Sunday, April 13, 2008

Defences and Accusations..?

The ironic thing about Brian Sewellis that he generates as much outrage and mockery as his sworn enemies - the conceptual artists. He is just as controversial as the works he'd probably love to eradicate from the face of the earth.
I'ts a funny sort of one-sided battle to watch. The artists/enemies duly ignore and mock him, comfortable in the safety of the inner workings of the current art market - he begins to appear like a boy neurotically beating the toe of a giant, ridiculous and largely ineffective.
Or so it's easy to believe. The truth is he voices what few have the courage to, specially in the face of God-like figures like Saatchi. A lot of artists, I would imagine (in particular those more traditionally minded) loathe what Saatchi has done to the art world, but I'm guessing that not many would refuses his attentions - therein lies the fear, or perhaps more appropriately, the caution.
Another evident fear is that no one knows which art work is meant to be respected and which is not, so why not play it safe and consider everything? Sewell quite obviously, is not thus minded, as he proves with his sardonic quotation of the 'Wallinger generation' : ' "It's art because I say I'm an artist and it is in a gallery"'.

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