As I remarked in a recent posting the effects of the current pandemic are being felt quite seriously among artists. Although press attention has (not unnaturally) centred upon the major arts institutions, I am aware that for the ordinary “jobbing artist” the disappearance of the regular cycle of exhibition opportunities has been quite a serious matter. It really is not feasible to suppose that on-line exhibitions can substitute adequately for the provision of direct experience of art-works.
Until now, however, we have tended to take the views that “this too will pass”, and adopted the expectation that there will be a return to something recognisable as “normality” in the near future. My wife asked the very uncomfortable question earlier today, however, that should we resign ourselves to the fact that we are nowhere near the end of the current crisis. Is it really inconceivable that we actually stand at the beginning of a period in which what we have previously regarded as “normal” social and cultural life has come to an end? If we set aside for a moment the regimen of limited contact that has prevented social and cultural gatherings from taking place, we might still need to face the possibility that the economic damage of the current pandemic will be so huge that the normal features of the art market are no longer operative.
We have in the UK at the moment something like 3 million unemployed (although the true figure is clearly disguised by state interference). What might life be like if the economic depression is such that this figure rises to six million, or perhaps even higher? Might it be the case that works of art are, for the majority of the population, luxuries that simply have to be laid aside however desirable they might seem?
There is another side to this particular coin, of course, and that is the following question. If artists can no longer sell their work how many of them will regard the effort as not worth the candle, and quit? For how many practitioners of the arts is their work an existential necessity, or is it only an economic opportunity? Under such conditions will the current artificial and indefensible division between “professional” and “amateur” artists become so heavily eroded that it will cease to be operable? Or might it become even more deeply entrenched? Time will tell.