ARCHIVED EVENTS
Lauren Tresp
Sunday, December 4, 2022, 3 pm
Since taking over THE Magazine in 2016, publisher and editor Lauren Tresp has rebranded the publication as Southwest Contemporary and transformed it into several thriving offshoots, including print and online editions, and expanded the publication’s reach to include the greater Southwest region. Tresp will talk about how the staff makes editorial decisions and SWC’s overall approach to art criticism and arts journalism. She also has tips for artists about handling their own public relations and reaching out for press coverage.
Louis Salerno
Kenneth Boiarsky
Saturday, November 19, 2022
Louis Salerno and Kenneth Boiarsky
“The Art of Contracts: An Artist’s Guide”
Artists will agree that the opportunity to ask for, negotiate and/or execute an arts contract is often not given the attention it deserves. Whether for an art exhibition, a public art installation, a fee-for-service or a gallery contract, laying out the expectations between the parties, and the consequences for not meeting those expectations should be dealt with in an agreement before any relationship moves forward.
Even if the artist knows and trusts the organization or person, entering into a professional agreement is important to lay out all terms and responsibilities in a clear and detailed written document. For the artist, this could mean a guarantee of compensation and payment in a timely manner, as well as the proper care, display and handling of the artwork.
Boiarsky and Salerno are both seasoned attorneys, specialists in corporate and tax law. The panel, moderated by curator Michelle Cooke, will provide a review of the Arts Contract, focusing on certain specific sections meant to protect the artist’s compensation, tax consequences, and intellectual property rights, as well as the work itself.
Simon Schama’s “The Power of Art.”
Saturday, November 5, 2022, 3 pm
We will be showing the first two episodes from this acclaimed series (with others to be scheduled later in the year or early 2023). “Schama leapfrogs across time and place, focusing on eight artists and their masterpieces, like Caravaggio’s David With the Head of Goliath and Picasso’s Guernica, framing each work with a dramatic turning point in history: the Counter-Reformation in Italy (‘the greatest propaganda campaign Christendom has ever seen’) or the rise of fascism in Europe,” wrote The New York Times critic when the series first aired in 2007. Some of my snootier friends in the art press have sneered at Schama’s theatrics, but I find him rather thrilling.
Film Presentation Behind-the-Scenes Talk
EVA HESSE, an award-winning documentary, and presentation by filmmaker Marcie Begleiter
Sunday, September 25th, 3 p.m.
Eva Hesse’s life was a short but triumphant one. Before her death from a brain tumor in her thirties, she created a trailblazing body of work that continues to engage audiences and influence artists worldwide. In her first documentary film “Eva Hesse,” Marcie Begleiter brings to the screen the artist’s story—her profound dedication to her work, her talented circle of friends, her relationships with her family, and her indomitable courage and keen sense of the absurd.
After the movie, Begleiter will give a half-hour presentation, revealing how how she first became engaged with Hesse’s work and later pored over 1200 pages of journal entries to find the narrative and voice for the film. She takes us behind the scenes to tell us about the interviews she conducted, the choice of actress Selma Blair (“Anger Management” and “Hellboy”) for Hesse’s voice, and how she managed to capture the heady milieu of the art world in the 1960s.
AN EVENING WITH LARRY BELL
Saturday, September 10th, 5 p.m.
Some are familiar with Bell’s best-known works, the luminous cubes that secured his reputation in the 1960s as part of the California Light and Space Movement and the installations now at Dia Beacon in upstate New York. But few know the full arc of his career, from his pioneering vacuum process through the homages to guitars, light knots, furniture, and vapor drawings (two of which will be at the Wright through the end of September). An illustrated conversation with Wright director Ann Landi takes us through the highs (and maybe the lows) of this nimble and thoughtful artist’s life and work.
Panel of Art Dealers
GALLERISTS OF NORTHERN NEW MEXICO
Sunday, August 28th, 4 p.m.
A panel of art dealers–including Charlotte Jackson and Tonya Turner from Santa Fe and Jules and Georgia Epstein from Taos–will talk about their careers and answer questions about this mysterious and mind-bending profession.
Illustrated Talk
DORA DILLSTONE
Saturday, August 20th, 4 p.m.
“The Accidental Collector,” an illustrated talk by artist Dora Dillistone on her journey from Houston to Taos and her extraordinary collection of works by Larry Bell, Ron Cooper, Dorothy Hood, Christian Eckart, Dan Christensen, and others. Q&A after.
Film Presentation
BEFORE THE GRID
SATURDAY, JULY 30, 4-6PM
A few years back, two friends from Taos, photographer Kathleen Brennan and curator Jina Brenneman (formerly of the Harwood Museum), put together an illuminating film about the indomitable Agnes Martin, including information about a long-buried and long-running love affair which escaped even the notice of Martin’s biographer Nancy Princenthal. They showed the film to a small audience in Taos, but I’ve asked them back to discuss their discoveries and the difficulties of making movies about cherished art-world icons.
Film Presentation
POLLOCK (2001)
SATURDAY, JULY 23, 5-7PM
On Saturday July 23, from 5 to 7, we’re presenting Ed Harris’s award-winning Pollock (2001), my all-time favorite biopic about an artist, starring Harris as Jackson and Marcia Gay Harden as Lee Krasner (and with Victoria’s Secret model Stephanie Seymour in a cameo role as Helen Frankenthaler). Why Pollock? Because it ties in nicely with our show “Explosive Abstraction”—so much of the grandfather of AbEx’s legacy continues in these works: large scale, gestural freedom, and highly personal iconographies.
