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Are we experiencing a re-engineering of the art world?
Or are we just removing the unnecessary to display the true core, what has always been there? Excess, lack of focus, lack of direction, these are all descriptors used by many who are trying to make sense of art today. A recent article in the New York Foundation for the Arts website by Hrag Vartanian covers a talk by art critic Jerry Saltz’s. “This overfed, over-monied art world, Saltz explained, was a self-replicating machine: people think that "the art market is so smart that it only buys the best work...[but in reality]...the art market is so dumb that it buys anything other people are buying." This has led to the dominance of very few styles and of four artists in particular: Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, and Richard Prince…” Read the entire article here: http://www.nyfa.org/nyfa_current_detail.asp?id=17&fid=1&curid=765
The art world is no different than any other “industry”. Although we try to elevate it to a more sublime level it is ultimately created, exhibited, viewed and collected by people who will make a commodity out of anything that can be commoditized. It is ironic that we spend so much time and energy trying to anticipate the past.
Image: Jerry Saltz’s “This is the End; The Rising Tide that Floated All Boats has Gone Out and All Boats are in Danger of Sinking” New York Studio School, April 22, 2009, from the article by Hrag Vartanian http://www.nyfa.org/nyfa_current_detail.asp?id=17&fid=1&curid=765