In the opinion of Germaine Greer, the better kind of art is that which one cannot collect. Therefore, since one can collect the works of, say, Hogarth, Rembrandt, Turner, or Caravaggio, she must think them necessarily inferior to works such as Martin Creed’s The Lights Going On and Off, an uncollectable work to which I presume Professor Greer alludes in the following passage:
The artist positions you in a dark room and turns the light on, and off again. He does no more because there is no need to do more. In finding yourself equal to the encounter, you are empowered with the artist’s own intellectual energy. For the time you are together, you are sharing the same cerebral space. [1]
If she really finds herself intellectually stimulated by a light going on and off, one might suggest she take up a vocation more suited to her level of intellect, though, considering that she now frequently writes opinion-pieces for the The Guardian, one might suspect she has already found it.
[1] Germaine Greer, “Here’s a message for the art mafia in their black Bentleys: the really good stuff is uncollectible”, The Guardian, 23rd October 2006.
9 comments:
Just the title of her article demonstrates it will contain nothing but garbage.
I really don't get this modern/contemporary nonsensical art stuff. I really don't. I feel its interpretations are so artificial and forced as to make the whole endeavor of interpreting it to be a complete waste of time and energy. Which would make this type of art a complete waste of money as well.
I prefer paintings of scenery or something thought-provoking. Dali is interesting because it is so weird. But Dali, in my opinion, is getting close to the line between art and rubbish.
And her example of uncollectible art - that man should be arrested and prosecuted for defrauding people of their money. An absolutely ridiculous idea if there ever were one.
But I agree with your comments. (I hope you do not mind me blathering here on your domain.)
I had to try that. I stood up and switched the lights off and on again. It was so empowering, I could feel the surge of the intellectual energy but then the fuse blew. For shame.
Muslihoon: "I feel its interpretations are so artificial and forced as to make the whole endeavor of interpreting it to be a complete waste of time and energy."
Not for the professionals it isn't. Interpretation is their meat and drink.
"I hope you do not mind me blathering here on your domain."
Not at all. My pleasure.
Lemuel,
Try lighting and blowing out a candle over and over again. There results no surge of intellectual energy, but the eventual dizziness is fun.
Gosh, she ought to have stayed in a very cheap hotel room that I once had in Munich. The curtains were thin, the neon sign outside was faulty, and one got this exact same aesthetic effect throughout the night. It sounds as if Ms Greer would have got much more out of the experience than I did.
Ms. Greer should be urged to visit the latest wheeze, ooops, sorry, I mean example of conceptual art in which the 'artist' completely empties an existing gallery and invites 'viewers', presumably, to be "empowered with the artist's own intellectual energy".
Empty gallery, empty head. Go figure as our American cousins might put it.
I wouldn't wish to get too overheated about this but Greer is an abomination on the face of the earth. How to keep her mouth closed - that's the task but the Guardian writing is a good start.
"I wouldn't wish to get too overheated about this but Greer is an abomination on the face of the earth".
You're at just the right temperature, I would say.
For shame, gentlemen. Have some compassion. Ms Greer is an intelligent person so addicted to publicity as to have become intellectually dysfunctional. Her every utterance now degrades her further.
I shudder to think what she may yet be prepared to write to see her name in print.
"Her every utterance now degrades her further."
Rather pathetic, isn't it?
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