It was interesting to go to ART MRKT and see the work that high-end galleries and organizations pay to present. I couldn’t discern any theme to it all. One gallery was hawking Damien Hirst prints, such as a 2-D diamond-dusted print of his £50 million diamond-encrusted skull For the Love of God; the faint echo of a self-referential over-the-top critique of life and art is so powerless it insults the purchaser. Others were showing lesser works by California artists Diebenkorn, Jess, etc.
I couldn’t tell if canvases daubed with splotches were from 1950 or 2010. That feels strange for the quintessentially “modern” form of Abstract Expressionism.
Deborah Butterfield’s recumbent horse was astounding. Unlike her iconic upright horses that just amaze you with the horseness, the gentle whorl of bronze branches pulls you in before confirming it’s a horse. It’s one of the best small sculptures I’ve ever seen.
Kamoe, 2009 bronze 17” x 58” x 36”
Kamoe, 2009 bronze 17” x 58” x 36” Gallery Paule Anglim
UNDER CONSTRUCTION Other good stuff: Staprans colored still life like Degas but with colored edges, comically bad Kneeling Archer Bart in Chinese style, Chris Dorosz drips on acrylic rods forming tech sculptures, Patrick Hughes inverted perspective of painted rooms folded backward, Nemo Gould’s boxed dioramas.
