Imagine a Ford Motor factory that turned out cars on a regular basis that hardly anyone ever bought. These factories would have their dedicated parts suppliers, end-product show rooms, advertising agencies, mechanics, detailing teams, etc.--- all dedicated to hyping cars that no one ever bought.
Isn't a lot of the economic activity in the visual arts this way?
I mean:
You've got your legions of cooperative galleries whose philosophy is to rotate as many works as possible by as many artists as possible through the gallery on a regular basis, hardly giving any one artist a stand, in relation to the human-pace creative, manual, physical production of original works. These galleries put on shows with the artists' money, hang their works (inflated by 50% commission) that don't hang around long enough even to have any chance of being sold. It's all about the icing, not the cake.
You have artbook galleries - publishers soliciting artists at a price to hype their works one time to a mass audience, the majority of whom are in a "flip-page" curiosity mode only. No sales there.
You have juried art contests that siphon entry fees in a managerie of standards and preferences where hardly more than chance alone determines a winner among a sea of others who support (with their dollars) the mere game of the contest.
You have the arts service sector---- art supply stores, frame shops, print/giclee publishers, etc. --- all of whom (no doubt) support the making of art........ much of which is never bought!!
You have art agents approaching artists, at great distances, where they might never meet face-to-face to confirm actual activities, yet who collect money for the dream of EXPOSING artists to potential buyers. That always has sounded like a big naive gamble, lottery game to me.
So,... we have this big flurry of economic activity where most of the artists in it are not making the money, .... yet somebody else besides the artists are!
Thus, I propose a definition of "fake economy":
FAKE ECONOMY: Production of products, where demand for them actually is minimal,... where money is made primarily by supporters of the products' production rather than by the products' consumers. The flurry of economic activity surrounding creation, displaying, and advertising of specific products for which actual consumer demand is minimal.
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______________click on picture for images
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