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[San Antonio Light] ART SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1986/L3 [[image - photograph]] JOHN TWEDDLE: 'I love people and everything in life.' San Antonian's art was one of 50 featured. [[image - photograph]] RICHARD THOMPSON: San Antonio artist's work is in "50 Texas Artists." TEXANS: Carlozzi traveled the state on weekends TEXANS/from L1 complete her selection process. She began with a list of 200 artists around the state and traveled Texas on weekends, visiting artists in their studios and "trying to see as much art as possible." "If I had my druthers the book would have been '65 Texas Artists.' Sixty-five just seemed to be a natural cutoff point. Cutting the list from 200 to 65 was fairly easy, but it was very difficult going from 65 to 50. At that point I began looking at things like geographical location to make it a balanced book. If I'm ever asked to do a second book, there are 10 or 15 artists out there that I would definitely include." The just-published book, entitled "50 Texas Artists," retails for $35 hardcover, $18.95 trade paperback. It features artists of various disciplines from all over the state, with photos of the artists' work and the artists themselves by Texas photographer Gay Block. The artists wrote short background sketches to accompany their work. Carlozzi wrote the book's introduction. San Antonio artists included in the book are Mel Casas, William Jackson Maxwell, Richard Thompson and John Tweddle. "All are mature artists, and all have a creative body of work going back at least a decade," Carlozzi said of the San Antonio artists. "All are doing really interesting work, and I like the ideas behind their work. There is a phrase called 'artists' artists,' and it applies in that they all have very independent visions, not through any sense of respect for the art world but because they and the artists they know share a quirky kind of curiosity and a need to express a message. Certainly Mel and John have it, and Maxwell is just so inquiring. And Richard has got his own world and way of doing things." Contemporary Artists for San Antonio is currently trying to set up an exhibit of the work in the book for either January or April at the Blue Star Art Space off South Alamo. It would be the first exhibit encompassing the work in the book. The shipping expense of bringing the work to San Antonio is costly, and Contemporary Artists is trying to get funding. Chronicle Books has committed an undisclosed amount of money to the exhibit, and several individuals also are interested. "Within the next couple of weeks we'll know whether we're going to postpone it," said Jeffrey Moore, the director of the Southwest Craft Center, who sits on the board of Contemporary Artists. "But we will do it. It is a quality show of an eclectic nature, which is what Blue Star is all about, and it would be good publicity for us." People outside the state, even those who keep up with contemporary art, do not immediately think of art when the word Texas is mentioned. Texas is an oil resource not a cultural resource. It is a haven for cowboys, roughnecks and rednecks, not sculptors and painters. Or so the thinking goes. An important aspect of the book - perhaps the most important - is, as Carlozzi says, that it introduces a vital contemporary art scene in the land of bluebonnets and longhorns to people outside the state. "I was looking for artists who are making adventuresome art. I was looking for people posing new questions, investigating new ideas. I was looking for people whose art stems from personal ideas yet has some relevance to society at large. I was looking for artists with a commitment to art as a social comment, whether it is some sort of message or a conveyance of a personal experience to others. I was looking for the diversity of art as it exists in the state, but I didn't go out with a quota of one metal sculptor and one wood sculptor and so on. And I wanted as much geographical representation of the state without compromising the quality of the art. "I think the greatest surprise the book will deliver to people outside the state is that there is so much good art here, so much art that is lively, individual, spirited, intelligent and sophisticated." Apparently, "50 Texas Artists" is achieving what it set out to do. A book of 50 New York artists was published at the same time as the Texas collection, and a recent review in Publisher's Weekly comparing the two much preferred the Texas book. The reviewer's reasoning? The Texas book had much more personality and showed many artists that hadn't been seen before on a national level. The New York book, edited by Richard Marshal of the Whitney Museum of American Art, basically goes over the same old ground, to paraphrase the reviewer.
Transcription Notes:
I didn't know if I should transcribe the blurb at the bottom of the first column - it has no bearing on the text of the article
