From: Jonathan Bailey (quryhous@midcoast.com)
Date: 08/22/02-06:17:45 PM Z
Arthur, Sandy and Co.,
>> Somebody appears to be asking because you will find that works by
>> many of these artists are collected by some of the most important
>> museums in the country.
Sandy King
> Hi Sandy. Yes, I know this work trades at high prices, is
> collected etc. But
> that doesn't make it valuable, interesting or important, IMHO. I
> think it's
> simply part of the "academic" / art world process, eg, college
> art/photography professors and historians have to find something to talk
> about, or something to justify all the inferior work that comes out of
> universities these days. Galleries need product to move, and a
> rhetoric that
> will wow the dentists. I think it's also part of an academic
> scratch-my-back
> scenario of promotion and self promotion. And if we go to first
> principles,
> most of the work in question is simply ugly. Yes, I know there's been an
> "anti-quality" movement, an "anti-beauty" movement, a
> "deconstruction" movement
> and god knows how many other movements. But most of the work in
> question
> has already been forgotten, and the rest will follow sooner rather then
> later. Arthur
Well said Arthur - My tent is squarely pitched in your camp....
Sandy, are you aware of an annual gathering called "The Oracle"?? It is a
gathering of curators from most of the major museums concerning themselves
with photography today. As I understand it, something on the order of a few
dozen people attend each year for several days of communing.... It's held in
a different - usually pretty agreeable - location each year - and it seems
nothing if not chummy. Discussions apparently center around what's in and
what's out photographically - as well as, no doubt, *who*....
Now I don't want to seem cynical, but....
Feel free to draw your own conclusions.
Best - Jon
www.jonathan-bailey.com
Tenants Harbor, Maine
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