Contemporary art for middle class? You must be joking.

Recently I was approached by a “gallery owner” to show my art at her “gallery”. Upon my visit I discovered that it was the gift shop more than a gallery also it had the word “gallery” in the name of the business. I asked her about clients and she went on speculating that the people that live in houses nearby will buy art and may even hire a designer to help them. The houses were in 300-500 thousands dollars range. I did not say anything negative about that speculation but it started me thinking. I have been to many of hoses houses. In most cases I found framed prints on the walls. IN some cases I found Chinese mass produced copies of old masters.

First of all this world is not ruled art. The middle class never was a patron of art. Not in the USA anyway… ON the top the middleclass consist of social climbers that are kin on being accepted by their peers and those who they look up to. And that means buying safe and playing by the rules. That means buying “décor” and craft - not art. Contemporary art is not safe and takes an effort to understand. Most of the peers of middle class members do not have either time or desire to think about art and can’t appreciate it outside of “poster names” that they learned from college life. They work long hours and have no time to learn about it. Some have kids that will have to go to college and tuition to pay, many have expensive cars to impress peers, heavy mortgage payment etc. Social climbers do not have spare money to hire an art consultant to guide them as wealthy people do. They do not have social pressure to buy art.

On the other hand social climbers in the USA have a pressure to climb and that means they need to be ready to sell the house and move. To sell it quick you have to keep it the way that other social climbers would like it. Social climbers can’t afford to express an original personality (if they had one). So everything about them must be standard and safe. Their houses decorated in such way that there is not place for a contemporary art taste expression. Contemporary art even in its safe forms signals revolution, contempt, originality – very un-American values. Some social climbers may like contemporary art and may even look at it (like they look at other thing on the internet) but they will express it openly when the stage is set. For them the art is like a tattoo in the private place. They may have it but they will not show it for the fear of being indecent.

Sure one can find an exception to the middle class members I described but one can’t make a living by selling art to the middle class. Not good living anyway. Not in the USA. I can’t speak of other countries as I do not know those markets. I read that there countries where the art is considered a part of national identity. I read that there are countries where you can say that you are an artist with pride and people look at you as a contributing member of the society. I am yet to experience such country.