Art history

Art history seduces us into believing that that art falls neatly into movements and isms that flow into one another with inevitably and meaning. But that picture makes contemporary art seem all the more and more chaotic, erratic and confusing. The contemporary artist functions in the storm of theory, mass media, social media, marketing, commodity, social schmoozing, grants, curators, self-promotion and the struggle to maintain integrity.

Over time, some great art will get buried in the sheer detritus of images. Some art will be stripped to reveal its vacuity. Some art will persist in asserting its meaning. Some art will continue to survive under a critic's or curator's watch. Some art will will have a voice strong enough to make enough people listen. Some art will... How many fates are possible for art?

In the end it's attentive and loving eyes that make the difference. Generations of eyes that keep looking at the art, keep being pulled into it. Keep finding that it has meaning, new meaning, for them. It defies being a commodity, a status symbol, an artifact, a prisoner of the wealthy.

It belongs to humanity.