Deadhead Sticker on a Cadillac

It's problematic on many levels, I know, but the more I hear artists justify selling out via their art, the more I realize that art has become my religion. Which explains why such justifications offend me on a practically spiritual level.

I'm increasingly agnostic with regard to the traditional concept of a deity, and all but hostile to most forms of organized religion, except where they provide social rituals that help celebrate / comfort people through various stages of life (yes, I know, it's unfair for me to expect that side of it without also agreeing to the the often silly and more often offensive subjugation sides of most of them), but I've been OK with not having religion in my life because I've substituted the Evangelical teachings I grew up on with a firm belief in the evidence of humankind's innate capacity to self-regulate on an ethical and moral level that the creation and appreciation of art can provide.

Which isn't to say I like moralizing art, or art that avoids the messier aspects of difficult human issues (on the contrary, the best of organized religion actually delves deeply into these as well). But rather that there's no need to accept that unless people conform to the interpretation of some "god"'s will that the geographical and socio-economic circumstances of their birth randomly coerce them to follow that people will automatically behave any less morally than anyone else. Most humans instinctively feel what's the right or wrong way to behave in almost any situation. Knowing ethical from unethical behavior is actually extremely easy as a concept: ethical behavior is almost universally the way you'd prefer other people to act toward you.

It's very likely just the ability of social media to expose us to opinions we previously may have gone an entire life without hearing, but I actually believe it's something more than that. It feels like a cultural shift. Increasingly I'm reading online this or that artist's opinion that cheating the system or scheming within the system to get ahead, through the creation/promotion/sale of their art is not only OK with them, but their due, because of how difficult they feel their life has been.

I suspect this perceived "right" to get ahead at any cost is fairly common across any industry in this country (after all, we are the children of a generation who saw Gordon Gekko as a role model), but for me (and apparently the artists, collectors, and other dealers I've surrounded myself with) art had always been a sanctuary from such attitudes. Art had been the last bastion for professionals who believed in higher ideals than just getting what I can.

And yet, when I express such ideas on Facebook, the types of responses I get are (these are real):

"There 's nothing wrong with making money through these buying, selling, sneaking in unknowns, collectives, first opens, corporate Ponzi schemes"

and

"Ethics are something I might exchange since I am a victim of my parents' ethics, not a trustfund baby..."

and justifying such positions for

"those of us who were artists, yet had to work as service workers with the bridge and tunnel people, the rednecks from Staten Island, Bronx, etc. and raise families without proper food, etc."

I have tried to look at such positions from an objective point of view. In particular, I realize that many artists are sold a bill of goods by art schools and graduate with more debt than their dream of earning a living from their art will likely even cover the interest on. This puts tremendous pressure on them and their families. I also realize that when artists who intentionally game the market system as part of their practice are celebrated as among the best artists of their generation, the lines here can get a bit blurry unless you really pay attention. But most often, I read such things and think "who the hell are you, and what did you do with the actual human artist whose body you're inhabiting?"

Artists should emerge from their thorough explorations in looking/seeing and in particular their education in the humanities as, well, better humans. In my experience, most do. But specifically, within my concept of the role of art as a form of religion, artists are the leaders...the perceptive ones able to see and communicate sincerely with the rest of us the more important or at least interesting aspects of what it means to be a human here and now. That position comes with certain responsibilities, though. If they're not at least attempting to be good humans (and that is incompatible with willingly scheming or cheating others), then they're just hucksters demanding attention for wholly narcissistic reasons.

I know these are very high expectations to have of another human.... So?

More than just my admittedly perhaps warped sense of art as a religion, though, comments like this are particularly troublesome in an arena that purports to trade in concepts involving our better selves:

"There 's nothing wrong with making money through these buying, selling, sneaking in unknowns, collectives, first opens, corporate Ponzi schemes"

Actually, the law says otherwise. Some of these activities are quite specifically illegal, and therefore, socially at least, the very definition of "wrong."  If you can't be an ethical "artist," the rest of us can at least insist you behave as an ethical citizen.
 
Now here I should clarify that my sense of what makes an artist ethical or not is entirely unrelated to their personal life (my concern is only with a professional ethics). Indeed, I use the term "ethics" here wholly within the context of a strict adherence to the integrity of their work and (because we accept that "art" is important to humankind) honesty in how that work is traded. Moreover, the license society gives artists to behave in ways that are unacceptable for the rest of us (dressing down for formal functions, spending days just "thinking" about their work, essentially having total control over their workplace and hours, actually being invited to speak truth to power, etc.) is given in part because we expect something quite simple back in return. We expect artists themselves to lead the way in treating art like the cultural treasure they're asking the rest of us to view it as...in other words, to take "art" seriously. Suggesting it's ok to cheat or scheme with one's art is not taking it seriously as a cultural treasure.