The Art Opening
Thursday Night
I’m part of a group chat for art openings. I think it was originally called “Art Boiz”, then “Assigned Art Boy At Birth”, and now “Tentatively Making Art Plans”. While eating lunch and scrolling on my phone, someone sends a flier to the group chat for an opening on Thursday evening, and since I’m writing this piece, I decide to go. I’m not sure how Thursday became the de facto day for art openings, but for those who attend them regularly, the effect of having openings on Thursdays creates a sense of an extended weekend. While galleries are sprinkled throughout the city, there are a few neighborhoods where they cluster. As a result, gallery hopping on a Thursday night can become a thing even if one doesn’t plan on it. One can simply be pulled by the sight of another gallery opening across the street. Similar to the predictable formation of an open-air market that forms on the weekends, the art opening has a social characteristic that emerges from the spatial and temporal rhythms that dictate when and where these events should occur.
Public Gallery
As I approach the gallery, I’m not required to show membership or purchase a ticket; access is public. The public gallery creates a veneer of democratization of art compared to the private showings that occurred at the royal academies. The exclusion of certain painters from these prestigious institutions led to the establishment of public galleries. Yet, behind each gallery is an aristocratic structure: the free laboring intern, the underpaid gallerina, the commission-based sales rep, the authoritarian director, and the noble financier. Each gallery is its own fiefdom, a market where one can find artisans and merchants. Just like the aristocrats that threw parties to appease and impress the masses, the gallery’s public art opening with its free wine, wealthy patrons, and starving artists creates an environment conducive to an aristocratic embodiment.
White Cube
Stepping into the gallery, I find myself enveloped by a white cube. Like the spatial and temporal conformity, the interior of the gallery is an embodiment of homogenization. True to the aristocratic ethos, conformity to tradition and customs finds expression throughout the art opening. Perhaps the white cube was initiated with the intention of eliminating anything that could distract viewers from the art. Stripped of context, each artwork is forced to stand on its own. Though in reality, each work stands against the context of the gallery’s white walls. Viewed together, the two reveal an alliance between the gallery and artist. Seemingly obvious, this alliance reveals itself as the fundamental social relation in the art world. The alliance as a social relation is the embodiment of the aristocracy.
The Artist
With my attention on the alliance as a fundamental social relation, I begin to look around for the artist. When I spot her, I first notice the age discrepancy between her and those she’s talking to. They seem to be twenty years older than her. My friend tells me the man owns the gallery and represents another artist he knows. I wonder about the alliance and exchange of material and symbolic value between both parties. While the alliance can result in financial gain, I think about the symbolic aspect of the alliance. Certainly, the alliance must at the very least maintain one’s reputation and ideally improve it. Forming an alliance with a prestigious gallery raises one’s social capital. From the gallery’s perspective, perhaps one evaluates potential allies with an aristocratic sensibility, focusing on the artist's lineage and existing alliances by running through questions like: Do they have an MFA from Yale? Do they fall into a particular race or gender? Are their parents billionaires?
New Mediums
Since the Impressionists were kept out of the official Salon by the French Académie des Beaux-Arts, art history seems to be demarcated by militaristic victories. Though not always successful, the emergence of a new movement can appear as a rupture in the social order of the art world. The emergence of new movements like Impressionism, Dada, Abstract Expressionism, and Pop Art appeared as declarations of war on the previous generation. Or perhaps movements are more analogous to gladiators in the coliseum, with spectators cheering for their favorite. As the spectacle comes to an end, alliances are reconfigured.
Art and Language
But behind every war is the writer. As I finish my wine, I notice Jerry Saltz talking to someone and wonder if he’s going to write about the opening. Like priests interpreting the word of God, the critic’s opinion is taken by many as some sign of authority. An endorsement by a famous critic can give credibility to a new movement. Cited by sales reps, how the artist’s work was featured in Art Forum last month in order to inflate the value of the work. We see that not only must the people in the art world form alliances, but the alliance between art and criticism has led to the ascension of both fields.
Leaving
As we’re leaving, I begin to think of the art as royalty, something to be looked at but never touched. Something that has its picture taken while it gets paraded around behind plexiglass. Something that is recorded in history books, unlike ordinary people, until someone like Gavrilo Princip lets his intrusive thoughts win. Staring at the nonsensical exhibition text, I decide to give the critics something to write about.
