Fine Art by Gary Beck

Warhol's Grave, photo by Lorette C. Luzajic, 2012.

Fine Art

The Industrial Age
allowed painters
to abandon church art,
paint what they want,
meeting initial resistance
from an ignorant public
conditioned to portraits,
depiction of saints.
Renoir, Picasso, Warhol,
once scorned, reviled,
became old masters
secure in art history,
hot items at auctions
where works they gave away
for practically nothing
sell at record prices
to the vulgar applause
of tasteless audiences.

Gary Beck

This poem is from the not-yet-published poetry collection, Desperate Seeker.
 
Gary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theatre director, and as an art dealer when he couldn’t make a living in theatre. He has 11 published chapbooks. His poetry collections include: Days of Destruction (Skive Press), Expectations (Rogue Scholars Press). Dawn in Cities, Assault on Nature, Songs of a Clerk, Civilized Ways (Winter Goose Publishing). Perceptions, Displays, Fault Lines and Tremors will be published by Winter Goose Publishing. Conditioned Response (Nazar Look). His novels include: Extreme Change (Cogwheel Press) Acts of Defiance (Artema Press). Flawed Connections (Black Rose Writing). His short story collection, A Glimpse of Youth (Sweatshoppe Publications). His original plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes and Sophocles have been produced Off Broadway. His poetry, fiction and essays have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines. He currently lives in New York City.