Charlie Finch proposed that the art world try to all just get along. But Jerry Saltz has a better answer to how to save art in the recession/depression:
The intrepid X-initiative, housed for the next nine months in the former Dia building on West 22nd Street, is staging what it calls an exercise in “radical hospitality,” inviting more than 30 respected not-for-profit centers, alternative institutions, artist collectives, and independent enterprises from New York, the U.S., and around the world to exhibit whatever they want in blocks of space that have been marked out on the floor, spread out over three floors and the roof. The spaces are free. X says these participants form “a convention of individuals and groups who have devoted their energies to keeping art alive.”These groups and individuals seem to have figured out that one of the big secrets of the moment is that the only thing that has really changed about the art world is that money is out of the picture. Other than that, art gets made — it still costs around $100 to make a painting, people are starting new spaces and finding new ways to distribute information, and there’s always an eager audience even if there aren’t many avid collectors. We’re in a period when art isn’t fashion … and that’s great, and greatly liberating. As the art world continues to contract over the next two years, keep your eye on many of the spaces housed here. Each is finding ways around the problem of dipping into the same familiar well of already established artists.
Glimpse Art’s Near Future at No Soul For Sale (Culture Vulture/NYMag.com)
