You may think you are just doodling with a pencil, but what you are really doing is exploring the relationship between a hexagonally crystallized allotrope of carbon and the papery surface to which it is applied. Quite along these lines, “Spencer Finch utilizes a scientific method and a poetic sensibility to explore the relationship between color, light, memory, and perception,” as stated in the literature accompanying the 20th annual Art Show at the Park Avenue Armory.
The debate over what exactly constitutes art will rage on in perpetuity. For all practical purposes, though, art can safely be defined as anything expensive on display in an art exhibit that comes with an explanation convoluted enough to cause the average human head to explode within less than twelve seconds. Aside from that, some of it looks rather pretty.
Organized by the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA), seventy of the nation's paramount exhibitors packed the Armory’s Drill Hall with all manner of creative thingamajigs brought forth by artists of all periods, from paintings to photographs to sculptures to elaborate conceptual contraptions which resist conventional classification. ADAA President Roland Augustine, Executive Director Linda Blumberg, and chairman of the Art Show Committee Andrew Fabricant extolled the 20th anniversary edition of the Arts Show at the Gala Preview celebration which benefited New York City’s Henry Street Settlement.
Says Mr. Fabricant, “The Armory’s ideal location, intimate scale, and restored public spaces make it convenient for collectors to return to the Show multiple times, something that other, larger fairs simply cannot offer.” So there you go. Almost as convenient as shopping online.
