Rock wrote:

Fine art is one area where I have absolutely no capacity for judging what differentiates the good from the bad. I mean, I took art in high school and developed some understanding of technique (which I’ve forgotten entirely) and the handful of times I’ve been in an art gallery or museum setting, the works were presented with enough context that I could kinda, sorta make some sense of them. But if I run into a piece in the wild, I have no fucking idea what I’m looking at, and then hearing how much some of these pieces go for (especially all those fuck ugly NFT abominations), I have to assume somebody’s trying to launder money.

It's like anything. If you care about it enough, you immerse yourself in so much that you start noticing those small details that differentiate it. The reality is most criticism, whether it is movies or art, need more inspired and informed and curious and humble amateurs weighing in. But instead what we get is a lot of pseudo intellectual frauds who know the right words to use but have zero idea about articulating the actual heart of a piece, or complete no nothings who think their immediate gut instinct on whether or not something pleased them is enough. We need more in the middle.

But, as with anything, one has to have enough of an interest to get deep in. And, like anything, it's important to always understand however much you think you know about an artform, you don't know the half of it, and what you already know is probably suspect and should always be questioned.

And, yes, the rich stupids are the bane of existence. They have power behind their dumbness. Their dumbness drives culture.
 

Rock wrote:

then hearing how much some of these pieces go for (especially all those fuck ugly NFT abominations), I have to assume somebody’s trying to launder money.

It's understandable when historic pieces of art go for ungodly sums of money. They are essentially one of a kind antiques that are deeply important to culture. They are probably still seriously inflated, but at least there is sense to it. I can wrap my head around 100m price tags, even though it is still clearly absurd.

But the manner in how art has developed the last thirty or so years, it is almost certainly a con. The rich hoping they can buy themselves into cultural significance. It's crass and gross and exactly the kind of thing artists should be pushing back against (but how can we expect them to, when there is this kind of money on the line...even if that money is designated for very particular kinds of artists...ie. those with connections). I imagine the beginning of this was when people started commissioning self portraits from Warhol. It was a cache for them that had absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the work (which is why Warhol is a fairly considered a polarizing force, for both good and bad in the art world, even if he is also arguably the most important artist of the last hundred years).

Also having art used for tax purposes and (yeah) probably laundering of some shady things, only further goes to undermining what is so great about painting. And why I can't think of an artists off the top of my head of any value who has emerged after 2000. There undoubtedly are some, but they've been buried beneath the swamp of opportunists who ended up in the right place at the right time.

My favorite culture moment of the last few years was watching that painting that Banksy auctioned off get immediatley shredded as soon as the gavel went down. It was great not only because it made it clear what a swindle it all was, but it is also great in the way that I imagine the publicity of that moment has given  those  shredded bits of canvas even more monetary value. Which says everything, even as it deliberately leaned into controversy = money paradigm. Not that this hadn't already been exploited with the whole Mr. Brainwash debacle explored in Exit Through the Gift Shop.

Basically, the art world is fucked and the only way one can ever make a living at it is by bending towards what is trending with gallerists (ie. rich brats who have pretend jobs explaining the value of modern art, when they clearly have Yarn levels of knowledge)
 

Last edited by crumbsroom (8/29/2022 1:00 pm)

Just to show how there is such a thin line from indifference to love in art, I find this Twombly to be incredible. Whereas the one JJ posted, is at best okay from my perspective. But how exactly do I go about explaining why? To even try would almost break my brain. I guess the nuances in shading around the puddle of scribbling. How less defined the lines are, making it seem like light is peeking through the mix, and it isn't just an errant garble of lines. Also, I think the mix of text and graphic is important, as it changes the composition of what is happening in frame, adds something more dynamic, as well as pulls my attention around the actual 'drawing' part, and not directly to its center as the other painting down.

I don't know. And it's the mystery that I find fascinating.




 

Have I ever mentioned I have the equivalent of  Peter Max napkin doodle somewhere in my house?

Let's just say I liberated it from the file cabinet of a rich entitled cunt who had no idea what it was. It's absolutely worthless, I'm sure, so its not like he had any use for it.
 

crumbsroom wrote:

 

Yeah, I get this one.  Yeti with wolf carcass in sheep's clothing.  Duh.

The previous piece, however, has no mystery to it. 
 

In looking at the Red Skull Emo Twombly, I honestly think a lot of what I don't like is its placement on the canvas. You couldn't possibly put it dead centre, but it just being nudged to the furthest side of the canvas makes it compositionally really flat. There is all this activity going on with the black lines, and its just neutralized by sitting direct center of the left side of the frame. Just nudging it further up into one of the corners, leaving much of the rest of the canvas that dirty smudged white, would do wonders for my appreciation.
Still wouldn't be a favorite, but just that slight change would make a world of difference.
 

Jinnistan wrote:

Red Skull could use some panache.

What movie is that from?

crumbsroom wrote:

Rock wrote:

What movie is that from?

Shriek of the Mutilated

The greatest Yeti movie of them all. And I think the only one Captain Terror doesn't like.

I consider it more as the scariest Shaggy Dog movie of them all.

THE KILLING GAME

Part 3 

Things could get violent. One time Christopher punched me in the nose after I kicked him in the head. Another time he dragged me up a staircase by my hair. Then there was the time he gently scratched a scar on my hand with his fingernail as we lay under the sun in the courtyard of his Townhouse. I remember how I kept checking to see if it was there yet. Then let him keep scratching when it wasn’t. 

Garrett didn’t like him. Didn’t think proper kids hung out in the Townhouse where Chris lived. Said all they wanted to play was War and his mother wouldn’t let him do that because that’s what poor kids played. He was mean to him when we all hung out together. Said his dad’s car was rusty. That his mom drank too much wine. Sometimes Garrett would tell me I had to choose who I wanted to be friends with. Couldn’t be both.  

Sometimes I’d get real mad at Garrett and one night after dinner Christopher told me all I had to do was call him over if I was that mad. Get him to stand in a spot beneath the tall tree on my front lawn. Showed me what he was planning to do as he climbed up into it. Stood watching as he began screaming and jumped down to the grass. Stabbing it with hedge clippers. Tearing up the lawn until he was exhausted, and I could see my grandmother peering through the curtains. 

“Aren’t you going to call him”, he asked as we sat on the porch with popsicles, our lips and tongues cherry red. Staring blankly at my grandmother who was now outside tending to the wounded grass. Putting dirt back into all the holes Christopher was responsible for.  

“I guess” 

“Make sure you don’t tell him I’m here though. That will ruin the surprise” 

I never did make that call and was told later I was grounded.  

But I knew not really.  

Last edited by crumbsroom (8/29/2022 3:52 pm)