Art And Commerce
A Culture Still Cultured art n. the
quality, production, expression, or realm,
according to aesthetic principals,
of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more
than ordinary significance. –The
Random House Dictionary "Josh, you just
have to see the new GAP Khakis
commercial!" proclaimed my excited brother. I
even went as far as watching
the same channel until I finally saw the
commercial. I sat in front of the
television for over a half an hour, and turned
my head at the sound of catchy
swing music to see young men and women dancing to
music on a stark white
backdrop. Their energy and enthusiasm to dance was like
nothing I had seen in
reality. In all the twisting and tangling of arms, legs,
and female hair, I
froze in my seat as everyone on the dance floor froze in mid
air. My heart
stopped as I followed the camera around the frozen dancers. The
new
perception heightened the dancing energy. The GAP Khakis sign invaded
the
screen for a few seconds and the screen went blank. Was this the work of
an evil
genius trying to get my attention so that I could be brainwashed into
buying a
product? Could it perhaps be simply one artist communicating a new
sense of
beauty to the whole world, regardless of the product I was deeply
affected by
the strange time and space rendered in front of me in thirty
seconds. Commercial
film affects me more than fine art in a museum does. It
has also proven to be
much better at portraying subtleties to a mass audience
in a clear and definite
way. People are ashamed of this comparative strength.
Many of my self-fabricated
intellectual friends claim to enjoy gallery fine
art more than they enjoy movies
and television. When we are at the gallery, I
watch my friends ooh and aah at
the work as they interpret its meaning
amongst themselves. After dragging them
cynically into the movie theater,
they exit two hours later wiping their eyes
off not wanting to say anything
to anyone. Before the idea of mass-produced
copies of art, people were
starved for the kind of extraordinary visions we take
for granted. They went
to art shows and concerts. They valued their circuses and
city zoos. After
someone realized that the power of the extraordinarily
beautiful could be
very profitable, everything became consumerism. So, did all
of this artistic
talent disappear into thin air? Do bitter fine artists have
reason to spit at
an official for stifling the National Endowment for the Arts?
The answer
is in the advertisement. Fine art appreciation may be a low priority
to many
Americans. I become uneasy when I hear someone say, "Art is dead
in
America!" The truth is that traditional art is dead in America. Did
puritans
sail the Atlantic ocean to settle here and be just like the people
they broke
away from? America’s having non-traditional art is a blessing to
its original
idea of constantly self reforming and exploring the possible new
and better.
America has a very thriving art form. Part of the reason why
this art will never
die is because people deny that it is art. The system is
so engrained in our
society that people are too ashamed to include it within
the nomenclature of
what they have been taught early on to see as
inaccessible and foreign culture.
That unique and strong art is renamed
consumerism for its functional
relationship to the economy. Very creative
people in America work in show
business and advertisement. The "fine art"
continues to live underground to
satisfy our nostalgia for the past, our need
for small hors d’ouvres of
diversity now and again, and as an important
breeding ground for new ideas and
approaches. The advertisements on TV
celebrate our culture’s new ideas and
feelings. They catch our attention not
because they were written by
psychologist-brain washers, but because they are
powered by artistic minds who
would have stopped at nothing to communicate
humanity in any other way, had it
not been for such a wonderful system of
communication as consumerism. The
audience gets a thrill and gains peace of
mind. There is also a product being
sold, but in a good commercial, that is
almost irrelevant to the message of
human identification. Apple’s Think
different campaign catches our hearts by
tirelessly reminding us that
everyone who changed the history books thought
outside of the box, and was
unique in some way. As I drive up Sunset Blvd. my
eye sometimes tears at the
sight of John Lennon’s face 50 feet high on the
side of a building. He was
put there by an ad team to make me feel better about
my own human uniqueness.
I cheer at the face of Ansel Adams as I drive up the
405 freeway, and
afterwards, it will always be my choice to purchase an Imac
computer. It
would be in my best interest to give that company money now that
they have
shown me their talent for choosing the right artists that I can
identify
with. It’s as if the higher art critics have forgotten that art
always had a
commercial tie throughout history. People bought paintings of their
loved
ones and themselves. It was the most immortalizing thing they could find
at
the time, and still so to some. A famous Renaissance painter’s
uncanny
ability to catch the likeness in people was not only appreciated with
the
highest respect, but also paid handsomely. That existed even until
Norman
Rockwell’s uncanny ability to capture the same humanity. He never
considered
himself an artist. So is it bad that we think our art culture
doesn’t exist
among the common folk? Wouldn’t all chaos rein if the people
who considered
themselves high class realized that they were just like the
rest of us? Perhaps
it is safe to say that as long as everyone secretly
appreciates American
consumer culture across the globe, it is no longer
important whether it exactly
resembles Art with a capital A. It is somewhat
of a more powerful model, able to
reach many more people in less time. It is
Entertainment with a capital E, the
new art for a new kind of society,
something to be blissfully ashamed
of!