DAMage Report - Artful Oopsie

There are bad days, bad weeks, even bad years... but falling into a $130 million dollar Picasso could constitute a bad life. 
"A New York woman accidentally lost her balance while attending an art-education class at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and fell into a Pablo Picasso masterpiece. She reportedly was uninjured, but her tumble tore a 15-centimetre vertical gash in The Actor.


The museum did not elaborate on why the unidentified woman fell. But it asserted that the tear didn’t affect “the focal point of the composition” and it indicated that it should be repaired before the picture is included in a major Picasso retrospective at the museum in April."


Despite the strict security that every top museum I've ever been to employs ("Ma'm STEP AWAY from the art or we shoot to kill") it seems there are little oopsies with famous and irreplaceable works of art.


Picasso Is a Target?
"In 2006, casino mogul Steve Wynn was showing off his famous Picasso painting, "Le Rêve," to friends when he accidentally poked a hole in the painting with his elbow. It was a costly mistake: He was just about to sell the piece to art collector Steven Cohen for $139 million. The 6-inch rip in the canvas was eventually repaired, but the sale was called off." Can you imagine the look on his face? [It's just a little wear and tear Mister Cohen - how about we knock off ten percent of the price and call it all good?]


Kids Say the Darndest Things
"At the Tate Britain in London, a child vomited on Carl Andre's "Venus Forge" sculpture in 2007. The Minimalist's sculpture is a series of steel and copper tiles placed on the ground. In 2008, one of Mr. Andre's copper-tile floor sculptures sold for $2.6 million at a Sotheby's auction in New York."  [Everyone is a critic and I wonder if the vomit increased the value of the piece.]


Trashy Art
"In October 2001, staff at a chic gallery in London were forced to go dumpster-diving after a janitor accidentally swept up an installation by prominent British artist Damien Hirst. Called Untitled, the piece was a tableau consisting of half-full coffee cups, ashtrays with cigarette butts, empty beer bottles, candy wrappers and an easel." [Maybe if Hirst had titled the piece? I wonder if the janitor got a pay raise for adding a little dumpster ambience to the piece.]


Bleeding Art
"Marc Quinn calls it an “urban myth,” but others insist that it’s true. Reportedly a self-portrait bust that Quinn made from nine frozen pints of his own blood melted in the freezer of legendary London art collector Charles Saatchi after decorators working on his kitchen pulled the plug. Quinn’s blood busts currently sell for $1-million each and it takes him at least one year to accumulate the necessary blood."
[That would suck and not in a friendly vampire way either. Imagine discovering that a year's worth of blood, sweat and well, blood - going down the drain. At least he got to keep his cool mill.]


So my week kinda sucked -  but seriously, not as bad as the people who accidentally destroyed million dollar works of art. See - bright shiny spot in every cloud.


REF: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/notable-gaffes-involving-art-and-artifacts/article1445644/
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704094304575029610052908770.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_RIGHTTopCarousel

WTF'art? The Line Between Snake Oil and Art

What is and isn't art is one of the eternal questions. I tend to be very opened minded (I think) but even I have my lines I draw, especially when gimmick overshadows artistic intent and impact. 

Jeffrey Deitch, the new director at The Museum of Contemporary Art in LA, had heard about two young artists who spent the occasional evening ransacking a hotel room, ripping apart phone books, writing on the walls and getting stoned.

"Deitch handed them keys to his SoHo gallery and for almost a week they crammed it with 2,000 shredded phone books, and stabbed a broomstick and broken wine bottles in the walls for "Nest," a show that was to remain there for a month. It didn't even survive the raucous opening night party. The next morning the gallery was such a smelly, flammable beer-and-urine soaked mess it had to be completely cleaned out and refilled with another 2,000 shredded phone books." 

My initial reaction to reading this story was to turn up my nose and cry fowl (That's a Nest joke in case you didn't get it.) The idea that one man has a magic wand that he can wave about and declare anything he wants as art was an anathema to me. But it goes to show that snap reactions and making judgments on what you HEAR instead of what you SEE or EXPERIENCE for yourself is the quickest path to ignorance.

After watching the video of the "NEST" I had to backpedal and reassess my viewpoint. Because the video itself shows an intriguing performance that reflects aspects of human nature... and isn't that what art does? 

But I'm not willing to give carte blanche to anything being art. There are people who are nothing more than faux artists, along for the ride and not really interested in anything except notoriety, money and ...well money. Art should educate, should make you think - should communicate and touch us in some way. But not in the ways some "artists" seem to think it should.

In "But Is It Art?"  Cynthia A. Freeland points out "If artists just want to shock the bourgeoisie, it becomes pretty hard to distinguish the latest kind of art that gets written up inArtforum from a Marilyn Manson performance that includes Satanic rituals of animal sacrifice on stage."

A good example of crossing the line from possible art into lunacy is Richard Whitehouse, an artist from Ohio, who is constructing a piece called The Rape Tunnel. It's an installation in a gallery, a long narrowing tunnel that can be walked through, and he's promising that anybody who enters it during the exhibition, he'll attempt to rape. In a similar exhibit piece in 2007 called THE PUNCH-YOU-IN-THE-FACE TUNNEL, at the end of the tunnel he would punch the subject in the face instead of raping him or her. 

Whitehouse said "The impetus was completely reactionary to the current state of art, and motivated by pure frustration. I ended up breaking the nose of the third person to crawl through the tunnel, an aspiring model. She went to the hospital and eventually sued me. Her modeling career was put on hold. The point of this [is] I’m still having an impact on this young lady’s life, something not many other artists could claim about their work. Rape seemed like the next logical step."

Does that cross the line? I would say so. 

REF Story: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-et-deitch19-2010jan19,0,7212534.story?page=1

DAMage Report - When Barbie Was Bad

With eternally perky plastic breasts, a waspish waist, long blonde hair (usually) and no genitalia, she has been the iconic representation of perfect beauty and femininity for fifty years. But little miss perfect Barbie keeps getting her tight, silicon bootie in hot water. Located, ironically enoug h, near Silicon Valley, the One Of A Kind Barbies gallery has stirred up controversy over its displays of barbie sculptures. The gallery features the fashion doll and similar action figures in various works of art including ones with religious themes and ones with sexual overtones. Due to community outrage over seeing Barbie's nipple-less breasts and va-jay-jay-free groin bared in public display windows, the more potentially objectionable pieces are now displayed inside separate areas within LaVonne Sallee's new studio. 

In 2002 Barbie lost her lawsuit against another artist that outed her secret bondage fetish, when he created modified barbies in BDSM scenarios. The judge in the lawsuit rules that "The sale or display of `adult' dolls does not appear to be a use Mattel would likely develop or license others to develop," she said. The parody appears to pose no threat to sales of Barbie dolls and thus does not seem to violate the company's copyright, the judge concluded."


That pretty much made the doll fair game for creative parodies and use in artistic pieces - everything from barbie enchiladas to lesbian barbie vignettes to barbie threesomes. The unveiling of her secret slutty life was attacked with glee by an army of artists worldwide. 


The reason she is vilified, toyed with (heh) and manipulated by so many is because she has represented the ridiculous female stereotype of perfection  and repressed female sexuality for as long as she has been in existence. And that stereotype is alive and well in toy stores and homes across the globe.  (Ironic considering her prototype was inspired by a german hooker doll named Lilli.) 


The blonde, blue-eyed babe still symbolizes perfect beauty in the U.S. and many parts of the world. Go into any toy store and over 80% of the barbies on the shelves will be blonde. There are the smattering of token ethnic dolls - but they are such a minority that its hard to believe we're in 2010. And it isn't just ethnic dolls that are the minority.  I and several friends spent the month before christmas searching for a barbie with red hair. I had planned to make some gag gifts for friends... but none of us were able to locate a single redhead barbie in stores or online. (The exception being a very pricey collectible Mackey doll on auction.) It highlighted for me that the barbie icon is still kicking up her heels. 

Artists tend to be the myth-breakers, stereotype-busters and icon-smashers in society. Declare something taboo or sacred and you will find artists pouncing on it to use in their creative explorations. The sexless, anatomically incorrect barbie must die! Because in reality, every woman that once owned Miss Perky Boobs will tell you that barbie is a closet slut and has made out with not only GI Joe and Ken, but all her barbie girlfriends as well. Art destroys the facade of perfection and lays bare the truth - ain't nothing sacred in art or barbies. And you really, REALLY have to worry about people who are offended by nudity in dolls.


Reference News Story: http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14172387?nclick_check=1


Catch the DAMage Report Arts Day today on http://www.LAtalkRadio.com at 2pm PST /5pm EST

DAMage Report - The Future of Art is a Virtual World Away

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/how-new-technologies-secure-a-place-for-the-arts/article1415229/

You remember that old tv series called Beauty and the Beast? There was a subterranian culture hidden beneath the city. That is what it feels like to have stumbled across a thriving arts community florishing in the underworld of the internet. A place called Smallworlds is an online game with something different. It is a full blown virtual reality that encourages and rewards the arts. The program has limited use drawing canvases to ensure originality of pieces. And artists have built galleries, created competitions, explored the works of famous artists in forums, and they even give drawing advice to students. Digital communities like this are inspiring and nurturing a new generation of artists.


With all the cut backs in arts education and decline in museum attendance it is exciting to see an area of the arts experiencing growth and generating excitement.

As Domonic Lopes points out in his recent article about technology and art "Times of rapid technological change push us to ask, what are the arts? Privileging books, live performance and gallery displays risks overlooking new realms of artistic creation....

Photography and filmmaking are more popular than ever, but what's really remarkable is that photographers and moviemakers can reach a potentially enormous audience through sites like Flickr and YouTube. Bypassing the galleries and movie studios encourages diversity: Flickr hosts communities of photographers who reject the aesthetic ideals endorsed by the art market, and YouTube has spawned entirely new genres like Machinima and trailer mashups. Engagement with the arts is down only if we confine the arts to the gallery, theatre and concert hall."

Artists from "Smallworlds" have observed that painting digitally allows people with limited physical space to create art, and the cost of art supplies is... well virtually nothing. (Heh. Sorry. Had to throw that in there.)

Teenagers like Marissa Carter have used the digital drawing games to develop skills that have translated to real life improvement in artistic abilities. She was particularly excited that her art teacher is trying to get her work into a show. (The digital painting of a strawberry is hers.) Other aspiring artists have seen the drawing games influence their interest in going to museums, in purchasing art supplies for the first time, and an interest in learning more about master artists like Thomas Kinkade, Rubens, Renoir. Arts education is alive and well!!!!
It doesn't begin and end in the tiny virtual world though. People have begun to collect digital art and display it in their homes in LCD wall screens. Entire new vistas are opening for the art world and the exploration and contagious excitement of the "virtual artists" is going to take art in an entirely new direction.

“Interactivity” explores the immersive potential of technology. You can “splash” paint across a screen by waving your arms in front of Mehmet Akten’s Body Paint installation, or watch the branches of Simon Heidjens’s digital trees move whenever the wind blows outside the V&A. These projects offer a foretaste of the next generation of sensor-controlled computers that we will operate with our voices or physical gestures, rather than keyboards and mice. - New York Times, 12/13/09

Digital art is still the Ginger-child of the art world, but it is moving toward having its day in the plasma spotlight.

*Strawberry Digital Painting by Marissa Carter

*Portrait of Woman by Truble King