I just got back from Spain,

where I saw some wonderful painting and architecture. I stood in front of Velázquez’ “Las Meninas” the longest I’ve ever stood in front of any painting. I almost broke into tears more than thrice. From Gaudí, what can I say? The man was simply a consummate and very heedful artist and architect. He built houses like you build temples. The Catalans have a very long, continuous, and distinguished history when it comes to the arts. I can’t blame them for feeling so different from the Spanish. It seems everything they do, they do artfully; very much like Indians.
I also visited as many contemporary venues as possible, in both Madrid and Barcelona, and there seem to be two mayor trends running through their art world. One which basically takes all North American post-modern assumptions as truth, and basically regurgitates all the shallow and mindless crap that galleries are dishing out at the speed of sound, and another one (the one to which I was able to relate more) which looks at all the work out there, and stops and asks questions and holds the work up the standards of the history of art (as opposed to holding it up to yesterday’s joke, or the latest issue of Vogue). This second “school” I find very lacking on our side of the Atlantic; except for maybe Jerry Saltz, and one or two critics at the NY Times. I wont even get into Art Forum!
I did notice a lot of funding towards new and incredible spaces, but very little work to fill them. The Reina Sofía Art Center’s permanent collection centers around the modern and post-modern, but lacks work by Jackie Winsor, Louise Bourgeois and Isamu Noguchi. That was a little disappointing. They are building a new wing as big as the old one and the old one is not even full! I did hear a lot of talk from artists about politicians using the whole space-building-for-the-arts scheme as a way to pursue political, rather than cultural, ends. But let’s get into the lowest point of the trip. Shall we? Hee, hee... The high points were too sublime for this format (would be nice to be a writer too), and besides, you should experience those for yourself.
I ran into an old friend over there, and we decided to meet during the week-end to catch up. He invited me to a gathering he was having with some colleagues, and I went. I met many people from his industry (video), but there was this Briton that particularly pissed me off. The first thing he asked me was what I did for a living (and then they get mad when we tell them about their ubiquitous class consciousness!). When I told him I was a sculptor (I should have told him I was an ice cream vendor, or something, just to see the confused look on his face), he said “Oh really? Do you know Jake and Dinos Chapman?” I said yes, not personally, I did. He said “Oh they’re really good friends of mine.” Then I told him that I had my issues with their work and most of the crap that Saatchi peddles (which is going to be worthless in 20 years anyway), of course, not in that exact order of words. Then I told him I had read some of their interviews and that they seemed like very capable intelligent thoughtful people, but that all that sensitivity is just not present in their work, unlike Damien Hirst who is AS dumb as his work. Then he said “Oh, it’s all a big joke anyway. Everybody’s doing it.”
When did I go to sleep, that I woke up in the middle of this idiotic French-Rococo nightmare? What kind of fluffy standard is that to hold art to? There are much better (not to mention cheaper) comedians out there. And what the hell is a joke good for anyway, if only a few dumb yuppies are the ones laughing? Last time I checked, art was the realm of skill, in both form AND content, not one OR the other.
After feeling stupid for having said that, he got personal,
“Well, do you make a living out of it?”
PLEASE, allow me to quote another teacher of mine here THE ART WORLD IS NOT NESCESSARILLY ART.
That orgy of consumption that we are presently experiencing is the market-side of the equation exerting an unprecedented, and undeserved, amount of influence over our conception of ART. The difference between a true artist and a cheap opportunist lies in their motives. I don’t have to tell you that. Go look at a Raphael, and then go look at a Michelangelo. Both were rich, and both were popular, but only one made art; the other one just made pictures. You’ll see the difference. If you can’t, heaven help you!
And BTW I don't make a living out of it, I make a life out of it.