Here is a (hopefully) brief look at some of the things I have encountered or that have occurred to me over the past several years... since I began writing about the fine arts, as an adjunct to my painting.
I began painting in January 1996. Prior to that, I had no experience in the field of fine visual arts, although I did have many years experience as a painter of fine furniture... mostly using nitrocellulose lacquer.
My attitude toward the fine arts at the time of my entry into the field was very conservative. I actively disliked most 'modern' artforms, and felt that the Moderns movement in general, was an insult to the intelligence of humanity in general. I still maintain this attitude, to some degree, although my self-education has probably brought me to a better and more accurate understanding of the Moderns movement, and its place in the larger picture, of the fine visual arts.
My own work has reflected this change in attitude... in my first few years of painting, I sought to paint as realistically as possible. I think that this was a good strategy (painting realistically). Why? By the end of the 1980s, a lot of people were very skeptical of the fine visual arts, and rightly so... after decades of increasingly arrogant attitude, coupled with increasingly incompetent production, on the part of the most visible faction of painters, sculptors, etc... which had come to be publicly referred to as 'ArtWorld'... to distinguish it from the Real World... of which it seemed definitely not to be a part.
I felt the need to 'prove myself' as a draughtsman, in addition to my having a real love of realistic artwork. After about five years behind a brush, pencil, etc... I had produced some very realistic, accurate, and generally sharp looking work... after which time I gradually began to relax my production, and turn out 'looser' and more 'painterly' work, in the search for my own 'style'... but I do feel that the 21st century painter will (and should) have to 'prove' him/her self... before they deserve to be recognised as serious, by the general public. I feel that this is the legacy they have inherited, from the liars and pretenders who preceded them in the field.
The art galleries, Museums of Modern Art (MOMAs), and schools that specialise in teaching art... if such a thing is even possible... are the center... the heart... of the visible ArtWorld... in much the same way that the major Engineering universities, and the campuses of companies like AT&T, Microsoft , etc., are the center and heart of the field of Computer Science.
In the past 30 years, if one compares the contributions made to humanity in general from science, with those made by the fine visual arts... one has to wonder, at the extreme disparity. In fact, it appears to me, at least, that the used automobile industry, and the scrap aluminum industry, to name just two, have made greater contributions to humanity than the fine visual arts, during the same time period. If the attitude of the general public is to be taken into account, this opinion is not mine alone, either... it is a matter of general consensus.
This is a sad state of affairs, for an endeavour that is arguably as important to the species, as science, religion, or philosophy... and the only one who could be responsible for these doings... the diminishing of the reputation of an entire field of endeavour... are the practitioners in the field of the fine visual arts, themselves.
This is the situation that I and other practitioners of the 21st century inherited, from out predecessors... for better or for worse, depending entirely, on what we choose to do with it.
The possibility of a 'newly arrived' painter selling his or her work through the gallery system as it exists today, is vanishingly small. This applies doubly, for a painter who was not educated in, and has 'political' connections to, the ArtWorld educational system. 'Quality of work' is much less a factor than the simple fact that there are an extremely limited number of galleries in existence. Add to this, the fact that most gallery owners/ dealers are themselves products of the ArtWorld system of education, and it becomes immediately apparent, that gallery representation most often goes to those who hew close to the Artworld 'standards', and have political connections, within the Artworld power structure.
Creative painters are, by definition, creative. If the doors to selling their production and disseminating their ideas are closed to them in one place... the gallery scene... then they will naturally look for another means to promote their ideas, and earn their livings. Because ArtWorld had little or nothing to offer, in this respect, they had to go further afield (but not too far) to find what they needed. Science had invented the computer, and the Internet, modem, scanner, digital camera and in 1995... the World Wide Web. It wasn't long before painters began to see a possibility to connect with the general public... the same general public that ArtWorld had alienated and marginalised in the gallery scene... by opening websites of their own, or cooperative 'virtual gallery' ventures, in order to show and sell their work directly to the customer, doing an end-run around the gallery scene, and selling for a price, that is affordable to the great majority of people... as opposed to the rather crazy amounts, that one usually sees in ArtWorld galleries.
At first... nothing much happens. Painters move to the web, but are largely ignored by the techie culture that inhabits the virtual world. Then, as the 20th century is coming to a close, 'The Web' becomes extremely popular, and average, everyday folks begin to connect their computers to the Internet, and visit place like Yahoo, and Amazon.com, and eBay... and gradually begin to become comfortable spending their money there.
As the first years of the 21st century progressed, eBay got into the art auctioning business a little heavier than they had in the past, by opening up two venues... one, a partnership with Sotheby's, which being high price, did not fare too well, and the other, a 'Self-Representing Artist' category, which was extremely cheap, and which attracted a huge amount of attention... even if not much money was changing hands. Artist's groups began to organise in places like Yahoo. Even a specialised group, EBSQ, appeared on the scene, whose members and organisers focused specifically on selling their production on eBay.
It turned out that the 'next step forward' for the fine visual arts, was to come not from within the ArtWorld... but from the fields of computer and Internet technology, and from a funky-comfortable auction house, that was born as a place for people from the San Francisco East Bay (hence eBay)... to trade their Beanie Babies... talk about unpretentious beginnings.
ArtWorld's response to this, was rather snide and dismissive... until after the on-line art venture began to show modest returns... and the gallery scene began to seriously suffer from the bursting of the dotcom bubble, the stench of Sotheby's auction price manipulations, the collapse of art values for work sold to investors over the past 20 years, due to over-valuation, and the general economic collapse, post 9/11 and Enron scandal.
All of a sudden, mom and pop were buying original art on eBay, for affordable prices (some of it, quite impressive), while at the same time, roughly 50% of the ArtWorld galleries went out of business... due to lack-o-trust, and lack-o-bucks, in the 'wealthy collector' sector.
ArtWorld's response to this, was predictably... rather snide, and dismissive. However, their response no longer mattered, to 99% of humanity. While ArtWorld had been sanding still... admiring itself... the worm had turned.
The 21st century painter has an opportunity to be the captain of his or her own advancement, to a degree that did not exist 10 years ago. Selling prices on a website and eBay may be a lot lower than gallery prices, but so are the overhead, and commissions. Computer screens may not be the best and most accurate means of viewing paintings, but the technology is continuing to advance, and it is already a damn site better than what the ArtWorld rejects and refugees had, in the gallery system... which was nothing at all.
Without an agent, or artist's representative, a lot of chores are left to be done by the painter, that might have been handled by someone else, in the past... but the payback is complete autonomy... no-one to claim credit, and a share of the profits, in the event of success... and no-one to blame, either... in the event of failure.
Finally... in the beginning if the 21st century... painters have achieved near-complete independence of means... if they choose to seize it. They no longer need to work in the employ of priest, king, pope, politician, wealthy patron, gallery, dealer, or any other intermediary.
What they will do... with this newfound freedom... is yet to be seen.
This article was written on a Macintosh PowerBook 165, using SimpleText.
Sep 29, 2003 07:32 AM