Perhaps some of you Huff Post fans may have already seen and read this particular piece on the Generation Y movement in art?
The article I am referring to and a synopsis of the authors opinion.
The Ego-Centric Art World is Killing Art
by JJ Charlesworth of ArtNet News
“Those that are from a generation that still thinks art should be about something other than me, here, right now, and that art should be, say, about consumerism, or about the history of Germany, or even just about how massive huge chunks of Cor-Ten steel look when you stick them in a desert. In other words, about stuff you have to think about, maybe discuss, argue over with others, disagree about—something, which isn’t entirely about yourself are being forced to make way for the Generation Y’s culture.
The Generation Y culture is here and it believes in the privileges of self-expression over anything else. During 2014, a lot of celebrities (mostly Americans) are expressing themselves through the medium of art. They are based on the same veneration of individual self-realization through self-expression in which it’s the process, not the product, that matters. Everyone, just “being themselves” and claiming to be art. It’s also why art shows are becoming experiences, feeling an experience, being in the now, is the new aesthetic of Generation Y.
Between Miley and Marina, 2014 began to reveal the future of art: the artist and the audience, holding hands between infinity mirrors, one hand free to squeeze off a selfie.”
But, Do I agree with Mr. Charlesworth’s opinion that “in 2014 seemed to be the year in which the obsession with self expression of the individual started to take center stage, or that it points to the apparently unstoppable merging of art in a new form of celebrity culture, one in which individual self-expression has become an obsession above all other considerations?”
I began a little google searching and quickly ran upon the label or term “Ego Art” coined by artist, Timothy John Cody in 2011, his definition is, as either the elaboration or the realization of The egos power over our lives. It seeks to damn culture, consumerism, materialism and Desire, with an edification and exaltation of the Self, Holistic oneness. Ego Art is in a way, a rejection of the Ego, and an empowerment of Self. By understanding the confining nature of the ego, one can overcome and realize it in their everyday lives.
Another hmmm…I do not know if the newer trend of mostly American “celebrity” artists who have begun to create are, in fact, narcissistic egomaniacs and that they are truly lost in themselves or whether they are just like everyone these days, searching via the means to which they are provided to find the answers to the same questions that every generation before them has?
By this, I mean, perhaps Generaton Y is not so far afield as everyone imagines? This selfie fixation and emersion in to the self followed by shared experience, were in fact ideas conceived and encouraged by its previous generation were they not? And, if in fact, they prove to be nothing more than self centered shits who really don’t give a damn about anyone or any cause that does not directly affect themselves, only time will tell.
It just seems to me that with every previous generation before, the ideas of anything new are most always received negatively and somewhat close minded…and if Generation Y comes out on the other side of the “Ego Art” movement with a better understanding of themselves, the world we live in and how to embrace and improve it all, then,are we not all the better for it in the end? I am not so convinced they are all that much different than their predecessors.
Peace,
Valerie
•Taoism is a philosophical and religious system built on a holistic view of reality. It unifies all existence with principles that cut across both the seen and unseen dimensions.
•The Huffington Post
•Art Net News