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Welcome
Thanks for joining the Philadelphia #class blog. We created it as a forum to discuss some of the topics we would like to talk about during our panel discussion in New York. Feel to bring up new topics or respond to other people's thoughts.
One topic that could be discussed follows the idea that contemporary art is dead, put forth by the art wake via artblahg. I disagree with this idea but I think that it could be worth discussing why.
ReplyDeleteOr we could discuss what its like to live/work as an artist/organization in a second tier city. For instance without a healthy commercial market, how does one determine value and or further one's career? Does this lack of market influence the actual making of art? How much influence should government have in supporting artists, therefore determining value? Is Philadelphia destined to become a sort of weigh station/ proving ground for transient artists/gallerists who must look to and eventually move to NYC? ie Ryan Tercartin, Johnathan Levine (SP?) ?
These are the first ideas that I have off the top of my head. I hope someone will jump in with some other ideas!
Or Maybe, whether micro grants or locally supported arts funding are a profitable way to supporting emerging artists?
ReplyDeletehttp://americancity.org/buzz/entry/1971/
If so, how would these two models alter the nature of making art and does this democratization water down artistic vision?
Or, what does the recently instituted blind nomination process for Pew mean?...for emerging artists, non-profits, nominators, potential nominators, commercial galleries, mid-career artists? academics? curators? the Pew program itself? Who wins, who loses?
ReplyDeleteMany would say that there's very little thats actually 'Avant-garde' in contemporary art, if so then what are contemporary artists doing? Why does the public have such a distanced relationship to it?
ReplyDeleteOk, I'm going to start form the top and hopefully be able to work my way down.
ReplyDeleteIs contemporary art dead? Artblahg should try to be clearer about what they mean by dead. Do they mean art is dead or that the practice is dead-like. What I mean is do they believe that there is nothing to be gained from the making and discussing of art or is it that art is dead and we are just repeating moments in art in a kind of virtual or simulated way - like an echo of something that used to be but is no longer with us?
Ok, gonna move to the next question about working in Philadelphia as an artist. I think as you suggest ben that Philly is a kind of weigh station or proving ground for artists before they can make things work in NY has always been true and can't really change. Its proximity to NY hinders Phillys ability to keep artists in the city and not to mention the lose of Penn. Council of the Arts and now that the Pew is by nomination only there is a glass ceiling in this city and if an artist shows at all the right places they can hit that ceiling very quickly, in a sense there is not as much support and fewer things that might be new or interesting. That said, I think its really up to the artists to push things forward at least when it comes to making things more interesting i.e. curating shows, putting together events etc. In regards to money, that's always going to be a problem. One thing I do value here is that I've had some meaningful dialogue with artists and curators in discussing works of art - I've been able to grow here without the pressure of a market. There's no rush, its a different energy here, but when your looking to change that energy its time to find it elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteOk the last statement: What happened to the Avant-garde' in Contemporary Art? My understanding was that certain but not all strains of postmodern practices were in opposition to modernism so they needed to reject some of the precepts of what the avant-garde stood for. That said, there was been a renewed interest in modernism and I think those more avant-garde aspects in works of art are making a return but they are deflated. What I mean by deflated is that there is a kind of celebration of failure.
ReplyDeleteOther activities of contemporary production that have been on the radar screen for a while are relational aesthetics, sensationalism, and alt-modernism is still something that is being explored among other things but this is another conversation.
The publics distance from contemporary art is that they don't feel like they are being included in the conversation of what art is. Part of the problem is that contemporary art intersects many different areas of knowledge that your average person is not well rounded enough to engage. To my experience and knowledge art is something that you are either exposed to early on in school or through parental influence - sometimes that is not always the case, but we live in a culture that in my opinion values commodity and not the experience for the sake of reflection. Another problem is that media has replaced going to the museum (people used to go to the museums for entertainment-this has not been the case for a long time). I think that curators have it tough when trying to figure out how to keep people coming back its not easy. Art in public school is something that is also a problem - many schools do not have art or even art history, we have George Bush II to thank for that.
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