art

it's a subject i know little about. yes i go a lot of shows (and there are currently a whole heap of big shows i have to go see the turner prize at the tate britain, robert frank at tate modern and raphael at national gallery) but i would be lying if i called myself an expert.
i love to go to galleries big and small, have walked miles at the weekend around parts of london just to get to a gallery to see a show. sometimes i have been rewarded with some stunning artistic expressions and other times it looks like something a 4 year old did!
hold on did i say a four year old .... yes i did.
well lets just check this out shall we.
marla is a 4 year old who paints abstract canvases and guess what they are currently taking the art world by storm. at her current rate of producing paintings she is booked up for the next 3 years (probably more after the piece in yesterday's observer about her!)

now i am going to be honest here and say that if marla's work was hung in a gallery with no explanation and no biography there is a very large chance i wouldn't know if it was good, bad or indifferent. all i would know whether i liked it or not. whether it moved me or not, if it scored highly on the i like it scale and it moved scale then i am looking at a work that will make me happy.
but when i am looking at art i am always making the subconscious assumption that the artist meant something by what they are doing (often when you read what the artist things they have created and compare it with what they have created you know it is a case of emperor's new clothes and i am thinking of you tracey emin!) so the idea of a 4 year old creating moving or interesting art is one that stretches credibility.
(mind you as the article points out pyschologists think we are constantly reworking those first 7 years of experience so perhaps marla is just getting it all done early?)

good luck to her and her family i hope they earn a nice few bob out of it.
i am just not sure the art establishment should be proclaiming her the next big thing, but hey i am all for the dealers getting caught out on it.