First, there are some really excellent comments regarding the Whitney panel discussion rolling out underneath the video. Please read these and comment as you see fit there, or bring comments here.
Especially those regarding Carol Bove's thoughts on Mysticism being taboo in the art world,
also consider her exploring these dichotomies in relation to that taboo she brings to the table:
art =Sublime/banal
art = romance/political
art =consciousness and the emotional/ rational and theory based
Here are some other pertinent topics/ questions I have for you guys after watching it a few times and making notes.
First off:
1)
Laura Owen's is honestly questioning his work and expressing her thoughts and concerns regarding it and our culture surrounding it- she expresses that "she wants more, expects more from art- can't we as for more from art?" that she "doesn't actually see content in his work" (at least pertinent engaging, or generative content) and" without failure and humility- where is the person(al)?
This brings us to the current desire/cultural zeitgeist, perhaps obsession or even "fetish" of failure in art today- (as stated by Stephen Prina) however,
Prina states that, today "failure" is usually not happening- it is more like a symbol of failure, or a guaranteed failure, is being built in to current art making ( I would also argue especially in painting).
2)
What do you all think about failure in work now? We all embrace it, it as = sincerity,
but is the failure happening and being celebrated failure? It is sincere/ironic?
Be thinking about this when we talk about "provisional painting".
3)
Also, regarding the problem of Jeff Koon's early artwork shifting from questioning or commenting on society by using mixed messages to "totally affirming everything"
Is there "affirmation culture", and if so, what is it? How do you experience that? And how is it affecting our lives (is it affecting yours? is it not?)and how is it affecting artistic practice today, and has it before?
4)
any thoughts on the "post critical condition"?
5)
How about Celebrity?
And:
I have been deeply interested in the subject of of irony and sincerity, and the arguments between those and where they may or may not overlap, for many years. Exploring these positions can be very complex and enlightening, and we will read and discuss issues and crash points between the two in the future. Be thinking about this.
Don't feel you have to comment on every one of these topics but please choose at least 2 to focus on.
mys·ti·cism
ReplyDeleteˈmistəˌsizəm/Submit
noun
1.
belief that union with or absorption into the Deity or the absolute, or the spiritual apprehension of knowledge inaccessible to the intellect, may be attained through contemplation and self-surrender.
2.
belief characterized by self-delusion or dreamy confusion of thought, especially when based on the assumption of occult qualities or mysterious agencies.
Maybe we should eat preserves and play Taboo. I think that some of us embrace a certain unfinished quality in our work. But I dont think that we are celebrating failure... i think it is more a refutation of polish and the licked surfaces of the past. I do think that it can be seen as sincerity, playfullness and all that other crap but ....but sometimes artists use of sincerity is just a masquerade for their own ineptitude...ie....josh smith( hahaha). What the hell do I know.
I personally had a hard time watching this video. The use of jargon and art speak makes me want to force myself to vomit so that I might feel something after the talk had drained me of all urge to live or make art.
I do think that we live in a affirmation culture....
Self-affirmation theory contends that if individuals reflect on values that are personally relevant to them, they are less likely to experience distress and react defensively when confronted with information that contradicts or threatens their sense of self. from wikipedia and shit.
Confronting reality is not what our current society(Mericans) is any good at. Most people are too busy playing with their phones to ever question what they are experiencing. Koon's garbage fits very well into our time....all surface and completely hollow on the inside. Affirmation culture is......more to follow...
Nice Brian!
DeleteI actually like the work Josh smith was doing around a decade ago but then...he got famous...you are right...weird that ineptitude is a choice now. haha
I would agree with Brian on his thoughts of an "affirmative culture" to any kind of artwork, that the affirmation is a bi-product of our consumerist culture filled with technology and advertisements that entice us to buy things. People are only affirmed by what they can monetize as a purchase or to sell. I see that the use of "failure" in art making and art discussion is connected to our need for an "affirmative culture", because if it is failure and no one affirms it--well it was just a shitty painting. However, if someone sees a consumerist value in that work-- then wow-- you have now got yourself a "crapstraction" painting worth lots of money, and it just rains down dollar bills of affirmation of your painting. This is probably all a little cynical, but I think that the need for people to connect in such a real way (which is not happening because people are connected to their technology too much) has left them inept to create something meaningful. These little sincere and "what the hell I'll post it on instagram" attitudes is just a shot in the dark. The art world is recognizing that sincere need for community as real meaning, when all it means is big name gallery people need to follow more paths than just what the masses on social media think of your artwork.
DeleteI would also add a disclaimer that some failures are really just important moments of reflection for artists see into process. Many times though, the paintings that an artist hates might be the most successful and most valuable.
As I wrote in my comment to the video itself, I appreciated that Laura Owens was, in my opinion, the most honest about her thoughts on Koon's work. She expects more from art and I admire her guts in sort of saying, "Let's cut the b.s. and find it in ourselves to be and do better." As far as failure, I think that failures and mistakes lead to the best break throughs in work, as it teaches us the limit or maybe even that the "limit" was a figment of our own personal fears, does not exist and needs to be broken through. This is most often my truth. When looking at others' work, we see the breakthrough, but might not realize that this came as the artist tested the mistakes and made many of them. Maybe Olivia Gatwood, a young feminist poet I'm obsessed with lately, will write an "ode to the mistake". Look her up. She wrote an "ode to resting bitch face" and writes odes to all the things that society tells us to be ashamed of.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that Laura Owens brought up failure in relation to Koons' work, but I am not sure I fully agree with her position. I don't inherently link failure with a work's strength. I am interested in genuine or sentimental stances from the artists, but that is a preference not a marker of adequate content in general. And even then, I do think that you can talk about failure with Jeff's work but not necessarily in the same way that we might talk about a sentimental painting that has flaws and accentuates the artist's hand. I typically think of failure in relation to risk taking, and I think that Koons does this and that his work has flopped or experienced some kind of turbulence as a result. I think that his ambition when it comes to fabrication is risky and expensive and innovative; when he was working on the Celebration series he ran out of money and had to stop production until he could sell the works without them being finished. Does that mean that I like it or that it is filled with a ton of content/sentimental depth? Not necessarily. But I would say it was definitely a big setback, and a failure on some level. The Made in Heaven series was also hugely criticized ("Worst of the decade" - Michael Kimmelman, NY Times), so I don't really know that you can make an argument for a lack of failure or risk taking on some level. As annoying as Jordan was, I felt that he sort of touched on some of that humanity/failure/sentimentality of Koons that happens not in the work but with him as a personality/celebrity/emotional being, which I think can be overlooked when considering the hyper production that goes into his works.
ReplyDeleteConversely I think that the zombie formalists/casualists/provisional painters are obsessed with this idea of failure as Stephen Prina talks about it, but are not actually in a position to fail because there is no risk involved. I think what Laura Owens is talking about it an aesthetic of the hand made, which is different from failure altogether. This is my biggest quarrel with the zombie formalists - you can't actually fail if your painting is so consistent it its self-sabotaging modesty that no one would even notice or care that you failed, including you. I don't know that Laura Owens would be in favor of these types of paintings, but I don't think that this aesthetic dictates content as she seems to suggest in the video.