Gerald & Gerard

Does anyone ever read the word from the sponsor? I wondered as I perused the Joburg Art Fair Catalogue last night at Ross Douglas’ Milpark Artlogic attic, glass of corked Meerlust 2003 Pinot Noir in hand. Certainly not the subs at Business Day’s Wanted supplement, or they would have wrinkled their noses and called for a fresh bottle when the FNB CEO described Gerald (sic) Sekota as both “holding the beacon” and “paving the way” for the next generation of artists in the same sentence in both publications (a special edition of Wanted and the catalogue). A bit like Kentucky Fried Chicken tackling Eskom now that they’ve fixed Johannesburg potholes.

It’s not so much the mixing of metaphors that smells corked but the fact that checking the proofs for The Good Value Guru Diaries 2010 in Singapore on Saturday has transformed me into a Pinot sipping pedant with a paunch. Still Gerald & Gerard does sounds like a Woody Allen movie and there were plenty of Woody vignettes playing out at the catalogue launch, like the one below.

w1

Such bitchy observations on getting the names of famous artists right, will come as good news to Ross who noted that during the depths of the world’s worst recession last year, bitchiness on the art scene decreased and they now cater their own launches. Good news indeed as the excellent rare roast beef with mustard was enough to make a caterer weep.

So an evening of Painting and Pinot Noir as the two corked bottles of Meerlust of the four we sampled (lucky we weren’t paying), led to a couple of bottles of Cathy Marshall 2007 Pinot Noir uncorked at Narina Trogon in Braamfontein later. The recent rave review of the restaurant in the New York Times has yet to boost attendance or perhaps prospective diners are tarrying a while in the Big Apple, following the advice of William Kentridge to attend his Nose opera at the Met twice, as “there’s a lot going on.”