A recent video by Jimmy Dore gave me pause to think.
It was about the impact the PMC is having on “Art”. In effect they are killing it.
Recent “art” history in the US was a process of art deriving from the disaffected, the poor starving artist of talent, drawn to the warehouse collective, where they could ply their trade.
“Sponsors”, or the wealthy, were always a necessary component, but they usually came from the extreme leisure class. Those that had the deepest pockets and could support the art world. And potentially “find” the next great talent, and to fund the continued works of the talented. They would attend gallery showings of new artists’ works, buy and hang them in their homes, encourage friends to invest and support.
But something has happened with “art” since Warhol and Company climbed out of the very bohemian 1960’s loft spaces, and “factories”.
The PMC, which stands for “Professional Managerial Class”, or the new monied class, what we also refer to as the “educated elite”, has taken full control over all of the institutions of art. From the galleries, to the performance venues, and right on through the public funding of “the arts”, the PMC now holds sway.
And since the PMC has bought into the entire “Woke” industry, using the metrics of DEI, adhering to the new guide rails of the LGBTQ+ communities who have always been a big part of the avante guard that influences art and art culture, the PMC has narrowed the focus and flow of money toward “art” that conforms to a new set of guidelines and rules.
Which is incompatible.
Historically art has been about “breaking rules”. Entire art movements have been created by those artists who decided to go into a totally different direction. Who create a new and vibrant style.
Aficiaonado’s of art are well acquainted with the terms for these new groundbreaking categories, the modernists, the post-modernists, abstract artists. An artist, or artists collective came along with new ideas, a new look, that became popular and influenced all who followed.
With the PMC and elite educated class now fully engulfed in “Wokeness” art must now be viewed through the prism of how the artist meets the criteria of DEI, or whether or not they fit into the LGBTQ+ category. Where film is concerned the storyline must include members of the marginalized communities, the story line must include some components that include the stories from the marginalized, and the more important these marginalized characters can be to the plot and story, the better the chance the film gets made.
It is time to tell “gay stories”, “trans stories”, “Black stories”, before all other considerations. It is time to create the narrative of oppression inside the story whether it fits the plot or doesn’t. Wokeness trumps all other criteria.
Evaluation of the art must take place viewing through the prism of Wokeness. Quotas need to be met, did the representation of the marginalized equal their numbers in the real world?
Can we take it all a step further and filter the artistic view through a prism that would include the idea that Thomas Jefferson is portrayed by a person of color, or member of the LGBTQ+ community. Jefferson as a “power bottom”, or “Leather Dominatrix”. Which is considered an artistic upgrade over how Jefferson may have been portrayed in all of history prior to this particular play or presentation.
Unfortunately there are not enough people in the PMC to support this kind of “art”.
Art is suffering. Venues are closing, more and more artists are starving and left unfunded. Requirements to be an “approved artist” have narrowed to the extent that those outside these new parameters are forced to give up their artistic dreams.
The PMC, serving on museum boards, administering these small theaters and theater troops, are destroying the places where art lives.
This phenomenon is so bad that docents are leaving in droves, not because they want to leave service to their local galleries, but because the Woke have decided that there are just too many straight, White, older, women in place at art galleries all over the country who need to be replaced by people of color. There are just too many old White ladies. Who majored in “Art History” in the 1960’s, and 1970’s and after marrying well found themselves able, in their spare time, to devote their time and attention to their major at the local gallery.
Sorry White lady of leisure, educated in art history, you need to be replaced. Sure your heart is in the right place, but based on color you have to go. Your time has passed, read it here where it is underlined.
We can see this phenomenon in stark detail with Hollywood suffering to create movies that have general appeal. Box office is down because few Americans share the artitistic taste of the PMC and Woke, and guess what, it turns out that the average American doesn’t like being preached to by Hollywood Elite. Go figure.
For Hollywood, and Disney in particular, it has gotten so bad that South Park skewered them royally
Who knew that art would become a casualty of “Wokeness”?
Now what I don’t understand is why and how these new metrics need to be put into use in our society, and why “Wokeness” has to rule the artistic community today.
From the very first time I saw Warhol’s work, the simplicity, the commonplace elevated, I was just amazed. He demonstrated with an everyday object something that we all missed completely. I thought his work was genius. Whether or not he was a member of the LBGTQ+ community meant nothing to me, that was his personal life to live. Who he slept with was inconsequential to his art. His art spoke a stand-alone language, and spoke this language to all. It wasn’t a “gay” language, it wasn’t filtered through any prism, it was “art”. Though many have argued with me over the years that it wasn’t, that they saw it as a rip-ff of the commercial. But that is what great art does, it creates conversation. It comes from conflict.
I don’t know Banksy’s politics but his art, to me, is just some of the best work being done today. He speaks volumes in the smallest of works. He is an artistic genius beyond measure. Who he is, what he is, well, he has worked to keep that hidden. But whether he checks the Woke box or not means nothing. His art transcends.
Wokeness, DEI, these are cancers growing and festering on our society at large.
They must be destroyed before they take down the host.
Wokeness, DEI, these are cancers growing and festering on our society