Index:
1) Intrusive Thinking and Creativity
2) The Role of Missing Information in Creativity
3) Art and Algorithms
4) Art, A.I., and Culture
5) Autism and The World
6) YouTube Channel and Miscellaneous
Art versus its Admirers: The arts divide naturally between creators and community. Most artists, being socially lacking, aspire to a monk-like existence—or at least default to a reliable sanctuary when they want to define themselves in opposition to everything else. The community, by contrast, is attracted to the idea of the creator, although members therein may have little genuine interest in the creator’s welfare. Let us not forget that the community of art exists principally to be a community. It is social, so intends, by its meetings and get-togethers, to plan other events that look suspiciously like more meetings and get-togethers. The community loves its own company, especially in settings where art serves as a backdrop, or as something to be discussed in lectures where the attendees can be seen attending.
Modern Art and Its Enablers: When I was a graduate student at Indiana University working on my MFA degree in painting in 1986, Modernism was on its last legs. Basquiat was one of the last original voices to emerge from it, and his style of defacing Modern art tropes by tagging them with graffiti anticipated much of Post-Modernism that followed. It slowly dawned on many within the community that every abstract and figurative-abstract cliché had been done to death by the late 1980s, and what was left as an option was to acquire a poor memory. That is, to approach each gallery opening on its own terms without reference to what came before.
Technology would soon pick up the slack and, with the introduction of 3-D printing, the Internet, and other digital assists, the conversation was modified to include feats of computer engineering. And yet, one saw originality so rarely in the broader strokes that it was possible not to recognize it. Gallery art, without apology, became retreads of retreaded ideas, which is not to say that the art was bad. However, when one steps through a gallery door nowadays, the art one encounters on the walls is anticipated too perfectly.
True critics do not exist anymore in the art domain, and perhaps because, like Old Testament prophets, people got tired of hearing them publicly bemoan the death of art and its meaning. The 1990s was as horrific a decade for fine art as it was for commercial art (due to the proliferating use of the air brush). Everyone was ready to move on in the new digital millennium.
Warehouse Art and Post-Modernism: One conversation ceased (Modernism) while another (Post-Modernism) replaced it. This second conversation recycled modernist ideas through new filters, although few artists would label these appropriations so plainly. Identity politics and those aforementioned advances in technology were suitable distractions, but the art itself, as time goes along, is being pushed further into the background where it can serve as a prop for selfies, or provide shade for baby strollers. This is an unsympathetic way of saying that visual fine art has passed its vital moment in history.
As a consequence, art fairs in large airplane hangers have become a trend. One can see hundreds of gargantuan paintings in rapid succession without spending too much time standing in one place. It is, if nothing else, aerobically effective as exercise. And these paintings are often very large, though still easy to ignore in most instances.
Where Post-Modernism has improved on the “abstract painting” formula is by adding decorative flairs to the planned disruption. Paintings these days—whether encrusted, stressed, monotoned, or saturated in bright primary color—are well calibrated for effect. They are pleasant to walk by hurriedly, as if on the way to a table in a high-priced LA restaurant.
Sandwiching artists into these air hangers is a sign of the times since short-attention spans pair well to them. Artists are packed like sardines, toe-to-heel, into these warehouses. It is similar in design to a smartphone screen where one can scroll through images like passing through the spray of a brief summer downpour.
I have watched these fine art art fairs play out as YouTube videos, and the brisk movement exhibited by patrons suggests that few (if any) paintings will be sold to eager collectors. A mother with a baby carriage is not a good prospect for a sale. Somehow bills are being paid for these expensive exhibitions, but this method may resemble a Ponzi scheme if one inquires too closely.
Immersion versus Commodity: I have little to say about interactive art installations or digital immersive experiences in art museums. Yes, these are photo-ops for people who attach little value to art beyond the allure of a gift store tote bag, yet these yoga mat get-togethers provide revenue streams for cash-starved museums.
Van Gogh continues to be worth more dead than alive, and no un-famous living artist will ever realize a thin dime from any of these schemes. (See my entries on generative A. I. art for a thoroughly cynical take on this.)
Worth More Dead Than Alive: There is nothing rational or fair about the art market, although the best career move for any artist is to pass away. At this point, his or her output of work ceases; and the art world loves nothing more than scarcity. An artist’s catalog of works becomes a fixed commodity like BitCoin, and like all scarce resourses its value is driven by whim.
Personal Reality versus Photorealism: We are living in a golden age of photorealism, although many current proficients are not as candid about their sources as those who initiated the approach in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. I dabbled in photorealism in my earliest studio painting classes in 1983. A few images of this type are seen on my first Porfolio page. This technique still occupies a small corner of my toolkit, but I prefer working from real-life and imaginary objects. Both binocular vision and the imagination force one to blend (interpret) perspectives. A camera is monocular and flattens everything by definition, making the photo-reductive taint hard to cast off.
Surrealism versus Pop Surrealism: At the time of my exhibition at La Luz de Jesus Gallery in 2002 in Los Angeles, ‘Pop Surrealism’ bore minor comparison to figurative Surrealism as it was originally conceived in 1920s Europe, yet with the addition of a popular culture overlay circa Mid-Century United States, mostly originating from California. Since then the term has come to be defined more peripherally and less integrally to what has evolved in actuality. It may now serve primarily as a descriptor for whimsical and decorative flourishes added to, many times, photo-derivative art.
Where imagination is the engine and not photography, the art may be less imaginative than one has right to expect. Here the art may evoke nostalgic children’s book illustration, with soft pastel nursery room colors and lots of playroom clutter via Mark Ryden. Where macabre clichés are added to this sensibility, the palette is less pink and more gray or monotoned via Chris Mars. However, this grayscale is, again, decorative in that it oftens possesses a pastel quality.
At the very least, there is a strong graphic arts orientation to whatever Pop Surrealism has become. Graphic design is a durable adhesive in any artform where it is introduced. These descriptors are stylistic; and if there is any dimension within them that may be described as original to the artist, then these become less obvious as more artists embrace the style and imitate it.
Art movements have their pioneers; but they soon run out of pioneers. Next come the imitators and the improvers on the style: i.e., second and third generation iterations of the original ideas, only without the self-awareness that this is the exact business in which one is engaged. From there, it is a race to the bottom, although nobody will recognize it as such until a new maverick comes along and points this out. A new group of young turks form around this rejection of the existing order.
Rinse, lather, and repeat…
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