newly abstract
“But why now? The resurgence could in part be a response to contemporary life—to globalization and the desire for a universal language…”
One of many intriguing ideas in a new ArtNews article, “The New Abstraction,” by Barbara A. MacAdam, via Arts & Letters.
April 25th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Many Artists like myself work between the cracks of the contemporary scene. I have painted abstract for years and reading that there is a favourable interest in abstraction raises my outlook for prospective acceptance. Why now is there this interest at large? I suspect it has to do with culture catching up on all that is actually happening out there. Certainly the ITC has helped to raise awareness and generate enthusiasm, which is great. As far as a universal language is concerned I think that there are many individuals working personally, but perhaps the notion is for theorists to sort out, like the Jungian aspect of it all. The real question for me is: how long will this resurgence last? 16 months out of 2 years?… leaves 6 or so months longer!! Who knows?
April 30th, 2007 at 9:08 am
Excellent comments, and an important contrast to getting frustrated and giving up when the interest isn’t there, right? And I would refer again to another who agrees with you. This is from Jerry Saltz’s recent article:
BACKSTORY
At best, 1 percent of 1 percent of all artists—probably fewer—make any kind of money from their art. Yet today’s fixation on the market has created two ridiculous camps: the moralists, who sneer that artists and dealers who sell a lot of art are insufficiently radical, and the idiots who believe that art that sells is better than art that doesn’t. For a little perspective—or to get a grip—those hand-wringers might turn to that coolest of all customers, the great German painter Gerhard Richter. On October 24, 1990, Richter made the following entry in his journal (a must-read, now available from the MIT Press under the title The Daily Practice of Painting) that might help untwist a few panties. “The much-maligned ‘art scene’ of the present day,†he wrote, “is perfectly harmless and even pleasant, if you don’t judge it in terms of false expectations. It has nothing to do with those traditional values that we hold high (or that hold us high). It has virtually nothing whatever to do with art. That’s why the ‘art scene’ is neither base, cynical, nor mindless: it is a scene of brief blossoming and busy growth, just one variation on the never-ending round of social game-playing that satisfies our need for communication, alongside such others as sport, fashion, stamp-collecting and cat-breeding. Art takes shape in spite of it all, rarely and always unexpectedly; art is never feasible.†J.S.