According to my email art expos around the planet will sell booth space to anyone who pays, and competitions all charge a fee just to look at your stuff. Myriad art publications offer inclusion to artists willing to buy a quarter page of advertising, and wouldn’t one assume that’s a policy that goes all the way to the top? Seems contemporary art must be largely a vanity industry driven by dollars from behind rather than aesthetic achievement, and with a sprinkling of third-hand tales of instant fame and riches as a backdrop the desperation to be noticed becomes intense -- the perfect setup for a grift.
Early on found myself among a crew of shady door-to-door salesman, adepts at a low risk, tried-and-perfected confidence routine that could be applied to a wide range of gadgets and literary fare. It worked for a couple of generations before they finally burned down the territory. Big money was all they talked about in their expensive suits but they wouldn’t, or couldn’t, pay their rent, and did they lie? It was their profession. I don’t know a thing about big art, never been there you understand, but there’s this smell.
Where is art a legitimate business? The gallery owners perpetually complain about the poor economy and the general philistinism rampant in their hometown. Independent artists work at menial, unrelated enterprise while attempting any avenue to have their work at least seen, what with all the non-profit, tax supported galleries devoted to the kind of art made on a salary at the nearest university. There is no money and no actual market because the industry feeds off itself, stealing the seed corn, pretending to be a charity and key to riches and fame in the same breath, and living off the aspirations of artists rather than the exchange of legitimate value.
1 comment:
I don't see art as a legitimate business. In the first place, artists occupy the lowest rung on the art business ladder. A necessary evil in most cases. Think of the gulf that exists between artists and art "infrastructure". You mentioned vanity galleries (also vanity magazines), and entry fees - what other career expects you to pay for the privilege of working ? I am also reminded of arts administrators and the often meaningless hoops artists are expected to jump through (in applications, etc.) - a little professional jealousy aimed at the less anal artistic personality, perhaps, "hey, deadbeats, some of us work for a living"! And the indignities of approaching galleries, being rejected from shows, and being ignored by the media. And being good, even damn good, carries less weight than being young, attractive, and charming. OK, I'm rambling, but the point is things are stacked against us - if we buy into it, and even if we don't. But we have the power to make the art. We can do it and they can't, and that means more to me than all the rest. Steve Armstrong
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