Sure but attach my name to the quote. William Conger
----- Original Message ---- From: ARMANDO BAEZA <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sun, December 12, 2010 3:35:00 PM Subject: Re: art is buzz William, can I quote you on this? I like it ,and agree completely. mando ________________________________ From: William Conger <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sun, December 12, 2010 9:52:56 AM Subject: art is buzz I have a friend, a noted artist, who also happens to have developed a very successful restaurant, now in its 13th year. Most people know that it's nearly impossible to start a restaurant from scratch (not a franchise) and make it work over a long time. I also know a person who once had the job of opening very upscale restaurants endorsed by major athletes who would make an appearance now and then to attract and wow the customers. He said no-one expected more than 5 years from such businesses. The business plan was to open, cash-in, last 5 years, and close. Anyway, my artist-restaurant friend told me that although one had to serve great food in a good environment, the most important factor to continuing success is Buzz. The talk. The chatter. We both agreed that it's the same in the artworld. Lots of very good art is being made every day but unless it attracts Buzz, it's going to fail in terms of artworld recognition. So, friends, Art is Buzz. That's a natural way of saying that ultimately art is what's said about it in the artworld. That is the irritating pea in every artist's stack of mattresses. The artist can be smart enough to know and justify his or her wonderful work -- well suited to one discourse or another -- but if it attracts no Buzz, or if the artist is not good at putting the work into the narrow zone of Buzz, the game is up. Then the artist needs to reconcile himself or herself to the misery of being a neglected, marginalized human among humans as highly social animals or find comfort in mythic notions of hermetic satisfaction, aesthetic idealism, and spiritual self-imporvement. I suspect that all artists have experienced this melancholy situation which is exacerbated by Conger's Law of Rejection, or the certainty that anything new will be rejected until it obtains Buzz. How long does that take? I'm 73 hoping to be 74 and the Buzz is dimmer than the flapping of a moth at the lamp. But if we can bring ourselves to the reality of Buzz we notice the new website devoted to artist ranking. Yep, if you have any visibility at all you are being ranked, slot by slot, and up or down according to behind-the-curtain formulas manipulated by artworld experts. Just like the folks running the stock markets. Perhaps now you will easily recognize that Buzz is also the chief feature of any commercial market. Art that attracts Buzz attracts market success. Market success confirms the Buzz and the chance of that art becoming a sign of cherished cultural values increases. At that point market values increase exponentially. Not complicated, just the natural way of earthbound life and society. Visual Artists are muddy workers in the fields, besmirched with the need for Buzz and money, the only pathways to cultural heaven. Poets are saints. No poet since Homer has made a penny from the art; few have any Buzz at all. Poets are the heavenly saints artists would like to be. w
