Devon Britt-Darby Speaks

Robert Boyd

Art podcaster Bad at Sports has put up an interview with Devon Britt-Darby (née Douglas Britt) that is worth listening to but also disappointing. Mainly disappointing because it is pretty old. It was recorded shortly after Britt-Darby was fired from the Houston Chronicle (for rather complex reasons). Texas Monthly ran a fairly detailed story on the whole thing (which you can read if you register for the site). But to give a brief recounting, The Art Guys did a performance in which they "married" a tree for a group show at the CAMH. This bothered Britt, the Houston Chronicle's art critic, because it seemed to trivialize the very real struggles around gay marriage rights. Later, at the behest of the commissioning curator, Toby Kamps, the Menil Museum bought it (Kamps having moved over to the Menil in the meantime). The piece had a dedication ceremony in November, 2011. To protest this, Britt married a woman named Reese Darby in a perfomance called The Art Gay Marries a Woman. This marriage took place the night before the dedication of the tree. Britt-Darby (as he was called after his wedding) covered the tree obsessively on his blog, and in a related move admitted to his past as a meth-addicted male prostitute on his blog. He decided to go on a road-trip of self-discovery. He asked the Chronicle for a leave of absence. They told him he could quit and reapply for his job when he came back. He didn't quit, so they fired him.

Anyway, there's more to the story--way more. The tree itself was attacked and seriously damaged, for example. (And Britt-Darby's replacement at the Chronicle on the society beat turned out to be a blogging stripper--totally irrelevant to the matter at hand, but an amazing coincidence, you have to admit!)



The only innocent victim in this whole affair--the Tree, post vandalism

So Britt-Darby was in New York on his road-trip when he met up with the Bad at Sports guys. Chris Sperandio introduced him to them and kibitzed the interview. Britt-Darby is kind of a motormouth here, but he tells his side of the story. It comes off as a still-raw wound. Sperandio even suggests, as politely as possible, that Britt-Darby might be in the midst of a nervous breakdown. (The Art Guys also shared that theory when they spoke to me about the incident.) That's what I don't like about it--I think an interview now, almost a year later, would be more interesting. Britt-Darby wouldn't be so in the heat of the moment, and he could approach the sequence of events with a little more reflection and calm.

For example, some of his suppositions come off as paranoid. He believed that the ceremony at the Menil was kept hush-hush because of the controversy, and that the November dedication date was specifically chosen in order to lower the profile of the event. But this doesn't make any sense on the face of it. If they had wanted to keep things quiet, they wouldn't have had a dedication event in the first place. It's not like they have events for every art acquisition. By having a dedication event, they were doing just the opposite from what Britt-Darby supposes--they were drawing attention to the tree. And they picked November because the Art Guys wanted Lawrence Weschler to speak, and he was coming through Houston on a book-signing tour in November.

Also, it comes off as a tad unself-aware that Britt-Darby is continuously attacking the Art Guys' ego and inflated sense of self-importance (while maintaining that they aren't all that) during a period in which he is repeatedly posting videos of himself online (usually showing off his gym build) and engaging in attention-seeking performances. Pot, kettle and all that.

But that's no reason not to listen to the podcast. It's quite interesting, and Britt-Darby's defense of his performance was eloquent and moving.



The part of the tree that got cut off

From Tuxedo to Terry Cloth

Devon Britt-Darby is returning to cover the Houston art scene, this time for Arts + Culture Houston. Evidently he will do so while dressed in a towel.

The Art Guys-Devon Britt-Darby Saga Continues

by Robert Boyd


The Art Guys, The Art Guys Marry a Plant Cake Topper, painted porcelain wedding toppers, model tree (plastic), model makers' grass, brass plaque, glass bell jar with wood base, edition of 12, 2009

That headline is a little misleading--nothing has really happened since Britt-Darby left town and the tree was vandalized. But new details came to light in a piece, "This Month in Art-Killing Nonsense," by Buffalo Sean in the Free Press Houston. (The piece is not online.) Sean succinctly details the whole story (and does so without being boring, which is amazing given how much this story has been repeated). But Sean adds some details I hadn't heard before.

The morning of the 'attack' on the artwork a police report was filed after an altercation between [Art Guys] Massing, Galbreth and gallerist Hiram Butler in front of his gallery. The Huffington Post reports "They [The Art Guys] called him [Butler] 'a coward and an evil fuck' and accused him of being an 'unhappy homosexual.'"

And Sean puts his finger on one important upshot to this. "[The] Chronicle has no art critic and will not get one for the foreseeable future." I heard that they were interviewing shortly after Britt-Darby left, but I haven't heard anything since. The art coverage has been very spotty, but there was a nice feature on the Seeing Stars exhibit (which is freaking great, by the way) in last Sunday's Zest. (That piece aside, Zest has to be the weakest Sunday culture magazine imaginable.)

In the end, I think Sean overstates the importance of all this. "[The Art Guys] have alienated many people with their callous actions and set the Houston artworld back from from recognizing conceptual artwork as valid for years to come. Accusations of homophobia, witch-hunting and professional incompetence are seeping out of the controversy which will inevitably leave a stain on Houston's already soiled reputation. [...] There is no beauty to be found in the Art Guys' works or Britt's social sculpture web videos, only the pain of destroying art in a misguided run towards celebrity." I think the art scene will suffer for not having a regular art critic at the Chron, Toby Kamps may be spanked by the Menil brass ("Dude, why did you bring this tsuris on us?"), and the Art Guys' reputation will suffer. Who knows where Britt-Darby will end up out of this. But that's about it. The rest of us will just continue on, making art, looking at art, writing about art, etc.

That said, I can't close without commenting on one last statement Sean wrote: "Boyd is the only art critic left in Houston." I might be the most prolific, but there are other good art writers in Houston. Still--we need more. All you would-be art writers--contact me at robertwboyd2020@yahoo.com

Ring in the New Links

by Robert Boyd


Buster Graybill, Progeny of the Tush Hog, mixed media. My nephews are arranging the Tush Hogs into an impromptu football field in this photo. This show was on Salvador Castillo's "best of" list. (Photo by Sarah Boyd)

The Best of 2011, Austin Edition: Salvador Castillo put up an entry in his all-to-infrequently updated blog 'Bout What I Sees with his list of 19 shows that he really liked. I only saw one of them--Recovering Beauty at the Blanton (resolution--more trips to Austin in 2012). Castillo's list included such Houston favorites such as El Anatsui, Claire Falkenberg and Barry Stone. If reviews are the first draft of art history, "best of lists" are the second draft. (Now who has a "best of list" for Dallas/Fort Worth or San Antonio?)

Best of 2011, Britt-Darby Edition: Devon Britt-Darby also came up with a top 10 list with no particular geographic focus (although most of the shows were naturally from his former base in Houston). He limits his list to museum shows. Included are Donald Moffett: The Extravagant Vein at the CAMH, Upside Down: Arctic Realities at the Menil, and Andrei Molodkin: Crude at the Station Museum. [Reliable Narratives]


 Paloma from Budapest at the Rita Ackermann at the Ludwig Múzeum.

I don't go to galleries and museums just for the art: Checking out the beautiful, fashionable women is a big motivator, too. For hetero men (and lesbians, I suppose), this is one of the key pleasures of going to openings, etc. Now at last there is a website that acknowledges this unspoken truth: Babes at the Museum. Of course, I added it to my RSS feed instantly. [hat-tip to Hyperallergic]


Argentine comics great Francisco Solano López at 28 in 1956

One we lost in 2011, Francisco Solano López: Solano López was one of the key artists in the history of Argentine comics. If you can find it, get a copy of Deep City (1986, Catalan Communications). I had the honor to edit his work in the early 90s, and I even wrote a short story for him to draw, "Buoy 77," that appeared in Dark Horse Presents. He was one of the greats, and seeing this photo reminded me how much I missed him. Solano was the same age as my dad, which may have something to do with my feelings about him... [The Crib Sheet]

The People's Choices

by Robert Boyd

Before we dive into the results of my public survey of the best of Houston's art scene in 2011, let me talk a bit about the poll. First of all, there were a total of 65 respondents--thank you all. On one hand, 65 is great. On the other hand, I think it represents just a fraction of the total number of people in Houston who have an opinion on what their favorite art exhibits were. I wish I had further reach.

Additionally, with 65 respondents, it is fairly easy to game the results. I believe this has happened--not maliciously, but by virtue of friends of certain artists and galleries voting for those artists and galleries. Let me reiterate--there is nothing wrong with this. If my friend had a great show and I loved it, voting for it is perfectly legitimate. And if I were an artist who had a show in 2011, I would have linked to the poll on my Facebook page and let my friends know.

And even if there wasn't that level of deliberate action, the fact is that The Great God Pan is Dead is read by a certain constituency. I'd call it the Joanna/Art Palace/Box 13 constituency (and perhaps add to it the Nau-Haus/PG Contemporary constituency), and artists valued by these constituencies did very well. And deservedly so! But I mention this because I believe that if I had gotten 200 respondents or 500 respondents, the results would have been substantially different. In a way, this poll reveals more about The Great God Pan Is Dead and its readership than it does about Houston's art as a whole. So be it. It's my first try at this and while I'm sure I'll get better at it as the years go on, I'm quite pleased with the results.

Best Art Exhibits in 2011

What was interesting here was the voting was highly spread out. There was in no way a consensus. With so many good choices, respondents voted across the map. Still, there was a victor:
Seth Alverson at Art Palace with nine votes. (Big applause!)

Seth Alverson, Chair, Chair II, oil on canvas, 2009-2011

Just to demonstrate how broad the votes were scattered, there was a three-way tie for 2nd place (with seven votes each):
Lane Hagood, The Museum of Eterna at the Joanna
Kenn Coplan, Ultimate Kenn at Nau-haus Art Space
group exhibit, Pan y Circos at PG Contemporary (the "friends of Robert Boyd faction" really came through!)

And in third place, there was a six-way tie with  six votes each:
Charles LeDray, workworkworkworkworkwork at the MFAH
Francis Giampietro & Jeremy DePrez, The Power of Negative Feedback at Lawndale
Mark Flood at Cardoza Gallery
Marvin Zindler, Bayou City Noir at the Museum of Printing History
Upside Down: Arctic Realities at the Menil
Vija Celmins: Television + Disaster, 1964-9166 at the Menil

Of this entire list, the biggest surprises were what didn't make it to six or more votes, but among the winners, the most pleasant surprise for me was the quirky Marvin Zindler photo show at the Museum of Printing History.


Best Performance Art in 2011

This category was a little trickier, I thought, because of the transitory nature of performance. You had to be there to even really identify the piece, much less form some kind of personal judgment. The big winner, however, was:
Cody Ledvina, Gawd parents: I am real at BOX 13 (with 15 votes!)

Cody Ledvina's performance Gawd parents: I am real

There was a tie for second place with six votes each:
Dennis Harper and Friends, iPageant at the Joanna
Jim Woodring, Demonstration of Nibbus Maximus at Walpurgis Afternoon at Lawndale

And third place with four votes goes to:
The Bridge Club, Natural Resources at Lawndale

Most Significant Local Art-Related Events of 2011

This was my catch-all category where the events that shaped the ecology of the local art scene could be ranked. And the number one event with 16 votes was:
The Texas Contemporary Art Fair

Jason Willaford, Out of Site - Out of Sight, chrome plated oil barrels, 2010 at the Texas Contemporary Art Fair


Number two with 12 votes was:
The Houston Fine Art Fair

The fact that these two art fairs were ranked one and two shows how important respondents felt about art fairs coming to Houston. And it was important. Arturo Palacio told me that more people stopped by his booth at the Texas Contemporary Art Fair that went into his gallery all year. With attendance numbers of 10,000 batted around--most of whom were from Houston and vicinity--this was a big deal for all the local galleries that attended, as well as for the out-of-town galleries.

Coming in at third with 11 votes was:
Devon Britt-Darby vs The Art Guys

This category was my way of encapsulating a variety of events--the Menil acquiring the tree that the Art Guys married, Britt's coverage of that in the Chronicle, his counterperformance in marrying gallerina Reese Darby (and changing his name to Devon Britt-Darby), his confession of his former life as a meth-addicted male prostitute, his annotated road-trip (financed by being a male escort), and his firing from the Houston Chronicle. Certainly it got a lot of people talking.


Thanks everyone who voted, and happy new year!

Most Popular Pan Posts of 2011

by Robert Boyd

I write posts, Dean Liscum writes posts, but we never have any idea in advance whether they will catch on with readers. You people are ciphers! Anyway, here are the most popular 2011 posts based on page views:

1) A Matter of Wit at Fotofest. Readers came for the nudity but I hope they left delighted with these wacky, surreal photos.

2) A Letter from Sol Lewitt to Eva Hesse. I can take no credit whatsoever for this animated version of a well-known encouraging letter from the famous conceptual artist to the famous post-minimal artist. It was animated by Levni Yilmaz, and it really caught on with readers, probably because of its good humor and optimism.



still from Waste Land

3) Vik Muñiz's Waste Land. This was a review of the Oscar-nominated documentary. Read the review then watch it on Netflix!

4) Mysterious North Houston Art Colony Discovered. This was my first (of three) post about Itchy Acres up in Independence Heights. It got a link from Swamplot, the ever-popular real-estate blog, whose readers (including me) delight in finding new and unusual things in out-of-the-way Houston neighborhoods.

5) The LapDance Scholarship (NSFW). This one, about and artist/stripper who funds other artists through her erotic dancing, caught on partly because of those four magic letters NSFW, but also because I posted links on various Iowa and University of Iowa Reddits. I hope some readers got the message about how Emily Moran Barwick grants challenged the very idea of grants--it forced grant recipients to know exactly how their grants were being paid for (which is not the usual case).

6) Is The Houston Chronicle's Art Critic Trying to Get Himself Fired? This was the first of several posts on the saga of Devon Britt-Darby, where he comes out as a once-and-future gay prostitute and former meth addict. This is an ongoing story, and you can follow it on Britt-Darby's blog, Reliable Narratives.

7) Urban Animals by Merrie Wright. There's a great Shonen Knife album called "Rock Animals" which has a song on it ironically about animals made of concrete in a local playground. Maybe people had the same cognitive dissonance here--Wright's art had nothing to do with the beloved 1980s roller-skating gang in Houston, but was actually about animals in urban environments, evolving new strategies of camouflage.

8) Howard the Duck is an Orphan Now...Gene Colan, 1926-2011. This was an obituary of the artist most associated with the comic character Howard the Duck.



Francis Giampietro, "Thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissolvable by the annihilation of one of us!", reconstituted refrigerator, pressure treated wood, furniture leather, ice and pvc, 2011

9) Every Year More MFAs Are Loosed On Houston. This was my review of the 2011 University of Houston MFA class, but it also was a think piece on what happened to previous year's MFAs.

10) Diana Al-Hadid, Cordy Ryman and Jennifer Riley at Peel. Three out-of-town artists showed at Peel (which primarily shows out-of-towners). Al-Hadid and Ryman in particular are up-and-comers. This review is not too different from my other reviews, so I have no idea why it was so popular.

All I can judge by this is that readers like the following--nudity, sex workers, videos, and artists who aren't from Houston. So for 2012, expect a lot more posts featuring videos of international art stars cavorting with naked prostitutes. That should push my page views high enough to start running ads!

Now one final "most popular" post. It's from 2010, but it was the most popular post in 2011 and is my all-time most popular post: Age of Consent. It's a discussion of the movie Age of Consent, about an Australian artist who moves out to a remote beach to try to get new inspiration. It's based on a novel of the same name by an extremely interesting Australian artist/writer named Norman Lindsay. So why is this old post so popular? Imagine the following words in a Google search: "Helen Mirren" and "naked".

Part 5 of the Houston Art Scene's collective favorites of 2011

by Robert Boyd

(Continued from part 4)


Robert Pruitt, You Are Your Own Twin at Hooks Epstein. Mark Flood said Pruitt's You Are Your Own Twin was one of the best gallery shows he saw this year.

Rod Northcutt's Indigenous Genius at Art League. Emily Sloan selected this show, writing "The audience's strong mixed or confused reactions were interesting to me."


Scott Teplin, Crash at Ggallery. This got a vote from Bett Hollis.

Seth Mittag, No Show ( At icetsuoH). This mysterious show (described to me by Mittag as a "non-show") got a thumbs up from Michael Galbreth.


a tiny part of Shaun O'Dell's Silver Wall at Inman

Shaun O'Dell, Feeling Easy Feelings at Inman. Howard Sherman included Shaun O'Dell's solo show on his list of favorites.


Stan VanDerBeek: The Cultural Intercom at CAMH. Devon Britt-Darby wrote that the underground film pioneer's show "was pretty important, too."


Howard Sherman likes the accidental art made with this kind of paint.

The neon orange markings on the pavement in and around downtown. Howard Sherman likes this unusual type of found painting: "One last thing. I feel really strongly about the neon orange markings I see on the pavement in and around downtown. They're done by construction workers marking things off. The arrows and geometic edges are cool. So are the tar splatters. Wonderfully random and more inspirational than most of the art out there." (Personally, I would add painted-over graffiti--the irregular boxes of various shades of grey always appeal to me.)


 Francis Giampietro, Nature Is Crooked from the UH Masters show

33rd School of Art Masters Thesis Exhibition at the Blaffer. An anonymous respondent spoke of the UH masters show. The class of 2011 was pretty remarkable, for sure.

Vija Celmins: Television + Disaster, 1964-9166 at the Menil. Michael Galbreth liked it a lot.


The tiny underwear that was part of Seth Mittag's installation at Rice


Seth Mittag, We're Still Here...  at EMERGEncy Room. Mittag's trailer park tragedy got the nod from an anonymous respondent, who wrote, "Seth is an amazingly humble artist for someone with such knowledge and skill. This installation kicked off the EMERGEncy Room right."

A few quick notes here. A vast majority of the respondents were artists--only Bill Arning (museum director/curator) and Devon Britt-Darby (critic/blogger) were not primarily artists (although Britt-Darby arguably is letting his artist side come to the fore with his current project). I noticed that the artists who responded tended to have observable biases towards institutions or galleries with which they were associated. There was also a bit of a generational bias--artists would select work from their peers. And there were observable "social circle" biases. Now I don't think any of these biases is bad, but it does suggest that if 11 other Houston artists had responded, the results would have been dramatically different. In short, this list is not definitive.

Finally, I have added a post for the worst of Houston in 2011. Check it out.

The Best (and Worst) of 2011 -- The Houston Art Community Fails to Reach a Consensus (part 2)

by Robert Boyd

This is continued from part 1. The shows/events listed below are everything that got one vote from the 14 respondents to my poll.

Howard Sherman, Apocalyptic Wallpaper at McMurtrey. This show actually got two votes, but one was from Howard Sherman himself! I approve of an artist having high self-esteem, but thought it wouldn't be right to count that toward the total. Mark Flood also liked this show.

Alex Jones' protest against the Federal Reserve bank on Allen Pkwy. This odd entry on the list came from Mark Flood: "Maybe not art but I loved [the] Alex Jones led a protest against the Federal Reserve bank on Allen Pkwy., sorta connected with occupy."

Ancestors of the Lake: Art of Lake Sentani and Humboldt Bay, New Guinea at the Menil. Mark Flood wrote, "I also loved [the Menil's] Ancestors of the Lake: Art of Lake Sentani and Humboldt Bay, New Guinea. It makes me sound like a Menil groupie but believe me I'm not."


Ana Serrano, House of Beauty installation view, mixed media, 2011

Ana Serrano's Salon of Beauty at Rice Gallery. An anonymous respondent said, "I love to be totally immersed in an artist's world. This was spectacular! I wish I could visit it still."

BOX of Curiosities PODA Project by various Box 13 artists. This was one of the choices of an anonymous respondent.


Carlos Cruz-Diez: Color in Space and Time at MFAH. This color-saturated show was one of Devon Britt-Darby's favorites.


CounterCrawl flyer

CounterCrawl. A bicycling trip through various art studios struck a chord which performance artist Carrie Schneider.

The Cy Twombly Gallery shortly after his death. One of the most moving responses I got to my poll wass this one by painter/collagist/crochetist Stephanie Toppin: "To take an extremely personal take on this that I have not really told or blogged to anyone about, I did the very typical artist thing and visited the Cy Twombly gallery after he died. He is a part of the realm of painters that mak[es] me fall in love with not art, but paint. The relationship to canvas is what I could gawk at, spending hours away. I don't know what I really went for, but I had to go to satisfy the itch of not going. I wanted to think about art now that moved me like this. I felt scared. This year has been a personal rollercoaster for me and art has always been my safe place. For the first time, life seemed marked. I am not afraid of death, I am afraid of artist's death, of an art death. It actually hurts me to type this. Maybe I always felt that his painting lived, the possibility of more, and with his death they truly stopped. All of it became history. This is all there is.

"I know it is dramatic. I wish I was better at communicating a feeling that I can hardly contain. I've been thinking about it for days. I just wanted to tell you, it doesn't matter if you post this. I wish there was a show that shined above this for me.

"Art seems so fast now, there are so many pop up shows and work around every corner. I applaud the energy, I think it helps the public know and understand arts contribution to the culture of the city. I guess I am romantic. I want more slow art. I will have to stew on that."


Dennis Harper, iPageant, performance with paper props, 2011

iPageant, Dennis Harper & friends at the Joanna. An anonymous respondent wrote, "I was really disappointed with Nancy Douthey's performance, and I wish there was more time spent on the game show portion of the exhibition, but this was great." (Personally, I liked Douthey's performance, but I agree the game show should have kept going--hopefully they will restage it sometime.)

The Devon Britt-Darby saga. Emily Sloan voted for "Devon Britt-Darby's life, art, religion, sexcapades!"


Donald Moffett: The Extravagant Vein at CAMH. And speaking of Devon Britt-Darby, this is one of his top choices of the year.


Emily Peacock, MeeMee and Me, C Print, 2010

Emily Peacock. One anonymous correspondent wrote voted for "anything Emily Peacock does," which raises a point--there are artists that you see here and there who may not have a solo exhibit, but the sum of their work makes a big impact. I can see that effect with Peacock's photography.

Francis Giampietro & Jeremy DePrez, The Power of Negative Feedback at Lawndale. This two-man show garnered a vote from one of my anonymous respondents.

(Because I've reached the limit on the number of characters I can have in my "tags", I'm going to contiunue this in part 3--and part 4 and part 5. Onward!)

The Best (and Worst) of 2011 -- The Houston Art Community Fails to Reach a Consensus (part 1)

by Robert Boyd

Last year, I wrote my first "top exhibits of the year" post, and I will again this year (later this week), but I thought it would be nice to see what other people in Houston thought. I sent out a request for people to tell me what they considered the best (and worst) art things of the year. I wanted to hear about the best exhibits, of course, but also the best events, performances, trends, whatever. Fourteen people replied from all strata of the Houston art world (except gallery owners, for some reason--the gallery owners I emailed have chosen to keep their favorites close to the vest). Three of the respondents requested anonymity--they are all artists, but that's all I'll say about them. (I asked for "worst show," and everyone who replied to that question requested that I keep them anonymous. I understand. It's a small art community. I'll write about those responses in a future post.)

To understand what they were saying, I gridded out their replies. The left-hand column was their choices, and the top row was their names. What I hoped was that by doing this, a consensus choice would become evident. No such luck.

In all, my 13 respondents picked 36 art things in Houston that they really liked. But only six got more than one vote! So that's where I'm going to start--all the art exhibits that got two votes from my poll.


Andrei Molodkin, Liberty, acrylic block and plastic hoses filled with crude oil, pump, compressor, Dedolight, video camera, projector, 2011

Andrei Molodkin: Crude at the Station Museum of Contemporary Art. This show got props from both Howard Sherman and Devon Britt-Darby. And I have to add that it's a show that comes up a lot in casual conversation.


from left to right: Arturo Palacio, Barry Stone, Barry Stone's wife whose name I am blanking on

Barry Stone,  Dark Side of the Rainbow at Art Palace. The Austin-based photographer Barry Stone has had a good year. He was the subject of the first Pastelegram print issue, and his show at Art Palace was pretty great. I liked it so much that I bought a piece on lay-away. One of my anonymous respondents described Stone's photography as "fucking awesome," and another anonymous respondent called it "really good."


Answers to Questions installation view

John Wood and Paul Harrison, Answers to Questions at CAMH. One anonymous respondent loved this show, but wasn't sure whether is was the staging of the show or the videos themselves that he liked most. I agree--whatever you thought of the videos (which I personally loved), it was extremely well staged. Michael Galbreth of the Art Guys also listed it as one of his favorites of the year.


Mary McCleary, not sure about the title...


Mary McCleary: A Survey 1996 - 2011 at the Art League. About Mary McCleary's show, Emily Sloan wrote, "Her work had a profound affect on people. They were touched! ([You] don't see that all the time.)" That's true. We so seldom see people visibly moved by artwork these days that we are slightly suspicious of it. Howard Sherman also noted it as one of the best of the year.


Seth Alverson, can't remember the title...

Seth Alverson at Art Palace. This was the intriguing show where Alverson repainted all the canvases that didn't sell from his last show. The result, according to one anonymous respondent, was "double awesome." Artist Brett Hollis also included it as one of the best shows of the year.


Arctic Realities installation view, photo by Paul Hester (via)

Upside Down: Arctic Realities at the Menil. This show was listed as one of the best of 2011 by Artforum, but even more important was that Mark Flood liked it: "Upside Down: Arctic Realities at the Menil was just awesome." Devon Britt-Darby also included it on his best-of list.

By virtue of getting more than one mention by my distinguished respondents, this heterogeneous list is the closest we have to a consensus of Houston's art world. Let's call it a six-way tie for #1. The rest of the shows/events mentioned are tied for 2nd place, and I'll cover them in part 2, part 3, part 4 and part 5.

The Saruman of Menil Park

by Robert Boyd



The Art Guys/Douglas Britt/Devon Britt-Darby/defenseless baby oak tree controversy continues. On Saturday morning, people at the Menil discovered that the eight-year-old oak that the Art Guys "married" in 2009 in a performance called "The Art Guys Marry a Plant" had been snapped in two.

Now this might be written off as a mere act of stupid vandalism if not for the repeated negative attention that Douglas Britt (aka Devon Britt-Darby) has brought to the performance. Even before the performance (part of CAMH's No Zoning exhibit), Britt expressed serious misgivings. His basic argument was that this performance made fun of the very real, very consequential battle for gay marriage rights that was taking place all over the U.S. Britt said it exemplified the "slippery slope" argument of anti-gay marriage types. (i.e, "If you left two men get married, the next thing you know, ___________ will be marrying __________!" You fill in the blanks. My choices are "panthers" and "algae.") But it wasn't until the Menil Museum bought the tree for their permanent collection that he really went ballistic. The tree-planting event was a big deal, officiated by Lawrence Weschler (one of my favorite writers, and one of the few non-specialist public intellectuals still around) and featuring a discussion of the work by sculptor James Surls.



Britt wrote a scathing denunciation of this which was an introduction to his counter-performance, The Art Gay Marries a Woman. This performance was quite clever and used the publicity of the Art Guys' event to draw attention to the craziness of marriage laws in the U.S. (i.e., it is perfectly legal for a gay guy to marry a woman as a publicity stunt, because such a stunt somehow maintains the sanctity of marriage? But two gay people marrying as a demonstration of love and commitment somehow hurts the sanctity of marriage? I guess "sanctity" has a different definition than I thought).

The problem was that his article was censored. He wanted to name the Zilkhas in the article. Michael Zilka is a trustee of the Menil, and the Zilkhas are an important, powerful family in Houston. The Art Guys dedicated the piece to the Zilkhas, so they were part of the story. But his editor said, leave them out. This really pushed Britt over the edge. This is what pushed him to do his current "social sculpture"/road trip, as I have discussed here and here, and which more importanly, you can follow in Britt's video blog, Reliable Narratives.

So what does this have to do with the vandalized tree? Britt is in Miami, so he has a pretty rock solid alibi. But he went on Reliable Narratives and spoke about how he warned the Menil this could happen. Over and over. So what did they expect?

It’s worth noting that I warned the Menil Collection both publicly, in this article posted this article posted Nov. 8, and in a follow-up voice mail to a museum spokesman, that some Houstonians were suggesting harming The Art Guys’ tree. The Menil ignored my warnings.

Then, on Thanksgiving Day, I pulled off and documented a guerrilla action that should have made perfectly clear how vulnerable the tree was to physical assault.

This, too, the Menil ignored, in keeping with its response to all criticism of its accession of the tree, a living — now probably barely living — artifact of the performance The Art Guys Marry a Plant. [Reliable Narratives, December 4, 2011]

I hope readers will see how scuzzy this is. Britt's repeated (and sometimes intemperate) criticism of the piece was what put it into the news. Warning the Menil that it might be vandalized and demonstrating how in a video shown on a public forum was an invitation for someone else to vandalize it. This is a strategy used by anti-Muslim bigots (for example) who warn about how a new mosque in a neighborhood might be vandalized and it would just be better if it weren't there. I don't equate Britt with anti-Muslim bigots, but he has to accept the possibility that his words and guerrilla video may have given someone ideas. His anger at this action therefore seems frankly insincere.

The only sane voice in this that I've heard was Daniel Kayne's Facebook post:

When I am in Houston I live across the street from Menil Park... And I confidently can say that everyone is assuming this was intentional... There are many "kids" that play at night in the area and often I'm sure intoxicated... I would not be so quick to assume it was at all about anything to do with art or vandalism.... It just might have been a small tree which got hit... It's all relative and we don't know all the facts... it is disappointing that this happened but also disappointing that the media assumes the worst 99.99% of the time. . And also was the tree art or the performance? I always though it was the ceremony... Ok let's assume the piece continues through the tree living and growing... The tree is not dead... Life continues... Prune the broken section off and move on... Marriages and life are full of tragedy... We pick up the pieces and move forward in life so let the tree grow on. (from Daniel Kayne's Facebook page)

Kayne is right that we assume the worst. But part of the reason we expect the worst is because Britt has repeatedly asked us to expect the worst. And the fact that he automatically assumed the worst is a reflection of his vanity. (As is his constant shirtlessness in his videos, but that's another subject.) But here I am writing about it. I am as participating in this whole spectacle. And meanwhile, no word from the tree-killing asshole about why he (or she) did it.

I Don't Think Douglas Britt/Devon Britt-Darby Wants His Old Job Back

"[The Houston Chronicle] strategy for print involves deliberately shrinking its readership by jacking up the cost and trimming the physical size of the paper — by seven percent with the most recent cut. Luring readers back with quality isn’t even on the table." (from "Come See and Be Seen With Me," Reliable Narratives)

Is the Houston Chronicle's Art Critic Trying to Get Himself Fired?

by Robert Boyd



Douglas Britt-Darby (née Douglas Britt) is apparently trying real hard to get himself fired by The Houston Chronicle. Evidently he would like to use the newspaper as a forum to speak truth to power in Houston, as they say. The Houston Chronicle has long an instrument of power in Houston. It was bought by Jesse H. Jones in 1926, then ownership was transferred to the Houston Endowment in 1937. The Houston Endowment was Jones's own personal non-profit. The Houston Endowment exists today as a grant-making non-profit endowment. Glasstire is a Houston Endowment grantee, for example. So speaking truth to power has never really been The Chron's thing.

Somehow, this is all connected to an extended roadtrip Britt-Darby will be taking, and to his personal history as an escort. I don't quite understand the connection, but I suspect all will be revealed on his video-blog, Reliable Narratives. One thing he wants to know is, does his past as an escort (and a tweaker) make you think differently about his criticism? In other words, do you think his criticism is less valid if you know this part of his personal history? But writers often have complicated personal histories (see The Night of the Gun by David Carr, for example), so why should it? The work is what counts.

Update: The Houston Press reports that Britt has been let go by the Chronicle for the duration of his road trip/performance, but is free to reapply for the job when he gets back.

A Good Bad Review

Something I feel bad about, a little guilty about, is that I almost never write bad reviews. Partly because, if I am going to go through the trouble of writing a review, I want to write about something I like. But also because I am a wimp who hates to hurt other people's feelings and especially hates it if people get mad at me.

I'm reading a book about art criticism now and one of the things it said about the state of art criticism in the U.S.A. is that there aren't a lot of bad reviews. For a bunch of reasons. One of which is a kind of boosterism. I mean, here we are in Houston, it's hard to get people interested in contemporary art and we maybe feel that what we have here, the scene that exists, is too fragile to endanger with bad reviews, with tough-minded criticism. I'm not saying this is the right way to think, but it's an impulse that affects me as a critic.

All this is a lead in to a really nice bad review by Douglas Britt of the Chronicle. Britt is someone I have mostly thought of as a booster-type reviewer (like me). But check this out.

You should make a point of heading to DiverseWorks by Saturday to catch The New Normal, for reasons both straightforward and perverse. The traveling group exhibition addresses how boundaries between the public and the private spheres have blurred in the post-Sept. 11 era.

The straightforward reason, of course, would be to see good art. Though there's not nearly enough as there should be, just enough cream rises high enough to justify a visit. More on that later.

The perverse reason is that the most fascinating thing about the show is the yawning gap between the juiciness of its premise and the dry, chewy nature of the work meant to illustrate it.

Curated by Michael Connor, The New Normal is a case study in squandered potential -- or how an exhibit's introduction can jack up expectations only to have the underwhelmingly bland contents send them crashing back to earth. (Douglas Britt, The Houston Chronicle, February 17, 2010.)

That was my reaction exactly! Why didn't I have the courage of my convictions to write it down? Well, thank goodness Douglass Britt did.