Mine's Bigger: A Trip to Art Basel | Scorned by Muses Episode 6

[@three69]

This content is filling a void that nobody had the words to express was lacking in this realm. It’s actually fulfilling and inspiring. The insight is well-versed and intellectually stimulating. I really hope you continue this project. I know how much work goes into this stuff.

[@uncertaintyiscertain8984]

4:03 I'm in senior year and this entire dialogue is straight on point. The academy never died. People think it did, but it just evolved. People still have to justify their art to exist, and the hierarchy of genre is still alive and well fed. If you just make something material it gets critiqued hard, no longer are figures subjectively told that they're too muscular to be around, but if your work lacks story or something to say, people say it might as well not exist, while also being pushed to make something new. There is a massive denial of authenticity because of all of this. It ironically creates a system where in authenticity is pushed so hard, actual authenticity is denied, and at the end it commodifies authenticity. And because of this at the end of the day, the academy is still alive and well. I ironically had far more fun and freedom in foundational education classes before senior year than I am now because now everything is scrutinized and no one is allowed to do what they want anymore without having to think about it. Impulsivity is dead, and even loose and free abstraction has to be rigid and controlled.

[@Thimasehren]

Keep talking to random normies earnestly about what they think the art means! That shit is fascinating.

[@petsRawesome1]

Hasn't Gerhard Richter been doing the blurred thing since the sixties? Or is that Totally Different?

[@TheYearbookCommitteeNYC]

I think Richter is definitely an influence on these younger painters. The style doesn't feel like it's something particularly new or novel. What is interesting though is just how many young painters are adopting the blurry approach. It's definitely a trend. Just not one that's original.

[@ethompson6694]

Was about to say this

[@Misterdemocracy]

It’s so sweet them trying to intellectualise this. It’s literally just a conflation of the fact that nobody has any new ideas but that oil painting is the only thing collectors feel safe buying in a time of economic downturn. It’s nothing more profound than that. Look at the progression of the arts throughout the 90s and then right up until the 2008 financial crash it was absolutely exhilarating what artists were able to achieve. Then since the crash it’s just gotten more and more formally conservative and the very idea of being an artist has become less special due to its democratisation via social media. I’ve been to Frieze every year for twenty years. One trend has massively emerged in the last five years that can be very simply described as: bad, lazy, unoriginal, uninspired art by children of the wealthy.

[@caseygleghorn8696]

Do be fair, Richter disavowed that body of fuzzy work, so fair game!

[@RapidBlindfolds]

@@caseygleghorn8696has he? In which interview? I would like to watch/read

[@Thimasehren]

Your work feels like actual progressive criticism. You’re offering critique in the form of video art (but you know that) It’s informative while also offering a very fine and dare I say auterish and beautiful aesthetic experience. Keep playing with form. This work is really good.

[@TulseLuper92]

They have Art Basel once a week on my street, only we call it garbage day. Thanks again to Yearbook Committee for creating interesting and critical content in a time when there is pressure to like and support everything even if it’s shit. Respect.

[@cliffdariff74]

I enjoy your art critic you brought along, ( margueritas and fuzzy cleavage et al.) She had a great way of exploring the diff between the art market and grant academy ! Kudos 😂

[@maximal1374]

Mine's first. Thanks for another 22 cultural entertaining minutes. I will enjoy them in my studio later. Always a pleasure.

[@mixedmeds]

Guy from 1:50 is so annoying. "... shadows in your memory? Almost impossible." Who can stand people are so full of 1. themselves and 2. shit? We need this kind of attitude out of the art world lol

[@undereyedot]

This channel has motion baby!!!

[@kellyburnsnewyork]

Loving your videos! Really great on many levels.

[@gorbogorboze5096]

The Mom Art “hope“ piece and the Dad Art “man cave“ segment; so great. Politics vs. Environmental issues. I had to sleep on this episode to begin to really get it. In spite of what some of your viewers say, I think anyone using beach art as a selfie background in a crowded beach should have to answer inane questions on camera from a KZbinr who kept to a simple this or that. My question is how will we be wrapped up in this luffing canvas and rolled over board into the sea? Imagine the world view of someone who makes a giant charcoal drawing of a fighter jet that looks like a poster or a Hope with letters that look like they came from a craft store. As for soft focus millennial nostalgia, it’s nice to be informed about that. Encaustic futures might be a solid investment. Thanks again, and I hope you’re noticing I’m a big fan!

[@TheYearbookCommitteeNYC]

Thanks for your comments! Yes buy your fuzzy figuration now while it's cheap ;)

[@petemc5070]

A pleasure to listen in on your art conversations.

[@catdavisphoto5319]

Asking random people to articulate exactly what an art installation means is just so, um, academy. But interesting video, as always, and the mine's bigger moment was worth the cost of your plane tickets.

[@steadyhum720]

I see two reference points in the blurry work. gerhard richter’s smeary paintings and dirty-lensed early digi cams. Distancing on the one hand and nostalgia on the other (which of course is a form of distancing, or the acknowledgement of it) I’ve also noticed a trend in ‘fog-filtered’ photography the past few years- P. Guilmouth and Female Pentimento to name just two arists. It’s like clarity of the image is too much too handle right now. I feel it too. A backlash and a yearning I suppose

[@Julian_Mikael]

This is what I’m talking about! Beautiful work my dude thank you!

[@TheYearbookCommitteeNYC]

Thank you!

[@caseygleghorn8696]

Fuzzy figuration: a trend over before it started.

[@khaledkhalifa4902]

Always on point, always enjoyable, thank you

[@TheYearbookCommitteeNYC]

Thanks for watching!

[@oreman3126]

great video ! keep em comin🤩🥳

[@PrePostModernProphet]

I'm wondering if "fuzzy figuration" is so bad tho. You say that those artists lack the skill to accomplish a truly formal academic painting, but those can be found for free in most public art museum in the world. In comparison, fuzzy figuration is just.... Nice. It's nice to look at, at bit nostalgic, melancolic, and yes a little bit instagram but it is "of its time", so to speak. Idk, I don't have a clever comment this time lmao, enjoy this one for the algorithm

[@TheYearbookCommitteeNYC]

I don't think we ever said fuzzy figuration is bad. We're just trying to figure out what kind of symptom it is. What does it mean that artists are drawn to this way of working in the present? I agree. I actually like a lot of the fuzzy figuration. I saw a painting that I would have bought if I had the money! And the algorithm boost is always appreciated!

[@Mrhalts]

This is the wind in our collective sail of liberation.

[@aargourdin]

nostalgia strikes me as the opposite of motion

[@aargourdin]

backward motion?

[@saradosiggi5287]

​@@aargourdinfor me it's like looking out of the back of a moving car

[@artboy2]

i read the ship sail text work as relating to colonialism. The sails being the basic means by which greater nation powers subjugated and stole lands, resources and people from less powerful ones. The questions bring to mind our current "sails", which could be corporate power or some basic engine of it (finance, oil, etc.) the more interesting thing is the question of what are we willing to give up to burn these sails? Could that be some comforts or technologies? Beliefs and myths? And then what is the aftermath of the end of our empire? That seems to me the more intriguing aspect of the work. I find it poetic and philosophical and has more depth than the typical political artwork.

[@briancitogallery]

Kosuth was nearby tanning his buns, and he is pissed! Art probably needs a pinch of PowerSlap, anyhow🎉

[@whamster27]

love the shot at 17:35!

[@reiniergamboa]

That's a lot of generalizations you guys made...BUT... fun to listen to :)

[@the42the]

The blur(r) paintings may be symptomatic of working from 2-D images, rather than being able to draw from life. Without the ability to translate the actual into a spatial awareness on the picture plane, everything flattens and loses cohesion. This is a false aesthetic and an inevitable trap of "1,000 hours of practice" of a mistake. As you pointed out, none of these artists have any skills of the academy- as I'm guessing most of their instructors only engaged in zombie-formalism; the academy can't academy; too many generations of academic rejection of entry level skills and manic pursuit of inability becomes a personal style for a generation.

[@TheYearbookCommitteeNYC]

That's interesting. I hadn't thought about it in terms of working from images vs working from life. That may be part of what Chuke was getting at with his explanation.

[@the42the]

@@TheYearbookCommitteeNYC and his quip that Art Basil is the wrong place to be to talk about art

[@jimjimgl3]

The amount of strivers in Miami over one week is phenomenal...

[@LaurieRojas]

There is some good triangulation going on! But Taylor you should have not cut the “screensaver art” section where you admit having been making screensaver art back in the early-mid 2000s!! Xx

[@pisongsea]

Great watch, thank you

[@TheYearbookCommitteeNYC]

Thanks for watching!

[@Kingganon56]

that phrase political something covers so much ground

[@undereyedot]

😂😂😂😂

[@TheYearbookCommitteeNYC]

lol

[@swordgun25]

net art was free and freely available so it didn’t provide any great reason to party… a fatal flaw

[@kennethbarber438]

Richter was doing blurred figuration in the 60s. nothing new

[@TheYearbookCommitteeNYC]

Nothing new formally. But the sheer number of young painters adopting the style is remarkable.

[@simonpalazziandreu1329]

Should script it or have a screenwriter, now it just feels like they are trying to hit a one liner that is provocative or exciting enough to keep the rhythm going, which doesn’t happen and they just stare at each with this smirk, like they are onto something. “this painting is like an instagram filter, oh yeah like an instagram filter, yeah like an instagram filter” and that’s it, an empty hint at bridging art criticism and internet language, as if it were somewhat illuminating, or maybe they really couldn't come up with something better. They talk in sentences like “it is giving man cave, it is giving ikea, it is giving millenial” I’m saying don’t do a youtube video for this. And then this unnecessary sad blame for people taking pictures and selfies in the artfair You know not everyone can be an emperor, and you shouldn’t blame them for it Welcome them in your empire, they might be good for something Also there's no need to talk to the people that were at the beach like they're stupid. I feel that they’re getting a mild version of you, "oh I don’t know what’s this, but is it political? is it environmental? do you think it is environmental?" I think in the end the last guy gets bothered by it. It is nice to approach this kind of public too, maybe try another strategy. Still, looking forward for further uploads

[@Julian_Mikael]

I disagree completely with what you’re saying. What Muses is doing here is bridging the gap between the Academy and Institutions and the average person interested in art. I encourage you to look past semantics and get to the substance of what they’re talking about, which as far as I can tell, is that a large part of the art market is oriented towards what looks good on Instagram .ergo what increases your social status. “Mines Bigger” that guy says hilariously. These collectors intersect with the academy in interesting way which is why I love watching Muses explore these intersections. The conclusion is essential to this video, those kitsch public works at the beach are not the solution to the climate crisis or elephant extinction or any problems, despite the academics ambitions. Yet young artists despite being the most effected are stilling hopeful that a balance can be struck between the art market and instagram market and academia and so forth

[@AguillonMata]

Viewers are taking issue with the quick reactions to some pieces, and particularly with the claim about painters lacking skill to deliver hyperrealism. That claim is obviously a suspicion, not a certainty-but I’d say it’s likely right. Either well founded or not, one shouldn’t make too much of it. Skill, craft, technique are not the most valuable ingredients in contemporary art, and haven’t been in more than a century. That kind of acquired ability is standardizing, and would run against the potential of art in our times. To not be good enough a painter to deliver hyperrealism is not-or shouldn’t be taken as-a diss. It’s just a statement of fact. The critics in this video should be aware, however, that they are mimicking with their vague generalizations the facile gestures they criticize in art. There’s a fearful naïveté in their dismissive attitude, as if the only way they could engage with a piece is by spelling out how they place themselves above it. Not an uncommon attitude in artsy circles, though.

[@DanielClark-hk8zg]

Yay

[@jovian2203]

These millennials are doing old Gerhard Richters as an escape from the world of the new Gerhard Richters. He was taught with a social realism that was not real, escaped to a capitalist west where nothing was real and made some fuzzy paintings. Reading the copious criticism and descriptions of all that goes something like if all painting Is a lie, there is no true memory image, then the only way to make it more honest is to make it blurry. In pursuit of this honesty he started doing the squeegees, and the pixels, and weird hazy reflective glass, and balls with the names of mountains on them. Somehow art can only be honest if it removes content, which I think is what your other video was about. But these are young people now painting blurry images, where will they end up? There is an escape from academic and institutional art which has inspired so many art movements, although no one has called this that really. Are there art movements anymore? These new works do seem to be approaching honesty from a different angle, going for sincerity, a distance from art created just to be described, expressing more personal experiences as something more than the “facts” that Richter considers his photographs to be. I am curious to see where it goes. I don’t think there will be a stripping back to minimalism again. What is more likely is a buildup to a new maximalism, rococo the rerun. I think we already see it happening. I also loved the sails. Will all these fancy art folks so interested in decolonialism as an idea for art actually give up something to achieve it? Something more than the cost of funding a grant to put some sails on a beach? Do any of them actually want any sort of collective liberation? That doesn’t seem like a great way to amass tons of money you can legitimize with your art collection. There’s no better way to say your money is safe than to pay someone to criticize it. What if social realism was real? What if the internet didn’t devolve into a whole lot of long winded comments by armchair people who think they know more than they do?

[@Julian_Mikael]

Love

[@milim96]

booooring

[@skoruno1]

10:42 lol brother you don’t know shit about painting and an artists skill

[@TheYearbookCommitteeNYC]

What do you think? What would you say about this painting?

[@skoruno1]

@ assuming reproducing photos with paint is harder than actually painting without much external information is ridiculous. “ThEy DoNT HavE THe skill” lol pls don’t call yourself an art critic

[@skoruno1]

@@TheYearbookCommitteeNYC “it’s an Instagram filter” “ it’s so melancholic” how surface level and embarrassing can one talk abou an artwork

[@skoruno1]

@@TheYearbookCommitteeNYC “where would you put this over your couch?” The questions you ask really show your interest and inside in art lol

[@Julian_Mikael]

⁠@@skoruno1 assuming artists are trying to reproduce photos when painting... I don’t believe in 1863 Alexandre Cabanel was working from a photo of the birth of Venus. The implications of what you’re saying is that a painter (of any style or tradition) is no more significant than the printer at the library.

[@alexcook77]

Critics gotta be the worst version of human beings

[@TheYearbookCommitteeNYC]

[@jkickass]

art critic has to be the worst job ever

[@TheYearbookCommitteeNYC]

It's not a job. It's a lifestyle.

[@chelseagirlnico]

This channel just left my tax bracket (poverty). Unrelatable!

[@tp8271]

Lololol

[@paintingtracey]

I feel sorry for you guys. You seem miserable.

[@LaurieRojas]

Really? Guess all the laughing is a sign of misery.

[@WizEL]

Critics hate criticism

[@TakeAHike344]

Says the most miserable comment on here