Vikan

Want to spend quality time with the movers and shakers of the Baltimore art world? Painter Raoul Middleman gives you the chance through an exhibit of his portraits of museum directors, artists, curators and other prominent figures on the local scene.Among the notable aspects of his show at the Steven Scott Gallery is that it's surely the only time you'll ever find these arts advocates rendered speechless.Mr. Middleman's expressive brushwork speaks for them. Wielding a brush as if he were an Old West gunslinger, Mr. Middleman executes fast and furious portraits in which the sitter's personality usually comes across with uncanny incisiveness.

Peter John Prevas, a chemist and longtime teacher, died of lymphoma Friday at Good Samaritan Hospital. He was 77.He retired in 1983 as plant manager of Airco Inc., a manufacturer of electrodes in Sparrows Point. He also had taught Greek at Towson State University and science at several area high schools.Mr. Prevas had been a private tutor in science and mathematics and was considered an expert on iconography in the Greek Orthodox tradition."He truly loved his students," said his wife, Loretta Seader Prevas.

"Gauguin and the School of Pont-Aven," the blockbuster exhibit that closed Sunday at the Walters Art Gallery, drew huge crowds that made it the second-biggest show in the museum's history.The exhibit brought 99,400 people to the museum during its two-month run, a figure second only to "Sisley," paintings by French impressionist Alfred Sisley, in the spring of 1993. That show, which ran for three months, drew 134,000 visitors.The Gauguin exhibit also set two attendance records for the Walters -- a daily average of 2,100 people and a final-week attendance of 17,400.

Gary Vikan has spent most of his career as a scholar of medieval art. But when he was named director of the Walters Art Gallery in June, he left behind the world of scholarship without looking back."

The appointment of Gary Vikan as director provides continuity and maintains momentum at the Walters Art Gallery.Mr. Vikan, assistant director and medieval curator, had been helping run the museum during the interregnum since former director Robert P. Bergman went to the Cleveland Museum of Art last May. He has helped to plan the ambitious improvements that, as director, he is now assigned to achieve. Mr. Vikan knows what he is getting into.The Walters Art Gallery needs to renovate its "new" wing, which is 20 years old and not entirely suited to what it does, and reinstall much of the permanent collection.

Hashish dealers in Copenhagen refused to sell their wares this week to protest government efforts to end open street sales of drugs. Unfortunately, there's no sign the Baltimore boys went out on strike in sympathy.Art: The New DirectionPerhaps I've been watching too much of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Because the other day, when I read the headline, "Vikan chosen to direct Walters," I thought our great art gallery had made a deal with someone from another star system. But I've had a look at the guy -- no pointy ears, no strange growths on his forehead -- and he appears to be one of us. Good luck, Dr. Vikan (pronounced, I'm told, Vee-can.

Gary Vikan, the newly appointed director of the Walters Art Gallery, could reasonably be called a modern-day Renaissance man.He's a serious scholar, a person who tackles whatever he does with dedication and skill, whether that be creating catalogs on Byzantine art or writing a paper on Elvis Presley's Graceland. He's a man who on first meeting seems reticent, but is warm and even endearing to those who know him well.He possesses a wry sense of humor, plays a fair game of golf and can cook up a storm.

The Walters Art Gallery's lengthy search for a new director ended yesterday when the museum hired one of its own -- Gary Vikan, who has served the past nine years as assistant director for curatorial affairs and curator of medieval art.Dr. Vikan is "uniquely qualified to lead the Walters into the 21st century," Jay M. Wilson, president of the gallery's board of directors, said in announcing the choice. "He is an internationally known scholar, . . . a skilled administrator, a gifted educator and a talented communicator."

The 1974 wing of Baltimore's Walters Art Gallery has so many defects that administrators want to close significant portions temporarily for repairs to protect the priceless art inside.Problems at the city-owned building include a climate-control system that does not maintain the steady temperature and humidity levels needed to preserve works of art, and ceiling-mounted "reheater" coils that sometimes drip water and oil on the floor below.Administrators also say the building's fire and security systems are not up to current museum standards, the front entrance is not sufficiently accessible to the disabled, the main entrance needs an air lock and the structure is showing "signs of stress."

The 16th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death will be observed throughout the nation tomorrow. A massive candlelight vigil is planned at Graceland, the singer's mansion in Memphis, Tenn. Among local observances will be a one-hour festival at noon Monday at Fells Point's Market Square.At 58, Elvis lives.His life and legend have developed into a $100- million-a-year industry.By the thousands, the faithful trek not only to Graceland but to such other Elvis shrines as his birthplace, his first home, his clothier's store, his recording studio, even the restaurant where he and his entourage used to wolf down hamburgers in a back room.