PBS' American Experience is currently researching the background to do a segment on Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, and I think that they may use this piece that I wrote a few years ago.

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Email from a Canadian reader claims that if we really want to see some fireworks between Gopnik and the Corcoran, then the Corcoran should bring a solo of Marcel Dzama to DC.

I have received about a dozen emails on this "Blake vs. Corcoran" subject so far, which to me shows that there is a lot of interest and two clear "camps" on this issue.

Regardless of how one feels about the writings of a critic, (any critic, not just Gopnik), the bottom line is that the critic has a right to express his or her opinion on their area of expertise. And the readers have a right to disagree with it - even if the reader is the Director of a Museum.

Gopnik is an intelligent and eloquent writer, and he also clearly has galvanized ideas and notions as to what constitutes good contemporary art. And he clearly also has people who agree with him, and many who disagree - that disagreement is good for art!

What do I think? My opinion is also very subjective, and colored by my own art prejudices, opinions and background. For the record: On J. Seward Johnson's "art" Gopnik and I generally agree. And yet as Ionarts points out and lists, there are some writers who actually liked this show. And if you want, you too can write your own review of the show in the Post's Website.

Blake Gopnik delivered his "Long Live Realism - Realism is Dead" lecture at the Corcoran (of all places) when he first arrived here from Canada. It was there that he first tipped his hand about his personal beliefs of what he considers "good art."

And my reaction to his lecture was that genres like painting, sculpture and photography are just not in his vocabulary for what is "good art." He has shown this many times since in his reviews.

I also understood that in Blake's view of the world, painting is dead, and sculpture is dead, and photography (except "manipulated photography") is also dead.

When someone in the audience asked him what should contemporary artists do, I recall that his response was "video and manipulated photography." A well-known curator who was sitting next to me in the Corcoran's Frances & Armand Hammer Auditorium noted sarcastically that "Blake doesn't like pictures."

And when forced by another audience member to pick a contemporary painter that he liked, he put up some slides of Lisa Yuskavage and we were all wondering if he was pulling our leg, especially since he had been (unfairly in my opinion) using slides of Science Fiction illustrator Boris Vallejo as a sample of all that is wrong with contemporary realism.

So knowing that, when I read Blake Gopnik, I do so with an understanding of how what he believes is "good art" colors everything that he writes -- just as what I believe is "good art" colors everything that I say and do about art, and what I believed 20 years ago is in some cases radically different from what I think now.

And that's OK, and in an ideal world, the Post would have a second critical voice to offer us another opinion (see my Oct 25 posting).

Did Blake go over the line in writing that the Corcoran "has tumbled all the way from nobody to laughingstock"? Probably.

And yet, in an odd way I think that it is healthy for a critic to take direct shots at a major museum, causing all this discussion and disagreements and dialogue as a result. Blake's attack on the Corcoran pales in comparison to what the New York press heaves at museums like the Whitney, and what the British press vomits upon practically every visual art museum in the UK.

And meanwhile, Seward's weird exhibition has doubled the Corcoran's attendance numbers. And Gopnik's review, which has been echoed worldwide, was the catalyst for much of this success.

David Levy should send Blake a thank you note and schedule Marcel Dzama the next time attendance begins to dip.

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Next Friday is the first Friday of the month, and thus the usual gallery openings and extended hours by the Dupont Circle Galleries from 6-8 PM.

A Friday later, the second Friday of the month, is gallery openings and extended hours by the Bethesda Galleries from 6-10 PM. A free shuttle bus is part of the Artwalk.

A week later, but on Thursday, the third Thursday of every month, the Seventh Street Galleries have openings and extended hours from 6-8 PM.

And a day later, on the third Friday of every month, the Canal Square Galleries in Georgetown host their new show openings from 6-9 PM, catered by the Sea Catch Restaurant.

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The "feud" between the Post's Blake Gopnik and the Corcoran goes national as ArtsJournal picks up the Washingtonian story discussed here yesterday.

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