The model for selling and showing art had been firmly in place for at least 100 years, but it is currently undergoing rapid changes. Alternative spaces to display and sell art have existed for a long time, but other incarnations of alternative spaces were mostly visited by those already familiar with the contemporary art world. Now, art can be displayed and sold by the artists themselves, frequently to people who have never seen the work. The idea of purchasing work that a buyer had never seen in person would have been totally anathema 10 years ago, but websites like www.20x200.com have made this practice common.
But has it diminished the power of the gallery? Now that any artist can set up a website and display his or her images, is the importance of showing in galleries diminished? More images than ever are available now, and the proliferation of these images might mean that viewers are immune to them and look without really looking.
This development has certainly opened up the art world. Viewers are no longer constrained by gallery schedules, and the plethora of images available may also mean that viewers can hone their visual abilities by looking on the internet.
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Wondering what you would think of yet another way to showcase art: the new grant sponsored by the NEH and ALA entitled "Picturing America"? 40 poster sized images of works depicting scenes and people from US history have been sent, along with teacher resources to approximately 1/3 of the k-12 schools in the US. Our school is a recipient. Instead of visiting an art museum, the art has come to us -- we are required to display these particular works (every school is getting the same ones), all hand-picked by the granters -- for a period of 12 months, and encourage teachers to use them in teaching. I suspect one outcome will be piqued interest in art and increase in museum visits, particularly to museums housing the originals of these images, and those featuring exhibits of certain of the artists represented. Check out www.picturingamerica.neh.gov to see the images and resources which are available to anyone, whether they are recipients or not.
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