Author Archives: shaun
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“It was not quite a lecture on contemporary art or postmodern sensibility, but in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Thursday, the painter and sculptor Jasper Johns discussed his methodology, corrected a lawyer on the pronunciation of the artist Robert Rauschenberg’s name and said, quite firmly, that he had never authorized a foundry owner to reproduce one of his famous works depicting the American flag.”
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In general, though, the crowds know something. Dominique Ansel Bakery is a wonderland, and Maison Premiere’s happy hour is such an amazing bargain that I am afraid that simply mentioning it may spook the owners into charging more than a dollar for each pristine oyster.
There are exceptions to this rule. It does not apply to lines formed by tourists who trade their vacation days for a handful of cake crumbs under a waxy helmet of frosting on Bleecker Street. Nor does it apply to lines for brunch. Be wary of the opinions of people who will endure hunger and hangovers for a free mimosa.
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“So, for many art forms, it is indeed true that “anyone could do that”, in the sense that anyone has the technology or technique to hand to execute the idea. It has become possible for more and more people, often untrained, to express their creative imagination as doing so has become less and less dependent on technical expertise. However, not everyone can have the ideas, the eye or the ear to come up with something worth making real. That core of invention remains elusive, beyond most of us most of the time. The best answer to the moan “I could have done that” remains “but you didn’t”. No one else came up with the geometric lines and block colours of Mondrian before he did, not because they lacked the skill, but because they lacked the vision. Technology and trends in art have not, therefore, made really good art more democratic, they have simply widened the membership of the elite.”
shaun james bockert 