Having received the commandments,
Moses comes down from Mount Sinai to his people.
He says to the nervously waiting crowd,
“I have good and bad news for you, guys”.
“What’s the good news?”
“We agreed to cut if off at TEN”, answers Moses.
“And what’s the bad news?”
“Adultery is in”
Matisse wanted art to provide serenity to the viewer; Picasso wanted art to brush the daily dust off our souls; Oscar Wilde thought art was the only way to realise our perfection. We have gone a long way in our understanding of art since then, and now it includes everything, even the empty space of a gallery.
Pop art especially has migrated a long way from what it used to be. At the beginning, it was art that wanted to be understandable by the ordinary public. Entertaining, emotional, nice, fun, whatever. Something that does not require a curator to stand by and explain what it all means, what the artist wanted to say, etc. Generally, it was about good things. At the beginning.
Today, pop art is about two main things:
- imagery that helps to create desire for expensive stuff produced by premium brand owners
- imagery that provides justification for various sins with a focus on adultery
- imagery that helps to start hating your current life and habits and then to start desiring expensive stuff to be used to get more power, money and sex
Today’s popular (exhibited and selling) pop art is addressed primarily to men, and it is about women, sex and adultery – but never about love and simplicity.
And what is the best place to exhibit it? The focus of glamour and sin of course, the small village of Courchevel 1850 in the French Alps!
This year, they show these creations by DAVID CINTRACT, a Parisienne artist who created “a glamorous and slightly nonchalant young woman but one who is full of self-confidence and many surprises. This is Mademoiselle Courchevel”, as the village’s web site proudly announces.
Yes. Of course. Many surprises. In a ski resort teeming with prostitutes (oh, not prostitutes, but the girl-friends, imported by rich men from all over the third-world countries for “company”), the biggest surprise would be the price tag this “company” involves. A few years ago, Lyon police arrested one of Russia’s biggest oligarchs and a dozen (or a few dozens) of girls he airlifted to this village. A Russian Xmas party a few years ago featured two men framing the entry to a nightclub, with two girls giving them rhythmic blow jobs. All for the excitement of the entering guests.
Russian, Ukrainian and Kazakhstan tourists absolutely love this art, for it provides the ideal and justification for their lives. They photograph themselves in front of these girls and rarely a moment can be seen when people are not queueing to be pictured with it.
I expect there’s a special department in hell for artists like David Cintract, really. Not for helping oligarchs find their girlfriends, but for making it attractive and desirable.
Standing Ovation, Seated 
Commercial artists are really clever at what they do. They produce stuff for people that want exactly that sort of stuff. Non-commercial artists follow their inner drive and often mutter about not being recognised. These days their public is usually a small select group without money. A lot of artists would like to be a little bit commercial but that is impossible. Most artists would like to be recognised as artists and that in present day society tends to mean commercial success which is sort of putting the highly decorated cart before the prefectly designed and naturally beautiful horse.
Yes, the whole art industry is working to promote bad taste of the worst inflections. Alas.
Trying to think positively I would say it’s good there is ‘art’ like this and people like you describe, – it’s easier to find real diamonds in husk than among pieces of glass)) But if seriously it’s a shame.
1. You are too kind )
2. It is a shame, but – hm – it pays and sells well, and as it fetches good prices, many believe it is Art.