So, it all comes back to whether you accept the prognostications of others or not. The ‘next big thing’ of the music industry often comes down to a ‘one hit wonder’ heavily promoted and quickly forgotten. Is it any different with art? In one respect it isn’t. An art book lives a very long time and its digest of its time lives with it. Books, after all, are precious symbols of culture and civilisation to be preserved at all costs in spite of the remainder bins filling faster than they can be emptied and their contents pulped. Any predictive art compendium will no doubt follow suit as it its premise is overtaken by reality.
Artwork
NOTHING IF NOT CRITICAL [to quote Robert Hughes]
Promoting locally made products in any arts field is a necessity and whether that is down to critics, radio hosts or the press, there is little being said or heard other than on an artist-to-artist level. Surely, we can do better. Or is even that question irrelevant when mind-numbing screen-time experience swamps all others?
THE RADICAL ELITE AND THE ART OF LEADING HORSES TO WATER
Even a cursory glance at the history of art in the last century or so suggests radical change occurred with great frequency – at least that is how the history is written.
IN IT FOR THE MONEY
So, according to a shocked pundit, people are into NFTs for the money. Wasn’t that the point? Any pretentions towards promoting the work of artists went out of the window when every man and his dog jumped on the bandwagon in the thrall of the investment property syndrome and the potential of making a killing, as they say in stocks trading.
THE PRECIOUS HAND
There is a reality to being an artist today that seems to be at odds with public perception.
THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND
In the Divine Comedy, Dante entered the Inferno of hell looking for Beatrice. He was in a dark place, literally and emotionally. A dead Beatrice couldn’t help and sent the Roman poet Virgil to act as guide. Art was to show the way to redemption. In many respects the society we now live in resembles the hell that Dante created. Moral and ethical questions go unanswered in that traditional sureties offered by religion, government and monarchs have been substantially eroded through news media platforms.