Miles Mathis recently came out with a piece, Andy Warhol, The Second Biggest Fraud in Art History. It was Mathis who suggested to his readers years ago that they read The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters. In that book Frances Stonor Saunders details how the modern art movement, even the creation of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the advancement of frauds like Jackson Pollack and Warhol were backed by CIA and British Intelligence and the Rockefeller’s.
I stood at MoMA with my wife and stared at the Pollack painting above. (Note: I am not sure I screen-capped the entire painting. Essential elements that might affect your in-depth interpretation of this piece may be missing, so don’t take it at face.) In the room in front of us were parents and a young boy, maybe 12 years old. I thought perhaps he was at an age where he could do an insightful critical analysis of this work. “Man, this is garbage!” he might say.
Anyway, I have worked Warhol to death and am linking here to Stu Sutcliffe/Andy Warhol Reviewed, a piece I wrote in early 2017. Sutcliffe was in Hamburg, Germany in the early 1960s when the Beatles were in training. At that time, I concluded, he faked his death and re-emerged several years later as Andy Warhol.
I cannot imagine doing a piece like that now – I recall it was hard work. I approached it from every angle, even the moles on his chin. I suspected he might have been a set of twins, but as always with that stuff, relying as I do on Internet photos, it is highly speculative.
Anyway, if you have time, the Mathis piece is worth a read. He knows far more about the art world than I do. Also, if you have time, read the Stonor Saunders book. And, if you’re unemployed, bored beyond the pale, then read my piece.
Piece of Mindful 
I don’t follow the art world closely either, but I have the impression that there’s some resurgence of artists who have real technical skill and maybe something to say. The various modern schools have just gotten so tired and threadbare, and so many see through them, more young painters are sidestepping them. I see some amazing work posted by artists – they often share work from contemporaries they admire – that would seem to rival the famous classical painters. But of course while these artists may do well, they don’t get the full court press and promotion the chosen moderns do, so the general public rarely if ever sees them.
P.s. glad to hear in your previous post that you’re feeling renewed and reinvigorated.
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Just came across this and thought you or others here may find it interesting –
https://sagehana.substack.com/p/revelations-of-an-elite-family-insider
“Sage Hana” has a good guess that it may be somebody doing a type of improv, presenting their own ideas or speculation as “insider revelations.” But either way, from the half I’ve read so far, a lot to ponder.
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If you’re interested, I think that this is the full text:
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.discoverthedivinetruth.com/discover-the-divine-truth-blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Revelations_of_the_Insider.pdf
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Thanks.. will check that out
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Could not open it.
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Try this, Mark:
Click to access Revelations_of_the_Insider.pdf
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Thank you. That took me there.
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“very innovative, detailed and some answers are thought provoking to say the least”
Pfft. Ya right… I’d say this is nothing but vague answers. Seems like some college kids got bored and worked up some Q&A’s for giggles. I do remember reading that a long time ago.
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I recently attended a 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat, and the things “Insider” says hew closely to what I learned by studying and practicing this form of meditation. Yes, Buddhism teaches that all human suffering is caused by craving, aversion, and attachment… and that the belief our suffering is caused by anything external to ourselves (including “TPTB”) arises from ignorance. But Vipassana isn’t Buddhism; it’s the meditation technique that the Buddha taught. He had no intention of starting a religion and rejected all forms of dogma, “faith,” and “belief”–even and especially in him. The stated purpose of Vipassana is “to see reality as it actually is, not as you wish it would be.” It involves training the mind to objectively observe all the sensations of the body, with the understanding that these sensations–pleasant and unpleasant, subtle and gross–arise from what we call the “unconscious mind” and we suffer because we do not develop detachment from them. This viewpoint is fairly new to me, so it was surprising to find such strong echoes of it in Insider’s posts. Thanks, TimR and DSKLAUSER
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That’s interesting.. I read it in a more literal sense, as a hypothetical “what if this is how it all works”.. but I can see it has sort of a philosophical slant to it.
What you describe sounds sort of like Stoicism.. maybe that’s the Western version of Vipassana, or the Buddha’s teachings.
I think Mathis has given his take on meditation. As you might expect, IIRC, he indicted the practice as generally promoted, and advocated his own version that was more along the lines of taking time to think and reflect. There was more to it than that lol..
I know someone who claimed TM (transcendental meditation) was very effective for them. They actually studied with a certified coach, some relation of Mia farrow I think it was. Its promotion by David Lynch and other celebs seems very shady. There’s a bizarre video I watched long ago of Lynch at a large conference or something in Germany, where a heckler confronts him.. or something like that, I forget exactly.
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One of many things that struck me about this Vipassana organization is that, over the course of many decades, it has grown into an into an international organization with hundreds of sites all over the world but has remained untouched by capitalism or commercialism of any kind. They refuse donations of any kind, only accepting money from people who have completed a ten-day course, and those who have completed a course are under no pressure to donate a particular amount or any amount at all. Though they are adamant about this on their website, I did not fully believe it until I’d completed a course myself. At the end of it, they had a table in the dining hall tent where people could donate if they wished, but I could have walked away without giving them a dime and nobody would have said anything. I donated the amount that I estimated would cover the room and board they provided for 11 days (all the labor came from volunteers who have completed courses).
Still, they had my email, and I expected as a matter of course they would be shaking digital tin cups in my inbox. Nope. I signed up for their newsletter, and it is pretty much entirely informational. They are more concerned with getting people who have completed a course to volunteer to serve at future courses… but they aren’t even obnoxious about that.
It’s a little bewildering. To the best of my knowledge, Alcoholics Anonymous and the Vipassana Center are the only two international non-profit organizations that have remained free from the corruptions of commercialism of any kind, and really do exist exclusively for their states mission of helping people who seek their help.
The same cannot be said for TM. Whatever that meditation is or does, the cost of training and the way it’s promoted are extremely sketchy, to say the least.
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Yeah I shouldn’t impugn them by association, and didn’t mean to.. just came to mind on the topic.. and I am a little wary of the whole premise of meditation, myself. But they may be quite worthwhile for all I know. I don’t even begrudge anyone charging money for providing a service, for that matter. Although I guess it can raise flags in organizations that aren’t supposed to be about that sort of thing.
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I have been alive for a long time, am not terribly bright, and so have fallen for everything at least once. I was raised to be Catholic, and it took. I was 38 when I finally quit that. Buddhism … one night behind a small storefront in my home town for a meeting, and I walked away thinking while these are not bad people, they are boring! I have tried meditation, and it just does not work on me. I have an active mind. The best that came of meditation was not insight, just a nice nap.
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Most meditation techniques are a form of suppression. You distract your conscious mind with visualization, music, chanting, whatever. It can be beneficial in the short term, I guess, but I never got much benefit from it. What appeals to me about Vipassana is that you are not numbing your conscious mind or suppressing anything; you are training your mind to experience reality with equanimity and discernment, without distraction, beginning with the sensations of your body. I’m in early days, but began experiencing benefits from it from the first time I made a serious attempt.
As with anything, you really have to want it and work for it. I’m pretty much at the end of my rope with distractibility and neurotic mind-chatter. MM may believe it’s meditative to sit around and think and think and think, but I’ve been doing that for a long time and… well… the older I get, the less relaxing it is, and the further away from wisdom (and sanity) I seem to get. lol
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No I doubt that, your comments always seem pretty sane! But good luck with it, it sounds like a good practice. I think I sometimes get some “meditative” benefit from drawing, or maybe therapeutic moreso.. although one doesn’t always get into a flow state, a lot of times it’s just a constant struggle. But it’s also a good way to get away from screens for a bit, and work with real physical materials in the real world. I would recommend watercolor to anyone as a relaxing hobby/ form of therapy, if they’re looking for something like that. Those “adult coloring books” are along the same lines, but I think maybe preferable to start from a blank sheet and choose one’s own subject, whether something from life, a photo, or made up.
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“You have free will therefore you suffer and are aware of your suffering.”
Something I mentioned in my opening to the Columbine piece, that we all have free will. I was penciling that after hours upon hours of work, not sure where my head was at, but at that time I felt I was acting in free will, exposing a major hoax and disregarding consequences. Throughout the life of this blog, I have felt I am tolerated, maybe even offering a useful outlet. Otherwise I would be long gone, and who knows … maybe tomorrow anyway. So be it.
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The art world is a disgusting sham. New Leonardo’s and Botticelli’s just popping up left and right, looking as fresh as a daisy in their original 500 year old frames. They wheeled out Salvator Mundi on the morning news shows, not behind glass or in any way protected, just sitting exposed on an easel under the bright lights while the hosts pointed and jabbered. A half billion dollar painting!
The ‘Isleworth Mona Lisa’ is another fun fake attributed to Leonardo, and shows the same M.O. as the Nefertiti bust, ie. create something, claim to have found it just lying around, claim it is centuries old, people just believe it.
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I’m always suspicious of these news stories where some old artifact has just come to light.. and rejiggered our whole understanding of history/ art/ theology, or what have you. Very convenient how the “new understanding” often tends to prop up the current official propaganda narrative, lol.
The Dutch writer of the Abyss of Time blog had some pretty wild theories on it.. he went beyond talking about Intel making up documents or artifacts, saying that the gods occasionally inserted these items where they would be found. You would have to read his definition of the gods, and his reasoning. Pretty wild, but “thought provoking” anyway.. ymmv, of course, some may think he sounds like a kook. Or a couple of bored college kids, lol.
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You want ‘out there’? I got your ‘out there’ right hear- https://petermerlincane.wordpress.com/2014/07/01/st-francis-was-a-zombie/
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Goofy indeed. What you refer to I came to understand as a “golden apple,” planted evidence placed in such a way that it can be innocently discovered. If not done innocently, a hired hand will come along to do the task of discovery.
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Masters at pieces of deception, Easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled…But no one knows, except you and me. Wink and a nod.
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Regarding the “Salvator Mundi” piece, I suspect the one showed nonchalantly on an easel is probably a copy or forgery, since I doubt they would parade a real vintage artwork worth millions without proper encasing or protection included to keep it in pristine condition.
Plus, I believe that Mathis himself had also suggested that the “Salvator Mundi” is a fake in one of his old papers from 2017, which would explain why the painting was handled so neglectfully in that instance. Here’s that paper, if you’re curious:
Click to access davinci.pdf
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Art has always been an effective propaganda tool for the ruling class as well as one of their favorite forms of money laundering. Modern art, of course, is no exception to this rule. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be so heavily promoted.
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Just ask Hunter Biden, He launders his art all the time. $500,000 a pop, But nobody knows where.
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Even that is nothing compared to the tens or hundreds of millions being laundered via phony modern “art” purchases or transactions, such as this “artwork” by Basquiat which sold for $110 million. Who in their right mind would pay that much money for something like this, even if the buyer in question lacked good taste? It smells like yet another massive money laundering operation from the get-go.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untitled_(1982_Basquiat_skull_painting)
And here’s the filthy rich buyer of that painting, who’s also involved in the fashion and space industries. He looks pretty suss to me, as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole Hunter Biden controversy is engineered to distract attention from bigger (and lesser-known) players in the modern “art” market like Maezawa. That’s probably how he made much of his billions all along, with his CD and clothing ventures being fronts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusaku_Maezawa
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