This is a really thoughtful and well-articulated essay, though I dont necessarily agree with where the author winds up.The notion of the solitary artist possessed of singular genius is largely a product of 18th Century Romanticism and has long been outdated, despite the revival of Rebel Romanticism in the 1960s. But the creation of the artist as a profession and the professionalization of the institutional structures supporting artists are also now obsolete. A recent New Yorker article on Hans-UIrich Obrist (whatever your opinion of him may be) referred to him as an autodidact; it is clear that formal study is not necessarily a meaningful predictor (or measure) of accomplishment in the arts. Similarly, as weve said for quite some time, almost all successful artists throughout history have been entrepreneurial (Bach, Shakespeare, Whitman, Michelangelo, DaVinci)- though not necessarily entrepreneurs in the current sense. Reimagining the definition of artist and, in fact, art itself, is the great challenge - and opportunity - of our moment. Throw off the shackles of old habits and ideas and move boldly into the future!
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 01:48:25 +0000
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