Dyske Suematsu wrote:
Some thoughts on the content of your essay:
first, there is no monolithic 'art world'. perhaps there are microcosms of interest and influence, each with specific criteria yet there are no universally nor even globally binding set criteria. it all comes down to subjective opinion.
i can say this based on personal experience and a large body of annecdotal evidence. in my own case, i am virtually unknown yet have had my share of 'successes' based on my personal criteria. i've also won several comissions & grants over a long career. through the rigors of securing these opportunities i realize that i may be 'succesful' at 'winning' the opportunities yet this really doesn't say anything about the 'success' of the specific art work.
what it does indicate is that at a particular moment in time my ideas/artefacts appealed to a specific person/group. perhaps an individual, for reasons which have nothing to do with opinions in popular art journals, bodies of critique, personal reputation, etc., simply 'gets' my idea and it's visual/sonic/temporal/assosiative dynamics and decides these qualities are 'worth' a certain 'value'. this says nothing about my personal criteria for 'success'. in fact, some of my least 'succesful' works have fascinated others to the point of purchase. fine, i'll take the money but still don't believe this was a 'succesful' work based on my personal aesthetic criteria.
It's helpful to remember that virtually every public statement uttered by Andy Warhol, on virtually any topic, is laced with irony. he was, in my opinion first & foremost, a very succesful popular entertainer. once, upon receiving a particularly harsh critique of his current works, warhol was asked by a journalist to respond to his critics. "they're absolutely right" was his response.
The point was (and remains) that those critics' opinions meant very little to warhol. he did what he did regardless of the criteria of others.
all artwork has merit to someone. In the least to it's creator. it expands or contracts from there.
I think that you're wrong about people sensing art motivated by pure opportunism. Thomas Kinkade Is living proof. Pure success based on raw opportunism to a degree which dwarfs all of his competitors. He is the most 'succesful' artist of this era, perhaps of all time.
can we say Kinkade is insincere? Is he a cynic or is he a sort of new age entrepeneur, bristling with optimism and a profound connection with sentimentality? He is most definitely a superbly skilled salesman. His clientele approaches cult-status in their appreciation for his world-view of simpler, more fundamental emotional concepts.
Production-wise, Kinkade deploys an advanced 'factory' approach which is reminiscent of Warhol's except that he uses computer aided painting machines to apply the paint to the canvas. All he does is compose the original and sign each computer generated painting.
Yet who is Kinkade influencing aesthetically? Of course, it's too early to tell.
By comparison, Van Gogh was a commercial failure during his time. He could barely sell a painting to save his life. Yet his experimental aestheics quite succesfully influenced future generations of painters.
I think part of all artists' revulsion towards 'succesful' artists is pure jealousy. Another part, at least in today's world, is the lingering effects of the marxist notion of 'unalienated labor', that is, the work is made purely for the satisfaction of the creator. Many artists have this concept deeply ingrained in their psyche (whether they've read Marx or not). The resulting artefacts of this 'pure' process are highly personal and speak of the creator's essence. Powerful stuff to be discounted by a lack of appreciation by others. It's much like being rejected by a desired lover, as you pointed out.
Salesmanship, in it's essence is based on a fundamental insinuation of 'need'. The most succesful salespeople can sell water to a dolphin. The dolphin is surrounded by free water yet the 'succesful' salesperson convinces the dolphin that their water isn't really 'the best' water for the dolphin. The seller foments doubt in the dolphin's mind and uses it to evoke dissatisfaction, even avarice and uses other psy-tricks to coerce the dolphin into a purchase. The smart dolphin laughs and swims away. Yet all the salesperson needs is a demographic slice of all dolphins to succeed. Perhaps they prey on the 'beta' males, who have an obvious inferiority complex.
Fine art is also sold to appeal to non-aesthetic concerns of many a potential client, many of whom care not a whit for a work's intrinsic aesthetic values. Rather, the focus is on to which degree will the collecting of art symbolize the purchaser's own 'success'. "i have so much discretionary capital that i can buy all of these expensive paintings" (snicker, yet this is a very REAL motivator for many purchasers.)
Let's take the 3 Stooges as another example. Masters of absurdist comedy. Wildly succesful at entertaining millions so much so that refering to a given episode ellicits many laughs from deep within the experiential base of many conversants. They are a good exqample of the dichotomy at play here. The stooges were both 'succesful' and 'unsuccesful' in the sense that they never really got a fair contractual deal. They all died relatively poor.
I disagree with your notion that it wasn't just money that put Saatchi over the top. None of the collaboration really works without the financial resources, 'the deep pockets' you mention.
Saatchi had already collected works by Warhol, et. al, because he HAD MONEY and INFLUENCE Prior to ever collecting any art. I first became fascinated by Gilbert & George in the 1970s, yet to this day have yet to realize the necessary discresionary capital to collect their works. Yet i consider them highly succesful at expressing their ideas.
Your evaluation of the benefits of teamwork is right-on. It is also where the phrase 'art-mafia' comes from. Many of these artist groups, while very pro-active for themselves, can also become very competitive and even detrimental to the careers of others as they tend to jealously monopolize and vindictively guard access to 'their' resources. Having witnessed this specific behavior, i liken it to the way chicks in a nest treat each other. First one to hatch feeds first and best, to the detriment of the others, who survive on scraps, if they're not killed, eaten or thrown out of the nest by the 'succesful' chick. In this way, the 'succesful team' approach simply provides more of the same ancient, instinctual social ordering based on the destruction of one's competitors. In this sense it offers a cynical, 'machiavellian' aproach to life. Using the same criteria for politics, we have no valid complaint against the manouvering of the current Bush regime who are 'succesful' at securing positions of power & influence. Yet i find nothing new nor inspiring in the real politik of the current political landscape nor the 'art world' which you seem to champion in your essay.
One of the great powers of art is to imagine alternative ways of seeing/being. Surrendering to the 'arrogance of the current' simply lacks imagination or inspiration. When artists accept a corporate model, they become corporate models and are easily manipulated into justifing their 'value' based on a very fleeting moment of perceived 'success'. Much like the widespread & idiotic arrogance of the 'Dot . Com' bubble, which resulted in the 'Dot . Bomb' wasteland which has ensued.
So, to site Warhol, your assertions are 'absolutrly right'.