Taste in Art | Marina Raike | Artist | The Ten Collective

"Any work that is really great, hovers between terrific and terrible." - Laurie Simmons

When I go to an art gallery, I often hear people express strong feelings and opinions about the work they see. Sometimes they appreciate pieces I dislike, or rave about works I also love. Occasionally, someone will say he or she likes something that I hadn't noticed before and I gain an insight into their perspective. The broad range of reactions fascinates me. This is the magic of art!

For example, I'm an admirer of AI Weiwei's antique readymades and the multiple meanings embedded into his porcelain sunflower seeds. I’m awestruck by his defiance of the totalitarian regime in which he lives. The Italian curator Francesco Bonomi doesn't seem to agree. In the book ‘33 Artists in 3 Acts', by Sarah Thornton, Bonomi says he would, "...put him back in jail for his art." We're talking about one of China’s most prominent artists, who in 2011, was arrested and detained for his work, but not in the way Bonomi meant.

That's how strongly some people feel - even if they are being hyperbolic.

Coca-Cola Vase by Ai Weiwei is an authentic Han dynasty vase with industrial paint added. It sold at Christie’s auction house for GBP 266,500.

Andrea Fraser, author of 'Untitled' in which, for $20,000.00, she has sex on camera with one of her collectors, said, "An artist is a myth. Most artists internalize the myth in the process of their development and then strive to embody and perform it." She also makes the distinction that the sum of twenty thousand dollars was for the video production as opposed to the act itself.

http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/saltz/saltz2-27-07_detail.asp?picnum=1

What do you think?