Of Art Fairs, Oligopolies and Authenticity

I promised myself when I started this blog that I would not become a polemicist raging against the art world. It's too easy, like shooting fish in a barrel. Better to do something positive, work within the system for change.

But sometimes I need to vent.

I attended an art fair here in LA last week and will hold my nose and go to another one this week. I go to art fairs mainly because I feel I should go, despite the fact that they almost always put me in a foul mood. The vast carpeted sterility of the convention center combined with the amount of mostly mediocre work packed into booths, screaming for attention makes me want to flee.

But rather than going on about the fair itself, let me just say that my inspiration on that particular day came not from the art, but from my conversation with friend and artist Lisa Adams who accompanied me there.

As we strolled through the booths, Lisa talked about what she calls "authenticity" or honesty in art -- emotional authenticity, honesty in intent, honesty and skill in execution, an ability to cut through the noise and speak directly through one's work, human to human, to inspire, to strive for the nobler aspects of art.

What has the art world become? Corporate sponsorships, art stars, billionaire collectors donating museum wings to perpetuate their art-as-investment legacy, and now even a stock exchange for art -- how far have we strayed from the fundamental impulses of art? Isn't art supposed to be different from, even the antithesis of, say, selling cars? Something is very wrong when art becomes all about money.

I've found no better representation of the state of the art world than New York artist and former art critic William Powhida's humorous but spot-on drawing “A Guide to the Market Oligopoly System.”

William Powhida, A Guide to the Market Oligopoly System

Powhida quotes the Wikipedia definition of oligopoly at the top of the page:

"In economics, an oligopoly is a market form in which a market or industry is dominated by a small number of sellers. Because there are few sellers, each oligopolist is likely to be aware of the actions of the others. The decisions of one firm influence, and are influenced by the decisions of other firms."

On Powhida's pyramid, the art stars are at the apex. You'll notice the three stars he mentions are Koons, Hirst and Murakami, each of whom has become a recognized brand, the equivalent of a corporate CEO, making huge amounts of money with large studios full of assistants who make their art for them. How is this different from say, McDonalds, The Gap or Toyota?

We work our way down Powhida's pyramid through museums, auction houses, blue chip brands, commercial galleries, to the bottom, to the masses of "students, unknowns, regional artists, unrepresented artists, professors, outsider artists, art enthusiasts . . ."

Or as I've heard it put, in the art world, you're either a 1 or a 10.

How do artists and galleries stay authentic when the deck is so hugely stacked against them? How do you not give in to the realities of the market place? Why are there so many artists and relatively little demand for what they do?

I run a small commercial gallery, work 24/7 without a salary, and love every minute of it. I try to show quality work and not make it all about sales, but am only able to do this because of a modest inheritance, a wonderful man who supports me in everything I do, and a low overhead (the gallery is in our house). In short, I am not making money. I wouldn't mind it, but for now I feel lucky to be breaking even.

I know many artists, none of whom can support themselves solely from selling their work. They juggle part-time jobs, often live near the poverty level and can't even think about things like owning a home or a retirement plan.

So why do we do it?

William Powhida asks basically the same question at the bottom of his pyramid, "So why do you persist?" and comes up with the answer, "It's a labor of love or willfull [sic] ignorance of the odds."

Cynical? Perhaps. But is it an accurate reflection of the art world and maybe even our society as a whole? Is our society culturally bankrupt? I hope not, but only time will tell.

Currently on View at Offramp Gallery

In her second solo show at Offramp Gallery, The Sun Tells Quite Another Story, photographer Anita Bunn presents a new series of works that continue her exploration of the act of noticing as well as the temporal nature of the still and moving image.

Click here to read the LA Times review.

In addition to five stunning new 40" x 40" archival digital prints that are exhibited in the Main Gallery, Anita has worked with two master printmakers to explore traditional photographic printmaking techniques. By printing the same image four ways -- as a halftone photolithograph, continuous tone photolithograph, photogravure and salt print -- the subtle shifts and changes that occur through these varied processes become evident. A continuous loop video, the mesmerizing Measure, made by Bunn in 2008, is on display in the Guest Room. The exhibition runs through February 6, 2011.

Charles Bukowski: Poet on the Edge at the Huntington Library

iPhone snapshot of Huntington Gardens

One of the best things about living in Pasadena is its proximity to the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, and weather that allows you to go there in shirtsleeves on a mid-January afternoon. Which is exactly what I did recently, not wanting to miss the Charles Bukowski: Poet on the Edge exhibition before it closes in February.

I had never read Bukowski, didn't know much about him and had always (mistakenly it turns out) identified him with the Beat poets. This exhibition set me straight and whetted my appetite for more.

Poet on the Edge is drawn from the archive of Bukowski's papers as well as special items lent by his widow. You are greeted by a case containing Bukowski's manual typewriter, or "typer" as he called it and a quote: "All I need now is what I needed then: a desk lamp, the typer, the bottle, the radio, classical music, and this room is on fire."

Ten more cases are filled with manuscripts, broadsides, chap books, first editions, correspondence, photos, drawings, souvenirs from race tracks and other ephemera. There are letters from young women offering themselves to the by-then famous Bukowski. There is a video of Bukowski reading his work to and bantering with an enthusiastic audience, the bottle always close at hand.

The gift shop has a large display devoted to Bukowski: books, videos, t-shirts, mouse pads, journals and more. Resisting the urge to buy one of everything, but wanting to know more, I made a speedy exit. Once home, I downloaded John Dullagan's 2003 documentary, Bukowski - Born Into This, hoping to flesh out the portrait of the man.

Noir-ish black and white footage of Bukowski shot in LA in the sixties, the badly pock-marked face, the ever-present cigarette and bottle, Bukowski's own words and street bravado, as well as reflections by others who knew him, all add to the picture of a disturbed, but brilliant writer.

In one particularly poignant scene, Bukowski goes back to his childhood home in LA, into the bathroom where he describes how for years his father regularly beat him with a razor strop. His mother's response to the abuse was "your father is always right." Another disturbing scene shows Bukowski, obviously drunk while being interviewed, baiting his wife into a fight and kicking her off the sofa with his feet.

Curious, but not able to shake off my negative reaction to the sexism, alcoholism, and the glorification of it by others, I decided it was time to read Bukowski and see what the fuss was all about. I chose the novel Women, partly because I was curious about how Bukowski's misogyny would play out and partly because a quick web search told me that many consider it his best work.

Women, which is autobiography thinly disguised as fiction, is based on the period in Bukowski's (or Chinaski as he becomes in the novel) life when he is in his 50's and has finally achieved rock-star status. Young women are throwing themselves at him and he is not resisting, making up for lost time, experiencing what he imagines other men experience much earlier in life, but denied to him by an acute case of acne vulgaris, an abusive upbringing and a low life existence. Women, booze and writing fuel this phase of his life.

Chinaski eventually hits bottom:

"What kind of shit was I? I could certainly play some nasty, unreal games. . . Could I keep on telling myself that it was merely a matter of research, a simple study of the female? . . . I wasn't considering anything but my own selfish, cheap pleasure."

There is redemption by the end of the book as Chinaski turns to the one woman he really cares about. We are left wondering, however, exactly how much redemption.

Bukowski's writing is raw, direct and gritty, and makes for compelling reading. He is brutally honest about himself and other people as he lives his life the only way he knows how. His lack of pretension and life on the edge are a slap-in-the-face counterpoint to the politically correct, sanitized environment of today. And in the end, as Bukowski himself says in the documentary, "forget the image, I have a heart."

Click here to buy the book on Amazon. Click here to buy the Kindle edition.

Currently on View at Offramp Gallery

In her second solo show at Offramp Gallery, The Sun Tells Quite Another Story, photographer Anita Bunn presents a new series of works that continue her exploration of the act of noticing as well as the temporal nature of the still and moving image.

Click here to read the LA Times review.

In addition to five stunning new 40" x 40" archival digital prints that are exhibited in the Main Gallery, Anita has worked with two master printmakers to explore traditional photographic printmaking techniques. By printing the same image four ways -- as a halftone photolithograph, continuous tone photolithograph, photogravure and salt print -- the subtle shifts and changes that occur through these varied processes become evident. A continuous loop video, the mesmerizing Measure, made by Bunn in 2008, is on display in the Guest Room. The exhibition runs through February 6, 2011.

Exit Through the Gift Shop (The Emperor is Naked)

Ever since it was released last year, the documentary film Exit Through the Gift Shop has proven fertile ground for controversy and discussion. There's the ongoing drama over the film's director, street artist Banksy, who keeps his real identity closely guarded. There's speculation about whether the film's central character, Thierry Guetta, is a real person, a character created by Banksy, or even Banksy himself. There's a law suit by a videographer who claims he is not given credit for his part in making the film. There's lots of Oscar buzz.

Most of all there's a terrific film, a highly entertaining and illuminating look at hype, branding and marketing in the contemporary art world.

The unlikely hero of the film is the whacky mutton-chopped Frenchman, Thierry Guetta, who obsessively videotapes everything that happens to him. His life takes on new meaning when he tags along to film his cousin, street artist Space Invader, on his clandestine nighttime adventures.

Guetta turns his obsession to filming street artists at work. He convinces everyone he is producing a documentary when in reality the boxes of tapes pile up in heaps. He works his way up through the ranks until he is finally filming two of the most notorious street artists, Shepard Fairey and the elusive Banksy himself.

Banksy ultimately calls Guetta's bluff on the documentary. The resulting film, Life Remote Control, is declared "unwatchable" by Banksy, who then convinces Guetta to leave the tapes with him in London, go back to his Los Angeles home, produce some street art and have an exhibition.

Their roles completely reversed, Banksy turns the cameras on Guetta.

Guetta goes back to LA and takes on the street moniker Mr. Brainwash, or MBW for short. He eventually hires a crew of 20 to work around the clock making "art" largely appropriated from Pop and his fellow street artists' work. He rents an empty CBS studio to stage his exhibition. Throw in some savvy marketing, an L.A. Weekly cover, et voilà, people are lining up to buy MBW's work, sight unseen, for extravagant amounts of money. By mid-afternoon on opening day, at least 2,000 people are waiting to see the spectacle. The exhibition, "Life is Beautiful," which was scheduled to run for only five days, ran an extra two months, and purportedly sold a million dollars worth of work.

By the end of the film both Fairey and Banksy are hedging on the quality of MBW's work and what it takes to become an artist.

The Oscar nominations will be announced on January 25. If the film is nominated, expect a deluge of controversy and speculation. Stay tuned!

(Click here to buy the DVD from Amazon;  Click here to view instantly through Amazon Video on Demand)




Currently on View at Offramp Gallery

In her second solo show at Offramp Gallery, The Sun Tells Quite Another Story, photographer Anita Bunn presents a new series of works that continue her exploration of the act of noticing as well as the temporal nature of the still and moving image. In addition to five stunning new 40" x 40" archival digital prints that are exhibited in the Main Gallery, Anita has worked with two master printmakers to explore traditional photographic printmaking techniques. By printing the same image four ways -- as a halftone photolithograph, continuous tone photolithograph, photogravure and salt print -- the subtle shifts and changes that occur through these varied processes become evident. A continuous loop video, the mesmerizing Measure, made by Bunn in 2008, is on display in the Guest Room. The exhibition runs through February 6, 2011.

Women & Photography; Farewell to Kodachrome; Steampunk?

Anita Bunn, Ambient #1, 2010, archival

digital print, 40" x 40"

In her upcoming solo show at Offramp Gallery, The Sun Tells Quite Another Story, LA-based photographer Anita Bunn presents a new series of works that continue her exploration of the act of noticing as well as the temporal nature of the still and moving image. In addition to five stunning new 40" x 40" archival digital prints that will be exhibited in the main gallery, Anita is working with two local master printmakers to explore traditional photographic printmaking techniques. By printing the same image four ways -- as a halftone photolithograph, continuous tone photolithograph, photogravure and salt print -- the subtle shifts and changes that occur through these varied processes become evident.

 It was with these traditional printing techniques in mind that I picked up a copy of Naomi Rosenblum's A History of Women Photographers. This lavishly illustrated coffee-table book is an invaluable primer on the history of women photographers and a visual feast with images by over 250 photographers, from the obscure to the well-known.

I thought I would focus on one historical woman photographer each week for the duration of Anita's show at Offramp, starting with one of the early greats, Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879). Given a camera as a gift at age 48 to occupy her during the absence of her husband, Cameron became obsessed, producing an extensive body of work, mostly portraits. In a world dominated by men, she was credited for having "transformed a mundane medium into an art form."

This video from the "Masters of Photography" collection gives a brief look at the work and life of Cameron. Besides her portraits of Tennyson, Darwin and other British luminaries of the day, of particular interest are the ones depicting Cameron's favorite subject, her niece, Julia Jackson. The portraits of Julia, the future Mrs. Herbert Duckworth and mother of writer Virginia Woolfe, seem to hauntingly foretell the beautiful iconic features of her more famous daughter.

(The embed feature on the Masters of Photography video on YouTube has been disabled, so here's a different video.)




Mama Don't Take My Kodachrome Away!

You may have read one of the numerous articles announcing that December 30th was to be the last day that Kodachrome film would ever be processed. Kodak stopped producing the film in 2009 and the final processing was last week at Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kansas  whose stock has finally come to an end. Unlike the traditional photographic techniques mentioned above that can be recreated in a studio, Kodachrome is gone forever.

Steampunk?

Speaking of outdated technologies, there seems to be a "retrofuturistic" movement, steampunk, growing in popularity. I did a quick survey of members of my household and a few friends to make sure I wasn't the last person to find out about this trend. I'm not, but I'm not exactly ahead on the curve either. According to an article in the Christian Science Monitor: Steampunk: The new Goth:

"Steampunk is a fantasy made physical, made of brass and wood and powered by steam, born of the Industrial Age and inspired by the works of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. It takes form both as an aesthetic movement and a community of artists; role-players; visionaries; and those who use the tools of literature, film, music, fashion, science, design, architecture, and gaming to manifest their visions."

Here's a video of a 2009 Steampunk exhibition at the Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford.
 

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

Please join us for the opening reception of Anita Bunn: The Sun Tells Quite Another Story on Sunday, January 9, from 2-5pm. Click here for directions and more information.

See you there!