Discussion about this post

User's avatar
PrettyLady_Designer's avatar

I've been getting my art directly from the artists since forever, because that's the only way I can afford it. Having a semi-steady part-time job for the first time in two decades has allowed me the luxury of buying books from places other than thrift stores, subscribing to the occasional podcast or Substack, and not only buying works directly from artists, but framing them.

A few of my professors used their institutional imprimatur to make awesome art without financial anxiety, and to mentor students with heart and wisdom. Most of them made mediocre art and ate the young out of envy and bitterness.

Institutions are only as good as people. Long live art, in humility and grace.

Expand full comment
Jack Miamensis's avatar

However predictable or understandable it may be, the audience has failed itself regarding art, though heaven knows the art establishment has failed the audience. True, art is not a necessity, and people are not required to concern themselves over it, so there is that. Still, even those who pay some degree of attention to art have been far too passive and dependent on the supposed experts and presumed authorities, when they should have asserted and exercised their own primacy in the matter--meaning art should be primarily between the individual viewer and the work, and all other factors should be not only secondary but dispensable at the individual's discretion. One does not owe any art person or entity anything unless one deems it justified based on one's personal judgment.

Expand full comment
7 more comments...

No posts