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I can see where Art is coming from on this but don't completely agree with him... I have always been bothered by the reification and commodification of certain art and artists. Why one work is cannonized above another, why we focus on the purchase price rather than the historical context and inherent beauty of a piece... Our experience of art is typically one of worship, where we substitute holy pilgrimage for a tour book and pre-recorded museum walk through.
A few years back I may have called for the destruction of all art that isn't in the now but upon sober reflection, art serves as a reflection of a time gone by... of one artist's impression of what was once immediate and is now the past... it can speak to universal conditions (love, fear, triumph, sickness, etc.). As a piece of film, music or literature can entertain, elevate and transport us, so too can other forms of art. The difference is in the unique form in which paintings and sculpture take (hell look at what having two versions of the scream has done to assayers).
If anything the mass printing of famous works, while further cementing the comodification of art has a least done some levelling. Now anyone can have a Da Vinci or a Van Gogh on their wall.
To me the key is cracking the cabal of art historians and collectors that Art speaks of... to find and preserve the art that is lost because it wasn't deemed a "masterpiece". The next time you visit a gallery... do yourself a favour and skip the guidebook... don't read the curator's comments on the wall... just look at the art and find something for yourself... the way an artist has captured an expression or the odd inclusion of a vase of flowers in the background...
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"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke
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