Goya’s infamous nude “Maja” has some problems.
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Runaway Rant: Art succeeds inspite of politics, not because of it
Why politics are the enemy of art.
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Runaway Rant: My Art is not a “Practice”
I am absolutely certain that you will never find in over 500 posts on this blog that I’ve ever referred to my art-making as a practice. I just make art. I don’t have a practice. Recently, a lot of people are referring to their art-making as a practice — even landscape painters — as if…
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Hyper-moralization & the art world
We live in a time of extraordinary moralizing. You may have noticed a no-holds-barred competition to see who is the most morally pure, and who isn’t, either by birthright or by belief. There’s always some of that going on. When I was growing up it issued from the religious right. Nancy Reagan famously advised to…
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No Country for White Artists?
Museum Curator forced to resign
over “toxic white supremacist beliefs”!
WIP: B&W Sneak Preview
Almost finished. It finally occurred to me to look at the image in B&W to see how my lighting and modeling is without the distraction of color. Not bad. It looks more like a digital sculpture than a drawing, which is what it is. I’ve still got some detailing to do, and other modifications. Should…
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The “Spiritual” in Art for the Intellectually Rigorous
[This is a re-post of an article from two-years ago which I’d forgotten I’d written, but rediscovered while looking for one of the images in it. I defend the notion of the spiritual in art in a hardball, rational and reasoned, fashion with no reliance on superstition, religion, or any variety of feel-good, wish-washy, wishful…
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The Post-Apocalyptic Dinosaur Paintings of Michael Kerbow
An examination of Michael Kerbow’s dinosaur paintings in his “Late Capitalism” series.
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Robert Williams and the Art Documentary, “Mr. Bitchin'”
I’m not accepted as a blue-chip artist, and there’s every indication I never will be. ~ Robert Williams. The best thing about Robert Willams is his paintings, but he’s also a likable fellow if you aren’t predisposed to dislike his type as much as the blue-chip art world turns its nose up at his art.…
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The Long-legged, Big-footed, Headless Giants of Steven Beercock
I am the least constant, most confused person outside my safe rectangle of canvas. Safe because it is mine, my world, my rules, my flat Earth. ~ Steven Beercock. Seeing his work is like finding your uncle’s paintings in a shed; then noticing how weird they are and how eccentric he is; and then slowly…
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Freedom and Independence Versus Free will
More thoughts after days of ruminating on this topic, and various challenges to my arguments on my blog and elsewhere. Note that if you disagree with me, or have in the past, that’s perfectly fine. I’m more interested in understanding reality than I am in being right. If I were to suddenly switch my pro-free…
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Consciousness, Free Will, and Art
“I want to be a machine.” ~ Andy Warhol [Repost: updated with edits. The topic of free will has come up a lot lately, and my pro-free-will stance and my belief in anthropogenic global warming are the topics where I get the most devil’s advocates and friendly challenges. This article is one of my classics,…
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How Postmodernism Has Worked Against Us.
What is postmodernism, what are its shortcomings, and how has it negatively impacted the art world and contemporary culture? [repost with updates] Every student of art needs to grapple with Postmodernism at some point, either climb aboard, reject it, or integrate it. In order to come to terms with it, one needs to be able…
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Differences between illustration, fine art, modern art, and contemporary art
Broad Outlines This is intended as a useful device for a very general categorization of visual-based art. The idea is to simplify something that is already hopelessly convoluted. There are inevitably grotesque omissions, outstanding hybrids, uncategorizable outliers, and genres I don’t address (such as folk art, outsider art, and comics…). But it’s worth thinking about…
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Why People Hate Contemporary/Conceptual Art
Lots of people hate conceptual art. It’s really quite remarkable, and possibly unfortunate. Ostensibly, artists make art to engage, entertain, and inform people, in which case hatred is an extreme response. Though it does occur to me that the kind of art that is most disliked might be the variety that tries to “challenge” the…
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Anniversary of Van Gogh Severing His Ear.
On this day in 1888, which is 130 years ago, Vincent Van Gogh cut of a piece of his right ear in a bout of anguish brought on by his fight with Paul Gauguin, who was leaving Arles and their shared yellow house. Earlier in the evening Gauguin had threatened Vincent with a saber, and…
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RADICAL NEW BORING SHIT #26
To see more about this series, go to this explanatory post. Of course I put the artist and the text around the banana. Are you getting bored by being shocked by just how boring shocking art is? If so, this series is for you. The least we can ask of shocking, revolutionary art is that…
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The Harrowing Figurative Paintings of Suzzan Blac
“The paintings I created were intended for my eyes only. I felt I couldn’t exhibit them because they were so visceral, horrifying, and disturbing. I knew that I would be stigmatized.” ~ Suzzan Blac. A Savage Painting “During my teens, teachers would berate me for my ‘dark’ drawings and persuade me to draw ‘pretty’ things.”…
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Can You Like the Art Without the Artist Liking You?
Apparently I’m the first person to ask this question, or type it up and publish it online. At least a Google search turns up nothing. What everyone asks is, and I’m pretty sure you’ve heard it, “Can you like the art without liking the artist”? And by “without liking” they mean hating, or shunning, or…
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A Moment of Solipsism Triggered by Maurizio Cattelan’s Banana
I was about to take a shower. I stood nude before the mirror in my bathroom and realized that my entire perspective on art is anathema to the contemporary art world. The people who are in the inner circle, who are rich, along with the big art institutions, and even the art critics are in…
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Is Maurizio Cattelan’s $120,000 Banana Brilliant Art or Bullshit on a Platter?
“Maurizio is a pure genius… I see the magic happen on various occasions.”~ Emmanuel Perrotin, of Galerie Perrotin. The same artist who gave us the golden toilet has now affixed a banana to the wall, in an edition of three, at Art Basel Miami Beach. It used to be that you were considered stupid if…
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What Do We Do About Art Museums Containing Over 85% Male Art
More moral quandaries Recently I wrote an article which was critical of the Baltimore Museum’s plan to only buy and primarily exhibit women’s art in 20/20. I objected on moral grounds, because while it is ostensibly rectifying past ostensible sexual discrimination, it is undeniably applying absolute sexual discrimination in the very present. Two wrongs don’t…
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Brain Scans Vindicate Visual Art
I watched a mini-documentary “Beauty: Explained” on Netflix, and a few pieces fell into place regarding how art is considered today. Before I connect the dots and introduce what the new science suggests, I will need to review what the dots are, and what they signify. If you already know your contemporary art history, you…
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Flat Earthers, Contemporary Art, and Optimism
What do Flat-Earthers have to do with contemporary art? I was watching the 2018 documentary Behind the Curve, which is about the Flat Earth movement and some of the people involved in it. Two things hit me in quick succession. One was that the paintings and models of the Flat Earth were conceptual art, and…
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MoMA Reopens Woke AF and Decades Behind
The New MoMA aspires to reconstruct art history through the lens of a revolutionary political agenda, but in the process sacrifices both art and justice. MoMA, along with the art world in general, has by hyjacked by a revolutionary political movement. The new MoMA happily subordinates art to postmodernist philosophy and social justice, which, while…
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“Leonardo’s” Salvator Mundi is a FAIL Forged by an Apprentice
The Salvator Mundi, a portrait of Christ attributed to da Vince and sold to the highest bidder as such, is in the news again, now because it hasn’t arrived for a blockbuster da Vinci show scheduled to open in about a week. I’m more perturbed that people take this painting seriously. “for me the most…
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In Defense of Renoir
Renoir is an object of hatred and scorn, but the criticism is myopic. When I said to reconsider Renoir, it’s from the last critical update, at which point, if you don’t already know, his status was solidified as a horrible painter and sexist pig-man. And while there are some cringeworthy bather paintings, if we were…
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If You’re Not Making Visual Art Proper, You’re Not Playing The Game
Artists can make whatever kind of art they want, and it’s totally legit. I’m all for it. It mostly just comes to good or bad examples of the kind of art in question. People might think that because I am pro-visual art, and because I criticize certain conceptual works, that I am against conceptual art…
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