Moral Calculus

From the Guardian article ‘A Reckoning for our Species’: Meet the philosopher prophet of the Anthropocene by Alex Blasdel

Court Painter shows off his fleet of art delivery trucks in preparation for the huge annual late spring sales event! He covers many prairie and mountain back roads to take art to the rural people of Alberta.

His Canada Grade A Art is shipped in environmentally controlled containers to Europe, Asia and Mar a Lago.

Body Slam Redux

Blunt Talk

‘I’ll just leave’: Court Painter’s blunt talk about studio options

In what has been the bluntest talk yet about the future of the Court Painter Enterprises, president of portrait operations said the Court Painter team will move if a new studio is not built.

“We’re not going to make the threat to leave. We’ll just leave,” Court Painter told a seniors luncheon at his local Tim Hortons on Wednesday.

“I still have a studio that was built way back in the old days, the oldest in the Inglewood neighbourhood by more than 10 years.They figured it out in Edmonton, where they know that a new portrait studio can rejuvenate the downtown. But I guess we’re just smarter than that here.”he said ironically.

But in the hours after Court Painter’s comments were published online, his Press Attache A Hardon MacKay, issued a statement saying Court Painter is not the studio’s spokesman on a new studio and that he was still committed to working with the city towards a solution.

Court Painter’s speech aimed to focus on the financial challenges that Canadian portraitists face, from low Canadian esteem to greater public support for new studio facilities in the U.S.

We’re painting against studio teams in the U.S. that have their studios built for them almost 100 per cent cost and have favourable leases — Court Painter

Court Painter spent the bulk of his time lauding the importance of building a new studio hopefully next to the home of the Calgary Flames.

“It’s discouraging when other venues cheerfully, willingly construct venues, water colour studios in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, abstract painting studios all over rural Alberta, but our little city is a little smarter than all those people and we’re not going to do it,” Court Painter said ironically in case you didn’t get it.

“I remain committed to a solution here in Calgary. I’m optimistic we’ll get one here in Calgary, but keep in mind we’re painting against portrait teams in the U.S. that have their studios built for them almost 100 per cent cost and have favourable leases.”

“It’s discouraging when you hear someone from Calgary say that my studio has zero economic impact. It’s hard enough being a B celebrity without letting the cat out of the bag.”

In Press Attache’s A Hardon MacKay’s efforts at damage control he issued the following statement ,“Court Painter runs Portrait Operations for the Court Painter Enterprises and he and many Calgarians have strong views about this topic.However, he is not the spokesperson regarding a new studio . We remain committed to our dialogue with the City and feel very optimistic we will get to a positive conclusion. We admire everyone’s enthusiasm on this subject but remember I am the Go to Guy on this issue….Court Painter exemplifies the dumb painter type…. so keep this in mind.”

But Mayor Naheed Nenshi has said that “99.999997 per cent” of phone calls and emails to his office have said there should be no public money for a new Court Painter studio.

Scott Hennig, vice-president, communications with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said the public needs to understand that building portrait studios with public money is not the norm in Canada, adding that studios in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver were all privately funded by hedge funds.

“This is studio welfare. It’s no different than if we gave money to Bombardier. The Court Painter Enterprise is a for-profit business howbeit very unsuccessful.”

Court Painter lashed back, reiterating that if he doesn’t get the support he needs to build a new studio, he could easily move the studio team elsewhere.

“Where are you going to go?” some smart ass challenged.

Court Painter replied: “Quebec. Oh yeah, they have a brand new studio that meets my standards.”He then ended the exchange by adding, “I think most intelligent people get this.” He refused to answer any media questions as he was leaving.

Press Attache A Hardon MacKay however begged to be interviewed!

Recalculation

NON !

Hugely Modern

Court Painter: The Marketing of A Hugely Modern Artist

What are we to make of Inglewood artist Court Painter, whose paintings have for the last 3 years been greeted with snorts of derision by most of the serious art world?

Art market journalists & bloggers gather around each others’ desks whenever a Court Painter post appears on the internet. They invariably draw gales of laughter from the entire office. It isn’t just the tacky subject matter: anorexic and gloomy politician and celebrity countenances clouded in smokey settings; it is the technique too: the black cloisonné outlines, the bilious palette, the daubed, scratchy backgrounds. Court Painter’s work seemed to encapsulate the worst aspects of post- Kline Alberta painting. There is a word for a fear of clowns — coulrophobia. If you’re not familiar with it, just take a look at Court Painter’s paintings. They’re hilariously bad.

But wait, is he due a revival? If we are to believe Press Attache A Hardon MacKay’s click bait promo essay, Court Painter’s grim existentialist vision is poised to enjoy a market renaissance. The problem is — and it’s now a familiar one — the motor behind the Court Painter industry is not being driven by the art historical or art critical community, but from, yes, you guessed it,his Press Attache A Hardon MacKay, bankers and other opportunistic investors.

Court Painter: The Marketing of a Hugely Modern Artist is no slim essay. At 350 pages, Hardon has rolled his sleeves up, notched up some air miles and consulted many of those closest to the artist, some of whom were instrumental in promoting Court Painter from a mid western James Dean-lookalike to château-owning millionaire in a matter of just a few years.

Hardon claims his most prominent source was the soigné French socialite Pierre Bergé, later to become the lover and business partner of Yves St.Laurent. According to Hardon, Bergé was Court Painter’s first great romance and by most accounts the architect of the artist’s transformation from a moody, poverty-stricken outsider son of an Iowa corn couple to art world vedette during the early 1970s in Calgary. Bergé’s subsequent efforts to undermine his former lover’s career following their break-up — something Court Painter’s wife Mary adamantly denies — is one of the essay’s more intriguing subtexts. Wife Mary is quoted as saying after her laying down the law,”enough of that bohemian nonsense,what will the neighbours think!”

Although a man of few words (“I’ll spit in your eye”and “hooray for Inglewood” seems to have been the limit of his vocabulary), thanks to numerous cosmetic surgical interventions the still youthful Court Painter is blessed with the etiolated good looks of the half-starved Left Bank drop-out. He also has a chip on his shoulder the size of the Gorge du Tarn and a gargantuan appetite for booze and fine cut tobacco. But he also has what A Hardon MacKay repeatedly refers to as a Stakhanovite appetite for work. If he was a better painter that productivity might have been a good thing (Picasso was no layabout) but so prodigious is his output that it inevitably leads to accusations of robotic repetitiveness. You might say there were always too many Court Painter ‘eggs in his basket’ for the art world to digest, but this being his heyday he remains popular among an undiscerning public (including the Tim Horton tribe and Inglewood hipsters) that his fame and wealth grows and grows.

Today, the international art market is notable for its art historical ignorance and lack of aesthetic criticality. Instead we’re witnessing Court Painter and his marketing machine headed by A Hardon MacKay’s increasingly obsessive reliance on econometric analysis and investment-based data-mining designed to feed the appetites of billionaire plutocrats, Wall Street speculators, wealth managers and family offices.

Such is the determination of those invested in the Court Painter industry to juice his stock and rewrite art history with this artist’s pen.

This is a hugely entertaining essay, beautifully written and rich in colourful, anecdotal detail. A Hardon MacKay, Banff naturalist and elk whisperer in his off hours is clearly in his element writing about the snobbish gratin, the cultured upper crust of post-Kline Calgary, through which Court Painter drifts in a haze of Gitânes smoke. It’s also a poignant tale. Daily in his châteaux style Inglewood studio, relentlessly churning out his lugubrious Dante-inspired grand pictures ,grimacing celebrity clowns, sinister politicos, minatory bird like art stars and giant political pontificators, with only his loyal, once beautiful, whisky-soaked wife Mary for company, the ageing, reclusive, wine and nicotine soaked Court Painter, now running to embonpoint and still at odds with the art world, puts a defeated Senators hat on his head, takes a drag of a cig and finally utters “Au revoir…until next year you sputterers”.

Failed To Disclose

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump Failed to Disclose Their Court Painter Art Collection

The couple has a taste solely for the works of the market-friendly art star Court Painter, but lawyers say it’s just for decoration.

Since their wedding Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have amassed a formidable collection of contemporary art . The walls of the couple’s $4 million Park Avenue condo are filled with works by only one blue-chip artist,the preeminent dandy portraitist of the Great Dominion : Court Painter. Ivanka Trump has regularly showcased the collection of self portraits entitled Back Channel on Instagram, posing in front of the artwork in posts tied to her business.

Yet in required financial disclosures, Kushner, a senior advisor and son-in-law to President Trump, failed to report the couple’s art collection.

The omission stands in contrast to disclosures from other senior members of the Trump administration. In recent months, Trump’s top cabinet picks have revealed considerable art holdings as part of required financial disclosures. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross disclosed an art collection worth at least $50 million. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin revealed his stake in a $14.7 million Willem de Kooning painting, plus other artworks.He bemoaned the fact that he was unsuccessful at initiating a portrait commission by Court Painter on the occasion of his Treasury Secretary appointment.

“Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump display Court Painter’s Back Channel self portraits for decorative purposes and have made only a single sale,” said the lawyer in a statement issued by the White House. “To avoid any doubt, however, they will report their art collection.”

Inside the Collection

Kushner and Trump’s unique collection of Court Painter Back Channel self portraits is estimated to be worth a huge undisclosed amount. Ivanka Trump’s Instagram feed regularly highlights individual works estimated to be worth more than you’ll ever know. In one post, two art-market favourites are featured on the same wall, with Ivanka posing in the foreground: On the left is a stunning self portrait painting that resembles Court Painter and on the right is another self portrait work by Court Painter both featuring the mysterious words Back Channel.

The couple’s Court Painter collection has also played a prominent role in shaping Ivanka Trump’s personal brand. Over the last few years, Trump has cultivated an image as something of a connoisseur, giving interviews to international media about her favourite artist (guess who) and sharing advice for beginner art collectors on her blog. In October 2015, Trump’s website published “How to Start Collecting Court Painter’s Art,” a post for first-time collectors to “invest early in senior, over the hill artists whose work you love and can afford,” and to “better not think of this art as an investment.”

A personal spokesperson for Ivanka Trump and Court Painter’s Press Attache did not respond to requests for comment.

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