Daily Campello Art News

F. Lennox Campello, Artist, Writer and Critic has a blogspot that may be of interest to you. Go to http://dcartnews.blogspot.com for all sorts of news and commentary. Mr. Campello is often a juror at The Art League and also writes for the Old Town Crier. His Gallery Beat article this month is about "The Prickly Issue of Labels" and refers to the lumping of artists into catagories in order to define or judge their works. Of special note is the new appointment of E. Carmen Ramos as the first curator for Latino art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Rather than review his article, I will direct you to the October issue, page 14 and just say this about his commentary. "Mr. Campello is right on target with his thinking. Why must we judge and catagorize artists this way? I am a female, but I don't wish my gender to be a factor when viewing my artworks. Just hold my painting next to another artist's works and judge it on its merit, not my gender or ethnic ancestry. I am descended from Irish immigrants, but that should have no bearing on whether or not my art is valid or better than another persons works." I suppose I am politically incorrect in my thinking, but I can't understand why the Smithsonian would even need a Latino curator, just put all the paintings into a room and forget about these ridiculous labels.