Richmond Times-Dispatch from Richmond, Virginia • 142

WtoRWtotoP-M K-4 Richmond Timed-Dispatch Sun Feb 7 1982 SWIFT CREEK MILL PLAYHOUSE Realism in art covers a broad range Wednesday thru Saturday Dinner and Theatre or Theatre Only Group Student and Senior Citizen Rates available A Romantic by William Inge Play it smart spend a few newspaper route Call rowuRPRODDcnonn IN CONCERT ALABAMA mm SPECIAL GUEST JANIE FRICKE SAT FEB 27 8 PM RICHMOND C0USEUM ticketi general adnssioh $950 Limited Advance Then $1050 an Sale Now At is one of 140 works at Virginia Museum's new show Anyone who goes to see American Realism Since the major touring exhibition on view at the Virginia Museum through March 28 will probably come away with more questions about realism than they had when they went in And (hat is a compliment to the dynamic range of ambiguities presetted by the show There is no doubt that every art curator in the country would have gone about selecting works for the show in a different way Frank Goodyear Jr curator at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art and the man who actually made the selections does not seem to have done so with the goal of explaining realism be seeps rather to have made an encyclopedic effort to bring in everything that could possibly fall under the realism banner This makes for a healthy but problematic show one that attacks the senses with everything from Andrew pastoral America to the glaring urban chrome of Tom Blackwell and David Parrish Nonetheless the exhibition does say a lot about the revital-ixatiqp of realism that has taken place over the past 20 years and a revitalisation is what it has been Artists and critics have been Arguing now for months maybe a couple of years as to whether this is a realism or a conservative return to the past but it is really neither and also both While it does perhaps mark a conservative swing in the pendulum of art it is mily bound to tradition as far as post-modern romanticism will allow The Mg issue that has been missed with regard to realism in the past 20 years is that it has been a movement spawned nurtured and debated not in the big art centers certainly not in New York but rather out in the hinterlands Contemporary realism is perhaps the first real statement to come from the recent generation of academic artists it has emerged from the regional hotheads of an America caught up in an art boom and it has farced its way into the mainstream from the growing periphery of college art professionals Philip Pearistein whose paintings of nude models in studio settings have brought him international renown seemed almost annoyed by all the talk of a when he visited Richmond last fall for a show at the ReynoldsMinor Gallery is no boom realism hasn't even been Pearistein said been accepted in New York and until accepted there it Jnd even now with the whole country and the whole world jumping on the realism bandwagon New York Ungers with its gods of abstraction In fact it until last September when New York Times art critic Hilton Kramer reviewed this Pennsylvania Academy show that the Big Apple even took notice of the sweeping the country The realism thing is not an overnight sensation it has been slowly building in college art departments almost since the dawn of abstract expressionism As soon as abstraction be-catae the rule of the day with New York as its capital representational art immediately became an alternative The (again New York and campus artists with New York aspirations) demanded abstraction the outsiders came up with -FvpiArt and the artists of America tried to find themselves Twjnty years later when the museum world was ready to aeuwwledge realism it happen in New York because NefeYbrk had been wearing blinden for two decades It is true that the Pompidou Center in Paris mounted in the winter of 1980-81 attempting to document realist art from the years 1919-1939 but then we turn to the United States and the Mg shows originated where? How about Cleveland Miime-apoljpk and San Antonio places about as far removed from New York as possible Minneapolis drew pubiic and critical attention with Realism of the the same winter as the Pompidou show then the Cleveland Museum of Art came up with a giant extravaganza called Realist Tradition: French Painting and Drawing Then San Antonio really put itself on the map with a beautiful quality show Really Real Super and American Realism was ready for the splash And where Goodyear and the Pennsylvania Academy came in Goodyear had taken a six-month leave of absence to write a book on the last 20 years of American realism and the show was a natural The Pennsylvania Academy has a small Willard The Arts' ColunTftist Robert Merritt 5186 Nine Mile Rd (Fairfield Shoppers World) ALBUM DEN: XI West Broad St Petersburg 601 Leigh St SELECT-A4EAT OUTLETS shock the senses There is the beautiful and the ugly the tame and the wild art reaching back to traditions and forward into the future But mostly American Realism Since is a beginning It is a show that can be approached from any level viewers can simply enjoy the technical ability marveling at the simple brush strokes that add up to a stunning whole or they can drive into the mysterious puzzles of what this artist is really saying both socially and artistically And when it is gone it is a show that will linger The work that is here will probably have an effect on all the art one sees in the future There are still a great many people who will argue against the idea that realism is the art of the 1980s But this show and the groundwork of smaller exMMtions that have preceded it seems to point to an art that is ready to give up the closed world of for and look back at the real world Mainstream art has avoided human contact for many years but maybe now is the time for a change It is hard to look at this work and not feel the smallness and the immensity of bring human Rodin date extended The closing date of the major exhibition devoted to French sculptor Auguste Rodin at the National Gallery In Washington has been extended to April 11 Since opening on June 28 the exhibition has been seen by more than a million people with daily attendance often exceeding 8000 people a day staff and the show was obviously a strain of man hours but the results show representational art in all its varied and complex contradictions American Realism Since come up with any easy answers It may not crane up with any answers at all What it does is lay bare all the contradictions so that everybody can fuss and argue about who is doing what and why It throws classicism photo-realism environnmental realism California Post-Pop urban realism the figure the landscape and the narrative all into a Mg melting pot in this case nearly 700 feet of Virginia Museum wall space and lets each viewer make up his own mind For a public hungry for art that has some relationship to life the show is a mecca Every painting is a stray each a narrative in spite of artists who scream that subject matter has nothing to do with their work Each says something about life today Willard Midgette takes us to the Far West with the giant a stereotypical movie-screen size image of the American Indian Ralph Goings brings us into the typical roadside diner shows us the glamour of the mythological trucking world the Erlebachers (Martha Mayer and Walter) take us into the classical world of myth Duane Hanson shows us the tragi-comic reality of the people The list goes on and on ami on There is the urban world the rural world the cityscape and the swamp There is realism that carries commercial imagery to monumental levels and there are artistic sensibilities that move into subject matter with painterly romanticism There are hard edges and splashes of color bravura painting and spontaneous energy calm cod colors and fiery expositions to JACK JONES REED with the Richmond Symphony pops Saturday Fab 13 1982 The Mosque 8:00 pm RESERVATIONS 748-5203 11 hours a week delivering a 649-6295 for details Me tfrfbriw WR nwW tp t'l A iff ff 9 I'M I urX irfT- i -'l Ci WEMHRKE1I ITMRE9 KUWMRCEg tb pm web INCLUDES TAX jW WRLH-TV ready to broadcast Tickets: $1585 $1321 $1057 $951 $845 687 (prices Include admissions tax! Tickets may bo purchased at The Richmond Symphony Box Office 15 Fifth St Richmond VA 23219 PHONE (8041 788-1212 -9 am 4:45 pnu Monday through Friday it's hard to be exact But he hopes Channel 35 can begin testing its picture early this week and looks to Saturday as the official broadcast debut of newest TV station prepare fMCAT SAT-G MAT 'gF SAT- DAT-GRE f'CPA'S Parmanant Cantors ooan days awnings and waakands Law hourly coat Dadicatcd full tuna staff Complato for raviaw of clast lastons and aupplamcntary matsrials 1 Small claasaa taught by skilled Instructors OTHER COURSES AVAILABLE EPSYCHi'B10fAI'PCATOCArvVAtJOErU fitx ndb' n'leH Opportunity to maho up mlsaod lastons Voluminous homa-study matsrials constantly pda ltd by rasas rch-ars stpart In thslr field Opportunity to transftr to and continue study at my of our over ts cantors (804)285-3414 8AM KAMI) Ci Qayt Em wtettndt 5001 BROAD ST RICHMOND Va 23230 -H EOUCanONM CENTER TESTPRERSIUnON SPECWUJSTS SINCE 1938 Continued From First Page Network's Then at noon Channel 35 will be featuring a movie Afternoons are also geared toward the young viewers withuhn hour of Three at 2 pjn (Channel 85 musCfignre Richmond has a reaUtritish tar The Throe Stooges also scheduling them and Sunday mornings) preceding several half-hour cartoon shows as weU as Woman at 5 pJlLv Muring into prime time and familyadult viewing Trek-kies get yet another chance at their favorite Trek" at 7 pm followed by Wild at 8 pm WRLH will be offering a Time at 9 pm and then silly but popular at 11 pm Like Monday through Friday mornings Saturday am is for kids with another set of cartoons plus Abbott and Cos-telUfJJjiovies and a Shirley Temple Theater Then start-ing pm is a 714 hour blockf Western adventure featuring Smith and Boone" and again at 8 pm Saturdays will also feature two sports shows at 9 pm and (hunting and fishing) at! 10 pm plus a at 11 pm Sundays should appeal to mqvie fans since Channel 35 plans on showing four films in a row starting with its Tkrzan Theater at 11:30 am I can just hear any number of readers thinking this is nothing but Well yop do have a point The Love and the are the backbone of any independent station But independents are enjoying new sources of programming Operation Prime Time forces ample produces miniseries specifically for such stations Its two-part Awaits starring Mark Harmon and Christopher Lee is scheduled for later this month Sporting events are another source of fresh programming for the independents Channel 35 win be offering NCAA Division I basketball such as Virginia Tech vs Cincinnati on Feb 15 plus Baltimore Orioles baseball in the summer Channel 35 also has some better-than-average titles' lined up for its prime time movies including Cassidy and the Sundance on Feb IS Channel 35 will be producing a public affairs show of its own as well featuring Harvey Hudson a very familiar personality to local audiences through his various radio talk shows His half-hour program is scheduled to air at l(h30 pm Saturdays repeated at 6:30 am Sunday But back to the matter of syndicated programming While Channel 35 is offering several fairly fresh series such as at 7:30 am and 4:30 pm weekdays and Benny Hill at 11 pm it does seem to be relying on some of the older reruns to fill up its schedule WRLH General Manager Stephen Pfeskin explains: had to buy what was available in the market when we came In other words Channels 6 8 and 12 which also program syndicated shows in afternoons and early evenings had already gotten the pick of the litter Channel programming should pick op when it is able to present programming recently put on the syndication market Purchased for future broadcast are Day at a available in 1983 and and Strokes" available in 1984 Programming is rally half the battle for an independent however Just as important is when you schedule a show means placing Love and Back Hotter" against 6 and 6:30 pm news on the network affiliates or scheduling at 11 pm It means offering movies on Sunday afternoons when the networks are going with sports or scheduling programming against network soap operas An independent station also offers the advertiser an alternative Unlike network affiliates who have a limited amount of time available to them few locally-placed ads every spot Channel 35 sells' is its own Those who have been following the progress of an independent coming to Richmond know it has been a long road one filled with a number of detours and delays In May of 1980 after two years of vying with the Christian Broadcasting Network for Channel 35 allocation Neighborhood Communications Corpi (a subsidiary of Neighborhood Theaters) was granted the permit to construct an independent TV station In September of the same year Neighborhood which had decided to stick to the business of movies sold the construction permit to the Television Corporation of Richmond a group made of the same people who own and operate Channel 33-WTVZ in Norfolk All of this was accompanied by much filing and refiling with the Federal Communications Commission which has a way of making things time consuming if not difficult Then came finding a convenient location for the station (1925 Westmoreland Ave) ordering equipment and waiting for delivery Meanwhile costa in the television business like everywhere else keep going up It's estimated that it will cost approximately $5 million to makes WRLH a reality Even at this writing General Manager Peskin must equivocate a Mt when it comes to the precise starting date for the station With the weather as bad as it's been turning the Midlothian Turnpike an-tennatransmitter site into a mudbowl and delaying the delivery of some equipment iv 5 WEEKS ONLY BEST MUSICAL 1978 NEW YORK DRAMA CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD 1978 TONY AWARD WINNER Wednesday thru Sunday Wed17 FEBl IW1TA FMBLT IltIT tgwi S2JB BFF TICKETS ON SALE: MUSEUM SOX OFFICE TIMLHIMEM (D tVoilmoralaod Eastgata Chnrttil Aaianey Swan Araks Pakrsburg) FOR INFO CALL: (104) 7I0-4S5S FOR GROUP RATES CALL (004)644-1813 kaaday kro lakrtay MM IN FM Uu or MASTER CARO fflW CSarya tor Phaaa rOw AU IEAT RESERVES SUO SUI S7 JO PIKE Reserve Now For Cay Weekend RESERVATIONS 746-4288 Rt 6 Box 44 Mechantcsville Va 231 1 1.