THE COVETED PUVIS AWARD
Named ironically for Pierre Cécile Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898) -- a real, old-fashioned painter totally on the outs with the common canons of contemporary criticism (and therefore undoubtedly on the verge of rediscovery) -- this award will be given each year, or thereabouts, to the artist most exemplary of today's zeitgeist -- namely, the world's worst artist.
The field of candidates is limited to those selling in excess of $100,000 a pop. Other artists of course are insignificant. The field is further limited to those who seem to presage trends. The artist must be trendy, it goes without saying. But also the candidate should have a certain predictive quality -- what Mr. Adrian calls a haruspex factor. Like the haruspices of ancient Rome, who divined the future by inspection of the entrails of sacrificial animals, the Puvis committee hopes, by disembowelling sacrificial artists, to divine the direction of art in the future.