What is art? (a.k.a. Incognito sucks donkey nuts) (1 Viewer)

mjp

Founding member
The Santa Monica Museum of Art has this annual...thing...called Incognito.

The idea, in a (donkey) nutshell is this: the museum solicits hundreds of artists to make small works, all the same general size. The artists sign the works on the back. Crowds of assholes jam the room and buy the art (every piece is the same price) not knowing who the artist is. Maybe they get a Joe Schmoe, maybe they get a work by some big time, famous artist. Carol has had work in this for the past couple of years and we've gone to it and it's such a horrible crush of raw greed, filth and ugliness that it is quite a thing to behold.

First of all, look at these ticket prices. Now those more expen$ive tickets get you a preview, meaning you can wander around calmly, looking at the work and see where the obvious good buys are. And some of them are very obvious because some artists only work in one style forever and ever and you can always see their art a mile away. So if you pay a lot of money, you can scope out the obvious prizes which gives you a leg up over the average sucker with his "cheap" $100 ticket. And that's only one of the many problems with this idiotic event.

exhibitions_gallery_file_1264408559.jpg


See those jerkoffs running into the exhibition? It's like the day after Thanksgiving at a Kentucky Walmart. Only the people are much bigger assholes at this thing. Ostensibly they are appreciators of art, but in reality they are smug, greedy west side pricks with all the manners and civility of a lunch table at San Quentin.

So the suckage breaks down thusly:
  • First idiots through the door obviously have the best pick of the crop.
  • Even if you have the same ticket as the first idiots through the door, you will probably have to wait in a long line to get in to the event. Long meaning up to an hour (or more).
  • To "buy" something, you hang a little numbered tag near the piece, go try to find someone working the show, then they come and write up the sale. But people get multiple tags, put them on things to "hold" them, poke around for half an hour then take their tag off the work they were "holding." Which makes it impossibly frustrating to buy something you might actually like.
  • Once a piece is sold they remove it from display! So if you are in that line for an hour, expect half the spaces to be empty when you get in. You don't even get to look at the best pieces, sucker!
I hate this thing all out of proportion to what it really means in the grand scheme of things (which is nothing), I realize that. But it is the annual summation, in the living, pushing, demanding, entitled flesh, of so much of what I despise about the art business, it's as if it were created just to get under my skin. Well, mission accomplished Santa Monica Museum of Art! Arrrrgggghhhh!
 
I hate this thing all out of proportion to what it really means in the grand scheme of things (which is nothing), I realize that.

Sounds to me like you hate it exactly the right amount. What a horror show.
 
Why in the hell would a respectable(?) museum want to imitate one of those stupid bridal shop promotions that wrap up the local newscast every once in a while ?

Please tell me the proceeds went to charity, even if you have to lie...
 
Why in the hell would a respectable(?) museum want to imitate one of those stupid bridal shop promotions that wrap up the local newscast every once in a while ?

And the answer is...MONEY! ;)
It looks like the Oklahoma land race. Remember to wear sneakers!
 
see, i think that event would be totally awesome IF it only involved local artists and imposed a rule that only artists whose average price-per-piece-sold over the last year was under $1000 would be invited. oakland has a pretty vibrant art scene, and i kind of wish a gallery would try to do something in this vein... eliminating the prospect of picking up an ed ruscha for next to nothing would eliminate a lot of the dumb prospecting and wanton greed that makes this event such a piece of shit.
 
"Consumerism is the myth that the individual will be gratified and integrated by consuming. The public fetishistically substitutes consumer ideals for the lost acculturating experiences of art, religion and family. The consumer sublimates the desire for cultural fulfillment to the rewards of buying and owning commodities, and substitutes media-manipulated undulations in the public persona for spiritual rebirth. In the myth of consumerism, there is no rebirth or renewal. And there are no iconic symbols to evoke transcendent truths.

While consumerism offers the tangible goal of owning a product, it lacks the fulfillment of other cultural mythologies. Consumerism offers only short term ego-gratification for those who can afford the luxury and frustration for those who cannot. It exists as an incomplete and inadequately engineered system of values substituted for a waning cultural heritage."

http://www.westland.net/Venice/art/cronk/consumer.htm
 
Please tell me the proceeds went to charity, even if you have to lie...
"Proceeds directly support the Museum." If you consider the Santa Monica Museum of Art a charity, then I guess the answer is yes.

oakland has a pretty vibrant art scene, and i kind of wish a gallery would try to do something in this vein...
You should suggest it to one of them, because you're right, it could be a cool event if you took the suckiness out of it.

(note the scenes of a reasonable number of people calmly wandering around in the gallery with all the works on display were shot during the preview - there is barely room to bend over and tie your shoe when the thing is at its feverish peak).

Watch for this guy, who sums up the event perfectly:

niceglasses.jpg
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top