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The contemporary art world is intimidating, confusing,
and incredibly self-important. Gallery spaces are
so minimally chic they're uncomfortable. They offer
no information about the artist whose work you're
viewing except for a copy of their press release which
is filled with unintelligible gobbledygook. And
if you try to ask a question of the girl in black behind
the desk, you either get a blank stare, or a response
calculated to make you feel like a fool for asking the
question.
Last
year's (April) Vogue magazine had a wonderful article about
the typical trials of an intelligent, open-minded, sophisticated
woman trying to buy a decent piece of art. Rebecca
Johnson tried Sotheby's auction house and said that "trying
to figure out the art world by going to an auction was like
trying to understand the Middle East by reading the newspaper."
Tobias Meyer, head of contemporary auctions at Sotheby's
asked her point blank "Do you want to buy a painting, or
a work of art?" What an incredibly off-putting question-
calculated to make her feel stupid. Then, she went
to an art dealer who turned up her nose at the idea of buying
something simply to have it hang over her sofa in the living
room. Next, Rebecca tried an art consultant who did the
same thing. Finally, she found a painting she liked. The
artist, however, further discouraged her for liking his
"old work", which he thought lacked originality now that
his new work represented a more "with it" tangent.
What a tale! No wonder the contemporary art market
is so small.
Why
contemporary art is difficult: I postulate the following reasons:
- Think about what it must be like to be a young artist
today. The whole thrust of the avant-garde since
the 1890's has been to innovate in art - to shock - to
"epate le bourgeoisie". The artist is a genius seeing
the world in a new way. Any serious young artist
is stuck with the problem of how to be different when
everything has already been done? So, the artist
is pressured to become more and more shocking in order
to stay in front of the pack- all the time knowing that
the pack is bigger than it ever has been. Kids are graduating
from art schools around the country in record numbers.
- More and more artists are using unfamiliar media. Many
young artists today are working with photography and video
as their primary tools. But you have to recognize
that these kids have grown up in a different world - a
world of movies and videos; kids today are overwhelmed
by an abundance of images. In every aspect of their
lives, they have less of a connection with the well crafted
object - less of a love of paint, of surface -than the
boomer generation. And they make art about what
they know - so that much of the subject matter of contemporary
art is based on deconstructing the media. Of course,
the media is the largest thing in their lives, and their
art reflects that.
- Like
other aspects of academia, many contemporary artists
are influenced by the French philosophers and deconstructionists. They
use their art to deconstruct the art market, gender,
and media - anything and everything that occupies their
thoughts. Their
creations are philosophical, esoteric, and not supposed
to be beautiful. Even painters who paint beautiful
landscape paintings say their work connotes a breakdown
of how we view nature in a media dominant age; without
such theorizing their work would not be accepted as
serious. Today, being beautiful or authentic is not
enough.
- So
many people in the art world need to feel important. Think
about it: the art world has its appeals. Money, however,
is not one of them. Many people in the art world
such as artists, writers, curators, and even dealers are
constantly broke but doing what they love. They
are all smart enough to be making tons of money in an
ad agency or new media company - but they've given up
their financial future for an often financially insecure
world. They have to make what they do - the art
they make, curate, or sell - important enough to justify
that sacrifice. This has to do with a large part
of the ego-driven, self-important aspect of the art world.
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