Good points, all, Libby. I especially like what you say about museums and insiders and the quality thing.
As for Jan Baltzell and Tom Nozkowski (and a host of others I like), let me clarify. I never meant to imply I hate abstract art. Far from it.
I find that Nozkowski and Baltzell’s works take me by the hand and lead me to human stories. There’s enough real world illusion (landscape, body, etc) to hook on to. And once hooked, I’ll conjure a narrative — and for me narrative is crucial. (By the way you can see Nozkowski’s work now until Dec. 20 at Max Protetch.) (image is the artist’s “Untitled” 2001)
I’m not sure you need to be an insider to understand their work. Perhaps you do. Certainly you need to be able to spend time with it, and that’s something, as you say, most people don’t do.
What I am kerflooey about, I guess, is how to tell 21st century stories with abstract (20th century) means. To a certain extent a human story is a human story no matter what century you’re in. But, and this may be just me, I feel that the story of our cyber-warrior culture and civilization-clash world needs storytelling means other than abstract ones.
