art evolves -- the next small thing

The 1% grabbed 82% of all wealth created in 2017  ....... CNN Money
 
Unsustainable is the first word that comes to mind, so let’s just assume change. The world of tomorrow will be different, and there’s an easy way to get there, and the rest are hard ways. The easy way would be for a rising generational consciousness to finally find exorbitant wealth distasteful, and with cooperation and good humor ensure that the product of human energy is fairly distributed to everyone, or at least a lot closer to that than now. Art will seem to be the first to change just because it’s the most visible. That’s its job, to spread the word.

I predict art will again become a real thing, a solace and an expression for its owner just the way it used to be. Enormous wealth has caused an aberration in society’s artistic expression, and given rise to a velvet-rope cult of celebrity, a mega-inflated market in relics of the stars, and a to-the-bone corruption they think is funny, let them laugh. The art they extol tells their story, and it’s pretty clear they don’t know the difference between a genius and a rank opportunist, and can even be heard to say, ‘you mean there is one?’ Robert Motherwell, pick any of them, couldn’t be expected to to tell his own work from an awkward forgery, large ink blots, an expert stands less chance still, and either way what would you care? You could paint one yourself, but wouldn’t bother. 

No wonder art seems superfluous, a pointless luxury, and somehow non-essential to everyday life, for most people. When change comes round, one day they’ll simply start to notice, in the end mostly a matter of exposure. The medical facility buys local art, creating open galleries seen by everyone, amateur groups paint outdoors and compare their work at the end of the day, and businesses begin to hang local art to much public approval, the world is turning. After long suppression, an awareness and desire for local art and pride in its ownership could go ‘viral’ in any upscale neighborhood almost anywhere, and trickle down as well. 

Big art will go bust one day, with nothing to sustain it but a speculator’s consensus among millionaires. They’ll lose interest, consume conspicuously somewhere else, or maybe go out of style themselves. It’s pointless to deride their art, since they couldn’t care less what it looks like anyway. None of that will matter -- when area artists are recognized by their work, when studios and galleries are integral to local economies, and when average citizens understand that to truly personalize a home means buying art.