Crystal River artist returns from international exhibit
A former Crystal River High School teacher wins his third straight award at the Biennale in Italy.
By BARBARA BEHRENDT
Published January 2, 2004
CRYSTAL RIVER - For three decades, art has provided Jim Langston with a vocation and a hobby. But more recently, it also has given him a ticket into a wider world.
Langston, who retired in 2002 after a long career as a Crystal River High School art teacher, has just returned from his third showing in the international art exhibition known as the Biennale in Florence, Italy. There, he got to display his artwork, discuss art with both old and new international friends and tour more of the historic country where everywhere there are reminders of history's greatest artists.
He returned with a renewed appreciation for the respect shown art and artists other places in the world, but he also brought back something else he never expected: his third straight award from the international art experts who judged the exhibition.
This one is special because it awards Langston for Career Recognition and Achievement in the Arts.
"Over the past quarter century, James Langston has created one of the deepest and most consistent bodies of contemporary American draftsmanship. His chosen vehicle of expression is a kaleidoscopic labyrinth with no apparent exit. But Langston's art celebrates the great paradox that the human presence is always enough to carry a glimpse of hope, no matter how dire the situation," wrote John T. Spike, artistic director of the Biennale.
"Through his ingenious titles (which only appear to be simple), Langston inserts the viewer's own hopes and optimism into his daunting and brilliantly drawn geometric landscapes," Spike noted. "Such were the criteria on which the Florence Biennale jury recognized James Langston with a Career Award."
On the morning that the artist received that e-mail from Spike, he was having trouble stifling a wide grin. Langston was especially touched by the judge's postscript. "On a personal note I might add that during these last decades, no one has done more to advance the cause of contemporary art in the state of Florida than James Langston."
"I don't see myself in that role, to be a contemporary arts leader in Florida," Langston said. He noted that the honor is especially sweet because there is such competition between the artists and such a respected jury to judge. The 2003 event included 970 artists from 72 countries across the globe.
Langston got his first invitation to show in the international event in 1999 when an artist in Spain viewed his Web site and passed along her interest in his work. He got an e-mail inviting him to the show and nearly deleted it along with many other unsolicited messages. Now, he is very glad he didn't.
Once Langston walked away from the first show with a gold medal, he cemented his invitation to the next show in 2001. There, he took home a silver medal, thus opening the door for another exhibition opportunity in 2003's event.
The trick, quipped the 59-year-old artist, is to keep winning each year so they keep inviting you back.
Langston is one of just three artists who have shown in the Florence Biennale and come home with awards for three years.
This time, Langston and his wife Martha spent 21/2 weeks in Italy, arriving home just in time for Christmas. His computer is filled with vacation snapshots of the two posing in St. Peter's Square, at the Colosseum in Rome and at area vineyards. The photos will, at some point, be a focus of a presentation Langston hopes to give to various community groups in his own way of continuing to educate about art.
Retired or not, it's hard to get away from that vocation.
The European view of art, Langston has determined, is a much broader view. Some of the artists who exhibit at the Biennale sell their works. Others, like Langston, have not had any interested collectors. But when the artists gathered at the end of the day to socialize, they didn't talk about whether they could make a living at what they did. Representing a wide variety of countries and ideologies, they also didn't talk politics.
Despite obvious language complications, they did talk about art, and Langston said they seemed to understand exactly what the others were saying. That was an experience he appreciated.
"That's what art is all about. It's a communication of ideas," he said.
But his experience back in the United States has been different with the overall view of art and artists here more about profitability than creativity at times.
On the one hand, Langston walked away with a career achievement honor from the Biennale, "but there is no money for it, so it means nothing here," he said.
If anything, Langston worries that art is declining in importance, and he points to his own program at the high school as an indicator. Academic and other pressures have been pushing the arts out of public education. When he left his job, he was replaced with a business teacher and coach. That means fewer art education opportunities for a whole group of high school students.
"So many kids need that creative outlet," he said, noting that he still hears from a number of his old students.
So, now technically a full-time artist, Langston hopes sharing his experiences from the Biennale will help others see the role art plays in society. That is what the exhibition organizers had hoped from the beginning.
"These people have this lofty goal of bringing all of these different people together and communicating through their art," he said.
In Langston's mind, that idea has worked. His favorite part of the whole experience has been meeting so many different people and learning about different cultures and perspectives in the process. And for what will come next, Langston recently got another invitation that he thinks will broaden his perspective even further.
He has been invited to show his works at the Biennale in Cairo in 2005.
