You know the rest. But it’s true, there is so much stuff out there that someone is calling “Art”, nobody can even know what is or
isn’t without a program. When the night janitors at the gallery trash your exhibit it’s a pretty good indication not everyone “gets it”.
It doesn’t have to be by a starving artist or your mailman’s cousin’s neighbor either. Picasso's Guernica, accolades up the ying yang,
valued at $200 million, I don’t like it. If you have to explain to me what your painting is, what it represents, you failed.
If you hand me that old, it can be what ever you feel it is, that means you don’t know yourself. Tell me it’s colors and shapes you liked,
I’ll check it out, I may like it too. Jackson Pollock I respect, he has pulled a scam Bernie Madoff would envy.
OK, just so you know I’m a troglodyte and where I’m coming from.
I saw “Collins Diner” by Ralph Goings and was very impressed, not with the subject matter, but because it’s hard to believe it’s
an oil painting. Evidently the knowledgeable people agree with me, touting it as the zenith of the Photo-Realism school.
Then I saw this painting by Peter Maier.
I couldn’t believe it’s a flat Aluminum panel painted with automotive water base paint.
I wondered if "fabricated" panels meant shaped but nope, they're flat.
He was chief designer at GM until 1980 then quit to do art and been very successful at it.
I suppose it’s a natural progression from my love of NC Wyeth’s works which weren’t sharply realistic like this, but I knew what
the hell he was showing me and they were exciting subjects.
Marshall McLuhan nailed it, “Art is anything you can get away with.”
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