Christine Bailey doesn't stimulate me

Blake Gopnik reviews Baltimore artist Christine Bailey's new exhibit of paintings found in a Baltimore coporate lobby (100 East Pratt Street) in today's Washington Post.  The exhibit is a collection of paintings by Bailey made to look exactly like those of another Baltimore painter, Cara Ober.  Interesting choice.  Bailey's inspiration comes from the corporate model of the "designer replica" and intends to see if it translates to the business of art.  In other words, Bailey seeks to be the Old Navy to Ober's The Gap.  As the article points out, Ober does not take kindly to this.

Oddly, Gopnick declares the exhibit "one of the most stimulating local shows I've seen in ages."  Seriously, Blake?  It's just a concept show.  It builds an obvious fence between those who believe Bailey has created an intreguing experiement, and those who consider her work fake and unoriginal.  Heck, you can choose the side of the fence you sit on without even seeing the exhibit.  In my mind, this does not qualify it as "the most stumulating" of shows.  Tintilating?  Yes, briefly.  Newsworthy?  Sort of.  Provocative?  Barely.  I'd rather judge how stimulating an exhibit is by actually attending it rather than by reading about its concept in the newspaper.

FYI:  Cara Ober will open a new show of her work at the Randall Scott Gallery in DC on March 8.

Comments

[croulier]

Yee Ha finally someone who doesn't automatically sign off on art because "we can't judge, we can't evaluate, we can't criticize, blah, blah, blah". Thanks, so refreshing! Just found you, will check back!

[Rob Jones]

Thanks, croulier. Quite honestly, I'm surprised by the fuss the Bailey exhibit has stirred. An artist can't buy this amount of recognition. Regardless, I love seeing the public bare its passion about art. ~Rob

[wwc]

Great post Rob.

There's also a whole weird chain of relationships between all the players in this drama - Gopnik's wife is tight with Bailey (which explains why he saw and wrote about the show - he's notorious for not giving anything local a chance), theres a dealer involved who used to rep Ober but doesn't now, press releases and justifications have changed a couple times... I think the idea of the show is dumb, but its these other yucky things underneath that make me as little disgusted.

I think the show would have been much easier to justify if Bailey had ripped off someone big in DC, someone known like Caldwell or Towles or Michaels... That would have been bad for Bailey's career though...

One other thing - I think Bailey looks down on Ober - she doesn't want to be Old Navy, she wants to be Banana Republic to Ober's Gap.

[Rob Jones]

Thanks, Warren. The awkward interplay of relationships within the art world is always curious. Proves that, all too often, it's who you know rather than what you know.

I think the more interesting chapter of this Bailey story is still to come.... What kind of reception will Cara Ober's exhibit at Randall Scott receive when it opens March 8?