"Be Part Of The Reconstruction Today"

By Dalia Chako
September 20, 2008

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Charles Dickens began his famous novel, "A Tale of Two Cities" with these words. Great things almost always have opposites and this is particularly true when it comes to the world of contemporary art.

The New York City Art World is a tale of two cities. New York City still stands as Queen of the arts, with over 800 galleries that can be officially counted. There is no other city in the world with such a high concentration of art as New York City. New York is still the capitol of wonderers because of those who dare to bravely dream in the city of scintillating dreams, a place for pioneers who endure, persevere and champion the intangible, illusive, and the sublime liberty that only Art can grace upon a people.

New York City: shinning beacon of success, wealth, and, most importantly, a place where even slim probabilities can become reality. Emerald City, New York City, the place to reach and stretch beyond limits and the place to break barriers, to test resolve, to defy odds and to reach the zenith of capacities; the new moon in the spacewalk, where we hope to plant a flag.

And yet, New York City is the ghetto of the art world. A glittering multi-million dollar ghetto that manacles the Muses, making them handmaids, forced to serve profit above vision, above creativity, above communication. The Muses are handmaids to the process: not to the process of creation, not to the process of vision, and not to the process of synergetic commerce; handmaids to profit for the sake of profit alone.

Artists are people with an inheritance. Artists have inherited the ethereal, the mysterious, the mystical, the indefinable, the scientific, the rational and irrational exuberance of Bacchanalian revelry; artists have inherited freedom, as their fore-brothers and sisters strove historically to break the bonds that fettered the mind, heart, eyes, and ears, leaving a legacy of wealth that should have culminated in a new century of freedom.

The 20th century was a century of excellence: there was more independence and innovation than ever before. It was the best of times for art. Artists were freed from church and state.

Contemporary artists, who have inherited victory from the historical struggle, find themselves slaves to a shadow, a greater foe: indifference, redundancy, and obsolescence rule the new regime.

Art, the lamp of civilization, has been reduced to a "has been" with a price tag discreetly (or not so discreetly) placed. Crushed by mountains of brick-a-brack and suffocated under the mass of nothing, with the only point of note being bank notes that compete with other inanimate commodities.

Most of the great art works of our time will go unseen, unknown; it is unsettling to depend on providence alone to deliver to the world these lost diadems. If we are lucky we can accidentally see them in a collector's home, or in a gallery. Occasionally they appear in public places, renowned places, or publications - and we are left to wonder why they are not among us.

This is the century of lost vision. Never before has there been so much vision and so much talent in all disciplines, never before have we had the capacity for so many miracles, and never before have there been so many miracles abandoned for the sake of profit and profit alone.

Yes, we have excellence, and the excellence makes our time the best of times. Ironically, it is also the worst of times. Excellence goes unrewarded, unacknowledged, and worst of all excellence is often not even recognized! While this has always been the plight of artists, and all the arts, it has never reached the scandalous level we currently find ourselves observing.

Even those artists that have reached financial success find difficulty, because an artist creates to communicate: artists have purpose in their creations, and when the only marker is money the satisfaction is void.

At Ico Art & Music, we hope to build a more efficient engine that will deliver a happier process and magnanimous results allowing art to benefit all the people and not just the very few.