We've run into so many snags as we try desperately to update our site. Still we soldier on...In the meantime there have been a few interesting posts by Charlie Finch regarding art & entertainment. He's been on fire lately. We particularly liked his post on looking. "...But, for a long time, our world of art has robbed looking of its wonder...," and "... The mind is already made to decide, the eye is not invited in, the spectator blindfolded from room to room. Just as one cannot turn on a ballgame without hearing endless droning about salaries and steroids, one cannot go to a museum without wall texts, backstories and tales made of money." These are the coded display techniques of today's art world that send me into the stratosphere. Henri keeps a cooler head - I tend to stomp a bit. But we both agree that with so much art to see there simply isn't much to look at - however there's an awful lot to read. The constant critical droning on blogs, art news services and in the larger metropolitan papers sends us to the galleries only to be dissappointed time and time again. It seems that even though there are a bucket load of galleries - the support systems that have sprung up around this art business is 5 times as large. Christ, the endless parade of supporters appear like ants at a picnic - all promoting the same 10 shows and galleries - consensus is achieved and all is right with the world.
Yesterday I went to the Met and had an average viewing experience - mainly because of the crowds in the Dutch painting show. I was trying to contemplate a canvas by Hals when a room guard entered and started yelling at the top of his lungs about cel phones and pictures - I was so startled I jumped at least 3 feet. Suddenly the room was filled with the sound of people logging off their phones. Painting exists in a different time zone I think, and this enforced transition from the audile tactile world to a visual one was soundtracked by the cacaphony of bit stream jingles. As those little lit LEDs went to black I thought most of the works on the walls were done by candlelight.
I had an inedibly unpleasant and overpriced experience in the Met cafe - DO NOT ORDER ANYTHING FROM THE GRILL - I can not vouch for anything else except to say - if that's what the Met cooks do to chicken and burgers I shudder to think what they do to pasta and fish. I shall NEVER eat there again. Back in the Modern galleries Roberta is right about the Dekoo in the special collection show - fabulous. And Gorky just keeps gets better as I get older. After walking downtown a bit I got to really see 2 marvelous Caravaggios at a special show at the Salander OReilly gallery - they also had a few Tintorettos (hmmm...) a Titian (hmmm...) - a really fantastic El Greco and an even more fabulous Goya. All seen at close range and spot lighted for my enjoyment. Made the afternoon. Thanks to my good friend Mark Wiener for scoping the show out!
When I returned to the studio I was greeted with the latest Modern Painters. What has happened to that magazine? If I had an out house I would hang it for use - though Charmin it ain't. Today I read the first real reviews of the season in the Times - and could it be more predictable? The problem with reviews are they are more about reportage than about critical thinking. The Times especially has honed this writing style better than others, but why their critics carry so much weight in the art world is beyond me - their tastes are narrow and 20 years too late. I suppose this is a holdover of the mid 20th century when newspapers mattered. Not so today. News no longer exists - we live in a post-news-world. What we have is not reporting but confirming - confirmation of other confirmations that something of note is happening - I call this the Orson Effect - the first instance of mass delusion caused by a blind public believing the false news and confirmations of that news heard on their radios. So in the art world one blog confirms another blog's good taste - then passes it on to another blog for confirmation. Consenus is the objective - whether there is actually anything of truth to be confirmed is irrelevant. Consensus exists so that the blogs can exist.
Yep, this is a blog as well... so believe or not.
