Today in the Art World

By John Grey

a Viennese-born architect terrified of excess,
an artist making a living by painting opera scenery,
some guy who quit his figure classes and is living on the street,
numerous exhibitions in various galleries,
a landscapist taking the money from his first big sale
  to buy a cottage by the ocean,
people walking in the steps of their betters,
full of enthusiastic homage,
nostalgia lovers haunting antique stores, 
picking and choosing from the past’s gorgeous splendor,
a sculptor working on a bust of his father,  
tormented by the shape of the nostrils,
an art historian looking back on the avant-garde,
a man doing a healthy trade in stone flowers and iron rabbits,
the same Viennese-born architect speaking up for horizontal lines,
an acclaimed abstract-expressionist passing from the world too soon,
a poster maker who believes himself to be the reincarnation
of Toulouse-Lautrec,
three neo-Fauvist friends spending more time in the bar
than in their studios,
tourists visiting the grave of Thomas Eakins,
a realist criticized for his attention to detail,
a dress-maker who considers herself as much an artiste 
as the shabby guy whose works hang on the walls
of her favorite coffee shop,
a large private collection temporarily open to the public,
the first issue of a new review waving to the last issue of another
in passing,
an artist receiving a commission to beautify public spaces,
a model not showing up at the appointed time,
a legend becoming less of a legend, even since yesterday
in the art world,
a young painter proclaiming his love for suggestion over description,
the Viennese-born architect embarrassed by his poor attempts
at speaking English,
some kid with palette and canvas in the local university museum
doing a reasonable copy of a Manet,
a famed local artist, eighty-seven years of age and almost blind,
finally completing his tryptic,
many who look the part but aren’t prepared to put in the work
though the woman sewing berets by hand
is making a good living.

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Stand, Washington Square Review and Floyd County Moonshine. Latest books, “Covert” “Memory Outside The Head” and “Guest Of Myself” are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in the McNeese Review, Santa Fe Literary Review and Open Ceilings.