meta-art.space

Ulrich de Balbian 21st Century Painting

2016-10-18T00:37:00.000-07:00

Published on 17 Oct 2016 https://youtu.be/XgR4BGWRO1o
https://youtu.be/XgR4BGWRO1o

Ulrich de Balbian 21st Century Painting, post-minimalist, -modern contemporary art, process painting, art as marks on paper.

https://youtu.be/XgR4BGWRO1o
https://youtu.be/XgR4BGWRO1o

BIENNALE AUSTRIA

2016-10-08T23:31:00.000-07:00


BERND SANNWALD "Fotokunst" Galerie Frey, Otto-Wagner-Straße 14, D-82110 Germering, Germany presents photo art by BERND SANNWALD and Dieter Härtter. Opening: October 14, 7pm Laudatio: Dagmar Dengg Duration: October 11 till November 13, 2016 Opening hours: TUE - THU 2pm - 7pm and by appointment more	MARK POL Personale Mark Pol, Eye on the world, 70 x 90 cm, gacrylic on paper The luxury hotel Pulitzer in Amsterdam presents on occasion of its Art Gallery works of the Dutch painter MARK POL. Art Gallery Hotel Pulitzer Prinsengracht 315 – 331 Amsterdam, Netherlands Duration: October 15 till November 15, 2016 more	HERBERT BAUER "Heimat" Herbert Bauer, Burg Schrattental, 30 x 40 cm, graphit on paper, 2007 On occasion of Liezener Kulturtage the Haus Vabene presents pencil drawings by the Schladming based artist HERBERT BAUER. Haus VABENE Salzstraße 24 A-8940 Liezen, Austria Duration: October 17 - 21, 2016 more

AGNIESZKA CECCARELLI "Art Shopping" Agnieszka Ceccarelli, Tulips, mixed media on canvas, 100 x 100 cm, 2016 The Italian artist Agnieszka Ceccarelli presents on occasion of 19. Salon International d’Art Contemporain im Carlousel du Louvre in Paris her latest artworks. VIP Preview: October 21, 2016, 7 - 10pm Exhibition schedule: October 22, 2016, 11am - 10pm October 23, 2016, 11am - 7pm more	INNA MOSHKOVICH "Linden Postcard Show 2016"Inna Moshkovich, Beauty of Nature, acrylic on canvas, 8 x 10 inch, 2016 In the annually upcoming Postcard Show of Gallery Linden in Melbourne Inna Moshkovich will be represented with small-scale works. Linden Postcard Show 2016 Duration: October 21, 2016 till January 29, 2017 Award presentation ceremony: October 21 from 4 - 8 pm Linden New Arts 26 Acland St, St. Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia more	ELISABETH RASS & HERWIG MARIA STARK "In Paradiso" Until November 27, 2016 the anniversary exhibition of Concilio Europeo dell’Arte in IN PARADISO gallery can still be seen. In Paradiso Giardini della Biennale Venezia Venice, Italy Opening hours: Daily from 10am - 7pm

BIENNALE AUSTRIA - Verein zur Förderung zeitgenössischer KünstlerInnen

1070 Vienna, Schottenfeldgasse 19/8, phone 0043 (0) 1 526 83 27, e-mail: office@biennaleaustria.org, http://biennaleaustria.org/

Post your art and blog on NIUNE and get paid

2016-10-08T07:36:00.000-07:00

https://niume.com/pages/post/?postID=117654

Hi ulrich ! If you are an artist looking for an audience and to generate revenue with your work join our art sphere @ http://bit.ly/NiumeArtSphere and we will tweet your posts!
3m 1 minute ago

Thanks did - my first post just now
15s

latest work and follow me on INSTAGRAM @ulrichdebalbian #ulrichdebalbian.

See my latest work and follow me on INSTAGRAM @ulrichdebalbian #ulrichdebalbian
See my latest work and follow me on INSTAGRAM @ulrichdebalbian #ulrichdebalbian

Pin it

Pin it

Pin it

Pin it

Pin it

Pin it

Next

Creator

Ulrich De Balbian 0 Total Posts

Sphere

Art Unleash your creative side. Discover art and share your pieces. 1.2K Posts this week 24.4K Total Users

Add photo or video

.latest work and follow me on INSTAGRAM @ulrichdebalbian #ulrichdebalbian.

2016-10-07T23:37:00.000-07:00

See my latest work and follow me on INSTAGRAM @ulrichdebalbian #ulrichdebalbian

6 Painting Techniques That Don’t Involve a Paintbrush

2016-10-03T02:15:00.003-07:00

6 Painting Techniques That Don’t Involve a Paintbrush

Artsy Editorial

By Sarah Gottesman

The youngest of the “big three” Mexican Muralist painters, David Alfaro Siqueiros, was also one of the first artists to publicly shun the paintbrush, calling the tool “an implement of hair and wood in an age of steel.” Seeking new painting techniques fit for the modern age, Siqueiros established the groundbreaking Experimental Workshop in New York City in 1936. There, young artists like Jackson Pollock gathered to pour, airbrush, scrape, and splatter pigments, incorporating industrial techniques into their artistic practices.
Long after the workshop, artists such as Helen Frankenthaler and Yves Klein continued to experiment with unconventional techniques, expanding the vocabulary of painting to include drips, stains, body prints, and digital drawing, to name just a few. Below, we bring you six painting methods for which artists eschewed the brush in favor of innovative tools and techniques.

Splattering and Dripping

Enter Slideshow

In February of 1956—exactly 20 years after the Experimental Workshop—Time magazine nicknamed Pollock “Jack the Dripper.” But while the artist may be most famous for flinging pigments across canvases, he was hardly the first to do so. Japanese Zen Buddhist painters, for example, experimented with splashed ink as far back as the 15th century, long before Pollock created his first action painting in the mid-1940s.
Pollock’s splatter and drip technique, with its explosive results, captured the curiosity of the American public, especially after the photographer and filmmaker Hans Namuth published footage of the artist at work in his Long Island studio. Placing canvases on the floor, Pollock would incorporate metal rods, kitchen tools, towels, and sticks into his painting process, though these tools rarely touched the canvas directly. “It doesn’t make much difference how the paint is put on as long as something has been said,” the artist once explained. “Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement.”

Pouring

Helen Frankenthaler at work on a large canvas, 1969. Photo by Ernst Haas. Ernst Haas/Getty Images

Enter Slideshow

At the Experimental Workshop, Siqueiros also pioneered a method of pouring paint directly onto the canvas. His technique of “accidental painting” involved spilling different colors on top of one another so that the paint would coalesce into unexpected, swirling patterns on the picture’s surface. This effect inspired the art historian Sandra Zetina, along with physicist Roberto Zenit, to recreate Siqueiros’s painting process in the lab, publishing her findings just last year in an essay titled “A Hydrodynamic Instability Is Used to Create Aesthetically Appealing Patterns in Painting.”
Frankenthaler pushed this technique one step further in 1952 with her pivotal work Mountains and Sea, for which she applied thin washes of paint to an unprimed canvas. Instead of resting on top of the canvas, the paint in this image stained the canvas—a significant feat in an era when avant-garde artists were fascinated with the flatness of painting. More recently, the British artist Ian Davenport has poured stripes of paint down canvases using syringes, letting the colors mix and pool together towards the bottom of his abstract paintings.

Pulling and Scraping

Still from Gerhard Richter Painting, a film by Corinna Belz.

Enter Slideshow

The act of pulling and scraping paint is most associated with the Dutch Abstract Expressionist Willem de Kooning, who achieved this effect with a palette knife, and the German contemporary painter Gerhard Richter, who often used a squeegee. “With a brush you have control,” Richter once explained. “The paint goes on the brush and you make the mark...With the squeegee you lose control.”
Like Pollock’s action painting, the mystery of Richter’s scraping technique inspired the filmmaker Corinna Belz to take viewers behind the scenes. For her fly-on-the-wall documentary Gerhard Richter Painting (2011), Belz spent three years in Richter’s studio, capturing the artist pulling paint across the canvas in what appear to be physically draining gestures. Richter drags, smears, and scrapes layers of wet paint, leaving tracks of his movements across the surface and then covering them up.

Body Printing

Yves Klein, Anthropométries de l'époque bleue, Galerie internationale d'art contemporain, Paris, March 9, 1960. Photograph by Charles Wilp. Art Resource, NY / Klein, Yves (1928-1962) © ARS, NY. Image courtesy of Dominique Lévy Gallery.

Enter Slideshow

Exposing the artistic process even further, the French artist Yves Klein produced his “Anthropometry” paintings in front of an audience. First held at the Galerie Internationale d’Art Contemporain in Paris in 1960, Klein’s performances (now considered by many to be outrageously sexist) featured nude female models—who the artist referred to as “human paintbrushes”—rolling themselves in his patented International Klein Blue paint. The women then proceeded to create imprints of their bodies on giant pieces of paper, which were arranged on the walls and floor of the gallery. Behind them, Klein conducted a 10-piece orchestra, playing the one-note Monotone Silence Symphony, written by the artist himself. The performance lasted for 20 minutes, followed by 20 minutes of silence.
In the 1960s and ’70s, American artist David Hammons created his own series of body prints, using the technique to comment on the Civil Rights-era race riots in the U.S. and the Vietnam War. Hammons often used his own body as the brush, covering himself with grease or margarine before pressing his form onto a surface. Afterwards, Hammons would sprinkle powdered pigments on top of the support, which would stick to the grease and reveal the image.

Airbrushing

Chuck Close painting Mark, 1978–79. Courtesy of Chuck Close and Pace Gallery, New York.

Enter Slideshow

“To avoid a painterly brushstroke and surface, I use some pretty devious means, such as razor blades, electric drills, and airbrushes,” explained the painter Chuck Close in an Artforum interview in 1970. Originally a photo-retouching tool, airbrushes use compressed air to spray paint onto a surface, creating smooth gradations that are reminiscent of photographs.
Close used this technique to depict his friend and fellow painter Mark Greenwold in his large-scale photorealist portrait Mark (1978-9). For the image, Close employed the four basic colors used in color printing—cyan, magenta, yellow, and black—to recreate the photo-mechanical reproduction process, using the airbrush to carefully control the layering of paint. While Close is perhaps the most famous painter to use this industrial tool, other painters like Betty Tompkins have similarly adopted the airbrush technique.

Digital Painting

Portrait of Petra Cortright by Stefan Simchowitz, 2016. Image courtesy of Petra Cortright Studio.

Enter Slideshow

Pollock, Frankenthaler, Klein, and Close may have created paintings without a paintbrush, but pop artist David Hockney makes paintings without any paint. Using his iPad, a stylus, and the Brushes application, Hockney creates vivid landscapes “painted” outside, or en plein air. “People from the village come up and tease me: ‘We hear you’ve started drawing on your telephone,’” Hockney wrote in a catalogue for the de Young Museum. “And I tell them, ‘Well, no, actually, it’s just that occasionally I speak on my sketch pad.’”
The California-based multimedia artist Petra Cortright also creates digitally manipulated paintings on the computer. She layers hundreds of found images using Photoshop, often spending up to 12 hours in front of the screen at a time. Like many artists before her, Cortright has taken steps to reveal these unconventional working methods. Her “painting videos” decompose this process of layering images, and have been exhibited as artworks in their own right.
If Siqueiros sought modern painting techniques for the industrial age, then Hockney and Cortright have updated the medium for the digital era. Removing the canvas, the paint brush, and even the paint itself, artists today continue to invent new methods that expand our traditional ideas about what it takes to make a painting.
—Sarah Gottesman

100 years of typewriter art

2016-10-03T01:17:00.000-07:00

Along with vinyl records and vintage synthesizers, typewriters have made a nostalgia-fueled resurgence in the digital age. Take the Hemingwrite, a modern “distraction-free writing tool” promising screen addicts freedom from the internet, or German politicians’ ploy to use “unhackable” typewriters for security purposes, or fiction writer Paul Auster’s ode to his 1962 Olympia. Artists, too, might think about rescuing the typewriter from obsolescence after seeing the strange and beautiful pictures compiled in The Art of Typewriting, out this month from Thames & Hudson.

This exhaustive compendium compiles work from 200 artists who turned a common office machine into a tool for image-making, manually twisting and turning paper in the feed to strike characters in precisely chosen spots. It spans from the first known piece of typewriter art — an image of a butterfly composed of brackets, dashes, slashes, and an asterisk, made by Flora Stacey, a British secretary, in 1898 — to world maps, lifelike portraits, geometric abstractions, and visual poetry by the likes of Yoko Ono. It’s all culled from the Sackner Archive of Visual and Concrete Poetry, the world’s largest collection of its kind and one of Miami’s hidden art troves, founded by authors Marvin and Ruth Sackner. Since we can now place type on pages and screens with no effort or mess, you might think you could easily reproduce the aesthetic of these manually-produced typewriter artworks in a program like Microsoft Word. It’s all just proto-ASCII art, right? But the appeal of these images often comes from their messy, analog nature.
“The images in this collection are clearly not made on a computer,” graphic designer John Maeda writes in the book’s preface. “What is it about them? It’s their imperfection; their mechanical imperfection, carefully mixed with human sensibilities and grit.”

Take, for example, the work of perhaps the best known and most intriguing typewriter artist, Paul Smith (1921–2007). His severe spastic cerebral palsy from birth prevented him from ever learning to reading or write, he required help with eating, dressing, and bathing, and had impaired speech. But at age 16, he discovered typing as a means of drawing. Though he couldn’t grasp a brush or pen, he could hit typewriter keys, holding his right hand down with his left so he could type with a single finger. With the shift key in lock, using a handful of symbols — @, #, $, %, ^, &, *, (, and ) — Smith went on to create nearly 400 typed artworks depicting animals, trains, still lifes, and war scenes, plus portraits of the Pope and Mother Teresa. Though he worked on a machine, his process was anything but mechanical. He came up with a shading technique, in which he’d press his thumb on the ribbon to apply ink to the drawings. He smeared ink with erasers and built up dark color blocks with repetitive keystrokes.
When typing in a digital word processor, an artist can’t, for instance, smear ink or reposition paper. The work in The Art of Typewriting is a testament to how technical constraints can force artists to be more resourceful about their creative processes. It would be tedious or perhaps even impossible to use a program like Photoshop or Word to reproduce some of the common techniques employed in artistic typewriting. Take the overstrike — while it’s a simple process on a typewriter, overstriking in Photoshop is cumbersome and requires adding new layers. So, in addition to being “unhackable” and internet-free, there are other advantages ye olde typewriter has over today’s sophisticated word processors and design programs. Luckily, eBay has plenty for sale.

100 years typewriter art

2016-10-03T00:38:00.004-07:00

by Carey Dunne on October 12, 2015

Since we can now place type on pages and screens with no effort or mess, you might think you could easily reproduce the aesthetic of these manually-produced typewriter artworks in a program like Microsoft Word. It’s all just proto-ASCII art, right? But the appeal of these images often comes from their messy, analog nature.

“The images in this collection are clearly not made on a computer,” graphic designer John Maeda writes in the book’s preface. “What is it about them? It’s their imperfection; their mechanical imperfection, carefully mixed with human sensibilities and grit.”

When typing in a digital word processor, an artist can’t, for instance, smear ink or reposition paper. The work in The Art of Typewriting is a testament to how technical constraints can force artists to be more resourceful about their creative processes. It would be tedious or perhaps even impossible to use a program like Photoshop or Word to reproduce some of the common techniques employed in artistic typewriting. Take the overstrike — while it’s a simple process on a typewriter, overstriking in Photoshop is cumbersome and requires adding new layers. So, in addition to being “unhackable” and internet-free, there are other advantages ye olde typewriter has over today’s sophisticated word processors and design programs. Luckily, eBay has plenty for sale.

The Art of Typewriting is available for pre-order from Thames & Hudson and will be published on October 26.

marvin sackner paul smith ruth sackner Sackner Archive of Visual and Concrete Poetry Steven Heller thames and hudson Typewriter Art typography

A Roving Typewriter Records the Subconscious of New York City

Typewriter Art, Online

How to view art - 2 opinions

2016-10-03T00:38:00.002-07:00

How to view art:

Philip Kennicott October 4, 2014

1. Take time

The biggest challenge when visiting an art museum is to disengage from our distracted selves. The pervasive, relentless, all-consuming power of time is the enemy. If you are thinking about where you have to be next, what you have left undone, what you could be doing instead of standing in front of art, there is no hope that anything significant will happen. But to disengage from time has become extraordinarily complicated. We are addicted to devices that remind us of the presence of time, cellphones and watches among them, but cameras too, because the camera has become a crutch to memory, and memory is our only defense against the loss of time.

The raging debate today about whether to allow the taking of pictures inside the museum usually hinges on whether the act of photographing is intrusive or disruptive to other visitors; more important, the act is fundamentally disruptive to the photographer’s experience of art, which is always fleeting. So leave all your devices behind. And never, ever make plans for what to do later in a museum; if you overhear people making plans for supper, drinks or when to relieve the baby sitter, give them a sharp, baleful look.

Some practical advice: If you go an hour before closing time, you won’t have to worry about what time it is. Just wait until the guards kick you out. Also: If you have only an hour, visit only one room. Anything that makes you feel rushed, or compelled to move quickly, will reengage you with the sense of busy-ness that defines ordinary life. This is another reason that entrance fees are so pernicious: They make visitors mentally “meter” the experience, straining to get the most out of it, and thus re-inscribe it in the workaday world where time is money, and money is everything.

(Monica Ramos/for The Washington Post)

2. Seek silence

Always avoid noise, because noise isn’t just distracting, it makes us hate other people. If you’re thinking about the mind-numbing banality of the person next to you, there’s little hope that you will be receptive to art. In a museum, imagine that you have a magnetic repulsion to everyone else. Move toward empty space. Indulge your misanthropy.

That’s not always easy. Too many museums have become exceptionally noisy, and in some cases that’s by design. When it comes to science and history museums, noise is often equated with visitor engagement, a sign that people are enjoying the experience. In art museums, noise isn’t just a question of bad manners but a result of the celebrity status of certain artworks, such as the Mona Lisa, which attracts vast and inevitably tumultuous throngs of visitors to the Louvre. But any picture that attracts hordes of people has long since died, a victim of its own renown, its aura dissipated, its meaning lost in heaps of platitudes and cant. Say a prayer for its soul and move on.

Seek, rather, some quiet corner of the museum full of things no one else seems to care about. Art that is generally regarded as insipid (19th-century American genre paintings) or hermetic (religious icons from the Byzantine world) is likely to feel very lonely, and its loneliness will make it generous. It may be poor, but it will offer you everything it has.

(Monica Ramos/for The Washington Post)

3. Study up

One of the most deceptive promises made by our stewards of culture over the past half century is: You don’t need to know anything to enjoy art. This is true only in the most limited sense. Yes, art can speak to us even in our ignorance. But there’s a far more powerful truth: Our response to art is directly proportional to our knowledge of it. In this sense, art is the opposite of popular entertainment, which becomes more insipid with greater familiarity.

So study up. Even 10 minutes on Wikipedia can help orient you and fundamentally transform the experience. Better yet, read the old cranks of art history, especially the ones who knew how to write and have now become unfashionable (Kenneth Clark, Ernst Gombrich). When visiting special exhibitions, always read the catalogue, or at least the main catalogue essay. If you can’t afford the catalogue, read it in the gift shop.

Rules for the gift shop: Never buy anything that isn’t a book; never “save time” for the gift shop because this will make you think about time; never take children, because they will associate art with commerce.

Many museums have public education programs, including tours through the galleries with trained docents. Always shadow a docent tour before joining one. If the guide spends all his or her time asking questions rather than explaining art and imparting knowledge, do not waste your time. These faux-Socratic dialogues are premised on the fallacy that all opinions about art are equally valid and that learning from authority is somehow oppressive. You wouldn’t learn to ski from someone who professed indifference to form and technique, so don’t waste your time with educators who indulge the time-wasting sham of endless questions about what you are feeling and thinking.

(Monica Ramos/for The Washington Post)

4. Engage memory

The experience of art is ephemeral, and on one level we have to accept that. But beyond the subjective experience, art is also something to be studied and debated. Unfortunately, unlike most things we study and debate, art is difficult to summarize and describe. Without a verbal description of what you have seen, you may feel as if nothing happened during your visit. You may even feel you can’t remember anything about it, as if it was just a wash of images with nothing to hold on to.

But even if the actual experience of art is difficult to retain and remember, the names of the artists, the countries in which they worked, the years they lived and were active, and a host of other things are easily committed to memory. Some museum educators, who know these things, will tell you this kind of detail doesn’t matter; they are lying. Always try to remember the name of and at least one work by an artist whom you didn’t know before walking into the museum.

When trying to remember individual art works, make an effort to give yourself a verbal description of them. Perhaps write it in a notebook. The process of giving a verbal description will make details of the work more tangible, and will force you to look more deeply and confront your own entrenched blindness toward art. If your description feels cliched, then go back again and again until you have said something that seems more substantial. If all else fails, simply commit the visual details of the work to memory, its subject matter, or general color scheme, or surface texture. Turn away from the work and try to remember it; turn back and check your mental image against the work itself. This isn’t fun. In fact, it can be exhausting. That means you’re making progress in the fight against oblivion.

(Monica Ramos/for The Washington Post)

5. Accept contradiction

Art must have some utopian ambition, must seek to make the world better, must engage with injustice and misery; art has no other mission than to express visual ideas in its own self-sufficient language. As one art lover supposedly said to another: Monet, Manet, both are correct.

Entertainment Alerts

Big stories in the entertainment world as they break.

Susan Sontag once argued “against interpretation” and in favor of a more immediate, more sensual, more purely subjective response to art; but others argue, just as validly, that art is part of culture and embodies a wide range of cultural meanings and that our job is to ferret them out. Again, both are correct.

The experience of art always enmires us in contradictions. I loathe figurative contemporary art except when I don’t; ditto on abstraction. When looking at a painting, it’s often useful to try believing two wildly contradictory things: That it is just an object, and an everyday sort of object; and that it is a phenomenally radical expression of human subjectivity. Both are correct.

Art is inspiring and depressing, it excites and enervates us, it makes us more generous and more selfish. A love-hate relationship with an artist, or a great work of art, is often the most intense and lasting of all relationships. After years of spending time in art museums, I’ve come to accept that I believe wildly contradictory and incompatible things about art. The usual cliche about this realization would be that by forcing us to confront contradiction, art makes us more human. But never trust anyone who says that last part: “art makes us more human.” That’s meaningless.

Rather, by forcing us to confront contradiction, art makes us ridiculous, exposes our pathetic attempts to make sense of experience, reveals the fault lines of our incredibly faulty knowledge of ourselves and the world. It is nasty, dangerous stuff, and not to be trifled with.

Some practical advice: If you feel better about yourself when you leave a museum, you’re probably doing it all wrong.

Five Rules for (Kinda) Viewing Art

· by Jillian Steinhauer on October 3, 2014

Man listening to an audio guide in front of Picasso’s “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” (photo by peteaylward/Flickr)

Art critic Philip Kennicott published a guide to viewing art in the Washington Post this week. Lovely and thoughtful though it is, parts of it just seemed sort of … old-fashioned, you know? A little 20th century, if you will. Being a millenial, I took it upon myself to update the guide to better reflect our new, late capitalist, hypernetworked reality. Herewith, five indispensable tips for kinda viewing art.

1. Take Time

… lots of it, because you’ll need it. The most important thing when visiting a museum is to see as much artwork as possible, since, let’s be honest, you don’t manage to go that often, do you? Yeah, didn’t think so.

The best way to ensure that you see enough art is to set an Instagram quota for yourself for the day’s visit. Think about how many photos you posted on your last art outing and try to up the number by some reasonable amount, like 10. Bonus points if all the photos are selfies, but keep in mind that this might be difficult to achieve if you don’t have enough selfie experience. Maybe try starting with a selfie with every work in one specific gallery, for instance. Be aware of your strengths and limitations, and of those of your Insta followers. #awesome
In order to leave yourself enough time, line up at the entrance to the museum at least half an hour before opening time. Plan to spend the entire day with frequent breaks and trips to the various cafes and restaurants within the institution, since food is the new art anyway. Make sure to Instagram those meals, too — your warm goat cheese and toasted walnut salad alongside your favorite newly discovered Minimalist sculpture might make make for a slightly ironic but also intriguing visual comparison.

2. Bring a Friend

For art critics, the way to process art is through writing; for laypeople, it’s through talking. Bring a friend or a date to help you talk your way through whatever art you’re planning to see — conversation in front of a painting inevitably produces fresh insights. If you can’t find an equal, think about bringing a child, either your own or one borrowed from a friend. You’ll be amazed at what thoughtful art viewers kids can make.
If that’s not an option either, visit alone but plan to be bold and make acquaintances (famous artworks are best for this: there’s always a crowd around the “Mona Lisa”). This has its advantages: strangers can offer perspectives you might never even dream up — plus, you never know what might happen. A long, involved, unbelievably romantic story of how you met your future spouse while seeing art will make for a great entry on your future wedding website.

#museumselfie in Jim Hodges’s “Untitled (Near and Far)” (2002) (via @risdmuseum/Instagram)

3. Go with an Open Mind

And by that I mean really open. Some people say you have to read and learn about art to understand it, but that’s really only if you’re a critic or an academic. Everyone else (the lucky bastards) gets to just see and experience art, rather than having to think about it so hard. If you’ve looked at the work and still want to know more, read the wall label. If that’s not enough, you could consider a docent-led tour, definitely a good way to meet people and engage in conversation.
But there are more interesting and original ways to open yourself up to art and commune with it. Try talking to the work, or moving around in front of it, letting your limbs lead you into a freeform improvisational dance. If you see a vibrant red and it inspires lust, run with it. Find a way to express the feelings the art stirs within you before, like everything else, they’re gone.
Later, when the museum’s about an hour from closing time, visit the gift shop. Try to find the mouse pad, calendar, umbrella, watch, or water bottle that most embodies your experience that day, and buy five of them: one for you, four to share with your closest friends who really get you.

4. Don’t Worry Much about Remembering Things

Back in the day before the internet, people had to remember any and everything they thought was worthwhile — texts, how to cook a chicken, their age, etc. Now that the digital blessings of computers and smartphones have been bestowed upon us, we’re able to free up that memory space for day-to-day minutiae, like whether or not we forgot to turn off the stove last night.
The same applies to art: it used to be you had to remember the names of specific pieces and artists you like, but thankfully now it’s all just a Google Image search away! Instagram also comes into play here: the more photos of artworks you post, the fewer you’ll have to remember. This is also why it’s good to visit with a friend — if you can’t remember enough to get a solid Google/Google Image search going, just text them. Between the two of you, you might just be able to figure out who made that immersive installation filled with found trash, flickering lights, and taxidermy that you took selfies in and what it was called.

5. Seek Out Art that Fits Your World View

These days there’s so much art being made and shown, it can be hard to know where to start. I find it’s always good to seek out art that reflects your own ethos and approach to life. Art can be many things, but it’s probably most effective when it’s a mirror — either literal or figurative — reflecting yourself and your ideas back at you. If you’re into abstract art but find its politics hard to decipher, just look at the institution that’s showing it and you should get some answers.
Some say art is meant to be beautiful; others argue it should seek to enlighten or enliven. It doesn’t really matter what camp you’re in as long as you’re in one. Seeing art is worthless until you walk away with four things: a story to share about your experience, an opinion about what it meant, a larger lesson to draw from it, and at least one Instagram. This is how you effectively view art in the age of social media.

2016-09-29T21:43:00.002-07:00

How your eyes
trick your mind
Look closer at optical illusions, says Melissa Hogenboom, and they can reveal how you truly perceive reality.
Advertisement
Visual, or optical, illusions show us that our minds tend to make assumptions about the world – and what you think you see is often not the truth.

Throughout history, curious minds have questioned why our eyes are so easily fooled by these simple drawings. Illusions, we have found, can reveal everything from how we process time and space to our experience of consciousness.

Scroll down our interactive guide to find out why.
Early illusions
Illusions have a long history, going as far back as the ancient Greeks.
In 350BC, Aristotle noted that “our senses can be trusted but they can be easily fooled”.
He noticed that if you watch a waterfall and shift your gaze to static rocks, the rocks appear to move in the opposite direction of the flow of water, an effect we now call “motion aftereffect” or the waterfall illusion.
Tracking the flow of the water seems to “wear out” certain neurons in the brain as they adapt to the motion. When you then shift your gaze to the rocks, other competing neurons over-compensate, causing the illusion of movement in the other direction.
Advertisement
Mind shift
The real boom in studying illusions began in the 19th Century. A school of scientists who studied perception – among many other things – created simple illusions to shed light on how the brain perceives patterns and shapes, which kick-started the early theories on how our eyes can play tricks on our mind.
The Ebbinghaus illusion, for example, revealed that our brain makes judgements about size using adjacent objects – and this can be manipulated. The orange circles here are actually the same size.
In-depth view
Around the same time, the Ponzo illusion illustrated that context is also fundamental for depth perception.
It shows that identically sized lines can appear to be different lengths when placed between converging parallel lines. This shows how our sense of perspective works. Like a train track, the slanted lines make us believe the top line is further away.
This confuses the brain, and it overcompensates, making the line appear bigger – as it would have to be in real life to produce those kinds of proportions.

Ebbinghaus

Ebbinghaus

Ponzo

Ebbinghaus
One-track mind
For similar reasons, this may be why the lines in the Muller-Lyer illusion appear to be different lengths. The arrows at each end are tricking the brain into thinking the lines are nearer or further away.
Confused? To understand why, consider how two walls meet the ceiling at the top of a room: you’ll see three lines converging. The brain uses these lines to gauge perspective and distance in 3D space – in other words, that the point of the corner is further away than the lines converging towards it.
One theory is that the arrows on either end of the line in the Muller-Lyer illusion trick the mind into thinking it is looking at a similar 3D scene – for example, the arrows on the middle line are similar to a wall-ceiling corner. This nudges the brain into thinking the line is further away, and again, it overcompensates, making it appear longer than the other lines.
Tall story
That isn’t the only way simple lines can warp the way the mind processes the world – and there isn’t always a simple explanation. In the late 1800s, Hermann von Helmholtz first demonstrated that a simple square made up of vertical lines looks shorter and wider than a square made up of horizontal lines.
This is why wearing horizontally striped clothes will make the wearer appear taller and slimmer – contrary to fashion advice.
Researchers suspect the reason is to do with the way we estimate “filled space”, but they’re still not sure why it happens.

Helmholtz

Muller-Lyer
Early illusions like this appeared at a ground-breaking time for the study of perception, says illusion historian Nicholas Wade from the University of Dundee in Scotland.
“They were of interest theoretically because they went against the prevailing view that you could understand vision if you understood the way in which an image is formed in the eye.
“The phenomena were small but reliable; they were experimentally tractable and it generated this incredible boom of variations on simple figures.”
Yet this period also saw a series of misguided attempts to find a ‘unifying theory’ of illusions. The literature on illusions is “littered with over-interpretations”, says Wade.
As researchers would later discover, our reactions to illusions can be even more complicated than the early pioneers realised.

20th Century
The 20th Century saw little in the way of a breakthrough in the field of illusions.
But the quest to understand how we process the world continued, and this resulted in some exciting findings about perception.
For example, advances in technology allowed David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel to discover that certain neurons in the brain’s visual cortex fired only when objects were orientated at certain angles – so, for instance, specific neurons fire when you look at a square and a triangle. The finding earned them a Nobel prize in 1981.
Yet where scientists left off, artists moved forward...

In the 1960-70s illusions inspired a style called optical art, or "Op-Art". Victor Vasarely is widely regarded as the father of this movement, and some of his work is studied by scientists today. For example, research using his “nested squares illusion”, similar to the image below, suggests that the brain identifies shapes using corners rather than lines.
21st Century
Fast forward to the early 2000s and there was a resurgence in illusion research, including looking at the strange way our brains process time.
One school of thought suggests that some illusions highlight the way the brain constantly tries to predict what will happen. The theory goes that many illusions show that we try to predict the future to compensate for the slight delay between an event and our conscious perception of it.
The light from these words you are reading has to reach your eye, before a signal travels to the brain to be processed – this takes time, which means the world you perceive is slightly in the past. Mark Changizi, a theoretical neurobiologist, believes the brain may make predictions about your surroundings in order to “perceive the present”.
The light from these words you are reading has to reach your eye, before a signal travels to the brain to be processed – this takes time, which means the world you perceive is slightly in the past. Mark Changizi, a theoretical neurobiologist, believes the brain may make predictions about your surroundings in order to “perceive the present”.

Zoetropes in the 1800s tricked the brain into seeing motion where there is none
In a study Changizi worked on with Shinsuke Shimojo, of Caltech’s experimental psychology lab in California, they wrote that a whole class of classic “coffee-table” geometrical illusions fit with this theory, such as the Hering illusion.
The Hering illusion, says Changizi, features radial lines that give the illusion of movement, similar to the scene we see as we move forward in the real world. Our brain has therefore evolved to treat these radial lines or streaks as if they are motion, he says.
“In real life when those mechanisms are working well, when you’re moving forward, then those radial lines happening on the back of your eye really are due to real-life motion. The reason they are only misperceptions in the lab is because radial lines trick your brain into thinking there’s motion.”

Hering

Hering
Today, illusion research is booming once more. Technology advances now allow scientists to peer inside our brains as we look at illusions, and to begin to understand the underlying mechanisms going on inside our head.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allows researchers to analyse how the neurons in our brain respond to individual illusions.
Square eyed
For example, a brain-imaging study of people looking at the Necker Cube, right, showed that the brain can “flip” between two different views, as it attempts to translate a two-dimensional drawing on a page into a three-dimensional cube. In other words, it confirmed that the brain is tricked into perceiving the cube as a 3D object.
Competing neurons
Or consider the Hermann grid: we see grey dots in the intersections between the white and black grid even though they are not actually there. But look directly at one of the grey dots and it disappears. Based on brain-scanning research, one explanation is that our neurons are competing with each other to see the light and dark parts of the image.
However, these recent advances do not mean that all illusions can be explained. Even this explanation for the Hermann grid – an illusion which is more than a hundred years old – has been disputed, since it can’t account for the fact that the effect changes when the grid has curved lines instead of straight ones.

New illusions
While we know that different areas of the brain deal with colour, form, motion and texture, how the brain encodes and combines this information into a coherent picture remains poorly understood.
What’s more, new illusions, and variants on old ones are appearing all the time. Vision researchers hold an annual competition, now in its 10th year, to find the best new illusions. One of the judges is visual neuroscientist Susana Martinez-Conde from the Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona. The contest has a selfish motivation of sorts, she says: she wants to keep an eye out for interesting new illusions that will help her to study the brain.
2014’s winning entry is a novel take on the 19th Century Ebbinghaus Illusion. This new version is dynamic, which makes the effect much stronger. “It’s like the Ebbinghaus effect on steroids,” says Martinez-Conde. Just like the original, the illusion highlights that the brain always perceives the size of objects in the context of those that surround them. But if you continually vary this context, then the effect gets even stronger, she explains.
“Many of the newer illusions are takes on the classical versions as the technology has now opened the doors to revisit them," she says.

Martinez-Conde is now building on the work of some of the 19th Century researchers. It was Helmholtz, for example, who first realised that our eyes make rapid movements called saccades.

To experience them, gently put a finger on your eye lid and move your eye. You will see that the world will start to appear jittery, like a series of snapshots. We don’t notice our eye darting about like this because our brain smoothes things out when constructing what we see.

Martinez-Conde realised that these saccades might help to explain why we see movement in this image, the snake illusion.
This is known as apparent motion. The snake illusion occurs because there's so much information hitting different parts of our retina at the same time. All this detail is sent to our visual cortex at once, and the resulting confusion tricks the brain into thinking that movement is taking place.
This also happens in the real world when we're in a fast-moving object like a train, for example. Sure enough, fMRI scans have shown that the same neurons that respond to movement are responding when we look at the image above. Martinez-Conde and colleagues found that suppressing these saccades in people momentarily stops the illusion. Why? She thinks it’s because, with every saccade, the retinal image is “refreshed”, and this overwhelms the visual cortex again with a new scene. If you stop the eye movement, however, the brain adapts and the apparent motion stops.

All of this research points to one thing: our visual system remains too limited to tackle all of the information our eyes take in. “For that our brain would need to be bigger than a building, and still then it wouldn’t be enough,” says Martinez-Conde.

And so our minds take shortcuts. Like betting for the best horse in a race, our brain constantly chooses the most likely interpretation of what we see.

Seeing, then, is certainly not always believing.

My art makes the invisible visible

2016-09-28T03:30:00.001-07:00

That what cannot be said might be shown . Ludwig Wittgenstein (philosopher, mathematician).
My art makes visible that what is invisible. That what might be (verbally) ineffable might be shown (revealed, made effable visually and through music).
My work could be labelled many things such as figurtive, non-figurative, symbolic, expressionistic, impressionistic, modernism, post-modernism, post-minimalism, etc. In fact it shows (the processes and results of) making marks on paper (canvas, board, carton or whatever support is used).

how night inspires great painters

2016-09-27T21:44:00.002-07:00

how night inspires great painters

Ulrich de Balbian

The nights are drawing in. Autumn evenings are getting duskier, mistier, cooler. Early mornings are darker. Soon we’ll be living large parts of our lives under a nocturnal cloak.

As the dark deepens it unleashes imagination and stories of ghosts and witches; dreams and nightmares populate the night. Autumn is the time when they creep out of the lengthening shadows, ready for Halloween. As the world gets darker it also gets more interesting. That is what many artists find, anyway.
Louise Bourgeois, Insomnia, 2000.
Night thoughts … Louise Bourgeois, Insomnia, 2000. Photograph: Christopher Burke/ © The Easton Foundation

A timely exhibition at the Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, called Towards Night, surveys “the nocturnal” in art from the Romantic nights of Caspar David Friedrich and JMW Turner, through the dreamlike nights of Edvard Munch and Marc Chagall, to night scenes and thoughts by the likes of Louise Bourgeois and Peter Doig.

In Doig’s painting Echo Lake, which features in the show, a shadowy forest is reflected in dark water, with a strip of luminous shore bisecting the picture horizontally. Darkness is the realm of possibility and danger, folklore, fear and desire. A policeman stands on the edge of the lake, looking into the dark.

It is no coincidence that many of the artists listed above are from northern latitudes, where winter nights can be long and dark. Doig himself was born in Scotland and spent a lot of his youth in Canada. Friedrich, from northern Germany, and Munch, from Norway, are artists whose imaginations turn towards magnetic north, even towards the Arctic itself – and towards the night. In his 1893 painting Vampire, for instance, Munch fleshes out one of the darkest of all night terrors.

The night and its strangeness are the north’s great gift to European art. Mediterranean art is sunny; it loves light. From the pure blue skies of Italian Renaissance paintings to the sunshine of Cézanne, glorious daylight fills the Mediterranean eye.
Black Barn, 1997 by Amanda Vesey.
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Labyrinth of mystery … Black Barn, 1997 by Amanda Vesey. Photograph: © Amanda Vesey. Courtesy of Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne

The night is full of terrors, from witches to loneliness, yet it is a labyrinth of mystery and beauty

It took northern European artists to reveal the wonder of darkness. Geertgen tot Sint Jans’s painting The Nativity at Night, a very early Dutch masterpiece from about 1490, uses the inky darkness that surrounds Mary and her child to set off their illuminated holiness. This moving idea, of the nativity in the dark as a glowing moment of fragile humanity pitched against the shadows, would still be a powerful Dutch theme in the age of Rembrandt.

Yet northern artists were also driven to look beyond the consoling hearthlight, into night’s most dreadful depths. The German Renaissance artist Hans Baldung Grien was obsessed with depicting witches at their midnight sabbaths. Centuries later in his painting The Night, the German expressionist Max Beckmann unveils a Weimar Berlin night of madness and depravity.

Vincent van Gogh, a northern artist who found himself in the south of France, painted one of the eeriest of all night-life scenes after he fell out with a cafe owner. He told the owner he was going to get revenge by setting up his easel in his cafe and portraying its sleazy atmosphere. The night drinkers and prostitutes enjoyed Van Gogh’s portrayal of their haunt, watching him paint it as a kind of performance art. The result is The Night Café, with its lurid green and red tones and sense of futility and desolation. Edward Hopper captures that same nocturnal desolation in his small-hours painting Nighthawks.
Edward Hopper’s 1942 painting Nighthawks.
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Nocturnal desolation … Edward Hopper’s 1942 painting Nighthawks. Photograph: The Art Institute of Chicago. Friends of American Art Collection, 1942./BBC

The night is full of terrors, from witches to loneliness, yet it is a labyrinth of mystery and beauty. The strangest and most marvellous art experience I have had this year involved going into total darkness equipped only with a torch. After clambering over slippery, sharp surfaces and through narrow, claustrophobic apertures, we finally reached a pitch-black gallery where spotlights were turned on to reveal the art. This was not an installation at Tate Modern but a cave in the Pyrenees. Here, deep underground, ice age artists drew bison and ibex with charcoal 13,000 years ago. Why did the ice age artists explore such deep, dark places? Why is the oldest art in the world shrouded in permanent night? It has to be that our imaginations crave darkness. Only in the dark can we forget the banal distraction of daylit reality and enter a visionary realm of dreams. Art is a creature of the night.

Towards Night is at the Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, until 22 January.

21st Century Contemporary Painting Ulrich de Balbian

2016-09-25T08:32:00.001-07:00

21st Century Contemporary Art – Video paintings Ulrich de Balbian

2016-09-25T08:22:00.002-07:00

https://youtu.be/3YFxloFEqCI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YFxloFEqCI
https://youtu.be/3YFxloFEqCI

21st Century Contemporary Art – Video paintings Ulrich de Balbian

2016-09-25T08:22:00.001-07:00

https://youtu.be/3YFxloFEqCI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YFxloFEqCI

https://youtu.be/3YFxloFEqCI

Why Stoicism Is Having a Cultural Moment

2016-09-02T08:08:00.001-07:00

Stoicism is apparently popular again — at least, that’s how it appears, given the spate of recent popular books, articles and events on the topic. There’s Julie Beck’s essay from The Atlantic on the benefits of thinking about death like a Stoic, Oliver Burkeman’s book on the “negative path” to happiness that includes a chapter entitled “What Would Seneca Do?”, and, perhaps most notably, an article that appeared in the New York Times, which created a sensation and which the author, Massimo Pigliucci, is now developing into a book. There are also Stoic meet-ups occurring in cities all over the world; the New Stoa, an online community of modern Stoics who offer courses and publish a magazine; a blog called Stoicism Today; and “Stoic Week”, a yearly social event/science experiment, in which participants live according to Stoic principles and submit data about their experiences to be analyzed for changes in quality of life.

The level of enthusiasm this philosophical revival has produced for an ancient belief system is surprising but also inspiring. These manifestos and popular expressions don’t just celebrate an academic engagement with Stoicism; they advocate using it as a practical tool in our everyday lives. They are a far cry from the criticisms of Stoicism as a cold, harsh school of thought, where suppression of emotion and a Vulcan-style detachment from the world is paramount. And yet, all this positive press made me wonder: what exactly is Stoicism’s appeal for us moderns? What’s behind the desire to rehabilitate a way of life once championed by hard-bodied soldiers and toga-clad politicians? Why is being a Stoic so cool right now?
The self-help trends of mindfulness and gratitude

Anyone even glancingly aware of the world of self-help cannot have failed to notice that the practice of mindfulness, or “living in the moment while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations”, is all the rage these days. Celebrities, tech gurus, and sports stars are publicly swearing by “getting centered”, “being fully present” and “unplugging” through practices such as meditation, yoga, or even visualizing a dot for sixty seconds.

Most practitioners of mindfulness understand its origins to lie in the Eastern spiritual traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism; however, the Western world also had a longstanding tradition of mindfulness. That tradition is Stoicism.

Ancient Stoics were all about living in the moment, a goal achieved by cultivating self-control and self-awareness through meditative practices, though not necessarily of the om-chanting variety. They “thought about thinking” by considering their emotions from a rational perspective, reflecting on the ethics of their decisions, and constantly reminding themselves that while they had no power over what happened in life, they did have power over their responses to it. The slave-turned-philosopher Epictetus summed up this idea in his Stoic handbook, the Enchiridion: “Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views they take of them” (5). His advice? “Don’t expect that events to turn out the way you want, but wish them to happen as they do happen, and you will get on well” (8).

Today’s mantras of mindfulness sound strikingly similar to those of Epictetus, and many activities that Stoics undertook to achieve equanimity are similar too. Take, for example, the premeditatio malorum, a methodical visualization of the worst-case-scenario for any situation. Here’s how Seneca describes it: “We need to reflect upon every possibility and to fortify ourselves against whatever hardships may come about. Run through (meditare) them in your mind: exile, torture, war, shipwreck” (91.7–8). He goes on to explain how, if we do this regularly, we can minimize our fear of life’s misfortunes and prepare to face them. The extreme version of this practice is, of course, imagining our own or a loved one’s death. So Marcus Aurelius exhorts us to “Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly” (7.56).

Part of the premeditatio’s charm for us is that it exposes the limitations of purely positive thinking, which was one of the last big self-help trends (remember the book The Secret?), by turning it on its head. For the intelligent and sophisticated among us, it’s not enough to hope and wish for the best. To find success and contentment, we instead must grapple with all possible outcomes, especially the bad ones. (This tendency likely explains the growing popularity, especially in the business world, of a variation on the premeditatio — the project premortem.) The practice of premeditatiooffers us an efficient way to generate not only a deep state of mindfulness, but a keen sense of gratitude as well.

Gratitude is another big trend in self-help, where it’s often envisioned as the result and benefit of mindfulness. People are advised to keep gratitude journals, give compliments, and do volunteer work, all to increase their feelings of appreciation. Perhaps unsurprisingly, cultivating gratitude was also important to the Stoics, and the link between it and mindfulness was not lost on them. (One need only look to the first book of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations — history’s first self-improvement journal? — where he thanks his family, friends and teachers for all they’ve done for him.)

To enhance their sense of gratitude, ancient Stoics also utilized practical techniques, such as voluntary discomfort (cold showers, foregoing sweets, et cetera). Or they would deliberately engage with what they called “externals” or “indifferents”, such as money, fame or even good health (which are desirable but not necessary), only to remind themselves that all they really needed to have a good life was virtue. These exercises in reverse psychology are more extreme than journaling or volunteering, but the same spirit and the same goal — achieving eudaimonia, or happiness with one’s lot in life — informs both the ancient and modern practices of gratitude.

For both Stoic philosophers and modern mindfulness advocates, it’s not enough to endure life’s ups and downs; we should appreciate and enjoy all that it brings. Seneca encapsulates the sentiment well in his essay On the Happy Life: “The happy man is content with his present lot, no matter what it is, and is reconciled to his circumstances; the happy man…allows reason to fix the value of every condition of existence” (7.6). Ancient Stoicism may seem far removed from us in time and space. But Seneca’s words, which echo those of modern-day gurus like Deepak Chopra and Eckhart Tolle, clearly demonstrate that when it comes to helping ourselves, Stoicism’s aims and message may be more resonant than ever.
The rise of the New Atheism movement

Since the early 2000s, a number of outspoken critics of traditional religion have received a great deal of media attention. The rapid rise of these “New Atheists” reflects a broader trend of growing disenchantment with organized religion. Many people are sympathetic to New Atheist critiques of religion as dogmatic, outmoded, politicized, and violent; they’re also compelled by the efforts of New Atheists to use scientific inquiry as a means of debunking religious beliefs. Much ink has been spilled lately, for example, trying to disprove God’s existence through scientific methods and logical arguments (see the work of Richard Dawkins and Victor Stenger).

These efforts have inspired people at all points on the skepticism spectrum to search out systems of belief that lack the ideological baggage of the world’s dominant religions. And in their search for a new life stance, one place they quickly end up is secular humanism, which, according to the International Humanist and Ethical Union, “stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethics based on human and other natural values in a spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities.” Those who dig deeper into the history of humanism soon find themselves standing on Stoicism’s stoop, since much of what humanism champions — rationality, freedom, virtue, naturalism — serves as the foundational principles of ancient Stoic philosophy as well.

To people who are leaving behind organized religion, Stoicism’s emphasis on reason as the law (or logos) that shapes and guides the universe is refreshingly simple. (It may also explain why you’re constantly hearing the phrase “Everything happens for a reason” uttered by everyone from your mom to Barack Obama.) Ancient Stoics believed that, as part and parcel of the universe, we humans have our share of reason within as well (see Marcus Aurelius, Medit. 7.9; Musonius Rufus, Frag. 38). And by using our reason to guide us, we can understand the nature of reality and perceive the truth. Amazingly, this is all that’s required to be a good person and live an ethically correct life. So Seneca says, “Virtue is nothing else than right reason” (Ep. 66.32). Right reason is the path to contentment: “If you accomplish the task before you, following right reason with diligence, energy and patience…if you can hold to this, without fear or expectation, and find fulfillment in what you’re doing now… you will live a happy life” (Marcus Aurelius, Medit. 3.12).

That being reasonable is all that’s required for a good and happy life is a very freeing concept for those who have attempted to live according to the arcane rules and odd prohibitions of Judaism, Christianity, or Islam — and for those who just aren’t sure what to believe. You don’t have to have all the answers; you just have to think rationally and do what’s right. That’s what Epictetus recommends: “Isn’t it enough to know the nature of good and evil, the limits of desire and aversion…and to use these as rules to administer the affairs of life, without troubling ourselves about things above us? For these things are perhaps incomprehensible to the human mind” (Frag. 7.175).

The Stoics’ acceptance of both our capacity to live rightly and our inability to understand all also underlies their theology, including their conception of God. As a philosophy that evolved over time, there is no fixed dogma or text that defines “Stoic belief” on this topic. (Of course, many Stoic beliefs, including that of a unitary god with multiple aspects, were absorbed into Christian doctrine. This makes them strangely familiar to us and may also, ironically, make them all the more appealing too.) However, for most ancient Stoics, God, or more appropriately, Zeus, certainly did exist. He was a singular entity, equivalent with Reason, which encompasses and directs all of Nature or the Universe for a purpose.

Some Stoics were devout worshippers of this god: see, for example, Cleanthes’ Hymn to Zeus or Epictetus’ famous declaration, “If I were a nightingale I should sing as a nightingale, if a swan, as a swan: but as I am a rational creature I must sing to God” (Discourses, 1.16). Others were less certain about the nature of the divine. The debate continues to this dayamong modern philosophers, but almost all Stoics seem to agree that in the end what you think you know about God doesn’t really matter — you still can and should pursue the good and live virtuously. As Marcus Aurelius puts it, “Things are either isolated units [atoms], or they form one inseparable whole. If that whole be God, then all is well; but if aimless chance, at least you need not be aimless also” (9.28).

This flexible agnosticism is another attractive feature of Stoicism for modern adherents. You can retain the spiritual elements of the philosophy while remaining outside the confines of proper religion, or you can adapt it to suit even the most die-hard non-believers, all while maintaining its integrity as a belief system. Pigliucci nicely sums up the allure of this “best-of-both-worlds” quality in his NYT essay: “There is something very appealing for me as a non-religious person in the idea of an ecumenical philosophy, one that can share goals and at the least some general attitudes with other major ethical traditions across the world.”

Stoicism offers its modern-day devotees a sort of New Atheism “lite”, seemingly untainted by the clashes that define contemporary religious (or anti-religious) thought. It doesn’t demand adherence to an all-or-nothing view of God, or project a sense of self-righteous certainty about matters that are beyond our control (or understanding), even as it champions goodness and reason. This calm yet confident focus on being our best selves, no matter who or what rules the cosmos, may be what’s drawing so many people toward the Stoic way of life.
The similarities between now and then

Stoicism is a philosophy that, in the words of Kare Anderson, was “built for hard times.” It emerged in the early 3rd century BCE in Athens, after the premature death of Alexander the Great left the eastern Mediterranean in disarray. The political and social upheaval of the times made many people anxious about their place in the world: migration became necessary for survival and the independent power of the polis to define its inhabitants’ identity went largely by the wayside. In its place came rule by inefficient and often corrupt kingdoms. Rapid and arbitrary change became the new normal during this era.

This chaotic period in history shares quite a lot with the current one: think legislative intransigence, the Great Recession, climate change, income inequality, the war on terror, and the widespread displacement of peoples all over the globe. Living in such a volatile world has compelled individuals to seek out a path to inner tranquility, just as they did in the early Hellenistic period. Now as then, Stoicism offers them a promising route. In unpredictable times, it makes sense to rely on ourselves and find strength in our individual autonomy. Deciding to act with reason and virtue is something the turmoil of the outside world cannot change. As Seneca points out, “If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you need is not to be in a different place but to be a different person” (Ep. 104.8).

And yet, Stoicism doesn’t advocate a retreat into a self-absorbed world of one’s own — quite the opposite. Ancient Stoics believed that a major component of virtue was serving other human beings and recognizing our common humanity. In fact, it was the Stoics who first made popular the concept of cosmopolitanism, and encouraged people to see themselves as “world citizens”, not defined by location, class, or religion: “Never in reply to the question, to what country you belong, say that you are an Athenian or a Corinthian, but that you are a citizen of the world” (Epictetus, Discourses1.9). By concentrating on the similarities between us, we can succeed not only at living in accordance with nature, but also at creating a new, expansive sense of community that transcends local differences.

Ancient Stoics also used the concept of oikeiosis to understand ethical duties and relationships with others in communal terms. Oikeiosis derives from the Greek word for “home” or “family” and essentially means “having a natural attachment to what is familiar” or “viewing something as belonging to oneself.” Stoicism encourages us to extend our sense of affinity and concern outward, from our selves, to our family, to our fellow citizens, to all people — to zoom out, as it were, and to collapse the distinctions between yourself and others. It also gives perspective on just how insignificant you are in the grand scheme of things. The philosopher Hierocles created a way of visualizing this idea of duty radiating outward in the form of concentric circles, while Marcus Aurelius simplifies the concept: “Whatever happens to you is for the good of the world. That would be enough right there. But if you look closely you’ll generally notice something else too: whatever happens to a single person is for the good of others” (6.45).

Seeing the world in this light — as one big family or commonwealth where whatever happens to the most distant person is also important to our own lives — fosters our empathy toward each other. Perhaps more importantly, it promotes a sense of justice that transcends our own self-interest. This justice ideally pertains to all members of society and aims to set us in harmony with one another. It compels Seneca to reminds his friend Lucilius that slaves are really “our fellow-slaves, if one reflects that Fortune has as much power over us as over them” (Ep. 47.1). For the Stoics, recognizing our equality as humans brings social harmony — a necessity if we want to live rightly and find true fulfillment.

The value for our globalized society of thinking and acting in a manner that emphasizes our similarities and increases our capacity for compassion and justice can hardly be overstated. Solving the problem of climate change, for example, will undoubtedly require us to draw upon and develop these qualities further than ever before. And yet, it seems to many that as a society we are only growing more fractured and detached from one another, focusing on our divergent political views, or our racial and religious differences, or our distinct lifestyle choices (all this notwithstanding our ubiquitous connectedness via the internet).

“Doing as the Stoics did” provides moderns with a means to combat this trend; it also reflects a desire to restore simplicity and fairness to our current code of human ethics. And while a nostalgic fantasy about the unerring “wisdom of the ancients” may underlie this desire, it may be that turning back to this old school of thought is actually a sensible step in our efforts to move forward: “If you can see the road, follow it. Cheerfully, without turning back. If not, hold up and get the best advice you can. If anything gets in the way, keep moving forward, making good use of what you have on hand, and sticking to what seems right” (Marcus Aurelius, Medit. 10.12). If this approach worked for past practitioners of Stoicism, why can’t it work for us?

This post originally appeared on Eidolon.
Chiara Sulprizio is a senior lecturer in Classical and Mediterranean Studies at Vanderbilt University. She enjoys researching and teaching about issues of gender and sexuality in Greek comedy, Homeric epic and Roman satire. She is also the owner of Ivy & June Custom Ceremonies, which provides wedding officiant services and premarital coaching to modern brides, grooms and same-sex couples. She loves traveling and exploring new places (especially if hot springs or waterfalls are involved), reading great books and helping people learn new skills.
Get Your Free Daily Stoic Starter Pack
http://dailystoic.com/stoicism-cultural-moment/

Why are artists so poor?

2016-09-01T07:41:00.000-07:00

Why Are Artists Poor?
The Exceptional Economy of the Arts
Hans Abbing
ISBN 90 5356 565 5
NUGI 911/651
ISBN 90 5356 565 5
NUGI 911/651
Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2002
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above,
no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both
the copyright owner and the author of the book.
Table of Contents
Preface 11
1 Sacred Art
Who Has the Power to Define Art? 17
1 Art is What People Call Art 18
2 Cultural Inferiority and Superiority Color the Economy of the
Arts 20
3 ‘Art is Sacred’ 23
4 ‘Art is Authentic’ 25
5 ‘Art is Superfluous and Remote’ 27
6 ‘Art Goes Against the Rules and so Adds to Cognition’
(Goodman) 28
7 ‘Artists Resemble Magicians’ (A personal view) 29
8 The Mythology of the Arts Influences the Economy of the Arts 30
9 Conclusion 32
2 The Denial of the Economy
Why Are Gifts to the Arts Praised, While Market Incomes Remain
Suspect? 34
1 The Arts Depend on Gifts and Trade 38
2 The Amount of Donations and Subsidies is Exceptional 40
3 ‘Art that is Given Must not be Sold’ 42
4 ‘The Market Devalues Art’ 44
5 The Arts Need the High Status of the Gift Sphere 46
6 The Economy in the Arts Is Denied and Veiled 47
7 A Dual Economy Requires Special Skills 48
8 Conclusion 50
5
3 Economic Value Versus Aesthetic Value
Is There Any Financial Reward for Quality? 52
1 Aesthetic Value and Market Value Differ in Definition 55
2 ‘In the Market there is no Reward for Quality’ 56
3 Values are Shared 58
4 There is No Such Thing as a Pure Work of Art 60
5 Buyers Influence Market Value and Experts Aesthetic Value 62
6 Power Differences Rest on Economic, Cultural and Social
Capital 64
7 In Mass Markets Quality and Sales Easily Diverge 66
8 The Strife for Cultural Superiority in the Visual Arts (An
Example) 67
9 The Power of Words Challenges the Power of Money 69
10 The Government Transforms Cultural Power into Purchasing
Power 70
11 Donors and Governments Know Best 73
12 Market Value and Aesthetic Value Tend to Converge in the Long
Run 74
13 Conclusion 76
4 The Selflessly Devoted Artist
Are Artists Reward-Oriented? 78
1 The Selfless Artist is Intrinsically Motivated 81
2 Rewards Serve as Inputs 83
3 Artists are Faced with a Survival Constraint 85
4 Autonomy is Always Relative 87
5 Intrinsic Motivation Stems from Internalization 88
6 Habitus and Field 90
7 Selfless Devotion and the Pursuit of Gain Coincide 92
8 Artists Differ in Their Reward-Orientation 94
9 Types and Sources of Rewards Matter to Artists 96
10 Three Examples of Orientation Towards Government Rewards in
the Netherlands 99
11 Conclusion 101
5 Money for the Artist
Are Artists Just Ill-Informed Gamblers? 103
1 Incomes in the Arts are Exceptionally High 106
2 Art Markets are Winner-Takes-All Markets 107
3 People Prefer Authenticity and are Willing to Pay for It 110
4 Incomes in the Arts are Exceptionally Low 111
5 Five Explanations for the Low Incomes Earned in the Arts 113
6 TABLE OF CONTENTS
6 Artists are Unfit for ‘Normal’ Jobs 115
7 Artists are Willing to Forsake Monetary Rewards 116
8 Artists are Over-Confident and Inclined to Take Risks 117
9 Artists are Ill-Informed 119
10 Conclusion 122
6 Structural Poverty
Do Subsidies and Donations Increase Poverty? 124
1 Artists Have Not Always Been Poor 126
2 The Desire to Relieve Poverty in the Arts Led to the Emergence of
Large-Scale Subsidization 128
3 Low Incomes are Inherent to the Arts 129
4 The Number of Artists Adjusts to Subsidy Levels 131
5 Subsidies in the Netherlands Have Increased the Number of Artists
Without Reducing Poverty 132
6 Subsidies Are a Signal that Governments Take Care of Artists 136
7 Subsidies and Donations Intended to Alleviate Poverty Actually
Exacerbate Poverty 137
8 Low-priced Education Signals that it is Safe to Become an
Artist 140
9 Social Benefits Signal that it is Safe to Become an Artist 141
10 Artists Supplement Incomes with Family Wealth and Second
Jobs 143
11 Artists Reduce Risks by Multiple Jobholding 144
12 Artists Could be Consumers rather than Producers 146
13 Is there an Artist ‘Oversupply’ or are Low Incomes Compensated
For? 147
14 Conclusion 149
7 The Cost Disease
Do Rising Costs in the Arts Make Subsidization Necessary? 152
1 ‘Artistic Quality Should Remain the Aspiration, Regardless of the
Costs’ 154
2 ‘The Arts are Stricken by a Cost Disease’ 156
3 Technical Progress has Always been a Part of the Arts 158
4 There is no True Performance 160
5 The Taboo on Technical Innovation in Classical Music is a Product
of the Times 162
6 The Cost Disease Contributes to Low Incomes while Internal Subsidization
Contains the Cost Disease 164
7 There is no Limit to the Demand for Works of Art 167
8 Changing Tastes Can Also Cause Financial Problems 169
TABLE OF CONTENTS 7
9 Pop Music has Attractive Qualities that Classical Music Lacks 171
10 Subsidies and Donations Exacerbate the Cost Disease 174
11 Conclusion 178
8 The Power and the Duty to Give
Why Give to the Arts? 181
1 Donors Receive Respect 183
2 Donors Have Influence and are Necessarily Paternalistic 186
3 Art Sublimates Power and Legitimizes the Donor’s Activities 188
4 Gifts Turn into Duties 191
5 Donations and Subsidies are Embedded in Rituals 193
6 Artists Give and Pay Tribute 194
7 Family and Friends Subsidize Artists 197
8 Private Donors Give to Street Artists as well as to Prestigious Art
Institutions 199
9 Corporations and Private Foundations Support Art 200
10 Conclusion 201
9 The Government Serves Art
Do Art Subsidies Serve the Public Interest or Group Interests? 203
1 Art Subsidies Need Reasons 206
2 ‘Art Subsidies are Necessary to Offset Market Failures’ 208
3 ‘Art has Special Merits and must be Accessible to Everyone’ 210
4 The Merit Argument has been Used Successfully 211
5 ‘Government Must Help Poor Artists’ 213
6 ‘Art is Public and the Government Must Intervene to Prevent Underproduction’
215
7 ‘Art Contributes to Economic Welfare and so Must be
Supported’ 218
8 ‘Society Needs a Reserve Army of Artists and must therefore
Support Art’ 219
9 Government Distorts Competition in the Arts 221
10 Self-Interest Hides Behind Arguments for Art Subsidies 224
11 The Art world Benefits from Subsidies 225
12 The Government is under Pressure to Subsidize the Arts 227
13 Conclusion 230
8 TABLE OF CONTENTS
10 Art Serves the Government
How Symbiotic Is the Relationship between Art and the State? 232
1 Governments Have Interests and Tastes 234
2 Art Appears to be Less Serviceable than it was during Monarchical
Times 237
3 European Governments Carried on the Former Patronage 240
4 Veiled Display Serves Social Coherence 242
5 The Cultural Superiority of the Nation Needs Display 244
6 Government Taste Serves Display 248
7 Governments are Willing to Support the Arts 250
8 An Arts Experts Regime Harmonizes Government and Art World
Interests 252
9 Conclusion 254
Appendix: Differences between Government Involvement in the
Arts in the us and in Europe 255
11 Informal Barriers Structure the Arts
How Free or Monopolized Are the Arts? 259
1 In other Professions Barriers Inform Consumers, Restrain Producers
and Limit Competition 262
2 The Arts Resist a Formal Control of Numbers of Artists 263
3 In the Past Numbers of Artists were Controlled 265
4 Granting Certificates to Commercial Galleries in the Netherlands
(An Example) 267
5 Characteristics of Informal Barriers 268
6 Informal Barriers Protect Collective Reputations 271
7 Innovations in the Arts are Protected and Indirectly Rewarded 272
8 The Arts are Structured and Developments are Controlled 274
9 The Risks of Some are Reduced at the Expense of Others 276
10 Conclusion 277
12 Conclusion: a Cruel Economy
Why Is the Exceptional Economy of the Arts so Persistent? 280
1 The Economy of the Arts is an Exceptional Economy 282
2 Despite the Many Donations and Subsidies Incomes are Low in the
Arts 283
3 A Grim Picture has been Drawn 284
4 Winners Reproduce the Mystique of the Arts 287
5 Society Needs a Sacred Domain 289
6 Future Scenarios with More or Less Subsidization 291
TABLE OF CONTENTS 9
Epilogue: the Future Economy of the Arts
Is this Book’s Representation of the Economy of the Arts
Outdated? 295
1 Signs of a Less Exceptional Economy of the Arts 295
2 Artists with New Attitudes Enter the Scene (1) 298
3 Artists with new Attitudes Enter the Scene (2) 300
4 ‘Art Becomes Demystified as Society Becomes More Rational’ 301
5 ‘Borders in and Around the Arts Disappear’ 303
6 ‘New Techniques, Mass Consumption and Mass Media Help
Demystify the Arts’ 306
Notes 311
Literature 349
Index of Names 361
Index of Subjects 365
10 TABLE

The changing social-economic position of the arts

2016-09-01T07:30:00.000-07:00

The Art Period, on the changing social-economic position of the arts - provisional TOC and summary of forthcoming book
Abbing - Draft TOC of book The Art Period - June 2016.docx 6/21/2016
Extended draft table of contents (and “summary”). Publication date of the book: 2018 (or earlier).
A draft of Part III Rejection of Commerce in the Arts is now (also) available on:
https://amsterdam.academia.edu/HansAbbing
Hans Abbing (hansabbing@gmail.com)
THE ART PERIOD. On the changing social‐economic position of the arts.
(The, what I call, “art period” is the period from the middle of the nineteenth century till circa 1980. Typical for the period is that art is
serious, much respected and exclusive, and that commerce is rejected. Presently there is a process of re-commercialization; art
remains attractive but there is less respect for art.)
Part I THE TRIUMPH OF SERIOUS ART
1. The art period and the art ethos
1. Introduction. The art period and the art ethos
2. There is much respect for art.
3. Respect for art is widely shared. Disrespect is punished.
4. Geniuses, masterpieces, celebrations and magnificent buildings mark the greatness of art
5. Now respect for art is no longer self‐evident. Public support for art goes down.
2. Autonomous and Useful
1. Aside: On the non‐existing intrinsic value and the inevitable usefulness of art.
2. Art and artists have an exceptional and high social status in a unified world of art.
3. In an art environment artworks are increasingly appreciated for themselves
4. Markets continue to contribute to an expansion of art consumption and the autonomy of artists
5. Markets continue to contribute to the development of art and the social status of artists
6. Art continues to be used for decorative, recreational, political and economic purposes [and artists often agree].
7. Artistic autonomy is a privilege as well as right.
8. Over time the notion of artistic autonomy changes. This has an impact on the kind of freedom artists have.
3. In Search for One’s Self and for the Sublime.
1. Individual expression in art is much appreciated
2. Art brings enchantment in a dis‐enchanted world
3. Bourgeois long for freedom and authenticity, and they search for a self. Artists are thought to be authentic individuals.
4. Art consumption contributes to the construction and expression of personal and group identities
5. Art serves the exploration as well as the sublimation of hidden desires and emotions
4. A Serious Art Setting in Concert Halls, Theatres and Art Museums
1. Aside: A classical music concert and a pop concert
2. Subdued behavior is typical for art performances and art museums
2
3. Ambience, formal behavior and protocol can contribute to an attractive atmosphere
4. Distractions and interferences with performance and exhibition are taboo
5. Restraint, modesty and impersonality are virtues. Together art lovers want to be alone with art.
6. The arts have lost much of their identity making quality to the popular arts. [Now popular art consumption contributes
most to the construction and expression of personal and group identities]
5. Authenticity, Aura and Authorship
1. “Artists and artworks must be authentic”
2. Unique artworks have authority and aura
3. “The artist is in the work.” The symbolic value of authorship is extremely high.
4. An obsession with correct attribution and authorship
5. People want to know which is the genuine work. Much money is spend on the restauration and preservation of art
6. Music performances must be authentic
7. Contributions by others are not acknowledged. Creative artists find it hard to collaborate.
8. Over the last decades artists have lost their monopoly on creativity and authenticity.
Part II BOUNDARIES AND BARRIERS, INCLUSION AND EXCLUSION
6. Separation of Art and Entertainment
1. Art becomes serious. Classics replace contemporary, fashionable and entertaining art
2. Classification, insulation and an art setting define art. Uncivilized behavior and mixtures of art and entertainment become
taboo.
3. Nonprofits enable the separation of art and entertainment and contribute to de‐commercialization of the arts.
4. Vulgar “inferior” and popular art are removed.
5. Reproduced art is put down.
6. At home the boundary between art and entertainment is weak.
7. In public space art worlds control only part of art.
8. Now educated people increasingly consume popular music, popular visual art, musical, cabaret and film —but not as art.
9. Borders Fade
7. Exclusion and Inclusion
1. The family of art is cultured, well‐to‐do, educated and white.
2. The exclusion of other social and ethnic groups among audiences is persistent and not experienced as a problem. Artisticquality
comes first.
3. Lower class people are thought to be inferior or incompetent
4. “Others” are excluded on the basis of their appearance. High prices contribute to exclusion.
5. Various pricing policies foremost serve inclusion and exclusion
6. Much exclusion is informal and automatic.
7. The absence of alternative settings contributes to exclusion.
3
8. Education and art subsidies are used to disseminate art among lower social groups.
9. The attempts of the labor movement and leftist artists to democratize art are not supported by their art worlds
10. Difficult art, intellectualization and a discourse of familiarity contribute to exclusion.
8. The Purchase of Exclusivity
1. What do people “buy” when they purchase art? Among others they buy membership in various distinguished groups.
2. Distinction still matters
3. Art is becoming less useful for the domination of lower social groups
4. For the very rich the possession of expensive artworks continues to be attractive
Part III REJECTION OF COMMERCE
9. Disapproval of Art being for Sale
1. “Art is too precious and personal to be sold.”
2. “Artworks must not be interchangeable. Economic value must not stand for quality.”
3. In the arts a culture of giving exists.
4. Commerce and the commodity nature of much art is veiled. The badness of exchange is compensated by good deeds.
10. Rejection of Commercialism and Compromise
1. Artists did not always reject making “commercial” art and marketing their work.
2. “Artists must not give in to consumer wishes and compromise” The line between profit‐for‐art and profit‐not‐for‐art is
thin. Artists are easily accused of being commercial.
3. To prevent shaming artists veil making also commercial art, accept a low standard of living, have “innocent” second jobs
and take no commissions.
4. Artists cannot ignore consumer demand. Many negotiate to maximize their autonomous space. Autonomy and voice may
well conflict.
5. Aside: Market demand influences artistic choices in litle noticed ways.
6. “Demands of donors and sponsors must not influence artistic choices.”
7. Marketing and self‐branding by artists is taboo.
8. A restrained cultural entrepreneurship is now acceptable and promoted. A commercial logic infiltrates the art ethos. A
commercial logic infiltrates the art ethos. Criticism revives.
11. Worries about Market Forces and a Commercial Culture
1. “Art must be free.” “It cannot be privately owned.” “It is sacred.”
2. “Art has special merits.” Subsidization can contribute to low prices that enable and persuade people to consume art.
Economists plead for price discrimination rather than low prices for everybody.
3. “Public goods and external effects in the arts require public funding and subsidies.” Many economists demand restraint
and recommend marketization.
4. There is re‐commercialization in the arts. The new critics of commerce fear that this will have similar negative effects as
exist in the popular arts.
5. “A culture industry produces dumbing popular art.” Along with changes in capitalism and a re‐commercialization in the
arts the criticism of commerce revives.
4
6. Commerce contributes to the reproduction and amplification of capitalist and neo‐liberal values by ar, but this does not
stop protests. The arts loose their exceptional position.
7. Aside: are claims of little diversity, triviality and manipulation in the popular arts justified?
8. Aside: Thanks to commerce the popular arts are relatively democratic. All social groups have access to popular music
consumption and production. The recycling of styles gives consumers time to “learn” art.
Part IV ART WORLD AUTHORITY AND ARTISTS
12. New Art Worlds
1. Governance in the worlds of art was formal and becomes not‐formal.
2. New style art worlds govern only part of art production. The art ethos facilitates the attuning of judgments and actions.
3. Art worlds define and guarantee artistic‐quality.
4. Art worlds conserve art and keep up tradition [by promoting classic works].
5. Art worlds guard progress in art
6. Art worlds demand unity. Conflicts are solved.
7. Aside: Two major conflicts in the twentieth century; one in the visual arts, the other in classical music
8. An uneasy relationship exists between consumers and other art world participants.
9. Over the last decades art world authority goes down
13. Financial Support of Art and Art worlds.
1. Introduction. Support is extensive. Artists and art companies also “support” art.
2. Supporting art brings good feelings. Various justifications for public support are presented. Aims and effects differ.
3. Support is thought to counter commerce, protect autonomy and promote innovation. In the US rich donors are best
trusted; in Europe governments.
4. Governments, foundations and corporations strengthen art worlds by facilitating recognition processes.
5. Aside: Support is never for free.
6. Conclusions. Over the last decades governments no longer cover cost increases. In relation to the size of the population
public support goes down.
14. Promotion of Classics. Commerce and the Balance of Power in Art Worlds
1. Art worlds promote extreme winners.
2. Art worlds care about the correspondence between quality and market‐success. Rich consumers are best trusted to go for
artistic‐quality.
3. Due to a successful attuning of judgments in art worlds] Art worlds are successful in keeping market‐success broadly in
line with artistic‐quality. There is more correspondence than in the popular arts.
4. Consumer choices matter for artistic developments.
5. Art worlds are more commercial than they appear to be.
6. Art worlds are successful in restraining commercial companies. This also applies to classical music, but less so to
literature.
7. Art worlds differ in strength. Vested interests and much support weaken the classical music art world].
5
8. Art worlds are becoming openly commercial. They believe to be still in control of commerce and this increases their
vulnerability.
15. Many Artists, Few Rewards
1. The “willingness” of artists to work for low incomes increases during the art period. A majority of artists earns very little
and a large proportion is poor.
2. The typical artist comes from a well‐to‐do family. The typical artist has second jobs.
3. State controlled and increasingly expensive professional art education contributes to the underrepresentation of ethnic
and lower class social groups among artists.
4. The number of artists increases much during the art period. Developments in the demand for art and in subsidies have an
impact on the income and number of artists, but the relation is far from straightforward.
5. The arts profession is very attractive. Artists are thought to be free.
6. Artists have a special status.
7. Deciding to become artist youngsters go with the flow while imagining profound rewards.
8. Being‐artist is a self‐declared state which needs confirmation.
9. Art world recognition offers confirmation of being a real artist. Artists long for recognition. Many passively wait to be
“discovered”.
10. Having voice is important for artists. A lack of voice causes distress.
11. Recognition and income are prerequisites for autonomy, self‐realization and voice. A lack of these and high art world
demands cause distress.
12. Poverty in the arts causes hardship. Artists are privileged but not well off.
13. Artists are not “compensated”. Due to a forceful art ethos not many artists leave the arts.
14. The inner‐art world exploitation of artists is considerable and growing.
SOMETHING GAINED, SOMETHING LOST (Conclusion and Discussion)
1. Is the art period coming to a close?
2. A more view on commerce in the arts and popular arts is called for. The arts can learn much from the popular arts
3. Among artists “activism” increase: Artists become more entrepreneurial and more critical.

REJECTION OF COMMERCE IN THE ARTS

2016-09-01T07:03:00.001-07:00

REJECTION OF COMMERCE IN THE ARTS (draft of Part 3 of The Art Period book)

Abbing - Rejection of Commerce - Draft of Part III of book The Art Period - June 2016.docx 6/21/2016
REJECTION OF COMMERCE IN THE ARTS (IN THE ART PERIOD)
Hans Abbing, hansabbing@gmail.com, Emeritus Professor University of Amsterdam Draft June 2016 If you want to refer to this text please include “draft June 2016” in the reference. If you want to distribute the text or distribute links that give access to the text, please inform me first . PLEASE NOTE - That this is a draft version. The final version is likely to be very different (and, if possible, shorter) - That
comments are very welcome
; also if they were to lead to more sentences in specific sections. -
That the final text will be thoroughly edited and that the English will be corrected.
The text below is Part III Rejection of Commerce of my forthcoming book:
THE ART PERIOD. On the changing social economic position of the arts
(2018 and maybe earlier).

The book will consist of four parts and a conclusion:
THE ART PERIOD. On the changing social economic position of the arts

Part I
THE TRIUMPH OF SERIOUS ART
Part II
BOUNDARIES AND BARRIERS. INCLUSION AND EXCLUSION
Part III
REJECTION OF COMMERCE
Part IV
ART WORLD AUTHORITY AND ARTISTS

SOMETHING GAINED, SOMETHING LOST (
Conclusion and Discussion)

2
Part III REJECTION OF COMMERCE IN THE ARTS
[INTRO]
In the nineteenth century a process of de-commercialization accompanies the beginning of the art period. In spite of the fact that markets and commerce in the arts have clearly contributed to the triumph of art in art circles a rejection of commerce and commercialism becomes common. Whereas most art markets in the eighteenth century are overtly commerce-driven and the pursuit of profit comes first, now the a-commercial part of art worlds start to grow at the cost of the commercial part of art worlds. The majority of commerce-dedicated participants is expelled.*
1
Signposts of the de-commercialization are the newly established nonprofit art institutions. Participation in the ever larger a-commercial part of art worlds is, however, not limited to people in nonprofits; also many people in *lawful for profits participate: foremost creative artists and people in for profit ensembles, but also dealers, people in small publishing houses and so forth. They all start to adhere to an art ethos. Nevertheless, closer examination learns that in the background behavior in the art-dedicated parts of art worlds is often guided by a more or less commercial logic, but this is veiled. Therefore art worlds are largely
a-commercial
(or anti-commercial) rather than non-commercial.
Presently, there is a process of re-commercialization going on and a commercial logic is becoming more important again in the arts. A commercial logic infiltrates the art ethos. Even the management of nonprofits are openly applying more commercial techniques and adapt a far more commercial logic. Cultural entrepreneurship among artists also exemplifies a re-commercialization. What is particularly striking is that the de facto re-commercialization is accepted by most art world participants. There is however a reaction. Among groups of artists, art lovers and art theorists the rejection of commerce in the arts is becoming stronger again. These groups represent what I shall call
the new critics of commerce
. Conservative new critics foremost oppose that artists become cultural entrepreneurs. And the leftist new critics, unlike the old, now also distrust large nonprofits and art world establishments. They also fear that present unregulated capitalism and thus neo-liberalism increasingly get a hold on the arts. We will come across this contemporary split in mindsets —a majority going along and some going against the re-commercialization of the arts— again and again in this part of the book. It is typical for the forthcoming end of the art period and the weakening or changing art ethos.
In these paragraphs I have used the term commerce, commercial and commercialization in a broad or metaphoric sense. Further down I will clarify the concepts and the ways they are used. This is the more necessary because in art worlds the discourse about commerce is often fuzzy. When criticizing commerce art world people tend to use the terms in different meanings often without being aware of this. Therefore it is often not clear what it exactly is that they criticize. Therefore I will use this part of the book also to disentangle the criticism. Reading old and new texts and listening during a period of 50 years to artists and to people working in nonprofits, it appears that there are three main groups of criticism. First, the very fact that art must be sold and so becomes commensurate is experienced as unwanted —this is the topic of the first chapter. Second, commercialism is rejected: artists must not market their art, they must not pursue profit in the form of money or non-financial rewards, and they must not compromise by pleasing consumers —this is the topic of the following chapter. And third, art world people worry about more general market forces in a market economy or more specifically the forces within a capitalist and neo-liberal economy —this is the topic of the last chapter.
1
For the way the term art world is used in this book see **

3
The worlds of art and money are thought to be hostile worlds.
I use the remainder of this introduction to say more about this phenomenon, a phenomenon that matters for all three following chapters. In the art period the denunciation of commerce, markets (or
the
market) and commercialism are important symbols of membership in art worlds. Putting them down brings feelings of solidarity. This befits the a-commercial or anti-commercial nature of art worlds. In conversations the general praise of art almost always goes together with a rejection of commerce in the arts. This applies to conversations about art between artists in a local pub, between art lovers during an opening reception in a gallery as well as to that of construction workers during their lunch hour: “Art and money do not go together”, or “Money corrupts art”. It also happens that people raise their status within their own art circle by putting down commerce in the arts. This is what for instance directors of art institutions do when they exhibit a non-committal denunciation of commerce —and even more so when they succeed in combining it with an anti-capitalist stance. In such cases the terms money, commerce, markets,
the
market, commodity and commodification are often used in a metaphoric sense. For instance, whereas commerce in its proper economic sense refers to trade, in its metaphoric use it refers to far more than just trade: it can, for instance, also stand for a pursuit of profit or for the use of much marketing. Also terms like money, markets,
the
market, commodity and commodification are often used in a metaphoric sense. (In this book the sense in which the terms are used will usually be clear from the context. Otherwise I will make it clear, for instance by putting terms in between inverted commas when they are used in a metaphoric sense.) The notion that that the world of money and the world of art are hostile spheres and a belief that the former can harm art has to be taken seriously. It can be found not only among artists and art lovers, but also among eminent thinkers and critics like Georg Simmel, Max Weber, Arnold Hauser, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Peter Bürger and Robert Hughes.
2
Also some economists, like Arjo Klamer, adhere to the notion.
3
(But many economists disagree and sometimes explicitly “praise” an orientation on markets and a commercial culture, as for instance Tyler Cowen does.
4
) How loaded with negative value the things are that “money” stands for, shows from the evident confusion among some artists between real money and “money” as a concept symbolizing all sorts of evil, from commerce and the pursuit of profit to compromise, corruption, a market economy and capitalism. Otherwise it is hard to explain that all through the art period and most of all after the middle of the twentieth century artists come up with proposals that serve the goal of getting rid of money, and put much energy in the development of systems of exchange without a currency (foremost barter, which look sympathetic but, when applied on a large scale, is altogether unpractical.[
?]^
5
^
6
Or (presently) they go for crowd-funding —which makes sense—, while emphasizing that this is a form of non-monetary exchange —which is not true.

Artists anyway can be said to have a problem with money and “money”. The fact that over the last hundred years many visual artists made artworks that involve money indicates this. Often paper money or the reproduction of paper money are part of work of arts. From *Warhol to *.*
7
→→
2
(Velthuis, 2005b) 24-25. Given the various ways in which these people interpret the “hostility”, the phrase hostile worlds refers to more than just the supposed incompatibility at the level of the actual exchange of goods for money as opposed to other forms of exchange, a phenomenon which Zelizer * analyzed.,(She is known for her examination of hostile spheres.)
3
(Klamer, 1996)
4
“In Praise of Commercial Culture” is the title of a book by the economist Tyler Cowen —(Cowen, 1998).
5

[Give HERE in NOTE or in section gifts past examples of designed moneyless systems [ASK Olav]]

6
Other than artists sometimes think: barter on a regular basis differs little from exchange in which a currency is used. See also s. *[=s “not for sale”]
7
Cf. (Velthuis, 2005a)

4
We now live in turbulent times. On the one hand there are successful and rich artists whose comments on money, “money” and the “world of money” or the “world of finance” are ironic and not critical, or the supposedly critical stance is insincere.
[HERE and/or in s covering up]
An example is Hirst’s
For the love of God
, a skull covered with diamonds worth $ 26 million is ironic and certainly not critical. On the other hand artworks —visual art, performances, books and movies— express worries about financial practices in contemporary society.
Often the works are activist and not naively idealistic; sometimes they are cynical, sometimes funny and often both.
{Also in s. sponsoring, s. hostile spheres and/or s. art serves decorative and recreational purposes SYNC}
For instance, in 2015 artists tossed large amounts of fake money from the stairs of the Tate Modern museum in London to protest against the fact that the museum let itself be sponsored by BP, a company which is thought to white wash (or “artwash”) its ecologically detrimental activities by sponsoring art.
The rejection of “commerce” also shows from a rejection of economics and the use of economic terms which would otherwise be hard to explain.
During the last forty years I gave talks for established art lovers. Partly to provoke them and to make them “think”, I often used economic terms, like art consumer, art product and niche-market. I noticed that this is painful for art lovers. They also get irritated. (Art lovers can be very sensitive.) It happened twice that after having given a talk a listener approached me and asked if I was aware that I used these terms so often; and next told me that these terms do not befit art. I should not use them. For art lovers such terms bring art down. The reader of this book will by now have got used to the terms, but it is well possible that the first times he read them he as well experienced this as unpleasant.
1. Disapproval of Art being for Sale

Top 10 Art Techniques: Pencil Drawing - video

2016-01-03T20:28:00.000-08:00

Improve your drawings now with these helpful pencil techniques! Learn to create striking art on ArtistsNetwork.tv this week as you follow along step by step with the New Year's newest video in our Top 10 series. In Top 10 Art Techniques: Pencil Drawing, you'll review everything from the best drawing tools, to linework and values, from tips on proportion and perspective, to techniques for gesture and blind contour drawing. Preview Top 10 Art Techniques: Pencil Drawing now.

And, if that's not enough to kickstart your art, here are two more new Top 10 videos we know you'll love!

https://www.artistsnetwork.tv/

Main
Preview Top 10 Art Journaling Techniques now for a lot of fun and experimentation! In a nutshell, an art journal is the ultimate place to turn the page for a fresh start. In this video you'll find a plethora of art journaling techniques to try.

create backgrounds and pages
use unexpected materials
experiment with a wide variety of mediums
explore favorite techniques from top mixed media artists

Workshops

With over 500 art video workshops & tutorials to choose from, there's something for almost everyone. Browse all the art videos below, or select the specific art medium, subject or artist you're most interested in from the categories below, or use the site search option. New videos are added every week!

The Art of Mistakes eBook

2015-12-31T08:04:00.000-08:00

Ideas That Are Unfamiliar, Zany and Seemingly Crazy

The following comes from a message I originally shared with our sister site, ClothPaperScissors.com. Download the featured eBook, plus many other digital art books, video workshop downloads, and art magazines for 30% off today at North Light Shop.

Many of us are trained from early on to give too much consideration to the opinion of others. It's not until we're adults that we realize we don't need someone else's permission to be unique. We often hold back, refraining from saying what we really want to say or do. I'll admit that there's absolutely a time and a place for restraint, but I don't think that time is in your art and self-expression.

Tapping into your art, and I mean YOUR art, involves finding out who you are and not being afraid to be different. I thrive on involvement with interesting people and things. One of my favorite questions to ask someone when we first meet is, "What do you love to do?" I don't care about the weather or traffic. Tell me what you breathe for.

Melanie Rothschild, artist and author of The Art of Mistakes: Unexpected Painting Techniques and the Practice of Creative Thinking, is here to reassure us all that, as she says, we're not going to get arrested if we push our own artistic boundaries and experiment. No one will chastise you.
Download The Art of Mistakes right to your computer!
Drips on Stripes by Melanie Rothschild (Pin this!)

"Understanding the nature of creativity helps us to embrace developing a wide spectrum of ideas--including the unfamiliar, the zany, the seemingly crazy, the never been done before, and an appreciation of certain mistakes," Melanie says. "You just never know what's going to spawn the germ of a thought that could be developed into something spectacular. And you don't want to cut off any ideas that could ultimately turn out to be the next opposable thumb. If ideas are tamped down in the very early stage when all the potentials are strewn about, the best of the bunch might be left out because of an assumption that 'it could never work.' Premature judgments are the antithesis of a creative mind-set. (Like this? Tweet it!)

"Grasping appreciation for the tremendous value in exploring ideas and respecting the function of play is crucial in developing a creative approach to thinking. For artists, it should not only be permission, but a downright insistence on trying out all kinds of possibilities with abandon. It's not just that it's allowed. It's more the case that it's essential.

"And this same principle of developing and tolerating a wild, crazy spectrum of ideas, again, applies not only to artists, but to anyone interested in creative thinking of any sort. Whether it's about arranging a way to get to the airport or coming up with the next tech sensation, generating and entertaining broad and imaginative possibilities are at the heart of a creative mindset." ~Melanie

One way to understand and appreciate creativity is to read about it. I have an entire shelf of books dedicated to the subject, and what's interesting is that every time I read one, I find myself coming up with new ideas. They're random, plentiful, sometimes winners, and sometimes duds, but I'd rather have too many ideas than not enough. I can't wait to see more of what Melanie has to say in The Art of Mistakes, so I can continue to tap into that wonderful wealth of inspiration.

Wishing you endless creativity in the new year,
Cherie Haas

Welcome to the Community! Cherie Haas
Online Editor, Artists Network
artistsnetwork.com

Discover great deals for artists, available instantly during the Digital Days Sale!

The fear of making mistakes in artwork is universal. Learn how to lose that fear with The Art of Mistakes!

You'll love this inspirational art book if:

You've struggled with fear of failure in your artwork
Mental roadblocks prevent you from finishing--or starting--your artwork
You want to learn how to turn mistakes into material for even better creations

This new title from Melanie Rothschild will teach artists and creatives of every skill level how to lose the fear of making a mistake. Part creativity book and part instruction, this book will teach you how to use creative step-by-steps as stepping stones, rather than rules set in stone. Learn to break the rules in your art and branch out in creative play and experimentation.

Mistakes often give us ideas we'd never conjure up deliberately. This book will teach you how to not only become comfortable with making mistakes, but how to let those mistakes propel your art toward success! After considering topics like why an art class can be a dangerous place and seeing the creative benefit in the act of play, you will be encouraged to try art-making techniques that encourage finding the benefits of mistakes. You will be given permission to use and find value in cheap materials and learn how to take creative thinking into other parts of your life.

Order your copy today and find:

16 painting techniques to encourage creative thinking and experimentation
Permission to make mistakes as you make art
Methods to discover how mistakes can serve your art and creativity

This is a must-read for seasoned artists and first-time creators alike. Maybe you have artistic impulses and desires but feel like you aren't one of the "chosen few" who can make art. Now you can learn ideas and painting techniques that show you a way of creative thinking that turn even your mistakes into beautiful works of art!

About the Author Author
Melanie Rothschild has sold her artwork, much of which was inspired by mistakes, in many stores and galleries throughout the US. She has a Masters of Science in the Study of Creativity and teaches workshops on the subject.
SKU U5671
Author/Speaker/Editor Melanie Rothschild
File Type PDF
Format eBook
ISBN 13 9781440311765

Forecasts From Artists, Dealers, Collectors, Curators,etc for ART 2016; Painting’s identity crisis?

2015-12-31T05:49:00.000-08:00

With an upheaval-filled 2015 coming to a close, we here at Artspace Magazine have compiled a poll of artists, curators, critics, and assorted far-flung experts from the art field on a fairly streamlined topic: What is the single most significant development in art (or the art market) that they will be following in 2016?

A big question, to be sure. To throw a few ideas in the hat, I ventured that I will personally be following:

– Painting’s identity crisis, and whether the market will embrace new figuration
– The use and ethical ramifications of animals in art
– The continuing penetration of so-called “speculative realism”
– How (or if) artists react to the spread of extremism and the new phenomenon of social-media terror
– The potential recuperation of early digital art into the market at some point!

In their predictions, the respondents gamely ranged from the optimistic to the doom-y, from the practical and programmatic to the rather far-fetched. A few commonalities, however, can be discerned from their answers—and, if they’re on target, it should make for an exciting year. Herewith, read what they had to say.

****

“The overdue embrace of historic artists of color, by curators, critics, and collectors, continues to be the story I will be following (and sharing) in 2016. Despite recent gains and buzz, there is still much work to do to acknowledge the contributions of African-American artists over the past 50 years, in particular Sam Gilliam and his peers, whose use of abstraction further challenged the politics of representation in the art world. Given the current visibility of racial violence and rampant xenophobia, there is no better time than this coming year to advance a more diversified history and future for art.” – David Kordansky, gallerist

“1. This year saw the national art press attempting intersectionality to challenge inequities and discussing, however flawed, racism and privilege in the art world. Regardless, little progress has been made in the newsrooms. The ethnic complexion of those editors, journos, and critics leading the conversation has remained the same: monochromatic. In the new year we hope to see the inclusion of POC editors and journos in positions of real power inside the publishing machine.

2. Experts are claiming Zombie Formalism is dead because it has been failing to gain new ground in the market. If that turns out to be the case, I believe serious collectors and flippers will turn their focus and cash to untapped and somewhat forgotten inventories of the so called "old but new" guard and middle-of-the-road artists with proven exhibition records and critical acclaim. Longevity and experience will be seen as an asset once again.

3. The frenzied colonization of Cuban art by the market.” – Pedro Vélez, artist and critic

“I think the most significant development in art in 2016 will be the entrance of Cuban art into the market.” – Nilani Trent, Trent Fine Art Advisor

“POLITICS.” – Deborah Kass, artist

“It will be interesting to see how the practice of rediscovering artists from the past will evolve or devolve. It’s been refreshing to see intergenerational group exhibitions following years dominated by the obsession for the next new thing, but if on the one hand this had the benefit of finally giving overlooked artists their dues, on the other hand the sudden critical and marketing consensus they have enjoyed after years in the dark makes you question the whole art system, its sense of zeitgeist, and its capability to assess the relevance of artists when in their prime.” – Michele Robecchi, curator and editor of the Phaidon Contemporary Artists series

“As an antidote to zombies, ‘Forever Now’s, and flippers, I’m interested in the way that queer and feminist artists are plumbing abstraction for its political potential—something Harmony Hammond proposed back in 1977 in the second-wave journal Heresies. These painters, sculptors, video artists, and photographers are showing us that while abstraction was (and now is, again) the Boys Club style du jour, it can also be fertile ground for radical and non-binary propositions. Audre Lorde may have said you can’t use ‘the master’s tools,’ but a lot of artists are making a pretty good case that you can.” — Ashton Cooper, writer and artist liaison at Maccarone Gallery

“I’ll follow any artist or curator who upsets the status quo. Are there any? And I’ll follow any artist or curator (or writer) who won’t sit idly by while the world spins out of control.” – Linda Yablonsky, writer and curator

“That the art world and indeed other worlds will make parity (of gender, background, belief) a mission. That artworks made in digital and live processes and mediums will start exerting some power in the commercial arena. That all art schools will become free. That prickly, political, power-hungry, egotistical, bullying art-world types will get a softening makeover. That museums and art institutions will flex their cultural, intellectual, and curatorial muscle—and start putting on great shows that lead our thoughts and aspirations and show us the unknown and magical.” — David Gryn, founding director of Daata Editions

“The most significant development in art that I will be following in 2016 is the relationship between museums and artists using performance, dance, and choreography. Following the full emancipation of immaterial capital and the current trading of human knowledge and feelings (whether conscious or unconscious), I am interested in how the institution is changing its policies in order to host and acquire works of art that are based on full immateriality.” – Nicola Trezzi, U.S. editor of Flash Art International and head of the Bezalel Academy of Art’s MFA program

“With large quantities of hope and trepidation, I will be following the efforts of art workers, including artists, to create and strengthen unions and other forms of collective bargaining. I’ll also be tracking the degree to which museums and alternative spaces make real efforts to compensate artists (through W.A.G.E. certification and other means) and employees adequately. As inequality worsens throughout the world, it would be nice if the art industry started living up to the ideals many would like to believe it embodies. On a related note, I’m looking forward to seeing which artists in 2016 follow Lucien Smith’s bold lead in collaborating with real estate developers. And on an unrelated note, I’m very pumped for the Museum of Modern Art’s Francis Picabia show.” – Andrew Russeth, co-executive editor of ARTnews

“I will be paying close attention to exchanges between the field of contemporary art and new discoveries in science and technology. Since well-rounded innovation reflects a porosity between art, science, and tech, I will be tracking art's status as a field of exploration and discovery. The intelligence of sensation at the heart of artistic inquiry is the missing link in the current scientific paradigm, which will need the embodied perspective of firsthand experience to take the next leaps in quantum physics and the science of the mind. The further convergence of these fields will expand our rigorous exploration of the nature of reality. I will be following the potential instances for aesthetic experience to inform new discoveries of phenomena in the universe. In its highest form, art not only critiques and expresses—it also explores.” – Lia Chavez, artist

“I’ll be looking at the development of artworks, and metaphors more generally, that try to deal with the advent of machine-learning and how the rise of 'smart cities,' self-driving cars, and ubiquitous sensors are redefining 'seeing' and 'perception' in an increasingly post-human world.” – Trevor Paglen, artist

“I’m looking most forward to more developments with artist video-game concepts after our recent collaboration with the game studio TwoDots. It's wonderful seeing artists work in the unexpected new contexts that technology innovation is enabling!” – Stacy Engman, Art Capsul curator

“The single most significant development in art that I will be following is ROBOTISM, aka robot-generated art!” – Hyatt Mannix, arts media relations specialist at Kickstarter

“I don't think anything has changed much in art, at least not radically, but I do feel there has been a passive shift toward observation rather than action in art, and I don't mean activism. My sense is that there has been a shift into passive waiting and outwardly observing the world to see the directions things go in. For me in particular, I am keenly watching the shift in environmental policy and the escalation of violence, two things that will eventually become linked closely.” — Jordan Wolfson, artist

“I look forward to seeing whether gallery- and museum-goers tire of Instagramming essentially interchangeable, lame-o pictures of themselves posing in/near photogenic art installations, or if artists begin to make works that are increasingly conducive to selfie-taking 'as a commentary on our narcissistic age/shallow social-media-constructed identities'/for the free publicity.” – Emma Allen, art scribe, panelist, and “Shouts & Murmurs” editor at the New Yorker

“Will the market continued to confuse opportunism for cultural imagination?” – Michelle Grabner, artist and professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago

“I think the art-fair bubble may have reached its zenith in 2015 and we’ll start to see increasing interest in alternative and hybrid models during 2016. These will start to move further and further away from the luxury trade-show style of event that has now saturated the entire annual calendar. The intensity of the current fair calendar, the stress, the risk—it’s all terribly exhausting for everyone involved, and each year seems to leave participants in an even deeper kind of existential void. Similar to what’s happened with movements like Slow Food, I’ll be watching carefully for hints of new models that don’t ignore the need for a healthy, sustainable market but that seek to build deeper, more democratic, and more satisfying relationships and experiences.” — Brett W. Schultz, co-founder of Mexico City’s Material Art Fair

“I’m excited to see the Los Angeles gallery landscape develop under a growing spotlight as Hauser Wirth & Schimmel and Sprüth Magers join Maccarone by opening major L.A. outposts early in the year.” – Ellen Swieskowski, founder of the See Saw app

“I am interested in the highly unlikely, potentially powerhouse collaboration, like when Whitney collaborated with Mariah, Brandy, with Monica; Larry Gagosian with Jeffery Deitch; the blue-chip with the mid-level and so on. I am also interested in alternative/satellite art communities and what they have to offer in relationship to cultural centers like New York, Chicago, L.A., Berlin, and so on.” – Kalup Linzy, artist

“I’m following the rise of the temporary alternative exhibition space, be it a closet, shop window, or the Newtown waterfront site.” – Patton Hindle, director of gallery and institutional partnerships at Artspace

“My work being sold for tens of millions of pounds. And/or Marc Quinn disappearing.”— Jeremy Deller, artist

“What will be the strategic implications of the profound and multiple management changes at Christie’s and Sotheby’s? Who will prevail in the multiple lawsuits between Yves Bouvier and Dmitri Rybolovlev? What art-market practices will the case reveal? Now that the money-laundering potential of freeports is clear, what will be the attitude of the public authorities supervising them? Who will come on top in the necessary distribution, displaying, transacting transformation of the video and digital art market among the different platforms aiming for this transformation? What will be the future of the mega-galleries losing their 70-plus-year-old founder (if it happens, of course)? Will Paddle8 or Auctionata or one of the big two auction houses take a firm lead in the online auction market? Who will prevail in the Simchovitz vs Ibrahim Mahama case?” – Alain Servais, collector

“How increasingly urgent geopolitical events—from the global climate crisis to ideological radicalization worldwide—will seep into the art world, as both artistic preoccupation and as business context.” — András Szántó, writer, teacher, and art consultant

“I think the political aspect of the world in general is something to take into consideration, including the huge amount of problems related to radicalism in Europe and the U.S. and the idea of further ghettoizing the 'other,' i.e. Arabs and Muslims. We hear so much about boycotts and the evils of certain regimes—for example with the death sentence of Ashraf Fayadh in Saudi Arabia—but so rarely do these international public figures in the art world try to engage with these situations and make a difference from within.” — Alia Al-Senussi, head of VIP Relations for the Middle East at Art Basel

“Although I don't necessarily understand art in terms of system-wide developments, I expect to think even more in 2016 about artists who employ directly personal content while managing to address broad political or philosophical subjects. I expect to be more aware than ever that artists are alive, and that they are always performing their identities and the conditions of their lives, whether they mean to or not. In a period defined by systems and information and distance, art feels more and more necessary to me as a vehicle for intimacy.” — Forrest Nash, founder of Contemporary Art Daily

“I will be watching to see how painting is further declared dead. I will also be watching the debate between abstract painting and figurative painting. One of them is always going up while the other is going down. In the meantime, I am going to stay in my studio and do my work no matter what anyone says about either of them.” — Betty Tompkins, artist

“I will be following the ripple effect of MoMA’s 'Picasso Sculpture' show on artists. Every so often there are large-scale historical exhibitions that have a resounding effect on artists, cleverly curated to provide meat for us to gnaw on for months as to how a historical artist’s ideas were groundbreaking then and prescient now. 'Picasso Sculpture' is such a show, providing a framework for reinvestigating Surrealism, and perhaps providing a formal environment to sift through the confusion of our intense political climate, as it did at the beginning of the 20th century.

Personally, Picasso's exhaustive exploration of heft and space incites me to tease sculptural mass out of my painting, something I've been doing peripherally, but this show kind of kicked my ass emphatically down that road. I see the Picasso effect in activity in friends' studios—in Michelle Segre's buoyant investigations of mass and fragility, in Carl D'Alvia's warped rhombi and 3-D animalier collages that look towards an uncertain futuristic demise, in Hillary Harnischfeger's carved 2-D/3-D spaces, and in Matthew Weinstein's ever-surreal animations.

"I’m also paying close attention to painters playing with forms and mass, as in Bill Adams’s dense drawings of animals flattened by surface, Tommy White's plaster works, Kaitlyn McDonough's minute painting cubes, and Carroll Dunham combining his formidable drawing skills into laser-cut 3-D clusters. I'm excited to see how this all plays out in 2016.” — Jackie Saccoccio, painter

“All kinds of art making interests us—figurative and abstract, analog and digital, intellectually challenging and easily accessible. The line between fine art and craft—particularly ceramics—has softened. It almost seems like anything goes as long as the artist is putting his or her essential self into the work. The rule is there are no rules. One of the most interesting exhibitions we saw recently was at the Jewish Museum called 'Unorthodox.' It included video, painting, sculpture, ceramics, et cetera, and featured both artists who went to art school and who didn't. Originality ruled. That's what we like, and expect to see more of in 2016.” — Joel and Zoe Dictrow, collectors

“I think the answer to that is really at the core of why we collect—we don’t know that answer. We’re on the street looking and learning, so that potentially we can answer that question, and I think there’s a danger in trying to identify themes or ideas too early. I think the process of investigation is what’s at the core of art collecting, and perhaps it’s the most interesting way to go about it. To try to lump things in a category too early is a mistake. The fun is to learn about as it’s happening, and make judgments and form feelings about new bodies of work.” — Thea Westreich Wagner, collector, patron, and founder of Thea Westreich Art Advisory Services

“The most significant goal for my gallery this year will be the same one we have pursued from the very beginning when I opened the gallery: striving to achieve equal success in terms of exposure, recognition, and price structure for all artists in my program, regardless of their gender or cultural background. Given the fact that, in a larger context, female artists in 2015 still have not received parity with their male counterparts, this is an area where we continue to make a concentrated effort to raise awareness.” — Suzanne Vielmetter, gallerist

“Collectors have many choices. There are a great deal of artists worth loving, and we buy what we love. However what we are watching and will continue to watch in 2016 is relative pricing. It concerns us that many younger artists have had their prices hiked well beyond what their CVs might suggest in terms of exhibitions and institutional support. This is unhealthy for the artist and the art market. If young artists and their galleries do not keep prices under control, then institutions will have difficulty buying in, and pricing will not correspond to CVs.

"We keep a close eye on relative pricing and have been and will continue to choose one great work by a mid-career artist who is in good collections and has institutional support over two works by a young artist who has been priced out of the game with regard to their CV. Also we will continue look for and collect work by great young artists who are represented by galleries that strive to place the works in good collections and institutions.” – Carole Server and Oliver Frankel, collectors

“I’m following two trends: the exodus of Chelsea galleries to the Lower East Side, and a secondary-market correction at the auction houses.” — Sue Stoffel, collector

“That art is now a luxury good—the prices are crazy. Eventually there will be a crash.” – Michael Hort, collector

“Price transparency in the art world.” – Magnus Resch, founder of Larry’s List and author of Management of Art Galleries

****BONUS SECTION****
Two respondents took my own areas of interest above as a springboard for commentary. Here is what they had to say.

DARREN BADER, ARTIST:

– Painting’s identity crisis, and whether the market will embrace new figuration

This is only an identity crisis for paranoid people.

– The use and ethical ramifications of animals in art

Hopefully some thought will be given to this. I've learned quite a bit from my uses of animals. Ethics is difficult to pin down (especially across cultures).

– The continuing penetration of so-called “speculative realism”

I’m not convinced art based on speculative realism would be distinguishable from most any art. Philosophy is not science, and neither is art.

– How (or if) artists react to the spread of extremism and the new phenomenon of social-media terror

They will, and it will likely be some of the more interesting art in the coming months/years.

– The potential recuperation of early digital art into the market at some point

Carol Greene will be one of the first?

JERRY SALTZ, ART CRITIC:

– Painting’s identity crisis, and whether the market will embrace new figuration

I was unaware that painting was in anymore of a co-called (!!) "identity crisis" as it has ever been! Really. And who the hell cares what the market will or won't "embrace"? We have no theory of the market therefore there is now way to even talk about it sensibly without getting depressed and sleepy. I think painting is breaking out all over. And doing pretty great of late. But I honestly do not know what this so-called "new figuration" is. It can't possibly be anyone not painting is ways that are called—wrongly, of course, in shorthand parlance—“abstract." All two-dimensional rendition of the world is by-nature abstract. The greatest imaged information technology ever developed—in the caves—by our species. "New figuration"! It makes my skin crawl.

– The use and ethical ramifications of animals in art

Fuck anyone raging against Gavin Brown's Enterprise for giving New York the tremendous gift of re-staging Jannis Kounellis’s great 1969 work of early Arte Povera Untitled (12 Horses). I wish that they'd worry about something a little closer to home. Or go ahead: Protest a 1969 art work for not meeting your high humanistic standards.

– The continuing penetration of so-called “speculative realism”

I must really be out of it! As with the first term "New Figuration," I can't say that I have a clear idea about what is meant by "Speculative Realism.” Like Cave paintings? Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie? Chris Burden's Shoot? Or just ZoFo?

– How (or if) artists react to the spread of extremism and the new phenomenon of social-media terror

I thought that the cinema-in-the-expanded-field of Hito Steyerl was pretty riveting and harrowing. I don't think that it has anything to do with your question, "spread of extremism and the new phenomenon of social-media terror."

– The potential recuperation of early digital art into the market at some point

What the fuck is this supposed to mean? The market recuperation for "early digital art"? I am really out of it. Early digital art? #Seurat #Monet #vanGogh? Give me a drawing by van Gogh or Seurat and I'll show you the recuperation of "early digital art.”

20 of the World’s Masterpieces to See in 2016

2015-12-31T05:19:00.000-08:00

20 of the World’s Masterpieces to See in 2016

How many of the world’s art masterpieces can you say that you’ve seen in person? As we turn to 2016, we resolve to do more traveling, with an eye to experiencing the most spectacular, awe-inspiring artworks on the planet. Here we’ve compiled our top twenty destinations to visit to experience humanity’s creative genius from ancient times to modern history.

How many of the world’s art masterpieces can you say that you’ve seen in person? As we turn to 2016, we resolve to do more traveling, with an eye to experiencing the most spectacular, awe-inspiring artworks on the planet. Here we’ve compiled our top twenty destinations to visit to experience humanity’s creative genius from ancient times to modern history.

The Gold Mask of Tutankhamun, on display in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Photo: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen.

Burial Mask of Tutankhamun, 1323 BCE
Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Egypt

One of the quintessential works of ancient Egyptian art, King Tutankhamun’s burial mask was constructed from 11 kilograms of gold, with inlays of gemstones. Along with the Pyramids and the Great Sphinx in Giza, and the other marvels of Egyptian antiquity at the Egyptian Museum, this spectacular artifact is a must-see.
Nazca Lines, Peru. Photo: Dom Crossley.

Nazca Lines, 500 BCE – 500 CE
Nazca Desert, Peru

Only truly viewable from above, the Nazca geoglyphs are believed to be ancient messages intended for the gods in the sky, and perhaps as sacred trails to be walked. The Nazca made hundreds of figures, with the largest measuring over 660 feet across.

Elgin Marbles at the British Museum. Photo: Andrew Dunn.

Elgin Marbles, 447-438 BCE
British Museum, London, UK
Acropolis, Athens, Greece

The only way to truly appreciate the stolen beauty of the Parthenon Marbles is to see them both in the British Museum, and to see the site from where they were taken, the Acropolis in Athens. The dispute about where they belong is ongoing.

Terracotta Army, Xi’an, China. Photo: Walter Wilhelm.

Terracotta Army, 246-209 BCE
Xi’an, China

Over 8,000 life-size terracotta military figures were buried with Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. The sheer greatness of the endeavor is all but unfathomable, and the impression it leaves is formidable, to say the least.

Sleeping Buddha, Ajanta Caves. Photo: Kirk Kittell.

Ajanta Caves, 200 BCE - 480 CE
Maharashtra, India

Abandoned for more than a thousand years, some of the oldest and finest of all Buddhist art can be found in the Ajanta Caves, near Mumbai, within 28 caves containing stone-carved statues and mural paintings.

Bonampak Mural, room 3, depicting ritual celebration for victory in battle. Photo: Mando Barista.

Bonampak Murals, 580-800 CE
Chiapas, Mexico

While there are more architecturally impressive Mayan ruins, Bonampak offers the most impressive and intriguing murals. Within its three rooms, bloody depictions of war and ritual cover the walls from floor to ceiling.

Zhang Zeduan, Along the River During the Qingming Festival (detail), ca. 1080-1120.

Zhang Zeduan, Along the River During the Qingming Festival, ca. 1080-1120
Palace Museum, Beijing, China

The Palace Museum, located in Beijing’s Forbidden City, holds the great masterpieces of Chinese painting, including the original 12th century five-meter-long epic painting by Zhang Zeduan—a work of such great renown and the subject of so many remakes, it is known as “China’s Mona Lisa.”

Christ Pantocrator, Monreale, Palermo. Photo: Per-Erik Skramstad / Wonders of Sicily.

Christ Pantocrator, ca. 1170-1189
Monreale Cathedral, Sicily, Italy

This Byzantine-style Christ Pantocrator is, by many accounts, the most magnificent and terrifying of its kind. Gazing up from below, the figure looms 20 meters above the viewer, the curve of the nave exaggerating Christ’s outstretched arms in an omnipotent embrace.

Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, 1482-85.

Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, 1482-85
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy

If you can only visit one repository of Renaissance art, the Uffizi Gallery should top your list. Along with Botticelli’s exquisite Birth of Venus, it holds Caravaggio’s Bacchus, Judith and Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi, the Venus of Urbino by Titian, and many other masterpieces.

Hieronymus Bosch, Garden of Earthly Delights, 1490-1510.

Hieronymus Bosch, Garden of Earthly Delights, 1490-1510
Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain

The Prado contains many masterworks by Goya, Velazquez, and others, but perhaps the most intriguing is Hieronymus Bosch’s greatest masterpiece. Bosch’s proto-Surrealist triptych constitutes one of the greatest testaments to the human imagination, a painting that has inspired scores of artists since.

Leonardo Da Vinci, The Last Supper, 1494-98.

Leonardo Da Vinci, Last Supper, 1494-98
Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan, Italy

Leonardo’s ultra-famous fresco is located in a quiet rectory in a small convent in Milan. Its humble surroundings notwithstanding, being in the presence of this in situ masterpiece is awe-inspiring.

Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel Ceiling. Photo: Mazda Hewitt.

Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel, 1508-1512
Vatican City, Italy

You’re already very familiar with certain details of the Sistine Chapel, but nothing can prepare you for the experience of gazing up at the entire thing. It is positively crowded with masterful figures, and is especially impressive since its restoration. Not to mention that the chapel also holds masterpieces by Botticelli, Perugino, and other Renaissance greats.

The interior side of the dome of the Sheikh Lotf-Allah mosque in Isfahan, Iran. Photo: Phillip Maiwald.

Sheikh Lotf-Allah Mosque, 1603-19
Isfahan, Iran

In a city brimming with jewel-like mosques, this 17th century mosque is truly one of the masterpieces of Persian architecture. While structurally simple, it boasts some of the most impressive, intricate interior and exterior ornamental decoration in the Islamic world. The celestial gold symmetry of the dome inspired many other works of Islamic art, including the famous Ardabil Carpet in the collection of the V&A in London.

Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Bay of Baiae, with Apollo and the Sibyl, 1823. Courtesy of the Tate Britain.

J.M.W. Turner Collection, 1792-1845
Tate Britain, London, UK

The world’s largest collection of Turner’s work is held at the Tate Britain, comprising over 300 paintings featuring the master’s signature atmospherics and sweeping landscapes, which would inspire countless artists after him.

Théodore Géricault, The Raft of the Medusa, 1818-19.

Théodore Géricault, The Raft of the Medusa, 1818-19
Louvre Museum, Paris, France

The Louvre holds some of the world’s most iconic masterpieces: the Mona Lisa, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Venus de Milo. But perhaps none of these are as physically astounding as Géricault’s masterwork of Romanticism.

Claude Monet’s garden in Giverny, France. Photo: David Alexander Elder.

Monet’s Garden, 1883-1926
Giverny, France

Claude Monet lived for 43 years at Giverny, and considered his flower garden and water garden as works of art in their own right. Visiting Monet’s home is a must for any lover of Impressionism, where you can take in not only Monet’s great works of art, but also masterworks of Japanese art, including Katsushika Hokusai’s famous print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa.

Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893.

Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893
National Gallery, Oslo, Norway

An icon of modern art and one of the first examples of Expressionism, Munch’s oft-stolen painting The Scream counts as one of the most influential masterpieces in history. More Munch can be had in Oslo at the dedicated Munch Museum, which also holds a later version of the painting.

Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937. Courtesy Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.

Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937
Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain

Picasso painted his epic protest painting Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, and refused to show the painting in Spain until democracy was once again established in the country. It arrived in Spain in 1981, after Franco’s death, and by then had become one of the most iconic anti-war works of art in history.

Interior of the Rothko Chapel. Courtesy of the Rothko Chapel. Photo: Hickey-Robertson.

Rothko Chapel, 1964-1971
Houston, Texas, USA

Mark Rothko wished for his paintings to elicit a deeply emotional response—a “religious experience”—within the viewer. To that end, the Rothko Chapel, a site-specific, meditative space lined with paintings of a deep black-mauve color, is the ideal place to experience this modern master’s work.

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1970. Photo: Denny Mont.

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1970
Rozel Point, Utah, USA

Half of the experience of visiting Robert Smithson’s iconic land art piece Spiral Jetty is in the journey it takes to get there. Protruding from a desolate side of Utah’s Great Salt Lake, the spiral evokes the primordial within an alien landscape of pink water, white salt crystals, and the rusted out remnants of nearby defunct mining operations. A pilgrimage every contemporary art lover should make.

—Natalie Hegert

MutualArt.com is a revolutionary online art information service which covers the world of art by collecting content about events, venues, artists, articles and auctions from thousands of web sites.
YOU MIGHT ALSO BE INTERESTED IN
15 Best Retrospectives of 2015
15 Best Retrospectives of 2015
10 Upcoming Auction Lots
10 Upcoming Auction Lots
Carolee Schneemann: Kinetic Painting
Carolee Schneemann: Kinetic Painting
Roberto Coin Centro Pois Moi
Sponsored
Roberto Coin Centro Pois Moi
(Robb Report)
15 Best Retrospectives of 2015
10 Upcoming Auction Lots
Carolee Schneemann: Kinetic Painting
Roberto Coin Centro Pois Moi
Recommended by

ARTISTS
VENUES
Hieronymus Bosch
Sandro Botticelli
Caravaggio
Artemisia Gentileschi
Jean Louis André Théodore Géricault
Katsushika Hokusai
Michelangelo
Claude Monet
Edvard Munch
Pablo Picasso
Mark Rothko
Robert Smithson
Titian
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Zhang Zeduan

Biggest Art Auction Houses Are Adapting to internet market

2015-12-30T21:32:00.000-08:00

As we all become increasingly inseparable from our screens, it’s no surprise that auction houses are devoting more energy and resources than ever to capturing audiences—and bids—online. Art collectors of all stripes (and generations) are browsing online catalogs, registering to bid online, and placing bids via apps and websites—and not just on middle-market items. So catering to a clientele that would rather scroll and tap than pick up a phone or raise a paddle is now a core component of any forward-thinking auction house’s business strategy.

With the U.S. Department of Commerce reporting e-commerce sales at $83.9 billion in the second quarter of 2015—up around 14% from the same period last year—it’s not just seasoned buyers who the houses are trying to reach; it’s all of the potential collectors out there who might not consider purchasing an artwork if they couldn’t do it from their laptop or iPad. According to 2014’s annual TEFAF Art Market Report, online art sales reached roughly $3.3 billion last year, a year-over-year 32% increase from 2013. Artsy checked in with the Big Three brick-and-mortar auction houses—Phillips, Sotheby’s, and Christie’s—to see where their ever-evolving digital strategies are taking them.

Phillips

Phillips has seriously stepped up its game over the past year or so, investing in its own digital infrastructure rather than farming out its e-commerce initiatives to firms like Live Auctioneers. This fall, the firm officially launched its digital saleroom, where bidders can live-stream brick-and-mortar sales and bid in real-time through the auction house’s own website. This past fall, the house also introduced its mobile component, an iOS app that bidders can use via iPhones and iPads for all aspects of the process. “We’ve seen a nice uptick in registrations for sales since launching the app,” says Megan Newcome, Director of Digital Strategy at Phillips. “This season, we’ve seen almost $9 million in total sales through our digital saleroom platform—that’s combined for online and mobile sales,” she says. “The number of clients who registered to bid online increased 120% over the same period last year. 41% of online participants were new to Phillips.”

A deal with eBay, announced in September, is also aimed at helping in that department. So far Phillips has held six sales (contemporary art, photography) via eBay, but hopes to eventually put sales across the categories of Fine Art, Editions, Design, and Watches and Jewelry on the online auction giant’s site. (It’s worth noting that eBay is not yet equipped to handle the bureaucratic details of live auctions outside of the U.S. yet.) While Phillips hasn’t launched timed, online-only auctions yet, “they are definitely part of our roadmap,” says Newcome, who stresses that they don’t plan to limit objects offered on eBay or in future online-only sales to lower-value or middle-market items. “That stigma that online-only is for lower value, more approachable property is very much changing,” she says.

Recent online bid

In Phillips’s Contemporary Evening Sale in London this fall, one of Richard Prince’s Instagram inkjet paintings, Untitled (portrait) (2014), sold for £98,500 (around $150,000) to a collector bidding via Phillip’s website. A sale this past month in the Hong Kong Watches auction brought $2.4 million in online sales.

While Sotheby’s hasn’t been as quick as its competitors to roll out online-only auctions or mobile bidding apps, the house has been eagerly exploring different routes to reach new bidders. Earlier this month it became the first major auction house to have an app on the new Apple TV, with five channels devoted to everything from artists to luxury goods to live-streamed sales. Meanwhile, the auction house’s collaboration with eBay launched in April with a Sotheby’s channel on eBay’s Collectibles & Art section, conceived as a platform for live-streaming real-time auctions happening in the saleroom, specifically those offering property at the $1,000 to $25,000 price point—one that might appeal more to eBay’s audience.

Sotheby’s isn’t revealing any data yet regarding sales via that platform, but one of the inaugural collaborative sales last spring, “Photographs,” on April 1, brought in $5.17 million for 188 lots (versus around $4 million for 186 in Phillips’s “April Photographs” sale in 2014), and several meaty sales came through eBay. Since early December last year, Sotheby’s has seen a 65% increase in online bidders, a 41% increase in online buyers, and a 47% increase in lots sold online. Two online-only sales (held in real-time but with no brick-and-mortar component—something relatively new for Sotheby’s) this past fall both sold 99% by value or more.

As for timed, rather than live, online-only auctions, the house teamed up with Artsy for its first foray into that field. Organized by Sotheby’s and hosted on Artsy from October 22 through October 30, the sale, titled “Input/Output,” featured a selection of contemporary works that showcase digital culture and technologies, from Instagram to 3D modeling. Artists ranging from Robert Longo and Christopher Wool to Cai Guo-Qiang and Wade Guyton were specifically targeted for consignment, in part with the help of Artsy’s data-driven insights on collecting patterns, from price points to types of work.
Priciest online bid:

A platinum and diamond ring from the “April Magnificent Jewels” sale in New York fetched $3.25 million from a collector bidding via the Sotheby’s website.

Christie’s

The Most Important Art Essays of the Year

2015-12-28T00:22:00.000-08:00

This time last year, my editor asked me to put together a list of the most important essays of 2014, and I drew a blank.

I asked around. By far the most common answer I got from peers was, "Nothing comes to mind." Even the professionals, who've got their eyes glued to this stuff like Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange, have trouble keep track amid the digital crush of "content."

In the end, I culled a list of essays from last year that I thought were worth bookmarking. Still, the exercise made me think about the value of reflecting on what is worth saving. So this year I've tried to write a column each month remarking on some of the writings that I liked from around the web (I miss a lot of stuff that's only available in print, I know, but I want to at least provide a resource that artnet News readers can use).

While I can't say that I've even come near to picking through the volume of material produced each month, I can say that every time I engage in the exercise, I discover gems that I would have missed otherwise, like Esther Honig's article about the price of having art go viral in the great New Orleans website Pelican Bomb, or new publications that are doing fascinating work, like BMore Art from Baltimore or Infinite Mile from Detroit.

Below, a few of the essays that I'm still thinking about at the end of the year.
Illuminator Guggenheim Gulf Labor

The Illuminator's projection on the Guggenheim Museum.
Courtesy the Illuminator.

1. “Almost one third of solo shows in US museums go to artists represented by just five galleries" by Julia Halperin, The Art Newspaper
Halperin's exercise in data journalism (with data analysis via Nilkanth Patel), is based on 600 exhibitions at 68 museums. It turned up the outsized presence of Gagosian Gallery, Pace, Marian Goodman Gallery, David Zwirner, and Hauser & Wirth. What this bias means is more controversial, but this article definitely got people talking about the conveyor belt that connects inequalities within the market to those at the museums.

Key passage:

In the run-up to a major solo show, galleries often provide curators with access to archival images, pay shipping costs, pre-order hundreds of catalogues and help to finance the opening reception, according to sources. “If a major museum is flirting with a show, we'll play ball as much as we have to," says one director of a medium-sized US gallery.

Amy Lien and Enzo Camacho, Nipple Stimulation 2 (2014), one of the subjects of Chris Kraus's essay on art schoolImage: Courtesy 47 Canal

Amy Lien and Enzo Camacho, Nipple Stimulation 2 (2014), one of the subjects of Chris Kraus's essay on art school.
Image: Courtesy 47 Canal.

2. “Chris Kraus on the Ambiguous Virtues of Art School" by Chris Kraus, Artspace
Kraus, the author of I Love Dick, is a legend in her time. This essay (an except from Phaidon's collection of essays about art school, Akademie X: Lessons in Art + Life) shows why, merging personal anecdote, theory, and political reflection. Kraus's theory that contemporary art has become the lint trap for culture, catching scraps from other disciples and fusing them into a new substance (my formulation), made this the essay that I recommended to people most this year.

Key passage:

One of art criticism's great limitations is its inability to look beyond its own context and language. Why would young people enter a studio art program to become teachers and translators, novelists, archivists, and small business owners? Clearly, it's because these activities have become so degraded and negligible within the culture that the only chance for them to appear is within contemporary art's coded yet infinitely malleable discourse.

Containers in the yard of Natural Le Coultre, Ports Francs, Geneve. Photo: Hito Steyerl. Image courtesy of e-Flux.

Containers in the yard of Natural Le Coultre, Ports Francs, Geneve.
Photo: Hito Steyerl. Image courtesy of e-flux.

3. “Duty-Free Art" by Hito Steyerl, e-Flux Journal
Like Kraus, Steyerl is tough to categorize; her free-form, sharply critical writing and her disorienting and erudite video essays form parts of a whole. In this piece (originally commissioned as an address at Artists Space) she looks at the free port—tax-free havens where art is stored—as a metaphoric lens through which to look at contemporary art amid the instability and chaos of the year.

Key passage:

The freeport contains multiple contradictions: it is a zone of terminal impermanence; it is also a zone of legalized extralegality maintained by nation-states trying to emulate failed states as closely as possible by selectively losing control. Thomas Elsaesser once used the term “constructive instability" to describe the aerodynamic properties of fighter jets that gain decisive advantages by navigating at the brink of system failure. They would more or less “fall" or “fail" in the desired direction. This constructive instability is implemented within nation-states by incorporating zones where they “fail" on purpose. Switzerland, for example, contains “245 open customs warehouses," enclosing zones of legal and administrative exception. Are this state and others a container for different types of jurisdictions that get applied, or rather do not get applied, in relation to the wealth of corporations or individuals? Does this kind of state become a package for opportunistic statelessness?

A snow globe, sole as part of Jeff Weiss's "Prometheus" project

A snow globe, sole as part of Jeff Weiss's "Prometheus" project
Photo: Courtesy Jeff Weiss

4. “The Ghost of Prometheus: A Long-Gone Tree and the Artist Who Resurrected Its Memory" by Carolina Miranda, The Los Angeles Times
This one made it to the front page of the LA Times, which is a rare achievement for an art story—particular one like this, that is neither about money nor scandal, but about art pursued as a pure intellectual passion. The specific subject is Jeff Weiss, whose tribute to Promentheus, a 5,000-year-old bristlecone pine that was felled in the name of science, becomes also a salute to the pungent realms of art that still persist at the fringes.

Key passage:

There aren't too many people in the art world like Weiss. Wiry, charismatic and voluble, he's an artist who knows a lot of people yet chooses to occupy the fringes. A former art professor (he's taught at UCLA and the Rochester Institute of Technology), he's been exhibited in galleries and museums over a five-decade career. But these days, at the age of 72, he doesn't have much interest in a system he feels has become relentlessly commercial.

"I don't do galleries," he says, "and I don't 'show.'"

His venue of choice is the Galley, the 80-year-old Santa Monica bar and grill known for its exuberant seafaring theme of fishnets and pufferfish lighting fixtures. It was at the Galley where Weiss and several friends he dubs his "accomplices" planned the remembrance ceremony for the "Prometheus Project."

Sesshu Foster
Image: via www.poetryfoundation.org

Sesshu Foster
Image: via www.poetryfoundation.org

5. “How is the artist or writer to function (survive and produce) in the community, outside of institutions?" by Sesshu Foster, East Los Angeles Dirigible Transport Lines
Foster stirred things up this year, causing debate with his criticism of the “Made In LA" biennial, and being dubbed by Al-Jazeera as the “the poet laureate of a vanishing neighborhood." This long poem amounts to a personal manifesto about class, race, and creativity in a gentrifying city.

Key passage:

You, young artist, young writer. Go anywhere you like. But know that a community was there before you—this land was not a magically unpeopled wilderness to be colonized but a place of history, secrets, struggles, heroes and issues. What made it a community was not magic, but labor. Maybe if your labor and your work relates to them, if your aesthetic process is open to that community, your work will not be superfluous. Your work might be useful. You may not have to suddenly flee, like a tourist from the off-season. As an artist or writer anywhere, you'll need community to survive. Your community-building not only helps you survive, it helps you produce.

José León Cerrillo, Speculation Table #3 (detail) (2013)
Image: via canopycanopycanopy.com

José León Cerrillo, Speculation Table #3 (detail) (2013)
Image: via canopycanopycanopy.com

6. “A Note on the Long Tomorrow," Sarah Resnick, Triple Canopy
Utopia was a theme of the year (see also science fiction author China Miéville's terrific "The Limits of Utopia" in Salvage or my own "Art and the Ecological" from the Miami Rail). Resnick's lovely, discursive essay on the despairing tone of cultural theory and the false utopias of Silicon Valley is well worth reading as a summary of the intellectual moment. Even better, it is the pendant to Triple Canopy's archive of "Speculations" about the future by celebrated thinkers and artists, organized at MoMA PS1 last year.

For fans of the future, there's a lot to read.

Key passage:

I had no interest in pathologizing technology or innovation, which struck me as yet another form of resignation, but I was bothered by the notion that the future was being designed by a small subset of the population, dominated by recent graduates of elite engineering programs, that seemed to harbor little interest in the potential contributions of the rest of us. They employed a specialized language to describe their future, which excluded anyone who isn't an engineer or coder…. I read these elated tweets and the blogs congratulating their authors and felt disempowered. At the same time, surveying Silicon Valley's reveries suggested that constructing images of alternative worlds has an essential social function, and that it can symbolize—even determine—the agency of the constructors.

AIDS-3D's OMG Obelisk in the New Museum TriennialImage: Courtesy New Museum

AIDS-3D's OMG Obelisk in the New Museum Triennial
Image: Courtesy New Museum

7. "Q/A Nik Kosmas: "Why did you decide to end your career as a young and successful visual artist?" by Nik Kosmas, Spike
Perhaps the most interesting verdict yet on "post-Internet art," from Kosmas, formerly one half of the hot art collective AIDS-3D, who has decided to leave the art world behind altogether.

Key passage:

As a member of the collective AIDS-3D, I belonged to that genre of art called Post-Internet, which had something to do with “discussing the digital lifestyle and implications …". At first we did this with a witch-house post-apocalyptic tech-dystopia flavor, but then this evolved into projects like The Jogging and a lot of sculptures of running shoes, water droplets, and lots of cheap stuff stacked or melted on top of each other and sold in big editions for €3k-12k. I just didn't think there was a point or a respectable future in endlessly critiquing or arrogantly joking about innovations coming from other fields.

2014-july-9-marina-adidas-2

Marina Abramović.
Photo: © 2014 Patrick McMullan Company, Inc.

8. “Taking the Measure of Sexism: Facts, Figures, and Fixes" by Maura Reilly, ARTnews
In May, ARTnews editor-in-chief Sarah Douglas launched a special issue on feminism in the art industry, featuring thoughts on the subject from a wide swath of female artists. Curator and writer Maura Reilly's centerpiece, summarizing the statistics around gender parity in the market, biennials, galleries, and more, will be a reference point on the subject for some time to come.

Key passage:

The common refrain that “women are treated equally in the art world now" needs to be challenged. The existence of a few superstars or token achiever—like Marina Abramovic, Tracey Emin, and Cindy Sherman—does not mean that women artists have achieved equality. Far from it.

Guggenheim Museum in BilbaoPhoto: Wikemedia Commons

Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao
Photo: Wikemedia Commons

9. “Toward a Museum of the 21st Century" by Holland Cotter, The New York Times
Cotter lays out the demands that a contemporary art museum would have to answer, and proposes that a "21st-century paradigm" is missing.

Key passage:

Museums like the Met are themselves grand history-writing-and-editing machines. Spectacle is built into them. But if they're going to become 21st-century institutions, they're also going to have to function in the mode of university teaching museums. Experimental—interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, self-critical, heterodox—approaches to art will have to be tried out if an audience for history, which is only as alive as our sense of investment in it, is not to be lost.

Amalia UlmanPhoto via: @amaliaulman Instagram

Amalia Ulman.
Photo via: @amaliaulman Instagram.

10. “Women on the Verge" by Johanna Fateman, Artforum
A vibrant and well-observed survey of the debates, doubts, and artistic strategies informing a generation of female artists whose formative experiences have come via social media culture.

Key passage:

If to put an image of one's body on the Internet is to frame it with the apparatus of porn, to lose control of its circulation, and to expose oneself to the cultural anxiety, sexist scrutiny, and confounding hostility that attend the gesture, then what's the way forward? There's no single path, of course. But in many of the standout works that have emerged from this scene, young women—in registers of resignation or defiance, didactically or through performing the intertwinements of “sexuality, innocence, darkness, complacency"—seem to pull off the paradoxical feat of taking back their images at the very moment of surrender.

Artist's statement creating the context to interact with your art

2015-12-26T09:00:00.000-08:00

Many tools to create an intersubjective and universal frame of reference to make sense of any art exist., for example art history, labels such as expressionism, impressionism, modern art, contemporary art, Fine art, Visual Arts, Northern Baroque Art, minimalist, post-minimalist, anti-art, anti-anti-art, New Aesthetics, new media, etc and 'art speak" .

Here are three articles , as examples of the latter -

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/jan/27/users-guide-international-art-english

Why do so many galleries use such pompous, overblown prose to describe their exhibits? Well, there's now a name for it: International Art English. And you have to speak it to get on. Andy Beckett enters the world of waffle.

https://canopycanopycanopy.com/issues/16/contents/international_art_english

International Art English
by Alix Rule & David Levine
On the rise—and the space—of the art-world press release.

“International Art English” was produced by Triple Canopy as part of its Research Work project area, supported in part by the Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

How to Speak Artspeak (Properly)

A new guide decodes 146 essential buzzwords, movements, and trends of the postwar art world. How many do you know?

http://www.artnews.com/2013/10/31/how-to-speak-artspeak-properly/

Your own art statement forms part of the above, attempting to create a general frame of reference for others to make sense of your art - in the way you wish them to interpret it. But your statement forms part of the discourse of art history and 'art speak' (universal or more localized versions) and tries to create the context in which others can dialogue and interact with and make sense of your art.

When reading art statements, catalogues accompanying exhibitions, how galleries, art dealers, curators, critics, reviewers and the media describe art it often seems as if they are not trying to assist one to understand work referred to as they become obstacles instead of aids assisting one to interact with the work.

A few words on one aspect of the social event when someone interacts with a work of art. Talcott Parsons and Juergen Habermas described in detail the so-called single and double contingencies involved in dyadic social interaction. One aspect concerns the assumption that the two individuals involved can 'understand' each other and to be able to do this they will share at least certain things that enable them to have some sort of shared frame of reference. For someone to interact meaningfully with a work of art (as the other ) it is necessary that some sort of common frame of reference and understanding exist and that is shared by the viewer as represented, depicted and expressed by the work of art. Many examples when this was not the case exist in the history of art. We are especially aware of such situations exist in modern and contemporary art, for example first vernissages of Impressionist work, the bed of Tracy Ermin, the shark etc of Hirst, etc. It might be the case that this failure by art work to interact meaningfully with viewers existed in the history of art and that we are only aware of more recent situations because of modern mass media.

https://youtu.be/ostkJpJlUXg

I feel visual art should speak for itself and if I need to explain an individual work in words then I could have written an article, a poem, short story, press statement, etc instead of using visual media and visual communication. This would be the ideal situation where all all individuals share the one, social, cultural background and universal frame of reference and understanding, interests, values, attitudes and norms. This obviously is not the case and this is the reason why I attempt to create some form of mutual context and frame of reference in which to interact with my own work and art process to those who are new to them by phrases such as the following - minimalist, post- minimalist, postmodern, aesthetic research and experimental exploration of aspects of the Western tradition of Fine Art and more specifically the genre of painting.

Such phrases do not replace the visual work, that always consist of explorations by working in series, in which I try to be authentic and true to myself at each state of the process. Their purpose is not to label my work but merely to propose some kind of loose, common frame of reference for the work and the viewer to approach, make sense of and understand it. Of course the painter cannot compel anyone to view, make sense of and interpret work in a certain way because when he has completed the work it is out of his/her hands and it became an object in the public domain. Perhaps in the same way as we make statements about ourselves, my SELF, by presenting or appearing in public dressed and behaving in a certain manner - how our presentation of Self is viewed and interpreted is out of our hands and it depends on the perception and frame of reference of interpretation and understanding (or cognition), values and attitudes of others we come across and interact with.