Is the Contemporary Art World "Hideous"?
I’ve been finding myself in numerous conversations about the state of contemporary art lately. Most of them are in response to all the dust that’s been kicked up surrounding celebrity British art collector Charles Saatchi’s recent comments about the current art world.
A few of Saatchi's juiciest quotes:
“Being an art buyer these days is comprehensively and indisputably vulgar. It is the sport of the Eurotrashy, Hedge-fundy, Hamptonites; of trendy oligarchs and oiligarchs; and of art dealers with masturbatory levels of self-regard.”
"...I don't actually believe many people in the art world have much feeling for art and simply cannot tell a good artist from a weak one..."
And my personal fave:
"Few people in contemporary art demonstrate much curiosity. The majority spend their days blathering on, rather than trying to work out why one artist is more interesting than another, or why one picture works and another doesn't."
So what do you think?
Do you agree with any of Saatchi's opinions?
Is the contemporary Art World "hideous"?
Can the Art world tell a good artist from weaker one?
Art Buyers: How do you make your purchasing decisions?
Artists: Where do you place yourself in all this?
Leave your opinions and ideas in comments.
BIG Love,
-Kesha★
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yeah, i think it probably is true of the people saatchi hangs out with, but not of the makers and not of actual "contemporary" "art", whatever that might be. the one artist i know well, from when we were both in junior high school, has gotten more and more pompous about what she says about her work since apparently you now have to come up with artist's statements. so there is a lot of gas baggery out there which some funny people refer to as what one learns in art school.
ReplyDeletei also think performance art has contributed to the mayhem. i know somebody who got a masters' degree from pratt doing a 60s groupie plaster caster thing. srsly, this lineup of casts of all her men friends was her masters thesis -- and this would've been in the last 10 years. i think that's gas baggery too. she also made "art" doing stunts, press releases, and running in the brooklyn marathon dressed in cold cuts. funny, but bs, mainly because the gravitas, if you will, is all in the incredibly pompous and also completely bs artist's statements.
none of this applies to people like you who actually make things. xxx
here's a link to most of dan clowe's art school confidential -- as a pratt BFA he is much more well informed than i, and saatchi's remarks seem to be of a piece with this satire.
ReplyDeletehttp://aseasonedtaste.blogspot.com/2011/02/dan-clowes-art-school-confidential.html?zx=6bf184e2153606b9
@Jeannette
ReplyDeleteTwo Comments:
1. I may be in love with Dan Clowes.
2. From this day forward I plan on using "gas baggery" as much as possible.
Maybe now that a little gas baggery is generally acceptable, people are pushing the limits how of gassy or baggish art can be.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't mean we have to like it, although crazy new movements in art – for all that they're a rejection of what came before – sometimes spin out some gems (read: beautiful, inspiring, moving work). Some of us still believe in these things :-)