Badly priced art
Howdy!
I was going to continue explaining where there were alternative spaces to see Art during the holidays ? but then in today's New York Times there were two kick-ass articles. (here and here) And while those articles dealt with the New York Art scene, and so are not entirely applicable here, I thought that they showed the in a rather simple fashion why New York is New York and Montr�al is Montr�al. But I think I'll save my discussion of and about them until tomorrow - you might want to consider reading them in advance. There might be a test.
To start with first things first, as today was Boxing Day (the biggest shopping day in Canada ? in the United States it is the Friday after Thanksgiving, interesting that in Canada they wait until AFTER Christmas to hit the stores, while in the States they make sure to get you into the stores BEFORE Christmas) I am certain that there were and are folk out there who decided to see if they couldn't get themselves a nice little bargain on a couch, or perhaps a chair, or maybe a floor lamp. Well, if you were doing it in the neighborhood of the gallery you had a choice of 24 stores, not bad, eh?
Some of the better known ones are: Biltmore, Cote Sud, Erik Desprez, Intervision, Latitude Nord, Moderno, Montauk, Occident, Ohm, Urbana, and Volt.
Since all of these companies are devoted to making your house, apartment, home, abode, or residence a nice place, not only do they sell the couches, but they also sell the stuff to put above the couches, too! Sorta like one-stop shopping ? how convenient.
Urbana is right next door to my apartment. And one of their designers (perhaps their only designer, I dunno) also dabbles (or maybe that should be dribbles) as a painter, too.
Henri-Pierre Lavoie (no relation to Bertrand, as far as I know) has at least half-a-dozen hanging on the walls of the store. Now, I didn't check the prices for the couches, chairs, or floor lamps, but I think that they are probably cheaper and better made than M. Lavoie's paintings.
Now while M. Lavoie at first glance seems to be an Abstract Expressionist, and upon taking a second glace you realize he probably is, but there is one problem. AE as a means of saying something new through painting is sorta as dead as Bernd-J�rgen Brandes, although I would imagine he was tastier than M. Lavoie's paintings would be.
Armin Meiwes' thoughts are probably clearer than the paintings of M. Lavoie. M. Lavoie's paintings on the other hand are much less offensive than Herr Meiwes himself. Heck! After the hassles that Jackson Pollock went through one would certainly hope that would be the case, but in this day and age you never can be too certain, and if Herr Meiwes is the thin edge of the wedge, then it does not bode well for gastronomy in the future.
The thing that I found most intriguing about the paintings at Urbana, was that next to the tag was another slightly larger tag that gave a nutshell course in how to buy a painting. Where the most significant point was "do your research."
Now I have just one question: If I can buy a Marcel Barbeau for $900, then why would I pay $2,000+ for a Henri-Pierre Lavoie?
I was going to continue explaining where there were alternative spaces to see Art during the holidays ? but then in today's New York Times there were two kick-ass articles. (here and here) And while those articles dealt with the New York Art scene, and so are not entirely applicable here, I thought that they showed the in a rather simple fashion why New York is New York and Montr�al is Montr�al. But I think I'll save my discussion of and about them until tomorrow - you might want to consider reading them in advance. There might be a test.
To start with first things first, as today was Boxing Day (the biggest shopping day in Canada ? in the United States it is the Friday after Thanksgiving, interesting that in Canada they wait until AFTER Christmas to hit the stores, while in the States they make sure to get you into the stores BEFORE Christmas) I am certain that there were and are folk out there who decided to see if they couldn't get themselves a nice little bargain on a couch, or perhaps a chair, or maybe a floor lamp. Well, if you were doing it in the neighborhood of the gallery you had a choice of 24 stores, not bad, eh?
Some of the better known ones are: Biltmore, Cote Sud, Erik Desprez, Intervision, Latitude Nord, Moderno, Montauk, Occident, Ohm, Urbana, and Volt.
Since all of these companies are devoted to making your house, apartment, home, abode, or residence a nice place, not only do they sell the couches, but they also sell the stuff to put above the couches, too! Sorta like one-stop shopping ? how convenient.
Urbana is right next door to my apartment. And one of their designers (perhaps their only designer, I dunno) also dabbles (or maybe that should be dribbles) as a painter, too.
Henri-Pierre Lavoie (no relation to Bertrand, as far as I know) has at least half-a-dozen hanging on the walls of the store. Now, I didn't check the prices for the couches, chairs, or floor lamps, but I think that they are probably cheaper and better made than M. Lavoie's paintings.
Now while M. Lavoie at first glance seems to be an Abstract Expressionist, and upon taking a second glace you realize he probably is, but there is one problem. AE as a means of saying something new through painting is sorta as dead as Bernd-J�rgen Brandes, although I would imagine he was tastier than M. Lavoie's paintings would be.
Armin Meiwes' thoughts are probably clearer than the paintings of M. Lavoie. M. Lavoie's paintings on the other hand are much less offensive than Herr Meiwes himself. Heck! After the hassles that Jackson Pollock went through one would certainly hope that would be the case, but in this day and age you never can be too certain, and if Herr Meiwes is the thin edge of the wedge, then it does not bode well for gastronomy in the future.
The thing that I found most intriguing about the paintings at Urbana, was that next to the tag was another slightly larger tag that gave a nutshell course in how to buy a painting. Where the most significant point was "do your research."
Now I have just one question: If I can buy a Marcel Barbeau for $900, then why would I pay $2,000+ for a Henri-Pierre Lavoie?
posted by Zeke's, the Montreal Art Gallery on 26.12.03
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