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Fueled by a potent mix of curiosity and nostalgia after writing an article about the event for the September issue of The Brooklyn Rail, I participated in the Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibition over Labor Day weekend. 100 artists were involved, some of whom have been exhibiting their work at the WSOAE for more than thirty years. I set up my table, chairs, and portable shelves on the corner of University and Eighth, where I covered the event on @Bushwick & Main, the sketchbook/blog I maintain with a mobile phone. (Posts from WSOAE start on September 5.) I sat in the hot sun for three afternoons while tourist buses stopped and gawked. Friends arrived for "studio visits," I worked in my sketchbook, and ultimately sold just enough artwork to break even.
Here's an excerpt from "Another World: The Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit," which ran in the September 2009 issue of The Brooklyn Rail:
"In 1931, during the early days of the Depression, before the Works Progress Administration was put in place, an outdoor art exhibition, modeled on those in Europe, was held in Washington Square to help struggling artists make a living. Not yet thinking in terms of their careers, but simply trying to pay the rent, artists like Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Alice Neel are said to have been among the more than 200 artists who participated. In the exhibit’s halcyon days, all the major museums embraced the show, and over 100,000 people visited each day. Today, art world insiders are more attuned to blue-chip galleries and international art fairs; MFA-trained artists rarely give the exhibit a second thought. Rather than investing in the booth fees, framing, and display racks required to show in Washington Square, ambitious emerging artists are inclined to hold open studio events where gallerists, collectors, and curators are most likely to see their work. However improbable it may be, the typical 21st-century MFA is intent on being discovered, making an international reputation, and somehow influencing the course of art history. Selling artwork to the untutored masses is not a priority...."
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Painting 2009: Paintings from Beacon
