The King's OLD clothes

I've been giving some thought to the business of art this week. 

Last weekend I went to a meeting at Logan Art Gallery, which was supposed to be about how to fill in the forms if you want to get a grant.  The kind of grant that I was interested in was the kind of grant that you get for being an overweight Pommy tonal realist painter that wants to paint realism in a tonal manner.  Unfortunately they didn't have that kind available.  What they had was the kind of grant that you get for being good at marketing your ‘I’m so ‘’out there….me!” version of what constitutes innovative ‘Art’ in our barmy version of society. 

The woman up the front kept saying that the grants were for ‘contemporary artists’, and I asked her after the presentation, what that meant.  She said ‘practicing’, so….wondering why she didn't just say ‘practicing’, I went off to practice.  In fact, what she almost inevitably means is an artist that follows one of the multitude of abstract approaches.   The funny thing is that when challenged, I find that most abstract painters and more of their supporters, will tell you that you need to be broader minded.  Why then, is it that those who fund the arts are unable to be broad minded enough to view realist painting as ‘contemporary’ when it’s been executed recently by a living artist?  Why is it that museums exhibit and rave about realism that was executed by someone that’s long dead, preferably before 1930, but can’t accept it from the artist that is ‘practising’ today? 

And the bull that so many of these supporters use to describe their chosen subset of this artistic blip in the history of art is more creative than the art itself!  Consider this one, from a movement called 'Toyism':

Dejo, The Freakshow . Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 150 cm.

I discovered Toyism by chance, and I immediately loved the way the images communicate some of the most difficult themes in a very bright way. "Everything" can be conceptualized and become a subject for Toyists representations, where slices of everyone’s lives can be perceived and recognized. The themes become toys that are brought to life in order to play an active role themselves.

On February 24th, the Toyism art movement was first introduced to the Dutch public. As a figurative style, Toyism originates from an impulse for innovation and as a reaction to the age of the Ego. The exciting play of smooth lines with sharp boundaries, dots and the power of bright contrasting colours, gives the paintings an extremely vivacious character. Existing Toyism philosophies can be retraced in each piece- translated into clear, direct image. The world of the Toyists consists of fragments and moments; their work is often anecdotal but at the same time wilful and rich in fantasy. It is a recognisable world, which nevertheless contains the bizarre within. In Toyism the story line is essential. 

Every Toyist portrays his own unique story and by doing so adds a new dimension to Toyism. After the manifesto was rewritten in October 2002, the movement became more accessible to fresh, young artists. (1) Toyist artworks need a high quality standard, and the Manifesto draws the artists together in making it a Movement.

...and that's just a small excerpt!  Ahh f**k it!  I give up!