The art world is never going to be popular like the NFL, but more people are buying art and I think that's cushioning, to a great extent, our art-market cycles.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The art market is global now, and there's becoming more of an international consensus about what constitutes good art.
Art is for anyone. It just isn't for everyone. Still, over the past decade, its audience has hugely grown, and that's irked those outside the art world, who get irritated at things like incomprehensibility or money.
The art market was very different before the mid-1980s: then, art was all about passion, whereas now it's become a commodity.
Art should never try to be popular. The public should try to make itself artistic.
In America, the only truly popular art form is the movies. Most people consider painting a hobby and literature, schoolwork.
I think with the whole new Internet media, I'm not necessarily Internet savvy, but I just feel that the way that art in general will be presented to the public is going to be different.
We don't know what the next generation of art is going to look like. We're kind of making it up as we go along. Not unlike the tech industry.
It makes me happy to think that this world of art-as-investment is a minuscule fraction of the art world overall. Most people who create, trade and own art do it for a much simpler reason. They just like it.
So at a time in which the media give the public everything it wants and desires, maybe art should adopt a much more aggressive attitude towards the public. I myself am very much inclined to take this position.
Much good art got made while money ruled; I like a lot of it, and hardship and poverty aren't virtues. The good news is that, since almost no one will be selling art, artists - especially emerging ones - won't have to think about turning out a consistent style or creating a brand. They'll be able to experiment as much as they want.