Until tonight I have avoided anything associated with the celebration of Wagner’s Ring Cycle. This celebration is a citywide festival commemorating Richard Wagner and … well, I stopped reading the press releases there. I assume, cynically, that the festival was a way for civic agencies to launder money intended to promote an arts festival into private hands. I can’t prove that. But all the effort put out by the festival was to have dozens and dozens and (literally) dozens more art shows and gatherings and festive whatevers to commemorate Wagner doing his thing so greatly that we recall it all a hundred or more years ago.
Yes, I am ignorant of Wagner. I know he did the song they played in Apocalypse Now. I know Hitler borrowed his legacy as a soundtrack. I know Wagner was a raging anti-semite years before ‘dolf took it to a nihilistic level beyond imagination. But I have no political allegiance in this enough for the man’s vile politics to make this an ethical issue.
The issue I have is that there is nothing … not a fucking thing relevant about Wagner in relationship to Contemporary Art. Opera is an art form of another time. It is quaint and enjoyable and neutered. Contemporary art has a slew of approaches, and none of them are opera and all of them have the possibility of being vital.
But opera and contemporary art attract the same pseudosophisticates who revel in the pretense and false glamour that is somehow bestowed on an antiquated type of musical theater and any clean, well-lit, white-walled space that is not hosting a crafts fair.
Almost every tight-assed fine art academic loved Duchamp. Almost every tight-assed academic loves the reflected sophistication that any associaton with things like “OPERA” bring to one’s social status.
But after Duchamp, there can be no opera. The radical Dada bomb destroyed epic narrative embracing a medium encased in transformative musical experiences. But tight-assed academics swear by Duchamp as “historically important” and yet revel in all the pomp and circumstance that a night at the opera delivers.
I would have been more impressed with an effort for contemporary art locations throughout Los Angeles celebrating the 35th anniversary of the rock band KISS. I am actually not much for KISS… but they DO have more relevance than Wagner. Sadly for the potential Gene Simmons Ring Festival… there is no tuxedoed validation in owning KISS albums, so the pretentious opera parade continues.
You either thrive in the classical world of opera or survive the contemporary world of post-Dada. I hate those sniveling shits who attempt to revel in the cachet of cool that contemporary art bestows on a person all the while embracing the values of the classical world and its stunted idiocies, no matter how catchy a tune they could occasionally churn out.
The ART DROP is your chance to get art for free. We are talking great original signed contemporary art by a name artist. You don’t have to be rich to afford the art because it is free and will be raffled off to a lucky ticket holder. You don’t even have to pay for a ticket, you just have to show up. And this is not an event held for some bullshit “good cause” …it is held for pure selfishness: your selfish desire to get some great contemporary art for frickin’ FREE.
So what is the catch? There is no catch. Well, okay, the catch is you cannot tell anyone about the ART DROP. You see, elitism is the only thing the art world has going for it and if you are around long enough, you will notice that idiots pretend to be part of the elite every day. Oh, you have a million in the bank, guess what, dat don’t buy you taste, you can’t come to the ART DROP because we are not going to tell you or when it is. HA! And anyway, if you tell someone, guess what, that is one more person who will show up to the ART DROP… and it is going to be a great party but that is one more raffle ticket that is in a hand other than your own.
When you show up to the ART DROP you are going to get a raffle ticket. The ART DROP is free admission and the raffle ticket is free. I will warn you ahead of time that you might have to pay for a drink if you want one, but imagine a night out in the world of contemporary art where there is no price list and there are no party animals looking to get at the free hooch with no regard to the art. So we are keeping it elite and keeping out the riff raff too.
So the ART DROP is taking place soon somewhere in the Los Angeles basin. It is going to be a party with free admission and a free raffle ticket to win contemporary art. There will be some performers and someone talking to the group on occasion, but it is a casual scene of the elite art edge. You might have to buy a drink and a snack if you get thirsty or hungry, but it will be from a legitimate establishment and not a bake sale or some fraternity party punch bowl.
The ART DROP is sponsored by Coagula. To find out more about the ART DROP you can…
Best of all, each of these three will be giving information on where and when the ART DROP is occurring, as well as the name of the artist whose work will given away (and it is art COAGULA has purchased, again, no charity guilt trip here, the artist got paid) and also, pay attention to the updates posted on FaceBook and Twitter: There will be instructions on how you can get additional FREE raffle tickets.
Coagula’s Art Drop #1 is coming later this summer, get in position now to receive information about it to give yourself the best chance to win some great contemporary art.
The Print edition of Coagula Art Journal was founded in 1992 as an antidote to the theory-addled and fashion-driven forces in the world of contemporary art.
Coagula remains clarity amidst the ambiguty of contemporary art and the neutered, star-struck art world; we don't fuck around here.
