Understanding the modern art world and its basics is quite easy once you understand that THE driving factor behind its image (its glamour – its trick) is money, and from there, its all quite easy to suss. Money and art have been running hand in hand since the first artist wanted to be paid for the work – its been that way for a thousand years and more. Its just more people get paid for it now, besides the artist. The art industry and its basics is something you can get a hold of, once you see past the deceptions and misunderstandings of its facade, and once you read my upcoming meat-and-potatoes take on the whole thing.

You might ask what this is all about? Well, It seems that my essay on Modern Art has been delayed. It’s still swelling, which should stop soon, but with the bits still coming, there’s still bits going.

So, don’t let all that fool you. In spite of the fact that I’m now into three parts of this essay, I think you’ll get it. Anyway, I really should be used to this, having multiple projects at any one time, since my painting practice works like that, too, so go figure.

Maybe the best thing I can say at this point is that understanding the basics of modern art requires just a breezy, thoughtful, little trip through the system of how selling art actually happens. That’s the can of worms I’ve had to open, but I promise you that my Meat and Potatoes, the basics, will have your head cleared up quite easily.

Let this little guy be your your guide

Anyway, whenever I thought of the proverb (or whatever it is) “In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king.” I’d always envisioned this little guy, who finally, two years ago, became a sketch. I must have figured that since I’m getting old, I might forget him, but with that sketch, I didn’t, so now have this character in one of my latest, a series of five good-sized canvasses that are dripping with oil as I write this, and as you read it.

I also have assumed that he’s a male, which is why I call him a little guy, but really, in spite of having a physical body and revealing nothing to us in this seated portrait, he really has no gender, his pants hide nothing, which is alright I guess – he’s a true non-binary. In that case, he’s not a he or a she, or even both, being there can be no both where there’s none, and he’s got none, so what word do we have for him? Still a long ways from finished, this is just the base coat the first, with some adjustments and detailing still to come.

Seeing this playful villain and thinking about the phrase itself makes me think the meaning of that phrase doesn’t apply, since he’s not a one-eyed man-king6, but a one-eyed it-king.

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