Oh puh-leeze. … Speaking of morons…. You didn’t even read the post, did you? If you want to sound intelligent, at least read posts before you comment on them. The issues I identified as problematic within the contemporary art scene included a certain kind of “abstract” art, among other things. It wasn’t about me or or any particular style, either. In fact, it was the kind of observation that honest art critics SHOULD be making.

Your assumption about what I had to say in this post tells me that 1) you really didn’t read the article; and 2) you have NO idea what I have accomplished as an artist. As other readers who are actually informed are aware, I’m already an award-winning artist for my work in realism. You are one of those people who, knowing nothing of the actual work that has been done in abstract art, simply assume that abstractists must do what they do because they don’t have any talent. That’s a common misconception among the terminally ignorant. — cp

here’s my take on IT…….you go to the beach, pick up a seashell, it looks good.you walk a bit further….another seashell, ah-ah, that’s better than the first. you throw the first away…..you have a beautiful shell. you walk further, another shell takes your fancy, same fate for your “beautiful shell’ , ditched for a new old shapes or colourful specimen. Now it’s time to go home……..walking backyou spot your original shell…….you pick it up…..mmm, it looks ok, it has a life of it’s own…….i’ll take both. What comes around, goes around.
It’s the same with art……..you may discard that painting/style today, but pick it up in 12 months, you will have second thought (insert NEW)

someone once said ” the mind expanded, never returns to the same size”
we may think that artists suck…because “the public” are swayed one way or the other by ‘flavour of the month’…….but i’m sure if picasso or kandinsky were ever worried…….we wouldn’t now have beautiful art to look at !

As for being qualified…..formally trained, who cares !! if you paint and enjoy it,
isn’t that enough. i’ve been to exhibitions that i don’t know the difference.

oh, by the way….i’m not formally trained….but i’ve sold my works of art.

Art is to the beholder…….toucha !

The Artist Replies:

Yes, that’s me, sophomoric all the way!

Apart from the ad hominen attack, however, you make some good points. One of the problems is that we have reached a point in art where everything has a style category. Let’s face it, once you had the dadaist movement - where everything goes - there isn’t really anything left that won’t be considered a part of one style or another. I think that when you state that one should simply do something that is not a part of any style you are being too glib: In view of the present age, you can expect that past styles will be READ INTO any modern work, regardless of what the artist intended.

My point in this blog posting was to suggest that there is something wrong with the art establishment at this time in that it has abandoned consideration of style and content in favor of what I have termed the “brass balls effect” - that is, to do as little as possible, as free of content as possible and then to simply declare these non-works to be full of meaning, a la “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. That’s not a problem of artists, it is a problem for critics. — Pagani

The joke of asking my girlfriend what the artist must have been thinking about while pointing at the restroom sign at galleries continues to irritate her. Any argument (including yours) that supports the fact that some of the works out there are just plain BS gets rebuffed as “ultra simplistic views made by people who can’t grasp the process”

Made sense when you spoke of Brass balls, unmitigated gall, and completely full of shit. I bought some canvas and paint today: I have nothing to loose, and who is going to care anyhow?

Mike