Look I don't want to belabour this, but a lot of folks are quaking in their boots. Everyday there's a bit more news about the market's deflation. I'm not happy about it - it means some folks are gonna get hit. It also means that the game is about to change. In the early 90s with the surge of abstraction came the deflation of the market - and in a big way. Folks lost their jobs, defaulted on their newly bought apartments (or sold for less than they paid) and artists had a tough time - very tough. There was a whole generation of artists that sort of just faded away almost overnight. Abstraction - particularly abstract painting - after enduring the expressionism of the 80s - had made its way into the public eye when suddenly BOOM! the bottom fell out. All those mannerist abstractionists - Reed, Halley and Row among others - just didn't seem relevant and they quietly went away. We then endured the expansion of the extended field and a resurgence in 97 and again in 2001 of figurative crap - along with the rise of the mega dealer. POMO theoretics retreated to the universities with the practitioners of it - who now took the steady-paying gigs because they couldn't get sold. Thought and new visual ideas atrophied in academia and has led us to where we are today - 3rd generation regurgitated 80s painting of all stripes (doesn't anyone actually USE the internet to research - RECENT art history is at your fingertips folks - you're not fooling anyone.) This summer the group shows looked so much like the ones I saw in 1993 that I thought I was flashing back - without the fun hallucinogens. Money and art go hand in hand so as the markets go so does the art world - I hope you've all been taking care of your selves - I hope you put a little away for the future. I hope you've also been working in the studios, because real ideas will be needed for this new century in short order. Spin, nostalgia and lies will only get you so far - you've got to have the real stuff in order to move ahead. Topping it all off - Charlie Finch lays out once again a bit of economic precedent discussing the current art market. I like Charlie because he pulls no punches, and when he's not navel gazing, you'll get the unvarnished truth. Look we may be getting an opportunity here to really take back our art world and that is exciting!