Modern Art's Fleeting Arguments
Art critic Terry Teachout on his blog About Last Night:
On the other hand, I also don’t believe in expressing broad-gauge opinions about artists based on insufficient experience of their art… More often, though, I realize that it was necessary for me to grow into a fuller understanding of a work of art to which my powers of comprehension were not at first equal. |
But the Emperor does at times have no clothes on.
One case in point. Olitsky's Patusky in Paradise is a lush, ephemeral spray-gun painting. Part of his objective is to produce pure color – and no form. At the same time, he seems to be referring to his renaissance ancestors with his almost invisible ‘chiaroscuros’- light and shades – by changing the density of the sprayed paint.
Yet, despite his work's intellectual sophistication and
beauty, it is difficult to find any added layers of meaning and significance. Patusky in Paradase feels like an iridescent piece of silk fabric left behind on a tailor's table.
Compare that with the real renaissance master Leonardo’s intricate study of the inner workings of cheek muscle tissue to produce that uncanny Mona Lisa smile.
