The Absent Polis of Contemporary Art
by Daniel Brown
I was privileged to attend The Renaissance Weekend in Charleston just about a year ago (an event created in the '90s by some friends of the Clintons). The four-day marathon is structured as a series of panel discussions and round-robin meetings. The organizers put me on all of the arts panels, as expected. Most of us went to sessions on topics about which we knew very little when we were not speakers.
But I noticed that almost no one came to the various arts panels (1100 people were there), and began to conclude that the arts may have become simply irrelevant to most Americans. Listening to those of us art folks with a measure of detachment, I began to wonder what factors may have caused this nadir of interest (the majority of the subjects were on the visual arts). With a full-blown recession upon us, now may be a good time to assess where things have gone astray. That art is or should be a financial investment is the first idea that must go. Most art is not, and buying art for investment purposes equates it with any other equivalent commodity. It implies that it will be sold rather than nourished, thought about and enjoyed. The only reason to buy art remains because you want to live with it: it is an investment in yourself. We have certainly learned not to emulate the hedge fund manager (now semi-defunct). Buying art as status object rarely works, and it is time to retire the idea.
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