Free Republic

Abstract artist Jackson Pollock once said that his paintings have no objective meaning, so the best way for people to enjoy them is to stop looking for it. For many of us, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has created a new school of abstract law where there is no need for objective meaning. The jury is simply supposed to enjoy it for what it is: a chance to convict Donald Trump. Pollock was famous for his painting drips on large canvases. Bragg has achieved the same effect by regenerating a dead misdemeanor on falsifying business records as 34 felony counts....

hould children be allowed in art galleries? In 2014 Jake Chapman caused a minor furore, and prompted a lot of column inches, when he said that taking kids to galleries was a “waste of time”. He told The Independent parents were "arrogant" for thinking their children could understand artists like Jackson Pollock or Mark Rothko, adding "children are not human yet". The two children in this video, which has been going viral in recent days, clearly couldn’t give a hoot what Jake Chapman has to say about their appreciation of art. ... And as their parents look on, filming their...

In an art market governed largely by pretense and money, does a masterpiece have any intrinsic value? That question has emerged from a civil case brought by Sotheby’s chairman of Domenico de Sole and his wife, Eleanore, against Ann Freedman, former president of the Knoedler Gallery, the oldest and most respected gallery in New York until it closed in 2011 amidst a massive forgery scandal. Knoedler had sold some forty paintings claimed to be by abstract expressionists like Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman, and Mark Rothko, all of which turned out to be forgeries created in Queens by a female artist...

A physicist who is broadly experienced in using computers to identify consistent patterns in the drip paintings of Jackson Pollock has determined that half a dozen small paintings recently discovered and claimed by their owner to be original Pollocks do not exhibit the same patterns. The finding, by Richard P. Taylor, a physics professor at the University of Oregon, does not prove that Pollock did not paint the works, among a cache of 24 paintings found in 2003 in Wainscott, N.Y., by Alex Matter, whose father, Herbert, and mother, Mercedes, were friends of Pollock. But it casts serious doubt on...

An example of Pollock's work (not one of the missing) 32 artworks were discovered a little more than two years ago in a wrapped package in Long Island. The son of two artists who were friends and contemporaries of Jackson Pollock has announced that 32 previously unrecorded works by Pollock were found among his late parents' belongings. Alex Matter -- son of photographer, filmmaker and graphic designer Herbert Matter and abstract painter Mercedes Matter -- said through a spokeswoman that the 32 artworks were discovered a little more than two years ago in a wrapped package in Herbert Matter's...

Spots Show On White Hats There is an old saying among political-campaign professionals that if you wear the white hat, you'd better be sure it doesn't get any spots on it. That's just another way of saying that if you choose to be judgmental of others and moralistic, then you'd better be sure there are no skeletons in your closet. People are tolerant of rascals; they tend to be intolerant of guys who pretend to be holier than the rest of us. Thus, accusing Arnold Schwarzenegger of a few sexual- and dope-related escapades in the context of Hollywood, a Babylon...

Since I am approaching my one year anniversary of being a "freeper" and since I have never contributed a dime to FR, jim or the republican party, I am going to beat the powers to be at FR and voluntarily leave, rather than have them come up with one of the cock and bull stories to ban me. Been fun,Bye