Previous: PSiNE - Women and flowers (10)
Begging off
Post #852 • August 15, 2006, 6:03 PM • 24 Comments
Eh, I got obsessed with a grant application today. I'm gonna go paint. Tomorrow we got a PSiNE wrap up, Thursday is Cultivating Virtue: the Chinese Stuff, and then the Friday roundup, which hopefully won't suck this week.
2.
August 16, 2006, 12:18 AM
No Jack, sensitive person found emulating Leonardo in a Kendall garage.
3.
August 16, 2006, 12:23 AM
local art professor found dead in portland museum.....
modernism officially over!
"good" art saved!
4.
August 16, 2006, 7:00 AM
Maybe it is true....I heard that Britto picked up his great painting skilz while studying at UM. I hear they have a great painting department.
5.
August 16, 2006, 8:02 AM
The painting area at UM is indeed excellent, Maybe, but I don't think any Brito skilz were taught there. Certainly not in my time.
6.
August 16, 2006, 8:31 AM
I KNOW... i walked by Britto Central (that would be the name of his store on Lincoln Rd, btw) the other day, and there was a big dot painting in the window; I was like, wtf?!
It's square, rotated to a diamond shape, and covered very much Hirst style with dots, except that the dots are bigger, and the colors not as well selected (lots of primary red/green/blue), and arranged kind of like the holes on the screen in the window of a microwave, rather then a regular grid.
I think it's fair to say that whatever charm, such as it is, that people found in his previous work, is absent from these. The fact that he's borrowing from Hirst is a bit disturbing, though (and but please save your "theyre two peas in a pod" nonsense).
7.
August 16, 2006, 8:56 AM
Are you implying that one of them would be denigrated by the comparison, Alesh?
8.
August 16, 2006, 10:31 AM
It's so funny that this Britto painting is being mentioned, because I noticed the other day that two edges were painted black and two were a continuation of the painting, wrapping around the sides. I think it was originally meant to hang in the square which wouldn't have revealed the black that was painted on the top and bottom (of the edges). A discovery akin to "I know what you did", but wouldn't have thought twice about it until the piece had been mentioned in this forum.
9.
August 16, 2006, 11:11 AM
I saw the thing while on my way to the Art Center next door on Lincoln Road. Britto Central always makes me think of an upscale car showroom. I toyed with the idea of going in and wasting the salesperson's time to ask the price of the dotted wonder, but I figured it wasn't worth the trouble (or the risk of being seen in there and being taken for somebody even remotely interested in the stuff).
10.
August 16, 2006, 11:35 AM
Don't be jealous just because Romero Britto can live off this work while most painters cannot.
I believe when you begin the think that he is an actual painter making art is when you get tripped up.
He does not even make these objects. He has a factory of underpaid art students stenciling shapes and appling paint.
I feel sorry for the people who get fooled into believing they are purchasing fine art. But hey, if they like it and want to live with this stuff more power to them.
Discussing Britto in a forum such as this validates the stuff as actual ART.
At best it is faux art. but hardly.
11.
August 16, 2006, 11:50 AM
"Discussing Britto in a forum such as this validates the stuff as actual ART."
Yup.
12.
August 16, 2006, 12:43 PM
I think the Britto phenomenon cries out for psychosocial investigation. When you consider the very serious prices that fools, I mean unenlightened people are paying for his stuff, we're talking about real pathology, or visual retardation, or something along those lines. It's fine for stupid stuff to be ridiculously popular; that happens all the time, but this is not like a Chia pet you buy at K-Mart. How can anybody fork out big bucks for something like this?
13.
August 16, 2006, 1:32 PM
Nice one, Redneck... local art professor found dead in portland museum..... was a pretty funny headline (the rest of the comment was lame, though).
14.
August 16, 2006, 4:31 PM
And they have now corrected it with the usual elaborate apologies, ressurected me and told me what painting it was, which I didn't know. All's well...
15.
August 16, 2006, 4:33 PM
That's "resurrect" of course. I am such a lousy speller.
16.
August 16, 2006, 5:30 PM
Re #10, Britto is by no means alone in having hired help and/or a factory system of production. Warhol immediately comes to mind. And Hirst. And Koons. And assorted other serious artistes, I mean artists.
17.
August 16, 2006, 5:38 PM
OP, I guess you never had one of those really old-fashioned, stern, starchy English teachers who didn't go in for literature much (too impractical) but treated grammar and spelling as life-or-death concerns. I did. Her name was Miss Brooks. I still remember having to dissect sentence after sentence into each of its components, diagram them, and identify and understand their function. She was not a fun person, but she meant business, and she was serious about her work. Worked on me.
18.
August 16, 2006, 7:50 PM
Worked on me.
Whoa, Jack... what happened to the subject of this sentence?
19.
August 16, 2006, 8:06 PM
Well, Marc, I've become, you know, more stylistically sophisticated since grade school. Sort of like becoming a metrosexual (well, strictly speaking, anyway--I do live in a metro area, after all). I allow myself certain liberties now. But I still can't stand it when I make a typo or (the horror) actually misspell something (if I have any doubt about spelling, I get the dictionary).
20.
August 16, 2006, 11:55 PM
I have a twofold problem, Jack.
First, I get impatient and just want to put the comment up, and don't pay attention
Second, I might have any doubt about the spelling.
Yes, I had a teacher like that. her name was Miss Fink. No kidding. My problem there was that I was by far the best speller in the class because the other kids were so dumb, so they gave easy tests.
21.
August 16, 2006, 11:57 PM
That is I might NOT have any doubt about the spelling.
Time to hit the sack.
22.
August 17, 2006, 6:58 AM
Warhol, Hirst and Koons employ assistants, yes
but there is still no comparison with Britto.
The mere mentioning of Britto's name on this forum is ridiculous.
Warhol, Hirst and Koons although not my favorite artists are at least in my humble opinion are making artistic creations worthy of a passing glance.
Burrito is a hack, a successful lame waste of time.
I'm done.
23.
August 17, 2006, 11:36 AM
It should be more than clear that nobody here takes Britto's work seriously. He was brought up because it was a slow summer news day, so to speak. The real issue, however, is that just as some people take him seriously to the tune of serious money, the exact same thing, in principle, happens all the time on an even bigger scale with "real" or "serious" artists. The Hirst shark, and the $12M or so paid for it, is an obvious case in point. The psychology behind that sort of behavior is both fascinating and disturbing, and it has a great deal to do with the state of things in the art world.
24.
August 17, 2006, 1:42 PM
And the Britto would be just harmless, colorful wall filler, while the shark is a nauseating, rotting mass of pickled meat that needs constant upkeep and cost 12 million dollars.
If I had the choice I'm afraid i would have to take the Britto.
This art business of ours is really out of control. That $12 million shark may well go down in history with Tulip Mania and The South Sea Bubble as one of the great historical examples of human waste.
1.
Jack
August 15, 2006, 10:57 PM
This just in:
Britto has taken up dot painting, and if you thought Damien Hirst's dot paintings were lame...
I know. It's not much of a news item, but it's summer. In Miami. What do you expect, "Lost Leonardo found in Kendall garage sale"?