{"id":1123,"date":"2009-09-30T13:46:04","date_gmt":"2009-09-30T20:46:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2009\/09\/ries_niemi_on_peter_santinos_a\/"},"modified":"2009-09-30T13:46:04","modified_gmt":"2009-09-30T20:46:04","slug":"ries_niemi_on_peter_santinos_a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2009\/09\/ries_niemi_on_peter_santinos_a.html","title":{"rendered":"Ries Niemi on Peter Santino’s career apology"},"content":{"rendered":"

Previous post: Peter Santino is sorry<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

Ries Niemi<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Okay, I am hopelessly biased – Pete<\/a> has been a friend of mine for a long long time, and I respect his work immensely, and own a few pieces of it, too. But how is it so hard to comprehend that he is BOTH sincerely sorry, and ironic, sly, and making comments about the art world? Many of the best artists have not been 100% pure of art (or heart). The human brain, and soul, is perfectly capable of feeling two things at once. In fact, its probably incapable of NOT doing so. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Santino, 1977, at and\/or in Seattle:<\/p>\n

\"petersantino1977.jpg\"Santino is sorry because he did not become recognized as an artist by the powers that be. And by the time we get to 50, any artist who is halfway honest with him or herself is probably sorry as well. Santino is sorry because he did not accomplish all his grand plans, the ones he had when he was young and snarky and commenting on blogs. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

At Roscoe Louie in 1979, in Seattle:<\/p>\n

detail<\/p>\n

\"petersantino1979.jpg\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/div>\n


\n\"jpg\"Of our generation, the artists working in Seattle between 1975 and
\n1985, I think we all felt that if anyone was gonna “make it”, it was
\ngonna be Pete. He could do it all, and do it all well. And yes, every
\nthing he ever made was a bit ironic, a bit subversive, with more than
\none meaning. From his early flawlessly rendered ironic Photorealism, to
\nhis ironic post Pop art, his kinetic stuff, his sculptures, his
\npaintings, his conceptual work, his earthworks- he was always the one
\nwe thought was gonna go to New York, and slay dragons. <\/p>\n

Peter Santino, at Rosco Louie, 1980, in Seattle: Problems in American Democracy<\/i>:<\/p>\n

\"petersantinodemo90.jpg\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, I suppose, he is also Sorry to us- the artists who
\ncopped out, had kids, got jobs, lived lives- instead of being complete
\nslaves to fame, to doing whatever it took to get to the top. Because,
\nin the end, Santino got married and had kids and left NYC and lived a
\nlife, because, in a funny way, he kinda gave up. Which is not to say
\nthat if the Whitney called, or Gogo dropped by offering him a solo
\nshow, he wouldn’t jump at it- he is an artist, after all. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Peter Santino, Father, Son and Holy Ghost<\/i>, at Linda Farris, 1980, in Seattle:<\/p>\n

\"petersantinodadsonhg.jpg\"
One
\nof the most interesting parts of the Dave Hickey talk was where Dave
\ntalks about the industry of producing artists, and how that is in many
\nways more important than the art- and, certainly, just like in
\nprofessional sports, the ideal of making it is dangled before a few
\nhundred thousand artists a year, to get them to drop that $100k to get
\nan MFA. <\/p>\n

So I suppose Santino is also sorry that he didn’t make
\nit to the pros- after all, in art school, they tell everybody that you
\nare just as good as Duchamp or Koons, and you too can make it- just
\nkeep buying those lottery tickets. By the way, these are my opinions,
\nnot Pete’s- and if I get it wrong, well- I am sorry.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Previous post: Peter Santino is sorry Ries Niemi: Okay, I am hopelessly biased – Pete has been a friend of mine for a long long time, and I respect his work immensely, and own a few pieces of it, too. But how is it so hard to comprehend that he is BOTH sincerely sorry, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1123","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}