Art on a Mission

If San Miguel is to become a true presence on the international art scene, it must back away from commercialism. One studious look at Saatchi Art online -- the gigantic art site for artists selling their work to internet buyers the world over -- will show you that the global art scene is becoming increasingly commercial. Let me explain what I mean by “commercial.” Edgar Degas railed against the presence of commerce in the Paris art world of his time, so much so that he withdrew from the active pursuit of a career as an artist, buying back as many of early works as he could, and retiring into seclusion in his “sacred” studio. I wouldn’t recommend that artists in San Miguel go quite that far. I understand why many of us have chosen to turn art into a business, that is, to work at making a living as a professional artist. Fine. But if the work being produced here is predominantly commercial in the sense that it looks more and more like “commercial art” – the art that is produced for magazines, advertising, movie posters, fashion spreads, web sites, music videos, etc. – then it is no different in style and sensibility from the work I’m seeing on Saatchi. Work that lacks depth, work that has the high-gloss finish of fashion magazines without any emotional-psychological dimension. Isn't that why we came here in the first place -- to get away from the consumerism and materialism of US mainstream culture? If we've really left all that behind it should not reappear in our art work. I believe the artists of San Miguel should have the courage to produce work that is not of that type, work that has emotional depth, work that has many layers of meaning, work that resonates with soul, spirit, and individuality.  To my way of thinking, that is what true art is all about, and the rest is just eye-candy. Yes, there is a market for eye-candy, but if the artists if San Miguel want to distinguish themselves, if we want to be not only a presence but a force in the global art world, then let’s give the art world something greater, stronger, and more passionate than high-gloss pop art. 

Artists Who Teach

Is every professional or semi-professional artist a good teacher? No, of course not. Teaching art requires a different sort of talent from creating art. But here in San Miguel we have teaching artists who may or may not hold a BFA or an MFA and who may not have any solid teaching experience. It’s relatively simple for an unscrupulous artist to take advantage of a starry-eyed, gullible student whose guard has been lowered in advance by all the hype associated with San Miguel.

How does the serious art student who comes here on vacation with the hope of learning techniques figure out who is qualified to teach and who is not? These are murky waters. The fact is that it is much easier to fake or exaggerate credentials when your putative degree is from an art school outside Mexico. What should make the prospective student even more skeptical is the realization that many of the teaching artists here are driven to make money from the tourists who want to try their hand at painting in “magical” San Miguel – as if the place alone will confer a special gift upon them. You can put the talentless or mediocre student in Florence, Italy for a thousand years and Florence would not make them a great artist, although it might give them a better perspective and help them discern good art from bad (and perhaps help them shed their self-delusions).

I think this is an unfortunate situation for everyone concerned. Even under the best scrutiny it is difficult for the student to know if independent art teachers have any skill for it. If you’ve read the introduction to this blog then you know that I taught at the Lyme Academy College of Art in Connecticut, that I went to the Yale Art School by osmosis when I lived in New Haven, and that I was a college professor for 20 years. In addition, I have garnered other experiences that make me a fairly good judge of who is a good/qualified teacher of art and who isn’t. In other words, I’ve known real art teachers, seen them up close, the ones who had the gift of enlightening and inspiring their students. And, yes, they are rare beings, but not as rare as you might think. And certainly the artists who come to San Miguel wanting to elevate the standards of both art and the teaching of art in this city should be those who have received the calling. But instead we have artists who by hype and by skillful marketing are getting students willing to pay fairly high fees in order to be able to say they studied art in San Miguel. They are being hoodwinked by the hype. When I see an artist in San Miguel advertising a class without disclosing their credentials or giving their teaching experience my alarm bell goes off.

Jejune Art

I’ve noticed that a lot of the art work on display recently in San Miguel is being described as “whimisical,” which strikes me as a euphemism for “unaccomplished.” That’s right, it’s frighteningly JEJUNE, a word that I’ve always liked and that Webster’s dictionary defines as puerile, dull, and lacking significance. So jejune seems like the perfect word to describe a lot of the art being exhibited right now, art that is dull, uninteresting, and unaccomplished. You might want to call me old fashioned, but I have a strong desire for art that has GRAVITAS, another favorite word of mine, which according to Webster’s means “high seriousness.” Give me gravitas or give me death!  Sure, I can enjoy whimsical art, such as the paintings of Joan Miró or the cut outs of Henri Matisse, which I believe has both whimsy and high seriousness. But whimsy without gravitas is like the Wonder bread of my youth, light, airy, and lacking in substance.

Some Bizarre Art News from the World Outside San Miguel

George Bush’s portraits are positively ghoulish, and I’d say he’s about as accomplished an artist as he was a president. The faces of these bloodless politicos give me the willies. Take that any way you wish. One thing is certain – he’s no Gilbert Stuart, and his “portraits of powerful people” are absolutely lifeless. They make the subjects look frightening – I’d hate to be under the thumb of one of these zombies. Okay, well, I just had to get that out of my system. If Bush goes on dabbling in art maybe a real artist will start dabbling in politics. Horrors!

A retired Fiat factory worker in Italy had two post-impressionist masterpieces hanging on the wall in his kitchen!  Dio mio! Very hard to believe he had no idea of their worth. Imagine he brings them home from a garage sale one day and his wife takes a look and says something like, “Wasting your hard-earned money on trash again, eh? Oofah! What am I going to do with you? You’re so gullible! A born buffone!”  And he replies, rather sheepishly, “But carina, they told me they would be worth something someday!”  Yeah, about 80 million dollars. I can imagine his response when he discovered their true value. “Now I can buy the factory where I used to work!”

Do you like bowls? Do you like old china bowls? I mean really like old china bowls, ones with chickens painted on them? Would you be willing to pay a lot of moola for one? How about $30 million? That’s what they’re going for these days in Beijing. Imagine a billionaire coming home with one.

Husband: Hi, honey, I got you a present. Here it is. I hope you like it.

Wife: A bowl? A tiny little bowl? We already have plenty of bowls, and this one’s not even big enough for soup. (pause) How much did you pay for it?

Husband: Only thirty million dollars . . .

Wife: THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS!!!

The Wife faints dead away and the bowl crashes to the floor.

Husband: Oh, well. It’s only money.

Empty Galleries

As many galleries are being priced out of New York and San Francisco by high rents, many of the galleries here in San Miguel seem to be struggling to stay open. This statement is based almost solely on my own observations as I walk through centro and see empty galleries on a busy Saturday when the tourists are out in full force. The long-established galleries at the Fabrica Aurora art complex are doing okay, as are the larger and more diversified ones in centro. However, some marginal spaces have become hybrids in order to survive by selling furniture or other items.One such marginal gallery is attached to a mail service called La Connection on Calle Aldama, and another, the Atenea on Calle Jesus, sells real estate. Others survive because they are built into residences where the artists live (mostly in the neighborhoods of San Antonio and Guadalupe). There are at least two co-op galleries, Izamal on Calle Mesones and Magenta on Calle Zacateros, that are holding their own because they have members who share the cost of rent and advertising and are obligated to work a specified schedule per week. So far there are no galleries where selected artists pay a monthly fee for wall space, but I understand one is being organized. This concept has been used in the US for at least a decade now and the monthly fee is usually quite high. Gallerists/artists who run this type of collective space seem to do so in order to make a profit, and I believe a substantial one. I know of several artists who have opened galleries to show their own work as well as work by colleagues they admire, and an empty gallery is heartbreaking for them, but such is the situation right now. I have no idea why so many of the galleries here in San Miguel do not have more traffic, especially on a Saturday, unless there are simply too many of them.

Artists Living in Exile

For artists who live in exile from their native countries, a new perspective on the world deepens and enriches their work immeasurably. This is true for artists of every medium. However, music and the visual arts readily cross borders and transcend cultures because they do not depend on language to express ideas and emotions. My own experience as a poet and painter has taught me the artistic value of living and working in a foreign culture. In San Miguel, my eyes have been opened to new ways of seeing and expressing the universal truths about the human condition.

Many artists have fled their homeland for political or personal reasons. Others have simply left in search of a more congenial environment. Painters such as Amadeo Modigliani, Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh, Marc Chagall, and Pablo Picasso found tremendous sources of inspiration in foreign lands.

The work of expatriate artists living in San Miguel is greatly enriched by the local Mexican culture. But there should be more cultural exchange, more give and take between the two cultures, Mexican and foreign. This situation seems to be a one-way stream with all of the advantages going to the expatriates. There should be a flow of ideas back into the culture of Mexico, but this doesn’t seem to be happening.

In Celebration of the City

AT THE NIGHT CAFÉ IN SAN MIGUEL

by A. S. Maulucci

Candles on the tables light joyous faces,

so much to enjoy in this city of feasting and fiestas

that the night revelers seem about to burst open with pleasure

like greenhouse flowers aching to bloom in the moonlight.

The beauty of the stars is there overhead

for those who wish to find some dark corner for gazing up at them.

But the sparkling lights here below are enough,

they obviate the stars almost,

and the Parroquia, that baroque church in the plaza principal,

spires up into flames,

too adoringly majestic to be endured.

Nearly everyone wants to be on display in the night café,

as if this were a rich and eternal tableau,

long bufandas wound like spangled serpents,

silk and cotton clinging caressingly to breasts,

bare arms slender or sinewy,

eyes shining, voices raucous or tender,

the camaraderie gushes like a rio.

The sleek young men peacock preen and strut,

the ripening young women glide by like so many cleopatras

out for a midnight stroll and content

to torture the cabrones who dare to ignore them. 

The gringos glut their senses on the pageantry of young love

and toss back another shot of tequila.

Someone strums a guitar and sings

a ballad of the pain and beauty of love.

Bright peals of laughter ring out,

love is a goddess and we are all her fools

the laughter seems to say,

and the night whispers estoy de acuerdo.

The Corrosive Effect of Cronyism

The San Miguel art scene is becoming more and more insular, even incestuous. The danger is clear: the corrosiveness of cronyism has invaded our community and threatens to undermine its artistic integrity. When pals, partners, spouses and lovers write articles about artists’ opening exhibits, honesty is shoved aside, objectivity is sacrificed, and hyperbole gains the upper hand. Our weekly newspaper, Atencion, aids and abets this deplorable situation by having an editorial policy (if you can call it that) which allows cronyism to flourish. They will publish just about any piece of journalistic jingoism in order to fill their pages with free content, all in the name of “public service.” Worst of all, artists are allowed to pen their own articles extolling the wonders and marvels of their latest creations. Sounds a bit like an old-fashioned medicine show, doesn’t it? “Come one, come all, and see my magnificent works of art!” 

My Secret Studio

Shouldn’t every serious artist have a secret studio, one where no one else is allowed entrance except for models, intimate friends, and a loved one? Yes, I emphatically believe this to be so. For me, creating art is a very private affair, and I certainly wouldn’t like having just anyone think they could enter into that process or are being invited to scrutinize works in progress. Helpful feedback in the form of sincere criticism might be what other artists are looking for when they throw open their space, but for me my studio is my sanctuary and only those with a special connection to me or my work are welcome here. I haven’t embraced the open studio concept, mostly because I don’t care to have members of the general art-loving public traipsing through my personal space. Here in San Miguel, the San Antonio art community is actively seeking artists who are interested in joining their group. I imagine membership entails paying fees to support advertising and other forms of promotion for their open studio tours. This smacks too much of commercialism and makes me uncomfortable. I am not a resident of the San Antonio neighborhood, but even if I were I would be very reluctant to join this group. By nature, I happen to be a very private person, and the idea of opening up my creative life to whomever wishes to come inside is anathema to me. If an art collector happens to be interested in my work a private meeting can always be arranged. I have no problem with welcoming someone who enjoys my work into my studio for a private viewing, a one-on-one discussion, and a glass of wine. Today’s fashion is to display everything in public. I’m not a total recluse, but I do guard my privacy fiercely, especially when it involves my creative life.  

Dolce Far Niente

San Miguel is a very lovely and vibrant place for an artist to live. Voted as the world’s best city by the readers of Conde Nast Traveler, it is indeed one of the most livable cities on the planet. All hype aside, it has many amenities – historic buildings, cobblestone streets, great restaurants, a cosmopolitan culture, old world charm, Mexican hospitality, balmy weather, and a minimum of urban blight. Artists like me love it here, and with good reason. There’s tremendous creative energy, an abundance of clear light, inexpensive studio space, many support groups, ample places for exhibiting, relative freedom from commercialism and competition, and a general sense of joie de vivre. It’s a great place to do one’s creative work. But one can also sit in the principal plaza, el jardin, soak up the ambience, watch the tourists, listen to music, sketch, or just sit back contentedly for a while and think, “dolce far niente,” how sweet to do nothing.