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The End of The Art World, Again<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n Art galleries are closing down. Well, perhaps not enough of them. And, let’s face it, museums are dull. As an exercise in nostalgia, we now have O’Keeffe, Kandinsky, and are looking forward to <\/span>Man Ray, and (in Philadelphia) Gorky. But only Man Ray at the Jewish Museum promises revelations — concerning his hidden identity. Wait a minute, we all knew he was Jewish, didn’t we? <\/font><\/p>\n Oh, we are on to those museums, peddling proven pleasers. And then the new penny-saving trick is to offer fake exhibitions of single artworks or stuff from storage. The public is not fooled. In fact, if this is all museums can come up with, why offer special exhibitions at all? You know why: catalogs, posters, pencils, notebooks and other themed items might bring in some cash to our over-extended, cash-hungry institutions, now abandoned by those who once coveted the tax benefits of charitable donations. <\/font><\/p>\n Yet again, the art world has had its day and is withering away, right before our eyes.<\/font><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n <\/p>\n <\/font><\/font>So everyone is anxiously awaiting the success of The Bruce High Quality Foundation University.<\/a> The apparently all-male Foundation is an anonymous collective founded to honor the fictional, dead artist Bruce High Quality. <\/span>The Foundation’s <\/a>art world zombie movie (Isle of the Dead<\/i>) was a summer hit on Governors Island, as was its art-education slide lecture <\/a>last July, called Explaining Pictures to a Dead Bull, <\/i>which refers to the classic Joseph Beuys 1965 performance How To Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare.<\/i><\/font><\/font> <\/font><\/font><\/i> The awful truth is that although an MFA seems to be required for artists showing at the New Museum and other once avant-garde venues, very few art majors graduate to self-sustaining art careers or, in fact, teaching gigs; actually, they never have. The numbers don’t add up. Just compare the number of artists who make their livings from their art and\/or the number of available teaching jobs to the number of MFAs, year after year. Well, dear art students, the odds are against you. And unless you duped your parents into funding your whole adventure, what you will reap is not art-world stardom, but debts beyond belief. That is why when one now eats out in New York, the waitperson is likely to have an MFA. Critics and curators have long known that they must watch what they say in restaurants. Loose lips sink art-world ships.<\/font><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Otherwise on the mark, The Bruce does not point out that most art critics now depend upon the largesse of academia to survive. Not everyone can achieve a staff position at the New York Times, has a private income, or is amoral enough to function as a private art dealer. This is why art critics are silent about the MFA scam. Most of them teach and cannot afford to give away the show. <\/font><\/p>\n What then should be the function of art education? What are the proper goals? What should be taught? <\/font><\/p>\n Classes at The Bruce High Quality University: OCCULT SHENANIGANS IN 20TH\/21ST CENTURY ART<\/span><\/span> WHAT’S A METAPHOR?<\/font><\/span><\/span> BUILD YOUR OWN UNIVERSITY<\/font><\/span><\/span> PHILOSOPHY OF MOTION PICTURES<\/font><\/span><\/span> ART HISTORY WITH BENEFITS<\/font><\/span><\/span> ENVIRONMENTAL MUSIC PERFORMANCE<\/font><\/span><\/span> LIBRARY AS DETECTIVE AGENCY<\/font><\/span><\/span> EDIFYING FUTUROLOGICAL POETRY<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n <\/span> <\/span>* <\/span>* <\/span>* Fluxus Redux Given the current art-market flux and the loss of faith, an art movement that was anti-object, cross-media, anti-establishment, and didn’t have anything to sell — a generation before Conceptual Art, which, after, all did manage to sell out — is going to be instructive. When the auction houses lose half their sales, panic ensues, and dangerously insouciant, aggressively idealistic art looms.<\/font><\/p>\n <\/font> <\/p>\n But no, the ’60s will not return. The Republicans, as long as they have a shred of power, will never allow that to happen. And the Democrats, because they are insanely committed to bipartisanship even when they have a majority, will always placate the Elephants as well as Elephants in Donkey drag. <\/font><\/p>\n The point is that you do not need a top-heavy, investment-driven art market for art to thrive.<\/font><\/p>\n With the exception of works by the truly original George Brecht, Fluxus was pretty much an outgrowth and a minimalization of Happenings and\/or a music phenomenon. The latter has not been owned up to by music historians, who somehow have always preferred the charming Ned Rorem to John Cage, that total Zen Buddhist maniac.<\/font><\/p>\n Since many Fluxus practitioners came from music backgrounds and\/or were influenced by Cage, it is not surprising that the koan-like instructions for those lean, mostly solo performances are referred to as “scores.” <\/font><\/p>\n Some important artists and\/or composers sometimes associated with Fluxus: Joseph Beuys, Nam June Paik, <\/span>LaMonte Young, Yoko Ono. <\/font><\/p>\n <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n <\/span><\/font> Joseph Beuys <\/font><\/span> John Cage LaMonte Young<\/font><\/span><\/font> <\/p>\n <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n <\/span><\/font><\/font> <\/p>\n <\/font><\/span> Yoko Ono<\/font><\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/font> * * *<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fluxus Among Us <\/font><\/strong>
\n <\/span>Fluxconcert Performance<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/b> <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n![\"The](\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artopia\/n107424929020_960.jpg\")
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