Americans and (I will say 'their' and not 'our') their proverbial focus on youth and youth culture have it all wrong.
It makes sense from the viewpoint of fresh and beautiful or young and lovely or up and coming or nice and new but from another perspective, youth culture is sheerly a commercial fabrication and a false purveyor of what culture Americans should be passing on as art history when; it's often the low ball and low road of what it is to be creative and contribute to a culture of art in our country and by extension, to the exporting and global reach of artists who the Europeans and Asians will often not buy at auction.
What's wrong with the picture? Why aren't the artists of a true caliber or worth being brought forward? There are any number of questions we can ask whether we are in the world of art, viewing it from the outside or strictly outsiders on the fringe.
I ask myself these questions when I see what goes for awards and honors and it is not bitterness or sour grapes that I am disgusted in many instances. Why are the key players always the same? Why are they always in the press receiving awards and making art history? It just doesn't make sense.
The names hardly need mentioning, those who follow the arts already know who they are for one thing, there are no others or very few if any others there to compete with the same, tired, "icons" of American art.
It is not just the same "old boys," either. Now we have the "old girls," a few select over rated and inferior artists who dominate the scene. From one perspective and I will venture to say from a critical art historical perspective, it is obscene but more on that in upcoming commentary.
What is your take on this topic? I'd love to know.
It makes sense from the viewpoint of fresh and beautiful or young and lovely or up and coming or nice and new but from another perspective, youth culture is sheerly a commercial fabrication and a false purveyor of what culture Americans should be passing on as art history when; it's often the low ball and low road of what it is to be creative and contribute to a culture of art in our country and by extension, to the exporting and global reach of artists who the Europeans and Asians will often not buy at auction.
What's wrong with the picture? Why aren't the artists of a true caliber or worth being brought forward? There are any number of questions we can ask whether we are in the world of art, viewing it from the outside or strictly outsiders on the fringe.
I ask myself these questions when I see what goes for awards and honors and it is not bitterness or sour grapes that I am disgusted in many instances. Why are the key players always the same? Why are they always in the press receiving awards and making art history? It just doesn't make sense.
The names hardly need mentioning, those who follow the arts already know who they are for one thing, there are no others or very few if any others there to compete with the same, tired, "icons" of American art.
It is not just the same "old boys," either. Now we have the "old girls," a few select over rated and inferior artists who dominate the scene. From one perspective and I will venture to say from a critical art historical perspective, it is obscene but more on that in upcoming commentary.
What is your take on this topic? I'd love to know.
