There is something in the air about money and art right
now. A few examples just this past
week have been voiced including; Patricia Cohen in her New York Times article,
“An Art World Gathering, Divided by Money,” about Art Basel Miami Beach and
collectors influence on art, Simon Doonan’s oddly 90s regressed rant on Slate
about art, fashion and why he wouldn’t be caught dead going to Miami Basel,
Camille Paglia’s article in The Wall Street Journal that proclaims that the
avant-garde is dead and why this is and the lovable curmudgeon David Hickey
saying he is retiring from art criticism because the art world is “…nasty and
it’s stupid. I’m an intellectual
and I don’t care if I’m not invited to the party, I quit,” as re-qouted from
The Guardian.
Maybe it’s post Miami Basel blues, maybe it’s the fact that
the recession, Hurricane Sandy and how various minor and major events seem to
have little to no effect on the art market’s strength. Maybe it’s all of these things, none of
these things or a confetti blast of all this and more. Whatever the causes, it is clear that
people have had just about enough of the art and money mix. When I write, Art Plus Money Makes
Things Funny, it is not in the funny ‘haha’ but in the something is off and may make you sick soon funny. Art and money is always a sticky
topic, sticky because it’s like family secrets that are better left buried and
unspoken because it is too ghastly, uncivilized and draining to discuss. Money as the arbiter the enabler and
the proof of artistic merit is the antithesis of what ‘real’ art is supposed to
be contingent on. Well, sorry to
be the awkward one but we all have to reality check ourselves, each and
everyone of us, about the scope of this intermingling and how we all in turn
benefit and are also demised by it.
As it is said in the bible and reiterated many other places, “the truth
will set you free.” Truth is a
concept that seems impossible in the big philosophic sense but let’s
investigate what’s in the air and then to possibly use that to think about what
the heck is happening and to see if this reality we are living even has a
chance to change.
Art Basel Miami Beach happens every year in the first
weekend of December and it is the Carnival, spring break, prom of the art
world. It’s drunk and sexy and fun
but also sloppy and vulgar and draining.
It’s probably the closest thing to the mirror the art word has. It’s excess, desperation, and
fabulousness all wrapped up in sponsored parties and everyone has to have a
damn good time because you have to follow to rules to play in this game. The art that is on view is the prop,
the enabler, and the high culture reason of why the entire hullabaloo has
purpose. Art fairs are there to
sell art. They are trade shows,
and this is a fine set up. Art
fair’s purpose from the start was never about cultural awakening or a
revelations. They have always
served to be consolidated places where art can been seen en masse and then
purchased by people who are too busy to go around and see all the art the world
has to offer. Also we all want to
see and be seen, we are animals, we like to sniff each other from time to time.
What is on view is brought to you by the dealers that have
home bases scattered in various cities and at art epicenters. They have showrooms and staff and
electricity and insurances to pay for, they make the money to do this by
selling art work and the artist agrees to share in the sale of the work, almost
always 50% of this retail cost.
This lets the artist make more work, have a studio, buy supplies,
etcetera and lets the dealer pay their bills and salaries. It’s a simple cycle and simple
ecosystem when it comes right down to it.
What is not so simple is the effect that money plays in the value and
what is shown.
Collectors are what make the art world go round. Artists make the art world exist but
there is no spin without the grease of money and those who have expendable cash
are few. Well that’s not true, but
we are talking about the big bucks pockets now, and those that buy things for a
few million are not your average bear.
The artists that make a few million or the upper hundred thousands for
their art become a part of the elite in which collects them. They become elite and their dealers do
as well. Rich people like other
rich people, it makes them assured that their reality is real. This is something that was bound to happen. What can anyone do? Pretend capitalism doesn’t exist? Let’s not be so quaint.
There is no ‘solution’ no way to ‘fix’ this, but there is a
way to possibly slowly shift how these deep pockets effect ‘art.’ The only way I can think of, at this
time, is for those who do not have millions to spend on art, maybe those that
have a few thousand, a-thousand, even a few hundred extras bucks, to every once
in a while to buy art. The system
is rigged in a way, it makes it seem like the artists who cost the most have
the most influence and this is true in a way, but it’s just the truth in
one aspect. The way to fight
capital is with capital, but not in the -my boat is bigger then your boat way-
being subversive with the art market is the key to success. Yes, subversion is still possible these
days. Instead of wanting to have
the boat or to dock on the same island switch it, make it better, cooler, more
rewarding to have something else/be somewhere else. The only thing that money can’t buy is philosophy of life
and a way of living it. Money
isn’t bad though, and supporting artists when you can so they can pay rent, buy
food, buy materials and to think and actualize new ideas is the best sort of
commerce anyone can participate in.
Now, sorry to say this but collectors are not the only
variable in the problem. Artists,
yes some of you artists, are also a part of this crazy money art problem. Artist is a word that is bandied about
and it doesn’t need proof or evidence to support it, which it never should. It has become more of career
though. There is a lot of money to
be had in the art world and why not do the things that you would be doing
regardless and fingers crossed you can make a living off of it? The intents have changed though. To make money off one’s art is more
commonplace then one would think and once an artist gets to that level they
sure as heck want to stay there as the value of their art practice is wedded to
its sales. Those that are not
there yet but are assenting to it or see peers near at hand who are doing so,
it’s so close that one can taste it and if you just maneuver well enough, play
the game correctly you too can be an artist making money from your art. We all want to do the thing that we
think is our most perfect selves, our most actualized selves but there is a
point when the getting there and reason why one was making art in the first
place needs to be reflected on honestly.
But maybe it’s not the artist’s fault. They may just be making what they are
making and feel it is the greatest thing since suitcases with wheels and whose
to say how anyone’s brain works in self reflection and self criticism? This brings in the role of the dealer
and the curators that seem to abound in the art world into focus. Dealers are not evil, working in art
galleries for seven years has taught me the truth of the costs and the stakes
that running a gallery has and it is not easy. It is like any small business but in this case the goods are
art and ideas. That being said,
the dealer has to sometimes work with, promote and to develop careers of artist
that sell sell sell. There is
almost always a balance of this on most gallery rosters. There are a handful of moneymaking
artists and a handful of ideas/new artists. The moneymaking artists let those artists that do not sell
well, or sell at all, to have the solo show, because their revenue supports the
whole shebang. The ideas/new
artists in turn lend to the legitimacy of the overall program. The moneymaking artist may have
fabulous ideas too, and this may have taken years, possibly decades of not
money making but nurture and support from the dealer to establish. This is a simple cycle to understand as
well. What is complicated is that
many dealers just by being the dealer they are, can up the pricing of an artist
or create a market for the artist just by their say so. This is power and this is fantastic for
the artist and dealer, but if the alignment of the ideas and strength of the
art is not considered and the factors of only what is hot, marketable, and
saleable is the dominant deciders, then this is a bad thing for the entire art
universe.
Dealers have been doing the above to such extant, bringing
on and conflating artists careers driven more dominantly by market and buzz
incentives that the curator has come to take the role of the cultural arbiter.
The curator is considered to be not sullied or constrained by the need to meet
overhead. This is an interesting
shift that has been more career-ified in the last decade or so. All those programs, all those
dissertations, all those grants and symposiums. It is all happening because the art world needed it, or
needed to show that there are those not reliant on the art market’s success
alone. This has a shadow of
intention as well though because the more the art world is academicized the
more validated it becomes and authority is the base for history and history is
the bases for accumulated value in influence and in market result.
You can’t blame anyone for this really though. We are all just trying to survive and
the truth is that the world of higher education, and the institutions and
professors and all else involved is as big an industry as any other. Why not latch on to something that is
ripe with cash flow? There are
very good curators out there. Many
whose brains are very big and they are essential to making the art world
interesting, less uneven and something worth thinking about. There are also a lot of not so good
curators and like artists, there are entirely too many of them. We need more good and less bad of just
about everything.
Finely, the critic.
Critics, I believe, are truly the last hope for art truth telling. Sadly there is only a handful worth
their salt, you know who they are.
They make you scared to read the review if it’s about your show and they
make you feel like you got the biggest gold star in the world if they speak
favorably of you and likewise to crawl in a hole and just disappear if it is
unfavorable. Everyone’s a critic,
most of them poor ones at that (myself included). There is nothing critical about ranting or raving or linking
or blogging or tumbling or twitting about what it is you like, love, hate,
think is cool. It is inevitable
though and the more people do it the more filters we need. Writing is the key to good
criticism. If you can’t write
well, sit down for goodness sake.
There is so much art, so many shows and events and so much money
involved and the structures of reading about it all and promoting everything is
all changing with the new models of advertisement and the internet. Because of these new models there are a
lot people putting in their two cents and each one is legitimized by who they
are or who they work for.
Critics used to be very influential in the directions of the
wind the art world was in or about to take and although it will never be that
way again, nor should it be, it would be wonderful if there were just a few
more snappy, fair but firm, and also highly stimulating critics out there to
put a little weight and a little fear into this whole art business. What has taken the bite out of young
critics and writers these days? A
job baby, a job. It’s hard to keep
it and to get a better one if you use up your goodwill when you have little
granted to you in the first place.
Hopefully there will be some new voices that can kick art criticism butt
in the next five years. If not, we
are going to have a gapping wound of bullshit to fill.
Okay, that’s enough for now, barely think much of this made
sense but hey, this is my head, and you and I are both just visiting it for a
bit. Art is the best. I love art, not because it is the thing
I make a livelihood from, which I do, not because I have met most of my friends
and had great conversations, which I have, and not because it is fun and elite
and makes me feel like even being not wealthy or normal is a-ok, which it
does. I love art because it gives
anyone, everyone, the chance to think, to question, to possibly change the way
they see themselves, reality and even ways of thinking. Art is not a solution, it is a series
of questions and it is in questions that we find other things, things that
bring us to other things and back around again. Art and money will be linked for all time and that is not a
burden or a negative. We just have
to all collectively make sure that the other parts of art and all the things
that make it as necessary and captivating as it is are still present, still at
the forefront. Maybe the whole
money art mess is a new form of art in itself, which is highly possible. That
is what makes all of it never endingly fantastic and something that even though
I want to just walk away from sometimes, will never actually do. No one can kill or control art, not
you, or I or all the money in the world.
Let’s try to shift things though, as daunting as that seems, it’s
possible, anything in art is possible.
