Thursday's Stupid Art

I would truly LOVE it if some art critic/professor/curator would PLEASE explain to me what's going on in today's art world. Each Thursday night, rain or shine, cold or hot, I trudge around Chelsea looking for some semblance of "good art." This means (to me at least) something that looks like it actually took some amount of technical skill and a knowledge of composition. Is that too much to ask? But, most nights I find myself walking back to the A train, scratching my head in disbelief of what's actually hanging on the walls of most galleries in Chelsea. The galleries are crowded with people staring at these paintings and sculptures, rubbing their chins as if to contemplate what the artist was trying to convey. I'll tell you what I think, I think the artists are laughing, all the way to the bank. Laughing that anyone is buying this crap, that anyone actually believes this is good or took any talent to create. Ninety-nine percent of what I see on a Thursday night could easily be done by the average 8th grader.... Such bullshit. 

Above: Luc Tuymans... Dull, lifeless, muted boring paintings. I asked the woman at the front desk how much the Tuymans were. She looked annoyed and said reluctantly, "Around a million." I paused for a second, and with a raised eyebrow and with a nasty tone of disbelief I said, "Really?" She just stared back at me with her own nasty look and a short, "Yes. They are."

Above: Stephen Pusey's redundant desire of being Jackson Pollock. Same thing over and over using different paints.... Yawn.

Sol LeWitt. When I see these I can't help but think that the second old Sol died, whoever was in his studio scrambled to find whatever they could with his name on it. Looks like a remnant of wallpaper and a signed piece of torn white paper. Surely no one would really call this art... well, no one with any taste or common sense.

I won't even acknowledge a name of these painted baseball-like balls. Stupid.

Giorgio Griffa, "Fragments 1968-2012." Childlike, unrefined, uninteresting and just plain stupid. You'd think in 44 years the guy would learn how to paint.

Stephanie Gutheil. I'll give her points for technical achievement but aesthetically speaking it was tacky garbage.

At least "art-pal" Iris found this piece interesting. 

Giorgio Griffa. Take a folded (no, don't even iron out the wrinkles, Giorgio) piece of cheap burlap, paint some yellow, pink and blue lines on it--brilliant! This is a joke right?