Art goes Hollywood NEWSFLASH

Good God. It's here. The academy art awards. Roll out the red carpet. Artists, curators, any big shot art person, rent your gowns and tuxes now! The first Annual Art Awards given by Guggenheim and White Columns of New York are preparing to open the envelopes October 29. Calvin Klein is a sponsor, natch.

Artist of the Year! Best Solo Art show of the year! Best Museum show of the Year! Best Gallery show of the Year!

How exciting! 

Really, is this all necessary? We have critics that do this annually, and that was just fine. I find this all nauseating. 

I gotta get back to work.

Nothing to get excited about

I was thinking I would blog about the LACMA opening I went to this week, but I really can't. I didn't see the show. Is that just awful? Okay, come on, how many people really saw the show? I fully intended to see the show, it's just that there was too much free champagne and photo opportunities (see upcoming November issue of Artillery). So I was working. 

Also, I didn't really read the Friday reviews in the papers. I just scanned them. Nothing really interested me. This blogging thing might start to bore me. If it means I have to admit things to the public that I didn't do, then, maybe I might want to think this thing through. 

Things in the art world are sort of status quo. There's a lull as everyone is gearing up for the fairs. We'll have some Halloween ghosts, some pumpkin pie, then off to Miami. The art fairs of art fairs. 

The balmy weather, the prickly poseurs, the smell of money. It's the perfect place for pretending. It's the middle of winter, but it's 90 degrees and chicks are in halter tops. It's Christmas time but Santa is having a margarita. It's like the art circus has come to town. 

I'll try to make it to some art openings so I can report something in this blog. I remember my promise, to only blog about art world issues. That's boring! Why did I make that promise?

More to come...

Untitled, new art film

Remind me, why am I blogging again? Blogging feels like talking to yourself, but just a little more pathetic. I've never kept a diary, so maybe it's something like that too.

Anyway, I had planned to blog yesterday because I was going to the film premiere of (Untitled), the new art film. I saw a screening a month or two ago, and decided we should do something about it in Artillery. It's a fun enough film, and pokes fun at the art world in a realistic and justifiable way. Adam Goldberg plays a serious, frustrated, misunderstood experimental music/performance artist. Performance artists are such an easy target in the art world. When I did my play with Jade Gordon, her character was a performance artist. Anyway, it has the right amount of ridicule and accurate portrayal of the art world. It's loaded with art stereotypes: your conceptual artist, your abstract Bank artist, your world renown artist that works with dead animals, and your uppity yuppity fashion-damaged art dealer. It all takes place in, where else, New York. 

But the film works. I would recommend it, if anyone out there cares. Hello! Anyone out there? We're covering it in our next issue of Artillery, which I'm working on right now, and just took a break. Back to work now. Bye, bye blog.

Hirst so bad

OMG! A friend just forwarded the new Hirst paintings to me. They are horrible. How dare the artist Francis Bacon be uttered in the same breath (NY Times). Damien Hirst, go back to being a poseur. 

Friday reviews and art news commentary

Just a very quick read of the reviews in the papers today, but more fun is when my friends send me news of Damien Hirst's downward spiral as superstar art star. Why do I find that pleasurable? I do respect his work, on some level, especially in the beginning. But like art stars, they begin to just go through the motions. It's a common dilemma, so why pick on Hirst? But Hirst just got out of hand, and I suppose that is his prerogative. You have to give him credit for being smarter than the average artist when it comes to manipulating the art world. The fact that he closed down two super-sized studios and is now going back to painting is interesting. The obvious reasons for him to stop his factory-style productions is his need for tightening his pockets during the recession. And the other is reflective of how artists are working during the recession. As predicted, artists are changing their outlook and approach to the artmaking process, and Hirst ACTUALLY painting with his OWN hands is a result of this. It's just kinda funny that this is groundbreaking news! 

white house art

The art buzz of the day seems to be what the new selection of artworks our President and First Lady selected. Everyone has an opinion. Holland Cotter is in a complete tizzy about it and seemed to think it unconscionable that the Obamas didn't pick the correct African American artist. There's also talk about the lack of attention to gender and other minority artists. Please, give me a break. I'm not entirely sure my art collection is politically correct in its ratio of white artists to artists of color or the equality of male and female art. Ostensibly, we choose art that we like and respond too. But, of course, we all know that's not true either.  So, why did the Obamas choose what they did? Were there politics behind their choices? I sincerely hope not. I hope they selected works that would give them pleasure, every time they walked by the painting or sculpture. Or just imagine having all that great art in your house. Maybe everyone is just jealous. It's nice that our President has taste at all. Give the Obamas a break on this one.

Hello Artillery Fans,

I've decided to start blogging. Notice I didn't use the word "writing." I have to admit, I'm a bit cynical about blogging, bloggers and blogs. But, alas, I need to enter the 21st century. So, I'm going to try this for a while.

I will now make a cyberspace oath. I promise not to drone on about my personal life. I promise not to make too many misspellings and typos. I promise not to be self-serving and self-promotional. I promise to mostly write about art and what's important in the art world. And lastly, I promise to try to keep all my promises.

Just a quick update to get started on this thing. We, our publisher Paige Wery, and I just got back from our trip to New York City. What a great town, you gotta love it. But, we were not so convinced Artillery is loved by New York. It's a tough town folks. Also, I wasn't so impressed with all the art--or at least not MORE impressed than art here in our hometown (Los Angeles). I'm not sure I want to go into the LA vs. NY thing though. It's actually absurd to do that these days. Half the artists that are showing in New York are from LA, and half the artists that are showing in Los Angeles are from New York. So really, who cares. It's tedious. 

Paige and I pounded the pavement (literally) for four days straight. We only covered half of Chelsea, did the Lower Eastside and got to almost all the galleries in Brooklyn. We found Brooklyn to be more hospitable than Chelsea (NEWS FLASH!!) Being back for a week now, I have to say, not much of the art was very memorable. We did get to visit MoMA, and checked out the New Photography show there, which the proper name escapes me now. That was impressive stuff. More on that later (if I actually do this regularly).

More stuff to come--just wanted to get started and get the hang of this thing.