Wanted: A Practical Avant Garde

“Almost everyone would agree that the art world has become a kind of spectacle. Much of the work is repetitive and derivative in a way that starts to resemble planned cultural obsolescence. A strange cycle has set in, whereby the most valuable attribute an artist can have is ‘promise.’ With a lot of big bets being placed, the artist has to be both young and verifiable. In other words, marketable. But almost none of our superstar artists have delivered on their promise.”