apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I keep getting a request for a user name and password. What gives?

They are still trying to find a way to keep you from posting. To no avail, you clever fox. :)

I'm an artist and I have to agree with you. Something about this phrase rubbed me entirely wrong. ..."critically acclaimed internationally recognized museum exhibiting contemporary artists ..." So ummm is this supposed to make buyers feel comfortable about buying these products or what? It's definitely a mouthful.

For whatever reason, this sits a bit wrong with me probably for the same reason, they are commodifying art and it feels a bit elusive as opposed to traditional means of buying art.

This doesn't bother me in the least. I actually like that it channels creativity in another way, and opens up a door of commerce to people who might not otherwise earn money in this same way.

I don't think it commoditizes art. I think it helps people live with the idea of art in a new and "useful" way. Perhaps it diminishes the value of their "real art" but that's just as sad a statement about how/why people buy "real" art in the first place. Some do buy "real" art, I think, BECAUSE it is limited, prestigious, elusive and exclusive. This certainly changes that. But I don't believe it changes it for the worse...

Artists making functional items. Architects making tea kettles. Fashion designers designing dishes. It's all good.

Perhaps their zesty phrasing is a bit unfortunate, but I don't think the concept itself is a problem. Especially when, as you note, it involves artists whose work has ALWAYS blurred the line between pop/art/retail/commercialization, as many of these artists here do/have done.

And besides, nobody's forcing the artists to go this route... it is a voluntary road.

Those pillows are butt-ugly. Do they come free with an ipod? WTF... give me artisans for my housewares and keep your "artists." Those S&P shakers leave me ambivalent for starters... Sorry, they aren't getting me excited about seasoning my scrambled eggs... and then when I read about their limited edition status... Please... The pretentiousness of it all makes me salty enough, and as we all know, I was salty already.

And now they're licensing Keith Haring housewares??? Somebody kill me now.

Did anyone go to the Dali' exhibit in Philly??? did you hear how his fellow surrealists threw him out of their inner circle after trying for 11 years on the grounds that he was too commercial?

Is this crap Art or Product? Don't be fooled by knucklehead marketers.

Have a great weekend!

"zesty phrasing"--hee hee.

i also don't see the appeal of the salz/pfeffer shakers. i've never gone in for "whimsy" & these are mega-whimsical. but it could be that i just don't appreciate the way they "blur the boundaries between high & low culture." perhaps they're ironically whimsical?

finally, not only do the pillows immediately conjure up those awful iPod ads (as paul noted), the orange pillow in particular reminds me of a box of Trojans condoms.

p.s. but to end on a positive note, those Chroma coasters are nice. maybe my tastes are too boring & conservative...

I don't know if these types of goods diminish the artists "real" art, but if I can get my hands on anything by Ryan McGinness I'll be happy. He uses great colors and it would make me happy to have a plate adorned with his graphics - it's not likely that I'll be able to afford an actual piece of his art any other way.

As a side note, I went to Deitch today to check out Barry McGee's exhibit. I love him! But prices were in the tens- and hundred- thousand dollars range. When's he making salt and pepper shakers, damn it?!?

And lastly, in a perhaps related tale of art pimpin' - It only took to page 3 in the Times today for me to gag. There's an ad for Saks Fifth Avenue showing a chiseled-featured, yacht-ready looking fella in a Marvel Comic's Fantastic Four t-shirt. Said hottie shows a hint of bicep tattoo and the t-shirt is $110. Yuck. Since when are comic book t-shirts Saks caliber? And I thought only Happy Meals had movie tie-ins.

I think the iPod commercials are good. One of the most successful ad campaigns on record. But maybe a bit past the sell date? That said, I don't think the pillows are all that. Just a get-on-the-bandwagon imitation. Fuhgedabadid.

I've said it before. The blue pillow with the white silhouette looks like the photos of the Tate/LaBianco murders in "Helter Skelter".

I find this whole phenomenon interesting when thought of in conjunction with folk art. Folk art has always been invested in crafting functional objects, and has simultaneously been distinguished from fine art or "high" art. If fine artists start crafting functional objects, is the resulting product high art or folk art? What about the commodification factor? Is something that is sold at a high price and manufactured in bulk still considered folk art?

Folk art is not, to my mind, about mass marketing... or issuing exclusive, high-priced limited edition chtokes... What happened to mid-century modern values for providing high-quality design for the masses??? Or was that just a dream all along?

re: "providing high-quality design for the masses"

Um, don't places like Target and IKEA try to do that? Doesn't craftsman Jonathan Adler try that, even to the point of mass-marketing his limited editions?
And doesn't this same audience freak out about the homogenization of design and/or over-exposure whenever those names are mentioned?

There's no pleasing you people. ;)

"Folk art has always been invested in crafting functional objects"

Sorry, but that sounds more like a definition of craft or fine craftsmanship (artistic yet functional items including but not limited to furniture, table and service-ware, etc.) Folk art is traditionally defined as artwork created by individuals who have little or no formal academic training in fine art. FOlk are can be but doesn't have to be functional in the slightest.

Just me two cents.

Libby (predominently self taught in mixed media and assemblage art)

"Folk art has always been invested in crafting functional objects"

Sorry, but that sounds more like a definition of craft or fine craftsmanship (artistic yet functional items including but not limited to furniture, table and service-ware, etc.) Folk art is traditionally defined as artwork created by individuals who have little or no formal academic training in fine art. Folk art can be but doesn't have to be functional in the slightest.

Just me two cents.

Libby (predominently self taught in mixed media and assemblage art)

Argh! I kept getting "malicious script" alerts or something and repeatedly asked to enter those damn codes to post and it seemed like it only went through once - sorry about the double post. (Mondays and technology just don't seem like a good mix.)

Hey Paul--
I just ordered (and received) those Keith Haring tile coasters. Sorry. ;)

Actually, I saw them at Cereal Art's booth at The Armory Show (I think), and I bought the tiles because they are very cool looking little pieces of art. Will I use them as coasters? Doubt it. Will they find their way into frames and onto my walls? Probably. Is that one of the cheaper ways to get Keith Haring art on my walls? Definitely.

I believe that my art history teacher told me that back in Michaelangelo's day, artists were called on to be architects, furniture designers and all kinds of stuff, and ya just did it, and got paid, and said thank you.

That if you could work a look, you worked a look. Whenever I do something interesting to people's walls, I often give a few suggestions, and in some cases, a few insistions, depending on how much I can bully them into having my will be done.

The whole Dada movement was all about trying to figure out "what is art? MUST it be useless in order to make it art?" That's why the bicycle wheel was installed on top of the seat of the stool!

I think that artists making useful things can give those things very interesting personalities and make them an endearing, enduring part of life.
And I think it's a fun line to cross back and forth on, but I think that the starving artist concept is so incredibly boring and outdated and gross, because many mortals seem to LOVE the idea that people who actually attempt to fulfill their creative urges should starve. Sometimes growing older gives you a different perspective about what you really need.

If you have a really great creative take on something that could reach out to normal people who feel alienated from the art world, because they feel like they don't know enough about it, isn't that a good thing?

Because, as a friend of mine says, "A girl's gotta eat."

I'm an industrial designer and my entire field is based on the idea that the stuff we use everyday can be art, can be beautiful, can be enjoyed as well as just used.
The notion that art is just something really expensive you hang on your wall and look at, and anything with a function cannot dare call itself "art", smacks of snobbery, in my humble opinion. Art in the 'traditional' sense is already a commodity anyway, albeit a high-end one.

re: "providing high-quality design for the masses"

Um, don't places like Target and IKEA try to do that? Doesn't craftsman Jonathan Adler try that, even to the point of mass-marketing his limited editions?
And doesn't this same audience freak out about the homogenization of design and/or over-exposure whenever those names are mentioned?

There's no pleasing you people. ;)

You know i'm never satisfied... ;)

$50 for S&P shakers... that's not bringing design to the masses...

Adler's stuff is not priced for the masses either... But you can find my hypocrite ass at his sale this week...


I dunno... If you went and got the coasters, I'd just use them as coasters... but that's just cranky Paul talking.

It's an image that was licensed by his estate for someone to use, right? and being marketed by some ceramicist using low-skilled labor from a developing nation, right?

I mean... I don't know... are these coasters something that Keith Haring left concept plans for before he passed on?

Maybe I shouldn't kvetch so much... I suppose it was during my 1985 adventures on Astor and St. Mark's Places that I might have first seen his work... Postcards of his prints, which I may have bought... and he was alive at the time, I think... and these were similarly licensed images... So perhaps this is just an extension of that.

I'm blabbling now and need to do some work for God's sake.

As an aritst I agree we all need to eat. I think maybe I'm just bothered by all of this because while blurring the lines between art and design for the masses it seems like we're still trying to pitch some exclusivity for products that ummm look like those salt and pepper shakers? HAhaha I think I've just become an elitest. Geesh. HAHAHAHA *laughing all the way out the door*

Um, and PLENTY of "real art" looks just like those salt and pepper shakers.

yeah, kudos to target & ikea for trying to "bring design to the masses"!! i don't always love all of their products, but some of them are quite good, and at least they're trying. still, i think we're entitled to complain a bit about the fact that aside from these two examples, no one seems particularly interested in "democratizing" so-called "high design". (i mean FOR REAL, not merely lowering prices from "absolutely, breathtakingly ridiculous" to "somewhat ridiculous".)

ps--
The coasters came and they are very cool. The black background is very matte, giving them the look of the original chalk drawings from which they were adapted.

But as coasters, not so much. I never quite got the conept of a hard, non-porous coaster, without a reservoir for collected condensation.

Yes, high points for artistic merit. Low points for function.

I wish I were working on a backsplash, cuz these babies would be very cool as accent tiles.