Thursday, July 5, 2007

Biennial Culture Shock


Jerry Saltz recently published an article on Artnet about the moribund Biennial Kulture (K is for KOOL)- which - not to my surprise, I found incredibly refreshing. My attention was drawn to this article by a blurb on the blog of a friend Christopher Jagers.

Here's a little snippet of Saltz's article:

You’re constantly darting in and out of crowds, glimpsing snippets of work, greeting and avoiding people, elbowing your way through throngs, waiting in long lines to spend six minutes in a pavilion with 700 other weary souls who perpetually ask one another, "What have you seen that was good?" and "Where are you going tonight?" You can’t really see anything.


What is the point of the exhibition if it's not about the art? It seems as if these Biennials have become much like the Cannes Film Festival: Everyone comes to the party but nobody sees the show.

Perhaps it's only a matter of time, as Saltz proposes, before this moribund and bloated system has a biennial coronary and dies.... twice.

Richard T Scott
Joelle-Scott Gallery

3 comments:

residente said...

Good Post

Denise Williams said...

Your article is very well stated. I admire your courage. What do you look for in art?

New York City said...

In my opinion there are three elements necessary in the creation of a great work of art: intelligence, passion, and skill. Only when these three chords strike a harmony which supports the content of the piece can it become a masterpiece.