Two Days Until Frieze Links (NSFW)

by Robert Boyd



God bless Jerry Saltz! With the pastel version of Edvard Munch's Scream going on the auction block tonight, CBS This Morning thought it would be a good idea to get New York art critic and Work of Art judge Jerry Saltz to opine on it. They got more than they bargained for. He called the auction a "freak show" and continuously chided the hosts for focusing on money (the word "disgusting" was used). He mentioned how much money Sotheby's was likely to get from this sale and contrasted that with the fact that they had locked out their unionized art handlers. The hosts seemed slightly stunned. Who let this OWS guy in the studio? [CBS This Morning]


Al Held, Rome 11 being hung at the Delaware Art Museum

Let's drink to the hard-working people. Speaking of art handlers, I just discovered Wrapit-tapeit-walkit-placeit, a blog dedicated to photos of art installation and handling. That's where the above photo comes from. It's surprising how fascinating these photos are--and they remind us that installing the art we see in museums, galleries and auction houses is hard work done by hard-working people. [Wrapit-tapeit-walkit-placeit]

I used to be all into art but I saw this one really bad art show so now all art sucks. That's a condensed version of this Vice article by Glen Coco that I stumbled across 11 months after it was posted. The Great God Pan Is Dead--always timely! ["I'm Sick Of Pretending: I Don't 'Get' Art" by Glen Coco, Vice]


Derrick Santini, Goddess of Love, 2012, lenticular photograph, 41.1 x 47.5"

Sex is dirty. The Scream Gallery in London was showing photos by Derrick Santini, including a set based on the myth of Leda and the Swan. Shortly before the show closed, a policeman saw some of the photos from a bus. He became alarmed because he thought that photos of a swan fucking a lady might be "condoning" bestiality, which is against the law in Britain. An article in The Telegraph paints the policemen as uncultured philistines.

Jag Mehta, the sales director at the gallery, said she spoke to the officers and asked what the problem was.

“They said the photograph suggested we condoned bestiality, which was an arrestable offence,” she said.

“It’s crazy. Perhaps the cultural references were lost on them." ["'Mythical' swan photo taken down after 'bestiality' fears", Hannah Furness, The Telegraph, April 28, 2012]

I call bullshit. The gallery has all the photos from this series on their website, and while the one above is slightly suggestive, take a gander (heh) at this one:


Derrick Santini, Fool for Love, 2012, lenticular photograph, 35.2 x 47.5"

That there is some swan porno!