Hang it up

Last week, the board of trustees at the Baltimore Museum of Art voted to let the Sotheby Auction people sell three of their famous pieces of art. The idea is a good one; they will take the loot and "expand diversity initiatives," which is the swanky way of saying they will get some paintings etc by people who are not all the same type. Some art from people who are of different races, ethnicities, backgrounds, persuasions, and lunch choices will make for a more inclusive collection.  After all, who wants to look at the same art by the same people all the time? Mix it up a little.

The pieces to hit the auction block are Andy Warhol’s “The Last Supper”, "3" by Brice Marden, and “1957-G” by Clyfford Still, an artist who lived in Westminster, Carroll County, for a number of years.

Christopher Bedford, the director of the museum, figures that these three pieces will rake in more than 65 million simoleons.

The plan is to set up an endowment to arrange for permanent future care of the museum's collection, and the interest from the $54.5 million fun will make for raises for staffers, free admissions for special exhibits, and open the place up in the evening so that people who have to work all day can come around and enjoy the art.  All commendable plans!

Bedford told the Baltimore SUN, "A light bulb went off inside my head during the lockdown. I realized that it’s impossible to stand behind a diversity, justice and inclusion agenda as an art museum unless you’re living those ideals within your own walls. We can’t say we’re an equitable institution just because we buy a painting by Kerry James Marshall and hang it on a wall," he said.

Kerry James Marshall is an African American multimedia artist.

“What’s more important is to create and model the world of inclusion he depicts in his paintings," Bedford continued.

In the world you and I live in, this practice is called "having a yard sale to raise mortgage and grocery money," but in the world of cake-eaters, they use the term "Deaccessioning." The BMA did it before. In 2018, they auctioned off a lot including Warhol's "Hearts" and brought in $16.2 million, and the world continued to go on and on.

As a patron of the arts - I'm a regular at gallery openings and salons all across my neighborhood - I would like to suggest the sale of several works from my personal collection to raise a buck or two for my personal charities.

The works of Thomas Kinkade illuminate homes from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon.

Many of us feel that art is not art if it doesn't look like it was raining.

This is the ne plus ultra - the pinnacle - of the art category known as Aesthetique Du Schlock. Dogs playing cards make a statement that none can deny making.