7 Days in the art World-the Studio Visit

Takashi Murakami an interesting artist? He is a boss, a manager, a quality control specialist, a designer, a rich man and has more studios than he needs. Output is good to have in quantity but three studios in japan with hands working for Murakami laying out the blueprint of what needs to be done is this absurd?well yes indead. The whole production line art approach goes back hundreds of years to Rembrandt and Tintoretto, to modern times with Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, and Warhol. I would personally like for the artist to have less output as a production line but to put himself more into his art and instead of making it seem so dry and fabricated. I disliked the chapter. There is so much rubish about a ragamuffin looking sculpture called the "Oval Buddha". The sculpture looks fun just as his sculpture of the anime girl squirting milk out of her tits but it is dumb. is dumb good. I think we may have to ask one of his mushroom people with all the eyes. His work is superfluous. I think of it as eye candy. Maybe something used as a design for something or a public sculpture at a childs playground but not high art. Paul McCarthy and the Viennese Aktionist art more high brow. There is nothing wrong with this but he is important as an artist because he is on the cusp of high brow and low brow. Why he wants to be there I don't know.

7 Days in the Art World- The Crit

John Baldessari along with countless other artist(i.e Alvin Lucier, Judy Chicago, Sadie Banning, Michael Asher, Karen Finley, Peter Halley, Stan Douglas, Jim Shaw, Alan Kaprow,Jeff Wall etc...) make up the Cal Arts faculty and its visiting artist program from past and present. Their prominent alumni is a list of who's who including Tony Oursler, David Salle, Ross Bleckner, Eric Fischl, Mike Kelly and Lari Pittman. CalArts was founded by Walt Disney in 1961.
Michael asher's crits can last up to ten hours in length. People bring food,their animals, pillows ,blankets and snacks. The snacks of which are provided by the students being Critted.After ten pages of reading the article almost nothing is mentioned of the crit or its effect on the student. It does state "Crits may be opertunities to hash out communal meanings, but that doesn't mean that students finish the semester with uniform values.Asher feels that it is the students "Post Studio" class not his.
Crits that I had been part of usually have people just sitting around empty minded and full of useless ideas. its hard to hold a crit and evaluate someones work. It usually turns into a "I like this" or " I would do_____if Iwere you."these actions are useless and do nothing to increase the artists aim or ability. It is encouraging when the teacher is struck or intrigued by your work but negative feedback is usually thought of misunderstanding .
MFA stands for mother fucking artist announces a girl on campus. If she were in the crit I would had kicked her out. First because it is a pretentious statement. Second it is child like. and third someone of that mentality does not deserve the priviledge of being in a room with people who are serious about art. it is trite and banal to say the least. The text states"Successful crits become the basis of lifelong interpretive communities of art subcultures."Personally I think it is a lot of nonesense.
There is a book by the writer James Elkins called, Why Art Cannot Be Taught, and he has an extensive chapter on Crits. if anything is learned by crits or how they can be improved upon it is in that book not in 7 Days in the Art World.