Monday, December 3, 2007

Goodbye to the artists

New York City for decades has been a premier destination for painters, sculptors, dancers, and musicians from across the globe, but the city risks losing its artists if it does not provide subsidized housing and more exhibition and studio space to support the creative class, researchers warn.

New York in Danger of Losing Its Artists

Cities such as Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Chicago are experiencing an influx of young artists who say they cannot afford to practice their craft in New York, artists say. High-end condominiums are sprouting even in neighborhoods that are known as artist enclaves, such as the Lower East Side.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

if the guy that's drawing those simplistic circles in the photo represents the sort of "artists" that "New York is in danger of losing" than good riddance to the lot of them.

Queens Crapper said...

Now, now. Pollack dribbled paint on canvas and is considered an artistic genius.

Anonymous said...

true enough, but this guy, here, seems to be doing the dribbling from his mouth. ;)

Anonymous said...

artists ? decades ? subsidizing them would definitely be the laaaaaaaast straw over here.
we're so sick of looking at their bs cartoons painted on amtraks overpasses and alexiou paid for the 911 murals on 33rd street to be painted over with the biggest collection of crap this side of the atlantic--of course his daughters "memorial" was "restored but tribute to 2800+ individuals and 343 FDNY got covered up by bs,supposedly done by students from frank sinatra school---there wasn't a student to be seen and when one bitch painted mockery of the raising of the American flag on IwoJima---we had HAD enough of THEM and their "art." Man in charge stated that "the children want peace " when he was reminded that more than 6800Marines paid for that island with their lives and vallone was reminded as well--leading to the broad painting over the depiction but leaving the flower ...
they also destroyed the patriotic murals under the ditmars station with the same cartoons.betty boop,ufo's,etc.
Even cadillacman the homeless guy MOVED,as he is a vet.
i was sternly informed that this IS art by the director and artistes...

georgetheatheist said...

Hitler was an artist.

verdi said...

The artsy/fartsy crowd are often so self absorbed
with their own delusions of importance
that they usually fail to bother acquiring
any degree of business sense.

As a result, only a few manage to climb to the top.....
let alone be able to provide for themselves.....
except hand to mouth on a daily basis.

So they are like leaves
at the mercy of a swift running stream
which can carry them anywhere......
or at the whim of a ruthless expanding
real estate empire!

The artist is truly a Christ figure......
sacrificing his or her life for their works.

God help them!

Anonymous said...

Like it or not (the type of art portrayed....that is)
artists are needed for the creation of cities
(or the reclamation of neighborhoods).

The Medici family knew this
in Firenze and employed the "greats".

So Ho was a dump in the early 1960s.
It was the artists that transformed it
into the unaffordable piece of real estate
that it is today.

The sad part is.....those same artists
DID NOT invest their money there
(if they ever had any to begin with)
and were pushed out like transient
farm workers.

Yuppies do not, as a rule, CREATE
art, dance, music or culture.
They ONLY MAKE MONEY.....
and that alone does not make a city
a desirable place to live.

Anonymous said...

I spent my years in the ART MILITARY.....
an advertising agency....creating.....yes.....
CREATING.....world class ads
(while still getting my creative "cookies" off).

The result is.....
the mortgage is payed off on my $800,000
home.....so I won't be evicted by a cruel landlord
and told to move on.

Yet I always found the time to do my "fine art"
while employed at my "day job" at D.D.B. Inc.

As my teacher used to say, "Your bread & butter job
subsidizes your art candy".

At one point....you've got to get real!

verdi said...

That whole notion that
"fine art" is superior to "commercial art"
is a load of crap!

The so called category of "fine art"
came out of the
French Impressionist/Post Impressionist era......
when to be a "real artist" you had to suffer....
cut off your ear as Van Gogh did....
or die of "The Syph" or something.

Michaelangelo Buonoratti.....
Da Vinci and the rest of the boys
were, in fact, COMMERCIAL ARTISTS !

They either worked for the Vatican Inc.
or the Sfoza or Medici Corporations
or else they starved!

Artists.....back to the cave days at Alta Mira....
were painting in exchange for food
when the hunters and gatherers returned.

"Here's a nice Saber Toothed Tiger's foot
for you to cook.
Can you paint me a picture of one...
right here on the wall next to my bed" ?

C-mon .....art is always necessary
in any society....
for religious purposes or just plain beauty!

Anonymous said...

NOTE:

It's been recently discovered
that Jackson Pollack
(a known heavy drinker as well as an artist)
pre-signed many blank canvases
in advance of his painting on them.

Maybe he did this during sober moments
when his signature might appear more steady.
His characteristic paint splashes
could be done while he was stoned
and this might have actually served
to improve his technique .

Who knows WHO painted on those blank canvases ?

Now the experts are saying somebody else could have painted some of those "Pollacks".

To be sure an owner has got to go to an art lab
and do forensic paint testing etc. to verify
whether he's got a genuine Pollack or a fake!

Anonymous said...

good art gets at issues of fundemental importance. A trained eye can spot whether these elements are present or not at a glance. If they are, the canvas in question is sublime and worthy of display. If not, its just an ordinary run of the mill production fit for the trash heap.

Anonymous said...

Who's "trained eye" bub ?

The art dealer who makes his hefty commissions
off genuine works of art?

Or were you born with a "sublime" meter
as a part of your natural posterior physique ?

Anonymous said...

...guess I deserved that. I'm a pretty humble fellow most of the time but once in a while my ego flairs up and insists on my making some grand sweeping statement with the aim of impressing others. Usually it has the opposite effect as here.