Saturday, October 25, 2008

samedi à Paris

Yesterday Nadia and I visited more of the Fiac (Foire International d'Art Contemporain). It was our second day running. A bit demoralising (sp? i can no longer spell in either language correctly) for the more traditional artist. Mais, (but) the discussion here is really about concept. It is so complex as a discussion. What is art? Well, we have been discussing this for hundreds of years ... no?
It appears that the très riches are making serious investments (500,000 € to start)at a time where their other stock options begin to fail. In walking through the exhibit halls I was confounded by the work being shown. 20% I liked and really admired. Another 10% I could get my head around. The rest was a mix of highschool level dabbling, whacked out anger, conceptualized ideas of plastics and installations with very little to say about any deep concerns whether social, cultural, political, or emotional. How do we manage to invest so much in so little?
So I return this morning to a side street in the 20th arrondissement to a more fundamental and reassuring bit of art work...the regular street markets glorious in the eye of this beholder. The artistic ``concepts' of farmer and rancher...of earth, sky and water. There I will find once again a poetic demonstration of what keeps me going. Ah, the sweet beautiful basics...
Thank you to those of you who have addressed an interest in the blog, you travel these avenues and cafés with me. Any query is appreciated and I look forward to posting more photos when time allows. Grosses bisous!

2 comments:

DeusXMachina said...

"Another 10% I could get my head around."

This comment is of some concern to me, especially when coming from an artist. I do hope you are not over intellectualizing art. Should it really be a matter of getting your head around it, or simply letting it resonate (or not) with you?

Mina F. said...
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