The emperor is rewarded for his creative nudity
Tomma Abts wins the Turner. For once, I don't think they will be burning the judges in effigy in the streets. Abts' work is boring and inoffensive rather than outrageous.This is telling for me:
She uses no source material and begins with no preconceived idea of the final result.
Well, erm, yeah. It looks like it. I'm going to say it because no one else will: an artist without ideas is not an artist at all; they are just someone daubing a canvas with paint. It's close to fraudulent. But in my view the Turner has been rewarding fraudulence since forever. It provides grist for fuckwits such as Adrian Searle, who are afraid to say "actually, there's nothing in it" because everyone is saying there's something in it.
Still, it could be worse. The other entrants were horrible, particularly Rebecca Warren. I love that the Tate considers her part of a "lineage" of sculptors (in the same way, one assumes, that Pollock is a direct descendant of Cezanne). Yes, she is. She is the direct descendant of everyone who thought sculpting looked fun but turned out not to have any ability at it.
I have a criterion for considering art good or bad. It's the "I wish" test. If I'm thinking "I wish I could have done/thought of that", I am looking at art. If I'm thinking "I could have done/thought of that", I'm probably looking at dogshit.
posted by Dr Zen @ 3:03 pm
10 Comments:
It would be hard to think of a more egocentric criterion for judging art. The trouble is, it opens the door to anything, because one person who reckons they could never "do" a Tracey Emin validates her as an artist, according to your standard.
I think you're being remarkably goat-brained about Pollock, as well as catty in bringing him back. Perhaps you and your father-in-law could find common ground on that score. In the meantime, I hope you'll join me in lamenting the fact that of all the names available, they chose Turner's for this god-awful pisspoor annual spectacle. Why not Stanley Spencer? Why not Aubrey Beardsley? Why not Flora Twort?
Grapes, you need to reread what I wrote rather than fixate on what you wish I had written. I wrote that I need to wish to have created something that I could not. That is never going to happen with Emin but happens with, say, Vermeer. Do you see? Of course it's egocentric. There are no objective criteria now that we've all become postmodernists. Anyway, one person's opinion only validates an artist in that person's opinion, innit.
It struck me that the pretentious prick who wrote Warren's blurb on the Tate's site had lit on the same notion you indulged in here. I thought that might tickle you. Failing that, troll you into crying about my "cattiness". Either way, a bit of fun.
True about Turner though. A fucking insult to the man, who would not have given houseroom to any of the shit that has won the award. Or to Mr Pollock, whom he would have correctly identified as a charlatan.
If I'm thinking "I could have done/thought of that", I'm probably looking at dogshit.
I understand "done that," but "thought of that?" You rate your thoughts so low?
People say that to Tracy Emin all the time: 'I could have done that.' She has a ready answer: 'Yeah, but you didn't.'
Arleen, you are also missing the point. The point is I could easily think of something as banal as sewing my lovers' names into a tent.
Pillock, if you want to reduce art to being the first to do something, no matter how dull the thing you do, that is your prerogative.
Arleen, you are also missing the point. The point is I could easily think of something as banal as sewing my lovers' names into a tent.
Ahh.
"She uses no source material and begins with no preconceived idea of the final result."
Not necessarily a bad thing. Max Ernst often said he had no idea what his painting would turn out to be before he started. And Gustave Moreau developed parts of his paintings using a form of what would come to be called Decalcomania.
No, of course it's not always a bad thing. But for me it was interesting that she said it because her paintings look entirely idea free.
I have to agree that there's an apparent lack of any ideas. She seems to use her method to "find" something with echoes of early 20th C Abstarction, and if it looks quite nice, then it'll do.
Exactly, Mr Zip. You might start with no idea where you're going, and strike on an idea in the process of making. That's okay. That's how many -- if not most -- writers would work. But with some artists I think it's quite apparent that the idea just never arrived.
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