BlogBack: On the Dearth of Political Art
South Carolina artist Tom Durham responds to Why is There No Current American Political Art?:
I do agree that on the surface there is no or very little political art on the scene. Why you should ask? First, galleries today are interested in sales, not art statements, so often they refuse to show or display art with any political or social content for fear of offending a potential client.
Second, many galleries are owned by conservatives who do not like art statements of any kind and believe that art and galleries should be decorative outlets. Third, museums today are afraid of losing any funding if they display art that has a political or social content. A good example is the new work of Botero, which was refused by many galleries and museums in the U.S. and was displayed first in Europe for over a year.
I do agree that relatively few artists today are making work that has a content that goes beyond their own self indulged life styles and many again are afraid to offend their potential clients. Artists make many art statements about art and often challenge the boundaries of what is considered art but they refuse to cross the line and make real statements about life and humanity. With all said, there are still artists making real art statements; they just have very few outlets to exhibit their work, which make them hard to find.
Categories:
About
Photo © by Jill Krementz
CULTUREGRRL SPEAKS on museum issues and ethics, arts journalism.
CONTACT ME: here.
CULTUREGRRL VIDEOS
My YouTube Channel
FIND ME ON
FOLLOW ME ON
LEE ROSENBAUM I'm a veteran cultural journalist with many pieces in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and major art magazines. I have been a cultural contributor on New York Public Radio (WNYC and WQXR) and have provided arts commentary on NPR and public radio stations in Philadelphia and Los Angeles. I am a HuffPost Arts writer. I've been profiled on the PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer's Art Beat and in the Chicago Reader. I've appeared as an art-market commentator on BBC-TV and have published numerous Op-Ed pieces in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. I am author of The Complete Guide to Collecting Art (Knopf) and have lectured on cultural property issues at the New Acropolis Museum and the University of Pennsylvania, on deaccessioning at at Investigative Reporters and Editors 2011 Annual Meeting, Columbia Law School, the University of Iowa and a conference of the Museum Association of New York, on museum governance and cultural property issues at Seton Hall University, on arts blogging at American University and on Smithsonian exhibition controversies at Rutgers University.
more
CONTACT ME
Write to me here.
more
Blogroll
About Last Night
Art History Newsletter
Art Law Blog
Art Observed
The Art Tribune (France)
Art Unwashed (Laura Gilbert)
Artopia
bloggers@brooklynmuseum
Design Observer
A Don's Life
Edward Lifson
Exhibitionist (Boston)
Eye Level (SAAM)
HuffPost Arts
LA Observed (Los Angeles)
Looting Matters
NewYorkology--Architecture
NewYorkology--Museums
Opera Chic
Slipped Disc (Norman Lebrecht)
Slog (Seattle)
Unframed (LACMA)
Walker
AJ Blogs
AJBlogCentral | rssculture
Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
Andrew Taylor on the business of arts & culture
rock culture approximately
Laura Collins-Hughes on arts, culture and coverage
Richard Kessler on arts education
Douglas McLennan's blog
Dalouge Smith advocates for the Arts
Art from the American Outback
Chloe Veltman on how culture will save the world
For immediate release: the arts are marketable
No genre is the new genre
David Jays on theatre and dance
Paul Levy measures the Angles
Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture
John Rockwell on the arts
innovations and impediments in not-for-profit arts
Jan Herman - arts, media & culture with 'tude
dance
Apollinaire Scherr talks about dance
Tobi Tobias on dance et al...
jazz
Howard Mandel's freelance Urban Improvisation
Focus on New Orleans. Jazz and Other Sounds
Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...
media
Jeff Weinstein's Cultural Mixology
Martha Bayles on Film...
classical music
Fresh ideas on building arts communities
Greg Sandow performs a book-in-progress
Harvey Sachs on music, and various digressions
Bruce Brubaker on all things Piano
Kyle Gann on music after the fact
Greg Sandow on the future of Classical Music
Norman Lebrecht on Shifting Sound Worlds
Joe Horowitz on music
publishing
Jerome Weeks on Books
Scott McLemee on books, ideas & trash-culture ephemera
theatre
Wendy Rosenfield: covering drama, onstage and off
visual
Public Art, Public Space
Regina Hackett takes her Art To Go
John Perreault's art diary
Lee Rosenbaum's Cultural Commentary
