Photo by Jane’s AmericaMorning, Washington. Washington critic Tyler Green — who has recently moved his Modern Art Notes column to Artinfo — is floating some questions about the Eadweard Muybridge survey now on view at the Corcoran. Eadweard Muybridge, the first artist to incorporate the concept of time in his work in a genuine way, was no stranger to scandal; in 1874, Muybridge murdered one Major Harry Larkyns in cold blood for conducting an affair with his wife. The most controversy his photography ever courted, however, was when he settled a question over whether a horse’s legs all leave the ground simultaneously during a gallop.
Green interviews Weston Naef, the curator of photography for the J. Paul Getty Museum, who says that some of Muybridge’s photos on display may in fact be the work of a professional rival — Carleton Watkins. While that would seem to be an embarrassment for the Corcoran (if true), a broad and unprecedented survey like the Muybridge exhibit is supposed to be a launching point for scholarly debate. A Watkins scholar (like Naef) will necessarily see a show by a Muybridge scholar (Corcoran chief curator Philip Brookman) and see something the curator did not intend. Including, it would seem, work by another artist. It’s only appropriate that an exhibit focusing on the earliest moments in photography should bring up questions that have followed its long development — questions about appropriation, authorship, and mechanical reproduction.
Perhaps a followup exhibit on the two artists could be titled “How the West Was Won,” since both artists were active in the American West and, if you will, pioneers in the medium.
Tom Sherwood Survives Council Hearing: In this grueling tale, NBCWashington’s Sherwood relates a Council hearing on the new teachers union contract that went on for a full five hours before D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee even testified. Public witnesses ran roughshod over their three-minute time limits, speaking for up to 10 minutes at a time. “It was a timekeeper’s nightmare,” he says. Why did Council chair Vincent Gray let the reigns slip?
Thanks: It has been a pleasure editing DCist the past week and a half. But this post marks the end of my stint. I hand off the site to the senior editors, who will man DCist through the end of the week while I skip off to Germany and Denmark. (If you’re so inclined, you may follow my trip in GOOD Magazine, where I’ll be writing about creative industries and development in Old Europe.)
Briefly Noted: Pakistan sentences five Virginian men to 15 years in prison . . . Court reverses decision on PG County furloughs’ constitutionality . . . New iPhone 4 launches today . . . Punk in Adams Morgan?! . . . If you didn’t know, it’s hot outside.
This Day in DCist: The District debated a pedestrian master plan (sounds oxymoronic), and people gathered in Adams Morgan for the shoot of Everything You’ve Got.
