Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Art Basil

An interesting polemic against the contemporary art world recently appeared in Slate: Article. The author argued that the modern art scene, a term I avoid based on confusing a period with a moment, has lost its barometer and become a meaningless and ironic blend of artists' elitism and greed. While I think interesting art is still being done today, I do believe it's true that too much contemporary art is fundamentally uninteresting, so steeped in irony and inside jokes that it has nothing to offer the audience beyond a more rarified version of the quotationalism and hyperirony of The Simpsons and Family Guy. Popular culture has replaced the struggle for quality humor with an "I get it" appropriation of other popular culture and cheap, often potty-oriented humor. It is a huge remix culture where the more you watch, the more you get the jokes and can laugh along to the perpetual reverb. Is the contemporary art scene that much different? Many artists exist in the post-pop-art genre that appropriates some text from popular culture and then alters it in some way (often without any clear purpose, as with Mr. Brainwash, Peter Max or much of Jeffrey Koons). Others seek to critique popular culture and the spectacle, but often in ways that are either too easy or too obstruse. In either case, they have become part of the spectacle that art is supposed to critique (at least in modernism). In cases like Art Basil, they are at the epicentre of that spectacle, at least as it exists for the monied class. Again, I do believe there is interesting art out there, but I often go to openings with friends here in Los Angeles or, when I lived there, back in New York City and smile and talk to the artists as if I find it interesting -- while I tend to just be looking for the free booze and food. Here is a small smattering of art from recent shows: Flavor Wire.

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