H. de Roos - The critique of the toronto exhibition |
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Idealism, The Art Market And Mass Entertainment The real irony is that these intentions surely are genuine, but cannot be realized without financial resources. And while this simple fact is accepted for any venture in a market economy, most initiators of artistic projects have difficulties talking about monetary interests as candidly as William Moore does, art being perceived as "something one does not do for the money". Since the time art and craftmanship were separated and the bohemien type of artist emerged, working solely to express his artistic ideals, driven by inspiration and inner urge more than the need to make a living, this notion has pervaded all discourse on art. Although the bliss of creativity itself does not ask for market success and public recognition, modern art business finally is a mechanism to select, promote and market talents, after criteria primarily set by critics, galerists, museum officials, and to generate financial revenues - from works considered to defy the economic principle. It is the unresolvable double-bind "Donīt try to please anyone - but get famous!" that twists the restless minds of many contemporary artists and calls for hyperinflated egos. Today visual art has lost most of its practical functions of decoration, of preserving images, of representation. Instead, movies, computer games, commercials and music clips entertain and shock the public with fictive realities, bring up existential issues, stir emotions, employ stunning trick effects, combining the creative forces of hundreds of professionals. Hollywood invests up to a hundred million dollars or even more to produce a 100-minute presentation, accompanied by music tracks, posters, interactive Websites and merchandising. Compared with these huge multimedia projects, made to reach a mass public, modern art works by single authors only play a marginal role in society. Museums, galleries, critics and scholars combine their efforts to assign significance to items that in many cases have lost the power to please, amuse or provoke a broad audience. The main provocation left ist the very act of presenting banal, everyday objects as high art, and even this effect has worn off since Marcel Duchamp sent in an urinal to the New York "Independent Show" in 1917.
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