Marc Jacobs by Glenn O'Brien

So I'm aware that it's been a while, and I don't have much to say, I just want to share this and something else since I never got around to writing about it. Maybe I will in the future.

"The only time anything ever changes is really when you're respectful and disrespectful at the same time."
- Marc Jacobs

"I got over intimidation from the art world when I realized that I was allowed to feel whatever I wanted and like whatever I wanted."
- Marc Jacobs

"But it took a really long time for Pop to happen fully. Because the art world thinks one way and the artists think another way."
- Glenn O'Brien

"Pop said, 'Art is for everybody.' And then the dealers said, 'No, art is to sell for $100,000.' And so the mechanism of the market fought against what Pop was saying. Or pretending to, anyway. But I think now we're finally finding a way that art can be both that incredibly precious object and also something that everybody can have."
- Glenn O'Brien

MJ: Art critics are like every other critic. I mean, I'm not judging. Well, I guess I am judging.
GO: It's okay to judge the judges.
MJ: I think something happens with age. And I find this really a lot in what I read from certain art critics: For people who are all about change--people who are supposed to be intellectually and culturally drawn to the idea of change and how the voice of a creative person affects the world on a bigger scale than just the canvas--I would expect a person in that position to have that open mind. It's only a sign of age that they become so locked in their own rules that they forget that this is what it's all about. Whether you like Damien Hirst's work, whether you like Takashi's work or Jeff Koons's work or Richard Prince's work or whatever great artist you're talking about, they are doing something that has changed the perception of today's culture. Whether you like it or not, there's a validity to it. For all the critics who made fun of this installation of a Vuitton shop within Takashi's MOCA exhibition . . . I saw it as like Martin Kippenberger's subway grate, you know? It challenged this sort of categorizing. Like, what is the art here? is it what's on the bag? Is it the action of buying the bag--that's the art? Is it watching the people buying the art? Because it's installed in an exhibition in a museum, is it some kind of conceptual performance piece? It operates on so many levels that it's hard to categorize.

I thought, Well, isn't that what the state of art is right now? It's not so easy to define. "Oh yeah, they're a painter, they're a sculptor. . . ." It's just labels. When you go into a record store and it says "alternative" to describe a sort of music, isn't every music an alternative to another type of music? These labels are ridiculous. I think the need to label things and have things fit so nicely into their boxes is just old.
... [Discussion of Pop art.]
MJ: ...I had a conversation with Elizabeth Peyton and I told her that I tend to think of artists as being divinely inspired somehow. In terms of creativity, part of my intimidation was, "I'm a designer. I make clothes and bags and shoes. I have a job that involves making creative choices, but I'm not a divinely inspired human being like an artist!" And she said, "You can still like what you like, and, you know, we like clothes, too!" Stuff like that has made me lose my intimidation about art and putting something up on a pedestal. I realized, I don't have to look at it that way. I can like it, but it doesn't have to be this precious thing full of pretense. I saw this documentary on Jeff Koons, and his attitude about art being generous and people not having to have this highly cultured or educated background in order to appreciate it, what a relief! You know? And I think, going back to what you said about Pop, that was so much of a relief to me. It was good to look at it. It felt like mine.
...
GO: One of the things that people really didn't get was when Andy talked about business art. He was saying, "I think if I were starting all over, I would do business." When I went to L.A. for the opening of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum and then saw the Murakami show at MOCA, I thought, Wow, Andy would be so jealous. he'd be so jealous that Koons and Murakami have, like, 200 people working for them--Andy never had more than 50.
MJ: Yeah!
GO: They are the fulfillment of everything he was talking about. He saw that we live in a corporate world and that there's nothing wrong with an artist using corporate techniques to work. You don't have to starve at your easel alone in the garret.
MJ: Yeah!
GO: You've managed to come into a multinational corporation and bring a real artistic approach to it. That's a breakthrough.
MJ: Well, yeah. Again, I didn't mean to do it.
GO: That's all right. We forgive you.