What’s Wrong With Art?
According to several artists, this is what is wrong with art:
When we really dissect what’s wrong with art, we’re uncovering what’s wrong with our society at-large. The issues of race, identity, housing insecurity, job insecurity in a digital age, nationalism, xenophobia, inclusion/exclusion and many others are all coming to a boil now as the heat has been turned up by an invisible contagion that has exposed burns we thought had been healing.
What’s wrong with art is a problem of institutionalization; of a scaffolding that’s been built on a shaky foundation. Sprinkle on top of that the plight of many artists struggling to earn a living wage, in an internet-diffused and attention-deficit driven landscape of increasingly pricy rents, and the recipe seems anything but gourmet. Keeping this all together is a monolithic gate-keeper that can be exclusionary and elitist and of a dusty, colonial art history narrative that has lionized white European creativity and diminished anything ”other”. The problem with art is that the visual log of humanity — which began on cave walls — now glorifies a certain people’s path over others.
The fingerprints of colonialism are everywhere, and even in our “postcolonial” world, we are still grappling with an ugly past. This is quite apparent when we look at the tendency of museums to hoard art, especially art that has been taken under dubious circumstances from African or Asian lands once controlled by colonial forces. Just recently, a trial in France centered on African activists who stole artwork from the Quai-Branly Museum in protest of colonial-era practices. Museums across the country have over 90,000 sub-Saharan African cultural objects, and though plans have been made to return thousands of them to their countries of origin, so far only one piece has been returned.
The movement to decolonize art and art history, and to reassess how universities, museums, and art galleries incorporate and promote a more diverse and inclusive mix of artists, is restructuring the old pillars of these traditional institutions. More and more, we’re seeing alternative styles of galleries, shows, and collections that are more messy, more edgy, and more collaborative than the standard “white cube” spaces of the Met or MOMA. We’re also seeing studios and organizations that promote the curation of historically marginalized artwork to ensure valuable voices and perspectives are not lost, such as Roots Studio and Artolution.
What also can’t be lost in the conversation is the struggle of many artists to seek out a living in an art landscape saturated by content. The Internet has effectively gutted the traditional culture industry, and led to the disappearance of an artistic “middle class” in the same way we’ve seen the fraying of a societal middle class. In the music industry, for example, 70 percent of all the money made goes to the top 1 percent of those making the music.
But as we figure out this new digital age and rise from a turbulent summer in which diversity and inclusion were main discussions, there are certainly opportunities for artists and art organizations to tap into the system. For black artists, such as Damien Davis, it is of greatest importance to actively involve the youth and educational systems in order to make social change happen.
“We now live in an era echoing social and ecological paradigm shifts; underrepresented artists need more access and exposure than ever while growing businesses, as well as arts institutions, must reevaluate and accentuate their value propositions for sustainable growth and accountability.” says Selin Camli Anjel, Founder of bluenectar. Collaborations with brands and companies that are socially-conscious and forward-thinking offer compelling ways for artists to navigate this crowded space and practice their craft and earn a living wage. A great example of such an organization is The Other Art Fair, UK’s leading artist fair to discover and buy art directly from emerging artistic talent.
In the end, the solution to what’s wrong with art is the same solution to what’s wrong with just about any other issue. It relies on collaborative and inclusive discourse, an understanding of historical transgressions, and thought leaders who have open ears and are determined to change things for the better.
www/Art was organized by SOUR and bluenectar. bluenectar gives digital marketing and brand strategy consulting to underrepresented artists and arts organizations, while consulting growing businesses on accountable brand positioning and expression of values through bridging them with artists, arts organizations, curators, and academics, to conceive dynamic environments and move the needle in tackling global issues via sustainable partnerships.
Watch the What’s Wrong With Art? Panel Discussion:
