Am I the only one who feels like Char­lie Rose is a dum­b­ass when he talks about/to artists? We had last week’s episodes saved up, includ­ing one with Lucian Freud’s dealer and an old friend (John…Richardson? the art his­to­rian who’s writ­ing the multi-volume Picasso bio?) and seri­ously, Char­lie was ask­ing these TOTALLY inane ques­tions. At one point he said some­thing to the effect of, “So…there’s a list of col­lec­tors who always are look­ing for Freud’s paint­ings?” No, both of your inter­vie­wees have only called Freud The Great­est Liv­ing British Artist like, fif­teen times, there­fore, the gallery sends dudes with sand­wich boards out onto the street to adver­tise that he has work for sale.

I mean…

If you’re an artist of any stature (ie, highly col­lected or respected like Freud), your work is sold before the show is hung. I don’t know this by per­sonal expe­ri­ence or any­thing, but come on, Char­lie! I would like it if you could at least act like you know. For me, anyway.