1990 a Year of Promises--Some Kept, Some Broken

Promises, promises.

1990 began with a hearty host of them and more were delivered along the way. The year came and went with many of them left dangling, unfulfilled, but plenty remain, and some are enticing enough to sustain hope for San Diego’s continually evolving art community into 1991 and beyond.

The most encouraging signs appeared, surprisingly, at the San Diego Museum of Art, the city’s largest but, generally, least ambitious art institution. Two promising new curators were named in 1990--Malcolm Warner to the department of prints and drawings and Ellen Smart to the newly established department of Indian paintings. When she begins her job in the spring, Smart will be responsible for the Binney Collection of 12th- to 20th-Century Indian paintings, a major gift to the museum that had been tied up in probate for several years and formally entered the museum’s collection last year.

Another substantial boost to the museum’s collection came from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, which donated 33 works by contemporary California artists. Though a very mixed lot--in quality and in stature of the artists--the gift gives the museum the beginnings of breadth and strength in an area where it previously had few holdings.

Last year, however, evidence of these praiseworthy additions remained primarily behind the scenes. Warner did stage a small drawings show, but Smart won’t put works from the Binney collection on view until December, and the Weisman collection won’t be installed until March.

Unfortunately, the face that the museum showed to the public in 1990 was no more expressive or enlightening than in years past. The museum’s exhibition programming continued on its traditional roller-coaster course, with as many nondescript dips (the current show “A Golden Age: Art and Society in Hungary 1896-1914”) and irresponsible lags (January through June with only one show of any substance--a small drawing show) as scintillating peaks (“Dragon Robes of China’s Last Dynasty “and “Frank Lloyd Wright: In the Realm of Ideas”).

Across town, at the usually dynamic San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, it was a far less promising year. The institution (formerly the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art) adopted a new name to reflect a wider constituency, but its shows for the year were disastrously narrow in sensibility, either bending over backward to be popular (“Diamonds are Forever: Artists and Writers on Baseball”) or going far out of the way to be obtuse (John Knight’s installation “Bienvenido”). An installation by Santa Barbara artist Ann Hamilton, funded by an exciting new grant supporting an annual visiting artist, and the current, brilliant exchange program with the Timken Art Gallery--in which each museum sent works to the other, juxtaposing old masters with contemporary works--were the year’s only thoroughly provocative offerings.

Such offerings were made even more scant in 1990 by the museum’s reduction from six to only four slots for changing exhibitions per year, although, as in the past, several shows shared each time slot. This cutback in programming, combined with the fact that the museum has not yet replaced its former downtown annex--which closed last January--put the SDMCA on a slow, fairly dull track during 1990. Hopefully, the museum won’t wait until 1993, when its planned expansion is complete, to pick up the pace again.

Anticipation of a revival of Installation, a valued downtown alternative gallery that closed its doors in 1989, turned into another of 1990’s disappointments. The organization’s board of directors had hoped to hire a new director and reopen during 1990, but has yet to do so.

Installation did pop back into view briefly to organize ARTwalk, the annual downtown art festival, and to facilitate a grant for a work of public art, which proved to be the year’s most incendiary and necessary. A bus bench poster, produced in collaboration by artists Deborah Small, Louis Hock, Elizabeth Sisco and Scott Kessler, challenged the local police department to justify a spate of fatal shootings.

Promises of more public art for San Diego came during 1990 from the San Diego Unified Port District. Despite its dismal record to date for commissioning works of public art, the port district is persisting with its art program. In October, port commissioners announced the hiring of art consultants Carol and Tom Hobson to develop a public art master plan. At this writing, however, the Hobsons’ contract is still being negotiated.

1990 marked the births, deaths and anniversaries of several local venues. The Linda Moore, David Lewinson and Verbum galleries opened their doors this year, while the Acevedo and Rebecca Cabo galleries folded. Quint/Krichman Projects launched its innovative program of artists’ residencies, and the African-American Museum of Fine Arts staged its first two shows, though it still lacks a permanent location. The museum, in theory, answers a pressing need for San Diego. Unfortunately, its inaugural shows were no better than lukewarm.

The Timken Art Gallery celebrated its 25th anniversary with another of its rich, historical shows and a bold new collaborative exhibition program with the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Nearby in the park, the Centro Cultural de la Raza turned 20, but its visual arts program showed little sign of new maturity. Its anniversary show scanned two decades of the Centro’s exhibitions but seemed to skip over most of the bright spots, shows of powerful socially engaged art by Chicano and native American artists. The Centro begins 1991 with a search for a new director and the need for more consistent exhibitions with as much visual as political vitality.

The best shows of 1990, as in past years, were found mostly in smaller venues, particular in the university and community college galleries. Among the most enduring of this year’s visual memories are the Albert Chong installation at MiraCosta College, Mineko Grimmer’s installation at Mesa College, Jim Wilstermann’s sculpture at Grossmont College, Squeak Carnwath’s paintings at San Diego State University, Bruce and Norman Yonemoto’s video installation at UC San Diego, and several other shows at Sushi, David Zapf and Oneiros galleries.

These highlights aside, 1990 was an understated year for art in San Diego. This year promises to be more satisfying.