Jerome Marot
Well-known member
The Oxford Dictionary announced a couple weeks ago that "post-truth" is its 2016 word of the year. According to the dictionary's website, the word is "an adjective defined as 'relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.' " The word even had an article in Nature (the scientific magazine), as scientists are apparently puzzled by the idea that outright lies may become the new norm.
Obviously, the word was chosen in connection to its use in Post-truth politics. But the idea of truth being a subjective social concept has been with us for a long time. And one domain where the concept has been widely used is modern art.
Remember the saying: there is no truth in art. "Art" is what the critics tell you is art, art is what hangs in galleries or museums. As Richard Prince demonstrated last year: take a picture from Instagram, hang it in a gallery and, voilà!, instant art, fame and money. Just as post-truth politics, modern art also evolved its own language where words can have any meaning but the one the readers most expect. Just as in post-truth politics, the artist value is measured by social networking and the number of followers.
Not that the works can't be interesting, beautiful or engaging, mind you. It is just that the quality of the work is irrelevant to the exercise, like in politics: the actual political program may be good or bad, that is not relevant for the exercise.
Obviously, the word was chosen in connection to its use in Post-truth politics. But the idea of truth being a subjective social concept has been with us for a long time. And one domain where the concept has been widely used is modern art.
Remember the saying: there is no truth in art. "Art" is what the critics tell you is art, art is what hangs in galleries or museums. As Richard Prince demonstrated last year: take a picture from Instagram, hang it in a gallery and, voilà!, instant art, fame and money. Just as post-truth politics, modern art also evolved its own language where words can have any meaning but the one the readers most expect. Just as in post-truth politics, the artist value is measured by social networking and the number of followers.
Not that the works can't be interesting, beautiful or engaging, mind you. It is just that the quality of the work is irrelevant to the exercise, like in politics: the actual political program may be good or bad, that is not relevant for the exercise.