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The React analogy doesn’t work, React is used because developers find it more productive to use. On the other hand people’s initial reaction to much modern art
by ak_111 3y ago
The React analogy doesn’t work, React is used because developers find it more productive to use. On the other hand people’s initial reaction to much modern art is “what the hell? you call this art?” so it is interesting to explore why it became very expensive and popular with elites despite the popular reaction.
Put another way, react would have probably gained a huge following without FB’s marketing (imagine if it was just a few hackers launching it as an open source project). Can we say that much modern art would have gained much fame if it wasn’t for certain critics promoting them or if they gained favourable attention from elites?
- jimbob45 3y agoAnd also HTMX, Angular, or Vue could take over and erase React tomorrow and no one here would be especially surprised.
- emodendroket 3y agoI don’t think it is much to do with some nefarious plan to defeat social realism so much as they funded talented artists and talented artists happened to be bored with old forms/find them irrelevant and they wanted to experiment with something new.
- TheOtherHobbes 3y agoThey funded splashy but tame talented artists with no political leanings, and destroyed or starved artists who were more overtly political. There was a lot more happening in art than AbEx. But only AbEx received official approval as an acceptable political metaphor for bold individualism. Approval included canonisation by museums and galleries and think pieces by art critics. https://www.artforum.com/print/197406/abstract-expressionism-weapon-of-the-cold-war-38017 https://www.artforum.com/print/197406/abstract-expressionism...
- emodendroket 3y agoThis seems more plausible than the more maximalist version of the claim where they were essentially shoving abstract expressionism down everyone's throats because of its uniquely counterrevolutionary nature.
- groby_b 3y ago> On the other hand people’s initial reaction to much modern art is “what the hell? you call this art?” There's a lot of people who look at React and think "What the hell? You call this useable?" as well. The point of spending money on popularizing something is usually to popularize it with a specific crowd. And if you are close to the art crowd, modern art is a) a stupid moniker, because it covers 1860-now, and b) a pretty logical evolution of what was before. You don't have to like it to understand what it's trying to do. The "what the hell" crowd is not the crowd targeted by the marketing.