Fleecing The Sheep and Laughing All The Way To The Bank

"He's probably an artist who's in more demand today than any other."
"He's so good that he controls everything. He controls when galleries make shows, he controls who they sell a painting to -- he's on top."
Alberto Mugrabi, mesmerized 'art' collector

"Artists whose work is in great demand are in charge."
"They can call the shots and Mark figured that out pretty early."
"Who says he can't [break with tradition and sell directly out of his studio rather than through an agent]? It's an unwritten rule, but he's breaking the rules." 
Ann Philbin, director, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

"He's the most important artist of his generation."
"I have bought works out of his studio; I've also bought works privately."
"I bought a sculpture of his for the Museum of Modern Art. He tries to sell them to people who are collectors rather than investors."
David Geffen, media mogul, owner of six paintings by Grotjahn

"There was always a conscious conversation about the importance of placing pictures in museums and in great collections."
"It becomes a pretty precise methodology."
"Artists like Mark -- they run their own show, as they should. They're the ones who've taken all this risk and stared into that void."
Timothy Blum, founder, Blum & Poe

Mark Grotjahn Credit Monica Almeida/The New York Times  The artist proudly stands before a sculpture of his that sold at auction for $16.8-million

Leonardo da Vinci, could he but foresee a time in the future when unscrupulous pretenders to art would successfully manipulate greedy acquisitors to believe that faux art reflects talent and original vision, would never have believed that intelligent human beings could stoop so low as to scrape the barrel of credulity and do it willingly, besides. Creating an atmosphere and a culture where the recognition of non-objective art bespeaks the genius of the few, and the challenge is to the viewer to admit that though the work is not visually or aesthetic leasing, it is original.

Its origins, needless to say, in the minds of flim-flam entrepreneurs who have recognized the cupidity and stupidity of a segment of the population that will believe anything that 'experts' in the field of art curation convincingly inform them. While beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, so is a natural inclination to recognize what it truly is. And nothing that this man produces, just like the 'art' produced by so many of his contemporaries in 'modern art' represents beauty or the originality of vision accomplished through a master's hand.

Create it, and they will come is his obvious mantra. But not without having first carefully set the stage. To convince the willingly gullible that what this man has produced (like, for example, Jackson Pollock) represents an authentic work of art, unequalled in bold design and execution by any of his contemporaries and as such a rare opportunity to acquire a colossal work of art whose value, both aesthetic and financial, can only increase in an art-hungry world.

"Untitled (Orange Butterfly Blue MG03) #1"  in his “Butterfly” series, 2003. Credit Douglas M. Parker

The gullible include art dealers whose discerning eye and bumph antennae distinguish them somewhat from enthusiastic art collectors only in that they instinctively know that any artist in their stable who gains the confidence of the art world and those who can afford the absurdly exorbitant prices to claim the prestige of ownership of such artistic nonentities as this respond to his clever pretense, inspiring their confidence and willingness to part with their expendable wealth.

Public and private art galleries succumb just as do those who style themselves connoisseurs of art; they have the academic papers to prove their studies resulted in moving to the head of the class. The prestigious vote of confidence in an artist such as this that results from his splendid art works being acquired to hang on the walls or grace the marble flooring of acclaimed galleries such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, let alone New York's Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum 'prove' the value of this execrable work.

Works in Mark Grotjahn's studio headed to the Nasher Sculpture Center. Credit Monica Almeida/The New York Times

The now-49-year-old Mr. Grotjahn has managed skilfully to influence the value of his works to an  unusual extent. Perhaps it was the psychological trauma he suffered when at an early show one painting only sold -- and for a miserly $1,750 -- that drove him to 'take charge' of his career in such a masterful manner as to create a legend about himself drawn from his own ego and masterfully parlayed into a general acknowledgement that his supremely gifted talent simply cannot be overlooked.

To those of a skeptical bent who fail to credit his 'art' with a simulacrum of rare artistic brilliance, they must understand the sad depth of their philistine ignorance.

That experience appeared to have soured  him indelibly with the convention that an artist was meant by unwritten rule to be faithful to a one-dealership representation. He has chosen instead to use the services of a number of recognized dealerships, all of whom boast well-heeled clients. And nor does he neglect the impact it can have on collectors to deal directly with the artist himself, a rare privilege he generously grants on occasion to various clients, even permitting them the privilege of buying art directly out of his studio, an unheard-of practise.

He had at one time himself, after earning his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of California, operated an art gallery in Hollywood. He is intimately acquainted with the trade from both perspectives. The coincidental Hollywood conception of life in America, raucous, uninhibited, violent, sexy, criminal, addicted and wealthy, is a fitting metaphor for the claims that what this heralded artist produces represents the pinnacle of creative art.

"Untitled (Circus No. 1 Face 44.18)" in his “Circus” series, 2012. Credit Douglas M. Parker

Artists producing work of actual merit reflecting their special abilities in the creation of realistic renditions of landscapes, portraiture, allegorical and historical paintings whose artistic expertise speaks to the core of the aesthetic bestowed upon most discriminating viewers must wince if and when they become aware of such shameless charlatans perverting the very substance of art and authenticity in its production. It is this corruption of the beauty and meaning of art that speaks to the degeneration of its recognition and appreciation of its rightful place in our aesthetic.

"Untitled (African, Gated Front and Back Mask M34.b)" is a 2014 bronze based on a cardboard box and tubes. Credit Monica Almeida/The New York Times