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The Best New Art Looks Unoriginal at First

http://artcrit.org/0005_Unoriginal.html

The Best New Art Looks Unoriginal at First. August 29, 2012. Blog comments powered by Disqus.

artcrit.org

Notes on the State of Art and Culture #1

http://artcrit.org/0001_Notes_1.html

Notes on the State of Art and Culture #1. A colleague sent me these notes accompanying an exhibition entitled "Open Gallery Editions Three" in the series "Curator's Voice Projects" here in Miami. They are repeated here exactly as presented:. The writer has a PhD in Art History. From where I don't know. August 25, 2012. Blog comments powered by Disqus.

artcrit.org

Notes on Art and Culture #3

http://artcrit.org/0007_Notes_3.html

Notes on Art and Culture #3. In 1963 Andy Warhol made SLEEP, a continuous, unbroken 5 hour film of a friend sleeping. The following year he made one called EMPIRE, which was 8 straight hours of the Empire State Building, straight up. These movies were much talked about but hardly ever watched, as you can imagine. I am sure that we will see her in a Whitney Biennial soon after graduation. People seem to think that the art world is a whirlwind of change, so charged with innovation that it is a full time jo...

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Notes On Art And Culture #8

http://artcrit.org/0017_Notes8.html

Notes On Art And Culture #8. Art is not "about." Art is. Of the 100 aphorisms in my "Aphorisms for Artists". This is the one most quoted on the internet. Things are defined by use. A work of art is a work of art because we call it a work of art, but it is not actually a work of art until we ask it to function as art so we can experience it as art. I know this is hair-splitting, but it has a purpose. Once you adopt this attitude toward things you learn one of the basic lessons art has for us: experien...

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Notes on the State of Art and Culture #2

http://artcrit.org/0002_Notes_2.html

Notes on the State of Art and Culture #2. This is a painting by Lucio Fontana . well, it may or may not have paint on it, but that's immaterial (so to speak). Basically, it is a 16x20 stretched canvas which has been sliced. I am told that "infinity" flows through the slices. It sold at auction recently for something over $700,000. You will have to pay more for more slices. This summer (2012) a 4 slicer went for about $3,000,000 and another with 8 slices for around $4,500,000. August 25, 2012.

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Notes On Art And Culture #6

http://artcrit.org/0014_Notes6.html

Notes On Art And Culture #6. Our last post, which alludes to a recently sold Gerhard Richter painting to show how good money chases bad art, suggests that in the great mass of very expensive very bad art there must be a single art object that best exemplifies the gap between goodness and price. Le Rose du bleu. By Yves Klein, 1960, dry pigment in synthetic resin, natural sponges and pebbles on board, 78 3/8 x 60 x 6 3/8 in, sold for $36,779,111.00, Christies, London, June 27, 2012. Le Rose du bleu.

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Finally

http://artcrit.org/0016_Rothko.html

No 1 (Royal Red And Blue). By Mark Rothko, 1954, oil on canvas, 113 3/4 x 67 1/2 in., sold for $75,122,500, Sotheby's, New York, November 13, 2012. Maybe we can quit bitchin' now. The price was high, but the work is good. November 14, 2012. By Hans Hofmann, 1964, oil on canvas, 52 x 60 in., sold for $3,778,500, Christie's, New York, November 14, 2012. 1964, sold at Christie's on November 14 for $3.8 million. It is a typical late masterpiece and I think a better painting than the Rothko.

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Hughto and Modernism

http://artcrit.org/0020_Hughto.html

Trapizoid shaped canvas, 56.5 x 34.5, 1988. Would a picture of St. Sebastian be the same if we did not know the story? Why do depictions of nude humans demand so much attention? Why can the color of the light in a landscape provoke feeling? Meaningful subject matter has never been sufficient to make a picture great, but many great pictures feature a boat load of it. Look at specific examples. At some point in the 80s Hughto dared to include subject matter in his "serious" painting as well. I first saw.

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Notes on Art and Culture #4

http://artcrit.org/0009_Notes_4.html

Notes on Art and Culture #4. Jeff Koons and Human Potential. Or the ceramic figurine of Michael Jackson, just as Koons intimated, in his own way, in his docent's tour on the video. I extracted a few quotes, as accurately as I could. See what you think, seeing them written out rather than vocalized:. This is the type of work that Louis Quatorze would wake up and have a fantasy he would want to see, and he would tell his staff, and he would come home, and voila! I think there's always a lot of confusion wi...

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Jan van der Marck on Museums

http://artcrit.org/0011_vanderMarck.html

Jan van der Marck on Museums. Jan van der Marck was a well trained, well disciplined scholar who, according to his obituary in. The New York Times. It's a technicality. MONA. It's how most people experience most art. MONA is a worthwhile project. I'll let his words speak for themselves. On populism and museums:. On money and museums:. On the blockbuster Van Gogh exhibition at the DIA:. On the triumph of the avant-garde:. Compared to what I thought or what I think I thought 10 or 20 years ago, I'm less th...