Where the Art Is

In an ideal world, Ms. Curtis would be right. Visual art would “command a room of its own.” However, with the hard times visited recently on art galleries, as reported in The Times and other publications, the space for “serious” exhibits is shrinking drastically.

More power to any artist who can get his or her work out in public. Agreeing to show only in venues where the work gets top billing may limit new artists to the walls of their own studios.

I applaud the Dike Partnership, the Irvine Medical Center and others like them who give art a chance to be seen by a general public who may never darken the doorstep of a “legitimate” gallery.

This is not a new problem. Would Ms. Curtis have had Michelangelo turn down the opportunity to paint the Sistine Chapel because his work was a “garnish for a public environment built and used for other activities?”

HARRIET J. OTTAVIANO

Los Alamitos

Ottaviano is co-owner of the Angelo Sala Gallery.