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ART_AGAINST_ART

                                            December 29, 2005


  "The Wheeler Dealers" includes
  a minor character that's working    A mid-60s
  the abstract art racket.            James Garner.    A small bit
                                                       from the novel:
      "Look, if you're going                           Texas oilman,
      to walk around on my                             just arrived
      canvas, you could at                             in New York
      *least* put some paint                           for refinancing,
      on your shoes."                                  reaches into
                                                       his closet the
  One of our hero's side projects is to                next morning,
  put over abstract art as a speculative               and considers
  investment.                                          wearing one
                                                       of his Brooks
          A funny scene has him trying                 Brothers
          to remember his lines for                    knock-offs.
          his statement to the art
          press: the artist dude plays                 He says to himself
          charades behind them to                      "No.  Never play
          prompt him:                                  the other fellow's
                                                       game", and puts
              "Uh --"                                  on his cowboy
                                                       outfit again.
              *Holds nose, puffs out
              cheeks, drops down behind
              them*

              "I believe in
              *emersing* myself..."



   A very early film, probably one
   of the first talkies, I'm going     I saw this one at the
   to guess 1931:                      Stanford Theater some
                                       years ago, but it         It couldn't
   A young artist goes to              remains beyond my         be that this
   Paris to work on his craft,         ability to turn up        is another
   and falls in with a bunch           the title of it.          of the web's
   preaching the Modern Art                                      blindspots,
   gospel--                                                      could it?

   The leader of this clique
   shows off his painting "The
   Whistle": a close-up cubist
   rendition of a whistle, with
   a sort of *whooshing* look
   to it.  He goes off into
   a musical number, singing
   "Don't paint the whistle,
   paint the *blow*!"

   The young artist is struck one
   night by the way the room looks
   spinning around him when he's
   drunk... he sets out to attempt
   a painting of this: a radially        He comments that working on it
   symmetric design with a               is expensive, because he has to
   *spinning* look to it, which he       keep getting drunk to do it.
   calls "The Wheel of Life".

        Eventually, his work appears in
        competition, and is quite well
        recieved by the judges... but
        the artist jumps up and throws
        a fit, he's angry because they're
        exhibiting it *upside down*.
        A fight ensues, and later
        he looks back on this all
        with reget...

              But actually, this art riot gets
              a lot of press, and it turns out
              he sells the painting for quite a
              bit of money to someone who
              doesn't care at all about the
              painting, but is convinced it's a
              great investement, because of the
              publicity.





((And... I could swear I've
got a third example of an
art satire I wanted to talk
about...))



                                                            WEAK_REEDS

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