Are Esthetic Values Noumenal or The Emperor's New Clothes

La Cicciolina (photo: Certo Xornal)

There are lots of factors that conspire to create reputations in the art world. All unhappy families are different in different ways applies to the alternate universe of the literary world. Firstly, there is the aura or charisma around a person because of their life or mythology then a very complicated process which involves monetization. It’s like insider trading A gallerist starts to get word around their stable. If they’re good at what they do, they make some sales at not bad prices. Once the gallerist creates a mark, (however small), the snowball effect take place since supply starts to challenge demand. At the point where the figurative neurons begin to cross their synapses, critics begin to intellectualize about the sensibility that has made x, y or z artist attractive. This stage is perhaps the most mysterious and crucial. Criticism is generally thought to involve esthetics, but as far as the visual arts are concerned, it’s also a peripatetic phenomenon resulting from a mixture of osmosis and reportage. This process is facilitated by a canny artist like Jeff Koons, the former husband of the porn star (and later politician) La Cicciolina. Many of his works are about commodification itself. Raw talent is like one of the Kepler planets orbiting stars 1200 light years from earth. You need the talent and there are outsider artists like Henry Darger whose works were simply discovered, but these are significant because of their exceptionalism. It's not to say that reputations have little to do with genius. Just the reverse, but a career in the artistic or literary world requires more than just talent.

read "Is Beauty a Grecian Urn or a Blond?" by Francis Levy, The Screaming Pope

and listen to "This Old Heart of Mine" by the Isley Brothers