleading and boosterism. Nothing I don’t reject it out of hand. It depends on the object in question.stands If still, however; either they [alternative spaces] change or they it’s a pastiche of some really edgy thing that has just broken intogo the away. LAICA slowly became slicker and more uptown because news, and shows that the artist is really sharp, I’d probably acceptwhat people wanted was a real museum-like, authenticating show- it! An art student in Paris in 1919 who did a pastiche of a Duchampplace.