Pepe Silvia Browne posted:

this gently caress dome is uncollapsible, god himself couldn't collapse it!

bedpan posted:

iirc, the CIA worked really, really hard in reengineering how art was produced, conceptualized, taught, and critiqued in service of the war against communism

Virtual Russian posted:

On a most basic level it makes sense, would you, a monied art collector (or launderer) want to hang out with a bunch of snobby Europeans that act sad and spend all their time with Satre, or would you want to hang out with a bunch of upbeat young artists that basically just hosed and drank most of the day?

Virtual Russian posted:

This bigtime. Multiple artists I know are pretty honest about trading sex for career advancement, not even big advances, just like a solo show. Or for art sales from collectors. It can be pretty predatory. The high-end art world of course is infamous for being money laundering all the way through, that shouldn't be news to anyone though.

I would partially contest most art movements being about wealthy people. 99.99% of art that has been made has never been written about. Even today, most art never becomes "important". It is still meaningful and beautiful, it just didn't become "important". Clement Greenberg, who is at the center of all this, crafted a masterful narrative about art and how art developed and progressed through history. If you ever were taught art history, even in highschool, you were probably taught Greenberg's theory, though it would never have been named. In short, he posits that the development of art is linear, always progressing from movement to movement, like a baton, and that with the emergance of modernity art began to progress into increasing levels of abstraction. That theory implies, and it is also often outright stated that abstract impressionism was the end result. All art history led to that. The notion of a linear progression to art history, that centered european art, had existed since much earlier, but Greenberg codified it, making sure the world understood art belonged to new york now. Long story short, art is so much more than what you were taught good art is. It most often is the exact opposite. Go check out some local art shows, there are likely some amazing artists you'd love. No need to buy, just go see some art. Also art doesn't have to be for sale!

tl:dr - Your entire conception of art, and art history, was a CIA op. Ab Ex being CIA funded is nothing compared to the art history you learned in HS being made up by the CIA middleman.

Punished Turtle posted: