Context Is Analysis

Art has always been supported by institutions and wealthy patrons. From the Medici family during the 15th Century to Gertrude Stein efforts in helping Pablo Picasso as a struggling artist. And certainly without the aid of Mrs. Stein, Picasso’s “Les Demoiselles d Avignon“ would not exist. Contemporary art today has taken a completely  different role in that it behaves more as an asset value than a work of art, in relation to market trends and devaluation.

Artsy and the recently new Amazon venture art.com are two notable examples. Contemporary art now exist within the global digital context of commodities and exchange for the acquisition of corporate value. Artist create within the confines of the studio and its up to the market to define its value. A new wave of “cool kids” are part of the buying and collecting art game experience and who gets in

(well that all depends on class and status) is part of the economic layer effect.

The role of academic institutions (IMHO)  in relation of who gets in to Biennials while money and power are central to the equation has changed since the biennial inception during the early 19th Century. And while art and money have always been bed fellows, the digital context of distribution and exhibiting of Fine Art is beginning to devalue.

When we look at students enrolled within academic Fine Art master programs in the US, 95% of graduates will not make it to either biennials, blue chip galleries or mid career retrospective at any major art institution. It is a very sad situation for these students. 

–Joachim Pissarro

Head of  Art Galleries |Hunter College,

Home Conversations With JP

While there is plenty of money to fund contemporary artist, I believe the new role of these institutions is to promote the few elites while suppressing the rest. A kind of cultural gender and economic gap between artist and institution is now beginning to emerge.

Robert Storr and I would probably agree on this:

As the world changes from a purely analog driven to a culture of digital goods, the role of contemporary art making has also morphed and transformed. While the cultural landscape continues to expand in accelerated tectonic pixels. How we create and exhibit art must also adapt in an effort to stay current as creative think tanks.  Precisely the thesis behind the article; which is to point certain inconsistencies in how we value “high art”.  While expressing new and exiting ways to showcase multiculturalism as in Jay Z performance  for HBO entitle “Picasso Baby”

If Jeff Bezos believes newspapers will become a devalue commodity in twenty years from now, analog art making will then become an activity of hobby in a contemporary space. As gallery venues becomes limited and expensive for public consumption and exhibition.

Is there an audience for art making these days?

Line On Paper is an upcoming project from the creative my of DC which will attempt to answer that question.

The “Cool Kids” Are In The Room

Jay Z performance is a combination of contemporary “coolness” mixed in with male bravado and swag. He compares himself to Picasso in terms of context and stature.

“how can you even be great, unless you compare yourself to the greatest of all time. But you need to see yourself as great before you can even be there”.

Jay tells Bill Maher in a candid interview about the performance and his thoughts on Picasso. Jay Z is right on stature as like Picasso, he is loved and generated an enormous amount of revenue over his illustrative career. Both men are seen as powerful, masterful and are craftsmen in their repetitive fields. A better comparison between Jay Z and artist of 20th Century art would be to Andy Warhol. As Warhol was a transcendental figure who crossed boundaries and mediums with his art. Both Warhol and Jay Z are tectonic catalyst who help shape and transform notions of art and race. Jay Z is closest to Warhol over Picasso in terms of the history of art and the idea behind “Celebrity as a form of art”.

Jay is right on stature to Picasso but not context.

Most of the performers in the video are well respected individuals within the performing and visual art field in NYC. While the overall mood seems to be of a kind of “celebratory status update” rather than a comparison piece. The performance  strikes a cord with me of positivity and multiculturalism. If Jay Z ran or helped fund a cultural institution for the arts, its inhabitants would be filled with diversity which is a rare bird in the art market today. As art institutions today are one of the most segregated (white listed) environments I have even been a part of as a visual freelance designer.

The Romans built monumental statutes to commemorate their grandeur and wealth. And art has always been about transforming the world around you in making the viewer  aware of another existence beyond the norm.

This is the true meaning of art beyond money.

And as a digital designer I have seen a huge transformation in terms of how art is distributed and presented.

Picasso baby is a physical representation of a new form of art making . Both for the consumer, audience and the institution. While those “who get to call it art” are holding all the cards in a digital and analog context. We can only hope the future brings better representatives of this old and changing tradition. We need to see more diverse bodies instead of the same white faces.

Next Steps;

Follow @Art Journal Magazine and stay updated with weekly articles covering a rage of topics, interest, ideas and web design  DIY best practices. Created by the ironic mind of DC. A freelancer editorial writer & web designer with a background in Fine Arts  Print Making .

We hope you find these articles to be fun, creative and inspirational.