tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post1176252315049008964..comments2024-02-06T16:17:25.826+00:00Comments on THE GRĂNMARK BLOG: Why we'll never grow to love currently fashionable painters as we learnt to love the FauvesScott Gronmarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-64797978408356883612012-12-21T10:33:15.615+00:002012-12-21T10:33:15.615+00:00I tend to agree with you-that and the insolent sta...I tend to agree with you-that and the insolent stare of Caravaggio's Bacchus makes the teenagers all too real.Redemption for me comes in the glorious still-life in the foreground and repeated in Supper At Emmaus.<br />I very much doubt if centuries from now people will be discussing the art of Damian Hirst.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-71714641880332826922012-12-20T18:39:22.657+00:002012-12-20T18:39:22.657+00:00When it comes to buying books, I like to find appr...When it comes to buying books, I like to find approving reviews on the cover - but the approbation of art critics for modern works of art is usually a real turn-off: I suppose that's because I'm sceptical of the motives behind their enthusiasm.<br /><br />I'm pretty sure I'd have been appalled by Caravaggio back then - and, to be honest, I find some of his paintings featuring pudgy half-dressed working-class teenage boys hard to take to this day, no matter how brilliant his technique.Scott Gronmarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-73429979934321253262012-12-20T18:14:01.142+00:002012-12-20T18:14:01.142+00:00I couldn't wait for it to appear in Pseud'...I couldn't wait for it to appear in Pseud's Corner, so I read Jones's article - here is my favourite section: <br /><br />"Ghost is a cast of an entire room in an old-fashioned, perhaps Victorian, house. It is the solid trace of all the air that a room once contained. Empty space has become solid. Because it is solid, it is closed. Nothing can get in or out. On this side of the white surfaces of the massive block, engraved with negative images of fireplace, door, window and light switch, we wonder at the dark invisible silence within. Vanished lives, lost voices, forgotten loves are trapped in that fossilised room like prehistoric creatures in limestone."<br />Scott Gronmarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-67329117838393479012012-12-20T17:54:47.080+00:002012-12-20T17:54:47.080+00:00"Serotocracy" - what an excellent name f..."Serotocracy" - what an excellent name for the smug, self-regarding, publicly-funded liberal art elite who decide what we're allowed to like!<br /><br />I wonder when exactly it was that the arts establishment lost confidence in its own judgment - which I think is what our current frenzied neophilia stems from? Scott Gronmarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-79593250877408417722012-12-19T02:11:44.590+00:002012-12-19T02:11:44.590+00:00Courbet and astonishingly even Caravaggio were sco...Courbet and astonishingly even Caravaggio were scoffed at by the critics of their day for many reasons chiefly because of a perceived lack of refinement-using peasants as models,warts and all,and a new visual realism.<br />If I was a visitor to one of their opening exhibitions,I have to be honest with myself,and say that I would probably have agreed with the critics such is the power of peer-pressure.<br />The above artists and many others were generally true unto themselves.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-45778680643872590492012-12-17T00:34:13.917+00:002012-12-17T00:34:13.917+00:00If, on the other hand, you want an alternative vie...If, on the other hand, you want an alternative view, then Jonathan Jones in the Guardian on the subject of Rachel Whiteread, Britain's greatest living artist according to him, should suit very well. If you miss it on their website, I am sure you'll catch it later in Pseud's Corner.ex-KCSnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-4945717259714622642012-12-15T13:36:55.077+00:002012-12-15T13:36:55.077+00:00Like all your pieces on art and music, this is exc...Like all your pieces on art and music, this is excellent. I'd always regarded conceptual art as being a sort of self-serving conspiracy between the artists, gallery owners and critics to keep prices high, galleries full and controversy stoked. What I had never observed until you pointed it out was that this is a comparatively new trend.<br /><br />You are right. The 1906 Paris exhibition of these magnificent works by Matisse, Vlaminck et al was derided by the critics. The name comes from the quote 'comme Donatello chez les fauves", which was a critic's reaction when he spotted a piece of Renaissance sculpture in the middle of the beastly exhibition. <br /><br />There are some critics who have nailed the conceptualist con but those of us who regard it as such are certainly out of tune with the prevailing orthodoxy, or Serotocracy if we're looking for a name for it.ex-KCSnoreply@blogger.com