I have nothing against abstract expressionists

[crookedeye]

OK, the last time I posted an actual written paragraph, I revealed my credulity with the assumption that the Walter Sickert thing wouldn't have been on the news if there wasn't any actual hard evidence implicating him. I guess I should have known better. Anyway, since I have some time to spare I am once again risking the act of actual writing. But maybe I can minimize the damage by using someone else's words. So here are some Brad Holland quotes that I found kind of funny.

"In traditional art, craftsmen worked within certain conventions. Occasionally, those conventions were redefined by acts of genius. In Modern Art, everybody has to redefine art all the time. That might have made our era another Renaissance, if there had been an explosion of geniuses in the world."

"In Modernism, reality used to validate media. In post-Modernism, the media validate reality. If you don't believe this, think how many times you've described some real event as being 'just like a movie.'"

"Twenty-five years ago, I was part of the hippie press. Like many others, I believed that the personal was political. On one level, my generation succeeded. We married art to politics. At first, this was good. It brought the ambiguity of art to public debate. Nevertheless, increasingly, as artists exploit political themes to call attention to their superior morality, I've concluded that we misjudged the long term risks--that we might produce a community of artists with no more integrity than politicians."

"Political Art expresses the cliches you agree with, unlike propaganda, which expresses the cliches you don't."

"'Sometimes You Gotta Break the Rules': not enough people appreciate that the philosophy of Modern Art can be summed up as a Burger King commercial."

"Commercial Art: Anything done by an artist with a cash register by the door. Commercial Art is traditionally delivered to a client in a brown paper bag with an invoice stapled to the outside."

"Futurism: This was a movement by intellectuals who wanted to replace tradition with the moder world of machinery, speed, violence, and public relations. It proves that we should be careful what intellectuals wish for, because we might get it."

"Abstract Expressionism: After World War II, the United States emerged as the world's superpower. American companies like Cities Services and Esso, which had once been regional businesses, became international corporations. They adopted abstract names like 'Citgo' and 'Exxon' to give them world-class status. Because multinational giants couldn't have little pictures of red barns or weeping clowns in the lobbies of their Bauhaus buildings, Abstract Expressionism emerged as the world's most overrated form of interior decoration."

"Surrealism: An archaic term. Formerly an art movement. No longer distinguishable from everyday life."

-Brad Holland, The Education of an Illustrator