Post by Samuel Yun
(Editor’s note: This is part of the critic bashing thread [see Hot Topics in the left-hand column]).
Kevin Finklea’s post is right on. I believe that most “glossied” criticism is saturated with “monies” that support the market machine of high-priced art. But, even after [Finklea’s] quoting Bridget Riley, I feel that high-priced art, or any art, is doomed to the vampire-like existence of the pop, R&B and country music industries. Formulaic approaches to modern modes of art will become standard, expected, and attractive to investment. This will ultimately cripple personal and intellectual exploration in the visual arts, since the artist, investor and critic are bombarded with money and the corresponding pressures to flow with the whim of the market (image is of Samuel Yun’s “Mustang”).I know this all sounds pessimistic, but I cite the underground voice of early ’90s music. I’m still hearing the same songs on “modern” radio since that time. In fact, any new music that’s released, underground or not, still sounds like early ’90s music. Furthermore, the indoctrinated listeners of this generation will carry on the demands of the head vampire into the satellite and internet radio age. The agrarian landscape of the arts will, in my eyes, become a rusty industrial behemoth.
Our culture is unrepentently bound to money and the pursuit of it. The visual arts will follow in suite.
Now let’s go buy a painting that looks like a painting.
–Artist Samuel Yun is one of the directors of the online gallery, The Vacuum.
