We live in ugly times
No civilization has left behind so much ugliness as ours. Why has there been such a monstrous transformation of aesthetics, when obviously unaesthetic things are imposed on the consumer as new trends and a new concept of beauty?
What experts say?
“It’s a weird time. We’re surrounded by ugly and tasteless aesthetics.” If an artist’s work is a reflection of their experiences in the world, inevitably, the work’s aesthetics will match that reality. Simply put, we live in ugly times. Ugly paintings can offer us a way to confront this ugliness and find beauty in it."
There is an accessible explanation, but it is just cleverly hidden from the consumer. Contemporary art today is an industry for making money; an army of art historians, art curators and art experts create the image of contemporary art necessary for mass consumption. Art has never been for everyone, it has always been in a special category for a select few. Decorative objects should not be confused with art, which in most cases are passed off as such. The industry works. It comes up with a lot of laws and rules on how it should work. How does it work? Contemporary art is a fake!
Artificial Intelligence
With the evolution of artificial intelligence, there are many opportunities for artists to be promoted. Today, anyone who is able to hold a pencil or familiar with graphical programs to create so-called digital art may become an artist. While helping people, artificial intelligence learns itself. It takes time to grow. Perhaps one day it will replace humans. The only question is how the human will do then, what happens to their psyche, worldview, and, most importantly, their aesthetics. How will he or she perceive the world around them?
I've been associated with the Arts in one way or another for over 25 years, and I'm well aware of what's going on with it all. To understand good music, you have to listen to it and listen to it selectively, and not clog your brain with second-rate imitations.
Then a sense of taste would gradually come in. Intuitively we start to feel good music and stop perceiving bad music. That's how taste is generated. Of course, 80-90% of taste is genetics, but if you don't listen to anything and don't develop your taste, no genetics helps. The same thing happens with visual perception.
That is why aristocrats instilled good taste in their children, making them watch good paintings, listen to good music, surround them with beautiful interiors and build beautiful houses.
What is going on today? Today is the era of mass culture, mass production, mass consumption, everything is averaged., there is no more concept of individuality. Trends, stereotypes and dependence on the judgment of others.
If we go back to the topic of contemporary art, what does artificial intelligence do there? It collects all the data, summarizes it and comes up with an average. Look how it destroys the artist! No one is born famous by birth. It takes years and a lot of hard work for an artist. With this averaging of everything, what does artificial intelligence do? It generates a certain average artist. If his name is not in the world database, the artificial intelligence says his work should be compared to others and evaluated in the same averaged way.
Look at the online marketplaces for selling so-called works of art. Where AI is used, it recommends the price of a particular artwork. How does it estimate that? It calculates the labor costs of the artist to produce the painting, the cost of materials, compares it with similar works of other artists and adds in its opinion the profit. And then recommends a selling price. It's completely nonsense. As long as the AI learns to really evaluate the work of artists, it destroys a lot of talents, who just will not give a breakthrough to the audience.
Contemporary Art is a fake. Art consultants, art curators, art dealers
If we look at the age of art curators of online marketplaces selling contemporary art, they are typically people aged 30-35. They have specialized education, studied the fundamentals of art history, listened to numerous lectures on the disciplines of their profession and drowned in a boundless sea of information. Having traveled my own way and having been involved in design and creativity all of my life, my understanding of contemporary art is as follows. There are not and cannot be any so-called experts on contemporary art. There is a whole army posing as experts. This army is guided by lists of promoted artists on the market, their ratings, often artificially made, trends established on the market on the basis of sales statistics, stereotypes of thinking and their subjective perception!
That's it! Expertise is only possible when the knowledge has been accumulated and the artwork remains in history rather than being evaluated on the spur of the moment. When art was still art and not a money-making machine, it used to take 50 years to recognize its value. Today there is no time like that. Money rules the world. That's why the concept of contemporary art for everyone was established.
Further, it is necessary to dwell briefly on the concept of decorative objects and the art itself and how the price of both is calculated. When art is for everyone, it becomes so mass-industrialized that the very individuality of the artist is lost. Look at what art galleries want. More and more work from artists. Then the gallery owners' business becomes a lucrative business. No one is interested in an artist with 2-3 works a year. There are exceptions, but the mass industry is like that. But art is not subject to plans to give out hundreds of artworks a year.
As soon as an artist does not fit into the overall pattern of the market, he becomes an outcast. Art specialists give the artist a verdict that his work is not interesting for their audience. That's the whole assessment and expertise. Contemporary art and the attendants around it are a money-making machine. The most important criteria for selection are general trends in the market, the artist's track record (how many exhibitions he has participated in, the so-called CV data), and the artist's career.
An artist CV is an overview of your professional visual arts practice and whilst similar in structure to an employment resume, it should only contain content and achievements that are related to his professional artistic career.
Museums of contemporary art
What do the numerous museums of modern art lead me to think? Look at their footfall. How full are their halls? Visit a few of them. Will something striking remain in your memories? Personally, my perception always comes up against the same question. Does the modern artist even know how to paint?
One of the living geniuses and graphic artists with whom I am personally acquainted believes that line is everything! The way an artist works with a line shows his mastery, and mastery is something that an artist hones all his life. Graphics is one of the most difficult types of art, therefore, an artist who masters the line is the standard of mastery.
There are so many threateningly ugly works by contemporary artists comparable only to the children's drawings, comics and appliqués we all did as children.
No, I won't say it's bad, but it fails to be called Art, just as any man-made piece of scenery fails to be called Art. They're decorative and applied crafts. Yes, they may decorate the interior, bring emotional nuances to it, but you should not call any ointment art. And today, everything that is painted is modern art. I would prefer to refrain from commenting on forms other than painting. It's just a threatening state of affairs there.
That's why “no other civilization has left behind so much ugliness as ours.”
Art is not for everyone. Art is for the chosen few
This is the niche art has and should serve. It has always been for a select few aesthetes. And here we need to change the whole education system. There are not many aesthetes, just as hot birds do not fly in flocks. One thing is clear: the system of assessing the value of works of art should be different and 90% of arts and crafts can not be called art. Otherwise, the mankind is waiting for an inglorious end, it will be simply destroyed.
Modern art should be the art of geniuses
In my gallery I want to see only geniuses, therefore, we select and invite only this category of artists, whose works we can jointly recreate in unusual and alternative materials, which can remain in history in the homes of our collectors. High art cannot be cheap. Yes, these are expensive pieces. They take many months and years to create. But maybe that's what it's supposed to be?
see more at Alexander's Collection Gallery