Empty Art

From Prospect Magazine, article entitled, “The dustbin of art history” by BEN LEWIS 24th May 2010 — Issue 171, a discussion on the overinflated value and systemic emptiness of contemporary art produced by Koons, Hirst and Murakami, that yet idolized by museums and collectors.

“I believe that this decline shares four aesthetic and ideological characteristics with the end-phases of previous grand styles: formulae for the creation of art; a narcissistic, self-reinforcing cult that elevates art and the artist over actual subjects and ideas; the return of sentiment; and the alibi of cynicism.”

In the previous paragraph, he says “Over the last decade, not only conceptualism—perhaps the dominant movement of the past three decades—but the entire modernist project has been going through a similar process. Of course, some important and inspired artists have made important and inspired work in recent years—from famous photographers like Andreas Gursky and painters like Luc Tuymans to lesser-known video artists like Lindsay Seers and Anri Sala. But there is something more fundamentally wrong with much of this century’s famous art than its absurd market value.”

Author Lewis likens paintings by Boucher, labeling them as 'soft porn' to Murakami's presentations.

[caption id="attachment_575" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="The Toilet of Venus, 1751 François Boucher (French, 1703–1770) Oil on canvas"][/caption]

Rococo’s “heavenly soft porn” replaced baroque’s classical values: The Toilet of Venus (1751) by François Boucher

[caption id="attachment_576" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Takashi Murakami - installation of Second Mission Project ko2, 1999, at Wonder Festival, 2002"][/caption]

Postmodernism, the grave of the modernist project: Second Mission Project ko2 (1999) by Takashi Murakami.