There was an article in Commentary Magazine on the subject of the End of Art. I read it. Never understood a word. It was convoluted and said nothing that I could recognize as coherent. I liked the title.
I’m actually talking about the end of art of the kind that is displayed in museums, galleries, concert halls and theater.
There are exceptions, which helps explain what I mean. One artist who is still creating art is Richard Serra. His art is steel on a grandiose scale. He is at the intersection of great industrial objects such as battleships, the Airbus 360 and Frank Gehry buildings. All of them are on a continuum. None is more ‘art’ than the other.
The same is true of the Japanese painter Aida Makota. He is an exception. His art converges with everything: porn, TV commercials, academic lectures, household decor, street graffiti. All of them are on a continuum. None is more ‘art’ than the other.
The same is true for music. This was brilliantly understood by John Cage. I heard Cage perform in Chicago at a YMCA in 1957. He had 3 radios on top of a closed baby grand piano. I stayed for the entire 2 pieces he did. The rest of the audience had left long before the end.
To Cage everything in our environment is music. He is right. The bird sounds and the neighboring children playing converge with the motorcycle and the 18 wheeler backing up for a turn.
When only a few people in the 19th Century were working full time creating art and struggling to improve their skills and communicate with their cohort, we got art. Art that deliberately influenced the way we communicate and perceive.
Now, there are no boundaries. Everything is art. Some good, some great and most trivial.
It rarely has to do with museums, galleries. concert halls or theaters.
Do you get my point? No distinct category that is 'art'.