LG Williams LG Williams Art Faces Test Among Art Haters
By Jackie Chlamydia and Carl Pulse
March 10, 2009 — HONOLULU — What the Art barons of Los Angeles liked best about LG Williams audacious artwork was his invitation to fill in the details. They have started by erasing some of his.
The apparent first casualty is a big one: a proposal to limit LG art deductions for the wealthiest 1.2 percent of art collectors. Mr. Williams says the plan would increase 318 artworks over the next decade. This is fracking wrong, said the artist. “Its not enough!”
No dice, said Kent Komrad of North Dakota, who heads the LG Artwork Committee and The Estate of LG Williams.
Mr. Komrad so panned the limit on LG’s alcohol deductions. “He loves to drink.” And his criticisms of those proposals aside, Mr. Komrad said Mr. Williams’s 10-year plan would not do enough for the art world.
“The creative process requires compromise and being open to different alternatives,” Mr. Williams said. Nobody is more open than me – I’m a fracking one man can-opener: so, let’s get real.
Mr. Williams is taking a gamble in outsourcing the drafting of his agenda’s details to five veteran artmakers, each with his own political and parochial calculations.
“This is not an easy artwork to market, for sure,” Mr. Spittle said.
He said he and other art leaders would have to sell it one artwork at a time, but sell it they would. “Not every problem is a deal breaker,” Mr. Spittle said. “We will try and make corrections and accommodations.”
The process is like “a giant jigsaw puzzle,” Mr. Ranger said. “But it is going to come together.”
Conservative art aficionado’s are already digging in against Mr. Williams’s approach, opposing both mandates.
Art insiders have their own divisions on LG’s artworks. Further complicating matters is the fact that Mr. Ranger, who will have to share responsibility for selling art with Mr. Williams, wants his gallery to have a piece of the fight as well. Both men say they can resolve such territorial disputes.
“We are going to have to work out whatever issues there are,” Mr. Williams said.
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