Haha, great. It's the same story at art museums everywhere. It's less and less about the art and more and more about social messaging. Many institutions feel like activist group that merely have "art" as a front for their political and social aims.
The people most serious about art as such (all of it, not just the flavor of the moment) are evidently not the target audience for the art establishment, which appears far more interested in those with the "correct" sociopolitical views. Members of the latter crowd may be quite ignorant in terms of art history and may not even have an eye, but they are still the ones being catered to. Thus, the system is perverted and inspires little credibility or respect, nor does it deserve the benefit of the doubt.
At least a place like the Boston MFA has plenty of art worth seeing, which will always draw visitors, but there are other museums nowhere near so well stocked and of practically no interest to those of us who insist on quality first and foremost--and who know what that is without reading the wall labels.
Just down the road is the local woke fun house called The Dallas Museum of Art. It's woke because it's publicly funded, eternally in need of the readies, and woke is where the crowd is just now. And if you happen not to be woke-ified, there's quite a decent collection of actual art for you too. It's really that simple around here where fads and fashions keep the turnstiles turning for everybody, step right up, that's where the competition for Saturday picture show money is. For instance, I recall in the 1980s, media spots featuring Orson Welles summoning the Dallas "culturally awakened" to see the Frederick Remingtons and the Norman Rockwells at the Dallas Museum of Art. But I've never seen the slightest hint of pandering in the privately endowed institutions with their splendid collections, like the Meadows Museum (Dallas) and the Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth). They'd like you to come and see, but they're not afraid of dying if you don't want to come, and they're certainly not phased by fashions as thin as wokeism.
You're making the huge assumption that ANY curatorial philosophy would be doing a better job at combatting dopamine culture.
Every IRL institution seems to be struggling, post pandemic. A friend of mine had to shutter her catering company last year, after surviving the pandemic, because her 15 year client base isn't throwing parties. Theater companies, opera companies, symphonies are struggling.
And Franklin, that photography/advertising subgenre is being employed all over the place by all manner of entities, as I expect you're aware. It's at best cringeworthy, but then I'm not its target.
As for attendance, museums which alienate people who do NOT want extraneous ideological or political baggage, only access to the best possible art, are not serious about attendance (unless it's the attendance of a particular audience, as opposed to the public at large). Let their numbers drop, then.
Haha, great. It's the same story at art museums everywhere. It's less and less about the art and more and more about social messaging. Many institutions feel like activist group that merely have "art" as a front for their political and social aims.
The people most serious about art as such (all of it, not just the flavor of the moment) are evidently not the target audience for the art establishment, which appears far more interested in those with the "correct" sociopolitical views. Members of the latter crowd may be quite ignorant in terms of art history and may not even have an eye, but they are still the ones being catered to. Thus, the system is perverted and inspires little credibility or respect, nor does it deserve the benefit of the doubt.
At least a place like the Boston MFA has plenty of art worth seeing, which will always draw visitors, but there are other museums nowhere near so well stocked and of practically no interest to those of us who insist on quality first and foremost--and who know what that is without reading the wall labels.
Just down the road is the local woke fun house called The Dallas Museum of Art. It's woke because it's publicly funded, eternally in need of the readies, and woke is where the crowd is just now. And if you happen not to be woke-ified, there's quite a decent collection of actual art for you too. It's really that simple around here where fads and fashions keep the turnstiles turning for everybody, step right up, that's where the competition for Saturday picture show money is. For instance, I recall in the 1980s, media spots featuring Orson Welles summoning the Dallas "culturally awakened" to see the Frederick Remingtons and the Norman Rockwells at the Dallas Museum of Art. But I've never seen the slightest hint of pandering in the privately endowed institutions with their splendid collections, like the Meadows Museum (Dallas) and the Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth). They'd like you to come and see, but they're not afraid of dying if you don't want to come, and they're certainly not phased by fashions as thin as wokeism.
You're making the huge assumption that ANY curatorial philosophy would be doing a better job at combatting dopamine culture.
Every IRL institution seems to be struggling, post pandemic. A friend of mine had to shutter her catering company last year, after surviving the pandemic, because her 15 year client base isn't throwing parties. Theater companies, opera companies, symphonies are struggling.
Even as an introvert, I'm finding it a challenge just to get new and old friends to meet for a cup of coffee or a drink. Dopamine culture has turned us into phone zombies: https://open.substack.com/pub/tedgioia/p/the-state-of-the-culture-2024?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2la67
And Franklin, that photography/advertising subgenre is being employed all over the place by all manner of entities, as I expect you're aware. It's at best cringeworthy, but then I'm not its target.
Richard Serra has proceeded to his reward.
As for attendance, museums which alienate people who do NOT want extraneous ideological or political baggage, only access to the best possible art, are not serious about attendance (unless it's the attendance of a particular audience, as opposed to the public at large). Let their numbers drop, then.