Today to start off, was a strange day. But a lot of what i conversed and did today dealt with the question of beauty. Now beauty as we all generally think does not work in universal realms. In particular with art one often finds an approach to artwork as whether its beautiful or not. What we often don't question here is what dictates beauty. If beauty is power in our society, beauty always gets its way, and beauty more than how can beauty not be seen as a political, as a reflection on our ideals and direction as a society and culture.
Of course one can always argue that beauty is beauty and in no way shape or form should beauty be tainted by the questions of elitism and politics. But since were in the topic of art i beg one to ponder, who buys art, who sells art, and who makes art. The big million dollar sales that we hear of in art auctions are not being shared by the artist. The power and benefit there remains within those with power or better yet those with money. But i don't want to make this a question of money versus culture or whatever. My interest here is how beauty is powerful in our world.
I explore aesthetics in my work. And it is true beauty does get the attention and the allure.
Today i delivered a painting from the gallery to a clients house. As i drove up 41 to the north shore i kept glancing at my backseat and wondering why a painting such as the one in my back seat, of birds and spheres and dull in colors, was worth 12,000$.
I never finished this post. I moved on. Plus my Pugialis post above proves my points even more so.
The piece above is entitled Untitled ( Aesthetics) 2007
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