This is the video version of my last blog post, but easily took 20-30 times as long to produce. I’m a bit obsessive, and crafted every few seconds of the video. I can’t help getting into the aesthetics of video-making, which means that a video about art also contains its own artistic flourishes.
The video focuses on the fact that the big name art stars make art, not for their artists peers, or even for themselves, but rather for the billionaire buyers who they think are suckers waiting to be fleeced. This art, further, is coming out of the Duchampian, anti-art, appropriationist tradition, which incidentally allows artists to churn out bigger and slicker products, faster, and get them into the marketplace for the purposes of speculation and moving money. Quite naturally, art made to sell fast to suckers with millions in disposable income doesn’t appeal to artists and connoisseurs who love art for its inherent qualities.
Enough said. I think you will enjoy the video. Have a look.
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Art & Crit by Eric Wayne 
I generally don’t care for much for contemporary art or music alike. I feel that many of the “artists” really don’t have much in the way of talent and they just “fake it until they make it”.
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I really enjoyed this video essay – very solid argument and good visual movement that was entertaining – loved the Heaven’s Gate cameo – perfect! I actually love most of the art that is criticized here. The banana with duck type is a new work for me but I love it. Koons and Duchamp are some of my heroes. A phrase by Duchamp has inspired my entire adult art career, “A title is an invisible color.” This has guided my inspiration for a long time. That said, I’ve never been a part of the gallery world and have no idea what that entails or the dramas within it, so I only view the art outside of that context. My painting mentor, artist Jason Yates (Los Angeles) told me a lot of stories about the art world but I didn’t know the way in and it wasn’t my aim at that time and years went by and I keep my day job. I enjoy your criticism of the art world and it’s very educational too. Thanks a million!
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Ah, you recognized Marshall Applewhite of the Heaven’s Gate cult! I didn’t know if anyone would get the reference anymore. Glad you enjoyed the video, even if you like some of the artists I lampooned.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
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Great vid! Got more from it than the words only post. The auto-generated captions missed a few words but… making videos is a hours for minutes effort at best (I’ve spent hours talking “ums” from my online class videos) but compare that to an art viewer spending a couple of minutes with a picture that took weeks or more to make.
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Yeah, the video was labor intensive, partly because I switched from Filmora to Power Director, and then eventually ended up using both programs.
What’s hart is that you have to have some sort of imagery the whole time you are talking. This, I realized, is why people have themselves talking in videos rather than just their voices.
My voice recordings are my weakest part, I think. I can’t easily read my own writing. I write in long sentences with dashes and colons and whatnot, and no consideration for reading it aloud. I’ll have to work on that.
Glad you liked the video. It’s a lot of effort, but I’m hoping I might be able to reach a larger audience than with my blog.
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I love the way you put this together in the video! Kudos to you 🙌
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This is a fantastic video. Thanks for sharing. Takes me back to that one time I saw performance art footage of a man repeatedly jumping into a wall. Your musings, albeit more eloquently, summed up what I was thinking at the time 😀
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Well-crafted video, even if you do feel like you are investing countless hours to produce it. I have no issues whatsoever with your VOs. You speak in measured tones that are not meant to rile your audience but rather make it easier for them to listen. Perceived impartiality of tone while making a perhaps unpopular critical statement is a talent to be honed and preserved.
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Oh, thank you. That’s exactly what I was trying to do. I still need to improve it, though. I speak much more clearly in real life. When I’m trying to read my stuff, my mouth gets dry, and I stumble over some of the words. There are unintentional tongue twisters in my writing that I’d never suspect until trying to read them aloud.
Oh, that may be the ticket. I should read them aloud when I’m writing to see how well it translates. Reading in your head requires no acrobatics of the tongue, and no measuring of the breath.
Thanks for your now rather long-term support and constructive feedback.
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When I was in the news business the anchors would always be on the set ahead of air time and read their scripts aloud to make sure they didn’t get taken by surprise with an awkward turn of phrase.
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Like the video. People that buy my artwork, buy it because they like it. I don’t think they understand it the same way I do, but I know they like it and that is great to know.
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Thank you for making this! I’m not an artist, but I make art. When I started, everyone told me I should sell my work, so out the door went all of the pieces I now wish I hadn’t sold. I’ve still got a few & they decorate my spaces. I’ve put them together in a way that feels intelligible & meaningful to me. That’s where they will stay for all of the reasons you mention in this essay. It’s never been about the finished product, but the discovery of wanting to try something I haven’t done & getting it to where it has meaning for me. I’m a programmer by trade, so I’m a complete novice in this world. But, I did indeed learn from my time doing this that the official art world is very different & is driven by the economic factors you show in this video. Everyone just assumes if you make something it’s got to be put out there for a price.
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