October 15, 2007 Bonus Bonus Bonus Blog
Richard Nilsen wrote a spectacular piece in Sunday's Arizona Republic on the state of art and art galleries in the Valley of the Sun. Some highlights:

The failure rate of art galleries is "nearly 100 percent—almost every gallery eventually goes out of business."

I also loved these definitions of art terms:

• Acid Free—The art-world marketing adjective equivalent to "free range."

• Art Gallery—Like a shooting gallery, only with paintings instead of tin ducks, and critics instead of rifles.

• Atelier—Originally, a master artist's studio, with his apprentices or assistants. Now, a fancy way of saying the art was made by the assistants and signed by the superstar artist.

• Giclee—A $4 word for a computer inkjet print. . .

• Group Show—An art exhibition, catering not to the individual ego of an artist, but to the common jealousies of several.

• Retrospective—A show looking at the work of a single artists over his lifetime and demonstrating the development of a body of work. Often reserved for the very young.

• Stable—The group of artists represented by a commercial gallery. The suggestion of cattle is not unnoticed by artists.

Ha. I also loved this line:

"People think art galleries are glamorous. Well, who do you think cleans the toilets?"
—Victoria Boyce, gallery owner