Controversy is almost always expected to follow good art, and that's generally a good thing: It spurs conversation and gets people to think about things they may have otherwise overlooked. But when does controversy become tired?
How about when it involves calling the posthumous publishing of artwork fraudulent?
Come Together: The Artwork of John Lennon, coming through Franklin this weekend (see the interview I had with Yoko Ono about it here), is thick with borderline obsessive detractors. It seems to speak less to the quality of the art, and more to the skewed view of art that some people seem to maintain.
Gary Arseneau called the upcoming art show at Franklin a fraud, and has created an entire website around the idea that “The dead don't create artwork.” He claims that Yoko is attempting to trick the public into believing that Lennon himself printed the artwork in the exhibition, when in fact Yoko and her assistants tint and manipulate the pieces, obviously without Lennon's consent.
Nothing that Arseneau claims is untrue — it's just uninteresting. If someone bases the value of an art piece around the physical presence of the artist in its creation, then their ideas about artistic originality are both flawed and outdated.
The Scene spoke to a source closely tied with the Come Together exhibit, and he told us this argument isn't anything new, and that he's been dealing with people crying foul since his involvement with the exhibit began, some 10 years ago. He says the exhibit's detractors are missing out on more than just the last 50 years of contemporary art — they're also missing the point of the whole exhibit:
