Page 4 - "he 2020 Guggenheim issue of World of Art Contemporary Art Magazine
P. 4

WHERE ARE THE GREAT SAGES OF ART?
                                                              REFLECTIONS ON THE ART OF TODAY

                                                              Fiction: Critical Essays by Jordi Rodríguez-Amat



                                                              In the queue of the Center Georges Pompidou in Paris to
                                                              buy the ticket on the first Sunday of October 2019, 11 am.
                                                              Exhibition: Arman.
                                                              - Who is this one?
                                                              I hear someone saying, right behind me, referring to a poster
                                                              in front of us: Arman.
                                                              Only the considered great artists are invited to exhibit
                                                              in this center, those that are accepted as the superstars
                                                              of contemporary art, the headlights that illuminate the
                                                              so-called contemporary aesthetic or, better yet, the
                                                              contemporary artistic conceptuality.
                                                              Once inside the exhibition, after having, obviously, paid for
                                                              my ticket, I see that there are all kind of visitors. There is
                                                              one a little stunned watching the exhibited works as if he
                                                              was discovering something from another galaxy. There is
                                                              also another one that seems to know everything. There’s
                                                              also the neophyte who says he doesn’t understand
                                                              anything. I am also there. Another one, without being a
                                                              sage of art, seems to have his own idea of art and states
                                                              that this is not art. Suddenly, I hear a very beautiful young
         The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1959
         Photo: William H. Short © The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York  girl saying: is this art? This is a question of the unbeliever,
                                                              would say a sage of art. - But don’t you see that it’s being
                                                              presented as an art exhibition in this important center for
                                                              contemporary art? Answered a young man who seems to
                                                              be very much in love with her.
                                                              I go from one room to another, looking right and left. Title of
                                                              the work? Of course, although we see it, the artist titled his
                                                              works, for the case that someone couldn’t see it. Colère de
                                                              Mandoline (a crushed and destroyed mandolin), Poubelle
                                                              des Halles (all kinds of debris inside a glass box), Tuez-les
                                                              tous, Dieu reconnaîtra les siens (thirty ancient fly-sprayers).
                                                              Accumulation of machines à écrire dans une boîte en bois. I
                                                              think again that I don’t know why he puts a title if we can see
                                                              it. Butterfly Variations (a violin carved and butterfly-shaped
                                                              on a wooden board). I liked this one: Le Fauteuil d’Ulysse (a
                                                              half-burnt armchair). A little tired of reading so many titles
                                                              .... Goodness me! what beautiful legs! In spite of not being
                                                              a young girl, she wants to show her impressive body today.
                                                              She looks like she is be between forty and forty-five years
                                                              old. Perfect! She knows how to move, stylish, shoes with high


         4      WORLD of ART
   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9