Sunday, November 22, 2009

Andy's Art, Dollars and Nonsense, Talkin' with Walken


An Andy Warhol painting went for 43+ million last week at Sotheby's.  Valuation of art is a strange and complex thing, playing out quickly or over millennia.  In many ways, it is precedence driven, and there's currently a chain reaction of ballooning Warhol worth.

I dig Andy's work fine but geez, that's a lot of mula for a picture of a lot less mula (200 $1.00 bills, to be exact).

And I like Andy's stuff a lot more when it lives within its proper context (the FactoryEdie and Co., the Velvets, the swinging 60's, etc.).  It loses its pizazz flowing through  Richie Rich Sotheby's auction house and into C. Montgomery Burns' vault.





Otherwise, give me Ralph Steadman,Francis Bacon and Jackson Pollock.

You want real art?

How about Christopher Walken's recent interpretation of Lady Gaga's Poker Face?  Now, that's something to behold. Walken is the king of the single scene, from his debut in Annie Hall, to True Romance and Pulp Fiction, and on to SNL's Southern Colonel Angus ("He's heading down South") and Blue Oyster Cult Producer ("I need more Cowbell").  Ya can't beat him with a stick.  Oh!





Needs more Cowbell, though.