Yesterday I posted a video from RDI of Gérald Fillion talking to Simon Blais. As I hit the 'publish' button I thought I should explain myself. But then I figured "naw! It's self-explanatory." Plus it was likely to take an hour or two, which seemed a little excessive for a six minute video.
And here's what's wrong with it: 0:08 seconds. The Quebecois art market was not affected by the worldwide recession for the same reason that the dollar pizza place on the corner wasn't affected by the worldwide recession - it is small in size and value and completely, utterly and 100% local.
0:13 seconds. Internationally, very few artists make a living from their art. What does this comment have to do with anything?
0:17 seconds. Simon Blais runs one commercial art gallery in Montreal. There are over 400 art galleries in Montreal, speaking to one person about their personal views should be labeled as such. He is not an objective observer either. It is the equivalent of talking to the bus driver of the 9h15 Sherbrooke street bus about public transit in Montreal.
0:32 seconds. Is the Quebecois Art Market doing well? Give me a break! Isn't their a better opening question that M. Fillion could have thought of? And especially since M. Fillion didn't follow it up with a question such as, "how do you define 'doing well?'"
0:51 seconds. So M. Blais' business suffered a decline of 25%, during the same time period he mentions, about 10 new galleries opened up. Maybe he just didn't know how to do business in 2009/10?
0:55 seconds. "But nothing catastrophic"? Just how does M. Fillion define catastrophic? If the TSX declined by 25%, I'd say it was a catastrophe. If sea levels declined by 25%, I'd say it was catastrophic. If it was my business, I'd say a 25% decline in sales was catastrophic.
0:57 seconds. Hundreds of galleries in the United States closing is a tiny percentage of the number of art galleries in the United States. And as M. Blais states, if four or five (although he first states, he doesn't know - which I would venture as a guess was closer to the truth) closed that would be less than 2% of all the art galleries in Montreal.
1:10 minutes. Showing uncredited art (that I assume was filmed at M. Blais' gallery) is just flat out bad journalism. And of questionable ethics as well.
1:23 minutes. M. Blais was referring to the worldwide art market crash in the 1990s. M. Fillion's question about the differences between now and then has absolutely nothing to do with the Quebecois (or Montreal) art market.
1:30 minutes. If it was a complete loss of confidence in the art market, why did people continue to buy extremely expensive art all through the 1990s?
1:32 minutes. Fundamental Economic Changes? Like what? Did people suddenly become less greedy? And M. Fillion didn't even (again) think to follow up on such a statement. And once M. Blais starts on the property market, do you think is he talking internationally? Or locally? And wouldn't that be the equivalent of listening to the bus driver talk about Formula One cars?
1:49 minutes. Did M. Blais suddenly forget what happened to property values in Montreal when the Parti Quebecois came to power?
2:13 minutes. If M. Fillion wants to know why it is difficult for an artist to make a living, wouldn't it be better to talk to an artist?
2:30 minutes. Calling Quebec art a small part of the Canadian Art Market is patently false. Just because art made here gets sold in Vancouver doesn't turn it into BC art. And responding, to M. Fillion's question by blaming it on a 'small' market is even more incorrect. (And why doesn't the artist painting on two-thirds of the screen get his name written across the bottom?)
2:34 minutes. There is a humongous and tremendous tradition of supporting art here in Quebec. It's called taxes. In 08/09 CALQ gave away $90 million. And then there's Heritage Canada, The Canada Council, the Montreal Arts Council and, and, and...
2:58 minutes. Another ridiculous question. Asking about 'potential.' Only a slug or a cretin would answer: "No."
3:07 minutes. If whatever people M. Blais is referring to, have only been interested in art for 20 or 30 years. Then how and when did Riopelle become famous and his paintings so expensive?
3:13 minutes. "We're going to win." Ummm, what's the competition?
3:21 minutes. So his clients are getting smarter. That does not mean that everyone else's clients were as dumb as his 20 years ago.
3:37 minutes. His client base has grown by 50% in 10 years, but he suffered a 25% drop in sales last year. There is something very strange about those numbers.
3:48 minutes. Another ridiculous question. Imagine what would happen to M. Blais' credibility if he responded negatively.
3:54 minutes. What's the difference between "investments" and "absolute value"?
4:09 minutes. The first statement by either M. Blais or M. Fillion that I have agreed with completely, wholeheartedly and 100%.
4:24 minutes. Utter claptrap and nonsense. If the price of the art is dictated by the size of the economy, then why isn't that the case for cars sold in Quebec? Shirts sold in Quebec? or any other product that is sold in Quebec?
4:36 minutes. What the heck is showing on the right hand side of the screen and how is it in any way related to Quebecois art?
4:56 minutes. Another ridiculous question. I presume that M. Fillion speaks to stock analysts, does he ever ask why their estimations for a stock price aren't attained? I also presume that he knows about betting on sporting matches. Does he ever ask why their estimations for the outcome of a game don't happen? And then if he were to ask, wouldn't it be better to ask the person who made the estimation? Instead of someone else?
5:11 minutes. So am I to understand that M. Blais just said that Heffel couldn't recognize a crappy Riopelle painting if it bit them? And what's with the mouse on the Simon Blais website? That's just flat-out annoying.
5:20 minutes. This is where I completely lost it. M. Blais stating that the 'private' sales are a better judge of market than an auction. If that is the case, why doesn't the TSX just close up? In situations like this, I am always reminded of the phrase "There's a sucker born every minute." And after he said that an auction was not a good judge of the market and you accepted it - I realized that neither M. Blais or M. Fillion knew a gosh darn thing about the art market.
And after watching it, I almost wanted to tear my hair out and scream! It is such a complete and utter piece of nonsense. Spouting cliches like they are god's honest truth.
Someone at the National Gallery needs to learn how to use YouTube better. They have posted 12 short videos of Moshe Safdie talking about the building. Twice. Because they have an English account called ngcmedia and a French account called mbacmedia. However the videos uploaded to the French account are in English. And they have no playlist, and because they have chosen to title them Tour of the National Gallery of Canada with Moshe Safdie and then specify which part of the building they are, at first glance it seems like they are all the same. Which could go a long way to explaining why they have all been viewed in the low two figures (that or someone over there forgot to send out the email, tweet and update their Facebook page).
I think they should hire me as their social media consultant. And if you're interested, the complete collection of videos are all below.
Tour of the National Gallery of Canada with Moshe Safdie "The Building"
And if that wasn't enough there is also the follow-up panel discussion with Peter Greenaway, Darcy Grigsby (History of Art), and Abigail de Kosnik (Theater, Dance & Performance Studies).
Some place in Winnipeg called Mayberry Fine Art is doing its darnedest to blur the line between what I would call Real Fine Art™ and Complete & Utter Crap™, and they're doing so with the help of Yseult Riopelle, Jean-Paul Riopelle's daughter, author of the Catalogue Raisonne, and keeper of Jean-Paul Riopelle's artistic legacy.
My best guess would be that someone needs some money.
Basically, what they doing is casting some things in bronze, calling them "sculptural gems" and trying to sell them for prices ranging from $39,000 to $750,000. If you have been under a rock for the past eight years, Jean-Paul Riopelle died in 2002, making it sort of difficult for him to make any art, recently. And that's why I would consider them Complete & Utter Crap™. Implying, or allowing someone to infer that these are sculptures made by Jean-Paul Riopelle is a fabrication worthy of Mother Goose or the Brothers Grimm.
Apparently they exhibited them someplace in Paris and are taking them on tour through Canada. If you'd like to read the press release, do so right here. They don't mention how many copies were cast, which leaves the possibility that the next time someone needs some cash all they have to do is cast some more statues. And don't even get me started on the drawings that they're trying to sell as well.
Audiotopie is, as they write, an artist collective that combines architecture, landscape architecture, new media and electro-acoustic music. They come out with a bunch of audioguides (for lack of a better term) based around metro stations. I've only had the opportunity to hear one (on the Saint Laurent metro station) and unfortunately it promised more than it delivered.
Québec is fast becoming a less appealing place to live. After reading this, the only reason I can think of to stay is that it is worse elsewhere.
To back up a little, Rémy Couture, is a special effects artist for film. He made some films of his own. He got busted by the RCMP last year. His case is finally making it to trial tomorrow.
I normally don't like putting a spotlight on specific art blogs, just because it has the potential to increase the number of emails I receive every day. Exponentially. But despite the potential danger, I quite like and enjoy Edith Rey's blog, called doreyme and Kiera Pannel's, called This is Art. mail art seven days a week.
Full Disclosure: Edith is a good friend and Kiera lives around the corner from me.
So yeah, if you live around the corner and are a good friend, email me to ask if I can write about your art blog.
Chris 'Zeke' Hand, Ariel Fournier, Andrew Seo, Eric Boivin, and Sami Malki in a round table discussion with Albert Ohayon, Collections Analyst at the NFB on and about the NFB.ca website and the NFB itself.
It is always sad news when an art gallery closes, this is made even more poignant when it is a gallery that has been in business for more than 40 years. You can read more about it here.
For those of you out of the loop, I used to run an art gallery here in Montreal called Zeke's Gallery, and while all of Mike's experiences aren't the exact same as my experiences, they are pretty gosh darn similar, and it doesn't hurt that he knows how to write as well.
And since I like being comprehensive, there's also Mr. Zebrowski-Rubin's post on Vida Simon (and artist I was previously unaware of). So if you're keeping score at home that makes five artists I knew of and three that I didn't in Mr. Zebrowski-Rubin's series on art in Montreal. 62.5% not bad if I can say so myself given how many artists there are here...
No matter how much I get a kick out of seeing a promo video for the Association of Art Museum Directors 2010 Annual Meeting (especially since Marc Mayer has a starring role!), three months to edit and post is about two and a half months too long.
Good thing, as I really don't want to move to Indianapolis...
I figured I'd wait a little bit and let the hubbub die down a little bit before posting links to what he wrote. So you'll be getting two/day for the rest of the week. And if you couldn't tell, I think they are fabulous, wonderful and amazing.