The Paradox of the New
This paper addresses the main ideas within Boris Groys’ “On the New” as well as other readings presented during the course of the semester, all of which derive from our current relationship with art, collectors, and museums. I discuss the influence of collectors and major art galleries as it pertains to the embedded systems within museum curating, specifically how it affects the behavior of modern artists. The intent of the artist is perhaps the most influential in regards to what is created. It affects every decision of the art process and philosophy. However, there seem to be fallacies within the paradigm, most of which apply to a gallery or museum representation. The manner in which artists are expected to provide …show more content…
The profane is defined as “every other ordinary product of popular culture,” “readymade” or “trivial,” where the new is a “difference beyond difference” where objects are promised the distinction they do not enjoy in reality - or works that resemble the profane and yet “opens an infinite view on reality outside of the museum” (Groys) Groys uses Duchamp’s Fountain as an example how the profane (readymade urinal) becomes new (paradox-object that embody simultaneously thesis and antithesis), only through the recognition of the museum, since it is ultimately the institution that displays the work and provides context. In another passage, Groys mentions how the new cannot repeat the differences based on previous modes of work. Mike Bidlo’s imitation of Picasso’s work is one example that follows Groys’s qualification for work that creates “a newly produced difference,” since one is confronted with a nonvisual difference from the original Picasso, as a reference to the comparison of profane objects to a newly contextualized …show more content…
Collectors purchase works from Gagosian for his cachet, convinced that the art is important due to its high prices regardless of its historical significance, which eventually circulates in a gallery or museum venue. He encourages curators at large-scale museums to purchase his work for verification. He urges artists to make supersized works, which translates to “supersized sale prices” (Crow). When one tyrant dealer monopolizes the art industry and continues to persuade artists into creating works for a commodity, simultaneously influencing significant figures in the museum system, what can be considered truly new? Can the new have an opportunity to be represented in museums under the shadows of blue-chip artists or the Gagosian Effect?
The Gagosian Gallery, David Zwirner, Hauser & Wirth, Marian Goodman Gallery, and Pace represented contemporary artists who received 30% of the solo exhibitions submitted by US museums in 2015 (Sutton). Guggenheim Museum and MoMA dedicated half of their large solo exhibitions to artists from the five NY-centric galleries. Galleries are steadily, but surely replacing museums as a catalyst for contemporary art discourse. Inevitably, this causes art not related to the commercial industry to not receive sufficient
This paper addresses the main ideas within Boris Groys’ “On the New” as well as other readings presented during the course of the semester, all of which derive from our current relationship with art, collectors, and museums. I discuss the influence of collectors and major art galleries as it pertains to the embedded systems within museum curating, specifically how it affects the behavior of modern artists. The intent of the artist is perhaps the most influential in regards to what is created. It affects every decision of the art process and philosophy. However, there seem to be fallacies within the paradigm, most of which apply to a gallery or museum representation. The manner in which artists are expected to provide …show more content…
The profane is defined as “every other ordinary product of popular culture,” “readymade” or “trivial,” where the new is a “difference beyond difference” where objects are promised the distinction they do not enjoy in reality - or works that resemble the profane and yet “opens an infinite view on reality outside of the museum” (Groys) Groys uses Duchamp’s Fountain as an example how the profane (readymade urinal) becomes new (paradox-object that embody simultaneously thesis and antithesis), only through the recognition of the museum, since it is ultimately the institution that displays the work and provides context. In another passage, Groys mentions how the new cannot repeat the differences based on previous modes of work. Mike Bidlo’s imitation of Picasso’s work is one example that follows Groys’s qualification for work that creates “a newly produced difference,” since one is confronted with a nonvisual difference from the original Picasso, as a reference to the comparison of profane objects to a newly contextualized …show more content…
Collectors purchase works from Gagosian for his cachet, convinced that the art is important due to its high prices regardless of its historical significance, which eventually circulates in a gallery or museum venue. He encourages curators at large-scale museums to purchase his work for verification. He urges artists to make supersized works, which translates to “supersized sale prices” (Crow). When one tyrant dealer monopolizes the art industry and continues to persuade artists into creating works for a commodity, simultaneously influencing significant figures in the museum system, what can be considered truly new? Can the new have an opportunity to be represented in museums under the shadows of blue-chip artists or the Gagosian Effect?
The Gagosian Gallery, David Zwirner, Hauser & Wirth, Marian Goodman Gallery, and Pace represented contemporary artists who received 30% of the solo exhibitions submitted by US museums in 2015 (Sutton). Guggenheim Museum and MoMA dedicated half of their large solo exhibitions to artists from the five NY-centric galleries. Galleries are steadily, but surely replacing museums as a catalyst for contemporary art discourse. Inevitably, this causes art not related to the commercial industry to not receive sufficient