Discovery of 'Degas' sculpture hoard

[Stlukesguild]

Technology is leveling the playing field, and I
think what you will see happen is that more artists will be able to
make a more respectable living just through exposure. There will
still be superstars, but the pool will be a little bigger to draw from.

I'm not certain what you mean by "leveling the playing field"... but I
certainly agree that technology has led to a situation in which artists
have a venue or forum in which to have their work seen. I'm not
certain as to how it will impact the ability of artists to make a
respectable living... at least not in the more traditional art forms such
as painting, print, sculpture, ceramics, etc... Photo and film and
video, and CGI reproduce well... but this is not always so of the
more traditional art forms. No reproduction of Michelangelo... or
Degas is the same as the experience of the work in real life. Most
collectors of art beyond a certain price range (obviously I'm
ignoring the $40 paintings on e-bay) are not likely to spend such
money without first seeing the work in person. I'm also not
confident that leveling the playing-field... in the same manner that
recording leveled the playing field for music... will not result in the
same commercialization and gross success by those most adept at
pandering to the lowest common denominator. Certainly a figure
like Thomas Kinkade is not far removed from a figure like Madonna
as an artist of little ability beyond that of playing to the market.
The shift seems to merely follow the flow of money... from the
church to the aristocrats to the dealers and gallery owners to
the corporations and big PR firms. Where the unknown artist
struggled for recognition within the gallery system, it will soon be
a struggle for recognition amid the noise of big advertisement... just
as the unknown writer struggles to be recognized amid the noise
around Dan Brown and the latest Harry Potter release.

[Stlukesguild]

Eh... Not so fast, man. Deconstructionism, in particular, is alive
and well, practically taught as dogma at the University level.

(That's a good thing, IMO)

My thoughts are that Modernism was just possibly the greatest
shift in thinking in the visual arts since the Renaissance. Just as the
Renaissance disintegrated into a long drawn-out period of mannered
(the period in art is actually termed "Mannerism") attempts at
coming to terms with all that had happened and all the possibilities
(not that there were not some very good artists then... or now), so
I see the present as an equal period of coming to terms... which
can not in any way rival the achievements of high Modernism.
Post-Modernism, in art, never seems to have even the least sense
of direction. The very definition of the term and what it denotes is
open to debate. Ultimately, I think the demise of Post-Modernism
is assured as a result of its esoteric theory-laden approach to art,
as well as due to the very fragmentation of the art world which Flo
noted. Post-Modernism was essentially an academic movement...
and part of the traditional concept of a single unified monolithic
"art world" in which the big critics of New York and Paris and London
and Berlin decide what is or is not relevant... or even worthy of
being termed art. We now face a highly fragmented series of "art
worlds" in which we start to recognize that there is almost an
audience for anything... and there is good work and crap being done
in each context.

OK, ok, I will stop hijacking the lovely
conversation that you and Flo are having.

And it is just a civil debate. I'm not out to shoot down her opinions
or convert her. I'm just offering a contrary view... especially as
concerns an artist who I have returned to again and again... often
after long periods of time in which I did not give him the least
thought... only to discover he is even better than I thought. I am...
however... seriously interested in which artists she does look to.
Most of the art historians with whom I was acquainted were focused
upon quite ancient periods: the Italian Renaissance, Roman
Classicism, the Spanish Baroque. Of course this did lead to some
interesting research on the anatomical studies of Ugo da Carpi and
drawings of his in the collection of Vincent Price. Still... few of
the art historians I knew were at all interested in contemporary art
history... which after all... seems something of an oxymoron.