Detail from Salvador Dali's Persistence of Memory
In viewing a Mark Rothko, a Pablo Picasso, a Dali or a Pollock, I get excited. Those artists inflame my passions the way that Charles Ponzi, Kenneth Lay and Bernie Madoff do. Each claimed to produce something they did not. I don't blame the artists--too much--as most were handpicked by unscrupulous art dealers and art historians who, come to find out, gain money or fame for discovering the next great talent, whether or not the artist has any.
I see an analogy with television.
Television started out as a medium full of promise, and, for a good long time, it lived up to that promise. Very little beyond Saturday mornings was intentionally dumbed-down; they understood that there was nothing so important about a hillbilly living in a swamp or a family with 19 children that couldn't be said in a one-hour documentary. TV is now selling us on biographies of empty-headed people. Instead of selling us on paintings by painters, the art world is selling us on biographies of painters.
The same with journalism and books, especially nonfiction. I went to the local library to find a large and comprehensive biography of Charles Dickens, and, instead, found nothing, not even a small, sketchy one, but there were five copies of Bill O'Reilly's autobiography, three copies of a book about Sean Hannity, as well as dvd promotional puff pieces from our friends, the Mormons and the Scientologists.
I was able to find, eventually--after much effort--an engaging book entitled The Forger's Spell, which is a nonfiction narrative about a pre-World War II art forger who passed off his insipid and uninspired and demeaning works as those of Johannes Vermeer. The forgeries were supposedly so good that they fooled art experts and Herman Goering, the Nazi art collector. They should have fooled nobody. Take a look at a couple of the forgeries next to one of the most exciting pieces of art painted by Johannes Vermeer:
Vermeer masterpeice entitled, Girl with a Pearl Earring
Forgery
Forgery
Do you notice a difference? Would Vermeer have painted Jesus as a life-less zombie? Not possible. The obvious forgeries fooled much of the art world, and Goering traded 134 (others say as many as 200) real paintings for the third, fake painting above.
Forgery, to me, is akin to MoDERN ART because it passes off something of little value for something of incalculable value.
And it's not as if everything has been painted. As a matter of provable fact, before 1914, only three things had ever been painted: Jesus and friends, Saint George and the Dragon, and apples. Lots of apples. Knowing that there is still much of the world to discover through painting, let's take the Modern Art Test, shall we? Look at the images below and pick out the true works by Rothko, Pollock, St. Germain and Picasso. See how many you get right! (Answer key in first comment).
1. Which is the true Mark Rothko?
(a)
(b)
(c)
2. Which is the true Jackson Pollock?
(a)
(b)
(c)
3. Which is the true Edith St. Germain?
(a)
(b)
(c)
4. Which is the true Pablo Picasso?
(a)
(b)
(c)
I see MoDERN ART as cynical. A big fuck you to life and, sin of all sins in my eyes, an intentional debasement of artists like Caravaggio, da Vinci, Vermeer, Rembrandt and others who could draw. Much like forgers and forgeries.
I believe that Art is subjective, but I also believe that we should demand more from our Art. Has beauty and truth no place in Art today? Look at the oil on wood painting below by Joachim Bueckelaer. It is astonishing! Buechkelaer lived almost five hundred years ago (1530-1573) and, yet, managed to produce the most amazing art.
Take this portrait by John Singer Sargent. After admiring the artistry, I am captivated by the story told by the artist through this young woman, who directly challenged the world with her gaze into the artist's "camera." Did she carry the same confidence throughout life? What became of her? When I look at modern art, all I can feel is pity for the artists and for us.
This oil on canvas by Eva Roos is called "An Impromptu Ball." Aren't you drawn to the movement and life in this painting? What happened to life in paintings?
I see MoDERN ART as a huge time-waster, creating opportunity costs that are immeasurable. We can stop it. We can stop buying. We can stop praising. We can ask for better. The one-hundred-year-long protest by the art world can stop now. Let's please do something constructive.