46th Biennial.CORCORAN GALLERY OF ART Corcoran Gallery of Art: see under Corcoran, William Wilson. Call it trickle-down aesthetics: Word has finally reached Washington that there's more to life than painting. The Corcoran's 46th Biennial biennial, plant requiring two years to complete its life cycle, as distinguished from an annual or a perennial. In the first year a biennial usually produces a rosette of leaves (e.g., the cabbage) and a fleshy root, which acts as a food reserve over the winter. During the second year the plant produces flowers and seeds and, having exhausted its food reserve, then dies. Short-lived perennials (e.g., the hollyhock) are often treated as biennials., "Media/Metaphor: New Stories in Contemporary Art," is the first to show video, film, installation, and, yes, computer work, on a parity with the oldest of arts. Still, the choice of painters suggests a point of view (Close, Reed, Yuskavage), while the potpourri of artists working in other media seems more up for grabs (Nan Goldin and Victor Burgin?). Corcoran curator Philip Brookman is doing his best to put an end to business as usual at this most conservative of the institutional biennials. We'll see if he manages to drag DC above the cultural poverty line. Dec. 9, 2000- Mar. 5, 2001. |
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