{"id":248,"date":"2011-07-18T13:01:59","date_gmt":"2011-07-18T13:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=248"},"modified":"2011-07-20T19:00:55","modified_gmt":"2011-07-20T19:00:55","slug":"248","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=248","title":{"rendered":"Art vs. Money"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Henry Whysall<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

In May, I attended the Persona Art Festival in London. It was organized by two young curators, Antria Pelekanou and Zia Fernandez, who assembled a challenging show of emerging artists from around the world–the UK, the United States, China, Germany, Slovakia, and many other countries. It was energizing to spend a few days with people passionately devoted to visual art, which ranged from film to performance art to painting, drawing and even a spooky, fascinating peephole diorama.<\/a><\/p>\n

It was held in The Rag Factory, off Brick Lane, and on Saturday afternoon, a few of us headed a few doors down to The Pride of Spitalfields,<\/a> one of London\u2019s oldest continuously operating pubs\u2014a real one, not an afterhours hangout for the financial district, a few blocks away. In attendance, standing on the brick pavement outside, a tall, patrician, adept 34-year-old conversationalist, Henry Whysall, kept squaring off against a 25-year-old Slovakian, Lenka Brazinova,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Lenka Brazinova<\/p><\/div>\n

a largely self-taught painter just getting started, visiting from her home in Kosice. He wore a collarless, horizontally striped shirt and Lenka wore what looked like a sewn-together kindergarten puzzle: red sleeve, yellow sleeve, blue hood, along with a pair of bright red, old-school Adidas Gazelles. Her Slovakian accent, Russian-sounding, was heavy, but her English was quite good\u00a0 and she missed nothing in the conversation, her eyes bright and animated. A mentor once nicknamed her Little Black Puma. Rage Against the Machine is her favorite band. In the festival, her oil is a boldly Fauvist pair of nudes on a beach, a hedonistic glimpse of a pleasurable moment of idleness. Whysall\u2019s work is an abstract grid of 67 small rectangles of handmade paper, lumpy and tactile, impregnated with wax and tainted with chemicals that imbue beautiful, otherworldly colors into the support\u2014each small square of paper in its own frame, behind glass, like an artifact or collectible, full of colors that don\u2019t seem possible to achieve with any other medium. They\u2019re luminescent and magical and the work has a tactile presence that reminded me of Braque’s great\"\"<\/a> mid-career paintings.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoney, no. It\u2019s not the reason for painting, you can\u2019t paint for money,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the way art is valued and sold, and the way it\u2019s produced now, perfectly reflects capitalist society. I\u2019m not sure there\u2019s anything wrong with art that reflects the system that supports it,\u201d Whysall countered.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you do it for money, it\u2019s worthless. You lose the meaning,\u201d she snapped.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsn\u2019t art supposed to represent the world you live in? Right? If that world is driven by money then the way art is produced can reflect that.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a bit of cat-and-mouse sophistry here, on Henry\u2019s side, but he\u2019s enjoying the way she won\u2019t let up, and he\u2019s loving her intensity.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you like Mike Leigh?\u201d I ask. \u201cThe early films?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSome. I\u2019m ambivalent about him,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cExactly. When it just seems you\u2019ve turned on a camera and you\u2019re recording the way the world is, is it art? The early Leigh, I mean. I\u2019ve never been sure that kitchen sink realism is really art.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re saying art does more than just mirror the world. \u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cYes. Jane Austen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Jane Austen,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s artificial. It\u2019s contrived. It\u2019s selective and isn\u2019t socially realistic. But it conveys something true about human life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lenka jumps back in, while someone goes inside for another round of pints.<\/p>\n

\u201cArt is spiritual. If it\u2019s for money, it\u2019s dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just not sure that\u2019s true,\u201d Henry says.<\/p>\n

It’s one of those fundamental questions with no easy answers. If art doesn’t sell, is it really reaching anyone? Dave Hickey would say no. But Van Gogh sold only one painting. Standing near the gate of someone\u2019s driveway, next to the pub, Lenka tells me how she started making art. She found some colorful old crockery and smashed it to pieces, then started creating mosaics with the fragments. Her father warned her that art was no way to make a living, but she couldn\u2019t resist. \u201cI feel free only when I paint,\u201d she told me. She went from the mosaics to painting, after spending time in France and taking lessons from a painter she met there\u2014Jean Sobieski, father of Leelee Sobieski, the actress. She has only just begun exhibiting,\u00a0 and was so pleased to have gotten into the London show that she rode twenty hours, crossing Europe, to spend a week with her brother and friends, who live in the city.<\/p>\n

In the few hours we spent together, Lenka reminded me that a genuine artist, full of hope and determination, would trek across Europe, simply to be a part of something she believed in. Any obstacles and disappointments I might face as an artist didn\u2019t seem quite as daunting, having witnessed how this young woman guilelessly plunged into her role\u2014only to make the return trip and find her life swallowed by the 10-hour shifts of her day job as a receptionist in Kosice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need to move. I need to move to Prague,\u201d Lenka says, sipping her beer. \u201cI could live on a few hundred Euros a week in Prague, live and have a studio in the city. I have friends here, my brother, here in London, but it\u2019s expensive. I love my country. I love my hometown. We have beautiful nature and history. But we don\u2019t know how to use it and take care of it. Is worse and worse for poor and better for rich and people that steal and lie. Maybe I come to London. I have friends. I find place to live and work. But is expensive. London, these last few days, it really touch my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last I heard, Lenka decided to quit her job and head back to France to paint for the summer. I’m eager to see whatever new new work she does. I’m also eager to see anything Mr. Whysall does, regardless of whether any money is changing hands in the process. Antria and Zia put on a tremendous festival–and they’re a couple of curators to watch in the years to come, independent, daring, a pair of charming entrepreneurs who have great insight offering Londoners a glimpse of some fine work they otherwise would likely never see.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  In May, I attended the Persona Art Festival in London. It was organized by two young curators, Antria Pelekanou and Zia Fernandez, who assembled a challenging show of emerging artists from around the world–the UK, the United States, China, Germany, Slovakia, and many other countries. It was energizing to spend a few days with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nArt vs. Money - represent<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=248\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Art vs. Money - represent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  In May, I attended the Persona Art Festival in London. It was organized by two young curators, Antria Pelekanou and Zia Fernandez, who assembled a challenging show of emerging artists from around the world–the UK, the United States, China, Germany, Slovakia, and many other countries. It was energizing to spend a few days with […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=248\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"represent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-07-18T13:01:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-07-20T19:00:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/henry2.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"dave dorsey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"dave dorsey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=248#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=248\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"dave dorsey\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57\"},\"headline\":\"Art vs. Money\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-07-18T13:01:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-07-20T19:00:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=248\"},\"wordCount\":1094,\"commentCount\":4,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=248#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2011\\\/07\\\/henry2.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=248#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=248\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=248\",\"name\":\"Art vs. Money - represent\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=248#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=248#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2011\\\/07\\\/henry2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-07-18T13:01:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-07-20T19:00:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=248#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=248\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=248#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2011\\\/07\\\/henry2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2011\\\/07\\\/henry2.jpg\",\"width\":\"551\",\"height\":\"648\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=248#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Art vs. Money\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"represent\",\"description\":\"the painting life\",\"alternateName\":\"the dorsey post\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57\",\"name\":\"dave dorsey\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"dave dorsey\"},\"description\":\"I'm a painter living in Pittsford, NY. I've authored two books and also work as a ghostwriter. I sell my work through Oxford Gallery, and have exhibited around the U.S. and internationally.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.daviddorsey.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Art vs. Money - represent","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=248","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Art vs. Money - represent","og_description":"  In May, I attended the Persona Art Festival in London. It was organized by two young curators, Antria Pelekanou and Zia Fernandez, who assembled a challenging show of emerging artists from around the world–the UK, the United States, China, Germany, Slovakia, and many other countries. It was energizing to spend a few days with […]","og_url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=248","og_site_name":"represent","article_published_time":"2011-07-18T13:01:59+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-07-20T19:00:55+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/henry2.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"dave dorsey","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"dave dorsey","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=248#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=248"},"author":{"name":"dave dorsey","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57"},"headline":"Art vs. Money","datePublished":"2011-07-18T13:01:59+00:00","dateModified":"2011-07-20T19:00:55+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=248"},"wordCount":1094,"commentCount":4,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=248#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/henry2.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=248#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=248","url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=248","name":"Art vs. Money - represent","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=248#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=248#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/henry2.jpg","datePublished":"2011-07-18T13:01:59+00:00","dateModified":"2011-07-20T19:00:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=248#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=248"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=248#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/henry2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/henry2.jpg","width":"551","height":"648"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=248#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Art vs. Money"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/","name":"represent","description":"the painting life","alternateName":"the dorsey post","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57","name":"dave dorsey","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"dave dorsey"},"description":"I'm a painter living in Pittsford, NY. I've authored two books and also work as a ghostwriter. I sell my work through Oxford Gallery, and have exhibited around the U.S. and internationally.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.daviddorsey.com"],"url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=248"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions\/310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}