4 ms·

The art world is just fine. Pretentious art speculation maybe not so much. In a way, we are actually in a golden age. I lurk on social media accounts of amateu

The art world is just fine. Pretentious art speculation maybe not so much. In a way, we are actually in a golden age. I lurk on social media accounts of amateur art enthusiasts around the globe with (IMHO) good taste who seek out interesting little known artists and post it on their feeds. I am introduced to so much great art that I probably would have never known about otherwise. If I see something I like, I search for the artist online and see if they have something available in their portfolio for sale that I love. I’ve bought amazing art from talented artists around the globe that speak no common language with me. We get it done (Google Translate to the rescue). I don’t filter on price but virtually everything I’ve bought is always in a couple hundred dollars to a couple thousand dollars range. The fact that you can talk to the artist just adds to the story. Forget the “tastemakers” in art. I can give my money to excellent artists directly, including many that never attracted the attention of tastemakers or who weren’t deemed worthy by said people. I received a huge piece from Denmark today. The whole experience is lovely and the artists really appreciate that someone loves their work. This is the future.

msegal 1y ago
Any good account suggestions?
- irsagent 1y ago
  Second
- earlyriser 1y ago
  I have been following: https://www.instagram.com/piperbangs/ https://www.instagram.com/piperbangs/ https://www.instagram.com/lauren.krasnoff/ https://www.instagram.com/lauren.krasnoff/ https://www.instagram.com/artcarolinegaudreault/ https://www.instagram.com/artcarolinegaudreault/ https://www.instagram.com/gretchen_scherer/ https://www.instagram.com/gretchen_scherer/ https://www.instagram.com/jakeclarkjakeclark/ https://www.instagram.com/jakeclarkjakeclark/ https://www.instagram.com/hilary_pecis/ https://www.instagram.com/hilary_pecis/ And curating: https://www.instagram.com/carriescottcurates/ https://www.instagram.com/carriescottcurates/ https://www.instagram.com/mary_lynn_buchanan/ https://www.instagram.com/mary_lynn_buchanan/
  - chamomeal 1y ago
    Damn it sucks that instagram is the defacto second internet. My gf finds so much cool stuff on IG. Local bands post their show dates, a brewery in my neighborhood posts their hours (it’s just a husband and wife, and their hours are whenever-I-feel-like-it). I don’t have instagram, so I’m just totally in the dark on all that stuff. And I get it. Not everybody is going to make a website or blog or whatever. But it totally sucks that everybody and their dog is on instagram and it’s like this walled garden club that you just can’t access if you don’t want to support Facebook. The internet is cool! Why did we make it suck!! I wonder if the instagram API lets you download enough data to make a public mirror of a user’s posts. It’d be cool to make a service that does something like that. Help people break their instagram dependency. Not that any meaningful amount of people would care to use it lol
    - zkmon 1y ago
      Exactly my feelings. I don't have fb and IG, and I feel left out. Also when I go to India, the local shops, unless they are really big, don't accept credit card or cash. The physical wallet has vanished. But in fairness, it is far easier for them to have online presence via IG or fb and reach their actual customers (not you and me).
    - earlyriser 1y ago
      Yeah I feel this too. All of these artists have websites with the standard art format, but as RSS is dead outside our tech circle the only way to stay up to date is Instagram which all artists have, even those without a standard website. Cara is mainly illustrators, Artsy is for galleries (not artists).
  - ngruhn 1y ago
    damn that's very cool stuff
  - fjfaase 1y ago
    I had a quick look at these instagram links and except for the last two, they do not feel like 'Art', just like most novels are not considered literature. In the past years, I have visited a lot of art exhibitions (at museums and art galleries) and graduation shows of art schools here in the Netherlands. See: https://iwriteiam.nl/Exhibitions.html https://iwriteiam.nl/Exhibitions.html Even at those, I feel that a lot is crap, too conceptual. But there always some artists that stick out for some (often unexplained) reason. They have some new idea or make you view the world in a different way. They are not just repeating some gimmick or showing (exceptional) craftsmanship. Craftsmanship is not equal to art.
- jandrewrogers 1y ago
  There are myriad accounts. Who you follow is taste specific, you need to do your own work. Mine are exclusively on Twitter and I mostly found them by randomly clicking through art things on Twitter. My tastes in art cover a very broad spectrum. Gotta both explore and curate the feed. My favorite piece acquired in the last few months is Olivier Neuray’s “L’Empire des Lumières”. Not everyone is going to appreciate it.
  - mns 1y ago
    That's actually great! This comment thread is such a breath of fresh air. We moved this year to a new place and was looking at art, and I had the feeling that art also became some sort of mass produced low cost product, and I wanted to look into smaller artists and original pieces. Loved the works of the artist you mentioned as well as some of the other ones mentioned above.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
Guestmodinfo 1y ago
Hi, Can you plz tell me the places where you lurk around for the beautiful art pieces. I have a friend who does amazing "slice of Life" photography. I want to showcase it somewhere that can sell their work. Also please let us see a photo of your art pieces from Denmark. Thank you
999900000999 1y ago
You can also just commission the art you need, a few hundred dollars is damn good money in much of the world( even in the US, if a small painting takes a few hours to make, 400$ can be a fair price). That said, I feel this article is really about our active recession. Rich people are cutting back too it seems.
- jandrewrogers 1y ago
  I’ve never commissioned art but I am sorely tempted with a couple artists I’ve bought from. This may actually be the future for them.
  - Theodores 1y ago
    Until recent times, commissioning was how it worked. This was why we only had paintings of kings and that guy called Jesus until Bruegel came along and painted peasants. Nobody was just painting whatever they wanted to paint, hiring a gallery and selling their 'art'. The title of 'artist' is also an interesting one. Some titles have to be earned, for example, you can't call yourself a 'genius', an 'intellectual' or a 'hero' for obvious reasons. Yet creatives can call themselves an 'artist' as job description without society deeming them to be an 'artist'. In the olden days, before mass production, artists were just tradesmen doing a good job at whatever their trade was. Our idea of art is deeply tied into capitalism. Compare the art of indigenous peoples with Western art. Art is all about fame and fortune rather than a love of the subject material and the craft. One problem with the current status quo is that most artists are not in the commissioning game. Artists want to paint whatever their thing is, not some patron's dog, fancy house, religious deity or elderly relatives. If you do know someone making a living from painting people's dogs, then the question has to be asked, are they a real artist, or just a craftsperson? Take the case of the architect, where the client is invariably calling the shots. Are they an artist? They don't need to be since they have the title of 'architect', however, few of them are called 'artist'. Being 'artist' also comes with some understanding that the 'artist' doesn't have to work in the conventional sense, and therefore an 'artist' is high status. It works a bit like 'foot binding' in that regard since some people will want their kids to grow up to be 'artists', as in high status and not working for a wage. Sometimes this is just to validate the parent's life choices and shore up their status. The real art of the age is all around us and made by commercial artists. The commercial artist has a client and patron in the company they work for. They make adverts, packaging designs and such like, working within constraints. If working for Ford, the commercial artist isn't going to redesign the blue oval, they have to stick to the style guide, working within the constraints to make something new, in time and on budget. So yes, commission what you want from an artist that puts the customer first. Regarding the article, in the UK we had an art movement at the turn of the century with the likes of Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and their ilk, pushed by Saatchi into art superstardom. However, about a year before 2008, this hustle came crashing down. If we currently have some cooling off in the art market then that is an indicator that the economy as a whole is heading for tough times.
anal_reactor 1y ago
I never understood those ridiculous prices for artworks that look like poop. "Here's a few random splashes of yellow paint on red background, €300 000 please". I used to think that maybe I'm just too stupid to understand the truly fine art, but no, it's all just speculation and dick measuring contest for people with too much money. I just finished decorating my living room. Majority are prints of pictures that I found on the internet and then pushed through an AI upscaler, which means the costs are equal to the printing service and they look amazing. Two pieces have been commissioned, and total cost of both of them with printing is below a thousand. Just recently I saw a beautiful painting in a gallery and it cost me a thousand. Art doesn't need to be expensive to be beautiful.
neuralkoi 1y ago
Roughly a twentieth of all humans who have ever lived were born in just the past 50 years. I agree some of the best painters ever might actually be alive right now. I've attended local art festivals (i.e. Atlanta Dogwood Festival) where I've bought some incredible prints and paintings in the hundred dollar range which are subjectively more beautiful compared to some of the stuff I've seen in the High Museum of Art in downtown Atlanta. For example: https://www.instagram.com/alejandro_munoz_art https://www.instagram.com/alejandro_munoz_art https://www.instagram.com/marirosafineart https://www.instagram.com/marirosafineart https://www.instagram.com/s.carterscreations https://www.instagram.com/s.carterscreations https://www.instagram.com/shealeyartworks https://www.instagram.com/shealeyartworks https://www.instagram.com/salazarartes https://www.instagram.com/salazarartes http://bryanyung.com/ http://bryanyung.com/ (no instagram) Artists are the most interesting people you can ever talk to.
tech_tuna 1y ago
Because of the internet, and social media and specifically Instagram in this case, I see my aunt's artwork regularly. I live a few hours from her and see her once or twice a year. She is quite eccentric and her artwork is amazing. It's kind of sad that this is the best way for me to see her work. . . or it's not so sad, and really just convenient. We are in a golden age for discovering art that you really wouldn't get to see otherwise. I would not even call myself a hardcore art enthusiast but I stumble upon great art all the time on Instagram, as you mentioned, from around the globe. It's really cool.
SergeAx 1y ago
> I can give my money to excellent artists directly No, you can't, or at least not to any artist. Although I wholeheartedly support the idea of paying directly to the artist and even commissioning specific pieces, many "blue chips" are selling only via galleries/dealers to ditch management and bargaining and keep prices consistent.

msegal 1y ago

Any good account suggestions?

irsagent 1y ago
Second
earlyriser 1y ago
I have been following: https://www.instagram.com/piperbangs/ https://www.instagram.com/piperbangs/ https://www.instagram.com/lauren.krasnoff/ https://www.instagram.com/lauren.krasnoff/ https://www.instagram.com/artcarolinegaudreault/ https://www.instagram.com/artcarolinegaudreault/ https://www.instagram.com/gretchen_scherer/ https://www.instagram.com/gretchen_scherer/ https://www.instagram.com/jakeclarkjakeclark/ https://www.instagram.com/jakeclarkjakeclark/ https://www.instagram.com/hilary_pecis/ https://www.instagram.com/hilary_pecis/ And curating: https://www.instagram.com/carriescottcurates/ https://www.instagram.com/carriescottcurates/ https://www.instagram.com/mary_lynn_buchanan/ https://www.instagram.com/mary_lynn_buchanan/
- chamomeal 1y ago
  Damn it sucks that instagram is the defacto second internet. My gf finds so much cool stuff on IG. Local bands post their show dates, a brewery in my neighborhood posts their hours (it’s just a husband and wife, and their hours are whenever-I-feel-like-it). I don’t have instagram, so I’m just totally in the dark on all that stuff. And I get it. Not everybody is going to make a website or blog or whatever. But it totally sucks that everybody and their dog is on instagram and it’s like this walled garden club that you just can’t access if you don’t want to support Facebook. The internet is cool! Why did we make it suck!! I wonder if the instagram API lets you download enough data to make a public mirror of a user’s posts. It’d be cool to make a service that does something like that. Help people break their instagram dependency. Not that any meaningful amount of people would care to use it lol
  - zkmon 1y ago
    Exactly my feelings. I don't have fb and IG, and I feel left out. Also when I go to India, the local shops, unless they are really big, don't accept credit card or cash. The physical wallet has vanished. But in fairness, it is far easier for them to have online presence via IG or fb and reach their actual customers (not you and me).
  - earlyriser 1y ago
    Yeah I feel this too. All of these artists have websites with the standard art format, but as RSS is dead outside our tech circle the only way to stay up to date is Instagram which all artists have, even those without a standard website. Cara is mainly illustrators, Artsy is for galleries (not artists).
- ngruhn 1y ago
  damn that's very cool stuff
- fjfaase 1y ago
  I had a quick look at these instagram links and except for the last two, they do not feel like 'Art', just like most novels are not considered literature. In the past years, I have visited a lot of art exhibitions (at museums and art galleries) and graduation shows of art schools here in the Netherlands. See: https://iwriteiam.nl/Exhibitions.html https://iwriteiam.nl/Exhibitions.html Even at those, I feel that a lot is crap, too conceptual. But there always some artists that stick out for some (often unexplained) reason. They have some new idea or make you view the world in a different way. They are not just repeating some gimmick or showing (exceptional) craftsmanship. Craftsmanship is not equal to art.
jandrewrogers 1y ago
There are myriad accounts. Who you follow is taste specific, you need to do your own work. Mine are exclusively on Twitter and I mostly found them by randomly clicking through art things on Twitter. My tastes in art cover a very broad spectrum. Gotta both explore and curate the feed. My favorite piece acquired in the last few months is Olivier Neuray’s “L’Empire des Lumières”. Not everyone is going to appreciate it.
- mns 1y ago
  That's actually great! This comment thread is such a breath of fresh air. We moved this year to a new place and was looking at art, and I had the feeling that art also became some sort of mass produced low cost product, and I wanted to look into smaller artists and original pieces. Loved the works of the artist you mentioned as well as some of the other ones mentioned above.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

Guestmodinfo 1y ago

Hi, Can you plz tell me the places where you lurk around for the beautiful art pieces. I have a friend who does amazing "slice of Life" photography. I want to showcase it somewhere that can sell their work. Also please let us see a photo of your art pieces from Denmark. Thank you

999900000999 1y ago

You can also just commission the art you need, a few hundred dollars is damn good money in much of the world( even in the US, if a small painting takes a few hours to make, 400$ can be a fair price). That said, I feel this article is really about our active recession. Rich people are cutting back too it seems.

jandrewrogers 1y ago
I’ve never commissioned art but I am sorely tempted with a couple artists I’ve bought from. This may actually be the future for them.
- Theodores 1y ago
  Until recent times, commissioning was how it worked. This was why we only had paintings of kings and that guy called Jesus until Bruegel came along and painted peasants. Nobody was just painting whatever they wanted to paint, hiring a gallery and selling their 'art'. The title of 'artist' is also an interesting one. Some titles have to be earned, for example, you can't call yourself a 'genius', an 'intellectual' or a 'hero' for obvious reasons. Yet creatives can call themselves an 'artist' as job description without society deeming them to be an 'artist'. In the olden days, before mass production, artists were just tradesmen doing a good job at whatever their trade was. Our idea of art is deeply tied into capitalism. Compare the art of indigenous peoples with Western art. Art is all about fame and fortune rather than a love of the subject material and the craft. One problem with the current status quo is that most artists are not in the commissioning game. Artists want to paint whatever their thing is, not some patron's dog, fancy house, religious deity or elderly relatives. If you do know someone making a living from painting people's dogs, then the question has to be asked, are they a real artist, or just a craftsperson? Take the case of the architect, where the client is invariably calling the shots. Are they an artist? They don't need to be since they have the title of 'architect', however, few of them are called 'artist'. Being 'artist' also comes with some understanding that the 'artist' doesn't have to work in the conventional sense, and therefore an 'artist' is high status. It works a bit like 'foot binding' in that regard since some people will want their kids to grow up to be 'artists', as in high status and not working for a wage. Sometimes this is just to validate the parent's life choices and shore up their status. The real art of the age is all around us and made by commercial artists. The commercial artist has a client and patron in the company they work for. They make adverts, packaging designs and such like, working within constraints. If working for Ford, the commercial artist isn't going to redesign the blue oval, they have to stick to the style guide, working within the constraints to make something new, in time and on budget. So yes, commission what you want from an artist that puts the customer first. Regarding the article, in the UK we had an art movement at the turn of the century with the likes of Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and their ilk, pushed by Saatchi into art superstardom. However, about a year before 2008, this hustle came crashing down. If we currently have some cooling off in the art market then that is an indicator that the economy as a whole is heading for tough times.

anal_reactor 1y ago

I never understood those ridiculous prices for artworks that look like poop. "Here's a few random splashes of yellow paint on red background, €300 000 please". I used to think that maybe I'm just too stupid to understand the truly fine art, but no, it's all just speculation and dick measuring contest for people with too much money. I just finished decorating my living room. Majority are prints of pictures that I found on the internet and then pushed through an AI upscaler, which means the costs are equal to the printing service and they look amazing. Two pieces have been commissioned, and total cost of both of them with printing is below a thousand. Just recently I saw a beautiful painting in a gallery and it cost me a thousand. Art doesn't need to be expensive to be beautiful.

neuralkoi 1y ago

Roughly a twentieth of all humans who have ever lived were born in just the past 50 years. I agree some of the best painters ever might actually be alive right now. I've attended local art festivals (i.e. Atlanta Dogwood Festival) where I've bought some incredible prints and paintings in the hundred dollar range which are subjectively more beautiful compared to some of the stuff I've seen in the High Museum of Art in downtown Atlanta. For example: https://www.instagram.com/alejandro_munoz_art https://www.instagram.com/alejandro_munoz_art https://www.instagram.com/marirosafineart https://www.instagram.com/marirosafineart https://www.instagram.com/s.carterscreations https://www.instagram.com/s.carterscreations https://www.instagram.com/shealeyartworks https://www.instagram.com/shealeyartworks https://www.instagram.com/salazarartes https://www.instagram.com/salazarartes http://bryanyung.com/ http://bryanyung.com/ (no instagram) Artists are the most interesting people you can ever talk to.

tech_tuna 1y ago

Because of the internet, and social media and specifically Instagram in this case, I see my aunt's artwork regularly. I live a few hours from her and see her once or twice a year. She is quite eccentric and her artwork is amazing. It's kind of sad that this is the best way for me to see her work. . . or it's not so sad, and really just convenient. We are in a golden age for discovering art that you really wouldn't get to see otherwise. I would not even call myself a hardcore art enthusiast but I stumble upon great art all the time on Instagram, as you mentioned, from around the globe. It's really cool.

SergeAx 1y ago

> I can give my money to excellent artists directly No, you can't, or at least not to any artist. Although I wholeheartedly support the idea of paying directly to the artist and even commissioning specific pieces, many "blue chips" are selling only via galleries/dealers to ditch management and bargaining and keep prices consistent.