[Leica] More about art

[lrzeitlin at aol.com]

 	I know you are sick about hearing me rant about art but I just had to get this off my chest.


	I was asked by the editor of the Poughkeepsie newspaper to write a review of a modern art show at the Garrison Gallery featuring small images suitable for hanging on a living room wall. This is an important venue. The annual International Photocentric show is held in this gallery. The big prizes attract photographers from all over the world.
	For once words failed me. For those of you that have been members of the LUG for a decade can appreciate that this is a rare occurrence. Forget impressionism, expressionism. colorism, and all the other neo-isms of recent art, this was the least artistic show that I have ever seen. There was not a single painting that I would deign to put on my wall. And I'm pretty liberal about what I consider art. The featured work was a 20 inch square painting of solid black mounted on foam board in a 26 inch square frame. The price was $7500. To make matters worse there was an almost identical painting by another artist priced at a mere $7000. Another nearby painting was a featureless cream white rectangle.
	I shudder to think what the Photocentric show will look like if the same jurors select the photographs.
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Larry+Z/Garrison+Art.jpg.html
	For those of you unfamiliar with Garrison, it is a small affluent town on the banks of the Hudson River about 60 miles upstream of NYC, just opposite of West Point. The buildings haven't changed for over 100 years. It is the place where the exterior scenes of "Hello Dolly" were filmed.
	Larry Z