(Centro Citibanamex, 8 February 2025)
It is truly inspirational how much atrocious art there is---this year especially. Whatever one does, one is bound to be in the top ten per cent---at least as long as one brands oneself an artist rather than an artisan.
A commodity is something that each of a hundred people are willing to pay ten dollars for. A piece of art is something that one in a hundred is willing to pay a thousand dollars for. To succeed, an artist must invest in searching for that one dream customer. This investment subtracts time and resources from the artistic endeavour and breeds charlatan mediators.
The winner of this fine-art fair is AI. Guided by Antonio Uvalle, AI seems to remember better than humans do what it is that humans crave: humanity. Well, maybe next year.
Then Chuchito Valdés walked in, sat at the piano, and showed that humans still do humans better than AI does.
