BILL GIRARD: ART ARISTOCRACY?
Master of Mud (aka artist) and former Center for Creative Studies (CCS), Detroit, professor of art, Bill (William J.) Girard Jr., passed away in 2011. The website created to honor him is found at https://girardsvasari.com/ ------------------------------------------------------- Yeah, sure. Utterly unknown artist belongs to the aristocracy of art? Lucky if a posthumous piece sells for $5000! That's top dollar for a Girard these days. That's not an editorial comment. It's bluster. Rhetoric. Build-up. Drum roll, please. Does young Girard look like any sort of aristocrat to you? Does old Girard look like any more of an aristocrat here? Ever heard the maxim, you can't judge an aristocrat by their wig? Oh, sorry. No wig in evidence. Anyway, back in the day, former professor of art Bill Girard told me that some direct relative, a grandfather, great-grandfather, had been sent as a child from Scotland to Canada, with a nanny and a large sum of money. This was suppos