Black Bucket Essays
Volume 1, Issue 4

What if there is no next new thing? Do we sit around and mourn the fact that we've seen it before? There's a way to look at creativity that doesn't necessarily have to do with creating something we've never seen before. It can be about reinterpreting or misinterpreting the world that's already around us.
- LAURA HOPTMAN

Natalia Gonzalez
 
If I were to pinpoint a moment in time when the statement above was made, I would guess it comes from the 1960´s. But I would be wrong.

It seems like this quote could have come from the time when art faced a Modernism in crisis; once the concerns with innovation and creativity had become stagnant. [1] These myths still find a voice today both in art schools and art institutions and are reinforced by an over-inflated admiration for technology. This is probably because many art institutions tend toward the slick, the techy, and the dazzling. Art schools seem to enforce fusions between technology, art, and design in a way that might be useful for technicians and designers, but this can be a disservice to art students. The push toward careers and professionalism fits into their lure: to bring in herds of spectators or herds of students.

Modernism still leaves its imprint on art institutions and art schools, which continue to structure art according to medium. Art historian and former ‘Art & Language’ member Terry Smith observes this symptom in the revamped version of the MoMA. As Smith writes, “[…] the design can be seen as an outcome of a program dominated by the territorialism of MoMA´s curatorial departments. Medium overspecificity has pervaded the museum´s history, generating its greatest achievements (outstanding special exhibitions, authoritative historical hangs) and its most abject shortcomings (academic conservatism, caution toward the contemporary). […] MoMA, however, cannot bring itself to contain its internal organization behind the scenes.” [2]

It makes sense then, that Laura Hoptman is the curator of the Painting and Sculpture department at MoMA. What’s more; the Hoptman’s excerpt comes from a 2014 interview, “Forever Young or New Zombies? MoMA on Painting Today”, published in no other than America´s favorite art magazine: Art in America.

Then again, I should listen to a little voice inside and - never piss off a curator.


[1] De Duve, Thierry, “When Form has Become Attitude - and Beyond”, 1994, in Theory in Contemporary Art Since 1985, edited by Zoya Kocur and Simon Leung. Malden, MA. Blackwell, 2005.
[2] Smith, Terry. What is Contemporary Art? The University of Chicago Press. Chicago, 2009, pp.17-18