From: Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Date: 01/05/03-05:06:27 PM Z
On Sun, 5 Jan 2003 ARTHURWG@aol.com wrote:
> Shannon, I think you are selling Constable way short. There's so much more to
> his work than the thatched hut motif and what some of now think of as
> "Kitsch." He was a brilliant, pioneering landscape painter, and in point of
> fact he is one of the British artists credited as a precursor of the
> Barbizon School and French Impressionism. I think you'll have to look at a
> lot more Constables and dig a little deeper. Arthur
Talk of Constable reminds me of a clipping I've kept in sight since it ran
NY Times Dec 21...
The story was about a pair of stolen Turners returned to the Tate. The
writer ( Carol Vogel) notes that "Turner created them partly as a retort
to Goethe's theory of color [but] when 'Shade and Darkness' was first
shown at the Royal Academy in London in 1843, The Times of London referred
to it as 'a ridicuous daub.' Now both paintings are thought to be among
the most significant works of the artist's final decade..." Etc. etc.
Which is to say, judging the art of one's own time is fraught, even by the
Times of London. Also, I think the frequent reference in this thread to
"the artworld" is simply a way of saying "art I didn't do and don't like,"
because this is a time of incredible heterogeneity, even in the NY gallery
scene, let alone contemporary art worldwide.
Why is it any worse to market Kostabi, who doesn't make his own paintings,
than Kincaid? There's plenty of really good art being done, marketed,
sold, but the ZEITGEIST is such that the nasty stuff gets the ink. Just
like TV news where, as they say, "if it bleeds it leads."
Remember also that nasty will REPRODUCE better, no subtlety to get lost.
Only a theme or narrative line or "effect" (elephant dung, artist's blood,
tank of shark) that can be conveyed in words... because it's the MEDIA
that make it.
Meanwhile, if you want to do the photo equivalent of Kincaid, you can
certainly market it -- just not to Mary Boone, unless she decides to do
kitsch. My theory is that odds of worldly success in art are slim -- much
better to fail at what interests you than what you think is "correct."
Judy
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