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'Some of my favorite artists are assholes'

August 2, 2011 by Marion Maneker

The art stunt that was POWHIDA has a few folks wondering what all the fuss is about, including Brian Droitcour writing in ArtForum’s Scene & Herd column:

Powhida was, I thought, a mediocre draftsman singularly obsessed with his own career, offering nothing but rarefied op-ed cartoons about the markets and personalities that stand in its way. (He sold a drawing of Miami Beach as a shantytown at the Pulse Art Fair a couple years back.) Yet all around me at Marlborough the choir sang the praises of Saint William. […]  Though I’d tried to recalibrate my estimation of Powhida’s work with the evening’s new insights, I couldn’t dissociate the means of expression from the man who chose them. This theatrical parody of the “Warholian” made Powhida, at best, a petty Santiago Sierra. Good intentions lurking in the shadows are not the stuff of an oeuvre. Some of my favorite artists are assholes. […] The afterparty at the Mondrian Hotel’s penthouse staged the cheesiest fantasies of Big Apple glamour. Just as he had at the Marlborough, the false Powhida lounged on a couch, drinking champagne and fondling girls, but now a dramatic view of Manhattan’s skyline was his photogenic backdrop. The venue brought out the worst in the opening’s two demographics: The Bushwick types enjoyed playing rockstars-and-groupies beyond irony, and the actual rich dudes felt entitled to shove their way to the front of the line for absinthe mojitos.

William, It Was Really Nothing (Scene&Herd/ArtForum)

Saltz on an Open Wound

March 10, 2010 by Marion Maneker

Jerry Saltz approves of William Powhida’s latest cariciature of the art world on view at Pulse last week:

As mean as some find Powhida’s pencil, I think it’s necessary institutional critique. Some New York museum should immediately commission him to make a huge drawing of the art world as it is today. Fifteen feet tall, twenty feet wide. Pay him whatever he charges, and give him a one-year deadline. Then show the thing, and give it a museum gallery to itself. Crowds would come, laugh, tremble, cringe, sneer, feel Schadenfreude, and glean how tangy and strong the power of art can still be.

Until some curator is brave enough do that, we have Art Basel Miami Beach Hooverville, and you can take a good close look at it below.

Saltz: William Powhida Is Making Fun of Me, and I Love It (New York)

ABMB Critique or Sour Grapes

December 7, 2009 by Marion Maneker

It’s hard to read Damien Cave’s excellent story about William Powhida, the artist-satirist, in the New York Times without wondering whether Mr. Powhida’s vitriol is motivated by high standards or resentment.

“I don’t want to blow this place up,” Mr. Powhida said, admitting that he would love to see his own art here as opposed to at Pulse, where his work appeared this year. “A lot of us go back and forth about wanting to destroy this model, and wanting to support it.”

What bothers Mr. Powhida and several others in the art world who declined to be named for fear of offending wealthy collectors is the pre-eminence of money at the expense of work that challenges the artistic and economic status quo. Mr. Powhida described the convention center as a mall for “condo art” — polished works by recognizable names that are the equivalent of a BMW or a Bentley in the driveway. Continue Reading

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