In a colorful Web cast originating here at Milton, Larry Pollans guided his virtual class through the challenging world of the contemporary art. He suggested strategies for considering the art that reflects and transforms the culture of our day. Three big ideas, Larry says, can frame an approach to what we’re seeing. The first is how to contend with the cultural filters we all carry with us. A second issue is the multicultural phenomenon—getting past an exclusive parochial past. Finally, commodification affects its direction: the forces of the marketplace and the need to sell, sell, sell.
Establishing art values, Larry says, is always a hot topic, in art galleries, in the political world, in our cultural conversation. What are we looking at and what does it say about our culture?
