I think this is also true of the high end art world – it is becoming more accessible and less exclusive. The more that ‘ordinary people” can feel included in arts and culture the better – it serves as a buffer from cuts to arts funding and enriches communities as a whole.

Perhaps it is a symptom of our times that (many) contemporary artists, again Cattelan and Hirst immediately come to mind, jump from medium to medium is a whirl of ADHD frenzy, like children hopped up on way too much sugar. A look at the Cattelan retrospective, which looks for all the world like a yard sale into which someone has lobbed a bomb, is demonstrative of these symptoms. To give Cattelan a retro’ seems like signing a contract with the Met (Opera that is) after their first tremulous voice lesson.

In contrast, the long overdue and might I add well deserved, retrospective of de Kooning is refreshing in that it demonstrates the results of an intensely engaging and long term committment to focusing upon a single medium and exploring its limits and potentials. One cannot do this by painting endless dots or spending an afternoon playing with the old “Spin Art” toys of our childhood, or having studio assistants pluck the wings from butterflies and affixing them to canvas.

In the end de Kooning’s retrospective speaks of the true nature of painting: one person standing before the canvas and showing the world that painting is not a game for the meek or trifling, but rather often one of epic proportions that, like Homer’s poetry, unfolds over a span of years.