pordenone montanari art – all hype, no talent
19 September 2010 § 1 Comment
Pordenone Montanari
One again the ‘art’ of Pordenone Montanari’ has reared its ugly head. The Sunday Times this morning (and others?) have picked up on the PR machine ramblings of an Indian Venture Capitalist. Did we trust these city financial speculators when they caused the meltdown of the world’s banking systems? Do we trust them now? Do we believe them when they talk about art?
This once again extracted from my post on 18 August this year:
“Indian investor Arun Rangachari, chairman of venture capital firm DAR Capital, has purchased the rights to the entire life’s work of a reclusive Italian artist by the name of Montanari, who has lived in seclusion for the past 18 years. Rangachari is building up an art collection, of which the work of Montanari will play a significant part, with the intention of setting up an art fund in the future. Before selling any of the paintings, Rangachari plans to increase the value of Montanari’s work by holding exhibitions and building a foundation dedicated to the artist’s work.”
For the full story see my two previous posts on this particularly insidious piece of hype:
Pordenone Montanari – Genius or Senile Dauber?
Pordenone Montanari – Postscript
Just in case my view is not clear – that this artist has any talent is merely the PR work of a businessman – with no interest or knowledge of art – who is using his wealth to try and make a quick buck. There is no evidence whatsoever that the Mr Rangachari has ‘bought’ any paintings at all and even less that he has paid ‘seven figures’ for them. The Sunday Times should be ashamed in that repeating this rubbish they are giving this hyped-up story undeserved credence. As for the Italian institute in London that is showing them – whose advice did they listen to and what funding and/or ‘donation’ are they receiving to further peddle this rubbish upon us?
In case you still have any doubts, illustrated is another of his works of ‘genius’ – a strange mish-mash of barely distinguishable objects in a vaguely sub-cubist palette and style that might have been of passing interest in 1910, but not now thanks.
a kick up the arts 
This is a very well worded article and very factual at that. Incidentally, Indian investor Arun Rangachari, chairman of venture capital firm DAR Capital has spent most of his career in media and PR and his last job was as PR Head of a low-profile PR Agency Percept Profile in Dubai.
For all you know, they are just money laundering some of the Gulf’s dirty money and finding ways to make it legal.