ArChITeCTUre, DISPATCHES ArT, MUSIC, ArChITeCTUre, FILM, ShOPPING, NeWS AND ThINGS TO MAKe AND DO… ArT, MUSIC, ArChITeCTUre, FILM, ShOPPING, NeWS AND ThINGS TO MAKe AND DO…
Tales from The ciTy: london
words j.j. ChArLeSWOrTh “I can’t take it anymore, there’s pop music, for example – the consumer
just too much too see!” That’s not is the spectator. In art, artists make
the terrible climax of an art- work, collectors collect, curators
professional’s anxiety-driven curate – and only then do the rest
nightmare; it’s reality, the most of us get to watch.
frequent moan among artworld people –
critics, gallerists, curators – ‘In the old days’, being a participant
lurching punch-drunk from Champagne in an art scene could mean having a
breakfast to pre-pre-preview to copy closer involvement in how people
deadline to dinner with your collectors thought about what was good and bad.
to packing the crate for the next art You could be closer to critics, artists
fair even though you haven’t finished and curators simply by taking an
at the art fair you’re currently at, interest, and your opinion would matter
just back in jet-lagged time for more. In the new artworld, there’s
the inauguration of your second/third/ money in being the gatekeeper and
fourth gallery space… In the artworld, selector, and with so many spectators
even runaway success is a source looking in, anxious to know what you
of misery. know, and artists clamouring to be
picked up, the person who selects
But it is the kind of complaint one can is the one who dictates visibility.
easily indulge in, especially in London And with so much art kicking about,
right now. It’s boom time, and in times visibility is just as important as
of abundance, everyone gets jaded with the art itself.
the excess. The most jaded at the
moment come up with ‘provocative’ That’s what happens in a culture where
little comments – perhaps voicing a attention and visibility are
desire to see the market bubble burst, monopolised by both the market and
so that the ensuing art-market the institutions that present things.
recession clears out all the rubbish Big prices are commanded by artists
art, leaving the good stuff for art who command the biggest attention.
folk to get on and appreciate. But And reputations get boosted by the
essentially that’s the same tired old visibility big institutions offer.
complaint about change: things were It doesn’t mean the work is any good,
always better in the good old days. just that someone else thinks so.
So in a way, the artworld operates much
like the music industry before the MP3/
In the artworld, even runaway
MySpace revolution, before the balance
of power shifted away from megastars
success is a source of misery
towards the grassroots of artists and
their audiences.
Whether a ‘MySpace moment’ in the
Of course, it’s now pretty much artworld would be a good thing isn’t
impossible to see everything there is clear. Art should be about more than
to see and know everything there is to one’s individual taste and fashion, and
know. So while nostalgists might dream it should be more than chasing everyone
of times when the artworld was tiny, else’s individual taste and the latest
when painters in Paris all knew each curatorial fashion, too. There’s loads
other by their surnames and when there of junk out there, and keeping track
was only one biennial and it happened, of the mistakes of curators and dealers
um, every two years, in Venice, there is a thankless task. So one thing we
really is no going back, whatever do need more of is lively, public
happens to the market. Understanding critical opinion – it’s only with a
what’s meaningful in the artworld means bit more argument and debate, among
understanding how the artworld creates artists, critics and their audiences,
meaning today. And that might be a that the choices that get made are
question of making the buzz rather than influenced. Too much art? Impossible.
catching it. Not enough discussion of what might
be better? Possible. So what are we
One of the problems seems to be that waiting for?
art is now split between two economies
– the consumer economy and the
spectator economy. In other cultures –
ArTrEvIEw 36
Dispatches_columns_Jan.indd 36 4/12/07 10:40:32
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142