Schlock and Awe

After Iraq, Katrina and Abu Ghraib, what should we expect from US artists?
-the Guardian's Adrian Searle

The Guardian has a review of the new Saatchi show - USA TODAY. It features some favorite Chelsea stars such as Barnaby Furnace (above), Dana Shutz, and everyone's choice debutante, Dash Snow. If there ever has been a case to ban trust fund kids from art, Snow may be it. We see the affect trust fund kids have had on the White House -of course he does seem to go to some choice parties.

It is nice to see that Huma Bhaba gets a positive review - she's been going at this for awhile now and seems to finally be getting some deserved recognition. The conclusion is that the show isn't a stinker but rather acceptible, expected and middle of the road. Searle ends with this:

It may not be great art, but it doesn't need to be. That's the problem. I want an art more powerful - not just loud, not just blunt. Most of art's audience already know what they think about the state of America and the war on terror. The job of artists, novelists, film-makers, musicians and playwrights demands that they go further than stating the obvious. USA Today is an expression, more than anything, of impotence.

Something to mull over I'd say.