Good Art?

I spent last Friday in Midtown visiting galleries smugly judging the art. I mean, what’s the fun in spending all you time learning about art is you can’t smugly judge it?? Most of the work I came across wasn’t very impressive- which is fairly common in the hit-or-miss nature of NYC galleries (or any galleries for that matter). While on one had I find this infuriating- on the other I have to say it is somewhat up lifting. If these idiots are selling their works for $60,000 a pop then maybe there is hope for the rest of us!
The work shown above I found especially nauseating. Painted at monumental size by William Beckman, this was the centerpiece of the show at the Forum Gallery. The series consisted of several self-portraits and a few landscapes painted in meticulous, photorealistic detail. Obviously the works technical quality is VERY good… undeniably so… but this is one of those examples in the art world where technical ability doesn’t make a “Work of Art”. The rest of the work were identical replicas of Beckman’s own face cropped down so we are unable to ignore any of his meticulously painted detail- Beckman is obviously self obsessed- and not to mention, proud of his motorcycle- yet the actual content of the work is meaningless. Yes, you can paint Beckman…. Now what? Why should I care? Good painting has been done; we have hundreds of years of art history to prove it- so now we need more. Content is everything. To make a work that is going to really make us think- to really make the art world move forward we need work that is more than superficial.