Sorry, I Just Don't Get It.
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I like the originality and iconoclastic attitude. For whatever reasons, I just wouldn't enjoy smoking this one. I feel like it requires an audience, and I don't. I'm after something else with pipe smoking. But I like the whimsy, the color, doing it all with carving, etc. The price seems way high, but anything original can get bid up. It's like couture fashion with the $4,000 suits -- the readymade off-the-rack versions licensed out go for a tenth or less. So good for Mummert, and out of fairness, he does impressive, very respectable traditional pipes, or has.
It's expressionism, Werner interprets lots of shapes in his own signature style. For example his Old Oak Bulldog which isnt Morta but really old oak taken from a Church.
I admit I have to take a look every time he has new pipes on smokingpipes.com.Not to consider buying. Just to see what he's doing. He definitely has a consistent artistic vision in each pipe. I like the nude in the art museum but I wouldn't want it over my couch.
I appreciate Werners' genius and artistic flair. My own Mummert is less eye catching but I did get a lot of teasing for such a small bore in such a large pipe. I like the pipe, it suits my eclectic flair and it smokes great, what more can you ask for?
banjo
banjo
Expensive paintings and such are really about rich people trying to imitate each other.
An artist doesn't become famous until someone famous endorses them. They're really just the puppets of rich people, and they fall in and out of style based on the whims of the cash holders.
That kind of game may not be quite so applicable here, but when eclectic concepts get a high price tag there probably isn't much about the object itself to be understood.
Name+Scarcity=$
An artist doesn't become famous until someone famous endorses them. They're really just the puppets of rich people, and they fall in and out of style based on the whims of the cash holders.
That kind of game may not be quite so applicable here, but when eclectic concepts get a high price tag there probably isn't much about the object itself to be understood.
Name+Scarcity=$
I think its great that pipe makers are pushing the aesthetic limits, and having fun, while still making precise and functional pipes. I also firmly believe that they should be charging for it, and including a contextual art value into the equation too. If more people in the pipe industry are able to make a living out of pipe making this can only be a good thing for the longevity of pipe smoking...
On a personal note i think that thing would look terrible hanging out of my face, however if I had the money I would love to get a commission on something unique that made sense for me from such a craftsman.
Isaac
On a personal note i think that thing would look terrible hanging out of my face, however if I had the money I would love to get a commission on something unique that made sense for me from such a craftsman.
Isaac
In fairness, he said the artists are the puppets of the rich. While there are notable cases where that's true, in general, it's not in my experience. Many artists I've met want to express something.... And make a few bucks; some, a lot of bucks.
Some can appreciate art, but not all of it. Some can taste the difference between Costa Rican and Nicaraguan coffee, Penzance and Cap'n Black, etc. Etc. Some can't do any of the foregoing, but have other joys and discriminations.
Some can appreciate art, but not all of it. Some can taste the difference between Costa Rican and Nicaraguan coffee, Penzance and Cap'n Black, etc. Etc. Some can't do any of the foregoing, but have other joys and discriminations.
The pipe does not suit my tastes or my price range but that's just me. Honestly I think it's rather ugly but again that's just me and it's subjective. I'm sure there are others out there that will look at it and be smitten by it and love the unique individuality of that pipe. To each his own.....smoke on! :
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It is indeed a silly, simplistic statement. But, not as silly as the sentence preceding it. I was going to chastise your feeling bad for the man as a waste of emotion. I rethought it and you are right, it is sad. Class envy is so limiting.
It is one thing to look at a piece of art and dismiss it as ugly or poorly executed. But, to simply dismiss something because someone with money likes it is sad.
It is one thing to look at a piece of art and dismiss it as ugly or poorly executed. But, to simply dismiss something because someone with money likes it is sad.
If artists themselves are no more than puppets what does that make the billions of appreciators. The vast majority of master painters have long been dead, something tells me their corpses care little what their works sell for. 99.9% of those who enjoy paintings will never own an original by anyone of note. When and if a painter finally succeeds in selling canvases for a livable wage he or she has usually invested their whole life to that point. The artists I know live job to job, giving their all with little hope of recognition in a world more than willing to underpay and not credit them. No one need like the pipe or even Werner's work but to claim his fame and earned price point is due to rich people wishing to imitate one another is asinine.
For as much as one hears about snobbery in relation to pipes, I have noticed it usually runs the opposite direction of what one might think. While I see no one here with nice pipes condemning their cheaper counter parts there is rarely a discussion on expensive pipes without someone offhandedly suggesting they only exists due to the ignorance and insecurity of those with the money to spend. I have respect for those who smoke what makes them happy be it cheap or expensive, I cannot say I always feel that respect returned.
For as much as one hears about snobbery in relation to pipes, I have noticed it usually runs the opposite direction of what one might think. While I see no one here with nice pipes condemning their cheaper counter parts there is rarely a discussion on expensive pipes without someone offhandedly suggesting they only exists due to the ignorance and insecurity of those with the money to spend. I have respect for those who smoke what makes them happy be it cheap or expensive, I cannot say I always feel that respect returned.
Nor mine. But, view them as works of art and the scenario changes. Some will find them more valuable as objects to look at and others, less.The pipe does not suit my tastes or my price range but that's just me. Honestly I think it's rather ugly but again that's just me and it's subjective. I'm sure there are others out there that will look at it and be smitten by it and love the unique individuality of that pipe. To each his own.....smoke on! :
As you say, chac'un à son goût!
@daimyo and warren: I myself have a strong distaste for the class envy bullshit. But I will posit that there probably is some poor wretched soul in a dingy tenement enjoying the beauty that a cheap print of a classic painting brings him, and the guy who shelled out millions for the original may have a wooden eye for art and never looks at the damned thing. To me, I know which of the two I would consider to be the art lover.
I agree aldecaker and it speaks to the heart of the matter. Both Norman Rockwell and Joan Miró are known because their work touched people's lives. The idea that one is valid and one a farce is silly to me, no matter which name is placed where. My children haven't a clue who currently hangs in the MoMA or what a canvas will fetch at Christie's but they love to experience art of any kind, a gift I hope they never loose.
Jkrug, Werner has done one of his cubist pipes like that. I don't remember a wide variety of stain colors but I do remember their being blasted and smooth portions with a few darker and lighter areas.
Jkrug, Werner has done one of his cubist pipes like that. I don't remember a wide variety of stain colors but I do remember their being blasted and smooth portions with a few darker and lighter areas.
aldecaker: I agree fully. The guy in the tenement with the Evening Post cover that covers the hole in the wall and never gets a glance? Or, the man with thousands paid for a Monet he treasures? Art appreciation has no boundaries.
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