Art output is painted in a monumental canvas of delivering profound philosophy and evoking existentialism that creates value from the struggling artists. But let’s be truthful for some time- being an artist that is famous does not make you an authoritative thinker that you are made to be. Some of them are about as deep as a puddle in the Sahara and that is all it takes for some to commit rape.
Authenticity has been a buzzword in the present time of Instagram models and Tik Tock stars where it becomes very hard to distinguish between an actual work of art and a well-managed persona. Well, get your coffee or tea ready because here are some celebrities that you may want to pay close attention to who have been accused of basically mimicking other legends.
The Instagram Illusionists
I still recall when art was not as basic as picking a filter and typing a caption? Those were the days! Since then, we have a whole generation of “artists” that see their primary method of artistic expression as their social media account.
For instance, there is Richard Prince, the man who just takes screenshots of people’s Instagram posts and then photo prints them and sells them for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Is this a clever commentary on the modern world as regards to the ownership of digital material as well as copyright? Or is it just a case of sheer laziness where these artists co-opt Native imagery into contemporary art in a way that disguises itself as high art? His first piece was creative; others in Instagram look more like a rip off, with the artist effectively copying what he saw others do and then boasting about the results.
The Emperor’s New Paintings
Jeff Koons is an artist whose creations are shiny and popular among the upper class as ornaments for their halls. However what does this gigantic beings consisting of merely metal balloons in the shape of those animals tell? Some journalists and critics appreciated his work as mocking consumption, but there is something paradoxical in creating primarily vapid objects and selling them for millions to the elite.
The man once said, “Advertising and media, I consider as two intact and perfect entities.” It can therefore refers to my personal life and my art,” said SheMZ extensively. At least the man is frank to be claiming to be interested in feasibility rather than significance! And, very probably, Koons knows the art market all too well, for there is little of this art in his work, and much of this art is for those who want a recognizable signifier of success rather than a provocation.
The Controversy Merchants
Some artists have form the habit of creating scandals as a replacement for content. At one time, Ai Weiwei was a political activist, and although today he may be a considerably privileged man, one must recall that for him, making art that really was provocative and critical of Chinese oppression, was a somewhat dangerous enterprise. But when his work became more well known in the West, it appears as though he was more focused towards eliciting a certain reaction from the audience.
The Derivative Disciples
The art world is very vast encompassing a lot of people, some of which once they come up with an idea, they proceed to exhaust it to the extreme. The concept of ‘superflat’ by Takashi Murakami seemed rather useful and provocative at the time when the idea was formulated with an obvious relation to the post-war Japanese pop culture. That once radical slogan now covers luxury handbags, music videos, and Sephora products to wine, coffee and food packaging diminishing any political connotation it once held.
Just like Ryan, KAWS (Brian Donnelly) redeployed cartoonish characters around the world and made profit out of them. As commercial success isn’t a bad thing, his work usually does not venture far away from what has already been established; related cross-eyed characters can be seen in various mediums and scales. Of course, this view does not imply any transformation in the artists themselves, but more of an output that is easily identifiable.
Not All That Glitters Is Gold
It is important to note that in essence, shallowness in art can be not such a big sin. In this regard, it is safe to argue that Andy Warhol was not only a master of the Pop Art movement but attempted to make of the aspects of American culture, including superficiality, a work of art. He went as far as stating that anyone seeking to get to know Andy Warhol, should consider looking at the outer layer of the paintings and the movies and him, and there he’d be. There’s nothing behind it.”
The difference is that in Warhol’s case he seemed to be quite aware of it as he made that very superficiality the subject of his art. While many contemporary artists have no idea about this, they tend to wrap rather skimpy ideas in a veil of pompous words and phrases to give the spectator an impression of profoundness.
In Defense of the Superficial
Before you think that I want to criticize famous artists myself, let me make it clear that there is more to the story. One does not need to go to and fro across the Aesthetics of art in order to appreciate it. Sometimes beauty, technical skill, or even just entertaining spectacle is enough for a ballet performance to be considered great and appreciated by the audience or higher ranks that organize the performance.
Most of them are gifted and smart in terms of professional skills and knowledge in the running of the business. It may be true that Koons does not deal with philosophical meanings in his works, but he sure is a genius in the technical sense of the word. As if Hirst himself does not create artworks anymore, he knew it before everybody else that artists can act more as the directors of their projects.
The Audience’s Responsibility
It seems that these artists are not the problem but rather what people do with those artists’ products. The contemporary people look at art through screens and rather through the images seen on social media than the real exhibits.
In terms of consumers, the audience should work at transcending the hoopla to analyze the artworks they consume. If we promote art based on its ability to take great pictures on Instagram or ability to gain good profits for art investors, then all that we are encouraging is the superficialism of artists.
Final Thoughts: Style AND Substance
Trade and culture, offer and demand have never been too far from art, beauty and the design. As much as those paintings are simple images painted commercially for patrons such as the wealthy, the Old Masters used them to make money for other artistic works they wanted to undertake.
The problem comes to bear when such are stretched to the extent of becoming mere objects of style, artworks reduced to commodities even. It is thus the most interesting artists of the modern world, they are capable of producing art that is popular and marketably viable and at the same time not entirely devoid of wisdom or the new.
And remember—even superficial art can be enjoyable. Sometimes a shiny balloon dog is just a shiny balloon dog, and that’s okay too.
