"The End" by Ed Ruscha (1991)

Holland Cotter’s piece in yesterday’s New York Times points out several indicators that the license to print money granted to so many Chelsea galleries has been revoked. As he puts it, “It’s day-job time again in America.”

Cotter eventually concludes that this downturn is an opportunity to revamp art distribution, education, and criticism:

“… (artists) can customize the machinery, alter the modes of distribution, adjust the rate of production …”

“… make studio training an interdisciplinary experience, crossing over into sociology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, poetry and theology …”

“… changes would require new ways of thinking and writing about art … critics will need to go back to school, miss a few parties and hit the books and the Internet.”

For the vast majority of artists (the ones for whom “day-job time” never really went away), this has long been a way of life, and the change in the modes of creation and distribution are well on their way.

So it is a way of life, too, for the dedicated scribes who write about art, not their social lives, and the educators who understand teaching art is exploration, not production. To all of you: keep doing what your doing. It’s back in style! To the rest: welcome to reality! Join us!

The Boom Is Over. Long Live the Art! The New York Times, 02/15/09.