Monday, November 2, 2009

Ah, the Art Market

In the NY Times, Carol Vogel writes that the fall art auctions are being dominated by "traditional" works, like, apparently, these paintings by Willem de Kooning (above) and Jean-Michel Basquiat (below), and several works by Andy Warhol. Imagine what any of these men would have thought of being labeled "traditional."
When the two weeks of big fall auctions start Tuesday evening, buyers will find traditional paintings, sculptures and drawings intended to appeal to today’s more conservative tastes.
Conservative! Carol Vogel doesn't know what conservative tastes are. I could give her an education in that. People with really conservative tastes don't like Basquiat. We like lovingly rendered portraits and landscapes, or, better yet, artifacts excavated from 2,000-year-old tombs.

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