THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 12, 1996 TAG: 9603120007
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
The Chrysler Museum curator of 20th-century art, Trinkett Clark, has given our community a wonderful vision of the work of outstanding contemporary artists. Her Parameter series gave us a chance to see and enjoy at first hand the exciting new directions in the art of our time including some on the cutting edge. Ms. Clark's attending catalogs of the shows are so excellent that they have become collector's items in themselves.
It added greatly to our understanding and enjoyment of the shows to be able to meet the artists and hear them speak and show slides revealing how they worked. Each show opening was a well-planned and delightful occasion.
As a visual artist, I was stimulated by the art displayed in the Parameter shows. There was a diversity of subjects, sizes and materials used.
It was exciting to have a chance to see originals by artists such as ``Quick-to-see-Smith.'' I had known her work only from reproductions until she came to Norfolk in person.
I shall miss these exhibitions. I am grateful to Trinkett Clark for a job exceptionally well-done. Our community owes her a debt of gratitude.
EDNA G. LAZARON
Norfolk, Feb. 29, 1996
I was saddened to hear of the recent dismissal of Trinkett Clark as the curator of contemporary art at the Chrysler Museum of Art. Apparently this signals an end to the museum's commitment to bringing even a modest sampling of the greater world's currents and trends in art home to its audience. Of course we still have a very respectable permanent collection and a handsome building to house it in, so what have we lost?
Contemporary art is a contest of wills and visions vying to define the unseen, the unspoken, the unspeakable. It is an arena where players channel the metaphysics and politics of their experience into an artistic expression in the hope of shedding light in the dark and hidden places of society and the soul.
The process of contemporary art might be compared to an attempt to mouth a word that has never been spoken but once said will never be forgotten. The art world is the forum for an ongoing international dialogue of ideas about what we are.
Throughout history it has always been true that nothing enhances the prestige of a city as much as its devotion to culture and the living arts. And even in this country there are cities of modest dimensions with very big cultural reputations; San Antonio or Minneapolis, for example.
Practically speaking, enhancing a city's image cannot be bad business. For really without at least one officially sanctioned program devoted to worldly dialogue there is very little to recommend a city to the world. In the eyes of the world, culture is what differentiates a city with class from a city with none.
Faced with a budget deficit the Chrysler Museum and the city did the easy but short-sided thing: Without even attempting to raise money through donations or an aggressive fund drive, it simply lopped off the most-offensive part of the museum's ailing body; the part that talks back, that breathes, that thinks - the head. For a museum without the living arts cannot hope to be more than a well-preserved cadaver - a little more manageable but sadly lacking.
WALTER MARTIN
Brooklyn, N.Y., Feb. 29, 1996
(Editor's note: New York-based artist Martin is a Norfolk native.) by CNB