Art Wank

The lot of the struggling artist: Lucian Freud

We do a couple of day trips every now and again. William’s got his wonderful private jet, and we make use of that. In the spring we went to Paris for the Pompidou opening and then on to Madrid for the Prado, which was closed on the Monday, but it was arranged that we could go in and walk around on our own. William sets up things like that. You drive on the runway right to the plane, nip down to Madrid, look at some paintings for an hour or two, have a fantastic lunch, then zip back on the plane and you’re home by teatime. It’s not too disruptive.

• Lucian Freud on William Acquavella, in Tom Vanderbilt, ‘The Master and the Artist’, Wall Street Journal, 24 March 2011. http://tinyurl.com/6fmmnco
  

Sewellisms #18: Pseuds, panjandrums and penises

I fell to wondering what French critics have made of it, but long ago, translating for the Arts Council, I learned that French art criticism is what David Lee, editor of Jackdaw, might dub high octane artbollocks — the self-indulgent blethering of pseuds in the obscure jabberwocky that has developed among cod-philosophers who pretend an interest in art.

• Brian Sewell, ‘Ooh la la, Freud!’, The Evening Standard, 20 May 2010, <http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/arts/review-23836139-ooh-la-la-freud.do>

AW: Thanks, we like that Brian. Though the phrase ‘takes one to know one’ springs to mind. This was a great week for Sewellisms. As well as throwing a ‘panjandrums’ in there (one day I’m gonna count them up, I’m guessing he says it every other week), there is a classic Sewell dissertation on naughty bits:

Occasionally they stand for a moment, but only to pursue some genital enquiry, as with the almost life-size awkwardly recumbent Leigh Bowery (Nude with Leg Up) whose largely tumescent penis is pretty well dead centre in a canvas seven feet wide — for Freud is nothing if not thorough in his depiction of the penis, testicles and cunt.