I know I have been a big ball of blah de blah and doom and
gloom regarding the art world of late, sorry about that. This is all still on my mind and being
affirmed by recent articles like Jerry Saltz’ Saltz on the Death of the
Gallery Show in New York Magazine and
Nicole Klagsburn’s closure of her gallery space and the reasons why she is
doing so. Even though things like
the above makes one feel less like a lone crazy person on a sinking boat in one’s
mind, it doesn’t give relief, it just compounds it all. The only way to shake oneself into a
better mental art space is to change and refresh one’s personal relationship to
art, whatever and however that may be.
I have decided to try to do this, in a concerted actual way versus a
thought only way. The first step
in this art rejuvenation regime, for me, is to actually see some art. Contemporary art of late has been
making me go gag-blah so I am taking baby steps to get myself realigned. This past weekend I went to The Frick
Collection and it is a place that makes you think things and puts contrast to
what is happening now. I was
expecting it to be an all posi sort of art acclamation but surprisingly it made
me think more about this whole art game and how important it is for
contemporary art to actually exist and how things of the past and the things of
today are inextricably linked.
The Frick Collection is in a grand home that houses the art
collection of steel industrialist Henry Clay Frick (1849 – 1919). The house was built in 1913-14 and the
collection was opened to public viewing in 1935. The building is a capsule and is reverently attended to. The first floor is open for viewing and
they are a series of rooms that you could imagine being used for their original
intended purposes. A salon for the
ladies, a salon for the men, a dining room, a grand hall, a library, an
interior fountain and alcoves for retreat. In these there is a preservationist display of architecture
and interior design. The opulence
is at once vulgar and impressive and is specifically dated but you can see how
these sort of interiors are still symbols of affluence in suburban
reconstructions. The rooms in
themselves are stages and sets for the art that is on tables and walls. The paintings are impressive. They are displayed in a cluttered
fashion but this serves the purposes of it being for the en masse. Some of the paintings are the best in
the world. Goya, Velázquez, El
Greco, Constable, Gainsborough, Rembrandt, van Eyck, Vermeer, Hals, Ingres, and
so many more. It is a textbook of
some of the greatest painters that ever lived and it is astounding and
overwhelming to see them all in one place. Some of the paintings capture you more then others. There is an eerie presence of the
people that are painted or are standing in as someone else. Their eyes seem to follow you and
almost seem to be awaiting a reply to a conversation between you and them. I will not go into specific works here
and the whole viewing experience of the Frick is something that must be
experienced first hand.
What was interesting in experiencing this for myself on this
trip was how familiar and “now” it all felt. The people, the faces, the clothing and the style is very
much about a time but the essence of what is being rendered and the capturing
of a time and a person felt so relative to today. So much of art is about reflecting a time. In these portraits this is done by who
the artist is and the person being painted, who they are, their status, their
class, and their significance.
Also thoughts of money come oozing out of these works. Who paid for them, either the sitter
themselves, their husbands, their lovers, a church, a patron; they all exist
because someone paid for it to exist.
There are a few that are self motivated of course, most resonantly
Rembrandt’s self portrait, but still even with this one thinks ‘money’ because
the ability to buy such a work is mind boggling.
Walking through the collection was annoyed by the glut of
other visitors. I know that that’s
the point of this place but I most enjoy viewing art alone or nearly
alone. What was interesting about
the crowds though were the remarks by many visitors that I think reflects a
common response by those viewing this sort of art. “Now, that’s really nice, that would go great above our
couch, don’t you think so honey?” “Yes, we should get us one of those.” Said a middle-aged couple about a
Constable landscape. Yes, mildly
horrifying to overhear but also exactly natural and on point with how art is
viewed by many, and in the end, these people were right on mark. These works are in a home. Just not theirs. They are in the home of a very wealthy
person who could purchase it and then put it above their couch.
This is where most art goes. Back then and today.
It goes into people’s homes, and in some steroidal ways into private
collections that the public is given access to. This is a generous thing for sure. Really to see so much amazing art at one time is fantastic
and inspiring, but seeing the affirmation of how wealth is the enabler of this
access makes things very complicated.
This is when it becomes clear the ways in which art is
viewed, shared, valued and preserved.
There have been various attempts to react to, respond to, and to thwart
this, for instance take all of conceptual art or the early intentions of earth
works, but even that, even those efforts were purchased, commissioned and
reigned into the market. This is not
a bad thing. It is just the
thing. It is the way it has been
and always will be and seeing this at the Frick made it all seem leveled. Like a wave of fact that washed over
any vague ideas of revolt against these sort of structures.
Let’s get back to the art a bit. I was talking about the paintings, the portraits, and
although this form is not being done so much today, it is very much a part of
many things being made today. The
idea of a presentation, or a representation, is what comes to mind in the
then-now connection. The styles of
the master paintings at the Frick are painterly and representational. They are
staged moments and poses that are held to solidify a desired presentation. This is being done today in the way
images are being recontextualized in various medias and even through new forms
of abstraction. Many artists today
are re-presenting cultural symbols, celebrity and consumer icons as a means to
make a presentation of our time.
They are also stylizing it so that it become about value, about taste,
and to reflect a style that is “now” even if referring to things from the past
in both form and content. There
are perhaps more layers involved in the final works of today but in the end it
is a capsule for an age and are cues of worth and showing a specific hand, even
if no contact is made to the surface.
Many contemporary artists and contemporary viewers should
take time to view works that are at the Frick and are like what is at the Frick
as it reveals our constant desire to capture ourselves and to preserve even
with the knowledge of oblivion.
The simplicity of the portraits, not in the ways made, but in the
content presented, is also very challenging to see in contrast to today’s
art. There is so much to see in
the singular and the directness of these faces and scenes depicted. Many more questions were produced on
returning the gaze of one of these portraits then in some of the most
abstracted or disjuncted images that abound today. Looking back onto something from the past has a whole other
bag of connotations and psychology but the ability for some of these works to
retain their pull hundreds of years after creation is something rare and should
be sought out, and I believe, is still possible with the art being made
now.
Going to the Frick made me feel complicated things and it’s
all a jumble in my mind still.
Money, power, preservation, class, access, necessity are doing solar
plexus punches in my mind. In the
end though it makes it all seem beautiful and to be able to see some of the
pieces that reside in such a rarified space makes one realize that as long as
there are people, there will be art and yeah, they don’t make them like they
used to but that’s not the point.
Things that are masterful are not limited to a certain time. They can happen now or tomorrow and it’s
not about how it gets there or who bought it but about knowing it when you see
it.
