“The Society has no interest in Art.” – Donald Judd
As we look at the folks running for President, one thing you might notice is that there are virtually no statements made by candidates relating to the support of the Arts or Culture. While they may appear at fundraisers in museums, there is little or no relationship between the candidates and what those museums hold.
Certainly, Congress gives support (diminishing) to the National Endowment for the Arts, but it does this more with a sense of supporting education, or affirming our cultural image as it relates to other countries. Artists themselves (possibly discounting film actors who show up at campaign events as models to get people to support the guy running) are not going to have much influence on politicians.
Art which supports politicians is merely polemic. Great art has no connection to politics in this day and age. Television, magazines, newspaper photographers, etc, have taken the place that artists once (say during the French Revolution) played in politics. Politicians use art as decoration or propagandistic comment if they use it for anything.
As we rush into recession, it is clear to artists that the creation of jobs, refinancing of homes, etc, have nothing to do with them. The government is not going to reinstate direct grants to individual artists which the Republicans got removed from the NEA budget some twenty years ago. The government is not going to buy mass quantities of art for public buildings as a way to keep artists employed (or any of the other art-related solutions Franklin D. Roosevelt promoted during the depression.)
My own feeling is that none of the candidates running now are pro-art… and certainly not the Republicans. The last six or seven years has caused institutions like our nearby Community College to so cut down its arts programs that they no longer figure prominently in a student’s education. Their point of view is that business is not interested in art… and public education is interested in business. A Conservative political stance at best.
Don Judd’s comment that I opened with, made around 1992, is more true today.
