(Photo: Hiroshi Sugimoto)Due to an increase in spam posts, I've had to reinstate the requirement to log on in order for readers to make Comments. Although, as one (genuine) commenter pointed out, some of the spam comments in the previous post is actually rather surreal in relation to the subject of the post.... especially:
"Millionaire Maker said...make money which ever way you can and today with the falling economies there is no room for failure and success is a must. Go get it tiger."
BTW, Anonymous/Luis' post isn't spam - and is well worth a read:
"There was little light for 5-10 years, and it rained sulfuric acid as far as Iceland. At the end of that, came an Ice Age, perhaps triggered by this. Our forebears walked out of the devastation of the African plains out to the west coast of Africa and became beach bums. They learned to make canoes, hooks, etc that enabled them to fish in deep waters (miles offshore) and that is how they survived. They became nomads in search of a better place. Those who did not adapt/evolve, died. It is called, informally, the Great Narrowing.
This is analogous to the way the economic crisis is affecting the arts in the US. The days of galleries competing by "raiding" Yale MFA student studios are over....
...The art machine of the past decade or three is breaking down. Scores of empty storefronts lie fallow and vacant in once chi-chi enclaves from galleries that have folded. There's a narrowing going on here. The old order is going to be shaken to its roots, and while many survivors will be the same old faces, they'll have evolved, and plenty of new people and ideas will arise from the ashes. Art will be re-evaluated. It's going to be painful, but a turnover has been long overdue. The mainstay of the market, the outsiders that bought works as signifiers of their acculturation and wealth are jettisoning their investments. Auction houses will soon be clogged with lesser works by great artists and great works by lesser ones...
...Artists should take a page from our ancestors: Adapt and Evolve. Do what you have to to survive, but don't fold up or succumb to the Flood of Pessimism now filling our aquarium. This is an endtime event. Things are getting plowed under, and while it's hard to see, fertile soil is being exposed.
It will redefine art, and ground it in a way that hasn't been seen in decades. We will also see the resurrection of the real critics, those that know and love art as art.
Grim as things look, keep in mind that down the road, this is also a cleansing, purifying crucible, and a new beginning.
--- Luis"
Read the whole comment here
4 comments:
Hey!I know a couple just like that!
http://flickr.com/photos/19140817@N02/2087356022/sizes/o/in/set-72157603373401252/
Well said, with soul and vision.
very well said... we just have to face the hard fact that everything we've known until now will change, and its not easy, but I think it will give a new different way of seeing things, and thats good.
I find the you were able to link human evolution to the evolution of art was quite skillful. You are right, in the art world you either adapt or fall by the wayside. The phrase "survival of the fittest" comes to mind. Much like our prehistoric counterparts did, we have to learn how and where to look for the next great thing, be it a stone for toolmaking or inspiration for artwork. I think something the general population fails to realize is that we can't all keep creating the same things, for the same reason we're all still not running around in mammoth hides brandishing shale-tipped spears. As artists, we know that thinking abstractly will ultimately lead to better art, be it popular or not. Granted there are some cases where simple genius pays off more so than over complicating a solution. So in a sense, maybe we should keep high-brow art, but bring back the spears?
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