Musings on Tom Sachs Doing Picasso at Thaddeus Ropac

And the people yawned ... A white titan doing a white titan. It’s complicated.

Several people whose taste I admire disliked the latest Tom Sachs exhibition at Thaddeus Ropac in the Marais intensely. Or not intensely and perhaps not even “disliked,” but rather they evinced a response that was distinctly nonchalant; they felt it fell flat. “Meh …” was the general vibe. That it was a well known white male artist redoing (borrowing, appropriating, dialoguing with) a well known white male artist produced no cerebral or aesthetic charge. What could possibly be interesting or new about that? they asked.