The Old Masters

I saw the old masters were back in town again at the Detroit Institute of Art. I'm over here in Switzerland and heard about this exhibition coming to the - D. I recently visited one of the museums here and saw Picasso and Matisse at a Jeff Koon opening at the Beyeler museum here in Basel. The reason I'm writing this particular blog is because I'm trying to understand this circle and why the same artists seem to take precedence over the art world. This machine or circle, not sure what to call it, but it's big because I see the affects of it here too. What makes the oeuvre of these artists like Picasso and Matisse so so valuable and the public or certain classes of people can't seem to get enough of them. Why? Are they just as important as the Messiah or perhaps the Pope. I'm not trying be facetious here, not at all, believe me. I just want to understand these systems. As I travel around here in Europe and USA, it's the same circle of artists that I see at your major institutions and the same ditto of people attending the museums and upper class events concerning the arts on the high end. 

What is art today? It's a game where money plays a big part in this equation and creating a movement alone with the right propaganda to go with the philosophy is also part of it too. Time and history is an intricate part to this world of the old masters and the business of art today and why it's still relevant even now. Is it being in the right circle or place? Knowing the right people or perhaps doing something bizarre like cutting off your Der schnuffler and sticking it on a painting ( Van Gogh cut his ear off )? Now that will get you some attention for a while but it won't make you a master with staying power in this circle of the old masters of the past. I understand that it goes way back to the ancient Greek days and farther than that even and that the past is very sufficient to the present. But for how long is my question. 

Religion is a whole other subject but with a similar foundation. Organized religion has been projected and portrayed in the world and all over the globe, so have the old masters. The origin of religion dates back to the roman emperor and so does art. In the vernacular of the past and present of how it all came to be what it is today, it has everything to do with location, power and wealth. As I conclude here, it's starting to make sense. I need to go back into deep time, way, way back to the beginning of time itself. 

July 19 - 2012