COMMENTARY : ArtWalk Could Use Fine-Tuning

“The work of Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler is concerned with collapsing the dialectic between public and private, inside and outside, through a strategy of semiotic reconstruction.”

--From an “Artforum” review, April, 1989.

Welcome to the world of contemporary art, where highly refined artists, hoity-toity gallery directors, scholarly curators and double-talking critics congeal into a mass of icky preciousness that the general public, not surprisingly, prefers to do without.

Given the nature of the beast, it is no surprise that few San Diegans collect it, that four top galleries folded over the past 20 months, citing low sales, and that the San Diego Unified Port District has been unable in four years to commission even one piece of public art.

Now into this rarefied world comes the fifth annual ArtWalk, an inspired public relations ploy designed to cut through the obfuscation and ambiguity and make contemporary art more accessible--possibly even understandable.

The idea is simplicity itself. One weekend a year, artists open their studios to the public to chat with the curious about their art and maybe make a sale or two. Walkers are given a map of the studios and galleries, and other attractions are laid on to add to the air of festivity.

Amazingly, in four years, ArtWalk has grown to become an incredibly popular event. In 1988, it attracted a wave of humanity, reportedly 15,000 strong, which visited the downtown galleries and studios of contemporary artists. Up to 30,000 are expected today and Sunday for ArtWalk ’89.

Ironically, ArtWalk’s popularity has alienated the very artists it seeks to benefit. True, more than 400 artists and organizations are participating this year. However, the public will not see many studios of the city’s premiere artists--the ones whose art is sold in galleries in Los Angeles and New York and collected by prestigious museums.

ArtWalk, it seems, has become too common for our finest artists.

Artist Jay Johnson recalled with disgust a scene from one ArtWalk: In one downtown shop, “someone had brought in cheap prints of the Hotel del Coronado and hung them in a window,” Johnson said. “In the next room, a lady was doing makeup demonstrations. Makeup demonstrations!

“You know that a street fair thing is going to have good and bad. But people could have policed it a little better. What if an important critic or gallery director is in town? That’s what they see. It will mold their opinion of what’s really happening in San Diego.”

Johnson, who has not participated in ArtWalk since 1985, and other artists make valid points. The prospect of having 20,000 people, or even 1,000 people, traipse through a studio loft that is often an artist’s home is terrifying.

What if each visitor wanted to talk with the artist about his or her art? It is physically impossible for one thing. For another, art being an extremely personal matter, it is not always easy for an artist to talk about it with other artists, much less with total strangers.

Similarly, it is impossible to expect the first-time viewer to understand the complexities of content and style that have taken an artist a lifetime to develop.

Adults or children who have never been in a museum are bound to ask questions that an artist considers dumb. However, the simplest question can be the first step to understanding.

With so many thousands of people coming to ArtWalk, it is a shame for them not to be exposed to the work of more of San Diego’s finest artists.

Installation gallery, which organizes ArtWalk, is right to offer the widest possible diversity of art works, from ceramics and the decorative arts to abstract sculpture and socially relevant art. Decorative art is art, too.

Installation also has commissioned 10 events, utilizing some of the city’s finest artists. These range from a children’s parade this morning at 11:15, to nightly modern dance concerts at the Lyceum Theatre.

Artist Gary Ghirardi likes the idea of ArtWalk, although he can not deal with the crowds in his studio. He and Johnson made some suggestions for adding more challenging art and exposing the public to top artists:

- Offer a limited number of restricted tours to different artists’ studios.

- Provide 10 temporary display sites to focus on individual artists.

- Pay the artists an honorarium for the display of their works.

- Pay for professional, curatorial support in the selection and display of the works.

- Provide elaborate explanatory materials, including a video about the artist and the artists’ work if the artist is not going to be available.

The added cost for the temporary display sites would run from $100,000 to $200,000, at $10,000-$20,000 per location.

“I think the audience would perceive it as more serious,” Ghirardi said. “It would add a higher dimension to the overall program. People would leave being challenged rather than bored.

“It would take money, like the mayor spending money on the Russian art festival. It would have been a lot better and cheaper too, to spend it on ArtWalk. The community would be a lot better too, in the long run.”

One more point. The community, it might be added, includes those who give makeup demonstrations. Cosmetologists need art, too.