Rabid Owl

If my title is not cynical, what can I possibly mean when funds are being cut to non-profits, when people look twice at the cost of theater tickets and stay home to watch broadcast television, when even masterpieces fail to bring in money for Christies? All luxury or nonessential purchases like books and art will be scaled back. Strapped corporations and executives are dumping their vanity collections onto the prestige auction houses who are seeing prices and attendance fall precipitously. Many small art-related businesses will fail, including bookstores, small theater companies, galleries, even museums. Surely this is a time for a great wailing to arise in the land of the creatives, who have already pinned their last hopes on a new W.P.A program that will surely be announced soon.

So why in Picasso’s name would this be a good time to be an artist or writer? Letâ??s start with Bush or should I say Bush-hating. Artists and writers have been a disproportionate amount of effort â??fighting the man.â? The stance, however justified, made it easy to structure plots and feel good about poorly realized efforts because the artist was focused on the urgent need to topple the evil regime. How much subtlety was required?

With a new dynamic Democratic administration firmly gripping power in Washington, there is no longer a need to waste any more effort haranguing the public about the war in Iraq, and his other unpopular positions. Soon â??hisâ? mistakes will be â??ourâ? mistakes as Democrats innovate and/or borrow from the previous administration and we will only have our own to blame. Only the farthest left of us (like the ones already unhappy with Obamaâ??s practicality) will continue to use artistic outrage as their main source for inspiration.

 I am hoping the whole concept of â??artist as politicianâ? phase will come to an end. Sure, we can still support our causes of global warming, corporatism, land mines, and nuclear disarmament if we like, but adults in Washington will be doing their best to represent the constituencies that have promoted these causes. We no longer will have to shout at them, though there is no guarantee that we will like their solutions or pace. Nevertheless, artists will find the protest stance somewhat emptier, somewhat less compelling and, hopefully will be moving on to new, less knee-jerk, less repetitive, less strident content.

Back to the issue of business failures in the art community. Itâ??s not that I think the art world is too fat and will benefit from a crash diet, but itâ??s worth thinking about who the market for art has been and who it might become. Art has been, in a sense, also feeding at the trough of the high finance world. How many people can afford a painting over say $10,000 (and Iâ??m stretching here). Clearly the middle class doesnâ??t buy much original art. Why not? Because the content (often incomprehensible but supported by museums and academics) is largely non-compelling to average people.

In the literary world, where the readership is shrinking, agents and publishers are running scared. They want another J. K. Rowling phenomenon but arenâ??t sure where and how to find it. Meanwhile a tsunami of self publishers and bloggers are going around the publishing world for their reading. Both the sellers and makers of art need to accept this challenge. If they have something to say, how should they say it and where? New forms, hybrids and experiments are springing up and the world of criticism (e.g. The New York Times Book Review) are holding up their noses in hopes that the riff-raff will all go away soon and everyone will return to network television, Broadway shows and industry-picked â??geniusesâ? in the print world. Thatâ??s not going to happen. People are entertaining themselves in new ways, from YouTube, to bloggers, to game designers, to â??low-browâ? art that embraces illustrators, graffiti artists and tattooists as â??realâ? artists. Some see this as a devastating collapse of â??highâ? culture, I see it as evidence that in many ways the arts have not been doing their job.

 Music might be an exception as well as an example. While mainstream media continues to site declining CD sales something weâ??re supposed to fret about, an explosion of interest in music is happening all over the world. The internet is allowing us to create our own custom radio stations (e.g. Pandora), iTunes is making it easier to buy exactly what we want, and portable music devices have freed us from Big Radio and Big Music companies. This is partly because, unlike say painting or the literary novel (the bad ones not the good ones), the general public has never given up its love of music and never will. So music will lead the way. Will there be fewer superstar groups but more people creating the music they love? I hope so. Will it be difficult to find the new geniuses if they are not picked out of the crowd and promoted by Big Music? Maybe, maybe not. Most likely the internet will evolve forms of self criticism which will allow more diverse music to survive as the cost of getting that music to the public continues to decline. Overall will less money go to music because people are used to getting it free? Maybe. Inevitably good stuff costs money, think organic produce. People pay more everyday for both the label and the confidence in its quality and taste, even if they canâ??t prove it or taste it.

People will pay to be entertained. Collecting original art on a small scale could conceivably be something people do again once their more confident of their taste. How many people worry about their taste in music needing outside experts to tell them whether or not itâ??s good? I know what I like is the rule. In fact, for millions, if its popular itâ??s already time to dig deeper and find the creatives (the new new) that have already been there and done that and are now doing something altogether new.

 So we might be on the edge of a burst in creativity. Iâ??ll make my final point be referencing an economically difficult but extremely creative period another country experienced: The Weimar Republic. This from Wikipedia:

â??The 1920s saw a massive cultural revival in Germany. It was, arguably, the most innovative period of cultural change in Germany. Innovative street theatre brought plays to the public, the cabaret scene became very popular. Women were americanised, wearing makeup, short hair, smoking and breaking out of tradition. Music was created with a practical purpose, such as Schoenberg’s ‘atonality’ and there was a new type of architecture taught at ‘Bauhaus’ schools. Art reflected the new ideas of the time with artists such as Grosz being fined for defaming the military and for blasphemy.â?

Thereâ??s plenty of opportunity out there, folks, stop whining and get busy!

In the 1980’s, MTV brought about major changes in how we listened to music. The birth of the music video changed the views of thousands of people by combine visual and audio elements. It tested the limits by calling attention to new music. People liked what they saw and heard, the results were millions of dollars in increased record sales.

An artist uses a music video to promote their music. In past decades, they had to rely on television stations, however today music videos can be found everywhere. When you visit a movie store, or music store, you will find that there are thousands of different music videos that line the shelves.

Today with all of the changes in technology, you are able to watch music videos online. It is possible to download them so you can listen to them wherever you want to go. Another advantage to watching videos online that you have downloaded is that you will not receive any of the pop up ads that are associated with some site.

In order to watch videos online, you will need a few things. First, you will need a computer whether it is a desktop or laptop that is equipped with Microsoft Windows software version 98 or higher and a media player. There are several different media players to choose from, you can use which ever you prefer.

After you watch music videos online, you can save it to your media player and view it whenever you choose.

There are also quite a few different portable media players that allow you to watch videos online. MP3/4 players and ipods allow you to transfer your music video to share with your friends. The high quality and picture clarity are incredible.

Although there are sites that allow you to watch music video online, some are subscription based and you have to pay a monthly fee. There are however many that allows you to watch music videos online at no cost such as YouTube, MySpace and Yahoo. All of these sites have extensive lists of music videos in all genres from country and western to classical jazz; the choices are endless.

Summary:

MTV introduced the music video over twenty years ago. There have been many changes over the years, and the latest it the ability to watch music video online and to download what we choose. As technology advances, the ability to watch music videos online will advance with it.

There are literally thousands of art galleries all over the world. Almost every city has an art gallery but there are some art galleries that are known all around the world. People will travel across the world just to see some of these famous art galleries and the master pieces that they house inside.

Probably the most famous art gallery in the world is ‘The Louvre’ in Paris. The most famous piece of art in the Louvre is the Mona Lisa, by Leonardo Da Vinci. This famous painting is kept under high security as it tops the list of art thieves the world over. The Louvre also houses many other famous paintings by Da Vinci and hundreds of other famous artists.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, is a renowned location for beautiful art masterpieces. This museum has an impressive assortment of American paintings. In addition to these, it also has paintings and statues by famous artists such as Botticelli, Raphael, and El Greco. This makes it a global museum.

London has an amazing gallery known as The National Gallery. This gallery boasts of some of the finest examples of European art, including paintings by Raphael, Manet, Leonardo Da Vinci, Renoir, and Monet. This gallery has a very large number of paintings and some of the most famous ones are: Sunflowers, by Vincent van Gogh, The Virgin of the Rocks, by Leonardo Da Vinci, and Venus and Mars, by Sandro Botticelli.

Not all galleries across the world are homes to the old masters. Many of them offer representations from the twentieth century. Among the most famous contemporary art galleries and museums is the George Pompidou Center in Paris. The architecture is unique as well, since the piping and ducts are on the outside, rather than being hidden behind walls.

Contemporary art galleries and museums typically feature not only paintings, drawings, and prints, but exhibits of furniture, sound, light, and even music. Visiting these galleries can be a fascinating visit through the past few decades and shows how much style and taste has changed.

Most of the major European cities are home to at least a national and a contemporary gallery. Usually there are also private galleries. Any time you visit a major metropolitan area, be sure to include the galleries in your itinerary. It’s a wonderful way to learn about a country and its cultures. History and its changes are reflected in the art on display.

If you plan on buying some art pieces, you won’t be able to do so at the national galleries. You can however visit private galleries in your pursuit of owning some major works. These probably won’t include Renoir’s or Van Gogh’s, but you will find many wonderful pieces that you’ll be able to call your own. Art auctions are often held at Christie’s and other art houses. This is another way of obtaining some incredible works of art.

Art as an expression of our culture, thought process and creativity has no parallel. Viewing these masterpieces in an art gallery transposes the viewer into the mind and time of the creator who has shaped our culture.