Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Mrs. Whitney's All-American Salon

You know, the Whitney Museum gets more than its fair share of shit.  So somebody should say something nice about Mrs. Whitney.  This from the NYTimes.

In the first decade of the 20th century Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, a New York heiress and sculptor, noted that her sophisticated friends made a fuss over new art from Europe but ignored new American art. As an American artist she had a problem with that and decided to try to alter the balance of attention.


I took the liberty of underlining one phrase.  "Heiress and sculptor..."   Wow, I'd love to have one of her pieces.

Anyway, in the upper right hand corner of this painting, formerly titled "First Bear..." and now titled "Mrs. Whitney" ...


... you can see an article about her and her eponymous museum pasted to the canvas.  

I'm loving this whole collage thing, although, as noted before, collage always struck me as a second-rate bit of business.  Since I'm just using it as background, it's okay.  Last thing a person wants to be is second-rate.  Or third.

You realize that suggesting that collage is a so-called second-rate bit of business is a form of bigotry?  Of small-mindedness?
Yes I do.  I'm probably wrong, but I'm typing as fast as I can.  But I will say this...
What?
That's it's unbelievably messy.

Okay.  Enough.  

There is a part of me that likes this whole collage thing so much, it would be fun to just drip something abstract over the top, gloss varnish the hell out of it and call it a day.  Maybe next time.

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