The Boom Is Over. Long Live the Art! – NYTimes.com
I’m late linking this Cotter article but it’s relevant: “I'm talking about carving out a place in the larger culture where a condition of abnormality can be sustained, where imagining the unknown and the unknowable — impossible to buy or sell — is the primary enterprise. Crazy! says anyone with an ounce of business sense. Right. Exactly. Crazy.”
{ 19 comments }
hmmm…sounds a little romantic to me. It reminds me of my Dad telling me everything’s going to be allright after a big disappointment as a kid. I fail to see how people losing their art world jobs or artists having to get day jobs is a good thing…
hmmm…sounds a little romantic to me. It reminds me of my Dad telling me everything’s going to be allright after a big disappointment as a kid. I fail to see how people losing their art world jobs or artists having to get day jobs is a good thing…
hmmm…sounds a little romantic to me. It reminds me of my Dad telling me everything’s going to be allright after a big disappointment as a kid. I fail to see how people losing their art world jobs or artists having to get day jobs is a good thing…
It’s such a relief that Postmodernism is finally over. Laura Hauptman, Curator at the New Museum, addressed the reality at a panel last week in the museum’s swanky sky lounge. Louis Menand clearly captures the disjunction between Modernism and Post in this week’s New Yorker, which was basically when artists and intellectuals stopped asking the hard questions about the separation between high art and commercial culture: “This bubble-gum culture wasn’t just averse to the spirit of high art. It was high art’s reason for being.” It will be great to see what new forms of art comes out of this.
As for Cotter, he was speaking against those artists who have had instant careers while in grad school or right after leaving it. However those artists will most likely never mature and remain viable. So the question is, how do artists remain viable in this financial environment? And what can current MFA students expect after graduation? The boom in university enrollments at art schools has totally worked hand-in-hand with the art market since it’s all in the name of “outreach”. Academe, now, has to reconsider how it’s going to value the quality of art degrees if their graduates are not able to make career out of their degree. I would be surprised is some art degree programs are cut as a result.– I’ve clearly spent too many years working in grad school administration…. But that’s what Cotter is addressing.
It’s such a relief that Postmodernism is finally over. Laura Hauptman, Curator at the New Museum, addressed the reality at a panel last week in the museum’s swanky sky lounge. Louis Menand clearly captures the disjunction between Modernism and Post in this week’s New Yorker, which was basically when artists and intellectuals stopped asking the hard questions about the separation between high art and commercial culture: “This bubble-gum culture wasn’t just averse to the spirit of high art. It was high art’s reason for being.” It will be great to see what new forms of art comes out of this.
As for Cotter, he was speaking against those artists who have had instant careers while in grad school or right after leaving it. However those artists will most likely never mature and remain viable. So the question is, how do artists remain viable in this financial environment? And what can current MFA students expect after graduation? The boom in university enrollments at art schools has totally worked hand-in-hand with the art market since it’s all in the name of “outreach”. Academe, now, has to reconsider how it’s going to value the quality of art degrees if their graduates are not able to make career out of their degree. I would be surprised is some art degree programs are cut as a result.– I’ve clearly spent too many years working in grad school administration…. But that’s what Cotter is addressing.
It’s such a relief that Postmodernism is finally over. Laura Hauptman, Curator at the New Museum, addressed the reality at a panel last week in the museum’s swanky sky lounge. Louis Menand clearly captures the disjunction between Modernism and Post in this week’s New Yorker, which was basically when artists and intellectuals stopped asking the hard questions about the separation between high art and commercial culture: “This bubble-gum culture wasn’t just averse to the spirit of high art. It was high art’s reason for being.” It will be great to see what new forms of art comes out of this.
As for Cotter, he was speaking against those artists who have had instant careers while in grad school or right after leaving it. However those artists will most likely never mature and remain viable. So the question is, how do artists remain viable in this financial environment? And what can current MFA students expect after graduation? The boom in university enrollments at art schools has totally worked hand-in-hand with the art market since it’s all in the name of “outreach”. Academe, now, has to reconsider how it’s going to value the quality of art degrees if their graduates are not able to make career out of their degree. I would be surprised is some art degree programs are cut as a result.– I’ve clearly spent too many years working in grad school administration…. But that’s what Cotter is addressing.
I think it goes a little beyond those just recently out of grad school. When he talks about aspiring to make art that cannot be bought or sold, that impacts a lot of people’s art practices, emerging or not.
I bristle when people point to the kind of work that should be made or areas that should be investigated, that seems to run counter to the process of a lot of artmaking…
I think it goes a little beyond those just recently out of grad school. When he talks about aspiring to make art that cannot be bought or sold, that impacts a lot of people’s art practices, emerging or not.
I bristle when people point to the kind of work that should be made or areas that should be investigated, that seems to run counter to the process of a lot of artmaking…
I think it goes a little beyond those just recently out of grad school. When he talks about aspiring to make art that cannot be bought or sold, that impacts a lot of people’s art practices, emerging or not.
I bristle when people point to the kind of work that should be made or areas that should be investigated, that seems to run counter to the process of a lot of artmaking…
For me, it’s easy to see how artists losing art world jobs is a good thing. But I’m an idealist. I think if we remove our self-interest from our assessments of the are world, Cotter’s claim that art is “diminished” seems plain. I agree with Jill’s first paragraph.
I think the article is in line with a lot of the new realities we will be facing, but I think it also misses the mark by an order of magnitude. The glibness of the title catches it: it evokes my own relief at the potential separation of art and money, but the title, like the article, doesn’t register the gravity of things, I think.
When Cotter points out that the art world has been running on a corporate model during the boom, I think artists, at least, ought to have been less okay with that, and ought to be more okay with this collapse.
For me, it’s easy to see how artists losing art world jobs is a good thing. But I’m an idealist. I think if we remove our self-interest from our assessments of the are world, Cotter’s claim that art is “diminished” seems plain. I agree with Jill’s first paragraph.
I think the article is in line with a lot of the new realities we will be facing, but I think it also misses the mark by an order of magnitude. The glibness of the title catches it: it evokes my own relief at the potential separation of art and money, but the title, like the article, doesn’t register the gravity of things, I think.
When Cotter points out that the art world has been running on a corporate model during the boom, I think artists, at least, ought to have been less okay with that, and ought to be more okay with this collapse.
For me, it’s easy to see how artists losing art world jobs is a good thing. But I’m an idealist. I think if we remove our self-interest from our assessments of the are world, Cotter’s claim that art is “diminished” seems plain. I agree with Jill’s first paragraph.
I think the article is in line with a lot of the new realities we will be facing, but I think it also misses the mark by an order of magnitude. The glibness of the title catches it: it evokes my own relief at the potential separation of art and money, but the title, like the article, doesn’t register the gravity of things, I think.
When Cotter points out that the art world has been running on a corporate model during the boom, I think artists, at least, ought to have been less okay with that, and ought to be more okay with this collapse.
Cotter writes about the end of the boom in the 1970’s giving way to the beginning of a movement in the lofts of Soho specifically 112 Greene St. “People came, working with scrap metal, cast-off wood and cloth, industrial paint, rope, string, dirt, lights, mirrors, video.”
What Cotter didn’t realize is the same is already happening and again at 112 Greene albeit the lower level where on March 26 the best of NYC urban/street artists will be showing their work on wood, scrap metal, the floor, ceiling, the doors etc. and Afrika Bambaataa and Soul Sonic Force will perform at the opening.
Cotter had it exactly right. The reality he describes is already in motion. The irony is the location being in one of the original spaces he describes.
I expect there are more like me who want to take this opportunity to do exciting things with art in NYC again. I expect many downtown spaces will become available and many in the artist community have already told me how excited they are that a space like mine exists again and can and will be used for what NYC had always been all about until the real estate market drove so much of it out.
Cotter writes about the end of the boom in the 1970’s giving way to the beginning of a movement in the lofts of Soho specifically 112 Greene St. “People came, working with scrap metal, cast-off wood and cloth, industrial paint, rope, string, dirt, lights, mirrors, video.”
What Cotter didn’t realize is the same is already happening and again at 112 Greene albeit the lower level where on March 26 the best of NYC urban/street artists will be showing their work on wood, scrap metal, the floor, ceiling, the doors etc. and Afrika Bambaataa and Soul Sonic Force will perform at the opening.
Cotter had it exactly right. The reality he describes is already in motion. The irony is the location being in one of the original spaces he describes.
I expect there are more like me who want to take this opportunity to do exciting things with art in NYC again. I expect many downtown spaces will become available and many in the artist community have already told me how excited they are that a space like mine exists again and can and will be used for what NYC had always been all about until the real estate market drove so much of it out.
Cotter writes about the end of the boom in the 1970’s giving way to the beginning of a movement in the lofts of Soho specifically 112 Greene St. “People came, working with scrap metal, cast-off wood and cloth, industrial paint, rope, string, dirt, lights, mirrors, video.”
What Cotter didn’t realize is the same is already happening and again at 112 Greene albeit the lower level where on March 26 the best of NYC urban/street artists will be showing their work on wood, scrap metal, the floor, ceiling, the doors etc. and Afrika Bambaataa and Soul Sonic Force will perform at the opening.
Cotter had it exactly right. The reality he describes is already in motion. The irony is the location being in one of the original spaces he describes.
I expect there are more like me who want to take this opportunity to do exciting things with art in NYC again. I expect many downtown spaces will become available and many in the artist community have already told me how excited they are that a space like mine exists again and can and will be used for what NYC had always been all about until the real estate market drove so much of it out.
That’s very cool about 112 Greene St. but I expect a lot of non-profits will be affected by this downturn, not just those following a ‘corporate’ model.
For me, I think more is more, the more spaces to see art, the more artists being able to do what they love, the better. Maybe people who are not represented by galleries think this will be good time for them, but I don’t think that’s how it works, unless there’s another WPA.
Just like the the global recession, the people at the top will feel the pain, but those on the margins will feel it the most.
That’s very cool about 112 Greene St. but I expect a lot of non-profits will be affected by this downturn, not just those following a ‘corporate’ model.
For me, I think more is more, the more spaces to see art, the more artists being able to do what they love, the better. Maybe people who are not represented by galleries think this will be good time for them, but I don’t think that’s how it works, unless there’s another WPA.
Just like the the global recession, the people at the top will feel the pain, but those on the margins will feel it the most.
It’s not, for me, a point of being good for me. But since when is art only makeable when artists are making money on it? Artists can do what they love anyway, it seems to me. I’ve been doing that for a while now. Did we really study art to make money?
I just don’t think more is more. I think if a longer view is taken, the art world of the last several years is something good to be got rid of.
It’s not, for me, a point of being good for me. But since when is art only makeable when artists are making money on it? Artists can do what they love anyway, it seems to me. I’ve been doing that for a while now. Did we really study art to make money?
I just don’t think more is more. I think if a longer view is taken, the art world of the last several years is something good to be got rid of.
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