Why the ‘Art World’ as We Know It Is Ending

There’s breakdown of institutional roles underway. Ben Davis,
February 2, 2018 In Part I of this series on the State of the Culture, I looked at the changing environment for museums; Part II was dedicated to the changing rules for artists; Part III examined the new dynamics of art media. In Part IV, I try to sum things up. Flaubert’s Dictionary of Received Ideas is a kind of parody of 19th-century cocktail-party clichés. There’s an entry for “Photography.” It reads: “Will replace painting.” “Technology is changing everything!” has been a cliché for as long as there has been technological change. On the other hand, cliché and parody are both different ways that society brings fearsome change down to manageable mental scale. State of the Culture, IV: Why the ‘Art World’ as We Know It Is Ending

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