I am an artist. Always have been. Doesn't mean I don't understand life or how business works. But when I read this article - I about hurled my lunch. I like this new "sexy" business magazine - Portfolio. It's kind of a behind the scenes look at the pinstriped world. You get to see just what a bogus bunch of ego strokers these folks can be. Doesn't mean their not capable - a few of them are - but for most of them - well - it's high school with consequences.

I guess this is the sort of quote that makes investors who are investing in art feel better about the people who are choosing the art to invest in..."I am not really interested in art," says Justin Williams, an art collector and a director of Artistic Investment Advisers. "It is simply a commodity, which, when plugged into our business model, produces substantial returns for investors....One of his partners, Chris Carlson, adds that he has no idea what makes good art. "I am not an art critic," he says." And as if that isn't enough..."Williams says the fund will focus on Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Modern, and contemporary art and that it will deal only with artists who have substantive and verifiable track records. He adds that the fund has little interest in "finding the next ‘great' artist" and that the fund will rapidly trade the art it buys through prearranged exit strategies, often selling pieces within a few months of a purchase."

In the words of Mayor Johnson of the town of Rock Ridge..."Now who can argue with that...??" Pork Bellies and Pollock, Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice and Frida Kahlo - hell it's all the same to the financial crowd. What they are interested in is making money and not looking like a mook for buying a painting that doesn't trade at a higher price a year later. The system is firmly in place, the economic factors are verifiable and market stability must be maintained. It is the Corporatization of the Art World in a way we've never seen before and it's making everyone feel very secure about the future. This is not just rich patronage or clever collectors - this is closer to Exxon or Microsoft. This is about market behaviours and product distribution. And it comes straight from the horses' mouths. All of this art is about the Art. No wonder the Chelsea scene looks like it does. The art world has totally and completely capitulated to commodifying what we do. As an art world drop out - I've got little respect for this kind of bull.

Does this affect the art we will see and the artists who will be seen? In a word YES. As we've said many times before - markets demand stability - changes come in inches - innovation only when the markets need to grow - and only then at the behest of the power brokers who can control the innovation - and we will be replaying these past successes for the next 50 years. Publicity, familiarity and sequels - Hollywoods' grand triumvirate is the economic model for the art world. The 20th century is about to be repeated in the 21st. What a sorry mess!

"Artistic Investment Advisers is firmly in the annuity camp. In fact, its backers couldn't care less if art forced people, as Jackson Pollock put it, to come "face to face" with themselves, unless that reflection revealed some riches too."