From: Michael Betancourt (email suppressed)
Date: Mon Sep 05 2005 - 07:15:33 PDT
>> While this is likely debateable, what follows is something worth thinking about.
>> "Video Art" as promoted in the art world--video installation, big budget productions, etc--is a
>>counter tradition organized along lines similar to large-scale painting, and in many respects it
>>occupies the niche in the art world that was reserved for history painting, large scale abstraction,
>>etc. It is the big money motion picture form as art.
>I'm not sure this is correct. In fact I'm certain it's wrong. While the video artists do get a lot of prestige
>in biennials and such, that doesn't bring in the dough. Video artists are generally as starving as the
>rest of us. In fact, most galleries push their video artists to make objects that can sell... and most
>video galleries have painting shows to support the video shows (or they close down).
I know. In fact some of the well known names don't make much money on their video installation work. But comparing only the big names, say a Brakhage to a Viola, one is immediately struck by a huge difference in terms of money--which was my point. The fact is most artists are poor, but at the "top" of both fields things are quite different.
And the differences extend beyond just money. Artists also get some prestige for being artists, ag filmmakers don't. There are well establish critical forums etc. in high profile magazines that discuss video art, this is no longer the case with ag film; for every 1 ag film history book there are probably 10 on video art; colleges have entire programs and classes specifically on video (or "time based") art, ag film is usually limited to a one course, or a limited part of a class, and in the video art classes usually you don't need to fight against the "if this was a Hollywood film" mentality because the students assume the difference.
Michael Betancourtwww.cinegraphic.net
the avant-garde film & video blog
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