The Washington Post today says the Corcoran Gallery Of Art may be forced to move out of D.C. It is too expensive to stay and renovate. And they are losing money at a fast rate. Not surprising in a city full of free museums such as The Smithsonian and The National Gallery Of Art.
On the other hand this may be just a fund raising effort.
http://www.royslade.com/web/corcoran.html
The article above mentions a fist fight at an opening in November of 1972 between the Director of the Corcoran and another official. They are not named in the Washington Post article below article so I had to search the web. After some looking I found Roy Slade's blog and he tells the story. See his blog in the link above.
He is very long winded and you have to scroll down through half his story to get to the details of the fight at the Corcoran at an art opening in Novemeber of 1972. The Director Gene Baro got a nasty cut on his head by the ring on the finger of the other guy.
The link below is to the story in today's Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/corcoran-gallery-to-test-market-for-sale-of-building/2012/06/04/gJQAjHfBEV_story.html
Click on the label Walter Hopps in the Labels box below for many posts on Walter and his tenure as Director of The Corcoran Gallery of Art in the late 60s and early 70s. Those were the glory days. Nothing since has come close to the excitement Walter Hopps created in the art scene in Washington D.C. when he moved to D.C. from L.A. in 1967. As they say you have to have been there. It was the 1960s and 1970s when "the suits" temporarily lost control and and the artists and the radicals took over.
I knew it was not going to be Walter who was in a fight. No one would hit Walter in the head because he would never do or say anything that would lead to such an incident. He was way too cool for that kind nonsense.
He was always polite and thought and acted with a great sense of humor. Others were not so civilized.
