I attended a lecture by Jerry Saltz last night at Camstl (Contemporary Art Museum St Louis). It was a great deal of fun but also politically illuminating for two reasons I will explain on the flip. You may know Jerry from that lousy show Next Big Art Star- He as much as admitted it's rubbish himself. But you may also know him from his days as Village Voice art critic and as New York Magazine critic. He's the husband of Roberta Smith at the NYT. Jerry is an old fashioned sort of art critic. Opinionated, liberal and populist. Representing a dying breed he also has 5,000 facebook friends. So he's also capable of spanning into social media despite a critical style that endlessly annoys powerful gallerists and museum directors. There were about 250 people there: art kids, rich donors, journalists and local teachers and a number of power brokers.
GalleryKIt
So Jerry, amongst other things, is talking about the perils of sincerity in art and mentions Wilde's aphorism: "only bad poetry comes from sincere feeling." I think he butchered the phrase, but the lecture appeared to be extemporaneous, so you gotta give a little latitude. He also lectured like a barnstorming preacher at a revival, another oddlity because he stated he's unapologetically a New York Jew. He even mentioned the Ten Commandments butchering that with "was that the 2nd or 4th commandment 'though shalt not make graven images'. I'd be an angry jealous god too if I saw those sexy Indian and Greek gods partying!"
This commentary lead into describing the perils of sincerity in politics and thd inability of organizations like the Tea Party to cope with ambiguity and Irony. Which is certainly arguable. Given how close the party members came to refering to themselves by the double entendre-tastic Word: "Teabagger". There's at least a minimal understanding of smutty double meanings on display by nixing that reference.
Mentioning the Tea Party was a momentary aside within a lose joke filled stream of conscious talk about what artists should do: Cheer Up, work Hard and be magically eccentric. All round a fun, fun talk. Lots of guffaws and laughs rose as he riffed on pornographic cave painting, Andy Warhol's weirdness, Jeff Koons pathological obsessions, Damien Hirst's punk anger and Matthew Barney's er...um...jeebus(Well what can you say about this guy really?) . All the great hits. The overall topic was that art is a mysterious cosmic force that uses artists as a vehicle to come into the world. Again completely arguable, but it was a crowd pleaser. All the local muck-a- mucks chortling away.
At the end of the hour he took questions. Someone at the back questioned why Saltz, in a lecture about art, would mention the Tea Party. He was an older white guy a little indignant. "Oh fuck everyone thought here we go..."
So Jerry asked him:
"Are you in the Tea Party? I'll let you have the last word BTW to be fair, i've got the Mic."
"Yes" the guy said.
Then Saltz asked
"Did you vote for Obama in 2008?"
He ironically and rapidly gesticulated skyward with a fist pump...and I tend to think he was implying two things.
- The Tea Party is probably racist.
- The Tea party is rabidly Partisan for the Republican party.
All in a question and all in a gesture. The room was hushed...
The guy was a bit taken aback by Saltz's cleverness. I doubt he was expecting a loaded question.
He stated that he had not voted for Obama.
Saltz then suggested this (I paraphrase, I do not have the script):
"Then you can't really complain. I've met zero, not a single one, zilch, Tea Party supporters who voted for Obama. NOT ONE. Besides that, it's okay really, your Party look like it's going to win this year."
He was obviously ready to have a real exchange enjoying and relishing every second of the confrontation. (Dear reader you must realize that the contemporary art world is a hierarchical kabuki dance so nothing like this really happens, Jerry was relishing this tangle with a midwestern Teabagger) .
But the guy backed off.
Jerry made a great point here. In my own way i'd say this: It's not like the Tea Party are some disaffected group of Democrats. They literally sprang up from part of the shattered Bush coalition sprinkled with Fox New fairy dust.
The Tea Party guy subsequently muttered that he had at some point thought about voting Obama. But decided against it. Hard to believe really. The guy was polite and actually made the night most interesting so kudos for him for making a night of it.
Then another question followed on and some cretinous (jealous) artist asked if it was okay if Kahinde Wiley had assistants in China paint some of his work. Art-Hoosier yikes. Jerry said that he had no issue with artists using assistants...and so it went.
Overall, Jerry came off a little bit like a preacher at a revival tent, suggesting that art springs from a chaotic cosmic force. This seemed a bit like mystification at times. But the interaction with the Tea Party guy was more interesting at least for you, dear Kossacks. Although Jerry expected the Dems to get beaten badly by the Republicans (and seemed deflated at the prospect) he showed how feeble support for the Tea Party is in the upper echelons of polite society. Many of the audience are RICH contributers to Republican campaigns. After this exchange the Tea Party guy slunk off feelings obviously bruised, but Jerry had engaged him with honesty and directness and indeed said: "take the last word Please". In the room there must have been dozens of articulate Republicans who love to see the Dems get cut down. It was interesting to see that they didn't come to the Tea Party guy's defense in some way. Anyway at all. It was a very raw moment for the art community here. Normally politics are only ignored, discussed in only the most superficially liberal and worthy way. Most people are liberals but the money men are often highly conservative Republicans like Rex Sinquefield or Bob Shapiro. They, and their minions, were about in that hall. I saw 'em I know who they are.
They will not own up to this monster they are funding. They will not defend it in polite company.
SO BE LIKE JERRY SALTZ. Use his rhetorical questions. Make it impossible for people to publicly support this manifestation of right wing propaganda otherwise known as the Tea Party.
So here's to Jerry for sticking it to the Tea Party-The Tea Party is nothing more than a Paper Tiger not willing to tangle with articulate liberals. Jerry wanted the guy to go on (believe-you-me). I truly hope the guy's feelings were not too bruised, he was polite enough though. It was funny to see the confrontation because Jerry only mentioned the Tea Party as an aside. The reference was perhaps no more than a sentence. It instead became the incident of the night. Jerry's a bit of an orthodox liberal but he's a fighting man not afraid of pissing people off, so hat tip to you Jerry. That was a potentially hostile audience ( at least the good seats)
In other art news check out a tiny gallery trying to beat the recession:
GalleryKit
it's a lo-Fi no-overhead way of sticking it to the arts establishment. Opening for Alex Morrison Tomorrow Night. Be there. If you can't be there read about it's adventures on the blog.