Week 7
Overall, I found this book most interesting because it was a nice change of pace form what we’ve been reading. It’s much more personal; Dave Hickey speaks about art and life from a realistic point of view, rather than a pretentious artsy “this is how it is” sort of way. This, to me is much more real. I have a hard time taking too much of those needlessly complex art concepts serious let alone applying them to reality.
“American business stopped advertising products for what they could do, and began advertising them for what they meant” (p.66) In The birth of the big, beautiful art market, Hickey Parallels the American automotive industry with the art industry. The main problem with keeping them profitable was that supplies could be made much faster than the pubic demanded. Resulting in the industry’s need for a change in tactics. The answer was simple enough; create more demand by making people buy more than they needed. This was accomplished by marketing “objects that created desire rather than fulfilled needs”. The consumer would never be satisfied with what he had, if he had the Potential to get something better.
-Justas Osmer
