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At the Studio Museum, Identity Gets a New Face Ai Weiwei Made a Metal Video The Vatican Releases Artist List for the Venice Biennale

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  • lane

    oh klaus has no problem sucking it every year . . . and i mean that in a good way!

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  • http://hypothete.blogspot.com/ hypothete

    “The year was truly an unusual one; 2010 may go down as the moment when the contemporary art world finally jumped the shark with respect to maintaining a critical distance from the popular culture it has long been inspired by.”

    “Critical distance” my ass. Give me a good reason why contemporary art should stay separate from other means of production. If 2010 was the tipping point, then maybe things are on the right track. Better to struggle with bad collaborations and “theatrical pandering” than waste away in an ivory tower without anyone noticing.

    • Hhalle

      I don’t disagree with what you say on a certain level, and perhaps I was being imprecise, so let me see if I can elaborate. The problem, as I see it, is that the art world is doing all of these things while insisting it is maintaining the critical distance I mentioned. That’s what I meant by jumping the shark. I personally have no good reason for why contemporary art should stay separate from other means of production, though I admit to a certain ambivalence regarding the prospect. I’m just saying that the art world can’t insist on being separate when, clearly, it no longer is.

      • http://hypothete.blogspot.com/ hypothete

        Howard,
        Thanks for clearing things up. I see it as a better thing for contemporary art to embrace and pervade pop culture than become a separate cultural entity because it demonstrates art’s (often wasted) ability to the public and holds good art to a higher standard. The big challenge now is to get both teams to stop treating the other’s content like dirty laundry. Burt Cooper’s office needs more Rothko, and the Guggenheim needs to learn how to stand up for its Youtube Play terminals (problematic as they are).

  • Anonymous

    I think Halle’s right to point out that the bulk of art making today is poor. With few exceptions, the art world has been repeating itself for the last 30 years.

    Is that connected with a lack of critical distance between pop culture and art? Not at all, IMO, though he did name some of the more vacuous products of that co-mingling. The trouble is, no one identifies the really interesting stuff online as a break from the last 30 years of bad art making, mostly because it’s not in galleries for viewing. I’m guessing Halle didn’t make it out to IRL.

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