Storm Warning to the Art World: Everything is going to Change! (Great Read -'bout time!)

Plenair magazine (Reprint via the Art Renewal Center) ^ | FR Post June 2005 | Paul Solderberg

[vannrox]

THIS IS A GREAT ARTICLE. IT IS REPRESENTATIVE OF THE FEELINGS OF MANY, MANY PEOPLE WHO ARE ABSOLUTELY SICK AND TIRED OF BEING TOLD THAT JUNK IS ART AND ART IS JUNK AND THAT WE HAVE TO LIKE IT AND APPRECIATE IT. IF WE DON'T THEN WE ARE UNENLIGHTENED AND STUPID.

[stylin19a]

so....on which side does Christo fall ?

[vannrox]

[vannrox]

"...One of those millions, art-lover Jim Kalb, posted this comment online in 2004:

"Are you finally sick and tired of feeling you have to pretend to like modernist 'art' which you actually think is lousy/laughable at best, outright garbage at worst? If so, check out the ARC site." More than 5 million people are now doing exactly that every year - checking out www.artrenewal.ORG - and that number is growing exponentially as the word spreads around the globe that if you find Modern/Contemporary art offensive, you're far from alone, and you'll soon be vindicated...'

[Publius6961]

"It's terrifying and awful when you realize that billions of tons of pollutants are flowing down the Niagara River every day," Moore said.

Oh yes, that reminds me. It is most noteworthy that not mentioned in the critique is that many, if not most living artists are as dumb as rocks. This MENSA candidate obviously has no clue as to what "billions of tons" is.

I had the good fortune to see the traveling exhibit, Master Paintings of the Hermitage", in the late 70s. Having seen it in the flesh (so to speak), my favorite painting, period, is Evening in the Ukraine, 1878, by Arkhip Ivanovich Kuinji.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I dare any current weenie to jam that much beauty and power into a canvas today.

[Billthedrill]

Great posting. The purpose of art is not to allow an artist to express himself or herself. The purpose of art is not to allow an artist to express beauty. The purpose of art is for an artist to communicate beauty. Charlatans can only pretend to, and even if their pretensions are validated by a sycophantic art "community" they are still charlatans.

...another English artist, Ray Hutchins, who dumped a load of manure in front of the Tate and propped up a sign reading "Modern Art is a Load of Bullshit"

There are, of course, exceptions, but in the main the fellow was absolutely right.

[infidel29]

...Finley's "artworks" consisted of anger, nudity, profanity and chocolate-smearing her nude body with chocolate while screaming obscenities at an audience. Despite the art critics who had praised these "performance works" as "a provocative brand of artistry," the NEA turned down her application for more tax dollars. So, joined by three other "controversial artists,"3 she sued, challenging the NEA's "decency and respect" law as violating her right to Free Speech and accusing the NEA of Communist-style repression: "That's what they do in China," she said.

This is crap, along with other forms of modern art which are more focused on "feelings and intent" instead of passion, skill, aesthetics and beauty. Read the above paragraph then read this to put them in context.

Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all form of artistic expression. "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings," substituting shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.

Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and television.

These are goals set forth by the communist party and are being pushed, upheld and defended by the ACLU. SOURCE.

[Ditter]

I am an artist and I am sick of so called art that consists of rubber chickens hanging from dead branches and other such rubbish that I have actually seen in galleries. I will look for this magazine.

[Ditter]

I saw that Russian exhibit in Houston I think. Fantastic art, I bought the catalog but I have lost it.

[little jeremiah]

Agree 100% - no, I agree 200% - and bump. Did you read an article some time ago about some dead "artist" who had filled a lot of cans with his own excrement, sealed them up, and they were sold for good sums of money to various art museums?

[baystaterebel]

This summed it up for me:

""Publisher Eric Rhoads makes it very clear what his magazine stands for: "I am not opposed to 'modern' art in any knee-jerk way. I am only opposed - firmly - to any art of any era that is a sham, a ruse, or a mockery, that uses shock value to hide the artist's total lack of talent and the complete lack of any firm artistic foundation. My daughter can bang her hands on a piano, but that doesn't make her a pianist; and the fact that someone can slap paint onto a canvas doesn't make him a fine artist.""


Amen.

[Publius6961]

What a great article!
The article itself proves the premise, since if an individual had not posted it here on FR, I might have never heard of it.
Now I plan both to subscribe to the magazine and to join the other site.

I have never had a problem calling crap crap. Even in the Louvre, or at the National Gallery of art, or the Corcoran Gallery in DC, or the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.
That makes me an ignorant fool? Water off a duck's back. Has about as much an effect on me as being called "insensitive, hateful homophobe" ---- by neurotic perverts.

Thanks for the post!

[infidel29]

A few years ago I walked through the Carnegie Museum here in Pittsburgh. I was intrigued by a particular piece entitled "Issue" Below is a copy of it.

The tag next to it read "Issue" by (I don't remember) white latex on aluminum.

[Publius6961]

I saw that Russian exhibit in Houston I think. Fantastic art, I bought the catalog but I have lost it.

I have both the catalog and the bound book of the exhibit that was available at the time.

My ex-wife, who loves books as decoration, "appropriated" it when we divorced. She "appropriated" many of my things in the middle of the night but, when the opportunity presented itself, this book is the only thing that I stole back. Literally. Gives you some idea of how highly I value it.

: )

[Socratic]

I see from the image name (44368023.Toulmouche_Auguste_La_Fiancee_Hesitante.jpg) the artist and theme of the painting. Do you know if this is the original ratio of the dimemsions of the painting? I ask because so much of the image is taken up by the florid, vacuous wallpaper and if this was meant to be a reflection of the much-less-than-enthusistic bride to be.

[John Valentine]

"It's terrifying and awful when you realize that billions of tons of pollutants are flowing down the Niagara River every day," Moore said.

It's that dihydrogen oxide. It's everywhere. It's in our drinking water and in our toothpaste. It's disposed of in huge quantities by all sorts of industries. Our rivers and lakes are literally AWASH in the stuff.

It's affects on the population are ubiquitous. Intake of dihydrogen oxide can cause bloating and frequent urination. It's even in our food!

Billions of tons of this pollutant flow down the Niagara River and over the falls every single day, and no one does a single constructive thing about it.

I've had it up to HERE with dihydrogen oxide! I think I'll go have a drink.

[vannrox]

The Russian landscape painter Arkhip Ivanovich Kuinji was born in 1842 in the town of Mariupol on the Azov Sea in the South of Russia. Kuinji was of Greek descent – during the reign of Catherine II his ancestors, together with other Greek refugees, settled near the Azov Sea.
            Kuinji lacked a formal education, but his eminent gift helped him attain a notable success in art. He evidently was allowed to attend classes at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, had training in the workshop of the famous marine painter Ivan Aivazovsky, visited the classes of the Society of Art Lovers. In 1868, having passed exams in general education and special subjects at the Academy of Arts, Kuinji received a diploma of a freelance artist for his independent work. His earlier paintings Autumn Weather (1870), Lake Ladoga (1870) and On the Valaam Island (1873) brought him first recognition.
            In 1873, Kuinji traveled around Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria and thoroughly studied the works of great masters. On his return, however, he creates works which were absolutely unlike those he had seen in European museums.
            His Ukrainian Night (1876) opened a new romantic stage in his work. He used special light effects to paint nature and achieved such astonishing results, that people, who saw the picture for the first time at an exhibition, tried to check its back, if there was any special source of light. Exhibited at the Paris World Fair in 1878 The Ukranian Night attracted the attention of the eminent French critics.
            Kuinji developed a new vision in his next painting A Birch Grove (1879). It is both realistic and conventionalized; it looks as a condensed essence of reality. In 1880, he completed Moonlit Night on Dnieper (1880). The picture was a great success. Kuinji became an idol of the public. But he was not understood by his colleagues who saw in his art only illusory color effects, did not support his romantic searching. Probably it was the reason  of his withdrawal from all exhibitions and public arrangements. He worked hard in his studio, experimenting much, but only his close friends saw his works.
            In 1894, he accepted an invitation to become a professor of the Academy. He was very fond of teaching and his students admired him. Among Kuinji’s pupils were several prominent artists such as N. Rerikh, K. Bogaevskiy, A. Rilov, V. Purvit and others. Unfortunately his career of a professor did not last long, he was dismissed for supporting students in their protests against authorities. But he continued to teach his students privately, and then paid for their trip around Europe. Later he presented the Academy with a big sum of money, the interest from which was to be used for awards to young painters.
In 1909, he founded The Kuinji Society, an independent association of painters, to which he left all his pictures and property. The next year he died.
     The other well-known works of Kuinji are A Birch Grove (1879), with one of its late versions A Birch Grove (1901), The North (1879),  After a Rain (1879), Sea. The Crimea. (1898-1908), Elbrus in the Evening. (1898-1908), Sunset (1890-1895), Rainbow (1900-1905), Night Grazing (1905-1908).

Bibliography:
Kuinji and His School. Leningrad. 1987.
Kuinji. Russian Painters of the XIX century. by V. Minin. Moscow. 1990.
Paintings of the 18th-early 20th centuries from the Reserves of the Russian Museum. by K. Mikhailova and G. Smirnov. Leningrad. 1982.

[FranklinsTower]

bump

[mowkeka]

BTTT.

[avenir]

"I dare any current weenie to jam that much beauty and power into a canvas today."

No kidding. The quality of light achieved by the Masters is beyond photography's reach. And painting such as this is true artistry, hack's need not apply.