Art and Commodity essay by Paul Wood

1
Art and Commodity essay by Paul Wood

• With guests Marxism, David LaChapelle and Jeff
  Koons

2
From Palaces to Museums

• Kings and queens commission art for their
  palaces.
• Collections of paintings gather after years,
  decades and centuries stored.
• Museums encounter works ? collect and store
  works.
• We visit and look in awe.

3
Your house to the museums

• Louvre ? Met
• MoMA
• (Directors Newhall, Steichen, Szarkowski,
  Galassi)
• Whitney Biennial (rep for American Art)
• Galleries
• Art Fairs (Art Basel, FIAC, The Armory, etc.)
• Grants (relative to art fairs Guggenheim)

4
Marxism (cultured, no politics)

• Started in 1848 by Marx and Engels (Communist
  Manifesto).
• Analyzes history in terms of class struggles.
• Class linked to modes of production (how we
  work)
• Class 1 proletariats ? laborers
• Class 2 bourgeoisie ? own modes of production
• Historical materialism
• 1. primitive communism (tribalism)
• 2. slave state (rise of aristocrats)
• 3. feudal society (aristocrats and serfs)
• 4. capitalism (laborers and owners)
• 5. socialism
• 6. communism

5
Marxism (cont.)

• Louis Althusser art critic defines Marxism as
  cultural theory for art.
• Believes to analyze the system then analyze how
  the system effects the person (art).
• Cultural Marxism
• 1. Analyze the mode of production.
• 2. Analyze the mode of interpretation.
• 3. Analyze the reception of cultural artifacts.

6
Art and commodity

• Rise of economy and capitalism has a factor in
  postmodernism.
• If commodity means an article of trade or
  something of use, then how do you classify art
  that is sellable?
• Is it still art if it can be mechanically
  reproduced well enough for market value?
• Is it still art if the entire public (rich and
  poor) are able to obtain the object at hand
  (paintings, photographs, sculptures, etc)?

7
Art and commodity

• Commodity can allow the owner to purchase a work
  labeled as art guilt-free.
• As in, they do not have to worry about if its
  art or not. The label has been applied to the
  works and the price that comes with the product
  is what the product is worth. Simple? Maybe.
• Commodity is a section of capitalism that can
  allow artists to gain a larger following or sell
  out to gain commercial acceptance.
• In this post post-modernist era, what do you
  define of your art? Is it commercial? If not, is
  it sellable? Do you want to gain a profit (big or
  small) from selling your works? Or is it just for
  exhibition?
• Can commodity effect work that is
  installation-based? Is it a part of the free
  market or is that left up to the artist to decide?

8
Art and commodity

• If art becomes a commodity in todays free
  market, then it becomes public demand.
• If the supply is low, the demand becomes higher
  for the artists works (basic principles of
  economy).
• Here are a group of artists that are examples of
  when art becomes commodity, starting with kitsch
  and the removal of the artists hands in
  production

9
Jeff Koons Michael Jackson and Bubbles 1988 Defin
ed as Kitsch and Postmodernism See essay by
Clement Greenberg Avant Garde and Kitsch.
10
(No Transcript)
11
(No Transcript)
12
David LaChapelle Amanda Lepore as Marilyn
Monroe Is this Commerical and Fine Art?
Appropriating the original appropriator, Andy
Warhol.
13
(No Transcript)
14
(No Transcript)
15
Damien Hirst For the Love of God 2007 Skull in
Swarovski crystals Thats one expensive piece of
work. Thats all I have to share about that.
Looks similar to another crystal skull made by an
artist in 1993
16
(No Transcript)
17
(No Transcript)
18
(No Transcript)
19
Takashi Murakami Tan Tan Bo Puking aka Gero
Tan 2007 Paints images of post-apocolyptic Japan
with a combination of pop culture and the
commercial mainstream. He did Kanyes Graduation
album cover. Last question is it all right for
fine artists to come into the mainstream for
financial gain? (see Stephen Sprouse and Damien
Hirst)
20
(No Transcript)
21
Stephen Sprouse See Sprouse and Marc Jacobs in
next few slides
22
More artists are receiving more widespread action
by combining commercially with artists in other
fields such as fashion. The art is then
reproduced as a commodity for the public. Is it
still art if its sold out of Neiman Marcus or
Marshalls?