Holland Cotter of the New York Times rips the 1% (the ultra rich) a new one for bankrolling and talking up art he calls high-polish mediocrity. He starts off by comparing the art created during the Occupy Wall Street movement in downtown Zuccotti Park in the form of protest signs, to the cautious overpriced painting hanging on the walls of galleries just a stones throw from Wall Street.
True, art-worldlings did at least adopt one thing from the Occupy Wall Street movement: a new identifying label for the source of particularly noxious vibes emanating from art fairs, V.I.P. galas and museum boardrooms: namely the 1 percent. But why, you’ll ask, dis the ultrarich? Haven’t they historically been the primary bankrollers of great art?[NYTimes]
Sure, except we’re not getting great art. By and large we’re getting high-polish mediocrity. You had really, truly, desperately need to believe in the perpetual wondrous newness value of contemporary work to conclude that the New York gallery season just past was anything more than a long flat line, with month after month of young artists rehashing yesteryear’s trends and veterans cannibalizing their own careers.
