Mat Gleason interviews the Constant Collector
Mat the maverick at Coagula—and one of the ADP spiritual leaders—interviews a crazy collector in Loonied Out Los Angeles (1996).
ADP magazine 2(3): Crackdown / Loonied out | Publ. 04 September 2010
This interview was previously published in the classic book Most art sucks: Five years of Coagula (1998) and issue 20 of Coagula, 1996.
ADP staff— It is one of the world’s natural wonders how Mat Gleason has kept his sanity writing about art in Loonied out Los Angeles, California. Just watching the WTF jail publicity featuring Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton on TV in Europe is enough for some of us to steer completely off the rails thousands of miles away.
Back in the 1990s, Mat Gleason->/Mat-Gleason] learned the benefit of cracking beneath the publicity surface and utilizing the anonymous interview as a way to present more real discussions about the art world. Then like now, more anonymous interviews by a trusted journo can get more real art world stories out—hopefully leading to a healthy reform of it all.
From an Art Design Publicity viewpoint, Mat, thank you. Artists can look back at whichever artists and teams created successful and long-lasting marketing campaigns (Product/ service, Price, Placement, Promotion). MoMA money Mary Boone, MFA debt. Van Gogh corrupted capitalistic. State-sponsored insider deals propaganda global hierarchy. Elitist academic publicist aspirations bullshit.
But to ADP YOU Mat Gleason are definitely one of the REAL masters of the 20th century.
Now onto Mat’s interview of the "Constant collector".
Believe it or not, there are art collectors in Los Angeles!! Really! I am not making this up. Although this is proof that I do not have a life, I decided to phone one of L.A.’s idle rich, just to ask for a report on the L.A. scene from a collector’s point of view.
1 February 1996 12:50 P.M.
(Preliminary phone conversation omitted so you won’t die of boredom)
Mat Gleason: So who is hot?
Constant Collector: Well, there isn’t one artist who is dominating the scene, but certain ones seem to be as healthy as ever.
Mat Gleason: You sound jaded, did I catch you between Valiums?
CC: Funny. I really liked Linda Stark’s work at Marc Foxx. Didn’t you give her a positive review?
Mat Gleason: Yeah. We like her. I actually met her a few months ago. She’s very cute, as good-looking as her art.
CC: Well, boys will be boys. She doesn’t fit my aesthetic a hundred percent, but Marc Foxx knows just how to price things. He makes them quite tempting.
Mat Gleason: Slur your words a little more, I cant tell if that martini you’re drinking is a double.
CC: What?
Mat Gleason: Nothing. Did you see Ross Rudel at Angles?
CC: Yes, actually. I saw you at the opening. Thank you for not approaching me.
Mat Gleason: I protect my sources.
CC: Yes, Angles certainly seems to be surviving without Mr. Foxx at the helm. I thought Ross put together a beautiful show. I didn’t care for that couch thing on the wall in the back room, but otherwise it was outstanding work, very sensual.
Mat Gleason: Down the street from Angles was the infamous curation of the Norton Collection by Kim Dingle. What’d ya’ think?
CC: She exhibited the art as it exists in storage— marvelous, I say! There have been some serious tizzy-fits over that one. Kim Dingle could teach YOU a thing or two about controversy, let me tell you.
Mat Gleason - Most Art Sucks: 1 | 2 | 3
ads by artdesigncafe
Facebook comments
