Rosario 1970 - Vienna 2008
The painter and model
Fine Art Academy for Salon Painters
Lucy + Jorge Orta
Performance Action:
After the „Salon de Peinture‟, the „Salon Painters‟.
A group of live models pose in the living room of an apartment: A really beautiful woman,
a somewhat normal one, an overweight woman and some men. The models are placed
on different items of furniture such as the fridge, a chair on top of a table, a wardrobe, a
cupboard or sideboard, at different heights and in quite acrobatic positions.
A group of house painters and decorators equipped with the tools of their trade, wide
brushes, rollers and sponges are invited to the academy session situated in the salon of
an the apartment. Each painter has been given a selection of publications about modern
art, with glossy reproductions of the great masters and descriptions of their work. They
take up position behind the easels and stretched canvases and are instructed on the
basic techniques of painting live models, using the available paint from the „Contextual
Paint Chart - ORTA S.A‟. During the painting class the students are encouraged to take
on the academic gestures such as the main levée and produce a series of canvas in the
style of the great masters.
The general public is intermingled with the live models and house painters. During the
class a serious discussion is held on the subject of the „Super-Market‟ and the „Mono-
Culture Art‟: the development of the art super powers in North America and Europe and
their commercial dominance through the art market since the 1980‟s.
“What happens when the market promotes a made to measure art? What alternatives
are left for the artists who have no access to or who refuse commercialisation1? Can a
peripheral art form develop outside the economic system? Live from Art or for Art?
What about the social role of art and cultural diversity, or the artists not considered by
the Mono-Culture circuit. Is the market value of the product proportional to the value of
the oeuvre.”
1
The Military dictatorship in Argentina 1976, banned and punished radical thinkers for example.
Art went underground and refused commercialisation
PLANNING
2 days / 1 evening
19 November
Delivery of material to Vienna
20 November
Installation: Artists arrange furniture, tableau, nature-mortes in apartment, wall and floor
(Extra furniture may be required to be sourced onsite)
21 November 9-6pm
Photography and video sessions with models and painters, without public
21 evening
Performance, with guests/public (photography and video)