It's Not That...
....i hate Andy Warhol - I just dislike how people ooh and aah over him. Call me traditional, but I like to think that art commerce should function as an elitist system to weed out the bad and worship the good, and Warhol sleeps his way to the top. The basis of my distaste for the works of Warhol (..and not the man) stems in the fact that his supposedly revolutionary mass-production of images of the ready-made and found objects was an idea already conceived and excuted, a lot more brilliantly, might I say, by Duchamps in the early 20th century. Duchamps was the maverick of the ready-made, hey wouldn't you choose a urinal over a Campbell soup can?
Perhaps the problem is I'm still naïvely waiting and hoping for the new wave of the avant-garde. If Henri St-Simon could see what we deem "avant-garde" these days, he would probably rise from his grave, smear human waste on a canvas and declare "Voila! Zees ees contrroversiale and unexceptabale, zerefore eet ess avant-garde.." Upon which someone can inform him that it's already been done. So,the million dollar question..,is concept art edging out the visual arts when it comes to orginality? Looking at the history of visual arts, it becomes more apparent that the nature of the evolution of art is one that is primarily innovative and secondarily (is that a word?) inventive. Robert Rosenblum's latest findings suggest that even Picasso resurrected the old masters of portraiture. I mean, if Pablo was doing it, and a slew of mistresses, 100 years ago, what about us mortals? :P
The only thing I can say is (after all that spiel), it really is unimportant. Who cares about who did it first, second or last - art is a medium of provocation and as long as it still keeps us on our toes, I'm happy.
* This blog was inspired by a dear friend, Mr. Gwailo - who constantly threatens to gift me a Warhol coffee table book so big that I can never hide it. He also likes to drink good coffee and make good music.
Perhaps the problem is I'm still naïvely waiting and hoping for the new wave of the avant-garde. If Henri St-Simon could see what we deem "avant-garde" these days, he would probably rise from his grave, smear human waste on a canvas and declare "Voila! Zees ees contrroversiale and unexceptabale, zerefore eet ess avant-garde.." Upon which someone can inform him that it's already been done. So,the million dollar question..,is concept art edging out the visual arts when it comes to orginality? Looking at the history of visual arts, it becomes more apparent that the nature of the evolution of art is one that is primarily innovative and secondarily (is that a word?) inventive. Robert Rosenblum's latest findings suggest that even Picasso resurrected the old masters of portraiture. I mean, if Pablo was doing it, and a slew of mistresses, 100 years ago, what about us mortals? :P
The only thing I can say is (after all that spiel), it really is unimportant. Who cares about who did it first, second or last - art is a medium of provocation and as long as it still keeps us on our toes, I'm happy.
* This blog was inspired by a dear friend, Mr. Gwailo - who constantly threatens to gift me a Warhol coffee table book so big that I can never hide it. He also likes to drink good coffee and make good music.
posted by Weifer Reefer | 8:26 PM
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