Artless Art Appreciation

After enjoying the few Dale Chihuly pieces at the DeYoung a while back when we went to see the Annie Leibovitz exhibition, I was interested when the review of the full Chihuly exhibit came up in the Chronicle. Apparently I am just an ignorant, shallow, tasteless moron when it comes to art appreciation.

Admirers of empty virtuosity may thrill to "Chihuly at the de Young," the de Young Museum's celebration of contemporary glass master Dale Chihuly.

Yow! Perhaps he would have fared better going with the Flying Spaghetti Monster moniker. I learned a valuable lesson on art appreciation and history, though.

Educated viewers cannot look for long at Chihuly's work without wishing there were something to think about. So they think about something else. The capacity to hold our attention, in the moment or in reflection later, is a mark of significant art in an era when mass media work hard to abbreviate attention spans so as to cut costs and decapitate questions.

The history of art is a history of ideas, not just of valuable property. Chihuly has no place in it, and the de Young disserves its public by pretending that he does.

Clearly the reviewer qualifies as a pompous blowhard by anyone's definition. But, that does it! I am just going to stick to fashion commentary from now on.