...but I know what I like
It's that time of year again, that strange season when Miami is ablaze with big-A Art — Art Basel. More importantly, this is the time of year when the wealthy descend on the area in search of the newest and hottest artifacts to add to their collections, when rich and reconstructed jet-set women wield AmEx Black cards and wads of cash big enough to accessorize a '90s rap video. It is a heady time of parties mingling the creative and the consumers, the artistic and the opportunistic, the high-life and the low-life and all points between. There's nothing else like it.
Or so I am told. Personally, I can't imagine going. Hanging around people who wipe their asses with my total net worth is rarely my idea of a good time, and partying with those sucking up to those people even less so. More importantly, though, art intimidates the hell out of me.
Well, that isn't exactly true, either. I enjoy art on my own terms, and am always interested in gaining a more educated perspective. Unfortunately, art critics and aficionados get on my last nerve. There's a kind of self-appointed elitist arrogance I have found to be all too common when I talk with people who are into art, the kind of condescension that inspires the easily parodied nose-tilt and arched eyebrow, the type of attitude that brings comments like "Oh, you like Chihuly? Do you also collect Franklin Mint plates?" Art, it seems, doesn't have a place for interested novices, and the least important aspect is your actual enjoyment of the work.
However, I don't want to discourage anyone else from attending, particularly those with US $50–60,000 to spend. (Few pieces, I was told, go for less than $5k.) There is a lot of free liquor available, and if your bullshit tolerance is greater than mine — not too difficult, given that my bullshit tolerance is used up daily at the office — you'll have a good time. (As a bonus, I hear there are a lot of hot goth-y gallery chicks imported from Chelsea for the event.) Find out more about the event at Miami Beach 411, Critical Miami, The Next Few Hours, and Worm Hole Laboratory.
Me, I'll be at home maintaining my ignorance.
12 Comments:
Marc, I feel your lament. I'd love to study fine art more closely, but the folks who'd have to teach me are too busy maintaining their image to want to stoop to help a commoner understand.
I got invited to meet Yoko Ono at an Art Basel event Thursday night but had to pass.
And I was supposed to go to a Basel dinner that same evening where "artistic" handbags would be on display...for $20K to $50K apiece. Even if I did carry a purse, I don't think I would have survived the night there.
DearMKH,
Ok, you have finally touch an issue that is very close to my heart, please......please ....don't be put off be the up and coming masses with new money on this issue. I firmly believe that art is so important to us all. As an visual artist who would love to achieve perfection, this is not done with any use of drugs. Besides knowing our subjest matter we have to think and understand so much more, physics, science, biology, materials, history, design, color theory and so much more. It is often interesting to see young budding artists out there, putting it out on the line. Because when you paint......it has to come from the heart and sometimes that is scarier then hell. So even if it is silly to see the social class make a statement even for the wrong reason, I am glad that they do the support the arts. I wish we all could, and to honest we can.....go to the local community center or to a home for disable adults and you find amazing art that will touch you. Please MKH go to our foundation, to our roots and you will be reborn with youth.
Love Nancy
Mark, there's nothing to be educated about in art. Don't talk to anybody else. Art is an experience. The rest is pretense.
My sentiments exactly.
What I find hilarious is the reaction that this Ode to Pretentiousness, in which the self-absorbed from around the world trek to Miami for 96 hours, is celebrated by those who claim to revile that kind of crap for the other 361 days of the year.
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I don't know, MKH . . . I think experts in ANY field can be assholes from time to time.
I think that if you like art, on any level, you could have a good time at AB. I would just GO. No particular "understanding" is necessary: Walk around. Roll your eyes at stuff you don't like. Smile at stuff you like.
On the off chance that someone you don't want to talk to addresses you, nod and walk away.
There will be lots of fancy people there, but most will be just like you: curious folks with no intention of buying anything.
I'm like you in that I like to enjoy art on my own terms. I find that while I'm interested in art, my experiences and impressions mirror what you wrote about critics and aficionados. There have been quite a few times where I've been somewhere, looking at what I think is absolute crap and nothing that I would consider "art" and people look at me or talk to me like I'm clueless.
I guess I just enjoy art when I find it attractive in some way or it elicits an emotion from me.
In response to the comments so far:
James - I don't know, I might have made an exception for Yoko Ono.
Nancy - You are correct, in that this sort of event does help support the arts in general, and I suppose we should be grateful for the scraps dropped from their plates.
Alex - I understand your POV, but there clearly is benefit to be derived from education in art history and formal understanding. It won't make me like something that feels lame, but it would deepen my appreciation of work I enjoy.
Rick - Well, I Would guess that many of the people who revile this sort of thing the rest of the year do so now, as well; they just keep quiet about it to keep the invitations coming.
Alesh - I can speak from experience on this: experts in any field are frequently self-absorbed assholes. I didn't mean to imply that only art critics are assholes. It is possible that I might even enjoy the exhibits, but events have now conspired to keep me out of public action for a while, so it isn't an option.
Tere - In my own experience I like things that most other people think are utter crap, and in the rare case that someone else shares my enjoyment of the work, I usually discover that I don't like it for the "right" reasons.
Hey! Did you just call me a snob??!
;)
I didn't mean to deny the importance of learning more, but even if you have never taken an arts history and appreciation course, you would be able to enjoy it just as much. I have taken more of those courses, read more of the books and magazines and had more drunken arguments that I care to remember and still think Rauschenberg is a hack.
There's art and then there's the commerce of art, of which the AB extravaganza and the associated snobs are part of. It's just money on teh wall as Warhol famously said. Art is subjective. There may be experts in commerce, in history, in classification, what have you, but in interpretation? That's just one man's opinion maybe convincing another.
"i know what i like"
the title says it all. i'm with you. ;-)
I also often realize that what I like about a piece of art is "wrong" or misses the point, as determined by either the artist or the person near me who "gets" it.
I should clarify that crap to me tends to be things that are outrageous or different for no purpose other than to have people comment on how unique that artist is, or to go so far over people's head that it's ultimately meaningless. I don't know - a number of times, the work is so obtuse that I just can't figure out how it's meaningful. I.e., a mannequin with a shark head that symbolizes the lost children of war or a bunch of shit from the junkyard that's supposed to capture all that is wrong with the dog breeding industry. Or my favorite thing to hate: the dot on a canvas that symbolizes the artist's soul.
All my opinion, I know. Anyone else can find profound depth in these things - I just don't. Art, overall, makes me feel incredibly stupid.
That's the problem... what makes you feel stupid is not the art, is the what you think people will think of you if you don't "get" art, which is the silly state art snobs and art merchants have created.
Whatever they think of the mannequin shark or the dot on a canvas is only their opinion too, and as far as expertise goes is not more qualified than yours no matter how many fancy shoes and jackets they own.
Talk to the artists if you get a chance. In my experience 50% are insufferable snobs and 505 are just as disgusted with the art scene.
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