Observations on Art 3.9

Tod Seelie / Suckapants

Sometimes you find something that is just so perfect, so dead on, that you just have to borrow it. Sometimes it's just a short sentence or a quote. In this case it's a headline and two paragraphs I saw in Gothamist yesterday, "10 Photos Of Gallery Assistants Looking Bored At The Armory Show."

"The Armory Show isn't all champagne and $9,000 McDonald's cups, for some forlorn souls, it can be a terribly lonely place, an invisible prison where sudden waves of profound isolation threaten to drown the poor gallery assistants in existential dread when there is NO ONE to peruse their wares.

But the painful truth is that wherever art is bought and sold, the Tree of Commerce must be watered with the blood of gallery assistants. Yet what poet sings songs to ensure their bitter tears of boredom have not streamed not in vain? Who (besides the gallery owners trying to cheat on their wives with their assistants) spares a moment's thought on them? Enter Gothamist LLC to fill this shameful void. Here: a humble photographic hymn to the bored and forgotten gallerinas. Let the world never forget their courageous sacrifice for art! Please let them update their Facebook profile in peace!"

In my experience all too true other than maybe the part about gallery owners cheating on their wives. Click the photo caption or here to see all the photos.

update - Here are links to The New York Times reviews of the three major fairs: Art Dealers of America Association at Park Avenue Armory, the Armory Show at Piers 92 and 94, and the Independent Art Fair.