Visual Language Magazine Contemporary Fine Art Vol 3 no 9

VL
Barry W. Scharf
Why in a modern and prosperous America are so many living artists ignored
By Barry W. Scharf
Is it just me or have you noticed that our modern culture
does not provide much for living hard working artists
in the contemporary or classical visual arts There
are no living Picasso’s, no Leonardo’s, if you are not a
dead painter or already famous for something else you
are of little or no importance to this culture. When the
paintings of many dead artists like Picasso and Van
Gough are breaking all records selling at auction for
multi-millions of dollars, struggling living artists have a
hard time even showing their work. Any sales are far
and few between with much of that money going to
promotion, material expenses and overhead.
In today’s world “artists” are no longer fine art painters
or sculptors skillfully working for years in the solitude of
their studios to perfect techniques and vision; instead
they are showmen, entertainers, socialites or merely
personalities that have become known for becoming
known. The art of this culture has less to do with talent
then with being seen in the right places at the right
time. It is now a here today gone tomorrow (leaving little
trace of any contribution to the history of art) America.
American culture is now catering to the generation
of the immediate fix. It is a here today gone tomorrow
web tweeting culture that has boiled down everything
of value into 140 characters or a Facebook photo of
what they are having for dinner. It seems there is less
and less time for the subtle colors of a morning mist
falling across a meadow, or the complexity of brush
strokes that make up a sunset envisioned to awaken
wonder about life, mindfulness and spirituality.
As long as our institutions of culture, community and
government ignore the work of living talented fine artists
there will be no growth in the world of art as we
have seen for the past centuries. It will be the era of the
first person shooter, web jewels and bubbles games
and an endless stream of personal videos describing
meaningless content of what their cat is doing.
Digital graphics and animation now holds the hope
as a medium of this new generation. After all there is
money to be made here. There are cyber war games
taking place in the web ether and we all need to team
up to play and be a part of the battle for available creative
jobs and available dollars.
Don’t get me wrong this is not a critique of the artist,
there are still amazing artists out there working hard
to create new visions and directions. They are passionate,
dedicated, studied and skilled. They work relentlessly
without feedback or reward. They are the
keepers of the torch of artistic know how and they are
ready and waiting for the world to wake from the opiate
of digital newness.
http://barrywscharf.squarespace.com/
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