The Man

The first thirty pages of ArtForum this month wages a war between the art superpowers. A handful of names vie for the kingdom. PaceWildenstein has taken over no less than three full-page and consecutive ads to display their trophies, a conquest rivaled onlt by David Zwirner, Zwirner and Wirth, and Hauswer and Wirth. What's more, the same artists are in all the big camps. This month's heros: Gursky, Clemente and Tim Hawkinson. They're everywhere. It's hard to distinguish venues at this point.

This of course is not a new picture. The globalization of the art market has been a subject for quite some time now. But being part of it now makes the reality of it all the more disappointing. This was actually a visceral experience of the corporate level of the art world. I felt directly competitive nd defeated before these allmighties.

What's a small time artist with big ideas to do. There's no movement to join, no major arguments to defend. We just have to try to stay afloat, and to what end, I'm still uncertain.