Today I was doing some looking around on line with regards to farmers markets/flea markets/art fairs in the area. I am going to try to get out there more this year.
Anyway, Marfa TX, if you have never been there, is a small town in the middle of nowhere Texas, just about 30 miles past Alpine, that thinks it is New York. They have a lot of fancy schmancy art galleries and trendy restaurants both flauntng conceptual pieces, be it an enchilada or a painting. It is the kind of place that no matter how cultured you may think you are, or how much you appreciate art, you look at what they are selling in the galleries and you think... "What the **** is that?" Or at least I find myself doing that. Here are some examples...
Eric Tillinghast is a guy who wants to involve you with his art.
He has for sale a piece of steel with three grooves in it. It's going for 3500.
Whoever buys it has to "water" the piece to keep those three lines of water there. Oh and make sure it's distilled.
Next we take a look at Michael Diaz's contribution. A line on a piece of paper. Not to sound like Hank Hill, but my kid could do that. And she would draw more than one line. I don't know the price, but I am sure that if it's not listed, it's probably more that I can afford.
Finally, Susan York wows us with three black blocks...
I wonder if you buy this piece, do you have to put them in the same configuration on your stark white plain walls? Can you put them up out of kid reach? I don't know.
These artists remind me of why I don't go to modern art museums. I have yet to see anything at a MOMA that I like. Typically my reaction is "I don't get it, I don't like it, it's boring."
Also, though I sometimes think "Hey, maybe I should have majored in art in college" I am sure that guys like this who get their own gallery shows would have totally turned me off to it, and I would have quit and gone back to doing my own thing on my own time.
If you could have one of these in your house, which would you choose?
3 comments:
All the art + art history classes I lived through, and that stuff still looks like a big scam to me (although I didn't write that in an AH paper ever). Sometimes it's big fun to read what the artiste said explaining why one line, three cubes, or only distilled water. A woman once told me she couldn't adequately explain the plain circles she drew (picture a shaded charcoal circle on white paper, framed in a plain square frame), because it was too complicated a process... So get Sara started with a pencil!
I couldn't agree more with your post. Maybe we could sell our kids' art and get $3500. That would be legal child labor right?
Ok, so after 6 years of art history, I have to say that I kind of love conceptual art. Maybe it was just the brainwashing, but that kind of stuff just makes my brain explode a little bit and completely shatters my definition of art. I think its a waste of money to actually buy one of those things, but I really liked going to MOMA. It was sort of like a visual treat for the brain. There was a huge stuffed ice cream cone slouching in a corner that was pretty cool. I also think it makes more sense if you look at in terms of the entire history of art. Like people in the 18th century were making these complicated precise paintings that took immense talent and countless hours to produce, and then some guy comes along and draws a line on a piece of paper and says its just the same. It's fun to think about. Ok, I'll stop now.
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