Leo

Well-known member
Which 'great' artists were well adjusted, comfortable etc? I'm struggling to think of examples.

Jeff Koons. Worked on Wall Street as a commodities broker after art school, before his art career took off, a businessman/artist.

Ed Sheeren.
 

luka

Well-known member
Jeff Koons. Worked on Wall Street as a commodities broker after art school, before his art career took off, a businessman/artist.

Ed Sheeren.

I take it all back. You can have it all after all
 

Leo

Well-known member
ha...well, great art and financially successful art are often two different things.
 

Leo

Well-known member
I'll bet most great artists who happen to be financially successful agonize as well, forever insecure that their best work is behind them, lost the magic, unable to live up to the acclaim.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Well if well adjusted means being a successful businessman than Eliot was well adjusted in his successful job at Lloyd's! And Larkin had a modestly successful career as Hull University Head Librarian. Housman was Professor of Latin. Etc.

Mind you Jeff Koons and Ed Sheeran LoL
 

luka

Well-known member
Well if well adjusted means being a successful businessman than Eliot was well adjusted in his successful job at Lloyd's! And Larkin had a modestly successful career as Hull University Head Librarian. Housman was Professor of Latin. Etc.

Mind you Jeff Koons and Ed Sheeran LoL


These are not good examples of well adjusted Jack!
 

luka

Well-known member
JH Prynne held down a teaching and librarian job at Cambridge pretty much his whole life so you'd assume he must have been relatively stable. But who knows.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I suppose you're trolling me but EXACTLY! (I was being somewhat ironical about Eliot, who was a miserable sod.)

Not that I'm defending Koons.
 

Leo

Well-known member
I didn't mean to imply that well-adjusted translates to having a steady job outside of art. I meant that Koons' finance background probably rubs off on his art, approaching it the way a businessman would: overhead, profitability, marketing. Not some starving weirdo who goes off on wild tangents in his art born of left field inspiration. Calculating, courting "customers", manipulating markets to his benefit, etc.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Jeff Koons is a very weird guy from everything I've seen. He has this kind of relentless upbeat self-assurance.
Weird timing, yesterday we were in some guy's house and he had a mini-replica of a the Koons dog thing - he claimed it wasn't a replica but some kind of original (whatever that means in this case). He worked for a gallery and one room was stacked wall to wall with wrapped paintings so I guess it's possible?
 

Leo

Well-known member
Remember when Koons married porn star Ilona "Cicciolina" Staller, who was also a member of Italian Parliament, and they made "Made in Heaven", these billboard-size sexually graphic images of themselves? Yeah, some weird shit going on in his head.

Artists will often create a couple of test casts of sculptures to chicken quality, maybe that dealer person had a test of a balloon dog. Or maybe it was an actual original...I just hope you didn't touch it! Used to laugh every time I walked by a massive balloon dog that used to be in a plaza near the World Trade Center, covered with soot and grime from the exhaust of passive cars and buses, kids crawling on it, rain, etc. Not ideal conditions!
 
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Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
You know how people say "I don't know much about art, but I know what I like"?

Well, I don't know much about art, but I know what I really fucking hate, and that's Jeff Koons.
 

entertainment

Well-known member
Luka is right that great art isn't a product of choice and design, it's born out of a compulsion. Something you need to express. Something that's inevitable. The question is if you can achieve fulfillment and happiness through that expression.
 

Simon silverdollarcircle

Well-known member
A very white male thing the tortured artist innit. An indulgence. Lovable rogues and national treasures. bukowski, Dylan thomas, MES, etc etc. People love all that.
There's a weird respect offered to white male fuckups. Which in turn is probably an enabler. Bet those guys never had to buy a drink.

But back to the original post... I'm biased as a boring middle aged person with a mortgage and an office job but I think it's really difficult to work out on the face of it whos boring and who isn't. I would say it's risky to conflate domesticity, settledness, a focus on mass culture with boringess.

It's not what you like, it's what you do with it, how you think about it.

Take, for example, someone who rejects domesticity, settledness, etc. Someone one works, dunno, as a graphic designer freelance in Berlin. Listens to techno. Dabbles in modular synths. Monochrome tattoos by internationally recognised artists. Challenging hairdo. Are they boring? Mebbes.
 

entertainment

Well-known member
A very white male thing the tortured artist innit. An indulgence. Lovable rogues and national treasures. bukowski, Dylan thomas, MES, etc etc. People love all that.
There's a weird respect offered to white male fuckups. Which in turn is probably an enabler. Bet those guys never had to buy a drink.

But back to the original post... I'm biased as a boring middle aged person with a mortgage and an office job but I think it's really difficult to work out on the face of it whos boring and who isn't. I would say it's risky to conflate domesticity, settledness, a focus on mass culture with boringess.

It's not what you like, it's what you do with it, how you think about it.

Take, for example, someone who rejects domesticity, settledness, etc. Someone one works, dunno, as a graphic designer freelance in Berlin. Listens to techno. Dabbles in modular synths. Monochrome tattoos by internationally recognised artists. Challenging hairdo. Are they boring? Mebbes.

Very good point.
 

luka

Well-known member
"A very white male thing the tortured artist innit."

No, I don't think so. Billie Holiday for instance was neither white nor male
 

luka

Well-known member
We could spend all night multiplying examples. You will find them amply represented across all genders and ethnicities.
 
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