Meaning of life and art

Still in Madrid, and not being a very devoted blogger. The Internet situation at our hotel was intolerable. Very slow, hard to get on, frustrating. I started giving up. Now at a much cheaper hotel, and the Internet hookup much better. We're staying at the center of the city, Plaza del Sol, near the Prado, Reina Sofia and the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum. I visited the Prado earlier, and was so taken with Goya; the Bosch's were amazing too. 

The contrast of the art fairs (contemporary art) with the early period art was a much needed potion. Art fairs can do considerable damage to one's spirit, and being in Europe with that history clarifies the meaning and importance of art — something I deeply need reminded of periodically. I cannot express how moved I was by the Goya. I loved his latest period, where he seems to be going a bit crazy. I'm not well-informed of his state of mind, so I won't speculate, but something was definitely going on. I do know his work at that time was work for himself, meaning not commissioned work.

I kept asking myself questions like: Why does this work move me, and art being made today, does not have that ability to do so? Am I just not being exposed to it? Is it just not out there? Does it have to live through a couple of centuries to obtain that status? Were the Goyas moving and spectacular at the time they were painted?

Spending time at the glorious Prado (much too little time I might add) was an experience that I needed to sort out the meaning of life and art.

Primera Noche en Madrid

Dear Art Lovers,

I'm in Madrid now, at yet another art fair, ARCO. This year though is extra special as Los Angeles is the featured CITY. Previous years countries were featured, not cities. So, Los Angeles should be honored. Seventeen galleries were selected by Christopher Miles and Kris Kuramitsu. I am told that these 17 galleries could have been galleries that were the ones that "accepted" the honor. There are a few caveats to being the chosen ones: you still have to pay for your shipping and flights and hotel. A few gallerists were not so happy about their invitation—and I'm curious who might have turned down the invitation. But, all in all, LA art looked pretty good. Was I blown away by anything? No. But, I've seen all this stuff before, so it's hard to be objective.  

Tomorrow I will visit the rest of the fair, and see how LA measures up.

But, on to another subject. I haven't been able see any of Madrid, the city, yet. Our first night we visited the Museo Reina Sofia with a retrospective of Thomas Schutte that was, quite frankly, amazing. On first viewing, we entered a gallery that featured minimal art, lots of cut-out circles on a wall. It was not that impressive, but not offensive either. But then we started going through all the other rooms, and the work started getting more and more creepy. The "German" started coming out. The ugliness of mankind started creeping up. The Holocaust was hard to ignore in this German artist's work. I'm especially fond of the Michelin Tire guy sculptures (who was influenced by who?) This was a very powerful show, and being in the spacious beautiful old building (the first hospital in Madrid), only added to this formidable exhibit.  

We also so a great exhibit our first night in Madrid, at the Ivory Press gallery. The work was  Claes Oldenberg's. It was later work that dealt with writing tools. It was okay. But the space was really great, and as we wandered through the other galleries, we stumbled upon a room of Damien Hirst's early work. My husband and I were actually blown away by the over-the-hill-over-the-top artist. This only proved to us what fame and fortune can do to an artist. Truly, don't get me started on Damien. 

Not a bad introduction to the art world in Madrid. More later. Ciao.

Same Old Fair

Finally ALL the LA fairs are over. This fair business is getting tiresome. When is the trend going to end? There were three fairs in Los Angeles this year. First, Photo LA, then the FADA fair (Fine Art Dealer Association), then Art Los Angeles Contemporary fair. They all happened on separate weeks, but consecutively. I wasn't sure if that was better or worse. If they happened all at once, then you can get them over all at once. But it's hard to be all places at once, especially in LA. So, that's the main reason I haven't been blogging, because I've been shlepping magazines, spilling wine at the opening receptions and putting on art shows.

But I wanted to talk about my impression of the art fairs. Now that they are over, I'm sure that my assessment is colored by my weariness and the banality of it all. I'm tired of fairs, and I mean that both physically and emotionally. But this last art fair really brought out the ugl

iness. There was nothing in particular wrong with the art or the layout or the people or the lighting. It was actually all of it together! The same people, the same art, the same magazines, the same wine, the same food, the same crap. And the same overpriced drinks. 

With all the fairs in LA, there was just too much familiarity. I'm not sure I want to see certain people EVERY week. It was all just too much. So with that sort of negativity in mind, I just sort of lost it with the last fair, which was at the Pacific Design Center. 

If you're not familiar with PDC, it's basically laid out like a mall. Every front entrance is floor to ceiling glass. I haven't done much investigating, but apparently there's a few floors that are completely unoccupied. It was a brilliant idea of ALAC director Tim Fleming's to put his fair there. It's a readymade. So, that sounds great—right? Well not exactly, in my mind. I couldn't get past the "mall" atmo. So that, coupled with my sheer exhaustion of the fairs before (not to mention Miami fairs a previous month), put me in a foul mood towards art fairs in general.

Why are we still having them in this troubled economy? Why this persistence? I think it's obvious that fairs aren't the cash cows they once were a few years ago. The art world is so stubborn that way. The art world never really wanted to admit they were caught up in the recession, and that bullheadedness persists with the perennial art fairs. What is the desire? It can't be just money, or can it? Do people really want to go through that much torture?

The answer is yes. The art market has slowed, and the fairs provide a glimmer of hope. But now they just seem to be going through the motions. No fanfare. And even if there was, would it be welcomed?

And guess what? I'm off to Spain next week for yet another art fair, ARCO. I guess I need an attitude adjustment. I'll be blogging more regularly, and hopefully the new atmosphere will give me a lift.

Above photo: Artillery Publisher Paige Wery (the tall one), and moi. Wine always helps attitudes too. Photo by Lynda Burdick