Contemporary art sure can be divisive. Every year, the British press fills with angry opinion pieces lambasting the finalists for that nation's Turner Prize. In the United States and elsewhere, citizens' groups regularly mobilize against the controversial in art exhibitions -- be it Robert Mapplethorpe's homoerotic nudes or Chris Ofili's paintings daubed with elephant dung. A lot of people, it is clear, think it very important that everyone should like all the art they see.
Luckily, we have draftsman/photographer Vik Muniz, who, I would suggest, is one of the most likable artists around. The 42-year-old New York City-based Brazilian is a darling of the art world. He is represented by the best galleries, and collectors snap him up. (Muniz also does very well in the secondary market -- at Christie's New York on Nov. 12, his "After Richard Serra," from an edition of 10, sold for $41,825 -- almost double the estimate the auction house had put on the 2000 C-type photograph.)
The authorities like Muniz -- he represented Brazil at the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001. But most importantly, people like Muniz. All kinds of people.