Renee Stout, "House Guest from Hell" installation (art)
With the economy tumbling, the bubbles burst, the air of frivolity contaminated, the money to buy the bad art that people have been pretending is good art is drying up.
The multimillion dollar B.S. art market is falling, falling, falling.
In value. In popularity. For Real!
I'm talking about the kind of modern art, avant garde, ahead-of-its-time art, for-the- elite-only-art, the art-connoisseurs-art, the art-sought-by-some-of-the "well-educated", world-traveled, that-art-the-regular-folks-just-don't-get-and-aren't-capable-of-figuring-out, they're told.)
That tells me that ALL is not lost for most artists during these hard knocks times.
This is the time to cleanse our palettes (perhaps in more ways than one!!
Apparently, economists are calling this looming depression a "reset". That word actually rung right for me! I felt the air of understanding flow over me, and expelled a sigh of relief when I heard it. Yes! we are reevaluating, restructuring, reformulating the system.
What do you do when your computer just won't act right? You reset. You close it down and start again. When I discovered turning it off would make it work again I was thrilled! That seems to be what our economy is doing, purging the trouble areas so we will work again.
Many of the businesses that are folding need to go. As you know many seemed (and were) mismanaged. We're lucky our entire country did not get shut down as a result of the shenanigans Pres. Bush's people engaged in.
So, now we are in "reset" mode!
The car companies that are avoiding green technology still selling gas guzzlers and road hogs will have to reset! The fashion stores that are selling the same made-in-China items that Kohl's, Target and Walmart sell, at a fraction of the price, need to reset.
And yes!
The art market that went off the chart in the 1980's and 1990's and created the wealthy artists that are name brands, similar to the Hummer, have to reset and rethink the rationale for some of the work they have produced.
Some inane, for the sake of the times, installations are becoming as meaningless as we thought they were. Move a library reading room to a gallery and KaZAM! IT'S ART!
Stick enough styrofoam cups together and give it a poetic title and KaPOW! IT'S ART!
Renee Stout (below) is an artist who creates meaningful installations.
Renee Stout's, Fatima's Room" from a Washington Post interview, David Graham photo.
Listen, I love the lyrical non-objective sculpture that Judy Pfaff started producing years ago. Renee Stout is one of my favorite artists. I remember her pre-Katrina installations dealing with Voudou apothecary in New Orleans. She adds amazing touches of trompe l'oeil in her work that kills me because they're so gorgeous! !
Obviously I cannot name the "ugly art is good art" folks. They know who they are.
But, ding-dong! I think we are about to "reset" the art market and with that, tastes, 'cause the buyers with the big bucks are thinking maybe they should think more about quality than art trends that may evaporate (literally). Ephemeral art is fine, and has a place, but it may be a metaphor for our economy. It seemed good for the moment, but how much is it worth when it's gone?
