A reader talks about the U.S. government’s bailout of Wall Street and plans to bail out the auto industry.
“Our artists are suffering in this economy,” the reader writes. “Where’s our bailout plan?”
Matt responds:
Artists will always need a bailout plan. We always seem to be at the back of the line, but the great thing about being at the back of the line, is that we’re not beating our chests, it’s not “Poor me, poor me...” It’s “Oh well, we’ve been here before, we’ll be here again...”
Art is the food of the soul, but the reality is, we need food for the soul and also for the body. The last thing most people really need is a piece of art, as far as the material is concerned. Art really feeds the longing for the human animal to think of themselves as more spiritual than material.
I’ve been involved in art for decades and have been observing it even longer. There are times when you’re reading about all the great auctions going on at Christie’s and Sotheby’s, with people buying multi-million-dollar paintings.
But I recently saw on late-night television an in-depth look at the art world from the European standpoint. There was a meaningful statistic that I came away with. This was in 2008, the beginning of last year. They said there were over 17,000 known artists in Berlin alone. That’s a lot of artists. I doubt off many of them were making enough money to put food on their plates through art. Most of them, I would daresay, are probably doing something else. Maybe they’re waiting tables, washing cars, operating on brains...
I meet so many “hidden artists” who work in other fields but don’t show their deeper selves.. If there are 17,000 artists in Berlin alone, that we know of, maybe there’s 100,000 that we don’t know of!
As to the artists in the United States... I dont’ think the U.S. Congress would look with great glee on giving us a pot a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. I think we have to keep struggling along, having a hell of a time doing what we’re doing, and if “they” don’t like it, they’ll probably tell us to get a real job. If they do, we can either do it, or we can tell them we have a real job, it’s called art, and if they don’t like it, they can buzz off!
Matt