7) Marina Abramović. The «grandmother» of performance «art». Frankly speaking I didn’t always feel the same way about this grandmother, but once her complete life of «art» played out I saw that she was no artist that I could call valuable or useful to art history. The way she uses people is akin to abuse and the way she manipulates the observers (or admirers) is a total farce. Her supposed «chance» meeting with Ulay, her one time partner, was contrived. And contriving art is okay by me, but don’t pass it off as real. Therefore she makes my list. Perhaps I am not as disgusted with her as I am with many of the others that populate this top ten, but…
8) Tracy Emin. Let’s start by saying that her claim to fame came when her «Bed» became a work of art. Frankly it is a disgusting piece and it may just show how untidy and unclean she could be or could have been. I don’t know, I’ve never met her. At least if she did sleep on such a bed. The bed is surrounded with vodka bottles, used condoms and all manner of rubbish. Whatever it is, if art it is, it is bad, useless art. She cannot draw or paint, as you can plainly see in the photograph below. Yet, she is held as one of the great artists of the UK.
9) Fernando Botero. The painter of volume, as he calls himself. But those silly little fat figures that he paints are not representative of volume. If you want volume look at the figures of Rubens or the portraits by Jenny Saville. Botero’s do not even represent cartoons. Everything he paints is the same. All the figures have the same blank or withdrawn expression. There is no magic, no power, no charm in his work, therefore he is most definitely in my list.
10) Keith Haring. This artist and social activist made it to the top of the art world by making doodles. Yes, similar to the ones we all made in our high school notebooks when we were bored in class. There is no aesthetics in his work, and absolutely no rhyme or reason. They could have easily been made by a seven year old. And for a seven year old they might have seemed like art, but really, it is not good art at all for someone that considers himself an artist. He started out making these doodle on or close to galleries. Why didn’t he make them on truck stops on an interstate highway?
Well here it is my top 10 most useless artists. I can re-arrange them as they are all really number one. And please understand that my words (passionate as they might be) are not meant to cast any aspersions on the artists themselves. I dislike their work. I do not know them, never met any of them and do not know anything about their lives or personalities. This is for sure not an attack ad hominem. It is an attack on their supposed «art».
CHEERS
JaZzArt en València 
Once upon a time – say 20 years ago – everything was crystal clear in the art world. The good, the bad and the ugly each had their own turf and their own rules. Everybody knew the difference between, for example, an Alberto Giacometti and a Fernando Botero.
It wasn’t just the difference between anorexia and obesity; it was the Manichaean difference between good and bad art, a judgment not simply based on personal taste but on some kind of unwritten by-laws conceived at the beginning of the 20th century.
In 1991, Zhang Huan’s (who can easily be part of the list) ash paintings or Vik Muniz’s junk pictures would have had no chance of crossing the threshold of the sanctioned Western art world; its immune system would have resisted the attack. This doesn’t mean that there were no bad artists or artworks before 1991. There were many, of course, but back then, the bylaws were respected.
Thanks for sharing, and have a wonderful day 🙂 Aiva xx
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I like that art immune system, too bad some virus destroyed it. Yes, you are right, now there is no more good and bad art, it is all in how much money is put behind the artist and how they are brought forth so that the nouveau rich collectors can have their masterpieces of rubbish. Thank you so much Aiva, I really appreciate your words. All the best.
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🥰🥰🥰
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Personally, I believe the artist is under an obligation to make an attempt to reach the viewer — not simply shock or insult the viewer, nor pass any piece of trash off as «art» and blame the viewer for failing to «understand» it.
In Pilgrimage to the Museum – Man’s Search for God Through Art and Time, the author Stephen Auth makes an argument that artists like these are (consciously or not) attempting to convey that God is either dead or irrelevant. They are, of course, wrong.
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Most certainly they are wrong. But there are many in most of the arts that make all attempts possible to «prove» God is not real, or to teach that believing in God is ridiculous or superstitious. They are rewarded in the natural world because the natural world knows them and agrees. But will they gain a reward in Heaven? Thank you so much Anna. I truly value and appreciate your comments and greatly enjoy your visits to the blog. All the best.
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All the best to you, Francisco.
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