About Art of Today. Some comments.
Enriquillo Amiama
Artistic creation, or expressive manifestation of a creator, is a fascinating activity.
We can approach it from so many angles that we might never reach a consensus.
For some, art is a discipline with established rules and unalterable aesthetic canons and patterns.
For others, at a distant extreme, it is literally anything.
Art is what the artist says is art.
The latter began consciously with Marcel Duchamp and his ready-made or found objects.
If the contemplation of an object moves the artist and visualizes something that goes beyond the ordinary meaning, he has the power to turn it into ART like an alchemist or magician.
We find most art workers between the two radical opposites, academicism, and conceptual ultra-avant-garde liberality.
There are isms for every taste, and they force no one to follow the prevailing or fashionable currents.
Now, there are artists who work for totally aesthetic reasons.
There are also those who do art because it is paid.
There are also those who work moved by emotions and various passions, such as fear, hatred, or anguish.
In these cases, there is a kind of catharsis or liberation when they express what torments or presses their minds and hearts.
Contemporary
In the present age, we are seeing a novel phenomenon. There is a galloping trivialization of taste, which we can find in music, and the visual arts, especially painting, and sculpture.
Exorbitant, astronomical prices validate objects and songs that would have been ignored a century ago due to their poor intrinsic quality.
The power of the market, money, and the media have played a preponderant role in the new economy of art.
Modern ways of creating wealth, especially those based on technology and its massive use, have allowed mega-millionaires to emerge who can spend on whatever they like, regardless of the opinions or criteria of experts.
This could be an explanation for surprises at auctions and art fairs. The most expensive is not necessarily the best.
Although I admit that such cases are not the norm. In general, “good” art is better valued and represented than “bad” art.
Women In The Arts
In these brief paragraphs, I do not want to fail to mention that I am fascinated to see how artists, that is, women, have been gaining space both in exhibitions and in the prices of works of art.
Although unjustified inequality persists, we see promise that more artists will reach global recognition and acceptance.
Of ours, there are already three ultra-contemporary painters who shine in exhibitions of the level of the Venice Biennale and other instances such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s auctions.
Firelei Baez, Hulda Guzmán, and more recently Tania Marmolejo, have come to sell exquisite works between 80 and 250,000 dollars.
The Dominican Republic has it all, as the tourist slogan says. Yes, it’s wonderful, although taking advantage of the flow of culture as another of our central attractions is still a pending task.
We have riches from yesterday, today, and the future. Let’s take advantage of the fact that we are at the best moment in our history. Let’s do it!
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