Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock? poses some interesting questions besides the obvious one of whether the painting bought by Teri Horton for $5 is an authentic Jackson Pollock worth millions. It also offers good insight into the business of art, turning her quest of verifying its authenticity into a struggle against what comes across as art-world snobbishness.
Do you value a throw-away by an artist the same way as a great work of art? Initial impressions are that the painting possesses none of the magical properties of an authentic Pollock.
April 21st, 2009
The cowboy and the monk
I had no idea D.T. Suzuki loved westerns. At least ‘High Noon’ starring Gary Cooper – and it’s true that it is a great film. D.T. Suzuki is my favorite writer on Buddhism and ‘Zen and Japanese Culture’ is by far the best book I have found about Japanese art and its relationship to Buddhist philosophy.
According to the documentary ‘A Zen Life’ he thought Cooper’s character was ‘a real Zen man.’ I’m going to have to watch it again.
April 17th, 2009
Adam Curtis & Helvetica Condensed Black
Adam Curtis is an amazing documentary filmmaker. All of his films for the BBC are likely to change the way you think about a lot of things. Related to my last post on Akzidenz Grotesk Bold Condensed – the titles for Adam Curtis’ ‘The Trap’ from 1997 would look just as good on a Raf Simons t-shirt. This time it’s Helvetica Condensed Black.
