Tuesday 22 June 2010

Conceptual Art Sucks

I don't know if anyone has been following Junior Apprentice whilst it was on, but one episode struck a cord inside me and has wound me up intensely. The art episode featured the youngsters selecting two artists from 6 to represent at a London gallery where they then obviously had to sell as much art as possible. The artists featured a photographer, a conceptual person, an installation person, a normal artist and an abstract painter. the sixth person wasn't shown. I use the term person in there because art doesn't come into the job and this is the thing that irked me. I believe the term is "conceptual art" (not to be confused with concept art) where the person comes up with some idea and thats pretty much it. No skill required. The conceptual artist is a lady called Jessica Layton who, bizarrely, house sits and looks after peoples pets whilst they are away on holiday etc. She then proceeds to dress up in their clothes hire a photographer to shoot a portrait with the pet and she pretends to be the homeowner. She also moves stuff around abit to mess with their heads as well. All rather disturbing I feel. Even the junior apprentices expressed their horror when they found out what she does. The girl interviewing her couldn't escape quick enough. Further to this I went to her website where I found out she also steals small items from them, sets up a stall and invites them to come down and view it. Wierd. How people view this as art really is beyond me. Art denotes that skill is involved in something. Conceptual "art" requires no skill, anyone can have clever idea. If you can't draw, paint, sculpt, carve etc you are not an artist. The real problem here is that talentless, prentious people are in love with the idea of being an artist, establishments like the Tate Gallery encourage it and provide lucrative rewards like the Turner Prize and then real artists have to pick up the pieces. For thoses who struggle to learn to draw, paint, sculpt whatever and have to make a living from it, these people are a real kick in the teeth to the effort involved. They errode and water down the real art world and encourage talentless people to be involved in a profession they should not be in. Having said that, I'd like to present my Turner Prize entry - imagine a white toilet, filthy inside from heavy use and no cleaning with a floater swimming on top. I have entitled the piece "Behold The Truth of Conceptual "Art"" It's a surefire winner.

This rant could extend into many other areas of modern life to - a mothering government which doesn't let you discipline your own children, simplified exams at school and university levels, television (big brother?) and media (celebrity gossip - who gives a crap about what dresses so and so is wearing), sport (cheating, use of steroids) its just a whole watering down of our way of life and we will be weaker for it.[/rant]


Onto the subject of sculpting. Thuggorre is approaching near completion one side of the front body to do, some additional details on the back of the cloak will be added after baking ( a chain attached to some heads and skulls). Then I have the dreaded eye to do on this and the Cyborg demon (will do both at the same time). seem to have real bad artists block on eyes for some reason.  Also did some painting on the wereat assassin bust I did a while back. The fleshtones look quite nice and I am pretty pleased with how that is coming.


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