Tag: gwb

And I wasn’t even going to bring up the GWB art exhibit, too.

So Jonathan Jones of the UK Guardian is grinding his teeth over the fact that George W Bush not only somehow continues to not be whipped through the streets, but that the former president is apparently happily painting pictures of perhaps limited technical skill, but remarkable emotional resonance.  To wit: the paintings show a remarkable ability to infuriate Jonathan Jones, who like most critical bullies is visibly at a loss on how to react to artists who legitimately do not have to give a sh*t about what critics say about their art. Equally amusing is that Jones has clearly not yet come to terms with the aggravating detail that GWB, thanks to his previous career, is likely to eclipse the name of Jonathan Jones in posterity as it applies to the art world. I presume that this particularly grates on the man, given that from the outside it appears that Jonathan Jones himself would have rather liked to have been an artist.

Continue reading And I wasn’t even going to bring up the GWB art exhibit, too.

Will wonders never cease: USEFUL criticism of GWB from someone on the Left!

This may be the first criticism of George W Bush from an obvious liberal that didn’t make me bristle.

Of course, Jerry Saltz was offering art criticism, there – and I will say this for Mr. Saltz; he knows how to separate out his personal views with his ones on art. I think that the critic isn’t taking into account Bush’s understandable, if hopefully temporary, over-emphasis on mastering newly-learned techniques (a common enough problem for beginning artists), but that’s merely a minor dispute. Artwork intended to be a gift can be an awkward subject for analysis, particularly if there isn’t a really strong existing emotional resonance between the artist and the giftee; artifice is really to be expected. I wonder whether Saltz is being reasonable to think of the Leno picture as representative of Bush’s current level of skill.

Still, Jerry Saltz does raise a very good point: this new endeavor of George W Bush’s gives the rest of us the opportunity to see something that normally we don’t: how someone who was once the most powerful man in the world sees that world. He wants to see more of it, and so do I.

You know, I think that GWB is getting better at painting.

I’m glad to see that he’s getting on with it.

Particularly since it still infuriates some people to see GWB happy and active, bless their hearts.

Via @AoSHQ.