Why does it seem that the most successful people are the biggest assholes? Latest example being Kehinde Wiley, the portraitist credited with painting Obama in 2018, who is accused by at least three people of sexual abuse and inappropriate touching. In other words, abusing his position as a prominent artist – which doesn’t seem like an isolated story given Chuck Close, Pollock, Rivera, Picasso, Gauguin – the list is long even when limited to famous visual artists. That he is being accused of abuse is not surprising seeing as Wiley is firstly a capitalist taking advantage of others – and a prime follower of today’s unfortunate art world successful artist trend of being mainly an art manager and marketer who seeks to exploit others for personal gain – in this case mainly Chinese artisans, who execute his works a la Koons or Warhol. He is an adherent to the modern principle of the “artist” not showing presence in their work and only being the ‘conceptual’ master behind the images he mass produces, markets and sells. And sure enough his ‘hand’ is invisible because he plagiarizes images from old masters then has his assistant(s) photograph ‘street’ people in the same pose and superimposes this over a decorative pattern also probably appropriated but definitely not executed by him. Kind of like having others manifest a photoshop collage you put together except in boring repetition. But hey it sells, right? Not my idea of art but it is definitely accepted today as legitimate. The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) jumped into the fray to defend the abusive asshole because several museums and galleries cancelled their exhibits of his work over the issue. For their part a group of those abused by the artist put out a joint statement saying that “…artistic merit, while significant, should not take precedence over issues of moral injury and human dignity.” I agree, at least as long as Wiley is alive and continues abusing his position of privilege it is only justice to deny him exhibit space by those professing an aversion to moral turpitude. Once he is gone, history may patiently pass judgement on whether the value of Wiley’s art, in the context of art history, surpasses the stain of his personal conduct. After all, many of the abusive artists mentioned here earlier who have passed away still hang prominently in major museums all over the world in spite of their conduct.
Tag Archives: art
Occupations and Protests
Seems like the late 60’s are back with all the protests at universities and elsewhere over the continuing genocide in Gaza by Israel. And the protests have now also come to encompass art exhibits, fairs, museums, and galleries. Also back is the right wing outrage and police/military over-reactions against these political protests. Hopefully nothing will escalate to the level of students being shot at by armed government forces over political discourse. Seems like the lessons of Kent State and Jackson State have been lost on new generations with many in authority calling for National Guard and police to forcibly eject protesters from their campuses when they are just peacefully occupying school grounds over a legitimate social issue. Not so legitimate is the illegal and endless occupation of disputed territory by Israel and the tactics they employ to displace and humiliate their Arab neighbors with the tacit approval or participation of their government. The Israeli occupation is terrorism and resistance to it is justified but they loudly cry antisemitism and terrorism when those oppressed take action against them. This is by no means meant to serve as an excuse for kidnapping or hostage taking. However, the Israeli state even cries about discrimination against them by anyone who vocally opposes their now theocratic, militaristic, and racist regime. Their stupid argument about entitlement to the lands through passages in mythological literature like the Bible is patently outrageous as was British partition of the territory through colonialism. All parties should immediately call for a ceasefire, appoint a commission to develop a viable Palestinian state, and free all the hostages and political prisoners. But to continue with the topic, much to my surprise, these anti-war protests have even reached the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, and as alumni I received official communication from them trying to justify violence against the protesters. Here’s what I have to say to present ‘president’ Tenny and ‘provost’ Berger… you’re a disgrace to your own artist’s freedom of speech and liberty of ideas by ordering police unto the premises with excuse of protecting students. Grow a spine and practice your own discourse of artistic freedom or close the school. Pay attention to the message of the protesters that it is time that international pressure force Israel to abandon their half-century old occupation, accept a Palestinian state, and aspire to be a true democratic model in the Middle East.
On Process Art
Those who know me have often heard me rant against ‘process art’ and its proponents. I am going to reprise those complaints with the end of 2023. So many art ‘hobbyists’ discover and follow a particular process for producing pieces and are ultimately deceived into believing it is art and that they are subsequently legitimate artists. Maybe this is brought about by the commercial success of their product as pure decoration or by inept and misguided peers’ adulation. The use of alcohol inks or acrylic pouring come to mind as prime examples of process disguising as unique art. You can find infinite examples of either process and their mostly identical image results with a simple computer search. If you are producing process art using such methods let me clearly tell you that no, you are not producing art – you are just following a process that results in a pretty object. Art needs meditation and purpose in how marks are applied and images are transferred from the mind to the surface. It is never enough to just depend on a process. Of course we all utilize ‘processes’ in order to transfer and realize images but these processes must be secondary to concept and interpretation, and hopefully invisible. For instance, the use of loading brushes with paint might be considered a ‘process’. The distinction is that the process must be slave to the artist and not vice versa. Artists also use processes to print and realize their images in multiples such as woodcut, silk-screen, lithography, etching, etc. but these processes are never the end in itself and have rather always been seen as legitimate vehicles for realizing personal visions – especially in multiples. The clearest modern example is photography – a technological process (machine) that permits individual personal expression but is dangerously close to being abused as a simple process. To further complicate matters we now have Artificial Intelligence (AI) art that is total process but has exponential expression built on communal or specific images from real artists. The distinction of personal vision from technological process has never been harder to distinguish as with AI and it embodies the same philosophical questions that photography once posed and dominated as the preferred machine process for generating images. Sure we can coax computers toward a personal vision, much like cameras, but where does it stop being a repetitive process and begin being the artist? I don’t think anyone can really tell and so we have widespread opposition to AI images as legitimate art. The best advise if you want to be an artist is to avoid technological tools and concentrate on the basics – handmade personal images using rudimentary tools. Mistakes derived from traditional media never seemed so comforting as when considering an alternative to pure process art.
Cuban-American Dichotomies
Two dueling versions of the art world were in plain view recently, specially for Cuban-Americans. In Florida on the one hand, we saw the spectacle of Art Basel Miami Beach 2021 (along with NADA and various other satellite shows) and in Havana the 14th Biennial – all in the midst of Covid-19 and the Omicron variant – as if anybody cared. In the southern heart of American capitalism, huge crowds of ultra-rich investors descended upon the stalls of the 1% selected galleries to scoop up commodified goods sometimes recognized as artwork by other narratives. The haul was in the billions of dollars for mostly blue-chip artists and galleries. Meanwhile, back in arch-nemesis Havana, the communist overlords trying to soften their image by using art as political propaganda had their every-other-year efforts to promote local artists ‘salir por la culeta’, or backfire spectacularly as selected citizens declined to participate or protested the exhibit due to the government’s suppression and jailing of other dissident artists. Miami saw the likes of pop stars Leonard DiCaprio and Adam Levine, casino mogul Steve Wynn, and many other VIP’s entertained with exclusive sessions where they could select their visual investments prior to the common hoards. In Havana, hundreds signed an open letter calling for a boycott that included the likes of Robert Storr (isn’t he just a critic living comfortably in the US?) while another letter from Human Rights advocacy groups including Meryl Streep called for the Cuban government to “…stop its unrelenting abuses against artists…”. As was to be expected, nobody signed any letters objecting to the commodification and institutionalism of the affair in Miami but rather gave tacit approval to the money orgy it represented. There were also no letters from artists calling for an end to the obscene ‘sanctions’ imposed by the USA on Cuba for over 60 years. Miami was awash in celebrities and publicity – it was the greatest of successes – while Havana was ignored or criticized and kicked down some more notches in the global art hierarchy. Somehow the balance doesn’t seem quite right in this equation of the art world between the two centers of Cuban American culture. Attribute these diverse attitudes to obvious regional economic and political inequality. Cuban artists in Miami were marginalized per usual while Cuban American artists in Havana were non existent. Most of this can be rationalized as a result of the highly politicized polarity of the two cities but shouldn’t art be held above that? In any case, the art world proves once again to be as disgusting as usual in its real manifestation on both sides of the Caribbean.