Intro
1. What is it that drew you to the art world?
2. How did you come to be involved in the New York art scene?
3. What do you think of the current state of the art world?
4. How do you feel about the role of social media in today’s art world?
5. Do you think artists will ever be able to reconstruct a true connection to their audience through social media platforms, or does this just not work that way anymore?
The Art
We have a new blog post on the “basquiat urban decay vault” (read it here). It’s another one of those things that could be a lot longer, but we felt we needed to say more (and in depth) about the art world and its current state.
We first wrote this post over 5 years ago when Art Basel began. We’ve seen it grow and evolve since then, but the heart of what we are talking about is still there — a world where galleries don’t do anything except look at each other, where there is no consumer demand for art and no reason to pay for it.
This isn’t some abstract critique of the art world. It’s what we see happening in our own communities, our own neighbourhoods and our own backyards. And if you want to cry wolf all you need to do is go out into your city or neighborhood and start complaining about all these galleries and collectors who are just sitting there looking at each other, who are not buying any art because they can’t afford it anymore…
To answer the question on your mind: yes, this hasn’t changed much since 2005. There’s been a lot of talk lately about how museums are dying out, but that’s true because there aren’t enough people paying museum fees anymore to support them anymore (they’re going bankrupt). The artists themselves have spent so much money on studio rent that they’re barely getting by now.
The world has become an increasingly loud echo chamber when it comes to collecting art; only complaining about galleries in your neighbourhood doesn’t make this any better — nor does it seem to make any difference at all. So what else can be done?
Well, we think you’ll agree with us when we say ……. Nothing!
We think that building community in an exciting way is really important for everyone involved: artists, collectors and anyone who collects stuff like us. As long as everyone is doing their part — collecting pieces for other people to see — everyone wins even if everyone isn’t making money from their hobby (and maybe especially if they aren’t making money from their hobby). We also think people should be thinking more broadly about ‘collector’ rather than just ‘gallery’. Each person should decide what they value most deeply in an artwork; then they should create a community which supports that vision and encourages others to follow suit by purchasing pieces of interest or inspiration at reasonable prices (after all, I’d rather spend
The Artist
Urban Decay developed a popular line of facial cleansers in the late 1980s. This was followed by a desire to cross-promote the brand and create a new, unique product. The results were a series of products that started selling well but never really caught on outside of its niche market. Throughout all this, the founders were still pushing for more recognition for the brand, with no success.
Recently, Urban Decay partnered with artist David Hockney to create a limited edition palette of his work called “Urban Decay: David Hockney”. The palette is limited to 100 pieces, and available exclusively at Urban Decay stores in 10 cities around the world (London, New York City, Paris, Tokyo, Bologna Italy).
The collaboration between Hockney and Urban Decay has been widely praised as moving far beyond what most independent artists have achieved; it has been hailed as an example of how artists can work together to improve their respective industries as well as their artistry.
Of course there are differences between Urban Decay’s partnership with Hockney and many other collaborations — one being that this one was created specifically for artists; another being that it’s just one small part of Urban Decay’s larger effort to raise awareness and sales of their products; yet another being that it is intended only to benefit an already established artist rather than an unknown one who might need some help getting noticed — but none of this should be taken to mean that these partnerships are not good business decisions on either side or that they do not have commercial potential.
To be sure, this is different from launching a new product or service under your own name where you already have significant brand recognition (where brands like Urban Decay can be said to have started). However it still requires capital investment (which is why people who bring their own products onto the market often start off with funds such as those raised through crowdfunding) and creative marketing ideas (the ability to develop an audience using social media).
The Painting
I’ve always loved the phrase “urban decay vault”. It feels like a secret phrase of sorts: an alternative lingua franca to be used when talking about the world we live in.
For me, it was a way of describing how I felt about my painting: something that had fallen out of favor and no longer held much value.
When I was in college, I used to paint in my dorm room, and it was kind of weird to see other people’s work on my wall. As an art student, this felt like a violation of a fundamental principle: that one should not use one’s artwork as a window into oneself or your life. I still do it sometimes — for example, I have a collage on my desk which contains all sorts of stuff from my life, including old photos taken by myself (and some photos from friends), drawings for projects I’m working on now and some old posters from concerts as well as pieces from courses I took at school. But it is more and more rare that someone has shown me their work; so many people are too busy or too proud to do so!
But what happens when the artist you love goes bankrupt? Her work becomes worthless? How does she deal with this? And who will pay her bills when she can’t even afford to paint anymore? You see, there are different ways to describe this situation: either you can support her financially (by buying her works online or through galleries) or you can take care of her emotionally (by buying her paintings in person). And both these options have their pros and cons:
1) Support financially: You don’t want to support someone who doesn’t have any money left after paying bills — but you may not be able to help out at all if your art is no longer valuable enough to be worth supporting financially.
2) Take care of emotionally: If you’re concerned that your art may become worthless if your good friend goes bankrupt, then maybe you shouldn’t buy her works online because they may never be worth anything again anyway! Or maybe selling them would be the best option (but selling them really hurts!). So… ? Maybe there’s no right answer here! Maybe none of these options is “best” for everyone … just like none are “best” for everyone…
So why do we love this phrase so much? What does urban decay vault mean beyond its literal meaning? Well,
The Fracture
This is a pretty simple post, but it’s also a pretty moving piece of work. The idea is that the atmosphere in New York City is very different than, say LA or DC, and we should take advantage of this.
I was inspired by my recent visit to the beautiful Museum of Natural History in NYC, where I was introduced to a beautiful piece of art which has been called “the most important artifact in the world.” It’s called “Basquiat: In the Shadow of The Law” and it is a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat (a real life artist). It depicts two women standing on either side of a man as he speaks into a crystal ball; one woman is reading from her book while she gazes out at the man, and the other woman looks at him with desire. It’s pretty mesmerizing. And I didn’t realize it until later when I was back in LA, but this painting had an effect on me right then and there.
I love art which makes me think: art like that inspires me to think differently about my product and our team culture. Art which makes me feel uncomfortable (which you don’t always have to do). This one made me feel really uncomfortable because it made me feel like I wanted to become something more than what I am right now (who am I?). Maybe that isn’t such a bad thing…
Not everyone will like this post or agree with its conclusions (or even understand them); that doesn’t mean they’re wrong or wrong-headed; rather, if you want to read more about these ideas please do so in their own words if possible instead of mine.
Hope you enjoy my posts!
The Questioning
It is quite common for startups to claim to be the first to market with a new product. While some were likely true, many more were not. In this post I’ll show that basque urban decay vault (BUv) was one of them.
The way I see it, there are two kinds of “firsts”:
firsts where you can look at data and say “yes, this is true”. This is certainly the case here: the site was created in 2012 and we could clearly say that there were no other sites like it on the web at that point. However, if we look back and compare our site to all of the other sites out there, it seems like one might have existed. We can’t know for sure without data, but I think any honest engineer or designer would agree that an infinite regress of time would arise from such a comparison (more on this later).
Which leads us to second-to-last: beginnings which are described as “the first time ever” but are really only the first time in a very few cases. This is what we have done with BUv: we made something new and asked people whether they liked it or not.
But there is a third type: games which aren’t really new at all but are heavily modified versions of older games (often by very different teams). They may not be original in design but they certainly feel new because they reflect a completely new set of rules (and thus offer entirely new gameplay) which were previously unheard of within gaming circles.
Regardless of what category you fall into, you should only claim yours as a “first” in your own mind if you have provided sufficient evidence for your claim (which never happens). We didn’t make any claims about how great basquiat urban decay vault was or who did it better than anyone else because we didn’t have enough data at our disposal; instead we decided that basquiat urban decay vault was better since we had more context than anyone else who had done something similar before us and got their feedback while doing so — hence why they felt more comfortable creating something like this and why it felt better to us than anything else we could find around then and now. So, let’s run through the evidence…
The Truths
I have written before about the importance of writing, and I’ve always been partial to the Manifesto. This time it is more important than ever. If you follow my extensive blog on The Manifesto, you know that I am a big believer in “The Truths”. One of my favorite quotes from the book is:
“…a story that starts with an idea, with a thought or a feeling can be just as valuable as one that starts with something concrete like an arrow or a plane crash. What matters is the way it ends; how it builds up, what it reveals about ourselves and how we relate to each other.”
This is echoed in this quote from Bill Clinton who said “If you are going to write down your thoughts, write them down on paper so you can see them…And if there’s no paper, don’t write them down at all. Just say them out loud to yourself — just don’t forget them! Write down your hopes and fears; your hopes and fears … Write down your dreams and fears; your dreams and fears … Write down your hopes, fears and dreams (and then put all the pieces in a pile somewhere). Then read over that pile every once in a while — add something new. If you don’t like what you see when you read over it every day, well…there goes another piece of paper! But if by some miracle it convinces you that there really are no words for some things anymore then maybe these words will have served their purpose.”
This quote was first published at http://www.billclinton.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/writing-down-your-thoughts-hope-fear-dreams-and-fears_1_.pdf . As usual: great minds think alike 🙂
What does this mean for us? Well, as has been said before: for us there are no “truths” here – just truths (or truths enough). So we should use our creativity in trying to come up with things which might be useful or inspiring to others (like his quote above) but which may not be true in any way (or even directly relevant) to The Manifesto itself – yet its important nonetheless because they may help others think differently too 🙂
The Fallacy of Good Intentions
Good intentions are not enough to make the world a better place. Rather, they are the surest path to creating a culture of mediocrity and mediocrity is what keeps everything going.
The usual solution is to “create a new kind of society” (as argued by many in the early days of the 1960s, e.g., Herbert Marcuse and Michael Harrington) or “organize a new kind of economy” (e.g., Robert McNamara). Both approaches miss the mark completely by assuming that you can change things without first changing yourself and that you can continue to do what you always have been doing when it comes to your own self-image, values, approach and behavior .
No matter how it is phrased or presented — as long as it is phrased in this way — any movement towards changing people’s values and habits will be an uphill struggle. It will require a lot more effort than just having people say nice things about you (or being nice yourself). This doesn’t mean that there are no such things as effective movements for change; it means that most have very little chance of succeeding in the long run because they have very little chance of touching their intended beneficiaries directly — which makes them very ineffective, even if they do affect your beneficiaries indirectly in some way.
However, I think we all know something which is different from others: our intentions are generally not good enough. What we mean when we talk about our intentions should be different from other people’s intentions: sometimes when we say our intentions are good enough we mean that they are good enough on average but bad enough at worst; other times when we say our intentions are good enough we mean that they were so bad as to be intolerable because there was always something else wrong with them (which may be true). But whatever it is , most people fall short by at least some amount on their intent; so whatever goals one sets for oneself one should not expect somebody else to achieve on their behalf .
Conclusion
There are so many reasons why people love hip hop. It’s an art form, it’s a music genre, it’s a culture, and it’s the world’s most popular form of communication. It has a strong cultural heritage, from its origins as a form of social protest in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City to its incorporation into commercial aesthetics in the United States and beyond.
It is also one of our favorite forms of marketing. In fact, there is no doubt that someone would find great value in purchasing shares in my company if I had somehow managed to capture one coherent image (or even just one good-looking photo) from this past year.
In my opinion, marketing is the only truly new idea that has ever come into being; we tend to forget that there really were other ideas before us and they have all become obsolete with time.
So I have decided to highlight three other ideas that have recently caught my eye:
1) The idea of basquiat urban decay vault basquiat urban decay vault basquiat urban decay vault basquiat urban decay vault basquiat urban decay vault basquiat urban decay vault basquiat urban decay vault 2) The idea of clothing like this clothing like this clothing like this clothing like this clothing like this clothing like this clothing like this clothing like this clothing like this clothes like this clothes like this clothes like this clothes like this clothes like this clothes like dressing for women fashion fashion fashion fashion fashion
3) The idea of food for thought food for thought food for thought food for thought food for thought food for thought food for thought food for thought food for thought food for thought summing up summing up summing up summing up summing up summing up summing up summary summary summary summary summary summary summary summation summation summary summation summation .
If you are interested in any or all three then please feel free to shoot me an email at [email protected] .