Comments on: Art Industry, pt 1

By: a davis

a davis — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:23:41 +0000

Americans seem to have a love/hate relationship with artists. I suppose I would argue that there is something deemed “special” about artists, like they are in tune to something other people aren’t–might be true might not be. The reaction of respect tends to come with “I wish I was artistic…” and other such comments. This idea, however, seems to push non-art people away from thinking that they can look, live with, and understand art. To me as a maker this has always been a much more real problem than dealing with the silly people who think when they drop cake on themselves that it is their “art.”

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:29:27 +0000

I find the language amusing, in the sense that reflects the fact that finding meaning in one’s work, or enjoying one’s creative and productive qualities in any non-coercive capacity, has become so distant from the experience of everyday life that it might be handily lumped in the company of the fine arts and the spiritual.

By: JCD

JCD — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 17:49:30 +0000

What do you make of the whole cult of art that recently has swept the acculturated classes: the identification of anything that one pours his heart and soul into with “art.” “My hairdresser is an artist”; “I think that when I am steaming milk for a cappuccino, I am creating art”; “There is an art to taking portraits of my dog”; etc. Thinking of art in this way, generally by people who are estranged from the actual workings of The Art World, seems to romanticize art’s function, as a way of Finding Purpose. I’m not really sure what to make of it: it might be a fetish for the aura of The Masters (which is passé in company more closely observant of The Art World), or the supposed liberatory impulse of art, or what have you. I dunno.

This impulse would seem to dovetail with the TAZ and individualist anarchist folks, who want to live “artfully.”