Robert Hughes is an art critic,
and an extremely passionate one at that.
He’s been in the business longer than most and as such holds a unique
knowledge about the downward spiral of art.
That is to say art, which once was seen in museums for the purpose of
appreciation is now sold among the uber rich, not for any appreciative reasons
at all, but rather for the ability to increase one’s assets.
He argues that art itself has
lost much of its value through a variety of factors, including mass
reproduction/exposure; e.g., the Mona Lisa.
What used to be a formal statement about human appearance and character
has been transformed into a cheap piece of iconography. One goes to the Louvre, sees the Mona Lisa
for briefest of periods, appreciates not, and then moves on. The over-exposure coupled with a lack of
appreciation creates a practical iconoclasm – that is to say, works of art are figuratively
being destroyed, their value as a work lost; their value monetarily ever on the
rise. When Hughes began as an art
critic, the acquisition of art purely for profit/investment didn’t exist. It would have been seen as extremely
unorthodox; insane.
Fast forward a few decades and
the price of art has skyrocketed; collectors are in it only for the money; the
rich influence the art world – the contents of museums; any given museum’s
ability for acquisition is virtually non-existent in contrast to private collectors. Art is literally admired for its price tag –
not the work itself. The people who have
the wealth to buy the art hold a vast influence over what gets displayed to the
public sector in museums and galleries.
Essentially, art is rendered meaningless and what one views is merely a
representation of plutocratic whims.
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