Winston Smith, �Artcrime: The Montage Art of Winston Smith�
The lesson from reading that Daredevil comic wasn�t lost on me. I have enough stress going on around me, and if anybody deserves some pleasure time, it�s this guy. So I�ve decided to read nothing but trash for the remainder of the month.
Also, since I imposed the moratorium on buying new books until I finish a significant number of books that are waiting for me, a shitload of great stuff that I don�t see come through the store often arrived while I was gone. I suppose that�s the hazards of working in a used bookstore.
So I�m going to read light thin stuff for the rest of the month. Hell, I deserve it. As of this point, I�ve read 150 books since January, amongst that involving a serious number of pretty heavy books — figuratively and literally. Since I started this, I�ve read a bunch enough of the classics like Orwell, Steinbeck, and Hemingway, along with serious non-fiction like Chomsky, Plato, and Jung. And I�ve even drudged through poetry with Homer and Dante. I�ve read books in the last eight months that would make any high-school student drop out and live life along the railroads. I can have a little fun, goddamn it.
So an art collection by the punk rock guru Winston Smith would be a pretty good place to start, no?
Yes!
Well, sorta.
Even people who have no interest in art have probably seen a lot of Smith�s work. Hell, the Dead Kennedys logo, which was his design, has probably been seen and recognized by more people than Dali�s mushy clocks.
But if you�ve watched the history of Smith�s art, you�ve probably noticed that his cut out collages have become, well, rather busy over the last ten years — a little too busy in my opinion, particularly since his message has stayed pretty much the same. Instead of making a point with one or two figures and a clever caption, he has huge landscapes with hundreds of cutouts pasted everywhere. More often than not it just gets weird. I don�t know if it�s art, and I don�t know if I like it.
Actually, strangely enough, the text in this collection is more interesting than the actual art. Winston describes scenes, the history of a piece, or the fallout that came afterward and he�s a sharp, crisp writer. And not being much into art myself, this is probably the first time that I was interested in what an artist had to say about his work. Probably because of his self-effacing behavior, since most other artists are just WAY to into what they�re creating.
And more often than not, they�re a little creepy as well.
