This is great context; it can be hard to appreciate radical art from the past which is important precisely because it changed art so dramatically that we now ta

This is great context; it can be hard to appreciate radical art from the past which is important precisely because it changed art so dramatically that we now take it for granted. But that’s not an excuse. They didn’t go far enough, and in the process aggrandized (and sometimes enriched) themselves more than they elevated the art they were supposedly freeing from the clutches of the Old Guard. Did Duchamp track down the anonymous artisan who designed his urinal and invite him to the cool artist parties where reputations spread? No? Well that just shows that the elitism these artists were rebelling against is alive and well, and that while they may have gained “low” art recognition, they did much less for “low” artists. And that’s the point of the article.