Art & Inspiration Blog

The art world has a new problem and controversy, and while it seems innocent, it could be a humdinger,  a taste of what may ultimately transform the art world as we know it.

This innocent seeming assault on the art world concerns the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation’s new project called You Tube Play is searching for new video artists. The idea is that artists can submit their You Tube videos (one per artist) and from the entrants 20 videos will be selected to be shown for four days at the museum.

While the world outside struggles with a recession that includes tent cities caused by mortgage frauds and unemployment, an unprecedented ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico caused by highly paid executives cutting corners on safety measures, a year of killer quakes and dormant volcanoes awakening, plus wars and Internet rumors of wars, the Guggenheim’s open video casting call seems hardly controversial.

Yet, Robert Storr, dean of the Yale University School of Art and former curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, attacked the Guggenheim’s project in a New York Times article, saying,” “It’s time to stop kidding ourselves. The museum as revolving door for new talent is the enemy of art and of talent, not their friend — and the enemy of the public as well, since it … serves up art as if it was quick-to-spoil produce from a Fresh Direct warehouse.”

To the “rescue’ and on the other side rode in New York Magazine’s, Jerry Saltz, who, being far more social media savvy than Storr, brought the controversy before his Facebook fans and friends who are continuing the discussion. You Tube is also a social media site.

I discovered the controversy in a discussion begun and moderated by Jerry Saltz on Facebook. I already knew about the call as I had previously ReTweeted the announcement on Twitter from the Guggenheim.

In “ YouTube in the Guggenheim? Go for It! ”, Jerry Saltz points out, “YouTube videos are obviously a form of do-it-yourself art, outsider video, folk-expression, and other things the art world says it loves.”

While Saltz is correct, mainstream art and artists are also to be found on You Tube. The strong Internet connection of this proposed show and its connections to reach artists is the point and the heart of the controversy.

Artists are used to submitting works, slides and jpegs to shows held in galleries or not for profit spaces, but in the Guggenheim call the videos submitted are coming from the Internet. More often than not, an artist is included in a museum show due to submission by galleries or at least being seen in gallery shows, here the “gallery” is usurped by the Internet‘s video showcase site of You Tube.

The issue is not the democratization of art, but the Internet’s increasing ability to at least go toe-to-toe with museums and galleries in relation to art as the middle man or go to place to find art and artists.

While most galleries maintain websites that are seen as an advertisement and extension of their brick and mortar store, the Guggenheim project bypasses all brick and mortar, slides, CDs and goes directly to the Internet –a groundbreaking move for a major art institution.

Let’s swing this around and look from the perspective of an artist–an artist guaranteed to draw crowds to a museum show and fetch a very high price for any dealer or auction house.

How would van Gogh have used the Internet if he had the opportunity? How could it have changed van Gogh’s career?

Like most artists, certainly the greatest artists, van Gogh’s drive was to communicate. He did this through his letters, through conversations and sermons (thus he was also a public speaker) and, of course, through his art.

I bet that an emerging van Gogh would have posted his art in You Tube videos. He would join Jerry Saltz’s discussions of Facebook, have his own fan page and talk art with anyone who was interested. Vincent van Gogh (an impostor) shows up on Twitter, with pithy quotes, as does the Van Gogh Museum– I know because I follow them. I bet van Gogh would have a blog, too.

I use the word “bet” because I am literally doing that as an artist. I’m following the web savvy path that I believe van Gogh, Warhol, Rembrandt, Da Vinci, Dali,, Pissaro, etc. would have taken.

If van Gogh had the Internet he would have had instant access to reach more people and share his ideas. He would not be stuck hoping that Theo could market his work. Van Gogh could have made extra change selling reproductive prints on eBay where van Gogh’s work sells today.

We are just beginning to see how the Internet will impact museums, galleries and collectors, because although artists like me will not sidestep them, we are not as strongly bound to them to make our work known. My work has already been seen by more people thanks to the Internet than the general attendance for the average gallery show in Chelsea . Would van Gogh pass that up?

The Guggenheim’s search idea is a 21 st Century idea. It is as relevant as a Google search—or perhaps Bing, as the entries will be culled down to just twenty by a
jury of nine professionals in disciplines like the visual arts, filmmaking and animation, graphic design and music brought together by the museum’s own Nancy Spector, deputy director and chief curator of the Guggenheim Foundation.

The Guggenheim’s not just working to stay relevant and popular; they are wisely looking in the place where the next great artists can be found. That the Guggenheim is honestly searching, rather that attempting to create a popular block buster show can be easily understood from the fact that their You Tube show is scheduled to only last four days.

We know that the patrons and dealers who discovered and gave the first shows to famous ground breaking artists art remembered and made immortal by art history. So far, no museum can make this claim.

Kudos to the Guggenheim for its initiating its courageous search and best of luck in discovering great artists. I bet they can be found on the Internet and You Tube because I bet van Gogh, Warhol, Monet, Degas, Dali, Rembrandt and many other groundbreaking artists would have seized this opportunity if they could have.

Note: See Judy Rey Wasserman’s You Tube video submitted to the Guggenheim’s YouTube Play project below.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 17th, 2010 at 2:42 pm and is filed under Art Theory and Show Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.