A I'.I-MON'HMY I'UI'-I l( ATION OF THE ,x.x,, Volume 5, Issue 6 Com|!iinentary JULY 15/SEPTEMBER 15,1991 Editor-in-Chief Debra Brehmer Associate Editor Calendar Editor Business Manager from t h e e d i t o Therese Gantz Associate Editor-Music I hadn't given the art show in the mayor's offices any thought during the opening, except the usual thought I have at these kind of events which goes along the lines of "get me outa here." It wasn't until I was editing the review Bobby DuPah of the show (Page 8, this issue) that I began to sense that there were some issues generated by this assortment of art work that the reviewer didn't address. My compulsion was to add these thoughts to the review. Since that Editorial Assistants isn't a very ethical practice, I decided to discuss them here. Judith Ann Moriarty, Mark Bucher This is the second year the mayor has invited artists to hang work throughout his suite of offices. This year he & Niccona Teichert asked a local photographer, Tom Bamberger, to select the work. The show was apparently put together quickly and Bamberger drew from those artists most familiar to him and most accessible. Our reviewer talks about Photo Editor whether he will be criticized for including too many photographs and mentions that it would be nice, next year, Francis Ford to include more experimental works, some additional sculpture and maybe a video. But, having taken in these art goods at a very crowded, name-tag-type invitational opening, what struck me as being missing was not one Design type or another of my peer's work, but the voice of distinct communities — diversity. Chris Bleiler The work on view was that of artists who had already been validated by the art bureaucracy, whether it was a gallery, a curator or the academic institution where many of them are employed. These artists cleanly paralleled Sales the broader, political power structure of the city. After all, it's the educated middle class that has always had free Angel French, Sales Manager access to the mayor's office, the greatest visibility and the loudest voice. Some people like to think that the Lisa Mahan, Sales Representative political structures that gridlock a city don't exist in the art world—that art can inherently question and defy those hierarchical assumptions and expose the limitations of the body politic. Yet which artists were awarded a very privileged audience at the mayor's office, which visual dialogs were permitted a voice? Only those of the Printing by Port Publications majority. Where was the art that speaks from a specific community, about cultural issues and conditions? That art remains in the same place as its community — ghettoized, marginalized and misunderstood. There is exciting art taking place in the margins as well as the mainstream. What differentiates this art from that of all the familiar names is that if s about community and it speaks directly to a community. We can't put out shows FRIENDS OF ART MUSCLE like the one in city hall anymore and not question the implied presumption that these are the only voices that Perry & Bobbie Dinkin Ellen Checota count in the art world. The subtext of this show reveals an overt cultural bias and in-group dynamics. It reveals Barbara & Jack Recht Barbara Kohl-Spiro Jim Newhouse Thelma & Sheldon Friedman how we haven't even begun to address the rigid political structures in the beal arts community. Racial issues Peter Goldberg Mary & Mark Timpany are at the center of the city's concerns right now. Yet, as suggested in this show, the many minorities that Theo Kitsch Dr. Clarence E. Kusik Gerald Pelrine Tina Peterman comprise this city still have no access to the mayor's office. Of course, if s easy to point fingers and there are Jay Brown Babcock Mechanical innumerable examples of this limited viewpoint. But because the work was in the mayor's office and not in the Christine Prevetti Katie Minahan Richard & Marilyn Radke Richard Cler "neutral" zone of a gallery or museum, these issues become especially relevant. The broader question of how Dennis Hajewsky Patti Davis to begin Integrating" the art world as well as the city is an even tougher concern. Do we simply pull a group of Harvey & Lynn Goldstein Robert A. Holzhauer work from the central city and intersperse it with the historically correct (white, heterosexual, male, middle class) Robert Johnston Gary T. Black Polly & Giles Daeger Joel & Mary Pfeiffer output? What kind of a confusing dialog would that create? We have found that to look at art work from various Judith Kuhn Nicholas Topping ethnic communities, we have to drop our western-learned assumptions of quality and apply different critical Dorothy Brehmer C. Garrett Morriss Karen Johnson Boyd Geralyn Cannon criteria. This art work may not fit into the modernist legacy role, so we can't use the quality-criteria developed Tim Holte/Debra Vest Roger Hyman out of that history when we encounter it. It seems that despite what jarringly disruptive visual juxtapositions might Jack & Ellen Weller Dean Weller occur in a show of "integrated" art at the Mayor's office, however, it would be a refreshing and challenging Arthur & Flora Cohen Remy Sandra Butler David & Madeleine Lubar alternative to the "sameness" we all accept as the ruling operative in the art community. I don't want to blame Jimmy G. Scharnek Sidney & Elaine Friedman Bamberger for not seeing beyond his own office door. Any of us could have assembled the same group of art, Mike & Joyce Winter Carolyn & Leon Travanti Mary Joe Donovan James B. Chase given a short deadline. We do draw from what is familiar and close. It's the expedient way. But I also believe Jerome J. Luy Cynthia Kahn that we can't accept this anymore if we want the art community and the broader community to be viable and Nate Holman Chris Baugniet alive. Patrick Farrell Riveredge Galleries Albert & Ann Deshur Bob Brue Pam Jacobs Jewelry Burt & Enid Dinkin To further explore some of these important questions, Art Muscle will be co-editing the next issue, Sept. 15 to Ginny & Gerry Robbins Ello & Guido Brink Taglin Enterprises/Access Milw James & Marie Seder Nov. 15, with publisher Nathan Conyers and his staff at the Milwaukee Times. We plan to put together an issue Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops Randi & John Clark about African-American art and culture in Milwaukee. Through this project, we hope to establish an ongoing Robert E. Klavetter Keith M. Collis Linda Richman Jewelry Mary Paul collaboration with many new voices in the central city. By getting to know each other's neighborhoods, we'll gain Richard Warzynski Joan Krause a much better perspective on our own. I sense that some of the most viable, exciting art work in this city is Janet Treacy Morton & Joyce Phillips happening next door and it's time to explore new territory. Monica Cannon Haskell Delphine & John Cannon Jim & Julie Ansfield Daniel S. Weinberg Sharon L. Winderl Mary Streich Dori & Sam Chortek Carole & Adam Glass In this summer issue of Art Muscle, we've gone visual and devoted the bulk of the editorial space to children's Janet & Marvin Fishman Diane & David Buck art, another fringe group that isn't usually heard from. The nice thing about children's art is that it exists freely Steve & Amy Palec William James Taylor Kathy & Neal Pollack Julie & Richard Staniszewski outside the realm of the commercial. It is what it is. The freedom and intense directness of the work reminds Blue Dolphin Gallery us that we all possessed the ability to tap true expression, at least once in our lives. And maybe it's still there, buried somewhere deep within our years of accumulated baggage. The two studio visits in the issue also deal To become a FRIEND OF ART MUSCLE, send a check for $50 which entitles you to with artists who have defied the marketplace in showing their work in their studios, rather than through galleries. receive Art Muscle for one year and gets your One of the artists simply believes that the studio is where the work is best revealed. The other was fed-up with name on the masthead! the middleman route. Both artists launched ambitious exhibitions of their own making and marketing. Art Muscle is published bi-monthly by Art Muscle-Milwaukee, Inc., 909 W. National We've dropped most of the regular columns for this issue, partially due to some technical difficulties—computer Ave., P.O. Box 93219, Milwaukee, WI 53203, (414) 672-8485. Third Class postage crashes, summer sloth and that sort of thing. The columns will be back in September. Look for artist opportunities paid at Milwaukee, WI 53202 and additional this time on page 39. mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Art Muscle, P.O. Box 93219, Milwaukee, WI 53203. Debra Brehmer Entire contents copyright ©Art Muscle- Milwaukee, Inc. All rights reserved, except in reviews. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Art Muscle is a trademark of Art Muscle-Milwaukee, Inc. Subscription rates in continental U.S.:$12 one year; elsewhere, $16 one year. COVER: Self portrait by Damon. CdnTenTS isit: Sandra Greuel With Ann Moriarty Studio Visit: Bruce E udith Ann Moriarty Kids Art Jjliniew: I Debra Bret Letters to tie Editor Postfacto Calendar Madison F htf Chicago Roundup *rs?ss Walk Thirf ay a*:saa "!A>::SVSB :-j.! ^^^P^^^l^^ t e Pleasure Machine Recent American Video nth June 14 - August 18 Tenth flnniuersarij Works by Dara Concert & Celebration Birnbaum, Rita Myers, September 13th, 1991 Bruce Nauman, Nam June Paik, Alan Rath and Bill Viola plus a Mark Anderson screening room Flora Coker Cate Deicher featuring new Art Kumbalec videos by Sharon McQueen Sigmund Snopek leading artists.