BY WAY OF THE DODO: Scott Muskgrove’s Menagerie: by Walter King
Every generation defines itself, to some extent, in rebellion to their elders’. The fine art world is so caught up in its high minded, illusory and often times silly ideals about what art should be that it often forgets that art is a petri dish for our culture. What eventually happens is that a new generation who feels the weight of history decides to throw it all off. The Impressionists sidestepped the Salon, in the 60’s artists formed unions to overthrow the museums and protest the war in the 60‘s (the museums are still with us thankfully), and sometime in the 80’s younger artists, partly because of the weight of history and partly because some simply knew nothing of history they simply ignored high art and embraced the art they grew up with. I suppose you can call it low or popular art. I use these terms somewhat facetiously here as my philosophy at least tries to ignore those labels in search of a more holistic understanding of art. More recently I’ve been known to rail against the democritization of art. But just so you understand the complexity of my views I am not against the next generation sidestepping the system.Walter King on 05.15.08 @ 07:35 AM EST [Read more and comment...] [2 Comments]
A year or so ago I was made aware of a non-Aboriginal Australian artist who was passing himself off as an Aboriginal Australian artist and making quite a bit of money in the process. The artist in question was born in Sydney but spent time during his teenags years at a school in a particular area of Australia's Northern Territory that has produced many of the most well known and highly valued Aboriginal Australian artists. According to this artist's profile on the website of the gallery that represents him, during his time in the Northern Territory he was exposed to the artistic practise of the indigenous people and was later taught to paint in the traditional Aboriginal x-ray style by an Aboriginal Elder. The art gallery that was selling the work of this fraud did nothing to alert potential customers to the fact they might be purchasing works of art that looked the same as that produced by geniune Indigenous artists but were by an artist who was not an Aboriginal Australian. Because a style of painting is not protected under Copyright Law it is not illegal as such for this artist to paint in the style of Aboriginal artists, but it is illegal for the artist to promote himself and present himself as an indigenous artist when clearly he isn't. 
In the world of artists, there are some who excel to an extent that it isn’t fair to allow them to work without mention. Benone Olaru is one of them.
A satisfying feeling of validation has been bestowed to me. Ingrid Kamerbeek, art colleague on the other side of the planet, sent good news to me today by email. If not for her diligent monitoring of the infinite art cyberspace of the Internet, I would probably never have known what had occurred in February of this year. What could be so wonderful to make me feel like Clint Eastward, with someone who did “make my day?” In Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas, at the 96th annual conference of the national College Art Association, was a formal presentation of my creative process! By association and examples to illustrate the speaker’s description of my art making methodology, my art had to have been displayed through electronic projection. This would also validate the artist’s works, as no creative process would get profiled at such a prestigious event without the art being judged to be great (or at least successful and original) as product. The audience was distinguished college art instructors and professors of American universities and colleges. 
There, I’ve done it again. I said I wouldn’t but I’ve fallen for it one more time: wrapped two paintings up last week and drove them south of the river for the Montijo International biennial that is scheduled for August. You’re thinking that I’m not a man of my word and you are right – in one of my last videos [and a blog] you do hear me and fellow studio-buddy Fernando Vidal saying ‘Never Again’. He’s to blame; not so much for the ‘never again’ but for luring me into the trap when he walked in to the studio with a devious grin on his face and the application forms in his hand. The prize is too good to ignore: 15000 euros for first prize in painting – and, as Fernando keeps reminding me, the worst that can happen is for the jury to say no and we’ve both accumulated sufficient anti-bodies to rejection to come out of it with any significant bruises.
In my last blog I was talking about my very early drawings, some of them dating back as far as the 1940s (and please forgive me for not having been able to replay to all the comments!). Today in this prolonged, enjoyable, common effort of ours to make this blog also a place where we share our thoughts and impressions on our work so to understand it better, I will try to say something about another group of drawings, this time a very recent one. It is a group of three drawings I made in 2007, a group that, if I am right, I have already had a chance to bring to the pages of our Absolutearts blog when they were not finished yet. Though this is the very first time I am talking about them here.
