Occupy the museums … or, simply don’t
I have been watching and, in spirit, am all for the Occupy Wall Street protests because I feel the issues being raised need to be discussed. I truly wish the banks would get involved, to help balance out the conversation, but apparently they’re too busy raking in record profits.
That said, I find the Occupy the Museums notion a bit too misguided (and more than a bit ironic) to let it go without comment.
In a nutshell the message of the Occupy the Museums effort is :
Museums, open your mind and your heart! Art is for everyone! The people are
at your door!
Let’s begin with the fact that despite $20 and $25 dollar entry fees, the people seem more than happy to keep passing through the doors of New York’s museums :
- Met Hits 40-Year Attendance Record
- MoMA Attendance Hits Record High
- Guggenheim Museum Sees Record Attendance
What’s more, they offer alternatives for people who can’t afford those fees. So there’s apparently NOT a serious “access for the people” issue here.
More specifically, Occupy the Museum’s rallying cry is:
For the last few decades, voices of dissent have been silenced by a fearful survivalist atmosphere and the hush hush of BIG money. To really critique institutions, to raise one’s voice about the disgusting excessive parties and spectacularly out of touch auctions of the art world while the rest of the country suffers and tightens its belt was widely considered to be bitter, angry, uncool.
Er…uh…the critique of institutions is alive (*cough* #class) and well (*cough* #rank) by artists like William Powhida (whose new show opens Saturday) and Jennifer Dalton (whose current show ends this Saturday. (Full disclosure, I represent Dalton, but that’s why I find the notion that institutional critique is being discouraged so out of touch, it’s also why I can report that BIG money seems to get and does indeed buy such art as well).
So there really is no “hushing” going on here.
So if it’s not that “the people” are being denied access to the museums, and it’s not that artists are afraid to critique the institutions, what is it really that this protest can accomplish?
Their stated goals continue:
The members of museum boards mount shows by living or dead artists whom they collect like bundles of packaged debt. Shows mounted by museums are meant to inflate these markets. They are playing with the fire of the art historical cannon while seeing only dancing dollar signs. The wide acceptance of cultural authority of leading museums have made these beloved institutions into corrupt ratings agencies or investment banking houses- stamping their authority and approval on flimsy corporate art and fraudulent deals.
This strikes me as a gross oversimplification of what motivates curators and museum boards to mount shows. Although there is a popular sense that inflating certain markets does occur to certain decision makers at times, most museum curator I know are indeed passionate about the artists they work with, and the persuasion going on is, generally speaking, from them to the board members, not the other way around. Furthermore, the correlation between museum shows inflating the value of individual collections has never been shown. That’s a red herring that does a disservice to board members who could spend their money on far less altruistic things than supporting art and museums.
But I think this text jumps the shark with claims of “stamping their authority and approval on flimsy corporate art and fraudulent deals.” What is or isn’t “flimsy” is a matter of opinion, and the history of art is nothing if not a shifting of opinions. As for “fraudulent” deals, I think I’d consult a good libel attorney before throwing that accusation around so casually and indirectly.
Ultimately, though, I find this an opportunistic and somewhat ahistorical argument. Take this line:
For the past decade and more, artists and art lovers have been the victims of
the intense commercialization and co-optation or art.
That’s only true if by “past decade” you mean “past few centuries.” And it’s only wholly true if you acknowledge that the victimizers (i.e., those responsible for the “intense commercialization”) include many, many artists as well.
Mind you, I think the protest should move forward and I’ll be very curious to see how the museums respond. I suspect they’ll accommodate the protesters as best they can.
I just don’t think the motivation as outlined in the official text is even remotely accurate and probably won’t be very productive. Moreover, I think a better way to get the museums to change (if that’s your goal) is to encourage people NOT to occupy them…but that’s just me.
“The members of museum boards mount shows by living or dead artists whom they collect like bundles of packaged debt. Shows mounted by museums are meant to inflate these markets.”
One can admire the passion, but the words belie complete ignorance about what museum boards actually do. I hope the Occupy movement members don’t look at the above approach as a future career model for themselves.
Consider the proposed self-aggrandizement scheme: First, collect expensive works which may or may not appreciate in value, but cost a lot to own or sell. Then spend a ton of money getting on a museum board. Along the way, promise to give away some of the works you bought for a lot of money (the tax exemptions are unlikely to be more than the money you spent on the work and didn’t put to use in the business you do to make real money). Then, somehow convince your fellow board members and the institution’s curators, who don’t report to you directly, to mount an exhibition by an artist whose work you own, and whose values have already likely reached a high-water mark–that’s why they are considered for a museum show. While the show is up, throw a few expensive parties or dinners. Then go out on the marketplace and try to sell the work. Pay the extra-high capital gains taxes and the commission and related costs. Count your money.
I think Ed is being very, very generous in his assessment of this newest “occupation,” and I think Pablo is getting closer to the heart of the matter: simply put, I can’t tell if this mini-screed against the “museums” is earnest or comic. When I began reading it, I had to check the URL to make sure I hadn’t been redirected to The Onion. That the New Museum’s free hours are listed in the action’s itinerary at the bottom must be part of the joke, right?
One of the biggest hurdles any “movement” like this has to clear, and clear over and over again, is that of being taken seriously. Numbers are the initial key and measure here. One has to get to a critical mass, which the Wall Street protests have certainly done, and then sustain that mass, either with new and growing numbers or new kinds of organizational energy.
Occupying the museums is obviously an attempt at the latter. But rather than opening up a conduit of new energy, I suspect it will have been a drain. Perhaps a small one that can be quickly plugged, but it’s a drain nonetheless. How do I know? Because my own sympathies for the “movement” have been sapped by this silliness.
The museums are neither the source nor the symbol of our current problems. Unregulated finance and leverage is, money in politics is, decaying infrastructure is, environmental neglect and damage is. The Occupy Wall Street movement has made it possible for people to give greater voice to proposals–for infrastructure banks, financial transaction taxes, energy taxes–that before would have been met with only cynically laughter. The calculus of seriousness has shifted. This is a real achievement. Let’s not be stupid and squander it.
I think generosity it called for here, on all sides. I don’t disagree with anything Jonathan has written, and I laughed out loud at Pablo’s Artoon, but I have also received emails from the protest organizers that indicate they’re aware of some imperfections and are sincerely working to address them. As in all such matters, a bit of breathing room allows for more mutual understanding. The protesters emailing me are willing to be more open minded, and so therefore am I. I have learned the protests will continue each Thursday…stay tuned.