The PEOPLE'S painting
if...@my-dejanews.com
Have any of you british folks here watched the BBC program last night about
the ideal British painting? Well, these two famous Russian masters of
conceptual art, ex-Soviet non- conformists who now live in New York, Komar &
Melamed, on their trip to England did this wonderful act. Their idea - to ask
a variety people, as many as possible, and try to come up with the ideal
British painting, the PEOPLE'S painting , a reflection of the majority tastes
and views on art. They did it in conjunction with the Mori polls, they talked
to curators to find out what sells best - one was from the Halcyon Gallery
which is either in Selfridges or in Harrods stores, selling loads of kitschy
crap, they travelled to Scotland and met the Earl of Glasgow, they went to
Worcester and talked to a group of middle aged women members of local fine
arts society, they talked to a psychic, who was straight with them and said
that she likes to see blue, green and red colours in a painting and not to be
bothered with rest, they interviewed lots of different people... It was
hilarious. The result - 67% prefer recognisable realist painting, with a
landscape being a favourite subject, 59% love expressive brushstrokes (bad
news for Mani if he has plans to conquer England with his masterpieces), blue
being the favourite colour (what do you expect), then green...the abstract
being the least understood form of expression (bad news for me as I represent
some wonderful abstract artists).
The final painting was then presented to the group of people involved in the
survey and the art professionals. Actually they presented two paintings -
one, the least liked painting and the ideal painting. The first was small,
the size of a book cover, painted with grey, white, brown and black colours -
the subject - Christ on the cross in a sort of a cubist style, with many
sharp corners - you see, they all hate sharp corners and they hate religious
subjects (now that's bad news for Iian), and they don't like grey colour,
don't like small sizes, etc. The ideal painting - a landscape (what
else)masterfully painted(they had a good academic training back in the old
days in the USSR), with nice big brushstrokes, a country side with a river,
in it a happy family - mother father and TWO kids, an indiscreet figure of
W.Churchill, lurking from behind the couple (british celebrity),lots of blue
and green colours and the FRAME painted in blue, yes in blue!
The effect was shocking, some laughed, most were shocked and disappointed and
started to complain... Well, said one of the artists - you told us what you
liked to see in a painting and we painted it, this is YOUR painting, this is
what YOU deserve.
Back to real life now.
VEAL MEAT AGAIN
ifree
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Charles Eicher
> Hi there,
>
> Have any of you british folks here watched the BBC program last night about
> the ideal British painting? Well, these two famous Russian masters of
> conceptual art, ex-Soviet non- conformists who now live in New York, Komar &
> Melamed, on their trip to England did this wonderful act. Their idea - to ask
> a variety people, as many as possible, and try to come up with the ideal
> British painting, the PEOPLE'S painting , a reflection of the majority tastes
> and views on art.
Its old news. Komar & Melamid did this same research project in many
countries. You should see their website, which presents the same painting,
repainted to conform with each countries' preferences. It was quite an
elaborate website, you could click on a grid to get paintings expressing
almost any preference. I wish I had recorded the URL, but you can probably
find it with a web-search.
In any case, K&M are about 25 years too late. John Baldessari was doing
projects like this a long time ago.
----------------
Charles Eicher
cei...@inav.net
----------------
Iian Neill
> the ideal British painting? Well, these two famous Russian masters of
> conceptual art, ex-Soviet non- conformists who now live in New York, Komar &
> Melamed, on their trip to England did this wonderful act.
There is an old saying, although it may not be entirely appropriate here:
"It is easy not to conform when everyone else is doing that too."
> The result - 67% prefer recognisable realist painting, with a
> landscape being a favourite subject, 59% love expressive brushstrokes (bad
> news for Mani if he has plans to conquer England with his masterpieces),
This is a cowardly attack and does your own argument harm. Whether or not Mani's
work contains expressive brushtrokes, your comment was superfluous.
> blue
> being the favourite colour (what do you expect), then green...the abstract
> being the least understood form of expression (bad news for me as I represent
> some wonderful abstract artists).
Least understood - or least liked? There is a difference.
> The final painting was then presented to the group of people involved in the
> survey and the art professionals. Actually they presented two paintings -
> one, the least liked painting and the ideal painting. The first was small,
> the size of a book cover, painted with grey, white, brown and black colours -
> the subject - Christ on the cross in a sort of a cubist style, with many
> sharp corners - you see, they all hate sharp corners and they hate religious
> subjects (now that's bad news for Iian),
Why should I be concerned whether or not people despise religious subjects? I am
an atheist myself - I have no religious beliefs. Whether or not people dislike
religious painting is of no concern to me - it maybe of concern to those who
produces such work, however.
> The effect was shocking, some laughed, most were shocked and disappointed and
> started to complain... Well, said one of the artists - you told us what you
> liked to see in a painting and we painted it, this is YOUR painting, this is
> what YOU deserve.
This seems to have been a rather pointless exercise, from an aesthetic point of
view. It is obvious that people are going to have different likes and dislikes
when it comes to painting and sculpture - to attempt to please everyone will
result in pleasing no one. For a start, such work would have no integrity
whatsoever - it would be, by its nature, entirely sycophantic.
In any case, the artist's comment seems to be incorrect: the painting which
resulted is neither MINE nor YOURS - it is the sum of a statistical survey. One
might poll people as to what their favourite food is. It may turn out that an
overwhelming 80% of people love hotdogs, but does this mean that you should give
them to vegetarians? No, of course not. Therefore, it seems rather ridiculous to
claim that this "art" is anyone's at all - let alone the public's.
Regards,
Iian Neill.
if...@my-dejanews.com
cei...@inav.net (Charles Eicher) wrote:
> In article <6tq6c7$t3s$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>, if...@my-dejanews.com wrote:
>
> > Hi there,
> >
> > the ideal British painting? Well, these two famous Russian masters of
> > conceptual art, ex-Soviet non- conformists who now live in New York, Komar &
ask
> > a variety people, as many as possible, and try to come up with the ideal
> > British painting, the PEOPLE'S painting , a reflection of the majority
tastes
> > and views on art.
>
> Its old news. Komar & Melamid did this same research project in many
> countries. You should see their website, which presents the same painting,
> repainted to conform with each countries' preferences. It was quite an
> elaborate website, you could click on a grid to get paintings expressing
> almost any preference. I wish I had recorded the URL, but you can probably
> find it with a web-search.
Oops, old news then, sorry. I haven't actually found anything new in what
they did. Just thought it was relevant to post it as we had some heated
discussions here about the purpose of art and art for the masses stuff.
I've always looked at K&M'stuff as a comedy act rather than an art.
> > In any case, K&M are about 25 years too late. John Baldessari was doing
> projects like this a long time ago.
Well, I don't know about that, all I know that these guys were doing pretty
hot shit back in Moscow about 30 years ago.
if...@my-dejanews.com
Iian Neill <s36...@student.uq.edu.au> wrote:
> > Have any of you british folks here watched the BBC program last night about
> > the ideal British painting? Well, these two famous Russian masters of
> > conceptual art, ex-Soviet non- conformists who now live in New York, Komar &
> > Melamed, on their trip to England did this wonderful act.
>
Gotcha, Iian - I seem to hit the old wound
YOU'RE MISSING THE POINT
I'll try to answer point by point when I get some time and energy for it
best
ifree