Takashi Murakami at Le Château de Versailles

There seems to be a trend among contemporary pop artists lately: attempting to inseminate their image into the past - perhaps, with the goal of somehow giving some historical relevance to their work which extends beyond vapid, desultory references to pop culture and 20th century Art history. Perhaps they are subconsciously aware that if you remove all the context, their work has little, if anything to say on its own. Thus, because it only embodies what is projected upon it, speaks only to its own time. It is nothing more than a manifestation of the particular biases and fashions of its day and when these biases and fashions change, will one day be merely a name and a picture in an Art history book. It will likely be regarded with embarrassment in much the same way we look back upon an old year book photograph of ourselves in our "Miami Vice" phase .

Like his American counter-part, Jeff Koons in 2008, Takashi Murakami has mounted an exhibition of his opulent, pop-psychedelia in the Château de Versailles in France. And in some ways it's befitting for the two Art stars to exhibit here. Like the French Aristocracy before them, both Koons and Murakami have built their empires on the backs of the lowly peasant workers, exploiting their skills, resources, conspiring with other aristocrats, and manipulating markets. And Murakami's work, unlike Koons' more minimalist sculpture, does meet the copious extravagance of Versailles with its own exaggerated theatricality. But the accord ends there. The architecture and frescoes of Versailles, even with their Rococo superficiality, display a relative sea of content and gravitas compared with Murakami.

In fact, I can only glean a single message actually conveyed by the work itself, glistening beneath the surface of the tepid kiddie-pool that is Murakami's exhibition:

Let them eat cake.

Historical Revision and Conservatism

A recent article in the Reader Supported News reveals something that is not news to me: that the kind of historical manipulation routinely practiced by Glenn Beck is spreading to actual politicians in the conservative party. (Seriously guys, I respect conservative ideology, but this guy is making all of you look like morons. Please find a conservative intellectual to support!) Now, certainly, the left has had its fair share of people trying to rewrite the facts in order to support their arguments. But the conservatives are taking it to a completely different level. There's a difference between Historians debating the meaning and sometimes facts of history, and a politician attempting to eliminate inconvenient events or flat out changing them. Ever read Orwell's 1984? Isn't that what Big Brother did? This is something we should be wary of, especially today, with the pervasiveness of the Internet, everyone can blur the lines between fact and fiction. And perhaps this is why we have so many misinformed people out there. Journalism and fact checking is on the decline and the gluttony of information to sift through is increasing.

However, this tradition is not just limited to politics. Art historians have been practicing this for hundreds of years and have put forth a tremendous effort in the 20th century to do just that. Take for example the linear concept that all of Art History is merely an evolution culminating in "Jack the Dripper"... Something drilled into your head in every American University. And by a funny coincidence, post-modernism is now the conservative stance within the Art world (don't believe me? Think of Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami) - another reason we must balance the Art Oligarchy with a rational system of evaluation based on universal and more objectively measurable criteria: beauty, skill, humanism (communication and emotion). Which makes us figurative artists not conservative, but revolutionary. Perhaps the political establishment would benefit from the rational revolution as well?

What was Lost

My job at Jeff Koons' studio comes with many benefits. Not the least of which is it's location in Chelsea, and proximity to over 500 of the most successful galleries in the world.

And so, my lunch breaks are taken up with lengthy constitutionals accompanied by my good friend and colleague Adam Miller. Last Wednesday, the galleries of choice were Stricoff and DFN, two on my list of possible venues for my work because both show several artists who also graduated from the New York Academy of Art. It was at DFN on this fair day (well actually rather dreary), that we came across the haunting work of Dan Witz.

This is a man after my own heart. His soulful use of tenebrist light could stir the sentiment of even the most cynical gallery goers. They depict seemingly meaningless and forgotten moments in such a way as to point out what we might have missed along the way.

The school crossing might be the moment long ago in early September, when I drove home from rehearsal for the high-school play, exhausted and proud. The ice machine is the half remembered acquaintance once met on a midnight road trip from some anonymous place to another. Lit by the buzz of gas station lights, he is familiar to my dreaming. And this woman I perhaps recall from a single glance, checking a voice mail as I walked by a restaurant in pursuit of my own thoughts. These too are companions to history and are worthy of remembrance. These are the moments which, once forgotten are lost to eternity, yet coalesce to form our existence. These too are the fabric of our very lives.

Deconstructing Deconstruction

Micheal Jackson and a monkey - "Jeff Koons"

What would you say if I told you that there was an insidious dark ideal infecting the art culture, the very belief structure of which is paradoxical? It is a faith of non-belief and it is merely being accepted, not challenged, as the only system of intellectual thought. All else is dismissed as "kitsch". And not surprisingly, this movement "appropriates" (bastardizes) all forms of "kitsch" for the purposes of pointing out its futility. The acolytes of this dogma tend, in the arts, to hide behind irony as a shield for a lack of quality, content, or emotive integrity. A prime example of such an "artist" is Jeff Koons (above), who passes off other people's "craft" as his own, and whose only discernible product is shock value. - "He says with a sardonic grin."

"To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation." - Yann Martel, The Life of Pi

What is this philosophy of doubt of which I speak? Why, it is nothing more than an abstract categorization called "Post-modernism": a single label within the structure of philosophical theory meant to categorize the idea of the negation of structure. (Sounds like a paradox, no?). One of the main premises of post-modern thought, and the one for which I have the most criticism is the idea that all experience, all life, everything is essentially meaningless. This stems from the deconstructive thought of Heidegger , Kierkegaard, and Derrida,
further complicated by Schroedinger and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.
However, I view uncertainty and probability as something separate from negation.

This absurdist philosophy or rather, nihilism, is a process and not a conclusion, just as deconstruction is a process and not a conclusion.

In the dialogue of painting one might see our contemporary era as a re-constructive era. Where the tenets of Derrida informed the deconstructive elements of post-modernism, the act of mimesis or the appropriation of “obsolete vernacular” is a sign of the discontents that our contemporary culture finds in the detritus of post-modern thought. Now we pick up the cogs and springs to reassemble them – to create order if only because we feel it is needed. We reclaim the mysterious origin of art – meaning. It’s interesting that we might confuse nostalgia with meaning, but does that make it any less potent, universal, or reflective of life? For that’s what art does… reflect life.

Obviously this is a weighty topic which could not simply be condensed to one listing... So,
this diatribe will be continued in later postings, so hold tight and please feel free to let me know your responses etc...

Richard T Scott
www.memoreejoelle.org