Air Guitar

Art is a problematic endeavor in “mercantile democracy”, according to Dave Hickey: Air Guitar, Essays on Art and Democracy. What does an art critic do when he thinks that the art has no intrinsic value or virtue and “it is a bad, silly, frivolous thing to do”? Analyzing of art’s essential “goodness”, he comes to conclusion, that “it is a political fiction that is employed to solicit taxpayer’s money for public art education and for the public housing of works of art.” Why? Because we love them “so well their existence is inseparable from the texture of the world in which we live”. When things stands and the function of an art critic is secondary and for     commercial galleries only, that means that artists subordinate their endeavors to the norms of “right-thinking” people and to the norms of regulation of civil society thus becoming “a steady-state hedge against change”.     

 I totally agree with him about what the art has become nowadays. Everything sums up to money, and if you really think about it, why art should be “good”? It makes it so easy when you just ignore the fact of “goodness” of it. No need to have a general “good” argument ready for your final tables and no need acting as you really believe in its goodness, it makes it so much easier.  I liked the comparison art to the sports. For instance, in Rugby, It’s a pure game till death. So much anger so much blood; but this is what it makes rugby so cool, it’s because it’s considered to be “bad” and silly game for physically developed people. Sadly in football you can’t see this anymore, everywhere where there is “good money” there is lot of acting and “goodness”.