Thursday 21 June 2007

RA Newcomer's Prize

Tatsuya Kimata - 57485 (carved marble)For those of you who live in foreign parts, such as Scotland, and can't visit the RA Summer Exhibition, the BBC has opened a web page which shows the top 20 artworks shortlisted by the Royal Academy for the Newcomer's Prize. And you can vote for your favourite. But only once. Either the standard of the Summer Exhibition has plummeted since I last visited it or the Anti Art Establishment has chosen the most dire tripe it could find. The most aesthetically pleasing work is this light switch by Tatsuya Kimata. Yes, folks, it's a life-sized sculpture in marble, superbly done, but what a waste of time! Don't we have enough of the plastic version? The only other work of note is Julie Yip and Agata Zaleszczyk's Untitled 2, which shows a bearded lady cradling the severed head of a pig! What did I write recently about freak shows (CLICK)?

11 Comments:

At 21/6/07, Blogger jafabrit said...

wow, this is just so amazing, what technical skill and an aesthetic statement of our times. Cold, unremitting technology, an expression about the sense of isolation, waiting to be switched on. It makes me shudder.

I read art forum so I know how to bullshit a little. groan!

 
At 22/6/07, Blogger Unknown said...

Ah, I see you're getting the hang of this art lark: never mind the quality, feel the width.
A light switch, a tour de force of minimalist art elegant in its simplicity.
Must be a power-tool job to avoid chisel marks. If you ever get to view the Michelangelo tondo in the Royal Academy, you can see the chisel marks, and they really do send a shiver down your spine. Michelangelo's actual chisel marks. Wow!

 
At 22/6/07, Blogger jafabrit said...

chisel marks, how primitive ;)

Yes, that would make me shudder though, to see the actual marks of Michelangelo.

 
At 22/6/07, Blogger weggis said...

And posidrives too!

I wonder if Michelangelo ever hit his thumb, and what the standard cuss was in those days?

 
At 23/6/07, Blogger Unknown said...

For some reason, his chisel marks are more intimate than brushstrokes. Soft scoops creating a madonna and child with St Peter as an infant. Maybe because it's 3-dimensional....

 
At 23/6/07, Blogger Unknown said...

Hi, weggis
He probably wore chainmail mittons. They were all the rage in those days.
I was wondering about those screws too. Are they sculpted or just everyday screws holding the thing to the wall?

 
At 23/6/07, Blogger Unknown said...

Jesus Christ! I've just seen your makeover! How much did that lost cost?

 
At 23/6/07, Blogger weggis said...

Impressive, Eh?
Did you spot the medallion?

 
At 23/6/07, Blogger Unknown said...

Let me guess. Ban The Bomb. The whole thing looks 1960's: flower power, bell bottoms and hippies.

 
At 24/6/07, Blogger weggis said...

Nope! In the sixties I was a dapper clean shaven Geezer with a Mohair suit [one of which was bottle green] and razor sharp pressed trousers.
The JC look is May 1974.

 
At 24/6/07, Blogger Unknown said...

I've still got my Tonic mohair suit. I call it my "Births, Marriages and Deaths Suit", because those are the only occasions I get to wear it. I was 24 when I had it bespoke tailored (4 buttons on the cuff; I'm a real four-buttons-on-the-cuff snob) and it still fits me perfectly. That's what smoking does for you: keeps you trim. I reckon it's all those fatties who brought in the smoking ban, because they want all of us slim smokers to look as gross as they do.

 

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