Chicago Art roplois :: Calling bad bad.

Having just attended Chicago's great art weekend, all that I can report is art nausea.

There was so much bad work being prominently displayed, that I feel the good work was overwhelmed in the quantity of horror.

It may be that it is currently politically incorrect to criticize art. When one is critical of `art' one is seen as being either ignorant or conservative and narrow minded and not open to `other possibilities.'

I think it is interesting that the same is generally not true in discourse about film or movies. A bad film is generally panned, and the general audience will vote with thier money as to the works success. The same is not true about `art'.

The singularity of a contemporary art piece generally gets it's value by the price willing to be paid for the piece. Many of the artist at the multiple shows had displays of `news' articles about the artist. Somehow this lends credibility to the artist and can create a paranoid insecurity for a person who might initially be turned off by the work.

I am not saying that aesthetic value should be based on democratic views,(as opposed to say the views of the hired publicist) since in general the masses are ignorant. But I do think that a consensus among an `informed masses' can and possibly should be taken into consideration for what is shown at shows such as these in Chicago. Perhaps there should have been screenings for what work could be shown. (I realize that the decision is made by the individual gallery owners who make judgments based on economics rather than on aesthetics- I am just arguing that the results of this system is painful.)

Worst of all, in my opinion, is that in many, if not most cases the artist know when they have created something that `doesn't work'. These artist use their justification that they are artist because they call themselves artist as rationale for believing that therefore anything they create is art. Someone needs to tell them that this is not so. Artist can create garbage that is not art- and they should know what garbage is- and not proudly display it.

And finally, as I finish my complaining- I think the shows should be held on separate days. The ground of the Merchandise Mart was not padded and one walks for miles and miles, hours and hours (added all up close to 20 hours to see it all in one weekend) - it was just too much.