MIRAGES LI

“The importance of art in our times is more imperative than ever… because life is so difficult, that our only real hope is art”  This is not only an insight, I have heard it  and heard it again from a lot art people, either if they are art theorists , gallerists or journalist, but I have not heard it from artists and indeed by young artists. Two facts are the reason of this introspection.

On the one hand is a series of important exhibition in Paris, for example the exhibitions “Vasarely. Sharing Forms” and “Designing the Living” at Centre Pompidou, “Rosemarie Castoro-Wherein Lies the Space” at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Marais, but also the exhibition “Monumental Minimal” at the Gallery’s space in Pantin with 20 major Minimal sculptures and paintings by Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold and Robert Morris that is on view till April 26, 2019. On the other hand, is answer to the question “What is art for you?” to Young European Artists (Greeks, French, Germans, Italians etc.) all Graduates of Fine Arts Schools, and the answer is almost always “Pleasure”, if anyone deepens the discussion, the real answer is “money”. They don’t care about recognition; the pathos has been lost. Once again, this finding was discussed extensively yesterday with a very experienced French Gallerist.

The thousands of Art Fairs (two big ones this month: The Armory Show in New York and Art Dubai in Dubai), the multiple stimuli, as well as the lack of focus by the emerging curators that confuse the new collectors, are leading to these results. The emerging curators are using mostly ready material that refers to great Art Theorist ,which is on discrepancy in the one hand and on the other they are also confused with the speed at which they all happen. The big problem during Art Basel in Basel last year, according to the conversations that we have with Gallerists, was the young collectors, who neither know what they want to buy, nor  they are buying following their instinct and love for art or artists, nor for the purpose of investing. So, we come to the same conclusion again and again “Pathos has been lost”.

Just because today, due to technology, everything is easier, tangible, accessible and fast, they thing that also the career in art may evolve like this. This is a big lie that many times can come back like a boomerang. Mostly to artists who found themselves in the center the interest, a center which shifts according to financial interests, so they are consumed in a game that is  a vicious- circle, without any results in real terms! Ultimately, the problem is the non-firsthand experience. Art is not a spectacle, it’s not fun, it’s not fashion, it’s not glory, it’s not money: art is experience, art is a way of life…

The group of the young American Minimalists, as Jim Jacobs, who followed their work faithfully from their first steps to their great successes, said to us in the Press Conference of the exhibition “Monumental Minimal”, to survive and keep faithful to their art,  were working in different jobs. The most typical example is Dan Flavin, who took various odd jobs, including working in the mailroom of the Guggenheim and as a guard at MoMA and the American Museum of Natural History, before even entering these Museums as an artist and this is one of infinite number of examples… between 1960 and 1964 Carl Andre worked as a freight brakeman on the Pennsylvania Railroad, also the same applies for Rosemarie Castoro, Andre’s first wife. While there may be many objections from various experts in connection with the implementation of Victor Vasarely’s artworks in everyday objects, in fact, his theory was that art must have a plastic language that is international and comprehensible from everyone.

That’s why, it is important to live in the art, to understand it deeply, Art is an lived experience, art is neither sterile academic knowledge nor life style, and if the politics of the various States used art for their own reasons, by funding the artists, it was neither the intention nor the artists’ demand, their work and sacrifices  predated, it their sacrifices and labors invested the collectors, the entrepreneurs and the politicians. Today the above terms have been misunderstood and many young artists think that money and the recognition will go ahead the artwork. This is simply impossible.

Good Month (!)
10/3/19
Efi Michalarou