Institutionalized Art Fraud

P.T. Barnum had it right, didn't he? You really can fool some of the people, most of the time. Put up a united front and assert whatever you will, do it often enough, with seeming conviction and authority and you cow people into submission; at the very least into believing what it is that is being put forward as being authentic without question, even if they themselves cannot see the value in what is being lauded.

As in non-representational art, abstract art so vague, so obscure and utterly lacking in aesthetic value which "experts" continue to express delight in. And which, if and when sufficiently successful in turning peoples' minds - if not toward satisfaction in creative aesthetic, then for those who can afford it, as an "investment" against future sales. People simply are easily led, and will, in the end, believe what they are told to believe.

Particularly when the world's leading art collectors have bought into the fiction that abstract minimalism has value, that it is expressive, and beautiful, representing the artist at his or her best. In this particular instance, it is the art of a Canadian-born abstract painter, Agnes Martin whose "extremely subtle grid of light grey pencil lines set against a soft beige background of acrylic paint - is expected to sell for between $4 million and $6 million in New York at a Sotheby's auction of contemporary art.

A vanishingly faint depiction of a desert painted in 1965 by the late Saskatchewan-born abstract artist Agnes Martin ...

Well then, judge for yourself. Above is a photograph of the eminent artist alongside her outstandingly exquisite painting of a desert, considered by art experts to represent a "masterpiece" of classical painting. One of Sotheby's knowledgeable curators describes it in the auction catalogue, "Like the sands in the desert landscape dissolving into a hazy horizon, the muted palette of the present work expands in front of the viewer".

"The Desert offers rewards to the viewer who is able to quiet their mind and eliminate distraction; it embodies emotion in an abstract, timeless and unchanging realm." This very painting earlier sold at a Christies auction three years earlier for $4.7 million. I cannot but increase in value as it 'matures' in the minds of those who hail it as an outstanding piece of art. The emotion it brings out in this viewer is simple disgust.

Bringing to mind the National Gallery of Canada's fantastic acquisition in 1989 of the acrylic on canvas painting by American Barnett Newman, Voice of Fire. Ordinary Canadians were outraged that the painting, now in the permanent collection of the Gallery in Ottawa, for which taxpayers of the country forked out a formidable $1.8 million. That exquisite painting
consists only of a red stripe on a blue background.

We can but hope that Canada's National Gallery will pass this one by, despite how irresistible it may seem to the gallery's curators, and spend that whopping sum on true art treasures, paintings that gallery-frequenters can truly stand before with admiration. Ms. Martin herself when once asked how viewers should approach her work responded: "You just go there and sit and look".

Gawd!