Critical Issues in the Cultural Industries

Market – “Lard for l’Art”

criticalissuesintheculturalindustries — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:33:46 +0000

In her essay “Lard for l’Art”, Laura Prins discusses market developments in the art world of nineteenth century France. Prins gives a historical account of the practice and strategies of art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel and thus identifies a predecessor to more recent protagonists of the art market. Click here to read the essay.

Market – Conflicts of Interest

criticalissuesintheculturalindustries — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:35:20 +0000

Discussing the Outset/Frieze Art Fair Fund, Stefaan Vervoort focuses on the egalitarian model of the art fair. Vervoort shows how this philanthropic construction creates symbolic value through the institution, thereby perverting the public model with the institutional mechanics it promises to renounce. Click here to read the essay.

Market – Hype Park

criticalissuesintheculturalindustries — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:31:48 +0000

The tension caused by the double value of art was explicitly noticeable at the 2009 Frieze Art Fair in London. In his essay, Martijn van Beek describes his experience of the fair, which was overshadowed by the notion of hyping. Emphasising the young, hip and fast, the artworks were sold at such a speed that there was no time for reflection. Moreover, van Beek identifies two distinct types of art history present at the fair. Click here to read the essay.

Market – Untitled

criticalissuesintheculturalindustries — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:26:31 +0000

Jane Boddy reviews Andrea Fraser’s video piece Untitled and its presence in the current Pop Life exhibition at Tate Modern, London (2009-2010). Boddy examines how Fraser addresses the old metaphor of the prostitute/artist and the client/collector and how this reflects on the art value of the work and where it resides. Click here to read the essay.

Market – Double Standard

criticalissuesintheculturalindustries — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:08:18 +0000

Considering notions of parity and exclusivity within the late 1960s marketing practice of Seth Siegelaub, Elise Noyez tracks how first generation Conceptual art dealt with the market. Contrary to popular belief, Noyez argues, Conceptual art was not a clear or uncensored reaction against the existing art market but rather an attempt to reconsider it. Click here to read the essay.

Exhibition – Wild Thing

criticalissuesintheculturalindustries — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:45:02 +0000

Jane Boddy reviews the current exhibition on Epstein, Gaudier-Brzeska and Gill at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Focusing on Epstein’s Rock Drill (1913) and its remakes, Boddy explains how a recent exhibition tries to make a spectacle out of an early twentieth-century sculpture and in the process disregards the artist’s intentions. Click here to read the essay.

Exhibition – Trashy Politics

criticalissuesintheculturalindustries — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:37:54 +0000

When Giuliani, then mayor of New York, publicly criticised the Sensation exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum (1999), Hans Haacke commented on what he called a “violation of the First Amendment” with the work Sanitation (2000). Reviewing this work in relation to the rest of Haacke’s socially and politically engaged oeuvre, Laura Prins argues its problematic nature. Click here to read the essay.

Exhibition – Repeopling the Palace

criticalissuesintheculturalindustries — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:25:47 +0000

Regarding the exhibition as a mode of city marketing, as well as its legitimising narratives, Martijn van Beek explains the effect of an enormous exhibition in a small Italian village. The exhibition celebrated both the renovation of the royal palace in which it took place and the concept of democracy. Click here to read the essay.

Exhibition – Double Fraud

criticalissuesintheculturalindustries — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:17:32 +0000

Talking about exhibitions, Stefaan Vervoort discusses the recent and popular phenomenon of interventional exhibitions in museums of fine arts, where a contemporary artist fulfills the role of curator. Referring to what Benjamin Buchloh termed an ‘ideological fraud’, Vervoort identifies this exhibition format’s problematic nature as grounded in a ‘double fraud’. Click here to read the essay.

Exhibition – Dialogue for One

criticalissuesintheculturalindustries — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:10:02 +0000

Elise Noyez reviews a symposium at the Witte de With’s Rotterdam Dialogues, in which the role of the curator as a protagonist of the art world was discussed. Noyez describes how a sense of narcissism permeated the panel discussions and left issues of responsibility, influence and curator-artist collaborations mostly untouched. Click here to read the essay.