I've been pounding on Postmodernism pretty hard this week, but I'm not about to let up now. In today's Times there is an article on the summer reunion tours of defunct bands. Ben Ratliff asks, "...Aren’t we supposed to form a community of taste around living culture, not afterlife culture? Isn’t a great band supposed to be more than just a band, but an embodiment of a particular age, a state of mind, a place? " These questions are good ones and can be used to describe our situation as well. We in the art world have been revisiting the last 50 years of art over and over again. We keep reviving and recontextualizing the same sort of work again and again. It is why we are currently undergoing another revival - this time of 1980s work and those artists that are known as the drivers of that decade - are experiencing renewed interest - Brice Marden, Sean Scully, David Salle, Jonathan Lasker, Peter Halley and Jeff Koons are all getting love (and money) like they never used to. They have become "masters."
"There are clear reasons for this trend. We’re seeing the winnowing of the live-music era in America, as well as the end of belief in the album. Any crisis of belief leads to sanctification and orthodoxy; people want to see the saints work their magic." IN our world painting is prevalent, but it is the orthodoxy. The lapse of painting's power to reinvent itself - like the belief in the album - has caused us to cling to the familiar and find comfort in nostalgia. The Postmodern bulletin board, the overlaying of media images, reproduction, the surefire proportions of lens painting, the comfort of ironic distance, the predominance of re-run programming all play to make us feel safe and secure in our investment of time, thought and money. Precedent equals comfort, and comfort is 401k steady baby!
Later Ben talks with Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar, the concert-industry magazine..."[who] is so used to old acts propping up the industry that he doesn’t believe this year’s picture is substantially different. “Last year you had Bob Seger, this year you have Genesis,” he said evenly over the phone recently. He is not sure whether new bands — Arcade Fire, say — are striking deeply enough into the soul of the culture to necessitate their own reunions down the road. I think context will determine it. If there are lots of great new bands in the next 10 years, we won’t feel we need an Arcade Fire reunion. If there aren’t, we will. " For the art world it is the same. So many of the new artists are here for such a short time. The career track used to be 5 years and a gallery would spend the energy and time trying to move their artists forward. Today it is 2 years at the most with those artists who are selling moving on to bigger corporate style galleries or if they don't sell - fall off the planet. For most painters the career doesn't last that long. The key is selling and painters' easiest way to sell is to fall in line with what sells. If you rock the boat, you'll be swimming with the fishes or worse yet - working at Starbucks. The idea that new work isn't striking deeply enough into the soul of culture is a sign of our time. By reworking old ideas in similar ways or actually engaging in active nostalgia the up and coming generation doesn't resonate, it doesn't create it's own ideas or visions. It doesn't get to the soul - and we don't remember them. Listen, it's not about "youth" or "beauty" or "newness" but about resonating ideas. Titian, DeKooning, Guston, Tintoretto, Michelangelo, Picasso, Monet, Cezanne and Matisse among others redefined their work for new generations in their later years - looking more radical and pioneering than those who were following the rules. These painters defined new iconic ideas for those that followed - simply because they took chances with their work rather than look cool or fill the form. How many artists today would feel the need to continue to innovate after their success? Not many - look at the "consistency" of the eighties painters' work. For the most part there is very little change from 1985 to 2005 - and in a couple of cases - absolutely nothing new.
As Ben finishes - like all writers in the arts - he tries to put an upbeat spin to things. "That feeling people talked about during the Pixies shows a few years ago — the word “eerie” was used a great deal — seems similar to descriptions of the feeling generated in the Village Vanguard when Dexter Gordon played his comeback shows there in 1976, after living abroad. Since then, jazz has advanced into a culture of incessant re-experience, endless tributes. Actual reunions are barely noticed: a huge percentage of the music refers to great moments of the past. Yet that doesn’t mean that jazz can’t still be fantastic, even transformative. It is, all the time." The key line and the disclaimer in this passage is "Since then, jazz has advanced into a culture of incessant re-experience, endless tributes. " I am reminded of a line in one of Prince's songs - there is joy in repetition - which glorifies the familiar, the easy, the known path, the understood idea, and the comfort of precedent - it takes you to a place where it all makes sense. POMO painting is like the energy production industry - tearing up the world to create moments of comfort and ease at the expense of the future. It is the reason painting has become a product for the corporate investment industry - it all makes sense.
In a nod to Ben and his wonderful article I will try to end this in an upbeat manner by quoting the Talking Heads - "Stop Making Sense!"
