Really proud of this one.
hyde or die
Mike Kelley Memory Ware Flat No. 48
I’m having a real “COME AT ME BRO” kind of day, and really not in the mood to curb my knee-jerk reactions. Josh Baer just made my list. I don’t even know if I can do this in full form sentences or if I’m going to have to bullet point it. It will probably be a bit of both. Thar she blows…
- I know that Baer thinks he’s doing something great for LA’s poor unknown unappreciated artists, even trying to explain it in the interview, but it all just comes off as “look at this new fun commodity I found when I was in LA and saw PST, artists from California is just such a quaint idea, no? I should bring it to NY and show my fancy auction house friends and we’ll all be interested in it for a while and then we can go back to important NY things.”
- “I would argue that….” means you think that you are the first person to have realized this, no one else is talking about it. No, not the case. And it’s embarrassing that you spent as much time here as you did throughout your life and you are talking about the Los Angeles art scene like you have only just decided to fight for it? WTF is up with that!?
- Not Californian. Really? REALLY?! But it is, right? That’s what you said. It’s about how valid we are. Is it Not Californian because a handful of artists that you actually respect have gained national attention and recognition? Is that Not Californian of them? Or is it Not Californian of you to be putting this show on at an auction house? Auctions aren’t Californian? I have issues when you don’t care to name your shows with more subtlety. If you refuse to explain yourself I will have to interpret it and then get mad about it on the internet.
- Also, while I love all the artists you have included, could you be more obvious/crude? Mike Kelley just died, have some goddamned respect. Throwing him in with everyone like we aren’t still mourning, like it isn’t worth noting, like he wasn’t as important, not only to us Californians, but to artists and people all over the world?
- The lack of originality, subtlety, education and care being shown with this “collection” is grotesque. Not even one ounce of passion is detectable.
UGH.
Mike Kelley Liberal Paganism1995
2 things:
- I’m still really upset about Mike Kelley
- I think this is the month I finally subscribe to Art Forum.
Mike Kelley More Love Hours Than Can Ever Be Repaid 1987 + Damien Hirst Genocide 2003-4 = Adel Abdessemed Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf 2011
“It seems to me that art has to be ritually separated from life in order to be art, so to talk about it as anything more than a mirror seems problematic.”
—
Strangely prophetic.
