It's Not Beautiful, It's Art
In the words of the great Andrew Wyeth (son of the arguably even greater artist, illustrator N.C. Wyeth), "abstract art is made by the inept and sold to the ignorant by the unscrupulous." And that was back before the advent of conceptual art, when "movements" like dadaism were mere footnotes. Just this past year a New York sculptor sent a piece to a gallery in England. By accident, the sculpture and the plain base it was intended to sit on were displayed separately. The sculpture was ignored, but the base sold for an enormous sum of money. When I was at Princeton I was involved with Theatre Intime, the undergraduate drama group. In the basement were some very large canvases, all painted a solid murky black. Assuming they were old sets, I suggested they be thrown out. "Oh no," I was told, "those are Frank's paintings," Frank being Frank Stella, then a senior. Today those "paintings" can get seven figures at auction.
posted by John M Crowther @ 7:45 AM
7 Comments:
I just want to know if the lunch was in a paper bag or barfed into the wheelbarrow on the table. Either way, I've no doubt that some collector would come along and pay millions for the "artwork". Is it called being in the right place at the right time? or being in the wrong place at the right time? or the right place at the wrong time? Whatever, for some artists it works.
This artist struggles to sell but feels totally successful because she paints what she loves.
Great cartoons, John!
John's cartoon reminds me of an epiphany Tom Wolfe had while reading Hilton Kramer in the NY Times of April 28th, 1974. Kramer had written: “Realism does not lack its partisans, but it does rather conspicuously lack a persuasive theory. And given the nature of our intellectual commerce with works of art, to lack a persuasive theory is to lack something crucial —the means by which our experience of individual works is joined to our understanding of the values they signify.”
Wolfe comments in the forward to "The Painted Word": “All these years, in short, I had assumed that in art, if nowhere else, seeing is believing. Well —how very shortsighted! Now, at last, on April 28, 1974, I could see. I had gotten it backward all along. Not ‘seeing is believing,’ you ninny, but ‘believing is seeing,’ for Modern Art has become completely literary: the paintings and other works exist only to illustrate the text.”
John, your cartoons are not only refined drawings of quality but tell such wonderful truths. I would love to crawl into your brain and listen to all the bells and whistles going off on a daily basis as you see something you can commit to paper. What you do with the simple line is often more than what words can do alone. You truly have found a wonderful way to express yourself and have fun doing it!
It is interesting that outside of yje "leading" art centers various more traditional approaches seem to be shown and sold. But not at those astonishing prices
Love the expression on the faces. Wonderment and the other smug. Great cartoon.
Meant to say bewildered wonderment on K.'s face, says she laughing.
We are a foolish people are we not? (artists administrators academics and collectors alike)
Funny cartoon John...right on the mark!
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